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tv   BBC News  BBC News  September 8, 2017 2:00am-2:31am BST

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welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: hurricane irma devastates the islands of the eastern caribbean. barbuda and st martin pick up the pieces. irma heads for haiti and then florida where mass evacuations are ordered. an unfolding humanitarian disaster. families flee myanmar were buddhists are targeting rohingya muslim villages. and a special report on nightmarish conditions in a refugee camp in libya. hello. hurricane irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the atlantic, is sweeping across the eastern caribbean with devastating force. at least ten people have died and hundreds of buildings have been
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flattened or flooded. deaths are reported in the us and british virgin islands and anguilla. haiti and the turks & caicos islands are now making frantic preparations. the islands of barbuda and st martin were the first to feel the full force of the winds and storm surge. then puerto rico, cuba and florida still lie ahead. with phone lines down, roads destroyed by flooding, airports damaged, communication and getting aid in is difficult. our correspondent laura bicker sent this report from puerto rico. hurricane irma, a storm the size of france, has carved a destructive path through the caribbean. in puerto rico, three people were killed as winds battered the island. as daylight came and the clear—out began, most felt lucky to have survived such a terrifying storm. i pray god don't come here no more! this family told me they felt blessed to be alive and that the only damage
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was a downed power line and fallen trees in their street. they've kept eight—month—old aaron safe. there is a collective sigh of relief in puerto rico. there is work to be done. up to 30ft waves threw up debris and downed trees. but when it comes to that catastrophic eye of the hurricane, that only skirted this island, unlike others in the caribbean. on the tiny island of barbuda, barely a building was left untouched. hundreds of families now find themselves homeless. my house, i lose my home. i lose my shop. also my vehicle. everything's damaged. and right now, i don't have nowhere to go to sleep. we had cars flying over our heads. we had containers, 40ft containers, flying left and right, and the story that you are getting from most of the residents here is that the eye
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of the storm came just in time. persons were literally tying themselves to their roofs with ropes to keep them down. barbuda's prime minister said the island was now barely habitable. what i saw was heart—wrenching. i mean, absolutely devastating. i would say that about 95% of the properties would have suffered some level of damage. in neighbouring st martin, the full force of the hurricane‘s eye was caught on camera. winds of 185 mph hammered the island. more than 70,000 people live in this area, which is made of dutch and french territories. shipping containers were tossed around like lego bricks. moored boats were smashed in the harbour and there are warnings that the death toll is likely to rise. france has sent three emergency
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teams to help with the clear—up and has already set up a reconstruction fund. in the british territory of anguilla, there was criticism from residents to the uk response to the hurricane. it was labelled "pathetic" and "disgraceful". a british task force is now on its way there, including the royal marines and army engineers, although it could take two weeks for them to get there. efforts are also under way to try to get supplies to the island of st ba rts. the french government say their priority is making sure people have food and drinking water. and the british virgin islands, a sought—after holiday destination, is the latest place to be pummelled. the water is going up. a tropical paradise, transformed. it literally went up and then sat there. hurricane irma is not finished. she has maintained her wind speeds and is barrelling towards another british territory, the low—lying
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turks & caicos islands. the us sunshine state of florida will be next in her sights. they are nervous after watching others endure her wrath. laura bicker, bbc news, puerto rico. the chief minister of anguilla told the bbc the british overseas territory is trying to recover but also preparing for the next storm, hurricane jose, is on also preparing for the next storm, hurricanejose, is on it's way behind irma. the situation now, we are going into recovery mode, but at the same time hurricanejose is taking the same path towards anguilla. irma did vast destruction to our territory, including government and private sectors. the hospital was severely damaged to the extent the majority of the rooms... the roof was off those rooms.
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the police station, the government buildings, the house of assembly, the offices of schools and a number of government buildings were damaged severely and it means that we will be set back for some time to recover. additionally, in the private sector, homes and residences have been damaged, roofs are torn off. very few houses haven't had damage of some sort or other. the majority of houses are concrete, but some roofs are made out of wood and galvanised and shingles and that sort of stuff. 0ccasionally in a hurricane, they don't fare as well as the concrete roofs. so we've had some damage to buildings but for the most part buildings with concrete roofs have made it. we've had issues with windows blown
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out and things of that nature. thankfully many, many lives have been saved. 0ne life has been lost as a result of the hurricane. as i said before, one life lost is too many, but we are grateful for the fact that life has been spared. people in florida are now trying to prepare for whatever may come. evacuations have been ordered in some areas and authorities are urging everyone to heed the warnings. the bbc‘s aleem maqbool is at miami airport. for much of the day it looked very chaotic at the airport. tens of thousands of people in this part of florida have been issued evacuation orders so you florida have been issued evacuation orders so you can florida have been issued evacuation orders so you can imagine people trying to scramble onto flights before the hurricane hits. we've seen a lot of tourists actually as well, some of whom have been caught in limbo because they were meant to
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have been here in florida into the next week or so but on the one hand they're being told by their hotels they're being told by their hotels they have to evacuate and then they come here and there told there aren't any seats on flights back to the uk for example. so some people are paying an awful lot of money for first class seats because they're the only ones left. for the rest of them there aren't any seats available at all so a lot of very anxious tourists stuck here. they don't know what the coming days are going to bring, they don't know what they're going to do, but of course that goes for a lot of people across this state who are being told to prepare for irma hitting on sunday. we're talking about a storm that is wider than the state itself and it isa wider than the state itself and it is a peninsular where people as they evacuate by road are often going along the same route north out of this part of the state and so there has been congestion, there have been issues with fuel, but people are being told from coastal areas to
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leave because one of the biggest worries is that storm surge and it's estimated there is coastal flooding, sudden coastal flooding could estimated there is coastal flooding, sudden coastalflooding could be estimated there is coastal flooding, sudden coastal flooding could be up to ten feet high, which is life—threatening so people are being cold there's no way to prepare for that and to get out of the area. of course this area has been hit by hurricanes in the past. remember andrew in 1992. so in some senses some of the buildings are prepared for hurricanes, there are shelters available to some, but that doesn't mean people here aren't extremely anxious about what is going to come in the next 48 hours or so. we are hoping to bring you more from people at the heart of this but as you can imagine communications difficult at the moment. and you can get all the latest updates on hurricane irma, including a map showing when its predicted to make landfall and where, on our website. just go to bbc.com/news. let's take a look at some of the other stories
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making the news. pope francis has urged colombians to set aside vengeance as they come to terms with a peace deal signed last year with farc rebels. he was speaking to huge crowds in bogota on the first full day of his visit to the country, the first by a pope in over three decades. a son of the philippine president has denied involvement in a multi—million dollar drug smuggling operation. paolo duterte told a senate hearing the allegations against him were baseless, although he refused to answer questions. his father, president rodrigo duterte, launched a violent campaign against drug crime last year and has promised to resign if any family members are involved in the trade. china has expressed shock after an indian army chief said his country should be prepared for all—out war with both china and pakistan. the comments come just days after the end of a ten—week standoff with the chinese army in the himalayas. the chinese foreign ministry says a healthy and stable relationship is in the interests of both countries. this week we've been reporting from bangladesh,
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where more than 160,000 rohingya muslims have been fleeing the violence in the mainly buddhist country of myanmar. the authorities there have blamed rohingya militants for provoking the crisis by attacking police stations. 0ur correspondentjustin rowlatt has been to a refugee camp in teknaf near the border with myanmar. they arrive barefoot, their shoes lost in the mud on the long journey here. this is an exodus on a truly massive scale. rohingya muslims have been pouring into bangladesh from myanmar. they say the military and local buddhists are destroying their villages, after rohingya militants attacked police posts two weeks ago. the current estimate is that 164,000 have crossed over, but the truth is no—one knows for certain how many have come. so we've justjoined this kind of river of humanity, because we've been told a refugee
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camp has sort of erupted in the field here, and thousands and thousands of people have made camp there. a un official was told there were 15,000 people here. this is what she found. she told the bbc she couldn't say how many refugees have sought shelter here. perhaps as many as 100,000. everyone needs food, everyone needs water. and everyone has a horrific story to tell. translation: my three sons were taken. i don't know where they are. i have nothing to eat. please give me something. there are horrific images too. villages burning, allegedly torched by soldiers from the myanmar army. translation: lots, lots, lots of people died.
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this is my village. first they set it on fire, and then they shot us from helicopters and from the ground. mr shafiq saw some appalling scenes on his long trek. bodies floating in the river, rohingya refugees drowned in their search for safety, he says. and then the final hurdle — the barbed wire fence that marks the border with bangladesh. the bbc cannot verify any of this footage, but the stories the refugees tell are remarkably similar. and still they keep on coming. they have been driven from their homes into this, into what is a rapidly escalating humanitarian disaster. justin rowlatt, bbc news, teknaf. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: prince george starts school with a
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helping hand from dad. freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans, here — of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites, in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and a clear voice, enough of blood and tears — enough! the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it is an exodus of up to 60,000 people, caused by the uneven pace
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of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is bbc news. the latest headlines: hurricane burma is hitting and leaving a trail of devastation across the eastern caribbean islands. at least ten people are reported dead. let's go live now to anguilla, and on the line is alison strand. can you hear me ok? anguilla, and on the line is alison strand. can you hear me 0k? yes, i can. thank you for talking to us, i know that you are from staffordshire, but you live with yourfamily in staffordshire, but you live with your family in anguilla. just tell us your family in anguilla. just tell us please what happened — your house
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was destroyed in radu? yes. my house, many houses here. i lost my roof completely. the garden is now in the house. a lot of people are in a very similar situation. there is no power on the island. the communications are doing their best to have basic communication. people are trying to clear the roads here so that we can get access to basic provisions. the navy did arrive today and there have been helicopters in the air dropping supplies to the hospital. helicopters in the air dropping supplies to the hospitallj helicopters in the air dropping supplies to the hospital. i know that you have had to live through this. you are still probably living through this. could you take us three. you are hunkered down in your house. presumably you are not seeing much because of the shutters boarded up. what are you hearing, what are you feeling, as the storm hits? yes, at 2am the eye of the storm hit us.
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we thought that was quite a powerful force. it kept churning and churning and getting stronger and stronger. the noise was just phenomenal. you can hear your house being ripped apart. you know, the waves beating against the side of the house. we could hear the trees falling. it was such a force that most people... hurricane shutters were broken from the flying debris under pressure from this storm with something that has never been experienced before. what ashley happened with most people's houses, there was such a build up of pressure that they sort of exploded. so the hurricane shutters came off, the windows exploded and furniture was sucked out of people's houses. most houses i've seen are empty of any furnishings. it is strewn all around the island. we thought at four
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o'clock we had the worst of it. but it kept getting stronger and stronger. and at 6am that is when we lost the roof and the noise of that was obviously quite intent. we lost the lot of our hurricane shutters. we were bailing out. just trying to keep the kids warm and safe. and you had pretty much your whole family there. how do the people hang on with all of that going on? hope. we we re with all of that going on? hope. we were in the bath with a mattress above us. that is how we managed to keep safe and dry. i think a lot of people were in a similar situation. we have seen houses with cars that have been picked up and thrown through the house. and we are very
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grateful that we have came out this alive. and there has been very minimal loss of life on the island. what is left now? we have heard from some people that the petrol pump has left, so they can't get fuel for generators, so there is no power may be four weeks or months? yeah, we don't be we will have power on the island for months. it certainly won't be weeks. there is a general lack of generators on the island anyway. there is no fuel. water will start to run out. so we are really reliant on any help that can be brought in from the outside. i know when hurricane lewis hit the island we had a lot of support from the island around us. but of course in this instance those islands have also been hit. all we can really hope is that we have the navy here
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now. and we have seen helicopters in the air dropping off supplies. we hope that we can get generators sent to the island. people are obviously, you know, in desperate need of power. we are going to be needing water soon. provisions will start to run out. yes. we are in for a long haul. and i hate to say it, but you know it of course, you have another hurricane on the way. thank you so much for talking to us. all the very best to you. bbc news has witnessed around a thousand, mostly african migrants, being held in detention in libya in inhumane conditions. the medical charity doctors without borders says migrants and refugees who want to cross the mediterranean to italy are being detained in what it's calling nightmarish conditions. but the eu is still encouraging libya to prevent migrants leaving its shores, and wants the libyan coastguard to intercept those who do. the bbc‘s orla guerin has gained rare access to the main detention centre in tripoli. cramped together in punishing heat. the migrants europe doesn't want. trapped in libya, a country
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in chaos, that doesn't want them either. most travelled from sub saharan africa. some were stopped at sea, others on dry land. now they are in triq al sika, the largest detention centre in tripoli. we were given unfettered access to those suffering here. ijust need to go back home. you understand ? because here, it is like, you know, in hell. it is like in hell for me. that's how i feel. well, this is the reality for those being held in detention in libya. the men here have asked us to show these conditions. they are very anxious for all of this to be seen. this is prison by any other name. the only hope of release for these men is to be deported back to their home countries, but that can take time to arrange. some of those here have been languishing in this centre for six months.
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it's really hard and they close the door, so it really gets that people can't breathe well. people faint sometimes. it's pretty hot in here. my guide, hennessy, is 18 and from south sudan but for three years, he was a london schoolboy while his father worked in the uk. hennessy paid traffickers to get back to london but was kidnapped by an armed gang in libya. he escaped by leaping from a moving truck. the time we jumped off, there was a chad man, an old chad man. he was shot, so blood went all over my t—shirt so i thought i was shot as well. i was so scared. i just ran away. grim as things are here, hennessy says conditions were far worse in another detention centre where there were daily beatings by the guards. if people make noise, or if people rush for food, you get beaten. if people want to use the bathroom,
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or if people want to drink water, theyjust make you lie down on your stomach, the whole jail, and everyone gets about five, five. everyone. everyone gets beaten? everyone gets beaten. and that's only one risk on the migrant trail through libya. the men are pawns, to be bought and sold by militias. some forced into slave labour. it was horrible, horrible. emmanuel was beaten by a gang linked to the traffickers. but what pained him most is what he heard them do to two teenage girls. they went into the second room and they raped the girls. they raped two girls, yeah. and we couldn't do anything because we didn't have anything to defend ourselves with. staff here call them broken men, starved of hope and nourishment. for breakfast, just bread and butter.
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officials tell us they have no funds to pay food suppliers so they rely on donations. and among those going hungry, women and children, held in a separate section. sola is just three months old. he was at the mercy of the mediterranean when a smuggler‘s boat broke down. "police arrested us", said his mother, wasila. "since then, we have been in five prisons". outside, the latest arrivals, weary, barefoot, turned around at sea by the coastguard. young dreams dashed. instead of a new life in europe, returned to the nightmare of libya. the green paint daubed on by their traffickers, proof they paid their fare. human beings, branded like cattle
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a lot of tough times for a lot of people right now. and for a little light relief, something more cheerful, these photos of prince george on his first day in school here in england. the four—year—old arrived wearing regulation issue school jumper and navy shorts. his mum the duchess of cambridge — now pregnant with the couple's third child — is suffering from severe morning sickness so george was taken on his first school run by his dad and met in the playground by a teacher. he's attending a preparatory school in london that costs more than $23,000 a year. he'll be known as george cambridge. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you very much for watching.
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hello. we're keeping our eye on three hurricanes in the caribbean. hurricanejose hot on the heels of hurricane irma, not quite as strong as irma, but still the potential for damaging winds for the northern leeward islands by the weekend. hurricane irma is heading turks and caicos, heading through cuba on friday, eventually florida by the weekend and hurricane katia in the gulf of mexico more a rain maker, with a lot of damaging wind. back home, it's somewhat quieter over here, but still an unsettled end to the week, thanks to this area of low pressure driving the weather. and there'll be strong winds at times particularly across southern coastal counties and the north—west of scotland and northern ireland as well. here, there'll be some showers from the word go. not quite so many showers here first thing tomorrow across the eastern side of scotland, maybe some
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sunshine coming through, but always a lot of cloud. and showers never too far away across northern england. there'll be some spells of sunshine coming through across northern parts of wales, but again there'll be some showers here through the day. and the showers already getting going across south—west england, and across southern coastal counties of england. they will start to become a little bit more frequent, and the rain more persistent. the showers merging, really, to give a longer spell of rain. so it's quite an unsettled feel to the end of the week. for many northern parts of england, parts of scotland and northern ireland, it's a day, really, of sunshine and showers. but for wales, southern and central parts of england, those showers, as i mentioned, becoming more frequent, and merging together for a longer spell of rain. you could well even catch a rumble of thunder during the afternoon. so temperatures no great shakes, really, somewhere between 16 and 19 celsius for most. there'll be further heavy showers, longer spells of rain around tomorrow evening. slowly, we start to lose some of the energy, but there will be more showers around overnight, so nowhere reliably dry. but there should be some lengthier clear spells in between the showers. a slightly fresher night, lows of 11 or 12 celsius.
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but, for most, still in double figures. and it's still a fairly unsettled weekend. sunshine and showers i think should just about cover it for saturday. the emphasis more on dry weather and not quite as many showers. but again, nowhere reliably dry, and the temperatures still not much higher than 18 or 19 celsius. and we do it all again on sunday. many places should get off to a reasonably dry start, but then we look to the north—west, something unsettled is happening here — strengthening winds, and spells of rain, light to very heavy, sweeping across the country. so for the weekend here, yes, wet at times, rather cool and quiet, windy as well. this is bbc news, the headlines: hurricane irma has left a swathe of destruction as it sweeps across the eastern caribbean. it's already lashed barbuda, where almost all of the buildings have been destroyed. it's now on its way to haiti and the turks & caicos islands. storm surges, flooding and high winds are expected. more than 160,000 rohingya muslims have now fled violence in myanmar.
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the exodus across the border into bangladesh was sparked by a crackdown by burmese security forces. the authorities there have blamed rohingya militants for provoking the crisis by attacking police stations. bbc news has witnessed around 1,000 mostly african migrants, being held in detention in libya in inhumane conditions. the medical charity doctors without borders says migrants wanting to cross the mediterranean to italy are being detained in what it's calling nightmarish conditions. now on bbc news, a recap of the political day in westminster with thursday in parliament.
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