Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:14Live from London. This is BBC
00:00:16News. New strikes hit two refineries refineries deep inside Russia as
00:00:20as a wave of Ukrainian drones target
00:00:23target the country. Russia strikes strikes back. In this hour we'll
00:00:26we'll get the latest from our correspondent correspondent in Kyiv. We'll also
00:00:29also talk live to the former assistant
00:00:31assistant to Ukraine's Defence Minister. Minister. Our other headlines. Iran
00:00:35Iran says a deal with Oman on the the Strait of Hormuz is in its final
00:00:38final stages. What are the details
00:00:40details of any deal and will the
00:00:43the US agree? Calls for an independent
00:00:46independent inquiry into a military military base in North Yorkshire, Yorkshire, where four young women
00:00:49women have told the BBC they were
00:00:52were sexually assaulted and harassed.
00:00:56harassed. An can Gianni Infantino Infantino remain as Fifa president?
00:00:58president? The Confederation of African African Football meets to decide
00:01:02decide their position, will have
00:01:03have all the latest twists and turns.
00:01:15turns. Hello and welcome to BBC News. News. We begin in Russia where Ukrainian
00:01:18Ukrainian drones have hit two oil oil refineries. A huge column of
00:01:22of smoke now hangs over the city city of Yaroslavl after an attack
00:01:26attack on one of the country's largest largest oil facilities. It is a stark
00:01:30stark reminder that long range strikes strikes are bringing the war in neighbouring
00:01:33neighbouring Ukraine deeper into into Russian territory, Ukraine's
00:01:36Ukraine's president said they targeted targeted the refinery and another
00:01:39another refinery, where two people people are reported dead as part
00:01:42part of its efforts to cut the revenues revenues which fund the Kremlin's
00:01:45Kremlin's war effort. The region's region's governor called it the largest
00:01:49largest attack ever, saying 93 drones drones were destroyed. But that's
00:01:52that's only part of the picture across across Russia. The military says
00:01:56says it is intercepted and destroyed
00:01:59destroyed over 600 Ukrainian drones drones heading for targets as far
00:02:02far apart as the Moscow region and and the Black Sea. Meanwhile, in
00:02:05in Ukraine, at least ten deaths have have been reported following the
00:02:08the latest wave of Russian air strikes. strikes. These images are from Zaporizhzhia,
00:02:12Zaporizhzhia, where Russian drones drones hit an apartment block, injuring
00:02:15injuring two civilians. So let's let's start this hour hearing more
00:02:18more from our Ukraine correspondent correspondent Jan Dan Johnson, who's
00:02:21who's in Kyiv. This is a deliberate deliberate Ukrainian strategy to
00:02:24to take the war deeper into Russian Russian territory, to make the Russian
00:02:27Russian people really feel the impact. impact. President Zelensky says this
00:02:31this is primarily about hitting the the Kremlin in the coffers, having
00:02:34having a real impact on the economy
00:02:35economy and trying to make sure that
00:02:38that the Russian military can't get get the supplies and the fuel that
00:02:41that it needs to continue the war war against Ukraine. But there is
00:02:44is an acknowledgement that this means
00:02:47means disruption, destruction to to civilian infrastructure. The Wildberries
00:02:51Wildberries warehouses, which have have been hit repeatedly over the
00:02:53the past few weeks. Another one of of those was damaged last night.
00:02:56night. They've had workers killed killed in those facilities, and that
00:02:59that is no doubt having an impact
00:03:01impact on the sort of ordinary business business that people in Russia rely
00:03:05rely on this network for. It's a
00:03:08a small business, a retailer that that distributes items, everyday
00:03:11everyday items that so many millions millions of Russians rely on. So
00:03:15So those attacks have had a real real world impact for ordinary Russians
00:03:19Russians and the oil refineries that
00:03:22that is making petrol short in supply. supply. We've seen huge queues over
00:03:25over the last couple of months as as petrol has been running out and
00:03:28and prices have soared. So no doubt doubt that is also putting pressure
00:03:32pressure on the Russian people and and the refinery. One of them that
00:03:34that was hit last night 400 miles miles from Ukraine, is one of Russia's
00:03:38Russia's biggest which has been hit hit before. But the regional governor
00:03:41governor said this was one of the the largest attacks on that refinery refinery that Ukraine had launched
00:03:45launched so far. Well, that was Dan Dan Johnson let's speak lie to Alexander
00:03:49Alexander Khara, who's the executive executive director of the centre centre for Defence Strategies in
00:03:52in Kyiv, former assistant to the
00:03:56the Ukrainian Defence Minister. And And Alexander, welcome to our programme.
00:04:00programme. These strikes deep into into Russia, how effective they've
00:04:04they've been in terms of how much much oil capacity have you managed
00:04:07managed to take out so far, say,
00:04:09say, over the last six months or
00:04:12or so? Well, it's difficult to assess
00:04:16assess the efficiency and effectiveness effectiveness of those strikes because
00:04:20because Russia still fights back
00:04:22back and the Russians didn't rule
00:04:26rule out the long let's say, prolongation
00:04:28prolongation of this war into 2027
00:04:322027 to 2028. For sure. They're going going to mobilise more people after
00:04:35after the so-called elections to to the Russian parliament. But anyway,
00:04:39anyway, we have no other choice but
00:04:41but to bring war back to Russia and
00:04:43and to undermine the resource base
00:04:46base of the Russian war machine.
00:04:50machine. And there are 2 or 3 goals
00:04:51goals for that. First, it's the direct
00:04:54direct affection to the war machine.
00:04:57machine. Second, it's the we just just showing the Russian people that
00:05:00that the war is not something in
00:05:02in Ukraine. It's not a shooting range
00:05:04range in Ukraine, but war is affecting
00:05:07affecting them financially. And in in terms of security. And certainly
00:05:11certainly we're trying to, strike
00:05:13strike and to push Putin and his his circle to negotiate something,
00:05:17something, even though we believe believe that there is a slim chance,
00:05:19chance, at least so far. So so part part of that. I assume it's not just
00:05:23just hitting oil refineries. We've We've seen these whole series of
00:05:27of attacks on the Wildberries factories. factories. That is an important part.
00:05:31part. What you've just described, described, isn't it impacting ordinary
00:05:34ordinary Russians, impacting the the economy and trying to impact
00:05:38impact the psychology of Vladimir
00:05:39Vladimir Putin? Well, you're right
00:05:42right and Wildberries is not just just about impacting the cycle of
00:05:46of the Russians. They use this platform platform for delivery of dual use
00:05:49use goods, drones and components
00:05:52components for their war. And certainly certainly there is a financial cost
00:05:55cost for Russia because it's been been financed by VTB, the second
00:05:58second largest. And the Russians Russians call this system Bank of
00:06:02of Russia. And now they have a debt debt problem and the government is
00:06:05is trying to cover that. And they're they're trying to please ordinary
00:06:09ordinary Russians with some reimbursement reimbursement for the losses of their
00:06:13their businesses. So it's not just
00:06:15just a cycle. It's economy. And it's
00:06:18it's the system that distributed distributed the dual use goods. Yes.
00:06:21Yes. So that's the offensive side
00:06:24side of what Ukraine is doing. Let's
00:06:26Let's talk about the defence because because President Zelensky has been
00:06:30been really clear about the significant
00:06:32significant decline in the various various air defences. We've seen
00:06:36seen so many interceptors going from from the Americans to the Middle
00:06:39Middle East for their war in Iran.
00:06:42Iran. How much of a real problem
00:06:44problem is that for you, given what what you're anticipating in the winter
00:06:47winter as well, and targets on the the infrastructure system? Well,
00:06:51Well, first of all, let me add Crimea
00:06:54Crimea because with drones and missiles,
00:06:56missiles, we are able to isolate
00:06:59isolate Crimea and to pause Putin
00:07:01Putin with dilemmas with no good good options out of that. And Crimea
00:07:05Crimea is a centre of gravity of of this war. Talking about defences.
00:07:08defences. Yes, sure. The other night
00:07:11night there were 28 missile ballistic ballistic missiles and none of them
00:07:14them were intercepted because of of the lack of Patriot interceptors.
00:07:17interceptors. And we know the reason reason the Americans are not able
00:07:20able to produce them at scale. They
00:07:22They are producing something like
00:07:24like 650 per year, and they depleted,
00:07:28depleted, their stockpiles to source
00:07:29source at least has been shot in
00:07:32in near Iran and in Iran. Campaign.
00:07:35Campaign. And it's a problem for for Ukraine because other Western
00:07:39Western system are not able to efficiently efficiently shut down those incoming
00:07:42incoming missiles. So that's why why it's so important for us to get
00:07:45get this agreement with the Americans
00:07:47Americans to produce those missiles missiles under their licence, even
00:07:51even though it's not going to happen happen any time soon. And the second
00:07:53second thing is a three year project
00:07:56project where we have our own missile
00:07:58missile Fire Point missile and our our Western partners, at least ten
00:08:01ten countries are helping us to develop
00:08:03develop a radar systems command systems
00:08:05systems and things like that. And And certainly we will we are going
00:08:08going to hunt down those launching
00:08:11launching sites that are closer to
00:08:13to our border, at least within 300 300 or 400km range. Even though it's
00:08:17it's difficult. And the American
00:08:19American campaign in Iraq, the war war with Iran now in Israel, Iranian
00:08:23Iranian campaign. So it's difficult
00:08:24difficult to do. The final, quickest
00:08:28quickest thoughts because you will will know this. You are sitting there
00:08:32there as a Ukrainian. What is there there in anything that we've talked
00:08:36talked about that avoids this just just being a continuation of a grinding
00:08:39grinding war that goes from the fourth
00:08:41fourth to the fifth year? Well, there
00:08:44there are two solutions to that. that. First and foremost, China may
00:08:48may stop this war the second day day because China is a major enabler
00:08:52enabler because it provides financial financial and other resources to
00:08:56to Russia w components, diplomatic diplomatic and political cover for
00:08:58for the Russian actions against Ukraine Ukraine and Europe in general, for
00:09:02for the simple reason they want to
00:09:04to tie the Western resources here here in Europe rather than to dedicate
00:09:08dedicate them into the in the Pacific. Pacific. The second thing is the
00:09:12the Americans, if they put pressure pressure on Russia with the secondary secondary sanctions and with many
00:09:16many other things like export control,
00:09:19control, Russians would not be able able to circumvent sanctions and
00:09:22and build their missiles, drones drones and other military equipment. equipment. There is no other way
00:09:26way because we are not going to give give up. We understand that going
00:09:29going to happen to Ukrainians and and Ukraine in general if we agree
00:09:32agree on that and the Russians are are not going to stop. Yeah. Alexander
00:09:36Alexander Khara, thank you so much much for taking time to speak to to us here live on BBC News. Thank
00:09:40Thank you so much for your time.
00:09:42time. Let's turn now to the Iran Iran war because with reports of
00:09:46of a possible breakthrough over the
00:09:47the Strait of Hormuz, Iran says they've
00:09:50they've they're close to finalising finalising an interim agreement with
00:09:53with Oman over the vital waterway, waterway, which has effectively been
00:09:56been closed since the start of the the conflict back in February. Pakistan,
00:09:59Pakistan, which is mediating between between the United States and Iran, Iran, says it hopes an agreement
00:10:03agreement will lead Washington and
00:10:04and Tehran to resume talks and resolve resolve their conflict. Well, if
00:10:08if confirmed, a deal might begin
00:10:10begin to ease an economic crisis
00:10:13crisis that has shaken markets. This This the live tracker. But it could
00:10:15could cement Iranian control over over the maritime choke point. Well,
00:10:19Well, with me here in the studio studio is Baran Abbasi from BBC Persian
00:10:23Persian and Baran. Just take me through
00:10:24through what Tehran is saying about
00:10:27about the possibilities, the closeness, closeness, the details of any sort
00:10:31sort of deal. So the Iranians are are saying that they are very close
00:10:34close to a deal with Oman, but they
00:10:36they insist that it's a it's they're they're involved in bilateral negotiations
00:10:40negotiations with the Omanis. And And the United States is not included
00:10:43included in the talks. And there there is even warning that if the
00:10:46the US gets involved and interferes,
00:10:49interferes, they talks might unravel
00:10:52unravel regarding the details of
00:10:55of the potential deal, they are saying
00:10:56saying that Iran will have control
00:10:59control over inbound traffic ships
00:11:02ships that want to enter the Persian
00:11:04Persian Gulf. They will have to use
00:11:07use a route that is closer to the
00:11:10the Iranian coast and in outbound
00:11:14outbound traffic would use a route
00:11:15route that is closer to the Omani
00:11:18Omani route. But Omani coast. But
00:11:20But Iranians are still insisting
00:11:23insisting that even outbound traffic traffic will have to co-ordinate
00:11:26co-ordinate with the Iranian armed
00:11:27armed forces. So I would describe
00:11:31describe this as a managed reopening
00:11:32reopening of the Strait of Hormuz
00:11:36Hormuz rather than a return to a a totally unrestricted navigation
00:11:40navigation through the strait. And And for Iranians, it is important
00:11:42important because they want to maintain maintain control over this important
00:11:45important waterway. It gives them
00:11:48them enormous leverage. And for Oman, Oman, it is important because they
00:11:51they want to help their Arab allies
00:11:53allies and the United States to help
00:11:56help open the strait, to ease pressure pressure on the global economy and
00:11:59and to make sure that war and allows allows for won't return to the region.
00:12:03region. Baran Abbasi, thanks for for taking me through all of that. that. Let's continue with this. Let's
00:12:07Let's speak live to KT McFarland. McFarland. She was the US Deputy
00:12:10Deputy National Security Advisor
00:12:12Advisor to President Trump in 2017.
00:12:152017. Welcome here to BBC News and and the programme. Good to have you
00:12:19you on the show. Give me your assessment assessment of these reports because
00:12:21because Iran saying they've agreed agreed a deal with Oman is not the
00:12:25the same as agreeing a deal with with the US that's a really important
00:12:28important distinction, isn't it? it? No. You know, at the end of the
00:12:32the day, the Strait of Hormuz will will be opened. The pressure on Iran,
00:12:35Iran, the economic pressure is unrelenting.
00:12:38unrelenting. The whatever has happened, happened, cease fire! No! Cease fire.
00:12:40fire. The blockade continues. No
00:12:43No tankers are getting into Iran. Iran. No commodities are getting
00:12:46getting into Iran by port. No Iranian
00:12:49Iranian oil is getting out. And the the tankers. So Iran's economic condition
00:12:52condition continues to degrade, if if not to the point of almost collapse
00:12:56collapse of their currency. So whatever whatever Iran says, oh, they're going going to talk to America, they're
00:13:00they're not going to talk to America. America. They're only going to talk talk to Oman. They're going to have
00:13:04have tolls if they open it up. I I mean, I think these are all kind kind of irrelevant, that the bottom
00:13:07bottom line is Iran is going to have have to do what the United States
00:13:11States wants, which is an open Strait Strait of Hormuz for all maritime
00:13:15maritime traffic. Oil traffic, commercial commercial traffic, any kind of maritime
00:13:19maritime traffic. And that will happen happen whether it happens today or
00:13:21or tomorrow or next month or three three months from now. It's going
00:13:24going to happen. So many different different points into that answer. answer. So let me take them one by
00:13:28by one. If I could. You say they they have to do this. Why do you
00:13:32you say they have to do this? Because Because they have shown again and
00:13:35and again they will do what they
00:13:37they want, not what Americans want. want. Well, they have said they can
00:13:41can do what they want regardless regardless of what America wants. wants. What are the objective? Reality
00:13:44Reality is their economy is collapsing. collapsing. Their economy is collapsing. collapsing. But virtually nothing
00:13:47nothing has got through the Strait Strait of Hormuz since February.
00:13:50February. And that's affecting the the global economy and the American American economy. Transponders are
00:13:54are turned off. So the American economy economy is doing just fine. Our economic
00:13:58economic growth is terrific. The The stock market has never been higher.
00:14:01higher. Gasoline prices are below below $4 a gallon, which for us still
00:14:04still got. They haven't. They've They've still gone up. You have a
00:14:07a mid-terms coming up. There is pressure pressure economic pressure on the
00:14:10the Americans. I think the American American economy is if you look at at all the objective factors the
00:14:14the American economy is doing extremely extremely well, far better than European
00:14:17European economy or the Chinese economy economy or anybody else's economy.
00:14:20economy. Now, if you want to make make the point that the longer this
00:14:23this drags on, the bigger drag it it will have on the Republicans in
00:14:27in the mid-term elections. You know, know, time will tell. Right now, now, most Americans are on vacation.
00:14:31vacation. They're not even going going to start paying attention to to the elections until after Labour
00:14:35Labour Day. So in early September, September, this thing, whole whole
00:14:38whole thing could be solved by early early September. That point making
00:14:41making a lot of nervousness. Let's Let's return to the Strait of Hormuz
00:14:44Hormuz then. And that point you made
00:14:46made about tolls because we don't don't know as you're talking to me
00:14:49me now, we don't know the details details of any sort of deals. They
00:14:52They may not call it a toll, but but there may well be some sort of
00:14:56of charge for navigating this route.
00:14:58route. Are you saying that definitively
00:15:01definitively the Americans will not not accept any sort of deal where
00:15:04where there's any sort of charge?
00:15:07charge? I think President Trump's Trump's been pretty clear, you know,
00:15:10know, no tolls. It's going to be
00:15:13be free maritime transit. Not having having to pay Iran anything or Oman
00:15:16Oman or anybody anything. So I think think he's been pretty clear about
00:15:20about it and he's stuck with that. that. He's not deviated from that
00:15:23that regardless of what Iran says says here tomorrow, the next day.
00:15:26day. But he's also said he will hit hit Iran very, very hard if they
00:15:29they don't do this. He said that
00:15:31that countless times and he hasn't
00:15:34hasn't done it. And Tehran knows, knows, for example, the US is running
00:15:37running out of interceptors to protect protect the region. That's clear.
00:15:41clear. That's what US officials have have been saying to the American
00:15:44American President. So he has said said constantly. Because what they've
00:15:47they've done is they've run out of of they're running low on interceptors interceptors in the region. That
00:15:51That doesn't mean we don't have interceptors interceptors that we can send into into the region. It doesn't mean
00:15:55mean that we can't use the interceptors. interceptors. We've already sold sold to a lot of our Gulf Arab allies
00:15:59allies to use them. So I don't I'm I'm not buying the argument that
00:16:02that the United States is in this this desperate position because we're
00:16:05we're running out of ammunition. ammunition. No. Why does he keep keep threatening and then not doing
00:16:09doing it? This is how do you go read read the book? There's a short book.
00:16:12book. It's called the Art of the the Deal by Donald Trump. He's a a tough negotiator. He'll say one
00:16:16one thing. He'll pull it back. He'll He'll praise somebody. He'll criticise
00:16:19criticise somebody. This is how he he negotiates. But if you look at
00:16:22at it over time, he said would last last for a matter. Of days that have have lasted six months and still
00:16:26still shows no sign of ending. No
00:16:28No sign of ending. But we also have
00:16:30have every capability at our disposal disposal to do anything we want with
00:16:33with Iran. They have no defence systems. systems. If they decide they want
00:16:36want to rebuild their nuclear sites, sites, terrific. We'll bomb them
00:16:39them again. They want to build new new nuclear sites. We're watching
00:16:42watching that. We could bomb those
00:16:43those if they want to continue to to sort of play this out, throw a
00:16:47a missile at an American ship or or another vessel. We have a lot
00:16:51lot of military targets that we could could still hit. We have chosen not
00:16:54not to sure. And largely. And that's that's been the problem throughout
00:16:57throughout the last few months. A A final question, because Donald
00:16:59Donald Trump wanted to strengthen strengthen and reshape the whole
00:17:02whole of the Middle East in this this second term, strengthen regional
00:17:05regional allies. Hasn't he done the
00:17:08the polar opposite with this conflict conflict with those regional allies
00:17:11allies now asking and posing the the serious question, where does
00:17:14does this leave us? Having US bases bases in our countries potentially
00:17:18potentially open to these sorts of of attacks going on for months and
00:17:20and months? Well, the Abraham Accords, Accords, I think, is what you're
00:17:24you're referring to. And will other other countries join the Abraham Abraham Accords? The Saudis have
00:17:27have said that they would eventually, eventually, under certain conditions.
00:17:29conditions. You know, the Gulf Arabs Arabs and this is the biggest change
00:17:33change of the architecture of the the Middle East is that the Gulf Gulf Arabs are fighting with the
00:17:36the United States and with Israel, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United
00:17:39United States are fighting together together with Israel's help at certain
00:17:42certain targets in the region. The
00:17:45The United States, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Bahrain, we're all fighting together.
00:17:48together. So that to me, that's the the biggest step of all when you
00:17:51you take away the Iran war, it's it's the complete change of the architecture.
00:17:55architecture. You have Arab-Israeli Arab-Israeli peace, Arab-Israeli Arab-Israeli commerce, Arab-Israeli
00:17:59Arab-Israeli military co-operation. co-operation. It's just Iran. Who's Who's the outlier? Well, we have
00:18:02have to leave it there. But KT McFarland, McFarland, thank you for joining joining us. Thanks for your time
00:18:06time here on today's programme. Thank
00:18:08Thank you. Now we're going to take take a short break. When we're back,
00:18:11back, we'll have more on the headlines headlines around the world and
00:19:14he was their friend. All heart-wrenching heart-wrenching stuff that made me me feel sick. The big cases, funeral
00:19:17funeral home horror. Watch on BBC
00:19:21BBC News. Welcome back. Let's talk
00:19:27talk Fifa because European football's football's governing body says teams
00:19:29teams could still boycott competitions competitions including the World
00:19:33World Cup, with Uefa insisting that that Fifa's defence of its president
00:19:36president Gianni Infantino changes changes nothing. Mr Infantino has
00:19:40has received the backing
00:19:45Has received the backing of his top officials after days of questions questions over his leadership and
00:19:48and apologising for errors that were were made in controversial plans plans to sell off stakes in competitions
00:19:51competitions to private investors. investors. Well, after a meeting meeting of his senior executives
00:19:55executives in Morocco yesterday, yesterday, Mr Infantino now looks
00:19:58looks set to fight for re-election
00:20:01re-election in March. So how could
00:20:02could Gianni Infantino be removed removed as Fifa president? Well,
00:20:06Well, the Fifa Council could try try to force his hand through an
00:20:09an emergency meeting which would
00:20:10would be triggered if 19 of its 37
00:20:1437 members called for one. Another Another step could be an extraordinary
00:20:17extraordinary congress. Of the 211
00:20:21211 Fifa member associations, 43 43 of them would need to request
00:20:24request it. If Infantino clings on
00:20:27on a candidate to challenge him would
00:20:29would need to be found for the Fifa
00:20:32Fifa Congress in March. Gianni Infantino
00:20:34Infantino still has significant support support across Africa. The Confederation
00:20:38Confederation of African Football Football is meeting today to discuss
00:20:41discuss the proposals to sell stakes stakes in competitions. Fifa has
00:20:45has already abandoned but of course
00:20:47course has generated so much anger, anger, so we've just spun through
00:20:51through so many of the developments. developments. We were hoping to actually actually talk more to Jim Boyce.
00:20:55Boyce. He's a former Vice President President of Fifa. We've just lost
00:20:58lost that line so apologies for that.
00:21:00that. But it is a story that has
00:21:02has continued to bubble and to create
00:21:04create more and more problems for for the Fifa president as he tries
00:21:08tries to bat off the enormous pressure
00:21:11pressure that has emerged since those those plans emerged since the World World Cup ended. So we'll have that
00:21:15that interview here, I hope, in the the next couple of minutes. Let's
00:21:18Let's turn to an important story story here though, because four young
00:21:21young women have told the BBC they they were sexually assaulted and
00:21:25and harassed at an army training training college for teenagers in
00:21:28in North Yorkshire. One said she she was raped by several of her fellow
00:21:31fellow junior soldiers in an attack attack that lasted for hours. In
00:21:35In a statement, the army said unacceptable
00:21:38unacceptable and criminal behaviour behaviour has absolutely no place place in our armed forces. Here's
00:21:42Here's our senior UK correspondent
00:21:46correspondent Sima Kotecha. It ruined
00:21:47ruined my life. I've lost all my
00:21:51my confidence. The words of women
00:21:52women who went to the largest
00:22:04army training college in the country for 16 Foundation College
00:22:08College in Harrogate is for teenagers teenagers who want a life in the
00:22:11the armed forces, but now it's at at the centre of serious allegations
00:22:15allegations from several women who who went to the college in recent
00:22:18recent years, claims of harassment harassment and sexual assault. They
00:22:22They were like, do you want to come come into the room? And me being
00:22:25being a naive 17-year-old girl was
00:22:28was like, yeah, fine. Tilly, not not her real name, says she was raped
00:22:32raped by fellow recruits. They started
00:22:34started taking my clothes off and
00:22:36and then this led to them doing stuff
00:22:38stuff I didn't consent to. There
00:22:41There were a lot of them. They touched
00:22:43touched me in places, made inappropriate inappropriate comments, calling me
00:22:47me a thing rather than a girl. Like Like some of the other women we spoke
00:22:50spoke to. Tilly reported it to the the police. We're not providing the
00:22:54the full details of all their investigations
00:22:56investigations to protect their identity.
00:22:59identity. Monica, also not her real real name, says she too was attacked
00:23:03attacked by a junior soldier. Set Set against the door so I couldn't couldn't get out. He then pushed
00:23:07pushed himself up against me and and started kissing my face and touching
00:23:10touching me all over. He sexually sexually assaulted me. All of the
00:23:14the women we've spoken to went to to this college over the last five
00:23:18five years. Data obtained by the
00:23:20the BBC through a Freedom of Information
00:23:22Information request shows that North
00:23:24North Yorkshire Police recorded 16 16 sexual offence crimes over the
00:23:28the last year at this college, including
00:23:32including voyeurism and exposure exposure and sexual assault. These
00:23:36These are recorded complaints and and it's not clear how many led to
00:23:39to prosecutions. If this was anywhere anywhere else, it would have been been closed down by now. I think
00:23:43think as a matter of urgency, there there should be an independent inquiry
00:23:47inquiry into the college led by someone
00:23:49someone with significant safeguarding
00:23:52safeguarding expertise. A recent recent Ministry of Defence survey
00:23:55survey suggests almost 70% of women women in the armed forces experienced
00:23:59experienced at least one sexualised sexualised behaviour in the last
00:24:02last year. In 2021, Gunner Jaysley
00:24:05Jaysley Beck took her own life at
00:24:07at her barracks in Wiltshire months months after she was sexually assaulted
00:24:10assaulted by Warrant Officer Michael
00:24:13Michael Webber. Last year, a coroner coroner ruled the assault and the
00:24:16the army's failure to take appropriate
00:24:18appropriate action more than minimally minimally contributed to her death.
00:24:22death. Weber was jailed for six months.
00:24:24months. It's difficult to think. think. Almost five years on from
00:24:27from the loss of our daughter, that
00:24:29that this still continues and no
00:24:31no real change has been made despite
00:24:34despite what we're speaking up and
00:24:37and it's still ongoing. And that
00:24:39that is heartbreaking to see brave
00:24:43brave of the young soldiers to come
00:24:45come forward. I urge anybody to speak
00:24:49speak up, but yeah, heartbreaking. heartbreaking. The government defines
00:24:53defines a child as anyone under 18
00:24:5518 in response to the allegations allegations made in this report,
00:24:58report, the Ministry of Defence says
00:25:01says unacceptable and criminal behaviour behaviour has absolutely no place
00:25:04place in our armed forces and these
00:25:06these reports are extremely distressing distressing and serious. It says
00:25:09says it's created the defence Serious
00:25:12Serious Crime Command, which is independent independent and outside of the army
00:25:15army chain of command and has a specialist
00:25:17specialist team who help victims
00:25:19victims throughout the process of
00:25:22of justice. The Army is a tough training
00:25:26training environment with high standards, standards, but the supervision and
00:25:29and discipline of junior recruits recruits and their instructors is
00:25:33is now in sharp focus. After so many
00:25:37many serious allegations, Sima Kotecha,
00:25:40Kotecha, BBC News. We're going to to have a break in a moment or two.
00:25:43two. I just want to break a development development here in the UK. Major
00:25:47Major train disruption because there's
00:25:49there's been a failure of electricity electricity supply at a communications communications centre and it means
00:25:53means that trains across Greater Greater Manchester, the Midlands
00:25:56Midlands and the north-west of England England are all being disrupted.
00:26:00disrupted. Disruption is expected expected to last until the end of
00:26:02of the day. There's cancellations,
00:27:34temperatures ramping up further into into next week, hitting the 50 Celsius
00:27:36Celsius mark on Tuesday.
00:29:40Trump's plan to get the oil flowing flowing again, one that will pay
00:29:43pay off? Join us on Talking Business
00:29:45Business Weekly on BBC News. Here
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00:30:16Welcome back to BBC News. Let's turn turn to our main. Headlines here.
00:30:20here. New strikes hit two refineries refineries deep inside Russia as
00:30:23as a wave of Ukrainian drones target
00:30:25target the country. Meta becomes becomes the latest firm to say one
00:30:29one of its AI models hacked another
00:30:32another company. The family of the the murdered British exchange student
00:30:36student Meredith Kercher calls on on Amanda Knox, originally a suspect
00:30:39suspect in the case, to abandon plans
00:30:41plans for a stand up comedy show. show. Think about the family here.
00:30:44here. Think about her friends and
00:30:49and to. Turn the tables. If it was
00:30:52was your sister that this had happened
00:30:54happened to. And Afghanistan's exiled
00:30:58exiled women footballers make