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Transcripts For BBCNEWS The Media Show 20240612

which is straight after this programme. hello. welcome to the media show. well, on this week's programme, we've talked about a couple of subjects which are pretty familiar to us on the media show, but they're no less pressing because of that. one is howjournalists should cover donald trump — and of course, he's trying to become president of america again — and the other is about the business models of news, because they are under ever more pressure. and when it comes to the business model, we are also looking at al and journalism, because several news organisations have done recent deals with the big tech firms. so that is all coming up. on this week's programme, we're going to hearfrom andrew neil, who has a brand—new show on times radio. he's also the chairman of the spectator group. and we'rejoined by caroline waterston, the relatively new editor in chief of the daily mirror. yeah, we've also got two guests coming out of the states — one, katie notopoulos, who's the senior tech and business correspondent at business insider. but the first person we spoke to isjeffrey goldberg, who is editor in chief of the atlantic. and we started off by asking him just to sum up what the atlantic is. how is that even possible? on the rare... just in case people don't know, it's a 167—year—old magazine founded in boston. 1s... — 1850s, before the civil war. politics, culture, literature, remains committed to those coverage areas today. but we try to explain america to itself to some degree. i think that's one of our purposes. we have a monthly magazine with a large subscriber base. we have a million subscribers, including digital subscribers. we reach a pretty wide array of people across the us and other parts of the english—speaking world. and i think i'm right in saying you're privately owned by emerson collective, which is an organisation set up by laurene powelljobs, widow of the apple founder stevejobs. just explain to us how that works. yeah. laurene and emerson collective bought the atlantic seven years ago. it works, knock on wood, wonderfully well. she's a great owner. we have complete editorial independence. she's very supportive of the mission, as is the whole organisation. we're a for—profit organisation, although emerson collective has a for—profit and a not—for—profit, separate wings. we are profitable on our own, which is a good thing and fairly rare these days. i'm just thinking about... i've been thinking about the washington post a lot of the last couple of days... well, we definitely want to ask you about some of the announcements at the washington post. and we want to ask you about your route to profitability, because that was one of the reasons we were so interested to have you on the programme. before we get into the details of what you've done at the atlantic, ijust — with katie's help as well, and a guest who'sjoining us — want to put what the atlantic is trying to do and what all publications in the news arena are trying to do in some context. yes, because katie notopoulos is from business insider, and ijust thought it'd be useful if she just gave us a recap on the structural problems facing the industry. because, katie, you know, as has already been mentioned, much of this comes back to advertising, doesn't it? right. so one of the biggest problems isjust that| digital advertising — - which was what supported journalism for many . decades or centuries — has sort of dried up. facebook and google are very effective at being digital- advertisers, and they've just sucked up a lot of the - ad dollars out there. so if you're a brand i like pepsi, it's easier to put your dollars somewhere else than to run an ad - in a publication. and that has really affected . the industry across the board. and you obviously... there's a lot of other| factors going on, just the rise of digital, - and therefore print is not as popular as it used to be. but i think... you know, there are some bright i spots, and there's reason to be i hopeful about the state - ofjournalism and being able to sustain media businesses. katie, thank you. jeffrey goldberg from the atlantic, let's bring you back in. you launched your online paywall in 2019. tell us about that decision and what's happened since. yeah, well, it turned out to be excellent timing, because the pandemic hit the next year and advertising bottomed out. we're holding our own on advertising. we have good people doing it. and, you know, it's not going to be the primary source of revenue for this company going into the future. we've switched, actually, since 2019. we're now majority... you know, the bulk of our revenue comes from subscriptions, the consumer business, not advertising, but advertising is still an important part. but we launched this paywall. i mean, obviously, we're a print... we've been a print magazine since the 1850s. we've had long experience of being a subscription—based organisation. when we entered the internet in a big way in the mid '90s, late '90s, obviously programmatic ad revenue, other forms of advertising, became huge for us. but we finally decided, the company finally decided in 2019 to launch a paywall for a digital product. and thank god we did, because a combination of pandemic news and trump news really accelerated our growth in the next couple of years. and that brought us, we just crossed a million subscribers total. half of those... roughly half of those subscribers are print and digital and half — roughly half — are digital only. all news organisations are diversifying the type of content that they're making. i wonder, aside from the trademark atlantic long articles which many people will know, what else you offer digital subscribers? well, we have a daily report. you know, we're not building a second newsroom, or a third newsroom in the washington post case, for tiktok videos or whatever it is that they're doing... you don't sound overly impressed, jeffrey. no, i'm just feeling generally dyspeptic today. so you're just getting... just getting a general vibe. hopefully, that's nothing to do with you coming on the media show! god, no. glad to hear it. just checking. this is the only meeting i'm looking forward to today. sorry, we interrupted you. no, no, no. it's ok. i'd rather make jokes than talk about the business ofjournalism. i think that... so when i started as editor eight years ago, you know, all i wanted to do, and i have, you know, laurene's100% backing on this, make highest—qualityjournalism, because highest—quality journalism is the only thing that people will pay for. you know, if we had put all of our eggs in the programmatic ad revenue basket, we'd be in bad shape, and so on. and so i think doubling down on what you do best, and doubling down on making a unique... unique stories that people will actually pay you for to read is the way to go. and so we have a much more... you know, obviously, 30 years ago, before the internet, the atlantic came out, it was a, you know, more leisurely—paced thing. today, we publish every day. we publish, you know, every hour in busy times. but we're still trying to maintain that level of quality and differentiation so that we can convince readers to become subscribers... i'm going to pause you there, sorry, just to bring in andrew neil, because some of this with your spectator hat on must be sounding quite familiar. jeffrey's talking about a million subscribers. how... you're a subscription model as well? we are a subscription model. the spectator has about 100,000 subscribers in the uk, 20,000 in america, because we just launched there, and about 12,000 in australia. if you get the business model right, the digital age can be a golden age forjournalism and publications like atlantic monthly and the spectator. but you need to get it right, and you need to realise that the old business models will bankrupt you. so when i took over the spectator in 2005, 65% of our revenues came from advertising. today, it's less than 10%. advertising is only our third—biggest revenue stream. we've had to seek new revenue streams. we put a very tough paywall up about 12, 14 years ago. 80% of our revenues now come from subscription. and it's a wonderful business model, because subscription revenues are predictable. i know within 5% plus or minus what's coming in this year, because i know the renewal rate, i know what the marketing will produce, and it's not subject to the economic cycle, unlike advertising, which is highly unpredictable. so you get that right and you're a golden age. the poster child of all this, of course, is the new york times, which now has nine million subscribers, more foreign correspondents than it's ever had in its history. and they got in early, didn't they? that was part of it. they got in early, as some of us did too. the times and the sunday times in this country are now highly profitable on the subscription model. and then you need to look, in addition to subscription revenue, for other streams of revenue, streams that you would never have thought of before. so, for example, of course, you still take some advertising. you take very little programmatic. because here's the problem — if you're a subscription model, you're providing a premium website, and you don't want your website punctuated by endless ads for things that you have no control over. so you really need to control that. and you're talking about digital dimes in terms of programmatic, but instead, you do newsletters, you do podcasts, you have spectator tv and other ventures like that. and above all, our second—biggest stream of revenue — events _ we do events that expand the brand and bring in a ton of money. ok, caroline waterston, i want to bring you in because this presumably isn't sounding very familiar to you because it isn't something that you're doing at the mirror. have you ever thought about subscription? have you ever thought about a paywall? it's not on the mirror's agenda. i mean, certainly from my point of view and from the mirror's point of view, you know, i believe that our content should be available to a wide community and not just those that can afford it. you know, we are a news brand. i want to ensure that everyone has access to our content, and certainly it's not on our agenda. but what does that mean financially? you're taking a hit. do you believe...? i mean, are...? are you essentially of the belief that a paywall — is this too dramatic, a paywall is a threat to democracy? is that how you see it? no, it's just not on our agenda at the moment. that's because it doesn't work. we talked... well... for red—top tabloids, it doesn't work. the sun tried it and had to abandon it. you know, it's different with atlantic, spectator, times, sunday times, financial times... people are willing to pay. ..new york times. people are willing to pay for that kind ofjournalism. the problem with what we used to call the red—top tabloids is that people won't pay for it digitally. of course, in the old days, they paid for it by putting their money down to buy the paper. but it seems that a lot of that kind of content, they think they can already get almost for free on the net. so they're not... it's a... of allthe... you know, all of our industry — from the top to the bottom — has had to withgo digital waves of change. the toughest part of the market to get right is the red—top tabloid part of the market, because the subscription model doesn't work. caroline? yeah. and, look, good—quality journalism is exactly what we want to do. but good—quality journalism shouldn'tjust be available to those that can afford to pay it. so, yes, we are an ad model. ads help fund...ourjournalism. and certainly... that's where we are at the moment. in terms of the experience of the user, the digital user of yourjournalism, do you have any concerns that the proliferation of adverts, which you need in order to fund the work you're doing, lessens the experience? look, it's something i think about every day, but, you know, ads are a part of life, and certainly from the mirror's point of view, we have to produce good—quality journalism, and ads help us do that. 0k. let's bring you back in, jeffrey goldberg, because what about your experience in the us, particularly relating to donald trump, who we know back in 2016 drove huge levels of news and news—related content consumption? are you seeing the same thing this time around? 2016 and 2020. i wouldn't say... well, first of all, we have a much tougher paywall, so that limits the sort of explosive numbers that you would have seen 2020, 2016, in particular. i think there's also fatigue. you know, these are... these are characters in now what would be called a long—running drama, right? trump and biden as well. i think there is some fatigue with it. all that being said, yeah, there's... there's obviously an unusual election taking place. i'm trying to use the most anodyne words possible. there's a consequential election taking place and people are... our kind of reader in particular is going to be very engaged in it. but, you know — and i think this is a lesson from the washington post in a way — you can'tjust assume that political news will continually spike for you. i mean, you have to do the thing that's the right thing to do for your publication. it's mission first. and if you forget that, you're going to lose your subscribers eventually anyway. butl... we're not going to see the same crazy numbers that we saw in the past. but obviously, this is not a normal election. and trump does draw an extraordinary amount of attention. i want to ask you further about trump, but you've alluded to the washington post a couple of times. we should say that on monday, sally buzbee, we heard, was leaving her role as the washington post's executive editor, to be replaced by robert winnett from the daily telegraph. and will lewis, who's the ceo of the washington post, said, "we are losing large amounts of money. "your audience. this is to staff. "your audience has halved in recent years. "people are not reading your stuff. "i can't sugar—coat it any more." so the washington post is looking to change its strategy. but coming back more broadly to donald trump, this is a question we've asked a number of times on the media show over the years, but it doesn't make it any less pressing. you've called the election consequential and unusual — i'm sure there are other words you would use, too. how do you, as the editor of a hugely consequential magazine and publication in the us, approach the challenge of covering donald trump? and i'm interested to ask andrew and caroline the same question afterwards. you know, we... we had this problem in 2016, where we were trying to... you know, we were following the old rules, you know, to some degree, which is... and the old rules were the old rules of coverage, what people would call "both—sider—ism..." the old rules worked...when you had candidates who operated within certain lanes, lanes of self—restraint, lanes of adherence to democratic norms, when candidates felt shame and repositioned themselves based on feedback, regarding the things that they do. you know, the most important thing for me, and, you know, we try to get it right, and a lot of other people are trying to get it right, and a lot of people are trying to catch up — the most important thing is that we describe things plainly. right? not euphemise, because donald trump's behaviour is so novel — i mean, it's not novel any more, but it's still novel historically — and that... you know, and that we don't become... and this is what i'm always encouraging our staff about. we don't normalise to this. our own, you know... "oh, well, trumpjust said that, you know, "the north korean dictator's head is made of cheese." "oh, who cares? "he always says stuff like that." no, and we have to do it every... we have to report the oddness, whenever it erupts, and that... by the way, this means... we're notjoining the resistance. we neverjoined the resistance, which means we also questionjoe biden�*s capacities, for instance... that's how you're approaching it at the atlantic. i wonderfor the daily mirror here in the uk, caroline, how do you...? do you approach donald trump like any other politician? or are there particular things you tell your colleagues — "look, we have to be careful here"? look, trump is an interesting character, but at the weekend, you'll hopefully have seen we actually had the world exclusive of stormy daniels, post—everything that happened last week. and, you know, the content that comes out of trump in his everyday life and how he acts, i mean, it creates brilliant, brilliant content for our audience... that's honest. yeah. andrew, let me bring you in here now, because we have senior british executives at the wall streetjournal, the washington post, cnn and bloomberg news. what do you make of this exodus of senior british editors in the direction of the us? bbc too. mark thompson... mark thompson, former bbc... ..is at cnn and was at the new york times. of course, we always put ourselves down, but british journalism is vibrant and dynamic and hugely successful. and we know how to write and we know how to write concisely. well, not for the first time on the media show, we've been talking about artificial intelligence, and the item that we're going to see now is all about search results that are being produced by new ai products. yeah, this is quite a fun one because google has got a new search called ai overview, a search product, and it is coming up in some cases with some pretty crazy results. and i started by asking katie notopoulos, who's the senior tech and business correspondent of business insider, tojust explain how it all works. so it's not on every single search, it's only on certain searches, typically ones that are sort of asking a specific question versus, you know, searching somebody's name or something like that. and it basically gives you a little bit of... maybe a couple sentences, a little paragraph, maybe a few bullet points that essentially answers your question. and this is probably very useful for most searches most of the time. but it was initially sort of riddled with laughable errors. i mean, one of the things that i do know that you did — this really is dedication to yourjob — you made a pizza with glue and ate it. just explain why you did that. slightly gimmicky. i'm assuming it was for a piece. it was. piece of pizza! americanjournalists are ready... all in the line of duty. ..to undertake these big challenges. laughter. yeah, some people have to cover donald trump's trial. some people have to eat pizza with glue on it. right... basically sounds like i the same thing, really. exactly. laughter. one of the sort of silly answer that was going most viral on social media was someone had asked, "how do i get "the glued cheese to not slide off my pizza?" and google suggested, you know, let the pizza cool for a while. and then it also said, "add one eighth of a cup of glue to the sauce." so you're the only person in america who did it... ..it had sourced that little piece of information from a reddit comment that had suggested that — obviously — as a joke. and everyone on reddit at the time, when they were reading it, could understand in context that the person was making a joke that to keep the cheese from sliding off your pizza, you should add glue to the sauce. google sort of couldn't understand that this was satire, that it was a joke... so, not great. i mean, ijust should bring in... well, google have said about this, because they've told the bbc, these were "isolated examples, "generally very uncommon queries, and they aren't "representative of most people's experiences, and that the vast majority," it says, of ai overviews, "provide high—quality information with links to dig "deeper on the web." and it said it's taken action where policy violations were identified and it was using them to refine its systems. just in the last couple of minutes of the programme, let me ask a further question about al, and it comes down to when big organisations that have content, like the atlantic or the spectator or the mirror, decide whether or not to share all of that content with the big language models that are training generative ai. and jeffrey at the atlantic, jeffrey goldberg, you've cut a deal with openai. tell us about the discussions within the atlantic, whether you were weighing up whether to do that or not. well, ijust have to be technically clear about something. the editorial team has independence from the business side of this operation, but the business side has independence from the editorial side. and this was a decision made by the corporation and by our business leadership to do this. and so...i was certainly told about it, and i was...invited to share my views on it, but, you know, i... what are your views on it? well, i have my ambivalence about it. i mean, i don't want to... i forget who was saying this before, but, you know, the internet has — turns out — been great for a place like the atlantic. we reach many, many more people than we used to because of the internet. i don't want to be, you know, sort of axiomatically luddite about this sort of thing and say, "ai is only a threat," but i have my deep ambivalences about...ai and what it's going to do tojournalism — and also, by the way, humanity and the future of our planet. all that being said, ai is coming whether or not i want it to come. and it's a little bit like, to me, complaining about the weather. the weather doesn't care that i don't like it. so i've got to dress for the weather, and "dressing for the weather" in this case means trying to figure out a way to have a relationship with openai, in which openai doesn't eat you for lunch. let me just ask quickly caroline and andrew — very quickly, if you would. caroline, how's the daily mirror viewing the idea of sharing its content with these ai, these big ai operators? we wouldn't... - we wouldn't want to. you're not planning to do that yet? no, we're not- planning to do that. and the spectator? we won't do that until we know a lot more about it. if it's another potential stream of revenue that doesn't carry risks, that's one thing. but we need to know a lot more. for me, the al's biggest opportunity is on the commercial side. i think a lot of the ai can help us run the company commercially much better. we can learn more about our readers, about usage of the app, usage of the website. all that sort of thing is fine, but forthe moment, i'll keep editorial separate. and i'lljust add, the new york times is taking a very different approach to this. it's not collaborating with openai. in fact, it's suing for the theft of its content. so we're going to watch how that plays out. and i was at the enders—deloitte media conference yesterday, where anna bateson, who runs the guardian, said they would do a deal with an ai company, but only on the right terms. so there you go. well... something to end on, because that is all we have time for, i'm afraid. thank you so much to katie notopoulos from business insider and, of course, andrew neil from times radio, but also the spectator. and caroline waterston, editor in chief of the mirror, and jeffrey goldberg, editor in chief of the atlantic. well, thanks very much indeed to all of our guests. fascinating to hear their perspectives on all those issues. i suspect it won't be the last time we turn to ai, to business models of news, to covering donald trump, but it was very interesting to hear from all of them. i think you're right. thank you so much to everybody. that was the media show. we'll be back at the same time next week. bye. bye— bye. and if you'd like to hear a longer version of today's show, search "bbc the media show" wherever you get your bbc podcasts. hello there. wind coming from the north at times. temperatures are struggled to get into double figures but a slightly different story further south and west, just look at anglesey, a beautiful afternoon and lots of sunshine. temperatures peaking at 18 or 19 degrees. high—pressure continuing its way in from the west, west is the best for tuesday, likely to be a few showers around but hopefully if you would far between. most frequently will be across is in scotland and eastern england. sunny spells and scattered showers going into the afternoon, having an impact with a temperature, but again with a temperature, but again with more shelter and sunshine, 17 or 18 degrees is not out of the question. scattered showers moving their way through northern ireland and scotland, hopefully they will ease over the afternoon. you can see the temperatures are still struggling. 10— 15 degrees at the best. going into wednesday, the best. going into wednesday, the high—pressure will continue to kill off the showers, so wednesday is likely to be the driest day of the week and make the most of it, more rain to come. a chilly start once again for wednesday morning, single figures right across the country, low single figures in auroral spots. hopefully the showers will be few and far between and more favoured spots for the showers once again to the east. more sunshine to the west. temperature is generally similar to what we have seen all week, 10— 80 degrees. the wind will change as we move into thursday, unfortunately towards the end of the week the low pressure will take over and we will see spells of rain at times, some heavy but the wind direction it will play its part. a southwesterly wind means we are the temperatures are climbing a degree also, do not anything to significant because we have the cloud and the rain. not out of the question in eastern england because the highs of 20 degrees. take care. live from washington. this is bbc news. hamas submits its response to a us—led ceasefire proposal, but says israel needs to commit to "completely" stopping the war. us presidentjoe biden�*s son hunter, is found guilty on all three charges in his federal gun case. and malawi's vice president, saulos chilima was killed in a plane crash, along with nine other passengers. i'm sumi somaskanda. it's great to have you with us. the white house says its evaluating an official response by hamas to the latest proposal for a truce in the gaza conflict. us presidentjoe biden submitted the proposal about 12 days ago. earliertuesday, hamas said it has a positive

Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20240612

live from washington. this is bbc news. hamas submits its response to a us—led ceasefire proposal, but says israel needs to commit to "completely" stopping the war. us presidentjoe biden�*s son hunter, is found guilty on all three charges in his federal gun case. and malawi's vice president, saulos chilima was killed in a plane crash, along with nine other passengers. i'm sumi somaskanda. it's great to have you with us. the white house says its evaluating an official response by hamas to the latest proposal for a truce in the gaza conflict. us presidentjoe biden submitted the proposal about 12 days ago. earliertuesday, hamas said it has a positive view of the plan, but wants several guarantees. citing israeli officials, two us media outlets are reporting that hamas has now rejected an israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage exchange. hamas has not confirmed the claim and said the proposal "opens up a wide pathway" to reach an agreement. from jerusalem, our middle east correspondent hugo bachega has more. hamas has expressed readiness to reach a deal, but it's sticking to its initial demands, and they include a guarantee that there will be a permanent ceasefire in gaza, and also the complete withdrawal of israeli forces from the territory. now, qatar and egypt, which have been mediating the talks, say they have received this response from hamas, and that they will co—ordinate the next steps in these negotiations with the united states. now, the deal being discussed is a three—stage plan that was announced by president biden. he described it as an israeli proposal. the first stage of this plan would see the release of hostages being held in gaza, and then pave the way for a permanent ceasefire. now, hamas wants a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire because they fear that once the hostages are out, the israeli military may return to gaza to continue with its military operation against the group. now, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had previously said that israel would not commit to an end of the war without achieving its goals of destroying hamas�*s military and governing capabilities in gaza. despite prime minister netanyahu's hardline stance that the war will not end until hamas is fully defeated, us secretary of state antony blinken says the plan has israel's backing and that it is hamas who is holding up any agreement to a plan. secretary blinken is in the region for an all—out push for a ceasefire in gaza. a day after talks with mr netanyahu — america's top diplomat travelled to jordan tuesday for an emergency humanitarian aid conference. while there he announced more than $400 million in aid for palestinians and called on others to provide more assistance. un secretary general antonio guterres also attended, and backed the truce proposal put forward by the us. his appearance came as he released his annual report on children and armed conflict, where for the first time, israeland hamas were added to the list of offenders responsible for violating children's rights. here's mr guterres discussing the crisis facing children in this war. over 50,000 children required treatment for acute malnutrition. and despite the ocean of needs, at least half of all humanitarian aid missions are denied access, impeded or cancelled due to operational or security reasons. the horror must stop. it is high—time for a ceasefire along with the unconditional release of hostages. i welcome the peace initiative recently outlined by president biden and urge all parties to seize this opportunity and come to an agreement. and on all of these developments i spoke to frank lowenstein, a former adviser to us secretary of statejohn kerry, who also previously served as us special envoy for middle east peace. i just want to get the latest here on this back and forth on this ceasefire proposal. hamas and the palestinian islamichhad saying that they had readiness to positively reach a deal. they have submitted a response to mediators. we're hearing some reports that they may have rejected it. what are your thoughts on where this all stands right now? the fundamental issue between israel and hamasjust has not been resolved and that is whether this is going to be a permanent ceasefire — which is what hamas wants — or a temporary ceasefire — which is what the israelis are willing to agree to. in effect, what you have is really both sides just trying to shift blame to other side, rather than undertaking any serious efforts to reach an agreement. i think secretary blinken is doing his best to put the onus on sinwar and hamas but it is just extremely difficult to pressure terrorists hiding in tunnels — they don't care what happens at the un, they don't care what the jordanians or the saudis or anybody else says and you heard sinwar saying today that he thinks he has the israelis right where they want them. he is going to sacrifice untold numbers of palestinians for the cause. so i think the us is coming to the point where we are at the end of the line for the ceasefire effort. isn't the point then that they can get into a temporary ceasefire that would then perhaps lead to negotiations for what the end of the war could look like? yeah, that is the premise but the problem is that the israelis have made clear in any number of different ways that they have no intention of moving to phase two. they plan for those negotiations to fail at the end of phase one and to resume the war. that is what they keep o saying, we are going to continue to prosecute the war against hamas until we have destroyed them. for hamas, they are just not willing to agree to any kind of a temporary ceasefire and they are not blind here, they understand what israelis are saying, they understand what is really going on, which is this is a short—term ceasefire at best for them and i think yahya sinwar does not want to let benjamin netanyahu and israelis off the hook. what about secretary blinken in all of this because he has continued to express optimism that this deal could reach a ceasefire, whether temporary or permanent down the road — is thatjust the secretary putting on a brave face? they are doing the absolute best they can. i have been in the same situation that secretary blinken is in right now in 2014 when we were trying to negotiate a ceasefire between israel and hamas and at the end of the day, if we want it more than they do, that he parties have a number of different ways to avoid reaching an agreement so i think the biden administration has done literally everything they possibly could to try to get the parties to agree. it's just that there is a fundamental disagreement at the core of this that remains unresolved and there is really not much more they can do to change that. the key conversation partner in the war cabinet in israel, benny gantz, has stepped down from his position which complicates things. what about where prime minister netanyahu stands because his far—right coalition partners have said they will leave the government and collapse the government indeed, if he were to accept the ceasefire deal, but there is popular pressure at home, specifically from the families of the hostages, to accept it. so it would appear he really is in a lose—lose situation in many senses? that is a great question. i think his goal is really to have hamas be blamed for the failure of the ceasefire. i do not think benjamin netanyahu really wants a ceasefire. i think he is sort of boxed in a little bit because the us has presented his own offer back to hamas so they are not able to really walk away from it but at the same time they are saying the kind of things that will make it impossible for hamas to agree, which is that they are going to continue the war, no matter what the agreement says. so i think the way bibi is trying to split the difference here is to say yes and mean no and try to keep this coalition as quite as he can so that he can put the blame on hamas. the bigger issue with benny gantz is what is going t happen in lebanon. benny was really a force of moderation inside of the war cabinet and without him there, i think some of the right—wingers, smotrich and ben—gvir, their voices will get even louder. israel killed a very senior hezbollah commander. if i was secretary blinken i would be very concerned and not just about the ceasefire in gaza but whether they are looking at another war with lebanon. one last quick question. but pressure can antony blinken still have at his disposal? we possibly played our last card. they threatened to kick out the hamas leadership. if they did not agree they threatened to get rid of the leadership. there are terrorists hiding in tunnels are prepared today and prepared to sacrifice their own people and they will continue to push as hard as they can. i do not think that will ever say we will not try anymore but i do not think they have any cards left. always great to have you on bbc news. thank you forjoining us again tonight. ukraine's far east has come under intense russian bombardment over the last few months. but now, the mayor of kharkiv says there have been fewer russian attacks ever since the us allowed ukraine to strike targets across the border using american weapons. it comes as president volodymyr zelensky is in germany to appeal for more support to protect ukrainian cities hoping to encourage european nations to invest in the country's post—war reconstruction. 0ur damien mcguinness has more details on mr zelensky�*s push for recovery efforts in berlin. thousands of delegates from all over the world were in berlin to plan the reconstruction of ukraine after the war. they include governments officials from around 60 countries, as well as business leaders, and that's because the main point of this conference is to get private investment into ukraine. politicians say that state funds are not going to be enough. no matter how many billions of euros and dollars get pumped into ukraine, they need businesses to get involved. and on the one hand, it's immediate reconstruction for bond infrastructure, for example, to provide energy, say, or water to people here and now, on the other hand, it's about rebuilding ukraine in the future, when the warfinishes. and that's more difficult because no—one knows how long this is going to last. after the conference, president zelensky went to the bundestag, the german parliament, to deliver a speech. the mps there applauded, gave him a standing ovation, it was a moving moment. but not all mps attended. mps from the far—left and the far—right boycotted president zelensky�*s speech, accusing him of escalating the war. and i think as we see national elections here in germany approaching next year, those voices on the extreme are going to get louder. mainstream germany, though, still very much supports ukraine, and they back german chancellor 0laf scholz�*s line that peace in europe is only possible if ukraine is fully supported. both mr zelensky and german chancellor 0laf scholz will attend the group of seven summit of major western powers later this week. boosting support for ukraine is top of the g7�*s agenda, and the white house said on tuesday it plans to announce new sanctions during the conference, including steps to use frozen russian assets to benefit ukraine. also later this week, switzerland will host a summit that aims to create a pathway for peace in ukraine although russia won't be in attendance. for more on ukraine's recovery and economic situation, i spoke to tymofiy mylovanov. he was ukraine's former minister of economic development and trade. look the ukraine recovery conference taking place in berlin, how is it possible for ukraine and its partners to talk about recovery and rebuilding when the war is still raging on? it is actually a resilience conference rather than recovery. and president zelensky today spoke about the priorities and one of them the first one at the conference was an offence. — air defence is needed both to protect ukrainian civilians but also to protect the economy. and you cannot have proper defence, proper resistance to russia without a viable economy. the second one was about recovery or the energy generation believes that russia has been systematically targeting, so these things are extremely interconnected. if we talk about recovery and you mention that you go's energy infrastructure just be me tara rushton attacks, this what is it possible to give us any idea of the scale of money that it would need to rebuild that infrastructure? it is a bit of a sensitive topic, but there are still numbers, for example there is recent research by the kyiv school of economics which shows the numbers in the range of $50 billion. that is what you would need to recover. in terms of the amount or the percentage of generation abilities or capacity that has been affected it is above 50%, that is what observers are saying. this is a significant amount, of course, and if we look at where the funds are going to come from, the european commission said injuly the first 1.5 billion euros of revenue from frozen russian assets will be transferred to ukraine and the white house says this will also be a topic of discussion at the g7. but ukraine's prime minister said ukraine's prime minister said ukraine will need between $10 billion and $30 billion of annual investment over the next ten years. so beyond frozen assets, where do you think those funds will be generated from? ~ ., ., ,, , from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 _ from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion - from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion and - from? well, the frozen assets actually $300 billion and so i actually $300 billion and so this is plenty. it's enough. now politicians are talking about just now politicians are talking aboutjust some proceeds which are really minuscule, almost a joke. i mean, it's great to have this 1.5 or $5 billion, but $300 billion align there. but if that resistance is overcome, these assets will be confiscated otherwise it's taxpayers' money.- confiscated otherwise it's taxpayers' money. what do you think is the _ taxpayers' money. what do you think is the most _ taxpayers' money. what do you think is the most important - think is the most important message that will be taken away from this recovery conference especially as we look ahead to the peace formula summit that will take place in switzerland this weekend?— this weekend? indeed. right after the conference, - this weekend? indeed. rightj after the conference, there'll be the peace forum meeting in switzerland focusing on three aspects — security, nuclear security, then maritime security, then maritime security and then prisoner protection and children protection. so this isjust going to go right immediately after the conference. what the conference shows is that the europeans are taking the threats from russia seriously, are willing to engage with the ukraine and support its economy. there is a lot of actual talk about the defence part of the economy, how it can be both strengthened to be resilient but also how ukraine can produce more defence equipment there. so this — this conference is this week complement each other. if you look ahead _ complement each other. if you look ahead to _ complement each other. if you look ahead to that _ complement each other. if you look ahead to that peace - look ahead to that peace formula summit, you can really want to engage the global south including, of course, china, but beijing has said it is not sending anyone to this conference, well at least that's the latest we heard from beijing. do you think that takes away from what this conference achieves?- takes away from what this conference achieves? no, i don'tthink_ conference achieves? no, i don't think so. _ conference achieves? no, i don't think so. there'll - conference achieves? no, i don't think so. there'll be l don't think so. there'll be about 100 countries participating in this summit, shows a commitment and importance of this summit. it is also important to recognise that first to build the coalition and agree on the opposition, and then you go to negotiate with the opponent. i'm not saying we're quite there yet but it's very important that, first, the countries who are on this side of the democracy and the rule of the democracy and the rule of law, they have to get together to converge on their position. together to converge on their osition. ~ ., ., i. together to converge on their osition. ~ ., ., , ., ~ position. what do you think president — position. what do you think president zelenskyy's - position. what do you think - president zelenskyy's message is going to be to countries in the global south that until now have been hesitant, perhaps, to criticise russia and to give ukraine its own full support? many of them have tried to stay out of it, at least publicly, and russia has been campaigning to put pressure on them to — if not side with russia, then not to side openly with ukraine. well, so russia is the major disruptor and destabilising factor and it will go after the global south as it sees it fit. so it's in the interest of those various countries to support the order, some kind of security and stability. plus they're very pragmatic implications. food security, russia is trying to weaponise food security especially in global south, arguing to be the only state which can provide food security which is actually not true. it's the only state which undermines food security globally. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at a story making news in the uk. historians in england have found eight perfectly preserved giant stone balls in warwickshire which they believe were catapult missiles in the year 1266. they've been found by english heritage and its believed the were used to attack kenilworth castle. historian will wyeth has been telling us about them. they would have been terrifying. historic sources talk about how once the king henry the iii set up the siege, he told his nine war machines to fire continuously for 192 days. it would have been cinematic quality siege that these stones are a part of. the seige on kenilworth castle was one of the longest in english history and happened when the country was in the grip of civil war. the occupents eventually surrendered the castle to the king. the uncovered stone projectiles range in size from 1 kilogram to 105 kilograms — or about 2 to 231 pounds. they were found while english heritage was working on a project to promote accessibility at the castle. they were able to link them to the seige because of a previous discovery at the site. you're watchling bbc news. the son of the us president is facing up to 25 years in jail, after being found guilty of lying about his drug use in order to purchase a firearm. a federaljury found hunter biden guilty on all three felony charges brought against him forfailing to disclose his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. it's the first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting us president. hunter biden�*s lawyers say they are disappointed by the verdict and will pursue legal challenges. president biden said he would respect the result, and said he and his wife, jill, were proud of hunter for overcoming his drug addiction. but special prosecutor david weiss said the case was not about addiction, but about crime. while there has been much testimony about the defendant's abuse of drugs and alcohol, ultimately this case was not just about addiction, a disease that haunts families across the united states, including hunter biden�*s family. this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction — his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun and the choice to then possess that gun. the bbc�*s carl nasman was covering the trial in delaware. i spoke to him earlier what do we know about how the jury reached this verdict? well, we know it came pretty quickly. after a week—long trial, so many different witnesses called, so much evidence introduced here it only took them about three hours of deliberation to reach that unanimous guilty verdict on all three charges here in delaware. we've also actually been speaking with one of the jurors themselves, we will keep them anonymous and call them juror number 10, and what he told us was despite the last name of the defendant in this case, politics did not play a role inside the deliberation room itself. here is some of what he told us during that interview. he said "i was never thinking of presidentjoe biden, "even though mrs biden," jill biden, the first lady, "was there in the courtroom. "somehow you block it out of your mind. "his dad was not on trial." so despite all the talk and analysis of how political this trial may be, in terms of the 12jurors, six men and six women, to them when they were in that room they tell us, at least one juror says it was not a political discussion, this was all about the facts in the case. so much attention paid to this case. what have some of the reactions to the verdict being? the reaction is getting pretty political, if you talk about the democrats, for a long time they really didn't want to discuss hunter biden and his criminal issues, his behaviour issues, that was something that was a bit embarrassing. now we're starting to hear more democratic politicians come out and really react to this, one of them, alexandria 0casio—cortez, a representative from new york, said this verdict really does a lot to disapprove former president donald trump's claims of somehow the justice system is rigged against him, is out to get him, prosecuting him in his own criminal trials. she says, hey, this son of the current sitting president has just been convicted of his own crime, that should go a long way towards disproving those claims. in terms of republicans, what some of them are saying, it has really been a mixed reaction, but they have been trying to link presidentjoe biden to his son for a long time, that rhetoric wrapping up again, a trump backer, a potential vice president candidate amongst them, calling it the biden crime family. that is something we have been hearing a lot now today and over the past few years. we have about 30 seconds left. let us know what happens next. we don't have a sentencing date yet. that is expected to come in the next 120 days or so, that is when will find out exactly what hunter biden�*s fate will be. we have heard it could be a 25—year sentence, it is likely be much less than that. looking down the line, though, not the end of hunter biden�*s legal problems. he has another criminal trial in california. that is expected to begin in september. for more analysis of the verdict, i spoke to shan wu, a former federal prosecutor. i saw you wrote a little bit earlier today, merrick garland, the attorney general, strives to run the department ofjustice without fear orfavour, but the hunter biden prosecutions exemplify him doing both. what you mean by that? merrick garland is a very honourable man, he has a tremendous fear of the department and him looking partisan, probably like a ptsd from the leftover effect of bill barr having looked very partisan as the attorney general. because of that to me and a lot of prosecutors he allowed this case to go forward in a very unusual circumstance. it is very, very rare, in fact i never heard of it before, for someone to be convicted of this crime, which is lying on the certification for possession of a gun, if the gun wasn't used in any other crime. when we see that from the original attempt to dispose of the case through something called diversion which is no criminal conviction at all. that is the sort of fear part — so worried about looking partisan so he allowed this to go forward on its own. hold on, because there was a crime committed here, correct? yes. i mean, hunter biden did fill out a form saying he wasn't using drugs and we heard throughout the course of the testimony that he was still in the throes of addiction and did put down on that form that he wasn't when he bought it. correct, yes, that's absolutely a crime. it's just one is very rarely charged if the only issue is that the person lied about being a drug addict and the gun wasn't used in any other violent crime. so what you're saying is you think the doj was pushing this case forward to give the appearance of being unbiased? yes, i wouldn't say garland was pushing it forward himself but he allowed itjust to keep going, it was a very unusual case, the investigation prosecution has lasted almost a half decade for such a minor kind of charge. the president of malawi has confirmed that vice president, saulos chilima, has been killed in a plane crash. in a sombre address to the nation, lazarus chakwera said the aircraft, which was carrying chilima, and nine others. a search and rescue team has found the aircraft near a hill in the chikangawa forest and they have found it completely destroyed, with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact. words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is and i can only imagine how much pain and anguish you all must be feeling at this time. for more on the search mission, the bbc�*s kalkidan yibeltal sent this update. the search mission has been complicated because of the landscape of the area. the aircraft was believed to be missing around the forest and because of bad weather. so, the plane was not found and even today, in the morning, the government came out and they said that because the area was foggy, they were having reduced visibility which was making their efforts difficult. however, there were fears that the plane might�*ve crashed in the forest and maybe the people on board might have died. we do not know what caused the air crash and investigations — we are waiting for the results of the investigations to come out and to tell us but we can understand now that the vice president and his fellow passengers are all killed in this incident. and there is an expectation that there could be a funeral in the coming days. before we go, a us court has found that the multi—national fruit company, chiquita brand national is liable for financing a colombian para—military group. chiquita has been ordered to pay over 38 million dollars in damages, following a civil case brought by eight colombian families whose relatives were killed by the united self—defence forces of colombia. the company says it intends to appeal the verdict. that's all for this hour. thanks for watching bbc news. stay with us. hello there. it's felt quite pleasant in any strong june sunshine. but generally temperatures have been below par for this time of year and wednesday looks pretty similar to the last few days. some spells of sunshine, variable cloud and further showers mostly across eastern areas. i think there'll be fewer showers around on wednesday because this is a ridge of high pressure, will tend to kill the showers off. the winds will be lighter, but we're still got that blue hue, that cold arctic air hanging around for at least one more day before something milder starts to push in off the atlantic, but with wind and rain. so it's a chilly start to wednesday. temperatures could be in low single digits in some rural spots. these are towns and city values. a little bit of mist and fog where skies have cleared overnight, but it's here where you'll have the best of the sunshine, northern and western areas. a bit of cloud across eastern scotland, eastern england, one 01’ two showers. through the day, it'll be one of sunshine and showers, but the clouds will tend to build most of the showers eastern areas, tending to stay drier towards the west with the best of the sunshine. so it could be up to 17 or 18 degrees in the sunniest spots, but generally cool, ten to 15 or 16 celsius. and then as we move through wednesday night, any showers fade away, lengthy, clear skies. the temperatures will tumble against mist and fog developing. temperatures in rural spots dipping close to freezing in a few places. generally, though, in the towns and cities, we're looking at 4 to eight degrees. now we'll start to see some changes into thursday. we change the wind direction, we lose that cooler air, something a bit milder. but this frontal system tied into low pressure will start to bring wet and windy weather initially into northern ireland, spreading across the irish sea, into western britain and pushing its way eastward. so we start dry with some early sunshine across eastern areas and it should stay dry, i think in eastern england, eastern scotland until after dark. we change the wind direction despite more cloud around, 17 or 18 degrees. and it means thursday night will be milder. so a milder start to friday, but low pressure across the country bring stronger winds, sunshine and showers or longer spells of rain. some of these showers will be heavy and thundery, particularly across southern and western areas. but despite that, in the sunshine, it'll feel a little bit warmer, maybe 19 or 20 degrees. not much change into the weekend, low pressure dominates the scene. it'll be breezy at times. there will be showers or longer spells of rain again, some of them heavy and thundery. but in the sunnier, brighter moments, it'llfeela bit warmer, 19 or 20 degrees. and another thing you'll notice, it will feel milder at night. take care. voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. of all the world's continents, africa is the one likely to see the greatest transformation in the course of this century. it will likely be home to almost 40% of all humanity by 2100. if, by then, africans have benefited from sustainable development, their global economic power will be enormous. if they haven't, then they could be facing cataclysmic levels of economic and environmental breakdown.

Transcripts For BBCNEWS Sportsday 20240611

hello and welcome to sports day with less than seven weeks ago until the olympics, some contenders have been an action ahead of the global extravaganza in paris. our reporter natalie pirks rounds up reporter natalie pirks rounds up the stories from the italian capital. up the stories from the italian caital. �* l, up the stories from the italian caital. �* a, , _ capital. another busy night environment _ capital. another busy night environment with - capital. another busy night environment with yet - capital. another busy night i environment with yet another gold for host italy to keep them on top of the metal table. on a british point of view, there were two medals, a silver for charlie dobson in the men's from a hundred metre and a bronze in the women's pole vault finals. charlie, another personal best in what was a fantastic season so far. that he was over the moon could not be happier to take silver in what was his first individual major 400 metre final. the race was won by relevant alexander dugina with a new championship record. molly codger came into the pole vault with the world leading height and rolled indoor champion but fell a little short by her standards and had to settle for bronze. the gold was won by switzerland, the only athlete tim clear phonic emitters and 78. she was a little disappointed after quite literally setting the bar high for herself but is dreaming about her first olympics this summer and cannot wait to get there. the women's pomegranate amid the final was a thrilling head to head down the back straight to poland atalla cataract and islands rashida at a lanky. it was close but the pole just fell clear when it mattered to win gold. the fastest time from anyone in the world this year. setting a new personal best to come second. d5 is the personal best to come second. 05 is the penultimate day and ds is the penultimate day and we have the women's 200 metre final. that is the women's 10,000 metres and women's and men's racewear pomegranate emitter hurdles and it means this crowd will get a chance to see a bone a bona fides die. —— start. i could not be happier with that. i think executed the race perfectly. exactly the way me and my coach wanted. unfortunately it was not the gold but more than happy to take silver exposure with like that. around for selection and once that is done, stay fit and healthy and we will be in paris. two make it with the top quys paris. two make it with the top guys especially once i have watched in the past is incredible. teams have arrived in germany today as euro 2024 draws closer. after acclimatising to their surroundings in their resort, the first training session for the first training session for the team will take place onto tuesday and kickoff tournament sunday against serbia. their welcome party were very excited for them to arrive. first, we are really proud to have such a team here, and i think all the people around living here in the small town are very proud to have the english team here. and my staff is quite excited, but even the english staff is now excited because they will arrive today, and everybody is waiting for the resurrection of the team, if they are satisfied and everything is ok, and it is a really big thing for us here to have the british team here, the english team here, it is really fantastic. italy arrived for their campaign on monday. italy come into the competition without the weight of the favourites tag over and come having enjoyed a tricky qualifying campaign. they have since had the misfortune of being placed in arguing the toppers group alongside heavyweights spain. experienced side creation and perhaps the dark horses. tracer are —— croatia began their campaign against spain in a tantalising tie in berlin on saturday. followed by the defending champions italy. portugal and cristiano ronaldo haven't quite left for germany yet — they are continuing preparations for euro 2024 at their their training camp outside lisbon, after losing 2—1 against croatia on saturday. portugal has one more friendly against the republic of ireland on tuesday before they start their competition against the czech republic onjune 18 in leipzig. three valencia fans have been sentenced to eight months in prison, in what is the first conviction for racism at a football match in spain. it comes as a direct result of a complaint filed by la liga. brazilian forward vinicius jr was subjected to the chants at valencia's mestalla stadium in may last year. as well as facing prison sentences the three fans were also banned from la liga matches and spain internationals for two years. la liga presidentjavier tebas called the verdict "great news for the fight against racism in spain." real madrid and manager carlo ancelotti have clarified that the champions league winners will compete at next year's club world cup despite the italian earlier saying the club would "refuse the invitation". carlo ancelotti made the comments in an interview with the italian newspaper il giornale, where he also claimed other clubs will refuse to play in the enlarged 32—team competition due to be held in the united states. ancelotti now says his comments were misinterpreted while real madrid say they'll play "with pride and with the utmost enthusiasm". our chief football news reporter simon stone has more he gave an interview in italy in which he said that real madrid would have 12 european clubs do to play in the club world cup at the end of the 24—25 season would not be participating in it because basically, they had not been offered to play in it. i spoke to the european clubs association not long after her and said they did not understand where the comments had come from, 11 of the european clubs apart from real madrid who are competing in america next year are in the eca and as far as they were concerned, they were all competing and they did not understand the comment. then real madrid put a statement out in which they said that they had never spoken about not playing in the competition and that as far as they were concerned, they would be involved and then a few moments after that, and szilagyi himself put a statement out saying, his comments had not been interpreted the way they thought he would be. i'm not sure what he thought the interpretation would be putting on them but that is what he said so real madrid along with the 11 other european clubs will be playing in the club world cup at the end of next season. the t20 world cup now. bangladesh came close to a surprise victory. bangladesh's bowlers putting on a superb display south africa to 23—4 at one stage. on a tricky pitch reaching 113 for six of their 20 overs. bangladesh make a decent run chase and slight favourites heading to blast over. this is how close they got, the six required off the lost two balls, caught on the boundary ensues away from the win. south africa in the end taking the match by four runs on the brink of qualifying for their group. and it's official, history made on monday. jannik sinner is the first italian to become men's world number one in tennis. sinner won the australian open earlier this year and secured his position at the top of the atp rankings by reaching the semi—finals of the french open, where he was beaten by eventual champion carlos alcaraz. sinner replaces novak djokovic after the serb withdrew from roland garros before his own quarter—final. the 22—year—old say there's plenty more to come. i was happy and it was some relief now of what i have dreamed of since i was little kid, it was only a dream that day and now i know i can say i am world number one, it means a lot to me. it took some time, that is for sure. but it was a very nice feeling. the meaning of world number one i think is the biggest meaning we have in our sport. it is the best number you can have and as a set already, this is everyone's dream to be in this position and obviously it is an important grand slam and masters event and to be number one in the world is an achievement, what you build in one year time and now obviously we see how much you can stay there. that's all the time we have for now. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello there. for most of us, it has been a disappointing start to the week in terms of the weather. a frequent rash of showers, particularly across scotland. gusts of winds coming from the north and in excess of 30 mile an hour at times. temperatures struggled to get into double figures, but it was a slightly different story further south and west. just look at anglesey, beautiful afternoon, lots of sunshine and temperatures peaked at around 18 or 19 degrees. high pressure is continuing to nudge its way in from the west. so west will be best through the course of tuesday. there's still likely to be a few showers around, but hopefully few and further between. most frequent showers certainly are going to be across eastern scotland and down through eastern england. so sunny spells and scattered showers going into the afternoon. that will have an impact with the temperature 14 or 15 degrees. but again, with a little more shelter, a little more sunshine, 17 or 18 celsius, not out of the question. a few scattered showers moving their way through northern ireland and scotland. hopefully some of these will ease through the afternoon, but you can see those temperatures still really struggling, ten to 15 degrees at the very best. now, as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, this little ridge of high pressure will continue to kill off the showers. so wednesday is likely to be the driest day of the week and make the most of it, there's more rain to come, but it will be a pretty chilly start once again to wednesday morning. single figures right across the country, low single figures in rural spots. but hopefully the showers should be a little bit few and further between and more favoured spots for those showers once again to the east of the pennines. more sunshine out to the west. temperatures generally similar values to what we've seen all week, 10 to 18 degrees the high. but the wind direction will start to change as we move into thursday. unfortunately, towards the end of the week, this low pressure will take over. we'll see further spells of rain at times, some of it heavy. but the wind direction will play its part a little. a south—westerly wind means that we will see temperatures climbing a degree or so. don't expect anything too significant because we've got the cloud and the rain around. but it's not out of the question that across eastern and southeast england we could see highs of 20 celsius. take care. live from washington, this is bbc news. the un security council backs a gaza ceasefire proposal, as us secretary of state blinken makes a diplomatic push in the middle east. the far right advances in the european union's elections, prompting fresh questions about europe's future. and jury deliberations begin in the gun trial of the us president's son, hunter biden. how do you feel today when? i think it went well. thank you. i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us. the us is making a major push to pause fighting in gaza, with diplomatic efforts taking place both in the region and at the united nations. the un security council endorsed a ceasefire proposal for gaza on monday. it is the first time the council has passed a resolution demanding a stop in fighting, after eight months of war. the resolution urges both hamas and israel to fully and quickly implement the three—phase plan. 14 countries voted in favour, and russia abstained. reactions to the resolution between the two parties have been mixed. hamas says it welcomes the endorsement, and that it's ready to work with mediators. a senior israeli diplomat said her country would continue to pursue its objectives. us ambassador to the un linda thomas—greenfield says the resolution shows hamas that the international community is united. colleagues, today this council sent a clear message to hamas. "accept the ceasefire deal on the table." israel has already agreed to this deal and the fighting could stop today, if hamas would do the same. i repeat, the fighting could stop today.

Transcripts For BBCNEWS Click 20240611

all of a sudden, it clicked in my head. "wow, the international space station "is a submarine in space." ..moon bots and moon dust. the surface is fine and powdery. i can pick it up loosely with my toe. you know, i think i've seen that chap somewhere before. jfk: we choose to go - to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. i neil armstrong: it's one small step for man... - ..one giant leap for mankind. 52 years ago, we laid our last footprint on the moon. as the crew of apollo 17 left the surface, they didn't know that gene cernan would be the last person to walk on another world for quite a while. we're on our way, houston. but now, in this decade, finally... ..we're going back. mission control: and lift—off of artemis 1. nasa's artemis programme will, in the next year or two, return us to our neighbour. part of its mission — to land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon. another part — to use what we learn here to send the first astronauts to mars. this is where it all began — florida's kennedy space center — named after the president who made the original pledge to go to the moon. and now, this place is at the centre of even grander plans, because this time, we're notjust visiting the moon — we want to stay. this is gateway, humanity's first space station that will orbit another world. it will go round the moon every seven days. and, like the international space station above earth, astronauts will call this place �*home'. although, where the iss can accommodate up to 12 astronauts and is comparable to a five— or six—bedroom house, gateway will be...more cosy. gateway is a studio apartment. it's... we're going to have room for our four astronauts, multiple docking ports, so we can bring our orion crew transportation ship, we can bring logistics, and we can dock a lander. these four explorers won't all be cooped up on board for the whole time, though. two will actually be spending a week or two on location, down on the lunar surface. it's a chance to further study the landscape and hopefully find a location for our next giant leap — a permanent moon base. gateway will be there before we put a habitat on the surface. gateway allows us to access any point on the lunar surface. when we went with apollo, we had to pick that spot on the moon and go to it. gateway will give us the opportunity to go down at different locations. the first section of gateway could be launched as early as 2025, with new modules then being added from 2027. a lunar base is admittedly further out and it comes with risk, but also reward. so, how do we make that a reality? to find out, it's time for me to take one small step of my own. oh, wow. i can instantly see the dust kind of kicking up. yeah. it's really fine, isn't it? it leaves the footprints like you'd expect. oh, my gosh. that's brilliant. and this is how moon dust behaves, itjust puffs up like that? it does, yeah. it's so fine. welcome to swamp works... ..the dusty, dirty lab where they work with simulated moon dust. now, the loose soil that covers the lunar surface is called regolith. it's extremely fine, very sharp on a microscopic scale, and it gets everywhere. so when we landed with apollo 11, we didn't know what the surface of the moon exactly was going to be like. you'll notice from some of the footage, the landing pads are quite huge on the landing legs and the ladder�*s far away from the surface. there was a lot of concern of, how much will this lander sink into the surface? how fluffy is this regolith? the surface is fine and powdery. i can...| can pick it up loosely with my toe. in fact, it's because the eagle lander didn't sink in as much as expected that neil armstrong had to take such a giant leap from the bottom rung of the ladder. today, swamp works is developing robots that can cope with and take advantage of lunar soil. and it will be very useful. see, moon dust is made of materials like silicon dioxide and calcium oxide, which all contain a lot of oxygen. if we could mine the regolith and use chemical processes to extract the oxygen, we could make our own breathable air and our own rocket fuel. the way space flight exploration has been working right now is imagine you're going on a holiday with your family, you're going on a long road trip, thousands of miles, right? right now, we are bringing a trailer behind us with all the gas, you know, that we need with us, all the fuel, everything that we need comes with us. so we want to change that paradigm. we want to... and one of the biggest things that makes the biggest impact is the fuel, right? if we can source some of that from the moon and eventually from mars, that will allow us to bring more and to go more often. making our own fuel makes regular trips to and from the gateway space station much more viable. now, mining moon dust is called isru... and, because they love an acronym round these parts, the robot to do this will be called the isru pilot excavator, ipex. we had to really reinvent how you do excavation for doing mining on the moon, and eventually mars. the challenge is the technology we have for mining here on earth relies on a lot of mass and a lot of weight, right? the more steel you put on an excavator, the heavier it becomes and the better it digs. we can't launch something as heavy as we want on a rocket. it's still very expensive, right? so we have to reduce the mass of what we put on rockets. and then when you land it on the moon, so the way the robot scoops up the dust is using this thing called a bucket drum. and it's got a kind of spiral in there. and if it turns it one way, it scoops the soil, which gradually works its way towards the middle and stays there. like that. and then when it wants to unload... ..it turns it the other way and it all comes out again. we put them on opposite ends of the robot and when it excavates, it's using both sets of drums at the same time, but they're digging in opposite directions. so one is pulling it that way and one is pulling it that way... right. ..and pulling itself down to the surface. yeah. one of the main dangers faced by extraterrestrial rovers is getting stuck. so, as an added bonus, ipex's scoops and arms can also help it to get out of a hole orflip it over if it takes a tumble. one of its other defences will keep its cameras free from all that electrostatic dust, which will cling to every part of it. its lenses will be fitted with an electrodynamic dust shield. simply apply electricity and the charged dust particles are repelled, keeping its vision clear. but after a while of going to and fro, we might want to stay a little longer on the surface. robots like this one will prepare the ground for permanent buildings by smoothing and compacting the foundations. do you have a name for this arm? um... we call it... we call it meercat, actually. you've always got cool names for these things! yeah. why? it's called the multipurpose end effector for regolith acquisition... meercat. .. ..transportation and... yeah, yeah, that's it. you see, what worries me is there are some brilliant inventions you guys haven't bothered with because you couldn't think of a cool acronym. a cool name. that is like one of the... it's very important to have a good name for your projects because it, like, represents the soul of the project, right? now, just like the fuel situation, we can't take building materials with us to the moon either — we have to make our structures from moon dust. these bricks and blocks and bars have all been made by mixing and melting regolith with plastic. in the future, giant sd printers will build shelters to protect those living on a world with no atmosphere from radiation, asteroid and micrometeoroid impacts, moonquakes and temperatures ranging from +100 to —200 degrees celsius. even replacement parts can be made from regolith. so this is a wheel that has been printed with regolith and polymer. ok. this is another example of what we can do if we capture the resources from the moon. now, do you know, i've seen and held wheels for rovers before, full—size wheels, and they're really light. right. but this is really heavy. yes, this is the opposite. and heavy wheels are a good thing, i guess. it's better, right? especially for a digger like that. like the more weight that we have on the excavator, the better it's going to perform. would you believe you can even make rope out of regolith? this is made from basalt glass — really, really thin fibres, a bit like optic fibre. so you could even make rope out of moon dust. these are hopeful times for space exploration, but it's always been a risky endeavour. im—1 odysseus — lunar lander separation confirmed. this year, we've seen three probes sent to the moon. two made it, and both of those had, shall we say, awkward landings. and the artemis mission to put boots back on the lunar ground has been pushed back to 2026 at the earliest. but nasa says space explorers need to take these setbacks in their stride. i don't see it as a disappointment. it's very cliche to say space is hard, but what we're endeavouring to do is highly complex. we expect challenges along the way so this doesn't surprise us and we're pushing forward. it sounds really expensive to do space exploration. is it, and is it worth it? so, yes, it's really expensive. it was really expensive for us to explore this planet, really expensive to lay rail infrastructure, to lay highway infrastructure, to put the infrastructure in place that allows us to travel in air traffic around this globe. it's absolutely necessary for us to lay that critical infrastructure for going to space, because what we learn in that endeavour is tremendous. the exponential growth that we've seen in the world in technology is because of great endeavours like this. it's absolutely worth it. here in the united states, every year the general population is spending as much money on potato chips as our budget is every year to go out to the moon. that's a good figure. the motivation may be different to that of the space race of the 1960s, but the size of the ambition is just as great today as we shoot for the moon once again. i'm alistair keane with this week's tech news. google has confirmed it's started restricting election—related questions on its ai chatbot gemini. if a user asks the chatbot about a political party or candidate, it would tell them to try google search instead. they started rolling out the measure in india. the plan is to expand to other countries where big elections are taking place. the european parliament has approved the world's first framework for regulating the risks of artificial intelligence. the ai act works by classifying products according to risk and adjusting scrutiny accordingly. the law's creators say it will make the tech more human—centric. however, the act still has to pass several more steps before it formally becomes law. a surgical team at cromwell hospital in london have come the first in europe to use applevision pro to perform two microsurgery spine procedures. with xx software, the apple headset allowed some in the team to have touch—free access when assessing up the surgery and offered them visualisations that were previously unavailable. and fancy wearing sunglasses that can quickly swipe to become reading glasses? well, deep optics have you covered with their newly created 32n glasses. users can transition between the two settings thanks to liquid crystal lenses. they contain pixels and tiny electronic controls. i never dreamed that i could become an astronaut. i'm talking to kayla barron... ..one—time resident of the international space station and now part of the artemis crew, the team who are preparing to go back to the moon. first time i looked out the window of our capsule... ..16 sunrises and sunsets each day over our beautiful planet, really fundamentally feeling this interconnectedness. everything each one of us does has an impact on the people, notjust immediately around us, but on the entire planet. that inspired me to be really deliberate about, what contribution am i going to make to leave a better, healthier, more connected, more cooperative planet? what inspired you to become an astronaut? i did decide from a pretty early age that i wanted to serve in the military, and ultimately found my way to the naval academy and to the navy and to the submarine force in particular. and i met an astronaut at a navy football game, and hearing her story just reminded me so much of my experience on the submarine. and all of a sudden it clicked in my head, "wow, the international space station "is a submarine in space." and i told her that and she said, "it totally is. it's exactly the same." you have these really complex machines out in these extreme environments that are designed to keep human beings alive in a place we're not meant to be, really, which is deep under the surface of the ocean or in the vacuum of space, and notjust keep us alive, but also allow us to accomplish a mission, do something as a team that's of value to others. what do you think it might be like to live on the moon and then mars? well, the moon is beautiful from the space station, first of all. when the sun is reflecting off this sphere, it's notjust...you know, a crescent moon, a sliver in the sky. it felt like you could just reach out and grab it, and i think made me realise how incredible it is going to be to send human beings back. and there's incredible scientific questions we're going to be able to answer. we're planning to return to the moon, but this time, to the lunar south pole. so we'll be exploring a different area than we visited during the apollo era. answer some really fundamental questions not only about the moon's formation and its geology, but about our entire solar system. you are part of the artemis team. the artemis 3 crew is the one, i suppose, that everyone wants to be on, cos i think that's the one where the people are going to stand on the moon. are you in with a chance of being on artemis 3? of course. everyone in our office dreams of the opportunity to be part of those crews. you wait and hope. but the really cool thing is even if you're not in that seat on the flight, you get to support them and be a part of the team that makes that happen. the artemis 3 mission, they will put the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon. i'm guessing that those two people will become as famous as neil armstrong. put yourself in her shoes, even if it's not you. what would that represent for you? for humankind? you know, i think that moment will really represent how far we've come. you know, we did amazing things in the apollo era, but not everyone had the access to those opportunities. there have been women in the nasa astronaut office for a really long time doing really incredible things. so we'll be standing on those women's shoulders. the first woman to command a space shuttle, the first to do a spacewalk, the first to command the space station. and when we look around at the diversity of our office, it's really incredible, like, who we have around us. it will be this incredible, historic, iconic moment that i think young women and girls around the planet will look to as an example of the fact that you can do anything if you work hard and are supported by the systems, the communities around you to have an opportunity to achieve those goals. you might have seen space food before. but what about space plants? if nasa wants its astronauts to stay out in space for longer, they'll need to be able to replenish their own food supply. this is nothing new. astronauts have been growing crops in space for the past a0 years. but there's still an awful lot that scientists are trying to learn about space farming. we have things like radiation that we have to deal with. we also have issues with microgravity. plants have learned how to detect gravity with their roots and gravity—sensing organelles in the plants, and so they know how to use these cues. and without these cues, they have to re—adapt to this environment. so, without gravity, the next cue that they use is light. so, how to go up and down, how to orient themselves is based on light now, cos they don't have gravity. water behaves very differently in microgravity. it has a high surface tension, so it likes to cling. and when the water clings to the roots, it prevents the roots from breathing. and so the plants can experience things like drought stress. they mayjust look green to you and me, but plants appear very different when viewed in the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. and the scientists here are learning how their appearance changes under different types of stress. here in the plant processing area, we're giving the plants a stressor. so, in this case, we're reducing its watering. because on the station, we know it's difficult to water. and so we can identify through our imaging project, using infrared and visible light, as well as fluorescence, that stress. we take all this data and to make that association we use machine learning. then we can associate the wavelengths that are most indicative of that stress and include them in a camera that would monitor the plants on station. this is where the plants live when they get up there — the veggie unit. this is how they grow stuff on the international space station? yep. it's a simple led system, as well as a bellows, so it's open to the crew environment. we have two of these and six plants each. so you can imagine we're not making a huge feast, but it's enough for a nice serving of lettuce. lovely salad. yeah. how excited are the astronauts that they can now have salad and not just space food? they're very grateful. they can have salad, we've grown peppers as well, and they can even have flowers cos we've grown zinnia on space. now, there is a knack to getting these seeds to sprout in space. the way you grow plants on the international space station is using this, which is a plant pillow. so, this is the wick that sucks the moisture up. you plug your water source into here and you fill the bottom with soil, and then you get your tiny seeds, which stay in these polymer wrappers so they don't zip off and you lose them around the iss. and you pop it in here, and 28 days later... ..get yourself a lettuce. aside from the obvious benefits of creating a renewable food source, there are all sorts of other advantages to growing plants in space. gardening is very therapeutic. it's something that the astronauts would say, "hey, you know, let me take care of something green." it makes them happy. plants produce oxygen and they recycle waste, they recycle water. all this fundamental stuff together will make them a very important organism to take with us. when we're living on the moon and when we're living on mars, what type of plants will we be eating? we would like to have things like nuts and citrus, but, again, there's still so much we don't know about how those plants adapt to the environment. the current goal is to use hydroponic systems, which rely on water—based nutrient solutions instead of soil, which is heavy and expensive to transport. but in 2022, scientists showed that plants can grow in lunar soil, regolith. which kind of brings us full circle in a way, doesn't it? if we want to live on new worlds, we need to use the resources that they provide us instead of taking more from our home planet. this has been a fascinating trip to nasa, a place which will one day help us put builders, miners, and even farmers on the moon. hello, there. for most of us, it has been a disappointing start to the week, in terms of the weather. a frequent rash of showers, particularly across scotland, gusts of winds coming from the north, and in excess of 30 mph, at times. temperatures struggled to get into double figures, but it was a slightly different story, further south and west. just look at anglesey — beautiful afternoon, lots of sunshine and temperatures peaked at around 18 or 19 degrees. high pressure is continuing to nudge its way in from the west, so west will be best, through the course of tuesday. there's still likely to be a few showers around, but hopefully few and further between. most frequent showers, certainly, are going to be across eastern scotland and down through eastern england. so, sunny spells and scattered showers going into the afternoon. that will have an impact with the temperature, 1a or 15 degrees, but again, with a little more shelter, a little more sunshine, 17 or 18 celsius not out of the question. a few scattered showers moving their way through northern ireland and scotland. hopefully, some of these will ease through the afternoon, but you can see those temperatures still really struggling — ten to 15 degrees at the very best. now, as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, this little ridge of high pressure will continue to kill off the showers. so, wednesday is likely to be the driest day of the week — and make the most of it — there's more rain to come, but it will be a pretty chilly start, once again, to wednesday morning. single figures right across the country, low single figures in rural spots. but, hopefully, the showers should be a little bit few and further between and more favoured spots for those showers, once again, to the east of the pennines. more sunshine out to the west. temperatures, generally, similar values to what we've seen all week, 10 to 18 degrees the high, but the wind direction will start to change, as we move into thursday. unfortunately, towards the end of the week, this low pressure will take over. we'll see further spells of rain at times, some of it heavy. but the wind direction will play its part, a little — a south—westerly wind means that we will see temperatures climbing a degree or so. don't expect anything too significant, because we've got the cloud and the rain around. but it's not out of the question that across eastern and southeast england, we could see highs of 20 celsius. take care. live from washington, this is bbc news. the un security council backs a gaza ceasefire proposal — as us secretary of state antony blinken makes a diplomatic push in the middle east. jury deliberations begin in the gun trial of the us president's son, hunter biden. how do you feel today went? i think it went well. we'll see. weil— think it went well. we'll see. we'll wait for the jury to come back — we'll wait for the jury to come back. thank you. the far—right advances in the european union's elections, prompting fresh questions about europe's future. i'm sumi somaskanda. the us is making a major push to pause fighting in gaza, with diplomatic efforts taking place both in the region and at the united nations. the un security council endorsed a ceasefire proposal for gaza on monday. it is the first time the council has passed a resolution demanding a stop in fighting after eight months of war. the resolution urges both hamas and israel to fully and quickly implement the three—phase plan. 1a countries voted in favour and russia abstained. reactions to the resolution between the two parties have been mixed. hamas says it welcomes the endorsement and that it's ready to work with mediators. a senior israeli diplomat said her country would continue to pursue its objectives.us ambassador to the un linda thomas—greenfield says the resolution shows hamas that the international community is united. colleagues, today this council sent a clear message to hamas. accept the ceasefire deal on the table. israeli has already agreed to this deal and the fighting could stop today if hamas would do the same. i repeat, the fighting could stop today.

Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newscast 20240607-1800

hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. israel says its military has been added to a un list of entities committing violations against children. the country's un envoy said he'd been officially notified of the decision, describing it as shameful. the list is included in a report due to be submitted to the security council next week. it's also reported to include hamas and palestinian islamichhad. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu called the decision "delusional." violations listed include attacks on schools and hospitals as well as the denial of aid. in gaza, the nuseirat refugee camp has again been attacked by israeli forces, after a strike on a un school there in which a number of children were reportedly killed. hugo bachega has more, from jerusalem. this list covers the killing of children in conflict and doubt there is the accessing of aids in targeting of schools and

BBC News America

BBC News America

BBC News America

Buttigieg says Baltimore channel will be 'ready' by end of May

Rising Above Partisan Divides, The BBC Will Help NZ Audiences Navigate The US Presidential Election Like Never Before

The BBC will bring multi-platform coverage plans of the 2024 US Presidential Election with live coverage and in-depth analysis. It will also launch BBC Verify US, a dedicated unit to counter disinformation in the run up to Election Day.