>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here in aruba. families, couples, and friends

can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. nonstop flights are available from most major airports. more information for your vacation planning is available at aruba.com. >> and now, "bbc world news." tim: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am tim willcox. no to the authorities and already convicted of attempted murder, how did karim cheurfi slip through the net to kill in paris? forced into hiding, gay men in chechnya escaping persecution and torture. ♪ tim: and one room, 2 grammys. we meet the british multi-instrumentalist making music at home.

tim: hello. welcome to our viewers of public television in america and around the globe. not only was he on their radar, but the french authorities revealed the man who shot and killed a police officer in paris last night had tried to kill police officers before. karim cheurfi, who was 39, had been jailed in 2001, for firing at police officers. tonight the french authorities , said he showed no signs of islamist extremism. it comes as the french prepared to go to the polls this weekend for presidential elections, and the issue of security has been seized on by our candidates, as our europe area adler reports from paris. katya: french police on guard and at the ready at the sounds a

lee's a today. champs bank today.s officers paused to pay respects to their colleague named as a 38-year-old. this mobile phone appears to show the moment the attacker was hidden from view. details about the attacker have appeared throughout the day. he came from a troubled suburb on the outskirts of paris investigators searched his house, taking three members of his family in fircrest questioning. police say knives and guns were a noten his car

implicating the islamic state was found on his body. they have found no evidence of extremist links. he was not on the watch list, and during his long time in prison showed any signs of being radicalized or trying to convert others during all his years of imprisonment. katya: the shooting has pass along shadow over sunday's election. emmanuel macron spoke of the need for unity. while a firebrand far right front runner marine le pen cause for the closing of french borders and the explosion of foreigners. before last night's shootings, one in three voters said they were still undecided as who to vote for. but has the attack change

things? things.st not change that's what the terrorists want, that we vote hate and division. >> and pushes people more to the extreme. katya: the french residential election has ramifications for -- far outside the borders. there will be impact on the euro european union, and if there is a victory here, that will be of used to the populist promising a boost. still inspired by the power of the people, power to choose. but never before has there been so much uncertainty with so much at stake.

tim: i caught up with katya in paris. i presume you don't have any idea about how this will impact in the election at all -- katya: that is absolutely right, and legally in france there will be a news blackout. no more polls, no more political information until sunday night. so soon it will become clear what the shooting impact was on the boat. and though emmanuel macron marine le pen appeared to be the two. runners, there are we can still say it is a four horse race. a large number of voters will say they make up their minds at the last moment. not benot clear, we will

clear until sunday night. and then we have to find out what it will be -- we will be back here in two weeks' time. and only then will we find out to france's next president will be. correspondent now with the center for strategic and economic studies. i spoke to her about the attack and what the ramifications and implications could be for the election. marine le pen said the authorities were guilty of the blindness and weakness of this man's history. the situation, she has been consistently tough, law and order security. she knows she can use this to her advantage. the problem is french security that services are

stretched to the breaking point. there are so many to follow i think they have a hard time doing it. tim: not only start, but after the bataclan shootings, dysfunctional but nobody knows who to answer to. >> i think after the -- it was a big wake-up call for coordinating the multiple levels, and the french are very good at this. but look at the discovery earlier this week of the marseilles cell, helped with british intelligence. no one agency can handle the onslaught. so, they really have to focus. tim: this man had been tipped off to the authorities only a few months ago because he was apparently trying to buy weapons and contact jihadists in syria. how could any intelligence service let that go? >> well, again, i think it is volume. they're getting so much noise it is difficult to track all of them. a lot of individuals are hitting multiple alarm bells.

and unfortunately they have to , choose and they have to be 100% perfect. terrorists can be perfect one time. tim: the other problem is is a , lot of these men had been in prison in france and tended to get radicalized there. is that one of the causes of the problems? >> prison radicalization is an issue and french authorities know that. i think they are challenged with finding the solutions. here you have an individual who had targeted police before. again, the targeting of such high-visibility symbols of the state, the police, we know during the nice attacks bastille , day, these are symbols of state and it feeds into broader insecurity of the french people , and making sure that they can be safe walking along the champs elysees. tim: three of the bataclan gunmen came from belgian and they were known to the authorities as well. islamic state describes this man from belgium as well.

it is a problem across the board, isn't it? >> it is something that the eu continues to be challenged by. how do agency work togher an quickly close quarters when they -- quickly close the borders when they need to get the safety net? how are they communicating with each other? it is extremely difficult. again, i salute all the services working incredibly hard to do this. i just think the task is overwhelming. tim: thank you very much. you are watching "bbc world news america." more than 60 day men and are believed to have fled the russian republic of chechnya amid claims of persecution campaign by authorities there. the allegations have been dismissed by the chechen leader, some of the alleged victims are in a safe house. they spoke to our moscow correspondent. reporter: he says he was tortured for being gay. we met in a safe house after he fled chechnya for his life. he told me he was kept prisoner

by security forces there for more than a week, beaten daily and electrocuted. >> they have a special black box and they tie wires to your hands or ears and shock you. the pain is awful. you scream. it is terrible torture. they used to detain people before, all the time, to blackmail them. the level it is at now, it is extermination. the extermination of gay men. reporter: human rights activists assured dozens of men were rounded up here in recent weeks. chechnya is a deeply conservative society, part of russia, but one that seeks to live by its own rules. being gay is not accepted here. >> people came to us, they wrote for help. anonymous scared people reporting what happened to them. it is hard to know the scale of

it, but we know that people are still being repressed. reporter: the head of chechnya has denied everything. with international concern growing, he was called into the kremlin and said all talk of a gay purge was slender. vladimir putin's spokesman told me there is an investigation, but no evidence. there have been threats, though. thousands gathered in chechnya's main mosque just after the first reports of abuse were published. religious leaders accused the newspapers responsible of insults and vowed retribution. reporting of human rights in chechnya has already gotten journalists killed. two >> when they announced the jihad, that was pretty scary. it is disturbing because it reminds us of the situation with "charlie hebdo," where fanatics can do whatever because it is motivation for them.

reporter: his life has already been shattered. he says he can never return home. >> i can't ever go back there. it is not just the security forces. my own relatives won't forgive me. it is a permanent thing. our mentality means that even if the security services don't deal with me, my own relatives definitely will. reporter: after what he has already been through, he is also terrified to stay here. tim: arkansas has executed its first inmate for 12 years after a legal battle that lasted well into thursday night. the u.s. supreme court rejected ledell lee's final appeal to stop the lethal injection. he is one of eight men arkansas had planned to execute over 11 days. before one of the drugs used in the lethal cocktail expires. our correspondent was in

arkansas last week and has been following the case. i spoke to him a short time ago. i went right to the wire and actually went to the supreme court involving neil gorsuch for the first time. reporter: it really did. the death warrant for ledell lee was only valid for yesterday, so it had to happen yesterday. and right until basically half an hour before the death warrant expired, it was all in the balance, and then suddenly the supreme court said you can go ahead and execute this man and that is what arkansas did come -- arkansaslted did, just with 15 minutes to go. there were various arguments going on about one of the drug companies saying they did not want this drug used to kill somebody. there was another argument that this lethal injection caused suffering. and there were other traditions about his case in particular, but all of those were rejected. we were in arkansas last week and managed to do the only interview with ledell lee on death row by phone, and i asked

him how he had prepared for this day. >> i'm not going to say i have come to terms with the state trying to take my life, because i have not, nor will i ever come to terms, even if i go fighting, even though there is no way i can stop them from forcibly taking me and strapping me to a gurney and doing whatever it is they are trying to do. but my dying words will always be as it has been, i am an innocent man. tim: and, well, the macabre details he took 12 minutes to , die. does this mean that the other prisoners on death row will be executed quite quickly? and are some not pleading their innocence? reporter: certainly some have admitted their guilt. some of shown no remorse. some have said they want to die. but certainly the legal

arguments over the last couple of days have cleared the way for those executions to go on in an easier manner, because those sort of blanket bans were lifted over drug companies not want to sell more drugs to arkansas. that the drug has caused suffering, but that is why arkansas had this problem. they wanted to get the executions out of the way because the drug expires and no drug company wants to sell drugs to states anymore when they know it will be involved in the death penalty. while they have managed to execute ledell lee it has highlighted the fact that it has become more difficult to execute people in the u.s. tim: thank you very much. you are watching "bbc world news america." the u.s.stories, defense secretary james mattis says there can be no doubt that syria retains chemical weapons. his comments came during a visit to israel. general mattis accused the syrian government of a violating an agreement to nd over

chemical weapons to the international community. he said the syrian mility would be ill-advised to use such weapons again. president trump has welcomed an egyptian u.s. charity worker he helped release after three years in detention in cairo to the white house today. mr. trump said he was very happy that aya hijazi was flown back to the united states thursday night. ms. hijazi's charity cared for street children but faced child abuse charges. the accusations were branded as false by rights groups. you are watching "bbc world news america." the authorities in still to come, we look at the times most 100 influential people. tim: german police have arrested

set off a bombs. it is believed that the 28 your old may have been motivated not by terrorism, but by money. it was a initially thought it was an act of politically motivated terror, but now prosecutors say the attack was driven by greed, not ideology. a 28-year-old man who stayed in the same hotel as the players is accused of bombing the team to keep share prices down. prosecutors say his aim was to make a huge profit on these top market. >> we traced the accused by notice of options and dealings. we now know the accused of bought different derivatives of the stock. he speculated on falling stock prices. himself onhe main --

april 11, the day of the attack. porter: the team has expressed relief that the perpetrator has been caught. but they are disgusted that somebody made -- try to make money. some players haven't yet fully recovered. >> i can speak for myself, i definitely think that i am able, and at the moment i don't see why i personally -- with all the emotion being involved here should not be able to coach this game. reporter: the bombing shocks it wasn'tecause clear who caused the attack.

dictatorsoliticians, musicians, and film stars in the world, who would you put at the top 100 most influential? four white house employees have made the cut this year the , president himself, as well as donald trump's daughter, son-in-law, and chief adviser, according to the latest issue of "time's" 100 most influential people. i caught up with the coeditor of this use edition in new york. just explain what is the criteria for making the cut? >> it is a list of the world's most influential people, and the obvious question is what is influence. that varies depending on which categories you fall into on the list. sometimes influence comes from pretty obvious ways, like you have government leaders, like theresa may and president donald trump and narendra modi, prime minister of india. there also influencers in sports, like simone biles, who has become an icon for gymnasts

and sports people in general. and then there are business people influential in their own sectors. it spans the pending on how you -- it spans depending on how you look at it. tim: let's switch to american policy. donald trump, ivanka, jared kushner, and steve bannon. talk us through those. >> sure. so, obviously, we have five or six people from the trump administration on the list. if you look at the list, it has been a political year. the trump administration has been incredibly influential, and if you look at the people picked, they are reinventing what it means to have a role in the white house and raising new questions about what it means to have influence in politics. tim: i'm not sure if jared kushner and steve bannon want to be together on the same list but let's see what happens there. how do you choose the people to write the profiles as well, because you have some big hitters doing that. >> we do. a lot of the people on the list are very well known and we tried

to get other influential people to paint them in a fresh life -- fresh light for our readers can which is a pretty interesting thing to do. you mentioned jared kushner. we got henry kissinger to write about him, who knows a thing or two about advising presidents. it creates a conversation among the influencers and it is in interesting experience to read. tim: ok. and you have live worldwide covers. how did you choose who they were going to be? >> we want to present the same . if you look at the people on the list, we have a musician, john legend, entertainers like viola davis, philanthropists like melinda gates. theoes to show how broad influencers are that we cover. tim: who is the most surprising person to make the cut, as far as you are concerned? >> one of the people who is a surprising is sandra day o'connor, former supreme court justice, no longer on the bench.

and what is really interesting about her, is as justice sotomayor writes about in her blurb, she has become more influential outside the supreme court because she has decided to get into civic education, and she created a video-game nonprofit to teach students how to get involved in civic s education and it is one of the most widely adopted middle school curricula in the country. tim: it is always fun to look at and people not on the list get very cross about it, i'm sure. thank you very much. >> thank you. tim: adele grabbed the headlines and five awards of the grammys, but it was a remarkable might for another young british musician, jacob collier, creates a distinctive sound at his mother's home in london, and his arrangements got him 2 grammys in the music industry's biggest night in l.a.. reporter: one small room. ♪ reporter: one big talent. ♪

reporter: one that is now being recognized far beyond the four walls in which he produces his remarkable sound. jacob performs every instrument and creates every sound himself. ♪ don't you worry about a thing ♪ i enjoyed imagining that the band, but i liked the feeling of being responsible for each thing. reporter: and the videos you make, you shoot and edit them them yourself in this room. >> i have a camera and i use my sister's ipad.

just a check of a new ♪ reporter: this cover of a stevie wonder song went viral and was spotted by quincy jones, famous for producing and writing songs for michael jackson. he has become jacob's mentor. ♪ i want to love you, pretty oung thing ♪ reporter: and he pops up in some of your videos as well. >> i asked him to make a cameo appearance in "p.y.t.," because he wrote the song. reporter how many instruments : you play? >> difficult one. guitar, drums, piano, and a voice. basically you can get the sound that you want from one of those inks. i try not to count, really. reporter jacob is now touring. : a special synthesizer allows him to perform live. but in his mom's house the ideas keep coming. tim: that is great, isn't it?

the one-man band, jacob collier. for me, tim willcox, and the whole team in washington, thank you. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here in aruba.

families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. nonstop flights are available from most major airports. more information for your vacation planning is available at aruba.com. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.

captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: a deadly paris attack overshadows the last day of campaigning, ahead of sunday voting in france's tight presidential race. then, one-on-one with u.n. secretary general antonio guterres for his first u.s. television interview. >> ( translated ): we cannot forget we live in a world that conflict is multiplied and we need to address the root causes of this terrorism. >> woodruff: also ahead, missing children-- recent cases in washington, d.c., highlight unique challenges in cases involving missing children of