Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:13Live from Washington. This is
00:00:15BBC News. The US Senate passes a
00:00:17a sanctions package aimed at helping helping Ukraine by cutting off funds
00:00:21funds to Russia. It now faces a vote
00:00:23vote in the House of Representatives. Representatives. Thailand's Prime
00:00:26Prime Minister pledges new gun laws laws after a 14-year-old student
00:00:30student shoots dead. Six people at
00:00:32at a school after killing two of
00:00:34of his grandparents and a US appeals appeals court ordered the Trump administration
00:00:38administration to stop building a a $400 million ballroom at the White
00:00:41White House. The President says he'll
00:00:43he'll appeal at the Supreme Court.
00:00:54Court. I'm Helena Humphrey. Good Good to have you with us. We begin
00:00:57begin with some developing news from from Ukraine. The capital, Kyiv,
00:01:00Kyiv, is under attack from ballistic ballistic missiles. Russian missile
00:01:04missile attacks have become an almost almost nightly occurrence, with Ukraine
00:01:07Ukraine saying that it lacks enough enough air defences to intercept
00:01:10intercept them. Earlier, Russian Russian strikes killed three people
00:01:14people in the Kyiv region, including including a child, according to the
00:01:17the local governor. Meanwhile, here here in the United States, the Senate
00:01:21Senate has overwhelmingly passed passed a sanctions bill against Russia.
00:01:24Russia. It aims to choke off the the country's economy and bring an
00:01:27an end to the war in Ukraine. With With the legislation targets major
00:01:30major buyers of Russian oil and gas
00:01:32gas and imposes additional sanctions sanctions on Russian leaders and
00:01:36and oligarchs. The measure was championed championed by the late Senator Lindsey
00:01:39Lindsey Graham. It still needs to to pass the House of Representatives
00:01:43Representatives where it may face face some resistance. Now that's
00:01:46that's largely because a provision provision in the bill that would
00:01:48would give President Trump the ability
00:01:50ability to impose tariffs of up to
00:01:53to 100% on countries that are major major consumers of Russian energy.
00:01:56energy. Lindsey Graham's sister, sister, South Carolina Republican
00:01:59Republican Senator Darline Graham Graham and Richard Blumenthal, the
00:02:03the Democratic senator from Connecticut, Connecticut, are among the lawmakers
00:02:06lawmakers voicing support for the
00:02:08the bill. An emotional day in a very
00:02:11very exciting day for me. Russia
00:02:12Russia has waged war against Ukraine
00:02:15Ukraine for far too long, and this this bill assists President Trump
00:02:18Trump and his noble efforts to bring
00:02:20bring it to a close. This legislation
00:02:22legislation was deeply important important to my brother Lindsey,
00:02:26Lindsey, and I grateful am that this
00:02:27this bill has achieved such a wide
00:02:30wide coalition of support. He believed believed that this was the most consequential
00:02:34consequential piece of legislation legislation that he had ever led.
00:02:37led. Vladimir Putin is watching in in Moscow. I'd like to thank Lindsey
00:02:41Lindsey Graham is watching as well well and proud of what we've done,
00:02:44done, because today we send a message
00:02:46message to Vladimir Putin, you will
00:02:49will not win this war. Time to come
00:02:53come to the table for peace. Your
00:02:55Your economy already on its heels
00:02:59heels is going to be throttled, even
00:03:00even decimated. Well, Doctor Gerlinde
00:03:03Gerlinde Niehus is a former Nato Nato deputy director for Defence
00:03:07Defence and security co-operation. co-operation. She told me that the the bill could make a meaningful
00:03:11meaningful difference in constraining constraining Russia's war machine.
00:03:13machine. If it passes in the
00:03:17House. I think the short answer is is yes, but it's under the caveat
00:03:19caveat that it's really put into
00:03:23into law and it's still it still
00:03:24still has to go over one hurdle. hurdle. But if that happens, indeed
00:03:28indeed it would be a welcome move
00:03:30move because so far I think the Trump Trump administration has not been
00:03:34been really spearheading the sanctions
00:03:37sanctions efforts against war against against Russia. So if that were confirmed,
00:03:41confirmed, it would be good news. news. Good news for Ukraine, but
00:03:44but also good news for for Europe.
00:03:47Europe. And I would argue also good good news for the US. If you look
00:03:51look at the picture on the battlefield battlefield right now, many reports
00:03:54reports suggesting that Ukraine has has momentum. But I also wonder whether
00:03:58whether you think that could be offset
00:04:00offset if cities like Kyiv, as we've
00:04:02we've been mentioning, continue to
00:04:05to come under that intensified attack. attack. Yeah, yeah. I think what
00:04:08what we are seeing is really a situation situation of attritional warfare.
00:04:12warfare. Both sides are experiencing experiencing significant strain.
00:04:16strain. I mean, on the Russian side,
00:04:18side, the summer offensive has has
00:04:21has failed. Yeah. They only made
00:04:24made small tactical progress in some
00:04:27some areas. And Russia continues
00:04:29continues to terrorise Ukrainian Ukrainian cities. Ukraine continues
00:04:33continues to strike deep into Russian
00:04:35Russian territory. They achieved
00:04:38achieved to probably knock out some
00:04:41some 40% of the Russian refining refining capacities. But clearly
00:04:43clearly I mean, they face critical critical shortages in air defence
00:04:47defence in particular and increasing
00:04:50increasing civilian casualties due due to the intensified Russian missile
00:04:53missile attacks. So so as I said,
00:04:56said, it's a war of attrition, which which unfortunately continues by
00:05:00by now longer than World War I. On
00:05:02On that point, with regards to air air defences, what do you make of
00:05:06of President Trump's shifting tone
00:05:09tone on Patriot missile licences
00:05:12licences for Ukraine? Why do you
00:05:14you think he appears to have changed
00:05:16changed his position? Well, I guess
00:05:20guess he realised that it's more more complicated than he may have
00:05:24have thought because it involves involves intellectual property rights rights from the companies concerned,
00:05:28concerned, which apparently were were not involved in the announcement
00:05:30announcement he made in, in Ankara.
00:05:34Ankara. But I think Ukraine now really
00:05:36really has to look into what other
00:05:39other options there are because in
00:05:41in many ways, relying on these words
00:05:44words from Trump is is not a good
00:05:45good option. So so I think they need
00:05:48need to look into other options which
00:05:51which aren't perfect, but there could
00:05:54could be this French, Italian, some some T battery which may perform
00:05:58perform better. We should move away
00:06:00away from looking at Ukraine as a
00:06:02a petitioner. Ukraine is much more more than that. It's an added value
00:06:05value to our defence and security. security. So we need that mind shift
00:06:09shift first and foremost in, in Europe.
00:06:12Europe. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and and Pakistan have signed an historic
00:06:16historic joint defence agreement agreement saying that an attack on on one country would be considered
00:06:19considered an attack on all three. three. The countries have been looking
00:06:22looking to strengthen security co-operation co-operation amid the US-Iran war.
00:06:26war. The deal was announced at a a meeting between the Saudi Crown
00:06:29Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Salman. The Turkish president Recep
00:06:32Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Pakistani Pakistani Prime Minister, Shehbaz
00:06:35Shehbaz Sharif, in the holy city city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia has faced
00:06:39faced direct attacks by Iranian forces
00:06:42forces as well as by Iran aligned aligned Houthi fighters in Yemen.
00:06:45Yemen. The effective closure of the the Strait of Hormuz has also limited
00:06:48limited exports of Saudi oil, and and the announcement comes as Iran
00:06:52Iran and Oman continue to work on
00:06:54on a framework deal to set shipping shipping routes through the strait.
00:06:57strait. Now Phil Stewart is the chief chief national security reporter
00:07:00reporter at Reuters, and he told told me more about the new defence
00:07:03defence pact and what it says about about this particular moment in the
00:07:07the region. Well, you know, there's there's two ways to look at this. this. You know, all those three countries
00:07:11countries are allies of the United United States. But Saudi Arabia has
00:07:14has historically dependent on the the US for a lot of its protection
00:07:17protection and its support. And so so for the Saudis to now sign this
00:07:20this agreement really speaks to the the kind of knife's edge of threat
00:07:24threat it perceives as it faces, faces, you know, real hostilities
00:07:28hostilities from Yemen's Houthis Houthis and also, you know, warnings warnings from Iran that, you know,
00:07:31know, this kind of pact is not going going to protect them. Instead, its
00:07:35its policies need to change. Well, Well, let's talk more about what what Saudi Arabia is experiencing
00:07:39experiencing the threat level right right now, including those attacks
00:07:42attacks that we've seen from the
00:07:45the Houthis inside Yemen, but also
00:07:46also the threat level for Saudi Arabia,
00:07:49Arabia, concerns that they will experience experience a major attack. Right.
00:07:52Right. I mean, the Saudis are under under unprecedented pressure. And
00:07:56And you know what? You're what you're you're really worried about if you're
00:07:58you're a you know, a Middle East East national security expert is
00:08:01is a new conflagration between Saudi Saudi Arabia and Yemen. You know,
00:08:04know, there was a war that came to to an end, and there was a lot of
00:08:07of hope that that war would be in in the past. And what you're seeing
00:08:10seeing right now is sort of the beginnings beginnings of a potential re-ignition
00:08:13re-ignition of that conflict. You You saw the Saudi Arabia, you saw saw Saudi Arabia joined the United
00:08:17United States in strikes against
00:08:19against Iran backed militia in Iraq.
00:08:22Iraq. That was unprecedented. And And then actually now you're seeing
00:08:25seeing these new warnings from Iran Iran as this pact is taking place.
00:08:28place. So really a movement of the the chessboard here and we're not
00:08:31not sure what the next move will will be. At the same time, we're
00:08:34we're hearing from Iran and Oman Oman that they could be close to
00:08:38to what a configuration of the strait strait would actually look like. like. And those shipping routes.
00:08:42routes. I mean, what do you think think potentially a deal could look
00:08:45look like here? And do you think think it's something that ultimately
00:08:48ultimately President Trump would would be OK to say? You know, let's
00:08:52let's go ahead with this. You know, know, even if it's a compromise.
00:08:55compromise. You know, it's amazing amazing if you listen to what's coming
00:08:58coming out of Iran. Absolutely not. not. It won't be acceptable to President
00:09:01President Trump. But then again, again, you know, the President is is saying that they're close to a
00:09:05a deal that would allow for the free free flow of commerce through the
00:09:07the strait. What Iran is saying is is that it's going to regulate the
00:09:10the strait, all the traffic coming coming into the strait would be regulated regulated by Iran. All the outbound
00:09:14outbound traffic would be regulated regulated by Oman and there may even
00:09:18even be fees involved. And, you know, know, the President was out publicly
00:09:21publicly speaking about how they they have achieved every goal that
00:09:24that they sought in these negotiations. negotiations. How could that be acceptable
00:09:27acceptable to President Trump? Well, Well, police in Thailand say that
00:09:30that a 14-year-old student has killed
00:09:32killed at least eight people in gun gun attacks at his home and school
00:09:36school on the outskirts of Bangkok. Bangkok. The Thai Prime Minister Minister said the teenager killed
00:09:40killed his grandparents and five five teachers before taking his own
00:09:43own life. Thai media later reported
00:09:45reported that a school student had had died from their injuries. At
00:09:49At least 30 other people were injured injured in those attacks and despite
00:09:52despite strict gun laws that punish punish illegal firearm possession
00:09:55possession with up to ten years in in prison, Thailand has one of the
00:09:58the highest rates of civilian gun gun ownership in South East Asia.
00:10:02Asia. It's estimated that 40% of
00:10:05of guns there are possessed illegally. illegally. Well, these are some live
00:10:07live pictures showing the exterior
00:10:10exterior of that school in Bangkok. Bangkok. Our South East Asia correspondent
00:10:13correspondent Jonathan Head has this this report. We must warn you, it
00:10:16it does contain some distressing
00:10:18distressing details from the start.
00:10:23start. Fear and panic in a Thai secondary
00:10:25secondary school classroom as shots
00:10:28shots ring out in the corridor. Staff
00:10:33Staff frantically evacuated the children.
00:10:35children. This is a big school with
00:10:38with around 3000 pupils. Police officers
00:10:41officers and ambulances were on the the scene within minutes, but it
00:10:45it took time to find the gunman. gunman. By the time they did, he
00:10:49he had taken his own life. He was
00:10:52was identified as a 14-year-old boy,
00:10:54boy, a student at the school. At
00:11:00At first I thought there were sounds sounds of firecrackers or someone
00:11:02someone banging on to something loudly.
00:11:04loudly. But then we started realising
00:11:07realising they were not. And then then it started getting more frequent.
00:11:11frequent. Like. Throughout the morning,
00:11:15morning, ambulances carried the injured
00:11:17injured to hospital. Once the shooting shooting had stopped, distressed
00:11:20distressed families rushed to the
00:11:22the school seeking information about
00:11:24about missing relatives. So what what we know so far is that the young
00:11:28young gunman reached the fourth floor floor of this building and was able
00:11:32able to move along, firing multiple
00:11:33multiple shots into each of the classrooms, classrooms, hitting teachers and
00:11:37and his fellow pupils. What we don't
00:11:40don't know is how someone so young young managed to get hold of a gun
00:11:44gun and that much ammunition. Later
00:11:48Later in the day, the Thai Prime Prime Minister visited the scene.
00:11:52scene. He says gun laws have already
00:11:53already been tightened but Thailand
00:11:56Thailand still has some of the highest highest levels of gun crime in the
00:12:00the region. The horrific incident
00:12:02incident here today. Just one more
00:12:04more grim statistic. Jonathan Head,
00:12:07Head, BBC News. Nonthaburi, Thailand.
00:12:12Thailand. More than 180 thousand thousand households and businesses businesses in Puerto Rico are rationing
00:12:16rationing water, with the island island in the grip of a severe drought.
00:12:19drought. Now, July was San Juan's Juan's driest month since record
00:12:23record keeping began back in 1899.
00:12:251899. The governor of Puerto Rico Rico said that the situation is out
00:12:29out of our hands and blamed the water
00:12:31water shortages on climate conditions. conditions. Well, CBS News correspondent
00:12:35correspondent Lilia Luciano has the the latest now from Puerto Rico.
00:12:38Rico. What you can see, of course, course, is this dry ground. We are
00:12:42are standing in what is part of Puerto
00:12:45Puerto Rico's or San Juan's largest
00:12:48largest drinking water supply. This
00:12:49This is the reservoir that feeds
00:12:52feeds most residents of the capital capital city of San Juan and adjacent
00:12:55adjacent areas. This is Carraizo. Carraizo. And yes, as the governor
00:12:59governor said, this is a dire, most most severe drought that San Juan
00:13:03Juan and this area in general has has experienced in more than 120
00:13:06120 years. The problem is not just
00:13:09just the dry conditions, the drought, drought, but there's also issues
00:13:12issues with the sediment where we
00:13:13we are standing. This is all impacting
00:13:16impacting the supply of water to
00:13:18to people. We are talking about years
00:13:22years of mismanagement, underfunding
00:13:24underfunding in an ageing water infrastructure.
00:13:26infrastructure. All of that existed existed before this drought. The
00:13:29The drought is only aggravating conditions. conditions. Today I had the opportunity
00:13:32opportunity to talk to the President President of the Water Authority Authority and I said, look, I understand
00:13:35understand the drought is the reason reason why you're having to ration
00:13:38ration water. But every Puerto Rican Rican who has tens of thousands of
00:13:42of them who have seen water shortages
00:13:44shortages for more than three months, months, sometimes days on end, understand
00:13:48understand that it is not just the the drought. So there's a great deal
00:13:52deal of frustration. People are taking taking to the streets in protest
00:13:56protest and demanding change. It It is not just this administration. administration. This has been piling
00:13:59piling on for years, but some of of the people I talked to here in
00:14:02in San Juan, the mood is they're they're feeling like they're not
00:14:06not being heard. What they're saying saying is, look, we are not seeing
00:14:09seeing the solutions implemented implemented fast enough. I asked
00:14:12asked about whether the federal government, government, FEMA could play a role
00:14:14role and the President of the authority
00:14:16authority told me, well, they have
00:14:19have provided some funding for some some of the management. But right
00:14:23right now the urgency is the drought. drought. So I said, so how do you
00:14:26you fix that? And basically the answer answer I got over and over is we
00:14:30we need it to rain. Of course, that that is something that not the Puerto
00:14:33Puerto Rican people or the Puerto Puerto Rican government can solve
00:14:36solve at this point, no human can
00:14:39can cause rain. So the feeling here
00:14:43here is on top of rolling power outages outages that have gone on for years
00:14:46years and years, worsening after
00:14:49after Hurricane Maria because of of that infrastructure that was ageing,
00:14:53ageing, that was underfunded and and that was mismanaged. Now they
00:14:55they have an even more urgent need
00:14:58need for that most important resource
00:15:00resource that is water. A US appeals appeals court has ordered President
00:15:04President Trump to halt construction construction of his $400 million
00:15:07million White House ballroom. The The judges ruled that the ballroom ballroom being built on the site
00:15:11site of the demolished East Wing, Wing, needs congressional approval.
00:15:15approval. President Trump vowed an
00:15:16an immediate appeal to the US Supreme
00:15:19Supreme Court and our North America
00:15:20America editor Sarah Smith has more.
00:15:23more. Donald Trump still essentially essentially thinks and behaves like like the property developer he used
00:15:27used to be. One doesn't one thing. thing. Three months ago, he was proud
00:15:30proud to show off the construction construction site where the East
00:15:33East Wing previously stood. Its sudden
00:15:37sudden demolition last year shocked shocked many and sparked a lawsuit
00:15:40lawsuit aimed at stopping him building building his massive new ballroom.
00:15:43ballroom. Today, he's been told he he does not have the authority to
00:15:46to dramatically alter this historic historic landmark. The ballroom has
00:15:50has become something of an obsession obsession for President Trump. He
00:15:53He carries pictures of how he wants
00:15:55wants it to look on Air Force One. A lot of people are giving in
00:15:58in really good reviews. Some are are giving it reviews without even even seeing the building because
00:16:02because this just came out. After After a gunman caused them to be
00:16:05be evacuated from the White House House Correspondents Dinner in April.
00:16:07April. He argued that showed the the need for a secure ballroom. It's
00:16:11It's drone proof. It's bullet-proof bullet-proof glass. We need the ballroom. ballroom. That's why Secret Service.
00:16:15Service. That's why the military military are demanding. It today, today, he complained on social media,
00:16:19media, the military and Secret Service Service are viewing this horrendous,
00:16:22horrendous, politically motivated motivated and unlawful ruling as
00:16:25as a national security threat. There There is a state of the art military
00:16:29military bunker being built underneath underneath the ballroom. Work on
00:16:31on that is allowed to continue. You You can see building work is still
00:16:35still going on in the ballroom today today with these cranes that are
00:16:38are operating above the White House. House. And President Trump's got got two weeks in which he can carry
00:16:42carry on while he appeals to the the Supreme Court, hoping they will
00:16:45will rule that he can finish the the construction. If that fails,
00:16:49fails, though, he can go to Congress Congress and ask them to vote to to give him the authority to finish
00:16:53finish the ballroom. But it's far far from certain that he would actually
00:16:56actually win that vote. There is is some mystery about what's going
00:17:00going on behind the scenes with the the funding for this project. President
00:17:04President Trump has raised hundreds hundreds of millions of dollars from from private donors, but won't tell
00:17:08tell us how much they've given or or what he may have promised them
00:17:11them in return. Oh, that's so great.
00:17:15great. The disastrous refurbishment refurbishment of Washington's reflecting
00:17:17reflecting pool has become a deeply deeply embarrassing flop for Donald
00:17:21Donald Trump. Now he has to ask the the courts or Congress to let him
00:17:25him complete his renovation of the
00:17:26the most famous house in America.
00:17:29America. Sarah Smith, BBC News Washington. Washington. And a little earlier,
00:17:32earlier, President Trump posted on on his social platform Truth Social
00:17:36Social and said that it's within within the rights of a United States
00:17:39States president to, quote, fix, fix, renovate, secure, protect and
00:17:43and beautify the White House grounds, grounds, which has been built and
00:17:47and rebuilt, renovated and renovated,
00:17:49renovated, repaired and simply made
00:17:51made better many times since 1792 1792 and never needing the permission
00:17:55permission of Congress or anyone
00:17:58anyone else to do so. Now, President President Trump's pick to lead the
00:18:01the US Justice Department is on the the verge of being confirmed after
00:18:05after a rocky nomination process. process. Todd Blanche is President
00:18:08President Trump's former personal personal defence lawyer. He's been
00:18:11been serving as acting US Attorney Attorney General since the President
00:18:14President fired Pam Bondi back in in April of this year. His confirmation
00:18:18confirmation was in doubt after Republican Republican Senator Susan Collins
00:18:21Collins and Lisa Murkowski said that that they would vote against him.
00:18:24him. That left his confirmation dependent
00:18:27dependent on a yes vote from another another Republican senator, Bill
00:18:30Bill Cassidy. And on Thursday, Senator Senator Cassidy, a Trump critic,
00:18:33critic, said that he would vote to to confirm Mr Blanche as Attorney
00:18:37Attorney General. Well, here's Senator Senator Cassidy on the Senate floor
00:18:41floor on Thursday. This is not a
00:18:43a referendum on President Trump. Trump. It is a decision regarding
00:18:46regarding Mr Blanche in very specific specific circumstances. All considered,
00:18:50considered, I will vote for Mr Blanche.
00:18:53Blanche. I'll be criticised for this
00:18:54this vote. What's new? Well, Josh
00:18:57Josh Gerstein is senior legal affairs affairs reporter at Politico, and
00:19:00and he gave us his take on the path
00:19:02path that led to Todd Blanche's confirmation.
00:19:06confirmation. The biggest obstacle obstacle was this sort of enormous
00:19:10enormous fund that the Trump administration administration decided it was going
00:19:13going to attempt to set up almost
00:19:16almost $1.8 billion, that they were were going to give away to victims
00:19:20victims of what they called lawfare lawfare and weaponization. It's something
00:19:23something that actually caused a a screaming match between Blanche
00:19:27Blanche and Senators behind closed
00:19:29closed doors before he was nominated nominated to this position, and it
00:19:32it became a huge albatross around
00:19:34around his neck during the confirmation confirmation process, although not
00:19:38not sufficient to actually prevent prevent him from getting the nod.
00:19:41nod. It looks like as of this moment
00:19:42moment now. And just remind us of
00:19:45of other concerns that had been expressed
00:19:48expressed about his appointment. appointment. Well, there are concerns
00:19:51concerns about also about retaliatory
00:19:53retaliatory prosecutions. We've seen seen the former FBI director Jim
00:19:57Jim Comey being charged with in two
00:20:00two different criminal cases. You've You've had Trump openly calling for
00:20:04for other people he considers to to be enemies to be charged. And
00:20:07And you've seen the Justice Department
00:20:09Department follow through with that. that. In some cases, that troubled
00:20:12troubled a bunch of senators. You You had comments just the other day
00:20:16day that Mr Blanche made to religious religious activists about abortion,
00:20:19abortion, that he was going to crack
00:20:22crack down on the availability of of abortion across the country. That
00:20:25That was also something. But I think think it was just generally a concern
00:20:29concern that as a former defence defence attorney for the President,
00:20:32President, as you mentioned, that that he was just a little too close
00:20:36close to President Trump to really really be the nation's chief law
00:20:39law enforcement officer. But of course,
00:20:41course, Josh, this was President
00:20:43President Trump's pick. If he is is confirmed, which looks likely,
00:20:47likely, what will this mean for President President Trump? Surely something
00:20:49something of a victory for him. Yeah, Yeah, it's definitely something he's
00:20:52he's going to tally as a win. I don't don't know that it affects that much
00:20:56much what Blanche was going to be be able to do, which is why this
00:20:59this has always been something of of a symbolic fight. He is the confirmed
00:21:03confirmed deputy Attorney General, General, and the law is pretty clear
00:21:05clear that if we don't have a confirmed
00:21:08confirmed Attorney General, the deputy deputy Attorney General fills that
00:21:10that position. So it's more of a a symbolic battle over whether he
00:21:13he got to have the title and whether
00:21:16whether President Trump still has has the political might on Capitol
00:21:20Capitol Hill to push his nominees nominees forward. It looks like he
00:21:24he does, although only by the very very narrowest of margins. That's
00:21:27That's a good point, Josh. I mean, mean, do you think that this vote
00:21:30vote or at least the run up to it
00:21:32it and some of the rows that we saw
00:21:35saw kind of exposed lingering divisions divisions within the Republican Party
00:21:38Party over Trump's influence? Oh,
00:21:41Oh, that's definitely the case, especially especially when we look at the fact
00:21:44fact that a couple of the senators senators who were very wobbly here,
00:21:48here, maybe three of them I can think think of had trouble because they
00:21:52they had been opposed by President President Trump in their own primaries
00:21:56primaries for re-election and basically basically are going to be leaving
00:21:59leaving the Senate at the end of of this year, in large part due to
00:22:02to President Trump's personal political political opposition to them. So
00:22:05So that became a huge hurdle for
00:22:08for him to try to overcome in this this process, trying to get his nomination
00:22:11nomination through with people that that he had basically crossed swords
00:22:14swords with politically just in the the last few months. Well, turning
00:22:18turning to the UK now because there's there's been a new development in
00:22:21in the investigation into the murder
00:22:24murder of the Conservative Minister, Minister, Ann Widdecombe, British British counter-terrorism police
00:22:27police say that they are reopening reopening an investigation into an
00:22:31an attempted burglary that happened happened last year after they identified
00:22:34identified a new line of inquiry inquiry that may be relevant. The
00:22:38The BBC understands that this refers refers to an incident at Nigel Farage's
00:22:42Farage's home in south London, which
00:22:44which the reform UK leader previously
00:22:47previously described as a lit incendiary incendiary device being pushed through
00:22:50through his letterbox. Ann Widdecombe, Widdecombe, a prominent member of
00:22:54of the reform UK party, was found
00:22:56found dead at her home last month. month. The Spanish government has
00:23:00has introduced controls at its borders borders for travellers arriving from
00:23:04from Italy as a row over migration migration continues to escalate.
00:23:07escalate. Madrid has said that it
00:23:09it will temporarily impose controls controls at internal borders, ports
00:23:13ports and airports. Now Spain has has been angered by Italy's response
00:23:17response to the sudden influx last last week of tens of thousands of
00:23:21of Moroccans into the Spanish North North African territory of Ceuta,
00:23:25Ceuta, Italy promptly imposed border border restrictions on travellers
00:23:28travellers from Spain and today said said that it intended to keep them
00:23:31them in place for at least another
00:23:34another week. Now Hunter Biden, the
00:23:36the son of former US President Joe
00:23:38Joe Biden, has defended the controversial controversial presidential pardon
00:23:42pardon granted by his father in an an interview with the BBC's Newsnight,
00:23:45Newsnight, the former president's president's son also spoke candidly
00:23:49candidly about his father's cancer cancer and his own battle with addiction.
00:23:52addiction. Hunter Biden also said said that he did not advise his father
00:23:55father to run for a second term against against Donald Trump, and he spoke
00:23:58spoke to BBC Newsnight presenter presenter Paddy O'Connell. Did you
00:24:01you advise him to run again? No,
00:24:08No, I did not because what was it it like for you explaining this love
00:24:11love and respect, watching the 2024
00:24:152024 presidential debate? Where were
00:24:16were you? Hunter, when your father
00:24:19father failed to complete a sentence
00:24:22sentence on primetime television
00:24:25television during a presidential presidential election campaign? Where
00:24:27Where were you watching that? I was
00:24:32was alone in. I wasn't alone, I was
00:24:34was at my house in here in California, California, and I was watching and
00:24:38and I always like to if I'm not with with him, to be able to watch alone.
00:24:42alone. And so I was alone in a room room with the TV and I was watching
00:24:46watching it. And like everybody else,
00:24:49else, I was shocked. I could tell tell as soon as my father came out
00:24:52out that something was wrong. I've
00:24:54I've never seen him with a kind of
00:24:57of the hundred yard stare that he
00:25:00he had and you know, everybody has
00:25:03has their questions, you know, of. of. But the reason that we know about
00:25:07about that is not because Joe Biden
00:25:09Biden wasn't on TV or in public a
00:25:13a million and a half times before before and after. The reason that
00:25:16that was so shocking is because it it had never happened before, and
00:25:19and it hasn't happened since. And
00:25:23And so I can't necessarily explain explain it. I have theories about
00:25:25about it. I have theories about the the fact that he had travelled as
00:25:28as much as he did, and he was taking
00:25:31taking Ambien, I believe, which they they I'm positive they gave him when
00:25:34when he was going back and forth
00:25:37forth from Asia. I think he had flown, flown, I think, eight different legs
00:25:41legs in a three week period of time. time. But regardless, these are just
00:25:44just theories of mine. I also know
00:25:47know that he obviously had cancer, cancer, whether it impacted him or
00:25:50or not. He had by the. Nine months months later he was diagnosed with
00:25:54with stage four prostate cancer and and stage four metastatic bone cancer,
00:25:58cancer, none of which we knew. But
00:26:00But my reaction to it was that I I was as shocked, I think, as anyone
00:26:03anyone who knew Joe Biden was. Hunter
00:26:07Hunter Biden there speaking on Newsnight. Newsnight. I'll see you
00:28:26online at bbc.com/business to get get the latest news wherever you
00:28:29you are. Business on BBC News. Make
00:28:32Make the connection. MUSIC
00:28:44MUSIC Now Now on BBC News. Following the discovery
00:28:46discovery of 35 bodies and half a
00:28:48a tonne of human ashes, we uncover
00:28:50uncover how Robert Bosch, a debt debt ridden undertaker, betrayed
00:28:54betrayed grieving families in the
00:28:56the big cases. MUSIC
00:29:03MUSIC
00:29:10It's 6:00. Here's the latest BBC
00:29:13BBC News. Police cordons are in place
00:29:16place at three funeral service premises premises across Hull and East Yorkshire
00:29:19Yorkshire as officers investigate investigate what they describe as
00:29:21as a report of concern for the care
00:29:24care of the deceased.
00:29:47Reports are in relation to legacy independent funeral directors.
00:29:51directors. The police are encouraging
00:29:52encouraging anyone affected to contact
00:29:55contact them. I don't know if she's
00:29:59she's at my home or if she's back back in the mortuary and I just want
00:30:03want to know. Quick answers. You You believe that he'd already been
00:30:07been cremated? Yeah, yeah, because because his son has got his ashes
00:30:10ashes and his son talks to him all
00:30:12all the time. Mr Bosch. What have
00:30:15have you got to say to the family? family? He's picked on the poor people
00:30:18people won't be able to afford the
00:30:21the £4,000 funerals. He completely completely exploited them. He tried
00:30:24tried to act like he was their friend, friend, like he was doing them a
00:30:27a favour. Like what? A reasonable,
00:30:28reasonable, nice guy he was. So the
00:30:32the volume we're talking about is
00:30:34is half a tonne of ashes. Some were
00:30:37were babies as well. All heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heart-wrenching stuff
00:30:39stuff that just really made you feel
00:30:41feel sick. Police are working to
00:30:44to formally identify 34 bodies they've they've removed from the premises
00:30:48premises of a funeral home in Hull. Hull. Now it follows calls from members
00:30:51members of the public over concerns
00:30:52concerns for the care of the deceased.