Global News Podcast - Hurricane Milton: Millions urged to leave their homes

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Officials in Florida have told more than five million people to evacuate, as one of the most powerful hurricanes in a century approaches. Also: the FBI arrests an Afghan man accused of planning a mass shooting.

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. Life and death were two very realistic co-existing possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference.

It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. 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. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janette Jalil and at 13 hours GMT on Wednesday the 9th of October, these are our main stories. More than 5 million people in the US state of Florida are being urged to evacuate as a powerful hurricane approaches. The head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says at least 400,000 people are trapped in the north of Gaza by Israel's new ground offensive there.

An Afghan man is arrested in the US by the FBI who accused him of planning a mass shooting on the day of the presidential election. Also in this podcast, a fugitive father who's been on the run for three years with his three young children is spotted in a remote area of New Zealand. We hear from their mother. My babies deserve better. It's beyond time that they come home. We begin in Florida, which is bracing itself

for what's being called the storm of the century. The United States is used to hurricanes, but the one that is set to descend on the Sunshine State in the coming hours is so huge and so powerful that it's even reduced one veteran weather reporter to tears. It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize. This is just horrific. Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall around the densely populated Tampa Bay area of Florida late on Wednesday. And with forecasts that it could cause storm surges of up to four and a half meters. More than five million people have been urged to evacuate. President Joe Biden warned it was a matter of life or death. He's cancelled a trip to Germany to oversee the response. As people flee inland, there have been

long lines of traffic and hundreds of petrol stations have run out of fuel. This comes as residents of Florida are still clearing up the debris from Hurricane Helene, which hit two weeks ago, causing widespread death and destruction. Our correspondent Gordon Carrera reports from Tampa. The streets here in Tampa are eerily quiet. Hardly anyone is around. Almost everyone seems to have followed the orders to get out, ahead of what could be a massive storm surge as Milton makes landfall.

Those who are left are often making last-minute preparations to save what they can. The water was up to here. And that's from the last one two weeks ago, yeah? It's just a flood. I found Steve Crist working to board up his dental surgery. I've lived here my whole life. I'm 73 years old and we've never ever had anything like this ever. And to have two in two weeks. Yeah oh yeah that building's never flooded and I practiced tennis in there for 44 years. Outside his building is a pile of debris, flooring and

chairs. The result of flooding after the last storm Helene which hit just two weeks ago killing hundreds and leaving many still missing. There's so much damage all around. Oh, my gosh, you just drive up and down, you just can't believe it. Yeah. Home after home after home after home after home. There's not been time to clear things up yet, which could cause even more problems as Milton arrives. And what I'm worried about is all this stuff tonight

and tomorrow getting blown, you getting blown into the office. And I was hoping they would have taken this away by now, but they haven't. That's right. They were trying to get rid of the debris today, weren't they? Yes. And they're still working on it, and I'm sure they'll be working today and tomorrow, and maybe they will. Yeah. But in the meantime, there's a dumpster right down there I found, and I'm going to start hauling whatever I can to the dumpster.

Steve shows me on the wall where the water got up to with Helene, just a few feet high. But the fear is Milton could bring a storm surge up to 15 feet high. The results here in Tampa and further afield could be catastrophic. So you're preparing the place now, and then you're going to get out? Oh, yeah, we're getting out of here. We're just trying to get things on the windows so the windows don't break tonight. OK're just trying to get things on the windows.

Okay. So the windows don't break tonight. Okay. Just trying to keep the water out. That's all I'm trying to do. I mean, it's pretty quiet here. I mean, everyone's gone. Gone. I just went home and came back,

and I've never seen it so quiet. Yeah. So people are either gone or they're preparing their homes or whatever. But, yeah, there's no one on the road. Because it feels like this time people are taking it really seriously. It's very serious. Yeah.

This is the worst we have ever seen. Yeah. The worst we've ever seen. Yeah, yeah. So it's going to be a lot of damage, I will tell you. A lot of damage. So I can just hope for the best. That's all we can do, right?

The warnings that have come from everyone, from the mayor up to the president, seem to have got through here in Tampa. And there is a fear that even in a state used to hurricanes, that Milton could be different and dangerous. Gordon Carrera. But even if people want to leave, not all of them feel they can. Steve Parris lives in Tampa,

and he's chosen to stay at home with his girlfriend and their friends. I have left in the past for other storms, but for this one being what it is, it just seemed to make more sense to stay, especially now that traffic has had some issues. We keep getting different reports that you could leave now, you can't leave now. We have animals, things that we have to get ready to do all that stuff for if we were to leave. So it made it really tough. And quite frankly, right now, we're just hunkering down. We got everything we need and just kind of hoping for the best. Craig Fugate is a former administrator at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency,

FEMA. He says preparations to deal with the aftermath of Milton are well underway. Right now, the state, FEMA are staging rescue teams, communication resources and supplies outside of the area of the direct impact, but close where they can start moving in. And as soon as the storm has passed through, and they're not going to wait for the sun to shine, you know, blue skies, they're going as soon as it's not dangerous from the winds. Search and rescue teams have already mapped out many of these coastal areas, and they know where they're going to go to start their search for people who may have stayed behind and began that process of getting people rescued and identifying the hard-hit areas.

And that process will then follow the storm as it exits the state. The next thing will be getting in the communications to get re-established, getting roads open so you can get in these areas and then start moving the supplies that will be needed to help these communities just begin to stabilise this response. And this will all be taking place over the next several days after the storm makes landfall. Craig Fugate. At least two people have been

killed and many more wounded after dozens of rockets were launched from Lebanon at the northern Israeli cities of Haifa and Kiryat Shemona. The two who died were reported to be a couple who'd been walking their dog and didn't have time to get to a shelter. Earlier, the Israeli military said it had struck more than 180 targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours. On Tuesday night, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made a speech in English to the Lebanese people, saying they would face destruction on the same scale as Gaza unless they rise up against Hezbollah. A correspondent in Beirut, Hugo Beshega, gave us this update.

There have been more Israeli airstrikes here in Beirut, Hugo Bechega, gave us this update. There have been more Israeli airstrikes here in Beirut, around 10 airstrikes last night hitting Dahir, which is the district here in Beirut where Hezbollah has a very strong presence. And in the south of the country, this Israeli ground invasion continues and it is expanding. Yesterday, there was the announcement by the Israeli military that troops were being deployed to a part of southwest Lebanon. We know that they've been advancing in the southeast of the country. The Israeli military is still describing what's happening in the south as a localized, targeted, limited offensive.

But we've seen footage from one village in particular, Yaron, right next to the border. And we've seen widespread destruction of this village. So this ground invasion continues in the south of the country, bringing even more destruction to parts of Lebanon. Yeah. And last night, we had this threat from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in English, telling the people of Lebanon that if they didn't rise up against Hezbollah, then Israel would visit the same destruction on Lebanon that is visited on Gaza. I think people will be very concerned because, you know, some images are emerging from the south, the destruction caused by these Israeli airstrikes. But I think,

you know, this message is very unlikely to have any residents here in Lebanon. You know, there is a long history of Israeli violence here in Lebanon. And now a lot of people are saying that Israel is not only fighting against Hezbollah, it is fighting against Lebanon. They, you know, mention the civilian sites, civilian areas that have been hit by these airstrikes, the growing number of medical workers, rescue teams who have been killed by these Israeli airstrikes. So I don't think people are going to pay a lot of attention to what the prime minister has been saying. But obviously, no matter the scale of the damage that Israel manages to inflict on Hezbollah, this group will not be destroyed. Here it is more

than a militia. It is a political party with representation in parliament. It is a social movement with significant support. So Israel may be able to weaken Hezbollah, but the group is not going to be completely destroyed. It is not going to disappear from Lebanon. It would be very difficult for people in Lebanon to rise up against Hezbollah anyway, given that it's said to be more powerful than the Lebanese army. Exactly. And don't forget that this is a country that had a very long civil war. Internal divisions run deep here in the country. A lot of people remember what happened here in the 80s. And some people fear that what may come next is worse than what's come before, that perhaps Hezbollah supporters, Hezbollah members feeling humiliated because of everything that's happened

so far may become more radicalized, more isolated, and that could exacerbate tensions in this country. Hugo Beshega in Beirut. The head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza says at least 400,000 people are trapped in the north of the territory because of the ongoing fighting there. Philippe Lazzarini says many have been forced to leave the Jabalia refugee camp following Israeli evacuation orders. The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 45 people have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in the past day alone, bringing the total killed in the past year to more than 42,000, most of them civilians. Yolande Nell reports. Premature babies and other patients are being moved away from the main hospital in Jabalia amid gunfire and shelling, doctors say,

as Israeli forces continue their raid of northern Gaza. Israel's military says it's targeting Hamas fighters who've regrouped. In northern Israel, sirens continue to warn of incoming missiles fired by Hezbollah amid reports of intense battles in the Israeli army's ground defensive across the Lebanon border. Fears of a regional war are now escalating as Israel considers major retaliatory attacks against Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to update President Biden on plans in a phone call. Tensions are running high between the two leaders and it's understood this will be the first time they've spoken in weeks.

Newland now. A father who went on the run with his three young children three years ago in New Zealand has been cited. Tom Phillips and the children, now aged eight, nine and eleven, were spotted by hunters in a remote part of New Zealand's North Island. The children's mother said she was relieved to know that they were still alive but desperate for them to come home. Chris Sassford, a journalist at Radio New Zealand, told us more about this case. It all kicked off in September 2021 when Tom Phillips went missing with his three children, three young children. He was missing for two weeks and in that time there was a big search, a high profile search for him and his children and after two weeks he turned up again and with no real

explanation. He was charged with wasting police resources but he didn't appear, he didn't appear he didn't make that court appearance he disappeared again with the children in December 2021 and and he had they there's been a few sightings since then but he is they are he's still on the run with those children who are now there's Jada who's 11 Maverick who's nine and Ember who is 8. So they're still very young children. And last week there was a sighting of them again. Do we know how he's managed to stay hidden for so long with three such young children? The area in the North Island where he is, around an area called Marakopa,

is wild, it's rugged, it's underpopulated. And he is apparently a person who spent quite a lot of time in the bush, so he knows how to live rough. The mother of the children has been in the media this week strongly believing that Tom Phillips is being supported by at least one person who is providing him with supplies and information. And it's hard to imagine what an agony these last three years have been for the mother. The mother has, her name is Kat, and she is devastated. She has been interviewed on RNZ today

and she just says she misses her children every day. She thinks about them all the time. She's fearful for them. She's made a plea actually today to the people who are almost certainly helping Tom Phillips. My babies deserve better. It's beyond time that they come home and supporting Thomas is essentially supporting child abuse

because that's what it is. People are helping this child abuser get away with it and they need to stop. Even if he is an expert on living in wild remote areas, it does seem surprising that police have not been able to catch him in all this time. Everybody's surprised about that and there has been some criticism of the police but some people say why aren't they using, why didn't they use air support after this latest sighting on Thursday? So on Thursday, some pig hunters were out, some young fellas, they were out pig hunting and they saw Tom Phillips walking along and there's video of him walking along and with

his three children wearing kind of camouflaged sort of clothing with backpacks on and they're walking along this kind of rugged bit of country and the police were called and they went and they did a search but then you know they didn't find them and people are saying why didn't you call for air support why didn't you use dogs what what's going on and the police don't really they don't really engage about that. So that's, we just don't know. That's a mystery for many of us. Chris Sassford from Radio New Zealand. Still to come on the Global News Podcast,

a posthumous memoir by Elvis's daughter reveals the impact his death had on her. The death of a parent is incredibly heartbreaking. It was totally devastating to her. And I think that she, in some ways, spent her life grieving. Life and death were two very realistic, coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was.

Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care to hear more stories of recovery visit camh.ca 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 americiCast 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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. The FBI has arrested an Afghan man living in Oklahoma who's suspected of plotting to carry out a mass shooting attack on the day of the US presidential election, targeting large crowds. This comes at a time of heightened concerns about the possibility of extremist violence in the run-up to and after the election in November.

Our reporter in Washington, Carl Nasman, told us more about the 27-year-old who arrived in the U.S. three years ago. Nasir Ahmed Tawhedi is accused of planning this attack either in sympathy with or in conjunction with the Islamic State group. There are some bits of evidence here that are laid out by prosecutors and some documents that were unsealed on Tuesday. They point to a couple of different things, saying that the suspect was in these kinds of chat rooms, telegram groups that are sympathetic to the group, the Islamic State,

also that there were some elements, texts and pictures, some documents downloaded to his phone. He also made some donations, apparently, to the Islamic State group. Now, in the end, he was actually detained after he tried to buy some high-powered rifles and ammunition from two undercover FBI agents. In terms of some of the details that we're getting about this actual plot, apparently the suspect allegedly told prosecutors that he and a younger accomplice were hoping to die as martyrs in a large attack on a big gathering of people.

And of course, you could imagine on Election Day here in the U.S., many people heading out to balloting and polling stations across the country. That might have been the type of place that they were hoping to target. Carl Nasman, the U. the US government is considering seeking the breakup of Google to end its overwhelming dominance in internet searches in what could be the strongest attempt to date to rein in one of the world's most powerful tech companies. The Department of Justice could also force Google to share users' search data with rivals and restrict its ability to use search results to train new artificial intelligence models and products. I asked our technology correspondent, Chris Vallance, why the US authorities are looking at taking this step.

Well, we all know Google's big. I mean, it's part of the language, isn't it? We don't search for things, we Google things. But in August, a US court found that Google had acted illegally to crush its competition to maintain that dominant position in online search. Now what's happened is the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors essentially have set out their initial thoughts on what should be done about this. And they say solutions could include big changes to Google's business, including, and this is the step that's getting a lot of attention, potentially breaking up bits of it. And that really would be big news for everyone because so many of us use Google tools and Google search. And how has Google responded to this?

Well, they are set to appeal the original ruling and they strongly argue against these proposals in a blog post. They accuse the Department of Justice of government overreach and going far beyond the issues that have been raised in court. And they've always argued that the reason they're big is essentially because they're the best. People like to use their products because they're better than the competition. If there was a breakup of Google, what would it mean for internet users and for other tech companies? Well, it would mean a lot for Internet users. I think the figure is about 90% of U.S. searches are processed using Google. And it could mean a change really for the tech that lots of us use.

I mean, the firm could be forced to divest Chrome and Android. It's a phone operating system. That's one option on the table. You could see changes to the default search engines on your devices, on phones. That's been an issue in these cases. And it could also see changes to how Google uses data. And as you've mentioned, how it develops AI tools. And we're now seeing AI appear in search results, of course, when we Google we Google for things. So you know, a big change in lots of tools that we all use. But and this could have far reaching implications, because right now, it's just a handful of tech companies that dominate the world. Yeah, exactly. And I think this is sort of, you know, if you're a tech company thinking about

looking at this, it really depends on who you are, about whether you're sort of enthused or worried about this, because, you know, regulators are looking critically at the competition of several big tech giants. But also there are lots of startups who will be thinking, well, if there is a breakup, maybe that's an opportunity for me. Chris Vallance. A Spanish couple on their honeymoon in Singapore have been detained after protesting against the Singaporean owner of the football club they support. Danny Cuesta posted photographs of himself outside the home of Peter Lim, the billionaire owner of Valencia, holding a banner criticising the business magnate. Nick Marsh reports from Singapore. Speaking to a Valencia fan podcast last week, Danny Cuesta said he'd had a lightbulb moment when his wife suggested visiting Singapore and Bali for their honeymoon.

Shortly after arriving in the city-state, which has strict laws against vandalism and public assembly, he spent the day plastering lampposts with yellow stickers that read LIM OUT and posed several times with a banner that said Lim Go Home. The next day, as they attempted to board their flight to Bali, the couple were stopped by Singapore authorities who confiscated their passports. It's unclear what charges the pair face, if any. Peter Lim is one of Singapore's richest men and is deeply unpopular with Valencia fans who've seen their club's fortunes decline significantly during his tenure.

Nick Marsh. Riley Keough is a renowned Hollywood actor, but perhaps she's better known as part of a family of American celebrity royalty. She's Elvis Presley's granddaughter. Her mother, the singer Lisa Marie Presley, died last year while she was in the middle of writing her memoir. Riley Keough took it upon herself to finish her mother's book, and the completed memoir gives a rare insight into Lisa Marie's life and her relationship with her father.

The BBC's Nedda Torfick has been speaking to Riley. At the end of Lonely Street, a heartbreak will hit. As the only child of Elvis, Lisa Marie Presley's life played out in the public eye. Her new posthumous memoir, finished by her daughter Riley Keough, is a raw and incredibly sad look at one of America's most famous families. Hi Riley, I'm Netta. Riley sat down with the BBC to discuss the book. In it, for the first time, Lisa Marie shares the harrowing story of her father's death. How at just nine years old, she ran to his body on the bathroom floor screaming.

She writes that she sensed something was wrong with him. I mean, the death of a parent is incredibly heartbreaking. It's kind of your fear as a child to lose your parent. Even them leaving the room is hard for small children, you know. So it was totally devastating to her. And I think that she, in some ways, spent her life grieving. And yes, that relationship is discussed too. The world had no idea what to make of the union And yes, that relationship is discussed too. The world had no idea what to make of the union between the king of rock and roll's daughter and the king of pop.

But Lisa Marie insists in her memoir that she was so happy and that no one ever came close to being like her dad, apart from Michael Jackson. It just sort of exploded, you know? I think that it was very passionate and kind of just went of exploded, you know. I think that it was very passionate and kind of just went up in flames a bit. You know, I know they both very, you know, cared for each other very deeply. And there were a lot of things at play, drugs, you know, my mom's fundamental sort

of distrust in people around her. The first time Michael Jackson proposed, Lisa Marie says she was still married and he confessed his love in a dark room in Las Vegas. He told her he was a virgin and wanted her to have his kids. After over two years of marriage, Lisa Marie filed for divorce. On the accusations that he was a child molester, Lisa Marie wrote, I never saw a goddamn thing like that. I personally would have killed him if I had. Addiction and mental health are a running theme throughout the book. Lisa Marie says she experimented with drugs during her rebellious teen years,

but it wasn't until her 40s, after she was prescribed opioids for a C-section, that she became an addict. The idea that she wasn't an addict her entire life and then sort of this happened, she was given these pills when she had the c-section is a common story. But the biggest heartbreak of all for Lisa Marie was when her son Ben took his own life. She kept her son's body on dry ice in the house for two months. I think that it's pretty common when you lose a child to sort of not want to participate in life. I think you can become extremely hopeless and I just didn't see uh I didn't see a path forward for her because I mean every mother loves their children but her whole identity in

life was uh motherhood so yeah I just I couldn't imagine a path forward for her that was positive Riley says her mother wanted to write something that people could relate to and help them feel less alone. And while her mother's life was filled with great trauma, she says there was great joy too. That report by Nedda Torfik on the posthumous memoir of Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. Now, if you're fed up of swiping left on dating apps to find the love of your life,

or there's something you desperately need or want, could this be the answer? An ancient Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul grants wishes to people from all faiths. But it's only open on one day a month, and the queue to get in gets longer and longer as word spreads about Our Lady of Vefa. Wendy Urquhart reports. Hundreds of worshippers of all religions travel to Istanbul on the first day of the month for a very special reason. Their destination is the Our Lady of Vefa Church, which has a reputation for granting wishes. The church and the land it sits on have a long and checkered history that dates back to Byzantine times. Legend has it that in the 1800s, the land was bought by a Christian migrant,

whose daughter dreamt that there was a holy shrine on the property. When the land was excavated, they discovered a passageway, a reservoir and a holy marble icon. The ancient spring is believed to contain miraculous spiritual powers. The water is blessed by a priest and piped into taps in a small underground chapel. When visitors arrive, they can buy keys that unlock glass cases containing religious images which are directly related to their wish whether it's health, love, money, success, fertility or something completely different. The faithful then walk down 12 steps to the marble shrine to drink and wash their hands in the holy water and make their wish.

It was especially nice to drink the healing water. I had wounds on my hand. It was good for them. It felt good. I recommend it to everyone. It's a good thing to make wishes for yourself or for someone else. I think it's a good thing to come to such places and see so many people, so many religions together. Believers can make as many wishes as they want, but they must return the keys to the church once their wish comes true. And they're also expected to bring sweets for those who are waiting in line, which on special occasions can stretch for more than a kilometre. Wendy Urquhart. 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, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at

bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on execglobalnewspod. This edition was produced by Harry Bly. It was mixed by Paul Mason. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to, like, my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference.

It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. 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.