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tv   BBC News  BBCNEWS  March 19, 2024 9:30am-10:01am GMT

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let's come back to the situation in haiti. gangs control much of —— much of the capital, port—au—prince, where the bodies of at least a dozen people were discovered in a wealthy suburb amid fighting with militias armed with machetes trying to protect their own neighbourhoods. of course, there is a humanitarian crisis that is beginning. let's speak to a spokesperson for the humanitarian aid organisation medecins sans frontieres. we appreciate your time. our own correspondence has described extremely violent scenes, he is inside the country.— extremely violent scenes, he is inside the country. what have you heard? i am _ inside the country. what have you heard? i am hurt— inside the country. what have you heard? i am hurt the _ inside the country. what have you heard? i am hurt the city- inside the country. what have you heard? i am hurt the city is- heard? i am hurt the city is literally being buried under the violence which has spread to
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practically every neighbourhood in the last few days —— i am hearing the last few days —— i am hearing the city is. hospitals faced a massive influx of patients with gunshot wounds at the weekend. the port was pillaged at the weekend, luckily we were able to retrieve our containers before that happened but i hear the containers of many aid agencies have gone. the i hear the containers of many aid agencies have gone.— agencies have gone. the un has warned of _ agencies have gone. the un has warned of about _ agencies have gone. the un has warned of about 3000 _ agencies have gone. the un has warned of about 3000 pregnant | agencies have gone. the un has - warned of about 3000 pregnant women who may give birth amidst all of those. could you tell us more about the health care risks? the those. could you tell us more about the health care risks?— the health care risks? the needs toda are the health care risks? the needs today are everywhere. _ the health care risks? the needs today are everywhere. caring - the health care risks? the needs today are everywhere. caring fori the health care risks? the needs - today are everywhere. caring for the main people injured in the ongoing violence, the direct victims but also the indirect victims, those people left without options for health care due to the breakdown of the health care system. the system has basically collapsed, there is only one still functioning public hospital, but the problem is not just health care shutting down, it is also a problem of people literally not being able to move in
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the city because of the insecurity, the city because of the insecurity, the fear of being caught in the crossfire. �* , ., ., , ., crossfire. amidst all of this we are heafina crossfire. amidst all of this we are hearing some _ crossfire. amidst all of this we are hearing some international- crossfire. amidst all of this we are i hearing some international response from the us, we are talking about a transitional council potentially sending international troops. what do you believe the international response should be? for do you believe the international response should be?— do you believe the international response should be? for me at the moment i believe _ response should be? for me at the moment i believe is _ response should be? for me at the moment i believe is an _ response should be? for me at the | moment i believe is an organisation we are not really able to have a position or advice on the political or made —— or military solution, thatis or made —— or military solution, that is not our role, but the international response needs to be scaled up from a humanitarian point of view, we need to largely humanitarian response at the moment and the next preoccupation is water and the next preoccupation is water and sanitation, with many thousands of displaced people living in unsafe and insanitary conditions. if a cholera outbreak happened in this situation the results could be catastrophic.— situation the results could be catastrohic. . ~' , ., ., , .,
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catastrophic. thank you for your time, francesco _ catastrophic. thank you for your time, francesco segoni - catastrophic. thank you for your time, francesco segoni from . catastrophic. thank you for your - time, francesco segoni from medecins sans frontieres, i really appreciate your time. the us fentanyl epidemic shows little sign of abating. more than 100,000 died in the us last year of an overdose — the majority of which were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. it can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin. our correspondent in san francisco james clayton has been speaking to a former addict about how addiction took over his life — and how he nearly died. brian was homeless on the streets of san francsco for three years, between 2020 and 2023. there's someone actually doing fentanyl right there. oh, yeah, that's... you're going to see that. like, people don't give a bleep. this is his account of what life is like homeless and addicted to fentanyl. for, like, a year, i didn't go to sleep on purpose. i fell... where i fell is where i slept. and i always wondered, like, how do you...? why don't you go and get undercover or something? and it's because you're just exhausted. you're like... just sheer exhaustion and you lay
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where you fall, you know? so, yeah, i've been there. i've been there plenty of times. it's an all encompassing desire, like, it's a 2k hour a dayjob. all you're doing is acquiring money to make sure you still have dope. because even when you run out, like, obviously withdrawals are looming. like, they're going to... they're going to come in a matter of hours. to keep up his habit, brian regularly stole items from stores and sold them on the streets for his next fix, which he knew could be his last. there was one time we were sitting on a ledge smoking dope, like, me and a few guys near the drug dealer's spot. and there was a guy, like, laying down on the ground, kind of watching him, but he wasn't moving, but people laying on the ground, sleeping all over the place in that area, you know? and then somebody went over to him and he was dead. and that's just regular tuesday morning or whatever. in 2022, brian's feet were starting to get more and more swollen, a common problem forfentanyl users.
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he walked with a limp. i had cellulitis, like, which is a cellular infection in my legs due to, like, poor circulation. on our walk, we run into an old friend whose heavily bandaged legs are dripping wet, likely from a similar infection. is he, like, 0k? it's, like, wet. oh, yeah. i don't know what that's... yeah, see, that's. .. that's what happens. it's, like, weeping wounds. you got to change the dressing all the time. you already know, like, it's... it sucks. last year, brian's legs became septic. i was, like, laying in the station, unresponsive, apparently, like in the chair. and somebody checked on me. it was, like, real hit or miss. like, they thought i was going to die a few times. brian did survive, though, and says the experience changed him. he's been clean for nearly a year now. you definitely regain or even grow a greater appreciation for little, like, small pleasures, like the sound of skateboard wheels on the concrete, rather thanjust, like,
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i couldn't enjoy anything if it wasn't, like... fentanyl was the first concern. brian could consider himself lucky. during the period that he was on the streets from november 2020 to april 2023, 1683 people died in san francisco due to a drug overdose, most of them from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. the former us president, donald trump, has reacted angrily to his failure to secure the close to half—a—billion dollar bond he needs to appeal against a judgment in his civil fraud case in new york. mr trump said that securing a bond of that size was "practically impossible". he now has to find the money through other means, or new york state authorities could begin seizing his properties. here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. this is a case in which donald trump was accused of inflating what he was worth, the value of his properties, to get preferential
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interest rates for loans. well, he lost the case. now he's in a position where his lawyers are saying he doesn't have the cash, the available cash, to pay the m64 million judgment against him. now, clearly, he is still wealthy, he has property around the worth to the tune of billions, but he requires cash to pay this judgment. he has now less than a week to do that. and if he can't, well, that's why he needs a financial company, a bonding company, to come up with a bond of that amount. actually, a little bit more than that, about half a billion dollars to, in effect, cover the former president while he pursues his appeal in the case, which could go on for many months, perhaps beyond the next election. and should he eventually lose the appeal and be unable to pay the... or at least have the cash to pay the judgment, then that's what the bond is for.
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but his lawyers are saying they've spoken to some 30 different companies, none of which are prepared to provide a bond of this colossal amount. it is an unusually high amount of money for one of these financial institutions to provide a bond. so it leaves the former president in the position where some of his properties in new york may well be sold off, and potentially sold off pretty quickly, to come up with the cash to pay this judgment. that is likely to happen within the next week or two. and clearly, this isn't something that is going to sit well with a man who has really built his image on his wealth and his ownership of property. that was the bbc�*s peter bowes. let's get some of the day's other news now. parliament in the gambia has voted to revoke a ban on female genital mutilation, removing legal protections for millions of girls.
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human rights activists say the move will undo decades of work. only five of gambia's 58 lawmakers are women and critics say the move is being imposed on girls by men. the us secretary of state antony blinken is in the philippines as part of his brief tour of asia. his visit is to seek to reinforce security and economic ties in the face of growing chinese aggression. his trip comes ahead of a trilateral meeting in washington next month between president biden, philippine president ferdinand marcos and japanese prime minister fumio kishida. japan's central bank has ended its policy of negative interest rates and raised the cost of borrowing for the first time in 17 years. the change brings to an end a huge stimulus programme that had been introduced in 2016. the hike means that there are no longer any countries left with negative interest rates. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.
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you're watching bbc news. it was the interview which caused prince andrew to withdraw from all public duties. now his 2019 newsnight head—to—head with emily maitlis has been turned into a film. scoop tells the behind—the—scenes story, with billie piper as the producer sam mcalister, who landed the interview, and gillian anderson playing emily maitlis. although she originally turned down the part as she believed taking on the role of the former newsnight host was too scary. they've both been speaking to our entertainment correspondent colin paterson. tomorrow night, in an unprecedented interview, we will hear from the duke himself. it's newsnight, the movie, or rather, a netflix dramatisation of how producer sam mcalister, played by billie piper, secured emily maitlis's 2019 interview with prince andrew... the allegations surrounding jeffrey epstein include his friend prince andrew.
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..with gillian anderson as emily maitlis. like a walk in the park. why do you need to make a dramatic version of it when the original is still there for everyone to see? well, because this, as much as anything, is about the story behind the acquisition of the interview. why not dramatise up until one of the most important and dramatic interviews in history, really? i think it is, in history, yeah. myjob is booking the people we can'tjust call up. hello, everyone. billie, it's important to say this is very much from the point of view of sam mcallister. she's so high energy and unlike anyone i've ever met, actually, and i don't say that lightly. i've never been smuggled into a palace before. at first, gillian anderson actually turned down the role of emily maitlis. i can't tell you what
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the questions will be because i don't know myself yet. but when i do know, i still won't tell you. i mean, it'sjust too scary to play... why? well, because she's still living, because she's so formidable, because people know her so well and they said, "well, then, you have to do it." do you remember dancing at tramp? no. and to make things more complicated, emily maitlis herself is executive producer on an upcoming rival three part amazon drama about the interview, which made it slightly awkward when gillian anderson bumped into her. i had come to this charity event not having prepared at all and was really dishevelled. and she showed up as emily maitlis, who looks like a movie star and was tanned and short white skirt and tanned legs and everything. and i literally looked like her great aunt in the pictures! no, i thought that went very well. prince andrew famously thought that the interview had been a triumph. gillian anderson and billie piper both agree that there is almost no
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chance he will watch this version. this interview, does it matter? colin paterson, bbc news. yeah, it matters. and scoop lands on netflix on april 5th here in the uk the national grid has unveiled a 58—billion—pound plan to connect britain's offshore wind capacity to the grid over the next decade. the utility company says the investment is needed to hit government targets to decarbonise power generation by 2035 — but there are concerns about the number of new pylons included in the proposal. our business editor, simonjack, has more. green, cheap, home—grown — offshore wind power has been a massive british success story, and there are plans for more huge wind farms like this one. but you need to get the electricity from where it's produced out at sea to the homes and businesses where it's used. and that will mean more of these. today's grid upgrade involves a thousand miles of new onshore power lines — mostly overhead pylons —
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4,000 miles of undersea cables at a cost of £58 billion — which means an extra £20 to £30 on annual bills for the next decade. the system planners insist they've kept as many cables out at sea as possible, but new pylons through scotland, west wales, the north west, east anglia and essex are inevitable. we've tried to balance cost, environmental impacts, impacts on communities, and the security of the electricity system. what that's meant is that we've got in the plan four times as much offshore infrastructure — new offshore infrastructure — as onshore. but inevitably that does mean, in balancing those four factors, that there is still going to be some infrastructure onshore. so that inevitably means more pylons. yes, it does for some communities. no! opponents say they're not anti—wind power, but more of the network should be at sea, and power lines can and should be buried underground. you cannot keep offering each wind farm a connection one by one onshore
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and then have it trenching across miles of countryside to get to a substation — that'sjust plain bonkers, and it's really expensive. so the problem we've got in this country is when everyone thinks "great, grid upgrade", they think pylons — and the whole rhetoric is around pylons and no—one thinks about these other better ways of doing things. so... so that's what upsets people who are told they're going to have a pylon outside their garden. but burying cables underground can be up to four times more expensive, according to national grid. the government said these were preliminary plans that would have to go through a robust planning process — a stage at which many infrastructure plans have failed. but without a grid upgrade, the uk's wind power risks going to waste. simon jack, bbc news. now a reminder of some news we broke moments ago. the cabinet secretary simon case will give evidence to the uk covid inquiry on the 23rd of may. his planned testimony had to be cancelled last year because of ill health. mr case is expected to face
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questioning about whatsapp messages he sent during the covid pandemic which were critical of the government's response. of course, we will bring you that coverage when it happens. naturalist chris packham has revealed how "broken" he felt growing up undiagnosed as autistic. the tv presenter, who british viewers will know best as the face of nature programme springwatch, has spoken to the bbc�*s nick ransom about how he believes people who are neurodivergent — those who are autistic, dyslexic or living with adhd — are being let down by a society that was not built with them in mind. for most of my teenage and 20s, i thought that i was broken. i'm not a great fan of chris packham. that's a legacy of loathing myself because i was different. there seemed to be more people who were different than me and i didn't know anyone who was like me. so it was clearly me that was wrong. and somewhere upstairs amongst my, you know, sort of library of and catalogue of my life, there is a piece of a4 paper
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that says repeatedly, as if i was given lines at school, "everything i am is wrong." and i wrote that out. you know, i was obviously in a very dark place. i had mental health issues at that point, but that's where i was at. and yet even at that time, you know, i have good sensory capabilities, visually, i have a really good memory, i'm good at putting things into patterns, but i couldn't identify that i had attributes. all i could see were my deficiencies and, you know, and there was no one there at that point to say, "listen, chris, actually, you are quite good at this because you're very, very focused, you're obsessionaly interested in things, you remember everything, and then you put all of that into somewhere where you can actually communicate it." that would have... that would have helped. so i think it's incredibly important that we focus on the abling aspects of that.
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i'm not one for advice, i'm not a health care professional, but people do ask me for my advice. and if it's parents with autistic youngsters or children, i do say something which might strike you as a little odd. i say, "look, frankly, just put them under a microscope, watch them with all the detail that you possibly can, and try and develop an understanding of the triggers that makes things go wrong. but equally, the triggers that make things go right." because once you've identified those, then you can transform their environment to a place where they're less anxious, more capable, more able to explore the things that they are good at. one in five people are neurodivergent. give me a sense of how much of the population that is, and how much of a priority is currently being made in society. well, not enough, because if one in five are neurodiversion and we're not enabling them to maximise their capacity to be happy, fulfilled, employed, educated, socially stable, so on and so forth, then we're failing one in five people in society.
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that's not tolerable. why should they have less opportunity than anyone else? some of those people who've made quantum leaps in our thinking, our technology, engineering, art, whatever it happens to be, music, have certainly had traits which we could equate to being autistic. there is plenty more on our bbc news website and app, so please stay with us on bbc news. the british board of film classification — which gives films in the uk age ratings — is tightening its rules on violence, sex and bad language in response to its latest audience research. the changes only affects future releases. but, as charlie rose reports, some popularfilms would have faced stricter ratings if they were released in cinemas today. released in 1964, goldfinger is one of the classic bond movies,
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but some of the content hasn't stood the test of time. now let's both play. the british board of film classification — or bbfc — says people who took part in its research feel this scene actually portrays sexual assault. and these drama and media students in bury in greater manchester agree that the film's current classification of pg — or parental guidance — is too low. it's not appropriate for younger viewers, for the younger audience, i don't think it's suitable. i think it should be at least a 12a, minimum. i tend to ignore the kind of not—as—appropriate side of it because that's more how i was brought up tojust see the better things of it. the bbfc says its guidelines are updated every few years to ensure standards reflect the expectations and values of audiences. in its new survey, the organisation spoke to more people than ever before.
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12,000 people there or thereabouts responded to your latest survey. tell me what they told you. this time they've told us that they're slightly more concerned about violence and sexual activity. there's a degree of tightening up on language, particularly at the lower levels, but there's a bit more relaxation when it comes to cannabis use. don't worry about that. and that's why the new film about bob marley has been classified as suitable for children over 12. # gonna be all right.# you like that one? yeah. our research had come out already, so it enabled us to apply the new research to the film. the film was now given a 12a. if we had received that film six months ago, it would have been given a 15. and olderfilms put forward for re—release must also be tested against current attitudes. last month, the original mary poppins from the 1960s was reclassified from a u — which stands for universal —
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to a pg, because of concerns about discriminatory language. bumblebee, from 2018, was among the more recent films shown to focus groups as part of the bbfc�*s latest research. and at school, the children had their own firm views. do you think the pg rating is right? yeah, because there are, like, toys that children play with. and i think that if kids can play with those toys, they can at least see the movie. i think the violence should at least be toned down a little because the younger audiences, they see stuff, they want to copy it, it's like they might think it's right. and 2021's mitchells vs the machines — sold as a family comedy and classified as universal. yes, it does show violence. and although it is humans against machines, there's still the threat of humans doing
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that to other humans. having it as a pg, the parents can talk to the child about it. it's not that violent, but it's a little bit violent. do you think the rating is fair at the moment? um... yes, i do, because it'sjust a cartoon, actually. but the british board of film classification says, following audience feedback, it now adopts a stricter position on the classification of violence. so these films would be labelled differently if they were released today. charlie rose, bbc news. before we leave you, i want to bring you some pictures live from iceland. you might remember that there has been a fourth eruption since december in iceland and one peninsular. now you can see the lava and this is after a state of emergency has been declared in the
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southern part because of this latest eruption. the area has been evacuated as long as i neared the town. we have more on our bbc website and we will keep bringing you those pictures. to get the latest on this and all the big stories we have spoken about in the last hour, head to the bbc iplayer home page, just look for bbc news live and you can get all of this right there. carol has the weather. hello again. many of us started the day on a cloudy note with a fair few showers. a lot of the showers will ease through the course of the day. but as we go through the next few days, well, we are still looking at spells of wind and rain. it's going to be mild by day and by night, but it will turn colder at the end of the week. we'll be talking about significant wind chill, for example, by the time we get to the weekend. this is the kind of
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rainfall you can expect. we're looking at accumulations, especially in the west where you see the dark blues and greens. this is the key. so up to 50 millimetres, possibly a bit more in places, falling on already saturated ground. now, today, a lot of the cloud will tend to break up. sunny spells will develop. there'll still be a few showers here and there. the cloud thickening in the south—west, heralding the arrival of some rain, and the wind will continue to ease. temperatures nine to 16 degrees north to south. this evening and overnight the rain gathers pace as it pushes northwards and eastwards. it will miss a lot of the south—east. it won't get into the north—west of scotland, where we'll have clear skies. here, temperatures could dip down towards freezing so we could well start the day with a touch of frost, but mild for the time of year as we push down towards the south. now, tomorrow, we start off with all this rain across parts of wales, northern england, southern and eastern scotland. it could travel a bit further north than this, but sunny skies will follow on behind, pushing eastwards. the sunnier skies, though, for much of the day will be in the south—east, where we could have highs of 18 degrees.
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but a lot of cloud will linger across northern england and wales with some patchy light rain. now, as we move from wednesday into thursday, the south hangs onto this ridge of high pressure, weather fronts across the north of the country. and you can see from the isobars, it's going to be windy. in fact, we're looking at the risk of gales across the northern and western isles, the rain pushing from the west towards the east, drier conditions as you come further south. but it will be fairly cloudy, but it still is mild here — 16 degrees, 12 in stornoway. beyond that, well, you can see how a cold front comes in and pushes south, chasing away that mild air — the blues representing the colder conditions — and the wind changes to more of a northerly direction. so this weekend we will be talking about a significant wind chill. it will be wet and windy at times and the temperatures will be lower anyway. so don't put away your big coatjust yet.
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live from london, this is bbc news. live from eastjerusalem, i'm anna foster. the us warns israel, a planned assault on rafah in southern gaza would be a mistake — as america's top diplomat says gazans are in desperate need. 100% of the population in gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. that's the first time an entire population has been so classified. im azadeh moshiri in london.
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also making the news... haiti spirals into anarchy — how the island nation is succumbing to a security crisis. a new picture of the princess of wales — the sun newspaper publishes photos of catherine out shopping with prince william. hello i'm anna foster in eastjerusalem. america's top diplomat, secretary of state, antony blinken, has secretary of state, antony blinken, been using str| has said that 100% of gaza's population is at "severe levels of acute food insecurity." his comments come as a united nations backed report says famine is imminent in northern gaza, as the war between israel and hamas continues.
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