Global News Podcast - Biden urges Israel and Hamas to reach Gaza ceasefire

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

The US President Joe Biden said such a deal would help deter Iran from launching attacks on Israel. Iran blames Israel for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran, and says it will retaliate. Also: Mpox is declared a public health emergency in Africa, and the rarely-seen Titanic artefacts kept in a secret warehouse.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janat Jalil and in the early hours of Wednesday the 14th of August these are our main stories. President Biden has urged Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in

Gaza, saying it could deter Iran from attacking Israel. Ukraine's President Zelensky says more than 70 communities in Russia's Kursk region are now under Ukrainian control. Production at the world's biggest copper mine in Chile is under threat as workers strike over pay. Also in this podcast... We can't wait to get him on his jollies and hopefully we'll get him off the street and onto a sunny beach cocktail and hand as soon as possible. How a community helped an Elvis-loving street cleaner go on the holiday of a lifetime despite his bosses. President Biden has said he does not expect Iran to carry out a retaliatory strike on Israel if a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal is reached in the

next few days. The US government has stepped up efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and American officials say that with a final and decisive round of negotiations expected on Thursday, they're worried that any attack on Israel would scupper the negotiations and kill any hopes of a deal that would see hostages released and end the daily killings in Gaza. The number of dead there is now approaching 40,000, according to the Hamas-run health authorities. Israel has been braced for an attack by Iran since a Hamas leader was assassinated in Tehran last month.

Mr Biden spoke to reporters as he was getting off Air Force One in New Orleans. See what Iran does and we'll see what happens if there's any attack. But I'm not giving up. Do you have the understanding that Iran could cease or stop doing an action if a ceasefire deal was possible? That's my expectation, but we'll see. Earlier, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told a Security Council meeting that the country's overall goal in the Middle East is to turn the temperature down and to stop the war between Israel and Hamas from escalating to the whole region. On the issue of the U.S. moving an aircraft carrier group to the region, she had this to say. Let me be clear. Our deployment of additional military assets are not a prediction of what is to come.

A broader regional conflict is not inevitable. The United States' overall goal remains to turn the temperature down in the region, deter and defend against any future attacks, and avoid regional conflict. Julian Marshall spoke to our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, on the latest developments, including reports that America's top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, has postponed his upcoming trip to the Middle East ahead of those expected Gaza ceasefire talks on Thursday. If he has postponed his trip because of what,

there's a quote saying that because of the uncertainty in the region, it is not a very good sign. This, Julian, was meant to be, is still meant to be, a week of high stakes, urgent diplomacy. Our listeners may remember more than a week ago, the leaders of the United States, Qatar and Egypt issued for the first time a statement saying time is up. There's no excuse now. A deal is on the table. It's almost done. Get back to the table. And those are the talks set for Thursday.

So Anthony Blinken was going to head to the region to Tel Aviv and Ramallah to do his part of it. We still understand that the senior advisor, Brett McGurk, is heading to Cairo. He was going to be working on security for the main crossing between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah. Hochstein, who has been working on trying to keep the tensions, to minimize the tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, is still going. So they're still going. I think now we have to wait and see whether Bill Burns, who will lead the negotiations on Thursday, whether he is still going. It feels like a very tense day, given what else has been happening in the region. Today, Hamas fired for the first time in three months rockets towards Tel Aviv. They landed off the coast, one nowhere near, but it's not a good sign.

And it would appear that there's maybe a lot more than the Gaza ceasefire hanging on these renewed negotiations. President Biden has just been asked if he expected Iran to skip a retaliatory strike if a Gaza ceasefire was reached. And he said, that's my expectation. That's a very interesting Biden half phrase, because we have been told repeatedly over the past more than a week now that Iran's threat to retaliate at a time and place of its own choosing had been delayed so that it's any strike it does take, and it's threatened a direct strike against Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas's political leader in Tehran at the end of July, that it would delay it because it doesn't want to be seen to be scuppering

any chance, if there is a chance, for a ceasefire. That is the main objective for Iran, for Hezbollah, for others, is to get a ceasefire done. So it's interesting that Biden has admitted that they have been putting pressure indirectly on Iran. Arab leaders have been doing the same. And there has been these reports all along that this was also in the mix. But I was on the phone today to two very senior analysts in Iran, and they both were very angry and said there will be an attack, but the timing is not clear. Least you said. Well, Iran did carry out a direct attack for the first time on Israel in April,

firing hundreds of drones and missiles, nearly all of which were shot down. But Dr. Ramin Parham, author and expert on Israeli-Iranian relations, says he thinks it may be different this time. I don't think there is going to be a retaliation, at least not the way we have been talking about or hearing about, in the way that would immediately call for another retaliation, this time from Israel, which will be absolutely catastrophic for the country. There is much suffering on the Palestinian side. There is also much suffering, perhaps in a different way, certainly in a different way in Iran. You know, people put their hope in Pesach Kion and the election that brought him to where he is now, not to have another war and not with Israel and the whole Western allies of Israel. People put their hope in this election to have peace and perhaps prosperity.

So the perspective of a full-fledged war with Israel and Israel's Western allies is not what the people want. I don't think the regime is ignorant of that fact. I don't think that the regime is ignorant of the fact that the retaliation to their possible response will be absolutely destructive for the country. It will annihilate what remains of the infrastructure of the country and the economy of the country. Dr. Amin Parham. Meanwhile, the US, France and the United Nations have joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in condemning a visit by Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir to Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Mr. Ben-Gavir entered the site accompanied by about 2,000 Israeli Jews, many of whom prayed there, despite such prayers being banned.

Washington says such actions are detrimental to the security of the region and therefore unacceptable. Temple Mount, which is also known as Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, is deeply holy to both Jews and Muslims. The UN deputy spokesman, Vahan Haq, also criticized Mr. Ben-Gavir's actions. Al-Aqsa Mosque, like the other holy sites in Jerusalem, should be left to themselves and should be controlled by the existing religious authorities for the sites. This sort of behavior is unhelpful and it is unduly provocative.

In a long-running agreement aimed at preventing friction between the two faiths, Jews are only allowed to pray at the Western Wall, which is adjacent to Temple Mount. Just over a week after Ukraine's surprise military incursion into Russia, it seems to have made rapid progress. The Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, says his forces now control more than 70 communities in the Kursk region of Western Russia. He said Kyiv's troops were still advancing despite difficult and intense battles. All of us in Ukraine should act as unitedly and efficiently as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to turn the situation

to the benefit of our state. Now we have done exactly the same thing. We have proven once again that we, the Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals in any situation. Ukraine says the operation is defensive and that there's no plan to hold on to the increasing amount of Russian territory that's been seized. Our correspondent James Waterhouse reports from Ukraine's Sumy region from where the incursion was launched and which is still a hive of activity. Russian state TV has described the first capturing of its territory since the Second World War as an operation doomed to fail. Such conclusions may be premature as it's an offensive which certainly hasn't slowed. The sight of

Ukrainian armoured vehicles driving unopposed through the Russian town of Sudja is a striking reflection of how battlefield dynamics have changed here. Instead of directing proceedings in Ukraine, Moscow is having to react to surprises at home. Just across the border in the Sumy area of Ukraine, we meet a Kord, who's not long back from fighting in the Kursk region. We don't know the plan, so it's an unknown, but it's interesting. And we're positive. We don't know what the plans are, but we'll do everything we're required to. Ukraine's objective is deliberately unclear. One possible goal is drawing Russian troops from other parts of the front line. That is being realised, but it is yet to slow Russian advances on Ukrainian soil. Georgiy Terki is from Ukraine's foreign ministry.

Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need someone else's property. We want to protect the lives of our people. From the beginning of this summer alone, there have been more than 2,000 attacks on the Sumy region. This is an operation which has restored morale and momentum to Kiev's war effort. Some in Ukraine hope it will improve their position for any potential peace negotiations. On the other hand, the events of this week could have pushed talks even further away. James Waterhouse reporting from Ukraine.

Poland has signed its biggest ever military contract to buy nearly 100 combat helicopters from the United States. Warsaw has accelerated its military modernisation since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The deal is worth $12 billion. Adam Easton reports from Warsaw. Poland rates the Boeing-made AH-64E Apaches as the best combat helicopters in the world. They will replace the country's Soviet-era machines and are due to start arriving in 2028. Defence has become the top priority since Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine two and a half years ago. Poland has already signed multi-billion dollar deals to buy US fighter jets, tanks and Patriot missile systems. Over the past decade, Polish military personnel have more than doubled and its armed forces are now the largest in Europe. Adam Easton. An outbreak of the highly infectious Mpox disease has been declared a public health emergency across

africa the virus formerly known as monkeypox is transmitted through close contact and causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms since the start of the year there have been nearly 14 000 cases in the democratic republic of congo with 450 deaths recorded and it's now spread to eastern and central African countries. A milder strain caused a global outbreak in 2022 affecting Europe, Australia and the US. But this latest variant is more deadly. The Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which declared the emergency, Jean Cassea. M-POX is a global threat, a menace that knows no boundaries, no risks, no greed. And it is in this moment of vulnerability that we must find our greatest strength and demonstrate that we are all learning from the COVID lesson.

Anne Remoyne is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who's led research in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She explained why public health authorities were so concerned. The extent to which we are seeing increasing cases and the acceleration of this has really been extraordinary in the last several months. And so that's why this is so critical right now. We're starting to see a change in patterns of transmission, who is getting it, how it's being transmitted, and that we're also starting to see it spread to other areas. I heard more from the BBC's Africa health correspondent, Dokus Wangira.

This declaration is very important because MPOCs has been on the continent and also this year particularly we are seeing the outbreak of the clade 1B from the eastern DRC affecting many young people and it's also spreading to countries where it never spread before, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. And the Africa CDC says it is urgent that they act now to contain this virus. Because if they don't, what are they worried about? So they're worried about many things. You're seeing a spread, a spread in a way that they

still do not understand yet. This clade 1B is manifesting or it's spreading in a very unusual way because the initial clade was a zoonotic disease jumping from animals to human beings, but now they're seeing this clade 1B being more sexual transmission, close contact, even from a mother to a child. We've even seen in the DRC a case where a baby was born with mpox because the mother was infected. So when you have a clade that is acting differently

and you're having countries that didn't have it before, that is a cause for concern. And MPOCs knows no borders. It spreads. It knows no religion or creed. It can affect anyone. So what's going to be done now to try to stop the spread? There are vaccines out there, aren't there? Yes, WHO has approved two vaccines for emergency use and Africa is trying to acquire some vaccines. Africa CDC says the need is for 10 million doses and you're talking about two doses per person. However, Africa CDC can only acquire 200,000. So this is a serious issue. We try to think of it like this. If it's like you have a fire in your house and once you raise the alarm, now you can start fighting the fire. So this is supposed to help facilitate international notification, working together for surveillance, testing, acquiring vaccines, acquiring therapeutics and doing this together, not just as one country's problem, but for the entire continent. Let's work together to contain the virus instead. And you talk about the entire continent,

but is there a risk of this disease spreading from Africa to other continents like Europe or Asia? So WHO did release new data today. And according to WHO, MPOCs right now, this outbreak is already in 26 countries. 16 are in now, this outbreak is already in 26 countries. 16 are in Africa, but it is already in the Americas and in Europe. And also because, again, this disease knows no borders. People travel.

Before it incubates, you may not know you have it. And if there's no screening for it, someone could easily travel from one area to the other. Dorcas Wangira. Still to come... This is a letter actually of reference from a former landlord and it says, this is to certify that we have always found Ms. Meanwell to be a good tenant, prompt with payment. Over a hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic,

we get rare access to some of its secrets stored in a US warehouse. you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.

A court in Uganda has found a former commander of the extremist group, the Lord's Resistance Army, guilty of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, kidnap and pillaging. Thomas Koyelo is the first LRA commander to be tried in Uganda. For two decades until 2006, the group carried out many atrocities, abducting thousands of children. Our Africa regional editor, Will Ross, was a correspondent in Uganda during the group's reign of terror, and he told me more about them. They were an extraordinary group that basically didn't really have an agenda that anybody understood. They opposed Uwere Museveni's presidency and stated that they wanted to

topple him and his government and rule the country according to the Ten Commandments. But obviously, nobody believed a word they said, because they were moving around the north of the country, killing people and abducting. But as you say, it was a two decades of real terror for the communities across the north. At the worst moment, there were about 2 million people displaced living in camps. And there were terrible conditions that they were kept in. And there was a lot of criticism of the way the Ugandan army dealt with the whole conflict. But it was just a total inability for the north of Uganda to function. Farming ground to a halt.

People couldn't go to their fields. And tens of thousands of children were abducted and forced to fight as soldiers. And now this commander, Thomas Koyelo, has been found guilty despite his defence, arguing that he himself was a victim because he was abducted as a child. Yeah, his lawyer said he was abducted at the age of 12. And some people will say, well, look, that does make him a victim. But obviously, he stayed in the group for so long. And what tended to happen with the LRA is as soon as somebody was abducted, they were often forced to go and carry out

terrible atrocities in their home area. So they'd be kind of ostracized by their own community. And in the case of Thomas Coiello, he was a notorious commander. And his name was very well known during those years, 2003, 2004, 2005. When I was there, there were a lot of atrocities that went on. And one of the ones that came up during the verdict that the judges read out was an attack on a camp for people who were displaced by the conflict, where dozens of women and children were beaten to death with wooden clubs by young LRA abductees who were sent there by Thomas Coelho. Our Africa regional editor, Will Ross. Let's go to Greece now and the wildfires that threatened the capital Athens appear to be easing off. The flames killed a firefighter and

a woman in her 60s and forced people in some suburbs and the surrounding areas to leave their homes. But milder winds and extensive efforts by firefighters, some of whom have been sent by other European nations, have helped to reduce their intensity. Jessica Parker reports from Athens. The heavy haze and smoke clouds that were hanging over much of Athens have dissipated. While fiery hotspots remain here and further northeast, the main blaze is out. As residents survey the damage, there's grief at what's been lost and anger that a wildfire managed to rip its way

into the northern outskirts of the city. Marina tells me of her agony after she had to evacuate her neighbourhood by car. As we were living through the fire and the smoke and the rubble, there were people begging us to take them with us, but we were completely full and we had to deny and see the agony in their faces. She, like many others, believes that the Greek fire service is underfunded and the country unprepared for blazes that hit year after year. The authorities have defended their work, saying the response was rapid and the conditions extreme. Drought, woodlands and high winds contributed to the spread.

Athens is a city that over decades has sprawled its way into hills and forests that are populated with highly flammable pine trees. The wisdom of that expansion has long been questioned in a country so prone to wildfires. Jessica Parker in Greece. A man suspected of leading a prolific cybercrime gang has appeared in court in the United States. Maxim Silnikow, who's 38 and from Belarus, was arrested in Spain last month as part of an international police operation coordinated by the UK's National Crime Agency, or NCA. Here's our senior technology reporter, Chris Vallance. Since 2015, the NCA has been hunting down the real person behind a range of notorious

hacker pseudonyms, including JP Morgan, XXX, and Lansky. Now, with the assistance of the FBI, the US Secret Service, and authorities from numerous countries, including Spain, Ukraine, and Poland, they believe they finally have their man, Maxim Silnikow, tracked down to an apartment in Spain. The hackers are accused of using online advertisements, so-called malvertising, as a way of installing malicious software on the computers of hundreds of thousands of victims and earning the gang up to £26 million a year. The suspected cyber criminals are also alleged to have developed ransomware that would lock up machines under the guise of being from the police. Victims were presented with alarming notices warning that they had been found to have downloaded child abuse images or

other illegal material and were coerced into paying bogus fines to avoid imprisonment and to unlock their machines. Chris Valence. Workers at the world's largest copper mine, the Escondida, in Chile have gone on strike after government-mediated pay negotiations fell apart. International prices are likely to rise as Chile produces nearly a quarter of the world's copper. Leonardo Rocha reports. The strike is expected to hit production as the trade union represents nearly 99 quarter of the world's copper. Leonardo Rocha reports. The strike is expected to hit production as the trade union represents nearly 99% of frontline workers and replacement staff are prohibited by Chilean law. The last strike at the Escondida mine lasted 44 days and led to a surge in copper prices on the global market. Union leaders say they made every responsible effort

to reach an agreement. The Australian company that owns the mine, BHP, says it has activated a contingency plan to deal with the strike. It described its workers' contracts as some of the best in the industry. Leonardo Rocha. The ocean liner, the Titanic, sank more than a century ago on its doomed maiden voyage. But it wasn't until 1985 that the wreckage was found. Since then, the company that owns the salvage rights has been to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to find and retrieve artefacts.

They've recovered roughly 5,500 items, the majority of which are now kept in the US state of Georgia. And our science editor, Rebecca Murrell, has been given rare access to these extraordinary items. I've come to a warehouse in Atlanta. I'm not allowed to tell you the exact location because what's inside here is incredibly precious. On the shelves around me are thousands of items recovered from the Titanic. Everything from large metal parts of the ship down to tiny buttons from passengers' clothing. And every item tells a story. I am Thomasina Ray. I'm the

Director of Collections for the Titanic Artifacts. This bag was recovered in 2000. The alligator's skin was tanned with chemicals that really preserved the leather and the contents. And it belonged to Marion Meanwell, the 63-year-old Milner, which means she did all the little detail work on hats and dresses. And just tell us what some of these items are here. So these were all inside the bag, and they're still intact. One of the things that she had was an inspection card, and this would have been a health check that she had to have with her on Titanic. But what's really

interesting is that we can see she was originally supposed to sail on the Majestic. She actually got rerouted onto Titanic. So unlucky. And here this looks like a letter. So this is a letter actually of reference from a former landlord. She would have needed this when she got to the U.S. to find lodging and it says this is to certify that we have always found Ms. Meanwell to be a good tenant prompt with payment and it's signed. What happened to her? Unfortunately Ms. Meanwell did not make it. She was one of the people who perished, and being able to tell her story and have these objects is really important because otherwise, you know, 1,500 names, she's just another name on the list.

Here on the table, you've got a champagne bottle complete with its cork in the top and some liquid inside, about a third the way up, would you say? Yeah, so also there's a lot of beer bottles stock pots and kitchen pots because Titanic actually broke up around one of the kitchens so it just kind of littered this debris all over the ocean floor. And you've got an item here that tells a totally different story in Tupperware. Yeah in Tupperware so we keep these sealed up because these are actually little perfume vials. There was a perfume salesman on board and he had all his little samples with him.

And actually you can still smell the perfume, which is why we keep them sealed. Oh, that's, I mean, it's very sweet. They're still so potent. And just in front, these are some bits of the ship itself, right? Yeah, so these are rivets These were the pieces that held the hull plates together and really assembled the exterior hull of Titanic So there were over 3 million of these on the ship

Why are these of particular interest? When Titanic sank, there was a theory that they were using substandard materials There were high concentrates of slag in these, which is like a glass-like material that makes them maybe a little bit more brittle in the cold. If these rivets were brittle and one of the rivet heads popped off easier, then it could have allowed the seam to open up where the iceberg hit and made it bigger than it otherwise would have been. Recovery is not without controversy. Some people think that the site should be treated as a grave site and we shouldn't take anything

from it. I mean, what would you say to that? You know, Titanic is something that we want to respect and we want to make sure that we're preserving the memory because not everyone can go down to Titanic. Not everyone can go to the ship. Titanic was a significant moment in the history of the world and it's something that everybody knows. So being able to have these objects and these pieces and bring the stories to people is really important. Thomas Sina Ray talking to Rebecca Murrell. There's been outrage here in Britain after the bosses of an Elvis-loving street cleaner refused to let him accept a holiday which his local community had raised money for. The 63-year-old is a popular figure in Beckenham, the south-east London borough where he works,

and now an ingenious solution has been found to ensure he does get to enjoy a trip to Portugal after all. Harry Bly reports. Paul Spears has been working as a street sweeper in Beckenham for seven years. He's known locally for playing music from a loudspeaker while cleaning the high street and caught the ear of local estate agent Lisa Marie Knight. He walks past the office around about five o'clock every day playing a speaker that quite often plays Elvis Presley. And I took a shine for that because I'm named Lisa Marie after Elvis Presley's daughter.

And so I've just always quite enjoyed hearing his music. It just gives you a little perk up at the end of the working day. Lisa Marie learned that Paul was saving up to go on holiday abroad to celebrate his 63rd birthday. He'd only ever left the country once, to go to Portugal. So Lisa Marie set up a crowdfunding page online and very quickly raised more than £3,000. That's more than $3,800. He cried. I had tears in my eyes. And it was really nice reading all the lovely comments

that had been left by the local community. So we were both absolutely amazed. But then the cleaning company Paul works for, Veolia, said he couldn't accept the gift due to contractual obligations with the local authority. I was just really sad about it because I didn't even think about the technicalities when I made it. It was just meant to be something nice. But one woman found a loophole. We saw it ourselves in a news article and couldn't bear thinking about Paul not getting his dream holiday. This is Zoe Harris. She works for On The Beach, a travel company here in the UK. Zoe is the company's chief customer officer and devised a

plan to make a competition with such specific entry requirements. Surely only Paul Spears could win. We asked for someone who loved Elvis, was 63 years old, had the surname Spears and was a street cleaner in Beckingham and we're fairly confident that there would only be one possible winner. The prize? A holiday to Portugal worth that $3,800. Hopefully we'll get him off the streets of Beckingham and onto a sunny beach cocktail in hand as soon as possible. Unsurprisingly, Paul did win. Here's Lisa Marie. Yeah, I saw him today and he's blown away, absolutely blown away as am I. I think it's incredible. I think it's really, really special. And his employer, Veolia, says he can accept it and will make a donation of the same value to a charity of Paul's choice. Harry Bly. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topic's coverage, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. Did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News,

AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.