Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newsday 20171222

Plight of yemens children. The worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We have a special report. And meet the blade running dog. We will reveal how prosthetic limbs gave this put a new lease on life. Live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news. Its newsday. Thank you forjoining us. It it is 8am in singapore, midnight in london, 1am in barcelona, where it looks as though separatist parties are on course to maintain a slim majority in catalonias assembly. With almost all of the vote counted, the Pro Independence bloc is on course to win 70 seats out of 135. The leader gave his reaction. Translation we ask for the restoration of democracy in catalonia, a restoration of legitimate government and the freedom of those put in jail. Legitimate government and the freedom of those put injail. They should not spend another minute in prison. They should come out now, and a legitimate government must return to the palace. This is our place. This is the will of the citizens. Catalonias leading Pro Independence party that wanted an end to separatist and claimed supporters had voted in record numbers. Translation for the first time in catalonia, a Constitutionalist Party has won the election in catalonia, and for the first time, 1,100,000 cata la n and for the first time, 1,100,000 catalan men and women have picked up the orange paper. Tim wilcox is in barcelona. I asked him if the results of these elections looked like they would resolve the crisis in the region. Elections looked like they would resolve the crisis in the regionlj do resolve the crisis in the region. do not think it is a good result. Not at all. It shows this region is split down the middle when it comes to those who want to stay part of spain and those who want to pursue a separatist course. In the last couple of moments, we have been hearing from carlos, the former leader. He says these Election Results cannot be disputed at all. You will remember what started the crisis is back in october the first with the illegal referendum held when separatist groups said 90 of people voted in favour of leaving spain ona people voted in favour of leaving spain on a turnout of 48 . After that, there was a declaration of independence. Madrid imposed direct rule under article 155. Now, independence. Madrid imposed direct rule underarticle155. Now, madrid, having called the elections, has given everyone the opportunity to vote. And the result seems to be a slim majority, as you say, for the separatist movement. The party with the largest number of votes is very unity, but there is no way they could form a coalition majority. You need 68 to form a majority, and it is only the separatists who appear to have that. It is kasia madera in london. You have been covering this since the very beginning. This is a divided region. Not Everyone Wants independence. No. That is my point. The region is split down the middle. There are many millions of people in the past, known as the silent majority, who wanted to stay part of spain. What you cannot get away from now, and this is where the gamble for rajoy has blown up in his face, of these elections were opened to all. Those who wanted to stay and those who wanted to leave. 82 of the people who could vote in this election is did so. The turnout has been huge. If these results are absolutely right, it appears the separatists have the majority in terms of the number of seats. Thank you, tim wilcox. There is a lot of analysis on the website. The Un General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling on the us to reverse its decision to recognisejerusalem as the capital of israel. 128 countries voted to reject Donald Trumps announcement while nine voted against the resolution. The us warned of consequences for those nations challenging its new policy on israel. We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the Worlds Largest contribution to the un. And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit. America will put our embassy in jerusalem. That is what the American People want us to do and it is the right thing to do. Americas ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley. Our correspondent has been following events at the un in new york, and gave us this assessment. What is interesting is when you speak to us officials, they are actually trying to push that this was a success for the us. They say the threats were, and point to the 35 countries who abstained far more than anticipated. In the 21 countries that did not even show up. Among them, ukraine, who recently signed an arms deal with the us. They are looking at this and saying look at past resolutions that have been critical of israel and look at this load and you can see the threats we have issued in the last few days, all the way up from President Trump, impacted the have us. Certainly, if you look at ambassador nikki haleys remarks to members at the Un General Assembly, she doubled on those remarks, saying that now they would look at un funding. The us is certainly not backing down. Also making news today. Rescue teams in the phillipines say at least seven people are still missing, after a ferry capsized in heavy seas along the countrys eastern coast. Four people are known to have died, and more than 200 were rescued, after the ship sank near the island of poleelo. The us has imposed sanctions on a generalfrom myanmar, after accusing him of leading an Ethnic Cleansing Campaign against the rohingya muslims. Maung maung soe is among the first group of individuals and organisations to be targeted under the magnitsky human rights act. The sanctions effectively cut him off from the Global Financial system. The number of people known to have died in a fire at a Sports Centre in south korea has risen to 29. Most of the victims were trapped in a sauna on one of the upper floors of the building injecheon. Officials are still checking the building, and there are fears more victims could be discovered. Now, its nothing unusual to see humans fitted with prosthetic limbs, but how about this dog meet cola, a dog from thailand, who lost both his front legs when he was attacked by a human. He was fitted with blades not unlike those used by some paralympic athletes, and as you can see, hes now well and truly back on his paws, and able to play with his friendsjust like he did before. That is a good news story, an incredible story. Police in melbourne have said that the man who deliberately drove his car into the crowd yesterday does not have terrorist links. 1a people have been injured in the attack. The driver, a 32 year old with Mental Health issues, was arrested. Earlier this year, six people died in melbourne when a motorist deliberately ploughed into the crowd. Following the attack, authorities had raised the security alert and installed concrete blocks on the roads. Earlier, i spoke to angela mancini, from the Risk Consultancy control risks. She said that the number of major terror attacks has actually decreased in 2017. We are seeing these things more and more. It is a challenge. When you see these things happen, the question is what are the length and can you prevent it . What is interesting is while terrorism is quite high on the risk agenda, the number of terrorist attacks has gone down globally in 2017 against 2006 thing. But you are seeing the versification of tactics. 2016. We have gone to low tech attacks like vehicle raymonds. Highprofile attacks took place in 2016. You had one in london, manchester, new york. You would not compare this to those attacks . Interestingly, asia has had less of those attacks. You have seen them in europe. It is vehicle rammings and things like that. In asia pacific, it was not likely 20005 asia pacific, it was not likely 2000s with attacks on embassies in hotels. These are low tech. They are ha rd to hotels. These are low tech. They are hard to predict and prevent. Why have there been fewer incidents in the Asia Pacific Region . Have there been fewer incidents in the asiapacific region . Of course, the asiapacific region . Of course, the big trend we saw is Islamic State has lost its territory in syria and iraq. So, what are they going to do . Is the loss of that territory going to inspire more attacks . Is it not . Will the loss the control centre wane . There are many different extremist groups. Lone wolf attacks. Mentally ill, like in australia that be the challenge is that those people are doing them for wired ranging regions. Australia. Doing them for wired ranging regions. Australia. There have only been two major attacks in the philippines. One was in marawi, Islamic State related, and another suicide bombing in malaysia. Governance and intelligence agencies, either they work in close together to stop these attacks from happening . They are. They have done a good job. In malaysia we have seen, late in the summer, a lot of arrests of people who are going to do something on national day. You are seeing an increase in the ability of Counterterrorism Forces to crack down and try to detect these and stop them in advance. A grim statistic from the conflict in yemen. The International Red cross says the total number of suspected cholera cases in yemen has reached one million. There are also reports of outbreaks of other serious diseases, as more than eighty per cent of the population struggle to find supplies of clean water, food, and basic healthca re. Our correspondent, nawal al maghafi, has been to the capital, sanaa, and sent this report, parts of which you may find distressing. Crying this is 11 month old abdillahi, exhausted and beyond despair, hesjust one of yemens starving children. With his belly swollen from malnutrition, there are 400,000 other infants suffering just like him. Once confined to rural areas, the threat of famine has now reached the capital. Abdillahis motherjamilla sits helpless at his side, shes already lost two other children to hunger. She tells me hes all she has to live for. Translation my husbands salary used to provide for us, it would run out at the end of the month, but he would get paid. Everything was ok. Now, all we eat is bread and tea. All the infants here were born into this war, now in its third year. From birth, its a struggle to survive. Eight year old, allah, has just arrived and hes just been given his first proper meal in days. Hes from a family with a well paid government job, but for over a year anyone working for the state hasnt received a salary. So the family quickly fell into poverty. Too ashamed to ask their own family for help, they struggled in silence. Translation i break one piece of bread between two children and another is shared out between the rest. Thats all we have. At night they ask for dinner. They cry, but i cant give them anything, so they sleep hungry. Its really heartbreaking. In yemeni culture, its shameful to go out and ask for help, and im shocked that jamilla waited until her son was in this state before she asked her sister for money to bring him here. It makes me wonder how many more people are starving in their homes. And heres the incredible thing, while millions of people are starving across the country, supermarket shelves in the capital are stocked high with food, but ordinary yemenis can no longer afford to shop here. A once busy store, now empty. Two thirds of the population dont know where their next meal is coming from, and theyre totally dependent on aid to survive. The people only come here to look at the food, they can no longer eat it. On the streets of sanaa you can see the toll the fighting has had on the city. The Coalition Air strikes, the fighting on the ground, has left people here living in fear. The Saudi Led Coalition has blocked all commercial imports from entering yemens main ports. Which has driven up prices. Nawalal maghafi, bbc news, sanaa. Still to come. Apple admits it deliberately slows down older phones, but they say it is not to make you buy a new one. Also coming up make you buy a new one. Also coming up on the programme, just another young couple in love. We will be taking a look at prince harry and Meghan Markles gorgeous engagement photos. We saw this enormous tidal wave approaching the beach and people starting to run, and suddenly it was complete chaos. The United States troops have been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of general manuel noriega. The pentagon said the operation had been 90 successful but its failed in its principle objective to capture general noriega and take him to the United States to face drugs charges. The hammer and sickle was hastily taken away. The russian flag was hoisted over what is now no longer the soviet union but the commonwealth of independent states. Day broke slowly over lockerbie, over the cockpit of pan ams made of the seas, nose down in the soft earth. You could see what happens when a plane 8 stories high, a football pitch wide, falls from 30,000 feet. Christmas has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. Thousands went to Midnight Mass in the town of shkodra, where there were anti communist riots ten days ago. Welcome back. This is newsday on the bbc. Im rico hizon in singapore. Our top stories. With most of the votes counted in Regional Elections in catalonia, parties that favour independence from spain are on track to maintain a majority in the regions parliament. 128 countries have backed a vote at the un calling on america to reverse its recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel. Lets take a look at some front pages from around the world. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has more information on the ferry crash. It reports that because there was no storm warnings, the ferry was allowed to sail during Tropical Storm vinta. The strong winds and huge waves cause the ferry to tip over. The japan times reports that another soldier has defected from north korea. South korea fired warning shots across the heavily militarised border, as north korean troops approached in search of the missing soldier. That brings the total number of North Koreans who have defected by taking dangerous routes to 15 so far this year. And the South China Morning Post says the hong kong leader carrie lam says being accountable to beijing did not mean taking every single order. Shes vowed to reflect opposition from hongkongers. The territory operates under one country, two systems policy. Moving to trending. Now, some pictures of a prince and a princess to be are lighting up the internet. They are pretty much breaking the internet. Yes, its the First Official portraits of prince harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle. In all, three images were released on thursday by Kensington Palace here in london. Only two were planned to be sent out, but the couple were apparently so pleased with the response they then added this bonus one. They were photographed by Alexi Lubomirski earlier this week at Frogmore House in windsor. Meghan is wearing a one of a kind dress made by the british designers ralph and russo, which is apparently valued at 75,000. And heres something closer up and more intimate, with meghan placing her hand on harrys with her Engagement Ring very much to the fore. And you can find more about the soon to be royal couple on our website bbc. Com news. Lovely photos, so romantic and a sweet. And sweet. Its something people with older apple smart phones have long suspected, their devices slow down with age. Now apple has confirmed that its done deliberately on its older iphone models. But why do they do it . Heres our technology correspondent, rory cellan jones. Theyre expensive devices which have made apple the worlds most valuable company. But after a couple of years, many iphone users say theres one thing they begin to notice. What have you noticed as your iphone gets older . It slows down and the battery goes. The battery life goes and its slightly slower. The phone doesnt last that long and you have to update it. Now apple has admitted that it does act to slow down some older models like the iphone 6s released two years ago, but it says thats not, as some suspect, to persuade people to rush out and buy new phones. Apple says this move is all about making older versions of the iphone work more reliably. As the battery ages theres a risk, particularly in colder weather, that the phone suddenly shuts down without warning. The Software Update is designed to stop that happening by making everything runjust a little more slowly. But the Software Update in question happened last year. Apple put out its statement only after this Technology Analyst identified what was going on with older phones. So i think apple could have been a lot more transparent. It would have great had apple been straightforward and upfront about this and said your battery is old, we are going to have to do things to ensure that you get good battery life out of your phone. I think if apple had been upfront and transparent from the get go this wouldnt be quite the uproar that it is today. The solution is to replace the battery, rather than the whole phone, but now that they are built in thats nothing like as simple or as cheap as it used to be. Rory cellan jones, bbc news. Lots more on that on our website. This is the last edition of newsday before christmas time flies. I cannot wait the new yeari time flies. I cannot wait the new year i will be on. After yesterdays battle of the Christmas Lights between the uk and the philippines. Iwon one of ourjapanese colleagues spoke up for her countrys year ending tradition. Yes, because this is the time of year that orchestras and choirs all across japan perform their versions of beethovens famous ninth symphony the ode tojoy. And one conductor is gathering 10,000 singers together. Just take a look at this singing ode to joy. 0 come, all ye faithful is a bit silver bells, jingle bells, joy to the world merry christmas, thank you so much for your wonderful gift i love it can you i have can you believe i bought him a pair of socks. He loves maps and those socks have the and London Underground map entered on them. By by. It didnt really matter today, where you lived whether it was herefordshire, or north yorkshire, or even around the surrey area, the skies all looked pretty much the same. More of the same to come. It continues to feed in from the atlantic, these weather fronts bringing pulses of the cloud at times and this will bring some outbreaks of rain and a light drizzle. It will be a dense start to the day. Look at these temperatures. 10 degrees. Very mild. A bit colder in scotland where there will be patches of frost and some dense patches of frost and some dense patches of frost and some dense patches of fog around as well. Temperatures here could be slow to rise as cloudy weather tends to build in over that cold air as we go onto the first of the morning. Weatherwise, little overall change, left with extensive cloud, still quite murky in the west into the afternoon and those temperatures are mild for this time of year. Similar to thursday, hives around 11, 12, even 13 degrees. On friday we do it all over again, cloud will thicken, perhaps a few spots of drizzle and turning murkier, that fog around the coast and the hills around the west. These are minimum temperatures and above the temperatures we would normally expect during the daytime at this time of the year. Looking ahead to the weekends weather prospects. More of the same. Mild and breezy, or it will stay on the cloudy side, some rain into the north west of the uk and that is one small change during the weekend. Saturday look Something Like this. A lot of cloud around, misty and foggy around weston, a few bricks of cloud around weston, a few bricks of cloud around Eastern England and scotland. It will turn wet in western scotland thanks to the slow moving weather front that will be around through Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, bringing the threat of localised flooding across these Western Areas of scotland. Is received, another mild one and breezy. Temperatures again into double figures fairly widely across the uk and for Christmas Day if you want a white Christmas Day if you want a White Christmas you can have one. Head into the scottish mountains and at about 500 metres elevation you will find snow. Those levels dropping later on businesslike, at night, for the vast majority of us Christmas Day will not be snowy it will be mild around ten or 11 degrees with a lot of cloud across the sky. Im kasia madera with bbc world news. Our top story. With most of the votes counted in Regional Elections in catalonia, parties that favour independence from spain are on track to maintain a majority in the regions parliament. There was a record turn out. The former president of the catalan assembly, carles puigdemont, says it is a victory for the republic and a defeat for the spanish state. The Un General Assembly has voted to reject the us decision to recognisejerusalem as israels capital, despite threats made by President Trump to cut Financial Aid to those who backed it. And this story is trending on bbc. Com. The First Official portraits of prince harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle have been published. Three images were released on thursday by Kensington Palace here in london. Thats all from me now. Stay with bbc world news. Now on bbc news, its time for a look