And their ride ends with this after seven yea rs, the new York City Taxi drivers calendar is rolling out its final edition. Well be speaking to mrjune. Israels Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has responded angrily to his indictment on charges of corruption. The accusations relate to cases that involved gifts mr netanyahu received from wealthy figures, as well as alleged efforts to get better Media Coverage in return for favours. It adds to the uncertainty for a country without a stable government, after two elections in a year. Gareth barlow reports. Benjamin netanyahu, israels longest serving Prime Minister, has been indicted with fraud, breach of trust and bribery. After months of deliberation, the attorney general and former political ally said he made the decision with a heavy heart. Translation with a heavy heart i decided to indict him. With a heavy heart but also wholeheartedly, out of a deep sense of duty for the rule of law and the public interest. The accusations that he had accepted gifts of cigars and pink champagne and gave favours to get positive press coverage have dogged the Prime Minister in recent years. But this is a marked development. Reacting to the news, Benjamin Netanyahu was defiant. Translation we are witnessing an attempted coup against a serving Prime Minister, based on fabrications and a tainted, biased investigative process. I will not let them triumph. I will continue to leave the country according to the letter of the law with responsibility, devotion and concern for the security and future of us all. Technically, mr netanyahu can remain in office. Whether he will have the political support, remains to be seen. On the streets, protesters in support of and against the Prime Minister made their views known. It is unthinkable that the Prime Minister can continue in office while being indicted for such grave breaches of law. I think it is a shame. I think that netanyahu was the strongest figure that israel has ever had on the world stage. I think that this was politically motivated and it is a sad day for the country. Israel is in uncertain waters. After two general elections this year, politicians have failed to form a government. And now, for the first time, a sitting Prime Ministerfaces criminal charges and questions whether he will and can remain in office. Natan sachs is the director of the centre for middle east policy at brookings institution. He says this is crucial moment in the countrys history. Its a momentous time. Netanyahu is the longest serving per minister in israels history, and this mark is not quite the end, but certainly the beginning of the end. Netanyahu isnt the first leader, his immediate predecessor went to prison for charges not completely dissimilar to these. But of course he resigned long before he was indicted, and that is one of the big differences. Neta nyahus indicted, and that is one of the big differences. Netanyahus reaction, accusing thejudge of differences. Netanyahus reaction, accusing the judge of a coup, differences. Netanyahus reaction, accusing thejudge of a coup, that is what makes this different to his predecessors. These people accusing him are his hand picked civil servants, the attorney general he chose. This is a real crisis for israel, and while this might not speu israel, and while this might not spell the end for netanyahu, this could be big trouble. Is he allowed to stay in as per minister as he is indicted . Yes, until his final conviction. In the very slow is really legal system israeli, this could take years. He is now a ca reta ker could take years. He is now a caretaker Prime Minister, twice israel had elections. In april and again in september, both netanyahu and the Opposition Leader have failed to form coalitions. This makes it much harderfor netanyahu to garner support, and it is our heads to a third election which looks quite possible, this could hurt him at the ballot. Is there a chance his party may decide to depose him from within . That is really the crucial point. Netanyahu and the Opposition Leader are in a dialogue. In fact, and the Opposition Leader are in a dialogue. Infact, if and the Opposition Leader are in a dialogue. In fact, if there was a different leader of his own party that he could, they would easily have a government been now. The differences are not that great, the big difference is netanyahu himself. In fact the party of the opposition, the main party, the blue and white party was really an amalgam of parties that agree on only one thing, opposition to netanyahu himself, especially because of the corruption charges. If the party fractures, and we are seeing the beginnings of the we could see a way out of this political crisis. Now we have a competition between netanyahus have a competition between neta nyahus party have a competition between netanyahus party leadership, who to remove him, they see they could easily lead the country, and some are eager to do it themselves. And netanyahu, are eager to do it themselves. And neta nyahu, who command are eager to do it themselves. And netanyahu, who command support among the base. He said today that this is political persecution. Its odd in that it political persecution. Its odd in thatitis political persecution. Its odd in that it is similar to what were seeing in the United States. Donald trump, many of the Republican Leadership actually oppose, but they dare not go against him because the base of the Republican Party is very much for him. Its a bit similar in the israeli case. Natan sachs. In the us impeachment hearings, it was the turn of the president s former top advisor on russia to testify. Fiona hill told congress that donald trump pushed a false theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 president ial election. The house of representatives led by democrats is investiagating whether or not mr trump improperly put pressure on ukraine to investigate his rival, the former Vice President joe biden. The bbcs north america editor, jon sopel reports. This may well be the season one finale of the impeachment hearings, but it was drama packed. David holmes, a diplomat from the ukrainian embassy. Fiona hill, english born, the daughter of a miner from the north east, whos risen to the heights of the National Security council, and tough and plain speaking as any colliery worker youll find. She went after republicans whove pushed a Conspiracy Theory that it was ukraine who interfered in the 2016 election to do down donald trump. Based on questions and statements ive heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its Security Services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the russian Security Services themselves. David holmes had overheard a call between the Eu Ambassador and the president , in which donald trump was only interested in hearing whether the ukrainians were going to dish the dirt on his political rival, joe biden, and his son, hunter, who was the director of a ukrainian gas company. I asked ambassador sondland if it was true that the president did not give an expletive about ukraine. Ambassador sondland agreed the president did not give an expletive about ukraine. I asked why not. Ambassador sondland stated that the president only cares about big stuff. I noted there was big stuff going on in ukraine, like a war with russia. And ambassador sondland replied that he meant big stuff that benefits the president , like the biden investigation. And fiona hill was devastating about the ambassador who testified yesterday that he was only obeying the president s orders. He was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were being involved in National Security Foreign Policy, and those two things had just diverged. The white house has issued a furious statement. These two witnesses, just like the rest, have no personal or direct knowledge regarding why us aid was temporarily withheld. The democrats are clearly being motivated by a sick hatred for President Trump and their rabid desire to overturn the 2016 election. As things stand, these are the last witnesses scheduled to appear and a lot of the evidence that theyve given has been compelling and deeply damaging to the president s argument, but the mistake would be to think that this is a court of law. It isnt. Its politics. And so far, not a single republican has indicated that they are going to vote for the impeachment of donald trump. Jon sopel, bbc news, washington. Lets get some of the days other news here in the uk, the Opposition Labour Party has launched its election manifesto, with pledges to nationalise rail, water and energy companies. Leaderjeremy corbyn also vowed a green transformation of the economy, aiming to get the uk on track for a net zero carbon system by the 2030s. Pope francis has condemned the exploitation of women and children in the sex industry, during the first full day of his visit to thailand. Addressing politicians and diplomats at the Prime Ministers office, the pope praised the efforts of the thai government, and private organisations, to eradicate what he called the scourge of abuse. An investigation into the collapse of an italian road bridge last year has discovered that sensors to monitor its stability were out of action at the time of the disaster. 43 people were killed when the morandi bridge in genoa came down in a storm. A lawyer representing victims of the convicted american paedophile, jeffrey epstein, has urged Prince Andrew to give a legal statement about his links to the financier, who killed himself in august. On wednesday, the prince said he was willing to help investigations, if required to do so. He also announced that hes stepping back from royal duties for the forseeable future. Heres our royal correspondent, nicholas witchell. Leaving home in windsor this morning, seemingly as normal, Prince Andrew bound for Buckingham Palace and further meetings to reshape the next phase of his life. Arriving at the palace to offer her advice and support, his ex wife, the duchess of york. Andrew wont now perform public engagements for the foreseeable future, but it is suggested he may still appear at trooping the colour, the annual celebration of his mothers birthday, though whether he will do so in the uniform of colonel of the grenadier guards is less clear. Similarly, its suggested hell still lay a wreath at the cenotaph on remembrance sunday. He is, after all, a former serving officer in the royal navy. Whats much clearer now is that its the core members of the royal family, those who appeared together on the palace balcony for the diamond jubilee, who represent the future. This episode has seen Prince Charles exercise his authority alongside the queen. They were the ones who decided that andrew had to step back before damage was done to the monarchy itself. Theres an immediate question as to whether andrew will present himself for questioning by the us authorities about his friendship with the convicted sex offenderjeffrey epstein. In his Statement Last night, andrew said, of course i am willing to help any appropriate Law Enforcement agency with their investigations, if required. We do think its a good, positive step that he says hes going to co operate with Law Enforcement, but wed like to see that happen. We do think its a good, positive step that he says hes is he going to, for example, fly to the United States and voluntarily meet with our fbi . Will he sit for depositions . Here, Andrews Links with more organisations are being severed. Hes stepped down as chancellor of huddersfield university, and as patron of the 0utwa rd bound trust. He will have much less to do. Hes funded by an allowance from the queens private income. Its not known whether that will now be cut. Nicholas witchell, bbc news. Stay with us on bbc world news. Still to come cabs and abs the new york taxi drivers swapping driving for posing. Benazir bhutto has claimed victory in pakistans general election, and shes asked pakistans president to name her as Prime Minister. Jacksons been released on bail of 3 million after turning himself in to police in santa barbara. It was the biggest demonstration so far of the fast growing european anti nuclear movement. The South African government has announced that its opening the countrys remaining whites only beaches to people of all races. This will lead to a black majority government in this country and the destruction of the white civilisation. Part of the centuries old windsor castle, one of the queens residences, has been consumed by fire for much of the day. 150 firemen have been battling the blaze, which has caused millions of pounds worth of damage. This is bbc world news. The latest headlines the israeli Prime Minister has been indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He says the charges amount to a coup. A former white house official has told the impeachment inquiry into donald trump that she was worried us Foreign Policy was being mixed up with domestic politics. Amnesty International Says the Security Forces in chile have deliberately injured people taking part in mass demonstrations against inequality. More than 20 have died and thousands more have been wounded in over a month of protests. Cecilia barria reports from the capital, santiago. This is the new evening ritual in santiago. Protesters find what they can to cut off the city centre, preparing for more running battles with police. While many of the demonstrations have been peaceful, scenes like these are the new normal. Theres been a month since the protests began in chile but there is still anger and fear and people are protesting in the streets. The government has offered changes but here, there is no trust. Now there are further reasons for anger. A new report by amnesty International Says protesters have been deliberately targeted by police with almost 150 people blinded by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. Diego is one of them. He is now blind in his left eye. The rubber bullet is still embedded. Translation a special forces policeman was aiming straight of my face about eight metres from me. I stared at him and he shot me in the eye. This hospitals eye unit is struggling to keep up with the number of cases. Translation the injuries weve seen from the protests show very severe trauma in the eyes and that is seen in an extremely high number of cases. Police say all the allegations will be investigated. Translation its not ourjob to presume the facts before an investigation takes place. We are asking for an investigation to establish the truth in the eyes of the law. But for now, even the most vulnerable continue to be caught in the crisis. At this nursery, parents and teachers say children struggled to breathe when the classroom was filled with tear gas. Translation that day was atrocious because they were drowning. The tear gas, it entered the classroom. They showed no respect. There were babies here. Chiles fall into crisis was steep and swift. Its clear now the road back to stability will be a much longer journey. Cecilia barria, bbc news, santiago, chile. The government has announced that a number of children, whose british parents were inside the former Islamic State territory and who died in syria, are being returned to the uk. Britains foreign secretary, dominic raab said it was the right thing to do and that innocent children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war. Reporting Restrictions Mean that few details about them can be revealed. 0ur middle east correspondent, quentin sommerville, reports. These children are looking for a way home, still trapped in syria. But today, british orphans, who arent shown here, are finally able to escape the misery of syrias camps. Theyre now safely in the care of uk diplomats and theyre doing well. The foreign secretary welcomed their return. This evening, were in the process of returning back to the uk a number of orphaned british children from the conflict in syria. We look at the cases individually very carefully and in these circumstances, its the right thing to do. These children should be safe and sound here in the uk, at home, not caught up in that vicious conflict. The british kids will be home in the next few days, but around 60 others from the uk are still caught up in Islamic States aftermath. This social worker in the camps says they too need to be returned. He said, we are calling upon the countries, whether western, foreign or arab, to take their undocumented children back, so they have proper care at home and so that those kids know their families, aunts, uncles and relatives. Its very hard here. But this isntjust britains problem and its wider than detention camps. In prisons, there are more than 150 children. Steven from suriname is one of them. We first met him eight months ago when he was captured. I neverjoined them, its just my mother brought me to idlib. They took me here, without me wanting to come. Steven, like others, dreams of returning home. His father is waiting for him. The british children didnt choose the Islamic State. Theyre now free from its suffering, but for thousands more, the hardship continues. The pain theyve already experienced is more than any child should bear. Quentin sommerville, bbc news. A man in the United States has been found guilty of Money Laundering and fraud for his role in a Digital Currency scam, based in bulgaria. Mark scott was accused of helping the founder of the cryptocurrency, 0necoin, to funnel 400 million of investors money into private accounts. Samira hussain reports from new york. Investors worldwide were led to believe 0necoin was a legitimate Digital Currency being run out of bulgaria. Prosecutors in new york said it was actually a ponzi scheme that attracted billions of dollars from investors around the world, but has no realfinancial value. Its founder, ruja ignatova, has not been seen or heard from since 2017. Jurors in a new York Federal Court only took a few hours to decide that mark scott was guilty of helping the ignatova to funnel 400 million away from investors and into her private accounts, and that of her associates. In his defence, mr scotts lawyers argued their client had no idea that 0necoin was worthless. The bulgaria based organisation behind 0necoin ltd continues to operate and denies all wrongdoing. It said, 0necoin verifiably fulfils all criteria of the definition of a cryptocurrency in a Statement Given to a bbc podcast, the missing cryptoqueen. After seven years, the iconic new York City Taxi drivers calendar is rolling out its final edition. Its become a cult classic, showcasing the somewhat saucier side of their lives. Created by husband and wife team, shannon and phil kirkman, it parodies the popular offering from the new York City Fire department. Earlier i asked shannon and augie, otherwise known as mrjune, about the inspiration behind their calendar. We want to celebrate real people in their real skin. Thats exactly what i did. Your drivers, the 12 of them, they didnt mind, some of them, stripping off . We wanted to anyway. Clothes on or off, it was going to be off. But augie, pause for a second, you are mrjune. I want to show people the thing you did on your video, there you go. Going down into your sunroof. Weve watched that. Why did you decide on doing that . It Shows Incredible strength and i believe that my athleticism is what ought me to the calendar. Stronger than a firefighter. Exactly. Can they do that . I dont think so. Shannon, how did you decide how augie should be mrjune, not mr august or another month. How did you balance everyone . There is a distinct algorithm with use every year, trying to figure out what months will go best next to each other. Another question, new york cabbies from what we understand are famously the best talkers in the world. How did you get cabbies to stop talking for long enough to have pictures taken . You know, it was vocal rest. They all went on vocal rest. I might say, on a serious note, we got them to talk and we heard their stories and there are so many amazing, compelling stories from these human beings that work hours and hours and every day to get us around the city so i loved hearing augies story and other stories and they are incredible human beings. Augie, tell us your story briefly. Ive been driving for 4. 5 years but it was my fathers medallion and he owed about 500,000 from buying it from the city and im still trying to pay it off but there are people who are in worse cases. They have been driving for 20 years, they bought a medallion having an outstanding loan and now they are 60, 70, 80 coming back to drive. It is a real impact, human impact. This is the last calendar, shannon. Why is that . Its bittersweet. Creatively, as creators and creatives, we want to stop while we are ahead and the more and more we did this year after yea r, we have a ton of fun with it. This year in particular, we went, we feel like we are using the best, the last of our best ideas and we wanted to go out with a bang instead of a fizzle. Lets go out with 12 really great ideas and 12 incredible drivers and we feel the project has run its course. Augie, when you go back and start driving again, will you be recognised and will you expect passengers to do that thing where you go down the sunroof . I am selling these calendars while im driving so ive got to make the money back somehow. More on that story if you dare to look on our webpage. You can reach me on twitter. Im jamesbbcnews well, the weekend is just around the corner and the weather, well, you know, is looking a little mixed. Theres bound to be some rain in the forecast. Of course, there is. It wont be raining all the time. A bit of brightness thrown in there as well but on the whole, you know, its autumn, its what wed expect to see this time of the year. And there is indeed a lot of cloud on the satellite picture. 0ne weather system here, another one sitting on top of us is actually an area of low pressure thats over the uk right now, shrouding our skies. Low grey skies with drizzle, mist and mirk. Drizzle particularly across south of the country and central areas. Towards the early hours of friday, probably showers, so bursts of slightly heavier rain, affecting the south coast, maybe wales too. Here, a little bit milder, butjust a tad. I mean, its hardly a difference really. 6, 7, 8 degrees maybe in the south. A little bit colder and clearer in western and central scotland, maybe around 3 degrees, 2 or 3. So heres the forecast for friday, so weve got some showers there in the south of the country, in the south west, some spots of rain also for central and southern scotland, as well as northern ireland. But the real rain arrives in wales and the south west of england, maybe the midlands, later in the afternoon on friday, so this is going to be the soggy bit. So that was friday, this is saturday now, and a blob of rain, cloud and rain, sitting on top of the uk. I think most of us will get at least a few spots of rain. The driest weather across the north of scotland and actually later on saturday it might dry out in london, the south east, possibly east anglia as well. So thats saturday. Sunday is looking a little bit better, we think, and that is because we are going to be inbetween weather systems, so a low pressure approaches the south west of the uk on sunday, one moves out of the way so we are inbetween. This is that inbetween bit here and there are bound to be some sunny breaks so for places like liverpool, manchester, birmingham, london, i suspect sunday might actually end up being a pretty decent day, whereas in the south west, and wales, with that next low approaching, eventually the rain will reach you. It certainly looks like it might be raining quite early in the day i think in places like cornwall. That sunday low is still over us on monday its very slow moving. Normally lows woosh across the atlantic. These are very sluggish and it decides to park itself across the uk. I think, looking at next week, its going to be very autumnal, very typical for the time of year next week, very changeable. Temperature of around ten or 11 and at times rain. Thats it, bye bye. This is bbc news. The headlines the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been officially charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Mr netanyahu is alleged to have accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensed favours to try to get more positive press coverage. He described the charges as a coup. A former white house aide has told the impeachment inquiry into donald trump that the president pushed a false theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. Fiona hill also said she was worried that us Foreign Policy was being mixed up with domestic politics. Security forces in chile have been accused of deliberately injuring people taking part in the current mass demonstrations against inequality. The rights group, amnesty International Says the aim is to discourage further protests
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