Global News Podcast - Tributes pour in for former US President Jimmy Carter

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Joe Biden leads tributes to former President Jimmy Carter as his humanitarian legacy is celebrated. Also: uncertainty in Ukraine - we hear from the frontline, and 5 charged in connection with popstar Liam Payne's death.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keough and at 1400 GMT on Monday 30th December these are our main stories. Tributes pour in for the former US President Jimmy Carter who died at the age of 100 on Sunday. The head of the World Health Organisation has called for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza. Serbia indicts its former Transport Minister and others for a deadly accident which killed 15.

Also in this podcast, uncertainty in Ukraine over what lies ahead in 2025, we report from the front line in the East. If we're losing, I'm still willing to fight because at least I'll die trying to win instead of just lying down and taking it. And five people are charged in Argentina in connection with the death of The One Direction star Liam Payne, in October. World leaders and American politicians have been paying tribute to the former US President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100 on Sunday. As president, he brokered peace between Israel and Egypt. He later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work. That

organisation said his work would be remembered for another 100 years or more. Joe Biden was the first Senator to endorse Carter for the presidency in 1976. He said Jimmy Carter lived not just a good life, but the good life. He described him as an extraordinary leader. Today America and the world, in my view, lost a remarkable leader. He America and the world in my view lost a remarkable leader. He was a statesman, a humanitarian. Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words but by his deeds. He worked to eradicate disease not just at home but around the world. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human

rights. The incoming US President Donald Trump said Jimmy Carter did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans, though Mr Trump said he strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically. Barack Obama said he embodied integrity, respect and compassion. Speaking in 2002, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he was asked by the BBC whether he regretted not winning a second term in office. I wouldn't want to change my life the way it's been. It was a very bitter disappointment to me when I was not re-elected and I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to do with

the rest of my life. But Rosen and I decided to start the Carter Center with very slight glimmer of hope about what it might be. But it has far exceeded our expectations and has given us a very fruitful and exciting and unpredictable and challenging and adventurous, I would say, and gratifying life. So I don't think I would want to undo my life and change it substantially even for a second term. Ambassador Stuart Eisenstadt knew Jimmy Carter personally for 55 years. He was his Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor and wrote the book Jimmy Carter, The White House Years. He spoke to my colleague Amal Rajan about Jimmy Carter's extraordinary life and began by talking about his modest beginnings.

It was another era. His only connection to the outside world with he and his parents was a radio. They had no running water. They used to take their showers with a bucket filled with holes. He said that one of the most wonderful days of his life except for marrying He said that one of the most wonderful days of his life, except for marrying Rosalind, was when electricity came through the New Deal programs. But it also was an era of deep civil rights divisions. He grew up in a county that was 60% black, and interestingly, his playmates, not only allowed but encouraged by his mother, Miss Lillian, were almost always black. He tried to get his church to accept allowing blacks to come in at least to worship, and yet when he was

president, this southerner from the deepest part of the deep south was a great civil rights champion. And therefore, is it a source of frustration to you and others who knew him so well that the really abiding, the strong message that comes through in all of the obituaries that I've read overnight, perhaps a dozen of them, is this feeling that although he was an extraordinary post president, and we'll get to that, that in office he was a disappointment. And that partly is because of the Iran hostage affair and the famous helicopter crash, but also because of the manner of his defeat to the sunny optimism of Reagan in 1980. What's your assessment of whether or not that's a fair way for history to judge his presidency

as opposed to his post presidency? Well, yes, he was obviously a great post president, but that he was the most consequential one-term president we've had, both with domestic affairs, human rights, which he applied to Latin America and the Soviet Union, hard power, all the weapons systems that Ronald Reagan deployed against the Soviet Union started with Jimmy Carter. He normalized relations with China. And then the Camp David Accords was the best, I think, act of presidential diplomacy in American history bringing Egypt and Israel together. And it is frustrating, yes absolutely frustrating, that that is forgotten.

And in terms of his post presidency, it's become rather cliched to say that he's the best ex-president or former president America has had, but he was in some sense a one man united nations as some people have described him. He did commit himself really for nearly 50 years to doing extraordinary work in fighting poverty and disease and humanitarian causes. Yes, let's remember that most presidents, after they leave office, whether after one or two terms, write their memoir and then they go on corporate boards, they get big speaking fees. He never took a dollar for a speaking fee. He never served on a corporate board.

He wrote 32 books and he created the Carter Center. The Carter Center was novel. Now it's being followed by other presidents like Clinton and Bush, but it was novel. What did the Carter Center do? It wasn't just a presidential library. It monitored over a hundred elections around the world. It cured, and this is not an exaggeration, two African diseases, Guinea worm and river blandus. He was in many ways, if I may put it this way, and I'm using a British Shakespearean notion, but he was in many ways as close to a renaissance man as we've had in the White House. Why do I say that? He was a Naval Academy graduate and a nuclear submarine officer. He was an

engineer, a farmer, a preacher, a pastor, a poet, an author of 32 books, a master woodcutter, in fact the giant cross in the church in Plains he made. He was a fly fisherman. He did everything so well. And so that's why I say that he lived a life fully and I think he died at peace with himself of having done the best he could. Ambassador Stuart Eisenstadt talking to Amal Rajan. Let's get more now on Jimmy Carter's work in Africa during his presidency between 1977 and 1981 and beyond. He's credited with helping what was then Rhodesia, a British colony,

to become an independent Zimbabwe in 1980 by treating all sides, including its president Robert Mugabe, with respect. Dr John J. Stremlau was the former vice president for peace programs at the Carter Center between 2006 and 2011. He spoke to Krupa Paddy about his work with the former president. I always wondered whether it was race or religion that shaped his life, but I think it was his opposition to racism. He always said that he spent more time in southern African issues in his presidency than he did on the Middle East, frankly. And so he was a great man and I always regard him as a mentor and as the professor. With those foundations in mind, let's reflect on what he did, what he achieved in Africa, starting

with Zimbabwe maybe. A close advisor to Mugabe once told me that if Carter had gotten a second term, the mess that has become Zimbabwe would not have occurred. This is highly speculative, obviously. But because Carter had indicated a willingness to fund willing buyer, willing seller on the land issues and the land issues really did complicate Zimbabwe. He also told me that he knew that in the first meeting with Mugabe that he was a Leninist and couldn't be trusted. And so he just pressed on and to get the Lancaster agreement, but also he really worked hard for on what became Namibia and he had

his staff devote an enormous amount of attention to southern Africa. But the hard nut within the equation, which was apartheid South Africa, he didn't in the first term think he could address that. It was just too deeply entrenched. So it was important for him to work on the transformation of the neighbouring states above all. And interestingly, he said that Nelson Mandela was his hero. Yes, he was. I was tempted to compare Carter to Mandela, but Carter would be very deferential to Mandela. He was awestruck by Mandela's commitment to integration and to the constitutional democracy that has become South Africa. In these few minutes, we've just spoken about his achievements on the African continent

within his term as a president, but obviously he had this post presidential life. On that, I want to talk about his work with the Carter Center and the efforts he put into African public health as well. Well, and African public health was absolutely rock solid throughout in the eradication of Guinea worm and Chistosomiasis and Ocococcius. And so it really was a commitment to people being able to solve their own problems absent the diseases that afflict Africa and have stunted the growth of Africa. But again, it relates to his commitment to don't judge people by their outside color, judge them by their integrity and character in soul.

And soul, liberty, and his interpretation of Christianity was the most enlightened and most inspiring that I have ever met. Dr John J. Stremlau speaking about Jimmy Carter's work in Africa. Israel's facing fresh criticism for attacking hospitals in the Gaza Strip as it continues its war against Hamas. Today the head of the World Health Organisation, the WHO, called for an end to such attacks. This, as uncertainty continues to surround the fate of the World Health Organization, the WHO, called for an end to such attacks. This, as uncertainty continues, to surround the fate of the doctor who was director of one of the hospitals most recently targeted by Israeli forces. Sarah Davies is the spokesperson for

the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Occupied Territories. She shares the WHO's concerns. Right now, unfortunately, very few health facilities, medical facilities are able to operate. Medical facilities have protections and civilians have protections in situations of conflict. These need to be respected. And this is our constant call. More aid, more supplies need to be able to enter Gaza and be safely distributed and civilians need to have safe access to those essential services that they rely on to survive. Our correspondent Shai McAleel in Jerusalem told me more about what the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Agabriessis had been saying. He says that hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and that the health system

is under severe threat. And what he's referring to, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is that at least three hospitals from Friday up until the weekend have been targeted either by artillery fire or by air strikes. If we start with the Kamal-Odwan Hospital, which is the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza besieged and under relentless bombardment since October because of Israel's renewed military operation against Hamas when they say that they're regrouping there. We know that the Kamal Adwan Hospital has been forcibly evacuated.

We know from the Gaza Health Ministry that medical staff and the director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyyah, have been detained. Some who have been released were told by officials they reported beating, they reported being humiliated and being threatened. The whereabouts of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyyah are not known. We also know that the Al-Watha hospital on Sunday was struck by an Israeli airstrike. Seven people are reported to have died. Some of those who were injured were taken to another hospital in Gaza City called Al-Ahli

Hospital or the Baptist Hospital. The Ahli Hospital itself earlier that day was targeted by artillery fire. We understand from these Israeli authorities that regarding Kamal Oduan and Al-Wafa Hospital, they said that they were operating and they were targeting Hamas command and control centers or Hamas stronghold. This has been denied by the Gaza health authorities, by Hamas. But I also spoke to an eyewitness, a student who was inside Al-Wafa Hospital waiting to set an exam, a medical student, when the explosion happened. And she said, when we fled the area after the explosion, she saw medical staff and saw patients inside that hospital.

And again, I think whether it's the UN or the WHO, they have repeatedly said that attacks need to stop on hospital. People in Gaza need access to healthcare, especially in northern Gaza, where there's next to no aid and health facilities who are barely standing, have been working under extreme pressure with next to no facilities or equipment. And now we understand from health officials that these hospitals are just not functioning at the moment. Sharma Khalil in Jerusalem. 2025 is likely to be a pivotal year for the war in Ukraine. While Russia continues to make advances on the battlefield and with US President-elect Donald Trump promising

to finish the war, it's a time of great uncertainty with opinion polls suggesting that more Ukrainians may be looking for an end to the fighting. Jonathan Beale reports from Dnieper in eastern Ukraine on whether the country can endure a fourth year of war. It's where some of the fiercest fighting is taking place, near Kura Hiva on the eastern front. Recent drone footage shows Ukrainian forces still resisting but they're slowly being surrounded. Nearby this mortar team named the Blackpac have been trying to help slow the Russian advance. They're not your average soldiers a group of non-conformist

friends they call themselves anarchists. What did you do before you joined the army? Anarchist? You're a cook. A developer? Yeah. An artist. An artist. We meet at a safe house in a respite from the fighting. They know Donald Trump wants to bring an end to the war. The question, after nearly three years of fighting, can they really carry on?

Would you prefer to start negotiating or would you prefer to keep fighting? I prefer to keep fighting. We need just go on and try to do our best. While many in the West are now contemplating how to bring an end to this war. This unit isn't even thinking about it. And even when they're away from the front line. They continue that training because they say it keeps them motivated. A ball. Dennis was living in Germany when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

I just like ask myself a question could I live in a world where Ukraine doesn't exist, could I live in a world where Ukraine doesn't exist? And could I live in a world where my friends and family live under occupation? And I told myself no. And so for me, it's like, if we're losing, I'm still willing to fight because at least I'll die trying. There's a heavy price for that defiance. The number's wounded and killed.

Donald Trump's callback cost astronomical. At this one field hospital, yet more wounded arrive. One surgeon says it's a quiet night. Well, just in the last 20 minutes, half a dozen injured soldiers have come in, some with minor injuries, broken arms, wounds on their legs, others more serious, shrapnel wounds. Even Ukraine admits that it's suffered more than 400,000 casualties. That includes killed and injured. And it's the scale of those casualties

that's prompting more questions about how much longer this walking will last. There are signs, too, that the public are wall-bearing. In Dnipro, the air raid sirens are never quite for naught. There is no easy answer. A lot of our soldiers have been killed. They fought for something, for our territories, but I want the war to end. Unfortunately, there are fewer of us.

We're getting some help, but it's not enough. That's why we have to sit down and negotiate. Some of the strongest voices for a ceasefire come from those who've been forced to flee. These elderly women all want one. They're in temporary accommodation. Their homes are now in occupied territory. But Ukraine will have to sacrifice some of its land if there's to be an end to this war. Jonathan Beale reporting. Still to come, a 94-year-old who spotted a rare celestial event when he was a teenager is hoping to catch another glimpse eight decades later.

If I see it, however many other people have seen it, I will be the only one who has seen it twice. I've got to keep breathing. I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just...

I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just...

I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just...

I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... I'm just... making major news stories around the world. A BBC investigation finds that Mohammed Al Fayed, former owner of Harrods, was accused of raping five members of staff. Mohammed Al Fayed was like an apex predator. From the top of British society to the heart of global fashion brands. The former boss of clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch

is accused of exploiting young men for sex. That world has eaten up and spit out a lot of young and attractive guys. Gripping investigations, available to listen to now, South Korea has begun a seven-day period of national mourning after 179 people were killed in the worst-ever plane crash on Korean soil. The acting president, Choi Sang-mok, says the top priority now is identifying the victims, supporting their families and treating the two survivors. He's ordered an emergency review of the country's aviation safety procedures. South Korea's Transport Minister Yoo Kyung-soo said they would examine why the plane landed without its wheels and whether a bird strike caused the crash.

When the landing gear malfunctions, there are ways to deploy it, either automatically or manually. The reasons for the malfunction will be identified through analysis of the flight recorder. Another flight from the same airline, Jeju Air, was forced to turn back to Seoul on Monday due to a presumed landing gear issue. Our correspondent Rupert Wingfield Hayes reports now from Muan Airport. The investigation into what happened has barely begun but there are a few clues. We now know the pilot did

declare an emergency and told the control tower the plane had suffered some sort of bird strike but experts say that does not fully explain what happened next. Footage of the crash shows the plane was attempting a belly landing. Why were the wheels not down? It also landed far down the runway at high speed, giving it no chance of stopping in time. Whatever the reasons, transport officials say it all happened very fast. If there had been more time, they could have requested preparation measures such as dispatching fire trucks to standby and preparing for an emergency landing.

Typically, in such cases, the pilot makes these requests and the control tower coordinates by placing firefighting teams on standby. All this is of no comfort to the scores of bereaved families now gathered at the airport. The feelings cannot be described. It cannot be compared with anything. I'm just waiting without an end. Shin Kyu Ho is 64 years old. His son-in-law and two grandsons were on the flight from Thailand. The father took his two sons there to make happy memories. And then this happened. They were in the first and third year of high school. My son-in-law was in his forties.

The bodies were very badly damaged. If they were not, the family could go to see them and confirm their identity. The bodies are scattered, so the authorities cannot show them to the family. Inside the terminal building here now is a huge tent encampment. There are hundreds and hundreds of relatives, many of them sitting stoically waiting for news, but others you can hear behind me here. The emotion is still overwhelming. You can hear the crying coming out of these tents as we walk past. It's very, very raw and there's two things people want here. They want information. They want to know what happened.

But there's something else. They want the bodies of their relatives back. This is very, very important for them. This was a flight that left Thailand full of holiday makers, looking forward to getting home. And all the way back to South Korea, it looked like a totally normal flight and then in the last few minutes something

or some series things went terribly wrong and the relatives here want to know what happened and who's responsible. Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Muan. Serbian prosecutors have indicted 13 people in connection with last month's deadly accident at a railway station in Novi Sad. 15 people were killed when a concrete canopy at the recently renovated building collapsed. Our Balkans correspondent Guy Delaney told me about the charges. We've seen 13 people charged.

Prominent among them is Serbia's former Transport Minister Goran Vesic and he's been accused of causing general danger and of offences against general safety and this is in connection with the renovation of Novi Sad railway station. Also charges against the designers and project managers of the works at the station. They've been charged with irregular and improper execution of construction works. And if you're wondering what that means, I've been following this obviously since the disaster on the 1st of November, and there were some very striking comments made by an engineer who did work on the project at one point, and he said he'd seen some terrible practices

during the reconstruction, including concrete sacks, which were empty, being stuffed into places where there should have been concrete. Now tell us about the factors that led up to this incident causing so much public outrage. Well, the reason that people are so upset, and as you mentioned, we've got this protest today in Novi Sad, which is a 15 minute silence.

That's 15 minutes, one minute for every person who died when this concrete canopy at the station collapsed. This has become a regular event now. At 11.52, usually in the morning, people will hold a 15 minute silence. And the largest one of these protests that we saw was in Belgrade earlier this month, which attracted around 100,000 people, which is a very big protest by Belgrade's standards. We're also expecting on New Year's Eve for the 15-minute silence to start at 11.52pm, so that Belgrade will go into the new year instead of being raucous and noisy,

with a silence at least at the place of the protest. Guy Delaney. Five people have been charged in Argentina in connection with the death of the British singer Liam Payne. The One Direction star died in October after falling from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires. Three people have been charged with manslaughter and two others who reportedly work at the hotel have been charged with supplying drugs. Our correspondent Tom Simons has more. It's a lengthy detailed statement from the prosecutor's office in Buenos Aires having carried out a two or three month investigation involving 800 hours of video footage, everybody

involved having their phones seized and forensically searched a post-mortem of Liam Payne's body. And what they've come back with is five charges against five individuals. I'll try to run through them quickly. Roger Nores is regarded as a friend of Liam Payne by the prosecutor. A hotel manager, Gildan Martin, and a head of reception, Esteban Grassi, all three of those are charged with effectively a form of manslaughter by failing to look after Liam Payne despite the fact he was intoxicated

having taken drugs. And two other individuals, Iskiel Perea, who worked at the hotel and Brian Paez, a waiter who also worked at the hotel, are accused of selling the singer drugs. And in the case of Mr. Payes, it is said by the prosecutor that Liam Payne took a taxi to his home in Buenos Aires to buy drugs off him. The judge said that effectively, the singer fell from this balcony on his third floor hotel room, thinking he was trying to leave the room.

He left the room effectively by falling from the balcony and sadly died having hit his head against the cement support of an umbrella below. So if we had any word from any of these defendants? Not at all and apart from a defense of Brian Payers the waiter by his lawyer who said that he did take drugs but he did not sell drugs and I think it's clear that this is a major investigation in Buenos Aires. The case is being handled by a national court and clearly there's interest in this case because of the love for Liam Payne around the world. Tom Simons.

Astronomers are eagerly awaiting a celestial event that only happens about every 80 years. A star called T Corbor, which you can't normally see with the naked eye, is expected to suddenly become much brighter and visible in the night sky. Our science editor Rebecca Morell has spoken to one man hoping to catch it twice. I was keen on the stars, as I always had been. In fact, I had had a telescope, a very nice telescope too. On a cold February night in 1946, Michael Woodman had something of a stargazer's dream come true. I looked out of my bedroom window and there was the constellation of the corona barrières.

Michael, who's 94 now, was 15 at the time. In the ring of the corona barrières, the second star now was bright, very bright. Never seen that before. The following morning I thought, well, get in touch with this star on the wall and bless me if he didn't reply with the letter of which I've still got. Michael had witnessed a rare celestial event that briefly lit up the night sky. A star system called T. coronaborealis, or T. corbore for short, had exploded into brightness. And not only that, but the astronomer royal informed him that he was the first person in the country to have seen this. It did give me a certain amount of notoriety, at least

to say he's the lad with all the stars. So I've got the telescope pointed at Corona Borealis and that's the constellation that this star is in. Now a new generation of astronomers are hoping they'll get to see the light show too. Dr Jennifer Millard is an astronomer for Fifth Star Labs. She's scanning the crystal clear skies of Banai Prakainog, also known as the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Tí Chó Bó is dim at the minute, so it's about magnitude 10, and that is well below

what you can see with the naked eye. Astronomers think that every 80 years or so, Tí Chó Bó is predicted to light up the sky, but not for long. It's only going to be visible to the naked eye for a couple of days. Of course, if you've got a small pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you'll be able to see it for a little bit longer. But I do think that it's short stint in the sky makes it really special. Tikor Bor is actually two stars orbiting each other, a small white dwarf,

which is a dead star and a much larger red giant. The white dwarf has an immense gravitational pull, so much so that it drags material away from the red giant. Over time this material builds up until it eventually explodes, making Tikor Bor briefly much brighter. And this happens on repeat. Remember it like it was yesterday. Michael Woodman certainly wants to see Teeqoore bore again.

What would happen is that somebody amongst my acquaintance would see it and tell me and get me into a car and drive me out into the wild somewhere so I can have a decent look. That's what we are hoping for. And if he catches another glimpse of the cosmic fireworks, he believes it will put him in a very exclusive club of just one. 80 years later we're all looking at the skies again, not only me but the whole world apparently. But if I see it, however many other people have seen it, I will be the only one who's seen it twice.

I've got to keep breathing. That report by Rebecca Morell. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Dufford Evans and the producer was Marion Straughan. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Bernadette Keough. Until next time, goodbye. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour.

Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.