Global News Podcast - Israel confirms attack on Syrian naval fleet

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Israel attacks Syria's naval fleet as part of efforts to neutralise the country's military assets after the fall of the Assad regime. Also: New Zealander wins Spanish Scrabble championship - without speaking Spanish.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If Hitler isn't defeated, it's the end of the free world. Purple Heart Warriors, listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. JALIL This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 11th of December, these are our main stories. Israel says it's completely destroyed Syria's navy days after Islamist rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad. As Russia looks for new allies, the country's parliament has taken the first step to remove the Taliban from Moscow's list of terror organisations.

Kenyan police have used tear gas on protesters who were denouncing violence against women. Also in this podcast, he is the Da Vinci of vocabulary, the Tiger Woods of triple word scores. The naturally verbose compliments of Scrabble commentators go on and on. The Scrabble champion whose triumphs are all the more remarkable because he can't speak some of the languages he plays in. Israel says it's destroyed Syria's naval fleet and carried out nearly 500 air strikes since this weekend's toppling

of Bashar al-Assad's regime by Syrian rebels. A military statement said most weapons stockpiles across Syria were hit, as well as helicopters, air defence systems and tanks. Israel says its bombardment is aimed at stopping equipment falling into the hands of extremists. At the same time, Israeli ground forces have moved into Syrian territory, a move condemned by other Middle Eastern nations, among them Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey and by the UN. Its special envoy is Geir Pitsitsen. A very troubling development. We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop.

This is extremely important. At this volatile time, as questions remain about whether Syria will descend into chaos like Iraq or Libya did, or manage to establish a more democratic future, Israel says it's trying to stop Syrian munitions, including chemical weapons, falling into the hands of extremists. The defence minister Israel Katz says the IDF is creating what he describes as a sterile defence zone in southern Syria. The IDF is now completing its entrenchment in the buffer zone and in the controlled areas in order to protect the residents of the Golan Heights and the citizens of the state of Israel.

Together with the Prime Minister, I instructed the IDF to establish a sterile defense zone against weapons and terror threats in southern Syria. We will not allow this. We will not allow threats against the state of Israel. Shayan Zardazadeh from BBC Verify told me more about what exactly Israel has been targeting. There have been dozens and dozens of different sites across Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad that allegedly have been targeted by Israel. They seem to be focusing on two specific types of sites.

One military sites linked to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and two sites that are somehow linked to Iran. So these are areas that Iran's Revolutionary Guards specifically have basically established infrastructure, weapon systems, research centers inside Syria, mostly in order to help their ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. One of the biggest ones that we saw overnight last night was in Latakia, west of Syria. And right on the port, there's an area that has been heavily linked to the Syrian Navy. And there were multiple strikes that we verified overnight based on the videos and images that

we've seen this morning that caused extensive damage to the site. We've seen parts of the port on fire, but also specifically we've seen the verified footage of several missile boats and navy ships from the previous regime that have been completely destroyed. Shayan Sajazadeh. So why is Israel doing this? With his assessment, here's our international editor Jeremy Bowen. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been talking about this again today. Believe that by using military force backed up by the considerable might of the United States, without whom they couldn't do it, is going to reshape the balance of power in

the Middle East in Israel's favor. So it will never again face an attack like the one on October the 7th last year in which Hamas broke out of Gaza and killed so many Israelis. Now they're actually following in a way an old idea which is a century old about Israel's security, the security of the Jewish state. There was no Israel a century ago, no Israeli state. And that idea is that the Jewish state builds an iron wall around itself, that its Arab enemies will dash themselves repeatedly against the wall until the time comes when they realize that Israel isn't going anywhere,

and then the idea is that Israel would negotiate a future with them. Now, where Netanyahu departs from the iron wall idea, and many other Israelis the same is they don't believe in negotiation. They don't believe it works. They believe that there is a military solution. Be the strongest player in an area which they always use this rather very disparaging term. They call it the jungle. They say it's the law of the jungle and in the jungle you've got to be the tiger.

And that, I think, is the philosophy that lies behind this because the Syrian military melted away. It didn't fight significantly, but it left behind its weapons. And the Israelis are concerned that the Islamists who now control Damascus will get hold of them and use them against them. Jeremy Bone, meanwhile the rebel leaders have announced an interim Prime Minister as they try to show the world that they will avoid the chaos and conflict that followed the ousting of dictators in countries like Iraq and Libya. But while the HTS group is trying to distance

itself from its jihadist past, the United States has set out its conditions for fully recognizing Syria's next government. At a briefing in Washington, the State Department spokesman Matthew Miller outlined what the US would want to see before accepting any transitional authority. The United States fully supports a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition that leads to credible, inclusive and non-sectarian

governance. He has also outlined several principles that we believe should be upheld during the transition process and formation of a new government. Respect for the rights of minorities, facilitation of humanitarian assistance, the prevention of Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing as a threat to its neighbours, securing and safely destroying any chemical weapons stockpiles. Our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman was at that briefing. What they are saying is that in order for this to be a government that has a blessing of the United States, it needs to be one that is both, they say, credible, inclusive of what they mean by that is of the sort of full breadth

of Syria's sectarian and religious makeup and transparent. That's about the governance part. But beyond that, there is a sort of important element of strategic and security issues that they also go into. So they say on that front that this can't be a government that basically uses Syria, in their words, as a terrorist base, as a country that would threaten its neighbours, and also that they expect the chemical and biological weapons stocks or any of those that are still there to be destroyed. Yes, we've had the HDS group, which led the march on Damascus, talking about how it's going to respect the rights of minorities, respect the rights of women, making all these reassuring noises and yet at the same

time we're seeing all these hundreds of strikes being carried out by Israel. Israel is entering Syrian territory, some Middle Eastern nations are calling it an invasion, so how does the US square that given the fact that it is also called on other countries to refrain from external Interference in Syria remember that just about every other country around Syria in one way or another Has interfered in the process during the civil war But not just the ones surrounding it but also you know other global powers Including the United States which has troops on the ground in

eastern Syria. It has backed what it sees as moderate Kurdish and Arab fighters. But at the same time, their very key ally, Israel, as you say, has both invaded the disengagement zone in the occupied Golan Heights, put its troops there in breach of a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria, and also the Israelis having carried out these very significant airstrikes, destroying, they say, the entire Syrian Navy. It's inconceivable that this happened without at least the kind of covert approval of the

US. Again, I asked them about this. Were they told in advance they wouldn't answer that question? In terms of what they'll do next, they say they haven't, you know, they're still going to talk in depth with the Israelis about what's happened. So they're not commenting on it at the moment, although they did say they want to see, you know, a peaceful process where there is an escalation. All of this, I think, goes to what cards the US really has to play in a military sense. You know, I've talked about its presence on the ground. I think it will be supportive

of Israeli strikes where it's taking out, you know, what they see as unconventional weapons, especially chemical and biological stocks. But if it goes on a lot longer and further that, I think it's going to increase the pressure on the United States to really sort of come out and say something about it. Tom Bateman, well the success of the HTS Islamist rebel group in Syria has been welcomed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is an international pariah. No country recognizes it because of the harsh way it treats Afghan women. Could that be about to change? Russia appears to be moving towards

recognising the Taliban government of Afghanistan. The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, has voted in favour of a law that could allow the Taliban to be removed from Moscow's list of terror groups. The Russia editor of BBC Monitoring, Vitaly Shevchenko, told me more about the move. Russia has been making sounds that the Taliban, well, kind of people Russia is prepared to work with for years. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, called them sensible people. Vladimir Putin himself said that Russia is prepared to take them off the list of officially designated terrorist organisations in Russia. And what happened in the lower house of the Russian parliament today? It's the first step

which could potentially lead to the Taliban being taken off this official list. Two more votes in the state doom of the lower house of parliament, then another in the upper house, and then this becomes law when President Putin signs it. There's very little doubt that this is what's going to happen because the mood music emanating from Moscow clearly suggests that this is what Russia's been considering. And why does Russia want to make an ally out of the Taliban in Afghanistan? Well Russia isn't really picky when it comes to friends and potential allies. It's lost Bashar al-Assad in Syria and look at his record.

So the Taliban, if they're the people who are in charge in Afghanistan, Russia is prepared to work with them as long as it promotes Russian interests and as long as it hurts the West's interests as well. This is really key to Russian foreign policy. But there was an attack earlier this year, a shooting at a concert hall in which more than 140 people were killed and it emerged that it was the Afghan branch of the so-called Islamic State group that carried out that attack and they're a big rival of the Taliban's. So is that another concern that Russia has? I would argue that it's more about Russia's own interests across the globe rather than the intricacies of infighting between various Islamist

groups. The key objective pursued by Vladimir Putin for the 20 years that he's been in charge of Russia is expanding Russia, getting it back up from its knees after the fall of the Soviet Union. And of course it involves working with various figures and leaders across the globe. If these leaders and figures happen to be less than savoury, so be it, apparently Russia is prepared to work with them. Vitaly Shevchenko. Meanwhile, back in Israel, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,

has told his corruption trial in Tel Aviv that the charges against him are ridiculous. He's become the country's first serving leader to take to the witness stand as a criminal defendant. He denies fraud, breach of trust and bribery. The hearing is taking place in an underground courtroom in Tel Aviv for security reasons. John Donison sent this report from outside the court. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel.

Bibi go to jail was the chant from protesters outside the courthouse in Tel Aviv. Bibi Neged Israel, Bazaarie Ekavel. For them, this is a moment of truth to power. Mr Netanyahu looked chipper as he arrived in court, despite being the first ever serving Israeli Prime Minister to stand trial. He faces three charges, bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Mr Netanyahu denies it all. Speaking before his testimony, he said the investigation into him had been born of sin. And today in court, he said the trial was based on an ocean of absurdities.

The case has been rumbling on for years and has divided Israel. Outside the courthouse today, anti-Bibi protesters in strong voice faced off with his supporters. The accusation from the protesters here, some of whom have family members held hostage in Gaza, is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has prolonged and escalated the wars in the Middle East for his own political survival and even to avoid going to jail. Hadassah Kalduron's husband, Ofa, is one of the hostages in Gaza, and she's angry at her prime minister. He takes care more for his own private things

more than for caring for his citizens. He doesn't care about these hundreds of hostages, and he cares more to survive in the political way. It's very sad. But Mr Netanyahu is riding high in opinion polls. His supporters outside court today were drumming out the message that at a time of war he shouldn't be having to face a trial. His testimony alone is expected to take a minimum of two weeks. That report by John Donnison. The man charged with the murder of a health executive in New York has appeared in court

in Pennsylvania for an extradition hearing. Luigi Mangione struggled with officers as he arrived at the courthouse and shouted out at a group of photographers. It's a complete out of touch insult to the intelligence of the American people. It's a bad experience. The 26-year-old is accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare last week. The judge has denied bail. Neda Taufik is following developments from New York. He is contesting that extradition and that is a key question. Why is he contesting that? from New York. want your client with you as soon as possible to start building a defense case.

And I think it's understood that he will eventually be extradited to New York. He could have done that if he waived his right today even. He could have been arriving here shortly. But that could take now a couple weeks, given Luigi Mangione is contesting it. So really interesting, because we saw an outburst in court where his lawyer actually told him to be quiet. What I heard from Jeffrey Lichtman, again, this defense lawyer I was speaking to,

was that he thinks he may have a viable extreme emotional disturbance defense in New York, which would help lower, for example, a charge of murder to manslaughter and would lead to a much lower sentence. But that is going to be a key focus, for example, a charge of murder to manslaughter and would lead to a much lower sentence. But that is going to be a key focus, of course, of his defense lawyers, how to build their kind of case moving forward. Neda Taufik in New York.

Still to come. Welcome back, everyone. We're diving into a story today about a unique roundabout in Sheffield, England. Hmm, fascinating. So could this be the podcast of the future made by artificial intelligence? My name is Ken Morioka, and I somehow found myself trapped in my Grandpa Alan's 18-year-old body in World War II. Purple Heart Warriors, the new time-bending drama series from the BBC World Service. Maybe the whole reason I was there was to change something. Listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

You're listening to the Global News Podcast. The Brazilian president Luisa Nassio Lula de Silva is recovering in intensive care after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain hemorrhage. Doctors say the 79-year-old leader should leave hospital next week. The hemorrhage is thought to have been caused by a fall that Mr Lula suffered back in October. Roberto Calil is one of the doctors looking after the president. During the night, he was transferred to the Cidio Libertas Hospital here in this unit. He underwent surgery to drain the hematoma, the bleeding in his brain. The president has

progressed well, has already come out of surgery practically awake, has been extubated and is now stable, talking normally, eating and should remain under observation for the next few days. I put it to our reporter in Sao Paulo, Camila Mossa, that this all sounded very alarming. It does sound alarming, right? So we woke up to the news here in Brazil and were surprised by it. Lula had had a domestic accident back in October, so two months ago he fell in the bathroom in the presidential palace while cutting his toenails and hit the back of his head. But he was treated, you know, he got five stitches and was doing well.

But then this Monday night, you know, after experiencing some severe headaches, he was taken from the capital, Brasilia, to a hospital here in São Paulo and underwent emergency surgery to have a craniotomy to drain the hemorrhage. And we've been told the procedure lasted for two hours. Doctors said that the surgery went well without complications and that he's lucid and being monitored in the intensive care unit. And is he expected to make a full recovery? According to his doctors, yes.

He has no brain damage. He's talking at the moment. He has a small tube coming out of his head, a drain which is expected to be removed in three days and should be released from the hospital in the next week. So it's at the moment good prognosis. We should have more information, a new report coming out in 24 to 48 hours. But in the U.S., we heard a lot about concern about President Biden and his advanced age. What's the public reaction been in Brazil? What are people saying about this? Are they reassured

by these reports that he will make a full recovery? Lula is 79, right? So a lot of people have been worried about his health condition. I mean, when he fell two months ago, a lot of people went, wow, I mean, what's going on? Can we trust that everything is OK with the president? And I think that people now are reassured. You know, Lula's name rose quickly to the trending topics on X early this morning. Supporters were worried, were wishing him well with a surgery, you know, and more angry opponents took the opportunity to vent about him on social media. And, Brazil is a very polarized country so a lot of people will take every chance they can get to argue on social media so people have been fighting about it. Camilla Mota. Police in Kenya have fired tear gas at a peaceful march against

gender-based violence in the capital Nairobi. Several people are reported to have been injured. Amnesty Kenya reported that its executive director and three others were arrested at the march but later released. A few hundred protesters, most of them women, marched through the streets blowing whistles and chanting, Stop killing women. Anita Nkongge was at the march. A lot of the protesters were relatively peaceful. All they had were their protesters, whistles and they kept chanting, end femicide, we stop killing our women. But what we kept seeing was when protesters would gather, police would shoot out tear gas. But what was also interesting

was that as protesters kept being dispersed, they kept coming back with even more energy, even more vim, asking the police, police we're asking you for help to help us with the cases of femicide, Why are you attacking us? Well, while that was being held, there's another controversial way in which women in Kenya have been demonstrating their desire for more freedom and choice. Young women have been undergoing an operation called tubal ligation, a form of permanent contraception usually performed on older women for medical reasons. It involves the fallopian tubes being permanently blocked, clipped or removed. The procedure is irreversible. So why are these women, mostly under the age of 30, doing this? Audrey Brown spoke to one of them, 28-year-old Nelly Naisula Sironka.

It's something I have been meaning to do. This just felt like the right time. And I've always known that I do not want children. It's not that I ever wanted kids and then I changed my mind, because most people assume that was the case, because they'd ask at what point did you know this was a decision for you. Through and through, kids have never crossed my mind. And when they did, it's from the perspective of, I'm sure I don't want kids. I don't know that I've answered your question.

Well, I mean, it's just awoken more questions in me because I'm also one of those women who thought from a very young age that I'm not sure about this child thing. And then I actually decided that I didn't want to have children. Oh, nice. I didn't know that. Well, I didn't know I was going to tell you that. But tubal ligation is not something that crossed my mind. I mean, I didn't think that that's what I should do.

It didn't even seem like an option to me. Oh really? Okay. So maybe mine had some layers of complexity. I experienced a lot of hormonal imbalance. So I do have a thyroid problem and I also have PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Right. Which is something that makes women experience very heavy periods, abnormal hair growth, weight gain, fatigue and so on.

Correct. Okay. Yes, you got that right. Right. So a combination of those hormonal issues for me, I tried other forms of contraception and they did not work for me, but I have to say the decision to get a tubal ligation was not only because of my medical issues, it was also for me a way of solidifying this decision that I have made, especially because I am getting to an age where the society I come from have a certain expectation of me

getting children and so on and so forth. So I wanted to make this decision for myself and solidify. So more than anything, what I was trying to avoid is external influences, trying to come in and change my mind because I was sure I didn't want kids. But then I did not want to cave into the pressure of my family or just external pressure. And so that's what informed this decision for the most part. Did you discuss it with close family members? You had a partner at the time. Did you discuss it with close family members? You had a partner at the time, did you discuss it with them?

And what was their reaction? Or did you just decide to go it alone? You told no one? You just went for it. I did not discuss this with my family. Some of them still don't know that I did this. Let me say two of them know that I, my brother and sister know that I took the procedure, but they only learnt a few days after my surgery. I did disclose this to a friend, but it was more of informing her, but I did not have

a conversation or anything of that sort with anyone in my life. How did your brother and your sister react? They were expecting it. So they were shocking. So, it was shocking. Okay. Yes, yes. Because I've mentioned several in conversations with my family, you know, I don't want children. I'm not even sure about marriage and especially traditional kind of marriage set up. So it's not something that took them by surprise. It was just a matter of when is she going to do it, not if she was going to do it. That was Nelly Naisula-Soronko.

Well, to those considering the procedure, the gynaecologist Dr. Sandra Engete had this to say. My advice would be to take time to think it over, get advice from other parties, not because you don't have body autonomy, which I truly believe in. It is your body, it is your choice and your future fertility depends on you. However, the regret rate is also quite high. Gynaecologist Dr Sandra Ngeti. Now, we'd like to keep abreast here on the Global News podcast of developments in artificial intelligence or AI. There have been some great strides taken in both sound and vision. In the US, the research organisation OpenAI, which developed chat GPT, has released Sora,

which makes videos from text instructions. But it's not yet available everywhere. What is available is a Google podcast generator. The product is called Google Notebook LM. Now for a quick demonstration a BBC producer made from scratch a 16-minute podcast in just a few minutes. She simply gave the program a link to a BBC news article on the web. It then churned out a 16-minute podcast about it, creating the voices and the content just from the text of the news article. I don't need to tell you what the item is about because here's a part of the

podcast. Welcome back everyone. We're diving into a story today about a unique roundabout in Sheffield, England. Fascinating. It's generating a lot of buzz. It is. Because it's only the second one in the UK of its kind. Oh, wow. Okay. And it's called a Dutch-style roundabout. Okay. We're looking at a BBC News article detailing the opening. So is this the future? A technology strategist and researcher, Rachel Caldicutt, who specialises in the social impact of new and emerging technologies, spoke to Evan Davis. There are lots of ways in which voice text and text and voice is great. It helps loads of people. It's a great disability aid, but actually

it's adding in lots of things that no one needs or wants, and I think that's probably the issue. I mean, okay, so they've definitely managed to, it's adopting a podcast-y style, a conversational, light, easygoing, chatty style. What is the application for that though, actually? I mean, there may be people who will find that a more pleasant way of absorbing information than by text, reading text, but what is the application for that? Where will that be used do you think?

There's a way in which it's up to us. And so if you wanted to turn a piece of information that you had to read that was a bit turgid into something more light-hearted, fun, and that was an easier way to understand it. I think maybe you would use this. But I think currently there's a limit to how much everything needs to be a podcast. And probably a limit. Oh, no, no, there's no limit to the right number of podcasts, Rachel. No, but look, I mean, it is possible if you wanted to absorb a five-page piece of text

while you're walking the dog with your headphones on, you might say convert that text into a nice chatty thing because I find that an easier way of absorbing information. I guess we just don't know whether people will find it useful or not, and nor do they, and they sort of chuck it out and we can try it. But the other one though is this new video program. Now this is, I put in some text and OpenAI through its Sora application will create a video not available in the UK so I can't give you an experiment and I don't think you've tried it but what's your what's your thought about this text to video creation? You can see how actually for people working in the creative industries this could be both useful

and very problematic but again what we see is that OpenAI have released a thing that they have described as being it's a work in progress. They don't exactly know how people are likely to use it. They're putting it out, seeing what happens. But in a way, I wonder whether you're just being too negative. That as you acknowledge, none of us really know where this technology lands, whether it's going to be whimsical, whether it's going to be game changing, whether it's going to be game-changing,

whether it's going to change whole industries, in which industries it'll change. And until we give it a go, we're not going to know what it does well and what dangers it has. And we're just going to have to tread carefully and watch very carefully, no? And see where it goes. These kind of materials are likely to be used to create very problematic content, whether that is disinformation, whether it's things that really sort of draw on stereotypes and negativities. And we know as well that it's likely to lead to more environmental harm.

The amount of water, energy, hardware that is used is going up and up and up. I think the other thing that is interesting is particularly when you're looking at visual renders, they quite often end up getting used in military planning, warfare, and I think accuracy is an issue. Danielle Pletka Technology strategist and researcher Rachel Caldicutt. Scrabble experts are praising what they regard as one of the most remarkable victories of the game. New Zealander Nigel Richards has won the Spanish Scrabble Championship even though he doesn't actually speak Spanish and as Paul Moss reports it's not the first country in which he's achieved this remarkable feat.

He is the da Vinci of vocabulary, the Tiger Woods of triple word scores. The naturally verbose compliments of Scrabble commentators go on and on. But then Nigel Richards is not just the best Scrabble player of all time, one rival said, but the best player of any game. First of all, there's his competition record. Nobody has ever before won more than three international or US championships. Richards has won 11. But that's just the start, or perhaps I should say the hors d'oeuvre, as that would earn 18 Scrabble points. But also because Richards managed to win the French

Scrabble Championship despite not actually speaking French. He just sat down and apparently in nine weeks memorised the words in the French dictionary. Lest the French feel singled out, Nigel Richards has now won the Spanish Scrabble Championship with the same learning by rote approach, beating all native speakers. An incredible humiliation was how this news was announced on Spanish television. Listen to the Scrabble experts though, and they'll insist Richards is more than just a bloke who's good at remembering words, it's the way he manages to thread them

through others. Nigel Richards doesn't give interviews, but is described by those who know him as mild-mannered. He apparently worked as a printer repairman in his native New Zealand before discovering a talent for Scrabble in his late 20s. And unlike other virtuosos, the game does not appear to be a passion for Nigel Richards. Asked once why he plays Scrabble, he answered simply, it's a bit of fun. Paul Moss reporting. 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.

This edition was mixed by Martin Baker. The producer was Liam McShephy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil, until next time-bending drama series from the BBC World Service. Maybe the whole reason I was there was to change something. Listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts.