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tv   BBC News America  PBS  August 28, 2024 5:30pm-6:01pm PDT

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by...
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woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose, and the way you give back. 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" s is bbc "world news america." s explosions and gun battles take place in the occupied west bank as the israeli military lodges its largest operation there in decades. kamala harris is in georgia in front of her first formal
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interview since becoming the democratic candidate for the white house. ♪ welcome to "world news america." at least nine people have been killed in a major operation by israeli forces in the occupied west bank. local journalists say it is the biggest israeli operation there in 20 years. the raid took place in four cities. explosions and gun battles were heard within refugee camps as israeli soldiers blocked roads. israeli security forces say they began a counterterrorism operation overnight. israel's foreign minister said the operation is meant to take aim at islamic iranian terrorist infrastructures in the west bank. a senior official accuses israel of trying to escalate the war in gaza.
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the palestinian president cut short a visit to saudi arabia because of the attacks. lucy williamson has the latest. >> it was a message of force delivered quietly at first. israeli soldiers seeking their targets straight by palestinian street. hundreds of troops backed by armored bulldozers arrived in the refugee camps of tulkarm and jenin. home to armed palestinian groups and unarmed civilians. at least nine palestinians have been killed. hamas says six of them were fighters. he said he was injured when he opened the door to his house after some young man nearby asked for water. >> we felt like something came down on us from the sky and there was an explosion. i was unaware of what was going on. when i put my hand on my chest
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it was all shrapnel and blood. >> army vehicles in jenin surrounded the city's two main hospitals. isra's foreign minister said iran was financing and army groups in the west bank describing it as a war for everything that israel must win. >> the idf and security forces are operating in tulkarm and jenin and other places for which murderous attacks have been launched. we will fight to eliminate terrorism wherever it emerges. >> israel's army has been targeting the same areas in the same cities week after week for the past 10 months, determined to dismantle the armed palestinian groups based here. it has now launched a wider operation across the west bank on a scale not seen for 20 years. arriving in jenin the west bank
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head. >> you have had 10 months of incursions. how worried are you by what is happening today? >> i am very much worried because it seems like there is a new escalating scaling up of the operation. when we talk about civilians and using the air force, bombing the camps, it reminds us of gaza. >> tonight, explosions and gunfire in jenin's refugee camp. this city full of unmarked battlegrounds. roads and alleyways were armed palestinians test the arms control. lucy williamson, bbc news, jenin . >> the u.s. issued fresh sanctions against a group accused of supporting violence against palestinian civilians in the west bank. the sanctions will be opposed by
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-- an organization. they are accused of forcing palestinians to leave a village and then fencing it off so they could not return. a security coordinator was also sanction for attacking and expelling palestinians. in response israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said israel take seriously the imposition of sanctions on israeli citizens. the issue is under intense discussions with the u.s. we can talk about that with our state department correspondent, tom bateman. tells more about the sanctions. tom: it is important to remember the u.s. government imposing sanctions on israeli citizens and organizations is a very new thing. it only started this year. it has been an effort by this administration to try to show some sense of evenhandedness.
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even though they armed the state of israel very aggressively in terms of israeli policy, they are also trying to support palestinians attacked by settlers in the occupied west bank. we have seen more sanctions against this non-governmental organization, which basically supplies volunteers that appropriate land and use that to attack and try to expel palestinians from their homes. and another individual who is a so-called security coordinator from a very extremist settlement. he has been sanction, too. something significant about the sanctions is they are a first that they particularly target organizations who have fed israeli government funding. this individual has been paid by the israeli taxpayer. that is relatively new. i think it shows the u.s. government is showing there is a
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link between the state of israel and settler violence. having said all that, they do not go as far as many would want, particularly to the audiological ldership to these individuals and groups who sit in. the israeli government >> we mentioned the statement from the prime minister saying they are looking at this seriously and discussing it with the u.s. what do you think this means for ties with the u.s. and israel? >> you would expect benjamin netanyahu to push back firmly and he has done that. he opposes these things. what observers of this mechanism would say is it is up to the israeli government to be putting these people behind bars. frankly, it is not doing that. there is a terribly low rate of pursuing justice and convictions of these individuals. it rarely happens. as for mr. netanyahu, a lot of evidence suggests when he pushes
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back at the u.s. government it shows he is trying to take a stand and it proves his poll ratings among his nationalist base. there is no surprise he is reacting like this. will it make a difference on the ground? the evidence is settler violence continues to surge in the occupied west bank particularly with the displacement of palestinian communities. in that sense the sanctions are making very little to no difference. >> tom, thank you for the reporting. elsewhere in the region, the israeli military says they have retrieved the body of an israeli soldier that had been held hostage in gaza since october 7. the man's name has not been released. the operation to find and recover his body followed several months of -- intelligence gathering. of those unaccounted for, 70 are believed to still be alive.
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let's talk about the latest developments in the middle east with a stollar in washington. good to have you with us on bbc news. i want to start with the operation we stop by the israeli military in the west bank. why do you think we are seeing the west bank become such a flashpoint right now? >> two reasons. it probably is true iran is trying to get these armed groups who are not really affiliated with hamas or any of. the existing groups some of them, especially in jenin, have some ties to islamic jihad which takes them directly to iran, so there could be some truth that iran has been trying to armed those groups. it is probably more reflective of the extremist policies of the israeli ministers who have been kept out of the gaza war but in
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return have been given a great deal of power over the military and armed settlers in the west bank. the finance minister, who is basically in charge of the west bank, and also the national security minister and others who are very ideological, very pre- settler and pro-explosion. it is not surprising you get a cascade of settler violence and military violence as well. all of it further humiliating the already humiliated and impoverished palestinian authority. in a sense, israel is wishing this reality into existence by kind of weakening palestinian authority and security forces to the point where this kind of thing could be plausible. >> i wanted to ask you
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specifically about the palestinian authority. we saw the president saying there will be dire and dangerous results. what could that actually mean if the authority is so weakened? >> it could mean there could be another palestinian-israeli low intensity war in the west bank similar to the one in gaza but not the one we have seen over the past 10 months, or 8, 9 months, which israel began going from the north to the south destroying everything above ground that is or could possibly be of value to hamas, or even organized society in gaza. it has been a total war against the whole society. the concept of dual use has been stressed to the utmost, where anything that could be of benefit to any fighters has been deemed to dual use and destroyed. that war is overby because there
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is nothing left to destroy. they have gone from the north all the way to rafah and that is completed. . now you are getting a different war, the war hamas always wanted, insurgency. israel is stuck playing whack-a-mole and shooting at and will eventually start to succeed at picking off israeli soldiers here or there. that will bleed, they think, the israelis and give them the bloody sure they can waive and say they are the real palestinian leadership. i think the israelis are now really falling into a trap in gaza. the dire consequences would be something similar in parts of the west bank. >> i want to ask you one more quick question about the sanctions issued by the u.s. on this ngo and based on extreme settler violence. does not have an impact?
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>> it does in the sense that it is the first step. next could come sanctions against people who richly deserve to be sanctioned. the whole point is to really tell israeli society at large that the u.s. is not going to accept any israeli move toward not just settler violence and terrorism but the expulsion of palestinians. the annexation and expulsion this tendency in israel which involves taking advantage of violence to displace huge chunks of the palestinian population and huge chunks of the west bank without most of its population is not acceptable to the u.s. the u.s. will not support that or defend that. that will be a criminal action that will ultimately call down a notch a sanctis from the u.s. book prosecutions at the international criminal court and international court of justice. >> always good to have you.
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thank you for joining us. >> you are very welcome. >> here in the u.s., the democratic presidential nominee kamala harris and her running mate tim walz are again on. . the campaign trail they are in a bus tour in georgia. in 2020, president joe biden won georgia over donald trump by a little over 12,000 votes. that is only a .3% margin. in 2024 analysts c of the election will again be tight. this is an effort to convince voters in atlanta. the tour will end in savannah before harris and walz sit down with cnn for harris' first formal interview since buying step down. donald trump and his running mate jd vance are focusing on battleground states.
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vance courted voters in pennsylvania. two of mr. trump's campaign staff are accused of having an altercation with an arlington national cemetery official during a ceremony the former president attended, according to npr. the allegations saying they had received permission to film. the u.s. justice departmen filed new charges against donald trump over his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election. jack smith filed a revised indictment after the supreme court made a decision that grants presidents immunity for official acts. in an interview with cbs news supreme court justice jackson said she was concerned about the top court granting trump brought immunity. >> i was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity from one individual
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under one set of circumstances. when we have a criminal justice system that ordinarily treated everyone the same. >> let's bring in our panel to talk about all of this. i'm joined by rodney davis and jamie harrison. great to see you both. i will start with kamala harris and tim walz campaigning in georgia. this is the first state they are heading to. >> good to be with you. georgia means a lot to me. in 2020i work as a director. kamala harris and tim walz are trying to expand their routes to 270. when joe biden was the nominee, there was one clear route for him to win, through the rust belt states.
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now, arizona, georgia and nevada are in play. you have a lot of different tendencies, there are a loof black rural voters that people do not talk about. we talked about the republican stronghold but there were a lot of black voters that kamala harris and tim walz are trying to get out. >> what do you think? will this change republican strategy? until now you have seen jd vance relying on campaigning in the blue wall midwest states. >> after the convention where vice president harris and governor walz picked up momentum, i hope they change their strategy. they cannot take georgia, arizona and nevada for granted. they cannot take the midwestern states for granted. it is a good move for the harris and walz campaign to fight for
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georgia. you look back to 2020 and since then, georgia has elected joe biden in 20 and then they also elected two democratic senators. it is clearly not a republican stronghold that should be taken for granted regardless of where the polling numbers were a few short weeks ago. >> i want to ask you about this revised indictment issued yesterday that is linked to the charges over election interference over the 2020 election. does not have any impact on donald trump and his campaign? >> i don't think so. you have seen some money charges come. many were done at the state level when federal prosecutors decided not to press charges. this is a little suspect being this close to the election. it used to be the department of justice did not interfere when
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it came to elections. that is why you will continue to see, unfortunately, from both parties just a lack of faith in our institutions. and the ability for misinformation experts to go out and say this is somehow just to affect t election outcome. >> do you think this looks like the department of justice is interfering? >> i don't think so. you go back to 2016 and we have the same conversation with hillary clinton when they talked about her emails. this is a distraction from the every day issues. donald trump would like to talk about immigration and the economy but instead you and i are talking about is indictment. that is nogood for the president. >> i want to talk about the debate. there has been a lot of news about the debate on september 10 that will be hosted by abc. the conditions are not entirely clear. they have agreed on standing up,
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no notes being allowed in the room. there is a question on whether their microphones should be muted when they are not speaking. can you tell us why that matters? >> a couple months ago -- one big note we have to take account of. both campaigns will try to do things to their advantage. kamala harris believes having the mics on this to her advante. they would like donald trump say things off the cuff. they think they can use those things in the campaign going forward. i do not think there is any right or wrong answer. both campaigns would like to have something advantageous for each campaign. it is not a big deal to have the debate. >> wt do you think? what do you think it tells us about the campaign? >> the campaign operatives are
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doing what happens in every campaign. all five of my congressional campaigns. the debate over debates. are we doing enough? what will the structure be? both campaigns will put the message out to distract from what else is being discussed. this is a nonstory. both campaigns will agree to a certain set of standards but i do find it interesting. the debate we just witnessed a few months ago between president trump and president biden, were president biden show the whole world he spoke gibberish during much of that debate, democrats thought it was a good idea to cut the mics off and that made donald trump look a lot more presidential. now they want to change what they first recommended because they want him to be able to interrupt. i find it interesting that we are continuing to talk about debate politics rather than
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policies. rather than vice president harris and governor walz sitting down for multiple interviews and answering questions from multiple journalists at a press conference. >> in 15 seconds, what is your thought? >> i respect you but i think the interview that governor walz and vice president harris will have with cnn will be really good. they are having a conversation every day with the voters. i agree with you, congressman, this conversation not about issues is not the right conversation to have. >> we can agree on that. thank you both so much. great to have you. >>. . > thank you thanks. >> jake sullivan remains in china for another day of talks with senior inese diplomats as the two side are to settle differences. mr. sullivan has been working to set up a call betwee presidents joe biden and xi.
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both sides said they welcomed ongoing efforts including planning for a leader level call in the coming weeks. on china's influence in the indo pacific region the white house said mr. sullivan underscored the importance of maintaining peace across the taiwan strait. that has been a key topic at the island forum in tonga. leaders in the region are backing a plan to build four police training centers and create original policing unit. the $271 million plan will be funded by australia and grant the islands more independence. >> a first test of any national leader is to look after the security and safety of our residents. that is what this is about. making sure that by working together, the security of the entire region will be much stronger and looked after. >> let's take a quick look at
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some other headlines. the fbi says the gunman who tried to kill donald trump searched extensively online for events by the former president and joe biden before settling on the trump rally. thomas crooks looked at a number of possible events to attack. the fbi has not found a motive but he was interested in a mix of ideologies. toyota is suspending production at all factories in japan because of an approaching typhoon. the typhoon is heading for an island in southwestern japan. authorities have issued emergency alerts, warning of high waves and unusually violent storms. spor in paris continue with the 2024 paralympics, officially kicking off today. thousands of people have gathered to watch the opening ceremony at the heart of the french capital. a so-called people's parade
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traveled past some of the city's most iconic landmarks to place de la concorde. these games will alssee a record number of delegations and female athletes. more than 2 million tickets have been sold. thank you for watching "world news america." you can find more on all the day's news on our website or check out what we are working anytime on 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, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. >> good evening. i'm jeff in it. >> i'm amna nawaz. israel launches a large-scale operation in the occupied west bank targeting what it says our palestinian militants. >> kamala harris begins a bus tour through georgia

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