Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240714

Demonstrators. Its one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Its 50 years ago today that Neil Armstrong took the giant leap to become the first man to walk on the moon. The crowd in the arena knows. Englands hopes of reaching their first netball World Cup Final have been dashed after they were beaten by four time winners new zealand in liverpool. Full details in sportsday in half an hour. Good evening and welcome to bbc news. Good evening and welcome to bbc news. The foreign secretaryjeremy hunt has expressed his extreme disappointment in a phone call to his iranian counterpart over the seizure of a british registered tanker in the gulf yesterday. He said iran had failed to honour a pledge to reduce tensions in the area. Germany, france, the netherlands and the eu have all called for the Immediate Release of the stena impero. Iran has released a video which appears to show masked gunmen descending from a helicopter to board the tanker, as paul adams reports. This is the Moment Iranian revolutionary guards took over the ste na revolutionary guards took over the stena impero. Descending from a helicopter onto the deck of the tanker, as fast boats circled nearby. Iran said the ship had broken international regulations, following an accident involving a fishing boat. The ship is my owners have not confirmed this and say it was obeying the law. It is now being held at an iranian port. We are calling on iran to reverse this illegal act. We are looking for ways to de escalate the situation, but we are very clear we will do what it ta kes to are very clear we will do what it takes to ensure the safety and security of british and international shipping. The tanker was making his way through the busy straight of hormuz in a man waters when it was intercepted. It made a sharp turn north towards iran, a clear sign something was wrong. The british warship hms montrose was alerted and braced to intervene as it did successfully with another british flagged tanker a week ago. But this time it was too far away, the tanker was already in iranian waters. To allow a ship to go out when we knew the iranians wanted to ta ke when we knew the iranians wanted to take a hostage is extraordinary and it is hardly surprising. They said they would do it several times and lo and behold they have done it, and now we are in this very difficult situation. Tension started to rise last year when donald trump pulled the us out of the 2015 nuclear deal with iran and impose crippling sanctions. Iran grew frustrated. In may and june it was blamed for a series of attacks on international tankers. Then in a dramatic escalation iran shot down an american surveillance drone. Donald trump briefly contemplated a military response. This month of gibraltar at the Royal Marines intercepted a tanker full of iranians oil britain said was bound for syria. Iran threatened to retaliate. Today irans foreign minister include britain of piracy. The stena impero and its multinational crew, which does not include any britons, are no prisons of irans revolutionary guard, hostages in a deepening geopolitical iow. Hostages in a deepening geopolitical row. There is not much sign of a breakthrough so far. We have two ca ptu red breakthrough so far. We have two captured tankers and an angry war of words. The foreign secretary says he feels betrayed by his opposite numberand he feels betrayed by his opposite number and he says he was assured last weekend after the previous episode that iran wanted to de escalate the situation, but that they had behaved, asjeremy hunt says, in the opposite way. This has to be about actions and not worse if we are to find a way through. British shipping must and will be protected he says. British shipping must and will be protected he says. And well find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrows front pages at 10 30 and 11 30 this evening in the papers. Our guests joining me tonight are the broadcaster penny smith and columnist at the new european an playwright bonnie greer. British airways has cancelled all its flights to cairo for seven days because of security concerns. Passengers about to board a flight to the egyptian capital at heathrow were reportedly handed a letter saying the decision had been taken as a precaution to allow for further assessment of security arrangements. British airways have issued a statement. Theyve said, we constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world, and have suspended flights to cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment. Well, the bbc afrique correspondent, Pierre Antoine denis, who was booked onto one of the flights which was due to leave cairo became stranded as he told my colleague, Lukwesa Burak a short time ago. Well, it is a bit of a crazy moment, especially for me as i was meant to be one of the passengers tomorrow morning on a British Airways flight back to london. I received the news at five p m local time by message that my flight was cancelled for security reasons. Since then it has been a bit chaotic. My colleague was at the airport and she spoke to someone at the airport and she spoke to someone who said that they had not yet been notified about the decision. They were at the airport and they dont know what is going on. It is a bit of chaos at the moment around British Airways, especially because the other airlines are flying and everything is up and running at the airport except for British Airways. To clarify, you hold a ba ticket and you are unable to leave cairo. The statement we have at the moment is that ba is not flying into cairo from heathrow. If you are a ba passenger, you cannot leave cairo either . That is exactly right. I am meant to fly from cairo to london tomorrow morning at 8am and i received a message saying my flight has been cancelled. However, a few collea g u es has been cancelled. However, a few colleagues of mine have been able to reschedule their flights on Different Air companies. For example royaljordanian is operating flights and colleagues are on it on monday. But it is true that i will not be able to leave cairo tomorrow morning. Where are you getting your information from . How are ba contacting you and communicating with you . There is a phone number that we managed to find on the website. But obviously it is swamped by demands now and it is very complicated to get onto the number. When i first tried to get in touch with them it took me 25 minutes to even speak to someone. So it is very complicated at the moment for us to get in touch with British Airways. Finally, we are hearing sightings of security checks. Any consular assistance . Well, i cannot really say anything about that. It is true some people at the airport are trying to reach out to the consuls and get assistance in any way whatsoever. But as my flight and our flights are tomorrow, we are not at the airport and some of the collea g u es the airport and some of the colleagues who left today before the security decisions have been able to fly without any problem. Security decisions have been able to fly without any problem. Labour has set out plans to stop private Companies Providing Council Services in england. Shadow chancellorjohn mcdonnell says if the party wins the next election, outsourcing of work such as rubbish collections, would end within five years. Susanna mendonca reports. Who should be responsible for local Services Like bin collections . Your local councils or the private companies they might be paying to do it for them . It is called outsourcing, a practice that was supposed to make it cheaper and more efficient to deliver local services, but labour says its led to councils often paying a high price for a poor job and if it were in government, it would bring an end to most outsourcing in English Councils within five years. To put it simply, the Business Model of outsourcing failed and is broken, and thats why it needs replacing. So after year upon year of failures, the public themselves have lost confidence in the privatisation of our Public Services and the carve up of the public realm for, well, for private profit. Labour points to the collapse of the construction giant carillion last year which saw work on its public contracts, like this super hospital in birmingham, come to a grinding halt when it went out of business. Bringing local Authority Services back in house is just one of the policy ideas labour is rolling out as it prepares for a possible general election, but a government spokesman said it should be for councils to decide which services to let private companies run, notjohn mcdonnell. Susana mendonca, bbc news. 0ur Political Correspondent chris masonjoins me now. What would the scope fee of this in terms of the services that would be brought back in . Things like emptying bins, providing school dinners. There is a huge amount that local authorities over the last generation have outsourced, in other words to Pay Companies to provide Services Rather than them providing them themselves. The rationale is you go to a competitive marketplace and geta you go to a competitive marketplace and get a more efficient deal. Equally critics point out that they have got to make money out of it and it would be better done in house. The challenge from the labour pa rtys the challenge from the labour partys perspective is clearly idea logically they think it is a good idea. Secondly, they think it would be more efficient and they point to exa m ples be more efficient and they point to examples where that has been the case with some Labour Councils that have started in sourcing processes and they have done the jobs themselves. There are two tests. 0ne isa themselves. There are two tests. 0ne is a practical one. If you are a local authority that has got a local company to empty the bins, how do you go about developing the expertise and the benchmarks and have the staff and all of that very quickly without it costing you more than getting the company that knows what it is doing to do it . Secondly and connected to that, for most people they will not have an ideological view on whether the bins are emptied by a person who is employed by the council or a person employed by the council or a person employed by the council or a person employed by a company paid by the council, but whether the bins are emptied on time. The challenge for labour is convincing people this is a change behind the will lead to an improvement that people will notice. Also, a lot more people would suddenly once again become Public Sector workers and the cost of employing people properly with sick pay, holiday pay and pensions is not inconsiderable, is it . Quite. Labours argument is we would have a greater accountability because there would be a direct link between your elected councillor and the service that the council is providing, that the councillors are overseeing. There is that argument they would make. It comes back to the question that some will ask, which is can it be more efficient than providing by the private sector . Also we saw an hour or so ago with the leader of 0xfordshire county council talking to bbc news, a conservative, and he said you should have a mixed economy. Some things are better done ina economy. Some things are better done in a particular area by the local authority and other things are better done outsourced and why should Central Government tell us what to do . We should see what works for us in terms of the things that work in their area to the best extent. Labour are key to press ahead with it. Interestingly, they are not saying every service. They are not saying every service. They are saying most services. They acknowledge in some instances there might be scope where they believe the private sector is a better provider. Thank you, chris mason. Police are hunting for two men after gas was released on a London Underground train this morning. Theyve released cctv images of two men they want to trace. A number of people were treated at Oxford Circus station by paramedics. Officers say their symptoms suggested that cs gas was used. The chairman of the high speed 2 rail project has reportedly warned that its cost could rise by £30 billion. The Financial Times says allan cook has written to the department for transport, saying the project cannot be completed for the official budget of £56 billion. Heres our transport correspondent, tom burridge. Hs2 a new high speed line linking london, birmingham, manchester and leeds was already set to cost a hefty sum £56 billion. And in recent months, there has been a growing acceptance at the Company Building hs2 that the project is likely to cost more. Now, with work on the line between birmingham and london already under way, and £5 billion spent so far, a report saying hs2 could cost an extra £30 billion. According to the Financial Times, the chairman of hs2, who is carrying out a review of cost and schedule, has written to the government, warning the new rail line cannot be built within budget and could cost between £70 85 billion. The government says the new high speed line is needed because the west coast main line between london, birmingham and manchester is already crowded. Both the department for transport and hs2 said the review into the cost of the project was ongoing. They wouldnt comment on this latest report, but it comes at a sensitive time. Borisjohnson says he will carry out his own review if he becomes Prime Minister next week. He has said the projects costs are spiralling out of control. Some say the high speed line is vital to link the north of england to the midlands and to london. But many question whether its value for money, and if it gets even more expensive, that case will be harder to make. The headlines on bbc news. Dramatic footage of armed iranian troops boarding a british flagged oil tanker in the gulf. The foreign secretary expresses extreme disappointment to his iranian counterpart. British airways has suspended all flight to cairo for seven days due to security concerns. Labour sets out plans to stop private Companies Providing Council Services in england. Police in hong kong say theyve seized a large amount of explosives ahead of a weekend of marches by both pro and anti china demonstrators. Officers found two kilogrammes of a powerful explosive as well as petrol bombs, acidic substances and knives. Theyve arrested a 27 year old man whos understood to be a member of the Hong Kong National front, which advocates independence from china. Police say theyre trying to determine whether the hoard is we are dealing with a factory for the manufacture of explosives. Particularly tea atp. It is well known, it is dangerous. Without doubt this is the largest seizure we have come across in hong kong. This is an extremely sensitive and extremely powerful high explosive. It will cause exceptional amounts of damage when used. It is also very u nsta ble damage when used. It is also very unstable and it will react to heat, friction and impact. It puts at risk everybody within this building, it puts at risk bystanders outside. A senior bomb disposal officer in hong kong. A senior bomb disposal officer in hong kong. The metropolitan police say they are still trying to work out what happened to their twitter account after it appeared to be hacked. A series of messages appeared on the forces official account last night. It has more than a million followers. 0fficers said they were assessing to establish what criminal offences have been committed over the security breach. Ministers have promised to put an end to the use of so called poor doors in newly built blocks of flats in england. Planning permission can be conditional on developers building some social Housing Units in private developments. The communities secretary, james brokenshire, says separate doors stigmatise social housing tenants, and divide them from private residents. Take a look at these extraordinary pictures from the united states. It shows the moment a man took drastic action to escape a fire in a high rise building in philadelphia. He can be seen scaling down multiple storeys with a helicopter spotlight guiding his way. The unidentifed man, whos been dubbed a real life spider man by local media, reached the ground safely. Brazils president , jair bolsonaro, has launched a stinging attack on his own countrys National Space institute, saying its misrepresenting the scale of deforestation in the amazon. According to new data, deforestation has surged to record highs since mr bolsonaro took office. Tiffany wer thurma reports. In the first two weeks ofjuly 68 of ra i nforest in the first two weeks ofjuly 68 of rainforest was destroyed than in the whole ofjuly last year. Despite the whole ofjuly last year. Despite the science, the president does not accept the findings. Translation i am convinced that the data is lies and we will call the president of the agency here to talk about it. The right wing leader is known for attacking environmental agencies. His policies favour development over conservation, so rainforests are being cleared at a faster rate to make space for cattle pastures. His government is lenient towards environmental crimes like illegal logging and penalties have dropped under his leadership. The National Space Research Institute is standing by the data, saying it is 95 accurate. In the same News Conference jaya boulton arrow said this. Translation to say people go hungry in brazil is a big lie. But some are doing badly and do not eat well, i agree with that. But go hungry . No. According to the un about 5. 2 Million People suffered from hunger in brazil in 2017. Celebrations are being held to commemorate the first manned lunarlanding. Fifty years ago tonight, Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on the moon. It was a moment which brought the world together, and inspired a generation. Pallab ghosh looks back at that day. The saturn 5 rocket shimmers on launchpad a at the Kennedy Space center. Three astronauts get ready for a mission that will propel them and the rest of humanity into a new area. Into a new era. Commander Neil Armstrong leads edwin buzz aldrin and mike collins into apollo 11. Three, two, one. We have liftoff. Neil armstrong reporting the roll and Pitch Programme which puts as the lunar lander descends, Neil Armstrong notices they are of course. Instead of the landing site there are dangerous builders. With fuel running low, commander armstrong takes manual control. Armstrong takes manual control. Armstrong then descends onto the lunar surface. Its one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. 0n on tv all across the world 600 Million People were watching. On tv all across the world 600 Million People were watchingm on tv all across the world 600 Million People were watching. It is very different, but it is very pretty out here. At the time all things seemed possible, yet three yea rs later things seemed possible, yet three years later the Apollo Programme ended and humans have not been back since. It was americas flag planted, but this moment was an achievement for all humanity. The mesmerising coverage of that landing, brought previously unthinkable images into homes across the world. 22 Million People tuned in to watch the bbcs first all night broadcast and it was all unplanned. James burke was the man who guided the nation through all the events, and David Sillito has been to meet him. Good evening james burke, 50 years ago he was the bbcs moon man. At this moment, apollo 11 is nearly 35,000 miles out from earth and heading for the moon at 7000 mph. Over the week of the lunar mission, he was on air for around 27 hours. And almost all of it has been lost. But, thankfully, we still have mrjames burke. 50 years on, welcome to what is a virtual reconstruction of that bbc studio from the night. And joining me, well, the very realjames burke. It is only a virtual reconstruction, but does this all take you back . Yes, it does. There is armstrong. The atmosphere was quite tense. Because it was something you got one go at. If you got it wrong, you got it completely wrong. Just now Mission Control asked them why the long period of radio silence and they answered that wasnt radio silence, that was a sandwich in my mouth. What was the most terrifying thing about being the studio . About being in the studio . Say, the moment when Neil Armstrongs coming down the steps. There he is putting his foot out. The worst thing you can do on those missions is talk when an astronaut is talking. And i had horror dreams the night before, that hed be walking down the steps and he would open his mouth to Say Something and i would Say Something on top of it. Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Were used to live broadcasts, now, of major world events, this was something unusual, though, wasnt it . The first all night broadcast . Yes, i mean, it was the first all night broadcast, which meant two things. A, we stayed up all night, so we were, you know, no sleep all night. And it wasnt planned were go. Altitude 9200 feet. Looking great. Indeed, they were supposed to be having a rest. And i sat listening to the conversation between them all and they were doing things that clearly you do when youre going to go out, not when youre going to go to sleep. So i said, look, i think theyre going to go out. And people said well, if we do that and we stay up all night, this could be very bad for your career, if they dont get out but we did and they did. What was the most nerve racking moment for you, then . Well, landing. 200 feet to go. As they got down to under 30 seconds worth of fuel, he was over a big boulderfield and a giant crater and it looked like a bit of flat land on the other side so he tried for that. And they landed after, what, 240,000 miles in three days, with 19 seconds of fuel left . Thats what you call nerves of steel. 50 years on, whats your overriding feeling then, about all of this . Its history. And the sad thing is that for young people today, its just dead and gone. They take it for granted. And they forget what an extraordinary event it was. James burke, a pleasure to meet you, a pleasure to talk to you. And a pleasure to talk to you in, well, as near as we can get to the bbc studio. The bbc studio, yes the inimitable james burke recollecting on that extraordinary night of broadcasting. Tv without planning, we know how that feels, dont we . We certainly do. A clear view of the moon tonight because we have got clear skies. The showers and thunderstorms should be easing over the next few hours. This was the viewer earlier on today from bexhill on sea. Showers lingering over norfolk and lincolnshire, but they should clear away. Clear and dry for most of us tonight, still quite warm with temperatures between 1014. Quite warm with temperatures between 10 111. Lighter winds on sunday compared to today, the better day of the weekend. Most places across england and wales should stay dry all day. For Northern Ireland the rain pushes in their anti western scotla nd rain pushes in their anti western scotland later on in the afternoon. With that south westerly breeze it will feel reasonably warm. That warm trend will continue through this week. 32 celsius in london and by tuesday we could see temperatures by 34 at the middle of the week. Hello this is bbc news with martine croxell. The headlines. Dramatic footage of armed iranian troops boarding a british flagged oil tanker in the gulf. The foreign secretary expresses extreme disappointment to his iranian counterpart. This is totally and utterly u na cce pta ble. It raises very serious questions about the security of british shipping, and indeed internationally shipping in the strait of hormuz. British airways has suspended all flight to cairo for seven days due to security concerns. Labour sets out plans to stop private Companies Providing Council Services in england. The crowd in the arena knows, 11 months ago. Englands hopes of reaching their first netball World Cup Final have been dashed after they were beaten by 4 time winners new zealand in liverpool. Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for man kind. Its 50 years ago today that Neil Armstrong took the giant leap to become the first man to walk on the moon