Global News Podcast - Hezbollah defeated, says Israeli minister

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Israel has declared the defeat of Hezbollah but the group continued firing rockets from Lebanon. Also: the COP 29 climate meeting gets underway, and the secret of making a great panettone from the new world champion.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. How are we going to unravel this all? From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets, season five, Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Monday, the 11th of November, these are our main stories. Israel's new defence minister says Hezbollah has been defeated in comments made shortly

after the Lebanese group fired further rockets into northern Israel. The Kremlin has given its most positive reaction yet to Donald Trump's election, praising him for not talking about inflicting defeat on Russia. Hungary's main opposition leader has accused Viktor Orban's government of illegally gathering information to use to smear him. Also in this podcast. The biggest geopolitical challenge the world faces is climate change. If we don't tackle

it, we don't have a planet. As politicians and activists gather for the annual UN conference, we ask what can COP29 achieve? COP29 achieve. As rockets continue to fly in both directions over the Israel-Lebanon border, there seems to be little end in sight to the conflict. But now Israel's incoming defence minister, Israel Katz, has declared that Hezbollah has been defeated. He described the killing of the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as the crowning jewel.

Correspondent in Jerusalem, John Donnison, gave me his assessment of Mr Katz's statement. Just before he made those comments, Hezbollah fired a barrage of 15 rockets into northern Israel. So yes, the war is not over, but Israel Katz clearly saying that Hezbollah he believes are defeated and they have eliminated the threat. And I do think at the moment we have got a real push from the Americans to get some sort of deal not only in Lebanon, but also in Gaza, either in the dying days of the Biden presidency and certainly Donald Trump the president-elect in the United States has said he wants an end to the conflict in the Middle East.

Now Israel Katz replaced Yuv Galant who was fired on that job a few days ago by Benjamin Netanyahu because they were in conflict with each other. What can we expect in terms of strategy from Israel, Katz, from the comments we heard today? Well look, I don't think we're going to see much of a change in strategy because it has been Benjamin Netanyahu who has been calling the shots for the past 13 months. Now Yorov Gilant was the only cabinet member who was really willing to stand up and challenge Benjamin Netanyahu on policy, particularly in Gaza. Israel Katz is much more likely to toe the line. So I think in terms of strategy, we're going to see more of the same. But there

is a feeling here that a ceasefire could now be imminent and that given that the leader of Hezbollah has been killed in Lebanon, given that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yaya Sinwar, has also been killed, and given that really Donald Trump says he wants an end to this war and I think Israel has ignored all the red lines set by America under President Biden, but he might now be willing to listen. I should say, though, in Gaza today, the fighting has continued. There was a strike on a residential building in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the civil defence agency there said 25 people were killed, among them 13 children. Israel says it was targeting Hamas who was regrouped in Jabalia and says Hamas are hiding behind civilians.

John Donason. Russia has given its most positive response yet to the election of Donald Trump, saying that he's a man who talked about peace rather than confrontation. The comments were made in an interview given by the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and came just after Russia and Ukraine launched their biggest drone attacks on each other since the war began. James Waterhouse is our correspondent in Kyiv. It's a stranglehold really on Ukrainian skies.

These sort of relatively cheap Shahed drones, these Iranian designed drones, they fly at low altitude. You can see their distinctive wingspans. They don't look threatening, if that makes sense, but of course, they're packed with explosives in the warhead. And I've seen countless high rise buildings where a particular flat and the lives within it have been destroyed because of the very targeted blast they cause. And there are well-circulated reports now that Russia is constantly seeking to upgrade these drones by installing what's called a thermobaric warhead, which generates a very hot smoke or fire, as well as a shockwave. And they can be particularly devastating. These are really nasty things and it's that kind of background threat which people have

had to learn to live with. And James, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, today saying that Donald Trump shows no sign of wanting to inflict a defeat on Russia. So they're clearly content about his election. But there doesn't really seem any sign on the ground that Ukrainian forces are even holding their own in many parts of the front line, does it? No. And President Zelensky often talks about peace through strength. He wants his country,

he wants his military to be in a strongest position as possible ahead of any kind of negotiation. But you just need to look at Mr. Peskov's comments. I think they reflect the position Russia is in. It's gradually taking more and more of Ukraine. The cost is huge, the human cost. But Russia will believe it can keep going and it'll take a lot, you sense, to be convinced otherwise. And, you know, this is the strange thing.

You know, we met a family today whose teenage daughter was killed in a drone attack. And they know, they're well aware of the geopolitics that surrounds Ukraine and how their fate could well be decided by politicians much further away. But clearly, Russia is keen to engage with the president-elect in America. They are looking to make out that they are part of the solution and I think you know hypotheticals, proposals of Ukrainian neutrality on accession to the NATO alliance for example, all of these kind of security guarantees, ideas on compromise, they're not going to go away now but that does not mean there's going to be any let-up I don't think in the

fighting and airstrikes that we're seeing. James Waterhouse. More than a hundred heads of state and government have been gathering in Baku in Azerbaijan for COP29 which is beginning later today, Monday. This UN summit is a forum for the world's nations to try to agree on how to prevent catastrophic climate change. The conference comes as latest projections suggest this year will be the hottest ever recorded and the first when average temperatures are more than one and a half degrees celsius above what they were before the industrial revolution. But COP29 hasn't had an auspicious start as our climate editor Justin Rowlatt reports. Baku was the birthplace of the modern oil industry.

The first oil wells were dug here more than 150 years ago. But as Baku prepares to host the world's biggest climate conference, there are challenges ahead. Donald Trump, the US president-elect, is sceptical of climate action. My plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam, greatest scam in history probably. He's said he'll pull the US out of the key part of the UN talks. The US has sent a negotiating team, but when Trump takes office in January, he can overturn any promises they make.

But activists involved in the talks say they don't think the summit will be derailed. If we're going to be able to hold warming to below 1.5 it will take the world world to come together. The biggest geopolitical challenge the world faces is climate change. If we don't tackle it we don't have a planet. But top of the agenda is the trickiest subject of all. They are calling this the money cop because the focus is on finance. Negotiators want to agree a new goal for how much money richer countries should be paying

to poorer countries to move away from fossil fuels and also adapt their countries to climate change. At the moment, it's $100 billion a year. The hope is it will be hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Developing countries would like it to be more than a trillion dollars. The fear is with the US likely leaving the field, it will be much harder to raise that money and that in turn could mean countries dial down their carbon cutting ambitions. Well, we heard there in Justin Rolats report the widespread view of Donald Trump

as a climate change denier who was called the issuer hoax. During his last presidency, he pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement, which set legally binding targets for carbon dioxide emissions. And he's reported to be preparing to do so again after President Biden rejoined. But just how likely is this? John Hart is co-founder of the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions. The Trump administration, I predict, is not going to lead with a climate change as a hoax message as much as to the extent that CO2 emissions are a risk, then we ought to embrace

policies that lead to bottom-up innovation, energy abundance. And that suite of policies will lead to the emissions reductions that I think people want to see around the world that COP is certainly going to discuss. And I would reassure people that I think the Trump administration, they are going to support an energy abundance agenda. But when you look at- Sorry, sorry, just you mentioned that a couple of times. Energy abundance, that means greater use of coal, oil, fracking.

Energy abundance means if we know as a species that what drives innovation is more energy and cheaper energy, and it's a counterintuitive principle. So for example, I live on a farm outside of DC. When I look out my window, I see mountains that 150 years ago, they were clear cut and a lot of the UK was clear cut. And what saved the trees during that era was something called coal. So now that we've burned coal, we've realized there are byproducts that are negative of coal.

But the economic activity generated by that energy source has led to new breakthroughs, new innovations such as nuclear, small modular nuclear reactors, cleaner ways of using fossil fuels, whether it's carbon capture, whether it's fracking. And I think what the Trump administration is going to say is there is no reverse gear in economic history. The degrowth agenda is an anti-human agenda that will lead to incredible suffering. Back at the last COP, the chair famously said that if we got rid of fossil fuels today, we'd all move back into caves. And so there would be an apocalyptic scenario of moving

overnight away from fossil fuels. And so again, and even Kerry Emanuel, very esteemed climate scientist at MIT, has said that India is going to have to burn coal for a while in order to lower CO2 emissions. That is counterintuitive, but he's correct. And when you think about Africa, you can't ask a continent to decarbonize that has never carbonized. There are ways to help Africa move very quickly to a position where they can do that more efficiently, but that's really going to be the mentality of the Trump administration.

And would you expect the green transition to continue under President Trump? I think so, but I think it's going to look very differently. It's going to be described in a very different way. I think what President Trump is going to do is support an all of the above energy strategy. He is going to support far more fossil fuel use than many people on the progressive left would be comfortable with. But at the same time, he's going to lower barriers to other renewable companies. Elon Musk is a great example.

He's being vilified now because he supported Trump, but he obviously founded Tesla. He's not a climate change as a hoax person. He's an innovation person. So you're going to see it easier to deploy these next generation technologies, particularly nuclear is the break the glass solution, if you will, if you really want to lower emissions quickly and it's a very complicated, but it's easier said than done. But if you can have tech companies do a regulatory bulldozer and get those deployed, you can have great change very quickly.

John Hart talking to Julian Marshall. A woman who was extremely short-sighted has now had her vision restored after becoming the first person in the UK to undergo a new type of laser surgery powered by artificial intelligence. The procedure on Patricia Gonzales involved scanning her eyes and creating a digital clone of her eyeballs. An AI program then experimented on the digital replica to create a bespoke procedure. The surgeon who performed the treatment on her was Dave Allenby. One of the things that we've always wanted to be able to do is to understand exactly how light moves through an eye and the new scanning technology allows us

create a digital clone. Now the patients scanning technology allows us to create a digital clone. Now, the patients say, look, I've only got one pair of eyes, I want the best, or I don't want to take any risks. So what we can do now is take a digital copy of the patient's slide that uses more than 100,000 data points and perform the treatment on the digital twin over and over and over again until we've optimized the optics really to a very high degree as far as they can go for that eye. Only once that's done and we built a purely personalized customized treatment from the digital twin do we then apply it to the eye.

So it's kind of like we can do the laser surgery over and over and over again on the copy before the patient ever goes to the laser. So I have a lot of confidence in the technology, but we've also got some good published data out of Australia. Now in that data, we had 100% of eyes see 2020 or better, which is what we found when we saw the first patients come in for the one day check, where three quarters of them could see 2010, which is the absolute limit of the human eye and is equivalent to what a falcon can see. So from the studies and from my own experience, just of that first group of patients, really exciting development. Dave Allenby. Still to come. There is no place for innovation here.

There is no place for experimentation. You have to follow tradition. The secret of making a great Panettone from the new world champion. Witness the stories that have shaped our world. On the launch pad, in the dawn light, a towering symbol of an ambitious nation. Three, two, one. The whole of India was watching. Told by the people who were there.

I still don't regret that I was part of the Rose Revolution. I was a witness of very exciting days. Witness History from the BBC World Service. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The leader of Hungary's main opposition party, Petr Magyar, has accused the government of using illegal methods to gather information and then using it to smear him. The Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has rejected the allegations. Nick Thorpe reports. Since he founded his Tisza party in April this year, Peter Magyar has been the target of a constant stream of reports in the pro-government

media aimed at discrediting him. But his claims today are more serious. He accuses Anta Rogan, the head of communications for the governing Fidesz party, of using illegal means to gather information on him, his friends and party associates in order to destroy his political movement. He also accuses his former girlfriend, Evelyn Vogel, of being in the pay of Fidesz and of trying to blackmail him. Nick Thorpe. In northeastern Africa you will find a country that is home to the most pyramids in the world. And it's not Egypt. It is Sudan, currently engulfed in a civil war which has so far claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people and displaced over a million. And that war is slowly encroaching on the pyramids

at Mehruwi, a former capital of the ancient kingdom of Kush. Soldiers from the rapid support forces who were fighting the Sudanese army and its allies have already stolen artifacts from the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. The Sudanese-British journalist Zeina Badawi told us more about the pyramids at Mehruwi. If you go there, you go through a long drive through the desert from Khartoum and the dwellings are diminishing in number and then suddenly set against these reddish brown hills, dozens of pyramids suddenly appear. Some of them don't have their pinnacle and others are actually tipped rather incongruously, restored by concrete. And these pyramids are smaller than the ones that exist in Egypt.

Early in Sudan's ancient history in the north of the country, the dead were buried in tombs adjacent to the pyramids, but then later on they began to bury the dead inside pyramids, just like the ancient Egyptians. These pyramids would have been full of treasures and goods for the dead to use in the afterlife, but sadly, of course, they've been desecrated and plundered over the centuries. And it's just absolutely tragic that we are witnessing this possible mass destruction of Sudan's cultural heritage in the modern era.

The pyramids themselves are just structures. So per se, they're not going to presumably, unless somebody just wants wanton damage and just start destroying them, because they don't obviously contain any jewels and treasures today they're all kept in the museums. The real threat is to the recently renovated National Museum in Khartoum which houses the treasures of ancient Sudan which has already been looted. It's heartbreaking that this has happened. There's gold jewelry like bracelets and necklaces,

exquisite ceramic potteries, which are enameled, which date back thousands and thousands of years. Zena Badawi. Now to Amsterdam, where back in 2009, a 19-year-old sex worker named Betit Sabo was found stabbed to death in the city's Red Light district. She'd recently given birth. Although police immediately launched a murder investigation, her killer has never been found. But Dutch police have reopened the case and central to this fresh bid to find the killer is a 3D computer generated image or hologram of the murdered teenager

projected from behind a window in the Red Light District. Julianne Marshall got more from Aline Ruvers from the police service in Amsterdam. So the hologram is actually a computer generated visualization of Betty and in the hologram she reaches out to onlookers or passes by asking for help and with the holographic representation of the victim we used 3D techniques and at some point you can actually see a cloud appearing with the word help. There are loads of cold cases and her case always have had our attention especially because of the extremely tragic circumstances about Betty's death. That has to do with the fact that she was so young,

in the brutal way in which she was murdered. No police officer was able to let go of this case. So when our Amsterdam cold case team reviewed her case, they decided, okay, we really want to make a final attempt to solve this case. And you feel that this will be a better trigger of people's memories than say, just handing out photographs of Betty? We hope people will feel sort of connection to Betty and her story and therefore also the desire to share information with us. I mean for most of the people passing by and seeing this hologram, they're seeing a complete

stranger but to a lot of sex workers in the red light district, they're seeing an image of somebody maybe they knew somebody who was a friend and maybe that's quite upsetting. Well, the responses so far have actually been really positive. A lot of people also nowadays knew Betty and her story and are really eager to help solving this case. We would really like to emphasize actually the fact that it is never too late to talk. We would really like to emphasize actually the fact that it is never too late to talk. We know from research that people who commit a crime like this usually tell multiple people about what they have done, which means that we assume there are actually people that know more about her

murder. And since it has been 15 years ago now, mutual relationship might have changed over time. And we think that this might now result in people to be more willing and open to talk about what they know or have heard. And also the increase of the reward might also be effective for people to come up to us and share information. What are you offering now as a reward? Well we increased the reward and now it's 30,000 euros. Are you working on the assumption at the moment that the killer was a Dutch person or maybe somebody from abroad? Well when Betty was murdered she was working as a sex worker in the Red Light District.

The Red Light District is one of the busiest places in Amsterdam and also one of the most international ones. So this is why we really specifically want to reach out to people from abroad. Is there anyone who knows more? Have they perhaps visited the Red Light District on that very day, the February 19th, 2009? Maybe they even remember visiting Betty herself. So we really want to encourage those people to come up to us and provide us with information. Elin Ruvus.

The street dance of capoeira, derived from the artistic traditions of African slaves, is one of Brazil's best known art forms. But many of the masters who developed it in the 20th century struggled to make a living at home while others chose to find fortune overseas. Now a new generation of capoeira devotees is working to ensure that the legacy of those pioneers is not forgotten. BBC Brazil's Jalfeli reports. Two men square up to one another eye to eye. They begin to circle each other rhythmically, shifting pressure from one foot to the other as if ready to strike.

One leg sweeps over the other's head. He dodges, then strikes back, but no blow ever lands. This is capoeira. You do 100 years of Capoeira, you are a capoeirista and you know nothing. Nestled in the heart of Pelourinho, the historic center of Salvador, is Lua Rasta's Capoeira Museum. More than a million Africans arrived here as slaves. But over the centuries, it would become the beating heart

of an Afro-Brazilian art form that would make its own journey across the Atlantic. Lua's museum is filled with instrument he collected as he spread capoeira around the world. Like generations before him, he says he felt liberated around the world, like generations before him, he says he felt liberated by the art form. Boy, I was too oppressed. That's what led me there to capoeira, you know?

One of the grandfather of modern capoeira was Mestre Pastinha. He was born in 1889, one year after slavery was abolished in Brazil. By the time Pastinha died, capoeira had become emblematic of Afro-Brazilian culture around the world. Sadly, he would also die lonely and penniless. João Grande was one of his pupils and took up his mantle as a capoeira master. Like his teacher and so many other masters, he struggled to make it pay in his native country. He tells me how he had to give up capoeira

and get a job washing cars. Eventually, he would leave for New York, setting up an academy there that thrives to this day. But in Brazil, the cycle repeated, with many of its greatest name forced to emigrate for a better life. We forgot about the people who moved, who made the culture of this country happen. Sabiá is one of the next generation of Capoeira masters. This year he organized João Grande to come home to a hero's welcome, alongside 14 other masters who helped shape the art form but who struggled to find fortune at home.

I asked João Grande how it felt. It seems that I am in heaven here. In spite of the struggles of many of its leading lights, there is room for optimism regarding the future of capoeira in Brazil. Historically reserved for men, increasingly women are helping to ensure the art form thrives. Nanny is the granddaughter of master João Pequeno and now runs his academy. My grandfather always said, my daughter, Capoeira is ready. It doesn't need anything. What it

needs now is for you to continue. João Grande, João Pequeno, tem tanto João nessa casa... That report was by Jao Fede. Now, we're ending with a World Cup final. Not for football, rugby or cricket, but for Panatoni. It's been taking place in the home of that seasonal delicacy, Milan, in Italy. Contestants from 14 different countries took part in the final, and for the first time the winner was not from Panettone's native Italy. More from Harry Bly. In case you're not familiar with this classic Italian Christmas staple, it's a soft and sweet airy bread, often containing fruit, round and domed in shape and typically served

in wedges or slices like a cake. According to Italy magazine, artisanal panettone is made with flour, sugar, fresh egg yolks, butter, raisins, candied citrus peel, natural yeast and salt. And while it's thought to date as far back as 14th century Milan, panettone is to this day loved around the world, particularly Brazil, which is the biggest consumer of it. Today in Milan, finalists from all over the world gathered to present their creations to a jury of internationally acclaimed bakers, pastry chefs and former winners. This year's winner... The winner of the traditional competition of the World Cup of the Panettone is... Tom Cortez, Spain! Thank you very much. How do you feel?

I don't know. I just can't believe it. Tom Cortes is a baker at the Succal Bakery in Barcelona and has been making panettone for 12 years. He says he was surprised to take the crown. Did you expect to win? No, not at all. Not at all because you know we are in the capital, world capital of Panettone, Milano. Of course. And most of the very best Panettone masters were there. And of his now globally recognised Panatoni, Tom says he kept to a classic recipe. You know we are in a traditional competition so there is no place for innovation here, there is no place for experimentation. You have to follow tradition and that's what we've done.

And that's what we've done. Panathony World Cup winner, Ton Kortes, ending that report by 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 topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and the producer was Alison Davies.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. When we left there was this wonderful feeling. But it was only the beginning of a nightmare. This is a story that started with a job advert. A yacht owner looking for a crew to sell his recently renovated boat from Brazil to Europe. For me, it was going to be a great adventure and an opportunity to gain a lot of experience. But when police raided the vessel and discovered drugs...

Cocaine hidden under one of the beds. It can't be....a container that was in the car. and an opportunity to gain a lot of experience. But when police raided the vessel and discovered drugs... Cocaine. Hidden under one of the beds. It can't be. ..a key suspect was miles away. Everything revolved around him. Who's the boss? A British guy. Fox. Fox.

This is World of Secrets from the BBC World Service, season five, Finding Mr Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you BBC World Service, season five, Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts.