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tv   BBC News The Context  PBS  October 30, 2024 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program
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is provided by... woman: a successful business owner sells his company and restores his father's historic jazz club with his son. a raymond james financial advisor get to know you, your passions,nd the way you bring people together. life well planned. brett: you know as someone coming out of college it can be very nerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. 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" . this is the world today. . devastation in spain.
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at least 95 people have been killed in flash floods after a years rth of rain in eight hours. three days of mourning have been declared. thousands of flee a lebanese city after israel begins a series of attacks on hezbollah targets. in the u.k. the chancellor tells -- she would not want to repeat the 40 billion pound tax rise budget and she wants to faster growth. >> i say to working people i would not increase your national insurance. i will not increase your vat. i will not increase your income tax. >> in the u.s. election, donald trump and u.s. -- can't jump in, harris continue their tour of states with both holding competin events in the state of north carolina. the first case of mpox has been detected in the u.k. ♪
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welcome to the world today where we bring you an hour of international news from the bbc. we come on air with developing news from spain and at least 95 people have been killed after flash floods hit on the south and east of the country. one region in valencia received their equivalent of one years worth of rain in eight hours. cars have been swept away and infrastructure like roads and bridges have been severely damaged. these images were taken by someone living in valencia and they give you a sense of the power of these floods. the conditions make it incredibly difficult as well as dangerous for anyone stuck indoors to. escape from their homes. rescue workers have been using helicopters and boats in attempts to reach those who have been stranded. let's take a look at the areas worst impacted near the town of valencia. more than a years worth of rain
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fell in eight hours. other areas expected to be affected are seville and barcelona. let's take a look at this rainfall map which predicts more downfalls and floods throughout thursday into friday. spain's prime minister and the president of that you commission have both been speaking about the floods. >> to the towns and cities that have been affected by this, i say the same to united we are going to recover everything. your cities, your squares, your bridges. spain is behind you. >> all thoughts are with the victims and their families and their friends but also with rescue teams. the rescue teams are working tirelessly to bring as many as possible to safety. europe is ready to help. >> joining us on the line from valencia is our europe
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correspondent who has just arrived in the country. good to talk to you. i understand you are at the airport. tell us what is happening where you are. >> you can see a knock on effect of the chaos. there are cues of people trying to line up for taxis to get them home. there are very big traffic jams. roads have been blocked. a very difficult situation with rescue workers still struggling to reach some areas and officials say it is not yet clear how ny people are still missing kid they have been working tirelessly as we heard. some places can only be accessed by helicopter and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to try to help with the rescue effort. >> in terms of those rescue efforts, are you seeing anything in terms of activity at the
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airport? maybe relief packages, helicopters, that kind of thing? >> not where i am now we know rescue workers are going to be working throughout the night in extremely difficult conditions. some areas which they have not been able to reach at all. some people have been rescued by helicopter. the mayor of one town close to where i am now says the water rose within a few minutes and she says some people were rescued as the water reached their next so this is an extremely difficult situation. this local mayor described it as a vision of hell. >> stark picture you're painting for us. what is the weather like at the moment? i am reading the emergency department issued warnings across the country including where you are. >> where i am now, it is very cloudy but we know there are
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those weather warnings for other parts of the country. there were whether warnings for parts of and us -- for parts of and lucio. people are bracing themselves for more weather, extreme weather. of course of that could complicate the efforts of the rescue workers further. >> you have covered europe for a long time. the death toll now from this particular wave of devastating floods now climbed to 95 people killed. we are hearing that makes at the country us deadliest such -- the country's deadliest such disaster in decades. i want to get your thoughts as someone who has covered europe and the weather in spain before. this is a devastating time and we have heard words from spain's king who has extended his condolences to the families of those who died and also to those who are still missing.
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the prime minister of spain pedro sanchez said to those who had lost their loved ones, the whole of spain weeps with you. there were terrible floods in central europe just back in september. the loss of life we have seen here in spain is devastating. >> it includes the death of a british man who was 71 years old. he died in andalusia in malaga and the government said he had been suffering from hypothermia and died following several cardiac arrests. you say -- you said earlier plenty of people continue to be missing. it is likely unfortunately the death toll could climb much higher. >> that is the fear and what many people -- because it is so difficult to get to some of these areas because things have
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been blocked off because some areas are accessible only by helicopter, the fear is the death toll could still rise. spain has declared three days of national mourning. >> thank you for bringing us up on events live from valencia. bethany bell, our europe correspondent speaking to us live from spain. if you want to follow more on the ory, you can go live -- go to our live page where we will be sharing real-time updates from our live team and teams on the ground including bethany. we will stay across developments in spain throughout the program but let's get the latest on developments in the middle east. the israeli military has launched airstrikes on the eastern lebanese city which israel defense forces claim is a hezbollah stronghold. thousands of people have been fleeing the area since the civil defense agency told residents to
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heed israeli warnings of coming attacks. the bbc's ben brown and news channel presenter has re from jerusalem. >> about 50,000 people fled after those warnings from the israeli military. to the people in surrounding towns and people telling them to get out as soon as possible. the israeli airstrike started. about 20 we gather. some of them inside the city. this is a city to the northeast of beirut in eastern lebanon. it is an ancient city, a unesco world heritage si since 1984 and it boasts some extraordinary roman ruins, roman temples very well preserved and famous around the world. these airstrikes were happening just as the new leader of hezbollah was putting out a televised address. the successor to hassan
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nasrallah who was killed by an israeli airstrike in beirut last month. the new hezbollah leader in that address says he will pursue the war just as his predecessor did. >> we will continue to implement the war plan he developed with the leadership over the resiance. we will stay on the course of the war. >> let's get the latest on those israeli airstrikes in baalbek and around baalbek. we go to our correspondent who is in beirut for us. just tell us a bit about what has been happening there. >> this morning when the israeli military issued their evacuation order for baalbek, the city, it sent panic through the city. this is a place that is home to more than 100,000 people. we spoke to the mayor who said
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mosques were telling people to leave over the loudspeaker. local authorities were going through the street encouraging people to leave quickly. he believes about 50,000 people fled the city but tens of thousands remain for their own various reasons. about three hours after the warning was issued and it must be mentioned this is the first time the israeli military has issued an evacuation order for an entire lebanese city. about three hours after the order went out, the first airstrikes began in baalbek and the wider valley area. we saw pictures of huge plumes of smoke. some of them burning as they went up. we don't understand the are any casualties from the city itself. from the surrounding areas we have heard dozens of casualties. those injured and those hurt. as you mentioned, baalbek is home to one of the world's largest in tact roman temples, a
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unesco world heritage site. we understand lebanese authorities have made an appeal to unesco to intervene to try to protect the site from any damage. the mayor told us he said baalbek is the home to -- we know it is a base of support for hezbollah but he says there are no weapons storage is in our town. the israeli military have said what theyave been intending to strike in the valley area our fuel storage areas, fuel given by iran to hezbollah to fuel hezbollah's military machine. that -- and those were the intended targets from there airstrikes in the valley today. >> as i was mentioning, these strikes happened just as we were seeing the televised address from the new hezbollah leader. what did he have to say?
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>> it was his first speech, public speech as the new secretary general of hezbollah. it is weeks after the israeli military managed to kill haas of nasrallah, the previous long time leader of hezbollah in series of airstrikes here in beirut. the key mesge he wanted to give today was there has been no interruption to our strategy, to our command and control stctures. we are continuing the plan that has been set. we are continuing in our fights. he did allude to cease-fire. as he called it, if israel is willing to stop aggressions in lebanon in terms acceptable to us, we will sign up to a cease-fire. he complained about issues going back before the beginning of the war last year and october the seventh. the violation of lebanese airspace and he made reference to the heart that hezbollah --
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the hurt hezbollah has suffered, the pain they have suffered through the killings of the vast majority of their senior leadership and lower ranks. we remember the pager attack's that struck many different ranks and he said also civilians in those attacks. >> we just heard from a mere reporting in beirut. we have developments from the middle east we will share with you. the afp news agency is saying the lebanese prime minister hopes for a cease-fire between hezbollah and israel in quote, the coming hours or days. that from the afp news agency. there has been a lot of hope holding out for a cease-fire not just when it comes to the were between hezbollah and israel but also the war in gaza. another update i will share with you and that is the president of
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cyprus said he and president joe biden discussed u.s. efforts to halt hostilities between israel and hezbollah and expressed optimism a cease-fire could be reached in the next week. more sense there could be a cease-fire. different timescales but we have been here before of course and it comes as white house officials brett mcgirt and amos hochstein are going to be visiting israel on thursday according to the white house to engage on a range of issues including gaza, lebanon, hostages, iran and rotor regional matters. -- and broader regional matters. we will stay across that on bbc news. still to come on the world today , the u.k. chancellor rachel reeves has told the bbc she would not want to repeat the 40 billion pounds tax rise budget she announced today and she says she wants faster growth than has been forecast. that full interview with arc
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political editor chris mason will be coming up after the break. around the world and across the u.k., this is the world on bbc news. ♪
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>> here in the u.k., the labor government wch won power in july after 14 years in opposition has unveiled its first budget. the chancellor has released she will be increasing taxes by 40 billion pounds. our political editor sat down with rachel reeves today. work with throughout the election campaign, you and other talked about no plans for lots of big tax rises beyond the few you did it knowledge you would do. that turned out to be total baloney, didn't it? >> when i became chancellor of the exchequer in ally in the first weekend, treasury officials took me through the numbers that showed a 22 billion pound black hole in the public finances.
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that goes on through the parliament. on top of that, ther were compensation payments that had been promised for victims of infected blood and post office horizon scandal. the money had been promised but it had never been budgeted for. th previous government had not done a spending review to take us beyond this year. when we came in and we went through the books, we saw the state of public services including through the lord does he reporon the health service, we knew we had to act. the tax increases in our manifesto on vat, the energy profits levied for gas lobbies, making sure we have had to introduce other tax increases to put our public finances on a firmer footing and put our services on a better trajectory. >> this is the biggest tax rise in legislation.
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this is classic labor. big tax, big spend. >> if you look at the previous government in the last parliament and look at their threshold freezes for income tax and national insurance, they raised more money. i'm not this being the fact this is a big budget. it is the first budget of this parliament. it wipes the slate clean under the act this is not a sort of budget we wod want to repeat but this is the budget that is needed to wipe the slate clean and to put our public finances on a firm trajecry. you will remember the first line of the first step in our manifesto was to bring back economic stability. if i had not had taken those choices to put our public finances on a firm footing, i would have wrist making the mistakes of the previous government which sent mortgage rates expiring -- rates spiraling and left businesses and families not knowing what the future had in store. today, we are fixing the
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foundations and ensuring that businesses and families can look ahead, plan for the future with confidence. >> you say this is not a budget you want to repeat. you're not going to be clobbering people year after year. >> first of all, i have made a commitment we will only hold one budget. that is different from the previous government. we kept coming back every few months with more tax increases, more changes. you're not owing to do that. we will do an annual budget because that will give businesses and families confidence. this budget, the first budget of the parliament to wipe the slate clean under the tory mismanagement to fill the blackhole they left for the new government and we have now done that and we can move forward with confidence. >> let's talk about economic growth because that is the big mission of your government. you look at the projections from the office of budget responsibility. it is pretty anemic, isn't it? >> i don't think you can compare
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this forecast with the march forecast. the march forecast would have been materially different if they would have known about the spending commitments the previous government had made. >> the growth of projections don't look great. >> this is not a summit of my ambitions. i want the economy to go faster than this. the growth numbers this year and next or have been revised up. for the first time today the office of budget responsibility have looked beyond just this parliament. that is important because often governments make short-term decisions because parliaments last five years an they don't think about what happens in years 7, 9 and 10. the office of budget responsibility says the capital investment we are putting into our academy boosts growth by 1.4%. that is significant to it is a big boost in the supply-side capacity of our economy. that reflects the changes we have made to cut the benefits of
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-- to cap the benefits of investment. >> pouring ever-increasing amounts of money into a system that is not working is wasteful in every sense so said the now health secretary in october of last year. isn't that precisely what you are doing with this huge cash injection to the nhs before you get round to your long-term plan? >> whenes became health secretary, he was told by his department they would have to slow down activity in the national health serve because the previous government had not budgeted for activity to carry on at the levels. if we had not put that money in, the number of hospital procedures would have fallen and not risen. we made a manifesto commitment to 40,000 additional appointments. >> some people might think it is the bottomless pit. >> we have to deliver change not just in our health service but across our public services. that is why we are prioritizing
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capital investment so workers in the nhs are working with the best analogy and equipnt. earlier this week west street and i were at a hospital in south london. staff were telling me they are using a diagnostic equipment scanners bots under the last labor government that should have been written off years ago but because of the lack of investment in capital equipment, they are still having to use it. that affects productivity. that affects standards. that affects the ability of the nhs to deliver the service we want it to deliver. that is why we are prioritizing capital investment whether that is in our schools, our hospitals or the investment alongside business in things like energy and transport and digital technologies. >> let's look at what impact this budget is going to have on our audience. the office of budget responsibility independent watchdog says growth in wages and salaries and profits are constrained by the increase in employer nional insurance.
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you guys talk about yourselves as being pro-business and pro-worker. the ob are don't believehat so why should anyone else? >> we have a one under 22 billion pound black the forecast when y came in in july. people were saying to me given the last government's cuts to employee national insurance run funded, we should reverse them. that would have been the wrong thing to do because that would have been felt under the pockets and payslips of working people. >> here is the watchdog saying it will affect salaries. >> i am not doubting that to if we had reversed the unfunded cuts the conservatives made, that would have all been felt by working people. >> it is a might have been worse argument. >> we have made the decision to put the tax burden we are having to increase today on the wealthiest and on business. they were not easy decisions. they were the right decisions in the circumstances we face. and for those who oppose these
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tax changes, they have to say how they would balance the books or if they would not balance the books, whether they would be willing to take our economy back on the path of your responsibility liz truss and quasi-quasi-let us down. > you might make an argument it would have been worse following a worse course of action but here's the watchdog saint impact on wages and profits will be there because of this decision. drucker the office of budget responsibly also forecasts real household disposable incomes will increase during this parliament. that compares to the last parliament which was the worst parliament on record for living standards. i am pleased today the office of budget responsibility forecasts the economy is growing and that will filter down to the wages and living standards of ordinary workers. >> chancellor, thank you. >> chancellor racial reef speaking to the bbc's political editor chris mason. let's get reaction to the budget and the former prime minister of
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the outgoing conservative party. rishi sunak delivered his response. >> energy taxes up. business rates up. first-time buyer stamp duty up. pensions tax up. they have fiddled the figures. this is the truth. they have fiddled the figures. they have raised tax to record levels. it is the working people of this country that are going to pay the price. >> if you are watching here in the u.k., coming next on bbc news, newscast with adam and the team. they are going to be answering your budget questions. everywhere else, i will be back shortly with the latest bbc news headlines. thanks for announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.
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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: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.
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