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tv   BBC News  BBC News  August 7, 2018 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 mike embley. our top stories: with the united states now out of the international nuclear deal with iran, president trump is re—imposing sanctions. and the moment the tremor struck. indonesian officials say nearly 100 people have died in the latest lombok earthquake. two britons accused of beheading western hostages in syria tell the bbc they shouldn't be sent for trial to the us. at the trial of donald trump's former campaign chairman, a key witness testifies that he helped paul manafort submit false tax returns. the moving animal sculptures powered by wind now attracting the attention of nasa. hello.
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the united states has reimposed sanctions on iran, following up president trump's decision to withdraw from the international agreement, designed to curb tehran‘s nuclear programme. the first phase of sanctions will target iran's purchase of us dollars, the trade in precious metals, and its car industry. in tehran president rouhani said the trump administration's previous offer of talks and this latest action do not make sense. our north america editor jon sopel reports. the demonstrations may be sporadic and they may be geographically widespread, but discontent across iran with the state of the country's economy is high and could be about to get a whole lot higher still. the us will reimpose sanctions from tomorrow, making life even tougher. so what can be done to avoid this? president trump's national security adviser was characteristically blunt. they could take up the president's offer to negotiate with them,
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to give up their ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes fully and really verifiably, not under the onerous terms of the iran nuclear deal which really are not satisfactory, to stop their support for international terrorism, to give up their military activities in the region. the sanctions are a direct result of america pulling out the iran nuclear deal, negotiated by the obama administration, along with britain and other european nations. in return for halting its nuclear programme for a decade, the country was promised sanctions really. president trump always maintained it gave iran far too much, for too little in return. so today he signed a new package of measures, warmly welcomed by allies in the region. translation: i praise president trump and the american administration for the decision to impose sanctions on iran. this is an important moment for israel, for the us, the region and the entire world. it signifies the determination to halt iran's regional aggression and also its ongoing plans to arm itself with nuclear weapons. the sanctions will hit
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iran's car industry, trade in gold and precious metals and the ability to purchase us currency in foreign exchange markets. from november, 2018, sanctions will be extended and they'll target iran's crucial oil industry. but from tehran today, defiance. translation: trump and his government are the ones who have rejected negotiations and turned their back on diplomacy. what he is doing is against the iranian nation and against the national interests of iran. iran is ready for diplomacy if there's honesty in the process. 0n the streets and in the markets, the iranian economy has been rocked by the sharp decline in the value of the rial against the dollar, sparking social unrest. america says its goal is not regime change, but it is certainly turning the heat up on iran's rulers. jon sopel, bbc news, washington.
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more on this later in the programme. let's get some of the day's other news. saudi arabia is freezing all new trade and investment deals with canada and expelling the canadian ambassador. riyadh's envoy to ottawa is also being recalled. last week, canada's foreign ministry criticised the arrest in saudi arabia of women's rights activists, including the saudi—american human rights campaigner, samar badawi, sister of the jailed blogger raif badawi. at least two people have been killed, 55 hurt, when an oil tanker exploded in motorway traffic near bologna in northern italy. the tanker collided with a lorry, and the resulting fireball brought down part of the bridge they were on and shattered the windows of many houses in the area. authorities say the death toll may rise — several people are in critical condition. the president of ivory coast, alassane 0uattara,
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has declared an amnesty for the controversial former first lady, simone gbagbo. she's been serving a 20—yearjail sentence for endangering state security. in all, 800 people were freed. brazil has closed its land border with venezuela in response to an order from a federaljudge. the ruling aims to stop the influx of venezuelans fleeing economic and political turmoil. hundreds have been crossing every day and many are now living in squalid conditions. in indonesia, thousands of people have been left stranded, after a second earthquake hit the holiday island of lombok and the surrounding area. more than 90 people are known to have died and hundreds have been injured. thousands of others have been left without shelter, and are having to camp out in the fields. 0ur correspondent mehulika sitepu is in lombok and sent us this report. it struck without warning, sending thousands into the streets to seek shelter. the 6.9 magnitude quake
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is the second to have hit the island of lombok in just over a week, causing yet more chaos, destruction and death. and it has displaced thousands who were driven out of their homes in the fear the after—shocks could bring about a tsunami. for the locals here, the quake comes all too soon after the one last week which displaced 10,000 people from their homes. a further 10,000 are expected tojoin them in rescue camps like this where they can find food, water and shelter. hundreds of tourists are among those stranded. the normally serene paradise beaches covered in swarms of people desperate to leave by any means possible. but there aren't enough boats. some at the island's airport, though, are managing to leave. we didn't get a wink of sleep and we're currently in the airport. as soon as the earthquake hit we booked a flight to just
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get home straight away. in the fresh light of day, a sense of the scale of the damage. homes and buildings reduced to rubble, and a desperate hunt for those who may have survived. translation: my son and wife all survived but my nephew hurt his head and he died because of the damage from the wall. there were also three children who died. hundreds are injured and medical staff are struggling to cope with the numbers turning up at the hospitals in the main city, mataram. translation: we should try to minimise the effects of this earthquake as quickly as possible, be it evacuation of the dead or the injured. they should be treated as well as they can be. the tsunami threat has been lifted and no further large tremors are predicted, but the death toll is expected to rise. mehulika sitepu, bbc news, lombok. and you can find more
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information about the earthquake in indonesia on our website — including interviews with victims and witnesses, and details about earthquakes as a phenomenon. that's at bbc.com/news or you can download the bbc news app. two men accused of being part of a terror cell in the islamic state group, that beheaded western hostages and were called the beatles by their captives, have questioned the government's attempt to have them tried in america. speaking for the first time since the legal moves were made public, alexanda koty and shafee el sheikh told the bbc, they were not part of the cell, and they haven't been stripped of their british citizenship. they're being held in northern syria, and have been speaking to our middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville. for seven months now, alexanda koty and el shafee elsheikh have been held in kurdish and american custody in northern syria. the us government alleges that the men waterboarded, crucified and executed prisoners as part of a jihadist cell dubbed "the beatles" by the prisoners.
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what did you do in is? as for the specific details as to what i was doing while living in is—controlled territories, a question i prefer to decline to answer at this present stage. for legal reasons. do you still deny that you were a member of the group known as the beatles which carried out executions and beheadings? yes, of course. el shafee? same question? yeah. the gang is blamed for the brutal killings of britons alan henning and david haines, and the murders of americans james foley, abdul—rahman peter kassig and steven sotloff. kayla mueller was also ta ken captive. none of the bodies of the dead have been found. did you ever meet kayla mueller? who?
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kayla mueller. remind me. she was an american ngo worker. we didn't meet any foreign non—muslims. the gruesome videos from the group set a new grim low. defenceless journalists and aid workers were beheaded in front of the camera. the chief executioner was mohammed emwazi, dubbedjihadijohn. but he was only the ringmaster, one of a group of four who imprisoned, tortured and executed as many as 27 prisoners. emwazi was killed by a us drone strike. did the two men know the islamic state's most notorious executioner, and did they spend time with him, i asked. he's a friend of mine. jihadijohn? he was nicknamed that, yeah. the emwazi, the jihadi john that the rest of the world knows is an executioner, someone who's been called a psychopath.
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yeah. somebody who will be remembered for his cruelty and his brutality. that's their way to choose to remember him. i choose to remember him differently. you wouldn't condemn his torture and his beheadings of the likes of james foley... i took a position... ..alan henning, and... i took a position of not speaking of him at all in a negative way. so, you've no remorse, there is no shame, it wasn't you? i have many regrets, notjust being here, previous to coming here. i have my regrets. not about coming to syria. i told them that britain wants to send them to the united states where they could face the death penalty. what makes the british government want a british citizen to be tried in america? but they've stripped you of your citizenship. that hasn't been confirmed.
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for now, the fate of alexanda koty and el shafee elsheikh remains uncertain. the government's plan, that they face trial in the united states, is under judicial review. former hostages tell us that they want them to face western justice. in the meantime, the two men have been returned to solitary confinement. they are being held under heavy guard at an undisclosed location in northern syria. quentin somerville, bbc news. and here's our diplomatic correspondent james landale with more on the accusations levelled against the two men. the allegations against alexanda kotey and el shafee elsheikh a re pretty clear. the british home secretary, sajid david, said in a letter recently there was intelligence that implicated both men in the murders of a number of individuals including three americans and two britons. the us state department says specifically elsheikh had a reputation for mock executions and crucifixions and alexanda kotey was responsible for cruel forms
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of torture so the allegations against them, which they deny, are clear. what is less clear is what is going to happen to them in the future and whether or not they will ever face trial and that's because of a number of compensating factors. first of all, they've been held by kurdish militia in northern syria, they are not in the hands of authorities and despite what they say, the british government has stripped these two men of their british citizenship. also, the victims were international and various victims' families are saying they should be tried in different parts of the world. the british government's view is that they should be tried in the united states and british ministers say there would be a greater chance of successful prosecution in the united states. at the moment, the americans have not made up their mind whether that is what they are going to do and i think the problem is this, the fear within british government is the longer this goes on, the more this uncertainty, this legal limbo, other options may come into play. the americans might say,
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why don't we send them to guantanamo bay, without due process? or what if the sdf, the kurdish militia, decides to take matters into their own hands? might they release these two men? might they do even worse, perhaps execute them themselves? there is a fear within the british government that at some point, some decision has to be made. why this matters is because these two men are so high—profile, how they are handled and treated will set the bar and the tone, an example of how other foreign fighters might be treated by the west in the future. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the moving animal sculptures powered by wind, now attracting the attention of nasa. the question was whether we want to save our people,
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and japanese as well, and win the war and taking a chance to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at 2am this morning. mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all the iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigor, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she's achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc news.
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the latest headlines: with the state president trump re—imposes sanctions against iran, following the united states' withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. president is now imposing sanctions. emergency services in indonesian say nearly 100 people are now known to have died in sunday's powerful earthquake on lombok island, and more than 20,000 people are stranded. let's get more on our top story now. emily hawthorne is a middle east analyst with stratfor and she joins us now from austin, texas. what is the point of the sanctions as far as the us is concerned and how will they impact in iran? reimposing these is part of a us effort to try and change some of iran's behaviour in the region. the us views and iran as a destabilising
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—— a source of a lot of destabilising in the region and it wa nts to destabilising in the region and it wants to push iran to negotiate away some of the things that it does as well as renegotiating the nuclear deal. these are sanctions to try and bring the iran to the table. this first round of sanctionss is affecting the sale of uranium and american banknotes, as well as raw materials, steel, aluminium, car parts and the wheel related sanctions that are set to be reimposed. this will heat economic pain and put downward pressure on their currency and the us is trying to wea ke n their currency and the us is trying to weaken the government's hold on its population and to try and force them to come to the table. and if it increases and rest in iran, it is likely to damage the more moderate factions in the ukrainian leadership and strengthen ha rdliners? factions in the ukrainian leadership and strengthen hardliners? ——
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ukrainian. -- iranian. right now we are seeing a lot of discourse about what should they do economically to ride out the storm? you see some agreement between the moderate and hardline camps on how to manage the immediate concerns in the near term. the immediate economic and says they have is managing the currency value, managing the currency value, managing their currency from even further plummeting levels, it has reached new lows and they will try to keep that from plummeting further. there will also try and protect price hikes. there will protect price hikes. there will protect against further price hikes of basic goods, you think some cohesion across the political establishment. 0ver cohesion across the political establishment. over time, beyond economic question in terms of how to position iran in a security way against the united states, to position its defence and security
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activities, over time the hardliners will game an advantage throughout this period of tougher economic sanctions. there was some talk of the eu and other signatories to the deal, in a way trying to protect the deal, in a way trying to protect the deal and cushion iran because they felt the deal was working. what chance of that do you think? this is interesting about this round of sanctions, this is not the first time they have faced sanctions in relation to its nuclear programme or other activities but he is the first time they are facing such unilateral action is coming firmly from one actor, and these are quite strong, especially the ones due to come into place in november. that is what you are seeing a lot of their oil importers, turkey, china, south korea and india, you are seeing them really trying to work with the us to obtain waivers and they are also saying we don't have too followed unilateral sanctions. but you do
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have to watch the companies in those countries and see if the oil refining companies actually do draw down the amount of iranian that they are importing and we are already seeing that happen in places like turkey, south korea, japan, et cetera. thank you very much. rick gates, a longtime business associate of paul manafort, president trump's former campaign manager, has confessed at manafort‘s fraud trial that they did commit crimes by filing false tax returns and not disclosing foreign bank acounts. gates is considered a star witness in the case after he pleaded guilty in february and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. mr manafort, has instead pleaded not guilty on 18 counts. 0ur north america correspondent, peter bowes, has more from los angeles. this was arguably one of the most crucial days of this trial because rick gates was, for a decade, his right—hand man, his business associate.
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working closely with him on the election campaign during 2016 and of course, these charges were to their work outside of that campaign, largely predating the election campaign of donald trump and the whole thing has come to light because of the investigation into possible collusion with russia over the election of donald trump and whether any of his aides worked with the russians during that campaign that the serious charges of tax fraud, hiding income from overseas, are very important for paul manafort because if found guilty, he could go to jailfor the rest of his life. rick gates appearing as the star witness today being asked directly by the prosecutor whether he committed crimes, for paul manafort, and the answer was yes, he was involved in hiding bank accounts of mr manafort overseas, hiding income from overseas sources as loans so he would not have to pay taxes in the united states. he also says he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from mr manafort, his former
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employer, by submitting fake expenses so hard—hitting testimony from him. it will continue on tuesday with more questions from the prosecution and the defence will have their opportunity to speak to mr gates. they are likely to try to portray him as an unreliable witness in the trial, the trial itself likely to go on for a couple of weeks. mandatory evacuations have been ordered in california's 0range country, as another major wildfire breaks out in the state. the blaze, which has been dubbed the holy fire, began on tuesday. according to firefighters, it spread rapidly across cleveland forest canyons and now covers over 1,000 acres. eight major wildfires are now burning out of control across california, prompting president donald trump to declare a major disaster in the state. chinese moviegoers won't be viewing
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disney's new live action winnie—the pooh film, christopher robin. a disney representative confirmed that its release has been denied in china. no reason was given, but the refusal comes after authorities spent months blocking images of winnie the pooh on social media when the fictional bear became a symbol of political dissent. the chinese leader, xijinping, was compared to the bear. take a look at this. it's an amazing animal sculpture powered entirely by the wind. they‘ re called strandbeests and are the creation of the dutch artist theo jansen, who's been working on them for almost 3 decades. well now his eerie contraptions have caught the attention of nasa, which wants to use his ideas to create a windpowered rover on venus, one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito has been to meet him. scheveningen on the dutch coast,
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and a summer spectacle, the strandbeests. wind—blown mechanical artworks. you don't get used to it, not really, so it is always something special when you see them. i think they're amazing. my name is theo jansen and i try to make new forms of life on the beach where i was born 70 years ago. what you're looking at is 28 years of trial and error, expertise at creating mechanical movement, almost a mechanical brain, which is what has attracted the attention of nasa. this animation shows how their meeting with theo has influenced their thinking for a venus rover, an environment where pressure and heat is just too much for normal motors. however, he had doubts that legs could cope with the rocky surfaces, so he showed them this, his caterpillar. inspiration for a more robust design. i was honoured that nasa... they invited me and of course, i promoted the beests
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very much there. do you think one of your strandbeests will end up on another planet now? i don't think so, but i hope so. nasa is still working on a final design, but whatever they come up with, it will owe something to theo jansen‘s strange, beautiful, windborne creatures. david sillito, bbc news, scheveningen in the netherlands. is strange, beautiful and thoroughly amazing. much more on that and all the news on the bbc website. you can reach me on twitter. thank you for watching. hello there.
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today we see the last of the hot and humid conditions across the south—east before it's all change by the time we reach wednesday. we'll maintain a north—west/south—east split for the next 2a hours, that's because we've got a weak weather front across northern and western areas, largely clear skies and a very warm and muggy start in the south—east, whereas further north and west, slightly fresher and there will be more cloud around, perhaps a spot of drizzle and some hill fog too. so it means for tuesday morning it starts off relatively cloudy across many northern and western areas, but the cloud tending to thin and break. sunny spells developing quite widely. will be breezier across the north—west, but again, across the south and east, another hot and sunny day. you can see the deep orange colours unfolding there into the afternoon with highs again 29 to maybe 31 degrees. further west, though, in those yellow colours, it's going to be feeling a little bit cooler. something typical for the time of year, 18 to 22 celsius.
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and then late on tuesday evening and overnight, we could see a cluster of thundery showers move up from the near continent, grazing past south—east england and east anglia. bit of uncertainty as to how far westwards these will get, but it's all tied in with this weather front, which is going to continue to move its way eastwards during the course of tuesday night. and then by wednesday morning, we lose the hot and humid air from the south—east and then we're all into the cooler air mass. so, for wednesday it's going to feel very different to what we've been used to, particularly in the south—east. there will be some sunshine around, but some showers as well, particularly across western areas, some of them could be heavy and thundery. and there's your temperatures, 17 to 2a celsius. a good eight degrees lower in the south—east than what we've been used to on monday and tuesday. 0n into thursday then, most of the showers will be across the north—west corner of the country. sunny spells elsewhere, but there is a chance of some thundery rain moving up from the near continent, again grazing the south—east. but it could stay over the near continent, south—east could stay dry.
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and again, temperatures around the seasonal average but feeling cooler than what we've been used to. friday not a bad looking day, largely dry. some showers in the north. but then later on in the day, the skies are going to cloud over across western areas with increasing breeze ahead of a weather system. now, this is something we haven't seen much of during the summer period, but it looks like it's going to be quite a vigorous area of low pressure hurtling in across our shores just in time for the weekend. it could deliver a spell of pretty heavy rain at times, and also strong winds. could be touching gale force. so saturday's looking very unsettled with wet and windy weather moving through. for sunday, though, a little bit brighter with sunshine and showers, but it's going to feel much cooler over the weekend. this is bbc news. the headlines: donald trump has re—imposed sanctions against iran, following up his decision to withdraw the united states from the international deal that limited iran's nuclear ambitions. the president has said iran could avert sanctions by agreeing to abandon its nuclear programmes. iran's president has accused him of psychological warfare. rick gates, a key prosecution witness at the trial of paul manafort, former trump campaign chairman,
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has testified that together they filed false tax returns and tried to hide millions of dollars in foreign banks. paul manafort has pleaded not guilty to charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. nearly a hundred people are now confirmed dead in sunday's powerful earthquake on lombok island. at least 20,000 people are stranded or have lost their homes. aid agencies in indonesia say the priority is to provide shelter and medical assistance. now on bbc news, the travel show.
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