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Hello, welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. My name is Paul Henley. On the programme today, Israel's Prime Minister backs down in the face of mass protests and delays his controversial plans for judicial reform. We'll speak to one of the protesters and we'll ask if his coalition can now hold together.
Also coming up, there's been another shooting at a school in the US this time in Nashville, Tennessee. The first lady, Jill Biden, reacts.
接下来,美国田纳西州的一所学校再次发生了枪击事件。第一夫人吉尔·拜登做出了回应。
While you've been in this room, I don't know whether you've been on your phones, but we just learned about another shooting in Tennessee, a school shooting. And I am truly without words. And our children deserve better. And we stand all of us. We stand with Nashville in prayer.
Also, still to come, it's a new school term in Afghanistan. We'll hear from some of the girls who will not be allowed to attend lessons. That's all a bit later.
此外,阿富汗的新学期即将开始。我们接下来将听取一些女孩的发言,她们将无法参加课程。稍后再详细讨论。
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he'll delay judicial reforms that of course the biggest wave of public protest in his country's history. In a televised speech to the nation this evening prompted by political opposition, strikes and widespread street demonstrations. Mr. Netanyahu said he wasn't willing to tear the nation apart for the sake of his reforms yet.
The controversial plans, which drastically limit the independence of Israel's courts, have divided Israelis with opponents accusing the Prime Minister of behaving like a dictator. His action today means at least a month's delay to the changes.
Public protests that the reforms have been going on for several weeks, tens of thousands of marched, roads and the main airport have had to be closed. Unions have threatened a general strike and army reservists threatened to refuse to serve. Today's demonstrations were as vehement as ever.
This is Hila Mosehavi protesting in Jerusalem saying women will be most affected.
这是Hila Mosehavi在耶路撒冷抗议,她说女性将受到最严重的影响。
The first people that will be hurt when our democracy becomes a dictatorship in Israel will be the women because they want to expand for example the authority of the religious courts. And religious courts have no regards for women, none whatsoever. I believe in the Israeli people. I believe in courts. I believe people will choose the right thing if they'll have to choose between obeying their dictator and obeying the law. That's what I believe.
But Mr Netanyahu's far right allies have been demonstrating too in favor of the reforms. The finance minister Beza-Lel Smotrich was attending a rally before the Prime Minister spoke and he urged his supporters to join him.
Friends, we must not halt the reform that aims to repair the judicial system and reinforce Israeli democracy. We are the majority. We must not capitulate in the face of violence, anarchy, the refusal to serve in the armed forces and the wild strikes. We are the majority. Let's make our voice heard. Let's get together tonight. In front of the Knesset, I'll be there come as well. We won't let them steal our voice or our country.
Well, I asked the BBC's Anna Foster who's in Jerusalem. How much of a climb down this was by the Israeli Prime Minister?
嗯,我问了在耶路撒冷的BBC的安娜·福斯特。以色列总理这次是多么大的退让?
It is not what he wanted to do and he made it clear just a few days ago that he was going to try and push this legislation through along with his right-wing nationalist coalition partners. He did not want to pause at this stage. The current Knesset session ends at the end of this week before Passover and he really did have ambitions to get this legislation through before then.
What he has had to do is pause but this is really crucial. The vocabulary that's being used here is important because what the demonstrators wanted was a wholesale scrapping of this legislation. A pause, a halt, a freeze, whatever you may call it was not what they had in mind.
Now, Israeli opposition leaders have said that they will take this period of time to engage in fresh dialogue, that they will speak to Benjamin Netanyahu about this. What we don't know is what is likely to change in that time. Everybody, I think, across the spectrum have made their various feelings about this legislation felt and it's hard to really know what might change between now and then. We haven't been given any detail of that just yet. All we know is that this timeline has been extended for a few weeks at least.
Before we talk about the implications of that, I've outlined in a sentence of two what the proposed reforms are. Can you elaborate? Essentially, what it does is it changes the balance of power within the Israeli state. In any democracy, you have those checks and balances and different pillars that make sure that the balance is there, that neither one of them takes too much power and can have a really undue level of influence over the state.
What is being suggested here is that the government would be able to do things like appoint judges, that the government would be able to strike down decisions that were made in Israel's Supreme Court. What that does is concentrate a lot of power in the hands of the government taking it away from the judiciary. It really unbalances that democracy. Many of those protesters, I was in a crowd with them at two o'clock this morning outside the Kinesutan democracy, democracy, along with shame, are two of the things you will hear them chant the most because they really feel that this plan is eroding Israel's democracy. Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, says that it's important that these balances happen and he says he is restoring the balance, not throwing it off kilter.
So the Prime Minister doesn't want what the Israeli President said could amount to a civil war. He doesn't want his ruling coalition to break up either. What does chances do you think of keeping both sides happy with this holding pattern? He's really got a tightrope to walk.
I mean, I think the reason that he has come out with this sticking past a solution tonight, rather than something which actually solves the problem once and for all, demonstrates how difficult it's going to be to try and please both sides. Now, in terms of his right-wing coalition partners, the Jewish power party in Itamar Ben Gaviha, the National Security Minister, said tonight that they have been promised a new national guard that Itamar Ben Gaviha would run.
我的意思是,我认为他今晚提出这个勉强解决问题的方案,而不是真正解决问题的方案,这表明试图取悦双方有多么困难。现在,就他的右翼联盟伙伴而言,Itamar Ben Gaviha的犹太权力党的国家安全部长今晚表示,他们已经被承诺将建立一个由Itamar Ben Gaviha领导的新国民警卫队。
So it seems that Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to bring in a degree of trading. I've said, look, we can't do this, but what about this? You know, he knows he needs to keep those coalition partners on side. Otherwise, he does not have enough MK's with him. He does not have a ruling majority and ultimately he loses power. So he knows he has to keep them on side.
But equally, if you look at the sheer disruption in Israeli society today, that strike that saw shops and banks close, the airport ports, hospitals saying they would only treat emergency patients. It really came to a head tonight. Benjamin Netanyahu had to act, but what he's done is delayed this problem, rather than solving it.
The BBC's Anna Foster in Jerusalem. Dove Lavin Glick has been attending the protest for all 12 weeks now? He was at one of the gatherings in Jerusalem today. I asked him what the mood had been like.
The mood is anxious. People are extremely nervous that Israel's democracy as Anna stated is at risk. And what gave way to the latest outbreak is Netanyahu's firing or promising to fire the Minister of Defense, Mr. Gallant, because the minister gave Netanyahu news that Netanyahu did not appreciate. Instead of taking the news at face value that Israel's defense forces are on the decline, that people are not willing to show up to serve what is for all intents and purposes and upcoming dictatorship. Netanyahu said, you know what? I do not want to, I do not want to hear this news. I'm going to fire the Minister to the protesters who went out in Deroves yesterday, approximately 700,000 people. That was it. That was it.
Now Mr. Netanyahu has now paused his legislation. He hasn't cancelled it. We appreciate that. But he scored a first victory, surely, with the union saying there will be no general strike for now, at least those progress from his point of view.
So let me take those two points that you raised. Number one, the union said that they were going on strike until something happened. Something happened. Netanyahu said that he would, that he would pause the legislation, which brings us to the second point, which is Netanyahu really had no, had no choice. As Anna correctly stated, the Knesset, the parliament, Israeli parliament is going on, it's on its spring break at the end of the week. And whatever legislation could not be passed through during this week, simply would have to be by necessity, postponed to the next seeding of the Knesset. Netanyahu did not have the majority. So he spun it as though he gave up on passing the legislation, but he really didn't. In the meantime, there will be room for negotiation.
Is there any middle ground, do you think, that protesters like you would accept? We would accept scratching what was currently, uh, uh, uh, legislated, what was currently passed into law, or on its way into being passed into law, and starting from there, starting from scratch. The way the Israeli legislation works is there through readings. Once the first reading is past, the second, the second and third readings are more formality than anything else. So basically, the way things stand now is that any law that passed the first reading is ripe to go. And the coalition at the drop of a hat can pass any such law, any such legislation into law. To us, that's a gun on the table. It's, it's, it's, we're not negotiating on, uh, on equal terms. We're negotiating under the rest. And as things stand, uh, as I describe them, there's really no room for discussion.
And in a phrase, as your, as your trust in Mr. Netanyahu, it probably didn't exist beforehand, but as far as the promises in negotiations go, it's gone now, has it? Netanyahu has not kept the word that he, uh, that, uh, he promised for the past, probably five years. Benny Gonson, Netanyahu, uh, uh, mentioned in his speech today, went into Netanyahu's previous government, multiple promises which Netanyahu did not keep. Dove Lavin Glick there, speaking to us from Jerusalem, where he'd been attending a protest against the government.
We've made multiple attempts to speak to someone from Benjamin Netanyahu's Lecude party. No one has so far agreed to talk to us. If you want to hear more about the ongoing situation in Israel, you can follow all the latest developments on our live page at BBCNews.com. And stay tuned because we'll be returning to this story in just 15 minutes time. We'll hear more about the reaction from the United States as we speak to Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel under Barack Obama. You're listening to the BBC World Service Live from London. This is NewsHour.
我们曾试图与以色列本杰明·内塔尼亚胡所属的Lecude党的某个人谈话,但目前没有人同意与我们交谈。如果您想了解更多关于以色列当前局势的情况,您可以在BBCNews.com的实时页面上关注最新发展。请留意,我们将在15分钟内回到这个故事。届时,我们将听取美国反应的更多意见,与巴拉克·奥巴马政府时期担任驻以色列美国大使的丹·夏皮罗谈话。您正在收听来自伦敦的BBC World Service现场直播。这是新闻小时节目。
Coming up in the aftermath of the tornado in Mississippi, we'll hear from one community all but wiped out by the storm. We're a small town. And for to say, we got 25 casualties, right? That's a whole lot of people for this small town. You know, that's a whole lot of people. And everybody knows everybody. So if I don't know you, I know your mom. You know, we like them right here. For say 25 people gone, man, everybody suffered a loss.
The main headlines are heavily armed young woman has killed six people, including children, at a school in the US state of Tennessee. The United Nations has described Ukraine as one of the world's biggest minefields after a year of war with 10 million people at risk. And human rights investigators have accused the EU of aiding and abetting serious abuses against migrants who've been detained in Libya. This is Paul Henley with NewsHour Live from the BBC.
Police in the US state of Tennessee say a young woman has shot dead six people inside a school. Three of the victims were children. The White House is called a shooting heart breaking and urged Republicans to back President Biden's push for a ban on the assault weapons often used in US mass shootings. As the BBC's Gary O'Donohue in Washington, what more police were saying about this shooting? They're saying Paul that it took place just after 10 o'clock this morning and they were called to the school with reports of a shooter, an active shooter as they call it here. And it turns out they discovered the shooter on the second floor of the school. It's a small Christian school, only about 200 pupils and students in it. And they killed the shooter at the scene. It turns out the shooter is a 28 year old woman. And that is incredibly rare in this country.
Just to give you a sense of how rare that is. 61 mass shootings in 2021, only one was a woman. At the moment what we're looking at, I'm afraid, is three children dead and three teachers dead. That's the latest update we have from the police. And they will be quite young children because this took pre-school up to what's called sixth grade in the United States, which is 11 and 12 years old.
And the Democrats call for a ban on assault weapons is relevant here. The police have confirmed, haven't they, that those were the weapons used? The shooter had two assault weapons with her hand-to-hand gun. So she was armed to do some serious damage, which is clearly what she's done. And it could have been even worse if there'd been more time before the police got there, but she's all ready as we know, killed six people, three children.
Yes, there've been fresh calls from Joe Biden just now. He described the incident in pretty strong terms. He called it sick. And he renewed his call on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban. He has got some modest, modest gun reform legislation through in the last couple of years. But the assault weapon ban is a big one. And there has been an assault weapon ban previously in the United States, which was time-limited and expired. But really for sort of 20 years, you've been able, in most places, lots of places in the United States, to go out and buy some incredibly high-powered weapons with large magazines that can fire semi-automatic rounds and can do an awful lot of damage in a very short period of time.
And has there been any response from Mr. Biden's opposition yet, especially those opposed to gun control? No, not so far. There's been some activity on social media expressing condolences. To be honest, Paul, what you typically get with these mass shootings, I'm sorry to say there is a pattern here, but there is a pattern is that the proponents of gun rights tend to go very, very quiet for the initial few days after these incidents. They keep their heads down.
If they're confronted, they just talk about, you know, the damage to the families and how sad they are. And really, it's only once momentum turns towards what do we do about this? Will you hear them and see them putting their heads above the parapet? They know there's nothing to say in this and you don't have to be on one side of the fence or the other. It's just a pattern and that's what I'm sure we'll see again. Gary O'Donohue there in Washington, DC.
The Scottish National Party has chosen its new leader. He is Humza Yusef, the grandson of immigrants from Pakistan. And he was elected by a narrow margin. Scotland's first ethnic minority, first minister, said his country needed independence from the UK more than ever, and that he would try to build a case for it among those who remained unconvinced.
Opinion polling suggests that he is not as popular as his predecessor, Nicholas Sturgeon, and that a majority of independence remains elusive. Leslie Ridoch is a newspaper columnist who's also a campaigner for Scottish independence herself. She gave me her reaction to the news of Mr Yusef's win.
"It's a significant moment in a whole load of ways. I mean, he is the first Muslim leader of the SNP, will be our first Muslim First Minister. It's a very different set of circumstances than something that could have happened if the leading contender Kate Forbes had won. Her stance on equal marriage meant that the coalition that exists at the moment between the SNP and the Greens, both of them pro-independence parties, that would have fallen apart because the Greens are very keen on the gender recognition reform that has been a big divisive factor in the selection.
"So essentially today could have seen an awful lot of upsets and perhaps the end of the coalition government and minority government or the uncertainty that that brings and it didn't happen. And what's the mood at the Scottish Parliament more generally today? Sitting outside it here with the sort of media village that's pretty much assembled is kind of testimony to the statue that Nicholas Sturgeon has had as a leader.
"I don't think the change of leader in one party in a devolved government would have attracted anything like this attention with his international journalists and camera crews here as well. So Scotland has basically been throwing well above its weight essentially thanks to Nicholas Sturgeon's profile. And I suspect there's been a bit of a feeling amongst the media that they essentially almost hope that something a little bit more upsetting or more news grabby would happen. Instead something that's going to be more of the same has happened which essentially is probably quite good for everybody who wants to see some stability in government."
"Well where do you start? He's got a lot of stalled policies which have proved controversial. Two principal ones. One is a bottle deposit return scheme. Now people listening across the world, there are 42 countries that do this and they may think it's surprising that this should be any sort of issue at all. It works, but it's been controversial here because small beer and other producers have said it will put them out of business to comply. So that has had a lot of criticism and might have to be rethought. The bigger one is a gender recognition reform act. This is the one that simply makes it easier for somebody who's trans to be able to change their official gender quickly and without needing to have a doctor certificate."
But that is brought up a much bigger debate about women's rights and actually whether you can even call women women, which will seem strange to people but does flow from some of the present debate. That meant enough a lot of people leaving the Scotch National Party because they were furious basically about the introduction of this legislation at all. So he is prepared to have a challenge. It got passed in the Scottish Parliament. He is prepared to have a challenge with Westminster who want to veto it. And that's going to be difficult because a lot of the public are not sure that they want to see it passed even though they don't want to see London swinging in when it feels like it to veto things the whole Parliament voted for.
And you mentioned at the start of this interview that Hamza Yusuf is the first ethnic minority leader of the SNP. Do you think perhaps the story here is that that's not particularly remarkable given that the UK has an ethnic minority Prime Minister, a Mayor of London and Labour leader in Scotland even? It's great news that that is now completely unremarkable. Hamza in his acceptance speech used his own, if you like, ethnic minority status and the fact that his own parents had, grandparents had come to Britain to really say something strong about migrants. This is in contrast to the current policy by the British Government, which is very strongly rejected in Scotland anyway. And that follows from Nicola Sturgeon, the day after Brexit in Scotland she did a broadcast assuring everyone from Europe who had made Scotland their home, it would never be different. We welcome strangers, we welcome migrants, we need people in Scotland and we don't turn them away. As well as just saying it, Hamza Yusuf actually embodies it.
That was Leslie Riddoch, who is a pro-independence newspaper colonist in Scotland, you're listening to the BBC World Service Live from London. This is news hour.
In a moment we'll return to the subject of Israel and hear how President Biden's been reacting to unrest in the country. But first, inside the United States, among the greatest threats to life and livelihoods, often in the poorest states, is the threat of tornadoes. Even with modern shelters and some warnings in place, tornadoes can do a pooling damage. In the southern state of Mississippi, search and rescue operations have shifted to a massive cleanup after a tornado ripped through the state on Friday night. At least 26 people were killed and hundreds were left homeless.
Our correspondent Sophie Long sent this report from the town of Rowling Fork, which came close to being completely wiped off the map.
我们的记者Sophie Long从Rowling Fork镇发回了这份报告,该镇几乎被彻底抹去了。
I'm right in the heart of Rowling Fork and there are people everywhere trying to start to clear some of the debris, but it's a massive task. Well disaster response teams work to remove trees that are pinning down cables trying to restore power that thousands remain without still here. Survivors of the storm are sifting through the wreckage of their homes hoping to salvage something. I came across Darryl Stubbs and his mother mildred in the wreckage of their home.
I'm expected maybe a little damage. When I get up here and I can't get in town, I don't see him. I'm seeing little kids. Seeing little kids hurting, you know, seeing little kids, seeing all of them people hurt. So I deal with a crew, you know, help move a couple trees, help pull a couple of people from tight spots, just deal with a crew. If I could, they help where I could. I had no idea if I was going to do this. I had no idea.
Darryl helped to pull several people from the rebel, but he wasn't able to save his own uncle. From what they tell me, he, he, he, he, he, uh, turned into a lift of trailer. Tell me, he says, try to flatten down flat and it blew up. He told me he's seen the trailer go up in the air, flatten down like a pancake and just explode. Said my uncle's inside. So I didn't believe it.
President Biden has promised to provide federal funds and the support they'll need to rebuild here. But when you walk around and you see the extent of the destruction and the utter heartbreak here at what's happened at this stage. So soon after the storm, it's difficult to imagine really people ever fully recovering. But there is hope. It's like, we're a small town. And for the sake, we got 25 casualties, right? That's a whole lot of people for this small town, you know, that's a whole lot of people and everybody know everybody. So if I don't know you, I know your mom, but you know, it's, we like them right here. For say 25 people gone, man, everybody's suffering the loss. Yeah, all we can do is have hope at this point. All we can do is have hope. Like I hope, I hope that we can bounce back from this man. I know it's, it's, it's, it's a lot. I know I'm saying a lot and I'm hoping for a lot. But we lost a lot. That report from Sophie Long in the town of Rolling Falk, Mississippi in the US.
You're listening to News Hour from the BBC. I'm Paul Henley and we return now to our main story. And the pressure on the Israeli Prime Minister brought about by public dissent, the scale of which Israel has never seen before. A short while ago, White House spokesperson, Karin Jean-Pierre, spoke at a media briefing about the latest developments in Israel. We welcome this announcement as an opportunity to create additional time and space for compromise. Compromise is precisely what we have been calling for and we continue to strongly urge Israeli leaders to find a compromise as soon as possible. We believe that it is the best path forward for Israel, Israel and all of its citizens to find this compromise. Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances and fundamental changes to a democratic system should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support. And so that's what we're going to continue to call for.
Dan Shapiro was US ambassador to Israel during Barack Obama's presidency. I asked him for his reaction first to the Israeli Prime Minister pausing his controversial judicial reforms today. The tipping point was yesterday when he tried to fire his defence minister, a member of his own party and even a supporter of the judicial overhaul who warned that pressing forward to pass it now and the way they were trying to pass it really posed a threat to Israel's security. Many IDF reservists, including Air Force pilots, had said they would not serve if they felt the government was moving away from democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances and rule of law. And because Israel's enemies might take advantage of the chaos that has been gulfed Israel over the last several weeks.
We're told that President Biden has been quite candid with Prime Minister Netanyahu, will those candid words have contributed to his speech? And President Biden has said probably, but I think he has said it more directly privately in his recent phone call to the Prime Minister that the real foundation of the US is a relationship, the foundation that enables all the security cooperation and the economic partnership is that they share the common values of two democracies. And if those are called into question because of changes in the Israeli governing system that makes many Israelis feel and certainly many and other democratic nations feel that Israel is not upholding those democratic traditions and democratic institutions and principles, it could actually have a very damaging effect on the US-Israel relationship.
So you're sounding vaguely relieved as if it's problem solved, but the Prime Minister is still talking about the will of the people and he doesn't mean the people on the streets. He's still talking about pressing ahead with all these plans. It may be problem-deferred.
What he has said is that first the country can take a break for some upcoming holidays, then he'll make another attempt to pass a legislative package that would reform the balance of power between the different branches of government.
What he added in his speech was that in the next Knesset session he would be prepared to try to engage in a dialogue with the opposition that he would seek a broad agreement, that it was better to have a broad agreement for major changes. This is exactly the point President Biden had made to him.
But at the end of the speech he also said to his own supporters, if we don't reach an agreement, we will still try to pass the package we just nearly brought to a vote. So it remains to be seen whether his attempted dialogue in reaching a broad agreement will have a pro-former character and then he will turn back to the more extreme package and satisfy his supporters that way, or if he will really engage in a serious attempt to try to reach a kind of solution for the bouncing of the different branches of the Israeli government that's 75% of the Israeli public can support.
So for future reference, what are the U.S.'s red lines? If Washington thinks Israel is no longer democracy because these reforms are gone ahead with, is that the end of the special relationship?
I don't think we should talk in terms of red lines by the United States because President Biden has been very clear that this is a decision that only Israelis can make, the Israeli people and the Israeli government. I also wouldn't go to the point of saying if something passes, Israel is not a democracy.
However, what President Biden has said very clearly is that the separation of powers, rule of law, checks and balances between the different branches of government are all critical principles of democratic societies, seeking broad consensus and doing it transparently and slowly to enable that consensus to emerge is very important if making changes in that system.
And the concern that had been raised by so many Israelis, hundreds of thousands on the streets, many very senior former judges, security officials, economists, business leaders, many people appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu to senior positions in previous governments. And of course, observers outside was that the reforms that were being considered really would have resulted in a concentration of power in one branch of government with no check and no serious right of overview or review by the court.
If this is a decision purely for Israel and its voters, what exactly is President Biden doing having stern words with Mr. Netanyahu on the phone?
如果这只是以色列和其选民的决定,那么拜登总统打电话向内塔尼亚胡施加压力做什么呢?
Well, it isn't Israeli decision and only Israelis can make it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have some impact on US interests. President Biden has emphasized its core foundation is the common democratic values that enables so much of the partnership in security and economic and people to people terms that we experience every day.
Do you think this current crisis risks weakening Israel in the region, given that security has always been Israel's number one concern? This was exactly the concern that the Defense Minister, again, a member of the Prime Minister's own party, raised just yesterday.
I think that is a very real concern. The fact that he would be dismissed for expressing that concern really, I think, was what produced that very strong, spontaneous, emotional outburst last night. So it's something that I think the Prime Minister and the rest of the Israeli leadership will have to take into consideration.
When Israeli society is divided and Israeli society is really the undergirding of the Israeli military because it is a people's army, it always has to defend itself against the threats it has always faced. But that is the link, I think, between the divisions that this proposal caused and the concerns about Israel's security that the Defense Minister raised.
Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel, and if you want to hear more about the ongoing situation in Israel, you can follow all the latest developments on our live page on BBCNews.com.
To Myanmar now, and on February 1, 2021, there was a military coup there, which ousted a democratically elected government led by Ong Sang Su Chi. Immediately after the coup, there were widespread protests which were brutally suppressed. Many thousands of people have been jailed and the pro-democracy leader Su Chi has faced several charges in politically motivated trials.
For some time now, there's been no independent foreign media operating inside the country. Today, though, our South Asia correspondent Jonathan Head has been allowed into the country for the first time since 2021.
He recorded this sound of a military parade in the capital, Napertour. And a few hours ago, my news hour colleague, Razia Iqbal spoke to Jonathan Head, asking him how free he'd been to report since he'd arrived.
"We're not very free at all. We have a letter from the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Information making it clear we can only visit two places. That's the capital, Nipertour where I am, which is more or less a kind of garrison city. It was built by the military 20 years ago. They have their own fortified zone in it. It's about as secure as you can get in this country. And then Yang on the commercial capital where the military cemented its control quite a long time ago. Although there are still periodic attacks there. There was a pro-military lawyer assassinated just a couple of days ago. So it's not completely secure. We have been told we might be able to visit one of the well-known tourist spots, but otherwise we cannot travel around the country.
But more difficult is talking to people. The laws that the military has passed as enforcing since the coup make it in effect criminal to criticize the government in anywhere at all. So it's actually dangerous for other people. If we go and talk to them, the people are very scared if you ask them anything at all. So you're very, very constrained in what you can find out about ordinary life here. So that's the context in which you are able to operate.
And behind the cheery music that we just heard that marching band clearly quite a lot of darkness still in Myanmar. "A great deal. I mean this military parade they put on every year. It is a spectacular sort of well-drilled kind of occasion where the military puts it's really a show of force. It's a chance for the military to claim its place in Myanmar's history. It's repeated at time and again justifying its prominent role. And no more more so than now because the military leader is of course running the country. I mean all I know is very rarely seen in public. He gave a set piece speech today. Rehashing old grievances showing no signs at all really of regret for that catastrophic coup which has been utterly disastrous for the country.
The economy is in free fall. Prices are going through the roof. The currency has plunged in value. And that's in the cities. We can't even get to the places where we know the situation is completely desperate. These are large suites of the countryside in particular places where communities have refused to accept the authority of the military have formed their own defence forces are trying to run their own schools and health centres. They'll be attacked from the air and it was somewhat sinister today to see this tremendous amount of hardware that's been supplied by Russia and China in particular. It's being shown off by the military but we've seen a rough video taken by people of these very same planes and helicopters bombing and firing rockets into effectively undefended villages.
Jonathan, where do you see this going? You describe a country where the coup has been catastrophic for it. Many people are languishing in jail. There are politically motivated trials and atrocities being committed by the military. What do you think might shift any of these things?
"I think the military is counting on there not being a shift. It's gone back into a mode of thinking that it's maintained during the very long decades it was in power for the 1960s right through to about 10, 12 years ago. When it simply waited out the opposition while it crushed it wherever it found it. Pretty much the same model as an operation now.
What's been remarkable about the response to the coup is how strong the opposition has been and how many people have been willing to take up arms once they were given no chance to protest peacefully despite the overwhelming odds against them. That's why it's being catastrophic because this country has been plunged into a civil war in large parts of it and in some ways it's getting uglier because the military is using much more of its firepower now. It's getting much better at finding out where pockets of insurgency are and it is utterly ruthless in destroying them including some really dreadful atrocities which I think are meant as a warning to put other people off and looking at it and looking at the dreadful economic situation here.
You do sense and from talking to a few people in Yangon you get the sense as well that people are getting exhausted that they are being, you know, it's a war of attrition and the military is simply waiting them out. The sad fact is the military regime does have the active support of big powers like Russia and China. It has the tacit support of big neighbours like India and Thailand and the opposition forces including those loyal to Anson Suchi who is locked up away somewhere not far from where I'm staying now.". Of course no one can see her. The opposition has no support at all really. That was our southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head in Myanmar speaking to news hours Raziakipal.
Another school year has started this weekend in Afghanistan but teenage girls were forced to stay at home. The Taliban government has barred girls and women from secondary schools and from universities in Afghanistan. The only government in the world to do so. The BBC South Asia correspondent Yogi Te Limai in Mumbai has been gathering additional news as well in Kabul and has sent this report.
这个周末在阿富汗又开始了一个新学年,可是青少年女孩却被迫待在家里。塔利班政府禁止阿富汗的女孩和女性上中学和大学,这是世界上唯一一个这样做的政府。英国广播公司在孟买的南亚驻外记者Yogi Te Limai在喀布尔采集了更多的新闻,并发来了这篇报道。
As a new school year began, Afghan women were out on the streets again. Education is our right, it's our red line, don't politicise it. They chanted as they marched in Kabul protesting against the Taliban's bar on secondary school education for girls. Crucial years are being wasted for tens of thousands like 15-year-old Tamanna. She isn't able to hold back tears. When I see the boys go to school and do whatever they want, I feel hurt. It's hard to hope that our schools will be very open. It's evident on Tamanna's face that her grief is still raw. When I see my brother going to school, I feel sad and broken. Earlier my brother used to say, I won't go to school without you. I would hack him and say, you go, I will join you later because I thought the Taliban might change your minds. Almost every time we've spoken to teenage girls in Afghanistan about school, they've broken down within minutes of the conversation.
Some are trying to find ways around the ban. Barashto is in her 20s. She runs a network of secret schools trying to help as many girls as possible continue their studies hidden away from the Taliban. You talked to so many of these students who aren't allowed to go to school. Can you explain for us what that's like day to day? What is their life like? Well, the life really looks like you're injured and when you go to a hospital they ask you to wait. And you're in the waiting room while your blood is going out from your bruises that you have. Everywhere in your body especially in your heart. It is devastating, it's frightening, it's heartbroken, and the worst of all is not having any hope and being helpless because nobody right now in the world speak about helping us. They just condemn that's all they think that they have to do. The international people are telling us that we don't recognize the Taliban, but each day we see that they are hand-overing their imbuses to the Taliban. Aren't you scared that you might get caught? Oh, absolutely, I'm scared. Everybody of us are scared that we are afraid but we still have to do that because we do not have any other way. The thing that billions of girls in all around the world are doing very thinly as they are wishing to do, girls in Afghanistan have to do that secretly with all the fear in the world inside their heart and they're so shaking inside their body.
The Taliban say the closure of schools and universities is temporary until a suitable environment can be created. The women and girls we spoke to said they did not believe them but had no option but to hope every day. That was the BBC's Yogi Te Limai reporting.
塔利班说关闭学校和大学只是暂时的,直到有合适的环境。我们采访的女性和女孩说她们不相信塔利班,但她们别无选择,只能每天抱有希望。这是BBC的Yogi Te Limai报道。
The United Nations Children's Agency is among many international organizations calling for the immediate reopening of education to girls and women in Afghanistan but there is still no sign of a change in policy from the ruling Taliban. Thomas Niklason is the European Union Special Envoy for Afghanistan and he was there earlier this month talking to Taliban representatives. He told me he'd heard positive noises on women and girls education. The acting ministers I speak to, none of them has said that they are against girls and women's right to education. In fact, they say that they see it as the right. So girls and women to learn and to study. However, they were not very forthcoming in giving a date when secondary schools would reopen or giving any date when universities would reopen. So clearly there's a problem at the top. I have been discussing this now with the Taliban for close to two years and whereas previously they pointed out various technical obstacles say refer to the lack of school buildings or the lack of teachers or the lack of school buses. This time they didn't make any such specific remark. It seems to me therefore that it is a political problem rather than a technical problem.
And the Taliban representatives that you talk to, do they admit that they're telling you one thing and doing another? They still say there is no ban on education and they still say that they need to find solutions. They refer sometimes to conservative constituencies in various parts of the country but it seems to me that they are actually instead of recognizing that progress was made during the last 20 years, more in the cities and in the countryside, more in the north than in the south, instead of trying to build on that and bring the other parts of the country up to that, they are actually pushing and holding back those parts of the country where more girls went to school than before.
The truth is that you and the rest of the international community have very little leverage all the international community has left it is aid and with holding that doesn't seem to have made any difference. Change in policies in Afghanistan must come from within the country. Every single Afghan I speak to and that includes actually the acting ministers have said that they are in favor of girls' education, girls' right to learn.
So what we can do from the outside I think is provide additional arguments why education is not only a right but also a good thing from an economic and social point of view. But ultimately the push for change policies must come from inside the country. And what you said about pressure for change coming from inside Afghanistan, what evidence have you seen of that? Well, I mean when I was in Kabul I met with one very brave man and we see many, many more brave women arguing for girls and boys' right to learn. It's also challenging traditional values and traditional cultures in parts of the country.
This has not led to massive change throughout the country but we see that schools remain open in certain parts of the country. We see that Afghans we speak to and listen to understand the value they want their girls, their want their daughters, their sisters to be able to learn. So if I'm hopeful and I try to be despite a very gloomy picture I see that that's where change will come. We have seen very little positive change, we have seen a lot of negative change over the last 18 months. But I do believe that if all Afghans or the very large majority of them believe in education and managed to argue their case in the medium to long term, they will prevail.
Thomas Niklas on there, the European Union special envoy to Afghanistan. And that was NewsHour for a Monday evening UK time. Thank you very much for listening. Do join us again soon if you can. NewsHour has been a download from the BBC to discover more and our turns of use visit BBC.com slash podcast.
这是一个在英国时间星期一晚上发布的节目。节目中提到了欧盟驻阿富汗特使Thomas Niklas。非常感谢您的聆听,如果您能的话,请继续关注我们的节目。NewsHour 是 BBC 的一款播客,想了解更多信息及使用条款,请访问 BBC.com/podcast。
A series of increasingly sophisticated cyber crimes being carefully orchestrated around the world. The attraction to target ATMs is fairly obvious, I mean, not full of cash. It was just like Abra Gaddaq, put these cards, put any pin number, any good money. Japaad. US investigators say the heists are being carried out by the Lazarus group, a criminal hacking gang who was said to be working under the orders of the North Korean state. Tens of millions of dollars for the North Korean.
These actors are not as anonymous as they think they are. The group's goal? To steal money? To help fund the country's growing ballistic missile and nuclear program. But despite evidence suggesting otherwise, North Korea denies any involvement. In season two of the Lazarus Heist, from the BBC World Service, we're following the latest twists and turns in the incredible story of the Lazarus group hackers. Empires and piles of stolen cash. Over two billion dollars, we're at 2.1 billion dollars and still in funds.
这些演员其实并不像他们想象的那样匿名。这个团伙的目标是什么呢?是偷钱吗?是帮助资助该国不断发展的弹道导弹和核计划吗?尽管有证据显示北朝鲜参与其中,但该国却否认有任何牵扯。在BBC World Service的《拉撒路黑客团的第二季》中,我们跟随这个令人难以置信的故事中最新的转折和诡计。帝国和堆积的赃款,超过了20亿美元,现在已经达到210亿美元,仍未停止。
Search for the Lazarus Heist, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.