Global News Podcast - Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets from Lebanon into Israel

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

A day of heavy exchanges between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Also: a report says Brazil has lost more than a third of its natural areas since records began, and new video releases at Gamescom.

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 Jackie Leonard and in the early hours of Thursday, the 22nd of August, these are our main stories.

Hezbollah is reported to have fired more than 100 rockets from Lebanon into Israel in a single day, as hopes fade that US ceasefire efforts will succeed. A study has found that Brazil has lost a third of its natural areas since records began. And for the first time, Ukraine has confirmed it's been using American rocket systems during its offensive across the Russian border. Also in this podcast. Coming to a games console near you soon, we'll hear about the huge Gamescom event in Germany showcasing the next big thing in the gaming industry. Hopes for a Gaza ceasefire and with it a calming of Middle East tensions

are fading. Wednesday saw a heavy exchange of fire across the border between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Palestinian movement Fatah is accusing Israel of trying to ignite a regional war with the killing in Lebanon of one of its senior officials, Khalil al-Makdah. Israel has claimed he worked with Iran's revolutionary guards and was smuggling weapons and funds into the occupied West Bank. David Mensah is a spokesman for the Israeli government. The IDF this morning released a precise breakdown of exactly who this man was, working in partnership with the Iranians Islamic Revolutionary Guard, trying to push deadly arms into the Judean Samaria. Working with Hezbollah, we've produced a comprehensive list

of his crimes and why we targeted him and why we successfully targeted him. Our correspondent in Beirut is Hugo Bacheca. It was a particularly violent day along the border with attacks and counterattacks between Hezbollah and Israel. So Hezbollah carried out a number of attacks, including two significant attacks with drones and the other one with rockets targeting Israeli military positions. And they say that this was in response to an Israeli attack that happened overnight targeting a weapons depot in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, deep inside Lebanese territory. And this was the second night in a row that a weapons facility

used by Hezbollah was attacked by the Israeli military. So it's very interesting that what the Israelis are saying, the Defense Minister Yoav Galant is saying that this is part of the Israeli strategy, that this is in preparation for what may come next. In other words, the Israelis seem to be laying the groundwork for the possibility of a bigger campaign against Hezbollah here in Lebanon because they say that the situation is unsustainable with these attacks that have been happening almost every day. And the fear here in Lebanon is that this country could be dragged into another war with Israel that could have catastrophic consequences for Lebanon.

And certainly the Palestinian movement Fatah is saying that the killing by Israel of one of its senior commanders in Lebanon is an attempt to escalate into a regional war. Yeah, I mean, we really don't know whether the Israelis were targeting this man, Khalil al-Makda, because of his links to Fatah. I was left with the impression that the Israeli military tried to describe him as a relatively high-profile figure and that he was targeted not because of his Fatah affiliation. There was a long statement from the Israeli military giving details of the accusations against him. They said he was a man who operated on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps,

that he and his brother were involved in directing attacks and smuggling weapons and funds into the West Bank. So in other words, it seems that he was targeted for the things he had done, rather than because of the links he had with Fatah. But again, it was a very strong reaction from this Fatah official saying that the Israelis are essentially trying to ignite a regional war with this assassination, but difficult to say whether this is going to have any kind of significant impact. And of course, there has been an intense round of diplomacy aimed at calming tensions, aimed at getting a ceasefire in Gaza, and the release of the hostages there.

And yet it all seems as tense as ever. Yeah, I think there's almost no expectation that these efforts are going to result in a deal from the reaction that we are hearing from Israeli officials, from the position of Hamas, who have essentially rejected the terms of what has been presented. And obviously, this ceasefire and hostage release deal was the main hope to try to de-escalate tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border. Because here in Lebanon, Hezbollah has been saying that they will observe here in Lebanon any kind of pause in the fighting in Gaza, but it feels like we're not close to any kind of pause in the fighting in Gaza. Hugo Bochega in Lebanon. A new study has shown that Brazil has lost more than a third of its natural areas since records began. Data

published by the monitoring network Map Biomass reveals that the Amazon rainforest has been hit hardest. Clitia Sala reports. Brazil's Amazon rainforest now has just over half a million square kilometres of native vegetation. The Cerrado, the world's most biodiverse savannah in central Brazil, ranks second in vegetation loss, while the Pantanal, a vast wetland, has seen a significant reduction in its water bodies. The loss of natural habitats has largely been driven by a massive increase in land use for livestock and farming. MEP Biomas says this will likely lead to more extreme weather events in the region.

Scientists warn Brazil is dangerously close to the point where it won't be possible to restore its natural habitats by planting new trees. The former US President Donald Trump has addressed supporters from behind bulletproof glass for his first outdoor rally since surviving an assassination attempt last month. Speaking in North Carolina, he said without evidence that hundreds of thousands of murderers had been sent to the United States from countries such as Venezuela, which he claimed was now safer than America. Mr. Trump also claimed he could restore world peace.

Starting the moment I lift my hand from the Bible after taking the oath of office, I will move to restore America to maximum strength and return the world to peace. We're going to return the world to peace. And mostly I can do it with a telephone call. You know, we don't have to send troops. I can do it with a telephone call. He was speaking as the Democratic Party holds its convention in Chicago. As we record this podcast, a number of prominent Democrats are due to speak on day three of the gathering. Tim Waltz is

expected to deliver the keynote address as he officially accepts the vice presidential nomination. Ukraine's military says it's been using the US-made HIMARS rocket system during its incursion into Russia. This marks the first time that Ukraine has officially confirmed that donated equipment from the West has been deployed across the border. Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss has more details. It's hardly a shock revelation. Ever since Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia, there's been evidence that equipment donated by the West was playing a role. But Ukraine's military is now openly celebrating its use of American rockets to destroy Russian bridges, which suggests they don't expect the US to complain. And Ukraine's allies

do appear relaxed about where their kit is deployed, providing it doesn't strike targets deep inside Russian territory. The Kremlin, however, has said that the use of Western weapons on Russian soil does mark an escalation. That was Paul Moss. Officials on the Italian island of Sicily say they found the bodies of five passengers from a superyacht that sank in extreme weather conditions on Monday. The British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter were among six people who went missing when the vessel, named the Bayesian, went down. Our Southern Europe correspondent Mark Lowen spent the day in Porticello,

where the search operation is taking place. In this awful story, another grimly inevitable chapter. The bodies of five of the six missing passengers from the Bayesian were finally found today, all but one brought to shore. Their identities have not been officially confirmed. Along with the yacht's chef, whose body was found earlier, six people are now known to have died when the luxury superyacht went down before dawn on Monday after a water spout, a mini-torn tornado, hit it, capsizing it within minutes. Divers have been using remote control vehicles to patrol the seabed for hours,

far longer than they themselves can spend down there at such depths. It's left even the experts dumbfounded. We went out to sea with one of Sicily's top ship surveyors, Rino Casilli, on his sailing yacht, about a third of the size of the Bayesian. He's been in the business for 30 years and says for a huge super yacht to have sunk so quickly, there must have been serious errors. For that amount of water to have flooded in, it couldn't have been one single mistake. It must have been many. Perhaps a large compartment was left open for a long time. We had a weather warning beforehand, so there should have been two crew taking turns

on overnight watch, and it should have been moored in the harbour. And so as the rescuers find more missing, the investigators search for more answers. It is a time-consuming and agonising wait for both. Mark Lowen in Sicily. It's summer in the Danish capital Copenhagen and when better to prepare to protect the city from the future dangers of extreme weather which are forecast to become more frequent with climate change. Hundreds of projects are in the works to carry away heavy rainfall and our reporter in Copenhagen, Adrian Murray, has been taking a closer look. Climbing down into a giant hole 20 metres below ground, we reach the entrance of a huge tunnel burrowing right under the city. It's part of a plan to protect Copenhagen from flooding and from severe rainfall.

Matthew Moggridge, a construction manager from utility firm Hoffel, leads the way inside. This is like Jules Verne's journey to the centre of the earth. Acting as a man-made river, this underground tunnel network will hold large volumes of water, then carry it away to the sea. This one runs down to the harbour. It's 700 metres long and the two tunnels together should retain 10,000 cubic metres of water during a storm event.

In 2011, a once-in-a-thousand-year flood caused by a cloudburst left the Danish capital knee-deep in water. To prevent future damage, more than two billion dollars is being spent flood-proofing the city. It's very expensive to protect the city, but you could say it's even more expensive not to. Brian Hansen is Hofo's chief operating officer for water and wastewater. In 50, 100 years time, we will probably in Copenhagen see some 40 or 50 percent more rain in a year. It's about these extreme events where all of a sudden we have a lot of heavy rain in a very short period of time and they just become more frequent with the climate change. In cities built up with impervious tarmac and concrete, rainwater has nowhere to go, and so many cities have been hit by flash floods. Worldwide, it's estimated that economic losses top $100 billion each year,

and within the next three decades, that sum is expected to climb steeply, as severe weather events occur more frequently. Yet many cities remain underprepared. With more than 300 climate adaptation projects in the works, Copenhagen is remodelling itself. At the centre of this built-up residential area was once a congested roundabout, but hundreds of trees have now been planted, transforming it into a small woodland. Creating green spaces like this one that can act as a sponge help urban areas handle heavy downpours of rain. Meanwhile, in the west of the city, what looks like an ordinary leafy park has a clever hidden purpose. There are small lakes and under the rose garden is water storage, while the foot

high walls that wrap around the park can be sealed off, transforming this recreational space into an urban reservoir. Jan Rasmussen, who's the municipality's climate adaptation project manager, shows me around. It can fill the whole park up, actually holding back more than 20,000 cubic meters of water. Even the sports pitches here are sunken, so they can double as large ponds, storing water and helping to protect the nearby neighborhood. But low-lying Copenhagen also has other risks to prepare for, like storm surges and extreme heat. Changing climate, we will have raising sea level, we will have more heat waves in the summertime and we can make the city more green, have more trees in the city. With more extreme weather expected in the decades ahead, amplified by

climate change, Denmark's capital is getting ready and other cities are following the plans closely and taking note. Adrian Murray in Denmark. Still to come. Today for trauma care, the best standard of care is what we call in Brooklyn, pressure and a prayer. Now a new treatment derived from algae that it's hoped could be a game changer in stopping catastrophic bleeding. 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.

The UN says for the first time in four months, an aid convoy has entered Sudan from Chad to bring desperately needed food to people at risk of famine in the Darfur region. More than a dozen trucks crossed the border at Adre a week after Sudan's military-led government agreed to let them in. The army had kept the border closed in what it said was an effort to stop weapons reaching the rival paramilitary rapid support forces. More than 10 million people have been displaced since a war began in April last year. The U.S. special envoy for Sudan is Tom Perriello. Seeing those trucks was a really good start, but we've already seen some of those who've tried to use starvation as a weapon of war, putting back in all the brakes. We need to see President Burhan continue to exert that clear message that these are just the

beginning. We've got 100 trucks already ready. They need to be moving not just through Andre, but also on the Daba Road and other mechanisms to get to over 20 million people who face acute shortage and even starvation got to be moving quickly. Eric Reeves is the chairman of the Darfur Bar Association, which was founded in the mid-1990s to provide legal support for victims of human rights violations. So just how significant is this first aid convoy? It's potentially enormously significant for many, many hundreds of thousands of Darfurians who are experiencing extremely acute hunger. At the same time, there are some cautions that we need to bear in mind. One is simply the weather. This is the very height of Darfur's rainy season. Only paved

roads are guaranteed to be navigable. And we are talking about some long distance from Adre, for example, to Al-Fajr. The besieged capital of North Darfur, is over 400 kilometers. Much of that area is under the control of the rapid support forces, a brutal, ruthless paramilitary force that has no training in international humanitarian or human rights law. And it's not at all clear to me that they would allow humanitarian aid to reach, for example, Zamzam, an internally displaced camp where I run a small program and where I'm receiving constantly photographs of starving children. These are the kinds of people who need to be reached. Eric Reeves. A man in Pakistan accused of spreading disinformation, which is thought to have fuelled the recent unrest in the UK, has had a case for cyber-terrorism filed against him.

He's due in court on Thursday. Police say Farhan Asif, who's from the Punjab region, is linked to a website which published false claims about last month's stabbings in Southport in northwest England. It gave a wrong name for the suspected attacker and suggested he was an asylum seeker. From Islamabad, here's our correspondent Caroline Davis. One police officer told the BBC that during questioning, Mr Asif admitted to writing the article, copying the content from a post on social media, but failed to verify the information. According to the police report, devices owned by Mr Asif were found to have a Twitter account for Channel 3 Now active, and Mr Asif had told the officers that he ran the account.

Channel 3 Now later took down the article and issued an apology, stating that the employees involved had been fired. But according to the same officer, Mr Asif had told the police that he ran the site alone. The police report states that he had previously provided misleading information to the BBC regarding his accomplices in an attempt to divert blame to others. Mr Asif has had a case of cyber-terrorism filed against him by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency. In Pakistan, only a court can decide to bring charges on the basis of a police investigation. Pakistan's FIA is continuing to investigate whether anyone else could have been involved.

That was Caroline Davis in Pakistan. Scientists working on India's lunar exploration mission say they found evidence that an ocean of magma once covered the moon's south pole. The research is based on the findings of a robot lander sent to that region of the moon last year. Georgina Ranard reports. Nearly a year ago to the day, India was preparing to do something historic, land on the moon's unexplored south pole. They did it, the world celebrated, and now we are seeing results.

A rover that trundled around the area for 10 days found remnants of an ancient ocean of lava, according to scientists at India's Physical Research Laboratory. The findings back up a theory that after the moon formed around 4.5 billion years ago, following a giant crash of two planetary bodies, it began to cool. Lighter rock then rose to the surface. This farrowing anorthosite may have been a slushy ocean of lava for millions of years, eventually forming the moon's highlands. The findings bring us one step closer to understanding this deeply mysterious region. On the next mission there, scientists hope to find a source of water that

could support a human base. Georgina Ranard. The American drug safety regulator, the FDA, has given approval this week to a product designed to stop bleeding. It's called TraumaGel, and the company behind it, Cressilon, says it could be game-changing in saving lives after injuries. Cressilon's chief executive is Joe Landolina. Today for trauma care, the best standard of care is what we call in Brooklyn pressure and a prayer, which is to pack the injury full of gauze. There are lots of special gauze products out there that are pro-coagulants, meaning that they try to help stop bleeding faster. But it all relies on this concept of

getting your fingers into the wound, packing gauze inch by inch, holding pressure for three, five, 10 minutes, and hoping that the bleeding gets under control. And as we look at moving into what Cressilon is developing, we're trying to eliminate that process of packing and drastically simplify the process of stopping bleeding. So what we've developed is a polymer. It comes out of algae that forms a gel that looks like hummus. And so it's a highly viscous gel that can be flowable, meaning it can be injected into the deepest parts of any sort of bleeding wound, whether it's a stab injury, a gunshot wound, a motor vehicle accident, a laceration, really anything where the bleeding

is life-threatening. You put this product into the wound and nearly on contact, it creates a mechanical barrier, meaning it physically stops the flow of bleeding by reassembling. And then it allows the patient to produce their own clot. So if you take the gel off, you end up with the patient's own clot behind without it getting ripped off and wrapped around the galls. If you look at battlefield death, 91% of preventable battlefield death is related to hemorrhage, meaning that bleeding is the vast majority of causes, or bleed out is the vast majority of cause of battlefield death. And if there were only a more efficient or more effective method to stop bleeding, countless lives could be saved. Joe Landolina. Gaming is a huge business,

raising more revenue than the music and movie industries combined. A little snippet there of a new version of the Borderlands franchise which kicked off Gamescom, the world's biggest gaming trade show which is up and running in the German city of Cologne. Gamescom showcases what's coming up in the gaming world over the next year. Thousands of gamers flock to Cologne, while tens of thousands more follow it online. Our reporter Andrew Rogers is watching it all.

Gamescom is essentially now the world's biggest gaming convention. The organisers say about 320,000 people attended last year. And it's a bit unique because it's almost like two shows in one. On one side, you've got the big festival of gaming where these thousands of fans flock to this centre in Cologne in Germany to try out all these games that essentially aren't out yet. So it's a bit of a preview. And then on the other side, you've got all the big execs from companies who meet behind closed doors to make these deals. And also where journalists like us get to see some of those games that are potentially not quite ready to show to the world yet. So what are the highlights this year?

To kick off and to build all that excitement for this event, there's always Opening Night Live, which is almost like a night of trailers to get people excited for what's coming for the year ahead. Now, that only includes the companies that are a part of Gamescom. So there are a few big absences. Nintendo, which makes the Switch, isn't really involved. But with all the other big manufacturers, they were showing things off. One of those was Borderlands 4, this essentially a sci-fi comedy sort of hybrid.

You might know it because there's been a film recently that's come out. It had Cate Blanchett in it, Kevin Hart. It didn't really get great reviews as the only thing. So the movie itself, not so successful. The game series, though, has always done well. And there being a fourth one, there's quite a lot of hype around that. And the trailer, even though it didn't really show us anything,

will get people excited for a 2025 release. Now, this industry, it's huge. It's worth tens of billions of dollars. But this year's event is coming in a difficult time for the industry, isn't it? It is a tricky time. And that's down to a few different factors. There was a big amount of growth, a lot of investment during COVID-19 related lockdowns around the world. A lot of people spending more time inside, they were playing a lot more games. That hasn't really

stuck in the same way. And it's led to a lot of consolidation within the industry, a lot of companies also laying off thousands of workers. And there have been strikes over this year as well. And the main thing, and the main thing from fans is that a lot of them say there's just not enough games to play at the moment. A lot of them are seemingly waiting for 2025. That's why we're getting a lot of big announcements at the moment to try and get people excited for the next lot. But certainly a lot of companies especially microsoft uh one of the big ones that is showing stuff off at gamescom at the moment trying to get people excited for all the games they have coming up after they bought a

whole bunch of big studios around the world you might remember the news within the last year that they bought activision one of the biggest gaming companies in the world it was one of the biggest deals and takeovers just full stop and for them to really make the most of that acquisition now with games that lots of people are going to play and to have wide appeal around the world. Andrew Rogers on Gamescom, which is currently taking place in Cologne. And that's it from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you would like to comment on new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it,

do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Tom Bartlett. The producer was Liam McSheffery. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard, 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 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.