Public feels regarding these ongoing protests N.P.R.'s Emily Fang Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a weekly cabinet meeting yesterday his 1st thing being indicted on charges of bribery fraud and breach of trust N.P.R.'s Daniel Estrin reports it on Yahoo is accused of abusing his power to help wealthy businessmen and media moguls in exchange for cigars champagne and positive press Natanya who says he did nothing wrong and will not resign many senior members of Netanyahu is right wing Likud Party are staying silent about the indictment but some Likud lawmakers are calling for party leadership primaries one of them don't Sar demands primaries be held within the next 2 weeks he wants to unseat Netanyahu as head of the Likud Party and then try to form a coalition government with centrist Benny Gantz if a government isn't formed within several weeks Israel will hold new national elections for the 3rd time in a year Daniel Estrin n.p.r. News Jerusalem this is n.p.r. . Security forces opened fire on protesters in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities yesterday police and medical sources say at least 9 people were killed at least 339 people have been dyad been killed since the anti-government protests began early last month mostly young people are taking to the streets demanding jobs better government services and an end to corruption the u.s. And the u.n. Are denouncing the use of force against peaceful demonstrators heavy rain has pummeled southern France over the weekend causing widespread flooding and at least 3 deaths N.P.R.'s Eleanor Beardsley reports. Queer speak that with these old all scenes of destruction flooded the nightly news raging rivers that had burst their banks people and animals being rescued by helicopter aseptic generic and a retired couple are still missing after the weekend of torrential rains electricity has been cut to thousands of homes in the town of blue Johns The river rose 21 feet above its bed and water flowed through houses and restaurants firefighters initiated more than 2000 rescue operations in the worst flooding since 1940 the French interior minister visited rescuers and victims in the region Sunday Eleanor Beardsley n.p.r. News Paris officials in northwestern Kenya say at least 56 people have died in floods and mudslides since Friday several villages are inaccessible by road after bridges were swept away scientists say warming oceans are causing unpredictable weather patterns in East Africa I'm nor rom n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the vital projects fund supporting the Museum of Modern Art moma has reopened with expanded galleries and new spaces for a live performance making art and conversation more info at Moma dot org. Thanks very much indeed for the latest news there from the b.b.c. News room it's Ben James with you on this edition of. In Hong Kong 5 past 4 in the afternoon Lawrence is in London bringing you the stories of the moment from around the world but here in Hong Kong it's all about the election number of people took part in this city this territory on Sunday 71 percent. Cast their vote for District Council election that's normally not so much prominence but this time around it was seen as. Recent times the last 6 months government process of response from the government to those protests the police there's been. 347 out of 452 councilors elected a pro democracy candidates around 3 quarters of those elected it means they went 1718 counts. Unprecedented We're talking through these results with you as a journalist in chip a columnist and commentator a. Very close to a carrier the chief executive has. She's the leader of this territory what the district council. Of power do they have all these new pro-democracy Representatives . Local issues like. In building positions. Really important people. Necessarily always be seen as having lots of power but we heard just talking about there's a way of building a platform for. I mean you have. To give a bit of a performance. Now. Politically sensitive. Like I don't know whether you've heard of a couple who is very. Educated in the West in the West now we have. Been. Losing their job opportunities in the Hong Kong because of political sense. They don't even get a chance to be invited. In the street during the Chinese New Year or festivals or whatever so on a local level new district could invite them. Back they were coming back because if the city councils occupy or dominated by Democrats they've got the resources allocated to them from the governments that's one really interesting example of how change things in this city we're talking about a political divide here aren't we in Hong Kong which can run deep as we've been finding out we can run 3 groups of friends 3 families as well so we wanted to find out about what sort of impact that might be having in people's homes so I want to play a conversation I had with someone we're going to call Samantha it's not her real name she's 30 years old and she wanted her identity to be protected Deb when we went over to the apartment she shares with her now a mom was out working the phones for a pro Beijing candidate in the council elections some months is on the other side she supports the protests. She told us it's led to some difficult mother daughter conversations my mom always say that protester they are actually making a great fun of themselves because they make Hong Kong worse in the. Past that all the arguments get hit because at the end of the day shows that you have no chance to win the Communist Party let's stop here if you know that you have no chance to win why do all the fuss. Do you ever think. Mainland China the Communist party that runs it it's huge it's very very powerful she might be thinking that that's the programmatic view that in the end mainland China will hold sway we have to voice l. We need to tell the world that we do not like this kind of ruling instead of like accepting it quietly. Why do you think you have a different view to your mom and maybe more of her generation what is it about your upbringing that has led you to different points of view she is that new immigrant from the eighty's from China she came to Hong Kong because at that time Hong Kong has more job opportunities she always thing that work will bring better life to her family she's actually a blue collar worker but I myself is a white collar University graduate so tell her that our society is not improving at all but she still host a view that in Annie so sad to see how work pays off it's not about the government it's only about our willingness to be hard working enough or not not to overspend not to travel a lot so I think her experience and my education actually divide our views a lot what do you want from the future then how do you see Hong Kong in the future developing in a way that you would want it to develop. Them and really listen to his people that this responsibility is people more than the central government I will say that Hong Kong now is in the situation worse than and the city of China Hong Kong we 150 Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong every day and we Hong Kong government do not have the approval right to dose 150 immigrants to Hong Kong it's all from China the approval. So that's putting pressure on Hong Kong you feel and also is it changing the character of Hong Kong maybe in your opinion yeah I would say so because they have a different a bringing from us they will have different political view and they still have to voting rights like us so if more and more people come and to dilute our local people I think the place you know will become more prone to the central government so it is why at this point of time we have to fight we have to tell the world that we do not want to be just. Because we are called this special and illustrated region so we should have some special rate. That's the sake of a vote we're calling her and also a little window into some of the disagreement she's had with her mom or pick up on some of those themes about the relationships that people have here what the conversations have been within families and groups of friends when we come back to Hong Kong a bit later on. 14 minutes past the hour now to an extraordinary route that's broken out in the upper echelons of the u.s. Military the secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer has gone or has been asked to go it's just the latest twist in the case you may remember of a Special Forces officer tried recently for war crimes Edward Gallagher Navy Seal much decorated was accused of war crimes in Iraq in a very high profile case he was acquitted of all charges except posing with a corpse for which he was demoted president all Trump wanted his rank restored and tweeted to that effect the military hierarchy wanted to do it their way with boards of inquiry and so on and the secretary of the Navy Spencer was caught up in trying to broker deals behind the scenes sort of basically square the circle now Gallagher himself the Navy Seal claimed that the president's tweet was an order because after all the president is the commander in chief the military top brass weren't quite so sure and now it ended up costing secretary of the Navy His job is being covered in depth by Navy Times an independent news outfit I asked editor Carl Prine what was behind all this the admirals in this have pushed this moment as we see it what's their motivation they seem to have wanted to showdown with the president they wanted to show for their own internal disciplinary reasons that they were going to get tough on insubordination within the ranks which makes this a difficult moment right because in the United States the president's the commander in chief so are you also being insubordinate to the president the president has tweeted a wish the department offenses not sure if it's an order but he has tweeted a wish commander's intent and in this case his intent was that they would lay off it Gallagher these trend review boards are seen as really clear if they're widely seen within the ranks being a punitive measure so they don't like it so so by sympathizing with Gallagher and against these boards once again the president is coming out in effect on behalf of the order. Guy the remark an ordinary guy in many interpretations but the lowish Well ma'am I think that's the reason why sailors have done such delight out of the story is because it is because they see this man swooping down from the very highest echelons of the White House and he intervenes in this case why this case is still a puzzle but he intervenes in this case not him in the other tens of thousands of cases they go on in the military or every time he has intervened it's been very good for any Gallagher as it turns out the court martial of a delegate collapsed for a lot of different reasons in fact the Navy put a tracking beacon into our e-mail server at maybe times to find out who or sources were so this isn't a big scandal in United States oh wow there's been a lot of things that have gone on here. At some point the gods go to war and that's what's happened here you have head and you have the God who is the the president and you have the God who is the secular the Navy knew of the God who is the secretary of defense secretary the Navy is the 3rd most powerful god in this picture and he's the one who's out tonight and what do the rank and file think therefore what do they think about the Gallagher thing to they think that it was a witch hunt or did they think that it was a reasonable sort of interpretation of military standards so I think there's a lot of support for the court martial itself at least the idea was we were going to find out during the court martial What were the real facts in this case so that's interesting so so it's not a simple kind of like protect the boys kind of thing it was already more sophisticated than that the impression always was that the president was simplifying it into let's defend our American Boy it wasn't that simple no it never is right I mean this is a war crimes trial so there are hard feelings on sides Gallagher always said he was innocent of these charges and in fact the panel agreed with them except for one thing he did pose with a body of a dead detainee he didn't murder the detainee as people at 1st said well indeed and the end result is what when the dust settles and we look at the relations between Trump and the military with an election on the way as well what's the result of this in a dirty compound outside morsel in Iraq 2 years ago something happened person dies we have different claims about how he died but in the end a court marshal collapses in a man who's free from all of that from what happened in that compound we have watched chaos descend on the Navy we have a navy that has sent tracking spyware to defense attorneys into Navy Times we have admirals who have forced a showdown with the secretary the Navy and the secure the fence and the president and then we've lost the secretary the Navy and we're getting a new one so out of all of these things that happened in Iraq 2 years ago we have this. Terrible fallout and this crisis in traditional civil military relations in the United States it's been an extraordinary extraordinary week Navy Times and it's a col prime Navy Times is should say Well as you heard there an independent news outfit covering Navy a famous. You're listening to news day on the b.b.c. World Service with Ben James here in Hong Kong Lawrence poll Art in London our top story is from the b.b.c. Needs 3 more on Hong Kong their chief executive here Kerry Lamb has said she'll listen to public views after pro-democracy groups swept the floor in local elections there Matthew Kenyon has the sports headlines Matthew when I went to bed here in Hong Kong last night Sheffield United were to know that. Didn't quite finish that bet no indeed it was a remarkable game in the English Premier League on Sunday Sheffield united against Manchester United finished 33 because after Ben went to bed United scored 3 times as Manchester United scored 3 times and then the final minute Sheffield United got an equaliser early going to sell shares verdict after that game his team had learned a valuable lesson and he said Last season they probably have lost it one game in the English Premier League tonight to Aston Villa against Newcastle United Newcastle boss Steve Bruce returning develop park for the 1st time since he was sacked by them the last time he was there indeed somebody threw a cabbage at him tens maybe hundreds of thousands of flamenco fans were on the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to celebrate their victory in the copper liberty to Doris there was some violence at the end of the day actually they were also celebrating sealing the domestic title in Brazil without playing a notable weekend all round for Flamengo Palmer's got beaten by Grammy and that means that flamenco can't be caught at the top and a Superman performance from Raf on the down according to one of his teammates the great Spaniard closed out the win for his country in the Davis Cup on home court in Madrid on Sunday against Canada 25000 people including the king in the stadium where 20 past the hour thank you Matthew off air I've been getting a little lesson in takeovers from Matt because it's his subject today it's very interesting actually he's going to share the public side of the story because there's a $33000000000.00 takeover between 2 well tech stalwarts I suppose are they still 0 h.p. So tell us more well I think I'll still text thoughts this is an offer. Xerox made for h.p. Last week of $33000000000.00 and the board of h.p. Rejected it so is Iraq said fine we'll take it to your shareholders and that's where a bid becomes what we call hostile h.p. Is basically the old printer in p.c. Business of what used to be called Hewlett Packard and of course Xerox can trace its roots back more than 100 years but h.p. Is at least twice as big as Xerox and sees this takeover and as a bit of an insult the words aggressive and opportunistic were used in its rejection statement here's a technology analyst Chris Green Xerox paying more than he's been and Xerox their hopes because the larger business has involvement in a number of other marketplaces not just imaging it's also divest itself of other challenging businesses such as enterprise software on which it's farmed off as part of Haiti enterprise a couple of years ago so it's in better shape but it is also still struggling with the fact that the way the people use computers the way the people use printers and other things is evolving and there is hitting its traditional markets Xerox on the other hand is a much smaller company you know it's struggled to reinvent itself through innovation so it's looking at potentially doing it through acquisition but it is a significant acquisition to make and it's going to have to take on significant debt to do it that's the tech analyst Chris Green but the outcome of all this could lie with just one man the billionaire investor car I can he owns 4 percent of h.p. And more than 10 percent of Xerox and he's very keen that this corporate marriage goes ahead and one quick extra business headline for you more takeover news the luxury goods giant l b m h makers of Mowbray champagne and Louis Vuitton handbags has reached an agreement to buy the jeweler Tiffany for just over $16000000000.00 And that is a corporate wedding reception that you. Rather like to go to yes a nice Christmas present for someone as well thank you very much indeed they were the business 23 minutes past the hour now let's talk about Michael Bloomberg rebranded Mike man of the people Bloomberg because he's just confirmed he's going to spend an awful lot of his billions in trying to become the Democratic candidate in next year's presidential election he was the former Republican mayor of New York he's one of the richest men in the u.s. And the world but he wants to take on President Trump calling him an existential threat to the u.s. And its values for a bit more of the background on this I've been asking Natasha back of Fortune magazine what he gets for his money so as you may know in the u.s. Money buys a lot particularly in politics I think in the case of Bloomberg he has reported to divide up his money or his spending in a couple of different areas Internet ads that will aim to attack. A massive voter registration drive throughout the country and then the 'd last will apparently be on television ads so the huge amount of money gets him a campaign what does the money not buy what will that campaign still like so Interestingly there have been reports that Bloomberg does not plan to accept any campaign donations which means unlike any other billionaire in the race Tom Styer who has been accused of using his money to buy campaign donations and therefore get on the debate stage because Bloomberg will not be doing that it means that he will likely not appear in any of the subsequent Democratic debates which means that he may not have the same airtime as many of his other fellow Democratic candidates does that put him at a huge disadvantage is he going to end up being a kind of like a 3rd party vote split or even though he's pretending to be a Democrat I think the approach of not appearing in the debates will be an interesting one it's hard to say how much it will matter there is. Many people in the country who do know him and know him as the former mayor of New York City but he also does not have the same name recognition as some of these other candidates particularly ones who have been in the race for a long time it may well be a disadvantage also people a poor ring over whether this candidate has appealed to this demographic so terribly granular whether women like so and so are fricken Americans like so and so who doesn't like Bloomberg then do we think s