tv BBC News BBC News May 12, 2024 4:00pm-4:31pm BST
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israel carries out fresh strikes on gaza, as it tells tens of thousands more palestinians to leave rafah, where military operations are intensifying. meanwhile britain's foreign secretary says restricting arms supplies to israel would not be a wise move and would only play into hamas�*s hand. the foreign office is investigating a hamas claim — that british—israeli hostage — nadav popple—well — has been killed in gaza. hello, i'm catherine byaruhanga. israel has told tens of thousands more palestinians to leave rafah and go to al—mawasi, a narrow coastal area which israel calls an "expanded humanitarian zone". it comes as the palestinian health ministry says that eight people have been killed after houses in the central area of the gaza strip were hit.
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israel has also sent tanks north of there after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments. from jerusalem, paul adams reports. one by one, the people of rafah are leaving. outlying parts of the city now all but deserted. "i wasn't planning on going," hassan says, "but since no one is left "here, i decided to leave. "i have to find out where my wife and daughter are." the un says 300,000 people have left already. that's almost a quarter of those sheltering in rafah. most are heading for the coast, to places barely able to sustain life, where exhausted, hungry people fend for themselves. zainab and her children have brought their makeshift tent to the beach. translation: they dropped leaflets on us four times. - after the fourth time, we came here.
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when i arrived, i found my tent was worn out. we stayed in it for five months in rafah. i want to try and stitch it, but it's no good. back in rafah, israel's ground operation is almost a week old. the military says it's destroying tunnels, killing hamas fighters but acting cautiously. our operations against hamas in rafah remains limited in scope and focused on tactical advances, tactical adjustments and key military advantages and have avoided densely populated areas. but some israelis are not reassured. angry protests again last night. these people want the war to stop, and the government to go, and for much more to be done to bring hostages home. yesterday hamas said a british israeli hostage, nadav popplewell, had been killed in an air strike — claims it's impossible to verify. in the southern city of ashkelon, evidence that palestinian groups can
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still launch rockets — three israelis lightly injured in this direct hit overnight — and no sign of any fresh negotiations to bring the war to an end. dr yassar qureshi, a british surgeon who's just returned from working at the al aqsa matyr hospital gave us his analysis of the humanitarian situation on the ground in gaza. i was stationed at al—aqsa hospital in the centre of gaza, and that place was already well beyond capacity. to give an idea: this hospital, which was one of the few remaining partially functioning hospitals left in gaza, the capacity in normal times is 150 patients. at this stage there were well over 1000 patients, and each patient had severalfamily members staying with them because they had no other place to go. it was completely chaotic. it really is quite a catastrophe.
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there are two or three maybe partially functioning hospitals in rafah, i believe some have been given evacuation orders. here in the uk, the foreign secretary lord cameron, has defended the government's decision not to withdraw — arms export licences to israel.he said any decision by the uk arms export licences to israel. he said any decision by the uk to suspend weapons sales to israel would strengthen hamas and reduce the chances of a deal to free hostages being held in gaza. but he added that the uk would not support an israeli offensive in the city of rafah without a plan to protect civilians. israel has not had a clean bill of health. on humanitarian aid, there have been real failings and they need to do better. but on the crucial question we have to answer which is, is there a serious risk of exports being used for a serious breach in international law? up to now, in the assessments we've done, we've continued with the export licensing, but it's a rolling process and it looks at what is
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happening on the ground. earlier, i spoke to our political correspondent, nick eardley, who gave us his analysis. as you heard, david cameron is pretty clear that the uk is looking closely at what is happening in gaza. there has been some nervousness in the uk government, i think it is fair to say, that the actions of the israeli government. there is real concern about the prospect of a ground invasion or a more substantial ground substantial ground invasion in rafah over the next few days. the thing that the uk could do to put more pressure on israel is not doing. there has been speculation for weeks over whether for weeks over whether or not there would be a changing of the position on arms licences. that has not happened yet. you had the foreign secretary said this morning that doing that now could strengthen hamas and the uk government believes it would not be our wise path, it would make getting our stitches getting hostages out even less likely.
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despite the uk government continuing to say that it has those concerns, it is not changing its mind at the moment about granting those licenses for arms to be sent to israel. talk to us about the domestic pressure within the uk on the government here to try and stop selling arms to israel. how much pressure is there, politically, in the uk for the government. there are some. there are some mps very uncomfortable with the situation, like the snp, for example. one of the things reducing the pressure slightly is that the labour party in the uk haven't quite got the point where they are saying "stop all arms sales to israel." they have said that they don't want uk weapons used in a ground offensive in rafah, they are saying that they agree with president biden in some senses, but not in that sense at the moment. it is worth pointing out quickly at the uk doesn't sell arms to israel
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in the same way that the usa does. this isn't government to government, state to state. the uk does have some suppliers who are licensed to sell those arms to israel. that is what is in question. there is definitely some pressure. at the moment, i don't think it is enough to change the mind of the government. more protests are expected in tbilisi later today against a controversial bill that would brand organisations that receive funding from abroad as "agents of foreign influence". the bill is similar to a law passed in russia that critics say was used to crack down on independent media and activtist groups. large demonstrations against the bill have been taking place in the capital for weeks and have lead to violent clashes with the police. opposition mp khatia dekanoidze has been speking to the bbc about — why people are opposed to the new law. some of my friends, i mean, they had been labelled as a foreign agent with stickers in front of their apartment. some of my friends had been beaten
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up, but i don't think that this russian style terror can stop georgian people because we made our geopolitical choice. we don't want to be in russia. this is very obvious for everybody, especially youngsters. a lot of people are finding the whole situation quite confusing because the government keeps denying that they are acting in russia's interest. why do you think the government is pushing for this law and it looks like they will adopt it? why are they doing this now? he wants to monopolise the power and he understands that he can't really win the elections in 2024 and october. and so he decided to eliminate all the civil society members, ngos, opposition. and you see that that they even hadn't adopted this law. he is really scared of putin. and he thinksjust, you know, to move georgia close to russia,
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that russia will help him to monopolise the power and to grab the power again. earlier i spoke to our south caucasus correspondent — rayhan demetri — who gave us the latest. later tonight, there's going to be another big rally as as it was announced by the organisers, and it will be held outside parliament. where i'm standing now, it will start quite late in the evening at 10:00 pm. that's because the protesters are planning to spend the whole night into monday. and on monday in parliament, the legal affairs committee will hold the third and final reading of this bill on the transparency of foreign funding and then the vote. the plenary session is expected on tuesday. the pressure is mounting on the georgian government from its international partners not to adopt this law. we've heard a lot of statements coming from the eu leaders and the eu ambassador to georgia once again today. he told me that if this law is adopted, it would hinder georgia's the process that this country is going through, and that is as a candidate member tojoin the eu.
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the status was granted late last year. georgia is in the process of becoming an eu member, so the wording from the eu and the us as well, we have a high level state department official coming on tuesday is of warning. but the more there is criticism and the warnings from the international community, it seems like the georgian dream government is becoming more determined to pass this law. yes, you say the government is determined to pass this law, but protesters are accusing it of trying to derail the country's ambition, as you mentioned there, of trying to join the eu. what does the government say in response to those comments and that criticism 7 well, they're saying that it has nothing to do with russia, that, of course, georgia will continue on its accession path to the eu. they even are promising to the georgian population that georgia will become a member of the eu by 2030. so they're denying all of this
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criticism and they're insisting that this law is about sovereignty, that georgia should be able to make independent decisions when it comes to legislature. but of course, we've seen tens of thousands of people protesting and we've just heard the opposition mp is saying that, mentioning mr ivanishvili, he's the founder, billionaire founder of the governing party. and they are absolutely determined to pass this law because they want to win the elections. and the elections are coming in just in a few months�* time. to sudan now where there have been reports of further fighting in the western city of el fasher. the medical charity msf said on sunday that 2 children were killed after a bomb hit a paedeatric hospital in the city. fighting between the government and paramilitaries broke out over a year ago but fighting in the city
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has recently intensified. the un's humanitarian chief has described the escalation as �*deeply alarming' earlier i spoke to our africa correspondent — kalkidan yibeltal — and asked him about the significance of this latest escalation well, the humanitarian agencies are describing it as a major escalation in the city. we have been reporting about possible offences in the city for weeks. the us, the eu, and the un were saying that this important city in the darfur region could become a scene of bloodshed. the usa described it as a possible massacre happening there because this is a humanitarian habit to make habitat with hundreds of thousands of people already displaced from hanson already displaced from towns and
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villages. it is the last major city in darfur so under control of the regular army. the rival rapid support forces have been circling the city, and practically putting it under siege for weeks. and despite all of this and called for this and calls for restraint, it seems that since friday, we are seeing fighting in the city which, as you said, increases air bombardment. and the wider context of this is the fact that, in recent weeks and months, there have been real concerns about alleged war crimes committed by the rsf, which is a group made up mostly of arab members against the african groups in darfur. the worry is about the impact that the rsf taking el fasher could have on the people living there. absolutely. the rsf have been accused by several reports of committing gross rights violations in other parts of darfur
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where they control. and last week, there was a really thorough and detailed report by the human rights watch saying that the rsf may have committed ethnic cleansing in darfur and in a different city that they controlled. that was months ago. they were calling for further investigations because what they allegedly committed could amount to genocide. that is the severe term that they were using. so, the fear is that if the rsf arrive in the city, many people who have already fled other parts of sudan might be followed by the violence, and on top of that, the humanitarian operations which are already hampered by the violence could even be impacted by the war. the concerns have been raised in the past weeks repeatedly by western nations and humanitarian agencies, but it doesn't seem to stop the violence from happening there.
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now it's time for a look at today's sport. hello from the bbc sport centre. kick off is fast approaching in the huge match in the premier league. just under 15 minutes to go, till manchester united take on arsenal, at old trafford, it's a classic between two heavyweights over the years, and for arsenal, the stakes have never been higher. the gunners have to win, to go back to the top after manchester city's 4—0 victory at fulham — which means if they win their final two games, they will be champions again. so arsenal go to manchester united this afternoon knowing a victory at old trafford is crucial. and their manager is feeling optimistic: my brain is always talking to the players, we are lifting the premier league. that is where my brain is going at the moment, i follow my brain and my gut, and this is how i feel and this is how i want everybody to think, and hopefully we can achieve it. one of the best teams, probably the best team, and you can discuss about this.
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is city the best team, is arsenal at this moment the best team? they are very ball secure. very good touches. we have to play to absolutely our maximum levels to get the result in, but we are capable of it. we are approaching full time at wembley. where manchester united are leading against tottenham hotspur in the women's fa cup final. and absolute cracker from ella toone just before half time, set united on their way to lifting a first fa cup . they were beaten in last year's final. they enjoyed the better of the chances, and rachel williams had them 2 up early in the second half. and lucia garcia capitalised on a goalkeeping blunder to make it 3. and soon got the fourth. currently 4—0. six minutes left to play. what a shock we have had at the italian open in rome were world number one novak djokovic has been knocked out. he was beaten in straight sets by the chilean player alejandro tabilo. he's more than 30 places below
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djokovic but raced into a 4—0 lead in the first set, breaking djokovic twice. he went on to win the set 6—2,and followed that up by taking the second set too, winning 6—2, 6—3. this is the biggest win of tabilo's career. no worries for second seed aryna sabalenka in the womens draw though. she eased past dayana yastremska in straight sets to reach the last—i6 where she will face either elina svitolina or anna kalinskaya. rory mcilroy will go into the final round of the wells fargo championship at quail hollowjust one shot off the lead. mcilroy posted four birdies and no bogeys on saturday to leave him on 11 under, and to heap pressure on leader xander schauffele. he'll start later alongside schauffele, who finished saturday's round on 12 under. schauffele hasn't won an event since the scottish open back in 2022. and nelly korda's bid to become the first player to win six consecutive lpga tour titles look to be over as she sits 11 shots behind leader madelene sagstrom at the founders cup. sagstrum hit a a brilliant 66 to move to 19 under after three rounds. she is now one shot ahead of
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rose zhang going into the final day. in the nba playoffs, the dallas mavericks have taken a 2—1 series lead over the oklahoma city thunder. the mavericks won by 105 points to 101, with kyrie irving, pauljamaine washington and luka doncic scoring a combined 71 points. game four will take place in dallas on monday.... you may have seen a dogs or cats. and finally, you may have seen sports stopped by dogs or cats running onto the field of play, but how about this in a baseball game between the st lucie mets and bradenton pirates, a turtle made it's way onto the pitch and halted play. they say slow and steady wins the race, but this turtle must have had turbo turned on, and tried to evade the outfielders, before eventually being taken off the field safely. the fastest turtle i have ever seen.
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and that's all the sport for now. no turtles in the studio, it isn't safe to say. studio:. a very sweet turtle. the taliban — say 315 people have now died in devastating flash floods in the north of afghanistan. a spokesman for the interior ministry told the bbc that most of the casualties were in the province of baghlan. emergency teams have been sent to rescue those stranded by the floodwaters. on friday, a massive torrent of water swept away hundreds of houses in several villages. dozens of people are still missing. in the last hour i spoke with our south asia editor for the bbc world service, anbarasan ethirajan. he told me what we know about the impact of these floods. as we speak now, thousands of people have been left homeless, they are waiting for food, shelter, and other help from humanitarian agencies and the authorities. now, these calamitous floods on fridayjust swept through villages,
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taking down walls on its way of houses, livestock, and also farmland, importantly, for many of those living in the rural areas. so these are devastating floods. we are talking about hundreds killed and thousands injured, and the economic impact is quite huge because people's wealth in these rural areas are livestock and most of the livestock has been wiped out. and people will come back to their houses, whatever is remaining there, they find that their houses are full of mud and most of the belongings washed away, cracks on the houses. so these are already suffering communities in the rural part of northern afghanistan, they also had very strong floods last month that killed about 100 people, so aid agencies are now struggling to reach out to many of these people because the transportation, the transport infrastructure has been severely hit — bridges, roads —
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so people are now not able to move from one village to another because there are still flowing rivers without any means of crossing these hurdles at the moment. voting is underway in catalonia where pro—independence supporters wanting to break away from spain are hoping to maintain their majority in the regional parliament. catalonia made a failed attempt to break away from spain in 2017 and the election comes as the parliament in madrid is expected to approve a controversial amnesty law for separatist catalans facing legal action. our correspondent, guy hedgecoe, is in madrid. he told us what choices the voters have in these regional elections. catalonia has an unusual political landscape, the division between the left and the right is seen across the rest of the country, but it also has the division between those who want independence and those who do not. so, for example, the party of
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the prime minister, pedro sanchez, the prime minister, pedro sanchez, the socialist party, which looks like it could win this election, it is imposed to independence and self—determination. —— opposed. that means it could be difficult to form a new government after the election, evenif a new government after the election, even if it wins. there are two major pro—independence parties vying to be the main nationalist party in the region, but the big question is whether together with those parties along with other smaller nationalist parties, if they can hold onto the pro—independence majority which pro—independence majority which pro—independence parties have had for about a decade and a half stop at the eurovision song contest final pro—palestinian protesters clashed with police over israel's involvement and the israeli contestant — eden golan — was booed at the malmo arena in sweden. the build—up to the show also saw the dutch entry
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disqualified for a backstage incident. but ultimately, switzerland were crowned the winners of this year's competition — one of the most controversial song contests of recent times. our arts correspondent, david sillito, reports from malmo. switzerland, winning one of the most extraordinary eurovision song contests of all time. fans had had to file into the arena amidst a small melee of police and protesters. the presence of israel in the final has provoked demonstrations and discomfort from some of the competitors. but when israel's eden golan took the stage, all passed without incident. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said her presence alone meant she'd already won. there were, though, jeers from some parts of the crowd at the end. for the uk, olly alexander's performance of dizzy was definitely dizzying. the cheer at the end,
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whatever the voters thought, the uk's pride was in tact. and then the mysteries of eurovision voting, which began with boos for the eurovision�*s martin osterdahl. booing what can you tell us about the result? and the politics of the evening led to some last—minute changes of presenters. but it was soon apparent there was a runaway victor — switzerland with nemo's spinning operatic the code. for the uk, 18th place. but after the withdrawals, the disqualification and the protests, by the end, it feels very eurovision and very much switzerland's night. david sillito, bbc news, malmo. china has launched a new satellite into space. this is the long march rocket taking off from the launch site in north west china. it's carrying a shiyan
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satellite which will be used for what officials describe as space environment monitoring. the long march rockets have taken part in more than 500 space missions. the best television programmes of 2023 will be honoured at tonight's. bafta tv awards in london. sucession and the bbc�*s police drama happy valley both have five nominations. netflix's the crown has four — among them is dominic west who's nominated for his role as the—then prince charles and a supporting actor nomination for salim daw, for his role as mohamed al—fayed, the father of diana, princess of wales�*s partner, dodi fayed. stay with us here on bbc news.
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hello. the skies may look a little threatening where you are today, that is certainly not the case everywhere, but storms are building across western parts of the uk. the warmer and sunnier weather will be further to the east across the country. let's see what is happening then in the second half of the afternoon. showers will be breaking out across more western parts of scotland but even here they will be quite scattered. the same goes for northern ireland and the same goes for other western parts of the uk. but where they do occur, they won't be very big, they could only be a few miles across. torrential showers may occur and even flash flooding in places. warmer and sunnier weather is reserved for more eastern parts of the uk. this evening, skies will be clear across some parts of the country and there is a chance again of seeing the northern lights, the aurora borealis. the problem is that there will be showers around and of course we are going back to work tomorrow
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so perhaps we won't be inclined to stay up for too long. here is the forecast for the morning. temperatures into double figures and a distinct weather front with rain approaching. that really sets the scene for the week ahead. it is going to turn a bit cooler and showers are expected. when i say cooler, not a chill in the air, temperatures still above the average it is just not going to be as warm as it has been. here is the weather front for tomorrow. it is going to be slow—moving so if you are stuck underneath this cloud and rain it may be a pretty miserable afternoon. cooler here, yes, 15—16 celsius, but out toward to the east in the sunshine temperatures will still hover around the lower 20s. for example, across yorkshire and into east anglia. it is a very slow moving weather front and the reason is this area of low pressure has basically parked itself in the south—west and these weather fronts are just rotating around the low, rather than this whole weather system just barrelling across the uk. i think for all of us by the time we get to tuesday, temperatures will be typically
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in the high teens, which is not far off the average for the time of year. that low will just sit around here until it fizzles out. high pressure will try to build in towards the end of the week, but i think the overall message is one of shower clouds for the week ahead and those temperatures are still a little on the warm side for the time of the year. that's it from me. thanks for watching.
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this is bbc news. the headlines — israel carries out fresh strikes on gaza, as it tells tens of thousands more palestinians to leave rafah, where military operations are intensifying. it comes as britain's foreign secretary, david cameron, says restricting arms deliveries to israel — because of the war would strengthen hamas. relief workers are struggling to deliver aid to those hit hard by devastating floods in northern afghanistan. the un's world food programme says more than 300 people have died and thousands more have been injured after rivers of water and mud swept away houses. and the best television programmes of 2023 will be honoured at tonight's bafta tv awards in london, as stars arrive at the red carpet. the bbc�*s police drama happy valley and sky atlantic's succesion
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