tv BBC News BBC News August 19, 2022 3:00am-3:31am BST
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welcome to bbc news. i'm david willis. our top stories: a fire at a russian ammunition depot is blamed for the evacuation of two border villages, as explosions are reported at an airfield in russian—occupied crimea. in ukraine, the un chief says any damage to a nuclear plant would be suicide. on a visit to lviv, he calls for an end to fighting near the facility but hopes for peace remain. there has been some progress. ukraine and russia still are not talking to each other but they could reach future agreements with the united nations and turkey as brokers in the middle. a usjudge unseals documents that authorised the fbi to search donald trump's florida home.
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we'll get the latest from our correspondent in the united states. the afghan taliban says that at least 21 people were killed in a blast at a kabul mosque. the un calls on the group to bring an end to terrorism. japan launches a nationwide competition to enourage people in their 20s and 30s to drink more alcohol. and striking gold. that was fantastic. you can't b that that was fantastic. you can't by that feeling, _ that was fantastic. you can't by that feeling, frankly. - we hearfrom one of the british divers who helped locate a us first world war shipwreck that's been missing since 1917.
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welcome to bbc news. explosions have been reported at a military airbase in russian—occupied crimea. officials there say there's been no damage, and that a ukrainian drone has been shot down. it happened north of the city of sevastopol at the belbek air base. you'll remember, another russian airbase in crimea was hit by explosions earlier this month. and, seperately, in russia itself, two villages close to the border with ukraine were evacuated after a fire broke out at an ammunition depot. the fire was less than 50 kilometres from the frontier. no casualties have been reported. meanwhile, the un secretary—general has sounded the alarm about the danger of a catastrophe at a nuclear plant occupied by russian forces in ukraine. antonio guterres called for military activity at europe's largest nuclear power plant to end. he spoke after face—to—face
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talks with president zelensky and turkey's president erdogan in lviv. they also discussed how to increase grain shipments across the black sea. james waterhouse reports from ukraine. the hunt for a solution. featuring turkey's president erdogan, antonio guterres, the united nations chief, and ukraine's leader, volodymyr zelensky. one agenda item, russia's continued occupation of the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. there were repeated calls for a demilitarisation zone and for international inspectors to be let in. moscow has continually refused but ukraine is practising for a worst—case scenario. in an online post, staff there have described feeling powerless in the face of madness. agreement is urgently needed to establish zaporizhzhia as purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the
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safety of the area. the next agenda item seemed more positive. the only diplomatic breakthrough in this war. a grain deal which has and still is allowing ukraine to export it through the black sea. kyiv and moscow were urged to make sure it continues to succeed as it could be a long—term route to peace. today though we were reminded of ukraine's condition for that to happen. translation: i'm very surprised to hear that they are ready - for some kind of peace. the people who kill, rape, hit our civilian cities with cruise missiles every day cannot want peace. first they should leave our territory. while today hasn't brought much in terms of concrete outcomes, there has been some progress. ukraine and russia still are not talking to each other but they could reach future agreements with the united nations and turkey as brokers in the middle.
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for now, any hope is eclipsed by the daily reality of this war. 17 people the latest to lose their lives in ukraine's second city, kharkiv, in what authorities called one of their most tragic days. james waterhouse, bbc news, in kyiv. the latest situation there in ukraine. a long—serving senior executive at donald trump's family business has admitted conspiring with the company in a 15—year tax fraud. allen weisselberg, who's 75, avoided paying tax on more than £1.5 million worth of unreported perks. under his plea deal, he will serve five months in prison and will have to give evidence against the trump organization. donald trump himself has not been accused of wrongdoing. earlier i spoke to our north america correspondent peter bowes and asked him if allen weisselberg's guilty plea spells further trouble for trump.
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this is a man who worked for the former president forfive decades. if anyone knows the inner workings of the trump organization, he does, however, it seems as if as part of this deal to get a relatively short sentence, he has not agreed to give evidence in the future against donald trump. what he will do — he will be a witness at that forthcoming trial involving the trump organization, again involving its tax affairs, and he could well give some very interesting information regarding that, but as far as talking about donald trump, it seems as if that is off—limits for him. he has not made any agreements, and after those five decades, he is still remaining very loyal to his former boss. meanwhile, newly unsealed documents reveal more about potential crimes at mar—a—lago, donald trump's summer home. what more do we know about that? well, what we know is
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essentially what the cover sheet says to this document that gave the go—ahead for this search of mar—a—lago. so, we have three broad areas — obstruction of a federal investigation, concealment or removal of government documents, and wilful retention of national defence information. those are the three areas that the government is looking into. what we don't have, david, is the detail, and that is essentially what these media organisations are trying to get — the full affidavit released — and what thejudge in florida has said is he has gone back to thejustice department. they do not want any of it released. they say it will compromise the investigation, but he has asked thejustice department to look at possible reductions into the words, hiding parts of the document so some of it can be released a week from now. it could, of course, be heavily redacted, couldn't it? how much of this document do you think we will actually get to see? i think thejustice department will make a very strong
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argument against releasing anything that it believes could compromise the investigation, that could perhaps deter other potential witnesses from maybe coming forward or being interviewed as part of this investigation. they will argue strongly to the judge that that kind of information has to be kept secret. nevertheless, there could be parts of this document, if the judge agrees it could be revealed, that will give us just a little bit more detail in terms of what donald trump, or perhaps some of those people close to him, is alleged to have done. peter bowes reporting from los angeles. let's get some of the day's other news. the man accused of stabbing the author salman rushdie in new york last week has pleaded not guilty to two charges in court. 24—year—old hadi matar appeared in the chautauqua county court. he faces charges of assault and second—degree attempted murder over the incident. salman rushdie remains in a serious condition in hospital.
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powerful storms have battered areas of central and southern europe, killing at least 13 people including three children. the deaths, reported in italy, austria and on the french island of corsica, were mostly due to falling trees. heavy rain and strong winds also wrecked campsites on the island. firefighters in algeria say wildfires that have killed at least 37 people and scorched hundreds of acres of land and forests are finally under control. helicopters are continuing to drop water on some areas, but the fires near the border with tunisia are no longer a threat. a chicago court has been hearing evidence from a woman who claims that the singer r kelly abused her "hundreds of times" before she turned 18. r kelly is facing child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. last september, he was
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convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering. the afghan taliban says that at least 21 people were killed when an explosion ripped through a kabul mosque during evening prayers on wednesday. more than 30 others were injured. officials say the security forces are searching for the perpetrators. our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, has more from kabul. after many hours of silence taliban officials have now finally given figures for the casualties of the dead and injured from last night's devastating explosion at a mosque in the north—west of kabul. but given the number of casualties, young children admitted to the main emergency hospital here in the centre of kabul, run by an italian ngo, there is fear that those figures could rise even higher.
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heightening the concern of people here that their hopes that with the end of the taliban a war against the us led military campaign here, that there could be a greater peace and security. that there is greater security across large swathes of the country, but even though no—one, no group has taken responsibility for the attack, there has been a pattern of attacks by the islamic state group, often targeting members of the shiia has our avenatti and prominent clerics who adhere to different brands of islam, a different creed, or who are strong supporters of the taliban. there has been a long—standing rift between these two islamist groups, divided along ideological, religious, personal and political lines, above the territory, and influence in afghanistan, islamic state has more global ambitions, the taliban focusing more on what's happening in afghanistan, and evermore so
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since they came to power last august. afghans looked at them now for addressing the needs of people here. so that's why the taliban are often 12, but it welcomed the attacks, but they are sometimes slow with the numbers, they don't want to create this impression that they are now failing to keep they are now failing to keep the peace here in the country which is now under their control. to japan now, which has a rather unusual new strategy when it comes alcohol consumption. you would generally expect a government to promote less drinking. but there, the country's national tax agency has launched a nationwide competition, asking for ideas to encourage people in their 20s and 30s to drink more alcohol because it's keen to increase its revenue from alcohol tax. mariko oi has more. for generations, people considered alcohol as part of their daily lives, even at work, believing
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that going out for drinks may help with business negotiations. but that has been changing because stagnant salaries mean japan's young adults are not drinking as much alcohol as their parents' generation. and according to the government figures, people are only drinking three quarters of what they used to in the mid—90s and that is affecting the country's budget. its alcohol tax revenue was already falling but in 2020, due to pandemic restrictions, it suffered the biggest fall in over three decades. keen to change that, the japanese government has now launched a nationwide competition called the sake viva, asking for ideas to encourage people in their 20s and 30s to drink more alcohol. not surprisingly, the competition has been criticised for promoting an unhealthy habit. iam allfor i am all for it. marika oi there. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: we'll tell you what this inflatable structure in the uk has to do
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with living on mars. washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed, i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last 10 days, 500 have died. crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! _ man: czechoslovakia must be free! - crowd chant: czechoslovakia must be free! _ russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we are all with them now, within our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us," - chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well," joked the pope. "so, you want mej to desert rome?"
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this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a fire at a russian ammunition depot is blamed for the evacuation of two border villages, as explosions are reported at an airfield in russian—occupied crimea. in ukraine, the un chief says any damage to a nuclear plant would be suicide. on a visit to lviv he calls for an end to fighting near the facility, but hopes for peace remain. let's stay with events in ukraine. earlier, we spoke to lawrence korb, a senior fellow at the center for american progress, and a former us assistant secretary of defense in the reagan administration. he explained to us just how dire the implications of an explosion could be.
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the danger is catastrophic because of this is the largest nuclear power plant in all of europe, notjust of the other four in ukraine. and if you have an attack and you start leaking radiation into the atmosphere, there is no way you can stop it and it won'tjust hit the area around there, it will go through all of many countries. if you remember chernobyl, you ended up with belarus and george were also impacted and that happened in addition to russia. so, the un secretary general is right, you have got to neutralise this, it has to be taken out of the battle, because the russians right now think the ukrainians will not attack them as long as they control it, and so they can just fire at the ukrainians
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and not fear any retaliation. ukrainians have responded a couple of times and that, of course, has increased the danger. ukraine has apparently agreed in principle to allow international inspectors to look around the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant but is that practical given the fighting that's going on in that region? well, they'd have to stop the fighting. you know, the only hope we have is they did come to some sort of agreement on shipping the grain from ukraine to the countries in the middle east and africa. you hope that both sides will see this and the russians certainly should understand given what happen in chernobyl which was then part of russia and was manned by russian military people. there have been some reports of progress in these talks in lviv but how much progress can really be made, all the time that russia is not present at the negotiating table? that is a problem that you have
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because where this is, in the south—eastern part of ukraine, is where the russians are trying to control and they have put that offensive, after it did not work up in kyiv. so it is very critical to them and it gives them an advantage right now because, while the ukrainians have fired back a couple of times, they are not going all out, given the danger that an explosion at the nuclear power plant could cause for all the people of ukraine. very briefly, turkey has sought to mediate in the conflict in ukraine. but how much influence does turkey actually wield? well, i think turkey has a great deal of influence because they are part of nato but they also have good relations with russia and, as you know, they have not even voted yet to let finland and sweden into nato, and they have been buying russian military equipment over the years so they do have some influence with putin and hopefully they can do what they did in brokering in the grain deal.
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former us assistant secretary of defence lawrence korb there. a team of divers has found the first us battleship to be lost to enemy action in the first world war. the uss jacob jones was discovered 120 metres below water over a century after it went missing off the british coast. jenny kumah reports. over 100 metres down and over 100 years after sinking, this is the moment when a team of divers found the final resting place of the uss jacob jones. it was a moment of pure joy, after months of research and planning. when i saw that bell and i saw the letters jacob on it, and i knew that all the work
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and all the time that had been spent getting there and getting us in the water and the big team effort that that had taken and we had cracked the mystery, that was fantastic. you can't, you know, you can't buy that feeling, frankly. the us destroyer was the first ever to be sunk by enemy fire, when on the 6th of december 1917, she was torpedoed by a german u—boat. she sank in deep water south of the isles of scilly. so this is the piece of specialist equipment i use to dive to jacob jones. the team made the discovery despite challenging conditions. all the way during the dive, the current was running, which made it quite difficult for us. the first thing that i saw was a boiler. there's different types of boilers on ships, and this one was quite distinctive, and i knew it was the same type as from the jacob jones. some were saved after the german u—boat commander signalled american forces. it's been reported that he did this because he knew the crew didn't have a chance to call for help. but 64 american sailors lost their lives.
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their names are commemorated here at the brookwood american cemetery, in surrey. it's nice that we know where this one is. maritime historians described this as a significant discovery. the poignant image of the ship's bell sat amongst the wreckage of a ship which is laying under the seas for 105 years, that brings a lump to my throat. and i remember those brave men doing what they were trying to do to assist the flow of supplies to the united kingdom. because of the depth of the wreck, the team were only able to spend 20 minutes exploring the site, the divers plan to return, and if the us government grants them permission, they'd love to raise the bell as a tribute to those who lost their lives. jenny kumah, bbc news. a remarkable discovery there. a weird new building is causing
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quite a stir in bristol in the west of england. it was created to show people how they could potentially live on mars, but with the additional aim of making them think about how they can live more sustainably on earth. wendy urquhart reports. space has always been a source of curiosity and experts have often talked about the possibility of living on the moon or mars and a new project now makes it possible to see what living on mars might look like. this two story, 53 square metre inflatable structure was designed by a team of experts who specialise in creating buildings for extreme environment, including antarctica. it is powered both solar panels and can cope with an average temperature of —63 celsius, but there are also a number of other urgent issues to consider. the key thing about when you're living on mars is you need your buildings to be completely airtight, because the atmosphere outside is essentially poisonous.
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you then need to be able to keep out all the dangerous solar and cosmic radiation so you need to have the outside made of something which will keep all those dangerous rays out. so, our house partially would be built underground, in the amazing lava tubes which exist under the surface of mars — that's where the bedrooms and bathrooms would be. and then aboveground would be the living room, this gold inflatable section that you see behind us, and that would be filled with home—made concrete, made of the water and crusty earth you get on planet mars and it would then go hard and protect you from the rays that exist around you. the environmental control room, the life—support systems that power the house, two compact bedroom pods, a shower and a low—water martian loo are in the underground section. the creators hope that this martian house will inspire people to live more sustainably on earth and you can see what it is all about when it opens to the public at the end of august.
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wendy urquhart, bbc news, politicians are known for being quite straight—laced in many parts of the world, but maybe not in finland. sanna marin, who's the prime minister, is facing a backlash after a leaked video which shows her partying. she and friends, including finnish celebrities, are seen dancing and singing. she has faced criticism from opposition parties, with one leader demanding she take a drug test. ms marin, who is the youngest prime minister in the world atjust 36 years old, denied taking drugs, saying she only drank alcohol and has agreed to a drug test. translation: these videos are -rivate. translation: these videos are private- they — translation: these videos are private. they were _ translation: these videos are private. they were shot - translation: these videos are private. they were shot in - private. they were shot in private. they were shot in private quarters. i am unhappy
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that they have public. i was simply spending an evening with my friends partying. i was being lively, dancing and singing.- dancing and singing. sanna marin there. _ a russian rapper and restaurateur have joined forces to reopen a chain of coffee shops with a rather familiar name. stars, due to open today, is the rebranded version of the us chain starbucks. after 15 years, the global coffee giant shut 130 stores in late may, as part of a mass exodus of companies from russia in reaction to its invasion of ukraine. fans of starbucks will recognise the similarities between the old and new looks, with the new owners saying they sought to find some continuity for customers. indeed they did. a reminder of our top story. explosions have been reported at a military airbase in russian—occupied crimea. officials there say there's been no damage, and that a ukrainian drone has been shot down. it happened north of the city of sevastopol at the belbek airbase.
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that's it from us. that is it for bbc news. hello there. the weather is still looking quite mixed, really, over the coming few days. we end the week with some warm spells of sunshine, but there will be a few showers blown in, mainly towards northwestern parts of the uk. towards the southeast, on thursday, temperatures reached 27 in central london and 28 at heathrow airport in the sunshine — that sunshine was ahead of this band of cloud that brought some patchy rain. and that cloud and patchy rain is heading towards the southeast at the moment. it will keep the temperatures up here by the end of the night. but clearer skies will follow to the north, those numbers dropping away to 11—12 celsius. and you may get a view of the northern lights in scotland, maybe the far north of england and northern ireland. some early rain here in the southeast corner of england and cloud — that soon moves away, sunshine comes through. cloud will tend to build up a bit and, as the wind picks up in scotland and northern ireland, will blow in some
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blustery showers. here, the odd showers possible across england and wales, but on the whole it looks dry, some sunshine. temperatures similar to what we had on thursday — could make 20 celsius in eastern scotland and eastern parts of northern ireland. low—to—mid—20s across england and wales. now we still have an area of low pressure to the north of the uk. around the base of that, this weather front is pushing in from the atlantic, and that means we start the weekend with some cloud and rain in scotland and northern ireland. but it does move through, and we'll get some sunshine following, a few showers into the northwest. this narrow band of rain gets stuck across northern england. to the south, there could be some spells of sunshine and maybe 1 or 2 light showers, but again, it's generally dry, and those temperatures not really changing much as we head into saturday afternoon. second half of the weekend, and remember, everything is sort of coming in from the west — this is where our weather is coming from, and we've got some more weather fronts, some thickening cloud tending to come in from the atlantic, slowly but surely. and things are slowing down a bit, really. so we start dry, bright, some sunshine on sunday. and with that cloud coming in steadily from the west during the day,
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the winds probably a bit lighter on sunday, and a bit of rain coming into some western areas later on. if anything, temperatures may be a shade lower on sunday — 18 central belt of scotland, 2a london and the home counties. now the jet stream is sitting right over the uk at the moment. that's bringing the unsettled weather. into next week, the jet stream heads further north, and that allows some warmer weather to arrive, especially in the southeast.
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this is bbc news. the headlines: a fire at a russian ammunition depot is blamed for the evacuation of two villages, less than 50 kilometres from the frontier. meanwhile, explosions are reported at an airfield in russian—occupied crimea, north of the city of sevastopol. officials there say there's been no damage. in ukraine, the un chief antonio guterres says any damage to a nuclear plant would be suicide. on a visit to lviv he called for an end to fighting near the facility. he spoke after face—to—face talks with president zelensky and turkey's president erdogan. ajudge in florida has unsealed some of the documents relating to the fbi's search of the mar—a—lago home
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of donald trump. it comes after american news organisations argued it was in the public interest to know more about the search. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama, the property developer who has turned taxpayers' cash into a personal fortune. and who is footing the bill and who is paying the price? the public are paying the price and footing the bill. and the charity housing vulnerable people that's helped him do it. it never felt like a charity, it always felt like a business. we investigate the charity's links to the developer. he had a stranglehold over the charity. - they were dependent on him.
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