Global News Podcast - Dozens killed in Lebanon as Israel steps up attacks

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Lebanon's health ministry says more than seven hundred people were injured in the bombardment. Also: Sri Lanka’s new president has been sworn in, and why vineyard owners need to adapt their wine with the times.

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 at 13 Hours GMT on Monday the 23rd of September, these are our main stories.

Lebanon says at least 180 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on Hezbollah positions, making it the deadliest day in that conflict since last October. People in Indian administered Kashmir vote in local elections for the first time in a decade. And a high-profile murder trial begins in Italy in a case which prompted protests around the country. Also in this podcast... This is the Forcada. This is the white variety. It was an old lady that has several old vineyards and we found more than one variety in these vineyards.

So it was a very good day. How European winemakers are adapting to climate change. The health authorities in Lebanon say at least 180 people have been killed and more than 700 wounded in Israeli airstrikes near the southern border. The Israeli army says it's targeted more than 300 positions, which it says are sites used by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. Pictures on social media showed explosions and smoke billowing from damaged buildings. Earlier, Israel warned people to move out of areas used by Hezbollah

after several days of cross-border bombardment. The Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galan vowed to continue fighting until the country's war goals were met. We're deepening our attacks in Lebanon. The sequence of operations continues and will continue until we achieve our goals to return the residents of the north safely to their homes. Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets towards northern Israel. Israel Defence Forces said several had been shot down.

Ibrahim Nemne is a Lebanese MP from the progressive left. Speaking to the BBC, he accused Israel of violating international law with complete disregard for civilian lives. The situation now is taking a different turn in Lebanon when Israel is starting to really disregard the civilian casualties and targeting civilians. Two days or three days ago, when they demolished the whole building because there were some Hezbollah leaders meeting there, and tens of civilians were killed in that attack. We're seeing more and more of this. And unfortunately, Israel is not taking into

consideration international law or the civilians in any regard. Our correspondent Rami Rahayem is in the Lebanese capital Beirut. We've just received word from the Lebanese Ministry of Health that so far 100 people have been killed in this latest wave of Israeli attacks across the south and in areas of the Beqaa. 100 people and according to the Ministry of Health, among these are women, children and health workers who are trying also to provide the much needed aid to others from the south to Beirut or just drive north away from these areas that are being bombed by the Israelis. And essentially, the feeling is that this is a new round of escalation and it's edging ever closer to a much wider confrontation. We know people have been receiving text messages and voice messages today saying, leave your village if Hezbollah is present, basically. And it sounds as though people are heeding that advice from the Israeli Defence Forces

because they're taking their children out of school. We know the traffic is very heavy. People are on the move. Yes, they are on the move, but I don't think they're heeding the advice. They are on the move because the bombing has actually started. And quite possibly, all of these messages are very widely seen as part of the psychological warfare. But that does not mean that they are not true. People do understand that once Israel starts sending messages like this, it's quite likely preparing to escalate its bombing campaign. So people will move when they feel that a wave of bombing and

air raids is about to come their way. And that's what's happening. These strikes are happening all across the border area. Reports coming in quite a few hours ago were already saying that not one border village escaped the first wave of bombing and it's going on. Some people might have someone to go and stay with, a friend or relative. If you don't have that, where do you go? Right now, the government has started opening schools to receive people who don't have anywhere to go. Other people, as you mentioned, will try to go and stay with friends and relatives in areas that are seen to be safer and which are, in fact, so far safer. And also some people are trying to rent places to stay.

So, you know, people are just trying to find whatever shelter, whatever place they can, away from the bombing. Our correspondent Rami Rahayem with me from Beirut. Next to Sri Lanka, where the country's new president has been officially sworn in. Anurag Kamara Disanayake is a left-leaning politician who promised voters good governance and measures to fight corruption. At his inauguration, he promised a fresh start for all Sri Lankans. We have a deep understanding that we have a challenging country. Our politics must be cleaner than this.

There is a need for a political culture that people expect. We will commit ourselves to that. The public have a very negative view of politicians and politics. So what can Sri Lankans expect from their new president? Here's our South Asia regional editor, Ambarasan Ethirajan. After taking over, Mr Anurag Kumar Desanayake has made it very clear that he was not a magician to bring up immediate solutions to the massive economic crisis the country is facing at the moment. He also said that Sri Lanka cannot remain in isolation from the world because there were concerns about the winners' left-wing economic policies and what this will mean for the industries and privatization.

So people are waking up to the reality of a Marxist leftist party leader taking over the president of this country. People would say this is a tectonic shift from the age-old politics of Sri Lanka, where a few very traditional established political parties and political dynasties were dominating the Sri Lankan politics for more than 50 years. So they're also waiting to see what kind of policies and announcements the new president is going to make. You might say Mr. Disnike has got a tough inheritance with the country in economic crisis. You were there during the big protests a couple of years ago.

Are we getting any indications yet as to what he's going to do? One of the things a senior leader of his party told me on Sunday, that they want to renegotiate some of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund, which gave a $2.9 billion bailout package to Sri Lanka last year. Now, that led to many austerity measures, taxes were hiked, and many welfare programs' fundings were cut. So one of the first things he wants to do is to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and the middle-class people because of these austerity measures. But the big challenge is the country has a $36 billion foreign debt. Now, the government of Sri Lanka has been negotiating with both the international creditors

and the institutions for a debt restructuring, and that is a huge challenge, how they are going to repay this debt. An immediate priority is to bring down the cost of living, the prices of essential commodities like food, fuel and utility bills. He has promised a lot during the campaign period, but now he will know how difficult it is to manage the expectations of the people because people have chosen him because they lost faith with the world political system. I'm Barrison Etherajan reporting.

A murder trial begins in Italy today in a case which has prompted protests around the country and changes to Italian law. Filippo Toretto has already pleaded guilty to the killing, but the debate it provoked continues. Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss explains. Julia Cecchettin was a 22-year-old student in the city of Padua. Last year she was about to graduate when she met up with her former boyfriend, Filippo Toretta.

It seems he was having trouble accepting their relationship was over, was trying to get her back, and when she said no on this occasion, they had a row. According to reports of the autopsy, he stabbed her more than 70 times. He fled. His car was found, though, a week later in Germany when it ran out of petrol. As you said, he quickly pleaded guilty. So the actual manhunt and the investigation were brief, but the reaction was only just beginning. There were protests across Italy, demands for the changes to the law, and indeed changes were introduced. So the strong reaction that we've seen is about the context of the number of women

being attacked in Italy. Yeah, that's the interesting thing, isn't it? I mean, why do some crimes seem to cut through? Protesters pointed out that, you know, just how common murder of women is in Italy. Last year, just to give you an example, 120 women were murdered, most of them by their partners or their ex-partners. This provoked a strong reaction. Maybe it was the extreme violence of the killing. There were also the comments made by Julia's older sister, Elena, which were widely publicized. She said, men who commit violence against women are not monsters. They're not mentally ill. They are the natural result of patriarchal attitudes and a culture of rape. Bear in mind also that Italy was just getting used to having its first

female prime minister and Georgia Maloney did speak out strongly against this crime. And her government's introduced these new laws, toughening penalties for domestic violence, strengthening restraining orders. And for once, this is one cross-party approval. So from the wider issue back to the legal proceeding, what's expected to happen? You know, I think the trial itself is going to be a bit of an anticlimax. He's pleaded guilty. No one doubts he's going to get a very long prison sentence. What would be interesting, though, is to see if coverage of the trial provokes more

demands, renews those pushes for change, because what campaigners against violence against women say is that the new laws are welcome, but they're not enough. They say the underlying attitudes remain there. And I think this puts the Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney, in an interesting position. She has criticised violence against women. I don't think anyone doubts her genuine anger about the problem. But she's also said again and again that Italy needs to return to its traditional values of the strong family. And what some campaigners say is those traditional values of strong family, those are the values that say the man is in charge, not to be challenged, that if he has to enforce his rule with violence, well, sometimes that might be necessary.

Our Europe regional editor, Paul Moss. Police in Tanzania have prevented a demonstration from taking place in Dar es Salaam after arresting several people, including two leading opposition figures. The Kadema party had called the protest following allegations of political kidnappings and murders. Florian Kajage reports from Dar es Salaam. Mr. Lissou was arrested early in the day at his residence while Mr. Mbowe was arrested at the planned demonstration starting point. The party leaders had vowed to go ahead with the protests

in the country's porty seat of Dar es Salaam, despite an official ban from the police. The opposition is accusing President Samir Sulu Hassan of returning the country to the oppressive tactics of her predecessor John Magufuli. Mr Mbowe told journalists shortly before his arrest that the opposition was paying the full price of democracy but had to show the way. The party chairman turned up at the protest with his router, who was also arrested. Police had tightened security in Dar es Salaam overnight ahead of the planned demonstrations. For the first time in 10 years, Indian-administered Kashmir is voting in local assembly elections. It's a region which has lived through a violent insurgency for decades and has always had a

complex relationship with Delhi. While some continue to boycott elections, there are others coming out to vote. Let's find out what's changed and what Kashmiris want from these elections with our India correspondent Arun Dede Mukherjee. We're currently part of a convoy of Kashmiri politician Mr. Engineer Rashid heading to North Kashmir. His cavalcade is surrounded by supporters chanting his name and slogans in his favour. They're saying the lion has come. Engineer Rashid is promising change. And accused in a terror funding case and in jail for the last five years,

Rashid is now out on bail to campaign. I spoke to him about his hopes for Jammu and Kashmir. There are two things in my politics. One is to take care of the developmental issues, governance. Second is J&K is a conflict zone, you know it. The political issue of Jammu and Kashmir, there are explanations for resolution to Kashmir issue. So I want to carry both the things simultaneously.

He fought and won the general elections earlier this year, despite being behind bars. Rashid's campaign struck a chord with voters, still reeling under the loss of statehood and autonomy five years ago. While speaking to me about what the people here have gone through, he breaks down. Since the 1990s, an armed insurgency against Indian rule has claimed thousands of lives, including civilians and security forces. For decades, India has been accused of human rights violations and cracking down on dissent. But in the last few years, critics say this has only intensified.

Voting in the recent general elections was a form of resistance. PM Modi talks about a new Kashmir. If new Kashmir means prices will go up, then we don't want new Kashmir. What exactly is the idea of development for them? In the heart of the region's capital city, Srinagar, I meet first-time voter, 24-year-old Maliha Sofi. She has decided not to vote because the elections for her hold little hope. Peace in the region, she says, has come at the cost of personal liberties. People don't speak like they used to against whatever was happening.

But now we are not allowed to say so. Yeah, everything is peaceful because nobody speaks against them. But the Bharatiya Janta Party says there is peace and the burden of conveying this message here is on one prominent BJP face. We're in central Srinagar and we've just arrived at the office of Engineer Eja's BJP candidate. This is our achievement. Elections have happened in the past too,

but now voter turnout has increased. Today, people are expressing their trust in democracy. That's their pitch as the Hindu Nationalist Party tries to make inroads in a Muslim-majority region, where it has never had much presence. I'm in Srinagar at a BJP rally, walking alongside a convoy of cars. The cars are winding through roads with houses lined on both sides. But as we've seen in other rallies, you usually see locals come out onto the roads trying to catch a glimpse of their local candidate, but that seems to be missing over here. BJP is still seen here as the

party responsible for taking away Kashmir's autonomy. Its government in New Delhi blamed for crushing any dissent. A charge Ejaz takes a hard line on while speaking to me. Our country is a democratic one. We won't allow terrorists to roam freely on our roads. We don't want a system of separatism. As Kashmiris go about their daily lives, they are also aware of another reality. Even after a new government takes over in this federally administered region, real power will remain in the hands of the centre. Our India correspondent Arunadhe Mukherjee reporting.

Still to come in this podcast... The messaging that we're getting currently is all about negativity, it's cuts, it's austerity, it's feel the pain, it's like, my God, we've been through 14 years of austerity and pain and kind of cutbacks. We need confidence, we need investment, we need growth. What voters in Britain won from the governing Labour Party as it holds its annual conference. 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 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. Two recent security breaches surrounding the former President Donald Trump, including one which resulted in a failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, have sparked a whole new world of disinformation and hate online ahead of November's US election.

For a new BBC Sounds series called Why Do You Hate Me USA, the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, has been to Colorado, a state which has become a hotbed for conspiracy theories like this, to investigate how two people, one who plans to vote Republican and the other Democrat, have been drawn into evidence-free theories. So I think a lot of this can start with genuine questions that people have.

How could this have happened? There were lots of allegations of security failings, for example. The head of the Secret Service in the United States actually resigned after that assassination attempt that happened in July in Pennsylvania. So it often begins with that. But then there's this next step, and it is being exposed to baseless, unevidenced theories about what has really gone on. I think some of it is just as human beings, we are looking for a reason and an answer and an explanation. When it comes to the assassination attempt that happened in July,

we still are pretty unclear on what the motives of that shooter were. That leaves a lot of questions. And then conspiracy theories, speculation, false claims fill that void. And the one that filled that void the loudest or the most was this unevidenced idea that this had somehow been staged, the shooting that happened in July. Now, you spoke to someone about why she believes it was staged and even why she perhaps wants to believe it was staged.

Yeah, it was really interesting. So I was out in Colorado. Colorado is a state that has become a bit of a hotbed for conspiracy theories because it was a place where some of the false claims about the election being stolen in 2020 proliferated. And I met two different women there. One who is what you might call an experienced believer of conspiracy theories. She's someone who has often posted about natural medicine and her lifestyle. She's called Wild Mother on social media. But more recently, she started posting unproven theories about what's going on behind the headlines. And so when the shooting happened, she found herself going down what we often call the rabbit hole to try and get more answers. And she was exposed to the QAnon conspiracy theory,

which for people who haven't heard of it is a sprawling conspiracy theory that suggests Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a powerful cabal of people. And in her mind, this, or rather what she saw online and what she wanted to believe was that this had been set up by Trump's own team in order to frame the deep state. I hope it is, you know, I really do. Why? Because I think our country needs rescuing from our government right now. It's a horrible mess. It seems to me that once you get into this way of looking at the world and thinking about it, it's almost like fundamentally changes the way you observe like every event, like from the assassination attempt to 9-11. It's like going to a magic show as a kid and then that you find out for the first time that the magician is pulling one over on you. Now every time you go to a magic

show you know what they're doing. What's perhaps the most interesting is someone like Wild Mother has been thinking in that way for quite a while whereas the other woman I met, Camille, she's voted Democrat for the past 15 years. She's never believed anything had been staged before in this way. And yet she was also pushed this stuff on her social media feeds and drawn into a world where these things she'd been so opposed to could actually possibly be true. Now, you also talk to people who run the elections in Colorado about the kind of threats they've been having. Yeah, and I think it's important to understand the link in some ways between people believing that an assassination attempt could be staged, contrary to the evidence, and people believing then that anything could be staged or rigged. And that includes elections. And that's where the election workers come in.

So that erosion of trust in institutions and in the people who are tasked with protecting and upholding those institutions is part of the problem here. I went to Jefferson County. I got to go inside the election building where I met several of the people who worked there, including the county clerk, Amanda Gonzalez, and also one of her employees, Kwong. And they spoke about how rather than it easing up after the 2020 election, it's feeling a whole lot scarier for them. And they're having to think a lot about security. I think as an election worker, we are kind of the front lines, right? You know, post the results of 2020. Myself and my colleagues have been targeted with harassment, accusations of us doing nefarious things. I don't tell a lot of the public that I'm in elections unless the conversation drives it that way. I generally tell just, you know, random strangers that I'm just in IT. And you can listen to the first two episodes of Why Do You Hate Me USA on BBC Sounds or wherever

you get your BBC podcasts. Each week, Mariana is going to be investigating how a different phenomenon unfolding on social media is shaping November's presidential election. Britain's governing Labour Party is holding its annual conference this week in the city of Liverpool. But while you might have expected a celebration of its landslide win in July's election, that's been tarnished by negative headlines about gifts to senior party figures, just as the same politicians announce a cut to universal fuel allowances for all but the poorest old age pensioners. And other criticisms have been raised. Shortly after the Chancellor or Finance Minister Rachel Reeves took to the stage to thank Labour voters,

a protester stood up and criticised the government over the environment and arms sales to Israel. I will repay the trust that people put in us. Trust is hard earned. It's easily squandered. Just ask the Conservatives. They paid the price for their incompetence, their dishonesty, and their rule breaking. That heckler was forcibly removed from the hall. Our political correspondent Rob Watson's in Liverpool. I mean, in many ways, Andrew, it enabled her to trot out the line Labour uses in these circumstances, which is, aha, like all those left-wing parties, we used to be a party of protest,

but now we're a party of serious government. What else did she have to say in terms of economic messaging? Nothing terribly new today, I don't think. It's interesting you put it that way, Andrew. I mean, I don't think we learned a vast amount, if anything, about Britain's macroeconomic policy under this new Labour government. What she was trying to do, though, in the short term was this incredibly difficult balance between saying to the country and to the world, look, we're going to be fiscally responsible. The Conservative government left us in a mess.

We're going to try and balance the books. But because there's been all this criticism that, my goodness, Keir Starmer and Rachel Rees have been too gloomy to say, but once we've got everything settled, once Britain is on a firm financial footing, don't worry, it's going to be fabulous. Life in here is great. We've got lots of entrepreneurs. People are going to be building stuff.

So it was trying to strike that balance between saying, yes, we're going to be responsible, but don't worry, there is a brighter future ahead. A bit stage-managed, these events. You're certainly getting lots of clapping, cheering, standing ovations, all of that. What's the mood like behind the scenes in Liverpool a bit stage managed as being generous and I mean these party conferences are incredibly stage managed and all designed to sort of improve the mood of journalists and of activists and try and send a message out to the country that you're united I mean the mood of activists is is a mix of absolutely celebration

after being back in power after 14 years in the wilderness. But there has been concern among activists about the kind of political stumbles, the lack of judgment, as they would see it, that Keir Starmer and others have made. And also, I suppose, more profoundly than that, a sort of a nagging doubt, you know, can Labour really turn around the British economy given the sort of headwinds it faces, given the deficit that it has, the debt it has, like so many other Western nations and the forecasts of rather anemic growth.

So people are, yes, celebrating, but thinking, goodness gracious, we do have a tough road ahead. I'm correspondent Rob Watson in Liverpool. September is usually harvest time for some of Europe's major wine producers, but they've seen their yields hard hit by climate change. While new wine regions are emerging with better growing conditions, for traditional wine regions, droughts and rising temperatures pose a big challenge. Sophie Eastall from the BBC's Climate Question podcast has been to Catalonia in eastern Spain to see how one winemaker is adapting. We are in Maslaplana vineyard so here we have very very old vines. Josep Sabarich is the chief winemaker at Familia Torres, one of the oldest family wine companies in Spain.

The family has been making wine here since 1870, but now it's facing a huge challenge. We have a big drought period, having half yield in the vineyards as average in the area. Wow, so you had half as many grapes grown as a normal year? Yes, because when the drought periods are too long, another thing appears that was unexpected in the area. I never seen that. It's the death of the plants. For the grapes that do survive,

higher temperatures mean they ripen two weeks earlier, and that affects the taste and character of the wine. The aromas are evolving from a fresh or green fruit to ripe and then overripe and jammy fruits. You have more sugar in the grapes, so more sugar means more alcohol in the wines. A recent study found that 90% of traditional wine regions in lowland Spain, Greece, Italy and Southern California could disappear by the end of this century if they don't adapt. The Torres family have started planting grapes at altitude to get away from the scorching heat.

We have been producing grapes in the Pyrenees at 1,000 meters. If you go up, the temperatures are very low compared to here, so that's good for the plants. In a test vineyard, I saw one of their other strategies. In the early 19th century, a disease called Phylloxera came from the USA and destroyed most of the native grapevines across Europe, including here in Catalonia. Most people thought they were lost forever, until now. Sometimes we find just one old vine, sometimes we find a small plantation, and sometimes it's in the middle of the forest in a tree.

Mireia Torres is part of the family's fifth generation of winemakers. Using announcements in the local press, she's been leading a grape hunt across the region. Mireia's found 60 varieties so far, some of which are more resistant to drought and ripen later, which helps with higher temperatures. She hopes they'll be the climate-proof wines of the future. And this is the Forcada. This is the white variety. It was an old lady that has several old vineyards and we found more than one variety in these vineyards. So it was a very good day. Finding the vine is just the start of a long 12-year process to get it checked for viruses and officially approved. As the world warms, you might start noticing more unfamiliar grape varieties on the

market as places like Spain try to keep the wine flowing. The good news is they taste pretty good. That from Sophie Eastor. You can hear more on that on the Climate Question podcast, either on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. However busy your day is, what would you do if you came across a defenceless animal? A new book called Raising Hare tells the tale of a busy political adviser in the UK who says her former city life was changed

when she took in an abandoned baby hare. Stephanie Prentice takes up the story. For Chloe Dalton, that sound of a hair drumming its feet on a cushion soon became the soundtrack to her days. It was during one of the Covid lockdowns and one of her daily walks that she spotted a baby hare lying on the ground. I instinctively initially left it because I assumed that its mother was nearby but it was in a very exposed position within sight of predators with passing cars in the middle of a track so after four or five hours I came back and I brought it in with the expectation that I would

actually return it to the field at nightfall but a conservationist explained to me that that would be impossible it would smell of me and its mother if she was still alive would reject it. Chloe wanted the hare to live but not as a pet. She didn't cage it or even name it assuming when it was strong enough it would return to the wild. That day soon came but it didn't turn out as she expected. One day when it was a few months old, it learned to leap the garden wall and I thought it was gone forever. And in fact, it wasn't. It came back. And for over three years, this beautiful creature has leapt over the garden wall every morning and come to sleep in the house. It's not tame or domesticated, but it's found this balance. It lives alongside humans to the extent that she actually gave birth to leverets in my house.

Now this blended family live together with generations of leverets visiting Chloe's garden. The doors are always open and the original hair always returns, often to sleep under Chloe's desk. Keggy Crew is an expert in animal behaviour and the author of Beastly, the epic 40,000-year story of animals and us. She says her populations are in decline and that makes stories like this all the more important. To be able to use that experience to take it further into the bigger, wider world with the existential threat of losing animals is, I think, the real lesson in this whole story

that actually animals can save us, but first we have to save them. In the book, Chloe does say the hare saved her, giving her a new perspective on life. I've had this extraordinary opportunity to live alongside a family of wild animals. The experience had a huge impact on me in terms of reconnecting me to nature, teaching me to see nature, hear nature, feel nature completely differently. That report from Stephanie Prentice. And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later.

If you'd like to comment on this edition, globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk is our email address, or on X, we are at global news pod. This edition was mixed by Chris of Blackwell. The producer was David Lewis. 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. Thank you.