Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240713

Hello and welcome to bbc news. The first of the victims of fridays terror attack in Central London has been named as jack merritt, a cambridge graduate who was helping coordinate a conference on prisoner rehabilitation near London Bridge. He was one of two People Killed by 28 year old usman khan, a former prisoner whod been convicted of terrorism offences, and released from prison on licence last year. Khan, whod been invited to the conference, was shot dead by police after members of the public tackled him. Heres our Home Affairs Correspondent daniel sandford. 25 years old and with the sense of adventure, jack merritt had a masters from cambridge university. His father said today he was a beautiful spirit who always took the side of the underdog. Yesterday, he was stabbed to death in a frenzied attack by a former prisoner at a conference that hed helped organise. His killer was taken on by people from the same conference, including otherformer prisoners and by a passing policeman in civilian clothes, before being shot dead by firearms officers. The attacker, usman khan, was automatically released from prison last december, half way through a 16 year sentence for plotting to bomb the london stock exchange. 11 years ago he told the bbc he was no terrorist. I have been born and bred in england, in stoke on trent, in cobridge, and all the Community Knows me, and they will know, if you ask them, they will know, like, these labels they are putting on me, like terrorist, this, that, they will know i am no terrorist. His lawyer insisted his client had tried to access de radicalisation while in prison but had not got the right kind of help. He requested assistance with addressing some of his flawed thinking. He recognised that his extreme violent ideology was wrong. He wanted to correct himself, he wanted to move on. Since its release, usman khan had been helped byjack merritts Prisoner Education scheme, learning together, who had organised a computer for him, which because of the conditions of his release did not have an internet connection. A Police Forensic tent marks the place where usman khan was shot dead by police. But the building where he carried out his attack is just on this side of the bridge. That was where he was attending a conference on prisoner rehabilitation, a conference at which he turned on some of those who had invited him and killed them. This picture was taken just before the attack at the conference in fishmongers hall where usman khan also stabbed a woman to death. He seriously injured three other people. All are now stable. The attacker then left the building, he ended up on London Bridge. He was pursued and detained by members of the public, as well as a British Transport Police officer who was in plain clothes, before armed officers from both the city and metropolitan police arrived, confronted the attacker and shot him. The actions of the police and the public are all the more remarkable as we now know the attacker was wearing what looked like a very convincing explosive device. Thankfully, we now know that was a hoax device. Today, this address in stafford where usman khan had recently been living was being intensely searched. Detectives say at this stage there is no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the attack. Move that way. Clear, please. Which leaves the burning question, how was a convicted terrorist released from jail while still dangerous . And how did he, still wearing a tag, kill two people at a meeting focused on the rehabilitation of prisoners . Daniel sandford, bbc news, London Bridge. Lets stay with that story because a row has broken out between the government and the Main Opposition Labour Party over why the attacker was given an Early Release from prison. Our Political Correspondent Jessica Parker reports. Hello, how are you doing . Visiting the scene earlier, the Prime Minister, alongside the met police chief, cressida dick, as people try to take in what has happened and understand what lessons can be learned. From borisjohnson, a call for tougher sentencing. I have said for a long time now that i think that the practice of automatic Early Release, where you cut a sentence in half and let really serious violent offenders out early, simply isnt working and i think you have had some very good evidence of how that isnt working, i am afraid, with this case. The mayor of london, sadiq khan, has said that while criminality cannot be excused, he believed police cuts under the conservative and Coalition Governments have had consequences. And the labour leader warned of understaffing in prisons as he called for a full investigation into usman khans case. Clearly, there has been a complete disaster in that lives have been lost because of his behaviour and i think there is also a question about what the Probation Service were doing, were they involved at all and whether the parole board should have been involved in deciding whether or not he should have been allowed to be released from prison in the first place. But overall, general Election Campaigning has been more muted today with the focus on the families affected and tributes to those who rushed to the scene. Our emergency services, as always, rise to the challenge, so you know, we need to make sure there is a robust response to incidents like this, that any lessons that need to be learned are learned, but at the moment i think everybodys thoughts are with everybody who has been affected. There are clearly questions that need to be asked and answers found as to how this happened and the process for that is very important. I think today, that the focus is on those who are mourning. During the 2017 general Election Campaign there were two terror attacks, at Manchester Arena and another at London Bridge. It can lead to a greater political focus on security issues, parties records and their future plans for keeping people safe. But for some, at this stage, those conversations may be for another day. Jessica parker, bbc news. A maltese businessman has been charged with complicity in the murder of the journalist daphne ca ruana galizia. Yorgen fenech was arrested last week as he attempted to leave malta on his yacht. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Damian grammaticas is on the island and has just sent this report. Under police guard the richest man in malta arrived to be charged with complicity to moisture. The courthouse was open especially for this late night hearing stop the assassinated journalists family where year as well. They have waited two years for police to find those behind her killing. Daphne Caruana Galizia worked to expose corruption. She was blown up by a car bomb. The hunt for those responsible has plunged malta into crisis. This was Yorgen Fenech emerging from an earlier Court Hearing two shouts of mafia so you ordered her assassination . No. I did not say that. I am confident the truth will come out. Today he left, heading for a police cell. He denied involvement in the murder and his lawyers and court said the police should be probing the Prime Minister s chief of staff who resigned this week and was questioned by police but released. Daphne ca ruana was questioned by police but released. Daphne Caruana Galizias family have long fought to bring her killers to justice. They say her work exposed shading dealing among many around the Prime Minister and he has to go. We now expect the Prime Minister to leave office and parliament with immediate effect, to allow a free and full investigation into his and scan breeze role in the assassination of daphne. But the Prime Minister is refusing to budge. This was him on fridaylj Prime Minister is refusing to budge. This was him on friday. I want this case to close under my watch. I think the authorities have already delivered what many thought could not be delivered, that is major breakthroughs in the investigation. My breakthroughs in the investigation. Myjob is to see this investigation concluded. The criticism of Joseph Muscat is that he has overseen the Murder Investigation for the last two years. He and his chief of staff were privy to some of the secret information unearthed. But that information unearthed. But that information may have leaked two suspects the police were looking into. At the same time, mr muscat and his critics say they have done little to clean up corruption at the highest levels. A new law comes into force in china this weekend that will force mobile phone users to submit to facial Recognition Software in order to access the internet. The government in beijing says it will help protect the legitimate rights of citizens in cyberspace, but Cyber Security experts have raised concerns. A little earlier i spoke tojeffrey ding, a researcher at oxfords centre for the governance of ai. So if you want to get a new sim card for your phone you will have to go to the Telecommunications Carrier branch and verify your real name and identification and that would subject you to a facial recognition scan to verify that your face matches the one stored. And what are the concerns here . There are many concerns. This is a drive to essentially root out anonymity on the internet. So the concern is that having anonymous Free Expression on the web is vital to deliberative democracy is by allowing free speech, it is vital to checks and bala nces speech, it is vital to checks and balances and routeing that out could derail all those things. The argument on the other side is that an amenity on the web leads to harm, organised gangs, criminality and terrorism. And that is the tradeoff that all governments are facing. It is not just that all governments are facing. It is notjust china it is also self area, they were one of the first to push this real name identification on the web. The issue with that was that they forced people to the similar system without the facial recognition component and 35 million peoples personal id records were stolen. Germany and france have similar pushers but china seems to be the first to add this facial recognition component. And on this component then, what has been the reaction by people in china . Ive not seen reaction to this specific regulation because it has not been enforced yet. But across a wide range of Application Areas there have been some pushback to facial recognition by chinese scholars, the chinese public. They feel it is invasive and there have been cases where roommates have stolen their mobile Payment Information because you use facial recognition to unlock it and they could unlock their roommates app when they were sleeping. There are a lot of problems and there seems to be a growing wave of discontent and opposition to the invasive uses of facial recognition. And do you think this is something that is a chinese effort or do you think we will see measures like this spread around the rest of the world . This is a unique step in using face or recognition but i dont think it is a uniquely chinese effort. I think you will see measures like this and it will be interesting to see how this is enforced and implemented. Lets get some of the days other news. Dutch police have arrested a 35 year old man, in connection with a stabbing in the hague on friday. Two 15 year old girls, and a 13 year old boy who were injured in the attack, have since been released from hospital. Local media are reporting that the none of the victims knew each other and police say its too early to indicate any motive. Clashes have continued today between Anti Government protesters and Security Forces in the iraqi capital, baghdad, following the Prime Ministers announcement that he intends to resign. Adel abdul mahdi said hed step down after dozens of demonstrators were killed in various cities including najaf and nassariya. Officials in afghanistan say a Senior Army Commander has been killed in a roadside bomb attack in the Southern Province of helmand. The head of the militarys border forces, Brigadier General zahir gul muqbil, was leading a convoy of soldiers and local journalists to marjah district when his vehicle hita mine. Brazils president Jair Bolsonaro has accused actor Leonardo Dicaprio of giving money to set the amazon on fire, although he gave no evidence for the allegation. In an instagram post, mr dicaprio, who has pledged five Million Dollars for the amazon, denied mr bolsonaros claim saying, we did not fund the organizations targeted. The brazilian president has previously accused some ngos of starting the fires that broke out earlier this year, in order to receive more money. Dom phillips is a freelance reporter for the Guardian Newspaper based in rio dejaneiro. He says the accusations against mr dicaprio are part of a wider narrative. I think they fit into a wider context thatjob ohnson arrow has been making unfounded accusations pretty much since figures showing increasing deforestation figures in the amazon on bolsonaro. He said it was the Space Institute and sacked the director. When the amazon fire crisis really began to explode in august he started saying that foreign ngos were responsible for setting the fires. He has never provided any evidence. In this case has come under a lot of criticism here in brazil. The detective originally leading the investigation told me on tuesday that they had had Video Evidence of the firefighters lighting fires. But the video he sent me justifies lighting fires. But the video he sent mejustifies in lighting fires. But the video he sent me justifies in a forest and because on a dirt road. It was not conclusive of anything at all. He has been replaced by another detective. The investigative site tour it apart in a damning article. Its an ngo with 30 years of activity in the amazon. Tore it apart. But it principally does the ngo, the firefighters worked for, it is asa ngo, the firefighters worked for, it is as a hospital boat visiting isolated communities in the amazon. I really think this is about the fa ke i really think this is about the fake news battle in brazil with bolsonaro and his supporters looking to lame people for rising deforestation and fires in the amazon rather than admit that his own rhetoric has a role to play. Dom phillips there. Stay with us on bbc world news. Still to come the climate protesters occupying coal mines in germany. Its quite clear that the worst victims of this disaster are the poor People Living in the slums which have sprung up around the factory. I am feeling so helpless, that the childrens are dying in front of me and i cant do anything. Charles manson is the mystical leader of the hippy cult suspected of killing sharon tate and at least six other people in los angeles. At 11 00am this morning, just half a metre of rock separated britain from continental europe. It took the drills just a few moments to cut through the final obstacle. Then philippe cozette, a minerfrom calais, was shaking hands with and exchanging flags with robert fagg, his opposite number from dover. This is bbc news. The latest headlines the first victim of fridays London Bridge attack has been named as 25 year old jack merritt. A prominent maltese businessman has been charged with complicity in the murder of the investigative journalist daphne Caruana Galizia. Hundreds of climate campaigners in eastern germany occupied several opencast coal mines today to demand their closure. The protesters have rejected the governments plan to phase out coal mining by 2038 and instead want the industry be closed down immediately. The demonstrations are taking place in the states of saxony and brandenburg where thousands ofjobs depend on the mines. Xena reisch was at the protest at a mine near leipzig today with the ende gelande group. She explains why she was protesting today. We know that the climate cannot be heated up more than 1. 5 degrees otherwise it willjust keep eating up otherwise it willjust keep eating up itself automatically, so we must phase out of coal immediately. The plan of the government is not sufficient at all. There is not a single cold powerpla nt sufficient at all. There is not a single cold powerplant that has been shut down yet. So we said we dont rely on the government anymore. We are doing this with our own bodies. With the most valuable thing we have. Weve seen some pictures here of the proteas. I know you may not be able to see them. They wanted to show our view some pictures that you guys, your group filled film today. They are from a drone. They have been speeded up a little bit. You can see the number of protesters running through police lines there and eventually making it onto the ekol site itself. That site and many others in germany, what is it, 20,000 jobs depend on that. If they are shut immediately, what happens to those people . What you say to those people who lose theirjobs . think we must find Good Solutions for these people as well. Want eve ryo ne for these people as well. Want everyone in the world to have a good life and that includes these 20,000 people. However, im not putting these coal workers above people in these coal workers above people in the global south that are suffering from the Climate Crisis today. We must find Good Solutions for everybody. Theres millions and millions of euro those arguing be given to the coal industry as reconciliation for the coal phase out and that money should be put in structural changes instead for the people and not for the coal industry who only has about making profits stop right what difference do you think your protests will make today, if any . Do you think your protests will make today, ifany . I do you think your protests will make today, if any . I think we play a very Important Role for people to form an opinion on this topic. Amen, its not fair that Coal Companies and states that simply have the property of these fossil fuels should decide, by themselves, that they are going to burn it. Thats against the interest of humanity. This is a deep crisis of democracy and we are democratising by saying we dont want our future to be killed by these companies. We are putting our bodies in the way to fight this injustice. The latest from this protest in germany. The annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony has taken place in bethlehems manger square. The tree is outside the church of the nativity, where christians believejesus was born. It was illuminated by hundreds of golden white bulbs as fireworks lit up the night sky. The ceremony coincides with the beginning of advent and the four week run up to christmas. And staying in bethlehem, a tiny wooden relic, believed by christians to be from jesus manger, has been returned to the town after more than a thousand years in rome. It was briefly put on display injerusalem on friday before continuing itsjourney to bethlehem on the orders of pope francis. For decades lyons teashops were famous in britain for providing tea and cakes to the masses. But lyons was also the First Company to use computers in a commercial office setting. Leo or the lyons electric 0ffice was launched in 1951 and was the First Business computer in the world. 0ur colleagues at witness history have been speaking to mary coombs who the first woman to work as a programmer on leo. Electronic computers are not new, but leo was the first designed for office work. Leo is fast and flexible. The first Automatic Office in the world. Leo stands for lines electronic office. It took the idea of an ordinary mechanical calculating machine and decided to turn it into electronics lyons. When we started we were about five years ahead of any other firm. We were all pioneers in programming. Itjust happens i was the first woman who was involved in commercial programming. Lyons manufactured a lot of bakery goods, they had hotels, they had tea shops, they had restaurants. They we re shops, they had restaurants. They were always very go ahead in introducing new systems that would make for greater efficiency. I got involved with payroll straightaway. The programme is read first. Playing down the sequence for the multitude of calculations that leo will perform. Next the Standing Orders and standing revisions tee shot by tee shot barthet in. With the overriding variations on the computer today. The computer itself is on computer today. The computer itself isona computer today. The computer itself is on a raised platform, because under the racks there were the mercury delay lines. There was a lot of air conditioning. It would take months to write a programme. You couldnt do it quickly. Immediately, packing those begin to print. Ten shops at a time. At the same time, judges to tea shops and sales so statistics are being recorded. The results came out on top the printer tape and then had to be printed. Now a modern computer has a huge store of dean gigabyte, leo was two k umpteen. We all got on well. There we re umpteen. We all got on well. There were quite a lot of marriages, including mine. And we had quite a lot of social time because of working such long hours, we would lunch together, or we would go out in the evening together. Very exciting atmosphere. Yes. Leo one was useful quite a lot of scientific work. We did the tax tables for the Inland Revenue one year. We did some work for the met office. We did some ballistics work for the army. The longer we went on the more likely it was that some of our staff would leave and join other firms. American companies, of course, were quite big in the uk as well. People like ibm. But obviously they all caught up. Working in the 50s, i dont think you would have dreamt of anything like what has happened. Im in it so much a part of everyday life now, isnt it . Its quite interesting to be able to google your name on the computer. Id definitely feel proud of being involved. Oh yes. Its made life much more interesting. The draw for footballs euro 2020 tournament has taken place in bucharest and world champions france have been given a difficult group alongside portugal and germany. England will take on croatia at wembley in a repeat of the world cup semi final in 2018 and turkey will face italy in rome in the Tournament Opener on 12thjune. Dont forget you can get in touch with me and some of my team on twitter im lvaughanjones. Hello there. Good morning. Signs of change towards the end of the coming week. But new month, same old cold out across the uk. We are dominated by this cold area of High Pressure. The last of the mild and that was towards the south west and the channel islands, together with out the front which brought some pockets of light rain, thats moving away now, getting blown away by the breeze. Head further north, though, there are still some patches of fog through the midlands, maybe solway firth, and into the central belt of scotland. A few showers around the coasts of Northern Ireland and the far north of scotland, but generally the northern half of the uk starting cold and frosty widely. More patchy frost further south we have that breeze. And that will tend to lift the mist and fog through the midlands much more quickly. Further north, a few patches may linger until the middle part of the day, at least. The generally becomes dry and sunny. Got a future was making a breeze across the north of scotland, down those north sea coast, and particularly data into kent. These are the temperatures for the first day of december. Similar to what we had on saturday. Not quite as chilly as it was through the midlands with more sunshine as there will be in the south west of england where it will be dry. High pressure cold air continues overnight as we head into monday. But signs of change into the north west. However beginning to come in from the atlantic. While several be a patchy frost for scotla nd several be a patchy frost for scotland and Northern Ireland on monday morning it wont be as cold, with the frost more widely for england and wales after a starry night we will have plenty of sunshine on monday and lighter winds. South westerly breezes will both brett more cloud into Northern Ireland and particularly into scotland, we will see pockets of rain into the north of the country, where temperatures may actually get into double figures. For many, temperatures will be at sixes and sevens. Weve got High Pressure dominating then at the moment. Gradually as we head into tuesday and wednesday it slips away into continental europe, getting eroded by these mild atlantic winds. With higher pressure close to southern parts of england where the winds are lighter, skies clear, weve got to maybe worry about some mess, fog, and low cloud in the morning. That could linger, actually, until around about lunchtime before tending to lift a breakup. It should be a dry day on tuesday, even across the north of scotland. Some sunshine for Northern Ireland. In this temperatures typically at sixes and sevens once again. Another chilly sort of day on wednesday. Gradually, later on in the week, it turns milder, ayrton sweeney, and we will see some patchy rain are mainly in the north and west. A this is bbc news. Its been revealed that one of the two people stabbed to death in fridays terror attack in london was helping lead a course for prisoners, that his killer was attending. Jack merritt was criminology graduate with an interest in rehabilitating prisoners. A maltese businessman has been charged with complicity in the murder of the journalist daphne ca ruana galizia. Yorgen fenech was arrested last week as he attempted to leave malta on his yacht. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The draw for the euro 2020 football tournament has been made, placing the defending champions portugal in the same group as world champions, france, and germany. The world cup finalists, croatia, have been drawn in a group