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tv   BBC News  BBC News  May 6, 2024 4:00am-4:31am BST

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hello, i'm carl nasman. israel has closed a checkpoint along one of the key aid routes into gaza after a hamas rocket attack killed three israeli soldiers on sunday. hours later, palestinian health officials said at least 16 people were killed in a separate israeli air strike on rafah, gaza's southernmost city. earlier on sunday, hamas left negotiations in cairo aimed at reaching a ceasefire deal after israel's prime minister rejected hamas�* demands to completely end the war. meanwhile, israel's government ordered qatari broadcaster aljazeera to close its operations in israel, accusing it of incitement and of threatening national security. aljazeera denies the claims. from jerusalem, our security correspondent frank gardner reports. in a country that prides itself on free speech and democracy, israeli police shut down the offices of aljazeera today, seizing its
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broadcast equipment. if you are watching this pre—recorded report, then aljazeera has been banned in the territory of israel. this was one of its final broadcasts from jerusalem before the police arrived. the government accused the qatar—based tv channel of incitement to terrorism, calling it a mouthpiece for hamas. its bureau chief called it a dangerous move. israel cannot claim all the time that it is a democracy and, at the same time, they are cutting and preventing the journalists to do theirjob. meanwhile, down on the gaza border close to rafah, hamas attacks the very crossing point through which it was hoped more aid could flow into the territory. it has since been shut. at least three israeli soldiers were killed. while the airforce while the air force released footage of the attack and the retaliation. today, israel's embattled
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prime minister reacted to hamas�* demands for a permanent ceasefire and an israel withdrawal from gaza. "the state of israel is not willing to accept this," he said, "capitulating to the hamas�* demands "would be a terrible defeat for israel". but the government here is under pressure from parts of its own population. last night, tens of thousands of israelis rallied in protest at delays in getting the hostages out of gaza. they don't believe the government is making it a priority. the israeli government wants its hostages out but, at the same time, it's vowed to destroy hamas, which is why it will not agree to a permanent ceasefire. but hamas, which holds the hostages, says it won't sign a deal unless the ceasefire is permanent, which is why the peace talks have stalled. a delegation from hamas hasjust been in cairo talking to mediators. they have now left to consult with their leadership. in gaza, the war continues with
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air strikes and deprivation. gazans are desperate for this war to end. so, too, are many israelis. but others in israel see this as unfinished business. they want this war pursued until hamas is utterly destroyed. frank gardner, bbc news, jerusalem. israel says that it will only agree to a temporary ceasefire and that it will go ahead with a military assault on rafah to destroy hamas. the united nations has repeatedly warned that a planned israeli invasion of rafah risks causing many more civilian deaths. around 1.4 million palestinians are sheltering there. many of them have been evacuated from other parts of gaza. our special correspondent fergal keane has more on the crisis people in rafah are facing — and a warning that his report contains scenes you may find distressing. the story of desperate need told in a single line stretching
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on the road to rafah. this is the queue on the egyptian side of the border. rafah is both the hub through which most of gaza's aid passes and now home to nearly 1.5 million people — five times its original population. a place where hospitals have become refugee camps, where no living space is wasted. the wards where families cook. where their children roam the corridors of a place that is — for now — safe. 11—year—old yasin al—galban is, according to his mother, surviving on painkillers. here, the brutal truth of the war is etched on the faces of its young victims. the fear is that this is what awaits rafah if an invasion is ordered. in the coalition government, the far—right finance minister opposes any deal that
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would spare rafah in return for israeli hostages. "there's no half work. "rafah, nuseirat, deir al balah — absolute destruction," says bezalel smotrich. the israelis say there are four hamas battalions in rafah to be destroyed, with or without a ceasefire. the un is making plans for more field hospitals, but warns it won't stop a disaster. it will not avoid what we expect will be substantial additional mortality and morbidity. a lot more people dying? a lot more people dying, a lot more death and a lot more diseases. this is where utter destruction leads — people who've lost their homes forced to camp next to graves. rahab abudacah is the mother of seven children. she described some of the horrors she and her children have witnessed. she points to a grave covered
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in bricks and explains the grim reason for this. translation: yesterday, | there was a grave and there were no rocks above it and the family came and they found that the dogs ate part of the body. they were forced to put bricks on his grave to protect him from the dogs. from 10:00 at night to dawn, we cannot sleep because of the sound of the dogs. at night, our children keep holding on to me because of how scared they are. there is intense pressure for a ceasefire deal now. without it, there's only foreboding — the dread of what comes next. fergal keane, bbc news, jerusalem. for more on the war and the search for peace, i spoke to lieutenant general mark schwartz, who served as united states security coordinator for israel and the palestinian authority
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from 2019 to 2021. we heard there in this attack three israeli soldiers killed by hamas. what do you think this says about the military capabilities of hamas now, several months into this conflict? well, from the israeli standpoint, they estimate there's at least three to four battalions — that number could vary anywhere from 100—300 militants within each battalion. and then, we've also seen a number of stand—off attacks, primarily rocket attacks across gaza. even areas that have subsequently been cleared — or were cleared, excuse me — subsequent, militants have re—occupied, so there's still a significant threat that exists from hamas, certainly, and rafah governant but really, across, i think, the entirety of the gaza strip. this also led to the closing of a very important crossing where a lot of humanitarian aid was expected to be
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moving into gaza. how do you think this incident will affect those operations in getting aid to people who need it? yeah, carl. it will remain closed until such time that the idf feel that they've got a good grasp on where — first, where the initial attacks came from and they can ensure the safety of their own forces and safe passage of the humanitarian aid that's been coming through kerem shalom the crossing. as you stated earlier, it's the most significant crossing across gaza, but there are a number of crossings that have opened up even further north and, of course, they're working on access through the med as well with the pier that's being constructed as well. so, very significant but i do think that it will reopen in the coming days, once the idf feel that it's secure enough to do so. i want to make sure to ask you about some reports we've been seeing in us media that say that the biden
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administration had put a hold on a shipment of ammunition to israel. the white house has not responded yet. we have not been able to confirm those reports. but if this is true, what do you think that that would signal about the relationship right now between us and israel? well, i think that the relationship — i'd characterise it as strained, certainly. it's been reported in the media and even through comments that have been made by the white house spokesperson, and even president biden himself. so, i can't speak to this specific instance you're speaking of but it has been strained. although, as you're well aware, the significant additional military aid was approved and i'm sure there was a lot of dialogue behind the scenes with respect to the future tempo and potentially certain conditions with respect to the rafah offensive that will occur even if there is a negotiation for
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a temporary ceasefire. and once that is over — if it is successful — to be established, it will occur, and i think that it needs to occur. what do you make of that talk about an offensive into rafah by prime minister benjamin netanyahu? he's been insisting that this will go ahead whether or not a ceasefire deal takes place. but it seems as if that really might be the elephant in the room here when it comes to these talks thatjust don't seem to be able to get across the line. well, it certainly is because if you look at it from hamas�*s standpoint, they are focused on nothing but survivability of the remaining militant capability and, arguably, their senior militant leadership inside of gaza. if sinwar, who is the militant leader inside of gaza, is still alive, that's certainly part of the negotiation. they want to see a permanent ceasefire, so that they can survive this conflict.
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for prime minister netanyahu and the israeli people, they remain very focused on — excuse me — the israeli knesset, remain on the —— remain focused on the objective which they stated shortly after october seven, which was the military elimination of hamas inside of the gaza strip, as well as the governing ability inside of gaza as well. so, i am confident that that offensive will continue and as the prime minister stated today during the ceremonies, he is focused on achieving that end state, even if there is a temporary ceasefire, which is why he's not agreeing to a permanent ceasefire. 0k, latrobe ritomo jermell mark 0k, latrobe ritomojermell mark schwarzer who served as the us security consort for israel and palestinian territory, thank you much —— retired lou tennant mark schwartz. ok, you served as the us
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security co—ordinator —— while 0rthodox christians in russia and ukraine celebrated easter on sunday, fighting continued. a russian assault killed two people in ukraine's eastern donetsk region. moscow also says its forces seized a village in the region — the latest in a string of small territorial gains. separately, drone and bomb attacks on the north—eastern city of kharkiv injured 1a people. in his easter address, ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky urged ukrainians to be united and called god an ally in the war. at least 75 people are dead and tens of thousands have been forced to leave their homes in brazil after devastating floods tore through the southern state, of rio grande do sul. the state's governor says the devastation is unprecedented. jon donnison has more. much of brazil's most southerly state is under water. roads turned into rivers and tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes. translation: now, when i'm being rescued, i feel relieved. but it's terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way.
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it rose at a very high speed. after a week of storms and heavy rain, at least 500,000 people are without power and clean water. translation: i need a lot of help - a lot. l we have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. we have nothing. and the very young are being impacted, too. this tiny baby had to be winched to safety by helicopter. many of those who died were killed by landslides and at least two people lost their lives when the floods caused an explosion at a petrol station in port alegre. president lula da silva visited the region for the second time this week to see the damage for himself. brazil's military has been brought in to help with the rescue effort and to distribute aid. the extreme weather has been caused by a rare combination of hotter—than—average temperatures, high humidity and strong winds, and forecasters say it's not over yet. jon donnison, bbc news.
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around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some another story making the headlines. there are just a few hours left until nominations close to replace humza yousaf as leader for the scottish national party. john swinney is poised to fill the role after his only remaining rival pulled out. veteran party activist graeme mccormick followed the former finance secretary kate forbes in confirming he would not be running. jenni davidson explains. it's unlikely that this is actually going to be a serious issue for him but what it does mean for the party is that it would cause the leadership contest to go on for another few weeks. if there was only one nomination in tomorrow by 12 noon — the deadline — if it wasjohn swinney, then he would simply be declared party leader by tomorrow afternoon. but if there's more than one nomination, then it has to go to a vote of party members.
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mr swinney has said he is "physically and mentally ready" for the role after he decided not to stand in the 2023 leadership contest. he previously led the party for four years in opposition from 2000 to 200k. you're live with bbc news. let's turn now to the fall out from the local elections in england. the former home secretary suella braverman says the conservative party could be wiped out in a general election and has urged the prime minister to change course and swing to the right after its poor showing in this week's votes for local councils and mayors. the tories lost more than a70 council seats and all but one mayoral election in england. here's our deputy political editor vicki young. across england and wales, labour won in style — mayors, councils and police and crime commissioners. it was a terrible set of results for the conservatives. one of the few bright spots —
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a victory for their mayor in the tees valley. the former home secretary — no fan of the prime minister's — warned today that the party faced a wipe—out at the general election, but there was no point ousting him now. rishi sunak has been leading us for about 18 months. he's been making these decisions. these are the consequences of those decisions. he needs to own this and therefore, he needs to fix it. and these are her suggestions. he needs to actually lower taxes in a way that people will feel — not tweaking around the edges. if he's serious about migration, he needs to put a cap on legal migration, he needs to take us out of the european convention on human rights — that's how you actually send the message that he's serious about stopping the boats. not all tories agree. after his defeat, the now former mayor of the west midlands, andy street, urged the party to stick to the centre ground. ministers insist they're already acting decisively. we have a plan and the plan is working... but voters are telling you that they don't like it. .but we're not all the way through yet.
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you've got to see... i think that people want to see delivery, right? so, they want to continue to see inflation coming down, then want to see the boats stop, they want to see, for example, nhs waiting lists continue to fall — we've made a lot of progress on that but we're not all of the way there yet. labour did see a drop in support in some areas where there's anger about its stance on the war in gaza. i do acknowledge that, in some parts of the country, that that was the case and there will be some people who maybe voted labour in the past who haven't in the local elections because of this issue, and where that's the case, we'll work to get people's support back. but overall, i do have to stress these were tremendous local election results. rishi sunak�*s fiercest critics seem to have decided against an attempt to drive him out of here. but that doesn't mean the criticism will stop. let's turn to some important news around the world. panama's electoral authority has declared jose raul mulino the winner of the country's presidential election. the formerforeign minister was only on the ballot because his party's initial candidate was found guilty of money laundering.
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his main rival ricardo lombana conceded shortly before the electoral authority's announcement. the election comes as panama grapples with corruption, mass migration, and a severe drought that has limited transit through the economically critical panama canal. prosecutors in mexico have confirmed that the three dead bodies found in a well in baja california state were the three foreign surfers reported missing last week. the surfers — two australian brothers and an american — were on holiday in the area near the us border but never arrived at their accommodation. earlier on sunday, authorities said the bodies had bullet wounds to the heads. three suspects have been arrested. china's president xijinping has arrived in france on a state visit — his first trip to an eu country in five years. global conflicts are expected to feature highly when mr xi meets french president macron and the head of the eu commission, ursula von der leyen, later on monday. france is expected to urge china to pressure russia to end its war against ukraine.
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now to the music world as two of hip—hop�*s biggest names have been getting personal on simultaneously released diss tracks. the feud between kendrick lamar and drake goes back years and it continued on friday with new songs that include allegations of domestic violence and secret children. in drake's track family matters, he suggests that one of lamar�*s children was fathered by another man. lamar responded less than 30 minutes later with meet the grahams — a track referencing dra ke's last name. in that song, lamar alleges that drake has been hiding an unidentified 11—year—old daughter. take a listen. # baby girl. # i'm sorry that your father is not active inside your world. # he doesn't commit to much but his music, yeah, that's for sure. # he a narcissist, misogynist, livin�* inside his songs. the feud between drake and kendrick is the latest
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in a long line of disputes in rap music. and while artists often trade blows on hip—hop tracks, sometimes past rivalries have ended in tragedy. in the 1990s, rappers tupac shakur and the notorious big were each gunned down within six months of each other, after a rivalry escalated into an intense dispute between east and west coasts. for more on all this, i spoke to carl lamarre, the deputy director of r&b and hip—hop at billboard. thank you so much forjoining us here on the bbc. first of all, can you just remind us how this beef between kendrick lamar and drake got started? because these are two hip—hop artists who used to be, if not friends, at least collaborators in the past? yeah, no, definitely, they were collaborators — i mean, drake brought kendrick on tour. he had kendrick featured on the album in 2011 for take care. kendrick returned the favour and had drake feature on poetic justice. there was some sense of coolness there until kendrick, 2013, put out that atomic
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bomb with control. and that's when he said everybody�*s name, all of his contemporaries — drake, pusha t, tyler the creator — and that pushed drake the wrong way and this has been a simmering beef for ten years where they were throwing subliminals at each other and everything came to a head when kendrick teamed up with future on metro boomin on like that, which ended up at the billboard hot 100 for three weeks. and kendrick had a searing verse, targeting drake andj cole and really igniting the feud that everybody in hip—hop has been waiting for. you said that this has been simmering for a while but this exploded over the last couple of weeks. oh, yeah. what was the trigger for that? yeah, i think it was the like that record that kendrick was featured on with metro boomin and future, where he took shots at drake, took shots atj cole.
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and, of course, drake being the combat warrior that he is, felt the need to respond. j cole initially came and responded but then withdrew from the battle. and he said that this was disturbing his spirit and peace. he had a whole track, a seven minute track, that addressed lamar. but then he took out the battle, took out the track leaving the two heavyweights to combat with each other. so, shortly after 7 minute drill came out, drake went on a fiery run, dropped his first diss record which was push ups and then, shortly after that, taylor made freestyle — kind of baiting kendrick to come out of hiding, since it was some time since the like that record and kendrick said anything. and lo and behold, this week, we had one, not two, not three but four diss tracks from kendrick lamar. that's a lot in one sitting, in one week to take. you don't even see four in a battle. and hip—hop, obviously, has a long tradition of these kinds of battles and beefs between different rappers. this really, though, goes beyond just who's
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the better lyricist, who's the better hip—hop artist. some of these diss tracks that you mentioned that have been coming out are cutting deep. this is getting very personal now, isn't it? no, it is, and i think that drake was really the one who ignited the whole fire when, on push ups, he named kendrick lamar�*s wife, whitney. and, of course, when family, when friends, when deep associates are involved, that's when things get sticky and messy, which led to a lot of scathing claims and allegations. i know drake had made claims that kendrick lamar�*s manager, dave free — or his business associate, i should say — had slept with kendrick�*s wife, you know, these kind of allegations. and now, the kids are getting involved, where names are being thrown out there, where kendrick lamar addressed drake's son adonis on a recent diss track — that was meet the grahams.
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so, that's my biggest concern in hip—hop, you know? it's all good when things are strictly kept on wax, when everything is lyrical. but when things start cutting deep and getting personal, as we've seen in the past, that's when a lot of turmoil and violence ensues. so, ijust hope that it is strictly staying on wax. it's nothing more than two titans going at it on some lyrical tracks and nothing more. if anything, it hasn't been bad for business for either one of them, has it? carl lamarre, at billboard, thank you so much. thank you very much. and the saga continues — within the last few hours, drake has released another diss track called the heart part 6. before we go, a group of bakers has reclaimed the record for the world's longest baguette in paris on sunday. or 153 yards, making the baguette long enough to reach beyond the second
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floor of the eiffel tower. the bakers had to follow the traditional french recipe, using only flour, water, yeast and salt. the dough took around eight hours to cook in stages through the oven. pretty impressive. i'm carl nasman in washington, our colleagues in london will bring you plenty more coming up here on bbc news. hello. so far, this bank holiday weekend has been a decidedly mixed affair. some spells of warm sunshine but also some really heavy downpours. we saw some flash flooding in parts of eastern scotland during sunday. you can see the showers and thunderstorms that erupted here through the day. quite slow—moving, actually. not much wind to push these showers and storms along. one or two locations had close to half a month's worth of rain in the space ofjust a few hours. we are currently in the grip of this fairly weak and fairly
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flabby area of low pressure, so not much wind with that low to push the showers around. where they do crop up again on bank holiday monday, they will be heavy, quite slow moving, but with some spells of sunshine in between. this is how we start the day. the southern half of the uk seeing some areas of mist and fog, some sunny spells developing but some rain across the southeast of england and east anglia. northern ireland and scotland keeping quite a lot of cloud and still with some hefty showers across some central and eastern parts of scotland. by the middle of the afternoon, parts of east anglia and the southeast seeing outbreaks of rain. elsewhere through the southwest of england into wales, the midlands and northern england, that mix of sunny spells and heavy, possibly thundery showers — those showers quite slow—moving — but the sunniest spot seeing highs of 19 or 20 degrees. more cloud for northern ireland, but largely dry. still some hefty showers across southern and eastern scotland. further north and west, something drier and, in places, a little bit brighter. now, as we head through monday night, the showers should slowly but surely fade away in most locations. we'll keep some fairly
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large amounts of cloud. perhaps some mist patches here and there. temperatures generally holding up between six and ten degrees. now, more showers in the forecast for tuesday but they shouldn't be as widespread and, on the whole, they shouldn't be quite as heavy. so, mainly fine to start off. some fairly large amounts of cloud, spells of sunshine, too. some of those showers getting going through the day, particularly across parts of england and wales. but in the sunny spots, those temperatures again up to around 20 degrees celsius. that is a sign of things to come because as we head deeper into the week, high pressure builds a little more strongly. we'll still see frontal systems to the north of the uk, so a bit of rain at times, particularly across parts of scotland. but further south, it stays mostly dry. some spells of sunshine. temperatures climbing, seeing highs of around 21 to 22, maybe 23 degrees.
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v0|ce—0ver: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine two years ago didn't just send shock waves through neighbouring moldova, it opened up a host of dangerous cracks. earlier this year, moldova's
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president accused moscow of plotting a coup. not one but two moldovan territories seem intent on seeking russia's embrace. all of this while moldova pushes on with its bid tojoin the eu. my guest is moldovan foreign minister and deputy prime minister, mihai popsoi. is the ukraine war a portent of what is to come for moldova? mihai popsoi, welcome to hardtalk. my pleasure. would it be fair to say that there are increasing signs
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of deep political instability inside moldova?

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