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The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.

Watch Video | Listen to the AudioIn our NewsHour Shares series, we show you things that caught our eye recently on the web. What about you? Leave your suggestions in the comments below, or tweet to @NewsHour using #NewsHourShares. We might share it on air.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Finally, to our NewsHour Shares, something that caught our eye that might be of interest to you as well.

Staying in shape is difficult for many people, no matter their age. But one Virginia grandmother is raising the bar, literally.

The NewsHour’s Julia Griffin has this profile.

LINDA LEIGHTLEY, Powerlifter: Commissioner of revenue’s office.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Between the phone calls and family photos, you would be forgiven for thinking Linda Leightley is your average government employee easing toward retirement.

But as her co-worker Becky McNaughton at City Hall in Fairfax, Virginia, knows, Leightley isn’t the type to take anything easy.

BECKY MCNAUGHTON, Co-Worker: The first or second day I worked here, Linda came into my office, and she asked me to check out her butt.

(LAUGHTER)

BECKY MCNAUGHTON: Because it was very, very solid. And that is how I met her and found out she was a powerlifter.

JULIA GRIFFIN: At age 72, not only is Leightley a competitive powerlifter; she’s a record- setting one at that.

LINDA LEIGHTLEY: I have set several world records, which I’m really proud of.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Leightley competes in 100% RAW, a worldwide powerlifting organization that emphasizes clean, steroid-free competitions.

Since 2014, she’s garnered 12 world records in her age and weight categories; 132-pound Leightley can dead-lift 273 pounds.

But she wasn’t always so in shape. In 2006, after years of shuttling three children and six grandchildren to their athletic activities, she finally got her own itch to work out.

LINDA LEIGHTLEY: I was 60, and I was very sluggish. And I said, you know, I really need to do something for me.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Blaine Dulin is Leightley’s personal trainer and coach.

BLAINE DULIN, Personal Trainer: She was a disaster when I got her. The first time we exercised, she almost fell over doing a lunge.

JULIA GRIFFIN: But Leightley stuck with it, and within a year, she lost 40 pounds and found a love for weight lifting along the way.

LINDA LEIGHTLEY: Every once in awhile, he’d say, well, do you want to stay here or do you want to lift higher? And I would say, I want to lift higher, because it felt so good.

JULIA GRIFFIN: Soon, her strength was getting noticed.

BLAINE DULIN: One day, she — I think she was picking up 220 pounds when she was 68. Somebody mentioned, does she compete or whatever? And I looked it up. And the world record was, I believe, 232. And I thought, well, why not? If you want to, why not give it a go?

JULIA GRIFFIN: Expectations and preconceptions were broken at that first competition.

LINDA LEIGHTLEY: There was another gal from the gym there. And she said: “Don’t worry about it. Whatever you do, it’s a success because you are here for the first time. Don’t worry about it if you fail.”

And I looked at her and I said, “I don’t have any intention of failing.”

BLAINE DULIN: She set a world record then, and has set at least one every other meet since.

JULIA GRIFFIN: The key to Leightley’s sustained success, Dulin says, is making sure each lift is done correctly and safely.

BLAINE DULIN: I hate to yell at somebody’s grandmother, but I have yelled at somebody’s grandmother for picking up weight improperly, because, if she gets hurt, we’re done for months, maybe indefinitely. So I go out of my way to try to make sure she does everything right.

JULIA GRIFFIN: At most events, Leightley is often the only person her age, or even close to it. That, says her daughters Colleen and Mary Beth, is what crowds find so inspiring.

COLLEEN WOOD, Daughter: To see how all these young 20-, 30-something-year-olds were cheering for my mom, who is in her 70s, that was really neat.

MARY BETH HAZELGROVE, Daughter:

Watch Video | Listen to the AudioWILLIAM BRANGHAM: For President Trump today, it was the kickoff of his first United Nations General Assembly. As a candidate, he had roundly criticized the world body. Today, he spoke at a meeting on U.N. reform, and said the U.S. will work with Secretary-General António Guterres to make changes.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United Nations has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement.

While the United Nations on a regular budget has increased by 140 percent and its staff has more than doubled since 2000, we are not seeing the results in line with this investment, but I know that, under the secretary-general, that’s changing, and it’s changing fast.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The president also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and talked again of trying for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Mr. Trump addresses the full General Assembly tomorrow.

The president also spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping by phone about enforcing new sanctions on North Korea. This came as the North warned that new pressure will only increase its drive to develop more nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, in live drills, the U.S. military sent a pair of B-1B bombers and F-35 stealth fighters over South Korea. It was the second such flight in recent weeks.

Hurricane Maria has closed in on the Eastern Caribbean tonight, threatening the very same islands wrecked by Hurricane Irma. By this evening, the storm was passing Martinique with winds of 130 miles an hour, making it a Category 4 storm and still growing. The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are in the projected path tomorrow and Wednesday.

There are new signs of recovery today in Florida, a week after Hurricane Irma swept the state. Schools in Miami-Dade and Broward County reopened for more than 600,000 students. Other systems, and some colleges, remain closed.

In the hard-hit Florida Keys, Governor Rick Scott and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price warned today of potential dangers to those returning.

TOM PRICE, Secretary of Health and Human Services: There’s mold challenges. There are the marine life that — and diseases that occur. So they need to take precautions, simple wearing of gloves, making certain that when they are moving debris that they are being cautious and that they are not inhabiting a place that is uninhabitable.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Utility crews have restored power to the great majority of those who lost it during the storm, but nearly 800,000 people remained in the dark today.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that four large national monuments in the West be downsized. It’s widely reported the sites are Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah. They cover more than three million acres, as well as two others in Nevada and Oregon.

Zinke also recommended lifting curbs on logging and mining at several other sites. Environmentalists have condemned the proposal. President Trump has said designating these monuments amounted to a federal land grab.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 63 points to close at 22331. The Nasdaq rose six points, and the S&P 500 added three.

And some history was made at the 69th annual Emmy Awards last night. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which was shown on Hulu, won for best drama series. It’s the first such award for a video streaming service.

And Lena Waithe became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for best comedy-writing, for the show “Master of None.”

HBO’s political satire “Veep” won best comedy, and “Saturday Night Live” won nine awards, the most of the evening.

The post News Wrap: UN hasn’t reached its full potential, says Trump appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Watch Video | Listen to the AudioWILLIAM BRANGHAM: And it’s the beginning of the week, and so we are joined now by our regular Politics Monday duo, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Welcome to you both.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Thank you.

TAMARA KEITH, NPR: Thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Before we get to Alabama and policy and all that stuff, let’s talk about Sean Spicer and his little cameo last night on the Emmys.

For those who didn’t see it, he comes out, and it seems like he’s trying to poke fun at his first day of the job, President Trump’s inauguration. He comes out and, all evidence notwithstanding, he says that president had the biggest audience ever in the entire history of the universe. And then that was his declaration. And he pointed his finger at the journalists and told them, report this.

Last night, during the Emmys, Stephen Colbert is wondering about the size of his audience. And out comes Sean Spicer.

Let’s take a look at that.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SEAN SPICER, Former White House Press Secretary: This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period, both in person and around the world.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What do you make of that?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: You know, this is life imitating art. Right?

He was actually channeling Melissa McCarthy, who you see there, who was making fun of him in her “Saturday Night Live” skit.

Look, this, to me, is a sign about where we are more broadly as a culture, which is, there is no such thing as having bad publicity or notoriety. You can always cash in on it. And it’s very short-lived.

So, the name Sean Spicer is one that most people know today. It’s hard to know that it’s going to be the same a year from now. So, take it while you can get it. Take it to the bank. A lot of other Trump supporters, his former campaign manager, for example, got fired, and then ended up as a CNN commentator, is a lobbyist now.

So, people trying to use their cache while they can here in Washington.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tam, what do you think about this?

Is this us not being able to take a joke? Or is this us, as many people have argued, that we’re being encouraged to chuckle at the idea that it’s just fine for the press secretary to lie to the American people?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, this is Sean Spicer’s rehabilitation tour, his image rehabilitation tour. He also went on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and then today, in an interview with The New York Times, said that he regretted that press conference where he came out and told reporters, report the facts that were not the facts. They were alternate facts.

And that was sort of the original sin of his entire time as press secretary. He came out and said something that was unverifiably untrue. And it led to further questions about whether what he said was true, whether what was said from the podium in the White House press Briefing Room, which has typically had some connection to reality, whether that could be trusted from this administration.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Some connection to reality. I love that.

OK, let’s talk about the runoff next Tuesday in Alabama, very big Senate runoff race.

AMY WALTER: Right.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Roy Moore and Luther Strange.

What is at stake in that particular race?

AMY WALTER: Well, these are two Republicans that are challenging each other.

And what’s interesting here is, it is the choice between which Alabamans are going to like more. Or their choice is between loving Trump more or whether they dislike Mitch McConnell more.

That is what they get a choice between. Roy Moore is the outsider. He is a former state Supreme Court judge. He has been kicked off the bench twice now, but he’s running as the anti-establishment, anti-Washington firebrand.

Luther Strange is in a Strange position, which is, he’s been endorsed both by Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is coming down on Saturday to campaign for him. But he also has the supp

Watch Video | Listen to the AudioWILLIAM BRANGHAM: On Friday: Judy Woodruff sat down with Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate, to discuss her new book titled “What Happened.”

We return now to that interview, when Judy asked about Clinton’s campaign against Donald Trump and mistakes she might’ve made in certain key states.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think your campaign was negligent, or whatever word you want to use, in not raising enough warning signs about the perils that could lie ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan?

Those states, of course, turned out to be crucial to the outcome.

HILLARY CLINTON, Author, “What Happened”: Well, when you’re in a campaign you — you look at the best information you have.

And our best information from polling, from what’s called data analytics, from people on the ground didn’t indicate that we faced what eventually happened in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania.

We campaigned hard. We had more people on the ground working for my campaign than President Obama had had. We were in constant communication: What do you hear? What do you see?

Wisconsin’s a particularly interesting example, because Russ Feingold, someone I served with, was running again for the Senate. His polling and the polling done by the Senate Democrats showed he was going to win. I ended up doing better than he did.

There were all kinds of factors. And one of the biggest problems in Wisconsin has been the well-executed effort to suppress voters, African-American voters in Milwaukee, young voters, particularly in Madison and elsewhere. It proved to be very effective.

And we campaigned hard in Pennsylvania. We campaigned hard in Michigan. I was there the day before the election. So, I — I just don’t believe that those were the determining factors about how many visits how many people made. I just don’t buy that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Judy also asked Secretary Clinton about the criticism of her campaign from within her own party, specifically from former Vice President Joe Biden.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You also had some comments about former Vice President Joe Biden. And I want to ask you about that, because he said after the election that he thought your campaign and Democrats in general didn’t adequately communicate to Americans who were economically strapped what Democrats were prepared to do for them.

Isn’t that very similar, if not the same thing, your husband, President Clinton, was telling your campaign before the election?

HILLARY CLINTON: No.

And, look, I’m a friend of and a big admirer of Joe Biden. He and I have worked together. We served together.

And I point out in the book, you know, every day, we were talking about jobs and the economy. Post-election analyses said I talked about jobs more than anything else and more than anybody else. We had really specific plans.

I was talking about them endlessly. But they weren’t covered. When you get 32 minutes in a whole year to cover every issue, and 100 minutes on e-mails, I don’t fault voters for not knowing what we were saying.

Joe campaigned for me. He talked about jobs. Everybody else talked about jobs and what we were intending to do. But, you know, it was — it turned out not to be enough in that particular environment.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, finally, they turned to health care, which, if you remember, was one of the major sticking points during the Democratic primary contest.

Judy asked Secretary Clinton about her former opponent Senator Bernie Sanders and his recent health care proposal.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the campaign, you, on a number of occasions, argued with Bernie Sanders, because he argued there should be more of a government-run health care system, rather than expanding Obamacare.

Now he has this new plan out to expand Medicare, cover more people in the direction of single-payer. And dozens of Democrats are behind it. Are they making a mistake?

HILLARY CLINTON: No. It’s an aspirational goal

THANKS FOR KEEPING THE VIBES-LIVE!

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.