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tv   Newsday  BBC News  August 26, 2024 12:00am-12:31am BST

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translation: we wanted to target israel's military l intelligence or their air force because these two forces were involved in the assassination. we also wanted this target to be deep inside israel, closer to tel aviv. the messaging app telegram says its founder and chief executive pavel durov has "nothing to hide" after he was arrested in france. and seven years after the military crackdown that forced them to flee, rohingya refugees demand safe return to myanmar. hamas says it's rejected new israeli conditions we start in the middle east. hamas says it's
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rejected new israeli conditions put forward in gaza ceasefire talks, dampening hopes of a breakthrough. the group had sent a representative to cairo where the latest us—backed negotiations are happening. the delegation has now left. we'll have more analysis on that shortly. but meanwhile, sirens sounded south of tel aviv as the armed wing of hamas says it fired a rocket at the city. the israeli military said the m90 rocket landed "in an open area" south of the city. well, this latest development comes after israel launched air strikes across its northern border into lebanon, and the militia group hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets and drones at israel. israel says it hit more than 200 sites in lebanon, against the lebanese shia organisation, which was retaliating for the assassination of one of its top commanders in lebanon last month. hezbollah says the first phase of its attack is over, and it is not seeking all—out war. our correspondent lucy williamson reports from nahariya in northern israel, close the border between the two countries.
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explosions by the time the sirens came, northern israel was awake. israeli fighterjets bombing hezbollah launch sites, the army said, before hundreds of drones and rockets met israel's air defences overhead. the fight clearly visible from yuval�*s house, six miles from the border. we felt really large explosions. we felt like an earthquake, the whole ground was moving, like my windows were all shaking, the keys in the door — like everything was shaking. so i went outside to look at it and i just saw the whole sky is bright, bright, all engines. there was an explosion like every three seconds. shrapnel from an interceptor missile was caught on camera hitting a patrol boat off the coast of nahariya, killing killing one officer, the army said, and injuring two others. very few rockets slipped through, but israel says
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hezbollah had planned a much wider attack and that only a predawn bombing raid by israel's airforce prevented it, destroying thousands of rockets at their launch sites. translation: we are determined to do everything to protect - our country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes and continue to uphold a simple rule — whoever hurts us, we hurt them. the limited damage from this assault obscures how dangerous this moment is. for months, the conflict across this border has been widening. now, israel has sent 100 fighterjets to bomb hezbollah positions and hezbollah rockets are flying further south — testing the tripwires for all—out war. 0rgad's hotel looks out on the hills that mark the lebanese border. he thought this morning's assault was the start of a full—blown war. it's not normal times, so if a war should - come and finish it...
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there are no tourists, - no businessmen, no nothing. so we have to start living again. - it sounds like you want a war? if it will finish their- situation as it is now, yes. this border, bristling with weapons, could pull regional and global powers into a war — a war fuelled by the conflict in gaza that even israel and hezbollah say they don't want. lucy williamson, bbc news, nahariya. meanwhile in lebanon, hezbollah said it did not intend its missile attacks on israel to lead to a "full—scale war". the powerful militia group, which is backed by iran, said it had delayed its action in the hope that the peace talks would lead to a ceasefire in gaza. 0rla guerin reports from southern lebanon. explosions. mid—morning in southern lebanon. the very picture of war.
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here, it was israel targeting hezbollah firing positions. it says it destroyed thousands of rocket launchers overnight. but hezbollah says it still fired over 300 rockets into the night skies over israel. many were intercepted, but this could be a glimpse of the future. and here, hezbollah�*s targets, military bases and barracks, maps in detail. the israeli army says most of the rockets missed their mark. hezbollah was retaliating forthis, israel's assassination of a top commander, fuad shukr, in beirut last month. he was a huge loss to the iranian—backed militia. now, hezbollah can say that he has been avenged.
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he was a huge loss to the iranian—backed militia. now, hezbollah can say that he has been avenged. but it was revenge tasted cold and carefully calibrated. hezbollah�*s leader, sheikh hassan nasrallah, said tonight the group might strike again in shukr�*s name, but for now, everyone could feel at ease and get on with their lives. after a tense few months, a welcome message for lebanon. this weekend, hezbollah has been burying more of its dead. the conflict here is far from over. both sides have now delivered a message, but have stopped short of triggering all—out war. 0rla guerin, bbc news, southern lebanon. firas maksad is senior fellow and senior director firas maksad is a senior fellow and senior director
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for strategic outreach at the middle east institute, a think tank in washington, dc. he told me with both sides are saying they don't want an all—out war in the region and their actions are backing this up. as far as hezbollah and iran are concerned, yes, i believe so. after 25 days of promising a devastating retaliation for the killing of its commander in beirut, i think today is the response on behalf of hezbollah was underwhelming, to say the least. now, obviously, there's a war of narratives. israel will have you believe it was because of a very successful pre—emptive attack, a pre—dawn pre—emptive attack. others would argue that it was because hezbollah chose this to be a very calibrated response. in having to decide between restoring its deterrence through a massive operation, or actually having to tread very carefully so as not to give israeli prime minister bibi netanyahu a pretext
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to expand this war, they chose to play it safe. hezbollah wants lebanon, as they continue to say, to be a secondary support front to the war in gaza, very careful not to have lebanon become the primary front. so, where does this leave the cease fire talks then? because hamas has said that it's rejecting the new israeli conditions that have been put forward at the talks. in the meantime, white house national security adviser jake sullivan has said that they're still working towards a ceasefire. well, i mean, those cease fire negotiations are key to everything that's taking place in the region. as we noted today, both israel and hezbollah left the door open to further escalation. in its statement, hezbollah was very careful in saying that this was a preliminary response. in nasrallah's speech, he was careful to say that, in fact, they weighed various options, including a multi—front attack, including the houthis in yemen, perhaps iran itself. they chose the latter, but that this could still materialise. they chose the latter, but this could still materialise. iran has not responded to the killing of hamas chief ismail haniyeh on its soil.
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the reason they chose not to conduct a full—fledged attack right now is because they continue to look at the at the ceasefire negotiations concerning gaza, and they want to keep that leverage in a way that is perhaps useful for hamas in these ongoing negotiations. so, from a us administration perspective, i think through marshalling its military assets in defence of israel in the region, they helped deter hezbollah today, but the administration needs to deliver on that on those ceasefires, the ceasefire negotiations. well, with regard to this recent round of attacks, you've said on social media that war is but diplomacy through other means. is that what you're talking about then? 0h, absolutely. and again, it was very clear through the fighting words of
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hassan nasrallah today that this can have a stage two of that retaliation. and obviously, iran continues to be in the mix in terms of retaliating for haniya's assassination. so, yes, the parties are keen in influencing these negotiations. they want to see the war in gaza come to a close. it's very painful for the iranian axis in the region to essentially lose its palestinian arm if hamas is defeated outright in gaza. so, yes, all eyes are on the talks, and that's what iran and hezbollah continue to focus on. and just quickly, a key to all these talks is what israel intends to do going forward. tell us what you think netanyahu is hoping to achieve with his course of action that we've been seeing. yeah, well, i mean, netanyahu is keeping everybody guessing. clearly, there are differences of opinion within israel proper. some on the negotiating team believe that the prime minister is not giving them the leeway they need to come to a conclusion, to come to a deal. so, there are questions out there as to whether netanyahu wants to see such a deal come to. obviously, the prime minister has to face a day of reckoning once the guns fall silent in terms of what happened, his responsibility for what happened
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on october 7th. so, it's an open question as to whether netanyahu actually wants a ceasefire. and then even if there is a deal, this is a complex multi—stage negotiation multi three stage deal. so, there's a lot of thinking that there might be a successful conclusion to this, but they might falter after the first stage of that deal. the messaging app telegram says its founder and chief executive has "nothing to hide" after he was arrested in france. pavel durov was detained when his private jet landed in paris. he's accused of failing to moderate content, or to co—operate with investigations into the use of the platform by criminals. telegram says the claims are "absurd." will vernon has more details. by the way, it's my first public appearance... he's known as russia's zuckerberg. pavel durov, the billionaire ceo of telegram, likes to show off his extravagant lifestyle, as well as his muscles, on social media.
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but now, mr durov, who lives in dubai, has been arrested — shortly after landing his private jet at this airport in paris. french media say he's accused of failing to take action against criminals using telegram. telegram is one of the world's most downloaded apps, with almosti billion users. it's most popular in russia and ukraine, used by both pro—kremlin media and by ukrainian officials, such as president zelensky. pro—democracy groups in places like iran and hong kong also use telegram, but it's controversial because there's very little moderation of material posted. governments have often struggled to persuade the company to remove content. western law enforcement agencies are increasingly concerned about telegram's use by drug traffickers, terrorist groups and paedophiles. 0ne german security chief called it "a medium for radicalisation". have you come under pressure from other governments... in a recent interview, pavel durov said he was right to refuse some requests
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to remove content. where we thought it would be crossing the line, it wouldn't be in line with our values of freedom of speech and protecting people's private correspondence, we would ignore. today, russian officials on state tv accused the west of double standards over the arrest — a lesson in democracy from the kremlin. will vernon, bbc news. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.
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german prosecutors have confirmed they're treating friday's mass stabbing in the city of solingen as an act of terrorism. it follows the arrest of a 26—year—old syrian man, who's accused of being a member of the islamic state group. three people were killed. eight others were wounded, four of them still in a serious condition
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in hospital. a british man working for the reuters news agency in ukraine has been killed in a missile attack on a hotel. ryan evans was a safety advisor for a group who were staying at the hotel sapphire in kramatorsk. two journalists from the team are in hospital and one is being treated for serious injuries. the news agency said it was sending its deepest condolences and thoughts to mr evans' family and loved ones. tens of thousands of rohingya refugees have rallied in camps in bangladesh, calling for an end to violence and a safe return to myanmar. chanting it comes on the seventh anniversary of the brutal military crackdown in myanmar�*s rakhine state, which forced hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims to flee their homes. more than a million of them are still living in squalid camps in southern bangladesh, with little prospect of returning home.
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and in recent weeks, fighting has escalated in rakhine state, with thousands more rohingya believed to have fled. translation: life as a refugee feels like a life of slavery, - and we don't want to continue living this way. our future vision is to return to our country, live in freedom, and enjoy equal rights and justice, just like everyone else in the world. tom andrews is the un special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in myanmar. he told me what the main thing to understand is about the situation the rohingya are facing in rakhine state. history is repeating itself. first of all, there's a great deal of frustration among the more than one million rohingya in bangladesh because of the conditions of the camps. they're very frustrated that seven years after the genocidal attacks, no—one has been held accountable. the commander of those attacks is now the senior general of the myanmar junta. that is, of course, responsible for a military coup and controlling a large sections of the country. so, there's a great deal
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of frustration among the people who are in those camps. and the fundamental reality back seven years ago that drove much of this is that the international community not only failed to hold those responsible accountable, but they largely ignored the conditions that led up to those genocidal attacks and that horror. the frustration right now is that history is repeating itself. thousands of people, as you mentioned, have been forced out of the country. tens of thousands have been displaced. villages are being attacked. we know thatjust in the past few days, dozens of people lost their lives trying to cross the naf river. lost their lives trying to cross the naf river and bangladesh has closed its borders. so, the people that are demonstrating and the people that are on the other side of the border are deeply, deeply frustrated. they are in peril. and once again, history
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is repeating itself with the international community largely ignoring this horror. and tell us a bit more about how complicated the situation is getting in rakhine state, because the rohingya people have been caught in the middle now between the myanmar army and the arakan army, which is an ethnic militia that's fighting against the army. that's right. well, the rakhine state right now is at war, and the rohingya are in between these two warring armies, both of them. both armies have been setting up encampments inside of rohingya villages, which exposes those villages to attacks. we know that the militaryjunta forces have been deliberately stoking anger and frustration between the two communities, setting up fake protests, forcing rohingya to engage in these protests, taking videos of them and then showing them, and they're circulating widely among rakhine communities. so, frustration and anger between the communities is at a very, very high pitch. it's very, very dangerous. but we know that villages
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are being attacked, they're being burned to the ground. reports that both sides of this conflict are engaged in this. and once again, the rohingya are caught in between. now, you mentioned that the international community has largely failed the rohingya people. we've seen recent political turmoil in bangladesh, a change of government there as well. is there any hope, or is there any optimism on your side to think that political situations could change to to help the people that are that are suffering in both rakhine state and also those refugees in bangladesh? i think the only way that this can be addressed, steve, is for the international community to engage in a very high—profile engagement of this crisis. ideally, the un security council would hold
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an emergency session to address not only what's going on, but the root causes and develop an action plan to address it. but if that can't happen, then those countries, those members of the united nations that care about what's going on, care about these massive human rights violations, and the people who are in peril need to focus public attention on this need to gather in an international convening in which an action plan is established and developed. that action plan should include bangladesh opened its borders to those who literally have no other place to go, but also to provide bangladesh with the support necessary to be able to sustain the number of people that will be coming over into bangladesh because they're literally running for their lives. we need to address the humanitarian crisis inside of rakhine state. we know that tens of thousands have been displaced there without food, without water,
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many of them are missing. we just can't locate them at all. we know that many are suffering from not only hunger and malnutrition, but diseases that are killing even young children as we speak. so there needs to be a focus of attention by the international community. humanitarian aid which is now being blocked has to be opened. we need to be able to get people to safety, and we need to be able to provide them with a safe harbour, literally in bangladesh, if that is their only option, which right now for thousands and thousands, it is their only option. three people have been stabbed at the notting hill carnival in west london. police say they include a 32—year—old woman who is in a life—threatening condition in hospital. two men aged 29 and 2a were also stabbed during the first full day of the event. around 7,000 officers are patrolling this year's street festival, which is the largest in europe and is expected to attract about a million people across the bank holiday weekend. staying with the uk, the prime minister is warning that things will get worse
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before they get better. in a speech this week, sir keir starmer will say there are no quick fixes to the problems left by the conservatives. but the tories have accused labour of "fabricating" claims of a black hole in the national finances, in order to justify planned tax rises. here's our political correspondent iain watson. cheers and applause. the last time labour won a big majority, in 1997, we were told things could only get better. there seemed to be a hint of that optimism, too, when keir starmer swept to power this summer. the sunlight of hope, pale at first, but getting stronger through the day, shining once again... but this has been eclipsed. his message now is that things could get worse before they get better, and he's blaming the previous conservative government. the prime minister says he's releasing some offenders early because of a fundamental failure of the last government to provide enough prison places, and even this is blamed on his predecessors. he says that rioters exploited cracks in society created by 14 years of conservative rule.
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we've inherited a society problem, too. there's a lot of work to do, but the speech will also say that progress will be made. itjust won't be made overnight. labour claims the state of the public finances are worse than anticipated — this means tough choices. the chancellor has removed winter fuel payments from the vast majority of pensioners, creating unease in their own party and criticism from opponents. it does feel very restrictive, | a cut that will hit pensioners when we see the increase to the energy price cap, l plus cuts to cost of living i payments that they enjoyed last winter. i think it makes it look very difficultj and in terms of change, - which is what the government promised us during the general election, i don't think - this is the change thatl people were voting for. and the conservatives are accusing labour of fabricating a black hole in the public finances to clear the way for tax rises. labour say they'll make difficult choices, but these will generate early political headwinds. iain watson, bbc news.
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before we go, how's this for a birthday celebration? a 102—year—old second world war veteran from suffolk has become britain's oldest skydiver, after leaping out of a plane to celebrate her birthday, and to raise money for charity. ben brown has more. cheering. before the jump, manette baillie said she "doesn't do fear". manette served in the women's royal naval service during the second world war and was married to a paratrooper. afterwards, she did admit thejump had been a bit scary and that she had to keep her eyes firmly shut, but she clearly enjoyed it. there you go! you jumped, how was that? oh, it was wonderful! hip hip... all: hooray! later on, there was a more conventional celebration in a village hall. it was a wonderful, you know, celebration of the whole thing.
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two years ago, manette spent her 100th birthday at silverstone, behind the wheel of a ferrari. i want to inspire other people who are getting worried about being 80 and 90 that there is a future for you — even if you're coming up to being a centenarian. so who knows what other adventures await her in the future? i look forward to seeing what she gets up to for 103. thanks for your company. hello there. when it comes to rainfall totals so far this month, there's quite a marked contrast between the northwest and the southeast. hardly any rainfall in comparison to what we should be seeing for this month, but further north and west, we've had double the amount of rainfall — over 200% in the far northwest of scotland and across the lake district as well. and in fact, that's where we're likely to see further rain to add to these totals to close out the month of august,
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potentially another 18mm in the extreme northwest, whereas hardly any traceable usable rain once again across eastern england and southeast england. so, for monday, we are going to see a relatively dry, quiet day. this weak weather front, a band of cloud, a few nuisance showers close to the scottish borders, northern england and north wales. to the north and south of that, sunny spells, breezy, but the winds not as strong as over the weekend, and it will feel a little warmer, which is good news for many as it's the bank holiday weekend away from scotland, so highs likely of 23 degrees. as we move into tuesday, central and southern areas under this influence of high pressure into the near continent, but a toppling around that high is another low moving in, bringing wet and windy weather, but at the same time, the wind direction swings around to a south—westerly and just taps into some pretty warm air coming from the near continent.
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so, the rain still heavy as it moves out of the scottish borders and into north wales, but ahead of it, with that sunshine and that increasing warmth, we should see temperatures at 25 degrees — that's 77 fahrenheit. we're looking at mid to high teens across scotland. now, that weather front is not moving very far at all on wednesday as it continues to bump into this area of high pressure, so we could see this conveyor belt of rain just sitting across south west england, wales and northern england for a time. and that means we'll see some increasing warmth. still a level of uncertainty where that front is going to be sitting, but potentially from hull down to the isle of wight, anywhere south and east of that could see temperatures peaking at 27 or 28 degrees — that's 82 fahrenheit. we keep some sunshine and warmth, although not quite as warm, through thursday and friday across england and wales. staying unsettled further northwest.
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rate cut ahead. us stocks jump as the federal reserve boss says it is time for the central bank to change its policy. plus...why more than half of fortune 500 companies view artificial intelligence as a risk.
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hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the united states, where federal reserve bossjerome powell has made his much anticipated speech at an annual gathering of central bankers. he said the time has come for the fed to cut interest rates, as the world's largest economy continues to grow at a solid pace — with inflation and jobs data supporting a rate cut. the upside risks to inflation have diminished. and the downside risks to employment have increased. as we highlighted in our last fomc statement, we are attentive to the risks to both sides of our dual mandate. the time has come for policy to adjust. the direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks us stock markets edged higher on friday on powell's remarks. investors widely expect a rate cut in september, and some
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believe the fed will keep cutting rates through the end

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