tv BBC World News BBC News May 25, 2021 12:00am-12:31am BST
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this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm lukwesa burak. a belarussian journalist arrested in minsk following the forced diversion of his flight has appeared in a video, apparently under duress. european union leaders have banned belarussian airlines from eu airspace and are drawing up targeted sanctions against officials. the head of the world health organization condemns what he says is the scandalous inequity of access to covid vaccinations around the world. in gaza, we meet one community grieving the loss of seven children and one young man in the recent clashes with israel. and max mosley, the former head of formula 1's governing body and campaignerfor tougher
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regulation of the press, has died at 81. hello and welcome. the european union has agreed to hit belarus with sanctions after the forced re—routing of a ryanair flight, in order to capture one of the passengers on board. the eu is also urging airlines to avoid the country's airspace. the passenger detained was roman protasevich, a 26—year—old journalist who's a well—known critic of president alexander lukashenko. eu leaders described the incident as "state terrorism" and "aviation piracy". our europe correspondent jean mackenzie has the latest.
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armed police greet the arrivals on board the plane belarus is accused of hijacking, all to capture this young man — roman protasevich. a journalist and political refugee, he fled belarus two years ago, only to be forced back home yesterday under the most extraordinary circumstances — by a regime, he told his fellow passengers, would execute him. his father has described his son's capture as a terrorist act. translation: we hope that he will cope. - we hope that he will stay himself, not give in to any of their tricks. we are afraid to even think about it, but it's possible he could be beaten and tortured. this evening, authorities have released a video of roman, where he makes various confessions. we're not showing it, as it looks like he's been filmed under duress. he's bruised and says police
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are treating him correctly. roman is wanted by authorities for running an opposition news channel on the social media platform telegram. it's used to organise protests in belarus and to broadcast them. the protests exploded during last summer's election, when belarus's long—time leader president lukashenko claimed yet another disputed victory. back then, we witnessed peaceful protesters being dragged off the streets of the capital. since, hundreds ofjournalists and opposition politicians have been imprisoned. roman is the latest target. they endangered the lives of 171 passengersjust because of roman protasevich. and we were sure that to fly between two un member states is safe, but it turns out that it's not. the chief executive of ryanair this morning spoke of his anger. this was a case of state—sponsored... it was a state—sponsored hijack, it was state—sponsored piracy.
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i think it was very frightening for the crew, for the passengers, who were held under armed guard, had their bags searched. speaking in the house of commons earlier, the foreign secretary said mr lukashenko�*s government must be held accountable for its reckless behaviour. the scenario as reported is a shocking assault on civil aviation and an assault on international law. it represents a danger to civilian flights everywhere. the uk government has told airlines to avoid belarussian air space, while uk airports have suspended flights from belarus. tonight, eu leaders have decided similar, to ban belarussian planes from using both their airports and their airspace, determined to show that hijacking a plane does not go unpunished. i've been speaking to nigel gould—davies, the former british ambassador to belarus, to get his take on the incident. what's happened of course is shocking and unprecedented, and it's right there's been immediate international condemnation of it.
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i think it tells us a number of things. the first is that lukashenko, who has long been a threat to his own people, has now become an international threat, someone who's prepared in order to stay in power to carry out actions which jeopardise large numbers of non—belarussian citizens. so he has escalated the extent of the threat he presents, and that requires a corresponding escalation of the response. the second is that, in an interesting way, it shows how insecure he himself still feels. even though the mobilisation that we saw in the belarussian streets a few months ago has now been quelled and suppressed by force and oppression, lukashenko�*s not really fully back in control. it doesn't feel that he is. if he has to go to such extraordinary lengths to try to detain a single young internetjournalist
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and blogger, that suggests what a threat free information is still to his rule. do you think, then, he's underestimated the international outrage? because it's quite a risk, isn't it, that he's instigated this international incident, as you've described it, for one man? just how much of a threat was roman to lukashenko? he was a young, talented, very capable internet journalist who had played a crucial role in bringing to light the extent of the oppression in belarus after the fixed election last august and in helping to organise some of the demonstrations, although he himself was based outside the country. on the matter of lukashenko�*s calculation, he has a long history, unfortunately, of making eccentric and dangerous and irrational decisions.
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that was ambassador nigel gould—davies speaking to me earlier. the head of the world health organization has condemned what he says is the scandalous inequity of access to covid vaccinations around the world. speaking at the opening of the annual world health assembly, tedros ghebreyesus said the gap was making the pandemic worse. more than 75% of all vaccines have been administered in just ten countries. there is no diplomatic way to say it. a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world's vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world. meanwhile, india has become only the third country in the world to record more than 300,000 deaths from covid—i9 — behind the us and brazil. experts warn that the real number of people killed might be far higher. the problem is compounded by a sluggish vaccination drive.
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devina gupta reports from delhi. it's a grim milestone for the country battling the second wave of covid. in the past 26 days in all, over 100,000 lives have been lost. experts believe that in major cities — that's the financial hub of mumbai and india's capital city delhi — the wave could be peaking. that is that the infected number of cases could be going down. but the fatality rate here also remains high. in delhi, where i am, we've seen over 150 people dying almost daily for the past six weeks. and that's why the city is in the sixth week of its lockdown. major containment zones have been built in major parts of the country. there are almost half the states which are now in a lockdown or have extended their restrictions of people's movement to help break the cycle. but there's also another danger that these numbers could just be the tip of the iceberg. there's also major underreporting, especially as the wave goes through rural india.
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i've been speaking to health workers there who talk about abysmal health care infrastructure, villages where primary health care centres do not even have doctors and medicines or even oxygen concentrators to help deal with this crisis, and that's where india's challenge is at the moment. and that was devina gupta there. for more on the covid—i9 situation and the disparities between countries, i've been talking to raina macintyre, an infectious diseases expert and the head of the kirby institute biosecurity programme at the university of new south wales. she's told me what countries are most at risk. the most vulnerable countries are those that have weak health systems, particularly privatised health systems where people have to pay for even a test and where shortages of supplies and equipment can become really critical,
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as we're seeing in india, but also highly populous countries, because the spread will be more rapid in densely populated megacities. ok, so i believe we're talking about the continents of south america and also the african continent as well. how much of a window do we have when it comes to getting those vaccinations in the right people who need them? are we talking months, years? to be honest, i think it will be... it'll take longer than this year, maybe it'll take several years, and that's because we still have a shortage of supply. when the us becomes fully vaccinated or highly vaccinated, the us manufacturers will be able to focus more on supplying other countries. but in india, for example, which is meant to be supplying the rest of south asia and parts of africa,
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because they do have the biggest manufacturing capacity, they've been unable to supply those countries, so the countries around them, around india, are also suffering shortages. raina macintyre there. ok, let's get a look at some of the day's other news. japan has opened mass covid vaccination centres in an effort to speed up the roll—out ofjabs two months before the start of the tokyo olympics. the military—run centres in the capital tokyo and osaka will administer thousands of jabs each day. japan is trying to curb a surge in infections. the winner of last month's election in samoa has been sworn into office in an extraordinary ceremony in a tent. she was locked out of parliament by her opponent, who's refusing to step down. fiame naomi mata'afa ended up taking the oath of office in a marquee in the gardens surrounding parliament.
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she's become samoa's first female prime minister. the malian military has arrested the country's political leaders, in what appears to be an attempted coup. mali's interim president, bah n'daw, and the prime minister were taken to a military camp near the capital bamako. the african union, the eu and the us have condemned the coup and have demanded the president and prime minister's release. do stay with us here on bbc news. still to come: the us prepares to mark the first anniversary of the murder of the african—american man george floyd, which prompted demonstrations around the world against police brutality.
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in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletics events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7am. taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot, as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juventus enclosure. the belgium police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the j tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of. the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than 4,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, also known as ginger spice, has announced she's left the spice girls. argh, i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the girl power. not geri, why? this is bbc news.
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welcome back. a reminder of our top story. a belarussian journalist arrested in minsk following the forced diversion of his flight has appeared in a video, apparently under duress. the eu has approved sanctions on belarus. president biden has announced that the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is heading to the middle east, to try to build on the ceasefire between the israelis and hamas. his visit comes as both sides count the cost of the recent conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 250 people, most of them in gaza. our middle east editor jeremy bowen has been to a palestinian community near beit hanoun in gaza, where a young man and seven children were killed. a warning, his report contains some extremely distressing images. it's not big enough to have a proper name. locally, this place is called
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the end of masaridene street. it could be idyllic. but this is gaza, around 800 metres from the boundary wire with israel. on the 10th of may, the first day of the war, at around 6:30 in the evening, it turned into a small corner of hell. screaming you can hear the shock as he says, "god is greatest". allahu akbar... and then, "children, children". then "martyr" and "massacre, a new massacre". yusuf al—masri lays his dead seven—year—old son marwan next to the body of his other boy, ibrahim, who was 11.
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in all, seven children and a young man of 21 were killed. this is yusuf al—masri. like all the bereaved parents, he said the dead were martyrs forjerusalem, killed by israel. he accepted condolences the traditional way. his brother, still wounded in hospital, had three children killed. mohammed, yusuf�*s surviving son, said nothing and just listened.
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their homes were shelled during 11 days of war. by then, the community had fled. israel says it has no record of a strike at the time of that first attack. it says its assessment is that a palestinian rocket aimed at israel dropped short of its target. the family showed us shrapnel they said was from the bomb. independent experts who have seen these photos say they're fragments of airdropped precision munitions — not palestinian rockets. the two sides will not agree. how are you doing? as—salamu alaykum. another family in the village is mourning a son — ibrahim, who was 16.
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more people arrived to offer condolences. palestinians don't believe israel's insistence that it works hard not to kill civilians, warning them to get out before some raids, like the one that destroyed this part of beit hanoun. as in the previous rounds of fighting between israel and hamas, the ceasefire is a pause. the conflict is not just unresolved — it is not even frozen. jeremy bowen, bbc news, gaza. the bbc�*s laura trevelyan in jerusalem says antony blinken is not trying to negotiate a long—term deal. what he is trying to do is to stabilise the cease—fire and ticket aid to gaza. those are the minimal conditions that have been set. injerusalem
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today, two israelis were stabbed, the suspect was shot by police for some jerusalem itself is full of tensions. there may be a cease—fire, but this latest conflict has stirred up so much distrust and latent hatred, almost, between jews and arabs that this is the really alarming legacy of what has happened, which is why antony blinken is trying really just to make sure that this fragile cease—fire can hold. but even with that, prime minister button —— netanyahu, who is meeting, once to send a really strong message to him about iran, because, remember, the us wants to rejoin the iran nuclear deal, there are to be more talks between the us and iran, and tonight premonition netanyahu said it would not hesitate to take independent action of a needed to on iran, so don't be the easiest of visits.
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laura trevelyan there. tuesday marks the first anniversary of the murder of george floyd, the african—american who was killed while being detained by police in the state of minnesota. the images of the incident shocked people around the world, prompting millions to take part in global demonstrations against police brutality. our north america correspondent, nick bryant, is in minneapolis and gave us a sense of the atmosphere there. there's a sense of frustration and anger that not more has changed over the last 12 months, because, historically speaking, grievous acts of police brutality have been the catalyst for major reform. the sight of police dogs lunging at civil rights protesters in birmingham, alabama in 1963 led to landmark legislation the following year. selma, alabama, the site of police officers mercilessly beating protesters again, produced a landmark voting rights act. and activists here saw an equivalent historical moment. they have been pushing for the george floyd policing act. joe biden has also set tomorrow's anniversary
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as a deadline for that, but it'll pass without the legislation being enacted, because there isn't the bipartisan support on capitol hill to get it passed. there is, though, a sense of determination that george floyd should notjust be memorialised with flowers, notjust be memorialised with this shrine, but be memorialised with legislation, police reform legislation that bears his name. nick bryant there. max mosley, who made his name as the head of formula 1's governing body, has died at the age of 81. he'd been suffering from cancer. in later years, he became a prominent privacy campaigner, after a high—profile case against the news of the world newspaper. and he won. our home editor mark easton looks back on his life. max mosley was many things. a racing driver who went on to run motorsport, a barrister who helped change
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britain's laws on privacy, and a suave family man with a secret double life. their nazi lie was completely invented and had no justification. he was the son of oswald mosley, leader of the british union of fascists, and his mother, lady diana, described by one newspaper is an "unrepentant nazi". "all my life, i've had hanging over me my antecedents, my parents," max mosley once said. he went into motor racing, a world where people didn't care about his parental background. he briefly competed as a driver before concluding he wasn't quick enough and, instead, helped start the car manufacturer march engineering and became a representative on the formula one constructors�* association. his abilities and charm made him an effective advocate and, in the 1990s, he became head of the fia, the body representing the interests of motorsport. it was a role he held for 16 years. today, former formula one boss bernie ecclestone said, "it's like losing family, like losing a brother. he did a lot of good things,
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he was very good in making sure people built cars that were safe." in 2008, while still head of the fia, the news of the world newspaper splashed a story claiming mosley had been involved in a sex act involving five women, one of whom was wearing a military uniform. although his wife and family knew nothing of his penchant for sadomasochism, mosley was unashamed and took the paper to court for breach of privacy and won. i've been doing this for 45 years and there had never been a hint, nobody knew. mosley then took the uk government to the european court of human rights, arguing newspapers should warn people before exposing their private lives. he lost, but the case led him to use some of his considerable family fortune to support victims of the fleet street phone—hacking scandal. max mosley is effectively the author of modern privacy law. his case, which he brought against the news of the world,
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and his subsequent supporting of hacked off will be seen, i think, in the future as a golden thread that actually led to where we are with privacy today. max mosley had the money and the attributes to change things. he flirted with politics, working with the conservatives in the �*80s and later supporting labour politicians like tom watson, with a donation of £500,000. but he will probably be remembered for his defence of his colourful sex life. they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and films of adults engaged in activities which were no—one's business but those of the people concerned. max mosley�*s legacy is about what privacy should mean. his view? provided it's between consenting adults wanting who want to do it, who are of sound mind and it is in private, then it's perfectly harmless. max mosley there, who has died
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at the age of 81. you can get in touch with me. i'm @lukwesaburak on twitter. hello. we know may has been wet, and now with less than a week to go, the met office says provisionalfigures indicate that wales, despite all of the sunshine to end monday, has had its wettest may on record — those records going back to 1862. wales will have a drier tuesday, but depending on where you are, there will be further heavy showers to dodge because low pressure, although it's moving into the north sea, is still close enough to produce some of those showers. now, there are weather changes on the horizon and we'll look at those in just a moment. this is how we're starting off tuesday morning. a lot of cloud across scotland, northern england, through north wales, the midlands and on towards east anglia, where you could be encountering some patchy rain to begin with. elsewhere, a few sunny spells. the cloudy zone will brighten up, but this is where we're going to see some of those
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heavy and possibly thundery showers, with the risk of hail during the day. quieter weather through much of wales, the midlands, into southeast england, bar the odd shower, and largely dry in northern ireland. but cornwall and devon clouding over with outbreaks of rain moving in. it'll be fairly breezy out there and temperatures for the most part in the range of 12 to 16 celsius. tuesday evening brings some of the heaviest showers in towards the midlands and east anglia before the day is done. the rain clears away the far southwest of england, further outbreaks of rain pushing in towards southeast scotland and northeast england. and wednesday starts where you're clear on a chillier note, some spots down into low single figures. and on wednesday, there will be a few sunny spells around, but much of the east of the uk will be cloudy, and you could well see some outbreaks of rain turning increasingly light and patchy as the day goes on. but through parts of scotland and again northern england, through the afternoon, there could be heavy and thundery showers getting going. where you get the sunshine, though, it is going to be a little warmer. still quite chilly as thursday begins under largely clear skies. now, there will be a weather system trying
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to approach from the west. some uncertainty about how far it's going to get in during daylight hours, but it could well bring some cloud and rain into at least parts of northern ireland. but where you stay dry, with sunny spells, it'll be a touch warmer still. that weather front to the west willjust die a death and we're left with building high pressure going into the weekend, and that is going to bring rather more settled weather than we've had of late. not completely dry. there may be a weather system approaching from the west later on bank holiday monday. but for most of us, it is looking this weekend drier and warmer.
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the headlines... the belarussian journalist arrested in minsk following the forced diversion of his flight has appeared in a video statement — confessesing to organising anti—government protests. it appeares to have been made under duress. eu leaders have now banned belarussian airlines from its airspace and are drawing up targeted sanctions. the head of the world health organization has condemned what he says is the scandalous inequity of access to covid vaccinations around the world. speaking at the opening of the annual assembly, tedros ghebreyesus said, the gap was making the pandemic worse. the us secretary of state, antony blinken is on his way to the middle east for talks following the fighting between israel and palestinian militants. state department officials say his priority will be to work -- is
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