Global News Podcast - Israel says 'localised, targeted ground raids' under way against Hezbollah in Lebanon

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

The Israeli military says troops are carrying out raids on villages in southern Lebanon, while further air strikes hit Beirut. Also: hundreds unaccounted for in the US in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen.

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 Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Tuesday the 1st of October these are our main stories. Israeli media are reporting that a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets has begun in Lebanon. Earlier airstrikes targeted a suburb in Beirut. US officials fear as many as 600 people may have lost their lives in the wake of severe flooding in the southeastern United States.

Doctors in the conflict-torn east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are treating an unprecedented number of victims of sexual violence there. Also in this podcast... In the UK, drivers have to ensure that they're medically fit to drive and renew their license every three years once they reach 70. So will this rule now change after a 96-year-old driver was convicted of death by dangerous driving here in the UK. As we record this podcast, Israeli media are reporting that a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets has started in Lebanon. Tanks have been massing on Israel's northern border and three areas there have been declared closed military zones. Local media are reporting airstrikes in the southern suburb

of the capital Beirut, coming after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate ahead of planned strikes on Hezbollah targets. Earlier at the White House, a journalist questioned the U.S. President Joe Biden about reports of an Israeli incursion. Are you aware of that? Are you comfortable with their plans? I'm more aware than you might know, and I'm comfortable with them stopping. We should have a ceasefire now. Thank you. A short time later, the Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh explained what Washington knew of Israel's planned operations in Lebanon. We understand what they're doing along that northern border is conducting limited

operations to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure. What the secretary continues to urge for is to seek a diplomatic solution. We certainly want to see regional tensions cool. We see that the best path forward is through diplomatic means. And so that's what we're continuing to push for. Despite the loss of many of its senior members, Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qasem said the group was ready to face Israeli soldiers. We recognized that the battle may be long and all options are available to us. Should the Israelis decide to launch a ground invasion, the resistance forces are ready to engage with it. Our correspondent Lucy Williamson sent us this report on Monday evening from northern Israel,

near the Lebanese border. Israel's army is moving closer to a ground invasion. The Lebanese border, just a couple of miles away, the next red line in this war. Tens of thousands of forces moved up from Gaza were told by their chief of staff that they would soon step on enemy soil. At the border, Israel's defense minister kept up the suspense. Israel would use all means required to return evacuated communities to their homes, he said, forces from the air, the sea and on land. Israel has been talking up its readiness to launch a ground offensive against Hezbollah, but sending tanks across the border would mean a very different kind of battle to the airstrikes and intelligence it's relied on so far,

fighting Hezbollah on territory it controls, territory where it's been planning a confrontation like this for years. In the border town of Rosh Pina, they watched Israel step up its offensive this month against Hezbollah leaders, its communications, its weapons. Many say they shouldn't stop there. When we have rockets, I don't have time to go to the safe place. I don't have time. What needs to happen for you to feel safe? To kill all the terrorists, finish this situation. One year, every day, rockets, rockets, rockets. And the Americans said,

don't, don't, don't. Come on. Come on. Every morning, boom, boom. It's not life. Israel's prime minister, often proud of defying his allies, is looking beyond Hezbollah to its backer Iran, warning against any retaliation from Tehran. There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country. With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you, the noble Persian people, closer to the abyss. Miscalculation was once seen as the biggest risk in triggering full-scale war along this border, but Israel's assessment appears to have changed.

The miscalculation many fear now is faith in the idea of a limited war. Lucy Williamson in northern Israel near the Lebanon border. Amir Avivi is a retired Israeli Brigadier General in the Israeli Defence Forces. Julian Warricker asked him what he thought a limited ground invasion into Lebanon would achieve. We have moved 60,000 citizens 11 months ago from their homes because of the danger of a ground attack of Hezbollah, similar to what we saw on the 7th of October with Hamas that massacred 1,200 people in the south of Israel. We wanted to prevent a reality like that. We didn't move them because of drones or rockets. Rockets and drones can be sent to any place in Israel. And therefore,

in order to bring them back, Hezbollah needs to be pushed north of the Litani River, according to Resolution 1701, and their terror infrastructure needs to be dismantled. Now, the minimum required to really provide safety for the citizens and be able to bring them back is at least eight miles. Why? Because this is the range of the anti-tank missiles. They have shot thousands of missiles like that on houses of civilians on the Israeli side from Lebanon. So I would assume that the minimum we would expect the IDF to go in Lebanon would be around eight miles, but it can be all the way to the Litani River and also beyond. And how much resistance would you anticipate Hezbollah will put up,

given that they are clearly weakened, but still a strong military force, we're told? So it's a good question, because all their leadership has been toppled. Also, the tactical leadership of RAD1 forces, which are the special operations forces that are situated in the south of Lebanon, also their commanders were toppled. In the attack, we saw on their communications, more than a thousand RAD1 forces were hit. We don't know what the level of motivation is, how shocked they are by everything

that happened. So only when the Israeli soldiers will engage with them, we'll really know how motivated they are, how organized. And the IDF is arriving to Lebanon with 11 months of experience in Gaza. Really, every single soldier is experienced in a war, and I think they will excel in combat.

The Air Force did until now. There has been conflict on this border before. The fact that it is happening again suggests that it didn't solve the problem from either point of view. Why will this be different? In 2006, Resolution 1701 was passed and the international community didn't enforce it. And this time what needs to be different is that Israel needs to enforce this. We cannot rely on UNIFIL or any other organization to do the job for us. We need to create a buffer zone and secure our towns. For how long? Nobody knows.

Might be for a very long time. Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli brigadier general in the Israeli Defense Forces. In a separate development, Houthis in Yemen say they've shot down a U.S. drone in the Sada region of northwest Yemen. The group claims it's the 11th they've intercepted. A Houthi spokesman added that five people were killed and more than 50 injured in Sunday's Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. Israel said the attacks were in response to a Houthi missile fired at Tel Aviv airport on Saturday.

And staying with the Middle East. Hello, I'm Jackie Leonard, and we'll be recording a special episode of the Global News podcast to mark one year since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza. We'll be putting your questions to our correspondents who've been covering the Middle East for the past 12 months. Please send us your questions, ideally a voice note by email, to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Thanks Jackie. Jackie Leonard. And now to other news. In the US, emergency workers in North Carolina are trying to locate people who remain unaccounted for, three days after Hurricane Helene tore through the southeastern American states. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security fear that as many as 600 people may have lost their lives in the wake of the severe flooding caused by the storm. President Joe Biden has promised more support for the victims. Mike Cooper lives in the hills just outside Asheville

in North Carolina. Immediately around us the problems have been with flooding just half a mile from where I live. Houses that were sitting next to the creek that had literally just been washed away and heard that we've lost the towns of Marshall, Hot Springs, Chimney Rock Village and a few other places as well that just the water just coursed through and took everything with it. Most of the people that we've been able to communicate in terms of our friends around town are either without water or power or both, and they're being told that at the earliest it will be Friday

before they get power back, and probably longer than that. We just went out to do a recce and see what things were like beyond the end of our valley. There are, you know, hour-long lines for people trying to get into petrol, gas stations to get their vehicles fueled. It's a mess. And the problem is that whereas somewhere like Florida that's more set up for this and is fairly level and things drain away quickly, we have a lot of mountain roads that have been washed out. Our interstate has

been washed out, both coming into North Carolina and going out from Asheville, the other side. So that will hamper efforts to repair this and will slow things down substantially, I think. Mike Cooper. Lars Anderson, a former senior advisor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, gave us this update on the recovery operation. Well, I think right now,

the focus that the US government has and state and local officials have is actually finding those people. I mean, a lot of those people, you know, could be in communities that have been cut off. You know, a lot of the cell phone towers went down. A lot of the communications lines went down, internet's down. So one of the priorities is finding those people. They have 26 different federal search and rescue teams alongside state and local search and rescue teams trying to find those people. They have 26 different federal search and rescue teams alongside state and local search and rescue teams trying to find those people and getting help to those people that need it most. And what do you think happened? Is the damage being caused really by the severe

flooding in the wake of the hurricane and then storm? Oh, definitely. This is unprecedented damage. When you think about hurricanes, you often think of coastal cities in the US like Charleston or New Orleans, Miami. You don't think about Asheville, North Carolina, some of these towns and cities in the mountains of Georgia and North Carolina. It's just really unprecedented from the amount of damage from flooding. And as we look to rebuild these communities, we really have to think through how do we do that? How do we mitigate future flood risk? And I think that's something that people are going to have to take into account. The emergency authorities knew the storm was approaching. Do you think the severity of it was underestimated and people were not aware

or didn't heed the warnings? I think the local officials knew it was going to be bad. I think the amount of flooding has surprised a lot of folks. But I do think a lot of people have the mindset that, oh, it's never flooded here. We'll ride this through. And as we have seen with climate change and the intensity of storms increasing, that is getting more and more problematic for people. And if local officials say to evacuate, people really should heed evacuation orders. Do you think a lot of people stayed put? You know, it's hard to say. It's hard to say. I think the focus right now just needs to be on getting help to those who need it most and looking at recovery, you know, down the road. But right now, the focus needs to be on saving as many lives as possible. Lars Anderson.

Still to come, why regularly changing your personal passwords may not be the way to stay safe online. If you have to change it all the time, you are more likely to have an easier to remember password to just simply change a number at the end of it, which ultimately creates a weaker password, which leaves you vulnerable. 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. In France, the leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, has gone on trial in Paris, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds.

She and more than 20 other senior party figures are accused of paying money meant for parliamentary assistance in Brussels and Strasbourg, instead to officials from the national rally. Speaking to the media outside the courtroom before the start of the trial, Ms Le Pen denied breaking any rules. I approach this trial with great serenity. We have an enormous number of arguments to develop in defence of what I believe to be parliamentary freedom, which is at stake in this case. And I'm not unhappy that we have the time to develop them, since two months have been set aside for this trial,

and to demonstrate that we haven't broken any rules. The trial is set to last for two months. Our Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield, was at the courthouse in central Paris. It's a case of illegal funding of their party using European money. According to the prosecution, there was a kind of system put in place

from the mid-2010s when the party, the National Front as it then was, had suddenly quite a lot of seats in the European Parliament and was at the same time short of funds. So decided, according to the prosecution, to use money that each individual MEP got to pay for an assistant, to use that money to pay in fact for people who are working for the party back in Paris. So they got around the fact that they couldn't afford to employ people in Paris, for

example, the bodyguard of Marine Le Pen, by putting him on the Brussels payroll. It was a fiction, according to prosecution, they never had any real knowledge of Brussels, a lot of them hardly went there at all, or to Strasbourg, but it allowed the party to keep employing people. It's not the first time these charges have been made against the French party or against the European party. There's a centrist party in Paris that was accused of doing the same thing and found guilty a year or so ago. But, of course, this is different because now we're talking about Marine Le Pen,

a very serious presidential candidate. And what penalties could she and the others face? Well, that there is the rub indeed. You know, if she's found guilty, and this is very much why everyone is focusing on this, if she's found guilty, then on paper, the punishments, the possible sanctions include not just sort of big fine and prison, which wouldn't happen, but ineligibility from office.

So in theory, if she's found guilty, which won't be till early next year, she could be unable to run for the presidency in 2027. It's a slightly theoretical possibility because A, she'd have to be found guilty. B, the judge would then have to impose this sentence. But after that, of course, there would be appeal and appeal and appeal. So it's quite possible that they would even then be able to drag it out to beyond the next presidential election. But even so, it would be a very symbolic blow were that to happen. Hugh Schofield in Paris. The charity Doctors Without Borders says it's treated an unprecedented number of victims of sexual violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been badly affected by conflict.

The charity said it treated 25,000 cases last year. Here's our Africa regional editor, Will Ross. Doctors Without Borders says at least two victims of sexual violence are being treated every hour in eastern Congo. Most say they've been attacked at gunpoint. Women and girls are in great danger when they leave displacement camps to fetch firewood and water. One of the worst affected areas is North Kivu, where three years ago fighting broke out between the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and the Congolese army and its allies. The region's minerals are fueling the conflict. The head of the UN mission in Congo has just told the Security Council that after imposing a mineral tax in one area, the M23 rebels are thought to be making around $300,000 a month. Will Ross. Here in the

UK, a 96-year-old woman who killed another pensioner when her car mounted the pavement has been sentenced in court. June Mills is thought to be the oldest person in the UK to be convicted of death by dangerous driving. The case has again raised the issue of ongoing testing for elderly drivers who may have passed their original driving exam decades ago. Our correspondent Steve Nibbs told me more about the case. Well, June Mills and two other pensioners, Brenda Joyce and Jennifer Ensor, they'd been at a church event in Merseyside in northern England

and afterwards Brenda and Jennifer were walking away and June Mills was driving off in her car. But she accepts that she mistakenly accelerated too hard and her car mounted the pavement, killing Brenda, who was 76, and injuring Jennifer, who is 80. Now, June Mills at court was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence

for causing death by dangerous driving. The judge said that sending her to prison wouldn't profit anybody and that the case is one of an utter tragedy. Now, June Mills is 96, as we know. She was also disqualified from driving for five years, but she'd already actually handed back a driving licence following the crash. In the UK, drivers have to ensure that they're medically fit to drive and renew their licence every three years once they reach 70. What about other countries? What about other countries in the European Union, for example? Well, recently, the European Commission, they proposed mandatory medicals

every five years for over 70s. But there was a backlash from some member states. It's now going to be up to individual countries to decide. In places like Belgium, France and Germany, there are no renewal procedures. But in Finland, for example, if you want to drive a lorry or a bus, then you have to get a medical review every five years once you reach the age of 45. Which is pretty young. It is. What about the United States? Well, there's nowhere in the States that requires elderly drivers

to give up their car keys at a certain age, but each state has its own requirements for allowing senior citizens to continue driving. There is, though, just one state, Illinois, which requires drivers over 75 to take a mandatory driving test, which, once they reach 87 87 has to be every year. In Australia, this is interesting, in New South Wales,

they have to undergo annual medical tests once drivers reach 75 to keep their licence. It's the only state with mandatory on-road assessments. And once they turn 85, drivers must also complete a practical driving test every two years. And thousands of elderly people in New South Wales, though, are skipping these on-road driving tests

by opting for a modified licence, which they volunteer for, this conditional licence, and it will limit how far they can drive and it may also stop them driving at night. Rules and guidance, of course, are one thing, but self-motivation is another, perhaps making our own decisions to hang up the keys when we feel we're no longer safe to drive is another matter. Steve Nibbs. Now, just how safe are the passwords on our computers and phones?

We chop and change them to stay safe online and to try and avoid being hacked. But now, new advice from the US government suggests we may have been getting it wrong all along. I spoke to the BBC's David Lewis, who's been having problems with some of his passwords. Well, it's the bane of our lives, isn't it? Trying to remember, then constantly having to reset our memorable word just to check our email or social media. Earlier on this shift, I had to reset my BBC password just to check my work email. But the trick is apparently stop chopping and changing it because the advice is the more you do, the more you leave yourself open to being hacked. Well, that's so different from what we've been hearing. Tell us more about this new advice then.

Well, new advice from the US government urges computer users to not only stop changing their passwords, but also you don't need to use these special characters, exclamation marks, asterisks, all these things. The National Institute of Standards and Technology says make sure your special code is at least 15 letters in length. NIST joins the UK's National Cyber Security Department, who say something similar. They insist that users tend to alter passwords only marginally, meaning there's no great security benefits against possible hackers out there. Verity Burns is the associate editor at Tech and Culture magazine-wide, and she told us a bit more.

Really, you should have a single password. You should be encouraged to create as unique a password as possible and then hold on to that. Because I think what's been found is that if you have to change it all the time, you are more likely to have an easier to remember password to just simply change a number at the end of it, which ultimately creates a weaker password, which leaves you vulnerable. For everybody listening, what are the new tips for a really safe password? Specialists are saying avoid linking our password to something obvious and personal,

such as partner's names, children's identities, pets, etc. That all seems pretty obvious. Best to have a passphrase, apparently. Several words smashed together. You don't need numbers or special characters. And before you think of doing it, Val, don't make it your favourite song, lyric or title. That apparently makes it more open to hacking. David Lewis reporting. Let's return to our main news. Israeli media reporting that a limited ground operation against Hezbollah has started in Lebanon. Earlier airstrikes targeted a suburb in Beirut.

Sumi Samaskandar spoke to our correspondent Anna Foster who is in Beirut. The ground forces are accompanied in their attack effort by the air force and artillery forces which attack military targets in the area in a coordinated effort with the ground forces fighters. The stages of the campaign have been approved it says and are being carried out in accordance with the decisions at political levels. Operation Northern Arrows continues, according to the assessment of the situation, at the same time as the fighting in Gaza and other arenas. Don't forget that war still continues in Gaza. Israel also launched yesterday these large-scale operations against Houthi targets in Yemen as well. It concludes that they will continue to

fight an act to achieve the goals of the war and to return the residents of northern Israel to their homes safely. Now, this, Sumi, is something that we have been waiting for for the last few hours. So many people here on the Lebanese side have left their homes already. They fled a week ago when those Israeli airstrikes started. Equally, on the Israeli side, areas around where the ground operation has been launched have been declared a closed military zone that people, civilians can't go into. But now we know and we've had it confirmed, as you say, from the Israel Defense Forces, that that ground operation has begun into Lebanon tonight. Anna, do we know what limited, localized and targeted raids actually means?

That's a great question, Sumi. And it is not one that's easy to answer. It is such a subjective thing, isn't it? They always said that they wanted it to be localized. The problem is you have to sort of cast your mind back to 2006 and the last time that there was a war between Israel and Lebanon. And that really was disastrous for both sides in the end. Israel, as we said, is still fighting in Gaza. They've lost soldiers in Gaza. They will know that while public opinion is largely behind securing the north of Israel and enabling people to return to their homes, there won't be any appetite to see any further loss of Israeli military life.

And similarly here in Lebanon, Najib Makati, who's the caretaker prime minister here, said that around a million people look set to be displaced by the ongoing attacks and the fighting. Going back to 2006, that war lasted for 34 days and more than 1,000 people were killed here in Lebanon. At the moment, it's gone on for about seven or eight days and the death toll has been the same. So there are real concerns how this could escalate, where this could get to. Is there ever such a thing as a local demarcated military operation? Because, of course, when they get across the border, we know now that they're operating here in Lebanon. They don't know what they're going to find. They don't know what Hezbollah have left in terms of weaponry, in terms of fighters. It is an operation that Israel has

clearly planned and clearly wanted to carry out. I think it will also be interesting to see, Sumi, in the next few hours how the U.S., the U. UK, other allied countries respond to this, because of course they back Israel politically, militarily. They had been talking very strongly about a ceasefire. You know, remember at the UN General Assembly, Sumi Yu there reporting, you remember Benjamin Netanyahu made that speech. He talked about peace. There were talks going on behind the scenes where they were discussing a 21-day ceasefire, where they could talk about this, try and de-escalate. And yet a few days later, here we are with the beginnings of a ground operation, a new war here tonight between Lebanon and Israel.

Indeed, Anna. Just after that visit, we saw the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, didn't we? It's certainly not a sign of de-escalation that was being discussed in New York. In the meantime, we're seeing Lebanese officials saying that more than a thousand people have been killed in the last two weeks. You mentioned the massive displacement. How are things in Beirut right now as we're looking at live pictures of the skyline? Well, we heard more loud airstrikes in the last hour or two. What the IDF tend to do, it's actually a similar thing to what they do in Gaza. If they have buildings that they know that they're about to target, they will put out messages in maybe the 30 minutes beforehand telling people to leave those areas. So again, tonight,

we had more of those messages. And within a half hour, we heard the sound loud across the city. It's only a couple of kilometres away, the southern suburbs, the Hezbollah stronghold of Beirut. And when you get those loud airstrikes, they echo right around the city. You know, they are loud, and we see those great plumes of thick, dark smoke rising up into the air.

There are still a lot of people, Sumi, who are sleeping on the streets here in Beirut, people who left Dahir on Friday evening when there was that large, you know, the largest airstrike we've seen here in Beirut, which killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, as you say. Now, that one was a particularly large strike because Israel said on that night they were targeting the sort of headquarters of Hezbollah, which they said was dug underground underneath this civilian building. So they used these huge bunker buster bombs that had last been seen in 2006 to get down deep and actually destroy those headquarters and kill, as we know, Hassan

Nasrallah. The IDF said that they also, in that operation, managed to kill around 20 other senior Hezbollah commanders. And I think that raises a really interesting question about what the response will be to this ground operation. We don't know what Hezbollah's capabilities are at the moment. We know that many of their top command structure have been killed in Israeli airstrikes over the last two weeks or so. We know similarly that those attacks, which have concentrated on the south and east of Lebanon, again, the Hezbollah stronghold areas, have been focused, Israel says,

on taking out Hezbollah's military infrastructure, things like its stores of weapons, things like the actual infrastructure that it uses to fire weapons. In fact, only earlier today, the IDF said that they had destroyed a store of missiles only 1.5 kilometers from Beirut airport. So what does Hezbollah have left? Do they have enough left to actually launch some kind of counter-strike inside Israel? Or what about other Iranian proxy groups in the region? You have Iran themselves, who have said that they will stand alongside Hezbollah, but we don't know what kind of form that could take. Similarly, you have Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, in Syria as well. You have the Houthis in Yemen, who have been firing missiles towards

Israel. And again, yesterday, we saw that large Israeli military operation targeting, again, Houthi military infrastructure. Israel said we saw these big burning tanks of oil in Hodeidah port in Yemen as well. So what we're clearly seeing is this large Israeli military operation that has real momentum. And a foster in Beirut, in Lebanon. And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, 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 Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Liam McCheffrey.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye. 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.