Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240714

A top spokesman for the taliban tells the bbc its still willing to negotiate. And a landmark case at the uk Supreme Court. Judges consider whether Boris Johnson acted unlawfully in suspending parliament. The main challenger to the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he would work towards a government of National Unity after tuesdays general election. Exit polls suggest benny gantzs centrist alliance is slightly ahead of mr Netanyahus Likud party, with neither winning enough seats to form a government. From tel aviv, the bbcs jeremy bowen reports. Israeli tv exit polls showed no decisive victory for any side. The votes will be counted through the night, but it could take weeks of coalition horsetrading before the next government and Prime Minister emerge. The election has been a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahus last ten years in office. He is israels longest serving Prime Minister. His main rival is retired general, benny gantz, from the blue and white party. Some of his supporters fear he was politically naive not to press harder on corruption charges faced by mr netanyahu, which the Prime Minister denies. In Opposition Strongholds in tel aviv, queues of voters were waiting and hoping to end mr neta nyahus political career. Whats wrong with netanyahu . Everything . Whats not wrong with him . Hes corrupted, he hates everyone, he rules in fear, hes too much right wing. But mr netanyahu has a reliable support from ultra religious israelis, who have their own political parties. Just before the vote, they rallied in jerusalem. In exchange for privileges for their community, theyve supported mr netanyahus premierships. Why am i going to vote . Because that is what my rabbi tells me to do, and thats what im going to do. Who would you like as the next Prime Minister . I guess netanyahu, thats what the rabbis say. The power of the ultra religious has become one of israels most divisive issues. Mr netanyahu was, as usual, a formidable campaigner, even starring in his own commercials. In this one, he puts hikers back on the right track, while losers follow untrustworthy guides named after his opponents. Israelis have been offered more personal insults than policy debates. Mr netanyahus message was that hes the only one, with his powerful friends, to protect israelis from iran and the palestinians. In a close race, he upped the ante by promising to annex the occupied Jordan Valley, around a third of the land palestinians want for a state. It was an extravagant gambit to keep the votes of the israeli right. In the valley, its harvest time for date farmers palestinians and israelis who have settled here since it was captured in the 1967 war. Khader hermeidat, a palestinian farmer, says he was scared by the Prime Ministers promise of annexation. Translation where is the peace that he is talking about . Netanyahu, he wants to take our land and we live from it. Annexation will be off the agenda if mr netanyahu cannot form a government after all the votes are counted. On walkabout in tel aviv, this could be the politician the Prime Ministerfears most, once the Coalition Negotiations start. Polls suggest his party, called israel our home, has made significant gains. This man, avigdor lieberman, may become the kingmaker after the election. His party might control the balance of power, when it comes to forming the next governing coalition. One important factor though, he used to be a major ally of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and now they are opponents, even enemies. After the exit polls, mr liebermans supporters were the only ones that were celebrating. They had been hoping for a celebration. But if the polls are correct, the end of the error could be in sight. Jeremy bowen, bbc news, tel aviv. Earlier i spoke with palestinian author noura erakat, who says the result of this election will have far reaching consequences for palestinians in the occupied territority, who she argues should have been allowed to have a say in this ballot. Theres a lot to be said analytically about the polls and what it means for israels domestic considerations, but whats most important as a palestinian watching this is that the 5 million palestinians who will endure israels governance in the aftermath of these elections were not allowed to cast a vote today, which will tell us all we need to know about israel as well as the international communities, normalisation of its racist exclusion of palestinians. Consider the Jordan Valley annexation for example. That is in the west bank. There are 3. 7 million palestinians in the west bank, this is affecting their lives, 60,000 palestinians in the Jordan Valley, they have no say in what happens there. As to the blue and white versus the opposition right now, it is very little difference between them except in rhetoric. Blue and white, in fact, when neta nyahu announced and promised that he would annex the Jordan Valley, said that he stole the idea from them. This isnt about two alternatives in terms of the fate of the Peace Process or the future of peace of israel, this is about a right wing religious party and about blue and white which is a right wing Secular Party and it spells doom for palestinians regardless of how we cut it and it hasnt even been discussed which is very telling. Us Officials Say theyve identified the exact locations in iran from which they believe an attack on saudi oilfacilities was launched on saturday. The broadcaster, cbs, says more than 20 drones and cruise missiles were fired. Iran insists the projectiles came from Houthi Rebels in yemen. The bbcs david willis in washington says the us are keeping up the pressure on iran. Administration officials claiming to have pinpointed the locations in southern iran, from which they believe drones and cruise missiles used in saturdays attack on Saudi Arabian Oil Facilities were launched. Now given that the satellite Images Released over the weekend appeared to have shown the maximum damage on at least one of these all installations being at the north and the west of that installation, that would seem to contradict suggestions by Houthi Rebels in yemen that they were behind the attacks. And the fact that Saudi Arabian Missile Defence systems also failed to intercept these weapons as the Administration Officials are pointing out, says they are facing south because they anticipated such an attack would come from yemen. Thats why they didnt pick up these attacks. They also say that the Houthi Rebels maintained that ten drones were used in these attacks yet they have counted least i7 strikes on one of these installations alone. All of which belies, they say, the suggestion that the Houthi Rebels were to blame. Iran, for its part continues to maintain that it had nothing to do with these attacks. Venezuela has released a key opposition figure from jail, where he had been held since a failed uprising in may. Edgar zambrano is the deputy of venezuelan opposition leaderjuan guaido. He was detained on Treason Charges for supporting the uprising organised by mr guaido. The release comes a day after president Nicolas Maduro reached a deal with small opposition parties aiming at healing political divisions in the country. The Uks Supreme Court has begun hearing a case that could make history, defining the relationship between parliament and Prime Minister. Its being asked to decide whether or not borisjohnson behaved lawfully when he suspended parliament. The bbcs mark easton reports. But the country voted, didnt they, to leave . Where does power lie in this troubled land . How can you be so stupid . You tell us lie, after lie, after lie with the brexit rift in noisy evidence outside the Uks Supreme Court today. Court will rise. Inside, the 11 most seniorjudges in the land sat in courtroom number one to consider that question, and make it clear they were not there to judge the merits of brexit. The determination of this legal issue will not determine when and how the United Kingdom leaves the european union. A month after becoming pm, was borisjohnsons request to the queen that parliament be suspended for five weeks a ruse to silence mps opposed to a no deal brexit . Scottish judges did think it stymied the house of commons, ruling it unlawful. The high court of england and wales disagreed, arguing it was a matter for politicians, not judges. Representing the remain campaigner gina miller against the government, lord pannick told the justices borisjohnson had acted unlawfully. No Prime Minister has abused his powers, in the manner in which we allege, in at least the last 50 years. Without a written constitution, the relationship between the three pillars of uk governance is always evolving. Youve got parliamentary power, of course, based over there. Then youve got the governments power, focused on ten downing street, behind the walls of whitehall. And then you have the power of the courts, ultimately resting here, at the Supreme Court. And what were seeing this week is that balance of power being tested. The geography of westminster reveals the triangle of power at the heart of the state. Today, lord pannick focused on the relationship between mps in parliament and the government, headed by the pm in downing street, describing ministers as the junior partner. He also argued the courts were entitled to rule on the legality of number 10s suspending, or proroguing, parliament. The Prime Ministers motive was to silence parliament for that period, because he sees parliament as an obstacle. Lord pannick quoted from this bbc interview, to suggest borisjohnsons real purpose was not a queens speech but achieving brexit by halloween. The best way to do that is if our friends and partners over the channel dont think that brexit can be somehow blocked by parliament. This afternoon, mrjohnsons lawyer in court had his turn to make the arguments. The Prime Minister will take all necessary steps to comply with any declaration made by the court. Hed come with an undertaking from borisjohnson but he also referred to westminsters balance of power, suggesting the Supreme Court would be meddling in what were political matters if it ruled against the government. 0ne judge wanted to know, if they did, might the Prime Minister seek to suspend parliament a second time . We take it, then, he wouldnt apply to have Parliament Prorogued again . Im not in a position to comment on that proposition at all, my lord. It would be helpful to have the undertaking given in writing. Judges like to have things written down, especially when feelings are running high and theyre attempting to unpick the complex relationship between legitimate power and political ambition. Mark easton, bbc news, the Supreme Court. Stay with us on bbc news, still to come the 10 year old russian skateboarder who overcame his disability to wow the world, and his hero, tony hawke. 30 hours after the earthquake that devastated mexico city, rescue teams still have no idea just how many people have died. There is people alive and there is people not alive. We just can help and give them whatever weve got. A state funeral is being held for princess grace of monaco at the church where she married prince rainier 26 years ago. It looked as though they had come to fight a war, but their mission is to bring peace to east timor, and nowhere on earth needs it more badly. The governments case is being forcefully presented by monsieur badinter, the justice minister. Hes campaigned vigorously for the abolition, having once witnessed one of his clients being executed. Elizabeth seton spent much of her time at this grotto, and every year, hundreds of pilgrimages are made here. Now that shes become a saint, its expected that this area will be inundated with tourists. The mayor and local businessman regard the anticipated boom as just another blessing of st elizabeth. This is bbc world news. The top story early signs suggest theres no clear winner in israels general election. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says hell now hold talks on forming a coalition. His main rival, benny gantz, called for a broad unity government. This week, were reporting on the grim situation in afghanistan, where peace talks have collapsed and theres been a spike in violence. On tuesday, two separate suicide attacks killed 48 people. The taliban have said they were behind both blasts, but the organisation insists it does want talks to continue. 0ur chief International Correspondent lyse doucet has been speaking to the talibans chief negotiator. She asked him about his message to president trump. We say that the negotiation is the only way to achieve peace in afghanistan and that is what we have started negotiation with the american side. The american side, and especially mr trump should listen to his Negotiation Team ahead of the Negotiation Team and he should ask for the report from him whether the negotiation was going well and successfully. So all of the advisors that he is taking, i think you should take it from the chief negotiator. But i know there are some lobbies and people against peace in afghanistan because they have their own issues and we hope that mr trump should not listen to those people because the war is not in their interests as it is not a now interested in the american say the negotiating process is dead. What do you say . From our side our doors are open for negotiation. So we hope the other side will also rethink their decision regarding negotiations. But they say they need more proof. Why not show that you can stop your fighters from carrying out attacks . Why dont you make a gesture . This applies to both sides. Why the Foreign Forces cannot stop fighting . Every day there are tens of raids and bombardments and targeted killings and civilians and it happens on both sides. And then there is no ceasefire so far. When the agreement has been signed by both sides, after that the ceasefire will come into practice. So after a ceasefire we would not attack any Foreign Forces in afghanistan. That is only Foreign Forces. What about attacks on Afghan People . The Peace Agreement was supposed to be signed 13 or 14 september and many countries needed to take part. And after that there was to be a ceasefire. After that on september 23 we were supposed to sit with afghans and have dialogue so that a ceasefire could be discussed. Afghans in afghanistan are asking why the taliban say they do not target civilians and yet civilians are dying are often from taliban attacks. Can you not do anything about it . Civilian casualties, if you look at the report from the un side, most of the casualties, the majority of civilian casualties are related to afghan and Foreign Forces in afghanistan. So fewer. But should you perhaps also take blame . Because the Foreign Forces, most of them have bases in the cities and villages where the civilians are living. They are not in the deserts and mountains. So sometimes when an attack is going on, it is natural that there will be civilian casualties but we are trying our best and we have told our fighters that they should not target, go to such targets where the civilians are. But if you see and look at the report from the un, for over the last year, casualties are caused more by the Foreign Forces. Yes. But your fighters, and we have centred ourselves the ground, but your fighters, and we have seen it ourselves the ground, your fighters take shelter in afghan homes. So you use the Afghan People as human shields and so afghans are getting killed. You need to take responsibility for what your fighters are doing. No. That is not true. It is not true that our people are using the houses of civilians because our fighters, the whole of our nation, they are fighting for the liberation of the country for the whole nation. They are fighting against the Occupation Forces in afghanistan. And instead Foreign Forces in the current administration, they are bombarding civilians. For the last months they have bombarded hospitals, schools, even sometimes they bombard their own afg hani colleagues. So the civilian casualties, we can send you reports of this, last month there are so many civilians killed by the air bombardments of Foreign Forces. Why are you going to russia and china . What are you trying to do now . We would like to seek their help regarding peace. We have had discussions with russia and we have discussed peace and how we can bring peace in afghanistan because of the last decision by the american side so we requested them that they should work on this. They have promised us and otherfriendly countries that they are working hard on this that the Peace Agreement which was finalised should be implemented and that war should end peacefully through negotiation in afghanistan. Facebook has announced that it will appoint an Oversight Panel to make decisions about what can and cant be allowed on the social media network. Cases will be referred to the panel once all of facebooks own moderation layers have been exhausted. But the announcement has been met with skepticism, with some questioning the boards independence as it will be fully financed by facebook itself. Kate klonick is an assistant professor at stjohns university of law. Shes been embedded with the team at facebook which is working on this project, as part of her research. Thank you forjoining us. What do you make of it . It has been a fascinating project to watch. An Institution Building in constitution. An amazing left trying to figure out some type of appeals process for what is expectedly transnational speech and an incredible scale for an incredible number of people. What do you sense is the motivation behind this . It looks like they are stepping away from this and they do not want to make these contentious decisions and be seen as a publisher. Absolutely and that is a huge motivation but i do not know if it is necessarily out of line with the motivation of global users. I think that is totally fine motivation if it means get more accountability at the end of the day over the the procedures. Relatively few complaints will make it to the top level panel. What will the criteria be . The panels will have all the bodies going to have a committee that looks at cases and determines whether they think they deserve review. They will have a staff that support them and that staff that support them and that staff will help them prioritise things. Theres a number of tools facebook has created, topics, regions, certain types of issues happening at the time. But it will be something that the board picks the cases which is a huge part of their independent and something central in the conversation when doing the global consultation process. People saying over and over that facebook cannot be the one deciding what this board is going to look. Why do you think they are going for this now . They are under an incredible amount of pressure from around the world. I think a year ago, after years of pressure from academics, activists, they have finally started to realise there was not going to be a way to escape these hard issues and they had to come up with a Better Process to do this. Thanks for your time. Have a good one. A young boy from russia has become an overnight skateboarding sensation after a shout out by one of the worlds best. Us professional skateboarder, tony hawk, spotted max abramovs talent and posted a video to his 4. 6 million instagram followers. The 10 year old from St Petersberg lost both his legs in a housefire when he was a toddler. The youngster says he hopes to one day compete in the olympics. Thank you forjoining us. Youre watching bbc news. Hello there. Some more late summer warmth in this forecast but also a hint of some rain where its been so very dry over the last few weeks. Now, most will be dry until weekend, with High Pressure in control. Although, for wednesday there is a bit of rain to be had and that is across the far north of scotland here with this weather front moving in. But that is the exception. For many it will be dry because we have this big area of High Pressure sitting in right across over the british isles. And where weve had the clearer skies overnight, and particularly into parts of england and wales, wednesday starts on a chilly note. The coldest spots in the countryside in low single figures and there will be a few mist and fog patches around. But also a lot of sunshine across much of england and wales, cloudy skies in scotland, outbreaks of rain, including some heavier bursts in the north for a time. Parts of eastern and southern scotland brightening up during the day, more sunshine in Northern Ireland by the afternoon, some patchy cloud though, filtering furth south through england towards north wales and the midlands. South wales and southern england staying mostly sunny and this is where we will see the higher temperatures, around about 20 celsius. Now, as we go on through wednesday evening and night, a lot of clear weather around through Northern Ireland, much of england and wales into southern scotland, some patchy cloud, but also some patches of mist and fog developing as it turns quite chilly once again. The exception will be northern scotland, holding onto cloud, temperatures here in double figures, and still some light rain or drizzle to be had. But for most, thursday starts quite chilly, some Poor Visibility around in places, so bear that in mind. Fog may be slow to clear in some spots. Drier in northern scotland, turning a bit brighter here during the day, and elsewhere there will be good, sunny spells around, and any patchy cloud slow to clear. And those temperatures are just edging up a few degrees, thats a sign of things to come for friday into the start of the weekend. Why . High pressure is still with us, but its moving eastwards, having a flow of air, warm air, to come in from the sale. Thats going to lift temperatures more widely into the low, even for some spots into the mid 20s. Though, particularly by saturday, that will be on a freshening wind coming in from the south or south east. Now, there is a weather system coming our way over the weekend, it isnt here on friday, though. Again there will be some mist and fog patches around, slow to clear on friday, but for most places there be a lot of sunshine, turning breezy in the west and it will feel warm in that sunshine. Now, into the weekend, for many, we will start dry and sunny, here is a view for some places down the eastern side of the uk, 25 celsius in london. But as the weather system moves eastwards during sunday, more cloud around by then and a chance of seeing some rain out of that cloud, and temperatures come down a little. This is bbc news, the headlines early signs suggest theres no clear winner in israels general election. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says hell now hold talks on forming a coalition. His main rival, benny gantz, said he would work towards a government of National Unity. Us Officials Say theyve identified the exact locations in iran from which they believe an attack on saudi oilfacilities was launched on saturday. The broadcaster, cbs, says more than 20 drones and cruise missiles were fired. Iran denies involvement in the attacks, which have disrupted global oil supplies. A landmark case has started in the uk Supreme Court withjudges considering whether borisjohnson acted unlawfully in suspending parliament for 5 weeks. Critics say the Prime Minister took the action in a bid to stop the scrutiny of mps in the run up to brexit