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tv   BBC News  BBC News  August 11, 2024 3:00am-3:31am BST

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hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. welcome to this hour. an israeli air strike on a school building sheltering displaced palestinians in gaza city has killed more than 70 people, the director of the al—ahli hospital has told the bbc. images reviewed by the bbc confirm children are among those killed. witnesses said the missiles hit a mosque inside the school complex while people were praying. our correspondentjenny hill filed this report and a warning to our viewers — it contains distressing content. anguish, bewilderment. israel struck before dawn, shattering the sanctity of morning prayer. thousands of displaced civilians were sheltering here,
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a place of refuge suddenly a scene of carnage. "there isn't any safe place," this woman cries. "no place is safe." "where is the world?", he asks. "why does it stay silent in the face of these crimes?" how many times have gaza's ravaged walls echoed to the sound of a mother's grief? umm says three of her sons were killed. "i'm 80," she sobs. "i've never seen anything like this before. "the way they're bombing us is like an earthquake." but israel claims this was a legitimate target, that the school housed a hamas command centre. in a statement on social media, an israeli defense forces spokesman said around 20 hamas and islamichhad militants were operating out of the compound. israel's repeatedly struck school buildings in recent weeks. each time, they insist they conceal hamas bases
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and each time, they insist they strive to minimise civilian casualties. the strike comes at a time of heightened tension in the middle east. international governments are urging hamas and israel to agree a ceasefire and hostage return deal as soon as possible, and extensive diplomacy is ongoing to try to stop the conflict in gaza from spiralling into an all—out regional war. and as palestinians mourn their dead and take shelter for another fearful night, it's hard to see hope in the ruins of gaza. jenny hill, bbc news, tel aviv. the biden administration has responded to news of the attack. a white house spokesperson says:
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butjust hours before the bombing, the us state department announced it is releasing $3.5 billion of weapons funds for israel talks are set to take place in either doha or cairo next week. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky acknowledged for the first time on saturday that his troops are conducting an offensive inside russia's kursk region. it comes as the region's acting governor says at least 13 people have been injured from the debris of a destroyed ukrainian—launched missile. explosions have also been reported in ukraine's capital kyiv, as well as the country's sumy region. russian and ukrainian forces have been locked in intense fighting in kursk since tuesday. strict security measures are in place there and two other regions — belgorod and bryansk. kursk�*s governor has ordered the evacuation of civilians from at—risk areas to speed up
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as russian officials have already evacuated more than 76,000 people. meanwhile, the un's nuclear agency is urging both sides to exercise maximum restraint as fighting nears a nuclear plant in kursk. reports suggest ukraine's army could be operating up to 35km inside russia. for more, i asked william courtney, adjunct senior fellow at the rand corporation and a former us diplomat, for his reaction to mr zelensky�*s admission. it's been a huge success for ukraine. it builds morale in ukraine after suffering some russian advances — not large advances, but some russian advances recently. but the goal of the ukrainians appears to be, in part, to humiliate president putin, humiliate the kremlin, and this really has had that effect. if we go back to the afghanistan war in the 1980s,
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the last time moscow invaded a neighbour, the war still inaudible soviet troops did not pull out until there was liberalising regime change with gorbachev coming to power, so zelensky might be hoping this kind of humiliation could have some kind of impact on whether putin stays in power. would you go as far as to say that this might be a tipping point following months where ukrainian forces felt pretty resigned and defeated about how that counteroffensive had been going? it certainly is a change in momentum. it's a bit hard to say whether it is a tipping point — we will have to wait and see what some of the results are — but, certainly, the russians are now on guard. the ukrainians could strike not only in kursk but in other places as well, so they are going to have to pull some troops back for some defensive operations and that will make it a little bit easier for ukrainians to find vulnerabilities in the front line of the battle. and of course, the us has promised — and other western nations — more aid to help ukraine in its ongoing fight.
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how is that changing the equation? well, the westerners are providing more modern equipment and more advanced equipment — so, f—i6s are going in for example, early warning control and aircraft are going in. that's going to provide a powerful capability for ukraine to enhance its air defences and perhaps attack the air planes that are launching devastating glide bombs. and what might we see next from russia? it's a bit uncertain. the russians are going to have to pull back some of their plans and figure out a more effective strategy. the ukrainians have been successful at several points in using deception, i guess, inaudible — this is certainly a great example, the ukrainians pulling off a big surprise. two years ago, the ukrainians kharjiv 0blast from russia —
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most of kharkiv 0blast — using deception. and early in the war, the sank the russian black sea and early in the war, the sank the russian black sea flagship. so, i think all of these were great examples of deception. the russians now have to worry that ukraine could use deception more effectively in the future. the son of bangladesh's former prime minister sheikh hasina has told bbc news his mother would be happy to return to the country to face trial. student leaders in the interim government are demanding she's held accountable for killings her security forces have long been accused of. her son, sajeeb wazed, said his mother did not order attacks on students, but added that individuals responsible for human rights abuses while his mother was in power, should be "brought to justice". ms hasina's 15—year rule ended after weeks of student led protests in which hundreds were killed. she's currently sheltering in neighbouring india, after she fled bangladesh on monday. ms hasina is the daughter of bangladesh's founding
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father, who was assassinated during a military coup, along with most of his family. her son sajeeb wazed joy is based in the us, he told me his mother hopes to return to bangladesh and is in regular contact with her. i actuallyjust spoke to her half an hour ago. i've been speaking to her every day. the current situation is she is monitoring what's happening in the country and, of course, we are very concerned. right now, there seems to be absolutely no law and order. there's still looting and rioting going on throughout the country, especially looting — it seems to be open season for looting. citizens are banding together to guard their own citizens are banding together to guard their own neighbourhoods because there does not seem to be any government. you have the protesters demand that — the protesters vandalised the home of the chiefjustice of the supreme court, demanding his resignation, and they submitted a list of names to be supreme court justices, and the interim government simply accepted that and replaced the supreme court.
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so, you basically have the supreme court of bangladesh has just been replaced, without any due process, by mob rule. i have spoken to people who say that they were tortured by the security forces, that family members have been disappeared and also, we saw in recent weeks hundreds of students who were killed at those protests. what accountability should your mother take for the actions and the accusations against her security forces? i believe that everyone in the security forces and the security apparatus that was responsible for those should be brought tojustice. they should face accountability. so, you concede that those things happened? because we, in the past, had denials from your mother's government and the party that these even happened. we had tried to bring things to justice. if you will remember when the first reports of extrajudicial killings surfaced, our government had tried and sentenced the son—in—law of our own ministers for the trial
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of extrajudicial killings. i'm not going to deny, i'm not going to tell you that everything was perfect and mistakes were not made — i believe that people, and many of us actually, a lot of us — i am learning for the first time as well — because i believe, no, our law enforcement agencies did not do a lot of this. but the people in the chain of command, now that i'm seeing, perhaps they went too far and they should be held accountable. you do think they should be held accountable? i mean, some of the student leaders say that if your mother was to return to bangladesh, she should face trial. that is fine. you know, that is perfectly fine. that should not scare us because in the previous military dictatorship that took over in 2006, they filed — they arrested my mother. they tried to prevent my motherfrom going back. she went back, they charged her with corruption. they went to trial, and at trial, she was acquitted because there was absolutely no evidence of corruption against her.
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this case as well, you have to prove it in court, so let's have a trial. let's have a trial and see who was responsible. my mother did not order attacks on students. she did not. in fact, if my mother had been willing to kill students, my mother would still be in power today... but then why were hundreds of students killed in recent weeks? not hundreds. that number is exaggerated because many of those killed were civilians. many of those killed were police as well, and no—one is mentioning that. why is no—one mentioning the police that were killed and the civilians? and who killed them? what's going to happen to your mother? she's in india at the moment. what's her next move? there's lots of speculation and rumour about her perhaps trying to go to the uk or perhaps other countries. those are all rumours. she has made no plans. this was going to be her last term — she is 76. her dream was to retire to her
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village home in tungipara. when the violence escalated, when they decided that — the demand became the resignation of government, she decided, "look, i don't want our "security forces to kill unarmed students. "i don't want my own special security force "and prime minister's guards" — in order to guard the prime minister's residence, they would have to open fire on the demonstrators that were marching towards it. "i don't want that loss of life." "i don't want their blood on my hands." those were her exact words to me. so, she was going to resign. there was going to be a constitutional handover of power, probably new elections called by parliament within three months. unfortunately, with the mob marching on the prime minister's residence, there wasn't any time to do any of that. i was the last person to speak to her. she, when her special security forces — when the ssf took her to a secure location — an air force base — and had a helicopter ready, my aunt — she told my aunt, "you get on the helicopter. "i'm going to stay here.
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"i don't want to leave my country." my aunt called me immediately. i talked to her, i talked to my mom. isaid, "look, mom. "this is a mob. "they are going to kill you. "0ur priority is to keep you safe, keep you alive." and you said recently that she wants to return to bangladesh. is that still the long—term plan? yes, of course. my mother does not want to live outside of bangladesh. whether it is in politics or she is retired, she wants to go home. will she be able to, though? i mean, that's her dream. but realistically, she would not be welcomed if she would return. they said that about my family. they killed my grandfather. they slaughtered 17 members of my family. they called him a dictator, that he had — they said the same things about him, that he had become authoritarian. but the alternative in bangladesh was far worse and so, we came back and we came back stronger. were mistakes made? yes, of course. but if you look at the history of bangladesh, the most successful government in the history of bangladesh was my mother's. wazed joy hasina. venezuela's supreme court has
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said the opposition won't be able to appeal against a ruling it is due to issue on the outcome of the disputed presidential election held two weeks ago. the court criticised the opposition for failing to cooperate with the process and said its decision would be final. president nicolas maduro, who's held powerfor 11 years, was declared winner by the government—controlled electoral commission amid allegations of fraud. the opposition says it received double the number of votes. the us is among countries who've said the election results are fraudulent. the result has only been accepted by a handful of nations, including cuba, russia and china. meanwhile, people across venezuela are unable to access the social media platform x after president nicolas maduro placed a ten—day ban on the app. he accused x owner, elon musk, of inciting hate, civil war and death. mr maduro blames musk for being a driving force behind protests following the election. authorities loyal to maduro�*s government are accused of cracking down on dissent. the government says it has arrested at least 2,000 people who have protested against
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the official election result. i spoke with the director of the center for strategic and international studies�* americas program, ryan berg. what's going to happen now? you have mr maduro saying that that result is legitimate. he seems to be supported now by the authorities on that, but the opposition say it was not free or fair. thanks very much for having me on. the key here is that maduro has gotten caught with his hand in the cookiejar. he's gotten caught here in a massive electoral fraud — what many experts call the largest in latin america's history — and now, he's trying to create facts on the ground. he's going through processes, through institutions in venezuela that he controls to try to firm up the support notjust within his regime but on the international stage for this fraudulent election.
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the problem for him is that much of the international community understands what he's up to. they've not recognised the results, they've demanded the vote tallies and maduro is busy trying to obscure and give credible reasons for why he can't produce them. again, he hasn't been able to provide any credible reason for why he can't produce the tallies. so far, he's said there had been attacks from north macedonia, also blaming elon musk and so on and so, he's in a real bind here in terms of being able to convince partners and even leftist allies of his in latin america that this election was legitimate and that he was the victor. so, he's asked these supreme courtjudges to certify the result. what is likely to happen? are they likely to abide by that request? well, they are likely to abide by that request because this is one of the institutions that is firmly controlled
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by the chavezma — the political movement maduro belongs to, but the key to note here is that this is not the proper institution to certify the election — there is a national electoral council, which is the proper body to certify an election, also controlled by maduro. even some of these leftist allies who made a trip to caracas this past week have said they do not recognise the ability of the supreme court to certify the election. it's not their proper role. and we've now seen that social media platforms, such as x, have now been shut down, people cannot access those. what's the likely consequence of that for people in venezuela? well, there's no doubt that venezuela may potentially be entering one of its darkest hours. the reason that we believe x is being shut down as well as whatsapp and a number of other social media platforms and encrypted platforms for communication, is to engage in a kind of media blackout in terms of what's happening on the ground on venezuela. we think that this means
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that the repression is only going to increase and of course, maduro wants to shield some of that repression from the glare of the international community. thus far, 2,000 — more than 2,000 people have been arrested. they've been sent to prisons, where maduro says they will endure re—education camps and forced labour. 2a people have died, according to human rights organisations. so, things are getting pretty bad on the ground for people who are simply demanding that their vote be counted and the tabulations be produced. ryan, just briefly, what leverage does the international community have — or, indeed, the opposition — to change the course of where things might be going? the good news for the opposition is they won this election, according to the tabulations they possess in their control, by a ratio of over two to one and so, the people are with them on this. the international community, for the most part, has recognised the fact that there's been a massive electoral fraud and so, the entire purpose of this election, which was meant to give maduro new credibility and legitimacy, is basically being denied to him. three days of mourning have been declared in the brazilian
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state of sao paulo after a plane crash which killed all 62 people on board. teams have been working to find victims. at least 21 bodies have been recovered from the site of the crash. among those killed are a group of doctors, university students and four members of the same family. videos posted online show the moment when the dual—engine plane spiralled towards the ground, catching fire and exploding on impact. the airline said the plane took off from cascavel and was en route to the main airport in sao paulo city when it came down in a residential area. brazil's air force said the aircraft was flying normally untiljust after 1.20pm, when it stopped responding to calls. pilots did not report emergency or adverse weather conditions. the head of brazil's aviation accident investigation centre says the plane's black box is being analysed. simonjones has the details.
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a warning — you may find his report upsetting. 58 passengers, four crew members, no survivors. as the plane spiralled towards the ground, witnesses could only look on in horror. but what caused this flight to come down? translation: the plane passed over us. - we thought it was going to fall on our home. it started to come down and down, and we said, "it's falling, it's falling." when we saw the plane again, it had crashed. the flames were very high. they burned everything. it was a horror scene. the flight came down in a residential area. 0ne home was damaged but nobody on the ground was hurt. anxious relatives gathered at the airport where the plane, which was on a short internal flight, had been due to land. two trainee doctors are known to be among the dead. investigations are now under way into the cause of the crash.
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the plane's black box, containing voice recordings and flight data, has been recovered. brazil's civil aviation agency said the aircraft, which was built in 2010, had been in good working condition. 0ne one theory is a of ice could have contributed to what happened. —— a build—up of ice. brazil's president paid tribute to the victims at an event where he was speaking, and asked the audience to observe a minute's silence. sao paulo�*s state governor has declared three days of mourning. the authorities will now be determined to provide answers to the families of the 62 people who have lost their lives. simon jones, bbc news. i spoke with bbc news brazil reporter thais carranca. i asked her about the current state of the investigation. the brazilian air force are saying the flying crew did not declare an emergency or bad weather conditions before the tragedy. brazilian authorities have collected the two flight
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recorders from the plane and am investigation is under way but there is still no estimation on when the results of this investigation should be disclosed to the public. one of the hypothesis that is being discussed as a possible cause for the accident is they were —— that there was ice on the plains of the aeroplane but they are saying it is still too early to come to a conclusion. what is the aviation safety record of our lives in brazil? brazil is a very safe market for flying. it doesn't have a record above average of flights and accidents. but, of course, when a tragedy such as the one that happened friday happens, the entire country worries about safety, right? but it is considered the time now is one of the safest to fly because the number of accidents happening is historically low. but, of course, when 62 lives are lost, you lose that in consideration, right?
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indeed. three days of mourning being declared in the sao paulo region. tell us more about what we know about some of those victims who died on board. well, there was some initial confusion about the exact number of victims but on saturday, the airline confirmed it was 62 people on board. 58 of those were passengers and former crew members. —— 58 of those were passengers and four were crew members. of those passengers, many were medical doctors on their way to a professional congress in sao paulo. for example, one single hospital connected to a university lost eight of their staff in the tragedy. among the victims was also a three—year—old child travelling with her dad, who also died in the accident. families of the victims are, on top of dealing with their loss, are having to deal with other horrors, such as pictures of the bodies of their loved ones being shared on messaging apps and social media. on top of that, scammers are using the tragedies to create fake profiles
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on the internet, collecting money on behalf of the families. so it's a real difficult time for the families and friends of the people who were on the flight. the people who were on the fliuht. . , the people who were on the fliht. . , . . us vice president kamala harris and minnesota governor tim walz are continuing their tour of swing states as they campaign for the white house. the pair have been rallying in las vegas, nevada, a state the democratic campaign sees as crucial. these are latest pictures. recent polling shows harris has a two—point lead in the state over republican presidential nominee, former president donald trump. the harris—walz campaign rally follows an endorsment from the culinary union, which is nevada's largest labor union and represents 60,000 workers across the state. 0n the other side of the aisle, the trump campaign says it is the victim of a cyber attack after the news organisation politico said it began receiving emails from an anonymous account containing documents from inside trump's political operation. the trump campaign claims
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the iranian government is behind the hack, citing past hostilities between trump and iran. however, there is no direct evidence linking iran to the hack and a trump campaign spokesperson declined to offer further information backing up its claim. that's all for the moment. 20 more of all of the day's website on the bbc news website. i'm a ginnivan for martin. stay with us. —— rajini vaidyanathan. hello. sunday promises to be a sunny day across many parts of the uk and turning really quite hot across the south of the country. the outlook into monday points to even hotter weather and the possibility of some big showers and thunderstorms in the northwest of the uk. so, here's the morning, then, on sunday. admittedly, it will be a little cloudy to start with in the south, perhaps some mist and murk and coastal fog, particularly in the south—west.
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a bit of drizzle, too. but the rest of the uk, it's sunshine all round, right from the word go. now, we may have to wait a little bit across the south before that sun breaks through but i think come the afternoon, it really will be that strong sunshine beating down on us nationwide. so, how hot is it going to get on sunday? well, typically in the mid to high 20s across wales and england but one or two spots could reach 30 in the south. more comfortable across northern ireland and scotland — low 20s here — but, of course, gloriously sunny. and then, there will be some changes on the way come monday. a cold front is going to sweep off the atlantic. behind it, we've got cooler air. ahead of this weather front, hot air is spreading in from the south. look how hot it's going to be on monday across the north of france — high 30s — and that hot air is going to clip the uk. so, let's see what's happening, then, early on monday. we've got cool air spreading in off the atlantic, that very hot air spreading out of france. where it clashes, we'll see storms breaking out
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here in the northwest of the uk. very difficult to pinpoint where they're going to be but they will be spreading towards the northwest. and the temperatures — around 20 or so in the northwest but widely into the 30s across england and possibly the mid 30s around london and the south—east. so, a very hot day to come for some of us on monday and the humidity will increase as well — it really will feel quite uncomfortable. now, tuesday, these weather fronts and low pressures basically win. they sweep across the uk and all of that heat will be pushed towards more central and eastern parts of europe. now, there will be still some warmth left, i think, across eastern parts of the uk on tuesday, possibly the high 20s — 27, 28 celsius. but look at the values here, already dropping into the low 20s across wales and parts of western england.
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voice—0ver: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. hello, anthony. hey, marianna. how are you doing? i've been awake for probably a little bit too long. i began the day in boston, and i'm now in london, back in london, and i have a pressing question for you.
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yes. who is fred trump iii? and why is he called fred trump iii? well, funny you should ask that. i actually just finished speaking with fred trump iii, and the thing to know about fred trump iii is that, as his name suggests, his father was fred trumer. his grandfather was frederick crist trump sr. that makes him donald trump's nephew, and he has some interesting titbits and stories to share about growing up in the trump family. very useful genealogy. i think that probably preps us a little bit for the interview. welcome to americast. americast. americast from bbc news. hello, it's marianna, aka miss information, back in the worldwide headquarters of americast in london. and it's anthony here in the american headquarters of americast at the bbc bureau in washington, dc.

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