The weather is going to be cloudy and wet for most of us overnight moving into Friday it will be grey and overcast with rain across much of England and Wales I'll If you're planning a sports event this weekend probably wise to avoid holding it in Japan typhoon Hagi piece is disrupting the Rugby World Cup as we've heard earlier in the week now the Formula One qualifying Suzuka on Saturday is off as well I'll be speaking to our reporter Jenny gal about that one she's out there at the moment wildfires in California are now so bad that a power companies cutting off the electricity to try to prevent them starting in the 1st place people there are very angry except for those who are selling diesel generators will be taking a look at the papers as well and find out in a couple of seconds about the former communist leader who's now out in East Berlin taking selfies with school student. So I'll start with that story seems to strange to think it now that once was a wall across the city that split it into 2 different countries and nearly 30 years have passed since this happened these are truly remarkable scenes taking place here tonight on the eastern side of the Berlin wall at Checkpoint Charlie hundreds of people have gathered here in the hope of getting across in the light of the new concessions which have been announced allowing East Germans to cross to West Germany through the Virgin wall and across the Iron Curtain front here between the 2 German is in the distance on the other side of Checkpoint Charlie I can see numerous flashlights going the cameraman from the newspapers in ordinary people who turned out in their hundreds just to be here on this is story evening people on the other side of chanting urging East Germans on this side to come across. Around me there are heated arguments taking place between East Germans trying to get over in the police apparently there are still some obstacles some difficulties with the papers some people don't have the right documents so being told to come back tomorrow cannot go through western or why not was right and they just say no was the only one single you know you don't need the police so come on drones you see here a checkpoint Charlie his solo they can go right off even though they may not have the right documents and they simply charging now through the smooth gate in the fence where they queuing up to get across to the western side of the Berlin Wall. Was. The only thing I was feeling sorry for shouting waiting room number of people waiting to greet the 1st of these children or rivals the buffalo champagne is being on cool was the 1st piece still roof was still having raised almost 50 square. Feet with us. To see how to respond in a suit that lives in nicely shouting shot by somebody about me who see 3 sitting on one of the border fences. One must. Raise almost anywhere close by me to say I've made it. My goal 1st time in West Berlin the 1st time. So why do you come this one a visit you had to visit Yes I go back a full was my what do you think about the seating it's a very very important. Vital food that's great when the food this time yes. What will you do when you're in Western. New York the way you Westerners what do you think about tonight when it's amazing it's what we with waited for 20 to 24 years of something. It's wonderful because I am born in the thirty's and I waiting to be 3 in the. History I mean this is where the wife is going you see if she's crying I mean this is. I was the B.B.C.'s Graham leads witnessing the historic events in Berlin in November 1989 but I missed all that euphoria there was one man who describes those events as being the worst day of his life he's Egon Krenz the last communist leader of East Germany the B.B.C.'s Steve Rosenberg has been to meet him in Berlin of course we put in a request to interview him he has just published a new book about what he thinks about Russia and we weren't expecting to get a positive response and out of the blue he said yes when we actually got to to Berlin and we met him turns out that he'd been expecting Russian state television he thought that we were. So he was a bit surprised to see the b.b.c. Walking in. But he still did the interview and it was fascinating you know in my job sometimes you have to pinch yourself. To actually work out whether something's really happening and this was one of those occasions when I was in the car with the gong Krenz we were driving around Berlin and he was actually like a tour guide you know so he's saying you know look out of the window and you can see this road that used to be called Starlin alley after Joseph Stalin the Soviet dictator he was telling me where Lenin Square was mother was a big statue of the Russian revolutionary by the mere Lenin it was fascinating and the language potentially could have been a problem because my German is pretty poor I have to say and his English is. Similar. But we found this common language Russian So we were chatting away in Russian it was it was a surreal experience Ah but it was how was the tour. Berlin How did how did that go oh it was fascinating it was a tour of East Berlin of course because East Berlin was the capital of the g.d.r. The country that he used to run briefly and the tour ended with his office who we got out and he showed me the building where he's his office used to be and at that particular moment this group of schoolkids came up to him it was really interesting there was a history teacher who brought a group of schoolchildren from Hamburg to study the history of the g.d.r. And this was their lucky day because suddenly in front of them they had this historical figure Egon Krenz the last leader of communist East Germany so of course there was a great opportunity to to interact with a living history and they asked him what it was like Mr Krentz that night when the girl in Wall came down and he said it was well it wasn't a carnival you know it's a very dramatic night it was a fascinating moment because you know they obviously looked at him as some kind of historical superstar so he sort of gone from being this communist boss to being this. In a sense a living legend. For people who aren't aware of Eagle grants to just describe his significance why why does it matter that we're talking to him 30 years on what he was the the last leader of communist East Germany he was a man who was in power when the Berlin Wall came crashing down and he's an interesting character because he was the son of a tailor and he rose through the Communist Party ranks in East Germany right up to the top to become the leader of the of the party but by the time he became that leader in October 1989 everything was changing East Germany was changing Europe was changing you had this wave of people a people power sweeping across central eastern Europe so in fact he was only in power as leader for 50 days the burning war came down very soon after that he was out of power. Within a year of the of the burden will coming down East to West Germany had reunited and the country that ego grants had been running East Germany passed into history no longer existed so he was there at a critical moment in the history of Germany and in the history of Europe and unfortunately it's one of those cases where he was very much on the wrong side of history wasn't the us but. Yeah absolutely I mean he was and still is a committed communist he believes that the ideals of communism are the right ones but it wasn't to be because in 1989 Europe the people of Europe the people of Eastern Europe voted for a different path and the iron curtain lifted and you know for millions of people across Europe it meant freedom and I suppose that must be one of the reasons why he describes the fall of the Berlin Wall and that particular night in 1909 has been the worst day of his life and I must be a very unusual position I suppose. You have to really explain why he said that. When he saw the images of large crowds of East Germans going to the wall then crossing over. Into West Berlin he said you know it was a dangerous moment he was worried he claims that if one person had been injured or killed that night because emotions were so high that he would have borne responsibility for that and they could have that could have sparked a larger conflict that's what he claims so when the whole world was celebrating the fall of the wall and and freedom. For Europe he saw things it in a very different light it was interesting throughout the whole interview he was sort of justifying himself he was claiming that he was the one who was doing all he could to prevent bloodshed he was the one trying to reform East Germany. Other people will see things very differently and in fact several years after. The wall came down in Germany agree United Eagan Krentz was up in court you know he was a man who lost his job he lost his country then he lost his freedom he was actually sentenced to execs years in prison for manslaughter case related to the deaths of East Germans who'd been shot dead. Fleeing across the burly mall Yes he served 4 years in prison in prison before being released so he sort of has had a very. Prosperous you say colorful life he's gone from being this this powerful figure this communist boss to convert to convert to now as a say to the historical witness and how did he seem What did he have any regrets about the side he was on and how is life has turned out. Not really I mean he accepted that East Germany had made mistakes and hadn't reformed soon enough but he was very willing to blame others for what had happened he claimed that the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had betrayed him he'd flown to Moscow just 8 days before the burly more came down and he had urgent talks with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and at this meeting he told me he said he asked me how go brush off. Tell me Mr Hooper's of what do you think about the g.d.r. And he says that the Soviet leader said a God Don't worry I look upon the g.d.r. As. A father figure to the g.d.r. And the people of the Soviet Union view the people of the g.d.r. As their brothers and there won't be any German reunification and of course there was Germany you've read invocations so Krentz claims that he was betrayed by mosque he also claims that America's aim in all of this was to get rid of Saudi troops from from Europe you have to remember that there were half a 1000000 Savia troops in East Germany and in it was Moscow's main outpost military outpost in Europe so he's blaming everyone else except himself really and I suppose that's quite common if you look back and in history and how is he viewed in the former g.d.r. Now and how do people see him. Interesting he says that he's become something of a celebrity because he says that he lives a quiet life now on Germany's Baltic Sea coast but he says that people come to his house come to his door ask yourself is ask for autographs he says that he gets lots of telephone calls and letters from the grandchildren of citizen g.d.r. Citizens saying oh please wish my grandma my grandpa a happy birthday will be so pleased so he claims that you know actually the public treats him quite well but he has a bit of a problem he says with the media he said a bit of a bad press understandably when you consider. How events turned out quite fortunate to still be alive is the one when you consider how revolutions can often go get saluted and the incredible thing about you concurrences he was full of life he was full of beans you know he could remember. Kinds of details he was physically very fit and quite a jolly person to chat to you know he was telling us about his life and how he'd been impressed by a banner shortly after the war when he was a little kid he saw this banner with a quote from Joseph Stalin which impressed him and he was telling us about his his rise through the communist ranks he started off as a young pioneer and then joined the Communist Party and rose up to the leader and as he was telling these stories you know there was a glint in his eye and you could tell that there were no real regrets that you know he was proud to have done what he did to be in a party member and sadly he was clearly sad the way things turn out how do you think history will view him. I think that well history's already viewing him as is quite a sad character really someone who. Was a committed communist maybe out of touch with the way things could go in East Germany his country in Europe and a man who was in power such a short time 50 days and resigned in rather humiliating fashion and couldn't prevent what many people believe was inevitable really the the collapse of the Iron Curtain the lifting of the Iron Curtain and freedom in Europe the b.b.c. Steve Rosenberg speaking to me a little earlier about meeting Koreans indeed go round East Germany in East Berlin with him on a tour and becoming the subject of fascination to a school trip there of students who will want to take selfies $320.00 and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Northern California are still without power after the state energy supplier shut down gas and electricity in an attempt to prevent wildfires Pacific Gas and Electric estimates the shelves could affect up to 2 and a half 1000000 people by the end of the week damaged power lines have been blamed for a number of recent wildfires including last year's huge one that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed more than 80 people well Dr Michael war is the head of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford University's Woods Institute he's also one of the state wildfire commissioners I spoke to my little earlier and I asked him he thought the power company's response was proportionate I think it's unfortunately the situation that California is and we didn't want to be here but the reality is that it's hardening the grid. In a way that will protect us from wildfire and allow fights to stay on takes years you know it's going to take 5 to 10 years to accomplish for the stage and in the meantime during these 4 months we face very high fire risk and so in order to create. Safety while we're doing these longer run investments in you know new kind of climate resilient and Chris Tucker. We're left having to turn the power off and just just to remind people this is essentially because of damage power lines that being blamed for the the last number of wildfires that's right you know there are a variety of sort of specific causes but essentially high winds have caused either power lines to fail or have knocked trees into power lines and those high winds occur during the most dangerous part of the year for fire in California and because of a 5 year drought and changing climate conditions the situation has really intensified over the last decade is there any sort of precedent for this kind of action I think is really unprecedented honestly you know I was trying to find. Instances where utilities had intentionally blacked out anything like this number of people for this long and they really just don't exist so we're in uncharted territory here and I think it's challenging for the utility engineers as well because their job normally is keep the lights on all the time their job is not you know to kind of dynamically manage their system in response to changing weather conditions but that's what the people at The Villages are trying to do right now in California. And it leaves more than half a 1000000 people without power but what's the reaction been to that I think it's quite a bit more than half a 1000000 actually I mean there's there are close to 600000 customers in the dark but each customer is really household right so it's probably. Well over a 1000000 and perhaps $2000000.00 people in California and people are incredibly angry I think it's safe to say there there was already a lot of anger at the towards the utilities in California especially Pacific Gas electric for having set these fires that destroyed communities and it feels like adding insult to injury Unfortunately what have Pacific Gas and Electric said. Well they've said you know this is necessary to keep people safe and and unfortunately you know they they've said quite explicitly that you know they are prioritizing safety over convenience and they are our stream we apologetic for that and can be and so this is causing but they're unwilling to take chances anymore that fires might be set with their equipment I mean honestly power is. An essential need do people have any clue of the potential for legal action here against p.g. And e. . No they actually do not you know this is this is a question that was asked and in general in general in the least in the United States there's no liability for utilities that fail to provide power and an outage or a blackout. I think we're not used to situations where the outages intentional as opposed to caused by a natural disaster. So perhaps we'll see some new litigation on this question but at least so far as the Public Utility Commission is concerned of California there's no there's no right for customers to make claims against p.g. And e. . How are people coping though I mean I'll sales of diesel generators for example going up. Yeah well you know it's a good measure to see what happens in the aftermath of this blackout this is really the 1st widespread public safety power shut off that the utility has undertaken. Prior to this event my understanding is that generator sales in California Rob 600 percent a year in addition the activity of distributed energy companies that sell solar rooftop solar panels and you know distributed batteries you know the kind of battery that you could put in your garage on the wall has really taken off this year and we're seeing a real shift in their approach to focusing on. The computer age as a key as a key is this but there is action which is most of California's power comes from. California power comes from a real mix of resource we have a lot of hydro we have some nuclear we have a tremendous amount of solar power in our state and some some wind in natural gas as well so it's a real where we have sort of a hybrid mix that's getting cleaner every year it's moving toward a mix of solar and wind and away from fossil resources we basically have no coal fired power in the state. But you know the question is what happens when you're cut off from that grid What do you do that and I expect that after this especially people who can afford it are going to take kind of you know engage in self-help where they either purchase generators or they invest in solar and batteries so that they can ride out these events when they occur in the future because I think they're going to look maybe maybe we could easily see another one of these this year. This was so supposed this could become a political issue as well couldn't one of the politicians in California been saying well they are outraged governor Newsome in particular used that word to describe the outage that p.g. And e. Created and they are upset that p.g. Has been unable to take actions faster that would allow them to run the system through these dangerous when that happens. The challenge is that there aren't enough trained personnel in the United States even to do this work there's so much work that needs to be done to harden the grid in California that there aren't enough trained electrical line workers to do it it's that's why it's going to take 10 years it's not an issue of money it's an issue of trains electric personnel and we've heard it's widely reported about the the the the pool standard of American infrastructure generally this I suppose is the kind of latest example of that. That's definitely true the p.g.d. Grid you know it was really a little much it was built in the $890.00 s. And the 1st half of the 20th century so it's it's old and at least some of the fires have resulted from 100 year old infrastructure that fa