Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240714

Hello to you. The outbreak of ebola in the democratic republic of the congo has been declared a Public Health emergency of International Concern. It started in the north kivu region, to the east of the drc, last summer, moving into ituri, and then most recently into the provincial capital goma, a Major International transport hub bordering rwanda. So far at least 1,600 people have died. Gareth barlow has the latest. In the democratic republic of the congo, ebola has wrought death and devastation. Now the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency. As a reason of this concern for potential farther spread, the Committee Recommended that i declared the outbreak a public emergency of International Concern pheic and i have accepted that advice. The warning is the most severe the who can make. Its only the fourth occasion the organisation has done so. Its time for the world to take notice was the stark message for those who care to listen. Since august, more than 1600 people have been killed. With 12 new cases reported every day. Between 2014 and 2016, more than 11,000 people were killed in an epidemic that devastated swathes of west africa. The latest outbreak is the 10th to grip the drc. Tackling the disease has proved difficult. The region is blighted by conflict, Health Workers often arent trusted and some people just dont believe ebola exists. On top of that, the shortage of a highly effective vaccine is causing concern. The who says it lacks the funds to properly tackle the crisis. The hope will be that the new warning prompts donors to offer more support to help stop the deadly disease. Gareth barlow, bbc news. Emanuele capobianco from the red cross had more on the difference the declaration of ebola as a state emergency has made. This declaration makes an important difference, because it highlights the severity of the outlook and determines increased attention and increased financing in response to this serious outbreak thats been underfunded until now. Where do you see this outbreak going now, and what do you need most urgently . Well, the outbreak has killed more than 1,600 people. It has crossed the border into uganda last month and arrived in goma last weekend. We need to contain it, and thats why more resources are needed to do what has been effective until now, but also to expand a little bit the effort. We need to move beyond an ebola only focused response and start addressing other health needs and humanitarian needs that are a priority for a population in dire humanitarian need. We need to invest in building resilience in the system so the virus can be detected and responded to more swiftly and promptly, and then we need to invest more in communities and making sure the communities led response. The red cross does that using volunteers from the communities. We have an additional useful tool in our hands, which is the number of survivors its almost 1,000 now that can be very effective in persuading the communities towards the respondents. And i guess the way this outbreak is developing suggests so far the things you want to happening are not happening. How do you reach people who are not responding in the way you want them to, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of distrust, and how do you protect Health Workers as well . A lot has been done positively in containing this epidemic for almost a year into the drc. We need to look at the good thats been done so far. We need to invest more in involving the communities. We need to listen more, we need to understand what their needs are and then we need to respond to that. We should remember that a large majority of the population has accepted the vaccine. The large majority of the population has accepted the barriers that are conducted by the red cross in a safe and dignified barrier, so the acceptance has been there but we just need to expand this and do this more consistently. For that, we need more resources that we have not had until now. Emanuele capobianco from the red cross there. Lets get some of the days other news. Boeing is saying it will allocate half of a 100 million fund created to investigate two crashes of its 737 max planes to the families of those killed. That announcement came just before a hearing of the us house of representatives which included testimony from canadian father paul njoroge. He lost three children, his wife and mother in law in the Ethiopia Airlines crash in march. Prosecutors in massachusetts have dropped a criminal case against kevin spacey. He had denied allegations that he sexually assaulted an 18 year old man at a bar three years ago. His accuser had refused to testify about a missing phone, which the actor claimed could have proved his innocence. Googles plan to launch a censored Search Engine in china has been terminated a Company Executive has told the Us Senate Judiciary committee. It is the first time google has officially acknowledged that the much criticised plan, known as project dragonlfy, has been scrapped. The us house of representatives has voted to sideline a motion to impeach President Trump. It was sponsored by the democrat al green, who was seeking to capitalise on outrage at mr trumps racist language in his recent diatribes against four ethnic Minority Democratic Party congresswomen. A short time ago mr trump addressed the issue at a rally in north carolina. Ijust heard that the United States house of representatives has overwhelmingly voted to kill the most ridiculous project ive ever been involved in the resolution, how stupid is that, on impeachment. Booing so now we have that behind us, and i have to say this, and ill say itjust once, what happened to me with this witch hunt should never be allowed to happen to another president of the United States. Never, ever again cheering President Trump also returned to the four congresswomen whod been the subject of his racist tweets earlier this week. David willis in washington has more. He took aim at these women one by one. As he turned his attention to the squad, as they are known, these four women, a couple of hecklers interrupted him and they had to be removed from the crowd. President donald trump said these women were favouring isis, favouring alqaeda and disrespecting the United States. He had a go at one of them, alexandria 0casio cortez, saying her name was far too long for him and he would just call her cortez in future. Hes trying to paint these four democratic congresswomen, mike, of emblematic of socialism, which he believes is taking over the democratic party. He says america is not going to be a socialist country, its not going to happen, but there were chants at times of send her back, which is an echo of those racist remarks donald trump made on twitter, and that is, of course, disconcerting. David willis there. A judge in new york has sentenced the mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo guzman to life in prison. As part of his sentence, he will have to hand over billions of dollars. The bbcs nada tawfik was in court. Well, when el chapo entered the courtroom, he of course already knew his fate. His crimes require a mandatory sentence of life in prison, and so it was really noticeable throughout the hearing that he kept looking back at his wife, his family, who had attended the sentencing hearing, knowing full well it may be the last time he sees them before he is sent for life to prison in solitary confinement at a maximum security facility in colorado. He took his moment to speak there during the hearing to really rail against the us justice system, saying his trial was unjust, that the conditions of his confinement in prison amounted to mental, psychological and emotional torture, and the prosecutors really took issue with that. They hit back, saying that el chapo was uniquely deserving of the long sentence he received, and that throughout his decades long brutal reign as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel that he showed no regard for human dignity. What was also really notable about this sentencing hearing was that one of his victims, who survived an assassination plot that he had ordered, addressed el chapo. She said she still suffers from nightmares. Needed how thick in new york for us nada tawfik. Nearly six months since 248 people were killed when a dam collapsed in brazil, 22 are still missing. Bbc news has now learned that serious questions have been raised about the German Company that issued the dams safety certificate. As our correspondentjenny hill reports tuv sud knew about potential problems with the dam for up to a year before the catastrophe. No warning, no time to run. The dam collapsed in a matter of seconds a mountain of mining waste now a torrent of toxic sludge. Nearly 300 people died here. Aramaios sister was serving lunch at the mines canteen just below the dam. Her body, he told us, still hasnt been found. Translation we are devastated, we feel destroyed. Were trying to understand what happened. With every hour that passes, the traces of this disaster disappear into a new landscape, but at the same time, fresh evidence continues to emerge. What happened here could and should have been prevented. For this brazilian prosecutor, questions for a German Company. Tuv sud certified the dam safe, even though two other firms refused to do so even though investigators believe staff knew it was at risk of collapse. Translation what we see now is that tuv sud, as a corporation, is choosing to stay silent. I have no doubt a more collaborative attitude might bring more light to the case, and also clarify what happened behind closed doors. Weve seen internal e mails and documents seized by investigators. They reveal that tuv sud knew for about a year that the dam was liquefying and at risk of collapse, and they suggest that tuv sud had access to data from the dam right up to the disaster. We know now too that tuv sud changed the way the dam was certified, enabling inspectors to sign it off despite its weakness. What we dont know is why or whether tuv suds managers in munich knew what was happening. They didnt want to talk to us, but in a statement they say theyre working intensely to establish what happened. Tuv sud exports its reputation internationally. It carries out inspections all over the world. This was its big chance to gain a foothold in the lucrative brazilian mining sector. Its ended in disaster. A Company Famous for its high standards at home faces questions now about its accountability overseas. In brazils mining region, one fear persists that those questions will go unanswered, brumadinhos dead forgotten. Jenny hill, bbc news, brumadinho. Stay with us on bbc news, still to come the story of the twin girls, joined at the head at birth, and the pioneering operation which saved them eight years ago. After months of talks and missed deadlines, a deal has been struck to keep greece within the eurozone. The immediate prospect of greece going bust, in the worst crisis to hit the eurozone, has been averted. Emergency services across Central Europe are stepping up their efforts to contain the worse floods this century. Nearly 100 people have been killed. Broadway is traditionally called the great white way by americans, but tonight it is completely blacked out. Its a timely reminder to all americans of the problems that the Energy Crisis has brought to them. Leaders meet in paris for a summit on pollution, inflation and third world debt. This morning, theyjoined the revolution celebrations for a show of military might on the champs elysees. Finally, wildlife officials in australia have been coping with a penguin problem. Fairy penguins have been staggering ashore and collapsing after gorging themselves on a huge shoal of their favourite food, pilchards. Some had eaten so much they could barely stand. This is bbc world news, the latest headlines the Ebola Outbreak in the democratic republic of the congo is declared a Public Health emergency of International Concern. Donald trump hits out at his democratic opponents and ridicules them after a house of representatives vote to impeach him is sidelined. That moment half a century ago, when Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin made history with the first steps on the moon, of course only came out of years of work. The United States, in fierce competition with the ussr, marshalling resources and manpower at a pace unseen outside of warfare. The bbcs jane obrien asked space historian Roger Launius to take us back to that time. In 1961, of course, john kennedy announced were going to go to the moon, and there was a positive response overall. Congress appropriated money to accomplish that and there was a buildup thereafter as nasa engaged in a succession of more sophisticated missions, just one after and other, through project mercury, the Gemini Programme and ultimately into apollo. And the payoff was thisjuly, 1969 landing, the first time humans had set foot on another body in the solar system. Thats a pretty remarkable achievement, and people were anticipating this literally worldwide. Did everybody support landing on the moon . Mostly they did, and thats been true from the very beginning right up to the present. There were those who questioned it, some who thought it was too expensive and we could spend our money in a more efficient manner helping people, but generally speaking, most people, especially at the time it took place, were very excited by it and were very proud of the accomplishment. It seems to be part of the american century, was it a uniquely american moment . At some level, yes. Clearly the americans funded it. Americans were engaged in the activity, although i would suggest that there was a not insignificant number of International Individuals who were part of the programme in some form or another, either as engineers or scientists. But it was american, and of course the flag that was planted on the moon was only the American Flag to the chagrin of some people at the time. Theres a push to go back to the moon, why . The moon obviously still has this great resonance with us. We learned some things. It operates at several levels the first level is a very practical one. We learned things during the Apollo Programme we now want to go back to if we can do anything more with. One of those is the potential of resources in the moon we might be able to exploit for earthly use. Just from a standpoint of learning more about the cosmos, theres a lot of things that can be done there as well, and a lot of questions that emerged from the Apollo Programme that have fuelled scientists since that time to seek things. To seek answers about those, and going back, that would enable them to follow on with those questions. Space, of course, is now a very crowded place, what do you think the landings Lasting Legacy will be on how we shape the future of Space Exploration . Yeah, well, the moon landings obviously was a sprint at the time. We sort of did that very quickly and as fast as we possibly could. There was an effort in the aftermath of the moon landings to take that same technology and try to apply it in other missions down the road. And so the skylab programme of the early 1970s that the us engaged in used the upper stage of a saturn v rocket as a space station. Its no longer a frontier experience to go into earth orbit. It was in the 1960s and 70s, but now we have turned that into a normal realm of human activity, especially when you couple Something Like the career of the Space Shuttle with the International Space station. Roger launius, thank you very muchjoining me. Thank you. There is, of course, much more on the anniversary of the first moon landing on our website, and you can test your knowledge by taking our quiz. Just log on to bbc. Com news. This week, weve been following the astonishing story of safa and marwa, twins who were born joined at the head, and how they were separated at great ormond street hospital. Its an extremely rare case but the same surgeons did perform a similar separation on these girls eight years ago. And the doctors have been to see the family in ireland for the First Time Since those girls left hospital. Our medical correspondent fergus walsh picks up the story. Hi salaam alaikum. Quite a moment. How are you . Im good. The twins ritaj and rital meeting the surgeons who separated them eight years ago. How are you . Born in sudan, they now live in ireland, where their fathers a doctor. Its hard to imagine they were once joined at the head. Doctors feared the girls might die unless separated, so like safa and marwa the division was performed over several stages. And this was rital and ritaj just one month after surgery, each parent able to hold a child in their arms. I hope that they will get a normal life and be treated as normal human beings. Which one are you . You get it right every time so what do they think now . We are sitting here with two healthy twins, just like what i hoped at that time, so its a great moment in my life. Your dream came true . Exactly. Im a very proud dad now. Laughter. That was very hard time. And at the same time, it was happy time because of the conclusion. We just get our girls, everyone is separated and can live her own life. And now, enas is pregnant again. One child this time . Yeah. Laughter. I think its just amazing to see, yeah, how theyve come on and grown into happy children. Its just wonderful, really. Rital has some learning difficulties, but the long term outcome of the twins separation has been hailed as a major success. The surgeons believe its because it was done in the first year of life, when the brain and body have the strongest ability to heal. What we put the two kids through, and the brains through, is a lot. And the younger brains and their younger circulations are better adapted and have better regeneration potential, so to do the surgery early does make a difference, we feel. Everything is easier. A one year olds regenerative capacity is so much better. The skin heals better, it stretches better, the bone grows in better. Ready, steady, go theyve set up a charity so that funds are available to allow Early Intervention in future cases, and to further research. Safa and marwa were two when they were separated. The delay was due to problems finding a charitable donor. The surgeons say the girls would have done better if theyd operated earlier. Theyre clearly going to face some challenges, but i think overall, its a positive outcome for them. Theyre going to need support, but they have a chance of leading a happy life. No one can be sure what the long term outcome will be for safa and marwa, but the experience of rital and ritaj shows just what is possible. Sisters bornjoined at the head, now able to lead independent lives. Fergus walsh, bbc news. And theres a special programme about this extraordinary story. Our world separating conjoined twins will air this weekend on bbc world news and on bbc news in the uk. Check our website for transmission times in your region. We talk a lot about our use and reliance on plastic, and often hear the claim that so much plastic is thrown away every year that it could circle the earth four times. But is it true . The bbcs reality check investigates. It is not an exact science, but still an awful lot of plastic. And you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter im bbcmikeembley. Hello there. Parts of Eastern England had temperatures very close to 27 degrees during wednesday. I dont think well see temperatures as high as that again, not for a little while anyway, because things have been changing from the west. This stripe of cloud brought some outbreaks of rain eastwards during wednesday. Behind me here, a lump of cloud that will bring rain on friday. In between, a somewhat clearer zone of weather, so through the day ahead we will see sunshine and showers as well. And it will be quite breezy. Still some rain to clear away from the south east corner for the first part of the morning. That rain is mostly light and patchy. Behind that we see some spells of sunshine but also some showers. These most plentiful across the northern half of the uk. Could be one or two showers across parts of suffolk and essex down into kent as we go through the afternoon, but for the majority of england and wales, its dry with spells of sunshine. Cooler than it has been an breezy as well. Perhaps a couple of showers clipping into north west england and north wales. But for Northern Ireland and scotland we will see a scattering of showers, some of them some thundery, blowing through quickly on that brisk west or south westerly breeze. That could make for a somewhat tricky opening day at the open. Some showers moving through, some of which could be heavy, possibly thundery, and it will be quite breezy. Now, as we go through thursday night into the early hours of friday, the showers continue for a time in the north. Further south, with clear skies, its going to be a cooler, fresher night than we have been used to across parts of Eastern England. Behind me, though, across the south west of the uk, cloud gathering by the first part of friday morning with some outbreak of rain ahead of our next weather maker. This frontal system developing and pushing in from the south west. Now, it has been very dry lately across the far south of the uk but even here were going to get a dollop of rain during friday. This wet weather pushing north eastwa rd and heading into southern and central portions of scotland. Northern scotland perhaps staying driest and brightest of all. With this wet weather, there could be the odd flash of lightning, the odd rumble of thunder, it could also be quite breezy. And temperatures at best between 18 and 21 degrees. Rain on friday clears away as we enter saturday and then were back to a day of sunshine and showers, some pretty hefty downpours at times with an odd flash of lightning and rumble of thunder. Signs of things turning a little warmer again down towards the south. A drier day for most of us on sunday and the next week, split fortunes. Northern areas seeing some wind and rain at times. Further south, some dry weather, some warm weather and perhaps even some heat, with temperatures climbing once again. This is bbc news, the headlines the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of ebola in the democratic republic of the congo a Public Health emergency of International Concern. Its only the fifth time the designation has been used. The who has stopped short of ordering the closure of international borders. The us house of representatives has voted to sideline a motion to impeach President Trump. Leading democrats had made it clear they did not support it. At a rally in north carolina, mr trump claimed the attempt at impeachment was a disgrace and a witch hunt. The Infamous Mexican drugs baron Joaquin El Chapo guzman has been jailed for life by a court in new york city. He was convicted of running a smuggling operation moving huge shipments of Illegal Drugs into the United States. He will also have to hand over billions of dollars