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tv   BBC News  BBC News  November 30, 2024 10:00am-10:31am GMT

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a second night of protests in georgia as thousands demonstrate against a decision to suspend eu membership talks. police have used tear gas and water canon to try to disperse the crowds in tblisi. and it's anything but a ruff welcome for these pets, as an auction for recycled royal curtains helps rescue dogs find a home. we start in syria, where in the last few minutes, the syrian army has said dozens of troops have been wounded and killed in large—scale clashes with rebels in aleppo. there are also are reports that russian and syrian jets have bombed islamist rebels. the air raids are in response to the largest offensive against the syrian government in years. rebel forces have reportedly taken control of the majority of syria's second—largest city. aleppo was the scene of one
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of the bloodiest sieges of syria's civil war, a conflict which first broke out in 2011. let's hearfrom one rebel fighter who made it in the heart of the city. translation: after hard-working atients translation: after hard-working patients from _ translation: after hard-working patients from the _ translation: after hard-working patients from the fighters - translation: after hard-working patients from the fighters the - patients from the fighters the city of aleppo has been completely liberated, thank god and by god's will we will reach damascus too. our correspondent in beirut, lina sinjab explained what we know about the russian airstrikes. well, this offensive started on wednesday by the rebel jihadist rebels sweeping through several towns and cities, including reaching most parts of aleppo. so it was expected that government forces and russians to start some sort of defence. and that's what happened overnight with russian
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airstrikes against rebel, you know, forces. and this time in the city of aleppo. we're still not sure quite where exactly and if there are any damages. and what are the, you know, death toll after these airstrikes. but this is a sign that both the government and the russians have moved to push the rebels back. and we're still watching to see how this back and forth battle will unfold. and who's going to, you know, remain and control the power in aleppo, although we've seen also reports that, you know, the opposition who used suicide car bombs to advance towards the city of aleppo faced little resistance from government forces. and there were some words for the army to pull out to have tactical withdrawal from different parts of the city as well.
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so how significant is this latest offensive by rebel forces, considering, as we were saying, it's the largest against the syrian government in years? it is indeed. and it comes at a time where, you know, the regime is busy with a reshuffling situation internally, especially after there was a big blow to its allies, both hezbollah and iran in syria and in lebanon because of israeli attacks. and while russia is also busy with ukraine. but we've seen like immediately that the russians have, you know, moved to try and, you know, stop this offensive or try to defend the city of aleppo. we've seen also words coming out from the russians calling on the government to act quickly to defend it. but also there are questions about, you know, uh, you know, who is behind this offensive in supporting the rebels to take this offensive at this time. many raised the question whether turkey has interest in,
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you know, giving a green light for the rebels that they back to act at this time and also to try and push, you know, the millions of refugees that they have in turkey back into syria. so there are lots of questions here at stake, and only the days you know to come will unfold, to understand what are the real reasons and who's going to be the one who maintain control over the city of aleppo. let's speak to ibrahim hamidi who is a syrianjournalist and co—founder of the syrian studies centre in scotland. thank you for your time here on bbc news. can you start by telling us why you think this is happening now?— telling us why you think this is happening now? good morning, thank ou is happening now? good morning, thank you for— is happening now? good morning, thank you for having _ is happening now? good morning, thank you for having me. - is happening now? good morning, thank you for having me. it - is happening now? good morning, thank you for having me. it is - thank you for having me. it is happening now i think for several reasons but let me focus on two. between israel
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and iran, now the whole iranian militia is deployed in western part, weekend and the islamist groups backed by turkey sees this opportunity to make some gains on the ground and i think they were surprised how fast they were surprised how fast they were surprised how fast they were able to advance inside aleppo and now as was said, the second—biggest city in syria, the first time ever the history is out of control the history is out of control the central damascus based in the central damascus based in the capital. now the islamist army groups backed by turkey support the second city, the second—largest city in syria. i second—largest city in syria. i understand you have been speaking to a lot of people in aleppo. how are they feeling about what is now happening? i spoke to some reporters on about what is now happening? i spoke to some reporters on the
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ground in aleppo and it seems as of now the leaders of the army groups, the leader of the militia, give clear instructions to the fighters not to harm any civilians, not to attack any properties, to just try to control the city literally. i think they are in a way inspired by taliban experience in afghanistan so they are trying to copy that model to control the city and trying to let the locals to control the city but let's see what's going to happen next, as was said, the have started to do air strikes on aleppo on the syrian government as well is doing some striking in aleppo. let me make it clear, i think the whole offensive, the whole case will have nothing possible
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if russia intervenes at the beginning quickly. it seems that russia because the russian army has moved and transferred the most advanced warplanes to ukraine, now they will not be able to intervene straightaway, the last three or four days they are just starting to intervene now after four days when the army groups can control the second—largest city in syria. i don't know if they will be able to push them out without making a huge damage for this big city which we, you met is about 5 million civilians in the city. thank ou civilians in the city. thank you very _ civilians in the city. thank you very much _ civilians in the city. thank you very much for - civilians in the city. thank you very much for your. civilians in the city. thank. you very much for your time. thank you. here in the uk, senior doctors providing end of life care are urging ministers to "fix"
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palliative services, after mps voted in favour of legalising assisted dying for terminally ill people in england and wales. the association for palliative medicine wants the government to set up a commission to examine how to improve the care its members provide to patients. it is warning about the impact of a lack of funding and poor co—ordination of services. the department of health has been asked for comment. here's our health correspondent, catherine burns. after 4.5 hours of debate, it came down to this. the ayes to the right, 330. the noes to the left, 275. the ayes have it, the ayes have it. | lock! outside parliament, campaigners were waiting anxiously for news and then forsome, celebrations. but also a bittersweet moment, with others wishing this had come in time for their loved ones. my dad took his own life because he could no longer endure the pain that he was in. um, you know, my whole family, the whole experience
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could have been different. we could have talked about it together. you know, we could have sat down and could have been calm. we could have been with my father at the end. and, i mean, ultimately, my sister wouldn't have had to have found him after he took his own life. this question has always been divisive, and some people are devastated. i think it has an impact - on people who are vulnerable, who will very quickly go from having a right to die to having a duty to die. this bill would only be relevant to certain people. they'd have to be over 18, registered with a gp in england and wales and be expected to die within six months. they must have the mental capacity to decide and clearly express their wishes. it's also worth highlighting who wouldn't be impacted — anyone under 18, people who are in pain but not with a terminal diagnosis, or who are not mentally capable
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of deciding this. this result might be historic, but it's not law yet and it might never get to that stage. the next step is a lot of scrutiny and dealing with unanswered questions, like how can doctors definitively say that someone only has six months left to live? how to protect vulnerable people who might feel pressurised into doing this. how much will it cost and how will it be funded? but really, at the heart of this is one key question — how can people have the best possible death? palliative care can help make people comfortable at the end of their lives. about 450,000 people across the uk need it every year. they don't all get it though. about 100,000 have to go without. some argue the government should be prioritising this. we would encourage them i to start a conversation, um, about putting this right, - about making making palliative care something we can be really proud of. - um, what concerns me is that now that this bill is passed, . there may be less impetus to do that _ and also, we know there i is a finite amount of money to be used for the nhs.
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but mps backing the bill think it's helping to focus attention on palliative care. of course, assisted dying is not a substitute for palliative care. it is not an either—or. we have some of the best palliative care in the world in this country and when it can meet the needs of terminally ill people, it is second to none. but surely when it cannot, the choice of an assisted death should be one component of a holistic approach to end—of—life care. this conversation is far from over. even if the bill does become law, it would take two or three years for an assisted death in england or wales. catherine burns, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent harry farleyjoined me in the studio a little earlier to dig into the details of the bill. so, what we're looking at is many more stages of the parliamentary process
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before this could become law. and it is still a could because there are many more votes, both in the house of commons and in the house of lords before this might become law. and i've spoken to several mps who voted in favour of the bill yesterday in favour of the bill yesterday in favour of the bill at the first stage yesterday, at the first stage yesterday, who say they voted for it who say they voted for it at that first stage in order at that first stage in order to give it more time to be to give it more time to be scrutinised properly, scrutinised properly, and that they will be making and that they will be making up their minds whether to up their minds whether to continue to support it continue to support it later down the line. later down the line. so it is not we should sort of, so it is not we should sort of, i suppose, caveat it i suppose, caveat it and say there are many more and say there are many more parliamentary stages to go. parliamentary stages to go. what happens immediately next is a committee what happens immediately next is a committee of mps will form. of mps will form. kim leadbeater, the labour mp kim leadbeater, the labour mp who brought this bill, on both sides of the argument, who brought this bill, will appoint that committee. will appoint that committee. but it will reflect the full but it will reflect the full range of mps opinions range of mps opinions that we heard yesterday. that we heard yesterday. and it's worth pausing and it's worth pausing to reflect on what was quite to reflect on what was quite an extraordinary day. an extraordinary day. mps freed from any sort mps freed from any sort of tribal or party loyalties, of tribal or party loyalties, speaking very passionately. speaking very passionately. we had very emotional speeches we had very emotional speeches
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on both sides of the argument, so that committee of mps, reflecting that full range of opinion will form. they will go through the bill line by line. this is the bill here. they will go through each line of this bill and scrutinise it very carefully. and then they will suggest amendments, changes, possibly those amendments as well as the bill as a whole will then come back to the house of commons. they will possibly they might approve some changes, send it off to the house of lords. peers there also get a chance to suggest some changes before it comes back to the commons. so this process will last many months and it is not definite that this bill that mps approved yesterday at its first stage, will be the same if eventually it could might possibly become law several months down the line. with more on this is our medical editor, fergus walsh. there is universal agreement that palliative care needs
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improvement and i think mps on both sides wanted to ensure that palliative care is improved so that there's not a situation in a few years from now where it's easier to get an assisted death than it is to get a hospice bed, or it is to get good end of life care. and we've heard those calls for day to day for palliative care to be improved. worth pointing out that the majority of end of life care doctors, palliative care doctors are opposed to assisted dying. but generally there's a concern that palliative care is patchy. where it's good, it's very, very good. but even with the very best palliative care, there's always also an acceptance that it can't always prevent suffering. and that's really one of the key reasons why the bill went through yesterday because mps as a whole
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accepted that. so since that bill went through, what have your contacts within the medical profession been saying to you and what are their concerns about? we heard catherine there saying it could potentially be years before this comes in, but what are their concerns about what practically this could mean for them? so the concerns are many. to start with, you know, how is this going to be organised? where are people going to die? are they going to die at home? in a hospice? in hospitals? what will the role for hospices be? they get two thirds of their funding charitably, what impact would it have on their funding if they started offering this as part of what they do? and is this going to be provided on the nhs? that is the presumption, but it's not spelt out in the bill and the government is remaining neutral on this. but it's going to have to engage. it's going to do an impact assessment on on healthcare.
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then there's the question of which doctors are going to carry out the assessments? they'll have to be volunteers. and what will the impact be on the judiciary? what training will doctors get? and then there's the process of prescribing the drugs themselves. now, in oregon on which this is based, the drug is prescribed and then the person keeps it at home. a doctor doesn't have to be there. same in australia.
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after an exit poll put the three main parties virtually neck and neck. a final result isn't expected until the end of the weekend. let's speak to our chief presenter caitriona perry, who's in dublin for us. just over an hour of voting that we have had exit polls, haven't we?— that we have had exit polls, haven't we? yes, you can see behind the — haven't we? yes, you can see behind the counting _ haven't we? yes, you can see behind the counting is - haven't we? yes, you can see behind the counting is under. behind the counting is under way. they are sorting out the ballots at this point but an exit poll that came out at 10pm last night had sinn fein as the party getting the highest number of first preference votes on 21.1% followed by fianna fail and fine gael coming up, fine gael on 21 and fianna fail on 20.9%. a statistical dead heat, that is what falls have showed and that
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reflects the current party make up. there isjust one reflects the current party make up. there is just one seat between each of the parties. the big question will be, can any of them get enough seats to form a stable coalition? it doesn't like anyone will have a majority or even enough to go in with two parties to government. it will be another coalition government in ireland and that is something that is the tradition in this country. but it does show those games sinn fein made in the last general election in 2020 have managed to hold onto that, they are the biggest party in northern ireland and looks set based on that exit poll to be the biggest party in the republic of ireland as well. fianna fail and fine gael have said they would like to continue on their power—sharing arrangement in government. they will need others to make up the numbers whereas sinn fein says it intends to buy to make up a government as well with some of the smaller more left—leaning parties to get to the critical
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mass they need to have a majority. mass they need to have a majority-— mass they need to have a ma'ori . ., ~ i. , . majority. thank you very much indeed and _ majority. thank you very much indeed and we _ majority. thank you very much indeed and we will _ majority. thank you very much indeed and we will be - majority. thank you very much indeed and we will be keeping | indeed and we will be keeping across what happens there throughout the day. georgian police have used water cannon and tear gas on demonstrators who have turned out in their thousands near the parliament building in tbilisi for a second night running. police say 107 people have been arrested. georgia's pro—western president, salome zurabishvili, at loggerheads with the ruling party, said in a televised address that the "resistance movement" had begun and she stood by it. the protests were sparked by the government's decision to put off accession talks with the european union until 2028. earlier i spoke to our correspondent rayhan demytrie in georgia. i began by asking her if we should expect more protests in the coming days. it's highly likely, because that is the trend in georgia. when police use force, people come in larger numbers. and we've seen a larger
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protest last night than the previous night. it turned violent when police used started using water cannons. and protesters are saying that there are chemicals that perhaps are somehow mixed with the water. and i was at the protest rally. it was very difficult to breathe. they used water cannons, tear gas and this crackdown turned really brutal in the early hours of this morning, because the protest went on till 6am and now there's more and more evidence emerging of police brutality, specifically in targeting individual protesters and beating and kicking them and in some instances, kicking them unconscious. more than 100 people were arrested and one lawyer told the local media that there are no places in detention facilities in the capital, tbilisi. now, there have also been protests in other cities of georgia, namely in the second largest city, black sea coastal town of batumi and some arrests were
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made there as well. so georgians are really, really angry at their government for making this u—turn on europe. they believe that the government is trying to appease russia by turning its back on europe. the prime minister announced on thursday that the current accession talks with the european union will be put on hold until 2028 and the government says that their argument for this is what they described as blackmail from the european union, and also a cascade of insults, as the prime minister said, that is coming from the european politicians and european bureaucrats. so that is their reasoning why they decided to put this process on hold. but the country's opposition and the pro—western presidents, they described what is happening now in georgia as a constitutional coup because it's written in the country's constitution, european integration is written in the country's constitution.
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givi gigitashvili is a research associate at the atlantic council's digital forensic research lab. i asked him whether he thinks the government's actions represent what most georgians want. uh, well, definitely no, because 97% of georgians are in favour of country's integration into the european union. so the decision the georgian government made runs against the will of the majority. and it was also mentioned that they openly and blatantly violated georgia's constitution because article 78 says that authorities should take all means in order to advance country's integration into the european union. so this is against the constitution and this
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is against the will of georgian people. you study online disinformation and foreign interference strategies. what has the talk been that you've seen and the kind of direction that online media sites might be pushing people towards? well, what i can definitely say is that currently, this movement is completely the grassroots movement and this is a spontaneous protest, not mobilised or organised by anyone. so of course, pro—government actors in social media are trying to discredit the protests and especially civic activists and pro—democracy activists are the primary targets of online assets run by georgian government, as well as they are targeted by georgian police. and definitely this mood of protest is unprecedented in georgia right now, which is also possible to see in online media.
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and simply there is a narrative warfare going on. both sides try to manipulate public opinion, and probably one objective is that they want to exhaust georgians. and then pro—government actors are trying to make georgians believe that by going to the streets and protesting will not bring any positive results for them. givi gigitashvili is a research associate at the atlantic council's digital forensic research lab. if you ever wanted to put your feet up at buckingham palace, the opportunity might come in an unexpected way. curtains that were once hung on palace walls and in grand rooms at windsor castle have been recycled into coverings for foot stools. eight of these stools are going to be auctioned online for the king's foundation charity. and also looking for a new home this christmas are these furry
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friends from battersea dogs and cats home who have been involved in the promotion of the auction. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. we've seen a real change in the weather type over the past 2a hours or so. it was cold and frosty earlier in the week, but we've got much milder air that's been moving in and that's the way it looks through much of the weekend. we keep that mild theme often, a lot of cloud around, some outbreaks of rain, especially so tomorrow, because this area of low pressure is approaching from the west. at the moment, though, we're between weather systems. one of them pushing off towards the east here and that means the winds are going to be coming in from the south. so that's bringing this mild air right across
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the map through the course of the weekend. quite a lot of cloud out there for much of today. best of any sunshine to the north and east of high ground. so northern scotland, eastern england, could be some sunshine for merseyside, north wales, northern ireland as well. 0dd spot of drizzle around some coasts and hills in the west where it's also going to be pretty windy. top temperatures between about 12 to 15 for most of us, so several degrees above average for the time of year and then moving into the evening hours, we've still got those brisk southerly winds. we're going to see some rain moving in across northern ireland this evening, then into the west of scotland. and overnight tonight this band of rain will track further eastwards across parts of northern england, wales, down towards central southern england as well. so a damp start to sunday with this rain around, but clearer skies already start to move in from the west. won't be a cold night again. frost free. nine to 12 degrees to start your sunday morning. very mild. sunday's weather dominated by this weather front, which is pushing from west to east. it's going to be slow moving. it's bumping into high pressure across the near continent, so it won't move through particularly quickly where you do see that rain for parts of eastern england. it will linger longest for east anglia in the southeast,
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but for the rest of the uk, a return to some sunnier skies but still some blustery showers working in could be the odd sharp one, especially towards the west. top temperatures 1a, possibly 15 degrees once again. but then things are going to change a little bit sunday night, because a change in wind direction means a colder air mass will move in for monday, at least across scotland and northern ireland too. and then that colder airjust slowly filtering further south. it won't last too long though, because the middle of the week onwards will see a return to this conveyor belt of low pressure systems moving in from the atlantic, bringing something milder and more unsettled. you can see that with the outlook for our capital cities, things turn a little bit colder through monday into tuesday as well, then milder again for the rest of the week, and things are going to remain pretty unsettled. bye— bye.
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this is bbc news, the headlines... reports of russian warplanes bombing islamist rebel forces that have taken over much of syria's second city, aleppo. palliative care campaigners have called on ministers to improve funding for end of life care, after yesterday's vote in the commons in favour of legalising assisted dying in england and wales.
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counting is underway in ireland's general election. an exit poll suggested a tight race between the three main parties and that the cost of living, the housing crisis, and immigration were the leading issues weighing on irish voters. a second night of protests in georgia as thousands demonstrate against a decision to suspend eu membership talks. police have used tear gas and water canon to try to disperse the crowds in tbilisi. claims that mohamed al fayed manipulated managers to conceal his crimes — the late harrods boss has been accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women. hello, i'm kylie pentelow. more now on our top story here — mps voting in favour of a bill to legalise assisted dying in england and wales. it's a landmark moment, but the argument is far from over. there will be months of debate and scrutiny — and the bill will need approval from both the house of commons and the house of lords before it becomes law. tim muffet has been speaking to
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two high—profile campaigners —

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