tv BBC News The Context PBS December 6, 2023 5:00pm-5:31pm PST
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has tonight written a letter to the security council urging them to help subvert a humanitarian catastrophe in gaza. 1.1 one million people are in you in shelters and he warns that humanitarian operation is about to collapse. we will get reaction from the former israeli prime minister. a great rift in the conservative party. the government is preparing new laws to bolster their rwanda asylum policy. he said it was impossible to continue in his position with such strong disagreement over the direction of policy. a stressful night for the current prime ministeand a stressful night for the former one. boris johnson has been in quarantine for covid and he admits he should have acted earlier. and in dubai, deadlocks.
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u.n. climate chief has accused some of the biggest nations of posturing. good evening. we will bring you all the reaction to the breaking story from westminster on robin jen rick's resignation. but we start with the situation in gaza. israel says the troops are in the center, fighting intense battles with hamas in a town that played host to tens of thousands of people who were displaced during the its earlier operations in gaza city. there are reports of tanks on the outskirts of the city and house to house combat. there is also a subterranean battle underway and the idf is searching through the tunnels that hamas is moving weapons and hostages. hospitals in gaza say they are overwhelmed with casualties with
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patients lying on blood stained floors and this has led to antonio can terrorists saying more than 80% of gaza's population has been driven from their homes. he said the war may aggravate existing threats to international security. with this report from gaza, we do not have a report, i thought we did. we will bring it later. let's start with the former prime minister of israel, thank you very much for being with us this evening. i am just reading comments from the leaders of the g7 this evening who say they need more urgent action to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in gaza. more pauses. what would you say to the leaders urging restraint? >> i entirely understand their concern. must say everyone in israel is equally concerned about the
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possible humanitarian outcome and the need for israel to continue their operation in order to drive out the orders of hamas. breaking down the power of hamas, however, we are completely aware of the possible ramifications to all the individuals and that is why we suggested to them to move out of the centers so they will not be hurt. i know it is not simple, it is difficult. and there may be some effects that would be critical. i am fully aware. we tried to do the most that we can. christian: it is not just
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difficult, it is time consuming. the french president said if the aim is to totally destroy hamas, it will take 10 years. what does the total destruction of hamas look like to you? >> i must say since i am not presently in the position to make decisions, i do not sit in that headquarters of the military operation, it would be difficult but i think president macron is somewhat exaggerating. it might take a few more weeks until we reach the headquarters of hamas, and then it may be much shorter, weeks, not months or years. we cannot and will not try to destroy the ideology of hamas, that is a different issue.
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but what we try to do is break down the military command of gaza, because this is the source of everything that has happened there and in our part with the terrible massacre of many israeli citizens. we are not avenging anything, we just try to reach out for the killers and the members that repeatedly are creating this turmoil for us and for their own people. they do not really care about the palestinians. they do not mind that the palestinians are suffering as a result of the operations because they are determined to continue what they say is the destruction of the state of israel. christian: it is not realistic, is it, to expect the idf to mop up the city in a matter of weeks if gaza and suburbs are still
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not under the control of israel after 50 days of war. so what -- when do you see the endgame? the suggestion from the white house would be early january. do you think this is just a matter of weeks? >> i cannot argue wh the white house and their predictions, i guess they have information and intelligence to base predictions. but what i want to say, which in my mind is very important, is that we have to make it clear, and i hope that is really a government agrees -- israel government agrees, we will pull out, we do not want to occupy gaza, it is not in the interest of israel and it is not in our capacity to stay there for very much longer. christian: so who will take over security at the end of this process? >> what we want, if i may just
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finish the other part, what we need to do in my mind is the most important thing,e have to declare openly and publicly and make a very firm commitment that we are prepared after the military operation to a broker on communication with the pallet -- to embark on communication with the palestinians for the basis of two states. if we do that, i think there will be more patients in london and washington for a military operation that will establish the necessary conditions for political negotiation with gaza and palestine. christian: but we are a long way away from theolitical solution. the immediate days after the war will be about shelter, food,
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providing housing for palestinians and also security. if hamas has not been entirely displaced, who is going to do that, and more importantly, who is going to decide who does that? >> first of all, i think it is more likely that hamas will be incapacitated and they will not be able to control and the results of the military operation will be devastating for them. now what i think, following what i said before, that we have to pull out from gaza, no one from the arab side, palestinians or any other arab countries will want to step in to ga instead of israel. i think there should be an international intervention force made of soldiers or armies of nato countries, somewhat similar
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to what we did in the south of lebanon and the second war of lebanon, which was very helpful and productive because it kept the entire region quiet for 1 years. since we do not want israel to stay in, it is impossible that the arabs or palestinians will step in, there should be for a year and international force that will keep it quiet as much as possible, and will will -- and will restore the civil administration which will disappear due to the collapse of hamas after the military operation. that i think will establish the necessary basis for what then will be the political process. adult -- and as i say, i am not speaking for the israeli
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government, i think it should be replaced and the prime minister should retire and that would be good for israel. i am against the current government. but if israel provides the political rising, i believe that international forces in europe and america have somewhat more patients for israel to complete the military operation but again, i am talking about a few weeks, not months and certainly not years. christian: thank you for coming on the program this evening. it is good to talk to you. the political agenda in the u.k. this week has been dedicated to sorting out immigration. today they unveiled emergency legislation to enshrined in law new treaties and assignment for rwanda to be paid to process asylum claims on britain's behalf but legislation is supposed to serve as a deterrent
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crossing the channel of those in boats. -- serve as a deterrent to those crossing the channel in small boats. but now the politician who was supposed to carry it through parliament has resigned. he says it does not give the government the best chance of success and this is a triumph of hope over experience. he says the stakes for the country are too high to not pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges. this emergency legislation is the last opportunity to prove this and in its current drafting, it does not go far enough, he says. that was the theme this afternoon when spoiler bravo mine address the house of commons. our political correspondent is with us for westminster. it was in the program and it has
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been thrown out because we are so busy. let's talk about what he doesn't like in this document. what does he particularly oppose? reporter:e is resigning he says because the proposed law does not go far enough, not because he disagrees the government is doing too much, he thinks it is not doing enough to try to tackle the issue. the specific thing he seems to be worried about, braverman used to be his boss, she was kicked out by mr. sunak a short time ago, both are concerned they want to block off any roots that individuals would have to bring legal challenges to being deported to rwanda. so block off the avenues of the human rights laws, the legislation does some of that but it does not go far enough and the problem i think for mr. sunak is that the government
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sees this as a crucial issue. important controlling illegal immigration, irregular arrival of asylum-seekers on the shores of the u.k. and they see that as important becausthere is a huge bill for dealing with it and a huge number of cases stuck in that system and cservatives worry about the pressure's the rivals bring on housing in school and they also think this is an important electrical issue -- electoral issue. but some are except he is not going far enough and those on the left or centrists, they worry what is proposed will block off human rights protections the u.k. signed up to in this instance and say people cannot use that and the power to disregard rulings from
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the european court do not deport someone. christian: so the prime minister is at odds with the right of his party. does the resignation of his immigration minister precipitate potentially another leader challenge? reporter: it is unclear. it seems unlikely. the feeling has been all along that conservatives have been to many of these issues and they are getting too close to an election to go through another one but we have heard this evening those close to ms. braverman and jen rick that when addressed earlier, he said i have gone as far as i can with the legislation in rwanda does not want me to go further because they do not want to be associated with a british government that would be blocking avenues of international law to get the policy through so i have gone as far as i can and he has gone further than quite a few people
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thought the legislation might go but their allies say that was totally ridiculous, cooked up, they call it an argument of a desperate move from the government and its death throes and that is people within the prime minister's own party so yes he has real problems on the right but jen rick was supportive in his resignation letter towards mr. sunak. the difficulty he will have now is getting it through the comments because opposition party is already saying this is a weak government divided amongst itself, the immigration minister wasn't even there when this was presented, they say this is a big waste of time and money and only a few people would be sent to rwanda and there could be huge legal challenges to this coming down the line. christian: interesting that the political right says she was told by one senior minister that he was positioning himself for the future and robin is
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distancing himself from rishi sunak. there will be lots of comment no doubt about where this leads going forward. thank you for that. i want to bring you other breaking news. reuters says las vegas police are hunting and active shooter in las vegas who has opened fire on the campus of the university of nevada and there are multiple victims, we are told. police have posted a statement to x saying they are urging residents to avoid the area. las vegas has had a mass shooting before. and active shooter is at large in las vegas. we will bring you more on that as we get it. it has been five months since
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the u.k. covid inquiry started but for many today was the day they were waiting for, the day boris johnson faced the inquiry to answer questions about his government's handling about the pandemic. he apologized for the pain, loss, suffering caused during the pandemic and that he takes personal responsibility for th mistakes made but insisted his government had done the best they could in very difficult circumances. vicki young was watching. >> the whole truth and nothing but the truth. reporter: mr. johnson's chance to give the whole truth of the story and he began with an apology. >> i am glad to be at the inquiry. i want to say how sorry i am for the pain and loss and suffering of the covid victims -- >> please, sit down. could you ask him to leave? reporter: these were the four women thrown out for
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interrupting and saying they would never accept his apologies. inside, questions about february, 2020. coronavirus had spread to italy as the cabinet discussed what plans were in place here >>. i look at all this stuff in which we seem so oblivious, with horror. we should have [indiscernible] much sooner. reporter: the seriousness of the virus understood lead to lockdown. several former colleagues led to -- said mr. johnson was indecisive. he said he was weighing different options. >> there is a risk to the u.k. bond markets and the ability to raise sovereign debt. this matters massively to people in this country. i had to go through the arguments. and that is what i was doing. >> do you consider the argument
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against lockdown? >> i am afraid to say at that stage i gave it short shrift because i thought my job was to protect you and i. i had no other tool, literally nothing else. christian: sam from the university of sussex, what did you learn today from the evidence that johnson gave? >> this was an interesting boris johnson, very different to the last time we really saw him under this kind of pressure which was during another inquiry. i think he had a lot of time to prepare and this was a humble boris johnson and i suspect he had one eye on the headlines, one eye on his legacy, and trying to think about ways in which to explain actions that
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were made in a way that can sorta bring the public around to understand the complexity of the situation. so it was a much different boris johnson from what many are used to. christian: there was a fair bit of time spent on why the system was so slow to recognize how serious covid was getting to be. he said he was acting on scientific advice he was getting , which he admitted was baffling . does there need to be a machinery of government going forward that could make decisions on issues like this more quickly? >> i think this is precisely why this is going to be much less damaging for boris johnson and his future political prospects then something like the privileges committee inquiry. because we are not just talking about personal or party failure,
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this was also institutional failure and institutional questions to be asked and answered about pandemic preparedness and i think it is quite clear through the evidence that there was not enough done in the lead up to the pandemic to prepare us for this. so one of the outcomes of the inquiry might be to think about how what the next crisis might be and how to prevent that chaos we heard about in the early days so we can be more prepared in the future. christian: briefly. i am pressed for time. would the u.k. have coped better with a different prime minister? >> that is the question and it is impossible to answer. one thing we know about boris johnson is he is not necessarily a detailed's person.
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-- details person. if there was a politician more detail oriented and technocratic , would they have fared better? the u.k. was further down in the statistics in europe and most countries so perhaps with a more detail oriented prime minister, it might have been a slightly different story. christian: sam, thank you. we will talk more about that in the second half of the program. we are in the middle of the united nations climate summit in dubai. the criticism is not enough is being accomplished. our correspondent carl is in dubai. 200 countries in the second week.
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reporter: there was pushing and prodding today from simon steele, the top u.n. climate official, saying what we need from the negotiations is real action, quick moving action. he called it what we need is a bullet train, not a rickety caboose on rusty tracks. we are not the only ones here. negotiators just left the building to the right. they looked tired. i tried to get their attention to ask how things were going, thumbs-up or thumbs down and we got one of these. it is difficult. these are always tough negotiations. there are a lot of good ingredients to work with and that is why there is also optimism. we saw pledges and promises and agreements coming in and the first three days in dubai and those were good foundations and if they are able to get it into the text, take an agreement by
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more than 100 nations to triple the renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, that would be very quick action. we saw the launching of a loss and damages fund to help give money to developing nations on the front lines of climate change, so a good foundation for getting it into the text. the final treaty that we see at the end of the talks is the next challenge. christian: this is where it all gets done. carl, thank you very much for that. we are keeping abreast of a live shooting incident in las vegas. police are responding to additional reports of shots narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial servic firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors.
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