Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News Now 20241009

And in the uk, conservative mps prepare to eliminate another candidate from the party Leadership Contest. Hello, im annita mcveigh, and welcome to Bbc News now, three hours of fast moving news, interviews and reaction. We start with all the latest developments in the middle east, and more than 100 rockets have been fired by hezbollah into the northern israeli city of haifa. Ma ny were intercepted by israeli defences. By israeli defences. But some did get through. But some did get through. Israel says it fired back at israel says it fired back at the launch is used for the the launch is used for the beirut, israel says it has attack. Attack. The latest salvos came the latest salvos came after a separate announcement after a separate announcement by israel that it had by israel that it had expanded its Ground Invasion expanded its Ground Invasion into south west lebanon. Into south west lebanon. In Lebanons Capital in Lebanons Capital beirut, israel says it has killed the commander of hezbollah� s headquarters. The idf says its target, suhail hussein husseini, oversaw logistics and weapons transfers with iran. Hezbollah has not confirmed hes been killed. In a televised statement the militant� s groups Deputy Leader Naim Qassam claimed hezbollah� s capabilities remained intact and appeared to suggest and that all its senior figures, killed in recent weeks, had been replaced. We will take a look at these one yearon one year on after the horrific events of october at the seventh, the more that were provoked by that rampage across southern israel are not only coming to an end, they seem to be intensifying. Israel has now expanded its Ground Operations in Southern Lebanon on saying it is targeting the infrastructure of hezbollah, also carrying out bombardments in beirut, raising concern among doctors and the united nations about the medical situation and what they see as the indiscriminate bombing, although israel says it is only targeting senior officials and their operations. The work goes on, the ceasefire doesnt seem any closer and in the coastal enclave, month after month, every senior Aid Official around The World has said it has the. The situation is more desperate and devastating than anywhere else it has seen in The World. The biggest Aid Agency of the united nations working in gaza for many decades is the united nations work organisation and we are joined by the commissioner general. Joining me now is Philippe Lazzarini Commissioner general of unrwa. Thank you for having me. You have watched thank you for having me. You have watched closely thank you for having me. You have watched closely day in and day out what has happened inside gaza, in the humanitarian situation. How would you describe it now . We soon have would you describe it now . Soon have exhausted our vocabulary to describe what has happened, this more has been the more of all the superlatives, look at the civilians who have been killed, the level of destruction, the number of times people have been moved around, and basically there is a post apocalyptic atmosphere prevailing right now in gaza where people are just in automatic mode, confronting death, disease and hunger, hunger which has been man made in the gaza strip. Hunger which has been manmade in the gaza strip. In the gaza strip. Explain to us how dire in the gaza strip. Explain to us how dire the in the gaza strip. Explain to us how dire the food in the gaza strip. Explain to l us how dire the Food Situation is. Your un figures say 97 of gazans are facing Food Crisis levels of food insecurity. There had been concerns of famine like conditions, if not even famine itself in northern gaza. Have you been able to get enough food to prevent that spectre of famine . The short answer is spectre of famine . The short answer is we spectre of famine . The short answer is we have spectre of famine . The short answer is we have not spectre of famine . The short answer is we have not been i answer is we have not been able, it is dependent on assistance. A couple of months ago we were very close to a famine situation, there have been a number of alarms, we have been able to attract a number of tracks into gaza, but since eight few months ago, the number has decreased. We have no Food Relief items entering any more, into the north, and into the south, a quarter of the level of what we used to do at peak time few months ago. You are facing unprecedented conditions on the ground, but also unprecedented challenges to the survival of your own organisation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear, and you recognise this, that he would like to shut down unwra. He sees it, to use his expression, is riddled by members of hamas. How big is that threat . Do you get enough support from other partners to keep going . Support from other partners to Kee Uuoin . ,. , keep going . First, we have been totally disregarded keep going . First, we have been totally disregarded in keep going . First, we have been totally disregarded in the keep going . First, we have been totally disregarded in the gaza. Totally disregarded in the gaza strip. If you look at the number of killed, 70 were destroyed, some were people seeking united Nations Protection and have been killed. In addition, there is a political aim, the Risk And Threat is very high to besmirch the agency. Lifting the privilege and immunities and even labelling it as a terrorist organisation, which would be unprecedented from eight un Member State to label un agency, mandated by the international community, the un general assembly, as a terrorist organisation. There will be, if this is implemented, operational implications. Such as who will divide education to the girls and boys deeply traumatised in gaza . There is an urge to bring them back in an educational environment and on the unwra can do it in the absence of a Functioning State or administration. Only unwra can do it. Do administration. Only unwra can do it. Administration. Only unwra can do it can do it. Do you feel you are caettin can do it. Do you feel you are getting sopport can do it. Do you feel you are getting sopport at can do it. Do you feel you are getting support at the can do it. Do you feel you are| getting support at the highest levels of the united nations and other capitals around The World, including in britain, to ensure the organisation survives . Ensure the organisation survives . , , survives . This pretty the secretary survives . This pretty the Secretary General survives . This pretty the Secretary General has survives . This pretty the Secretary General has been | survives . This pretty the Secretary General has been very active, he has written a letter to the prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighting the impact of the decision should it be implemented, it is not just operational but legal. It would be in total contradiction with the un charter, and also in contradiction with the un general mandate, as well as the latest decision which has made the occupation illegal. But it would also have political consequences because if we accept this to happen in the context of palestine and israel, this will open Pandoras Box for this to be implemented anywhere else, and it would be a weakening of our common instrument of the multilateral system that we are mobilising Member States, receiving support. Is it enough . Not yet, but we will continue to galvanise our Member States. Commissioner aeneral Member States. Commissioner general of Member States. Commissioner general of unwra, Member States. Commissioner general of unwra, thank Member States. Commissioner general of unwra, thank you | general of unwra, thank you very much forjoining us to outline the stack challenges facing the organisation itself, but also facing the challenges of getting even basic food to the people of gaza in the midst of a more on the ground are more than 60 of the infrastructure of gaza lying in ruin. We will follow all the latest, both humanitarian, military and political departments from here, but back to you in london. Thank you very much. We will take you back to the skyline, this is a report that the bbc by the mayor Of Beirut who said there is no safe place left in the city. He says that intense israeli bombing of certain areas means potential israeli targets have now spread out around the city. He says you do not know who is living in that building what this building, so you do not know if there is a target there. You can see more of his comments on the live page on the Bbc News Website And Bbc app. Around The World and across the uk. This is Bbc News. Lets turn now to the us where the Gulf Coast is preparing for another potentially catastrophic storm as Hurricane Milton barrels towards florida. Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of the states west coast. The mayor of tampa has warned residents to leave now telling them if you choose to stay, you will die. These satellite pictures showjust how enormous milton has become over the past 2a hours. The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday Night or early Thursday Morning people living in Madeira Beach were boarding up their homes and businesses, in preparation for what is currently a category 4 hurricane. In the past Hour Florida Governor Ron Desantis has been giving a Press Briefing heres what he had to say. Wherever it makes landfall, theres going to be impacts far beyond what the cone actually shows. Now we have made, as i mentioned yesterday, pre Landfall Declaration requests from fema. Federal government has approved a portion of our request. There are going to be Landfall Requests for major Disaster Declaration and individual assistance, and we anticipate those being approved as well. We have 51 counties currently under a state of emergency. A hurricane and climate Change Expert at florida Gulf Coast university explained why this hurricane achieved such intensity in such a short space of time. ~. , , of time. We have been seen creater of time. We have been seen greater than of time. We have been seen greater than average of time. We have been seen greater than average sea. Greater than average Sea Surface temperatures across the atlantic since 2023, so that is a lot of feel for these storms, so if we are just considering the thermodynamics alone, then we would expect to see stronger storms. But there are still quite a bit we do not understand about Climate Change, the actual effects of Climate Change and the atmospheric conditions for Storm Genesis and help storms persist. So the instability of the atmosphere is really important, and we are not really sure how Climate Change affects the instability. This season we saw a warm upper Level Layer of air that has been suppressing strong development, and we have also seen quite a bit of african dust. Those things come into play and are really important. We also have high amounts of water vapour, especially in the mid topics there right now and Thatis Mid Topics there right now and that is really good for storm development. There is a lot of complexity there, but certainly the conditions were quite perfect for milton. He formed over very warm Sea Surface temperatures and very little wind here during that element phase. Development phase. We will have more on the Hurricane Rate this hour. Ken mccallum the head of the Uk Intellegency agency, mi5 has given a rare Public Speech outlining the complex set of threats to uk national security. He said there had been a marked rise in State Backed Threats from Russia And Iran, who he said were using organised criminals to do their work for them in britain. Since January 2022 we and our close colleagues in the police have had to deal with 20 iran backed potentially lethal plots against british citizens or uk residents. That is a pretty unprecedented thing for us to be dealing with many of those threats are being presented by criminal proxies, the iranian state is comfortable state is Co Mforta ble commissioning, state is comfortable commissioning, weather they be international Drug Dealers or low level crooks to try and do their dirty work. With me is our security correspondent, frank gardner. Give us a sense of the type of threats he was talking about. Only talking about everything from terrorism to cyber attacks . From terrorism to cyber attacks . ,. � , attacks . Pretty much. Lets Break Attacks . Pretty much. Lets ioreakthis attacks . Pretty much. Lets break this down. Attacks . Pretty much. Lets break this down. When attacks . Pretty much. Lets break this down. When it i attacks . Pretty much. Lets break this down. When it comes to State Backed Threats he was accusing Russia And Iran over anybody else and saying because we are on to them in terms of their diplomats and spies who have nearly been expelled, because of that, those states are turning to proxy groups, to criminal underworld gangs to do theirjob for them, he says. In theirjob for them, he says. In the case of russia, 750 russian diplomats and spies have been expeued diplomats and spies have been expelled from europe since the start of the full Scale Invasion two and half years ago of ukraine. And he specifically accused the gru which is russias military intelligence, the same people accused of doing the salisbury and Up Poisonings in march 2018, of trying to sell meehan on the streets of the uk and europe. With iran, the last time i went to one of these over a year ago, he talked about ten plots to attack iranian nationals or journalists in this country who were hostile to the regime, as it were. And he said that figure is now 20. Together they have detected 20 plot to kidnap, attack or intimidate or Issue Death threats to iranian journalists and dissidents in this country. I did ask him weather there had been any specific threats to Uk Military or political or public figures by russian threats and he said no, they tended to be towards people who they considered to be dissidents from their own country. Be dissidents from their own count. ,. , be dissidents from their own count. , country. He also said the security country. He also said the Security Agency country. He also said the Security Agency was country. He also said the l Security Agency was seeing country. He also said the Security Agency was seeing far too many cases where young people are being drawn into terrorism. Tell us more about that. ,. ,. , terrorism. Tell us more about that. ,. , that. He said that has absolutely that. He said that has absolutely ballooned. That. He said that has absolutely ballooned. One in eight of all the Uk Terror investigation now involve minors, to children under the age of 18. Why . He said because it is easy for them to access material online, weather it is social area websites, but especially social area. And they are not equipped to know what is right or wrong, what is truth or simply false information and fake news. That is a worrying trend that they are having to deal with that. He did talk about the Gaza Effect and the risk of that leading to terrorism here because of the appalling casualties there and now in lebanon. He said they were very alert to that risk, but there have been one or two isolated cases, for example a man was stabbed in hartlepool, a 70 year old, but it hasnt so far turned into something big yet, but he did Say Islamic State are seeking to export once more terrorism, that they had gone relatively quiet in the week the physical defeat of the week the physical defeat of the caliphate few years ago, but now they are back resurgent and looking to capitalise on anger over the middle east. Thank you very much. Here, conservative mps will vote this afternoon to whittle down the number of candidates in the partys Leadership Contest from four to three. The contenders still in the race are kemi badenoch, robertjenrick, James Cleverly and tom tugendhat. The new leader will be announced next month. Live now to westminster and our political correspondent, helen catt. Hello, we are going to see actually a pretty quick sequence, whittling down from four to three, then from three to two. ,. , four to three, then from three to two. ,. ,. , to two. Yes, that is what we are getting to two. Yes, that is what we are getting this to two. Yes, that is what we are getting this week. To two. Yes, that is what we | are getting this week. Today to two. Yes, that is what we i are getting this week. Today is the vote that whittled them down from four to three, voting closes at 3pm and we will get the result of that at half past three. There is a conservative mps. It is not expected that Rishi Sunak will vote and it is not expected bob blackman, who chairs the committee who is running this process, will vote, so hundred and 19 votes theoretically up for grabs between the four candidates who are currently left in. The rules are pretty simple, whoever gets the lowest numbers of votes will be eliminated and then there will be a further round of voting tomorrow, which will whittle it down further to just two candidates, and those two candidates will be put to a vote of conservative members. We are talking about a couple of candidates who are more on the right of the party and a couple more centrist would be the right description of the four candidates remaining, so where do people think, or what does that tell us about the direction in which the party might go . It direction in which the party might go . Direction in which the party might go . Direction in which the Party Miauhto . ,. , might go . It depends which one is chosen as might go . It depends which one is chosen as to might go . It depends which one is chosen as to which might go . It depends which one is chosen as to which way might go . It depends which one is chosen as to which way the i is chosen as to which way the party is likely to move. You are right to identify that you have got to who are more centrist, that is James Cleverly and tom tugendhat, and two more to the right of the party in Robertjenrick And Kemi badenoch. Robertjenrick has gone quite hard on immigration and policies to deal with that. Tom tugendhat has also set a limit, a cap on the number of migrants even want to see. It is not a straight split on those issues, but that is broadly where the set. In the past, and certainly conventionally, the membership are generally seen to be a bit more to the right than to the centre, so we would expect to wait and see who will go through to the final two to get the vote from the members. That result in pretty the vote from the members. That result in pretty soon. The vote from the members. That result in pretty soon. It result in pretty soon. It remained intact for centuries, but a patch of snow believed to be the longest lasting in the uk has disappeared for the fourth consecutive year as a result of our warming climate. The information located in the Scottish Cairngorms is known as the sphinx and has been monitored since the 1700s, most recently by Citizen Scientist Ian Cameron who has been documenting his latest visit to the site. It documenting his latest visit to the site. ,. , documenting his latest visit to the site. ,. ,. , the site. It is a pilgrimage, ou are the site. It is a pilgrimage, you are walking the site. It is a pilgrimage, you are walking through i the site. It is a pilgrimage, l you are walking through this sacred landscape, and when you can go no further, you come to here and it is like the altar. This is the holy of holy, as far as this researcher is concerned. Where the sphinx is located is the most isolated corridor in the cairngorms. For the uninitiated it can be a tricky place to deal with getting to, to start off with we have a six mile bike journey. Then we deposit the bikes and to weichel about a 2000 foot climb onto a plateau and from there another mile and and from there another mile and a half across the plateau and then we drop into a steep gully, using a bit of rope that drops down into the quarry, so it is an expedition to get here. Wow. We are literally just in the nick of time. The sphinx is tiny. I wasnt sure actually it was still going to be here, it is but barely and it is not going to last past nightnight. This is the patch of snow that, historically speaking, was known to endure through decades and decades even hundreds of years without melting. 1933 was the first time it melted, and then again in 1959 so 26 years later. What weve seen in the last ten years is unprecedented. So it disappeared in 2017, 2018, 2021, � 22, � 23 and � 24, this is whats left. The direction of travel is obvious. The sphinx is no longer persisting anything like the way it used to do. This is really significant because it is the place that has been monitored the longest. Im not a climatologist in fact, im not even an academic. I do this as i would classify it as citizen science. So me and people like me will go out, well record it and well write about it for the royal meteorological society. Its like coming to see an old relative you know, you hope that when you get over the hill, its going to be in good nick and a fair size, but. Inevitably, more and more, youre actually quite sad because its generally a lot smaller than youd hope it would be. It seems, at least to me, very clear that this is a direct and visual impact of what Climate Change is actually doing. An interesting snapshot and that reporting by Citizen Scientist Ian Cameron. Hello there. We havent seen a great deal of sunshine today, and with a lot of cloud continuing through the rest of the day, weve got some further showers or some longer spells of rain, even the chance of some thundery downpours in Southern Parts of england and wales. But at least for the moment, its mild. The highest temperatures will be for england and wales. Widely 16 degrees, could again make 18 or 19 in East Anglia and the south east, but therell be some further heavy, perhaps thundery, downpours for england and wales into the evening. It does become a bit drier later in the night, but theres more cloud and some patchy Rain Affecting Scotland and perhaps for a while into Northern Ireland as well. And with a lot of cloud, its going to be difficult to see the Meteor Shower overnight. It does indicate a mild night. Lows of 7 or 8 degrees in scotland. Heading into tomorrow, some showers will develop in england and wales. Not as many or as heavy as today, but a stronger wind developing in the north will blow more Rain Southwards Across Eastern Scotland into the North East of england, Western Scotland and for much of the day Northern Ireland should be drier, but its going to feel colder in northern areas and across the Board Temperatures are going to be a bit lower than today 16 in the southeast, where the winds are light, but heading to scotland and Northern Ireland, were getting a northerly wind developing here. Weve got some stronger winds, though, around biscay on wednesday. That area of low pressure contains remnants of ex hurricane kirk. Its going to be missing us, but as it slides up towards scandinavia, it allows that northerly wind to push colder Air Right the way down across the whole of the country for thursday. And its certainly going to be a chilly start out there. Many places could be dry on thursday with some sunshine. Weve got a few showers around these exposed coasts, and the strongest of the winds will be around the North Sea Coast as well. So a particularly cold feel here, but temperatures are going to be lower everywhere. Were looking at ten degrees in the Central Belt of scotland, perhaps 12 in Southern Parts of england and wales. So quite a drop from what were seeing at the moment. Heading into friday, and that northerly wind will have changed. Weve got lighter winds for many parts of the country, a westerly breeze in scotland bringing in cloud and some rain elsewhere. Its likely to be dry with some sunshine, a chilly start again, maybe some Mist And Fog and temperatures 11 or 12 degrees. And over the weekend, temperatures may rise just a little bit, but not very much. Scotland, Northern Ireland more likely to see some rain. Much of england and wales will be dry through the weekend with some sunshine and a bit of Mist And Fog. Bell rings applause live from New York at the opening bell, this is business today. Wall street opens higher as surging Oil Prices pull back. China slams new tariffs on brandy from the European Union are two of The Worlds biggest Trade Blocs heading for a full blown Trade War . And as uber rolls out new options to let customers choose electric rides we talk to the boss, Ceo Dara khosrowshahi. Plus, pepsi loses its fizz. The soft drinks and Snacks Giant says it will cut prices as american consumers tighten their belts. Welcome to business today, live from New York, i m michelle fleury. Live from New York, The Worlds biggest trade a row between two of