tv Newsday BBCNEWS March 14, 2024 12:00am-12:31am GMT
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we speak to the family of a 12—year—old palestinian boy who was holding a firework, and was shot dead by israeli forces in east jerusalem. the uk prime minister says he won't return millions of pounds from a tory donor accused of racism towards mp diane abbott. tiktok says it will do everything it can to prevent a us ban on the social media platform after a vote in the house. and we have a special report from the demilitarised zone — the stretch of no—man�*s land between the two koreas — to meet the few people who still live there. live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it's newsday. we begin this hour in the middle east — where more details are emerging of an explosion at a un relief agency warehouse in rafah, in southern gaza.
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at least five people were killed — including one unrwa staff member — with many more wounded. these pictures have been verified by the bbc. they were shot at a nearby hospital, where casualties were taken. israel has not yet commented on the incident. the us and others continue to urge israel not to launch a full—scale assault on rafah, where more than a million palestinians have taken shelter in recent weeks. these are pictures of the warehouse taken in the immediate aftermath. this was the scene inside — some of the images are too graphic to broadcast. let's hearfrom unrwa's director of communications juliette touma, who spoke to us from jordan's capital, amman. this is a distribution centre for food, and also a warehouse where we store food supplies, but also other critical supplies. we know that it is the israeli forces who were responsible —
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it happened this morning, our teams were on—site and they reported back the casualties. it comes at a critical time, as hunger spreads across the gaza strip, and as famine looms in some parts of gaza, including in the north. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, said he was not aware of the details, but added aid workers need to be protected in order for them to carry out their humanitarian duties safely. humanitarian workers, the agencies — they need to be able to do theirjobs with as much security and confidence as possible. and look, you're in a war zone, you have a terrorist group that is firing from hospitals, from schools, from apartment buildings — but the israeli military, the israeli government have a responsibility and obligation to do everything possible to ensure that the humanitarians
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can do theirjobs. and among other things, that means making sure that if there is a humanitarian facility that's clearly identified, it's not struck. it means making sure that if there a supply mission, a convoy, trucks going to a particular place at a particular time, that the israeli military does everything possible to ensure its secure passage. meanwhile injerusalem — israeli security forces have shot dead a 12—year—old palestinian boy they accused of being a terrorist. he was one of six palestinians shot dead by forces in occupied eastjerusalem and the west bank yesterday. the boy was playing with a firework with his brother and friends in front of the family home. israel's national security minister hailed the officer who shot him as a "hero and a warrior". from jerusalem, here's our senior international correspondent orla guerin. how was another palestinian child shot dead? rami al—halhouli lived
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and died in the shadow of israeli watchtowers. his home was here in eastjerusalem, sealed off by walls and fences and israel's occupation. his family say he loved school and wanted to be a pilot. last night, rami was playing with friends, holding a firework. a shot rings out. gunshot rami is dead on the ground with a bullet to the heart. his father, moussa, was there in seconds, struggling to hold back his mother. today, moussa is mourning his youngest child. "he used to help everyone," he tells me. "all the neighbours."
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but then grief overwhelms him. this is the street where his son died. standing here, it's hard to imagine how rami, a 12—year—old boy with a firework in his hand, could have been any kind of threat to the border police who were down the road, beyond that high wall, with the fence at the top, heavily armed and well protected. this was rami's friend who was by his side when he was killed. were you afraid they might shoot you, too? "i was afraid i would be shot or killed or badly injured," he says. "and if i were shot, they would take me and torture me."
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israel's far right security minister, itamar ben—gvir, was backing his men today. "i love you guys," he says. but he was avoiding our questions. why did you congratulate the police officer, minister, for shooting the child 7 what evidence is there that the child was causing anybody any harm 7 do you have any evidence? minister, witnesses say the child was just setting off a firework in the air. translation: you say he's a 12-year-old. - i say he's a 12—year—old terrorist. a 12—year—old who endangered one of our officers. the officer should be commended, not investigated. i will take steps to get him an award. back at the scene, mustafa tells me he witnessed the killing from his window.
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"he wasn't holding an m—i6 or a bomb or an rpg," he says. "he was a child playing. "how come a sniper shot him? "was itjust because he's palestinian?" and what future for the next generation, growing up under israel's watchtowers? orla guerin, bbc news, eastjerusalem. in the uk, the prime minister is resisting pressure for the conservatives to return £10 million donated by the businessman frank hester, who allegedly said the mp diane abbott made him want to "hate all black women" and should be shot. rishi sunak told the commons that the alleged remarks were racist but that mr hester�*s apology for making rude comments should be accepted. this evening, diane abbott attacked both the conservatives and labour for their response to the controversy. here's our political
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editor chris mason. will you give the money back, prime minister? the big questions ringing in the ears of rishi sunak today... would the party take more money from mr hester? ..after a morning in which two senior conservatives answered these questions rather differently. i would think about the company i kept and i would give that money back. i have to give you my view, rather than what the party should do. but i have thought about how i would handle that situation. if today, mr hester said "i would like to give - you another 10 million", would you take it? - on the basis that we don't believe mr hester is racist, yes. we now come to questions for the prime minister. - how low would he have to sink, what racist, woman—hating threat of violence would he have to make, before the prime minister plucked up the courage to hand back the £10 million that he's taken from him? mr speaker, as i said, the gentleman apologised, genuinely, for his comments, and that remorse
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should be accepted. and look carefully at what is happening on the back row on the right—hand side. diane abbott is standing up, again, and again and again, hoping to be called to speak. the gentleman in question apologised for being rude. he wasn't rude, he was racist, he was odious, and he was downright bloody dangerous. the prime minister had repeated that frank hester had apologised and that should be accepted. again, diane abbott stands up. again, she isn't called. in november, the prime minister accepted a non—cash donation to the tune of £15,000 from frank hester for the use of his helicopter, so will he reimburse him, yes or no? no, mr speaker, and i'm pleased that the gentleman is supporting a party that represents one of the most
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diverse governments in the history of this country, led by the first british asian prime minister in this country. as question time ended, look at keir starmer, heading, alongside many others, to see diane abbott, who i reckon had stood up 37 times to catch the speaker's eye, without success. the office of the speaker said there wasn't enough time to call her. so tonight, she wrote an article for the independent instead. she said frank hester�*s alleged words were... she claimed the conservative party was a source of whipping up racism — an allegation they vehemently deny. she also criticised labour, claiming its leadership response to all this was disappointing, and said in the recent past that there had been shocking levels of racism and sexism from within the labour party directed at her, and there had been no apology. as for those big questions at the start of the day
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for the man who lives here, including, "will the conservatives return the £10 million donation?", the answer tonight sounds like this — "no." chris mason with that report. the tiktok ceo says the company will do everything it can to prevent a us ban on the social media platform. china has also described the potential ban as "an act of bullying" that would backfire on america. it follows a vote in the us house of representatives which passed a bill that would require the tiktok owner, bytedance, to sell its stake in the social media platform. during the debate, lawmakers repeatedly said that tiktok has links to the chinese communist party — something denied by both tiktok and bytedance. the chief executive of tiktok posted this on the social media platform a short time ago. 0ur platform matters to small business owners who rely on
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vivek chilukuri is director of the technology and national security programme at security think tank cnas. he explained america's concerns about tiktok and gave a tiktok exmple of what the us is worried about. it's important to start with some context, and i think viewers in the united states and around the world need to understand that the relationship between technology companies and the united kingdom and the united states is dramatically different with the government than it is with companies that operate like bytedance in china, and are subject to the jurisdiction of the chinese communist party.
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in the uk and the united states, if law enforcement or intelligence services come to a meta or a snapchat or an x and say, "give us your data on this person or this group of people," they can say, "where is your warrant? where is your legal justification?" they can go to the courts, there's due process — there are strong protections for privacy for good reason. that line doesn't exist in china, and there are several articles in the national intelligence law in china that bytedance — tiktok�*s parent company — is subject to that that require companies to support, assist and cooperate with intelligence services when they make those requests. so, they don't really have a choice, the line is extremely blurry. and what that means is that the 170 million users in the united states alone — millions surely in the united kingdom, as well — their data, a variety of data can be requested by the chinese communist party, posing a massive espionage and information operations risk to the united states, and especially in an election year.
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and, you know, when you think about it concretely, i know people say, "well, who cares if the chinese communist party can find out my search history about a bunch of cat videos? what's the concern for national security?" and that's a fair question to ask. and i think what's important to understand is that, think about it this way — if you're a young person on tiktok now and you are, for example, searching for things, you would be embarrassed if they came to light, things you maybe shouldn't be searching for, things that would compromise you — let's say in a few years, you became a member of congress or a senior official in the pentagon, or the department of state — and by the way, this is true in many countries, notjust the united states — and then, the chinese communist party were to notice that you're a person of interest, and then compel bytedance to provide some information going back several years to uncover that data, it would be compromising. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other
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stories making news. the government has introduced new legislation to overturn the convictions of sub—postmasters who were the victims of what has been called the biggest miscarriage ofjustice in uk history. hundreds were wrongly prosecuted after faulty computer software said money was missing from post office branch accounts. a 34—year—old man has been jailed for at least 21 years for the murder of a man in newtownabbey, northern ireland. two years ago, 54—year—old roy reynolds was beaten and stabbed to death. his remains were placed in a car boot and taken to a reservoir. ajudge described the murder as "merciless" and "brutal in the extreme". a headteacher in southampton has admitted he's disgusted by the state of the food served at his own school. in a despairing letter to parents, jason ashley, head of redbridge community school in southampton, said meals served in its canteen were "completely unacceptable" and asked, "how difficult is it to bake a potato?"
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you're live with bbc news. despite its name, the demilitarised zone — the stretch of no—man�*s land between the two koreas — is one of the most heavily militarised areas in the world. when the korean peninsula was divided in 1953, two villages on either side of the dmz were allowed to remain. taesung — known as the freedom village — in the south, and kijong — known as the peace village — in the north. 0ur correspondent in seouljean mackenzie went to taesung, to meet the few people who still live there. we pass through checkpoint after checkpoint on our journey into the heart of the demilitarized zone, the strip of land separating north and south korea. freedom main, this is freedom six, over. but beyond the barbed wire sits a deceivingly peaceful village where a tiny community of south koreans live in the shadow of their enemy,
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north korea, closely guarded by an elite battalion of soldiers. like many of the villagers, mrs kim was born here before korea was even divided. she's now offered some serious perks to convince her to stay. she doesn't pay taxes or rent, and with extreme isolation comes an abundance of land to farm. "one day when i was gathering acorns, north korean soldiers came too close", mrs kim tells me. "i started screaming. "it was so scary." the village of taesung was established at the end of the korean war as a symbol of peace along with another village in the north, kijong, but no one is thought to live there now. given that the north koreans have decided to abandon this village and they don't have people living there, why do
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you keep people living here? right, many people believe that both taesung dong and kijong—dong exist in the hope of one day reunifying the korean peninsula. failing that, perhaps one day it could pave the way for the normalisation of relations between the two koreas. but this hope is dying. last month, the north declared unification impossible and branded south korea its number one enemy, putting the elderly residents on the front line of escalating tensions. we're taken out to the fields along the border. beyond the rusty sign is north korea. here, farmers must be escorted by soldiers with machine guns. we're so close to north korea now. the border is just there behind us, and there is no fencing whatsoever. so there is nothing to physically stop the soldiers
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from walking into these fields and then on into the village. as darkness descends, the threat rises. soldiers go door to door, checking everyone�*s inside. this curfew is the most restrictive part of village life. the shin family with two small children are unusual. many young people have left the village, lured by the opportunities of modern—day south korea, and its numbers are shrinking. do you think young people can be convinced to stay here? translation: i don't think it'll be easy. - it's asking a lot for people to live with the curfew, not being able to come and go as you want. there are now so few children that the village primary school buses its pupils
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in from outside the dmz. and as the dream of reunification fades, it's getting harder to convince people to live here, on the front—line of a conflict that might never be resolved. jean mackenzie, bbc news, in the demilitarised zone. let's turn to haiti now. the united states says it has deployed a team of elite us marines to protect its embassy in the haitian capital, port—au—prince. on monday, the prime minister, ariel henry, said he would resign once a transitional council was in place. gang leaders who control large parts of haiti had demanded his resignation for weeks, as violence across the country escalated. a us state department spokesman said it was up to the haitian people who they chose as their leader. more now from our central america and caribbean correspondent will grant. life at the border crossing between the dominican republic and haiti is taking on a certain rhythm that every
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day, throughout the day, several trucks carrying undocumented haitian migrants come to this point and deport those migrants back into the country. they are being deported into an impoverished nation facing its biggest crisis in over a decade. now the situation in the capital, port—au—prince, remains critical — the food security situation, of course, the gang violence on the streets, the problems in the hospitals and schools being closed — it is as bleak a picture as at any time since the 2010 earthquake, in the haitian capital. there is, for example, the effort by the us state department and member states of the caricom group of nations to see an interim administration take power in the coming days — but that's running into difficulties because the gang members themselves, the powerful games that
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are in control of much of the capital dispute who will be in that council, and may well want representation themselves, for example, in search of an amnesty. so it is an intractable situation for the time being, it may take several days from this point onwards to resolve — and in the meantime, ordinary people in the streets of port—au—prince are simply trying to make a living, make ends meet amid the violence. presidentjoe biden and his predecessor donald trump have both passed the delegate thresholds to clinch their parties�* nominations for november's presidential election. the two 2020 contenders will provide the us with its first rematch in a presidential election for nearly 70 years. 0ur north america editor sarah smith has the latest. voters in states from hawaii to mississippi sealed the deal for both presidential candidates, as they've now secured their parties�* nominations, setting up one of the longest campaigns in modern history. breaking overnight — it is official, president biden and donald trump set for a 2024 rematch.
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the stage is officially set, trump versus biden, as the president heads to battleground wisconsin today. we will be back here - on the dan o'donnell show. it's classical conservatism and contemporary style. i we are partisans for truth here! . wisn listeners in wisconsin get a daily blast of non—stop high—energy right—wing rhetoric from a host who makes it very clear who he wants to win the white house. where trump is the sun and everything else - in the political solar system revolves around him - in some way. six months ago, he told me he had doubts about trump's electability. we need to be focused primarily on who can . win a general election. and that's not donald trump? i think he is going to. have the most difficult path out of anyone, yes. now he thinks circumstances have changed enough to allow a trump victory. you think he can win the presidential election? 0h, absolutely. despite all those republicans who say they will never
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vote for donald trump? yes — despite all of that, - i mean, i honestly believe that trump is the prohibitive favourite right now. - in 2020, trump didn't lead in a single swingl state poll, not one. he is now leading in all of them. . traditional republicans in this swing state should be delighted that their candidate is ahead, but there are quite a number of conservative voters hoping wisconsin backs...joe biden. and you won't be voting for donald trump. why not? why not — because the man is a menace. so what will you do with your vote? i will probably vote forjoe biden, actually. really, you would vote for a democrat? yeah — it will be really difficult, and we can debate policies and we can debate whether or notjoe biden is a jerk or whether or not he's old. but in the end, what is the most important thing that we have to worry about in this country, and that's defending our constitution. this is one of the few states that will decide the election. wisconsin backed donald trump
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when he won in 2016 and joe biden in 2020. each time, it was less than 1% of the vote that made the difference. and this year's election will probably be won or lost by the very smallest of margins. sarah smith, bbc news, milwaukee, wisconsin. bbc will be having comprehensive coverage of the run—upta comprehensive coverage of the run-u ; ., ,, comprehensive coverage of the run-u_ ., ,, . ., , ., run-up to the us elections. you can watch _ run-up to the us elections. you can watch the — run-up to the us elections. you can watch the nr _ run-up to the us elections. you can watch the nr channel- run-up to the us elections. you can watch the nr channel as - can watch the nr channel as well as our website. —— news channel. ajapanese rocket carrying a small government test satellite has exploded shortly after lift—off. this is the moment it happened. tokyo—based start—up company space one had hoped to become the first japanese private firm to succesfully put a satellite into orbit. the company said it is investigating what happened. hello there. the rain has been pouring down on wednesday in snowdonia, in wales — there was about a third of a month's worth of rain injust 12 hours.
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things are not looking quite so dramatic over the next few days. there will be some further wet weather, rain or showers, and for many parts of the country, it's going to be mild — particularly across england and wales, where we've seen the milder are coming from a long way south. things are a little bit chillier to the north, in northern scotland. in between, we've got the weather front — that's been bringing the rain, but that's moving northwards, taking wet weather into scotland and northern ireland. there's the wet weather that we've got in northern ireland and southern scotland — that moves its way northwards. for england and wales, there may be a bit more sunshine arriving in a southerly breeze before those showers push across from the west. but we're introducing some slightly drier air from france — hence the cloud breaking up more than it did on wednesday. and so, temperatures could reach 16, even 17 celsius. quite chilly underneath that rain, though, in the central belt of scotland. and that wet weather is still around as we head into thursday evening. that low pressure will slowly pull away — we've got another one waiting in the wings here as we head towards the weekend. but this is how friday looks — and we've got wet weather
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in scotland sinking into northern england, a bit of snow over the mountains. we see some heavier showers developing further south, particularly in the southeast of england, with the risk of thunder. drier, though, for northern ireland are becoming drier in scotland, but we're getting a northerly wind here — hence the temperatures will be dropping a bit through the day. won't be quite as warm in the southeast, but still temperatures of 13—14 celsius. as that area of low pressure moves away, things will calm down just for a while before the next weather system pushes in from the atlantic. but ahead of that, we'll have clear skies and light winds, so it's going to be cold. and there may be a frost around as well, particularly in scotland, with temperatures down as low as —3 or so. and there may be 1—2 mist and fog patches, too — but those will lift. we'll have some sunshine for a while, but we've got the weather system coming in from the atlantic — the cloud will tend to increase, rain for northern ireland coming into southwest scotland, wales, and the southwest of england. eastern areas still generally dry, but after that cold start, it'll only be around seven celsius in northeast scotland. most of the rain over
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future in the us hangs in the balance after lawmakers vote to pass a bill to but could see a ban. we catch up with the ceo of bookie .com. warm welcome to you here on asia business report. let's begin in the us, where lawmakers in the house of representatives have overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that could lead to a ban on the popular social media at tiktok. that's despite the chinese own company calling on millions of teenage users in the us to oppose the bill. aaron delmore has been following the proceedings. the houseboat sets the stage for what could become ultimatum to the parent company of tiktok. there is always to go between here and there. the bill needs to go to the senate,
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