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tv   BBC News  BBC News  July 24, 2017 3:00am-3:31am BST

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welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: at least nine people have died after being trapped in the back of a truck in texas — police say they were victims of people trafficking. the israeli embassy injordan is in lockdown after two people are killed in a shooting. a major clean—up operation gets under way on new zealand's south island after some of the region's worst floods on record. and the world's first floating wind farm takes to the seas off the coast of scotland. a ninth person has died after what immigration officials in the us state of texas say was a people—smuggling operation gone wrong.
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around thirty others had been locked in the back of a truck in the city of san antonio in sweltering heat — without water or air conditioning. earlier, i spoke to guillermo contreras. he's a senior reporter with san antonio express—news. i asked him what was the state of the people that were pulled out of the truck alive. well, last we heard many of them are in critical condition suffering from heat exhaustion, dehydration. as you can imagine, being locked in a trailer, being trapped in there is almost like an oven. it is over 100 fahrenheit, 32 celsius, very hot in there. our understanding is that many of those in there were male and many were young. what does that indicate to you about where the men were headed?
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what we see is mostly younger males trying to... they go in for farm labour. the hotel maintenance, construction. we see them coming in and sometimes they bring teenage children or relatives who believe they can work as well in the fields. so authorities are calling this people trafficking gone wrong. how does work and how common is it in particular part of texas? there is a chain of smugglers running a rout. it depends on where they are going. this case, truckers may hook up with somebody they know through the course of trucking in whatever state in the united states are going to. they start off there they say, ok, i can collect a load. i am going to texas i can collect
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a load of lettuce and the smuggler on one end will say, well, we have a proposal for you. if you can pick up this many people we will pay you x amount of dollars per head. that is the way they are treated. like cattle. to see them in trailers this way seems like it has been increasing. we have had at least two or three incidents before this one where people were rescued before they died. i know that you have been investigating the man alleged to have been driving this truck. what has happened to him? he is in a federaljail here in san antonio. he was apparently still at the scene when this happened. so he was queried, and my understanding is he was taken to a facility for processing and questioning by the agents. he was jailed.
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he has been held, is being held on preliminary charges and makes a court appearance tomorrow. ron nirenberg is the mayor of san antonio texas where the tragedy happened. he joins us from there now. this is a shocking but quite common for you, isn't it? well, u nfortu nately, yes. for you, isn't it? well, unfortunately, yes. we know that especially here in texas, human trafficking is a crime. local governments, when these tragedies occur, governments, when these tragedies occui’, oui’ governments, when these tragedies occur, our first governments, when these tragedies occur, ourfirst response is governments, when these tragedies occur, our first response is to governments, when these tragedies occur, ourfirst response is to run to their aid occur, ourfirst response is to run to theiraid and occur, ourfirst response is to run to their aid and treat this like the humanitarian crisis it is. and now you are treating those who have been pulled out alive. what will happen to them when they make a recovery? well, again, our most important focus right now is to deliver compassionate care. our first responders immediately were on the
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scene delivering first aid, transporting, sometimes, by a critical condition patients to local hospitals and trying to prevent more loss of life than what had already occurred. this, by nature of the crime was committed is in the federal governmentjurisdiction and so federal governmentjurisdiction and so they are the ones carrying out the investigation. what would you like to see happen to those people once they have recovered? our focus, again, is to make sure that there they sit needs are taken care of. that we provide for them with medical assistance so there is no more loss of life. our hope is that these people will be reunited with their loved ones but let this be a lesson that, you know, in our city when there is anyone, man woman or child who was in need of help, we will provide them help. what is
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happening to break up the smuggling chains which seem to be operating with impunity where you are? well... in multiplejurisdictions with impunity where you are? well... in multiple jurisdictions are involved. our understanding the roots that the traffic is an... in many cases, this is happening within the country for many purposes. u nfortu nately the country for many purposes. unfortunately many times that children are the victims. were working with authorities, we are working... in many cases witnesses to understand the magnitude of these crimes and also to prevent it from occurring. in this case we will whip oui’ occurring. in this case we will whip our witnesses to a human tragedy in oui’ our witnesses to a human tragedy in our city, our first response and our response as local officials is to render aid. we do appreciate you taking the time to talk to us here on bbc world news.
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white house officials are sending out mixed messages after the us congress reached a bipartisan agreement to impose sanctions against russia, intended as punishment for alleged meddling in the presidential election. the new white house communications director said the president was yet to decide whether to sign it but white house press secretary, sarah huckabee—sanders, insisted the administration was happy with the final bill. twojordanians are believed to have died and one other person injured after a shooting at the israeli embassy in jordan. the building, in the capital, amman, has been sealed off. greg dawson reports. the entire embassy compound was evacuated and on lockdown after the shooting. so far israel is refusing to comment on what happened here. police in amman have been talking. they say two men, apparently working for a furniture company, entered the complex shortly before gunfire was heard. they have confirmed that two jordanians were killed,
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and two other men injured, one of them an israeli. little has been revealed about what sparked this incident as violence against israelis is rare injordan. but this is a time of increasing tension to do with land in east jerusalem. jordan remains the custodian known to muslims as the sharif and tojewish people as the temple mount. on friday, thousands held protests in amman denouncing new security measures put in place at the site by israel. the measures triggered what was called a day of rage on friday. several people were killed and hundreds injured in violent clashes. despite pressure from palestinians, israeli officials
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are refusing to buckle and for now the metal detectors will remain. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. philippine president rodrigo duterte will deliver a second state of the nation address to a joint session of congress in the next few hours. he is expected to talk about the ongoing and controversial war on drugs, the conflict in marawi against islamist militants and economic policy. the uk independent police complaints commission is investigating the death of a 20—year—old black man who was chased into a shop and restrained by police in east london. there's been an outcry since security camera footage of the incident was shared on social media. the borough police commander for hackney said officers would be asked to account for their actions. six months into his administration and president trump has yet to come up with a strategy for dealing with america's longest war — the war in afghanistan. his administration is supposed to be poised to announce a significant increase in troops but there have been repeated delays. so are more troops the answer?
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our south asia correspondent justin rowlatt, reports from kabul. the afghan army calls in air support to defend troops from a taliban attack. a fighter plane swoops into action, protecting the troops on the ground... radio: we have a visual on the building to the north. nice shot. ..by taking out enemy targets. air support is crucial to modern warfare as this american—led training exercise shows. it is something the afghan military has not been capable of until very recently. major hamayoun zarin is one of afg hanistan's first fully—trained fighter pilots. the country's first top gun. if you miss the target by two metres, we call it a missed target, as the reason we didn't kill any civilians only enemy forces.
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the afghan air force is getting dozens of new attack helicopters, too. america and its nato allies plan to treble the number of aircraft over the next five years. air support makes all the difference in the world because it provides an asymmetric advantage over the enemy. in military terms that means is, it is something you have that they do not have. so train the afghan military to have an air force when the insurgents do not have an air force, provides an enormous advantage for them. developing new capabilities like air power is one of the key arguments the us military is making for increasing troop numbers. president trump is considering sending up to 4000 more troops here, nato allies will add a few thousand more, bringing the total number of foreign troops in afghanistan close to 20,000. but in 2010, there were around 130,000 foreign troops
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and they could not defeat the taliban. thejob they do, absolutely incredible. president trump and his defence secretary, jim mattis, discussed afghanistan at the pentagon this week. mattis knows it's a stalemate. after 16 years of war, the taliban controls 10% of the country and contests and other third, meanwhile islamic state and al-qaeda are also active. so pull out and the insurgency will flourish, which is why the american military has concluded that slowly strengthening afghan forces is the only real option. the hope is that eventually they will be strong enough to force the taliban to the negotiating table. it's no victory but it's better than the alternative. the question now is whether
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president trump agrees. justin rowlatt, bbc news, karbul. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: from logrolling to wood chopping, competitors from around the world gather in wisconsin for the annual lumberjack championships. mission control: you can see them coming down the ladder now. armstrong: that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. a catastrophic engine fire is being blamed tonight for the first crash in the 30 year history of concorde, the world's only supersonic airliner. it was one of the most vivid symbols of the violence and hatred that tore apart the state of yugoslavia. but now, a decade later,
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it's been painstakingly rebuilt and opens again today. there's been a 50% decrease in sperm quantity and an increase in malfunctioning sperm unable to swim properly. thousands of households across the country are suspiciously quiet this lunchtime as children bury their noses in the final instalment of harry potter. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: at least nine people have died after being trapped in the back of a truck in texas. police say they were victims of people trafficking. the israeli embassy injordan has been put in lockdown after two people were killed in a shooting incident. the number of migrants arriving in greece is picking up again,
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putting increasing pressure on a country still struggling economically. more than 8,000 people have arrived so far this year, down from the thousands who were turning up every week two years ago. but since then a deal to deport failed asylum seekers back to turkey, and the slow process of investigating cases, has led to a bottleneck in greece, and on the island of lesbos in particular. our correspondent mark lowen reports. a scene that has defined europe, played out almost daily for the last two years. staged, this time, by amnesty international, a message to europe by migrants trapped in greece or risking deportation to turkey. ii—year—old rania al—obaidi escaped mosul and so—called islamic state. for a year she was kept in moria migrant camp in lesbos. she has been moved, but the memories endure.
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they fight so much. yes, and i see three people dead in my eyes. they have fight, and they're dead, and i see so much blood. i see everything in moria. i see everything, and i see mosul. scarring the olive groves of lesbos, moria now holds around 3,000 migrants. it is stretched and beset with problems. gunfire. this footage obtained by the bbc appears to show police violence during recent rioting. some migrants burnt tents and threw stones. they're beaten by guards. one escapes, but a policeman goes to any length to stop him. the poor conditions and incessant wait for asylum applications are fuelling the rage. eddie mangai says he fled congo as a political prisoner. the daily struggle here defies the empty slogans.
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makeshift games pass the time. "greeks saved us when we were in the water," he says. "may god bless them for it." "but now the syrians are getting papers and we aren't." "we're in a prison here." "we need free movement in greece." the one tap is out in the bush. greece, still in financial crisis, forced to bear the brunt of the migrant one. the number of new arrivals is a fraction of what it was and the media has somewhat moved on, but the problem persists. crowds of migrants in an increasingly permanent camp, battling long asylum procedures. thousands stuck here in greece, caught in europe's forgotten crisis. we get self—harming. we get drunkenness, drug addictions, things that we didn't used to see here. obviously, i think, are directly the results of the depression and frustration. and to be honest, the greeks, i know they feel frustrated and they feel abandoned.
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the island feels abandoned by the mainland, and all of greece feels abandoned by the eu. europe's most bankrupt country has become its waiting room. lives are on hold here and greece is overwhelmed. it is an explosive mix. mark lowen, bbc news, in lesbos. a major clean—up effort is under way in new zealand's south island, where a month's worth of rain has fallen in two days. it is one of the region's worst floods on record, with swollen rivers causing widespread damage and mass evacuations. david loughrey is in dunedin, where a regional state of emergency has been lifted in the last few hours. the state of emergency was stopped this morning, and that's been replaced with another recovery sort of state, which gives the local authority power to do emergency work and the like. there's a lot of water lying around, but the rivers have really dropped a lot.
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at this stage, there were some hundreds that had been evacuated but that's — now there's 142 homes still evacuated for the moment. there's a lot of slips around the city, so the city council and authorities are really now in recovery mode. and just starting that because, you know, it was pretty waterlogged until yesterday. you say the waters are receding. i wonder, what kind of mess are they leaving behind on the streets? well, i mean, in the city itself, a lot of the roads are pot—holed, et cetera and, as i said, there's quite a lot of slips. so some of them have come right over roads. others have big slips on suburbs and properties, which has left a lot of mess. in their case, the council is going out and they're doing — they're just starting now to do
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geotechnical work to see that the houses around those slips are safe. some look a wee bit precarious at the moment. how prepared was the island for this? we hear that a month's worth of rain came. was it expected? yeah, and look, this is one of the positive things about this. we knew about it. it had been on the front page of the paper the day before that this was expected. what's happened is that there has been no loss of life here, and not much in the way of livestock loss, because a lot of the flooding was in a very large farming area, near dunedin. so it was kind of a really good triumph of planning, in a way. all the stock was moved, people knew it was coming, so they were evacuated beforehand. there have been homes inundated, so if you've had your home inundated you won't be too happy. but some of the worst
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effects didn't happen, because of the preparedness, i think, of how it came about. the world's first full—scale floating wind farm is taking shape off the north—east coast of scotland. one of its five giant turbines, whose sails stretch 175 metres across, is being put in place overnight. the trial project will bring power to 20,000 homes. our environment analyst roger harrabin has been following the vast turbine's journey from norway to scotland. in the half—light of a summer night in norway, a landmark in the history of energy floats upright in the chilly water. these five towering turbines will cross the north sea to scotland, to form the world's first large—scale floating wind farm. this is engineering on an absolutely gargantuan scale. what you can see is taller than big ben. but that is only part of it. there is a third more under the water, weighted heavily at the bottom with iron ore, to keep the thing floating stable in the water.
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the turbines will be tethered to the sea bed with thick mooring lines, 15 miles off the coast of peterhead. being able to use floating offshore wind farms gives us much more flexibility when it comes to locating all these farms around the world. but a note of caution among the enthusiasm — scientists warn that far more investment in additional new technologies is needed to combat climate change. this monumental kit comes dear, but the price should fall. we think that this is a game changer, this project, for enabling us in the future to reduce the cost, and develop wind farms without any subsidies. the first turbine is hauled from the fjord by tugs. it is nearly 12,000 tonnes of steel and ballast. each blade is as wide as the wingspan of an airbus. the power of engineers to capture wind energy at sea is growing far faster than anyone dreamed of.
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roger harrabin, bbc news, norway. british cyclist chris froome has won the tour de france. he kept his composure, putting in a near—perfect performance as he secured his fourth tour de france title on paris' champs—elysees. froome did suffer two mechanical problems at key points in the race, but his rivals failed to take full advantage of this, and now he can appreciate some down time with his family. more on that in sport today. the annual world lumberjack championships has been taking place in the united states. men and women from across the globe came to test their chopping, climbing and rolling skills. they had only axes and saws to help, and there wasn't a checked shirt in sight. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. apparently, when it comes to cutting down trees,
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balance is absolutely essential. announcer: three, two, one, go. for nearly 60 years, competitors from north america and beyond, have come to take part in the lumberjack championships. this year, more than 100 of them made the trip to wisconsin. some to climb the tallest of trees, then to come right back down again. as we have already seen, there is competitive log rolling, but there is boom running as well. two lumberjacks sprint across a series of logs. again, balance is vital. first one there and back is the winner. modern lumberjacking is an equal opportunities event. this competitor winning a chainsaw as her prize. want to watch?
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stirling hart, he won both the man's standing chop event and the men's springboard chop. after all, chopping down trees is a pretty fundamental part of thejob. but don't worry, he will sleep all night, after working all day. that's because he's a lumberjack, and he's ok. tim allman, bbc news. in 2200 people managed to swim between continents, swimming 6.5 kilometres from asia to europe. the turkish olympic committee organised the cross continental swim in istanbul and said that people from 49 countries took part. hello.
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that was an up—and—down weekend. many of us saw rain at some stage of the weekend. for some of us, it came from big clouds, threatening skies, and some intense downpours, but i think most of us saw some sunshine at some stage of the weekend, as well. in the sunshine, it wasn't too bad. but it is still up and down as we go through this week. that means we could see changeable weather on the way. but going to try to turn things drier and warmer in the next couple of days. not going to last, mind you. unsettled from wednesday. we'll all see some rain on wednesday, and the wind will be picking up, as well, during the second half of the week. now, the area of low pressure that produced the downpours over the weekend still close by for monday, affecting parts of central and eastern england. then we've got a bit of a gap, and we're looking to developments in the atlantic to bring
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more of that unsettled weather from midweek. but from monday, cloudy, with outbreaks of rain affecting some central and eastern parts of the uk as we go through the day, from that area of low pressure, and a cool breeze, as well. whereas the western side of the uk — going to be a lovely day across south—west england, wales, some long, sunny spells to be found here. but, through much of the midlands, south—east england, east anglia, up through yorkshire into north—east england, plenty of cloud around. the further east you are, into east anglia and the far south—east, a few sunny spells among the clouds. parts of yorkshire, to begin the day some outbreaks of rain. north—east england, though, bearing up quite well. northern ireland, a few fog patches around to begin the day. plenty of sunshine in western scotland. rather cloudy, and low cloud at that, into the far north—east of scotland, northern isles, hanging around during the day. and it is an east—west split for monday's weather. if you're underneath this cloud, it will feel quite cool, though it may brighten up and see the odd sharp shower in parts of east anglia and the far south—east of england. but for wales, for western england, for northern ireland, and for northern scotland,
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where in in some sunshine it will be very pleasant. 25 celsius in glasgow, though a late—day shower somewhere in western scotland can't be ruled out. as we go through monday evening, still some of those outbreaks of rain in the east of england, gradually beginning to pull away as we say goodbye to that area of low pressure. still some cloud around, though, from it, as we begin the day on tuesday. should start to break up, some sunny spells coming through again, and a gap between weather systems on tuesday. so take advantage of that, and enjoy the warmth in that sunshine, though it is still on the cool side for some along north sea coasts, with an onshore breeze. but here is that wet and windy weather system coming in for wednesday. well, it is the summer holidays. doesn't look like that, though, on the chart here, and there will be rain spreading right across the uk, strengthening wind to near—gale in the north—west. and then for thursday and friday, some cooler and fresher air, this is bbc news — the headlines. police in the us state of texas have arrested a truck driver whose vehicle was found in a walmart car park with eight people dead in the back of it.
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a ninth person later died in hospital. around 30 others had been locked in the truck in sweltering heat without water or air conditioning. there's been a shooting incident close to the israeli embassy in thejordanian capital, amman. local police said twojordanian men were killed and two others injured, one of them an israeli. the shooting took place at a residence in the embassy compound. a major clean—up effort is under way in new zealand's south island, where a month's worth of rain has fallen in two days. it's one of the region's worst floods on record, with swollen rivers causing widespread damage and mass evacuations. a local state of emergency has now been lifted. now on bbc news, it's dateline london. hello and welcome to dateline london, i'mjane hill.
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