Global News Podcast - Fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to hold

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

A fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah is holding, but both sides are on alert. In the US, Donald Trump's incoming cabinet have received bomb threats. Also: will Parisians embrace Les Misérables in French?

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Brian Cox. And I'm Robin Ince. He understands the nature of the universe. And so does Robin. Well, you know what? I do have my moments, especially after this new series, the Infinite Monkey Cage,

because we are joined by experts at Bletchley Park. We're talking about cyber warfare, an unexpected history of the body at the Royal Society. Plus, we'll be talking about de-extinction, elasticity and embryology. And there will be comedic interludes. And Pam Ayres on hedgehogs. I mean, she's not riding them. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

This podcast is brought to you by WISE, the app that helps you manage your money internationally. With WISE you have up to 40 currencies at your fingertips. You can receive money, pay bills money internationally. With WISE you have up to 40 currencies at your fingertips. You can receive money, pay bills and send money across borders without hidden fees. You always get the real-time mid-market exchange rates. See exactly what you pay every time. Join millions of WISE customers worldwide. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and T's apply. today or visit wise.com. Tc and C supply.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and in the early hours of Thursday the 28th of November these are our main stories. One day into the ceasefire we'll hear from our correspondent Rami Rahayem in southern Lebanon. There is a tangible feeling of relief among many who saw that their homes are still standing. There is also relief because the bombs have stopped falling. Lucy Williamson is in northern Israel. Three quarters of the buildings here have been damaged or destroyed.

People can't move back yet, but even if they could, they need to trust the ceasefire first. In the US, Donald Trump's incoming cabinet has received bomb threats. Also in this podcast, why the Canadian rapper Drake has filed another legal action over a diss track and the latest from the mass rape trial that shaken France. rape trial that shaken France. Day one of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the air strikes and rockets have fallen silent but the deal remains fragile as IDF spokesperson David Mensah made clear. This is a six week truce and there are gradual stages in that truce, as agreed with all the parties,

and they will gradually begin to withdraw down. But that, of course, means that if Hezbollah try to rebuild their terrorist infrastructure near our border, we will attack them. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings a truck carrying rockets into the area south of the Litani River, we will attack them. We will respond forcibly to any violation. Hezbollah has also said its fighters will monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces and are continuing the path of resistance with even greater determination. More than a million people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon since the fighting began in October last year.

Sixty thousand have had to leave their homes in northern Israel. We're going to hear from the Israeli side of the border in a moment. In Lebanon though, there have been big traffic jams as tens of thousands of civilians have been trying to return home, despite warnings that some areas remain unsafe. Israel has issued an overnight curfew to tell people to stay north of the Lethally River. Rami Rahayem is from BBC Arabic and sent us this report. This is Dahye, the southern suburb of Beirut. And we can see the immense destruction that

was caused by Israel's bombing campaign. There are different levels of destruction. Some buildings came crashing down. Many were levelled to the ground. Many others are leaning on other buildings. And some of the buildings which are still standing are certainly not inhabitable and may not be inhabitable for a long time. We hear that the challenges are going to be immense, the challenges of reconstruction. We don't know how quickly people will be able to return to their homes and to their neighborhoods. They have started and there is a tangible feeling of relief

among many who have come and who saw that their homes are still standing. There is also relief because the bombs have stopped falling, but there's also a lot of apprehension. It's not just about reconstruction and where the money is going to come from. It's also about removing all of this rubble. This will take a lot of heavy equipment.

This will take a lot of time. Some areas are not reachable because of all of this rubble. And there will be scenes like this all across the southern suburbs and many more in south Lebanon. My colleague Lina Sinjab is also in Dahir where she's been talking to one woman outside the ruins of her family home. My name is Rayan Salman. I lived here for around 25 years since I was born.

And we had to leave our home and we went to Aramon, Mount Lebanon, and it was so hard for us. Can you explain what happened? Did you get a warning to leave, to evacuate? Yes, we had a warning one night before and we left, but they just destroyed here before our house. So I came one night before and I saw my house, it wasn't destroyed but it was a disaster. A night after, it all gone.

And now what are you going to do? Who's going to bring that back to life? We don't know. My parents spent all their lives in this house and we did as well. And one night all is gone. Did you manage to take anything? Do you have anything from the house? We didn't take anything from the house. We didn't have time. We are glad you are safe as well.

Yes, we are safe. But we are not good. Are you optimistic about this deal that it will last? I hope. We have been through a lot. And our generation, since we were graduated, Corona, the dollar, everything, it's not right. And now comes this. And what do you think is going to happen

next with the country, with your own lives, with this destruction around? We don't know. Far fewer people are returning to the Israeli side of the border. Our correspondent Lucy Williamson is there. In Kibbutz Manara, bursts of gunfire from Israeli forces across the border echoed through the empty streets. The Lebanese village of Mysel Jabal, clearly visible across the border, one of several places where Israel's army says it fired towards suspects spotted nearby. Not gun battles with Hezbollah fighters, it said, but warning shots to push the suspects back. Four of them were arrested.

The handover of control along this border from Israeli troops to the Lebanese army hasn't yet begun. And Lebanese residents have been told not to return there yet. yet. In Menara, on the Israeli side, the ceasefire brought Maitele and her 13-year-old daughter Geffen back for their first visit home in more than a year. It's unbelievable. It's like a nightmare. We left on the 8th, on October 23. You've heard the small arms fire outside? Yeah. They want to come back. So we need to keep them away. Their neighbour, Orna Weinberg, has lived here through two previous Israeli-Lebanon wars,

but says this ceasefire is different. Our forces will not leave these villages and will not allow Terrorists to come back here whenever someone will try to come back They will be shot. I personally will come and be here regardless of whatever goes on there But I'm a crazy stubborn old lady Families will not come back here. It's impossible Three quarters of the buildings here have been damaged during the war, house after house, marked with shrapnel. The rough-edged holes of anti-tank missiles punch through their walls.

Repairing this kibbutz will take months, but rebuilding a sense of security could take longer still. The damage, a practical challenge, is also a reminder of what Hezbollah weapons can do. The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah has prompted renewed calls from the leaders of Egypt and Jordan for a negotiated end to the conflict in Gaza. Amos Hochstein is the US special envoy who negotiated the truce. He told the BBC a truce with Hamas in Gaza is also possible.

I think this deal opens two doors. One is for a deal with Hamas on getting the hostages out and ending the conflict. And two, if we get that done, a normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I know I sound crazy. I know. But then again, people thought I sounded crazy when I said I thought I could get a deal in Lebanon. So it's OK. But I believe that there's a moment opportunity. Will it happen? I don't know. But we have an opportunity. And I think that's why this deal is so important. It's not just about Lebanon. It's a key that unlocks potentially an even broader

door. Our security correspondent, Frank Gard Gardner has this assessment. The Lebanon ceasefire is not yet one day old but already attention is focusing once more on the conflict in Gaza. The US, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and other countries are all keen to push for a ceasefire there too. But Gaza is both different and more difficult to resolve than Israel's brief but violent war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas, the militant Islamist organisation which has ruled Gaza since 2006, is unwilling to give up the 100 Israeli hostages it's holding until Israel withdraws its army. Israel won't

do that until it decides it has so degraded Hamas' military capability that it can never again pose a threat. An Israeli government spokesman told the BBC that with his Balaar in Lebanon now effectively out of the equation, Hamas was isolated and should be more amenable to a truce. But a complicating factor is that some in the Israeli establishment attach an ideological importance to Gaza, even talking about re-establishing settlements there. And meanwhile, even after 13 months of war and more than 44,000 people killed, there still appears to be no clear plan for who will govern Gaza and how. Next to the United States, where a spokeswoman for Donald Trump says some of his incoming cabinet members have been targeted with bomb threats.

The FBI said it was aware of numerous bomb threats as well as swatting incidents in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target's home. I've been talking to our North America correspondent Jessica Parker who's in Washington. We got a statement from Donald Trump's transition team saying that last night and this morning that several of President Trump's cabinet nominees, so his top team picks and other appointees for his future administration, of course, he'll actually enter office next year, have been targeted in what they described

as violent threats to their lives and those who live with them. And these attacks range from bomb threats to swatting. Now swatting is when a hopes call is made to the authorities alleging some sort of serious crime and then a SWAT team, a heavily armed SWAT team can then be sent to the target's address. And then we got a statement after that from Donald Trump's team from the FBI saying they were aware of numerous bond threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming officials and they said they were working with law enforcement partners. In terms of who may have been targeted, well a couple of people have themselves confirmed that they were. One of them is Lee Stefanik who is, Donald Trump's pick to be the US ambassador to the United Nations and then also Lee Zeldin.

Now he said that the threat that came to his residence came with a pro-Palestinian themed message. He said he'd been targeted by a pipe bomb threat and there are various other names as well being reported in the media, in the US media as well being reported in the media in the US media as well. What feels particularly unusual here is we're finding out about it in real time because this must literally have happened in the last few days because we've only known who the Trump cabinet are in the last few days. Yeah I mean we've obviously been getting names in the Trump cabinet over the last couple of weeks really it started happening the names coming through certainly the sort of last couple of weeks and there have been names, the names coming through, certainly the sort of last couple of weeks there have been names emerging, but I mean it is a very striking incident the fact that it seems to have happened over the night

into the course of the morning. So you know where I am now at the moment in Washington DC, local time 2.15 in the afternoon, so the suggestion is it happened from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning in the US local time. And then as well, I mean, the fact that it's this swatting type of instance, which we have seen lawmakers here in the US targeted with before. And actually these things can be extremely dangerous with these heavily armed police coming to people's residences after these hoax calls. In some cases, previously in the US, they have been deadly.

Jessica Parker reporting. A court in France has been hearing the closing defence arguments in a mass rape trial that shaken the country. Dominique Pellico stands accused of drugging his former wife Chiselle for a decade and inviting 50 men recruited online to rape her. Here's our correspondent Andrew Harding. Dominique Pellico has admitted to almost everything, to drugging and raping his wife Chiselle and to inviting strangers to rape her as he filmed them. French prosecutors have asked for the maximum prison sentence, 20 years. But Pellico's own lawyer has now set out the defense case

for a shorter sentence. Not an easy task, she acknowledged, saying it was the two of them against the world. The lawyer, Beatrice Zavaro, painted a picture of a split personality, a loving husband and father, but also a man traumatised by being raped as a child, someone with perverse sexual needs that his wife could not satisfy. More controversially, she suggested that by drugging his wife, the accused sought to spare her from a more traumatic and violent experience. But psychiatrists and prosecutors say the split personality argument is of limited value, that Pellicoe knew exactly what he was doing, that he is a manipulative liar with a violent

past, a narcissist without empathy, who played the role of an adoring husband. Verdicts and sentencing are due in late December. Andrew Harding reporting. And still to come in the Global News podcast. Do you hear the people sing, in French, how Les Mis is coming to Paris? Hello I'm Brian Cox And I'm Robin Ince He understands the nature of the universe And so does Robin Well, you know what, I'm Brian Cox. And I'm Robin Ince. He understands the nature of the universe. And so does Robin.

Well, you know what? I do have my moments, especially after this new series, The Infinite Monkey Cage, because we are joined by experts at Bletchley Park who are talking about cyber warfare, an unexpected history of the body at the Royal Society, plus we'll be talking about de-extinction, elasticity and embryology. And there will be comedic interludes and Pam Ayres on hedgehogs. I mean, she's not riding the...

Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is brought to you by WISE, the app that helps you manage your money internationally. With WISE, you have up to 40 currencies at your fingertips. You can receive money, pay bills and send money across borders without hidden fees. You always get the real-time mid-market exchange rates. The The German carmaker Volkswagen says it's selling its factory in China's western Xinjiang region. VW has been under pressure to do so because it's a region where Beijing is accused of carrying out human rights violations against the Uighur Muslim minority, something China

denies. Our correspondent Stephen McDonnell is in Beijing. This is significant because human rights groups had long been criticising VW for having a factory there. Now why is that? Of course there are these allegations of the mass incarceration of ethnic Uighurs, also allegations of the use of forced labour. Now while groups had been monitoring that factory being run by a VW in Xinjiang. Volkswagen says it was never given any evidence that forced labor was used in connection to its

enterprise. Interesting though it's after all these years of sort of sticking it out and copying all this criticism that it's pulling out now. One thing to consider is that it's struggling here in terms of sales and looking for new directions and at least it would enable VW to sort of draw a line under it and to be able to sort of diffuse the criticism internationally. How is the deal going to work? Well VW and its Chinese partner are going to divest themselves, sell the entire operation to a Shanghai company, a Shanghai government-owned company which will buy up the factory and also the test tracks and also employ all of the staff there. VW wants to have

a big presence in this country, it really wants to get its sales going again and so I suppose it will be hoping by doing this deal, maintaining the factory, it can then not lose any reputational damage here, quarterize the criticism overseas and get back into making cars like especially hybrids and electric vehicles which is what it needs to do to secure its future in China. In Georgia a former professional professional footballer, Mikhail Kavaleshvili, has been nominated by the governing party to be its candidate for president. The Georgian Dream Party won last month's parliamentary elections, though the results

have been disputed by the pro-Western opposition and the current president. They say Russia interfered. I've been finding out more from our correspondent in Georgia, Rehan Demitri. By proposing the candidacy of Mikhail Kavala-Shvili as the country's next president, the Georgian dream, according to the opposition, is kind of fully consolidating power over the last remaining independent institution. And these are the words of the incumbent Salomez Rabishvili. She's been the president of Georgia for the past six years and her term expires officially on the 16th of December. So she has in recent months emerged as one of the leaders, I would

say, of the protest movement because Georgia is currently in crisis following the October parliamentary elections, the results of which were rejected by the country's opposition. And on Monday this week, the opposition refused to take up their seats in parliament. So currently in Georgian parliament, there are only MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream Party.

And one of the persons who was sitting in parliament is the founder of this party, the country's richest man, Bezina Ivanishvili, and he was the person who presented today the candidacy of Mikhail Kavalashvili. Bezina Ivanishvili described him as the finest embodiment of the Georgian man. He expressed hope that Mikhail Kavalashvili would protect Georgia's national interest and restore the dignity of the presidential office. Now just tell me a bit more about why Mikhail Kavalashvili, the world has seen many actors,

TV performers, sports personalities become president. Just give me a bit more on why him. Well he's 53 years old, he's a former professional footballer. He was in the Premier League with the Manchester City and other clubs. But he entered Georgian politics back in 2016 as an MP for the ruling party, Georgian Dream. And several years later, he left the party to form another one known as the People's Party. Now, this People's Party is known for being really outspoken against the West. Things maybe that Georgian Dream couldn't voice were

voiced by politicians from People's Party. They have repeatedly attacked US policies in the country. They have personally attacked the former US ambassador to Georgia. Most notably I would say that this party and Mikhail Kavalashvili himself was one of the authors of the controversial foreign agents law back in 2023. And earlier this year, of course, there were massive protests against the law that was brought back by the Georgian Dream. So he is known as an ultra nationalist. He's known for kind of using foul language in the parliament. And right now in the Georgian media, they're

talking about the fact that he doesn't have any higher education diploma. And the opposition, of course, is saying that by nominating Mikhail Kavilashvili, that's just another kind of slap in the face for the Georgian opposition and a large part of the society who are pro-EU, including the outgoing President Salome Zurabishvili. Ukraine has faced intensive Russian air attacks in recent days, causing scores of deaths, injuries and destruction. One city that suffered badly from Russian strikes throughout the conflict is Kharkiv in the northeast. It's launched a new project to transform maternity hospital basements into

operating rooms and premature baby units, enabling women to give birth sheltered from missile and drone attacks. Marisya Zapastik works at the UN Office of Project Services in Ukraine and has been involved in the scheme. She's been talking to my colleague, Victoria Ohunhunda. Here in the city we have almost daily attacks from gliding bombs, drones and missiles. It is a daily threat for people in Kharkiv and it's for this reason that this week together with our sister UN agency, we've been visiting hospitals

here in Harcuff City to see how we can make the basements of hospitals which are currently utility basements, meaning they contain pipes and essential utilities and storage rooms and so on. And we're looking to see how we can transform these basements to make them fit for purpose, to enable doctors to carry out caesarean section in relative safety to protect women during this very difficult moment in their lives from missile or drone attacks above the ground. And also looking to see how we can ensure that premature babies, who are perhaps the

most vulnerable of all human beings, how they can have a relatively safe place to spend their first minutes, hours and days after birth. How many patients do you envisage being able to come into those newly operating rooms when they're up and running? So, so far we have looked at two large maternity hospitals in Herkiv. In both of those hospitals, you know, the basements are slightly different sizes. So looking to see how many women we can have down there together with the medical

staff and all the equipment, because to conduct cesarean sections, we do need a large amount of medical equipment and other assisting equipment. So we're still trying to see how we can set up those rooms, how many women and how many babies we can have down there permanently through that difficult period and make sure that they're safe while they're giving birth and in their first hours. And what have doctors, nurses and medicine personnel been telling you about the conditions that some of these people, as you call them, most vulnerable people are going through? The resilience of people here in Ukraine is astounding and humbling on a daily basis.

When we were speaking to the medical staff in the hospitals we visited, everyone was very keen to have these projects started as soon as possible. They were also asking how they could help, how they could be part of these efforts that we have for the hospital. And in fact, that's something that we see every day from people in community groups, smaller local organizations. I took part in a recovery forum yesterday here in Kharkiv and everyone was asking, how can we as community members be part of this humanitarian response here in Ukraine? How can people take part in assisting their neighbours, their communities helping

with the recovery and reconstruction? And so the resilience of the people of Ukraine, including the medical staff, is, as I said, astounding and humbling also. Now to a personal feud carried out through music which has spilled into courtrooms. It all centres around a diss track, a song whose primary purpose is to attack somebody else. The single in question is Not Like Us by the US rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released earlier this year and has had millions of downloads. His music rival Drake isn't too happy about it. He's filed two legal actions against Universal Music for failing to prevent the release of the track in which Drake says he's

falsely accused of being a sex offender. He's also accusing the record company alongside Spotify of illegally boosting the song's profile. For more about the legal action and these two music titans, I spoke to our culture reporter, Yasmin Rufo. Drake is a Canadian musician who is one of the most commercially successful hip-hop artists of the 21st century. You might have heard some of his songs, some of them include Hotline Blame, One Dance and Hold On We're Going Home. Similarly, Kendrick Lamar is also a hip-hop artist and he's known for lyrics that tackle really big issues. So there's things like police brutality, black self-worth and his own internal conflicts in his music. And he was actually the first hip-hop artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Both of these rappers, very big deals, and they first worked

together about a decade ago when Drake offered to help Kendrick Lamar by offering him an opening spot on his 2012 tour. But as we know, these two rappers, they've been feuding for a while and people, as soon as one of them releases another diss track, goes to it to listen to it to find out what they're saying. This legal action is really big news. My children have been telling me about it as we drive around in the car. What is it that Drake is taking legal action for? And you're right, it is really big news because this diss track, Not Like Us, which was put out by Kendrick Lamar, it accuses Drake of having relationships with underage women, which is something he

strongly denies. But it's more about the record label Universal Music, and he's accusing them of defamation. So what's happened here is he said that Universal have executed a plan to make the song a viral mega hit, and they've used the lyrics to drive consumer hysteria and massive revenues. Part of the accusation is him as well saying that Universal basically paid these unknown parties to artificially boost the prominence of the song. He's also accusing Spotify of engaging in something quite similar, another illegal scheme which involved bots to promote the music. We really can't underestimate the popularity of this song. When it was released, it actually broke Spotify records, becoming the hip hop

song with the most plays in a single day. And I think so far it's been streamed about one billion times. And obviously Universal Music is a massive corporation with lots of cash. Well, exactly. Obviously Universal have said that Drake's Cames, that the company illegally boosted the profile of Not Like Us, is offensive and untrue. It said that no amount of absurd legal argument can mask the fact that fans choose the music that they want to hear. So they are very much saying that none of this is true. And Spotify, as you mention, are also named in this legal case. What are they saying? What's Kendrick

Lamar saying for that matter? Well, Spotify are yet to publicly comment on it. Lamar also hasn't publicly commented, but it's worth noting that this diss track was recently nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year. So he's really sort of having his moment with this song and he's been booked to play next year's Super Bowl halftime. So, you know, he's at the forefront of what's going on at the moment. Our culture reporter, Yasmine Ruffo. Now, another music story. For 40 years, the musical Les Miserables, based on Victor Hugo's 19th century novel, has enjoyed unrivaled success everywhere in the world, except in France. But now, a new French version of the show has been created. It's been on the stage in Paris since Wednesday.

All the signs are it's a hit. So what's changed? Henry Samuel is the Paris correspondent of the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. I should just tell you that Les Misérables, Les Mis, was written originally in 1978 in French by Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schoenberg. And it was performed in Paris in French in 1980. But when Cameron McIntosh heard it for the first time, he realized that it could be a lot more successful. They did try to bring it back in 1990, I believe, in France, in French, and then again in English more recently. It was a flop.

There was a sense of basically, the director of the current production said it was basically chauvinism. The French couldn't take the fact that it was working better. They tried to ape in a way Victor Hugo in the original French, and he was just too poetic and wasn't as hard hitting as the British version. So that's kind of been pared down. It's more French, it's more kind of realistic. There's more kind of emphasis on social justice in France. And of course, the French know the novel very well. So you're not starting from scratch here. So you have to take that into account in the language. I think that's the main thing. That was the journalist Henry Samuel. 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, Global Podcast at bbc.co.uk or on X we are at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producer was Isabella Jewell, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach and until next time goodbye. Hello I'm Brian Cox and I'm Robin Ince. He understands the nature of the universe. And so does Robin. Well, do you know what? I do have my moments, especially after this new series, The Infinite Monkey Cage, because we are joined by experts at Bletchley Park who will talk about cyber warfare, an unexpected

history of the body at the Royal Society. Plus, we'll be talking about de-extinction, elasticity and embryology. And there will be comedic interludes and Pam Ayres on hedgehogs. I mean she's not riding them. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This podcast is brought to you by WISE, the app that helps you manage your money internationally. With WISE you have up to 40 currencies at your fingertips. You can receive money, pay bills and send money across borders without hidden fees. You always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate. See exactly what

you pay, every time. Join millions of WISE customers worldwide. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and T's apply.