tv BBC News BBC News March 3, 2024 8:00pm-8:31pm GMT
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our main story this hour — there are reports of a hold—up in negotiations for a temporary ceasefire in gaza. israel is reported mpt to be sending a delegation to the talks taking place in cairo. that's despite us officials saying a ceasefire deal was already "on the table" and israel had approved it. the sticking point appears to be hamas not supplying a list of the hostages who would be released. washington had been hoping for a deal by monday, taking effect before ramadan in a week's time. our senior international correspondent, orla guerin, reports from tel aviv. a truce can't come soon enough. in rafah, one more day of harrowing loss. palestinians mourn for 14 members of the abu ansa family,
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most women and children. they were victims of israeli air strikes, according to hospital officials and gaza's civil defence. "there were about 35 people in the house", says farouk abu ansa. "most were children. there were no fighters. the house collapsed on them, three or four storeys." imad cannot reach his son. "he is still under there," he says. "and my brother—in—law was killed, with his two children, born after years of nf". and after five months of israeli bombardment, this is the new landscape of gaza.
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in israel, it has been five months of anguish for families of the hostages. they need to be released now. this weekend, they have been pleading again with their government to do a deal and get their loved ones home. ofer is a very warm person. you can see, his smile, he is a family person. he has four children, lovely children. how hard is this time for the family? this wait must seem endless. it is like hell, you know. we are in some kind of loop since the 7th of october. we are living this day every day again and again. we have only one goal all these days, to bring him back alive to his family, to his children. this is the only thing that matters.
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but there will be no homecoming for ofer or any of the israeli hostages without a ceasefire. a deal, if it comes, could be days away. orla guerin, bbc news, tel aviv. an israeli army spokesman says the military has completed a preliminary review into the incident last thursday in which dozens of palestinians were killed as an aid convoy arrived in gaza city. rear admiral daniel hagari said the review found that forces did not strike the convoy, and that most palestinians died in a stampede. palestinian officials have accused israel of a massacre. mr hagari said the review found that israeli soldiers did — in his words — fire warning shots towards individuals who posed an immediate threat. the idf has concluded an initial review of the unfortunate incident where dozens of civilians were trampled to death and injured as they charged to the aid convoy.
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our initial review has confirmed that no strike was carried out by the idf towards the aid convoy. the majority of palestinians were killed or injured as a result of the stampede, from the information we gathered. a houthi leader in yemen has vowed to continue to sink british ships in the red sea, calling the uk a rogue state that is attacking yemen. on saturday a cargo vessel, the rubymar, sank after taking on water two weeks after it was hit by a houthi missile. the iranian—backed houthis have been targeting ships in the area for months in protest at israel's offensive in the gaza strip. here in the uk, the chancellor says he wants to find a way to bring down the tax burden, but insists he'll do it in a way that's responsible. jeremy hunt will set out the government's tax and spending plans on wednesday, with growing calls within the conservative party to bring down taxes.
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labour said there was no measure that could be announced that would improve the conservatives' record in power. our political correspondent, harry farley, reports. all eyes on this man. jeremy hunt is facing calls from some for more money in defence or housing. others want tax cuts. the chancellor was giving little away as he arrived this morning, but he did give this hint. i do want, where it's possible to do so responsibly, to move towards a lower tax economy. and i hope to show a path in that direction. but this will be a prudent and responsible budget for long—term growth. something he is thinking about is nicking labour's idea to raise money by scrapping the non—doms tax exemption for people who live in the uk but whose main home is abroad. but that could be awkward. you said, "these are foreigners who could live easily in ireland, france, portugal or spain. they all have these schemes.
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i would rather they stayed - here and spent their money here". do you want to take that back? let me say this. the country sees through gimmicks, and we are not going to do gimmicks on wednesday. jeremy hunt is under enormous pressure from his own mp to deliver tangible tax cuts, ones that people feel in their pockets. many conservative backbenchers see this week, when the chancellor steps out of number 11 downing street to deliver his budget, as the last opportunity before a general election to close the gap between their party and labour. so if the chancellor does cut taxes, would labour reverse them to have more money to spend? we think the tax burden should be lower. we think the tax burden is too high. it is set to be the highest in 70 years. we have also been clear that we would only want to see taxes cut in a responsible way and we want to make sure we get the economy growing because that is the way to make people better off and to make
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sure public services have the funding they need. economic experts warn any tax cuts could be short lived. i think if we do see a tax cut in the budget, then one way or another, it's likely to be undone after the next election. whatever the scale of the tax cut announced in the budget this week, during this parliament, taxes will have risen really very substantially indeed. this has been a big tax increasing parliament, not surprisingly, given some of the challenges this government has faced. there is always expectation management ahead of budgets, but the indications are that jeremy hunt won't be able to make the sweeping giveaways he perhaps hoped. harry farley, bbc news. a seven—year—old girl has drowned after a small boat carrying 16 migrants heading to the uk capsized, according to the authorities in northern france. the girl's parents and three siblings were taken to hospital in dunkirk. this is the third fatal incident in a channel crossing attempt
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so far this year. last year, nearly 30,000 people reached britain, according to government figures. our reporter, nickjohnson, explained more. we know that this happened well within french waters. we now know it actually happened on a canal some 30 kilometres or so from the coastline itself. we have seen footage of that canal in question. the water level is very high, it is a wide waterway, it is flanked on one side by forests and, on the others, by some homes. we have also seen footage of emergency services appearing to be by the bow of a small white boat, which isjutting up from the water line. alongside that as well, belongings strewn all over the tow path. now, the authorities in france say that the boat was just too small for the number of people, 16 they say, that were trying to board it.
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and that it capsized as people were getting on board. they say that that seven—year—old died at the scene. they also say that a person walking by raised the alarm, and that there were other children on the boat as well. other siblings of the girl, as well as other adults, and other children. they are all being cared for in a hospital in dunkirk. we have also heard from the french prosecutor for the region, that says that several people are now in custody in relation to this incident, and they are looking at possible charges of manslaughter and people smuggling. we've also heard from the mayor of the town that that canal dissects. he said that he has seen a lot more incidents of these small boats trying to set off further inland, and he says that that is because they are trying to avoid the surveillance that you would get at the larger port towns, dunkirk and calais, and these people are trying to move so that they avoid that sort of surveillance, but he does say as well that the boats they are using are clearly not suitable
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for that waterway journey, let alone the journey out into the channel. now, this is the third fatality we have had of people trying to cross the english channel this year. the uk government says that last year nearly 30,000 people reached britain on that channel crossing. the number of people killed in a drone strike on the southern ukrainian city of odesa on saturday has risen to 12. rescuers, who are still searching the rubble of the residential building, have pulled out the bodies of another two children, bringing the total to five. among the dead were two infants less than a year old. iranian media says that results so far in friday's elections show that hardliners and conservatives have won most of the seats. with ballots still being counted, it also still looks as if the turnout will be the lowest in the history of the islamic republic. the bbc�*s caroline davies was given rare permission to report from inside iran, and has been speaking to people there.
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iran is yet to announce its official results for the election but there are still some early indications from state media about turnout. this from one of the state newspapers. here it says, the turnout is 41% across the country. and here, in the capital tehran, it is at 24%. now, these figures have not been finalised yet but if these are correct, 41% is thought to be a historically low turnout for iran during these parliamentary elections. it is difficult to get a sense here in iran about exactly how people are feeling. many people don't want to speak to foreign media, particularly on camera. we were able to speak to a few about what life is like in the country at the moment. translation: conditions are really hard here. - we don't have income. we don't have work. the cost of living is high. elections happened on friday. do you think that might change anything? translation: no, i i don't have any hope. there has been a lot of elections but the situation
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hasn't really changed. translation: the value of our currency keeps - going down on a daily basis, which is causing inflation and puts a lot of pressure on the iranian people. but the security situation is good. it is stable. iran's authorities have given no indication that they are concerned by this low turnout figure. in fact, some have already started calling these elections a success. but throughout the course of our reporting here, it has been clear that many people in iran don't feel engaged with politics, and didn't feel like they wanted to vote because they didn't think anything was going to change. now it's time for a look at today's sport. hello from the bbc sport centre. manchester city are back to within a point of liverpool at the top of the english premier league after coming from behind to win the manchester derby. 18 goals now for phil foden this season, he scored twice, turning the game around after marcus rashford had given united the lead. erling haaland wrapped up a 3—1 win
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in stoppage time. the result means if city beat liverpool when both sides play at anfield next sunday, they'll go top, but manager pep guardiola didn't want to talk too much about the title race afterwards — instead paying tribute to his star striker foden: he is the best player right now in the premier league. with the amount of things he does, he is unbelievable. i think he loves to play football, he lives for football. top with training sessions and playing games. it is a joy, and of course his work ethic is unbelievable. oh, iwould say, defining moments, when we almost made a breakthrough. we consideed the first goal and also the second goal was a defining moment. then you are disappointed. we have to accept it, but it is what it is. still, i think we had the opportunity to at least get one point, but also
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the win was possible. vincent kompany�*s burnley remain joint bottom of the premier league, 11 points from safety, after defeat at home to bournemouth. andoni iraola's side 2—0 winners at turf moor with antoine semenyo with their second goal. the victory moves them 11 points clear of the bottom three. we were in a good moment, i think we were playing well lately but not getting the wins. probably we need a game like this, probably we didn't play so well. but you know how to win it, you finish with a clean sheet. i think it will give us some confidence for the next games, so very important for us. bayer leverkusen are ten points clear at the top of the german bundesliga, after victory in their derby at cologne. jeremie frimpong and alex grimaldo scored the goals in a 2—0 win which makes it 2a games unbeaten in the league for xabi alonso's side.
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in the days other game, hoffenheim have beaten werder bremen 2—0 — both goals for max beier in the first half in spain, girona have lost more ground in the title race after being beaten 1—0 in mallorca — seven points behind the leaders real madrid they remain. barcelona can go second if they beat athletic bilbao in the late game, it's 0—0 with around 15 minutes played. earlier, atletico madrid, in fourth, beat real betis 2—1, alvaro morata with their second while alexander shorlot scored a hattrick as villarel thrashed second from bottom granada 5—1. it's the final day of competition at the world athletics indoor championships — with medals to be decided in the 800m, and 1500m in glasgow. earlier, thea lafond won gold in the women's triple jump — recording a best of 15.01 metres in her second effort, the only competitor to go over the 15 metre mark. the rest failed to come close. lafond is the dominican republic's first athletics world champion.
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in the men's highjump, gold went to new zealand's hamish kerr, with this world leading jump of 2.36 metres. the commonwealth champion had already secured gold before going for that personal best attempt. american shelby mcewan claimed silver and the previous indoor champion sang—hyeok woo of south korea won bronze. i think ithink i'm i think i'm in shock, to be honest. it's something we have been dreaming of for a long time, and the team thought it was possible. i'm not sure i quite believed it until it happened. so, yeah, to come away without first ever indoor gold—medal in the highjump and with a pv is so special. and that's all the sport for now. to pakistan next. shehbaz sharif has been re—elected as prime ministerfor a second term. it comes weeks after a controversial election, marred by allegations of widespread vote—rigging. mr sharif was elected by 201 votes to 92 —
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he'll now preside over a coalition that has shut out followers of the jailed opposition leader, imran khan. last month's election produced no outright winner. independent candidates backed by imran khan's party won the most seats, but failed to get a majority. our bbc urdu news reporter in islamabad, sahar baloch, has more. sharif has been elected as the prime minister of pakistan for the second time. i heard a lot of shouting and sloganeering inside the parliament today. as soon as shahbaz sharif got elected, as announced by the speaker, a lot of people from especially the candidates from the opposition parties, they surrounded the dais and did not let him speak for a while now. shahbaz sharif got 201 votes in the parliament today. and this also speaks of the recent elections, the recent general elections in pakistan. they were already being called the most rigged elections by the opposition parties. there was a lot of allegations of frauds and irregularities, especially from the pti backed
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candidates. so imran khan is currently in prison, but his independent candidates who are backed by his party, his pti party, actually won majority of the seats in the in the national assembly as well. so a lot of people were basically waiting to see who will get elected as the prime minister. so the pti had nominated omar ayub as their candidate, but he only scored 92 votes. now, as prime minister, shahbaz sharif has been elected. now, the bigger question is how will this polarised and unstable parliament will face all the challenges? let's get some of the day's other news now. the french embassy in haiti says armed gangs have helped a number of inmates to escape from the main prison in the capital, port—au—prince. gangs aiming to oust the prime minister ariel henry currently control 80% of the capital. a police union has appealed to police and military personnel with cars, weapons and ammunition to go there to help reinforce the prison. police in the german capital,
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berlin, have arrested two men suspected of being members of the far—left group, the red army faction. their identities have not been disclosed. but more than 100 police officers had been on the ground to capture ernst—volker staub and burkhard garweg, from the militant group also known as the baader—meinhof. its members conducted a series of heists, kidnappings and murders in the 19705 and 1980s. another suspected member was arrested last week after being on the run for 30 years. israel's public broadcaster has ordered a change to the lyrics for its entry to this year's eurovision song contest. organisers disqualified october rain, which makes reference to the attacks by hamas six months ago, for breaking the competition's rules on political neutrality. israel's president has pushed for a change to the lyrics to avoid the country being left out. the public broadcaster has now asked for a redrafted version, while preserving what it
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calls its artistic freedom. to the united states, and donald trump has told supporters that he is "on a rocket to the republican nomination" for this year's election. it's after he overwhelmingly won primaries in three more states — edging closer to becoming the party's official candidate in this year's election. the former us president convincingly beat his only rival, nikki haley, in what are known as caucuses in michigan, missouri, and idaho. mr trump addressed a rally of supporters in virginia after the wins, with the contests taking place just days before what's known as super tuesday, when 15 states and one territory will vote. with your help, we will win big on super tuesday, and this november virginia is going to tell crooked joe biden, "you're fired!" "you're fired, get out of here!" get out of here, get out of the white house. amber phillips is a politics reporter
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for the washington post. i spoke with her earlier, and started by asking if haley could win the dc primary. if she wins this district here in washington, dc, i don't know if we could even say she's won a state before she drops out. and i feel like that's the main question everyone's asking is this week could be decisive for donald trump and winning the primary. and it's possible. nikki haley, even if she does well here in washington, dc where there's more more elite republicans and liberal republicans, she might not win an actual state at all in this primary and she might have to drop out by tuesday or wednesday. yeah. and given that, in what way do you think this result could be decisive? i mean, hasn't she pretty much already lost anyway? is there anything she could do to change things around at this point? no, short of an absolute political world turning upside down on its head, there's nothing she can do right now. and the reason this week is likely to be decisive is because more than a dozen states vote on one day — on tuesday. that's called super
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tuesday here in america. and there are more than 900 delegates up for grabs. you need about 1,200 delegates a little bit more to win the republican nomination. and if donald trump does well on super tuesday, as we expect him to, he could be just weeks away — just a couple of proforma wins away — from being the nominee. and nikki haley has indicated, if not flat out said she's just going to run through super tuesday to give voters a choice. and then i've talked to republican strategists who say it's very hard to see how she continues on if she doesn't win a single state. why do you think she's carried on the fight to this point? it's a great question. it's perplexing. political strategists here in washington... there's a couple of different reasons. one would be she is propelled by donors and supporters who feel like this is the last stand against donald trump. if he wins the nomination, he will absolutely take over
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the republican party. and we've already seen in many bits and pieces these past couple of weeks of him executing that republican takeover. and so i think she's just got wealthy, elite republicans whispering in her ear, "keep going, keep going, keep going". the second reason might be that donald trump is has a chance, more than any other modern presidential nominee... or excuse me, presidential candidate to implode, right? he's facing 91 criminal charges. he was supposed to start trial this week for the big one, january sixth, but he's successfully delayed that. so she could have been hanging around hoping that things would implode and she would be the next likely option. that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. it seems like donald trump is going to cruise to the nomination this week. yeah. and given that, so a likely run—off between president biden and former president trump. what do you think? what's the kind of mood music there in washington, dc, about the chances of president biden
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securing another victory? everyone is talking about a recent poll that came out today from the new york times — excuse me, this weekend — that shows a couple of different major warning signs for president biden. one of them being he's trailing trump in key states, as other polls have shown. and then he's losing working class voters of colour, which were key part of his base in 2020. and then finally — this is the really concerning part, that as democrats i've talked to and i'm sure the white house is very nervous — is that a majority of his voters in 2020 think he's too old and shouldn't be doing the job. now, there's no indication he's going to step down, but this comes from a new york times sienna college poll, and it echoes other data we've been seeing over the past couple of weeks. so i would say the mood here in washington is a lot of nervousness among democrats that president biden may fail to keep
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trump out of the white house. a zoo near seoul in south korea has held a goodbye party for a giant panda that's due to be sent to china next month. fu bao, which means lucky treasure, was the first giant panda to be born in south korea, to parents who were loaned to the zoo by beijing. online videos have made her a national celebrity, the weather was pretty decent for most of us on sunday, some sunshine and a few showers here and there. i think the bulk of the weather for the evening will be generally clearer, we will have a frost as well. the air over us is relatively chilly, that in the coming days will see slightly milder south—westerly winds developing across the uk. temperatures will creep up byjust couple of degrees.
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the satellite pictures show where clear skies have been earlier on, but in the east and at the north of the skies have been a little more cloudy and hazy. plenty of dry weather to come through the course of the evening, the winds are light as well, that will help the frost forming through the course of the night. a weather system is approaching south—western parts of the uk. early morning temperatures. here is the weather map for monday. the next weather system approaching south—western parts of the uk, introducing thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain, certainly throughout the morning. cornwall, devon, central and southern cornwall, devon, centraland southern parts of wales. that'll also reach ireland in belfast eventually. the bulk of the country
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looking dry through at least monday afternoon with sunshine and temperatures present enough, 10 degrees in edinburgh. the winds will be light and the sun getting just a little bit stronger now. through the course of monday evening into tuesday, that weather front will cross most areas of the uk. by the time we get to early tuesday, that weather front should die a death and fizzle away and the bulk of tuesday is looking dry and bright for most of us, apart from a few showers out towards the west. temperatures about the same. the outlook for the week ahead, the first of the week, a little bit of rain in the south—west, but then towards the end of the week generally dry and brighter. temperatures for most of us into double figures.
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this is bbc news. the headlines... a hold—up in the gaza peace talks — israel is reported not to be sending a delegation to cairo. this comes after hamas reportedly failed to supply a list of hostages it would release under any truce agreement. a seven—year—old girl has drowned after a small boat carrying migrants heading to the uk capsized in northern france near the city of dunkirk. officials said the boat was carrying 16 migrants when it sank in a canal travelling towards the coast to cross the channel as the counting continues
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in iran's election, it looks like the turnout will be the lowest in the history of the islamic republic. local media suggests the hardliners could have won the most seats. pakistan has re—elected shehbaz sharif as it's new prime minister, after weeks of uncertainty following last month's election, which was marred by vote—rigging allegations. he beat his rival, omar ayub khan, who was backed by the jailed former prime minister, imran khan. now on bbc news — click. this week, we explore some of the latest innovations created by and for women...
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