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tv   BBC News  BBC News  September 4, 2020 4:00am-4:31am BST

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this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm rich preston. our top stories: one month after the blast that claimed so many lives, rescuers in beirut think somebody may still be alive under the rubble of this building. joe biden visits kenosha, where he spoke by phone to jacob blake, whose shooting by police triggered days of unrest. south korea imposes a near lockdown on its capital. why experts suspect some of the country's churches may have worsened the latest coronavirus outbreak. facebook announces new measures to try to protect the integrity of the us presidential election.
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rescue workers in lebanon are searching for a possible survivor from the port blast in beirut that devastated the city a month ago. a sniffer dog alerted rescuers in the rubble of a collapsed building, and the team then said their scanners had detected a pulse. they've been digging ever since and they say they'll keep going even if there's only a 1% chance of finding someone. our international correspondent orla guerin has been watching them work all day. hands up for silence. rescue workers and many in this battered city wait for a sign, daring to hope. and then, beeping that confirms breathing has been detected beneath the rubble. could there really be a survivor 30 days on?
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rescuers from chile have been carrying out painstaking work. their key team member, a border collie called flash who was the first to raise the alert when he detected a body at this location. night falls and floodlights are brought in as the search continues, hour by hour. some rescue workers go back in. nearby, others regroup. the rubble is being removed here piece by piece, by hand. well, they're getting set up here now to work through the night. they're setting up a tent as an operations room and the rescue team has been telling us that they're going to be divided into groups of seven — only seven will be allowed up on the rubble at any one time because they're so afraid of dislodging any of the wreckage. they have to proceed
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slowly and painstakingly. translation: the dog detected something and the technology also detected a place in the building — the same point of interest as for the dog. it's four metres deep. it doesn't mean someone is alive or dead in the building. we have to get to that point and confirm. later on during the evening, the search teams, the chilean experts, said they had to stop because they were worried one of the walls was going to completely collapse. they pulled out their teams. they said they would need to secure the site, secure that wall, before they could continue, and they left for the night. orla guerin, bbc news, beirut. the us presidential candidate joe biden has been visiting kenosha, winsconsin — the city that was rocked by violent unrest last month after police shot an unarmed black manjacob blake in the back. mr biden called mr blake in hospital and had a private meeting with his family.
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they had refused to meet president donald trump when he visited the city on tuesday. this report, from our north america correspondent aleem maqbool, contains footage that some viewers may find distressing. a rare trip in this pandemic forjoe biden — an indication ofjust how important events here have become in this election campaign. donald trump knows it — he's already been to kenosha, where he focused on condemning rioting and lawlessness. joe biden, though, talked of racial injustice and criticised the president for stoking troubles. you can't defeat hate. it only hides — it only hides. and when someone in authority breathes oxygen under that rock, it legitimises those folks to come on out. unlike donald trump, joe biden met the family of jacob blake. he himselfjoined by
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phone from hospital. it was his shooting by a police officer that started all of this. but this spot had other visitors from out—of—town, nephews of george floyd. we're out here in kenosha, showing our love and our prayers for kenosha, man. that's it. neighbours came out to meet them and thanked them for theirfamily‘s work since their uncle was killed by a police officer who knelt on his neck — a loss that is still clearly very raw. thank you for taking yourself out of your comfort zone so we can have a voice with action. exactly. and what is that action? george floyd's family told me the most important thing now is to vote against donald trump. we demand change. so this is what's going to happen. we need to get out there and vote, vote him out. from our city officials, locals, our police officers, everybody. you're not with this movement? you need to go. hey, get on the ground! get on the ground!
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all this comes as newly released police video shows yet another disturbing case. daniel prude was having a mental health episode when officers handcuffed him and knelt on him. he stopped breathing and died several days later. the medical examiner ruled it as homicide. i placed a phone call for my brother to get help, not for my brother to get lynched. donald trump and joe biden have now laid out their very different stances on race and policing. which appeals the most depends on which side of this deeply divided country a voter finds themselves. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in kenosha, wisconsin. so how big a part will law and order play in november's presidential election? geoffrey kabaservice is the director of political studies at the niskanen center in washington. it isn't clear but what is clear is that donald trump really has no other part to
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play except to hope that by calling joe biden weak on crime, weak on writing, we can looting he can hope that this may alarm a sufficient number of the swing voters, particularly in suburban middle—class districts, to pull out and when the electoral couege out and when the electoral college —— week on rioting. out and when the electoral college -- week on rioting. he has opposed the funding the police and has a track record of being tough on crime. is he getting the tone right? it seems to me he is but it also seems to me he is but it also seems to me he is but it also seems to be it is somewhat more inherently difficult position to ta ke inherently difficult position to take because it is nuanced, because biden is on the one hand saying that rioting and looting are wrong and on the others and saying that police misconduct is a terrible thing and he is siding with the black lives matter protest and the victims of these police actions. trump is saying support the police and rioters are bad and he isn't even distinguishing between nonviolent protesters and violent rioters. as he says it isn't just violent rioters. as he says it isn'tjust president violent rioters. as he says it isn't just president trump's support of the police, in the
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past he has called these rioters and protesters a form of domestic terror. how has that gone down with his support base? i think it has gone down just fine with the support base but they are not the ones who he is trying to motivate. it so far it seems like pitch at the republican national convention which was to paint the democrats as soft on crime is not working with its target audience. far more people are likely to say donald trump is the one bringing chaos to the country than that he would in his second term be likely to bring the chaos level down. and do you think the law and order voters enough to secure a victory for president trump in november? we are coming at this point when it has been three decades of declining crime since its real peak in the early 1990s, and there is no doubt about that the record of crime, mostly in democratic run cities, cost democrats dearly but i do not think that anyone is yet saying we have seen in terms of violence in selected cities as well as the kind of
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rioting that comes to some extent over fatal protests —— racial protest, there is no evidence it is moving the dial on the class college voters. geoffrey kabaservice. let's get some of the day's other news. police in germany are waiting to question the mother of five children who were found dead in an apartment in the western city of solingen. the children were aged between one and eight. the woman is in hospital after being badly injured when she jumped in front of a train. the brazilian government says more than four million people in the country are now known to have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began. the health ministry says that in the latest 24—hour period, there were more than 43,000 new cases. president jair bolsonaro has consistently played down the severity of covid—i9 and earlier this week, he said nobody would be forced to have a vaccine once one became available. protestors in argentina have been demanding justice for a young man who was arrested for breaching coronavirus restrictions, and whose dead body
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was later found dumped. facundo astudillo castro was detained in april when hitch—hiking during strict movement controls. his case has become a catalyst for protests about alleged police brutality. the afghan government and the taliban say they've completed a controversial exchange of prisoners, paving the way for peace talks to start. the process had stalled for weeks because some of the detainees demanded by the taliban were described as serious criminals by the afghan government. the taliban is also thought to have freed afghan government captives, including commandos. more than 300 people have been arrested during a third day of climate change protests in central london. the metropolitan police said more than 200 arrests were linked to a demonstration on lambeth bridge. some extinction rebellion supporters glued themselves to the ground around parliament. south korea has been praised for its efforts to contain
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the coronavirus, but has now imposed a near—lockdown in the capital city seoul after a surge in cases. experts say the situation has been made worse by extreme evangelical churches who've convinced many followers that the pandemic is part of a government conspiracy. from seoul, laura bicker reports. to his followers, he's an alt—right rock star. to others, this pastor and his church pose the biggest coronavirus threat this country has faced. thousands of new cases have now been confirmed, many of them from ultra—conservative churches. some worshippers, many of them elderly, are refusing to be tested. they believe the virus was planted in the church by a government determined to silence them.
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i put it to this young follower that he is risking lives by failing to get a test. why are you not being tested for covid—i9 after being at the rally? it's proving a huge challenge for this country's virus hunters. usually, they can trace over 1,000 people an hour using mobile technology, but hundreds are refusing to go into quarantine. as cases increase, seoul's usually neon—lit social life has been forced to fall silent. this is as close to a lockdown as the capital city seoul has had since this pandemic began.
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it almost feels like a curfew because, within the space ofjust a few minutes, these normally busy, vibrant, sometimes boisterous streets have come to a standstill. translation: business is down by 90%. it feel like the whole world is falling apart. these church members once faced the wrath of the south korean people. they belong to the shincheonji church ofjesus — a sect blamed for the country's early virus outbreak in february. they're now donating their blood plasma for treatment and research. as one religious group seeks redemption, another remains defiant, threatening this country's well—publicised success in fighting the pandemic. laura bicker, bbc news, seoul. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: straight to streaming, as disney's mulan isn't released in cinemas. has the pandemic changed the way we'll watch films
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forever? she received the nobel peace prize for her work with the poor and the dying in india's slums. the head of the catholic church said mother teresa was a wonderful example of how to help people in need. we have to identify the bodies, then arrange the coffins and take them back home. parents are waiting and wives are waiting. hostages appeared. some carried, some running, trying to escape the nightmare behind them. britain lost a princess today, described by all to whom she reached out as irreplaceable. an early morning car crash in a paris underpass ended a life with more than its share of pain and courage, warmth and compassion.
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this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: one month after the blast that claimed so many lives, rescuers in beirut think there may be somebody still alive under the rubble of this building. joe biden travels to kenosha to meet the family of jacob blake and spoke to mr blake on the phone. is facebook doing enough to fight misinformation when it comes to political ads in the run up to the us presidential election? its founder, mark zuckerberg, has announced that it won't take on any new political ads in the seven days before the vote on november 3. he's worried about divisions in the country potentially leading to civil unrest. professor sinan aral,
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from the massachusetts institute of technology in new york, says facebook has announced a number of measures. it says it is going to prevent, in the last week before the election, new political advertising. that it's going to remove posts that claim that you can get covid—i9 by going to a voting station, that it will attach warning labels to content that seeks to delegitimise the outcome of the election, and it will stop campaigns from declaring victory early in the election results. how unusual is this for a social media company to take this step and are other platforms likely to follow suit? well, we live in unusual times. the social media platforms around the world have met with tremendous criticism over the last 18—24 months. they are under significant pressure, given the state
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of the relationship between social media and democracy and particularly elections, as you know. there were questions about the role of facebook and other social media platforms like twitter in the brexit vote as well as the 2016 us presidential election, so i don't know if there is a usual for how social media platforms behave in this day and age. i do think that misinformation and foreign election interference are significant threats that need to be addressed. we do see a rise in disinformation on social media platforms but they also provide an opportunity for people to call out that disinformation. is this going to make any difference? i think that transparent labelling of information is incredibly important. so, crowdsourcing labels of disinformation can help us understand the providence of information and therefore make better decisions about what to believe and what to share. i think that the platforms can do a lot more to use machine
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learning to identify misinformation as well. but we have to remember that labelling comes with some caveats. first, there is what is known as an implied truth effect, which is if you begin to label everything, users begin to think that things, if they aren't labelled they must be true, so if you can't get to everything, then this implied truth effect might imply truth about things that aren't labelled but that are false. and secondly, labelling of false news is known to reduce our confidence in the news in general, which can have deleterious effects, so we have to tread carefully but there are a lot of systematic things that, going forward, the platforms need to do to protect democracy in elections. hundreds of african migrants die every year trying to make their way to europe, desperate to escape poverty and unemployment back home.
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the united nations says this summer has seen a sharp reduction in european countries' efforts to carry out search and rescue operations in the mediterranean, one of the main sea routes from north africa. it's making the crossing even harder and many are getting stuck in libya and forced to return home, as the bbc‘s lalla sy reports from dakar, in senegal. the senegalese coast is a starting point for most migrants who aspire to reach europe for better living conditions. tidiane camara wanted to reach europe via libya. he left the casamance region, in southern senegal, and travelled to tunisa before entering libya. translation: one day, robbers came into the house at around 9pm. there were three of them and they started banging on the door. before i opened it, i asked if they were arabs or blacks.
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when they answered that they were arabs, i wanted to run away so they started shooting with guns and i was wounded in the leg. at first, tidiane could not get medical treatment because he did not have a passport so his wound became infected and his leg had to be amputated. after spending months in hospital, it was impossible for him to find work or to stay in libya so he asked to be repatriated. the senegalese who choose illegal immigration sometimes begin their dangerous journey from villages, such as this one, where we are, in the locality of malicounda, 80 kilometres from the senegalese capital, dakar, but many lose their lives along the way and, with more than 5000 deaths in 2017 in africa, migration is now one of the major causes of mortality, according to the international organization for migration. for those who return voluntarily or forcibly, iom is working with the senegalese government
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to involve local authorities in the reintegration process. as we get to the co—ordination, and the immigration policy, not much has been done with our country and we have much progress. we need more language, sauces and programmes that attracts interest and generates profit for them. among these initiatives is the community radio oxygen. it is based in pikine, the second—most populated city in senegal, where the poverty rate is close to 30%. the income rate per day is less than $2. every wednesday, codou hosts a program that addresses communities on topics related to immigration. translation: we talk to these young men and women and to their parents, especially mothers, who can spend and borrow a lot of money
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or sell their assets for the departure of their sons so that they can provide for their needs and put them in better conditions. in malicounda, tidiane camara is managing the only food shop in his neighbourhood. in his quest for survival, he might have lost a leg but has regained dignity. lalla sy, bbc news, dakar. the japanese coastguard is said to have rescued a man who was ona to have rescued a man who was on a japanese cargo ship with 6000 cattle on board. the coastguard said he was found unconscious wearing a life jacket south—west of japan and rescu e rs jacket south—west of japan and rescuers are still searching for more than a0 others and the vessel is believed to have sunk after being overturned by a large wave after the passing of
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a typhoon. as the film industry looks to recover from months of closed cinemas and postponed releases, production companies are looking for new ways to release their content and friday it's disney's turn — launching its highly anticipated live action remake of mulan on their own streaming service, disney plus, rather than on the big screen. jack kilbride reports. my my father cannot fight, so i will take his place. it is premier day four mulan but not the type of release we are used to think for a big budget blockbuster. almost six months after it was scheduled to hit the big screen, the disney remake is hitting the small screen instead. specifically, disney's own streaming service, disney's own streaming service, disney plus. to watch it, you have to be a subscriber and then pay an extra $30, a move that disney hopes will pay off. the big question is can a $200 million blockbuster film like mulan perform as much for them ona mulan perform as much for them on a strictly premium video on
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demand streaming service then it would theatrically. that is the question people opposing and not necessarily the correct question. this is it an experiment for disney in a number of ways. the companies looking to do really is building its streaming service. while mulan will get a big cinema release in china, when coronavirus restrictions at ease, those seeking a more experience have a different option with christopher nolan ‘s complex sci—fi blockbuster making its premiere in the us after finding success elsewhere. i feel great that people outside of america feel safe and support film industry and love the movie theatre experience which is great to me which is why i got into the business because i love movies andl business because i love movies and i love the movie theatre experience. it's too early to say which option will prove a success by deciding how to release the finished film is only one problem facing the industry. production on the
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batman has been suspended because robin patterson has contracted coronavirus, a reminder for all that even a superhero is not immune from the virus — at robert patterson. jack kilbride, bbc news. israeli archaeologists have discovered what they say is evidence of a magnificent palace from the era of a biblicaljewish kingdom injerusalem. the stone carvings were unearthed about three kilometres from jerusalem's old city. it's thought they were from a palace built around the 8th or 7th century bc and probably destroyed during the babylonian conquest ofjerusalem. that is it from me for the time being. a reminder, you can keep up—to—date on all the top stories, including this one, search teams in beirut think they have found signs of life under a building they have found signs of life undera building a they have found signs of life under a building a month later. rescuers say they have detected
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a pulse two metres deep in a residential area. more on the website and our app. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ rich preston. hello there. looks like we are all in for a dose of cooler, fresher weather over the coming few days. could be perfect weather for seeing some rainbows, just as we saw on thursday here by a weather watcher in scotland. further south, it's been milder and quite muggy for a while. temperatures ahead of the cloud and drizzle were as high as 23 celsius in the south—east of england. it's a cooler start to friday, temperatures in the clearer skies, typically 9—11 celsius. some more blustery showers in northern scotland, then towards the south—west, this cloud never really clears away. it comes back into the south—west of england and south wales — pushing eastwards towards the midlands and south east england. that will bring a bit of light rain and drizzle. further north, some brighter skies, some sunshine and some showers. those showers turning more
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widespread in scotland and northern ireland, pushing into the far north of england. disappointing temperatures, 17—18 celsius, fairly typically, could make 20 in the south—east ahead of any rain that arrives during the evening. as we head into the weekend, high—pressure is close by, but it's towards the south—west of the uk. it leaves us with a run of north—westerly winds. that's going to drive in cooler air, and temperatures on saturday could be even lower during the day as well — it will be a chilly start to the day too. so, a cool weekend ahead. there will be this mixture of sunshine and showers continuing. as we look ahead to saturday, most of the showers will be in the north and west of the uk. quite a few showers, actually, across northern scotland, quite a few showers for northern ireland. those will stream over the irish sea into north—western parts of england and wales. so, for the south and the east, it should be largely dry, some sunshine at times, those temperatures could be even lower, making 1a celsius at best through the central belt of scotland — 18 in the south of england. some more showers continuing overnight and into sunday. should be a drier day though for northern ireland, a drier day for scotland. most of the showers across england and wales, some of those could be heavy as well. temperatures will be pegged
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back in those showers, but probably a degree or two higher than saturday across scotland and northern ireland, but still only making 16 celsius. those showers do move away during the evening as we head into the early part of next week. we've got lower pressure to the north of the uk, some weather fronts on the scene, higher pressure into more southern areas. so, that means for the first few days of next week, it's going to remain unsettled for northern areas. there will be some stronger winds, some rain from time to time. further south, it should be largely dry and warmer — temperatures into the mid—20s.
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this is bbc news. the headlines:
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search teams in the lebanese capital beirut say they have found possible signs of life in a collapsed building a month after the huge blast which destroyed parts of the city. rescuers said they'd detected a pulse 2 metres deep in the rubble in a residential area. joe biden has spoken by phone to jacob blake, the black man whose shooting by police in wisconsin sparked days of unrest. in a speech in the city of kenosha, mr biden accused president trump of legitimising the dark side of human nature. south korea has now imposed a near lockdown in the capital after a surge in cases. experts say the situation has been made worse by extreme evangelical churches who've convinced many followers that the pandemic is part of a government conspiracy. now on bbc news, hardtalk.

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