Global News Podcast - British PM condemns 'far-right thuggery' after another day of violence

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

The British prime minister Keir Starmer says people in the UK have a right to be safe. He also condemned the violence targeting Muslim communities. Also: scores of people killed in Bangladesh anti-government protest, and kimchi - a traditional Korean side dish consisting of salted and fermented vegetables - is becoming popular around the world.

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 Andrew Peach, and in the early hours of Monday 5th August, these are our main stories.

The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned violence in several towns and cities across the country as far-right thuggery. An indefinite curfew is enforced across Bangladesh after 90 people were killed in anti-government protests. An Israeli airstrike has hit two schools in Gaza City, killing a number of people. Also in this podcast... Hi everybody! Today we are going to learn how to make Korean traditional kimchi. In Korean it's called hoagie kimchi. New figures show that kimchi, the traditional Korean side dish consisting of salted and fermented vegetables, is growing in popularity around the world.

Let's begin in the UK where riots and unrest are continuing around the country. That's the sound of protesters outside a hotel in Rotherham in northern England, used to house asylum seekers. A bin was set ablaze there and forced through a window. These violent protests began on Tuesday after three young girls were stabbed to death in the town of Southport. Online rumours incorrectly blaming the killings on a migrant. Speaking at Downing Street, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer,

said those involved would feel the full force of the law. We've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric. So no, I won't shy away from calling it what it is, far-right thuggery. So what led up to all this? I've been talking to our UK political correspondent Rob Watson. The immediate trigger was the murder of three small girls on Monday in a place just

outside of Liverpool in the northwest of England and within minutes of those murders there was disinformation put about that the suspect was an asylum seeker, that this asylum seeker was a Muslim and had been on an intelligence watch list. Now, none of that was true, but within hours of that, we saw anti-immigrant riots in that area, and those riots have subsequently spread to other cities in the north and indeed to all parts, to many parts of the country, Andrew. And, I mean, the logic that says some children have been killed,

I must therefore attack a police officer and set the police car on fire, defies me, it has to be said. But Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been trying to address this today. What's he going to do about it? Well, he's treating it very much as a law and order issue. In other words, that this is not some political problem to solve, that this is right-wing thuggery, that it's racism and it's up to the authorities, that's the state and the police to get a grip. And that point that you raise, that you find it hard to follow that chain of events,

why on earth would someone, why would people riot the way they have after the merger of three school girls? I mean, what they would say, and this isn't justification, but I'm saying the kind of things you pick up on social media, is a sort of a grievance among some of those rioting. They take the view that the police and the state tread on eggshells when it comes to misdemeanours by people who are not white, but throw the full force of the law at people who are white. Of course, the police and state would say that's utter nonsense, but that's part of what's going on.

And also a sense that this far-right movement, if that's not too strong a term for it, has been building in Britain for some years. We've had senior police officers saying today, actually, we were warning about this kind of thing as early as 2017. It's just coming to fruition now. Yes, I mean, I guess you'd have to distinguish between two things. And there are those on the on the populist right, and indeed, across the political spectrum, who say Britain has had astonishingly high levels of net migration, these last 20 years or so, and that has clearly created issues. But there's a distinction between that and the kind of people, the kind of riots that we've seen where people are clearly motivated in part by racism.

But there's no doubt, Andrew, an immensely serious and difficult moment for Britain. Our correspondent Rob Watson with me. Next, we go to Bangladesh, where more than 90 people have been killed police and anti-government demonstrators. At least a dozen police were among those killed on Sunday. What began last month as protests against civil service job quotas has now hardened into a demand for the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, to go. One of them is Hasni Noorchisti, a law student who's been taking part in the protests in Dhaka. His comment here has been voiced over

because of the poor quality of the phone line. Not only we, the whole nation is wanting her to step down because there have been protests all over the country since July 18. We are protesting in demand of one point. Previously, there were nine, but now we're making it one. Because if one point is successful, we will have our nine points. Student leaders have called for a campaign of disobedience against the government, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills. Anisul Haq, Bangladesh's law minister, gave his assessment of Sunday's violence.

This movement was done by certain political parties, but they had put the children in front as human shields. We did not take action against them. Now, militant activists of Jamaati Islam, the banned political party and BNP, are on the streets destroying public property, private property, without any instigation. If we had not shown restraint, then there would be a plug back. I've been speaking to our South Asia regional editor,

Anbarasan Ethirajan, and Mia Sabir, the head of the BBC's Bengali service, who gave me an update from Dhaka and more details regarding the fatalities. The numbers are likely to increase and despite the curfew we are getting reports of clashes in different parts of the country and it was only the first day of total non-cooperation movement by the student protesters and they also have called for a long march towards the capital Dhaka. The demand is very clear. They are saying that the protest is

not about Dakota anymore and they want the government headed by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and they want to stop until they succeed. An embarrassing let me just ask you what's the latest that you're picking up from your sources? Now the situation is really tense across Bangladesh. The country is at a crossroads because you have thousands of people on the streets clashing with security forces. And also you have the supporters of the Awami League also out on the streets. They are also clashing with protesters now. The Prime Minister Sheikha has firmly ruled out resigning. In fact, she came out with a very defiant statement saying that those who were on the streets were not students, what she described as terrorists,

out to destabilise the nation. Now, the whole thing is now depending on what the Bangladeshi army will do, which has a considerable influence in the country. If the situation continues, at some point, there will be a lot of pressure on the army to do something. Mir, the Bangladeshi law minister has told the BBC that the government is showing great restraint, and that's why there isn't more of a bloodbath. What do you make of that? This is what the government has said before as well. But what we have seen today was not really restrained, as he calls it, at least not from their party. So, of course, things can always get worse.

But there has already been a bloodbath. And restraint doesn't seem like a credible defense in this case. An embarrassment, Sheikh Hussain is sounding defiant, certainly not like a leader who's about to step down. She is, because she still believes that she has already accepted the demands by the students and they should go back to the universities and stop protesting. But it's not clear how much she knows about the protests going across the country. Now, if anything has to happen within Bangladesh, there is one internal factor, that is the Bangladeshi army. The other one is India, the neighboring country, which has considerable amount of influence in Bangladesh. And Sheikh Hazina is always seen as a very pro-India,

very friendly towards Delhi. So Delhi would want to see Sheikh Hazina to continue in power. But again, Sheikh Hazina is a veteran politician. She has been in politics for decades, and she has gone through various protests and also several assassination attempts. She's not someone who can give in so easily. And you see the statements from her today. It clearly shows that she is not going to listen to the protesters' demand. Ambarasan Ethirajan and Amir Sabir in Dhaka. Saudi Arabia has joined a growing number of countries including France,

the US and the UK urging their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately amid fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Saudi embassy in Beirut said it was closely monitoring the situation in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel where Hezbollah and the Israeli military were engaged in an exchange of fire earlier on Sunday. Israel intercepted most of the Hezbollah rockets, but the country's on high alert in anticipation of a broader regional conflict. Iran and its regional allies pledged retaliation for the assassination of the Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and also a Hezbollah commander in Beirut. I've been finding out more from our Middle East correspondent Hugo Beshega who's in Beirut. There's only one commercial airport in

the country which is the airport here in Beirut and flights have been cancelled, suspended, many tickets have sold out. So there's obviously the concern that if the situation escalates tens of thousands of foreign nationals would be stranded in the country. But there hasn't been any sign of panic. There hasn't been any indication that people are desperately trying to leave the country. But still, fares have soared. So to give you an example, a one-way ticket to London from Beirut is usually £350. Now, the same ticket costs at least 700 pounds and this is the situation for many flights to different locations here from Beirut. How unusual is it, Hugo, for allies to talk to each other and issue these kinds of messages to

tell people to leave, not to go, to register if they really have to be in that part of the world? Well, I think there are two things here. One, countries don't want to be in a situation where they need to carry out mass evacuations of tens of thousands of people. So now we're seeing here that there is the expectation that this is going to be a wide-scale attack by Iran. American officials believe that this attack will be in coordination between Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah here in Lebanon. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said that Israel is going to respond to any act of aggression. So there is the fear that this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into something bigger

and we could see the airport being targeted or having to cease its operations. And then in the end, tens of thousands of foreign nationals would be stranded in the country. But obviously that fear has been there for many months and suddenly it's ratcheted up several levels. Exactly. So we've seen those two assassinations. We've seen the threats from Iran and Hezbollah saying that they're going to retaliate to these attacks.

But we simply don't know what is going to happen. The Israeli authorities are making preparations for the possibility of a wide-scale attack. Again, American officials believe that Iran is planning an attack that is bigger than the one that it carried out in April when it launched more than 300 missiles and drones. So again, there is the concern here that this retaliation from Iran, from Hezbollah here in Lebanon, could lead to a wider conflict in this region. Hugo Beshega with me from Beirut. An Israeli airstrike has hit two schools in Gaza City, housing people displaced by the war with Hamas.

Palestinian media say a number of people have been killed. From Jerusalem, here's our correspondent Barbara Petosha. Videos on social media showed fires burning inside one of the schools, bodies scattered in the yard and people rushing to carry casualties to hospital, including children. This scene has played out over and over again, with numerous Israeli airstrikes on schools in recent weeks, including one just a day earlier. Israel's military accuses Hamas militants of hiding in the schools and using them as command centres to plan and carry out attacks, something Hamas denies.

Israeli forces have continued strikes and shelling against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip as diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire falter. The latest round of talks in Cairo ended without progress on Saturday. Since the war in Gaza began in October, it's estimated that nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the territory. The death toll comes from the Hamas-led health authority. The attack on Israel on the 7th of October left 1,200 people dead when Hamas launched their surprise attack.

It's estimated that more than 19,000 people have been injured in Gaza, with most of its health care system decimated. Last week, the UN's World Health Organization said that more than 80 sick and severely injured patients had been evacuated to Abu Dhabi in the UAE for treatment. Another group's been taken to Europe, including four to Belgium. Julian Marshall's been talking to Jolijn van Bellar, a Belgian paediatrician and emergency doctor who's overseeing their care. There's a lot of children going to different European countries. They have all kinds of conditions.

The ones that Belgium took up have oncological, so cancer, and haematological, diseases conditions and more complex diseases. And the treatment that you will be giving them is what, months-long chemo radiotherapy? Yes, it's also complex treatments, so not just for cancer or blood conditions, but complex investigations like MRI scans, genetic investigations, and then the treatment will be months, not just chemotherapy, but also transfusions, not only of blood cells, but different types of transfusions and surgery, surgery that was not being available in the region. So in Gaza, the situation is very difficult, but also in the neighboring countries like Egypt,

Lebanon, Jordan, it's getting more complicated to give them the treatment they need because there's so many of them. And this initiative where Belgium participated is a European initiative to bring these children to places where they can have their long term treatments in the best possible way. You are also treating young people who will have been very traumatized by months and months of conflict. And that must offer additional challenges. It does. And of course, our team involved in bringing these children to Belgium and other European countries is a very large team. And in Belgium, a lot of psychosocial workers are involved. All of these people are taking care of the physical condition of the children, but also of the mental condition.

And not only the children, but also their families, brothers and sisters that accompanied them to Belgium. And that was Jolant van Belaar, who's a Belgian paediatrician. Still to come... It could be a scene from a science fiction movie. Towering over dark, mossy lava fields are stacks of noisy machines the size of shipping containers. A new technique to capture carbon dioxide and turn it into stone has been developed in Iceland. 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. President Zelensky says Ukraine's Air Force pilots have started flying F-16 fighter planes in combat operations over the country. But he said more of the aircraft were needed to overcome Russian forces. The US-made planes have been eagerly anticipated by Ukraine since Russia's four-scale invasion began two and a half years ago. Here's our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse in Kyiv. As has often been the case with Western military aid,

Ukraine has been asking for F-16s for some time. Now it has them. At an unnamed airbase flanked by two of the US-made warplanes with more flying overhead, President Zelensky finally announced their arrival. These jets are in our sky and officially today you see them and it's good that they came and we can use them. They have a cannon and can carry rockets, bombs and missiles. In theory they will allow Ukraine to

strike deeper into Russian occupied territory. More F-16s are expected, but Mr Zelensky acknowledged he did not yet have enough trained pilots to fly them. Until now, his air force has punched above its weight with a small fleet of Soviet-era fighter jets. Russia, meanwhile, has increasingly enjoyed air superiority as it continues to launch missiles and glide bombs on Ukrainian positions and cities. Kiev hopes its new F-16s will make its air force more of a match. A new technique to capture carbon dioxide and turn it into stone has been developed in Iceland. Huge machines have been built to take the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere before it's pumped underground.

Money from investors is pouring into the building of the new direct air capture projects, but how effective are they? Can they really help us fight climate change? Our reporter Adrienne Murray has been to one newly opened plant southeast of Reykjavik. It could be a scene from a science fiction movie. Towering over dark, mossy lava fields are stacks of noisy machines the size of shipping containers guzzling up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Called direct air capture,

this technology has been pioneered by Swiss firm Climeworks and its chief operating officer, Douglas Chan, showed me around the new plant. What you see here are 12 of our collector containers. When the plant is fully operational, we'll actually have 72 around the plant. That will enable us to capture 36,000 tonnes of CO2 every year. The idea is to suck up emissions that have already been pumped into the atmosphere. It works like a giant vacuum.

Each of these units is the size of a shipping container and has a dozen powerful fans sucking in the surrounding air. They pull in Olympic swimming pools worth of air every 40 seconds, where a filter separates out the CO2. It's then flushed out with hot steam and piped into the large processing hall, capturing even small amounts of CO2. This method needs lots of energy. And so Mammoth gets both power and hot water from a nearby geothermal plant. We want to make sure that we're using energy that has a low carbon footprint. Outside a tower similar to a giant soda stream

then mixes fresh water with CO2, the captured greenhouse gas. Hidden inside two white igloo-like domes is an injection well. And Dr Martin Voigt, my Icelandic partner CarbFix, showed me how the carbon is locked away. This well is going 700 metres down into the underground here. Acting like a storage reservoir, the CO2 and water fill up tiny spaces in the porous basalt bedrock. It then reacts with other elements and turns into solid minerals. To explain, Dr Voigt showed me two pieces of rock

before and after the process. This is a fresh basalt here, actually from one of the last volcanic eruptions here in Iceland. You can see there's a lot of porosity in here. Here you can see there's a lot of these pores now filled with white specks. Some of these contain the mineralised CO2. And that happens relatively quickly. We're not talking about millions or tens of thousands of years.

Around about 95% of the CO2 was mineralised here within two years in the pilot project. Mammoth is almost 10 times bigger than Climework's first commercial plant. But the 36,000 tonnes of CO2 it removes is still only similar to taking 8,000 petrol cars off the road. Direct air capture is not without critics who think such techno fixes are overhyped, pointing to the high costs, energy consumption and limited scale. Dr Edvard Julius Solnes is a professor at the University of Iceland and a former Icelandic environment minister. We release about 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, so this won't make a dent. But I think you should use all methods to fight this problem. Despite repeated calls to curb emissions,

record volumes of planet-heating CO2 were churned out last year. Many climate experts think techniques to remove carbon from the atmosphere will be needed to help fight global warming. Worldwide, billions of dollars are being spent and dozens of new plants like mammoth are now on the drawing board. Adrianne Murray in Iceland. It may not have the most exciting name, A23A, but something remarkable is happening to the world's biggest iceberg. Scientists say it's stuck in a type of vortex and is spinning on the spot in the Southern Ocean. Let's get more from our science correspondent, Jonathan Amos. The iceberg known as A23A drifted beyond Antarctica in April. Its path took it into

the great current that encircles the polar continent, the most powerful movement of water on Earth. This should have shot the berg up into the South Atlantic to disintegrate and melt away, but A23A went nowhere. For four months now, it's been an icy spinning top just going around and around, close to the South Orkney Islands. Scientists say it's been caught in a fascinating ocean phenomenon called a Taylor Column, a vortex of water that can form when a strong current moves past a mountainous region on the sea floor. Such columns can persist for years, and if the ice giant can't escape, its decay and eventual demise will be delayed. Our science correspondent Jonathan Amos. Now, take a listen to this. Hi everybody. Today we are going to learn how to make Korean traditional kimchi. In Korean,

it's called hoagie kimchi or tongbaechu kimchi. As you know, there are so many... Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish consisting of salted and fermented vegetables. New figures show exports have hit a record high for the first half of this year, driven by the growing global popularity of Korean cuisine. And Britain is one of the main overseas markets. Here's Mickey Bristow. Korean culture in the shape of TV dramas and pop bands has become influential across the world. South Korea now has another growing cultural export, kimchi.

Made most often from cabbage, it was originally developed as a way to preserve vegetables through the winter. It's eaten with just about every meal in Korea. It's also increasingly enjoyed abroad too, as Korean food and restaurants become popular. In the last six months, South Korea has exported a record 24,000 tonnes of the pickled side dish. The US,

Britain and the Netherlands are major markets, where kimchi is also seen as having health benefits, particularly for digestion. A spicy condiment, now not just for Koreans. Mickey Bristow reporting. A spicy condiment, now not just for Koreans. at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Daniel Fox. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time, goodbye. 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 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 Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.