Ed Sheeran's support acts quit tour in support of Macklemore's 'Free Palestine' comments

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1:00And he's currently performing in North America. But it's politics in the Middle East which have derailed his current tour, raising a bigger question about whether the pop star should be political. It all began when the rapper Macklemore appeared on stage ahead of Sheeran at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey 12 days ago. He shared a clip of that performance afterwards on his social media. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart. Free Palestine. Well, it was those comments which led to a petition from the Israeli-American Council demanding that McLemore was taken off the tour.

1:48Ilan Carr is chief executive of that council. What he did was outrageous. He took to the stage in front of this captive audience of tens of thousands and proceeded to slander the state of Israel and the Jewish people. And it has no place in a concert. You know, a concert is supposed to be inclusive. And this is, by the way, something that Mr. Sheeran said. He wants inclusive concerts for all his concertgoers. And to make Jewish concertgoers and pro-Israel concertgoers feel unwelcome is a terrible thing to do. And that's what Malcolm Moore did. And so it is entirely appropriate that he was excused from further performance.

2:29He has no right to hijack a stage at a concert. Free Palestine. And I don't, by the way, purport to know Macklemore's intentions. But Free Palestine absolutely is a call for the extermination of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. It's very clear. Well, McLemore was later dropped from the tour and Ed Sheeran said that that decision was made by his promoter, not him. All the other acts on the lineup have now also dropped out. Well, we've been hearing from a few fans. I'm Danielle and I'm from North Carolina. People see celebrities as like some kind of performing monkey they can control. And I think people are dehumanizing him and it kind of breaks my heart.

3:15I'm trying not to get emotional about it. Instead of making celebrities like the people we're mad at or outraged with, I think we should be putting our focus on the things that, like the people in power that actually are doing the things that are frustrating. Hi, it's Lizzie. I'm an Ed Sheeran fan. I'm disappointed in the response that he's had to Macklemore speaking out and bravely saying this needs to be spoken about. You need people that have got massive audiences to talk about their views and opinions especially when it's a humanitarian crisis. You're a pop star, you earn a lot of money, you should be speaking up.

3:53One of the acts, Phineas, the brother of pop star Billie Eilish, said in a statement artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. So where does this leave the tour? And Ed Sheeran, well Mark Savage, is our music correspondent. I've been asking him more about the fallout. Well, as you might have heard last night, everybody else who was a part of that tour has dropped out. all three of the support acts and even Ed Sheeran's backing band, a group of folk musicians from Ireland called Boega. So he's left with 18 massive stadium dates across the north and south of America, playing to more than a million people, and he's the only person on the line-up.

4:31To be fair, Ed Sheeran can do that no problem. He tends to play solo, he loops his music using a loop pedal and builds up the songs, and he can have the crowd eating out of his hand just by himself. But certainly this is not a situation that he wanted to be in. In his statement yesterday, he says that he does have private views on the Israel-Gaza conflict. He chooses not to say them in public, but really by booking McLemore in the first place and by this row breaking out in the way it has, he's been dragged into that discussion whether he likes it or not. And the person who operates those stadiums in America, Robert Kraft, has defended that decision though, despite, of course, a real backlash.

5:13Well, yes, he only operates one of the stadiums, the Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, where the New England Patriots play American football. He certainly has been named as one of the people who put pressure on Ed Sheeran and his promoters. And Ed Sheeran has a personal relationship with Robert Kraft. He sang at his wedding four years ago. So that is, it certainly suggests a kind of a murkiness to it, that there are people behind the scenes pulling strings that are stopping McLemore from having free speech, which in America would be his First Amendment rights. And that is one of the reasons that a lot of the support acts cited for pulling out of the tour.

5:53They said, you know, millionaires and billionaires cannot police what we say in public. And just briefly, tell us more about the support acts, because unlike McLemore, who's well-known, Grammy Award winning, these are smaller artists who've now lost a huge platform, but they say they've done it for good reason. Yes, so we had Aaron Rowe, who's an upcoming singer-songwriter from Ireland. He is one of the artists that pulled out. We had McLemore obviously being dropped and Lucas Graham, a Danish band who had a couple of hits about 10 years ago, but aren't as big as they used to be. So yeah, this is a huge opportunity.

6:26And obviously you earn a percentage of the ticket sales going on a tour like this. They have all put their principles ahead of that money, whether you agree with them or not. But it'll be interesting to see if anybody else steps up to fill those vacant slots, because there are a lot of very hungry bands that I imagine would like to pay to 80 ,000 fans every night with Ed Sheeran. But if you sign up to that tour now, I suspect you will be subject to torrents and torrents of abuse online. So you'd need a very thick skin. Mark Savage there. Well, let's discuss that in a bit more detail. I've been speaking to Dorian Linsky, a British cultural historian and journalist, and Billy Bragg, the singer-songwriter.

7:05Well, I think it's been a terrible own goal for the owner of the stadium. I initially decided that McLemore wouldn't come and play in his stadium because instead of McLemore saying free Palestine to maybe 20 ,000 people in the stadium, he's now said it to the entire world and he's created this huge debate. So in that sense, I think it's been terribly self-defeating. But on another level, it's great to see young artists standing up in solidarity with Macklemore, because I think ultimately, you know, culture has to reflect the way that the world is. And that's what Macklemore was trying to do, what we all try to do.

7:43And I don't think he should be punished for that. Dorian, in Ed Sheeran's statement, he says he's appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. And he says the suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy. But on the other hand, he then continues by saying, there is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics. What did you make of his statement and the message that he's sending out? I think that he is trying to maintain a relatively apolitical and neutral position. And that's fine. I think that's probably why we notice protest songs. We notice political musicians because that's not everybody.

8:26Here, he's got himself into this situation where, you know, he has booked, basically everybody who booked on his tour has sort of pro-Palestine sympathies. And yet, for whatever reason, that did not seem to sort of occur to him what might happen. It's almost somebody with a mindset from perhaps a different era collided with this reality. What do you make of that, Billy? Because of course, it does call into a wider question about the pressures artists face about how much they do get political or not. And you're someone who gets very political. I think you have to ask yourself about Ed Sheeran's motives.

9:01I mean, he can't have not known that McLemore was going to say Free Palestine on his tour. And I think by putting McLemore on the boo, he was hoping to get a bit of the kudos that goes with edgy music without actually committing to it himself. And it's blown up in its face in the worst way. Dorian, do you think it's blown up? And who do you think is going to come out better from all of this? Ed Sheeran or McLemore and the other artists? I don't. I mean, Ed Sheeran, who I've interviewed and who I liked as a person is obviously coming out of this very badly. You know, I do think that obviously, if we don't know all the details of what it would have meant to stand up to craft, what that means to the tour, other alternative venues available, what were the costs of that.

9:47But I mean, undoubtedly, what has happened is that everybody else on the bill has taken a stand for free speech. And, you know, and let's say that McLemore said nothing out of line here. It was a very simple free Palestine message. And Sheeran has ended up in this position where he seems that he does not support free speech and that he does not support the Palestinian cause, which, you know, I don't know whether that's entirely fair, but it's a pretty much a disaster for him. And Billy, do you have some sympathy for Ed Sheeran? Because in a way, he was almost forced into this decision. He had no choice, he might argue.

10:26I mean, yeah, he has been forced into this decision, but I think he may be being blindsided by the other acts on the bill. With all due respect to Macklemore, he's a big artist. But these guys, you know, this was a really big opportunity for them, a big, big platform for them. The Tour America in stadiums opening for an artist as big as Sheeran. But the fact that they've taken a stand, I hope will be inspirational to other young artists. Do you think, Billy, it could actually cost them in terms of their careers? Because, of course, getting on the line up with Ed Sheeran can be career changing, can't it?

11:01Of course it can, it can. But my experience over the years has been, for those of us who do want to talk about issues, there is always going to be people who are interested in that or connect with it. They might be in a minority, but they're still out there. And if you can find that audience, then they will sustain your career, whether you're playing with Ed Sheeran or not. I mean, Dorian, what do you think about all of this? I mean, in particular, this is, of course, relating to the Israel-Gaza war, which we've seen other incidents, for example, in Glastonbury, where there have been debates around free speech and what you can say on the conflict.

11:32I think that's why this does seem so shocking. If you look at what McLemore said, there was nothing outrageous in that. And I think what Kraft, the stadium owner, has misjudged and what I think a lot of people are misjudging is just how the sort of public mood has changed because of what has happened to Gaza. And Billy, I mean, all of this in some ways came about after the Israeli-American Council launched a petition demanding that McLemore was removed from the tour. As an artist yourself, I mean, I'm sure you faced pressures from different groups in terms of being able to raise a political point.

12:12You do get pressure. You do get people. I mean, sometimes it's as banal as people saying that you shouldn't mix politics and music. You know, I had some arguments with Pete Watterson, Kylie Minogue's producer in the 1980s, who didn't think pop should be political. But really, you know, particularly in the 20th century, pop music was the only social medium that young people had, and as such it had to reflect everything that was going on in the world. I mean, it's not so much that now, but I think this issue shows that pop music does still have teeth and it still can cause outrage. Can I ask you both what you think the audience will make of all of this, the people who will be turning up to Ed Sheeran's shows?

12:49I mean just fan bases when you're that big fan bases are so large you know like when when you two tour and Bono will make a particular statement against you know very critical of you know the American government or whatever and people are absolutely fuming in the audience and then he stops saying that and then he goes into another song and then they kind of go oh well we're back to this now it would be interesting to see how the tour unfolds because it's a bit suddenly it's kind of like a cursed tour, you know, and the scrutiny on anything he says or any protests in the audience is going to be enormous.

13:25Dorian Linsky and Billy Bragg there. Coming up on NewsHour, in Iran, the death of a young woman, Masa Amini, at the hands of the Morality Police ignited huge protests four years ago. What's changed for women in the country since then? Four years ago, if someone had told me that one day I would see women walking down the streets bravely and without the hijab, I probably wouldn't have believed them. Some of the other stories we're watching this hour and Ursula von der Leyen of the EU has backed a proposal for Canada to become the European Union's first associate member. It has its country's rift with the United States deepens.

14:06Rescuers in Gaza are searching for survivors. It's after a war damaged building collapsed overnight. More than 20 people have been killed. There's plenty more on those stories on the BBC News website.

14:26This is Rajini Vaidyanathan with NewsHour, coming to you live from the BBC in London. Let's take you to that story in Gaza and a multi-storey buildings collapsed in Gaza City, which had people inside at the time. Well, before the structure crumbled, it had been functioning as a makeshift home for several families who'd been displaced since the war. An earlier Israeli airstrike had already left the building damaged. While the Territory Civil Defence Agency says dozens of people are now missing and at least 20 people, including five children, have died. Despite the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, conditions inside the territory don't appear to have improved.

15:05The US-created Board of Peace was meant to oversee the ceasefire and initiate reconstruction as well as a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory. But Israel has expanded its control and it still limits what reconstruction materials can be used in Gaza. So let's take a closer look at what's happened today. Yakau Silya is a special representative from the UNDP based in Jerusalem who's recently been in Gaza. A huge amount of people are missing. We have an estimate that between 70 to 100 people were in the six-story building that collapsed. So far, 20 bodies have been recovered, of which eight are children and six are women.

15:45And it is unfortunately a reality of the building situation and of the structural damages that there are in buildings that these types of collapse can happen at any moment. When you talk about structural state of the buildings, you mean following on from the conflict? There's an estimate that about 2 ,000 buildings have been damaged. There's about 300 to 400 buildings that have been severely damaged. And unfortunately, because of the current conditions, people are moving back into these buildings to look for better housing and shelter solutions. So this is really dangerous for people also in Gaza.

16:24We're still seeing some Israeli airstrikes in the territory as well. How does that all kind of impact the infrastructure in these areas and in terms of the buildings, the foundations that they're on? I think it really is a major challenge. The ongoing strikes is also causing further damage to buildings, obviously to life of people. But this also is an example of what happens if there are not proper precautionary measures taken for people to also ensure their safety. And unfortunately, the situation in Gaza at the moment is still very, very bad. The conditions that people are living under continues to deteriorate, especially the shelter and housing options.

17:07So what you find, unfortunately, is that people are taking the risk and moving into these buildings that have been severely damaged. They are living in these buildings, but the danger of collapse are always around them. What specifically caused this building that your teams are at right now to collapse? We're not sure about this. It's been looked at by local partners and local actors on the ground as well. But this is not the first time that some of these buildings have collapsed, unfortunately. So it can cause, you know, just a number of people have moved back into this building. So it can just be the weight that has resulted in this or people moving into the building.

17:46What we also have found in the past is that the deteriorating winter situation, especially rain and other factors also cause structural imbalance in the building and results in these types of collapse that we saw today. Was this building, for example, in an area where there had previously been Israeli airstrikes? It was significantly damaged by airstrikes and by the war. So these were buildings all around them that were significantly damaged. And if you drive through Gaza City, as I did last week, you know, there is total destruction of many, many buildings around you. About 80%, 85 % it is estimated of all buildings in Gaza have been either totally destroyed or partially destroyed.

18:32So this is something that people are living with on a daily basis in Gaza. What is being done to try and ensure that these structures are fortified and that they're strengthened so people can live in them and people can move back in to buildings which were damaged? We have provided what we call recovery housing units, which are temporary shelters where people are allowed to move back into their neighbourhoods and they have the opportunity to live close to their damaged houses and then start the rebuilding phase, which is absolutely crucial. Engineers need to make sure that they are structurally sound before that can happen.

19:10Unfortunately, people are not waiting for these assessments to happen to ensure safety and security. That's Yakao Silja there. Now, to so many the world over, it's London's beloved dinosaur museum, although its collection spans much more. The Natural History Museum is a special place. I remember my first visit as a young child, gazing up at the high ceilings and the bones and skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which towered above. Well, Having welcomed visitors for well over a century, the museum will, in a few years from now, celebrate its 150th anniversary. And as part of that build-up, it's opening a gallery which has been sealed off to the public for 80 years.

19:53In it, a new exhibition called Nature and Us, which explores our evolving relationship with the natural world through 50 remarkable objects. The BBC's Evan Davis went to the museum to find out more.

20:08Welcome to the Natural History Museum. My name's Doug Goer and I'm the Director of the Museum. Five years to go to your 150th anniversary at the Natural History Museum and you've got a new exhibition opening, Nature and Us. Absolutely, yes, Nature and Us, which is really all about that. What is our relationship between humanity and nature over time and space? Let's go and have a look. OK, so we're going behind the black screens that are currently covering the entrance to this gallery. We've got some staff here. So what you're in here is an enormous, long, spacious gallery. It's actually on the second floor.

20:46And because, as you say, for the last 70 or 80 years it's been used as a collection store, you can see all these rather wonderful cabinets. So we're bringing in a lot more global perspectives, we're really bringing back a lot of historical perspectives, and of course at the heart of it we have some pretty cool specimens in here.

21:04Well also with me here in the gallery is Isabel Davis who's one of the science leads in this exhibition. Now one thing that caught my eye, Star Wars figurine. What's this? Talk to me about this. So this gallery is trying to put interesting things together. So we've got one of the oldest figures in the world, about 40 ,000 years old. made out of mammoth cast, the Lion Man. And we've put it next to this little Star Wars figurine, which has been brought up from the bottom of the sea and colonised by bryozoans. So these are microscopic animals, one of the animals that can actually thrive on plastic.

21:44So it doesn't really look like... It doesn't look like a TIE fighter anymore. No, no, it doesn't. It's been transformed by nature. And this curious-looking scythe-type object, what is this? So this is a whaler's flensing knife and this really speaks to the social history of whaling. Obviously it was terrible, fatal for whales, but it's also for the actual people working as whalers. It was not an easy life. Where would this have come from then? I mean, we associate whaling with one or two countries now. Well, this one comes from South Georgia. So Falkland Island, sort of, around that part, South Atlantic, South Georgia.

22:20and we had a library open day recently and there were quite a few young people who had no idea that whaling was a thing and the extraordinary international efforts that were made in the 20th century to bring those numbers down so there is a kind of positive end to this. Coming back to Doug, the director 150 years in South Kensington as the Natural History Museum what would you say is the big difference between museums as they were then and now? What has not changed is museums are all about the collection. What's also not changed for our museum is that collection was put there for a dual purpose, for public display and also for scientific research.

23:00But here's what's changed. Go back even to when this building started, opened in 1881, the scientific mission was how do we classify and understand the natural world. That's not the mission today. The mission today is how do we protect and restore nature. And that is what this gallery is challenging. Evan Davis reporting there. Welcome back to NewsHour. Let's bring you an update on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has now claimed more than 3 ,400 lives and infected thousands more. Well, despite the scale of the outbreak, there's still no approved vaccine for this latest strain, the Bundabugio strain.

23:41Well, Leanna Byrne examines what it takes and who pays to develop a vaccine. This outbreak is caused by the Bundabugio virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment. But developing one is not only a scientific challenge. Someone has to pay. A Bundy Bugio vaccine would not have a predictable annual market. It may sit in a stockpile waiting for an outbreak. That makes it a difficult business proposition. Rachel Glenister is president of the Centre for Global Development. These vaccines are incredibly valuable to society, but not very profitable for companies. First, most people who will benefit from the Ebola vaccine will never actually take it.

24:24So think of all the people in communities and countries that it doesn't spread to because of the vaccine. There's no way that firms can charge them because they never take the vaccine. The first widely used Ebola vaccine shows how public money can help create that market. Ariba was developed by Canadian scientists. Gavi works with both the public and private sector. It's committed$7 million for 70 ,000 Eribo doses in the DRC and is offering up to$40 million for Bundibugio-specific vaccines. David Kinder is Gavi's Director of Development Finance. We have over 20 vaccines against different diseases that we help protect children around the world for.