tv BBC News BBC News March 23, 2019 4:00pm-4:31pm GMT
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i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at apm: hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in a march and rally in central london demanding another brexit referendum. meanwhile, theresa may warns mps a third meaningful vote may not take place next week, if it doesn't get sufficient support. american—backed kurdish forces declare victory over islamic state, after capturing the group's last remaining stronghold in syria. a 17—year—old is stabbed to death in west london. the mayor of london says his death is heartbreaking. it's a 17—year—old boy. who's lost his life because of a knife. and my thoughts and prayers as i am sure of other londoners, with his family.
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us special counsel robert mueller submits his report into alleged russian collusion with president trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election. scientists hope the technology behind these unprecedented and detailed images of a baby inside the womb — will help improve the care of children born with heart disease. and coming up, the best of this week's victoria derbyshire programme, including a moving interview with this group of mothers who have each lost a son to knife crime. that's in half an hour, here on bbc news. hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in a march and rally in central london, calling for another brexit referendum.
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the demonstration, which has been organised by the "put it to the people" campaign, is now gathered in parliament square where speakers have been addressing a rally. the organisers have estimated that up to i million people are taking part. it comes after the eu agreed to delay the uk's departure from the eu. the prime minister theresa may is coming under pressure to quit after saying she might not put her brexit deal to a third vote by mps. our political correspondent, pete saul reports. whether it's to be or not to be, many believe another referendum is the only way forward. it's still growing, but this could become one of the largest protests this country has ever seen. their argument is clear — if parliament cannot resolve the issue, why not put brexit back to the people? i never wanted to leave in the first place and ijust think i have no faith in the government being able to run the country. we should have a say, now that everyone knows what the deal is, we should have a say on what the future
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of the uk should be. we've got to a shambles where we're one week before and even the house of commons, even may does not appear to know what deal she wants. the chances of another referendum appear slim, though. most mps are opposed, including the prime minister. after the eu give her a new timetable for brexit, theresa may is fast running out of options. in a letter to mp5, she admits there might not be a third vote on her brexit deal this week if it appears there is not sufficient support. the numbers are against her and there is little sign of them changing. tensions are running high, including within the government. one minister says he would resign if the uk asked for a longer delay. i cannotjustify going to my constituents and explaining why we have not left the european union. others believe the prime minister's time is up. she has to go. i'm not saying the government should go — that's the last thing we want — but she has to go and we need some temporary prime minister who can reach out, put the country first,
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get this back to the british people. that is what we are marching for today, a people's vote. as the crowds swell in central london, mps are preparing for another set of votes. the idea is to work out what they are for, rather than what they are against. but whatever they choose might be too much for the government to stomach. next week could be key to the future of britain, and of our prime minister. peter saul, bbc news. our correspondent richard lister, is in central london with the marchers. this could, if those figures are correct, turn out to be an historic march. if those figure are corrected well indeed. it's very difficult now to assess the scale of marches on this size because there are hundreds of thousands of people, i think that's for sure. the metropolitan police no longer give estimates
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about crowd sizes so it takes time especially when you look at someone as naturally busy central london to work out whether all of those people in all of the side streets are part of the march orjust in all of the side streets are part of the march or just trying in all of the side streets are part of the march orjust trying to get somewhere else. i think it's without doubt this is one of the biggest marches london has seen in a long time. it'sjust beginning to marches london has seen in a long time. it's just beginning to wind down a little, michael heseltine, the tory grandees speaking at the moment, he's the last speaker. the crowd has fend but there are still plenty of people here, people backed up plenty of people here, people backed up rate down whitehall, i never did get down to parliament square for this event. this is an enormous march, how big it's difficult to say for sure but it's on a grand scale. are the crowd united in what they want? are the crowd united in what they wa nt 7 two are the crowd united in what they want? two messages coming out, the first is to revoke article 50, the second is put it to the people. this
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isa second is put it to the people. this is a march for a peoples vote as it's being described. people here are united in thinking there should be another referendum at which point they are given a choice as to whether they choose to leave or remain. i think that is what unites everyone. the route to that varies a little bit some people agree with tom watson, the deputy labour leader who said a little while ago that he was prepared to vote for theresa may's deal provided it was then put to the people. some people here agree with that, others think it's dangerous because it could end up with a deal they don't want and they just want a clean in or out choice. ultimately i think everyone here it is fairto ultimately i think everyone here it is fair to say is united in their belief they want to have another referendum where they can choose whether to stay off whether to go. it's all getting rather messy. we are getting reflection from europe itself watching these events,
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hungary are seeing that theresa may is no longer a negotiating partner, referring to her as a homing pigeon and lithuania see the eu have taken control of brexit. how damaging is this for theresa may? the sense in this for theresa may? the sense in this area here is there is a power vacuum at the moment, these people are hoping it can be filled with a sentiment that look, you people in parliament cannot decide, let us have another go and tom watson got a huge cheer when he said the way to break the crisis is for parliament and the people to act together, that gotan and the people to act together, that got an enormous cheer. yes, theresa may is not leading this process any more, she is being led in different directions by different factions and by the eu. she is seeing its time you are allowed by us, by having
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another referendum. the people who wa nt another referendum. the people who want the uk to leave the eu because of the outcome of the first referendum are saying we've already done this, that is what should be driving theresa may now. but people here are saying that she tried it and it's not worked let's have another go. thank you richard. labour's deputy leader tom watson addressed the rally saying there were no winners only losers for theresa may's brexit deal. he started his speech with a claim that i he started his speech with a claim thati million he started his speech with a claim that i million people he started his speech with a claim thati million people were attending the rally, let's listen to what he had to say. we are 1 million strong. but there is only one reason i am here today. and her name is saoirse elizabeth watson, my ten—year—old daughter. she has told me to thank
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you for campaigning for her future. thank you. i am not going to talk to you today about taking back control. like a lot of people i did not want to be here today and let me explain. idid not to be here today and let me explain. i did not want a referendum called to heel internal tory wins. i did not want to lose to a leave campaign filled with lies and false promises. idid not filled with lies and false promises. i did not want a filled with lies and false promises. i did not wanta prime filled with lies and false promises. i did not want a prime minister who refused to compromise our governments who pandered to extremism. and i did not want the humiliation of our country left isolated and alone on the global stage. friends, the progressive left
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is fighting, we believed we had to put aside party deference to try to find some way through for the country. we worked to respect the result of the referendum and tried to get a deal that was in the best interest of all the people of our country. i tell you today, that compromise has failed. at every turn. we have been ignored. at every stage theresa may has doubled down rather than reached out. she's made itan rather than reached out. she's made it an impossible for anyone who ca res it an impossible for anyone who cares about jobs about it an impossible for anyone who cares aboutjobs about solidarity it an impossible for anyone who cares about jobs about solidarity at home and abroad, about friendship across borders and between communities, to support this brexit. because when she says brexit means
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brexit, it's clear finally, because when she says brexit means brexit, it's clearfinally, what because when she says brexit means brexit, it's clear finally, what she means. for her tories only the ha rd est, means. for her tories only the hardest, cruellest brexit will do and my party, the labour party cannot stand by and watch that happen. cheering our prime minister, our prime minister, she attacks parliament and she refuses to give the people they are saved. she claims to speak for britain, but look out of your window, prime minister. open your curtains, turn on the television. look at this magnificent crowd today. here are the people. theresa
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may, you do not speakfor us. this country, our country, has been left to rot, starved of attention and resources while this tory mess of a government humiliates itself and all of us week by week. this deal pleases no one. if you voted remain it's a rubbish deal. if you voted leave it's a lousy deal. there are no winners, only losers. tom watson speaking at the rally taking place in central london. meanwhile, one of the government's key plans to deal with the potential impact of a no—deal brexit is being put in place this weekend.
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the m20 motorway leading to the port of dover was closed overnight, contingency plans are being made in case long queues of lorries build up as they try to cross the channel. a new road layout will be in place from monday. us—backed kurdish forces say they've defeated islamic state militants and conquered their last, small foothold in syria. syrian democratic forces have been fighting the remaining jihadists outside the village of baghuz. let's just take a look at how their territory has diminished. back in january 2015, the areas marked in red were under the control of the group. but since then, it's slowly declined as islamic state were pushed back , and over the course of the last four years their control has dwindled. and by the start of this year, they only held a few small areas of territory. recent fighting has focused on the area near baghuz, and today us—backed forces in syria claim they've taken back that final strip of land.
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the sdf‘s announcement of a victory marks the culmination of a weeks long final assault on baghuz, a small piece of territory where thousands of fighters and their families had been holed up. aleem maqbool has this report from northeastern syria. the official declaration finally came from the syrian democratic forces, that the so—called caliphate had been totally eliminated. we congratulate the syrian people, but particularly the syrian democratic forces on the destruction of isis's fraudulent caliphate, and for the liberation of isis's remaining territory in eastern syria. it followed a massive offensive earlier this week on the last stronghold of the islamic state group in the town of baghuz. local forces have since been involved in mopping up operations, fighting militants who were hidden in tunnels, clearing unexploded ordinance and booby—trapped devices and also, it appears, removing what are estimated to have been many hundreds of bodies.
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while people in this region have been celebrating the territorial defeat of is, there is clear recognition that this is by no means an end to the threat posed by the group and the fight against it will go on. well, this has been a huge achievement that has taken a great deal of sacrifice but people here are very mindful of calling this just a territorial victory against the islamic state group, knowing that the fight against them and their ideology will go on into the future. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in northern syria. theresa may has welcomed the news, issuing a statement in which she says: a short time ago, the us secretary of state mike pompeo,
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who's visiting beirut, said despite is being defeated, their threat remained. our mission there has not changed, we still have work to do to make sure that radical islamic terrorism does not continue to grow, thank you all very much. the headlines on bbc news: hundreds of thousands of people are marching through central london demanding another brexit referendum. meanwhile, theresa may has written a letter to mps — warning a third meaningful vote won't take place next week without ‘sufficient support‘ for her brexit deal. and in other news, american—backed kurdish forces declare victory over islamic state after capturing the group's last remaining stronghold in eastern syria. in sport wales will have to play
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their opening euro 2020 qualifier without aaron ramsey, the midfielder has not recovered from a thigh injury and will not play in the qualifier against slovakia tomorrow. dan qualifier against slovakia tomorrow. da n eva ns qualifier against slovakia tomorrow. dan evans has taken the third set in their second—round at the miami open, the 19—year—old canadian is to behave in the second set. saracens are 17—11 down against harlequins in by are 17—11 down against harlequins in rugby union's premiership in front ofa rugby union's premiership in front of a crowd of almost 43,000 at the london stadium. details on that and the full sports bulletin after 530. a teenager has been stabbed and killed in west london. scotland yard say the victim, believed to be a 17—year—old boy, was found seriously injured after reports of a fight outside a block of flats in union lane, isleworth. speaking at the brexit march, sadiq khan responded to the tragic stabbing of the teenager in islesworth yesterday. i've been in touch with the commissioner and it's heartbreaking.
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it's a 17—year—old boy who's lost his life because of a knifing. and my thoughts and prayers, as i'm sure those of londoners are, are with his family. the police are following a number of lines of enquiry. there is currently a section 60 in place. that means, in that area, the police are able to stop and search anybody without the need for reasonable suspicion to see if they could be carrying a knife or an offensive weapon. there are extra resources in isleworth, in that part of london, and i would say to the public, if anybody knows or has any information at all, there is no honour in staying silent. there is a family that is grieving now and they are bereaving because of this death. please contact the police, you can ring 101, or crimestoppers anonymously. our news correspondent ben ando is at the scene. ican i can see the police tent behind you, what's going on at the scene? what we have seen since we have been
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there is the tent remaining, forensics officers coming and going carrying out their work and also teams of search officers with paper suits doing fingertip searches moving very slowly across the ground looking through the shrubbery at either apart, looking under vehicles, looking for anything they mightfind to vehicles, looking for anything they might find to get information about what happened, possibly finding some kind of weapon which was used as the police try to build up a picture of what took place. what we know is the young man appears to have been with a group of friends in the park, another group arrived in a vehicle, there was a chase, the young man was chased into here where there appears to have been an attack. we spoke to a lady who was upstairs in her flat and she looked out and saw a group of five or six kicking a figure on the ground, she could see a pull of what was blood around him, they ran off, residents came out to help,
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police and paramedics spent an hour trying to save this young man's life but they were unable to. police have opened a murder investigation and that's now under way, house—to—house inquiries carrying on as police try to build up a picture of exactly what happened and why. we will leave it there, thank you. police in norway are evacuating more than 1,300 people from a cruise ship in stormy seas. the first passengers have already been airlifted to safety. the viking sky sent out a distress call after suffering an engine failure off the southwestern coast. an eyewitness says the ship is being battered by waves up to ten metres high.
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that region does have quite inclement weather. all 1300 passengers are expected to be taken off the ship. one by one is the way that is being done and we will bring more to you as we get it. in the united states, democrat politicians say the public must be told the findings of the investigation into claims of collusion between donald trump's election campaign and russia. special counsel, robert mueller, submitted his long—awaited report yesterday. now the attorney general is deciding how much to share with politicians in congress — as our north america correspondent, david willis, explains. i have no idea about the mueller report. i'm going to florida... he'd reach there, in fact, by the time the most highly anticipated report of his presidency was delivered. news that robert mueller had concluded his investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election came in a letter to lawmakers from the attorney general william barr, who said he was reviewing the report and may be in a position to advise
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them of the special counsel's conclusions this weekend. the enigmatic mr mueller, who was once head of the fbi, has spent nearly two years looking at allegations of collusion between the trump campaign and the kremlin during the 2016 election. in that time, he's brought charges against several trump aides such as the former campaign chairman paul manafort — people with ties to russia but whose convictions were for lying or financial wrongdoing, not plotting to subvert the outcome of a presidential election. the usjustice department says no further indictments will be issued, so is that because a sitting president can't be indicted, or is it because mr trump was telling the truth all along? the question now for
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the attorney general is how much of the mueller report to make public. all of it, say the democrats, and quickly. attorney general barr must not give president trump, his lawyers or his staff any sneak preview. announcer: the president of the united states... the mueller enquiry began just four months into donald trump's presidency and has cast a shadow over it ever since. but did it unearth evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president himself? we may be about to find out. david willis, bbc news. the mother of libby squire, the hull student whose body was found in the humber estuary on wednesday, has paid an emotional tribute to her "beautiful girl", and said no family should have to endure what hers has gone through. the 21—year—old's body was found seven weeks after she went missing, following a night out on the 1st of february. humberside police is treating her death as a "potential homicide". writing on facebook, libby's mother, lisa squire said she'd lost one of the most precious things in her life, and that
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her heart is broken. she said that it was an "honour, privilege and a joy" to have been libby's mother — that she kept her safe as long as she could — and that she was "so sorry" she could not keep her safe on the night that she vanished. the m5 in the black country is currently closed in both directions between j1 and j2. the central motorway police group says it believes an old un—exploded device has been found underneath the motorway by a member of the public. the authorities in mozambique say more than 400 people are now known to have died — as a result of cyclone idai. thousands of people remain trapped by the floodwaters which followed the storm. the un says the final casualty figure will only be known once the waters have receded. the cyclone has also caused devastation in malawi and zimbabwe. there's growing anger in mozambique
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over the pace of the relief operation to help those affected by cyclone idai. the area around the port city of beira has been largely cut off and aid charities are warning of the threat of diseases like cholera. earlier our deputy africa editor anne soy — who's at one of the busy ports in the capital maputo — explained what's gone so wrong with the relief operation. i am at the sea port in maputo, this ship is being loaded with emergency supplies by the local people here, roughly 2000 tonnes of food stuff, water, clothing, all manner of supplies that they need. the situation remains dire, tens of thousands of people are still stranded more than a week on, they desperately need to be rescued and taken to desperately need to be rescued and ta ken to safer desperately need to be rescued and
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taken to safer ground. there are boats going to flooded areas, helicopters getting people who are trapped on roof tops of their houses for instance or on top of trees, winching them to safety but it's a slow process. hampered by bad weather. it's been raining in the region that was affected by the cyclone. across the border in zimbabwe a cyclone. across the border in zimbabwea similar cyclone. across the border in zimbabwe a similar situation, rescue effo rts zimbabwe a similar situation, rescue efforts continuing, in malawi i am told that 80,000 people are now in camps and the need foods and medical supplies but their needs are immense. the response to this disaster has been growing by the day and local people have come together to support those people who have been affected. the international community is also responding. donations have been growing by the day. the biggest challenge once they get to the ground is how to
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distribute them because the cyclone destroyed the infrastructure, it's very difficult to get the emergency supplies people so desperately need to them. let's go back to the march in london, nicola sturgeon has been addressing the rally, she has been telling the crowd theresa may had pitched parliament against the people. scotland, the land where more than 60% voted to remain in the european union. our voice has been ignored. but it is not only our voice that has been ignored. the voice that has been ignored. the voice of the 48% who voted remaining across the uk is being ignored. and
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the voice of those who voted to leave but to could never have contemplated the mess that brexit has become. they are voice is being ignored as well. but today, today we make our voices heard. and what our voices are saying loudly and clearly as this, put it back to the people. and do you know, if there was a shred of consistency in her possession the prime minister would be standing on this stage right now. iam not be standing on this stage right now. i am not saying she would get a great welcome but she should be
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here. why? because in that disgraceful speech she made in downing street on wednesday night, pitching parliament against people, her message was that the voice of the people was being frustrated. so if that is your view prime minister, let the people speak. cheering nicola sturgeon there. let's get a look at the weather. a reasonable start to the weekend for many of us with quite a bit of dry weather but we've seen showers in the north are no showers will continue over night particularly across northern and western areas of scotland. perhaps a rain for a time in south—west england but otherwise skies will generally be clearing as we go through the night. it's getting colder hour by hour as the bright colours drain away from the charts. end of the night temperatures down to one or two in the towns and cities but colder in the towns and cities but colder in the countryside. a few patches of
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frost. chilly start to the day on sunday but not a bad start at the same time, plenty of sunshine for england and wales. northern ireland for a time too. showers with us from the word go, blustery winds coming from a north—westerly direction and they will make it feel quite cool. plenty of showers, more getting across central and southern scotland, northern ireland and a few pushing across northern england and north wales by the end of the day. in the south more sunshine and hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: hundreds of thousands of people are marching through central london, demanding another brexit referendum. speakers addressing the crowds in parliament square include scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, and labour's deputy leader, tom watson. this deal pleases no one. if you voted remain, it's a rubbish deal.
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