Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240714

22 years on, prince harry walks in his mothers footsteps as he visits a minefield in angola. And at 11 30 well be taking another look at the papers with deputy Political Editor of the daily mail, john stevens and guardian columnist dawn foster. Good evening. And welcome to bbc news. The former cabinet minister amber rudd has accused number 10 of using aggressive language over brexit that incites violence. It comes after a turbulent week in which mps returned to the commons and engaged in furious exchanges on the floor of the house. But, today, borisjohnson once again defended his use of language, and insisted that delivering brexit on 31 october would take much of the heat out of the debate. Meanwhile, scotlands first minister Nicola Sturgeon has indicated shed be open to backing Jeremy Corbyn as interim Prime Minister, in order to stop a no deal brexit. Heres our Political Correspondent alex forsyth. It might seem calm today, but its been a fractious week in westminster. With heated scenes in the house of commons came claims that words like surrender, when used about brexit, are divisive, even dangerous. Now, amber rudd, a former home secretary who only quit the government a few weeks ago, has waded in, telling the Evening Standard newspaper, the sort of language weve seen more and more coming out from number 10 does incite violence. Hello, good morning. An extraordinary accusation aimed at the Prime Minister. Today, during a hospital visit, he said any threat against mps was appalling, but insisted he was not stoking division. What we need to do now is get brexit done by october the 31st, and i genuinely think that once you do that, then so much of the heat and the anxiety will come out of the debate. I think a lot of people are very tense. I think businesses are still uncertain. And get it done and i think well all be able to move on. And his Senior Advisor said getting it done is a walk in the park, during a book launch last night. Referendums are difficult. This is a walk in the park. Dominic cummings is himself a divisive figure. The man behind the vote leave campaign, whos now in the heart of downing street, this morning seeming to question his own comments. Who said it would be a walk in the park . You said it last night at a book launch. Theres real anger from some here at the tone coming from downing street, but the Prime Minister shows little sign of changing his approach, still insisting hell meet the departure deadline of october the 31st, despite the fact parliaments passed a law saying hell have to delay if he doesnt get a brexit deal. With such little trust here, opposition parties are talking tactics. The snp leader today suggested ousting the Prime Minister and didnt rule out the labour leader as a temporary replacement. I dont particularly want to pushJeremy Corbyn here. The point im making is that if the opposition is to unite behind a clear plan that takes away the threat of a no deal and moves to a general election, where i think everybody now accepts is we should be heading, then were all going to have to compromise. But plenty here wont put the labour leader in charge, even if only for a short time to slow the brexit process. We need to have a solution that will work. Jeremy corbyn doesnt have the numbers. The basic parliamentary arithmetic isnt there. To be fair, he knows that. The snp know that. You and i know that. So, a direct move against number 10 isnt expected imminently, but with feelings here still running high, dont expect an outbreak of calm either. Alex forsyth, bbc news, westminster. 0ur brussels correspondent adam fleming gave us this update earlier from westminster. Stephen barclay came out of that meeting in brussels this afternoon and said the moment of truth was approaching with the eu will show if it has the political will to secure a revised brexit deal. Michel barnier put out the statement he a lwa ys barnier put out the statement he always puts out, saying his waiting for workable proposals from the uk. And, i understand, we will get new, detailed proposals on the table from the uk next week after the end of the uk next week after the end of the conservative Party Conference in manchester, which finishes on wednesday. If those proposals turn out to be acceptable to the eu that will start a really fast burst of treaty writing, which would ideally be done from the eus viewpoint before the summit of eu leaders on the 17th of october, a very tight deadline. And the diplomats icepick incredibly, incredibly cynical. They think that the papers that the uk have put forward so far are going in the wrong direction and they look at the wrong direction and they look at the scenes here and they think there isa the scenes here and they think there is a turmoil in the uk that could last for years and years. That was adam fleming there. Its been announced that borisjohnson has been referred to the Police Watchdog to consider claims of potential misconduct. It follows allegations of links to the us businesswoman Jennifer Accuri when he was mayor of london. Our Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford outlined the basis of the allegations. While he was mayor of london, Boris Johnson s friend, Jennifer Accuri, receive thousands of pounds of four events. Also went on three overseas trips with borisjohnson which, originally, she had been turned down for. Now the Greater London Authority Monitoring office has been look at these allegations this week and so have we, in fact, and noticed that people who went on the trips withjennifer that people who went on the trips with Jennifer Accuri felt that she seemed a bit out of place, as her companies didnt seem as substantial as those of the other people that we re as those of the other people that were on the trips, and certainly we know that Boris Johnsons offers intervene to make sure that she went on one of the trips and the Greater London Authority Monitoring officer has now decided to call in the Police Watchdog, the i owe pc, to assess whether borisjohnson, the Prime Minister, should be looked overfor a criminal Prime Minister, should be looked over for a criminal offence. Prime minister, should be looked overfor a criminal offence. When he was mayor of london borisjohnson was mayor of london borisjohnson was in charge of londons metropolitan police. Borisjohnson has vigorously denied these allegations, saying to the bbc last night that people are barking up the wrong tree. His office insists he has always acted with propriety. And just now downing street released a statement reading that the Prime Minister, as mayor of london, did a huge amount of work when selling our capital city around the world, beating the drum for london and the uk. Everything was done with propriety and in the normal way. Cleveland police has become the first force in england to be found inadequate in all areas of its service. The Police Watchdog said it wasnt investigating crime effectively, and it didnt respond to Vulnerable People fast enough. The force has recently appointed a new chief constable, who says the report is a wake up call, but argues it must be given time to improve. Michael buchanan reports. A quiet friday night in hartlepool, so a quiet friday night in hartlepool, so far at least. By midnight these streets will be full of young, often drunk travellers. Trouble kind come quickly. The police less so. They very slow to respond, if they respond at all. What do you mean . We have had incidents before we asked them to come down. Today, Cleveland Police acknowledged it is good enough. The chief constable, just five months in post, says the inspectors findings are consistent with what he has already discovered full top our Staff Members have not been well served by Senior Leadership in this force, providing a direction on what is required and being clear in what is required. And a performance regime is being set up a performance regime is being set up a whole people to account. Inspectors rated cleveland as inadequate across the board. It doesnt treat the public or its workforce well. It doesnt operate efficiently. And, perhaps most crucially, the force is not reducing crime or keeping people safe. Clevela nd crime or keeping people safe. Cleveland police have been made in any number of scandals in recent yea rs, any number of scandals in recent years, as current chief constable is its fifth since 2012. Some officers have been convicted of gross misconduct. And is, labelled the Worst Police Force in england and wales. Last november, 67 year old terry was beaten in middlesbrough city centre in an unprovoked attack. There were dozens of witnesses, a man was arrested, but his son, a bar owner, says the family have not been contacted owner, says the family have not been co nta cted by owner, says the family have not been contacted by the police since. There area contacted by the police since. There are a joke. Quite simply, they are a joke. Cleveland police is in crisis. Last year we revealed that local people in hartlepool have taken to patrolling their own streets, furious at the lack of police protection. Today, one of the men we met that night, told me little has improved over the past 12 months. People are reporting crimes and erviti comes out stop i mean, they arejust erviti comes out stop i mean, they are just petty crimes and nobly comes out. And the police dont come out. Not because they dont want to, but because they dont have the manpower. Cleveland police will now receive support from outside agencies, as well as being closely monitored. A crucial task will be to rebuild trust among their exasperated communities. Michael buchanan, bbc news, cleveland. Sir lenny henry is among more than a0 broadcasters and journalists, whove signed an open letter to the bbc, urging it to reverse a ruling, concerning the Breakfast Television presenter, naga munchetty. Shed been found to have breached editorial guidelines, over comments concerning President Trump. Hed written a controversial tweet about four us congresswomen back injuly, which had been widely condemned as racist. The bbc tonight defended the reprimand, saying it wasnt related to the presenters own comments on racism. Heres david sillito. Bbc breakfast, and the topic was a tweet by donald trump, calling on a group of american politicians, all women of colour, to go back from where they came. Dan walker then pressed his co presenter, naga munchetty, for her opinions on the story. Every time i have been told, as a woman of colour, to go back to where i came from, that was embedded in racism. Now, im not accusing anyone of anything here, but you know what certain phrases mean. That was deemed fine, but the next exchange caused an issue. I know that youre sitting here not giving an opinion but how do you feel, then, as somebody who has been told that before, when you hear that . Furious. When you hear it from him . Absolutely furious. And i can imagine that lots of people in this country will be feeling absolutely furious that a man in that position feels it is ok to skirt the lines with using language like that. Does that then. . Do you feel that his use of that. . That is the point i was trying to make it then legitimises other people to use it. Yes. As our guest was saying, it feels like a thought out strategy to strengthen his position. Its not enough to do it just to get attention. That exchange prompted a complaint which has been upheld. The bbcs executive complaints unit, which is independent of bbc news, says she was allowed to express her feelings and say the words were racist, but not comment about Donald Trumps motives. Describing a remark as racist is not the issue at stake here. The issue at stake here is whether it was right to go on to ascribe motive, in this case to President Trump, but it could have been to anybody else. It suggests that we are impartial on racism. The bbc isnt impartial on crime. If a crime happens, we call people a criminal. We have to be impartial on the reasons why these remarks were made, and there was speculation in the programme which she made, amongst others, about the nature and the reasons why those remarks were made and we cant do that, whether it is President Trump or whether it is anybody else that we are assessing in that way. Amongst those disagreeing, a number of bbc journalists, and the writer afua hirsch, whose letter criticising the decision has been backed by more than a0 black and asian writers, actors and broadcasters. Its ludicrous to say its fine for a presenter to express her own experience of racism, but she shouldnt cast judgement on the person being racist. Thats suggesting that as people of colour who have experienced racism, we can talk about those experiences but remain impartial about whether we think theyre good or not. In response, the bbcs senior managers issued a statement of support for Naga Munchettys words on racism, saying. Thisjudgement has raised some uncomfortable questions for the bbc. David sillito, bbc news. A mother has admitted the murder of her two teenage sons and hatching a plot to kill four more of her own children. Sarah barrass killed teenagers tristan and blake barrass at a house in shiregreen in sheffield in may. Family member Brandon Machin also pleaded guilty to their murder and the attempted murder of four other children. Phil bodmer was in court. Police were called to a semi detached property in the chagrin area of sheffield on the morning of money for this year. Later that day a senior officer revealed some disturbing information about what had happened. A number of children we re had happened. A number of children were taken to hospital. Sadly a number have since died and four remain in hospital. At the time police described it as a major incident, but have never got into any details about how 13 year old tristan and his brother blake 1a, died. Today, the boys was mother, sarah barrass and a family friend Brandon Machin appeared in court. They were flanked by security staff as they entered court. Each pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, five cou nts guilty to two counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and one counts of attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to murder all six children. Barrass sobbed as she entered her please, machin remained impassive throughout the 20 minute hearing. Addressing the defendants, judgejeremy hearing. Addressing the defendants, judge Jeremy Rapson qc hearing. Addressing the defendants, judgeJeremy Rapson qc said tristan barrass appeared on the bbc show 0ur tristan barrass appeared on the bbc show our school in 2017, speaking about his bride hairstyle. Show our school in 2017, speaking about his bride hairstylem show our school in 2017, speaking about his bride hairstyle. It makes me who i want to be. With natural hair you just look like every other person. Hundreds of mourners turned out for tristan and blakes funeral last month, a double white cotton was accompanied by an honour guard of 300 motorcycles, and two lamborghinis. The brothers loved bikes and cars. Barrass and machin we re bikes and cars. Barrass and machin were remanded in custody, they are due to be sentenced on november 12. The headlines on bbc news the former cabinet minister, amber rudd, has accused number 10 of using words that could incite violence. Borisjohnson has been referred to the independent 0ffice for Police Conduct to assess whether he should be investigated for misconduct in while he was the mayor of london. Cleveland police has become the first force in england and wales to be rated inadequate across all areas of performance. Some breaking news and West Midlands police have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder, after a hit and run incident in coventry that left a Police Officer with critical injuries. Pc Christopher Burnham was hit by a car on wednesday afternoon, and was taken to hospital with a fractured skull, a bleed on the brain as well. Pc burnham is married and has a ten year old son, in hospital in an induced coma, he has been with the force for 25 years, that is news that has just come into us here. Democrats in the us congress say theyre hoping to hold impeachment hearings into President Trump, as early as next week. It follows claims from a whistle blower that mr trump put pressure on the president of ukraine, to investigate a political rival whos running for the white house in next years election. President trump has lashed out at the inquiry saying its a witch hunt. 0ur north america editorjon sopel has the very latest. There is support and defiance but also there is anger. In a twitter fusillade this morning, he took aim at the Democratic House intelligence committee, adam schiff, the person who will play a key role in impeachment hearings. The Inspector General found that allegation credible. Donald trump said of him and then the whistle blower who revealed details of the president s conversation with his ukrainian counterpart. Volodymyr selensky. But everything in the letter has been proved true, the call did take place, President Trump did ask his ukrainian counterpart to investigate his Democratic Party rivaljoe biden and the white house today confirmed the transcript of the call was moved to a more secure server. When President Trump asked ukraine to investigate corruption, the democrats want to impeach him. But now the Trump Campaign is firing back. They lost the election and now they want to steal this one. Dont let them. Im donald trump and i approve this. But the speaker of the house is unmoved. She says she was left with no other choice but impeachment following all of this. This is about the National Security of our country, the president of the United States is disloyal to his own oath of office, jeopardising our National Security and jeopardising the integrity of our elections. And the woman donald trump beat in 2016 has also made a rare intervention to pile in. He has turned american diplomacy into a cheap extortion racket. He has denigrated, and lets be honest, stabbed in the back the Career Foreign Service officers who serve bravely and selflessly, no matter the politics of the administration that they are working under. The white house line on the whistle blower is that it is all second hand information and inaccurate, it is anything but. So far everything he has said has turned out to be true. Republican lawmakers can say they dont really care and donald trump is free to do whatever he likes much harder, though, to say there is nothing here. Police in nigeria say theyve rescued nearly 500 boys and young men, from a building in the Northern City of kaduna. Officers say many of those freed had been tortured and sexually abused, in whats thought to have been a private islamic boarding school. Eight people have been arrested. The brother of a pakistani social media star has been jailed for life three years after her murder. 0nce nicknamed the Kim Kardashian of pakistan, she became popular after posting videos of herself dancing and swimming. Singing. The man said she had brought shame on the family through her social media activities and admitted pleaded guilty to strangling the woman. Thousands of thomas cook staff are taking legal action after losing theirjobs when the travel giant went in to liquidation this week. They claim the firm acted unlawfully in the way they were dismissed and theyre seeking compensation. Meanwhile more than 60,000 thomas cook customers have been flown back to the uk. Judith moritz reports. They flew all over the globe for thomas cook, now their world has come crashing down. Jobs gone, livelihoods destroyed. When the airline folded, jo was one of the cabin crew left stranded abroad. When she got home, things went from bad to worse. Im now homeless, my landlord is now demanding i leave the property, so i am having to wait for the local council to see if they can put me in sheltered accommodation. So you cant pay the rent, the landlord has not been sympathetic . No, hes not being sympathetic or compassionate or anything, he just wants me out. Is it here that we sign for the redundancy courses . There is some union help available and thousands of staff are now starting legal action to claim the lost wages. These cabin crew posed for a photo on what would be their last flight. Amongst them, gemma, who was made redundant with Monarch Airlines two years ago and is in the same situation again. Its like reliving the whole nightmare again. Its just brought back all them feelings of losing myjob. It was a sunday night, middle of the night, finding out, waking up my family to tell them that the company that i loved as well had gone. So its just a really difficult time to relive the whole process again. No longer in use by thomas cook, during the summer these check in desks were absolutely buzzing and that is what many of the cabin crew i have spoken to today have said they dont understand. How can it be, they want to know, that when they were working on full plane after full plane their company has gone bust . Many are owed seven weeks pay. Hundreds turned up to Union Meetings at Manchester Airport today, angry and bewildered. I put my uniform on today and as i got to the airport i started to cry because i thought, im coming here in a uniform and ive got nowhere to go. We didnt get a letter through the post. We had a Conference Call on monday. It wasjust dial this numberand listen in. Ill take a few questions. Ok, thats enough now, no more questions. Over and out, phone down. So thats how we found out. They say they put their hearts and souls into thomas cook and with Little Information or remorse this is how the company has repaid them. More than 20 years ago, diana princess of wales, walked through a minefield in angola, to highlight the threat posed by landmines. Well today, her son prince harry, retraced her steps to see how much has changed, and what still needs to be done, to combat the problem. 0ur royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell has sent us this report. Minefields. A massive problem in angola, and an issue with a particular resonance for harry in memory of his mothers efforts to make the world do something to deal with them. Harry was taken into one of the minefields being cleared by britains halo trust. He saw the painstaking work of the mine clearance teams, combing the ground metre by metre. He detonated a mine which had been found a few days ago. And then on to huambo, angolas second city. It was here 22 years ago that diana, princess of wales, was filmed walking along a safe corridor through a minefield. It brought the whole issue to the worlds attention and led eventually to an international ban. Today the spot which had once been a minefield is a city street, but a place for a proud son to visit and to reflect on what his mother had achieved. To walk in her footsteps is clearly quite emotionalfor me, but i think as much as she did then, there is still so much to do, but without question, if she hadnt campaigned the way that she did 22 years ago, this could arguably still be a minefield, so im incredibly proud of what shes been able to do. He went on to the newly renamed Princess Diana 0rthopaedic centre where the victims of landmines are treated. He metjustina caesar, she lost her leg when she was three and met Princess Diana on her visit in 1997. There is no end to injuries like hers, a reminder that though angolas civil war ended fully 17 years ago, landmines are still causing life changing injuries. 22 years after diana died, and there are still more than 1,000 minefields here in angola. Harrys message, expressed today lets finish thejob. An estimated half a Million People have taken part in a demonstration in montreal led by the teenage climate activist, greta thunberg. 0rganisers said it was the largest gathering ever in quebec province. The canadian Prime Ministerjustin trudeau also took part in the march. It comes as un aviation leaders have been gathering in montreal to debate plane emission targets. Greta thunberg spoke ahead of the protest and hit back at critics, including President Trump, saying their mockery of children shows her message has become too loud to handle. I dont understand why grown ups would choose to mock children and teenagers forjust would choose to mock children and teenagers for just communicating would choose to mock children and teenagers forjust communicating and acting on the science, when they could do something good instead. But i guess they must. Feel like their worldview, or their interests or whatever it is, is threatened by us. And that is, we should take as a compliment, that we are having so much impact, that. That people wa nt to much impact, that. That people want to silence us, we have become too loud for people to handle, so they try to silence us. So we should also take that as a compliment. Saudi arabia is opening its doors to tourists from around the world for the first time. The kingdom is launching visas for 49 countries, and relaxing strict dress codes for female visitors. Until now visas have largely been restricted to pilgrims, and expatriate workers. Saudi arabia is also hoping to secure Foreign Investment in the Tourism Industry for some of the sites you can see now, they want to raise investment from tourism, from 396 raise investment from tourism, from 3 to 10 of gdp. By 2030. Sony and wa lt 3 to 10 of gdp. By 2030. Sony and walt disney have reached a deal to continue the spider man movie series. Companies have said that marvel will produce a third film in the spider man homecoming series, sony, which owns the film rights to the character, and disney, which owns marvel studios, have previously said an agreement could not be reached for the future of the character so they would no longer feature it in their own marvel franchises, or movies like the avengers. Now its time for the weather. Buckle up, i have a lot of weather to get through over the next 3. 5 minutes, in this forecast for the week ahead. The jetstream minutes, in this forecast for the week ahead. Thejetstream has really ramped upa week ahead. Thejetstream has really ramped up a gear, blowing across the atlantic, spinning up areas of low pressure and driving them in our direction. This low will bring very wet and windy weather to some of us during saturday night and sunday, but before it arrives, it could just about make out a little bump in the isobars, there is a very weak and transient ridge of High Pressure toppling through, so that will peel off showers during the day, more dry weather into the afternoon with some spells of sunshine, temperatures of 1319. But spells of sunshine, temperatures of 13 19. But behind me, this is our next area of low pressure, pushing in from the south west during saturday night, really heavy burst of rain, this could cause some flooding, on the southern flank of that low, some strong south westerly winds which could well gust to 4050, 50 mph also winds which could well gust to 40 50, 50 mph also in the most exposed spots. During