Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newsday 20240714 : vimarsana.com

For this Prime Minister to talk about morals and morality is a disgrace the british Prime Minister dismisses calls to resign. He accuses the opposition of an obsessive desire to thwart brexit. And a dark world of child slavery and prostitution. We report from bangladesh, and one of the Worlds Largest licenced brothels. Live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news its newsday. Good morning. Its 8am here in singapore, 1am in london, and 8 pm in washington where the white house has released partial details about the conversation donald trump had with the leader of ukraine, which has led to impeachment proceedings against the us president. The allegation that he threatened to hold back us aid unless ukraine provided dirt on one of his political rivals led democrats to begin the impeachment process. The democrats say its damning evidence of his mafioso criminal behaviour. The president calls the entire story a witchhunt and a hoax. Our north america editor, jon sopel, has more. Hes made me more famous than ive made him. Whod have thought that a meeting between donald trump and his ukrainian counterpart would become the most keenly anticipated event of un week . But after a phone call injuly between the two men that has resulted in the democrats launching impeachment proceedings, it has. Its better to be on tv than by phone, i think. And a central charge did the us president try to pressurise Volodymyr Zelensky into supplying damaging information on Donald Trumps main democratic rival, joe biden . The ukrainian leader looked uncomfortable. I think, good phone call. It was normal, we spoke about many things. So, i think and you read it, that nobody pushed me. In other words, no pressure. Because you know what, there was no pressure. And, by the way, you know there was no pressure. All you have to do is see it, what went on in the call. The president wantsjoe biden investigated along with his son, hunter, who has business interests in the country. The white house has released a partial transcript of the conversation and, in it, the president takes the highly irregular step of asking his ukrainian counterpart for a favour. This partial transcript is damning, but not deadly. Yes, the president seeks info on a political rival from a foreign leader, but there no quid pro quo, no unless you give us the dirt, we wont give you aid. Nevertheless, in a divided country, buckle up for what will be a bitter and take no hostages fight. Democrats crying high crimes and misdemeanours. Republicans shouting witch hunt. On capitol hill, the battle lines are being drawn on strict party lines on whether hes villain or victim. Like any mafia boss, the president didnt need to say thats a nice country you have, it would be a shame if something happened to it, because that was clear from the conversation. To impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane. Wherever the president goes, the secret Service Provides a ring of steel. Now its the Republican Party and the white house who need to circle the wagons to protect donald trump from this Democratic Party attempt to bring him down. Jon sopel, bbc news, new york. Lawmakers have now had a chance to read the whistleblowers complaint after it was delivered to congress. A short time ago, one of the most senior democrats, the House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff, gave this reaction. What this courageous individual has done has exposed serious wrongdoing and i think it a travesty that this complaint was withheld as long as it was because it was an urgent matter, it is an urgent matter, and there was simply no basis to keep this from the committee and the idea that the department ofjustice would have intervened to prevent it from getting to congress, um, throws the leadership of that department into further ill repute. Earlier President Trump held a press conference at the united nations. The bbcs nada tawfik was listening to what he had to say. I think it is worth pointing out that this was a press conference that scheduled to talk about the Un General Assembly and all of the uss work during the high level meeting. And so President Trump, at the start, said, you know, he wished that the Fake News Media would be covering what the us is doing for the benefit of the country rather than focusing on what he sees as a political hitjob, a witch hunt. And so he was very dejected responding to the latest news that the whistleblower complaint was going to congress. Basically really trying to hit up the credibility of the whistleblower saying that this was someone who apparently in the complaint only had second hand knowledge and not first hand knowledge of President Trumps interactions and so, certainly, President Trump there still trying to be very firm, that he thinks he did nothing wrong, that he exerted no pressure on the ukrainian president , but he lacked some of the intensity that were used to seeing him project. What are chances of the details of that whistleblower complaint being made public . Thats really going to be a matter for the senate Intel Committee, the House Intel Committee to decide whether parts of it should be redacted and parts of it released, or whether it really is sensitive enough that they need to keep it closed off for the investigation. At the moment, it is not even open for all members of congress to take a look at. It is in a protected room where those in the Intel Committee can go and take a look. I think, for public transparency, theres going to be calls for that to be released. When youre with such high stakes here, an impeachment investigation, when youre dealing with such high stakes here, an impeachment investigation, but they are those who will argue that, because of this is such a significant moment, that it should be guarded until all the facts are in place. Lets take a look at some of the days other news president Hassan Rouhani of iran has warned that the gulf region is on the edge of collapse, amid tensions between his country and the us. The us and saudi arabia have accused tehran of being behind the recent attack on saudi oil facilities. Iran denies involvement. Also making news today, israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been asked to form the countrys next government by president reuven rivlin. Mr netanyahu and his main opponent, benny gantz, failed to agree a deal on a unity government after the recent general election. Last weeks vote the second this year ended in deadlock. Mr netanyahu now has up to six weeks to try and put together a government. At least 38 people are now known to have died in pakistani administered kashmir after tuesdays earthquake, according to the authorities there. Hundreds more are being treated for injuries. Relief teams have rushed tents, food, Drinking Water and medical supplies to the worst affected areas, in and around mirpur. Some houses were destroyed and many damaged in the quake. Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced parliament for the first time following his defeat in the Supreme Court on tuesday. There were bad tempered exchanges as mrjohnson declared that the Supreme Court had been wrong to pronounce on a political question at a time of Great National controversy. The highest court in the land ruled unanimously that mrjohnson had acted unlawfully when he suspended parliament for five weeks. Our political editor, laura kuenssberg, reports. To lead often is to be alone. Borisjohnson on the tarmac, clutching his red box of business. It was borisjohnsons decision to suspend parliament, found against the law. Boris johnson racing back from new york to face mps anger. But on this dangerous road, the Prime Minister chose tonight to whip up the rancour himself. Statement, the Prime Minister. No regret, no remorse. He questioned the judges ruling yesterday. It is absolutely no disrespect to the judiciary to say i think the court was wrong to pronounce on what is essentially a political question. He chose attack as the best form of defence. Rather than give answers, goading the opposition to bring him down. Out of sheer selfishness and political cowardice, members opposite are unwilling to move aside, and give the people a say. We will not betray the people who sent us here. We will not. Jeremy corbyns response he should go. After yesterdays ruling, mr speaker, the Prime Minister should have done the honourable thing and resigned. But there were verbal punches back. He cant control his own party. He cant decide whether he is for leave orfor remain. He is being held captive by his colleagues. The electorate are being held captive by this Zombie Parliament and a zombie opposition, and he wants the entire country to be held captive in the eu after october the 31st, at a cost of more than £1 billion a month. We say no. I say no. Lets get brexit done and lets take this country forward. The more savage it was, the more they roared. The Prime Minister had almost provoked his own side into backing him like this. There was nothing still about tonight. Frustration is erupting. And maybe fear too. Many of us in this place are subject to Death Threats and abuse every single day. Let me tell the Prime Minister that they often quote his words surrender and betrayal, traitor. And i for one am sick of it. I think, mr speaker, i have to tell you, mr speaker, i have to say, mr speaker, inever heard such humbug in all my life. The outrage at his response louder than Boris Johnsons attempts to make himself heard. More acute when the murdered mp jo coxs successor pleaded with him too. Will he, going forward, moderate his language so that we will all feel secure when we are going about ourjobs . The best way to honour the memory ofjo cox and indeed the best way to bring this country together would be, ithink, to get brexit done. Tonight, at least, it is almost impossible to imagine those inside being able to agree on whether its night or day. The governments top lawyer earlier declared it over. This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches. For this Prime Minister to talk about morals and morality is a disgrace when outrage is in fashion, the agreement the country may crave is hard to find. Laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. Youre watching newsday on the bbc. Still to come on the programme as donald trump faces an impeachment inquiry well take you through some of the options for the us president and the democrats. Also on the programme inside bangladeshs child brothels. We report on the victims as young as seven forced to sell sex. Benjohnson, the fastest man on earth, is flying home to canada in disgrace. All the athletes should be clean going into the games. Im just happy that justice is served. It is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. Tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police. All the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, presumably in case the americans invade. Its no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world, and so the British Government has no option but to continue this action even after any adverse judgement in australia. Concorde have crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes. Welcome back. This is newsday on the bbc. Im mariko oi in singapore. Yes, hello, its good to have you with us. Im ben bland in london. Our top stories President Trump has described the formal launch of impeachment proceedings against him as sad and based on a hoax. The british Prime Minister, borisjohnson, has addressed a rowdy parliament the day after the Supreme Court ruled that hed suspended it unlawfully. Lets return to ukraine scandal in the us, and the attempt by democrats to bring articles of impeachment against donald trump. Ive been speaking to jacquelin thomsen, a dc courts reporter for the national law journal. I asked her how wide will be the scope of the impeachment inquiry. You know that is something thats inactive point of debate among democrats in the house of representatives now. They have had all these widespread investigations into the president , and his family, into the president , and his family, into his private businesses, and into his private businesses, and into his private businesses, and into his administration. The right now there is still continuing all of those investigations, but the focus does seem to be on ukraine and what came out of this, what was originally in the form of a whistleblower complaint, and turned out to be his call with the ukrainian president. And there is some chatter that maybe this impeachment enquiry will just focus on these allegations. They think if they can just focus on just those than they can get articles impeachment to the floor very quickly. Whether or not it is successful, these impeachment proceedings, will it come with significant investigative powers . You know, it will give them a little more force when they go to court or other bodies to try to seek documents or to seek testimony from other people, for example a lawsuit currently in Dc Federal Court whether talking about trying to get testa m e nt whether talking about trying to get testament from the former white house counsel, don mcgahn, who was one of the people in Robert Muellers report. So theres talk, since they have formally started and impeachment enquiry, at least by speaker nancy pelosi, it could help them further down on the line in any other Legal Proceedings tied to this sort of investigation here. Attorney general william barr was named in the transcript. What is next to him . Well, the justice the transcript. What is next to him . Well, Thejustice Department has really sought to put some distance between the attorney general and these ukrainian allegations. And at these ukrainian allegations. And at the same time they release this memo describing the call with the ukrainian president , they released a statement saying that President Trump no time reached out to the attorney general and asked him to investigate the biden family. They also said there was no contact between ukraine and the attorney general. And as there was no potential wrongdoing that really needs to be looked into any further. However, that isnt stopping people from calling for the attorney general to recuse himself from this. Theyre saying that he had oversight over this, he has been invoked by the present, if anything he is a witness in that capacity. Jacquelin thomsen speaking to mariko a little earlier. Lets return to our other main story now. It was an explosive day in the Uk Parliament as Prime Minister borisjohnson returned to the commons after a momentous Supreme Court decision yesterday. Helen catt is our Political Correspondent in westminster. She observed the sometimes inflammatory language used in parliament. Borisjohnson was striking a very defiant tone and theres a lot of words being thrown around in the sort of debates at the moment, like capitulation, surrender, betrayal, and thats what some of the mps were picking up on and saying that they are worried about this sort of, this tone of the debate, and how that travels beyond the house of commons. And we heard mp after mp standing up and saying talking about getting personal threats and people talking about this language of violence and citing some of the things they had heard in the commons. The leader of the liberal democrats, jo swinson, said today she had reported a threat against her own child. The other question is whether any progress has been made towards some sort of way forward on brexit, because the accusation often levelled at british mps is that they are very good at deciding what they dont want, they have yet to come up with something they do want. Yes, that is the accusation, and quite often it feels like a fair want to some degree. Certainly watching parliament this evening there is no obvious sign of how the divisions are going to be healed and how mps will come together to pass any sort of deal and what they can agree on. So borisjohnson is very clear that he still wants to get a deal. The eu has previously expressed concerns about what might get through the commons. I think there is a sense among mps that something does need to be done, something needs to be got through, that there is a stalemate in parliament at the moment and it cant continue. Now, borisjohnsons solution to this, if you like, has been to sort of poke the opposition into do a vote of no confidence in him, to try to get a general election. However, there is a chronic lack of trust in the commons at the moment and the opposition parties simply dont trust the government not to do some sort of manoeuvre, as they see it, that would allow brexit to happen on a no deal basis while that has been put through, while that was put in motion. We are still in this stand off at the moment and it very, very difficult to see what the way through this is at the moment. Helen catt speaking to ben a little earlier. A bbc investigation has found children as young as seven a