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tv   BBC News  BBC News  May 5, 2024 7:00pm-7:31pm BST

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and brazil's president lula surveys the damage left by deadly floods, as thousands are forced to evacuate hello, i'm azadeh moshiri. we start in israel, where the offices of the aljazeera news network have been raided by police after the israeli government ordered it to cease operations in the country. ministers have accused aljazeera of acting as a mountpiece for hamas. the network called the ban a criminal act. meanwhile, talks between israel and hamas in cairo on a ceasefire in gaza and the release of israeli hostages ended without an agreement with leaders on both sides blaming each other for the lack of progress. with all the latest from jerusalem, here's frank gardner. at the kerem shalom crossing point into gaza this afternoon, a sudden attack by hamas.
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several israelis injured, at least one critically. the wounded evacuated to hospital. the israeli military showed this drone footage. ten projectiles fired before the israeli air force destroyed the launcher. america and britain had been urging israel to open this crossing to aid. for now, it's shut again. today, israel's embattled prime minister reacted to hamas�*s demands for a permanent cease fire and an israeli withdrawal from gaza. the state of israel is not willing to accept this, he said. capitulating to hamas�*s demands would be a terrible defeat for israel. this afternoon, israeli police raided the offices of the tv channel aljazeera within hours of a unanimous cabinet decision to shut down its operations in israel. if you're watching this prerecorded report, then aljazeera has been banned in the territory of israel. the government accused it of being a mouthpiece for hamas. its regional bureau chief called
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this a dangerous decision. israel can't claim all the time that it is a democracy. and at the same time they are cutting and they prevent the journalist to do theirjob. but the government here is under pressure from parts of its own population. last night, tens of thousands of israelis rallied in protest at delays in getting the hostages out of gaza. they don't believe the government is making it a priority. the israeli government wants its hostages out, but at the same time, it's vowed to destroy hamas, which is why it won't agree to a permanent cease fire. but hamas, which holds the hostages, says it won't sign a deal unless the ceasefire is permanent, which is why the peace talks have stalled. a delegation from hamas has been in cairo talking to mediators. they're now leaving to consult with their leadership in gaza. the war continues with airstrikes and deprivation.
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gazans are desperate for this war to end. so too are many israelis. but others in israel see this as unfinished business. they want this war pursued until hamas is utterly destroyed. frank gardner, bbc news, jerusalem. i was joined earlier by our bbc world service middle east analyst, sebastian usher, who gave us more detail into this decision and the impact it's had for aljazeera staff in israel. the decision was made at the cabinet meeting, the israeli cabinet meeting this morning. and there was a tweet almost immediately afterwards by the prime minister, netanyahu, saying that it was closing, but it was an incitement channel. and then things moved very quickly as we were seeing in that report, there was a raid on al—jazeera's offices injerusalem its equipment was was confiscated
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and the satellite and cable providers of al—jazeera have now stopped its transmission in israel. its website, also access to that is being blocked. again, all of this is in israel, not the occupied west bank and obviously not in gaza. so this is something that had been built up to for some time. the israeli parliament passed a law which gave the government the ability to do this last month, but it had been months, really, gestating. and the october... i mean, since october the seventh, since the hamas led attacks on israel, the israeli government's animus against al—jazeera has just got sharper and sharper. now, when it comes to the coverage that will be available in israel, aljazeera's reporters were some of the rare foreign media on the ground there in gaza. so how does that impact the future of that coverage? well, some of the reporters in the occupied west bank have expressed concern that they might be next because obviously they can come under the control of israel to an extent. at the moment that isn't the case. and in gaza that could happen there as well, too. but i mean, what we've seen in gaza
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and what al—jazeera has accused israel of doing is of targeting its journalists. two aljazeera journalists have been killed there. its bureau chief has been wounded. a large number of his family, his relatives have been killed. now, israel denies that in any sense targeting journalists. they say they don't target journalists. that isn't, you know, the way that they do things. but aljazeera has again and again said that this is the case. and if we go back two years, in may 2022, aljazeera's star palestinian reporter shireen abu akleh was killed when she was reporting in the occupied west bank and aljazeera accused israel of targeting her in that attack. now, israel again has said that at the very worst it was an accident. it hasn't100% said that it was israeli fire, in any case. so this is a long—running issue between israel and aljazeera, with israel essentially accusing aljazeera as, again, we were hearing, of being a mouthpiece for hamas, which aljazeera denies entirely.
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what it says is that it is giving as much as it can a complete picture and giving perhaps more value, more emphasis to palestinian and pro—palestinian voices. than you might see on other international media outlets. and can we just talk about the timing of this? because, of course, there are these talks and qatar is acting as a mediator. so how might that impact those talks? well, as we were hearing, those talks are not going very well in any case. but the action has moved to qatar now. the talks were happening in cairo, but the hamas delegation is going to qatar to talk to its leadership there. and the head of the cia, william burns, is also going there in what has been said by an official as a kind of last—ditch attempt to save the talks from collapse. so qatar remains an important player. it was the key mediator, perhaps, in the cease fire that did happen, back in at the end of november. there was speculation that despite the the the vote
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by the israeli parliament, which gave the government, the israeli government, this power, that it might not do it because of that, because of concern over how qatar might react. clearly, that isn't the case. i assume that the israeli government just has so long this this has been an issue and it felt that this was necessary to do. i mean, what's interesting is, within israel, there is some pushback. the the association for civil rights in israel has just issued a statement saying they're going to try to halt this in the courts. so it isn't as if in israel there is complete support for what the government has done in this case. let's turn now the fall out from the local elections in england. the former home secretary suella braverman says the conservative party could be wiped out at the general election, and has urged the prime minister to change course and swing to the right after its poor showing in this week's votes for local councils and mayors — results which she said left her in despair. here's our deputy political editor vicky young. across england and wales,
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labour won in style — mayors, councils and police and crime commissioners. it was a terrible set of results for the conservatives. one of the few bright spots, a victory for their mayor in the tees valley. the former home secretary, no fan of the prime minister's, warned today that the party faced a wipeout at the general election, but there was no point ousting him now. rishi sunak has been leading us for about 18 months. he's been making these decisions. these are the consequences of those decisions. he needs to own this and therefore he needs to fix it. and these are her suggestions. he needs to actually lower taxes in a way that people will feel not tweaking around the edges. if he's serious about migration, he needs to put a cap on legal migration. he needs to take us out of the european convention on human rights. that's how you actually send the message that he's serious about stopping the boats. not all tories agree. after his defeat, the now former mayor of the west midlands, andy street, urged the party to stick to the centre ground.
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ministers insist they're already acting decisively. we have a plan and the plan is working. voters are telling you they don't like it. but we're not all the way through yet. you've got to actually see... i think people want to see delivery, right? so they want to see inflation continue to come down. they want to see the boats stop. they want to see, for example, nhs waiting lists continue to fall. we've made a lot of progress on that, but we're not all of the way there yet. labour did see a drop in support in some areas where there's anger about its stance on the war in gaza. i do acknowledge that in some parts of the country that was the case and there'll be some people who maybe voted labour in the past who haven't in the local elections because of this issue. and where that's the case we'll work to get people's support back. but overall, i do have to stress, these were tremendous local election results. rishi sunak�*s fiercest critics seem to have decided against an attempt to drive him out of here, but that doesn't mean the criticism will stop. joining me now is chris white,
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head of advocacy at sec newgate, and former conservative special adviser. thank you for your time. strong words from suella braverman, talking about your piper, swing voters are on strike, and that the party needs to swing to the right. that on strike, and that the party needs to swing to the right.— to swing to the right. that is one wa of to swing to the right. that is one way of looking — to swing to the right. that is one way of looking at _ to swing to the right. that is one way of looking at it. _ to swing to the right. that is one way of looking at it. there - to swing to the right. that is one way of looking at it. there are i to swing to the right. that is one | way of looking at it. there are two schools of thought in this in the conservative party. clearly, those on the right look at the projections of the reform party and the number of the reform party and the number of votes at the wins and think you should talk to the right, but as andy street, who is more on the moderate wing, thinks of the party is best when it is modular, inclusive and tolerant. when i also think that if you look at where the conservatives perform best in the middle and local elections it was where there was a strong brand, strong and dependence, a strong sense of being moderate, inclusive and tolerant. so, i would tend to side with her andy street was. given that he defied a national swing of
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almost 9%, and was only 1500 votes of being re—elected in the west midlands. of being re-elected in the west midlands. �* , ,, midlands. andy street douglas, thou . h, midlands. andy street douglas, though. and _ midlands. andy street douglas, though, and you're _ midlands. andy street douglas, though, and you're talking - midlands. andy street douglas, | though, and you're talking about midlands. andy street douglas, i though, and you're talking about a strong brand. andy street, ben houchen, there was so move to distance themselves from rishi sunak. they didn't bother brand affiliation front and centre. it was all along, we will talk about brunt andy. does not have any bearing on your mind on how mps should be approaching the general election? == approaching the general election? » brand — under. frankly, the country has switched from listening to what conservatives have to say. you have to go back to notjust partygate but also some of the disaster decisions like electing liz truss as a leader of the party, the budget and other decisions, to show that frankly the conservatives are not really in a position to be listened to any more. the fact that rishi sunak is in this position and you have got suella braverman stating from the
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backbenches that the course should be changed, she was part of the party who trumpeted the fact that she was supporting liz truss back in 2022, so when she talks about needing to own decisions and fix, she can take a little bit of a look at her own stunts and decide whether she wants to do that first before having a good rishi sunak. she is not wron: having a good rishi sunak. she is not wrong in _ having a good rishi sunak. she is not wrong in saying _ having a good rishi sunak. she is not wrong in saying that - having a good rishi sunak. she is not wrong in saying that this - having a good rishi sunak. she is l not wrong in saying that this wasn't good news, doesn't something needs to change before the general election? orshould to change before the general election? or should itjust be the status quo? the election? or should it 'ust be the status quo?* election? or should it 'ust be the status uuo? ., , ., ., , status quo? the conservative party had an appalling — status quo? the conservative party had an appalling set _ status quo? the conservative party had an appalling set of _ status quo? the conservative party had an appalling set of results, - had an appalling set of results, there is no doubt about that. the only positive was ben hudson winning the tees valley, but if you look at the tees valley, but if you look at the actual result and what that means if it was projected to stun our selection, there would mean the conservatives losing every seat in his mayoralty area. the one crumb of comfort was, based on independent projects and, of this result was
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projected nationally at the general election, it would mean that the labour party would only be the largest party in a hung parliament, so it does give something for the conservatives to want to watch. but i think what they have got to do a chilly focus on delivery, and getting a clear sense of the message across, and that's trying to present across, and that's trying to present a united front. because at the moment all visitors double doesn't all voters are hearing is a conservative party looking edwards rather than sing important things you should do. rather than sing important things you should do— rather than sing important things you should do-— rather than sing important things ou should do. ~ . ., , ., ., you should do. what are you hearing from our you should do. what are you hearing from your former _ you should do. what are you hearing from your former colleagues? - you should do. what are you hearing from your former colleagues? are i from your former colleagues? are they working towards a hung parliament now? i they working towards a hung parliament now?— they working towards a hung parliament now? they working towards a hung arliament now? ~ ., , ., , parliament now? i think that is only thin ou parliament now? i think that is only thing you can _ parliament now? i think that is only thing you can work _ parliament now? i think that is only thing you can work towards. - parliament now? i think that is only thing you can work towards. i i parliament now? i think that is only thing you can work towards. i don't| thing you can work towards. i don't think there is any conservative mp who thinks he party has any chance of winning. that would be a significant change in the post, where labour over 20 points ahead. there would have to be realistic about this, and really try and bring about this, and really try and bring about going to an election result which matches more closely what happened this time. it is of course,
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that would mean a loss of a number of conservative mps, but it would mean that the labour wouldn't be an overall majority. i mean that the labour wouldn't be an overall majority-— overall majority. i really appreciate _ overall majority. i really appreciate your - overall majority. i really i appreciate your perspective on overall majority. i really _ appreciate your perspective on your time. thank you so much. with just under 2a hours to go until nominations close to replace humza yousaf as leader for the scottish national party, there are suggestions of a late entry to the race. at the moment, john swinney, the former deputy first minister and party leader, is the only person officially in the running, but veteran party activist — graeme mccormack says he believes he can garner enough nominations by monday's deadline. our bbc scotland political reporter, jenni davidson, told us more aboutjohn swinney and what this challenge could mean for him. he's a very popular figure. he's very high profile, very experienced, and there's a lot of personal affection for him within the smp. so it's unlikely that this is actually going to be a serious issue for him. but what it does mean for the party is that it would cause the leadership contest to go
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on for another three weeks if there was only one nomination in tomorrow by 12 noon, the deadline, if it was john swinney, then he would simply be declared party leader tomorrow afternoon. but if there's more than one nomination then it has to go to a vote of party members. so more of an issue for the party in terms of the money and the time that would then go into a longer leadership race at a time when there's obviously a general election coming up and they want to be outward looking rather than inward looking. i also want to touch upon the fact there was a march yesterday with hundreds turning out in glasgow to march for independence. what has humza yousef�*s fall taught us about where independence stands right now? well, the reason for humza yousaf�*s resignation really comes back to ending that power sharing agreement with the scottish greens
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and the reasons for ending that were not really around independence. it was around other issues where there were tensions around climate change and around transgender health care. but that is an issue within the independence movement as a whole, is how you keep those tensions at bay, how you keep the cohesion in working together towards independence, where there is agreement, but also work through these issues, other policy issues, the day to day ones where there's disagreement. and there's also disagreement around the strategy of moving towards independence. that's notjust the case between the three independent supporting parties, the snp, the greens and alba, but also within the parties, particularly within the snp. there have been tensions around strategy. john swinney has referenced that. he's talked about there not being as much cohesion within the snp as he would like and he wants to to work on party unity, but differences of opinion around strategy. and that's probably part of what lies behind greame mccormick�*s leadership challenge. conditions continue to deteriorate
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in southern brazilfollowing massive flooding and landslides, with 70,000 residents forced from their homes. the government says at least 66 people have died and another 101 are missing. further rainfall is expected. brazil's president, lula da silva, is paying his second visit to the southern state of rio grande do sul in recent days, to witness firsthand the devastating week—long flooding and landslide. jon donnison reports. much of brazil's most southerly state is under water. roads turned into rivers and more than 25,000 people forced to flee their homes. translation: now, when i'm being rescued, i feel relieved, | but it's terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way. it rose at a very high speed. after a week of storms and heavy rain, at least 500,000 people are without power and clean water.
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translation: i need a lot of help, a lot. i we have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. we have nothing. and the very young are being impacted, too. this tiny baby had to be winched to safety by helicopter. many of those who died were killed by landslides. and at least two people lost their lives when the floods caused an explosion at a petrol station in porto alegre. brazil's military has been brought in to help with the rescue effort and to distribute aid. the extreme weather has been caused by a rare combination of hotter than average temperatures, high humidity, and strong winds, and forecasters say it's not over yet. jon donnison, bbc news. let's return to the middle east. the united nations has warned against an israeli attack on rafah in the gaza strip, saying it risks causing many more deaths.
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israel has said that even if there is a ceasefire agreement it will be temporary, and that it plans a military assault on rafah to destroy hamas. around 1.4 million people are sheltering in rafah — many of them have been displaced from other parts of gaza. our special correspondent, fergal keane, reports now on the crisis facing rafah. five times its original population. a place where hospitals have become refugee camps, were no living spaces wasted. the wards where families
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cook, where their children roam the corridors of a place such as, for no, sir. this 11—year—old is, according to his mother, surviving on painkillers. here, the brutal truth of the war is urged on the faces of its young victims. the feeder is that this is what awaits rafah if an invasion is ordered. in the coalition government, the far right finance minister opposes any deal that would spur rafah and resolve for dirt —— and return for israeli hostages. absolute destruction, he says. the israelis say there are four hamas battalions and rafah to be destroyed with or without a ceasefire. the un is making plans for more field hospitals, but once it won't stop a disaster. it hospitals, but once it won't stop a disaster. ., ., ., .,
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disaster. it will not avoid what we exect disaster. it will not avoid what we expect will _ disaster. it will not avoid what we expect will be _ disaster. it will not avoid what we expect will be substantial - expect will be substantial additional mortality and morbidity. there lot more people dying? aha, additional mortality and morbidity. there lot more people dying? a, lot there lot more people dying? a lot more death — there lot more people dying? a lot more death and _ there lot more people dying? a lot more death and a _ there lot more people dying? a lot more death and a lot _ there lot more people dying? lot more death and a lot more diseases. this is where to destruction leads. people who have lost their homes, forced to camp next to graves. this woman as a mother of seven children. she described some of the horrors she and her children have witnessed. she points to a grave coverage in bricks and explains the grim reason for this. , ._ bricks and explains the grim reason for this. , , ., , ., for this. yesterday, there was a rave for this. yesterday, there was a grave come _ for this. yesterday, there was a grave come there _ for this. yesterday, there was a grave come there were - for this. yesterday, there was a grave come there were no i for this. yesterday, there was a j grave come there were no rocks for this. yesterday, there was a i grave come there were no rocks above it. and the family came and they found that the dogs it part of the body. they were forced to put brakes on his grave to protect him from the dogs. from ten at night until dawn, but can't sleep because of the sound of the dogs. at night, i will
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children keep holding on to me because of how scared they are. there is intense pressure for a ceasefire deal now. without it, there is only for boarding, the dread of what comes next. —— on the foreboding. let's get some of the day's other news now. china's president xijinping has arrived in france on a state visit, his first trip to an eu country in five years. global conflicts are expected to figure highly when mr xi meets french president macron and the head of the eu commission, ursula von der leyen, on monday. france is expected to urge china to pressure russia to end its war against ukraine. police in germany say a 17—year—old has turned himself in to police in germany following an attack on a european parliament member. the teenager said he knocked down matthias ecke, a member of the main governing social democratic party, as he hung posters.
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police said mr ecke was seriously injured and required an operation. a huge free concert by madonna has taken place in rio dejaneiro, with a crowd of over 1.5 million believed to have attended. i should warn you there are some flashing images in the pictures we are about to show you. the brazilian show had been billed as a thank you to her fans for decades of support, and marks the end of her celebration world tour, which began in london in october last year. earlier, we spoke to vincent paterson, who has madonna's dance choreographer in the 1980s. well, i think it's fantastic. i mean, i saw the show in los angeles and it's an incredible, incredible collection and example of her career for the last a0 years. just phenomenal. and the fact that she gave it
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to the brazilian citizens for free. i just think this is part of the generosity of who madonna is. and you worked with herfor some time. you can tell us, what was she like to work with? oh, she was a dream. you know, she worked so hard. and, you know, she always wants to outdo herself. she always wants to best herself. and, you know, like michael jackson, both of them, for me, it was incredible as an artist. they always wanted me to create something that the world had never seen before. and you can't ask for more than that as an artist. and she was incredible to work with, wonderful. many, many experiences we had. and you worked on on some of the the the great choreography. i remember the express yourself video that was a particular favorite of mine and and the blonde ambition tour too, didn't you? was she very involved in it or was itjust a case of you delivering the choreography to her?
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no. you know, i directed a choreograph, the blonde ambition tour. she had had problems with someone who she brought on earlier. it didn't work out. and she called me at the last minute. i had basically 20 days to create 18 numbers and redo the whole set list with her. no, it was very collaborative. we always worked well together that way. it was never me just creating the movement and saying, "here it is, madonna." it was always the two of us collaborating. stay with us here on bbc news. it has been another day of big weather contrasts across the uk. now many areas did keep quite a bit of cloud and there were some showers or longer spells of rain. passing showers there on the horizon, topsham in devon. but it wasn't like that everywhere. we had some pleasant sunshine. northern parts of wales stretching into merseyside, greater manchester, yorkshire, much of the midlands and east anglia. the warmest spots
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seeing temperatures up to 20 degrees. the coolest spots, where cloudy, just 12. and again, we kept all of cloud for scotland and northern ireland. some quite heavy showers in eastern scotland at the moment. and as we go on through this evening and overnight, there will be some further patches of rain coming and going, particularly in east scotland. elsewhere, a lot of cloud around, a few showers for southern wales. pushing into the midlands. could see an odd one for east anglia and southern counties of england too. on into bank holiday monday, we do start the day with quite extensive cloud cover and it is another day where showers will develop through the afternoon. the shower is going to be much more widespread and they'll be heavier than we've seen over the last couple of days with some thunderstorms around. probably the brightest weather in the midlands, parts of northern england, maybe parts of east anglia once again. but the south—east could have more persistent rain, particularly towards the south coast. now, on into tuesday, we start to see pressure rising from the west. and so this is the first sign of our weather becoming a bit more settled. yeah, just in time as we go back to work.
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now there will be a few showers around across western areas, but not as many as we've seen over recent days. many parts of the country will have a dry day on tuesday with some hazy spells of sunshine. starting to see those temperatures more widely reach the upper teens to low 20s for england and wales, and warming up too in northern ireland. high pressure then builds a bit more for wednesday. it's not strong enough, though, to keep this weather system at bay. there will be some rain in scotland moving into the hebrides highlands and arriving late in the day for orkney and shetland, along with strengthening winds. now away from that, for northern ireland, england and wales, should be largely dry day on wednesday with hazy spells of sunshine. and we're seeing that trend to slightly warmer weather. 18 degrees in newcastle, a 20 for london and 19 for cardiff. and looking at the forecast through much of the rest of the week and temperatures more widely reaching the upper teens to low 20s.
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i'm a this is bbc news, the headlines... israeli police have raided the offices of the aljazeera television network, after the cabinet decided to close down the operations of the broadcaster. aljazeera called claims it was a threat to israeli security a "dangerous and ridiculous lie". hopes for a ceasefire in gaza appear slim, with the two sides still unable to agree the exact terms of a truce. lengthy negotiations have so far failed to yield any breakthrough.
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negotiators are expected to return to cairo for a fresh round of talks on tuesday. after heavy losses in the local elections in england, the former home secretary, suella braverman, tells the bbc rishi sunak needs to "change course" if the conservative party is to avoid a political wipeout. china's leader, xijinping, has arrived in france. he's expected to meet french president emmanuel macron tomorrow, along with the president of the european commission, now on bbc news, sportsday. hello, and welcome to sportsday — i'm jane dougall. harvey elliot scores one of four for liverpool as they raise their game to beat tottenham to the delight of managerjurgen klopp.
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they had to come from behind — but rangers also scored four to beat

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