Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240919

Lets take a quick look at a few of the stories on the Front Pages. Starting with the Daily Telegraph, the headline on the Front Page, of course, we have been talking about it, new phase of Mideast War after Walkie Talkie blitz. If we move on to the guardian, unsurprisingly, the top Story Tonight on newsnight again is on the Front Page, fears of escalation as Second Wave of deadly explosions hits 11 on. And the Daily Express has the same headline, or a very similar one, Walkie Talkie blasts in Second Wave of attacks, against hezbollah up to his following page explosions. And the daily mirror, after pager attack, Walkie Talkie bomb blitz, everyone seems to go with those headlines and as i say, unsurprising. The Daily Mail has come labour has undermined israel, says netanyahu. And I Think finally, there is the daily star, the king of the carriages. They have a different Front Page Keir Starmer, we havejust been have a different Front Page Keir Starmer, we have just been talking about it. Thank you to my guests werejoining me. Thats it for tonight. Keep watching bbc two, because after the weather, its the first episode of Have I Got News For You us, where they dissect the weekly american election news. Paddy oconnell is here tomorrow. Till then, good night. Live from london, this is bbc news. Exploding Walkie Talkies kill at least 20 people and injure hundreds more, in a fresh wave of attacks across lebanon. Hospitals are again overwhelmed. In my past 25 years in practice, i never removed as many eyes as i did yesterday. Meanwhile, Israels Defence Minister declares the start of a new phase of the war with a focus on the Northern Front against hezbollah. Trouble inside the Labour Party as we reveal that Sue Gray the prime Ministers Chief of staff earns more than sir Keir Starmer. And conservationists declare an emergency, as Butterfly Numbers fall to their lowest on record. Hello, im kasia madera. At least 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a new wave of attacks in lebanon this time its Walkie Talkies that have been detonated. The latest blasts come just 2a hours after pagers used by the armed Group Hezbollah exploded simultaneously across the country killing at least 12 people and leaving more than 3,000 in hospital. Hezbollah is blaming israel and has vowed to retaliate. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says the country is opening a new phase in the Gaza War and the Centre Of Gravity is shifting to the north. 0ur Senior International Correspondent 0rla Guerin sent this report from beirut. Hezbollah, coming to bury its dead in South Beirut today. Casualties of a new chapter in Middle East warfare. Killed not by air strikes, but by exploding pagers. Apparently, a message from mossad. Among the dead, an 11 year old boy. But even the mourners werent safe. Explosion. Suddenly, the sound of another blast. Chaos and panic filling the street and a rush to evacuate one of the wounded. The authorities say this time, Walkie Talkies exploded, not just in beirut. Here, at a Cell Phone Shop in the southern city of sidon. Israel is being blamed for the past 2a hours of unprecedented attacks. Sirens. Well, one more ambulance there passing by. Weve been seeing them in the last half an hour or so. Also Fire Brigade trucks. People have been looking at the sky, worried there are drones. Theyre beginning to leave the area, to get off the streets. The attacks began Yesterday Afternoon with explosions in food markets, in homes, in restaurants. Soon, casualties were streaming to hospitals almost 3,000 wounded in an hour. Doctors say many lost fingers and many were blinded. It has been a nightmare. Probably this is the worst day of my life as a physician. Unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes. I can tell you that probably more than 60 to 70 of the patients ended up with eviscerating or removing at least one of their eyes. And were talking about young population, about patients in their 205. From israel, no admission of responsibility. But the Defence Minister, yoav galant, says a new phase of the war is starting. Hezbollah, which is iranian backed, has been waging war with israel since last october the two sides trading fire across their shared border. Over the past 2a hours, hezbollah has been shaken and humiliated, but its still better armed than many nations. Israel, too, has plenty of Firepower And Today released this footage of its Troops Training near the lebanese border. A source told the bbc that a Second Division of the army has moved to the area. There are growing fears of all out war. 0rla guerin, bbc news, beirut. These ongoing attacks have stunned people in lebanon and caused widespread fear. 0ur security correspondent, Gordon Corera has been looking at how the assaults have been carried out in the past 2a hours and whos orchestrating them. These have been extraordinary attacks taking communications devices people carry around and turning them into weapons to be used against them. Today, hand held radios, Walkie Talkies, were exploding suddenly in lebanon. This was what was left of one of them. It follows Yesterday Afternoon when thousands were injured by small explosions in peoples hands and pockets. This was the culprit a pager, which can receive text messages. Pagers and Walkie Talkies are old school technology, but Something Hezbollah turned to recently because it feared its Mobile Phones could be tracked. This map details the locations of injuries sustained in yesterdays attack, the vast majority in the capital, beirut. But how was it done . Today, washington said it didnt know. The United States did not know about, nor was it involved in these incidents. And were still gathering the information and gathering the facts. So what do we know . If we look at the debris of this pager, you can see part of a Brand Name here. Its gold apollo. Now, thats a company based all the way over here in taiwan. The Owners Today said they had not made the pagers involved, though. Instead, they had licensed making them to another company called Bac Consulting. Now, Bac Consulting is based in budapest, the capital of hungary, and the bbc� s Nick Thorpe went to visit today. This is the registered address of Bac Consulting here in budapest. And in fact theres very little sign that theyre based here at all just a piece of paper with their name alongside 12 other Company Names behind the geraniums. Very few people have been coming in and out of this building all day. No one seems to know anything about this company at all. So this is debris left from a pager after it exploded. So israel looks to have intercepted the supply this year of thousands of pagers to hezbollah, and hid tiny amounts of high explosive inside. A signal was then sent, which meant five seconds after a pager buzzed to say there was a message, it blew up. Something similar may have happened with the radios today. Supposedly japanese made, they also arrived a few months ago. But why now . One theory is that israels spy agency, mossad, had put in place the capability to be used in the event of an all out conflict in neighbouring lebanon. But hezbollah became suspicious about the pagers, and so mossad decided it was a case of use it or lose it, triggering first the pagers and then today the radios. If thats right, then its not quite clear whether there is a wider plan behind launching the attack. It has sown Confusion And Fear and inflicted many injuries, but it may also spark a response. Staying with the Middle East, the Un General Assembly has adopted a resolution demanding that israel end its illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories within a year. 100 and 2a countries voted in favour. 124 countries voted in favour. 0ur Correspondent Nada tawfik has been following the proceedings from new york. The palestinians see this as an historic resolution. Its the first one, actually, that theyve been able to bring forward themselves ever since. Forward themselves ever since they were given new rights and privileges in may. But they do remain an observer state, non member observer state. So they werent able to vote themselves in this resolution. But nevertheless, after the icj declared that Israels Occupation of occupied palestinian territory was illegal, they wanted to move forward with this resolution. Now, it is up to the Security Council to implement the findings of the icj, which is the uns highest court, as it is the principal judicial organ of the un. But we know that the Security Council has been paralysed, certainly because of the United States, israels strongest ally. So instead, the palestinians took this resolution to the general assembly, where, though the resolutions are not binding, they do hold kind of symbolic political weight, given all 193 members are able to express their positions. And so for the palestinians, this was a major victory for them, because you had 124 nations supporting this resolution, which called for israel to end its occupation within a year, called for them to withdraw their military forces, to cease new Settlement Building to evacuate settlers. It also called on states to impose sanctions on anyone who is seen to be trying to violate the international law set out by the icj, and to ban importation of products from israeli settlements, and also to seize the transfer of arms to israel. In cases where theres grounds to believe that its being used in the settlements. So for palestinians, a major movement here by the international community to say that international law has to be abided by, especially in a time where there is concern about the multilateral system and the international rules based order being violated. Theres consternation in the Labour Party after the bbc revealed that Sue Gray, the Prime Ministers top adviser, now earns more than the Prime Minister himself after she asked for a Pay Rise following the election. Weve been told that shes now on a salary of £170,000. Thats 3,000 more than sir Keir Starmer. 0ur political editor, Chris Mason has the story. This is Sue Gray. She is sir Keir Starmer� s chief of staff. Before this she was, for years and years, a senior civil servant. She wrote the report into parties in Downing Street during the pandemic which contributed to borisjohnsons downfall. After that, she went to work for the Labour Party and is now one of the most senior figures in the government. I can reveal that she earns £170,000 a year. Now clearly that is a lot of money relative to the uk average salary, but it is considerably less than some in the Public Sector and many in the private sector at a similar level of seniority. Look at the Bottom Right of your screen. Here is how close Sue Gray is to power. Two down from the Prime Minister, President Biden on the other side of the table at the White House last week. Will the reason this story really matters is not actually about what Sue Gray earns. Its the fact that someone in government was so incensed by it and by her perceived power in a sense that others are inadequately paid, that they wanted to leak this information to me. They did that on sunday, and they are far from the only ones with concerns. Weve spent three days seeking to independently verify and corroborate those claims, and we have done that. And it gives you a sense of the rows in governmentjust months after labour won the election. This man, sir craig oliver, worked alongside David Cameron when he was Prime Minister and Sue Gray was a senior civil servant. Sue gray is an incredibly talented, very capable person and i can see why Keir Starmer wants her to be his chief of staff. Shes obviously putting up the backs of a lot of people who are involved in the Labour Party and in campaigns there making them feel that theyre not as important as perhaps they thought they were. Thats leading to clashes. Thats leading to a lot of leaks. In 2020, Sue Gray applied to become head of the Civil Service in Northern Ireland. Here she is a year later, telling the bbc why she thinks she didnt get the job. I suspect people may have thought that i am perhaps too much of a challenger or a disruptor. I am both. And perhaps i would bring about, you know, perhaps there was going to be too much change. The conservatives reckon our story reveals hypocrisy in government. The prime Ministers Chief of staff is getting an enormous Pay Rise. I at the same time, this Labour Government is slashing Winter Fuel payments for pensioners, earning half the level of the minimum wage. Its Pay Rises for Labour Cronies and cuts for hard pressed pensioners. Is Sue Gray worth more than the Prime Minister . Hello, we are very lucky to have sue. Plenty in government are rallying behind Sue Gray. The Prime Minister will hope the anger and the Rows End quickly. An overnight Drone Attack on a huge Russian Military Facility has been a large overnight Drone Attack by ukraine has hit a huge russian arms depot, producing a minor earthquake. The attack was in the Tver Region of russia to the North West of moscow and some 460 kilometres from the ukrainian border. James waterhouse reports from kyiv. They were explosions which reflected the target. A russian Weapons Arsenal eviscerated in a single Drone Attack. It caused a minor earthquake to be reported and satellites even detected the heat. Missiles, artillery shells, explosives and fuel were stored on this site in toropets, and the ukrainians knew it. With the sound of booms in the background, local russian officials claim the drones had been shot down and that people were being evacuated. Despite a lack of permission to do the same with western missiles, president zelensky seemed pleased. Translation there was a significant outcome from last night in the territory of russia, and this is the type of action that weakens the enemy. I thank all those involved. Such inspiring precision. Ivan stupak used to be in Ukraines Security Service and thinks hitting russian Ammunition Depots will bring results, just not immediately. Destroying this object, its not a short term impact because russia has to replace it. Where we have to replace it . From what side . Iran, North Korea . Ok. But the next stage is money. But what for . How much it will cost for russian federation to replace it . Because every ballistic Missile Cost maybe 1. 5 million. There was no mention of the ukrainian strike by Vladimir Putin as he spoke to officials in moscow today. It is a setback, but not enough to slow his invasion. James waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. Inflation remained unchanged in august at two point 2 , inflation remained unchanged in august at 2. 2 , thats slightly above the Bank Of Englands target. Many analysts believe it makes a further cut to intereast rates unlikely when the banks monetary Policy Committee meets tomorrow. But this evening the us Federal Reserve cut its rates for the first time in four years. Our Economics Editor Faisal Islam has more. Two things going two things going on here aside from its staying at 2. 2 . Service prices given, driven by Airfare Rises have actually gone up again. That puts you where you work, and as you say the expectations are that that inflation number, there will be further cuts this year, that would happen at the meeting tomorrow, the us equivalent of the Bank Of England, the Federal Reserve, has cut it by half percent. This is a really important moment in the world economy. Its not that they think there is a recession coming around, they say its in good shape, the us economy, its that they think theyve done most of the job of Draining Inflation across the world economy. Thats what we see and most of the worlds central banks. Will it change the mind of the Bank Of England tomorrow, probably not, but it mayjust make them think again. 10,000 drivers walked out 18 times in england, wales and scotland since the Industrial Action began. Now the drivers from 16 different companies have overwhelmingly accepted an offer which their union says is worth a 15 rise over three years. Heres our transport correspondent, sean dilley. Its the end of the line for Industrial Action, for now. Nearly 97 of Aslef Members have backed a Pay Deal that closes the chapter on more than two years of Disruption And Pain for passengers. The train Drivers Union where the last to hold out for a deal they said better reflected the Cost Of Living stop i reflected the Cost Of Living. I sat down with their leader. Two years of covid, we did not seek a Pay Rise, but we had many members have not had a Pay Rise for five yea rs. We wanted something that put a dent in the Cost Of Living, thats what we asked for. Then you negotiate and maybe people making an offer. In cash terms, the deal they have backed isnt worth vastly more than what was being offered by the conservative government at 12 over three years. The Sticking Point was 55 changes to working terms and conditions that the union said they were not prepared to accept. So, what have they agreed today . It is 15 over three years, but aslef say they backed it because there were no strings attached. The conservatives are highly critical of the deal they say will cost the taxpayer and all train passengers more money. The government though, says the settlement is worth every penny. The cost of Industrial Action, they say, it has been around £1 billion. Duties may rise by 15 , thats a lot I Think. It duties may rise by 15 , thats a lot I Think. ,. , duties may rise by 15 , thats a lot I Think. , ~ j duties may rise by 15 , thats a lot ithink. , ~ j I Think. It sounds like theyve come to reasonable I Think. It sounds like theyve come to reasonable accommodation, I Think. It sounds like theyve come to reasonable accommodation, the| to reasonable accommodation, the previous to reasonable accommodation, the previous tory Government Wasnt prepared previous tory Government Wasnt prepared to discuss them. This deal only covers prepared to discuss them. This deal only covers until prepared to discuss them. This deal only covers until next prepared to discuss them. This deal only covers until next year. Prepared to discuss them. This deal only covers until next year. They. Only covers until next year. They are into union says its recommended are into union says its recommended a new payoff or to its members. For these passengers, relief that a deal has been done. Pm these passengers, relief that a deal has been done. Has been done. An end to strikes, I Think its right. Has been done. An end to strikes, I Think its right. Shaun has been done. An end to strikes, I Think its right. Shaun bailey, think its right. Shaun bailey, bbc news. Two british soldiers who were killed in the second World War during the Battle For Arnhem in the nazi occupied netherlands have finally been buried with full military honours. The remains of private Henry Moon and Lieutenant Dermod green anderson were identified using advances in dna testing. They were laid to rest 80 years after they died at arnhems oosterbeek War Cemetery during ceremonies attended by theirfamilies. Anna holligan was there. I am the resurrection and the life. Marking the footsteps of the men who gave their lives for our freedom. Private Henry Moon of the seventh battalion, the green howards, was part of the Ground Offensive sent to relieve the surrounded airborne troops in arnhem, dropped behind enemy lines. In operation market garden, the allies daring campaign to capture key bridges Over The Rhine to establish a direct route into the heart of germany and so shorten the war. Ultimately, this was a bridge too far. Private moon was killed at the age of 21. We were expecting just a very small number of, a small number of individuals to show up to this, but there are hundreds. And its a very proud, humbling experience. His remains were identified through a dna match. This is the final Resting Place for almost 2,000 allied soldiers. This peaceful land witnessed some of the most intense battles. So ferocious was the fighting, the british called oosterbeek the devils cauldron. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded. Only 1,700 of the 10,000 troops made it home. Lieutenant darmod green anderson, a glider pilot, flew into a Village Northwest of arnhem. He was killed when an Enemy Shell exploded near his trench just hours before the Evacuation Order came. His remains were discovered nearby two years ago and have now been identified using dna. Over the last 30 years, ive visited Groesbeek Memorial and ive seen diarmids name, and on all those four occasions i walked within 50m of where his body lay. Fire reload hundreds came to show their Gratitude And Witness this symbolic moment, a reminder of the price paid to restore peace in europe. Anna holligan, bbc news, oosterbeek. Lets take a look at some of Thursday Mornings Front Pages. The Daily Telegraph leads with the latest on the violence in the Middle East and the fresh wave of Second Wave of explosions from wireless communication devices in lebanon. And the guardian notes the fears of the conflict escalating across the wider region. The mirror reports on the israeli Defence Chiefs comments Yoav Gallant declaring the start of a new phase in the war. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has an interview with israeli Prime Minister, benjamin netanyahu, who claims that the Labour Government is undermining israel. The financial times focuses on news out of the us the Federal Reserve reducing Interest Rates by half a Percentage Point for the first time in overfour years. And the i leads on an investigation into a Nursery Firm founded by labour mpjas athwal, which is now facing allegations of Child Safety breaches. Youre up to date with some of the warning papers. Thats it for me. Now time for the weather with ben rich. Hello there. Thursday promises to be another unusually warm September Day for large parts of the uk, although in the north of scotland it may not be quite as warm as it was on wednesday when aviemore got above 25 degrees celsius some nine or ten degrees above the seasonal average. But Notice Lake Vrnwy languished at 1a degrees because in those parts of Mid Wales we saw a bit more cloud lingering for a good part of the day. Some of that cloud returning from the east as well, so england and wales seeing a pretty cloudy start, actually, in some places. But that Cloud Tending to retreat by the afternoon towards the east coast, some Cloud Rolling onto the coast of Eastern Scotland. Elsewhere, though, some good spells of sunshine, just a very, very small chance of seeing a shower across southern counties of england. But it really is only a very small chance. Now where youre exposed to the breeze along the north sea, temperatures may only get to 17 or 18 degrees. Compare that with 25 in parts of south East England. And then through thursday night, we do it all again, we bring more cloud back in from the east, may turn a little bit misty and murky in places. That cloud will hold the temperatures up 15 degrees in london as we start friday morning, maybe eight or nine in aberdeen and glasgow, a little bit cooler, where we start with clear skies overhead. But the focus of our weather does start to shift as we go through friday. We start to turn our eyes to the south with this developing area of low pressure, and that will start to bring some showers and some thunderstorms across parts of southern england, perhaps getting into the midlands, perhaps into the southern half of wales as we go on through the day. Eastern scotland, north East England Holding On to a lot of Mist And Murk and low cloud that will peg the temperatures back. Conversely, Western Scotland and Northern Ireland should see plenty of sunshine. Now into saturday, those showers and thunderstorms in the south perhaps becoming more frequent, pushing a little bit further northwards. Still rather cloudy for coasts of Eastern Scotland and north East England, Western Scotland and Northern Ireland seeing plenty of sunshine. But those temperatures generally down just a little bit by this stage. And then by sunday, our area of low pressure really makes its move, bringing showers or longer spells of rain, particularly across england and wales. The Odd Shower and some extra cloud in Eastern Scotland, but generally in the north of the uk it will stay largely dry