Global News Podcast - Oil prices surge after President Biden says he's 'discussing' Israeli strikes on Iran

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Oil prices rose after Joe Biden said he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure. Also: the sequel to the asteroid which killed off dinosaurs, and the 31-year treasure hunt for the Golden Owl.

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 Alex Ritson, and in early hours of Friday the 4th of October, these are our main stories. Global oil prices have risen sharply after President Biden said he was discussing possible strikes by Israel on Iranian oil facilities. As Israel's offensive in Lebanon continues, officials in the occupied West Bank say an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp has killed at least 18 people. Why scientists believe a global dengue fever crisis is being caused by climate change.

Also in this podcast. There would have been an extremely loud bang and then a tsunami as high as 800 metres, tearing across the Atlantic Ocean. That's as high as the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Scientists discover the giant asteroid which killed off the dinosaurs was followed by a second impact. Amid the continuing violence in the Middle East, a new fear has emerged as speculation grew that Israel might choose to hit Iran's oil production in retaliation for Tuesday night's Iranian missile barrage. President Biden didn't exactly calm matters when he told journalists that the

US was considering the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iran's oil industry infrastructure. Asked if he would support such action, he said, we're discussing that, and that was enough to spook the markets and push oil prices up 5% within a matter of minutes. The BBC's economics editor, Faisal Islam, says that while other producers could make up any immediate shortfall in Iranian oil production, the real threat to the world economy lies elsewhere. What does matter is if we are then on a path of spiralling escalation. And so what

would the Iranians do in response? And then, of course, along Iran's southern coast is the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz, just 28 nautical miles across. And through that strait, which is obviously very close to all of Iran's military assets, transits roughly a third of traded oil, a fifth of total oil production goes through that strait from the rest of the Persian Gulf, not just Iran. And now what's also important is about a fifth of liquefied natural gas, that's gas frozen in tankers, which is even more important now because of what's happened in Russia and the cutoff of Russian supplies to Europe, that also transits through

the Straits of Hormuz. So if you like, it's a bet that a path of escalation that was previously thought of as unthinkable and very low probability is now, if not likely, it is plausible. I heard more about the president's comments from our correspondent in Washington, Will Grant. I think what stands out is they were unscripted comments made on the south lawn of the White House as President Biden made his way to Florida to see the affected regions after Hurricane Helene. But they were striking, extremely interesting to hear him say, would he support Israel striking Iranian oil facilities?

We're in discussion of that. I mean, there's no more expansion on that, but that alone stood out. And of course, the other question, what are the plans to allow Israel to strike back against Iran was the exact wording. He said, well, first of all, we don't allow Israel, we advise them, and there's nothing going to happen today. So perhaps information of at least a respite in the short term, but very worrying the suggestion that Iranian oil facilities will be targeted in the near future. Well, that's the question I wanted to ask you, because the Iranian missile barrage on Tuesday has raised a lot of concerns. How worried are the Americans about Israel's undoubted ability to strike wherever and whenever it sees fit, regardless of the consequences for the rest

of the world? I think there is real concern about the escalation more broadly. I think that Americans are obviously focused on the US election to a large part, but this plays into that in a big way. The concerns that perhaps the Biden administration is letting this get away from them, that they have tried to exercise caution from Iran throughout the Middle East conflict of recent weeks and months, but there has apparently been very little heed taken. So naturally, Americans are worried at watching what's happening. But I think the political and diplomatic dimension is one that concerns them deeply. Will Grant in Washington. Health authorities say at least 18 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a cafe at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Israel says it killed a senior Hamas figure.

David Bamford reports. The Israeli military said its air force had used a fighter jet to attack a location in the city of Tolkarim and had killed the local head of Hamas and a number of other important militants. The IDF has carried out dozens of strikes in the West Bank in the past year, but normally using drones or helicopters. Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry says 700 people have been killed there since last October. David Bamford. Meanwhile in Lebanon. The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah persists. As we record this podcast,

the country's health ministry has said that in the last 24-hour period, 37 people have been killed and 151 wounded in Israeli strikes across the southern region. A source close to Hezbollah says Israel conducted 11 consecutive strikes in Beirut, including one that hit the outside perimeter of the capital's international airport. A large shipment of medical supplies from the World Health Organization was due to be shipped to Lebanon, but the agency's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says that conditions are too dangerous. Health care continues to come under attack. In Lebanon alone, 28 health workers have been killed in the last 24 hours.

Many health workers are not reporting to duty as they fled the areas where they work due to bombardments. This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services. Israel has continued to warn people in southern Lebanon to leave their homes, including in the major city of Nabatea. A telegram message from the military says, for your safety and that of your children, do not go back home

until further notice. Let's hear from someone whose family has fled Nabatier in recent days. Tasneem Chaban is a journalist who's now in Beirut. Within two hours, I helped basically my parents pack their whole life into one backpack. Their certificates, their university diplomas and degrees, their passports, some money, a change of clothes for about a week and our pets. My parents have a cat, I have a dog and we left. When we hear about people having to flee their homes in these circumstances, the reality for people living through it, what happens? Do you get told where you should go? Is there a guidance? We just assumed that Beirut is going to be safer than where we are. The whole of Beirut really became one big refugee camp. People are literally sheltering

everywhere on the streets, under trees, in the middle of the Marcher Square, where we used to protest, on the beach, in schools. When do you think you and your parents will be able to go back to your family home? And is that area being impacted by the ongoing conflict? Our house hasn't been impacted by the conflict, thankfully. I would love to believe, and I actually do believe we're going to go back. It's our home. It's our land, our house that we've lived in for since my parents built it, which is, I want to say, a good 40 years ago now. A lot of houses were demolished, including one of my dad's friend's houses. He was a six-year-old man, and he was killed alongside his wife. The village has been targeted almost daily since.

More recently, they've been targeting main roads leading in and out of the village. When I was personally fleeing, one striker literally fell in front of my car, and it was extremely close. Are you doing okay? How are you? Oh my God. I want to say I'm an emotional roller coaster.

I mean, the first week I was experiencing extreme PTSD in the sense of the strikes in the south were extremely scary. You can understand, like, those two hours that we spent at the house, the whole house was shaking. The glass was shaking. The doors were shaking. My dog was consistently barking. It was extremely heavy strikes. Like within the five minutes, you would hear at least three strikes. It was this bad. The road to Beirut took me a good 10 to 11 hours of driving, which usually would take me one hour. So imagine driving under that in extreme heat,

unable to close the windows because strikes were happening as we were on the road. And then taking in all that smoke into my lungs, and I personally have asthma. Honestly, the first week was horrendous in the sense of I could consistently hear ringing in my ears. I had a horrible headache that lasted for like a good four or five days. Physically, I'm better right now. Emotionally, it hurts me to be stuck in the middle of this, to see my country being destroyed. That was Tasneem Chaban talking to Rajini Vaidyanathan.

The day's events happened as the Israeli army said another of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in south Lebanon while Hezbollah had fired around 200 rockets into northern Israel. Our correspondent Lucy Williamson spent the day close to the border between the two countries. The communities along Israel's northern border are now a closed military zone. The road into this one takes you through line of sight from Hezbollah positions.

We drive fast, past tanks, dug in and waiting. In a near-empty kibbutz, we walk the last few metres to a vantage point overlooking the border. We're just walking up very close to the Lebanese border here. There are hills all around and you can see Lebanese buildings, villages just across the border, maybe a mile or so away. People in these communities have stood and watched Hezbollah rockets fired towards them. And now for the first time in almost 20 years, they're looking across this border and watching Israeli forces battle Hezbollah fighters on Lebanese soil. When residents evacuated this area a year ago, Dean Sweetland stayed. This is my country now.

A former British soldier who moved here eight years ago with his family and three dogs. He's been recording the incoming rockets on his phone all week. It's been very noisy. The house is shaking three, four times a day. Running into the shelter, dogs going crazy. If it's anti-tank, you only hear the whooshing noise before the booms. You never know it's coming. We can't continue this for another year, another two years of having Hezbollah sitting on our border,

just waiting to do an October 7th on us. But, you know, my son is in the army, and do we want our kids being in there, slaughtered where Hezbollah have been waiting for this nearly 20 years? So they're well dug in, and our guys are exposed. It's not going to be pretty, but if that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. Just across the border, the town of Bint Jebel, where Israel's army said today it had killed Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah said it had targeted soldiers on the other side of the hill. Both Israel's previous ground wars in Lebanon began as limited incursions,

but the risks of getting mired there are familiar terrain for those who trod this path before. Lucy Williamson. One of the most senior leaders of Hamas, designated a terrorist group by some Western countries, has told the BBC that the crisis they provoked in the Middle East, which has led to the deaths of thousands in the region, is justified. The deputy leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayah, said the October 7th attacks, which killed 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were necessary to place the issue of Palestinian statehood back on the global agenda. He insisted without it, the cycle of violence in the Middle

East would not end. He spoke to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen. Khalil al-Hayr, the senior Hamas leader outside Gaza, speaking in a BBC interview in Qatar, said they attacked Israel last October to get Palestinian demands for independence back on the world's agenda. I had to send an alarm to the world to tell them that we're a people with a cause and demands. It was a blow to Israel, the Zionist enemy, and a wake-up call to the international community, which has not been able to implement a single resolution

from the United Nations and the Security Council. Khalil Al-Hayr denied overwhelming evidence that Hamas targeted civilians. He said they were under orders to attack Israeli soldiers. We don't acknowledge that we harmed civilians. On the ground, there were certainly personal mistakes and actions. The fighters may have felt that their lives were in danger. Your men who weren't in danger, they were standing with terrified civilians who were sitting on the ground and they were standing over them with weapons. That is not a battle.

We've all seen how the fighters went into the houses. They spoke to the families, they ate and drank. Sorry, they were shooting them. There're videos. Like many in the region, including opponents of Hamas, Halil al-Hayyad believes Israel's refusal to allow Palestinian independence is at the heart of Middle East conflict. My family, my children, my relatives and my neighbours are in Gaza. We see with their eyes. We feel their pain. If the world gave us our legitimate rights, this cycle of violence would stop. But Israel doesn't want that.

The world needs to understand that Israel wants to burn the whole region. If the occupation ends, so will all the tragedies. An hour or so after the interview finished on Tuesday, Iran attacked Israel with ballistic missiles. It's clear that Hamas leaders, while condemning the destruction of most of Gaza and the killing of so many Palestinians, are determined to fight on. Khalil al-Hayr has led the Hamas side in the ceasefire talks from the outset, but like the other parties, he's not expecting a new attempt until America elects its next president in November. The deputy leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, is a controversial figure. Just why then did Jeremy give him a platform?

To start with, I wouldn't say we were giving them a platform. I would say that they were prepared to sit with us and I was able to ask them questions about very, you know, important issues, things like why they did what they did. And I think it's really important. I'll tell you why. It's because, I mean, to start with, we would talk more to Hamas if we could, if the Israelis allowed us into Gaza. International journalists are barred from Gaza by the Israelis, except for very particular circumstances and moments where you can go in on an embed, as it's known, with the Israeli army under some very precise restrictions and rules, and for not very long. And I think we've had almost, we think we've had two in the last year.

I did one of them. Look, at the BBC, where I've been a journalist for more than 40 years and most of that time a foreign correspondent, I really do and we do believe in impartial reporting. Impartial reporting means you have to talk to people. You have to find out why it is they do what they do. And, you know, it may be old-fashioned, because you might argue, oh, it's all written down, it's all on the internet. It is way better to actually meet somebody,

to sit with them face-to-face and ask those questions. Jeremy Bowen. Still to come... It's such an important issue and it's such an emotive issue, but I think the time is right to have that debate and discussion. The British Parliament is set to vote for the first time in nearly a decade on whether to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. 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 Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Local authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say at least 78 people have drowned after an overloaded boat capsized on Lake Kivu on the country's eastern border. Kat Weiner reports. Video footage posted online shows the double-decker vessel listing heavily as it approached the port city of Goma in North Kivu, before keeling over completely, pitching passengers into the water. The provincial governor of South Kivu, where the ferry had begun its journey, said more than 278 people had been on board. He said the final number of dead was unlikely to be known for several days.

Grieving families have been gathering on the lakeside. The authorities say they are investigating the cause of the disaster. Such incidents are common in DRC. Eighty people died when a similarly overloaded boat sank near the capital, Kinshasa, in June. Kat Wiener. The headlines tell their own story. Italian town grapples with out-of-control number of dengue cases, reads one. California health officials warn residents about unprecedented spread of dengue fever, a second. And dengue fever outbreak worsens in Khartoum's East Nile area a third. They tell, in short, of a global health crisis.

On Thursday, the World Health Organisation, the WHO, added its voice to the gloomy prognosis, warning that global warming was turbocharging the spread of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases. For more on the story, I've been talking to our health correspondent, Dominic Hughes. This goes all the way back to the turn of the century, really. So in around 2000, there were roughly 500,000 cases. By 2019, there'd been a tenfold increase. And since then, we've seen cases surge again. Since 2021 Cases have doubled each year. So there were 12.3 million cases by

the end of August of this year. And again, that was almost double the 6.5 million cases in the whole of 2023. And we know the cause, don't we? This is in large part because of mosquitoes. And this is a real world impact of climate change. Yes, climate change plays a huge part in this. So dengue fever is what's known as an arboviral disease, which are a group of infections that are caused by a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes but also ticks. So that includes other viruses like Zika, for example, and chikungunya disease.

But we have seen these viruses spreading because of a number of factors. Climate change is a big one, so as the planet warms, the mosquitoes that spread these viruses are moving both north and south into areas that they wouldn't have previously occupied. They're also moving higher. They're moving up mountains

where it was previously too cold for them to live. But there's other factors as well. The WHO points to things like poor water, sanitisation and hygiene practices. All these things that allow the mosquitoes to breed. They say climate change and international travel facilitate the spread of these diseases. And it's now endemic dengue in 130 countries. WHO is calling for a global campaign to combat dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases. What would that involve? It's a call to arms, really, by the WHO.

The Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he's seen an alarming surge in cases and he said it demands a coordinated response across regions and across borders. So that involves governments, local authorities, communities, right down to an individual level. So they're talking about things like coordination across nations, better surveillance of the disease, because if you've got an enemy, you've got to know where they are. So people collaborating more on their surveillance, community protection. So that means engaging communities to help them adapt and put in place prevention and response measures, and then ensuring that the care is there for people,

because this is a treatable disease. If you can get the care to people, it can be treated. But one of the problems is that a lot of health systems are still recovering from the pandemic that we've seen in recent years. And that has also been a big factor because so many health systems really took a battering during those pandemic years. Dominic Hughes. In Britain, Parliament is set to vote for the first time in nearly a decade on whether to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. The current assisted dying laws, which make it a criminal offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to help someone end their own life, were introduced more than 60 years ago.

The debate around the issue is controversial and emotionally charged, but there have been growing calls for change. The proposed legislation would allow adults who are terminally ill to be prescribed a lethal drug. It's being introduced by the Labour MP Kim Ledbetter. I think the mood has changed publicly and I think it probably has changed within Parliament so I have spoken to quite a lot of the new intake of MPs and they think the time is right to have this debate. They are nervous, as am I, because it's such an important issue and it's such an emotive issue

but I think the time is right to have that debate and discussion. Anil Douglas has been campaigning They are nervous, as am I, because it's such an important issue and it's such an emotive issue, but I think the time is right to have that debate and discussion. Anil Douglas has been campaigning for a change in the law since his father, Ian, who had multiple sclerosis, killed himself. The current law as it stands is dangerous and it leads people to take decisions that are lonely, isolating and incredibly risky, just like my father. And really what the law should do is protect people. Opponents of the move, like the Conservative MP Danny Kruger, believes that better end-of-life care should be the priority. Nobody needs to die in unbearable physical agony if they get the best possible care.

That's what we should be putting all our focus on. And if we change the law in this direction, we'll do less of that and we'll simply be encouraging people down this route towards an artificial death. Our medical editor, Fergus Walsh, considers the issues surrounding assisted dying. Should there be a right to die? And if so, who should be eligible? Several jurisdictions across the British Isles are now grappling with this complex and sensitive issue. A bill to allow assisted dying has nearly completed all its stages in the Isle of Man, which has its own parliament. In Scotland, a private members' bill has been introduced. The exact details of the Ledbetter Bill haven't yet been decided, but as with previous attempts to change the law in England and Wales, it will be based on the system operating in Oregon in the US since the late 90s. This allows terminally ill, mentally competent adults with less than six months to live

to be prescribed a lethal drug which they must be able to take themselves. Each decision must be able to take themselves. Each decision must be approved by two doctors. For now, the main option for Britons who want help to die is to go to Switzerland. The Zurich-based group Dignitas says 571 people from the UK have had an assisted death there since 2002, 40 in the last year alone. The campaign group Care Not Killing argues the UK needs to improve palliative care rather than pursue a policy it sees as sending a message to the terminally ill, vulnerable and disabled that their lives are worth less than others.

Fergus Walsh. Scientists say the huge asteroid which smashed into the Earth millions of years ago, killing off the dinosaurs, was not alone. A second, smaller one landed in the sea off the coast of West Africa during the same era and with catastrophic consequences. Researchers in Scotland are only now sure about how the crater was formed. Our science reporter Georgina Ranard explains. Mystery had surrounded the impact crater since it was found off the coast of Guinea two years ago. But now the scientists have used seismic data

to create a 3D model of the five mile depression on the seafloor. Rock analysis means they can confirm a huge asteroid about 500 metres wide smashed into the seabed. It would have created a catastrophic event, starting with a fireball, as Dr Ustine Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University explains. If you picture yourself, so you're standing in Edinburgh and looking towards Glasgow maybe, right, so 50 kilomet kilometres distance or so. The fireball will be about 24 times the size of the sun. That'll be enough to, like, trees to catch fire in Edinburgh and plants to ignite and so on. Next there would have been an extremely loud bang

and then a tsunami as high as 800 metres tearing across the Atlantic Ocean. That's as high as the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Humans have never seen an impact of this size, but there is a similar-sized asteroid in near-Earth orbit called Bennu. NASA says the most probable date that Bennu could hit Earth is in September 2182, but the chances are still slim. Georgina Ranad. An Indian man from Uttar Pradesh state has set a Guinness World Record by collecting 1,257 radios. Ram Singh Bood collected them for a home museum. Lipika Pelham reports. The oldest radio in Mr Bood's collection dates back to the 1920s. The 68-year-old said he wanted to make future generations aware of the impact of radio on society as a communication tool. He came to be

known as the Radio Man of India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned his collection in a monthly radio show, Man Ki Baat. After this, Mr. Booth said people's curiosity about his radio museum increased. The previous world record was held by his fellow Indian, M Prakash, with 625 radios. Lippicapelum. Now our final story involves a statue of a golden owl. 11 near-impossible clues, 31 years of searching, and tens of thousands of people called owl hunters. It's known as the Trail of the Golden Owl, one of the world's longest-lasting treasure hunts,

which after three decades finally appears to have been solved. The hunt took place across France, from where our correspondent Hugh Schofield told me more. The treasure hunt has been going on for about, well, more than 30 years. It comes in and out of the news, but all the time there are tens of thousands of these hunters, they call them chouetteurs, owl hunters, out there in communities or individually, swapping information, going off on wild goose chases, pursuing their particular ideas and theories, but up till now, not successfully, and all pouring over this book, which came out 31 years ago,

The Hunt for the Golden Owl, which laid out these clues. And they're very, very complicated, abstruse, extremely impenetrable clues, but which set people's imaginations wild. And now it seems it, you know, it wasn't all a hoax. There wasn't a hell and someone's found it. So where is it? What do we know? Well, we don't know where it is. We don't know anything.

We don't know who it is that's found it either. All that's happened is that on the main chat forum and the kind of official chat forum for all these people, the man who directs everything, in other words, Michel Beckert, who was there at the beginning, but was not the man who wrote the book, but the man who drew the pictures and who is now the kind of keeper of the secret. He appeared under his pseudonym saying, you can stop now. It's over. Someone's found it. So we kind of assume that it has been found because it looks legitimate, but there hasn't been an official announcement,

there's no release of information about where it happened, about who it was, or indeed about what the answers to the various clues were. So what's the reaction from the community been? Well, online you can see that there's a lot of amazement, a lot of people saying, I can't that there's a lot of amazement. A lot of people saying, I can't believe it's happened. Oh, my God, I never thought I would see this day. A certain amount of kind of conspiracy theorists out there as well saying, are we sure? But most people seem to be saying they're relieved that it's proved to be true that there was a hunt. They were not being

hoaxed all this time. They're sad because they haven't won and it's all over. But they're curious because they really want to know what was the answer. Well, that's the thing, isn't it? No one's going to be happy until they actually see it in someone's hand, are they? Well, indeed, and have the 11 clues explained. I think everyone was so totally in the dark about whether they were near or hot or cold that they're absolutely gagging to know what the answer was. So you'll come back and tell us when we know? Certainly.

We will hold him to that. Hugh Schofield in Paris. And that's all 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, you can 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 Lee Wilson and the producer was Alison Davis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz, and 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. BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.