14/08/2014 Newsnight


14/08/2014

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Nouri al-Maliki steps down as Prime Minister of Iraq.

:00:07.:00:08.

Can functional government now be restored to Iraq?

:00:09.:00:11.

And can the insurgency there be squashed?

:00:12.:00:19.

We broke the siege on Mount Sinjar, we helped more and more people reach

:00:20.:00:25.

safety and we helped save many innocent lives.

:00:26.:00:27.

And as America congratulates itself on a job well done, what exactly is

:00:28.:00:30.

the humanitarian situation facing the Yazidis in Iraq now?

:00:31.:00:33.

The pass rate falls, university admissions are up,

:00:34.:00:39.

Why do so many more women get to university, and should we care?

:00:40.:00:45.

We'll ask the head of UCAS and President of the

:00:46.:00:47.

The shooting of a black teenager, a police force accused of racism,

:00:48.:00:54.

And do you feel like a slave to your devices?

:00:55.:01:05.

We start tonight with the news from Baghdad that Nouri al-Maliki

:01:06.:01:19.

has agreed to step aside as Iraq's prime minister.

:01:20.:01:22.

In a televised national address, he pledged support for his

:01:23.:01:25.

replacement Haider al-Abadi, who has already been asked by the country's

:01:26.:01:28.

Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent,

:01:29.:01:33.

This is deeply significant, isn't it? This really is. This is

:01:34.:01:46.

potentially a turning point in Iraq's very sad fortunes it has had

:01:47.:01:50.

recently. Nouri al-Maliki has been running the place for the last eight

:01:51.:01:55.

years and increasingly he has been at queues of sectarianism and

:01:56.:02:04.

favouring Shias over Sunnis. All those people thought, well, actually

:02:05.:02:08.

we would rather have ISIS in charge of our interests than him. The

:02:09.:02:11.

question now is whether his replacement can bridge that gap and

:02:12.:02:15.

walk that very delicate tightrope between giving enough to the Sunnis

:02:16.:02:21.

that they feel part of Iraq and not alienate it, but not giving so much

:02:22.:02:25.

that the Shia feel, well, hang on, he has let us down. Are there any

:02:26.:02:31.

signs of that change happening? Well, something very significant

:02:32.:02:35.

happened in the last 24-hour in Iraq. The Governor of Anbar

:02:36.:02:42.

province, a very Sunni-dominated province, Al-Qaeda territory, a lot

:02:43.:02:46.

of it, he has reportedly asked the US military support defeat ISIS or

:02:47.:02:51.

Islamic state, so what we're seeing is potentially just the beginning is

:02:52.:02:57.

here of the repeat of what happened in 2006-2007, where the Sunni tribes

:02:58.:03:02.

were so third up with the extreme brutality of Al-Qaeda that they

:03:03.:03:07.

asked for help and drove out Al-Qaeda. -- so fed up.

:03:08.:03:12.

Unfortunately, last time Nouri al-Maliki did not have advice and he

:03:13.:03:18.

squandered the opportunity. This time the Sunnis will be very nervous

:03:19.:03:25.

about trusting them. This could be a never say for Iraq. But also with

:03:26.:03:30.

President Obama saying the country is going in the right direction, is

:03:31.:03:34.

there A-level of optimism underneath where we should be wary? We should

:03:35.:03:40.

still be very wary. Three months ago, nobody talked about Iraq in the

:03:41.:03:46.

cabinet. In Washington, it was largely ignored. America had not

:03:47.:03:48.

exactly washed its hands because they were still people in the Green

:03:49.:03:53.

zone, but it was space to be about Afghanistan and they were moving on

:03:54.:04:01.

from Iraq. But unseen and unnoticed by most people with hardly any

:04:02.:04:04.

intelligence presence, they had moved on, and during this time, the

:04:05.:04:09.

Islamic state has taken over the entire valley, so now they realise

:04:10.:04:12.

they have to do something about it. You is going to deal with it? It has

:04:13.:04:20.

to be local Sunnis. -- who is? For the moment, thank you very much

:04:21.:04:21.

indeed. Suhair al-Nahar is a spokesman for

:04:22.:04:24.

Nouri al- Maliki's Dawa party. It has to be said his legacy is

:04:25.:04:33.

shocking. He has mutilated the country of Iraq, has he not? The

:04:34.:04:41.

former Prime Minister had a very difficult task and many, many

:04:42.:04:44.

different problems on many different levels to deal with. I believe he

:04:45.:04:50.

did the best he could in the circumstances. However, the

:04:51.:04:56.

replacement now, who is also from the Dawa party, there is a lot of

:04:57.:05:04.

optimism regarding his ability. If anybody can heal the rifts between

:05:05.:05:08.

the various Iraqi divides, he can. Can I just pick you up on one thing,

:05:09.:05:14.

and we can look forward to that in that optimism if you wish. But

:05:15.:05:18.

surely you have to recognise that Nouri al-Maliki, it was not just

:05:19.:05:23.

that he acted under difficult circumstances. Some of those

:05:24.:05:26.

circumstances he created himself. There were levels of corruption and

:05:27.:05:30.

he was not providing the sort of inclusivity which he promised at

:05:31.:05:33.

first. Those things are of his own making. It is not a situation he

:05:34.:05:38.

just found himself in. Yes, you did have a role to play in that, and I

:05:39.:05:43.

think everyone has learned from that. -- he did. Everybody is

:05:44.:05:49.

learning from that, including the new Prime Minister. I think it is

:05:50.:05:53.

time to move on. It is time to heal the rifts between the Iraqi

:05:54.:05:58.

political divides and it is time for national reconciliation. And it is

:05:59.:06:01.

time to fight the terrorists who have done so much damage to Iraq.

:06:02.:06:06.

Exactly. So it is not just a question of politics and of what we

:06:07.:06:10.

in the West might understand to be the need for a stable state. You

:06:11.:06:14.

have this vicious force that needs to be fought and you do have to have

:06:15.:06:19.

an incredibly inclusive, strong government in order to be able to

:06:20.:06:23.

fight that. The legacy of Nouri al-Maliki, it is there in all the

:06:24.:06:28.

ways the state works. It is there in the Army, the councils. What do you

:06:29.:06:33.

do about that? Can one man really come along and change all of that?

:06:34.:06:38.

Believe that, as I said, lessons have been learned and lessons will

:06:39.:06:43.

be. -- I believe. He has the ability to make the difference, he has the

:06:44.:06:49.

ability to make the turnaround. What is that ability? What is it about

:06:50.:06:53.

him that makes you think you can do that? The ability is firstly that he

:06:54.:07:00.

is a very listening person. He is very inclusive, very thoughtful. He

:07:01.:07:05.

also has technocratic abilities, so he will build institutions and

:07:06.:07:10.

systems and will fight corruption. In addition, he believes that he was

:07:11.:07:17.

a leader of the Parliamentary committee on economics, so he has a

:07:18.:07:21.

very deep understanding on how Iraq can improve economically and improve

:07:22.:07:28.

in terms of services for ordinary Iraqis. Does he have that steel will

:07:29.:07:34.

and resolve? And, in a sense, you need aggression, doesn't he, to

:07:35.:07:40.

fight ISIS? -- he needs. ISIS is not a group that will respond to all of

:07:41.:07:43.

those things you have talked about. They do not want to come and sit

:07:44.:07:48.

around a Cabinet table and discuss the economic future of the country.

:07:49.:07:52.

They want something completely different. Exactly. And one of his

:07:53.:07:57.

main aim is that he has promised to carry out as soon as he took office

:07:58.:08:01.

is to defeat the terrorists, ISIS. He will do this firstly through

:08:02.:08:07.

national reconciliation, as I have said. Bring on board the moderate

:08:08.:08:11.

Sunnis to fight the terrorists on their own areas. Secondly, he needs

:08:12.:08:18.

and will reform the Army and security forces. Thirdly, he will

:08:19.:08:23.

need the help of the world community, and this is where he also

:08:24.:08:28.

excels, because he has communication skills and his relations and

:08:29.:08:33.

contacts... The backline to America, that will certainly help. Thank you

:08:34.:08:36.

very much for your time this evening.

:08:37.:08:46.

And so Iraq finds itself on the brink of another chapter

:08:47.:08:49.

With different views from every perspective, although President

:08:50.:08:52.

Obama may say that today the country heads in the right direction.

:08:53.:08:55.

Set this optimism against the picture painted

:08:56.:08:56.

The UN has declared its highest state of emergency

:08:57.:09:00.

for the country, and in a moment, we'll hear from one of its men

:09:01.:09:03.

First, here's our security correspondent, Frank Gardner.

:09:04.:09:06.

Thousands have been rescued in recent days, fleeing murder

:09:07.:09:10.

by the militants of ISIS, the so-called Islamic state, or from

:09:11.:09:12.

But now they face a deeply uncertain future.

:09:13.:09:19.

The humanitarian situation in Northern Iraq can be described

:09:20.:09:22.

Those terrible biblical pictures that we saw of people being helped

:09:23.:09:29.

off Mount Sinjar here are only one small part of a much wider picture.

:09:30.:09:34.

Across the region as a whole, around 300,000 refugees have arrived

:09:35.:09:38.

in the last ten days and they all need help.

:09:39.:09:44.

According to the Kurdish government figures, 250,000 refugees have

:09:45.:09:48.

arrived in Dohuk, plus another 50,000 Christians.

:09:49.:09:56.

In the Kurdish capital Irbil there are nearly 60,000 Christian

:09:57.:09:58.

refugees and the numbers are growing.

:09:59.:10:00.

We have, in the last ten days, had between 200,000 and 2550,000 people

:10:01.:10:27.

With each displacement, they are able to bring with them

:10:28.:10:31.

less and less of the key household items they need to survive,

:10:32.:10:34.

The scenes from the mountain are what helped galvanise

:10:35.:10:37.

the international community into rushing aid to Iraqi Kurdistan.

:10:38.:10:40.

At one point it looked like tens of thousands could perish

:10:41.:10:44.

Kurdish troops have since managed to escort most to safety.

:10:45.:11:00.

The US Special Forces team flew in aircraft like these and assessed

:11:01.:11:03.

there was no longer an immediate need for a rescue operation.

:11:04.:11:06.

I have also heard President Obama say that a rescue mission is not

:11:07.:11:11.

Frankly, I myself don't understand that.

:11:12.:11:14.

These are people who have fled for their lives with nothing.

:11:15.:11:18.

They are not mountaineers who are ready to climb up a mountain.

:11:19.:11:22.

These are ordinary men, women and children, don't forget

:11:23.:11:26.

that, and children can be very fragile in this kind of situation.

:11:27.:11:36.

The biggest refugee crisis is now in Dohuk, a Kurdish city overwhelmed by

:11:37.:11:42.

Aid is reaching them but not enough.

:11:43.:11:52.

Most are from the displaced from the Yazidi community.

:11:53.:11:55.

They've been driven out by the militants

:11:56.:11:56.

ISIS as part of its sectarian cleansing really

:11:57.:12:01.

has it in for the Yazidis, and very clearly wants to destroy

:12:02.:12:05.

Sorry, in the province with a combination

:12:06.:12:12.

of driving them out, a combination of taking them captive, and women

:12:13.:12:17.

they consider to be property, like houses, like land, and they are

:12:18.:12:22.

Then there is the wider fear of winter.

:12:23.:12:36.

How will Kurdistan shelter such vast numbers of refugees

:12:37.:12:38.

Homes will have to be found for the thousands now sleeping rough

:12:39.:12:44.

And just over the horizon, the militants of ISIS bent

:12:45.:12:51.

Unless they are dislodged, the refugees have no chance of ever

:12:52.:12:58.

A little earlier I spoke to Kieran Dwyer from the

:12:59.:13:06.

United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian

:13:07.:13:09.

Affairs about the situation on the ground in the Kurdish city

:13:10.:13:12.

I wonder whether you can start where you -- by telling us where you have

:13:13.:13:26.

been today and what you have seen? We went to the border crossing at an

:13:27.:13:33.

area where the large numbers of people coming in from the mountain,

:13:34.:13:39.

the Saint John mounting crisis, had been flowing through in the last few

:13:40.:13:46.

days in large numbers. -- Mount Sinjar crisis. So people are still

:13:47.:13:49.

coming over today. More a steady flow than the large numbers in

:13:50.:13:54.

previous days. And then to a transit camp, which is where many people who

:13:55.:13:59.

have come across the bridge are being stabilised and spending some

:14:00.:14:03.

time before they moved to other areas that are being set up,

:14:04.:14:07.

because, frankly, many of these people will not feel safe to go home

:14:08.:14:13.

for the foreseeable future. Can I ask you about the situation on Mount

:14:14.:14:17.

Sinjar? President Obama has said that US forces have broken the siege

:14:18.:14:25.

there and as you know, there will be no future humanitarian efforts

:14:26.:14:28.

through the air from America because they believe that the situation is

:14:29.:14:34.

good enough to leave alone. Do you and your colleagues accept that

:14:35.:14:38.

assessment? Well, I am aware of the statement that was made, of course,

:14:39.:14:44.

and we know that the American military team conducted its

:14:45.:14:48.

assessment. As humanitarians, we know there are still several

:14:49.:14:50.

assessment. As humanitarians, we know there thousand people on top of

:14:51.:14:53.

the mountain. We don't know the precise number. And that is one of

:14:54.:14:58.

the Kiwis and also we are here in Dohuk today, to speak with as many

:14:59.:15:02.

people as we can, including people still coming off the mountain and

:15:03.:15:07.

crossing the bridge today. -- one of the reasons we are also here. Some

:15:08.:15:14.

need to urgently still get down. We need airdrops possibly to still get

:15:15.:15:17.

those people supplied on that mountain. Letmember, nobody went up

:15:18.:15:21.

that mountain who was not forced because they were afraid for their

:15:22.:15:30.

life. -- re-member. Can I just ask you this - do you believe President

:15:31.:15:33.

Obama was right to make that assessment? Is it very different to

:15:34.:15:38.

how you would have assessed the situation? This was a military

:15:39.:15:46.

assessment for a potential operation and I don't know what went into the

:15:47.:15:51.

assessment. That is one process. As humanitarians, we look at what is

:15:52.:15:56.

necessary to keep people alive and what is necessary to create

:15:57.:16:00.

conditions where they can safely and freely come down from the mountain.

:16:01.:16:05.

Those things are not separate. The UN have said that Iraqis at a level

:16:06.:16:09.

three emergency status which is extremely high, so set against that,

:16:10.:16:14.

it is hard to understand when President Obama says that the

:16:15.:16:19.

country is heading in the right direction. Those seem to be two very

:16:20.:16:24.

different perspectives. I won't make a military commentary or political

:16:25.:16:27.

commentary. I'm here as a humanitarian person, working with

:16:28.:16:32.

the international community, which includes a broad spectrum of the

:16:33.:16:35.

international community and efforts who are trying to help Iraqi be more

:16:36.:16:39.

secure and safe, protect the civilian population -- help Iraq.

:16:40.:16:46.

1.2 million people alone this year have been rapidly displaced from

:16:47.:16:51.

their homes, so to help keep them alive with emergency assistance and

:16:52.:16:55.

help the local authorities set up white media to be protective

:16:56.:16:59.

measures and assistance measures for quite some time to come. -- setup

:17:00.:17:10.

humanitarian measures. There are now as many refugees in the city as

:17:11.:17:15.

original inhabitants which seems an extraordinary position to manage.

:17:16.:17:20.

The senior officials we have met have been impressive in their

:17:21.:17:24.

commitment and in the actions they are taking to deliver, but it is

:17:25.:17:28.

plain, and they are humble and they understand this, they are stretched

:17:29.:17:32.

to the limit. They are asking the UN for assistance and we are scaling it

:17:33.:17:37.

up as fast as we can, but they are asking for further international

:17:38.:17:41.

assistance to help them do the job they want done. They are stepping up

:17:42.:17:44.

and they need us to step up with them, and the UN is certainly doing

:17:45.:17:49.

that. Thank you very much for your time this evening. We appreciate it.

:17:50.:17:52.

If you've had teenagers in the house this summer you'll know

:17:53.:17:55.

Anxiety, hysteria, occasional giddiness.

:17:56.:17:57.

Either someone knows the ending to Game of Thrones,

:17:58.:17:59.

Overall grades are slightly down with fewer A and A* grades.

:18:00.:18:05.

But that might not really matter because there are a record number

:18:06.:18:08.

of university places available - an extra 30,000,

:18:09.:18:10.

which means that even some of the most elite universities are

:18:11.:18:13.

Here's Chris ?Four Straight As? Cook.

:18:14.:18:25.

Today, on a level results day, parents will be congratulating and

:18:26.:18:32.

commiserating with their children about their university choices. It

:18:33.:18:36.

is a decades-old story, but there is a wrinkle, because sons are more

:18:37.:18:42.

problems than daughters these days. Outside Scotland, a level of the

:18:43.:18:45.

main entry qualifications for university. This year they were

:18:46.:18:51.

taken by around 260,018 -year-olds in the UK, about 38%. So today is a

:18:52.:18:56.

day that the university reforms are very obvious. A key plank of the

:18:57.:19:01.

reforms are the university should be able to expand so they can compete

:19:02.:19:07.

to win students. To help them along, 30,000 extra places are being

:19:08.:19:12.

funded, an increase of 8% and that will rise by another 30,000 next

:19:13.:19:17.

year. This is hardly the first big university expansion. The share of

:19:18.:19:22.

people you went to university by the age of 30 rocketed from 5% in the

:19:23.:19:27.

early 1960s to around 35% by the turn-of-the-century. This was a

:19:28.:19:34.

legacy of a report from 1963, lip -- written by Lionel Robbins, an

:19:35.:19:37.

eminent economist, which advocated a big rise in the university

:19:38.:19:41.

population. Will bigger numbers mean lower standards? Not on our

:19:42.:19:49.

computations. When people think of the recent story of universities,

:19:50.:19:57.

they probably think of this. Demonstrations, disorder, fees, and

:19:58.:19:59.

the Liberal Democrats. # I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The cap on

:20:00.:20:17.

fees rose most recently in 2012, but at the same time participation rose

:20:18.:20:24.

as well. Since fees came in in the late 1990s, the story of growth in

:20:25.:20:28.

higher education has been similar to the previous story, which is more

:20:29.:20:32.

and more young people on their way to university. Interestingly, the

:20:33.:20:35.

growth is now concentrated amongst people from less well-off

:20:36.:20:38.

backgrounds and we have seen it in the data from UCAS, with 8000 people

:20:39.:20:43.

from the poorest backgrounds on their way to higher education. But

:20:44.:20:47.

there is still an unusual gap here. Undergraduate admissions are one of

:20:48.:20:52.

the areas where women dominate. 48% of 18 or 19-year-old women go to

:20:53.:20:59.

university, compared to 35% of men, and the gap is riding. UCAS said

:21:00.:21:08.

today that there had been 107,000 acceptances for -- 172,000 men, and

:21:09.:21:15.

more for women. The missing numbers are from poorer communities. There

:21:16.:21:19.

are more women than university going -- there are more women than men

:21:20.:21:27.

going to university, and that makes sense because apprenticeships pay

:21:28.:21:29.

less for women. It's not surprising that women feel they have to go to

:21:30.:21:37.

university to compete with men on an equal level. There are other

:21:38.:21:39.

explanations. It might be schooling, or the advice about career choices

:21:40.:21:45.

that women and men make. It is a rare area of public policy though

:21:46.:21:46.

where women do better than men. Mary Curnock Cook is the Head of

:21:47.:21:50.

UCAS and Alice Philipps is President Mary, to start with you, why does it

:21:51.:22:03.

matter if young men are not choosing university as much as women because,

:22:04.:22:07.

actually, further down the line, they enter what is clearly a man's

:22:08.:22:11.

world where they get paid more and seem to find it easier to make it to

:22:12.:22:15.

the top? I don't think that is really the case. If I could just set

:22:16.:22:20.

out the picture that we see today from mission control, if you like,

:22:21.:22:25.

at UCAS. 400,000 people have been placed today, but 50,000 more young

:22:26.:22:32.

women than young men, and what we now see is that women are one third

:22:33.:22:36.

more likely to enter higher education than men. In fact, women

:22:37.:22:40.

are more likely to enter than men are to apply. Surely that cannot be

:22:41.:22:46.

a good thing in terms of balance in the potential for young women and

:22:47.:22:50.

young men, and their future career and life. Do you know anything about

:22:51.:22:55.

why that has happened, why the choices made? -- the choice is

:22:56.:23:02.

made. The background is that young men are not getting the achievement

:23:03.:23:05.

coming out of secondary school, so the pipeline coming through for

:23:06.:23:10.

admission to higher education is worse for young men than for young

:23:11.:23:14.

women. Women reach level three A-level equivalent at the same level

:23:15.:23:20.

that young men reach level two. Why does that happen? Is it the fault of

:23:21.:23:28.

the schools? Is it something in young men, or is it that young women

:23:29.:23:34.

are just terrific? I'm not an expert educationalist, but I can tell you

:23:35.:23:39.

that young women outperform young men right through the school system,

:23:40.:23:44.

through primary school and secondary school, and, surely, the potential

:23:45.:23:49.

of young men is somehow being let down through that system. And, of

:23:50.:23:53.

course, we see it in university admissions. So what would you do?

:23:54.:23:58.

And I would like hard plans and proposals, please. I think somebody

:23:59.:24:04.

needs to look vary carefully at the issue. We can see that while the gap

:24:05.:24:11.

between... Shouldn't it be you? I don't think it is the job of UCAS.

:24:12.:24:14.

We are using evidence to show something. But you could be a good

:24:15.:24:19.

advocate for change and stir for change? Well, that is why I am here

:24:20.:24:24.

this evening. We want to see more young men coming through the system

:24:25.:24:28.

to balance it out, not least because there is probably a better

:24:29.:24:31.

university experience if there is more of a sex balance on campus. But

:24:32.:24:37.

how do you do that? In practical terms, what does that actually mean?

:24:38.:24:44.

Clearly the young men are not really listening to lots of people saying

:24:45.:24:47.

that you are not getting as far as the girls. They are in school and

:24:48.:24:50.

watching the girls outperform them, so what can they do? It is important

:24:51.:24:55.

to look at the underlying causes. They must be to do with teaching and

:24:56.:25:00.

learning. They must be to do with the curriculum or qualifications, or

:25:01.:25:04.

the assessment regime. But for some reason, boys are coming through

:25:05.:25:09.

school and not doing as well, in aggregate, as the girls are. Alice,

:25:10.:25:14.

you come from the girl school perspective, but you have also

:25:15.:25:18.

taught boys as well. Through your expertise, what do you think the

:25:19.:25:21.

problem is, so what might the solution be? One of the problems

:25:22.:25:26.

might be, if we go back to primary schools, the shortage of male role

:25:27.:25:30.

models as teachers. If you are going to go into the educational context

:25:31.:25:35.

as a child and be inspired by grown-ups around you, you want

:25:36.:25:39.

people who suggest to you as a small boy, from whatever background, that

:25:40.:25:43.

education and learning is fun and to have a male role model that will be

:25:44.:25:47.

helpful alongside the female ones. We know there are many strong female

:25:48.:25:52.

role models, but increasingly fewer and fewer male role models at the

:25:53.:25:56.

earliest age. That is a sensible suggestion that there must be more

:25:57.:26:00.

you can do further down the line -- but there must be more you can do

:26:01.:26:04.

further down the line as the young men approach a levels and are given

:26:05.:26:07.

careers advice. Something must be falling short. Could we have more

:26:08.:26:12.

positive discrimination? If we talk about this as a different group, a

:26:13.:26:16.

different socio- economic group, or cultural group, then I think we have

:26:17.:26:21.

already had in place some kind of positive discrimination and helpful

:26:22.:26:25.

schemes, but people seem to be wary of saying let's do it for the boys.

:26:26.:26:32.

Certainly, and if you take the story at the start, it's a great story of

:26:33.:26:37.

celebration for girls and women, and there was a time when it wasn't

:26:38.:26:41.

thought worthwhile to educate women. We should not try to imply in the

:26:42.:26:44.

statistics that it is the fault of women that men are falling behind.

:26:45.:26:49.

What UCAS dies, and it has been a tough day for the organisation, and

:26:50.:26:52.

I would like to thank her for the work done today, but they gather the

:26:53.:26:57.

data and now it is here we can work with it. So what would I do? I would

:26:58.:27:04.

turn to the new Secretary of State and listen to serious

:27:05.:27:07.

educationalists and gather people who have succeeded with these

:27:08.:27:10.

minority groups who struggled, and there are head teachers out there

:27:11.:27:13.

who have a strong track record, and get them to talk together and frame

:27:14.:27:17.

policy and plan. Is there ever a place for something as bold as

:27:18.:27:23.

weaker offers for young men approaching their A-level results?

:27:24.:27:27.

That is not the problem because it is in the pipeline. The acceptance

:27:28.:27:33.

rate in university for men is a smidgen higher than girls, so it's

:27:34.:27:37.

not about the admissions process, it is about what is coming through. But

:27:38.:27:42.

you could change that, couldn't you? There would always be a place where

:27:43.:27:49.

you could say, here you have a girl with 28 results and be, but we need

:27:50.:27:53.

more boys in the system, so we will take them with a B grade and a C

:27:54.:27:59.

grade? -- to a great results and a B grade? I don't think that is really

:28:00.:28:04.

the solution. I think the suggestion about more men in teaching in

:28:05.:28:09.

primary and secondary school, that is interesting, because there are a

:28:10.:28:12.

lot of initiatives to get girls to do science and computer science and

:28:13.:28:17.

stem subjects, but what about the huge imbalance in the number of men

:28:18.:28:23.

going into teaching and social work and nursing, which are massively

:28:24.:28:29.

showing a bigger gap the other way round? I think it would be good to

:28:30.:28:32.

see initiatives to show young men that there are a range of careers

:28:33.:28:36.

they could pursue that are outside of the traditional comfort zones. It

:28:37.:28:41.

is definitely a subject we will return to. Thank you for your time

:28:42.:28:42.

this evening. To Gaza now, and day one

:28:43.:28:44.

of a new five-day ceasefire, Neither side has relinquished any

:28:45.:28:47.

of its demands, although Egyptians sources have said

:28:48.:28:54.

that Israel may be willing to lift But the let up

:28:55.:28:57.

in the fighting gives citizens on both sides the opportunity to affect

:28:58.:29:02.

some normality - whatever that means The BBC's Yolande Knell

:29:03.:29:04.

in Gaza has been talking to the people trying to keep the lights

:29:05.:29:10.

on and the water flowing. Gaza took a pounding during recent

:29:11.:29:29.

Israeli air strikes. This is the third conflict here in five years.

:29:30.:29:33.

And it has been the most deadly and destructive. Israel says it is

:29:34.:29:39.

targeting militant sites, but civilian infrastructures are not

:29:40.:29:47.

being spared. Gaza's only power plant was shelled two weeks ago,

:29:48.:29:52.

setting its fuel tanks on fire. The Israeli military says it is

:29:53.:29:55.

investigating, but the effects are clear. As you see, this is total

:29:56.:30:06.

damage. It can't be used any more, and without the fuel, we have no

:30:07.:30:12.

operation. The manager has been here since the electricity plant opened a

:30:13.:30:16.

decade ago. It was supposed to make use of the latest technology to meet

:30:17.:30:22.

rising demand. Instead, it has faced constant challenges. It has been

:30:23.:30:26.

caught up in previous fighting between Hamas, which controls Gaza,

:30:27.:30:32.

and the groups sworn enemy, Israel. Tight border restrictions limited

:30:33.:30:38.

fuel imports. Although power cuts were common in Gaza before, now they

:30:39.:30:46.

are much worse. The electricity that the whole population, almost 2

:30:47.:30:50.

million people, they will suffer. -- for the whole population. When you

:30:51.:30:53.

talk about electricity, you talk about the water supply, water

:30:54.:30:58.

treatment, sewage, we are talking about hospitals and schools. All

:30:59.:31:05.

aspects of basic life require this not existing. In this home they are

:31:06.:31:14.

used to blackouts. But the sisters carry out what household chores they

:31:15.:31:19.

can in the dark. They organise their lives around the six or so hours of

:31:20.:31:24.

power they get each day. The first thing, of course, is charging our

:31:25.:31:28.

flashlights, turning on our water well and doing laundry and stuff

:31:29.:31:35.

that has to do with electricity. And they tell me even keeping clean is

:31:36.:31:40.

difficult, because without power, the water filled ration and pumps

:31:41.:31:46.

don't work. And we are like, I wish I could go take a shower, but there

:31:47.:31:51.

is no time and no water and no electricity. You can't do anything,

:31:52.:31:57.

really. Entire neighbourhoods of Gaza were reduced to rubble during

:31:58.:32:00.

the ground invasion by Israeli Armed Forces. In the East, they said they

:32:01.:32:06.

destroyed tunnels used by Palestinian fighters. But they also

:32:07.:32:13.

damaged underground water and sewage systems. Already, these were in a

:32:14.:32:20.

fragile state. A blockade of Gaza are forced by Israel and Egypt had

:32:21.:32:25.

made maintenance hard. Now there is contamination and widespread water

:32:26.:32:30.

shortages. Across Gaza, emergency efforts are under way to fix or just

:32:31.:32:36.

to patch up basic infrastructure, often in incredibly difficult

:32:37.:32:41.

circumstances. Here, the workers are struggling to restore basic water

:32:42.:32:45.

supplies. They have got miles and miles of broken pipes.

:32:46.:32:50.

Hospitals are already seeing diseases spreading. As more and more

:32:51.:32:55.

Gazans displaced by this conflict are forced to put up with dire

:32:56.:33:01.

living conditions. And here, the growing problems with

:33:02.:33:06.

Gaza's infrastructure can be a matter of life and death. The

:33:07.:33:11.

machines in this intensive care unit are now relying mostly on

:33:12.:33:14.

generators, which are meant to be used for back-up purposes only. So,

:33:15.:33:23.

imagine if the electricity of the generator went off in addition to

:33:24.:33:28.

the normal electricity being off before. Imagine what will happen to

:33:29.:33:34.

the blood banks and the stores. Imagine what will happen to patients

:33:35.:33:39.

in the ICU. And what will happen to the nursery where the newborns are

:33:40.:33:47.

there. For years, Gaza has struggled, but the latest conflict

:33:48.:33:52.

has left it on life support. A temporary truce is giving some

:33:53.:33:56.

breathing space, as Egyptian Wiggo shooters try to secure a longer term

:33:57.:34:01.

cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. -- Egyptian

:34:02.:34:09.

negotiators. Now they need to address security concerns and open

:34:10.:34:12.

up Gaza's borders so a full recovery can begin.

:34:13.:34:16.

An 18-year-old black man, shot by American police

:34:17.:34:20.

in disputed circumstances, described by witnesses as unprovoked.

:34:21.:34:22.

And a town erupting into protest at what is seen as deep-seated racism.

:34:23.:34:25.

It's a story told before, too many times.

:34:26.:34:27.

This one in a small suburb of St Louis in Missouri called Ferguson.

:34:28.:34:39.

It has been four nights of anger, protest and clashes with the police

:34:40.:34:45.

in the US state of Missouri following the fatal shooting of

:34:46.:34:48.

black teenager Michael Brown last Saturday. Details of the killing

:34:49.:34:51.

have been disputed, with eyewitnesses saying the 18-year-old

:34:52.:34:55.

was unarmed and had his hands raised. The police say he was shot

:34:56.:34:59.

several times after a struggle and have not yet released the officer's

:35:00.:35:04.

name. Last night, heavily armed riot police fired tear gas at

:35:05.:35:07.

demonstrators in Ferguson who had ignored an order to disperse.

:35:08.:35:14.

Several people were arrested, including two journalists, who said

:35:15.:35:15.

they were assaulted before being released. On social media, the town

:35:16.:35:21.

is starting to be referred to as Fergus-stand. People should not be

:35:22.:35:29.

brilliant journalists who are just rang to do their jobs and reporting

:35:30.:35:33.

to the American people who see what is going on on the ground. We need

:35:34.:35:37.

to hold ourselves to a higher standard, particularly those of us

:35:38.:35:42.

in positions of authority. There was also a recognition of the ground

:35:43.:35:49.

swell of emotion on the -- in that immunity with efforts to bring

:35:50.:35:56.

around a more peaceful resolution. Or we also need is for folks to be

:35:57.:36:00.

able to be allowed to express their energy in an appropriate way. They

:36:01.:36:05.

have the absolute right to do that. Because we will not get the healing

:36:06.:36:11.

that we all need is the only response from the public is "I'll

:36:12.:36:21.

just be quiet". Two thirds of Ferguson's community is black, in

:36:22.:36:25.

stark contrast to 50 out of its 53 police officers being white. The

:36:26.:36:30.

town has come together in grief, sorrow and anger. A common chart

:36:31.:36:37.

against the police is "hands up, don't shoot". It has erupted on

:36:38.:36:42.

social media and touched at the core of one of the unresolved fault lines

:36:43.:36:44.

in America. With me now are Mike Colombo,

:36:45.:36:47.

a local reporter, and Lester Spence, a Professor of African and

:36:48.:36:50.

American Studies. A very good evening to you. Mike,

:36:51.:36:59.

can I start with you? Can you describe the mood in Ferguson

:37:00.:37:06.

tonight? Pardon me. At this moment, we are still learning more and more

:37:07.:37:09.

about what is happening on the ground in Ferguson but the shift to

:37:10.:37:15.

the state police has been absolutely huge already. It seems as if the

:37:16.:37:21.

captain, who is actually a Ferguson resident originally, an

:37:22.:37:23.

African-American officer, he being on the ground is orally having a big

:37:24.:37:29.

impact just seeing some of the tweets sent by my colleagues. --

:37:30.:37:35.

already having a big impact. He has said he will walk with them and the

:37:36.:37:39.

police line they have experienced over the last several days will be

:37:40.:37:43.

far less than it was, so it is a very interesting change of

:37:44.:37:46.

circumstances as to what we have been dealing with for the last

:37:47.:37:50.

several days. Can you just explain what that differences with the state

:37:51.:37:54.

police coming in? And what does it say about the police before? So much

:37:55.:37:59.

of what we have heard from the residents of Ferguson and the

:38:00.:38:03.

different processors has been that the police have been taking a very

:38:04.:38:10.

heavy-handed approach. -- protesters. I think all of us are

:38:11.:38:14.

hoping that with the change of guard, there may be some differences

:38:15.:38:18.

and that might actually allow us to see whether it was the police who

:38:19.:38:21.

were in fact being heavy-handed or if it may have been protesters with

:38:22.:38:26.

some unreasonable thoughts and feelings about what had been taking

:38:27.:38:30.

place. So I guess you could release a only time will tell as far as that

:38:31.:38:34.

is concerned but very early on, it seems the people are well receiving

:38:35.:38:39.

the new police who are investigating and helping work with the

:38:40.:38:43.

protesters. Obviously this was a tragic death of a very bright young

:38:44.:38:48.

man. But can you explain to us why it was everything kicked off so much

:38:49.:38:52.

afterwards? You can understand the grief and anger of the family and

:38:53.:38:57.

the problems of a death in custody. But what you have seen on the

:38:58.:39:01.

streets of Ferguson is we quite extraordinary. The scenes we have

:39:02.:39:05.

just showed, it is something akin to the Los Angeles riots, isn't it?

:39:06.:39:12.

They are, and one part of this story that runs parallel to the shooting

:39:13.:39:17.

death of Michael Brown is that there are some very deep-seated racial

:39:18.:39:20.

issues that have gone on in this community and many communities in

:39:21.:39:25.

this area for decades. The shooting death of Michael Brown bringing

:39:26.:39:29.

those issues to the forefront. And the people there, especially with

:39:30.:39:33.

the way many of them feel the police handled the situation from the get

:39:34.:39:37.

go, they are stepping up and saying, enough is enough, we have dealt with

:39:38.:39:41.

issues here and felt like second-class citizens for a very

:39:42.:39:44.

long time, and we are sick of it, and they are using this as their

:39:45.:39:47.

platform to bring those issues to the forefront and let people know

:39:48.:39:51.

real change has to come or they are going to continue to see some of the

:39:52.:39:56.

protests and some of the people's unhappiness that has really shown

:39:57.:40:01.

over the last several days. Thank you. And thank you for your

:40:02.:40:08.

patience. Does everything you hear mics they ring true to you? Yes, it

:40:09.:40:19.

does. -- Mike says? A week before the 11th of September, it was a week

:40:20.:40:25.

before Labor Day, and there was a kid who was killed by St Louis

:40:26.:40:31.

police, and they shot him in the alley and they accused him of firing

:40:32.:40:36.

at them. The gun had not been fired, though. Police were not even

:40:37.:40:41.

charged and there was a number of incidents once this happened. I went

:40:42.:40:45.

back and a student had collected three or four binders from me on

:40:46.:40:52.

research I was doing, and there was just incident after incident of

:40:53.:40:55.

police being heavy-handed in the city and in Saint Lewis County and

:40:56.:41:00.

people calling for Citizen review boards and their calls going

:41:01.:41:06.

unheard. Said President Obama has called for calm but also

:41:07.:41:09.

transparency, and that is a very interesting word, isn't it? What

:41:10.:41:16.

does that mean to you? If you think about the militarisation of the

:41:17.:41:21.

police, it happens in a number of different ways. It starts in the 60s

:41:22.:41:27.

as a result and in response to black protest. Then it moves to the 70s

:41:28.:41:31.

and 80s in response to the war on drugs. The 90s is the war in Iraq.

:41:32.:41:38.

And then now it is in relation to 9/11. And what you have with that

:41:39.:41:44.

militarisation move is a kind of gap being placed between citizens and

:41:45.:41:49.

the police, and then a significant part of that gap is increasing the

:41:50.:42:01.

way that the police don't feel they have the obligation to do anything.

:42:02.:42:05.

They don't have the obligation to report a citizens, they don't have

:42:06.:42:08.

the obligation to reveal themselves to journalists, they don't have the

:42:09.:42:12.

obligation to let themselves be photographed, and they definitely

:42:13.:42:16.

don't have the obligation to allow people to protest peacefully,

:42:17.:42:20.

particularly black people. And from what you have seen of the developing

:42:21.:42:24.

situation over the last four nights and other state develop and come

:42:25.:42:28.

with President Obama making his speech, do you think this could be a

:42:29.:42:33.

turning point for the residents? Yes, I do. Just that move to replace

:42:34.:42:39.

the Ferguson police with the State Highway Patrol and led by somebody

:42:40.:42:42.

who actually knows that neighbourhood, I think that is

:42:43.:42:46.

really, really important. But the important thing is going to be for

:42:47.:42:50.

us and the people of Ferguson to continue to move, because what we

:42:51.:42:54.

don't want is a circumstance in which this moment happens and this

:42:55.:42:59.

boy is killed and we find justice but then the systems that actually

:43:00.:43:03.

allow that to happen remain in place. So that is the struggle we

:43:04.:43:08.

have in front of us. A real pleasure to talk to you tonight. Thank you

:43:09.:43:10.

for your time, and also to Mike. You'd be hard pushed to find a

:43:11.:43:13.

more modish fashion than detoxing. But if you think you've done them

:43:14.:43:16.

all, you haven't, because this summer sees the arrival

:43:17.:43:25.

of a whole new type of detoxing. Newsnight's David

:43:26.:43:29.

Grossman is all over it. Now, be honest, is this what your

:43:30.:43:42.

holidays look like? Is this your night out at the pub? Is this that

:43:43.:43:46.

special romantic meal with the love of your life? We are still in the

:43:47.:43:51.

early days of this new world and it is pretty clear we are already

:43:52.:43:54.

struggling. Struggling to know when we should connect and when we should

:43:55.:43:58.

switch off. There are some pretty easy rules to make, like driving.

:43:59.:44:03.

But the rest of the time? What it has done to us is it has made us

:44:04.:44:07.

afraid of absence, afraid of solitude and daydreaming and quiet.

:44:08.:44:13.

Everybody that I see with a moment of absence in their lives, they dive

:44:14.:44:18.

into their phone. This is how this work used to be. An analogue world

:44:19.:44:23.

of pens, typewriters and landlines. When we went on holiday, it was a

:44:24.:44:27.

struggle to get a week old copy of the Daily Mail, let alone a message

:44:28.:44:31.

from work! And then, well, this happened. Mac this keeps you in

:44:32.:44:37.

constant in indication with these transportable, affordable cellular

:44:38.:44:42.

phones. We thought this could meant we could -- could mean we could be

:44:43.:44:50.

on the beach, the golf course or in the shopping centre and not be found

:44:51.:44:53.

out. But there has been a price to pay. Being able to work anywhere

:44:54.:44:59.

means anywhere we are, we are at work. The company Daimler is

:45:00.:45:04.

offering its staff and email holiday when they go on leave. Their inboxes

:45:05.:45:08.

blocked and incoming messages are simply deleted! Naturally, we wanted

:45:09.:45:13.

to talk to the executive who came up with this new policy. What you mean

:45:14.:45:17.

we can't get hold of an?! It is 2014! But it turned out he was on

:45:18.:45:22.

holiday. So he sent us this statement.

:45:23.:45:33.

We get a load of individuals who come, and then we take their phones

:45:34.:45:41.

away and lock them away. Vicki runs digital detox weekends. She says

:45:42.:45:45.

periodically dumping the smartphone is vital. We quite often find

:45:46.:45:50.

situations where if people did have their phone, instead of making an

:45:51.:45:52.

effort to chat to someone if they were bored, they would just get

:45:53.:45:57.

their phone out and do that, so we have loads of feedback saying they

:45:58.:46:01.

have much more interesting and deep conversations when they are talking

:46:02.:46:04.

to people and they are not distracted by their phone going off

:46:05.:46:08.

on the side and then there attention getting diverted to their phone. And

:46:09.:46:14.

it is only going to get worse. Technology is in its infancy. This

:46:15.:46:17.

watch can tell me when I get a message. But in future, connectivity

:46:18.:46:23.

will be sewn into the fabric of our lives. Perhaps we need to work out

:46:24.:46:27.

some rules. As much for employers as employees. Part of the thing that

:46:28.:46:35.

work that managers should know is that we are at work but we are also

:46:36.:46:40.

at play. So watch back. Facebook and Twitter, if you look at the numbers,

:46:41.:46:45.

you will find the busiest times for those websites are when everybody

:46:46.:46:48.

says they are at work. So we know it has become this... This giant

:46:49.:46:57.

no-man's-land of work and play meshing between each other. And it

:46:58.:47:04.

creates a kind of ambient anxiety throughout our lives. So, live in

:47:05.:47:08.

the modern world, in Bray six technology, but once in a while, for

:47:09.:47:13.

the sake of your health, take a trip back to the past. -- embrace the

:47:14.:47:16.

technology. That is all we have time for court

:47:17.:47:21.

the liberal and I have emails to check! Good night. -- all we have

:47:22.:47:24.

time for and I have. Friday looks the best day of the

:47:25.:47:40.

week with more wins and sunshine around. The small chance of a few

:47:41.:47:44.

isolated showers but hopefully they will be just

:47:45.:47:45.

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