Live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. Its newsday. Good morning. Its 8am in singapore, iam in london, and 3am in the last stronghold of so called Islamic State, the syrian city of raqqa. The extremists are facing all out war on several fronts now. Across the border, iraqi troops have re taken most of the city of mosul, but not in time to save the famous mosque there. In raqqa, us backed fighters of the Syrian Democratic forces are close to pushing is out. Our correspondent, gabriel gatehouse, and cameraman, fred scott, are with the sdf on the frontline, and sent this exclusive report from raqqa. This has been a long and brutal road. We are inside raqqa now, driving to the centre of the Syrian Democratic forces, the sdf, a Coalition Of Kurds and arabs. They have onlyjust retaken this street from fighters that called themselves Islamic State. Here is is often unseen but all the more dangerous for it. A noise in the sky signals the presence of a drone. Wha
Hardtalk. Now on bbc news, its time for welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sacker. For the 17 years Vladimir Putin has ruled russia, as president or Prime Minister, he hasnt done it alone. Hes been backed by a coterie of trusted associates, connected through past ties in St Petersburg, or in the kgb or in business. One of mr putins inner circle is my guest today. Vladimir yakunin ran Russian Railways for a decade and was a close putin adviser. So much so the us made him a target of sanctions after the invasion of crimea. He left the railway two years ago. Is he still a true believer in the putin project . Vladimiryakunin, welcome to hardtalk. Hello. I think its fair to say, you, for a decade more, were one of Vladimir Putins closest associates and advisers. In general terms, as you look at putins impact upon russia, would you say that you believe he is taking russia in a very positive direction . Thank you for your introduction. Listen, to tell the truth, i never considered myself a voice
here s chris fawkes, a grey day in london, any synovitis guys? we had an extra weather, lots of cloud in london and the south east, some of us have seen some sunshine and scotland and northern ireland have had a weather front for the last couple of days that has been bringing more rain and it will eventually budge as we head into the weekend but still we have had some decent breaks in the cloud. northern england, north yorkshire, scarborough seeing some lovely sunny weather and again it has been very warm for october, temperatures reaching 21 in a few spots, bridlington one of those places. that compares with the average for the time of year of 1a. seven celsius warmer than it should be during this stage of october. satellite pictures show where we have seen the best of the breaks, even northern ireland and scotland, northern england and north east wales having the best of it but down to the south east, we are starting to the south east, we are starting to see some breaks in the clo