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tv   BBC News The Context  PBS  August 5, 2024 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT

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woman: a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial adsor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" " i'm helena humphrey. " glad you could join me. >> of asked for early consideration of the earliest identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law. >> all residents can be assured
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we will do everything within our power to keep you safe, and those taking part in criminal activities, they will face every possible consequence helena: officers have worked through the night to begin identifying ose involved in these orinda scenes. please be assured if you were there, we will find you. ♪ helena: as we come on air, police and the u.k. city of plymouth are dealing with groups who have gathered to protest, more than 370 people have been arrested over the past week of violent disorder and britain. the prime minister has announced a standing army of specialist police officers. also, a day of enormous a people in bangladesh as the long-running prime minister, sheikh hasina, please the country.
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u.s. stock markets tumble following falls in europe and asia as fears rise that the american economy is heading for a slowdown, and is the planet mercury enters retrograde, we look at whether it leads to absolute chaos and doesn't have a direct link to an increase in personal problems. we start here in the u.k. where the city of plymouth is dealing with rival groups who have gathered to protest. these are the latest pictures we have from the groups in the city. as you can see it is a tense scene with a large police presence keeping the groups apart. earlier u.k. prime minister said his government was ramping up the criminal justice system to deal wh those charged involved in riots over the weekend with some already appearing in court today. police say 378 arrests have been made since the violence started last week and they expect that total to rise every day as more are identified. the unrest began last week after
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the fatal stabbing of three girls. some on social media wrongly blamed the attacks on eight migrant. police officers were assaulted and petrol bombs thrown at hotels and asylum-seekers. the worst of that violent death violence yesterday was in south yorkshire. our correspondent is there and sent this report. >> after the wanton violence of the night before, today them into -- the meticulous work of gathering evidence, collecting fingerprints at the holiday express, so detectives can bring the rioters to justice. last night's disorder here led the prime minister to promise that a force of 6000 riot train police officers will be established that can be sent anywhere in england and wales. >> i'm absolutely clear that we will have the officers we need,
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where we need them, to deal with this disorder. and that is why the standing army has been set up, specialist officers ready to be deployed to support immunities. >> the riots here left 12 peace injured, dozens more have been hurt across the week. protesters break into the hotel housing migrants and rampaged through corridors, terrifying those inside. south yorkshire police said today that some of the rioters not only wanted to damage the hotel, they also wanted to cause serious harm to the residents and staff inside. as the police gathered evidence, neighbors work together to repair their homes after fence posts were looted from their gardens to be used as battering rams. >> obviously when there was a few of them in the garden, she took the cat in the basket and went to my friend's house. >> it makes no sense, this has
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been a ride about those kids getting stabbed, which was so awful, my heart goes out to those families. but there's kids in this building, they were time to set them on fire last night, trying to burn them alive. that is absolutely disgusting. >> this is the moment he's referring to when a been was pushed up to the door >> and set on fire. >>officers have worked through the night to begin identifying those involved in these orinda scenes. these be assured, if you were there, we will find you, and you will be accountable for your part in yesterday's violence. >> since last tuesday, 378 people have now been arrested across the u.k. and police say they expect the number to rise significantly. meanwhile, forces have braced for more trouble. helena: helena: joining me as
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the cofounder of the better together organization, set up after his wife was murdered by a far-right terrorist in 2016. thank you very much for being with us here on the program. i like to start with the comments from the prime minisr today, saying there will be the standing army of police officers now available. what do you make of that response? >> i think that's certainly a key part of the response. we can't let these violent thugs terrorize ordinary people on their streets, we can't let them attempt to murder men, women, and children in their hotels. we can allow them to take what is an awful tragedy and turn that into an agenda of hatred against minorities, against muslims, against asylum-seekers and refugees. so that criminal justice response, both the quick justice peace they are trying to put in
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place, and the improved policing, we need to haul them to it. of course that is not enough. we also need to think about who was it that radicalize these people? who was it that made them think it was ok to react to something as awful as this with violence, to turn that violence against particular groups. so there has to be bigger learning in the aftermath of this, but in the meantime, in the immediate moment, that policing response is what we need. helena: you were just mentioning about more responsibility being needed. who do you think should be taking that for some of this radicalization? >> i think it's clear, there is a whole lot of it that is down to social media, voices on social media who are sharing conspiracy stories, who are simply lying, making things up in order to get retweets,
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shares, more followers to get people to donate to their accounts. that is the big picture of it, and the responsibility of social media companies cannot in the aftermath of this we dodged ymore. but we also have to think about our mainstream politics and our mainstream agenda. how is that i think relatively mainstream politicians have got people so panicked about how they talk about the islamist takeover of the u.k. that people think this is an existential moment. they genuinely fear that their countries being taken over by invaders. that is not true. it is not the case, and the fact that we were telling people that, the fact that we were scaring people, is one of the things in the aftermath of this we all have to examine our own behavior and ask what do we do to contribute to this? those politics on the right have helena: helena: a lot to answer
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for. of course there is no justification to this kind of violence as the prime minister has been setting out, but others will say the disinformation in some parts of the country, there are people who wanted to express concerns, not the rioters, to be very clear. can the government have a conversation about those concerns whilst also tackling this? >> let's be completely open about this. it is a completely legitimate, normal part of politics to talk about immigration, to talk about brexit, about your community and whether it feels recognized in our society or not. all of those this are completely legitimate conversations to have. what is it legitimate is to turn that anxiety, fear, worry, into prejudice, into hatred and violence. the people that are conducting this violence, or a tiny portion of our society, and we need to
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remember that. they don't represent our country. the people all cleaning up in the aftermath of this, volunteering their time, providing free taxi rides for people who need to going visit hospital in the aftermath of the attack, those are people that represent our country, but we do have to make sure we address this 2%. part of that is about talking about the justice system and making sure that people get justice. helena: i want to briefly ask what you think your late wife's message would be, looking at this? >> i think she would be incredibly upset. i think she would be surprised, and i think she would be worried about how quickly this took root, and frankly, how some voices that she would've thought would've taken a stronger stand
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remain too quiet on this for too long. helena: brandon cox, the cofounder of the better together organization. thank you for sharing your thoughts with us here on "the context." police say 378 arrests have been made since the rioting in towns and cities in england began a week ago. some of those charged have been appearing in court already today. daniel looks at those facing charges. reporter: under arrest, but is the situation under control? and what inflamed it? after weekend of violence, today came a series of court appearances. those charged include a boy of 14 and a pensioner, aged 69. some could face years in prison. john honey, seen in the st. george's cross t-shirt, is charged with violent disorder. visible in a stream of online videos on saturday leading to
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looting stores and part of this terrifying attacked forcing the car's occupants to flee for their lives. a range of people took part in the disorder from children to long-term far-right activists. one of those present in southport was a convicted terrorist, a neo-nazi, using the mayhem to promote a race war. a former head of counterterrorism policing system violen has crossed the threshold into terrorism. >> we've seen serious acts of violence designed to cause terror to a section of our community which across the line into terrorism. i hope my successors are looking at that very closely. >> the targeting of hotels believed to be housing migrants comes after years of demonization bthe far-right, withists of hotels shared on social media, making it hard to
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know what might be struck next. >> on next, he spent the weekend inciting his thousands of followers. he was handed back his ex account by the firms owner, elon musk's, who posted saying the u.k. was heading to civil war. x has not replied to the bbc's request for comment. >> everyone who runs a social media be responsible. social media companies should be called to account and if they're not willing to exercise social responsibility, they should be legislated against. >> partly because of social media, police feared this wave of violence is far from over. helena: around the wld and
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across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪
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helena: it's been a dave enormous people in bangladesh after weeks of protests and clashes. the long writing prime minister sheikh hasina resigned and fled the country. these pictures show the helicopter leaving. more than 300 people have been killed since protest began last month, escalating into demands for the prime minister to stand down after 15 years in power. long after sheikh hasina left, thousands of protesters stormed her official residence while crowd celebrated in the streets. widespread looting was also reported. in a televised address to the nation, the head of angle best -- bangladesh army said an interim government would be formed. in the last couple of hours it was announced that the leading
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opposition figure would be released from prison. six years ago she was jailed on corruption charges that critics claimed were trumped up. the president has also ordered the release of jailed protesters. our south asia correspondent reports now from india. reporter: demanding justice, they came by the thousands, calling for sheikh hasina to leave. and toy, the protesters got what they wanted. in an address to the nation, the army chief said the prime minister has left the country, that an interim government will be put in place. for weeks, the country has been mired in violence, a swift and deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests by police. hundreds left dead, many more injured.
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sheikh hasina's tenure was marred by allegations of human rights violation, election rigging, the murder and jailing of political rivals. jubilation now that her iron grip on bangladesh has ended. but that quickly turned to vandalism. huge crowds storming and looting her official residence. >> we lost our freedom of speech. we could not speak our mind. and today you see everyone is out here. so i am here to celebrate, and we must believe and we must never forget that if you speak the truth, you should never fear. >> chaos remains, the autocratic leader may be gone, but bangladesh's troubles are far from over. helena: we can speak to michael krugman, director of the south
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asia institute, welcome to you. 15 years in power for sheikh hasina, did you expect her to depart this way? >> i had thought that her days were numbered. she had been losing support, she had been losing legitimacy. so many people were so angry about her government response to peaceful protest. but she is a very strong, stubborn leader, and i would've thought that she would've tried to ride things out for a few more days or a few more weeks, but clearly someone told her that it was not safe for her to continue be in power and to continue to be in bangladesh given how unstable the situation had become. helena: i wonder where you think the country goes from here, because the chief of the army has said there will now be an interim government. we've seen the scenes of celebration, but i wonder how long you think that could last, what we might see in terms of a
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transition, and a democratic one at that. >> there is a lot of unrest that is still playing out in bangladesh and i think it could be very difficult to have the proper political environment to put together an interim government, so long as you had that unrest and violence continuing to play out. there's just a lot of uncertainty about bangladesh in the immediate future. we don't know how long it will take to form an interim government or how long an interim government will be in place. and of course we don't know how long the violence will continue. in a volatile situation such as the one in bangladesh, long periods of uncertainty raise the risk of more violence and unrest. hopefully it will be more clear in the coming days as to what will be next, in terms of the interim government and hopefully the violence and unrest will subside sooner rather than later. helena: it's worth remembering in all this that sheikh hasina
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was the longest-serving female head of government anywhere in the world. so how did we get here? how did the tide turn on her rule? >> i would argue that she had been losing legitimacy gradually in recent years. she was reelected in successive elections that were widely viewed as not credible. the most recent election earlier this year, the opposition boycotted and the economy had gone downhill over the last few years. sheikh hasina had staged her legitimacy on bangladesh's economic road story. the key factor was the way in which the government responded to these peaceful protest. the fact that you had helicopters firing on crowds of peaceful protesters down below, the fact that you had several dozen people according to preliminary investigations that were shot in the head as part of this crackdown. i think the extent and the scale of the government's was just too much and it raised the anger and
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made very difficult for her to be in a position to stay in power. helena: a level of violence not seen since bangladesh was fighting for its independence in 1971. we know that sheikh hasina in a helicopter landing today in india, what do you think relations between bangladesh and delhi and sheikh hasina look like? >> no country is impacted more india, no country is impacted more deleterious leave than india when it comes to these changes in bangladesh, just because for many years, the indian government had viewed sheikh hasina and her party as the only viable political set up in bangladesh. it viewed any alternative is something that could threaten indian interests because of the view that the opposition is a dangerous islamist force.
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so india is in a tough spot, but there's very little it can do right now. i suspect it will try to engage to the extent that it can with the key stakeholders in bangladesh which really consist of the army, and wait and watch and hope for the best. helena: michael, good to have your thoughts. thank you. several of the world's major stock markets suffered a major stumble on monday. it was a reaction to slowing job growth in the u.s. and friday's decision to lift interest rates in japan. the nikkei index had its largest points fall in history after the bank of japan announce its main interest rate would go up two points when he 5%, the highest it's been in 15 years. the u.s. department of labor announced only 144,000 jobs were added to the economy in july, far fewer than expected.
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if you'll spears the world's largest economy could be slowing and heading for recession. james mccann joins us from boston, good to have you with us. help us understand this, because much of the talk had been in the u.s. about seeing a soft landing, and now we are seeing concerns over the possibility the u.s. recession has tanked markets on monday, particularly in japan. help us understand what is going on here. james: there is a real concern, we've not seen rates rise like this and not be in a recession many times through recent history. so there's a real red light alert coming from the u.s. labor market and that has caused a great deal of fear in financial markets. at the same time we've obviously got this big shift between the u.s. and japan, pushing the yen
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higher and forcing investors to unwind a number the positions they had built. it's been painful and we've seen a sharp, volatile move on what interest rates and markets are pricing. helena: would this indicate to you that the u.s. federal reserve exley waited too long to cut interest rates? james: hindsight is a wonderful thing. if it were this wednesday and set up last wednesday, they would be cutting rates this week. they are a little behind the curve at the momen having said that, i don't think they will pending. the market is doing some of the work for them. the market -- rates are nearly 150 basis points lower so already were starting to see it
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start to fall. i don't think vid needs to do something drastic like an unscheduled emergency meeting to cut rates, think the market is always under the pressure but it will be on red alert when it's looking to its next meeting in september. helena: economies around the world will be watching this very closely, concerned about the possibility for global contagion here. what do you make of that? james: absolutely it's a concern for the global economy, if the u.s. is sliding into recession. we don't see the signs at the economy is cracking, but this is a concern for sure. if the u.s. were to slide into recession, when u.s. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.
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it would be a certain knock on effect if the u.s. were hit by domest recession helena: helena:. james mccann joining us from boston. james comer really good to talk to you, thanks so much. james: thank you. helena: you're watching bbc with me here on "the context." stay with us if you can. goodbye for now. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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