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tv   BBC News  BBC News  November 25, 2019 2:00am-2:31am GMT

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welcome to bbc news, i'm simon pusey. our top stories: pro—democracy candidates in hong kong's local elections are heading for a huge victory, winning more than three—quarters of the seats. i'm sharanjit leyl in hong kong, where turnout at more than 70% is the highest ever recorded, in the first electoral test after months of protests against the pro—beijing leadership. leaked documents seen by the bbc reveal the vast network of high security prisons in western china designed to brainwash uighur muslims. days of heavy rain and floods drench parts of italy and france damaging homes and bridges. the billionaire former mayor of new york michael bloomberg announces he wants to run for us president as a democrat.
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the pro—democracy parties in hong kong are on course for an overwhelming landslide victory in local elections, after months of protests across the city. let's go live to sharanjit leyl in hong kong that's right, it is a bright, breezy monday morning here in hong kong and of course many hong kong is waking up of course many hong kong is waking up to this electoral result. they took to the voting boots on sunday in overwhelming numbers, a record turnout, and even though with just over half the votes counted, it already seems to indicate a landslide victory for the pro—democracy camp. the latest
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results suggest that over 70% of hong kong is voted overwhelmingly in favour of the pro—democracy candidates. this may just favour of the pro—democracy candidates. this mayjust be local district council elections, really, the lowest rung of government, but it isa the lowest rung of government, but it is a huge show of support for the protest movement, which of course has erupted in sometimes violent demonstrations over the last six months, bringing this city to a standstill. we have more now from my colleague who was there as the results came in. in the eastern district of hong kong island this morning, the queue to vote at the shau kei wan polling station went on, and on, and on. we're seeing queues like this in districts all over hong kong today, people waiting for an hour, even up to i and a half hours to vote,
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and people are telling us they have never seen anything like this in a local election in hong kong before. translation: we didn't have to line up before. everyone is more enthusiastic. they really want to contribute to the society. speaks in cantonese. the passion of those standing for election today is out of all proportion to the power of the local council seats being contested. but, for the opposition, today is a referendum on the protests that have rocked hong kong for the last six months. david and his mother, anne, are on opposite sides of that fight. we can see just old people, pro—government, pro—regime, they control the power, they control the parties, they control everything, even the economy. so we can take back the control and start to have more strength and power in there. as counting got under way tonight, the turnout for today's election had topped 7i%.
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that is the highest turnout ever recorded in any hong kong election. the early signs are also that the pro—democratic camp is heading for a sweeping victory. well, you can hear all the excitement here, and that is because a 23—year—old democracy activist has just unseated a pro—government incumbent who has held this seat for the last 20 years. scenes like these are being repeated across hong kong tonight, the new, very young faces of hong kong politics. the question now is, will any of these victories have an impact on the hong kong government, or on beijing? asa as a mention, those results still coming and stopping more than half the vote has been counted. earlier i spoke to someone who retained his seat on the pro establishment side.
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this is paul tse. i asked him what he made of the election results. hopefully, it will be a lesson learned that people will stop bashing and petrol bombing everywhere. i think there is a silver lining behind this, but for the government and for the election it will be a nightmare. you set on that pro establishment side, obviously a huge threshing. how do you think carrie lam is feeling this morning? i don't know, i haven't spoken to her yet, but i think she should take it very seriously. u nfortu nately, should take it very seriously. unfortunately, it is not for her to make all the decisions, so we just have to deal with it. the sky is still here, the sun is still here, but things are going to change quite a bit. a beautiful morning here, but a bit. a beautiful morning here, but a really dark day for the party that you represent. you are a moderate as
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you represent. you are a moderate as you say, but nonetheless this really means that the protest side seems to have won, despite having caused, many say, a lot of chaos to hong kong and caused the city to go into recession. the people have spoken, quite loudly this time, so hopefully the government will take it very seriously, learn a lesson and start doing something about these angry calls from the people. i don't know if we have enough time to improve, but the polling box will be opening again ina but the polling box will be opening again in a few months time, if we don't do something quickly enough i think a bigger lesson will be around the corner. what does this all mean for hong kong? it is a special administrated region of china. as you say, carrie lam can't stand down evenif you say, carrie lam can't stand down even if she wanted to because she has been ordained to the chinese leadership. what happens next with
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how beating deals with the city? leadership. what happens next with how beating deals with the city7m remains to be seen what beijing will react to this. unfortunately, that is the way it is, and we have this trade deal going on around the corner, so trade deal going on around the corner, so perhaps beijing will be watching with a very kenai to see what happens on the us side of negotiations. ash a very keen i. he retained his seat on the pro establishment side, one of the few people who retained his seat because the pro—democracy camp has done overwhelmingly well. you will hear my interview a bit later with one on the pro—democracy side, but in the meantime we're looking at those voting results as they come in over the next few hours, i will give you official count as that is established. let's get some of the day's other news. the conservatives have become the latest of the main parties to launch their manifesto ahead of the forthcoming british general election.
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prime minister boris johnson announced a whole range of policies, but his central appeal to the electorate was to get his brexit deal passed through parliament if he can secure a majority. police in spain are trying to recover a submarine carrying an estimated three tonnes of cocaine that's run aground off the coast of galicia. two people have been arrested. investigators are trying to work out if the semi—submersible sailed from south america with the drugs, or whether they were transferred there at sea. thousands of people have taken to the the streets in colombia again after a young protester was badly injured when security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds. the country has seen days of anti—government protests by demonstrators cricitical of the economic, social and security policies of the president ivan duque. he's been trying to meet local officials to work through the demonstrators' complaints.
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celebrations in rio have descended into chaos. police used tear gas to disperse crowds after they tried to break through to a sound system truck. leaked documents reveal for the first time how china is running a network of high security prisons designed to brainwash hundreds of thousands of people. china has consistently claimed the camps in the xinjiang region offer education and training. but official documents leaked to the international consortium of investigativejournalists and seen by bbc panorama show how inmates are locked up, indoctrinated and punished. china's uk ambassador has denied the bbc‘s claims. richard bilton reports. this is a journey thousands have been forced to make into china's internment camps. now, we know what's happening inside.
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this document contains orders written for those who run the camps. this is an actionable piece of evidence, documenting a gross human rights violations. this should be sitting, you know, in the files of a prosecutor. in the last three years, china has built hundreds of camps across the remote province of xinjiang. they hold at least a million people, mainly uighur muslims. china says they offer training and they stop terrorism. but the document shows why a superpower is really locking up so many people. inmates are imprisoned until they change their beliefs, their behaviour, and their language.
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it's very difficult on that scale, with more than a million people in those conditions, to view that as anything other than a mass brainwashing scheme, designed and directed at an entire ethnic community. the chinese ambassador in london refused to answer our direct questions about the camps. good morning. last week, he called a press conference about hong kong, but i wanted to know about the camps of xinjiang. i wrote to you this week, sir, actually, about the camps in xinjiang. i know that they are prison camps. why won't you tell me the truth about those camps? first of all, there's no so—called labour camps, as you describe. there's what we call vocational educational and training centres. they are there for the prevention of a terrorist. with respect sir, what you're
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telling me bears no relation to what i have seen. the so—called document you have seen is so—called fabrications. don't listen to fake news. don't listen to fabrications. the documents are not fake news. they are evidence of crimes against humanity. china is caging hundreds of thousands of people in brainwashing camps, and now we know how. for more on this, i'm joined by bethany allen—ebrahimian. she is the lead reporter on the china cables project at the international consortium of investigativejournalists. she oversaw the translation of the chinese documents. thanks forjoining us, is there a nyway to thanks forjoining us, is there anyway to these documents other than human rights crimes on a massive scale? no. what we see in the documents is x traditional detention of hundreds of thousands of people,
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the camp personnel are sworn to secrecy, the camp personnel are sworn to secrecy, there is very tight security, they are commanded to prevent escapes, the guards receive combat training, it is a total ideological indoctrination facility where people are held against their will and against the law. we heard in the report that china's uk ambassador had said that the documents are fake news. are you expecting the chinese to give any further reaction to the release of these documents? we have heard from several ambassadors now and last week we heard from the foreign ministry and beijing. their line on this over and over again is that these are vocational training centres and yet somehow also aimed at fighting terrorism. they have said repeatedly that she xinjang is profitable, but we see something
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that has put 10% of the adult population into these camps where they are subject to psychological torture, physical torture, with some people have died, and we are not seeing any statement that is honest coming from the chinese government. one of the striking revelations about this is the sheer scale. 15,000 people sent to one of these camps injust 15,000 people sent to one of these camps in just one week in 2017. that's right, and what's even more terrifying is the way that they were sent. they were selected by an artificial intelligence predictive policing platform. their names were flagged according to unknown algorithms, flagged as suspicious. their names were sent to local police bureaus around the region, who then went and detained as many of these people as they could find. and then the rest of that particular briefing was spent asking why they weren't able to detain even more. so what you are seeing is arrests by
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algorithm on a mass scale. that is certainly a terrifying thought, and it is obviously not going to be the end of this story stopping there are going to be lots more revelations, i'm sure. that's all we got time for, but thank you so much indeed for, but thank you so much indeed for speaking to us about that. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: looking for climate friendly ways to produce cement. we travel to india where one company's leading the way in cutting its co2 emissions. president kennedy was shot down and died almost immediately. the murder ofjohn kennedy is a disaster for the whole free world. he caught the imagination of the world, the first of a new generation of leaders. margaret thatcher is resigning as leader of the conservative party and prime minister. before leaving number 10 to see the queen, she told her cabinet,
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"it's a funny old world." angela merkel is germany's first woman chancellor, easily securing the majority she needed. attempts to fly a hot—air balloon had to be abandoned after a few minutes, but nobody seemed to mind very much. as one local comic put it, "it's not hot air we need, it's hard cash." cuba has declared nine days of mourning following the death of fidel castro at the age of 90. castro developed close ties with the soviet union in the 1960s. it was an alliance that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with the cuban missile crisis. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: pro—democracy candidates in hong kong's local elections are on course for a landslide, inflicting an overwhelming defeat on the pro—beijing establishment. leaked documents seen by the bbc reveal how prison camps in western china are being used to brainwash the muslim uighur minority.
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the billionaire businessman michael bloomberg has officially announced he's running for president of the united states. in a statement, the former mayor of new york city said he was standing in the 2020 election "to defeat donald trump and rebuild america." mr bloomberg joins 17 other candidates vying for the democratic nomination. chris buckler has more. trump says he wants to run the nation like he is running his business?! god help us! michael bloomberg said he was running for president to defeat donald trump and rebuild america. and he pointed to his experience as a businessman, philanthropist and former three term mayor of new york city. he has joined the crowded race to become the democratic candidate with a $30 million ad campaign that focuses on some of the issues he is most concerned with, including tackling gun violence and climate change. that would be very expensive for
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some candidates but it is just a drop in the ocean for michael bloomberg. at the same time, though, he has name recognition, but he hasn't been part of the field so far and has got to start selling himself to america. at the possibility of one billionaire challenging another in the 2020 election. and it is likely that will be a bitter battle. he has got some really big issues, he has got some personal problems and he has got a lot of other problems, but i know michael bloomberg fairly well, not too well, well enough. he will not do very well, and if he did, i would well enough. he will not do very well, and if he did, iwould be happy. there is nobody i would rather run against that little michael, that i can tell you. president trump has been fiercely radical of mr bloomberg many times before and called his last term as mayor as a disaster. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. days of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding across south—eastern france and northern italy. hundreds of homes were damaged in the french cote d'azur and a landslide caused a motorway bridge to collapse in italy. rich preston reports.
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across the french riviera, normally famous for pristine towns and crystal blue waters, the rains have kept on coming. people have had to abandon their cars and their homes. towns have been cut off after rivers broke their banks. several people have been reported missing across the region. here in the seaside town, both normally moored out at sea town, both normally moored out at sea dragged onto the street by the water. 100 kilometres away over the border in italy, the extent of the damage is vast. the water has been unforgiving here. this viaduct washed away by a landslide. there we re washed away by a landslide. there were no reports of any injuries. and in venice, the city on the water is once again underwater. in the famous
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st mark's square, tourists and venetians wading through the tides. these people have suffered weeks of overwhelming water levels. business owners doing what they can to protect their property. this has been the worst month for high tides in venice since records began. pumps co nsta ntly in venice since records began. pumps constantly on the go with no sign of them being switched off anytime soon. them being switched off anytime soon. richard preston, bbc news. a 23—year—old man has been charged in connection with the deaths of 39 vietnamese migrants found dead in a lorry trailer in essex last month. christopher kennedy from northern ireland will appear before magistrates on monday. he's charged with offences related to a conspiracy to people traffic and for breaking immigration laws. as cities expand, particularly in places like india and china, demand for cement to build homes and infrastructure is surging. that's great if you're getting a new home, but there's a problem because making cement releases huge amounts of co2, up to 8% of the global total.
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for our series, climate defenders, ahead of the next big un climate conference, rajini vaidyanathan has been to meet the boss of one indian cement company that's managed to slash its co2 emissions to 40% below the global average, and aims to become carbon negative. as india grows, so too has its use of cement, now only second to china. concrete buildings are changing the landscape here. but emissions involved in cement production are also pushing up global temperatures. the small town of ariyalur in india's south is nicknamed ‘cement city‘ because it's home to some of the industry's big players. and it's also here that one company's leading the world with a bold vision — to make cement carbon negative by 2040. but is that really credible? yes... mahendra singhi, the ceo of the dalmia cement company, certainly thinks so. he's at the forefront
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of using climate—friendly ways to make cement. the challenge, which we took, was that is it possible to bring down co2 emissions from the cement and to create an example that cement can be greener also. and, you know, you'll be very happy to know that today we have the lowest carbon footprints in the global cement world. it's not been easy. emissions from the cement industry contribute to global warming three orfour times more than aviation does. and becoming carbon negative requires a huge investment in cutting edge technology to remove the remaining carbon dioxide. so, why is cement so dangerous to the planet? well, it's all in the way that it's produced. limestone and other materials are heated to temperatures of 1,400 degrees celsius, and that process in itself emits carbon dioxide,
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as does the burning of the fuels to heat the kiln. dalmia aims to reduce those levels first by using renewable fuels to heat the furnaces. here, bamboo's being used as a replacement for coal. bamboo grows rapidly on wasteland that can't be used for much else. different types of waste are also being used as fuel, and waste materialfrom power stations is added to the mix of ingredients, reducing the need for limestone. but why notjust use less cement? well, the problem is it's very difficult to replace, as even environmentalists can concede. in the years to come, india is going to rely more on cements, but then the notion has to change. i don't think it's practical, but in the longer run, we can do it. we cannot eliminate the cement completely, but we can find many more alternate materials. cement has now become one of the world's most consumed materials, but many people are still unaware of the damage
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it's doing to the climate. it's still a big polluter, but this plant in a small corner of india may be showing the way to reducing and one day eliminating its damage. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, ariyalur. now, abinet tadesse is an ethiopian lorry driver who loves spending time in his truck. but he also needed somewhere to live. so, he came up with a creative solution — he built a 2—storey, 3—bedroom house in his truck. bbc africa's yadeta berhanu went to have a look.
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that is this from us for now. pro—democracy candidates in hong kong are headed for a huge victory in the first draw test after months of protesting against the territory's pro—beijing leadership. opposition are so far one more than three quarters of the district council seats. we will have more news for you at the top of the hour.
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but for now, from all of us, thank you for watching. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. as we move into the final week of meteorological autumn, there is more rain in the forecast. through the early hours of monday morning, the heaviest of the rain across south—west england, wales, into northern ireland. ahead of this, the rain a little patchier, but a lot of cloud, some drizzle further north and east, so it's a murky, misty, mild start to monday morning, but quite wet in places. and these spells of rain will gradually track their way northwards as the day wears on, perhaps not getting as far north as the far north of scotland, but still quite a windy day for shetland, and for all of the uk, it's another mild afternoon, if rather soggy. poor visibility in places as well, but temperatures 9 to 13 celsius on monday afternoon. we'll keep those outbreaks of rain going through the evening. slowly, they'll start to ease away northwards. drier, but cloudy for a time before our next band of rain arrives
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into the south—west through the early hours of tuesday morning. with it comes some tropical air, so temperatures overnight into tuesday won't drop much lower than 7 or 8 celsius, and this is because in this area of low pressure is the remnants of what was tropical storm sebastien, and it's also going to pep up the rainfall and strengthen the winds on tuesday. so, across parts of south wales and south—west england, we could well see widespread gusts of a0 to 50 miles an hour coupled with further heavy rain. now, falling onto already saturated ground, we have a number of met office rain warnings in place on tuesday. this rain again spreading its way northwards across the uk, not raining all the time. there will be some breaks in that, maybe some brighter skies, but further heavy showers are never too far behind. and, again, it will be quite a windy day, particularly across parts of wales, south—west england, southern coasts too, and it's going to be very mild — 10 to 1a celsius the top temperature on tuesday afternoon. now, this area of low pressure continues to rotate around and pushing its way eastwards
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across the uk on wednesday, so still a very messy picture and still quite wet, further heavy rain. again, we've got met office warnings in place for the middle part of the week and also some strong wind across northern scotland, still some gusty winds along welsh coasts down into south—west england and along channel coasts as well. 10 to 12 celsius the top temperature on wednesday afternoon. and then things slowly start to change through the second half of the week as our area of low pressure drifts its way eastwards. we start to pull down a north—easterly wind and that will return some colder air across much of the uk as we go into thursday and friday. so, by the time we get to friday morning, most of us will be waking up to a frost again. so, to sum up the week ahead — mild and cloudy, wet and windy at times, but eventually, drier and colder later in the week. bye— bye.
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this is bbc news, the headlines:
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there's been a huge surge in support for pro—democracy candidates in hong kong's local elections. they're on course to take more than three—quarters of the seats, and sweep aside the pro—beijing establishment. the poll has been the first electoral test after months of often violent pro—democracy protests. leaked documents seen by the bbc have revealed that a network of high security prisons in western china is designed to brainwash hundreds of thousands of people, mainly muslims from the uighur minority. china has always insisted the camps in the xinjiang region offer education and training. days of heavy rain have left parts of italy and france under water — with hundreds of homes in the cote d'azur damaged. in northern italy part of a bridge was brought down by a landslide following torrential rains. officials say there have been no confirmed casualties following the collapse.

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