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tv   BBC News America  PBS  August 16, 2024 5:30pm-6:01pm PDT

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program
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is provided by... woman: a law partner rediscovers her grandmother's artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" n washington and this is bbc world news america. as fighting rages in gaza negotiators present a new proposal for cease-fire and hostage release between israel and hamas. kamala harris unveils her economic policy tackling
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stubbornly high prices and ukrainian forces destroyed a strategic river bridge in the russian cursed region as their cross-border incursion continues. welcome to world news america. i'm carl naz men. in the middle east gaza cease-fire talks are on pause for the u.s., egypt, and qatar said they presented to israel and hamas a proposal consistent with the one laid out by joe biden in may. they say the proposal builds on areas of agreement over the past weekend bridges remaining gaps in the matter allowing for swift implementation of the deal. the statement says a senior officials from our governments will reconvenen cairo before the end of next week with the aim of concluding the deal under the put forward today
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the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken will be heading to israel sunday meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu monday. president biden, meanwhile, sounded optimistic about a potential deal. listen. >> one of the reasons i was late for you all was i was dealing with the cease-fire effort in the middle east. we are closer than we have ever been. i do not want to jinx anything. but, as my grandfather said, the grace of god goes with luck and we may have something. but we aren't there yet. but we are closer than we were days ago. thank you. >> before his expected meeting with secretary of state antony blinken israeli prime minister netanyahu urged mediators to pressure hamas to accept a deal. our state department correspondent tom bateman has more. >> the two issues have become entirely intertwined about a potential breakthrough in cease-fire talks and iran threatening retaliation to
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israel because the american feel it is very much that this heightens the possibility of an iranian strike significantly if it looks as though cease-fire talks are falling apart. so, now we have come after 48 hours of talks in doha, a lot of very positive messaging from americans. you had what joe biden said there. we are just hearing from senior -- a senior u.s. official that described a new spirit to drive this to a conclusion from the talks in doha. so they think there is momentum. on the other hd, the palestinian version not so positive at all. you read a statement from hamas and we have heard other such statements believing that, in effect, the americans are trying to string everyone along and they have not got the israelis to move to drop the new conditions that hamas said the israelis attached to this. i think mr. blinken strip is really about piling public pressure on all the sides to
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keep the engagement going and try to take a deal. >> as fighting rages in gaza disease is spreading through the enclave. the united nations is calling for guaranteed pauses in fighting for a vaccination campaign to tackle polio. palestinian officials reported gaza's first polio case in a quarter-century and now hundreds of thousands of people are at risk. the world health organization approved the release of 1.6 million doses of the polio vaccine. antonio guterres of the you and says it is enough to protect 140,000 children under age 10. let's get more with the managing director of the washington institute and former senior director for middle east affairs at the national security council. great have you. i want to ask you about president biden. he sounded optimistic saying we are closer than ever to a cease-fire agreement. do you share his optimism? >> obviously, it is hard to know
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what happened behind closed doors and it is important to remember that in these talks hamas was not represented. what we haveeen in the past few weeks is the u.s. and israel have been publicly at odds over the cease-fire talks. there was a growing sense among american officials that prime minister netanyahu in israel was moving the goal posts, creating new obstacles for the talks. it might be that the positivity you are hearing from american officials reflects a csing of ranks between the u.s. and israel. that does not mean, though, that hamas will accept a deal. part of the difficulty here is that this nowas to be transmitted somehow to the leader of hamas in gaza and he ultimately has to be willing to accept it. so far that has been very difficult for these talks. >> is it just a matter of communication are trying to get the two sites physically to the table? or, are there still larger sticking point here holding up a deal? >> there is a fundamental
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sticking point, that even though we call these deals i hostage deal or a cease-fire deal, and yes, release of hostages and a cease-fire would be part of it. israel still wants to the victory, as prime minister netanyahu says come or hamas. hamas wants to survive, and not just survive, but survive, frankly, to rule gaza and probably, to fight another day. those two objectives are obviously fundamentally at odds. so i not of the sticking points have nothing to do with hostages or cease-fire. they have to do with the other provisions of a deal which would lead it to either hamas being able to pursue its effort to destroy israel, frankly, or not be able to pursue that effort. >> and other big news today we are hearing secretary of state antony blinken will be in the region meeting with prime minister netanyahu, we believe monday. it is the latest in a longsit? string of visits to the region.
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can blinken push it across the line? obviously he hopes he can. >> we are at a very dangerous point the middle east. the cease-fire talks are happening against a backdrop of the potential outbreak of a broader regional conflict. we have the threat of both hezbollah in lebanon as well as iran mounting a major literary operation against israel even though, frankly, i think neither of those parties wants a big war. there is a lot of hope that getting this cease-fire deal done will enable both hezbollah and iran to stand down or back off. i think that the secretary of state is going to the middle east simply because he views this as probably the most important immediate problem on his desk right now. he is determined to be in engaged in trying to address it. >> we have heard about the growing number of civilian casualties in gaza and now we are hearing about a potential outbreak of polio among the population. what would a cease-fire mean for the humanitarian situation there? >> at a minimum i think there is
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a lot of hope in the u.s. and elsewhere that a cease-fire would mean they can -- that we in the international community can get humanitarian assistance into gaza including medical assistance and also food. also other types of assistance. frankly, over the long term, helping the people of gaza will depend on having security, on having good governance and things like this in gaza over a longer term. frankly, this means hamas will have to go and some other entity will have to come in to govern gaza and provide secury there and after we get a seats are done, the big work, the big questions will still remain, friendly. >> there are aot of questions out there, michael. before i let you go we could see a change in leadership in the u.s.. there is always the chan of that happening as well in israel with approval ratings though for netanyahu. do you think there is a sense that if there is no cease-fire worked out in the days and weeks coming that this could be the last chance? >> no, i think it will go on,
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frankly. we will have a change of leadership in the united states. but either donald trump or kamala harris would both want to see a cease-fire happen in gaza. donald trump has talked about that explicitly, about wanting to see the conflict wind it down quickly and in israel i don't think we will see a leadership change anytime soon. prime minister netanyahu does not face elections until 2026 and right now's coalition is holding together despite his unpopularity in the polls. i think we will continue on this truck until either a cease-fire is done or something else fundamentally changes. >> the managing director of the washington institute, thank you as always. >> thank you. >> ukrainian forces destroyed a strategic river bridge in russia's kursk region, cutting off a russian supply about continuing a cross-border offensive. officials in moscow say destroying the bridge will disrupt evacuations and make it
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harder for the equipment to supply its troops. ukraine says its continuing the offensive in other parts of the region advancing up to a kilometer and a half over the past 24 hours. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse sends us of the latest from the border. >> this may route goes from ukraine's sumy region into russia. imagine is as an artery because there is a constant flow of the vehicles come up one million pound armored vehicle supplied by the rest -- west ranging two ford fiesta is camouflaged and 25 years old. altogether ukrne's commitment to the push. soldiers that you speak to say it is like any other part of the front line. the feeling you pick up is that they are trying to bring the war to an end. it is hoped this will change the dynamics. it is important that the military does the fighting of politicians to negotiate peace seems to be front of everybody's
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lines. the longer it goes on, we are seeing ukrainian forces, seeing their advance is slow as russia turns its head and redeployed thousands of troops from the ukrainian flop minds -- front lines to russia itself. it is not slowing their advances in eastern ukraine. this will have to be factored into the decision that president zelenskyy and his officials will make in the next few days. also, it seems ukraine is looking to consolidate what it has taken. it has captured this territory with relative ease, with elite forces and an element of surpse. but as russia turns its head, it will be quite a different prospect. >> u.s. vice president kamala harris unveiled her first major policy initiative as the democratic nominee for president. she spoke friday in the battleground state of north carolina were donald trump also campaigned this week unveiling a
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site of economic policies aimed at lowering costs for american families including creating financial incentives for hospitals to relieve or prevent further medical debt and a further -- federal ban on so-called price gouging on food and groceries and a child tax credit that will provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby's life. if elected president ms. harris says her economic agenda will aim to create an opportunity economy for americans. >> still, we know many americans don't yet feel that progress in their daily lives. costs are still too high and on a deeper level, for too many people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard to just to be able to get ahead. as president, i will be laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability, and dignity.
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together, we will build what i call an opportunity economy. >> polls show donald trump has a slight edge over ms. harris on handling the economy, the top issue for voters. mr. trump has yet to release a detailed economic plan but has criticized the bite and there for high prices and pledged to lower costs if elected. his running mate ohio senator jd vance defended mr. trump on the campaign trail in wisconsin friday. here is what he said when asked if trump should focus more on policy then making pointed criticism of political opponents. >> i don't think the president needs to benefit. -- to pay for it. if i told him that i can guess whate would say. i think the reason president trump has been so successful connecting with americans is even when they disagree with something height say they know who -- they know that he is who he is. i would rather have a political candidate i disagreed with 25%
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of the time but was a real human being willing to speak off-the-cuff then somebody like kamala harris that hides behind a teleprompter and does not speak to the american people directly unless she has a script in front of her telling her exactly what to say. i think the unscripted nature of president trump is one of the reasons why his campaign gives a pretty good insight into the kind of president he will be. >> joining us as our north american correspondent. there we heard kamala harris laying out her economic agenda. how different do you think those policies are from president bidens bidenomics? >> harris has been accused of being all style and no substance by her critics, not actually saying what she would do if you get the chance to govern but today with her major moment to unveil that economic platform. what is interesting, with biden, i do not think this was a radical transformation. biden wanted more aggressive
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government intervention in the economy with industrial labor. and trust pocies. harris was a little more aggressive about going after big corporations and using this sort of language that a lot of those on biden's campaign wanted him to do. essentially, i think she is repackaging a lot of what biden was doing already. of course, she is the vp with biden. what struck me was at the ease with which she talked about policies using very simple sentences, drawing on her own examples. which mr. biden has done as well, but she has done more of that when she worked at a fast food joint. when she was looking to buy a house. she showed empathy. often mr. biden was criticized of talking a lot about how the economy is growing fast, inflation is better, unemployment is low, all factual things, but not going where americans are. even if that is all true a lot of americans don't feel that's true. they feel like no matter how hard they work they are seeing the benefit of that. ms. harris leaned into that and
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talked more about how americans were feeling as well as policy. >> donald trump had a couple addresses on the economy does weaker jd vance has been speaking today. what are they saying on the economy? >> donald trump has been trying to tie a lot of the rising costs to kamala harris saying, essentially, this is their fault, president bidens fault, kamala harris'fault calling her various names like communist kabbala -- communist kamala and all this stuff. in reality, all of their proposals, drum been, would need congressional approval. i did and they have not laid out the full details of their economic policy plan. what has been interesting is for donald trump the economy is it something he is very strong on. the polls at the moment suggest that north carolina where ms. harris was today, where donald
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trump was yesterday, it is a tie between them both. when it comes to the economy there is a bit of a weak spot for the democratic party. this is something donald trump is much stronger on. he has been advised by those in the campaign to focus more on the policies that are popular with voters rather than personal insults that he has been lobbing at harris. >> our north american correspondent, thank you. now a closer look at the u.s. economy, in particular rising prices that have plagued the biden administration. a recent consumer index report showed inflation at two point 9%, the lowest rate we have seen in three years. that is way down from a peak of 9.1% in 2022 caused by pandemic ersupply chain disruption and high demand. while inflation is going in the right direction, prices are still going up, just not as fast as they once were.
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suppliers and companies have mostly subsided but supermarkets have yet to pass on prices to consumers at harris plans to fight this. what do economists say about these proposals from kamala harris? how effective could they be at tackling inflation? a federal ban on price gouging on food? >> the price gouging proposal certainly has the most attention in the united states. it's a great line politically. there is a term called greedflation floated around these past years. the reason why we are suffering from higher prices is due to companies and voters generally believe that and buy into it. economists howeverave been pushing back that this is not the main reason prices have been
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so high. really it is supply chain glitches. the good news we have seen this week, that you alluded to, is we are finally seeing the inflation battle won including at grocery stores. a lot of the recent headlines around the u.s. are how various grocery stores are actually slashing prices on many items to try to lure consumers back in right now. it is an interesting strategy. it was great political messaging, but, it will be very hard to do this in practice. and it certainly does not have a lot of economic justification. >> it was interesting if you listened to harris speaking, inflation is at its lowest point in several years but she said during the rally that costs are still too high and it feels too hard to get ahead. does this seem like a pivot, you think from the harris campaign to admit that inflation has been hurting americans pretty hard? >> definitely.
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i think that was her big victory today, to show she is a much stronger economic messenger than biden was. it was not that biden did not try. but she's hitting hard. she almost never mentions jobs. she made the whole plan, from the first line, it says this is to reduce cost. going to that anger that so many people still feel. the first part of her plan, number one, is about housing costs and rent prices, that so many americans are still feeling very acutely, a lot of younger americans are feel for -- fearful they will never be able to live the american dream and buy a home. the first part of her economic plan today with how to address that and the second part was grocery store prices and health care costs, a huge issue in the u.s.. so today she was really showing she can do this. and, she had these great personal stories talking about
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working at mcdonald's. talking about watching her mother struggled to raise two kids on her own and to be able to save for a decade to afford a home. a lot of people can relate to those stories. certainly, it feels like a contrast to a very successful person like donald trump. >> obviously donald trump and the republicans will be attacking kamala harris and the biden over inflation and how to handle the economy, but it seemed like there were some points of agreement between republicans and democrats, at least, the two campaigns when it comes to a tax credit for families with children. >> that's right. it's interesting to see. you saw jd vance talking a lot about potentially going up to a $5,000 child tax credit. that's -- the current child tax credit in the u.s. is $2000. harris proposed raising that to around $3600 for almost all families. and for families with a newborn,
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in the critical forced -- first year of life that is so expensive it could be as hh as $6,000. this is real relief. i want to point out that during the pandemic in 2021 the u.s. did expand the child tax credit and it was hugely successful, one of our best antipoverty programs to reduce child poverty in the u.s. that we have seen in half a century. that is why you see real bipartisan support to bring this back. i think there is some hope and some common ground going forward. and obviously, a lot of populism. donald trump talking about terarriffs wanting to raise the . >> friday at marks one week since the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a
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hospital in kolkata. doctors across the country have stopped and are protesting. india's top crime agency is investigating. we have more from mumbai. >> [crowd chanting we want justice] >> chanting demanding justice and to slogans demanding safety in the workplace. these are the junior doctors gathered from across hospitals in mumbai. they are angry. they are here to protest the lack of safety at the workplace in most government hospitals. these are the junior doctors that work more hours, or more often underpaid and are really at the forefront of any violence inflicted towards health care
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staff. one of the biggest demands they have is for a central law to curb the violence against health care staff. a lot of the anger is directed towards the political establishment and government, who the protesters say has not done enough to bring safety to the workplace for women. there are laws, but they aren't effective on the ground. but now, the protests are going nationwide. they also have support from the private doctors association and across the country over the next 24 hours, nonemergency services will come to a standstill as part of the protest. and to put pressure on the government. crimes against women have not come down over the past few years despite laws being in place. over the last 40 years, crime against women has gone up by 4% according to the statistics of the government. that is something all the doctors here and across the
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country, people supporting the protest, are demanding. >> amazing pictures of a rarely seen deep sea fish. a group of snorkelers spotted the 6.3 meter or fish floating beneath the surface of the san diego coast. you can see it there floating in the ocean. get more on our website bbc.com/news. thank announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, rsuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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