To save the coastline. President trump has tried to distance himself from the send her back chants directed by his supporters at a black democratic congresswoman, a former refugee, at a North Carolina rally on wednesday. The president has claimed he was not happy with the chanting, but video footage makes it plain he made no attempt to stop it. From the podium he had specifically named ilhan omar and three other congresswomen of colour, who have criticised him. The bbcs nick bryant watched the whole rally. This is a rally that will be talked about for decades to come. After the racism of Donald Trumps original attacks on the four congresswomen of colour came the kind of racial demagoguery weve not heard or seen from a modern day american president. First, he singled them out by name. Representative ilhan omar. Crowd boos. Representative Alexandra Ocasio cortez. Crowd boos. Go back to where you came from was his message to the congresswomen earlier this week, three of whom were born in the usa. His latest advice if you dont like america, then leave. Tonight i have a suggestion for the hate filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down. They never have anything good to say. Thats why i say, hey, if they dont like it, let them leave. Let them leave. Crowd chants send her back. Send her back was the shout, and donald trump made no attempt to calm the crowd. For 15 seconds, president ial silence. Today, though, he tried to distance himself from the chants. Earlier, Republican Leaders told the white house we cannot be defined by that cry. I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, i didnt say i didnt say that, they did. Newly elected and on the left of their party, the congresswomen call themselves the squad. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez describes herself as a democratic socialist, and the president as a racist. Ilhan omar, a muslim born in somalia, has been condemned for remarks about israel her critics claim are anti semitic, and for saying of september the 11th, some people did something. This was her response today, to mr trump. We have said this president is racist. We have condemned his racist remarks. I believe he is fascist. Tonight at the oval office, he looked more conventionally president ial, but the angry mood of the North Carolina rally speaks more of the age of trump. Nick bryant, bbc news. Well, theres been a huge reaction in congress on thursday, chuck schumer, leader of the democratic minority in the senate, criticised senior figures in the Republican Party for their silence about President Trumps comments. This is a moment to their is nojohn mccain anymore. When this kind of reader racism emerged at his town hall meeting he rejected it, publicly. When somebody used it against then candidate obama. It went down as one is his finest moments. Where are the fine moments of my colleagues . 53 of them on the republic side and not one of them has spoken out strongly enough. Not one. But some republicans have spoken out against donald trump. Republican adam kinzinger, said the chants were ugly. There is not a racist bone in this president s a0. What he is trying to say is that if you do not appreciate this country you do not have to be here and that goes for everyone of us. Here and that goes for everyone of us. That has nothing to do with your race, your gender oi your us. That has nothing to do with your race, your gender or yourfamily history. It has to do with loving your country. Meeting in montreal, canadian prime Ministerjustin Trudeau and European UnionCouncil President donald tusk condemned Donald Trumps comments at the rally. I want everyone in canada to know that those comments are completely unacceptable and should not be allowed or encouraged in canada. Unacceptable and should not be allowed or encouraged in canadam is difficult to understand some fa ct, is difficult to understand some fact, some worlds. And sometimes if you feel that something is totally u na cce pta ble you feel that something is totally unacceptable you have to react. Despite this nurse, despite interest for me, those values are more important than trade. Maybe i am Old Fashioned but i will never change my opinion here. So how is this playing in the home state of Representative Ilhan Omar minnesota . To try and answer this, im joined from minneapolis byjavier morillo, who is a political consultant for Democratic Party candidates and a commentator on local politics. I know you are a commentator there in minnesota. Your representative has a much higher profile, perhaps an uncomfortably high profile. She has also publicly said that the president is a racist and a fascist. How is this playing . The congresswoman returned to minnesota today from washington, dc and was received by a big crowd chanting welcome home. The people of minnesota, and especially those of the 50 district are progressive and liberal and are appalled and find the president s words and his silence during the chant terrifying. It feels like a different moment, an escalation of the violent rhetoric and we are very concerned for what follows this. There is another problem, isnt there . Politically the president is setting a trap for democrats forcing the party to line up democrats forcing the party to line upa hide democrats forcing the party to line up a hide and identify with democratic socialist who he says are communists and terrorists. In an American Election isnt that a tricky position for the Democratic Party to win from . It is definitely political strategy. What happened yesterday is definitely strategy just like todays so called distancing. Lets be clear, what he did today was lie about the rally. He did not try to stop the chant. In fa ct, he did not try to stop the chant. In fact, they were practically quoting him. But he is trying to turn out a base of people who in prior elections, many just stayed base of people who in prior elections, manyjust stayed home and did not vote, they were disaffected. Many white nationalists did not vote because the system did not represent them. Now they have a president who represents them. This is a strategy. That is his thought, to turn out the republican base. In the Democratic Party and on the progressive side, the way that our side wins is when we excite our base. That is the energy that these women bring to the democratic base. That is why the 2016 election was lost by democrats because our base did not turn out and people who previously on the right would have stayed home, they turned out in large numbers. There are many other people and in a sense it does not matter how awful you think donald trump is or how awful you say he is, there are people who may not like him very much but because of what his administration is doing on abortion, tax, immigration and the Supreme Court, they will hold their nose and vote for him, perhaps again in sufficient numbers. I think what is happening is different. There have always been those who put party over principal. Right now we have a Republican Party captive to a person, a man. This is more along the lines of south american dictators. This is the following he has. He has gone against all kinds of so called sacred republican principles like free trade and they still follow him. What we have now is the Republican Party has become a cult of donald trump and that is why republican senators who will tell reporters privately that they disagree with the president will not ta ke disagree with the president will not take him on publicly. Interesting to talk to you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. President trump has announced that the us military shot down an iranian drone in the strait of hormuz. He said staff on the uss boxer took defensive action as the drone came within one thousand yards of a us navy ship. Its the latest action in mounting tension in the gulf region between iran and the us and its allies. Ramzan karmali reports. This, according to iran was the moment that it sees the panamanian flagged tanker. The circling speedboats were manned by members of the Iranian Revolutionary guard. Once on board, they say they found a million litres of fuel which they allege was being smuggled out of iran. Later, President Trump said the us military had shot down an iranian drone in the strait of hormuz. He said staff on the uss boxer took defensive action as the drone came within 1000 yards of a us navy ship. These latest incidents reflect the mounting tension in the gulf region between iran, the us and its allies. In may, the us tightened up sanctions that it reimposed on irans oil sector after it unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal. In retaliation, president Hassan Rouhani said that it would be scaling back its commitment to that deal. Since then, the white house has blamed iran for two separate attacks on oil takers in the gulf of oman in may and june, an allegation that tehran has denied. Iran has also shot down a us surveillance drone, over the strait of hormuz, again under disputed circumstances. And its notjust the two countries at odds here. Uk warships have been shadowing british oil tankers in the area since iran threatened to seize one in response to the impounding of an iranian tanker off gibraltar, earlier this month. The uk claimed that the tanker was suspected of breaking eu sanctions against syria. This led to another denialfrom tehran. The us has beefed up operations in the regions since withdrawing form the nuclear deal, and is asking its allies to help protect strategic waters off iran and yemen. We believe that is an international responsibility, not a United States responsibility. But the United States is very happy to be part of the solution, and were going to work very aggressively with our partners both in the region and with those partners internationally that move commerce through this critical part of the world. The latest incidents have led to more demands and denials from both sides. Iran said it had no information about a missing drone, while the us has insisted iran should release the seized tanker immediately. Lets get some of the days other news ajudge in new york has denied bailforjeffrey epstein as he awaits trial on charges of trafficking dozens of underage girls. He once counted bill clinton and donald trump amongst his friends. He denies that the charges. Our correspondence explains why he was considered a flight risk. Ultimately thejudge sided with considered a flight risk. Ultimately the judge sided with prosecutors who argued that geoffrey epstein, a registered sex offender, remained a danger to the community and a flight risk and they pointed to evidence they found at his manhattan mansion where they found in his save a foreign passport with a fake name, piles of cash, diamonds as well as many piles of cash, diamonds as well as ma ny lewd piles of cash, diamonds as well as many lewd photographs of young women and girls. They said that he had not changed his ways and he had the means and motive to flee. The judge said that the suggestion by the defence that mr epstein could remain on house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet was does not adequate, even though mr epstein offered to pay for armed guards 2a 7 and put up 100 million in collateral. Much more to come, including this, the australian hour outpost that brought us history. After months of talks and missed deadlines, a deal has been struck to keep greece within the eurozone. The immediate prospect of greece going bust, in the worst crisis to hit the eurozone, has been averted. Emergency services across Central Europe are stepping up their efforts to contain the worse floods this century. Nearly 100 people have been killed. Broadway is traditionally called the great white way by americans, but tonight its completely blacked out. Its a timely reminder to all americans of the problems that the Energy Crisis has brought to them. Leaders meet in paris for a summit on pollution, inflation and third world debt. This morning, theyjoined the revolution celebrations for a show of military might on the champs elysees. Finally, wildlife officials in australia have been coping with a penguin problem. Fairy penguins have been staggering ashore and collapsing after gorging themselves on a huge shoal of their favourite food, pilchards. Some had eaten so much they could barely stand. This is bbc news. Our main story this hour President Trump has sought to distance himself from racist chanting aimed at a somali born congresswoman, during his election rally on wednesday. He said he was not happy about people shouting send her back. I asked taylor griffin, former Republican Party candidate and editor of roughlyexplained. Com if he thought donald trump was a fascist. I think this is an important distinction here. Fascist have a plan. Donald trump is hamming it up for the audience and its getting out of control. He woke up this week and and, not strategically deciding to stir all this up, he woke up on the wrong side of the head, he was mad at is impulsive and he sent a tweet out, that is what happened. This kind of stuff works for him because his base, his supporters really love it when hes in the middle of a fight, when he is angering the liberal media and the liberals on the country, and that is politically incorrect. That is what i like about it, they like him because he is a brawler. Theres a huge problem though there . Saying he is hamming it up, that is just what donald does, to see the most powerful man, an old white man leading a bane crowd almost entirely white can, abusive, threatening, for women of colour, all of them elected representatives simply because they disagree with him. The Historical Echoes are surely chilling and it ensures the future under a second trump term could be a dark place. There is none of us who are proud of this. Not even some Trump Supporters feel like hes going a bit too far. I think its important to have a distinction here about trump. He is not capable, he doesnt have some master plan for a fascist america, he is someone who will say things that are way out of what is a cce pta ble that are way out of what is acceptable adult behaviour and his supporters love it because they love the reaction to it. They see this as a fight with the left, who they see as communist, and all other things, and it excites them, it engages them. Even if they are not really racist. How do you think politically this might play, our corresponded bench and a more moderate republican who may be a key demographic, may be unhappy, other people may not like him, but not like what he is saying, but he is doing, his administration is doing enough abortion, attacks, on immigration, on the Supreme Court that they would vote for him again, how will this play . There are a lot of people that say, i like the economy, its going well. He is doing well enough. But the problem is this just to get embarrassing. I dont like having to come on bbc. I like having a baby said that i dont like having to i like coming on bbc but i dont like having to justify what he saying at this time. I think that for a lot of people they going to start being more sceptical of donald trump and start looking at the Democratic Candidates who would otherwise have voted for him and as excited as his base gets and as much as that year, thatis base gets and as much as that year, that is what is going to win him the election. Those voters who are on the cusp and like the economy, a bit sceptical of trump but this might be the thing that pushes them over the line and says, im going to vote democrat. One of the four ethical question urged by trump to go back with a came from, said americans should only go forward. We will not go back to the days of injustice, we will not rollback our rights, we will not rollback our rights, we will not rollback our rights, we will not deny liberty to our trans brothers and sisters. We will not deny our own humanity at the border, we will not go back, we will go forward. Theres been an outpouring of sympathy injapan and around the world after an arson attack on an animation production studio in kyoto, killed at least 33 people. The police are holding a a1 year old man in custody, suspected of deliberately starting the blaze. Rupert Wingfield Hayes has more from tokyo. Here in the uk some 2 million cubic metres of sand is being pumped onto a beach in norfolk to help save an eroding stretch of coastline. A giant dune will be created to protect a gas terminal which is crucial to the uks gas supplies. Our science correspondent Rebecca Morelle went to see how its being done. A crumbling norfolk cliff, and perched on top, bacton terminal, which supplies one third of the uks gas. But the coastline here is eroding so fast, in a few years, it could be lost. This, though, could be the answer a £20 million experiment, on a vast scale, using sand to fight back the encroaching sea. This is a 2a 7 operation. Every hour, 10,000 cubic metres of sand is being pumped out. And, over the course of just a few weeks, it is going to create a massive sand dune, standing up to seven metres high and stretching for six kilometres. Thats nearly four miles along the coast. It is the first time this has been tried in the uk. The problem is so big and so unsolvable that it needs something radical like this, so the massive volume of sand, and then using the wind and the waves and the tides to move the sand to where it needs to be over time, to provide 15 20 years of protection. This dredger is full of sand collected further along the coast from a licensed site. It then delivers it to the shore using a long pipe, releasing a mixture of sand and water. It is carefully shifted into position, working section by section to create the sandy barrier. 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