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tv   BBC News  BBC News  July 6, 2024 3:00am-3:31am BST

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after a landslide election win for labour. changing a country's not like flicking a switch but have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately. and, israel—hamas ceasefire talks ramp up — as the humanitarian crisis on the ground deepens. hello, i'm carl nasman. joe biden says he's "completely ruling out" leaving the us presidential election, despite mounting pressure from some within his own party. president biden�*s faltering performance against donald trump in last week's debate has seen a number of senior figures in the democratic party calling for him to make way for a younger candidate. in an exclusive interview with abc news anchor, george stephanopoulos, mr biden said he was thrown off by mr trump, but denied
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there was a wider issue. the fact of the matter is that, when i looked at is that he also lied 28 times. i couldn't — i mean, the way the debate ran — not my fault, no—one else�*s fault, no—one else�*s fault... but it seems like you were having trouble from the first question in, even before he spoke. well, ijust had a bad night. mr biden�*s problems mounted friday, with the washington post reporting that virginia senator mark warner is trying to bring together fellow democrats in the senate to pressure mr biden to step aside. mr warner's spokesperson didn't deny those reports, which have since been confirmed by our us news partners, cbs. but mr biden struck a defiant tone friday, telling reporters he is "completely ruling out" standing aside — a message he also conveyed to supporters at at a rally in the key battleground state of wisconsin. to unpack the president's interview, i spoke to former
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florida congreswoman, democrat stephanie murphy and former illinois congressman, republican rodney davis. i want to start off with this anticipated interview with abc news and george stephanopoulos — really the first big sitdown interview since that debate performance by mr biden. i want to play you a couple of clips now. the first one is president biden being asked about his chances of defeating donald trump in november. take a listen. are you sure you're being honest with yourself when you say you — honest with yourself when you say you have mental and physical— say you have mental and physical capacity to serve for another_ physical capacity to serve for another four years? yes, i am, because george, last thing i want to do is not be able to meet that. i think as someone senior — economist, seniorforeign policy specialist say if i stop now, i go down in history as a pretty successful president. no—one thought i could get done what we got done. but are you being honest with yourself as well about your ability to defeat donald trump right now?
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yes. yes, yes, yes. stephanie, let's start with you there. i mean, you heard the president at the end — yes, yes — very insistent. do you think that he really is that clear and that convinced himself that he is still the person who can defeat donald trump at the ballot box? i won't venture to say what president biden is thinking but i can tell you what the broad swathes of american people are thinking. nearly three quarters of the american people do not believe that he has the mental acuity or the physical ability to be president for the next four years and so, i think that that's the reality that the white house has to grapple with and, quite honestly, members of congress are grappling with that and the ramifications it has, notjust for the presidential race but also for the down—ballot races in the senate and house and so, i always find
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that parties that ignore the broad public sentiment do that at their own political peril. rodney, how about you? i'm sure you watched that interview. what did you make of how insistent the president still was about the fact that he needs to stay in the race and he needs to run against donald trump? well, i'm not surprised. i mean, joe biden and the team around joe biden thinks that he's the only person that can defeat donald trump again. i don't believe that's true. i think the rest of the world has finally seen what many republicans have been talking about for a few years now — that president biden isjust — is not the same joe biden that i flew on air force two with back in 2015. this is a different person. obviously, the world witnessed that he was not up to the task in a debate and what scares me most about our national security here in the united states is that we have a president that the majority of americans don't feel
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is in charge right now, and that is something that's out of the movies, not real life. rodney, stephanie, iwant to play for you another moment could we see this group of high—ranking democrats start to come to the president and have serious conversations? we heard lower ranking democrats already doing that. first, i would say that every candidate says that they are going to run and they are going to win until the moment that they're ready to announce that they're not going to run, so, that's the first thing. and the second piece of this is that it really depends on whether or not the pressure builds from the frontline members in house and senate seats, so frontline members are the people who are running in districts that are most difficult to hold onto and most difficult to win. i represented one of those seats my entire time in congress and i will tell you that as a frontline member, right now, they are looking at their polling and they're trying to calculate with headwinds at the top of the ticket, should biden
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continue to run for president, whether or not they will be able to overcome that. and even the most skilled politician can't overcome double—digit headwinds at the top and polling is starting to slip in that direction, so i imagine that a lot of the concern is starting to bubble up and i understand that leadership in the house is convening a call to hear some of those concerns. rodney, what do you think here? we've heard from some lower—ranking democrats. if somebody like chuck schumer, if somebody like nancy pelosi, if maybe former president barack obama were to go into the white house and have a conversation with the president — not saying this would happen — but would that be what it takes, do you think? or it's this simply something that the biden family and the president himself will have to make up their minds about? you know, carl, stephanie, i don't think there's anybody in — that watched that debate that thinks that joe biden would be making the decision himself anyway. you know, i don't like to play hypotheticals but let's say that all of those powerful
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democrats did exactly what you're mentioning — they all came in en masse and somehow, there was somewhat of a democratic liberal seance that gotjoe biden to have the good lord, as he said, give him that message and then, decide to get away. who's next? vice president harris? i mean, some polling has shown that she's doing worse than president biden. and let's say you want to skip over vice president harris. that's impossible in the democratic party that focuses on issues such as gender, race and demographics. now, let's say we get to an open convention. that will be a disaster for democrats and many republicans like me would be giddy to talk about that during the convention on the bbc because you will see the far—left try to take over that convention to put their candidate into that role as the presidential candidate and then, donald trump would beat that person, too. and i've seen it on the other side before.
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this is exactly how barack obama, in 2004, won in a landslide as a candidate for us senate in my home state of illinois. stephanie, just briefly, we saw this big sitdown interview. the president will be very active — and we saw him in wisconsin today, he has an event in pennsylvania scheduled for sunday, he'll be at the nato summit, right here in washington, next week. this strategy, it seems, is get the president out there a bit more. do you think it's going to work? i'm not sure that it would be enough to convince the three quarters of americans who believe that he isn't up to running. it won't be enough to convince him. but i disagree with rodney. i think if there is an open convention and the democratic party has a democratic process to nominate an alternative, that that will be answering to what the american people want. two—thirds of the american people never wanted to see this match—up between trump and biden in the first place and i think the party that can actually be responsive
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to the american people has a really good chance of energising voters and prevailing in the fall. we've known that for a long time that neither candidate is very popular with voters overall. stephanie murphy, former florida congresswoman, rodney davis, former illinois congressman, thank you to you both. to the uk now, where the labour party's resounding election victory has ended 14 years of conservative government. new prime minister sir keir starmer is promising to rebuild britain "brick by brick" and provide security for millions of working—class families. after a ceremonial meeting with king charles, sir keir began the process of forming a government — appointing his new cabinet ministers. in his first official remarks — the new pm laid out his ambitions. my government will fight every day, until you believe again. from now on, you have a government unburdened by doctrine, guided only by the determination to serve your interests.
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to defy, quietly, those who have written our country off. you have given us a clear mandate and we will use it to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives, and unite our country. let's break down the results. the labour party secured 412 parliamentary seats in thursday's general election — a gain of 211 seats on 2019 — dealing a catastrophic blow to the conservative party, which won only 121. that's a loss of 251 seats.the liberal democrats and reform uk also made significant gains in parliament. former prime minister rishi sunak left downing street earlier — closing the door on 1a years of conservative rule. for more here's the bbc�*s
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gary o'donoghue in london. well, within hours of sir keir starmer entering downing street as the new british prime minister, heading up his centre—left government here in london, that all—important call took place between the white house and the new administration here in britain, reaffirming the importance of the special relationship, promising to deepen it and talking about the importance of ukraine and britain continuing to back ukraine and its war against russia — particularly with money and weapons, which has been happening for the last 2.5 years. there are some key connections, if you like, between the new labour government here and washington already. the chancellor, the finance minister here, rachel reeves — the first woman to hold that post in a uk government — she has been over to washington on a number of occasions, has built links with janet yellen, the treasury secretary, and has taken some of labour's policy, economic policy and the inspiration from bidenomics, talking about building out from
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the middle and rather than sort of rejecting the idea of trickle—down economics from the top. also the new foreign secretary, the new foreign minister here in the uk, david lammy, he's the descendant of enslaved people. he spent a lot of time in the united states, describes himself as an atlanticist. he's been very rude about donald trump in the past. he's had to walk back some of that. he referred to him as an anti—woman, nazi—sympathising sociopath. but his team have also realised that in four months' time, there may be a different administration in washington and that they have to be prepared for that. because if there is one thing that is true about british governments, really for the last century or so, is that their national interest — whatever their political persuasion but they know their national interest, the british national interest — lies in a close working relationship with washington, the so—called �*special relationship,�* and that cannot really depend on who is in the white house. so, with an extraordinary position here where we've got a british general election in
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the same year as a presidential election — hasn't happened for for more than half a century — more than a quarter of a century, rather — they're going to have to prepare, if you like, for two very different eventualities. for more i spoke to laura beers, professor of british history at the american university. a landslide victory. prime minister keir starmer promising a national renewal. what will his priorities be? he has a serious domestic agenda particularly putting money into the nhs, dealing with issues like the doctor stride, investing in education, trying to get british energy off the ground. a series of domestic reforms but he also has eyes on the foreign scene and particularly the conflict in gaza and ukraine.
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how easy will it be especially the nhs, a big issue to tackle? indeed. starmer during the campaign has insisted he will not tackle that issue either by increasing the debt even further through increasing borrowing or taxation but there is a commitment to limited research constraints to invest more in public service. professor, we saw the kind of made for tv walk of the new covenant walking into number 10 and rachel reeves will be the first female chancellor and she will be dealing with an economy that is not firing on all cylinders? yes. we now have had three female prime minister but is the first female chancellor of the exchequer.
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this is a nice moment from a feminist perspective but she will come in facing serious economic constraints. slow growth since 2008 but certainly since the last covid—19 economic downturn which is constrained her room from manoeuvring in terms of budget and investment but the labour party is determined to get britain going again and jumpstart the economy. she has her work cut out for her but she also has a clear plan in mind. let's talk about the conservatives and it is difficult to sugarcoat this. this was a historically poor result for the tories. rishi sunak stepping down as the leader of the party. can they rebuild from here? will this may be read to a long drought at the polls? i think they will have to rebuild.
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the story of this election, despite the landslide victory in terms of the number of seats for the labour party, is about the implosion of the conservatives. the labour share rosejust marginally but the conservative vote collapsed. they lost not only to the labour party but to the liberal democrats, particularly in target seats and in the south—west, and also crucially to reform, led by nigel farage, who is close to donald trump and with an anti— migrant agenda. there will be an internal debate about whether you can to reform about tacking to the right yourself or tried to gain ground and a rejection of the right wing extremism and tries to grab the centre in politics. you mentioned reform uk, an anti—immigration party. 14% of the vote, five
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seats in parliament, what does it say about the direction in the uk. many european nations are pressing for a shift to the right. we are seeing preliminary results in france where the far—right is doing very well, is that a similar picture right now in the uk? i mean i think the crucial difference with this first past the post voting, reform uk in parliament representation in parliament no weight matches are surprisingly high share of the votes in last that election. nigel farage said he will push for representation in a benefit for his movement. i think it does raise questions for the conservatives though. i mean, they need to deal with the fact that a significant minority of the country found the appeal that nigel farage and his party were making. there is a strong anti—immigrant sentiment in britain right now. there is a lot of anxiety about britain's perceive diminished place in the world
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vis—a—vis is the other continental and global powers and nigel farage wants to capitalise on that. everyone has the rise on results in the months to come. thank you very much. thank you. efforts to secure a ceasefire deal and a hostage release in gaza are gaining momentum — after weeks of stalled negotiations. the head of israel's spy agency mossad returned from qatar's capital doha on friday after an initial meeting with mediators. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office says indirect negotiations with hamas will resume next week. our middle east correspondent sebastian usher has the latest from jerusalem. we've heard little from what came out of those talks for now, but we have heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office, saying that an israeli delegation would be sent again for discussions in the coming week. we also heard from the prime minister's office that gaps
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still remain and, before the israeli delegation left, israeli officials were saying that there should be low expectations. i think those expectations had risen when a response from hamas had been given to israel to look at, and there were reports from various sources that that response might contain a significant breakthrough. now, a significant breakthrough would essentially be an agreement by hamas to drop its key demand that there must be a permanent ceasefire at the start of any process, which is not in the biden deal that was set out, which would allow the process to begin and then moves towards a permanent ceasefire would happen after that. if that is the case, then that would be a major shift and it would put the ball very much in israel's court. the palestinian health ministry says israeli forces killed seven people on friday after it raided a refugee camp in the occupied west bank. the israeli military says the raid was carried out to find militants involved in an attack last week
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in which an israeli captain was killed. hamas says five of its members were among the dead. in gaza — civilians are facing dire conditions, after nearly nine months of war. the united nations reports that about 1.9 million — or nine out of every ten people — have been internally displaced in gaza at least once since october. those numbers come after the most recent israeli evacuation order. on monday, the military ordered an estimated 250,000 palestinians to evacuate from the southern gaza city of khan younis. for more on the humanitarian crisis, we've been hearing from sam rose, the director of planning at unrwa — the un agency that supports palestinian refugees. we have very little — there is very little that we have been able to bring in through the kerem shalom rafah crossing since the beginning of may, so the displacements that happened from khan younis, we were able to distribute some flour, we had some of those supplies in stock, but otherwise a very,
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very difficult. we have hundreds and hundreds of containers stuck in egypt and trapped at the border in kerem shalom and as long the access constraints persist at that border, it will be very difficult for us to get food in. now, there are some commercial supplies on the market. there are some fresh fruit, fresh vegetable but very difficult for people — regular people — to afford that. prices have risen considerably since the start of the conflict and people are not working, so they have no means to secure them. so while commercial supplies — some are coming in, which is a good thing, they do not help us to meet the needs of the vulnerable. and it is a similar situation up in the north. we have been able to get food in to northern gaza, some supplies are now coming in, so with the displacement from eastern gaza city just a few days ago, we were able to provide food, we were able to provide some
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water — this is unrwa in cooperation with other humanitarian partners up there — but supplies are running extremely low. it's a battle, it's a struggle everyday to bring things in, to bring the supplies in, but also to bring the fuel in to get those supplies around and to navigate a safe passage across checkpoints and through what is increasingly squeezed space in gaza. new evacuation orders issued in khan younis just a few days ago cover a quarter of the entire land area of the gaza strip, so the safe space in which we're operating as a humanitarian community is becoming increasingly squeezed into the central area of the gaza strip. hungary's prime minister victor orban met with russian president vladimir putin in moscow. the visit was heavily criticised by other european leaders. mr orban is the eu's only head of government to maintain warm ties with russia since its full—scale invasion of ukraine in 2022. friday's meeting was part of what mr orban has called
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a "peace mission," coming just three days after a visit to kyiv where he met with ukrainian president volodymyr zele ns kyy. hungary recently took over the presidency of the council of the european union — but eu leaders stress that mr orban is not acting on behalf of the bloc. from moscow, our bbc russia editor steve rosenberg has more. well, this was quite extraordinary. just a few days after his country had assumed the rotating presidency of the eu, hungary's prime minister, viktor orban, flew to moscow without his eu hat on for surprise talks with president putin about the war in ukraine, sparking consternation in the european union. so the president of the european commission basically called this appeasement, and the eu's foreign policy chief said that mr orban had no mandate from the european council to come to moscow. well, viktor orban didn't seem to care. he said that this was the second part of a peace mission. he'd been in kyiv earlier
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in the week for talks with president zelenskyy. translation: we need - to take many steps to move towards ending the war. but the first important step we've taken today restoring dialogue. translation: we are grateful to the prime minister- for coming to moscow. we see this as an attempt to restore dialogue and move it on. once the putin orban talks were over, we managed to get some reaction from the hungarian foreign minister. very strong words from brussels. appeasement you're accused of. ok, so once again, we are a sovereign country and without dialogue, without discussion, without channels of communication to be kept open, there will be no solution. last 2.5 years have made this very clear. i think that moscow often looks for opportunities to drive wedges between its opponents, to sow division in the west. disunity. and the russians will be well aware of the optics here. the leader of a european country flying to moscow,
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holding talks with president putin at a time when much of the west has been trying to isolate russia because of the war in ukraine. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. before we go, another famous inhabitant of ten downing street has welcomed the new prime minister to his residence. larry the cat is officially the chief mouser of downing street. now 17 years old, he was adopted by the former prime minister david cameron in 2011 from a rescue centre. larry stuck around after mr cameron stood down — as the cat is technically a civil servant. he's served underfive prime ministers — sir keir starmer will be his sixth. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. friday was another pretty unsubtle day, but at least many areas saw at least some sunshine for a time and through the afternoon, it didn't look too bad here in flamborough in east yorkshire —
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some hazy sunshine, a bit of high cloud and the seas looking quite calm. won't look like that, mind you, for saturday because further southwards, we ended friday with this band of rain moving in and this area of rain is actually going to develop into a whole new area of low pressure. so, that's notjust going to be bringing some wet weather our way but also, it'll be quite windy at times as we go through saturday — particularly for england and wales, where we've got the tightly packed isobars with us. so, next few hours — quite a heavy rain across england and wales. there'll be some heavy showers for northern ireland and another zone of quite persistent rain setting up across northern areas of scotland. our temperatures to start off saturday morning generally around about double figures — about 10—13 for most — but as we start off saturday, there will be these areas of heavy rain associated with this developing low pressure system. gusty winds running into the 30s of miles an hour, knocking the edge off the temperatures. and even as the rain clears through, showers will follow. sunshine and showers for northern ireland, some persistent rain
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for northeast scotland — that could cause one or two issues here. and look at that — just 12 degrees in aberdeen. certainly a lot colder than it was on friday. now, the second half of the weekend on the whole looks like being the better of the two days of the weekend but it's all relative, really. we start the day on a dry and sunny note but showers become pretty widespread through the afternoon, some of those turning heavy and thundery as well. temperatures for many areas still generally mid to high teens. could be a few areas that sneak a 20 but i suppose where thejuly sunshine comes out, it won't feel too bad. next week, if you're hoping for signs of change, you can forget that. we've got low pressures coming our way from the southwest. now, monday is another showery kind of day, so most areas will start the day dry with sunshine. the cloud then develops late morning into the early afternoon and then, we start to see some showers and thunderstorms break out in places. could be a few areas that miss those — maybe east anglia, south east england seeing largely dry weather. and a little bit warmer here as well — temperatures could get into the low 20s for a time.
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but overall next week, it is looking pretty unsettled with rain or showers around and temperatures still a little below average for the time of year. bye for now.
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voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. if you're talking to yourself, you have way too much time on your hands! in downhill, you're going 80 miles an hour. if you're talking to yourself, you're screwed! lindsey vonn, thank you very much forjoining us in miami.
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i have to say, miami — not the most obvious place

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