tv BBC News BBCNEWS March 25, 2024 9:30am-10:01am GMT
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this is bbc news, the headlines... four gunmen accused of carrying out the moscow concert hall attack are charged with terrorism. intense fighting is reported around three hospitals in gaza. aid agencies say dozens of doctors and patients are displaced or detained. the uk home office launches a new international campaign to deter migrants from crossing the english channel in small boats. and the british parliament is set to be briefed on threats by china which is believed to be behind a wave of cyberattacks. four men suspected of carrying out
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an attack on a the islamic state group has claimed responsibility for the attack but russian officials have stated, without evidence, that there was ukrainian involvement. kyiv says the claim is "absurd". well, there are a number of reasons. one is syria. so is have in the past put out statements and quite recently saying we will never forgive and forget because in syria, russian air force and russian forces are fighting. and russian forces are fighting isis, is, islamic state, as are the americans. secondly, there's afghanistan where the taliban are fighting isk, which is the khorasan wilayat, that's the province of or the branch of isis that operates in afghanistan in that area. and back in september 2022, isis attacked the russian embassy in kabul.
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so they consider that the russian government is an ally of the taliban and the taliban is their enemy. and also there are a number of disputes that they've got with regimes in that part of the world. the third reason i think, which is perhaps the most pressing, is that there's recently been quite a crackdown, a clampdown, by the fsb, that's russia's domestic security agency, against suspected jihadists inside russia. of course, russia is at war with ukraine. sorry, it's "a special military operation". that's what it's officially called in russia, but it's a war by any other name. and that's really where the kremlin�*s attention has been. so, i think there is a legitimate question to be asked as to whether russia took its eye off the ball here with this.
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it comes as the head of the united nations agency for the palestinian refugees says israel have told him it will no longer prove its food convoys to enter northern gaza. in a post on social media, the head of unrwa described the move as outrageous. there has been no word from israel. it comes as a country's defence minister, yoav gallant, is due in washington with its ready leadership under increasing pressure from the us to halt its planned assault on rafah in southern gaza. we heard from a representative of unrwa and he said more food deliveries are desperately needed. we are talking about a dire situation where people are starving. my situation where people are starving. my sister visited a hospital today and she met with a kid who is on the brink of dying because of malnutrition. these are real people, these are our neighbours and
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unfortunately we see unrwa under siege and they are not able to deliver aid in gaza. it is tying our hands during these circumstances that are dire, unfathomable. what can we do? we are trying to help to fund raise but there are miles of aid outside of gaza waiting to be allowed in. forsome aid outside of gaza waiting to be allowed in. for some reason, aid outside of gaza waiting to be allowed in. forsome reason, due aid outside of gaza waiting to be allowed in. for some reason, due to the lack of political will, we are not getting that anywhere near delivery for people who need it. the ca tain of delivery for people who need it. the captain of a — delivery for people who need it. the captain of a royal navy warship in the red sea has told the bbc the attacks are becoming more deadly. with the houthis in yemen launching more ballistic and cruise missiles ? which are harder to defend against.the houthis say they re which are harder to defend against. the houthis say they re targeting merchant vessels and warships in solidarity with palestinians in gaza. our defence correspondent jonathan beale is the first journalist to join the destroyer, hms diamond, while facing the threats in the red sea. security, security, security.
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this is coalition warship listening channel one—six. the royal navy's hms diamond, sailing in the red sea towards danger. they're here to protect merchant shipping and, for this mission, to escort a naval task group. and they're armed and ready. this task group has now entered the high—threat area. and, as you can see, they're preparing to run the gauntlet with the houthis. in the operations room, the ship's nerve centre, they've already donned fire protective clothing. with their powerful radar, they can track multiple objects from hundreds of miles away. and this is what happens when they identify a threat. firebomb, 293 at 165! siren sounds. the drills they've rehearsed many times before. air threat warning red, air threat warning red. | missile inbound to the ship, starboard quarter. - time to go two minutes.
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but now it's deadly serious. this, one of two occasions we witnessed when the houthis fire ballistic missiles, travelling at more than three times the speed of sound. the missile has splashed the water north of the task group, therefore air threat warning now yellow, air threat warning now yellow. between the time it's fired and by the time it impacts, you've got about two minutes to react. that's why we're in state 2, that's why we're wearing our clothing all the time, so that within that timeframe, we'll be in absolutely the right posture to be able to deal with those. but, yeah, it can feel a bit intense. obviously, someone's trying to potentially shoot something at you. houthi drones are the other danger. that's a uav, faring 350 range. it's now got two airborne in the north. obviously, our position now, we anticipate they may come south. air threat warning is... it's a potentially deadly version of hide and seek, but the drone doesn't spot them.
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this time, diamond hasn't fired its main sea viper missiles, but it's already shot down nine drones — seven of them in just one night injanuary. diamond's captain believes they have saved lives, but they haven't stopped increasingly sophisticated houthi attacks. it seems to me that they're using more advanced and more lethal weapons than they were in the earlier parts of the operation. and where are they getting those from? i couldn't tell you that, i'm afraid. i guess they're smuggled in from somewhere, but i'd be speculating. but diamond is looking out for suspicious activity. they board a dhow. it's declared stateless, but it's flying an iranian flag. the search finds nothing illegal. it's proving just as hard to stem the flow of weapons as to stop the houthi attacks. jonathan beale, bbc news, on hms diamond. the uk's deputy prime minister, oliver dowden, is to brief mps today
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on the cyber threat from china. he's is expected to tell parliament that china is behind a wave of cyber—attacks against mps and peers. a number who have been critical of beijing are thought to have been targeted. the bbc understands other western nations will set out similar concerns. our chief political correspondent, henry zeffman, said the uk's deputy prime minister will be speaking in the coming hours. i think he's got two audiences— in the house of commons, he'll be addressing mps. but i think really this is the uk government addressing beijing. from what we know so far, there's going to be broadly two areas that he's going to address. one is going to be about a specific cyber attack on an institution, the electoral commission, our elections regulator here in the uk. they announced last year that they had faced a cyberattack back in 2021 and 2022, but they didn't name a culprit. it sounds like oliver dowden is going to say that the cyber—attackers had links to beijing. and then the second thing that
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oliver dowden is going to talk about is threats to mps directly. three mps, all of them real sceptics of china, have been called to a briefing from parliament security department.�*s we think that's going to focus on specific threats, cyber threats that they face. so all together, i think a fairly firm statement of concern from the uk government about malign activity from china. we will bring you more on that throughout the day. staying with china — hong kong's controversial new security law came into effect over the weekend. critics have said article 23 could undermine the city's status as an international financial hub. beijing says the legislation will protect national interests and allow hong kong to focus on economic development. our business reporter, joao da silva, has more. article 23 looks to be the latest headwind to land in hong kong, after
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the pro—democracy protest in 2019, then the pandemic and strict lockdowns which grounded the economy to a halt. many international companies headed out and set up regional headquarters elsewhere in asia. house prices, once among the most expensive in the world, have plunged 20% since their 2021 peak. hong kong's crown jewel, the hang seng index today trades at roughly half its value before the 2019 protests. and, for the first time since the economic freedom of the world index started more than 50 years ago, the city has lost its spot at the top of the ranking. there is concern that provisions in hong kong's new national security law around state secrets and links to foreign entities could have a further chilling effect on many businesses in the financial hub, with a warning from one washington—based political risk assessor, to clients, be cautious. my advice would be to play in very safe and _ my advice would be to play in very
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safe and potentially consider doing such work— safe and potentially consider doing such work outside of hong kong, rather_ such work outside of hong kong, rather than risk the vagueness of the law— rather than risk the vagueness of the law coming back to bite them. in hon- the law coming back to bite them. hong kong, the law coming back to bite them. in hong kong, alan zeman is a prominent figure in the business community and he believes authorities will prioritise protecting the community. the most important thing about it is that you _ the most important thing about it is that you have to have criminal intent — that you have to have criminal intent to — that you have to have criminal intent to do something. and it really— intent to do something. and it really applies to a very small minority— really applies to a very small minority of people. most of those that were — minority of people. most of those that were trouble makers have already— that were trouble makers have already left hong kong. the losses a - ear to already left hong kong. the losses appear to be _ already left hong kong. the losses appear to be stacking _ already left hong kong. the losses appear to be stacking up _ already left hong kong. the losses appear to be stacking up for - already left hong kong. the losses appear to be stacking up for hongl appear to be stacking up for hong kong as a global financial hub. appear to be stacking up for hong kong as a globalfinancial hub. and businesses in the city are closely monitoring the potential side effects of article 23. an urgent review into the crown prosecution service's handling of the nottingham attacks case is expected to be published today. barnaby webber, grace o'malley—kumar, and ian coates were killed by valdo calocane last june but the cps's decision to accept his guilty plea of manslaughter, as opposed to prosecuting him for murder, caused outrage among the victims�* families.
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louisa pilbeam has the story. ian coates, barnaby webber, and grace o'malley—kumar were stabbed to death in violent attacks in nottingham. their families were expecting their killer to be tried for murder. when we went to nottingham, the day after barney had been murdered, and the very first person we saw was the chief constable, and her first words to us were, "don't worry, we've got him, he's going down." and i think i foolishly took it verbatim that the criminaljustice system would do the right thing. valdo calocane was initially charged with three counts of murder and the attempted murder of three others. police, stay where you are! shown here being arrested by police, calocane was assessed by five psychiatrists, who agreed his severe mental illness meant he had a partial defence
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of diminished responsibility. the crown prosecution service accepted that plea. he was instead charged with three counts of manslaughter, alongside three counts of attempted murder. but the families say they were not consulted. an urgent independent inspection was launched into how the cps handled the case. 19—year—old grace's father believes the cps failed them. all of the families were utterly, utterly let down. technically, he could have killed tens of people that day in nottingham. if you can't get someone like him a life tariff, then i can't understand in the country, who deserves a life tariff. speaking alongside the other victims�* families outside court injanuary, after calocane was sentenced, caretaker ian coate's son expressed his frustrations. this man is a killer. murder was the only thing he cared about, and he fulfilled this in horrific fashion.
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the crown prosecution service told the bbc... "we are fully engaging with the review." the findings of this review will be announced today and are expected to clarify whether or not the cps made the right decisions and fulfilled its duty to the families devastated by these attacks. louisa pilbeam, bbc news. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.
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junior doctors in wales have started a 96 hour walk—out as part of an on—going pay dispute with the welsh government. bma cymru say they were left with no choice but to strike after the welsh government "failed to produce a credible offer to end the dispute". the welsh government said it did not have the funds to improve its 5% pay offer, whichjunior doctors have rejected. protests outside schools should be banned — that's according to a review
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by a senior government advisor. dame sara khan has made the recommendation after examining the handling of demonstrations outside battley grammar school in west yorkshire in 2021. they began when pupils were shown an "offensive" cartoon of the prophet muhammad. she says children need to be protected. one of the recommendations that i have made to the government is that there should be an exclusion zone, or a buffer zone, outside schools, to protect children. if it is the case, for example, that teachers want to go on pickets, because of industrial action for example, that should be acceptable, and there will be other reasons where some type of protest should be acceptable, but these types of intimidating and threatening protest should be banned, just in the same way that there are exclusion zones outside abortion clinics. the children's commissioner for england is calling on politicians to put the ambitions of young people at the heart of their election manifestos. dame rachel de souza will publish the findings of a survey of children's views today. it suggests only one in five
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children believe that adults in power are listening to them. sir david attenborough has described it as his favourite place to see nature in the uk — the farne islands, off the coast of northumberland, typically attract around 16,000 visitors a year. but inner farne, the largest of the islands, has been shut to visitors for almost two years, after an outbreak of avian flu killed more than 10,000 birds. today, it reopens. alison freeman has this report. rugged and remote. the fame islands are a haven for hundreds of thousands of seabirds. and every breeding season, it's notjust birds who flock here. people keen to see the 23 different species — including puffins — make their way across by boat from seahouses. but two years ago, visits to the islands were stopped after an outbreak of bird flu killed a total of 9,000 birds.
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looking back, national trust wardens explained what a difficult time it was. we've had to deal with a number of carcasses at the time. it was over 6,000 dead birds in 2022. so, you can be prepared for it, but it's quite upsetting. so this has been as close as people could get for the past few years, sailing around but not going on to the islands. but, from today, inner farne will finally reopen to visitors. the national trust saying there's far less avian flu with the number of birds affected halved. the relief felt by the businesses on shore, who rely on the enthusiasts the birds bring was clear when the reopening was announced last month. you don't get any photographers because they just want the picture of the puffin with the sand eels in their bill, you know. so if you can't get that kind of picture, you know, and they don't want to be up and down on a boat sometimes, so you need the islands to be open, so fingers crossed it's all good for everybody.
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the b&bs and the hotels. so, this willjust help them as well because people will get wind of this being back open again and they'll think, "oh, right, well, we'll definitely go now." visitor numbers will be limited at first, but the reopening is a significant moment for one of northumberland's most beautiful destinations, and an internationally important habitat for wildlife. alison freeman, bbc news. now to the story ofjasmin paris from scotland — the first woman to complete one of the world's most gruelling races — the barkley marathons in tennessee. it's 160 kilometres — up and down hills — through rugged terrain. she finished with just 99 seconds to spare. jasmin finally recovered her breath — and her voice — and spoke to the bbc. it wasn't until the last kilometre that i really sort of doubted that it was going to be possible. and at that point i was just so desperate to stop, to stop running and to walk. and i knew that i couldn't because i wouldn't make it. cheering. i think it was just the thought that if i didn't make it this time, it was going to be by seconds and then i would have to come back and do the whole thing again. because i would never
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have let it rest. i was so oxygen deficient when i reached the end and the last few hundred metres, i couldn't even really see anybody. cheering and applause. i knew there were people kind of cheering me on and there was lots of noise and... but i was just aiming for the gate and everything else sort of went blurry at the edges of my vision and ijust needed to make it to the gate, at which point i just sort of collapsed down in a gasping, kind of heap on the ground. cheering and applause. so, i did it for me and i am super happy that i achieved what i set out to do. hey, everyone. i am really glad that i kind of did it for women worldwide as well. notjust runners, but maybe any woman that wants to take on a challenge, and especially all the young girls, how hard it is to keep young girls in sports. this year, there was a new section of the course which involved a lot of kind of brambles,
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really thick ones that kind of slashed your legs. you are watching bbc news. sheridan smith is one of the uk's most well—known actresses, winning awards for her tv and stage work in a career that has spanned more than two decades. now, she's back on the west end, starring as an alcoholic broadway legend struggling with her mental health. our culture reporter, charlotte gallagher, spoke to her about the challenges of her latest role. action! # you gotta make magic...# sheridan smith is back in the west end in a role she's described herself as being close to the bone. it's about this character, myrtle, who is a broadway actress, and she's kind of clinging on to life by her fingernails. and you don't know if she's going to make opening night. but it's just such a buzz. it's like, i've never done anything like this before, so i'm really kind of pushing myself
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to the limit physically and mentally on this, but it's worth it. # one said to me cool. # down, down. # don't act the fool. # now, now. # i always act a fool. # ow, ow. # ain't nothing new. # now, now. she's experienced the highs of fame, starring in shows like gavin and stacey... sheridan smith, mrs biggs. ..and winning a bafta award, but also the lows. in 2016, she temporarily pulled out of the musical funny girl because of stress, exhaustion and grief about her father's cancer diagnosis. # when they tell you, tell you that you can't...# i read that when you first got the script, you talk about how it's dark and it's challenging. you thought, "is this about me?" there's so many parts of the character that i relate to in that way. i've been in my own mental crisis before, which was quite well publicised, so there's definitely parts of myself i can bring to the character. and it's a wonderful role, she's vulnerable, strong, but all over the place.
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and you kind of... the whole point of the story is that you never know if she's going to be ok. i had a wobble, covered myself with tattoos, had my moment... which actually, i'm allowed to have my tattoos in this, for the firstjob ever. but, yeah, i lost a lot of confidence around that time. but it's come back, thankfully, due to friends and supportive people and being given opportunities like this again. i'm very grateful because that's the one thing, the public always kind of stood by me, even though whatever went on in the press and what was reported, they understood that, you know, when you're grieving, you can't really explain what you go through. and people were stopping me and cuddling me on the street. part of sheridan's new show involves her leaving the theatre and acting on the street, collapsing outside the stage door. the scene is shown to the audience inside on big screens. we get a lot of people crowding around to watch that scene every night. i mean, i would love people to get involved because it adds to it all, you know, it's so exciting. and then if people kind of come and help me or if people
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are passing, it makes it alljust so live and real. and, you know, that's never done in the theatre. so it's such an exciting element of the musical. and have you've got a coachload of people coming from home? probably! i mean, on legally blonde, the whole village came and they all used to come in pink cowboy hats. this isn't that show. # what is this feeling that's haunting me at all times?# sheridan has been acting professionally since she was a teenager, leaving her home near doncaster and moving to london. i am very proud working class. me dad was from barnsley, proper yorkshireman, so i am very proud of where i've come from. but i have been very lucky, you know, like... when i moved to london when i was 16, i did, actually in the theatre next door i played tallulah and i stayed down since i was 16. so i've been one of the lucky ones. but it is quite hard, i think, for... it's getting better, i think working class kids are being able to get into drama schools and things like that, but, yeah, i'm very proud
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of my roots and being a northerner, like you! yeah! sheridan became a mum in 2020. so, could her son be following in her footsteps? he sees me on telly, like, he sees me in interviews. and then he came to the theatre and been in my dressing room and seen the picture and he goes, "mama!" but, yeah, this isn't shirley valentine. this isn't a light, fun show. so, i don't think he'll be watching this one. but he did, he came on stage with me when i did shirley valentine and did the bows, and he was loving it, he was waving to the crowd. but he's my pride and joy. he's the reason i do it all. and, yeah, very proud to have him. when he was doing the bows did that worry you, did you say, "oh my god, he's going to be wanting to act straight away?" i did think that, i thought, "oh, no, he's got it in him, "there's something in him, he's loving it all!" charlotte gallagher, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello, again. the weather this week is certainly going to be changeable.
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we'll often have windy conditions. we'll see spells of rain. and tonight in particular, we're looking at some significant snow on the scottish hills, which could lead to some disruption on some of the higher routes. so, in terms of the rainfall, you can see here how much we're expecting in the next five days. the lighter greens, the key here, up to 80 millimetres of rainfall is possible in parts of southwest england. and what we have at the moment is this band of rain pushing northwards, bumping into the cold air in scotland. so, some snow on the hills. and then this next weather front bringing in some further rain later. in between, quite a lot of cloud around with a scattering of snow showers in the north, here we've got temperatures of five to 7, come further south, we're looking at ten to 12 and breezy through the irish sea. so, this is our weatherfront, moving northwards as we go through the evening and overnight, some persistent rain with it. but on higher ground, we'll also see that significant snowfall. in fact, above 300 metres or so,
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we could have ten to 20 centimetres at lower levels, it's more likely to be rain and sleet — that's at sea level. so, as we go through the course of this evening and overnight, we've got our weather front producing the rain in the snow, come south, we've got our other weather front producing some rain. we'll see some clear spells, but there will be quite a bit of cloud around. so, for england, wales and northern ireland, our overnight lows are between five and seven, colder in scotland with temperatures closer to freezing or just below tomorrow. to freezing orjust below. tomorrow, a lot of that snow will eventually start to peter out. it's going to be windy in the north. there'll be quite a bit of dry weather, but our weather front still slowly pushing north eastwards through the course of the day, temperatures five to 11 degrees. and then as we head on into wednesday, another area of low pressure comes in from the atlantic. windy across southern counties, especially the south western approaches. this weather front still pushing northwards, taking its rain with it. and it's going to be a blustery day.
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live from london. this is bbc news. four gunmen charged with the moscow terror attack are charged with terrorism. intense fighting is reported around three hospitals in gaza. aid agencies say dozens of doctors and patients are displaced or detained. the british parliament will be briefed on cyber threats from china, which is believed to be behind a wave of attacks. and comedian kevin hart is honoured with a lifetime achievement award in, there. —— in, there.
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