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tv   Newsday  BBC News  April 4, 2024 12:00am-12:31am BST

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what i know is that we were targeted deliberately. nonstop until everybody was dead in this convoy. new york judge rejects former president donald trump's bid to delay his forthcoming hush money trial paid to a porn star. and — south korea bids a tearful farewell to the first giant panda born in the country — as she heads to china. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in taiwan where rescuers are attempting to reach dozens of people trapped after a magnitude
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7.4 earthquake. at least nine people have been killed and more than a thousand people are injured on the island. rupert wingfield—hayes has the latest from the town of suao, around 25 miles north of the earthquake�*s epicentre, where over a hundred people remain trapped inside a tunnel, along a coastal highway. this is the moment the quake struck a taipei tv station in the middle of its morning news show. the shaking was intense and prolonged, even in the capital — more than 100 miles from the quake�*s epicentre. this is what it did to morning traffic on an elevated highway... ..and to passengers on a metro train, who remained remarkably calm as the car was tossed around like a toy. elsewhere, people ran for their lives, abandoning their coffees and breakfast. most young people here have never experienced a quake like this and were badly shaken. translation: an earthquake | hasn't happened in a long time,
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so it felt really terrifying. close to the epicentre in the city of hualien, the shaking was more intense and the damage much worse. you can see people running from their cars as the building on the left begins to collapse. dozens of buildings have been badly damaged. some now lean over at absurd angles, as if ready to topple at any moment. the death toll is so far mercifully low, but the number of injured has skyrocketed past 1,000. eastern taiwan is a mountainous and rugged landscape, and that brought another terrifying threat — landslides. along the coast, the quake unleashed massive rockfalls — whole mountainsides seemingly slipping into the valleys below. roads are now strewn with massive boulders, bridges severed and tunnels blocked. these shots from a military helicopter show one famously perilous stretch of road.
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it is now completely cut off at both ends, with cars and buses stuck inside. rescue crews are continuing to work into the night in hualien city and across the east of the island. dozens have been brought to safety, but more than 140 people are still reported to be trapped. many of those still trapped are along this highway behind me. several dozen are reported to be tourists in buses trapped inside a tunnel. one can only imagine the horror of being in that tunnel when the earth began to shake and the rocks began to fall. the race is now on to get to them and to bring them to safety. rupert wingfield—hayes reporting. john vidale is a professor of seismology at the univeristy of southern california. he explained to me why taiwan is prone to earthquakes. where tectonic plates collide — several plates have formed
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several subduction zones, and taiwan is basically filled with earthquake faults that shift. it had bigger earthquakes than this. but this was a very serious earthquake. john, help us put this things into perspective then. this earthquake and the one that hit turkey last year are in the same category in terms of magnitude, but the death and damage caused is significantly different. what do you put that down to? well, first, this earthquake was fairly deep. it seems to have been 30 or a0 kilometres below the surface. so that lets the energy spread out before it hits the top. the earthquake in 1999 here was much shallower and also bigger, and it caused a lot more damage and death. but also being so deep, it didn't generate the kind of tsunami waves that people are worried about. so really, it's big, but not the earthquake people most fear in a place like taiwan. and taiwan has early warning systems in place to prevent injury. could you explain how these work and and also the ones used
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where you are based in the us? yes. taiwan's built in recent years an early warning system that detects the start of the earthquake and transmits a warning that travels out faster than the earthquake waves. and it apparently worked very well in this earthquake. it provided ten or 15 seconds of warning. it showed up instantly on the tv stations. i'm not sure if the apps on the phone all got it as quickly as we would like, but it does provide a new measure of heads up that people should be ready for strong shaking as it's coming. we have it here in california. we've been running for a few years. we haven't had a serious earthquake to really test its benefits. but it's reassuring to know we have at least a few seconds of warning when the shaking is coming. it's been 25 years since taiwan experienced an earthquake of this magnitude. i suppose with these things, there's no way of knowing if another one is just around the corner or could
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be decades away. that's correct. although, you know, today is the most dangerous time right after an earthquake is when we have aftershocks and earthquakes that are triggered. so after a few days, people can kind of let their breath go. but yeah, otherwise we have no warning. just every day is as dangerous as the rest. as international condemnation grows over israel's attack on an aid convoy in gaza, the bodies of the six foreign aid workers killed in the drone strike, have been taken to egypt. a seventh palestinain aid worker has already been buried. they all worked for the charity, world central kitchen, who's founder tonight, jose andres, said the aid workers "were targeted systematically, car by car". the israeli government has denied targeting the workers, insisting it was a mistake due to "misidentification.". lucy williamson has the latest. israel's army said it had misidentified them.
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today, colleagues wrote their names on the body bags that carried them out of gaza. john chapman. james henderson. and james kirby. three british men among seven aid workers killed in israeli air strikes this week. their bodies driven through the rafah crossing into egypt to be flown home to the uk. today, the head of their organisation spoke for the first time about what happened. they attacked the first car. they were able to move to the second one. again, this one was hit. they were able to move to the third one. in the process, we know they were trying to call. but in the chaos of the moment, whatever happened, they... to try to be telling idf why are they doing, that they were targeting us. and then they hit the third one. under pressure to provide answers, israel has promised an investigation.
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i welcome what the israeli foreign minister said yesterday to me about a full, urgent and transparent inquiry into how this dreadful event was allowed to happen. and we want to see that happen very, very quickly. israel's army initially pointed to poor coordination on the ground and announced new measures to tackle it. but precise strikes on aid vehicles need a very high bar under both military regulations and international law, and some here say both sets of rules are being broken in gaza, describing a culture of impunity. no, i don't agree with that. there are cases where soldiers have been disciplined throughout the course of this war. how many times? i don't have those figures at hand but this is the situation. how many other investigations do you have going on where aid workers have been killed by israeli forces? i'm not aware of those cases but what we need to understand is that there are very clear rules and regulations.
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soldiers need to adhere by them and when they don't, they are held accountable for their actions. this investigation is being driven by international outrage over a single event. but poor coordination on the ground doesn't fully explain why forces were allowed to fire on a clearly marked convoy that appeared to pose no immediate threat. and there are people both inside and outside the defence ministry who say the explanation goes beyond any individual decision or any individual mistake. 0ne organisation that collects testimony from serving soldiers says there's been a shift in military culture and policies. you know, when i served in the military, the rules were — if there is doubt, there is no doubt. meaning if you have any doubt that you're going to hit an innocent person, you don't shoot. today, it means the opposite. if there is any doubt that you are under risk, you need to shoot.
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these are not the first aid workers to be killed here, just the first known foreign ones. but their deaths have spotlit questions that foreign journalists currently can't investigate, banned by israel from entering gaza. six bodies left this conflict zone today — the questions did not. lucy williamson, bbc news, tel aviv. the family ofjames kirby — one of the three british nationals killed in the strike — said they were heartbroken, and they are demanding answers from the israeli government. they've been speaking to danjohnson. humanitarian aid relies on people like this — three british men killed providing security advice in gaza. he has died a hero, you know? they all have. james kirby served in bosnia and afghanistan. now his relatives in bristol share the grief
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that's reached six other aid workers' families. it's just heartbreaking that, you know, he lost his life doing that. but he knew the dangers. he was selfless in that regard and he just wanted to help people. their cars were hit by israel's military as they returned to base after escorting food into gaza. the cars looked to me to be clearly marked. in today's technology, you'd think they'd be able to see that clearly — that these vehicles were carrying humanitarian aid workers. this is why we want answers, really. john chapman's family said, "he died trying to help people and was subject to an inhumane act. he was an incredible father, husband, son and brother." james henderson was another former military man, using his skills and experience to help feed gaza's hungry. what are the questions that you have? we were told that
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their route was safe. why wasn't it? itjust seems quite indiscriminate, what they're doing at the moment. israel's been accused of not being careful enough about protecting civilian life. 0h, undoubtedly. yeah. that needs to change. humanitarian aid workers need to be able to do their work. this was a tragic accident, israel says. but according to the un, nearly 200 aid workers have died in this conflict and some agencies are now pulling back. obviously now no—one's going to be going there to help these people and it'sjust going to drop into absolute chaos. there's international pressure now, so let'sjust hope that response is heard by israel. israel's promised an investigation and answers. but will these deaths, after so many thousands in gaza, bring a significant change in its approach? danjohnson, bbc news, bristol. earlier, i spoke to michael capponi, founder of the aid organization
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global empowerment mission, about his reaction to the deaths of world central kitchen staff. it's absolutely heartbreaking what's happened here. we've been working alongside and almost every disaster our teams cross them, communicated with them. just the day before. it's an incredibly complex, difficult situation. we've had to make a call, unfortunately, to basically take the word of a director we deal with on the israeli side that this is not going to happen again and that we're going to be protected and we're going to have to continue to operate they are. because a situation is just dire. the situation, if he doesn't get to people they will die. it is not black—and—white.
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it is that black—and—white. there is risk versus helping people. this is what we do. we bring about 225 trucks to the front lines of ukraine every single month. we've been doing that for two years, we haven't had one death. here you have a country where it's happened 200 times already and just six months. something is got to change with the way things are done. we've heard from other organisations saying there coming out of their staff working on the ground there. is that something you are considering to? are considering to0? we're going to ramp up. we're going to multiply our staff by 100%, increase our capacities and be extremely careful and methodical about how we do things to a degree that we've never done before. like i said, the need is so big if everybody pulls out now
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you will have 2 million people die of starvation. what people need to understand right now, even though there's a lot of trucks coming in and it somewhat in the same amount of the amount of trucks coming in pre—0ctober seven if you look at the stats on food, what nobody understands his 95% of the entire economy has basically collapsed. there is no industry any more. there's no food being grown in the country, there's no resources any more for themselves to be sustaining. so now you need to almost quadrupled the imports just to sustain with actually happening. 200 trucks on average coming in right now was already leading to a famine in the north. imagine if there is no more trucks coming in. imagine what that would lead to. we have to work with this government and they have to guarantee us safety. they said they would and we're going to have to basically...
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hope they do. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.
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a new yorkjudge has denied donald trump's bid to delay his forthcoming trial over alleged hush money paid to a porn star — the first ever criminal trial of a former us president. in 2016 a lawyer for the former president, michael cohen, said he'd paid one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to stormy daniels to stop her from revealing an affair with mr trump ten years previously. mr trump wanted a delay until the supreme court reviews his claim of presidential immunity in another criminal case. live now to washington where we can speak to our reporter will vernon. get us up to speed with more details. it
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get us up to speed with more details. ,., , , . details. it sometimes difficult to keep up — details. it sometimes difficult to keep up with _ details. it sometimes difficult to keep up with these - details. it sometimes difficult. to keep up with these labyrinth of networks of legal problems that former president donald trump has. this decision by the new yorkjudge relates to the so—called hush money case. this is where mr trump is accused of falsifying business records over the ledge payout to an aduu over the ledge payout to an adult film actress back in 2016. that was in the final days of the presidential election campaign. he is accused of trying to hide this payment, allegedly. mr trump argued that this case should be delayed whilst the us supreme court considers a separate legal question over whether mr trump enjoys immunity from prosecution on the acce took whilst in office. that stems from a separate case which is the washington federal crimes case where mr trump is accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results. today the judge in 2020 election results. today
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thejudge in new york, as we expected denied that request to postpone that child once again. that now clears the way, it removes the final obstacle —— postpone the trial. the criminal prosecution of a former president. it could be the only case to go to trial before the november elections mr trump's legal strategy across all four of his criminal cases, 88 criminal charges across four separate cases, this tactic has been to dismiss, he's doing everything possible to ensure that none of those cases kick off the 11th of november 2020 presidential elections legal experts say the reason he's doing that is because if he wins the election he could instruct his hand—picked attorney general, the head of the department of justice and the us to dismiss most of those charges against
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him. that's why he's trying to delay all of this. to a large extent he's been pretty successful at doing that. this hush money, new york trial could be the only one possibly that actually starts before that actually starts before that crucial november election date. . ~ ., date. thank you, it will for keeping — date. thank you, it will for keeping across _ date. thank you, it will for keeping across all- date. thank you, it will for keeping across all the - date. thank you, it will for. keeping across all the cases date. thank you, it will for - keeping across all the cases of former president donald trump. an iranian tv journalist — stabbed outside his london home — has vowed he will be back on air soon. pouria zeraati is now staying in a safe house after the attack, which is being investigated by metropolitan police counter—terrorism officers. they say three suspects left the uk within hours of the attack. here's tom symonds. he survived, but despite the positive picture, pouria zeraati is said to be all too aware he could have been killed. police searching the street where he lives, where he was approached by a man asking for money, another
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grabbing his arms, the first stabbing his legs, before they ran off. an eyewitness who was just down the road told me that he was walking along here when they came running towards him — two young men in their early 20s wearing black hooded tracksuits. he said they looked casual — calm, even. they got into a waiting car and drove off. but he got the number plate. the attack happened in wimbledon. police were able to track the car, a blue mazda — possibly using automatic number plate cameras and cctv — to new malden, where they found it abandoned. it is being forensically examined. from there, the three suspects travelled to heathrow airport. there are regular buses. it's also possible to get a train. scotland yard said they caught a flight out of the uk. detectives will have their passport details and say they've been identified. police have yet to confirm
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which country the suspects flew to, or their possible motive. the concern is pouria zeraati was targeted as a prominent presenter for a tv station banned by the iranian regime. last year in treatment was two other presenters have been threatened. police and security forces have awarded 18 plots against critics from iran. this attack looks more like a carefully planned attack to terrorise and kill. he has told a friend he won't be silenced. tom symonds, bbc news, wimbledon. (tx vt) now, i want to show you some pictures out of south korea. this is fu bao, she's the first giant panda born in the country. the zoo started posting updates on social media and she became an internet celebrity — with millions watching her grow up. now she's been sent to china tojoin a breeding prgoramme. last month thousands of visitors queued up to see her, bringing her gifts and tributes before she departed. earlier, i spoke to youtuber seong—jae kong, known as korean billy.
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he told me how this giant panda captured the hearts of many koreans. so fu bao was born in 2020 in korea. there was a viral video from the zoo where fu bao stayed and the video showed the fu bao giant baby panda and the caretaker having a good time. also the giant panda was clinging to the caretaker. everyone found the giant panda so cute and adorable so everybody including korean people and everyone around the world fell in love with her. since she was born in korea everyone could watch her and see her grow up in korea. so everyone could somehow bond with her. we thought of fu bao as kind of like a child in a family member in south korea. everyone was so sad
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to send her back to china. sounds like she's grown up in the public eye in south korea. what were people s reactions to her departure? we understand she will be greatly missed. of course the caretaker was heartbroken. he was so sad and heartbroken to send her to china. we could put ourselves in the caretaker shoes. we could sympathise with him. and because we had been watching so many videos of the caretaker bonding with her and putting in the caretaker�*s shoes we could also bond with her at the same time. so we could naturally sympathise we naturally felt so sad to send her back to china. we know the panda diplomacy is quite a feature
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of chinese politics. do we know if there's going to be another panda arriving in south korea? there are now twin pandas which were born in south korea. there are still giant pandas staying in korea at the moment. we still have the giant panda so we can still visit the zoo in korea and check out the giant pandas. but fu bao was an extraordinary case. that brings us to a close for a new state this hour. —— newsday. hello. areas of low pressure are forming an orderly queue in the atlantic, heading our way over the next few days bringing further bouts of rain. there will be some drier, sunnier interludes and then by the weekend, two things will happen. it will turn warmer, but it will also turn windier. now, the area of low pressure heading our way for the weekend is just starting to take shape behind me.
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not much to see just yet, but that low is set to deepen. in the shorter term, you can see a couple of different low pressure systems working through. thursday morning, starting with some pretty heavy rain actually, across parts of england and wales. that will tend to pull away eastwards as the day wears on. then we'll see some sunny spells, scattered showers. then later on, more rain will push across the south—west of england and into wales. for northern ireland and scotland, expect largely cloudy skies, some bits and pieces of light, rain and drizzle, but also a bit of snow mixing in over high ground in scotland. temperatures in the north of scotland only up to around five or six degrees — 16 in the south—east of england. and then through thursday night, we'll see outbreaks of heavy rain driving northwards once again. still the chance for some snow, even to relatively low levels across the northern half of scotland where it will be a cold start to friday. further south, a very different story starting today at 11 story starting the day at 11 or 12 degrees in much of england and wales. and then through friday,
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that rain and hill snow continues to journey northwards across scotland. behind it, we get into a mix of sunny spells and heavy, blustery showers turning quite windy through friday, particularly out towards the west. but temperatures will be climbing — still cold in the north of scotland, but for northern ireland, england and wales, 15 to 18 degrees. and then into the start of the weekend, this deep area of low pressure with lots of isobars squeezing together is set to pass to the west of the uk. now that is going to bring some very strong winds. we'll see rain clearing the north of scotland. clearing to a mix of sunny spells and showers, probably not too many showers — there will be a decent amount of dry weather around, but the winds are very brisk indeed. particularly for some of these western coasts, 60 mile per hour gusts or more. with those winds coming from the south, though, feeling pretty warm. could be the warmest day of the year so far, particularly in eastern england. highs of 20, maybe 21 degrees, not quite as warm on sunday, but temperatures still well up into the teens. some showers, some sunshine too.
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taiwan's semiconductor chip industry is counting the cost a day after the island was struck by the worst earthquake in 25 years. plus — man versus machine — notable artists across the music industry denounce what they call the �*predatory�* use of artificial intelligence.
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hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. we begin in taiwan where rescue efforts are under way a day after a violent earthquake killed at least nine people and injured more than 1,000. on an island that produces more than half of the world's semiconductors, there's also been disruption to the chip—making industry. tsmc says employees are returning to work after the chipmaker evacuated several of its factories in the city of hsinchu and southern taiwan. the company has said there's been no damage to its critical tools. marco mezger is the co—founder of memory chip technology company neumonda and he says this time around taiwan's earthquake preparedness protected its high—tech industries. the first reports of a piercing right now is also that there is no major damage or disruption on the production. we are talking at the moment at six

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