Global News Podcast - Thousands flee Israeli strikes in Lebanon

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

The Lebanese government says 558 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since Monday. Meanwhile, Hezbollah rockets trigger alarms in Northern Israel. Also: Sweden accuses Iran of stirring up division through hacking.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and at 13 Hours GMT on Tuesday 24th September, these are our main headlines.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah group in Lebanon are continuing cross-border attacks. Lebanon's health minister says 558 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since yesterday. Swedish prosecutors accuse Iran of a hack aimed at causing division in Sweden. Also in this podcast... It could have so much impact on our future and the future of the information that the public receives in this country. What do we know about the secret court battle to determine the future of the information that the public receives in this country. What do we know about the secret court battle to determine the future of Rupert Murdoch's media empire?

The Lebanese military says 558 people have been killed since Israel launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon. 50 of them were children. Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people. But there's no doubt that civilians have been among the casualties and thousands of people in southern Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes. My colleagues at BBC Arabic spoke to two people who made the journey towards Beirut in their cars. We all received messages at home but from different numbers and names. The message said that we had to flee our neighbourhood because it was close to sites that would be hit and close to weapons depots as well.

Afterwards, the whole of southern Lebanon began to be hit. More than 100 towns were rocked by blasts. It was a massacre. So we had to flee to save our lives. We spent about eight hours on the road from the south to here, from Nabatea specifically to Beirut. During those eight hours, we had to stop for 10 or 15 minutes every now and then on the road because of the heavy traffic. All the way, we heard the sounds of explosions and missiles. It was really scary and terrifying.

Our correspondent Lina Sinjab is in Beirut. I asked Lina about the journeys people are making. It's really a terrible time for many Lebanese here, you know, especially yesterday. They've spent hours and hours trying to take the roads to safe areas to escape the southern part of Lebanon towards northern city, whether in Tyre or approaching even nearer to Beirut. The government has established at least five schools as shelters here in Beirut.

Many people are sending out messages of free homes, free housing, whenever it's possible to receive people and welcome them during this difficult time before everyone knows what's going to happen next. So it's really a time of emergency, a time of panic for many Lebanese. Even here in Beirut today, the streets are empty, schools and universities are closed. Many people are staying home, worrying and waiting for what's going to happen next. And we're saying earlier, some people know where they're going. They're going to stay with a family member or something like that.

A lot of people making this journey don't really know where they're going. That's the reality. Thousands and thousands of people, they're going to be cramped in shelters, probably in schools like the ones established in Beirut, or waiting for government and parties to provide help and aid. And don't forget that this is a country that is already suffering a crisis. There is electricity crisis, people who are going to stay in schools. There is no power, there is no hygiene, you know, kids for them.

So it's really an emergency situation and everyone is rushing to help. But, you know, the demand is beyond people's capacity or the government's capacity itself. The news was breaking that the Israeli military is saying it's conducted a targeted strike in Beirut itself. More details to come as we get them but some people are actually leaving Beirut aren't they? Some people want to be even further away from the border than that. Yeah many people are heading up to the mountain areas trying to escape Beirut. Don't forget that it's been a tense year and the past few months there were sonic boom in Beirut repeatedly every single day that people are scared and panicking. And now with this approaching and

airstrikes happening in Dahye in the south of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold, but also condensed with civilians, people also want to escape Beirut and anywhere near a place that could be a target. The message from Israel is to draw a distinction between the Lebanese people and Hezbollah, the actions against Hezbollah and not the people, but they're also keen to point out that some civilians are harboring not only Hezbollah fighters, but also Hezbollah weapons in their homes. Give us a sense of how widely supported Hezbollah is in southern Lebanon, if it's possible to judge that. Well, basically, most of the messages coming from Hezbollah community or Hezbollah strongholds are in support of Hezbollah, despite the affirmation from families and civilians

that they don't want to be dragged into a full-fledged war. People want to live a normal life. They want their kids to go to school. It's the beginning of the school year now, so people don't want to be living in shelters and running away for their own safety. However, especially in the last week, people felt that the indiscriminate attacks and bombardments taking place by the Israelis have fueled people's anger and made them even more supportive for Hezbollah than before. Our correspondent Lina Sinjab from Beirut. For the very latest, go to the live page at bbc.com slash news. For more on the strategy on both sides of the border,

I spoke to our security correspondent, Frank Gardner. I think Hezbollah's strategy will be to keep its head down and try and survive this and then bounce back. In other words, one of survival and resilience. It's surprising some people that they haven't unleashed their more powerful weapons. There may be several reasons for this. Some of them have been destroyed in these airstrikes. They also know, Hezbollah, that if they start hitting civilian areas and start inflicting major civilian casualties on Israel in the way that Israel is doing on Lebanon, then there will be a massive retaliation from Israel that will probably destroy Lebanon's infrastructure,

including hitting Beirut airport. So there's some restraint there. And there's also a possibility that Iran is quietly calling on Hezbollah to show restraint, because it needs Hezbollah's arsenal to remain intact as a deterrent against Israel hitting Iran's nuclear sites. So that's one of the sort of arm's length uses that Iran has for Hezbollah. But let's not forget, Hezbollah is absolutely reeling from the blows that it suffered in the last 10 days. You know, the Pajar and walkie talkie explosions, the assassination of senior commanders, the slow degrading of its missile capability, the hitting of the Radwan infantry raiding party commanders. But it's still intact. And it will, I think, surprise and annoy the Israelis as to how resilient it can be.

If Israel seeks conflict, or at least ends up in conflict with Hezbollah, that's a very different thing from being in conflict with Hamas. Hezbollah is a far stronger organisation. Well, I'm surprised you used the word if because it's been in conflict with Hezbollah since October the 8th, the day after the horrific raid into southern Israel by Hamas on October the 7th. So straight after that, Hezbollah started lobbing rockets across the border, and that drove 60,000-plus of Israel's citizens out of their homes and farms and businesses further south. They've been putting a lot of pressure on the Israeli government to return. So Israel says its vowed aim now is to clear Hezbollah away from that border,

push them back north of the Latani River, and so making that northern area of Israel safe. I'm not sure that that's going to be possible without a ceasefire agreement that both sides stick to. Doing it by military force alone, I think, is going to be very difficult. Israel has an unhappy past in South Lebanon. It occupied Lebanon for 18 years, finally pulling out in 2000. It came under constant attack. It couldn't domestically sustain the casualties it was taking. And it fought a war, a full scale war, which I think is what you're referring to, really kind of gloves off full scale war in 2006, a 34 day war with Hezbollah, which neither side really won. It ended inconclusively.

Both sides were hurt, neither side won, and since then Hezbollah has stocked up massively on its huge arsenal of weapons, far more powerful than anything Hamas has got, as you point out. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner. The authorities in Sweden have accused Iran's security service of being behind thousands of text messages that were sent to mobile phone users, calling for them to take revenge against people

who'd burned copies of the Koran. Around 15,000 people got the messages last year. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard, explained what the Swedish prosecutors were saying. They're saying basically a team called the Anzud team hacked a text messaging operator in Sweden to send these messages out and the security service in Sweden says that this group was acting on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a very powerful military organisation in Iran that's very closely connected to the state.

They've called it an influence operation that was designed essentially to create divisions in Swedish society and also to paint Sweden as an Islamophobic country. Now, Sweden, in many people's eyes, is seen as quite a tolerant country, but this was obviously a very controversial phase. And they say they know who the hackers are, Andrew, but they've closed the investigation because they see it as unlikely that the suspects would either be extradited or prosecuted in Iran. Just winding back a step further, why were copies of the Quran burnt in this case?

Well, Sweden has extremely strong constitutional protections for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, some of the strongest in the world. And so the cases of the Koran burning, not just the Koran burning, there were attempts also to burn the Torah, the Jewish holy book and the Bible. But basically what the law says is that there needs to be an extremely strong public order reason to ban such demonstrations. And the Swedish government actually criticized these burnings and said that they were Islamophobic. And the Swedish police tried to stop burnings from taking place. But the Swedish court stepped in and said, no, you don't have sufficient justification. The balance of freedom of speech outweighs this. So they're very, very controversial.

They cause violent protests in places like Indonesia and Pakistan. Swedish diplomats were summoned in the Gulf. And they also almost threatened to derail Sweden's application to join NATO. Turkey was very angry. A Koran had been burnt earlier in the year in front of the Turkish embassy. Europe regional editor Danny Eberhard. A secret court battle in the US to determine who will control the future of the media empire owned by Rupert Murdoch has concluded. The case is believed to have been born

of a rift within the Murdoch family over who will get to control Fox News and News Corp when Rupert Murdoch, who's 93, dies. The case could have big implications for news outlets that millions of people use. But as the case was held behind closed doors, the decision when it comes will also be secret. Our North America correspondent Emma Vardy reports from Nevada.

He's erratic. He's making bad decisions. If he's not careful, he's going to destroy the company. And are you going to do something? I think I'm the best option. The TV drama Succession was inspired by Rupert Murdoch's media family dynasty. Kick out the old man, in with the new guard. But now in real life, he's in the middle of a bitter battle with his four adult children over who will be his successor and take over the media empire when he dies. This is a Fox News alert.

The 93-year-old owns News Corp and Fox Corp, which includes many major newspapers and television networks, including the right-wing news outlet Fox News. So much for those claims that voter fraud never happens. Of course it happens. They knew it happened. The channel's given Donald Trump a major platform and in the past has broadcast conspiracy theories which have been proven to be false. Rupert Murdoch now reportedly wants to give full control to his eldest son Lachlan,

who's believed to share his father's more conservative views, instead of handing equal power over the corporations to the four eldest children, who've more liberal views and could take the companies in a different direction. So the Murdochs have descended on the small desert town of Reno, Nevada, to resolve the family drama in court. Any time you have a probate case involving family members, the main dynamic that you see is that emotions are involved. It creates, honestly, the most contentious cases.

That's Arash Sadat, a probate attorney with experience in family trust cases. There's a huge amount on the line here. You have an irrevocable trust, which is not usually the type of estate planning instrument that people use. They usually use a different kind of trust called a revocable trust, which allows them to change it. And here what you have is an irrevocable trust that Rupert Murdoch is attempting to change. In most states, that's very difficult. In Nevada, it's a little easier. The Murdochs have little connection to Nevada, but state laws allow the hearing to be held in private. We're outside the courthouse here, a place we could normally go inside and report from,

but the nature of this case is that journalists are essentially locked out. So we know very little. We have watched the Murdoch family arriving, going in very quickly out of a convoy of big black cars, but there's not much else to go on. It's a pie street. convoy of big black cars. But there's not much else to go on. Down the road from the courthouse, there's amusement at a local tea shop that the media family dynasty has come to battle for the fortunes of Rupert Murdoch on their doorstep. A lot of the times when these big things happen in the world, you kind of see it as like, this happens in another place, not at home, not in your town. So definitely like weird for it to be so close. I think that it's such a high stakes trial and the fact that it's

being kept so secret is kind of shady. It has, it could have so much impact on our future and the future of the information that the public receives in this country. Rupert Murdoch's powerful media empire has helped shape politics and the careers of political leaders around the world. And this family relationship in future will keep on impacting the type of news that people consume for years to come. Our North America correspondent Emma Vardy in Nevada. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. Another species, for example, may try to steal food from the octopus and the octopus can get annoyed with this and roll up a fist and punch the individual.

Now the octopus is leader of the pack underwater. 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. President Zelensky says he has a plan for victory against Russia and within days he'll present it to his Western backers. It's a key week of diplomacy for the Ukrainian leader as he visits the US. Our Europe correspondent Jessica Parker reports now from Kiev on what might be in this strategy

and whether the people of Ukraine are prepared to consider concessions to end the war. A ballet performance in a theatre in the heart of Ukraine's capital. Hundreds watch on. Life does go on here in Kyiv, as it does across much of Ukraine. But of course, the war and what's next is very much on people's minds. Dmytro is among those I meet outside. The soldier's face and lips are badly burnt, both arms bandaged up. Just recently injured fighting in Ukraine's east, for him there can be no peace while Russia remains in any part of the country. We will not surrender our territories for which so many people have fallen.

If we end the war at this stage, what will we be fighting for? Will you go back to the front line? Will you fight again? Of course, of course. My brothers, my comrades are there. I will not retreat. I will be there until my last breath. 28-year-old Tetiana's husband is also in the military. What to you does victory look like and are you willing to make compromises?

It's a difficult question. To say we will fight to the end until we get back Crimea is hard, knowing the sacrifices we are making to get our territories back. But if we stop fighting now, will this war just repeat itself in 10 years' time? Will my son then have to fight?

We are thankful to President Biden, bipartisan support, and thanks to... President Zelensky, who's in the US this week, has warned against a frozen conflict. And his team's denied that their so-called victory plan, soon to be handed to President Joe Biden, contains any kind of partial ceasefire proposal. We're just coming to the offices of the English-language online newspaper, The Kyiv Independent, to meet its editor, Olga Rudenko. Makes sense, right? Zelensky is presenting Biden with a very concrete plan. And some people in the US who have not supported Ukraine before have said that we keep giving money to Ukraine, but there is no concrete plan. So this is the concrete plan. She believes the blueprint will contain asks on weapons and future security guarantees.

But are concessions also up for discussion? The idea of a ceasefire, conceding territory, it is a really sensitive conversation in Ukraine. But realistically, do you think that is what Ukraine does have to look at and might actually be looking at somewhere in government? Of course, words like ceasefire must float around. The conversation must be happening somewhere in the government about whether we can or can't do this.

At the same time, for the majority of Ukrainians, it's still, I think, too sensitive and unimaginable to concede anything, even temporarily, to Russia. The ballet performance in Kiev centres on a young priest caught between a nightmarish dream and reality. President Zelensky sees this week as crucial, as he again pleads with the West to choose to keep believing in Ukraine. Because people here will tell you that when it comes to fighting Russia's invasion, they feel they have no choice. That is their reality. Our correspondent Jessica Parker in Kiev. Police in Switzerland have arrested several people after a so-called suicide pod was used for the first time. The device is about the size of a coffin and allows people to kill themselves by pressing a button.

I found out more from Charlotte Gallagher. The death happened on Monday afternoon in a forest close to the German border. And there are photos of the device surrounded by trees. It looks really space age. It looks really surreal, actually, just to see it in the middle of a forest. An assisted dying organisation says the person who died was a 64-year-old woman from the US who travelled to Switzerland to do this. It said she'd been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with a severely compromised immune system. A Dutch newspaper says the photographer working for them who'd planned to take photos of the pod being used.

Is one of those people being arrested? And we think another person is possibly from the assisted dying organisation who was there. Now, the Sarco pod itself dispenses a noxious gas when a button is pushed by the user. But before they can press that button, once they get inside, they're asked automated questions like, do you know who you are and do you know what is going to happen when you press this button? And the pod has been taken away by the police. People travel specifically to Switzerland to end their lives in some circumstances because assisted suicide laws are more liberal there than elsewhere. So why are we talking about people being arrested? So there are rules governing assisted suicide in Switzerland, even though assisted suicide is legal,

as well as these moral and ethical dilemmas. And this pod in particular has been really controversial in Switzerland. This is the first time it's been used. So assisted suicide is legal there as long as the action which directly causes death is performed by the person who wants to die. But if someone helps that person perform the action, they can be convicted and go to jail. Now, the Swiss government have also given a few more details as to why this sarcopod is breaking the law. They say the product doesn't meet safety requirements

and also the gas used is breaching the Chemicals Act. But the person who designed this pod essentially wants it to be mass produced and for people who want to use it to be able to. Charlotte Gallagher reporting. Back on the 19th of July, I was here in this studio about to present a programme on the BBC World Service as news of the global IT outage began to break, starting in Australia and New Zealand.

As it spread, we wondered if we'd get on air at all, as much of the Western world came to a standstill. Planes were grounded, shops couldn't take payments, health services lost their appointment systems. It was all down to a faulty software update released by the cyber security firm CrowdStrike. Later, one of its senior executives is due to answer questions at the US Congress. Let's hear first from one of those affected, Jo Robertson, who lost money after she tried to take her children on holiday. No explanation whatsoever.

Everybody was just crowding around the people who worked at the airport and they were just like, we don't know what's going on. I was heartbroken at the end of it, actually, because I'm putting away like £328 each month of my wage and I'm not full-time I'm only part-time you know and then just for that £900 just to be gone. I've been talking to our technology editor Zoe Kleinman about the scale of the outage. It affected absolutely millions of people didn't it Andrew and most of them I think have probably never heard of the firm CrowdStrike until that day. I spent some time with Jo yesterday, who we just heard from.

She'd never heard of them at all. You know, a fairly, not exactly a household name of a cybersecurity firm issues an update overnight. And there's a fault in its system, which means it doesn't realize that there's a fault in the actual update. And it turns out that this little tiny bit of software reacts very badly with Windows driven computers. Now, CrowdStrike doesn't have loads of customers, but it has very big ones, banks, airlines. And we saw the chaos that ensued and it kind of followed the sun as people were waking up. Computers and systems were going down one by one, weren't they, as different time zones kind of came online. It was the biggest outage I've ever seen. And obviously, in those early moments, we were all thinking, you know, is this it?

Is this the big cyber attack? What is going on? What on earth has happened here? It was a frightening morning, I think, before the details unrolled. Do we know what we'll learn from this appearance at Congress today? I think what we can expect today is a pretty robust session from US politicians. I think they're going to be angry, but they do want answers. They want to understand from CrowdStrike how it happened. They want to be reassured that, number one, it won't happen again. And number two, it hasn't given cyber criminals any clever ideas.

I have to say, I've seen quite a few tech bosses now hauled in front of Congress over the years that I've been covering the tech beat. And generally, I would say some of the politicians that ask the questions understand technology better than others. And lots of them like the sound of their own voices but they can be pretty ferocious and forensic and rightly so I think in this occasion because of the size of the catastrophe that was inadvertently sparked by the firm. And has the sector already learned lessons from what happened in other words I suppose I'm saying could this happen again? It's a really tricky one, actually, Andrew, because on the one hand, in order to be an effective cybersecurity device, then this has to be able to access all the bits of a computer, to find any viruses that are lurking. But on the other hand, in giving it that power,

it also gives it the possibility for things to go horribly wrong when something like this does happen and it's not entirely right. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman. A new study has shown the octopus is less of a solitary creature than we thought. In fact, the study by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour suggests they cooperate with fish to share the load when it comes to hunting. And not only that, they help to organise the hunting expeditions. And if a fish isn't pulling its weight, the octopus might even throw a punch. Ian Cousin is director of the Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max

Planck Institute. The different species play different roles. A species called the goatfish goes out and explores and tries to find where food is, and it comes back and sort of effectively tells the octopus, you know, I think there's food over there. Another species, for example, may try to steal food from the octopus, and the octopus can get annoyed with this and roll up a fist and punch the individual to prevent it from stealing food. And so the octopus is really utilising the information provided by different species, but ultimately he or she has more influence than the others about where they go. And then when they get there, the octopus, with its unique morphology, with those bendy arms, can go into the coral reef

and can flush out food that can be taken by some of the other species. The octopus definitely benefits. We think some of the fish species benefit. But there is some sort of tension between them. There's a sort of competition as well as cooperation. So if individuals become too exploitative, then this is when the octopus turns to conflict and punches them to reduce that behaviour.

So the octopus kind of regulates, it stops individuals from cheating the system. I love the idea of the octopus meeting out discipline in the fish community. And that's all from us the system. I love the idea of the octopus meeting out discipline in the fish community. And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this podcast, drop us an email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or on X we are at global news pod. This edition was mixed by Johnny Baker. The producer was Isabella Jewell. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Thank you.