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tv   Newsday  BBC News  June 24, 2024 12:00am-12:31am BST

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a fourth conservative has denied any wrongdoing over bets allegedly placed on the date of the uk general election. and in football, scotland fought to the very end but have crashed out of euro 202a. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in the russian republic of dagestan, where police say they've killed four gunmen who launched a series of attacks in the cities of derbent and makhachkala. on the orthodox festival of pentecost as well
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as a police vehicle in the village of sergokal. local officials say at least ten people have been killed. most of the victims were police but also included a priest. religious buildings were set ablaze. six of the attackers are reported to have been killed and russia's counter—terrorism agency said the active phase of its operation had ended. robert english is director of central european studies at the university of southern california, who specialises in the politics of russia. afp news agency reported that russia's investigative committee said it had launched an investigation over "acts of terror". he outlined what that tells us. it tells us we have not caught the suspects yet. they have an idea that they are local militants, this was not a highly organised, co—ordinated attack such as in moscow back in march carried out by the islamic state. but something of a more local and so my spontaneous nature.
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and semi—spontaneous nature. heavily armed with automatic weapons but they struck at a church, at a synagogue, they struck at a police checkpoint in a kind of hit and run fashion. again, locally organised militants. and what do you make of the fact that those were the targets, churches, synagogues and a police station? that is the key question and people need to understand that this region, notjust dagestan, but the north caucasus, including chechnya and unpronounceable republics and so on, it is a heavily muslim region, increasingly radicalised politically and religiously. high unemployment, relative economic strain, mass discontent. add to that the strain of thousands of casualties of local boys in ukrainian war and then anger on behalf of the palestinians and all of the carnage in gaza and it is an explosive situation. this is not the first
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of these kinds of attacks, bombings, acts of arson, beatings, but it seems to be getting worse and it has this religious motivation, u nfortu nately. how do you see the russian authorities responding? they will crack down, as they have in the past, and i am afraid the crackdown will only make things worse in the long run. they will be heavy—handed, they will sweep up a lot of innocents in whatever dragnet of investigation, and they will use brutal torture like interrogation techniques, this has been the pattern, so at the end of it, there will be an uneasy silence with more anger and probably a bigger explosion next time. it is a very bad formula that is leading to increased tension, thanks to the ukraine war and the gaza war adding fuel to the fire. manchester airport
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apologised and says flights have resumed after a power cut caused major disruption. there have been huge queues to get in, and some passengers on arriving planes were held on runways for several hours. some flights have been diverted. it's bad news for one of britain's major aiport ahead of the summer season. simon browning reports. alarm blares it started in the dark. a power cut taking manchester airport into shutdown. you had to trample over people to get out out of the lift. there were just hordes of people just not moving anywhere. there was no tannoy announcement, there was no communication, there was no staff to even see nearby anywhere. a big power spike in the airport electrical systems led to huge failure affecting security, baggage and check—in. restoring power was complex. queues quickly built up inside and outside the airport. queues that should be on the runway tarmac, now in the car park outside. it's disgusting. been cancelled. everything is cancelled. we had the package holiday,
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the whole hotel, everything has been cancelled. people in there with, like, children, young children. they've got nowhere to go. it's really bad. it's so bad. some early flights departed but many without bags. as cancellations spread, the airport asked people not to travel here. by 1pm, the impact was so great the decision came to cancel all flights from terminals one and two. i'd like to startjust by apologising to all the passengers whose journeys have been impacted today. this morning at 1:30, we had a cable in the ground that faulted. at this stage we don't know what caused the cable to fail. we are going to be looking into the root cause of that next week. our focus today has been on recovering the systems and getting the operation back up and running. after so much disruption, the big question now is how will the flight schedule recovery here at manchester airport for flights tomorrow? the boss insists they'll be in good shape with no further
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problems for passengers. they advise to travel to the airport as normal, but check before setting off. the peak summer travel period has barely begun but today's incident raises big questions on the resilience of the sector and how the season takes off. simon browning, bbc news, at manchester airport. the government in saudi arabia has given the first official death toll for this year's hajj pilgrimage to mecca, which took place during an extreme heatwave. the health ministry said at least 1,301 had died during this year's pilgrimage. 83% of those who died were unregistered, meaning they did not have official permits to be there and some of those who died were elderly or chronically ill. health facilities treated nearly half a million pilgrims who had walked long distances in searing heat with no shelter. the health ministry said some are still in hospital receiving treatment. saudi arabia has been criticised for not doing more to make the hajj safer, especially for unregistered pilgrims who have no access to facilities such as air conditioned tents
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and official hajj transport. temperatures in mecca climbed as high as 51.8 degrees celsius. earlier i spoke to zirrar ali, who recently returned to london from his pilgrimage with his 70—year—old father. it is hard to describe what 51 degrees feels like, a lot of people are not prepared for what that would look like day—to—day and being in the tents is easier but most of the rituals for the hajj outside and we thought there would be water provided and cooling systems and that was not the case. most pilgrims resort to umbrellas and in part of the hajj you cannot cover your head, so you cannot wear hats. a lot of the dependency is on the organisers to give you shelter, which just was not the case. it made the five day ritual extremely difficult.
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the authorities have faced criticism there. did you see the authorities and medical teams helping those who are suffering with the situation? unfortunately not, personally i did see medics on site in most of the places i went to but what was most shocking was they were not engaged or stepping in when people were not feeling well or had passed out and i saw people unconscious or looked like they were unconscious or maybe seriously ill and the ambulances and the medics were not stepping in. i'm not sure whether that was because of how many people impacted by the heat i saw them on site but i did not see them stepping in. that is my experience and it shocked me. what did you make of this number? 83% of those who died were unregistered, they did not have official permits to be there. i think it distracts from the issue because it
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keeps your numbers going up and when you look at those registered, i was registered, i also suffered from the same issues because we had air—conditioned tents, we had transportation but it was not always working, and people were resorting to walking and it is common amongst everybody, not just the unregistered and if you look at the history of the hajj, unregistered pilgrims is new, unregistered, in the pasture did not have register to say those being impacted are unregistered takes away from the issue, it is that all of the pilgrims should have been catered for and once you're on the performing rituals, it is difficult to differentiate between who is what so we were all in the same boat. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has said the phase of intense fighting against hamas is coming to an end. but he added the war would not finish until the islamist group no longer controls the gaza strip. in the latest fighting, eight palestinians have been
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killed in an israeli air strike on a training college near gaza city which was being used to distribute aid. witnesses say the strike hit part of a college run by the un palestinian refugee agency unrwa which is providing aid to displaced families. benjamin radd — political scientist at the ucla burkle center for international relations, and expert on government and politics in the middle east. he gave us his view on the line from netanyahu that the intense stage of the fighting against hamas is coming to an end. it makes sense, given that the focus of israel's defence and offensive capabilities have shifted to the north and we have seen in the last week increasing activity from hezbollah, rockets fired, cross—border attacks and reprisals by israel and this is something israel cannot maintain defensively so long as it is fighting a massive two front operation. given that the resources are needed in the north, it makes sense for netanyahu
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to wind down this stage, even if he would prefer to keep the offence of going in gaza, we cannot sustain this on two fronts. he also said the war would not be finished until hamas no longer has control over the gaza strip. is it something that is achievable? and who would control the strip if hamas was no longer there? that is the major outstanding question because he has not signalled to whom he would entrust leadership of gaza after this conflict ends and in fact, he was unwilling to accept elements of the current palestinian authority from the west bank to participate in the international community including president biden have stressed for the inclusion ofjustinian officials as part of the new regime in gaza so long as this condition of not having a mass plus not outlining what the next iteration will look like, it makes it difficult to see where the endgame is. however, not to take away from the fact that the release
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of all hostages at the first stage is a condition that hamas is unwilling to accept as well so we can see both sides taking these hard—line positions and not willing to budge for the moment. there is a rift between the biden administration and the netanyahu administration and the israeli defence minister is on his way to washington so what can we expect from the trip? it is a prime pr opportunity and he posted an image showing him boarding an official us plane which is something you can only post with permission from the white house, effectively demonstrating to the domestic audience in israel and the international community that the current government still enjoys the backing and support of president biden. not to mention in the coming weeks we will see the visit to the us where he will address both houses of congress and get a case to make his case for the ongoing operations. as we head into election season in the us and as it intensifies
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there, the issue of us support for israel at the current pace is something that becomes heavily contested but also very much used as part of an electioneering propaganda, advertisement, claims and so forth between both parties. brazilian women have marched on the streets of copacabana in rio dejaneiro to protest against a bill being debated in congress that would equate abortion to homicide if performed after 22 weeks into pregnancy. feminist groups said the proposed legislation is too harsh, because sentences would be tougher than for rapists. if this change goes ahead, having an abortion could result in a jail sentence of up to 20 years. abortion is banned in brazil, except in cases of rape, risk to the mother's health or if the baby's brain is unlikely to develop. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.
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the uk's general election is going into its final week of campaigning — with the prime minister, rishi sunak, under pressure. his decision to call a july election was a surprise — and the gambling commission is investigating bets placed on the timing. it's emerged a fourth senior conservative is being reviewed by commission — and the bbc understands there are more people than those publicly named so far. here's helen catt. that is fantastic. what's been some of your highlights? rishi sunak�*s party has already tweaked its sales pitch at this election from being all about another term of conservative government to more warnings about labour winning big. but the focus is now being repeatedly pulled away from that message by fresh details about bets allegedly placed by tories on the election date. the home secretary this morning was the latest ministry to face questions about it. to your knowledge, home secretary, did any ministers put a bet on the time of the election? not my knowledge at all.
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i've been absolutely clear that from what i've read, i am notl in any way going - to defend the actions of these individuals. but i'm also conscious thatl i don't have the full details, the only organisation that does is the gambling commission i and it is right that they take action, that would have - the appropriate action, - and they have been clear that we should not discuss this. the conservative party's chief data officer nick mason was earlier identified as the fourth conservative being investigated. he has denied wrongdoing and has taken a leave of absence. the bbc understands there are more people with links to the tories and the government being looked into. labour is making sure the questions keep coming, it's now written to the gambling commission, which hasn't named anyone it is investigating, calling on it to identify them all, it says in the public interest. the issue here is that with those people who had inside knowledge of what was going on used that information in placing a bet. people across the country will place bets but i think
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there is genuine disgust. also in the sunday times today, the levelling up secretary explained why he thinks the investigation is damaging. he said it looks like one rule for them and one rule for us, so if these allegations are true, it's very difficult to defend. a view echoed by the liberal democrats, who say rishi sunak needs to act. liberal democrats have already called on the prime minister to intervene personally to make sure that every single person who is being investigated is suspended immediately and that he launches a cabinet inquiry investigation. so, too, does this conservative, the former justice secretary. i am deeply, deeply hurt - and rather angry that this has happened in the middle. of a campaign, it's tough enough without things like this to complicate it further. - do you think the prime minister ought to suspend the people involved ? yes, i do. there's been a lot of criticism of rishi sunak�*s decision to call this election in the rain, but as it approaches the closing
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stages, it's the drip—drip of allegations that's doing more damage to the tories' campaign. helen catt, bbc news. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. eight people in central china have been killed after heavy rain caused part of a mountainside to give way, burying their homes. chinese state media said the landslide covering part of a village in hunan province. more heavy rain is expected this week. china has been dealing with extreme weather for the last few months. there's been an angry reaction in india to the health ministry cancelling a crucial entrance test with just 12 hours' notice. the decision to delay postgraduate medical course exams was made after allegations of irregularities and cheating in other nationwide tests. more than 200,000 doctors had registered to take part. a shopping centre in south australia has been
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locked down and evacuated after fighting broke out between two groups of teenage boys. some of them are reported to have been armed with extendable batons. the police say the only injuries, in both cases minor, occurred when customers were being led from the centre in the city of adelaide. russia has said it holds the united states responsible after a missile fired by ukraine killed at least five people in occupied crimea. according to moscow, more than 100 others were injured when missile fragments hit a crowded beach near sevastopol. the governor of crimea, which was annexed by russia in 2014, said four us supplied missiles had been intercepted by air defences but a fifth had detonated in the air. tv footage showed people running from a beach. us military affairs analyst retired colonel brendan kearney says us may not respond to russian accusations. it is rather ludicrous
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on the part of the russians to go ahead and criticise the ukrainian use of american supplied munitions, that is true, when the russians are using chinese and north korean and other munitions coming in from other countries around the world that they are buying on the open market. and ukrainians, those munitions are killing ukrainians. so it is a poorly thought out situation or response on the part of the russians. but it is exactly consistent with the way they have been operating. you do not see that they could use as perhaps as grounds for escalation? i really do not, i think it would be rather silly. the united states and other countries of europe and from around the world have been providing ukrainians with munitions since the war started. and the russians have been critical of that.
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but this is no different from their past criticism. turning attention to ukraine, they say they want to strike where there see airborne attacks from russia, where they are coming from. should we expect to see more of these missile launches? i do, it was quoted today that ukrainians say they have had 21100 missile attacks during the month ofjune so far, 700 of them aimed at kharkiv, where we had yesterday's tragedy of the apartment block being hit. i think ukrainians are going to increase the amount of response. they were held back for a while by the us withholding permission and that permission has since been granted and i see the ukrainians going and responding with increasing targeting in russia. if ukraine are going to continue to increase their fire into russia, surely that will draw
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a response from russia as well? i think it will be more rhetoric, indignation, the russians title these type of things as terrorist efforts on the part of the ukrainians, supported by the united states, but again, this is exactly what russia is doing to ukraine. and sadly, we can all agree, it is the civilians, innocent civilians, both russian and ukrainian, but are dying as a result of this indiscriminate targeting that the russians have been inflicting upon ukrainians for over two years. ukrainians have been much more restrained and much more deliberate in their targeting but there will occasionally be civilian casualties, that is the very nature of war. and you see this continuing? sadly, i do. it will continue until either
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the ukrainians achieve military victory or russians decide that they are going to go ahead and call it quits. and both of those are not within either side's reach right now. switzerland says that ice loss on its glaciers caused by climate change has been less severe this year than of late. experts said the reason was greater snowfall in 202a. they hope that a cool summer might help further, but warn there probably will not be ice gain, and highlighted extreme melting in the past two years. now the latest from the euro 2024 championships, and scotland's heartbreak in injury time against hungary — meaning scotland is out of the tournament. hungary will have to wait for the other results to see if they are through. in the other match in group a, the hosts germany also left it late, equalising in added time, to maintain their top spot in group a.
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so, agony all round for scotland, that had high hopes to reach the knockout stage for the first time ever. the bbc�*s jane dougall was at the match in stuttgart. devastation for scotland and the fans. there were such high hopes ahead of this tournament. the excitement that the tartan army brought, thejoy that was just embraced by the germans. but the squad just could not deliver whenever it mattered. scotland finished bottom of the group. we should tell you that the player who went off, barnabas varga, is stable, which is good news. 0n the other match, switzerland drew 1—1 with germany, who equalised in the history minutes, which reminds us we should never write off the germans and they have finished top of the group. for scotland, this was their best chance to get to the knockout stages of a major tournament and once again, heartbreak as they have not done that.
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the euros are well under way but could footballers face competition from technology? these robots have been sampling the beautiful game at the world intelligence expo taking place in china. they've also been making coffee and doing other human stuff. companies and engineers in the city of tianjin have been showing off creations to crowds of curious visitors. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello. we're into ourfirst significant spell of summer heat at the moment, but how long will it last? well, certainly the heat will be widespread to start the week — quite humid by day and by night, too. 0k, not completely dry, but as we go through the second half of the week, we'll notice all of us gradually turning fresher, temperatures closer to where we would normally expect this stage injune and a bit more of a mix in conditions out there as well. back to the here and now. well, for monday morning it's
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already quite humid across some southern and eastern areas, a little bit fresher — the north and west will see the best of the morning sunshine. more cloud into north and west scotland through the day. some low cloud around the coasts. and this here's the remnants of that old weather front. it caused a lot of cloud in the afternoon yesterday for parts of wales and the south—west especially. it's more across the midlands and drifting into parts of south and east yorkshire later. not going to have a massive impact on temperatures, widely in the mid 20s for many — scotland 26, northern ireland at 211—25 celsius, experiencing their hottest day of the week. now, as we go into monday night, we'll see thicker cloud bring a bit more in the way of patchy light rain and drizzle to scotland and the west of northern ireland. some low cloud drifting northwards into northern england, but notice where that cloud is in place. temperatures not dropping much lower than around 15—17 celsius. now, as we go into tuesday, we've got that weather front which brings rain at the end of the day in western scotland, pushes a bit further southwards, combines with the old weather front which is sitting here across northern england to produce a bit more cloud for scotland, northern ireland,
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northern england on tuesday — the chance of a few showers breaking out later in the day. scotland, northern ireland, still warm where early sunshine gets through, but nowhere near as warm as monday. the heat continues to build further south and east, up to around 28 celsius in the london area by this stage. now, as you go through tuesday night into wednesday, that first weather front starts to push away, but still remnants of it across the northern half of the country, producing one or two showers, more especially across scotland. but away from that, some sunny spells across england and wales and the heat could build even further — could get to 28, 29 celsius by the time we hit the middle part of the week. some showers and heavy downpours in northern ireland later, and that's ahead of this area of low pressure between us and iceland, which will drive a cold front eastwards, sweeping away the humid air gradually as we go through thursday and into friday and introducing fresher conditions. but temperatures back closer to normal as we head towards the weekend and a few more showers around as well. take care.
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the fortunes of companies like nvidia have been driving stock markets. but is it still full steam ahead? hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai.
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technology stocks continue to be in the spotlight as we close out the first half of the year. the us benchmark s&p 500 index is up by more than 15%. the tech—heavy nasdaq is performing even better, up by almost 20%, with most gains coming from the frantic race in artificial intelligence and the chips that power them. but last week, chip designer nvidia showed signs that it was running out of steam. for clues on what the second half of the year could bring, i spoke to david kuo, co—founder of the smart investor website. he says ai could continue to lead markets in the days ahead. there is no other word _ the days ahead. there is no other word for _ the days ahead. there is no other word for it _ the days ahead. there is no other word for it than - the days ahead. there is no | other word for it than mania. it's kind of different to saying it's in a bubble. i mean people have very high expectations of this new artificial intelligence. they don't quite know how it's going to pan out, but we know that there are certain companies in there are certain companies in the centre of the artificial intelligence revolution and nvidia is one of them, and they are sort of putting their money
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behind nvidia and we think this company is going to drive

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