Global News Podcast - Typhoon Gaemi wreaks havoc across Asia

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Authorities in the Philippines are racing to contain a major oil spill from a capsized ship in Manila Bay. Clean up operations are being hampered by strong winds and high waves brought by Typhoon Gaemi, which is now making landfall in southern China. Also in this podcast: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet with US President Joe Biden as pressure builds for a hostage deal. The Israeli army has recovered another five bodies from Gaza. Accusations that Sudan's bloody civil war is being fuelled by the illegal trade in weapons, how the battlefield in Ukraine has been transformed into a war of drones, and we take a look inside the Olympic Village ahead of the games kicking off in Paris.

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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We are recording this at 13 hours GMT on Thursday 25th July.

The effects of Typhoon Gemi are being felt across Asia. It's making landfall in China, while the Philippines is trying to contain a massive oil spill. Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu are to meet in Washington, with pressure building for a hostage deal. The Israeli army has recovered another five bodies from Gaza. And accusations that Sudan's bloody civil war is being fuelled by the illegal trade in weapons. Also in this podcast, a day ahead of the Games, we take a look inside the Olympic Village in Paris and... Black soldier flies are an insect that is increasingly being used on industrial scales

as an alternative for waste management. How a fly could help reduce methane emissions. But we start in East Asia, where Typhoon Gemi continues to wreak havoc. As we record this podcast, it is starting to make landfall in southern China, where 150,000 people have already been evacuated. The Philippines had avoided a direct hit, but the storm did trigger heavy rains earlier in the week and 20 people there died. Today, though, the Philippine government is facing the threat of an environmental catastrophe after an oil tanker sank in heavy seas. The vessel was carrying close to one and a half million litres of industrial fuel

when it capsized in Manila Bay, a huge natural harbour centred on the Philippine capital. One of the crew died, the remaining 16 were rescued. The authorities are racing against time to contain an oil slick nearly four kilometres long. Our Asia-Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton told me what happened. I've just read an account by some of the crew members who were rescued from the capsized tanker, the Terranova. They say that they had set sail from one part of Manila Bay in rough water, but not actually violating any rules. There was no Coast Guard rule in place to stop them from sailing at the time. So they set on their way, but then they realized,

the captain realized that the water was just too rough for them to continue. So they tried to turn back. And that's when they really got into trouble because they were going against massive waves. And as the crew members describe it, they were scooping waves, taking on lots of water. And that's when the tanker capsized. They issued a distress call. And actually, the Coast Guard were there within five minutes, which is quite remarkable considering how bad the weather was. But the ship had already sunk. It was quite an old ship. It was made in 2002. So it's near the end of its expected 30-year life. So I think that didn't help matters at all. But now rescuers, they've rescued most of

the crew members, but they're really focusing now, as you say, on the size of that oil spill, which is quite difficult to do because the waters are still quite choppy, waves around three to four metres high. Yeah, what can they do? There's some suggestion that if all the oil leaks out, it'll be the worst to affect the Philippines. Absolutely. I mean, I just watched a recording of a meeting that was recently held, a cabinet meeting just in the past few hours, where Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the president of the Philippines, was sitting at a table with his cabinet around him. And you can see the transportation minister who is informing Mr. Marcos Jr. about this spill. And as the details of this spill become clear, the fact that it's happened in Manila Bay, the size of the tanker, you can see the president put his head in his hands and just shake his head because he's

realizing the depths of how bad this really could be. It's 1,494 metric tons carrying the vessel. So it capsized at 1 o'clock early this morning and there is already an oil spill. Right now, we cannot dispatch our resources because of strong winds and high waves. We know that they've sent out aerial crews to assess the size of the spill. And I think at this point, they're really hoping that what happens now is something that happened 20 years ago in the Philippines, when a similar tanker sank, but only one of the 10 compartments leaked. And I think they're really just wondering now, how bad is this leak so far? How much of the oil is going to leak out of the ship? Asia Pacific Regional Editor Celia Hatton. After skimming the Philippines, Typhoon Gemi ploughed across Taiwan yesterday. At least three people died on the island,

while some Burmese sailors are missing offshore. Reporter Jan Kamazind-Broomby gave us this update from the Taiwanese capital. The impact in Taipei has thankfully been relatively small. You walk around, the streets are far emptier than you would imagine. They're having what's called a typhoon day. That means schools are closed, shops are closed, businesses are largely closed, although some have remained open. You can see people have boarded up their windows to protect them from any kind of damage. But the real focus now is shifting away from Taipei and it's shifting down towards the south

and towards the east of Taiwan's island. There we've seen significant levels of rainwater and flooding even in the city of Kaohsiung in the south. Social media videos showing water flooding down into car parks We've seen significant levels of rainwater and flooding even in the city of Kaohsiung in the south. Social media videos showing water flooding down into car parks and people trudging through the streets that once were filled with cars, now filled with floodwater. And there has been a ship that we believe has sunk, essentially, with nine Myanmar nationals on board. Those nationals missing haven't been heard from since the distress signal that they sent out. Three other ships also run aground off the southern coast of Taiwan and the hopes from the local coast guard and local governments that they will be able to rescue the people on those ships very soon. Jan comes in Brimby in Taipei and in the past few

minutes Taiwan's coast guard has said that three crew members of the nine missing after a cargo ship capsized have been found alive. As you may have heard on the previous edition of the Global News podcast, there was a mixed reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the joint houses of the US Congress. The Israeli Prime Minister will today hold talks with President Biden as he tries to rally American support for Israel's war against Hamas. The US-Israeli alliance has become strained by the huge numbers of deaths in Gaza and delays in securing the release of hostages. The two leaders will discuss the remaining obstacles to a deal

and meet families of American captives. Back in Israel, hostage families condemned Mr Netanyahu's speech as it was broadcast in a square in Tel Aviv. Shortly after, the Israeli army announced it had recovered the bodies of five Israelis in Gaza. I heard more from Barbara Platosha in Jerusalem. Four of them are soldiers who were killed during the October 7th Hamas attack

and their bodies were taken into Gaza. One of them is the body of a civilian, a woman, Maya Goran, who died in captivity. It was known that. That was announced back in December. So now the bodies have all been found in Han Yunis in southern Israel where the Israeli military is currently carrying out an operation against Hamas, and they have then announced that they have the bodies and have brought them back into Israel. Again, a reminder to the hostage families or the families of the hostages that time is ticking and that their own loved ones could meet the same fate, and that was very much, very much the sense I got when I was in Tel Aviv

during the speech with the families while it was going on. They were extremely frustrated that Mr. Netanyahu did not give any concrete information about a possible ceasefire deal to bring the hostages home. Yeah, I mean, they have been putting huge pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, but it seems he doesn't appear to be responding to that. Well, he hasn't been. He has been announcing all along that it's military pressure on Hamas that will make the difference. And he kept saying that even as he arrived in Washington. But he has shown some softening. He said that the conditions are ripening, but they're not mature yet.

He did hint at some flexibility in negotiations during his speech. He didn't actually say that Hamas had to be destroyed in his speech. But you're kind of picking through bits and pieces there. You're not getting a clear answer on what you want to hear if you're a Palestinian who wants the fighting to stop and if you're a family member who wants the fighting to stop. We know that the negotiations have been proceeding better than before. They are at a more advanced stage than they have been before. There are still some gaps, but there's a widespread perception, not just from the hostage families,

that it is Mr Netanyahu that has been delaying them for his own political reasons, that if he signed off on what was agreed, it could happen quite quickly. Barbara Platt, Usher in Jerusalem. Well, it was a busy evening in Washington last night with President Biden giving a TV address from the Oval Office, claiming he stepped down from the presidential race to, quote, save American democracy. He also said it was time to hand over to a new generation. His decision to quit means it will be Kamala Harris, currently 59, who takes on the 78-year-old Donald Trump in November's election. Mr Biden praised his vice president as a tough and capable leader, but at a campaign rally, Donald Trump attacked both of them. This report

from Will Grant. In a speech no sitting president has delivered in more than half a century, Joe Biden confirmed his decision to drop out of the race to the American people. It was time for new voices, And yes, he acknowledged younger voices. I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That's the best way to unite our nation. Nothing could get in the way of saving democracy, said President Biden, including personal ambition. He painted November's vote as a choice between forwards or back, hope or hate, unity or division. Despite Republicans calling

for him to resign the presidency, Mr Biden said he had no intention of stepping aside. Over the next six months, I'll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I'll continue to lower costs for hardworking families, grow our economy. I'll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. It's just a month since his make-or-break presidential debate with Donald Trump, his halting, at times garbled, performance, a moment he never came back from. Now it's almost certain the person he's passing that torch to is his vice president, Kamala Harris. Her campaign has gone from strength to strength,

generating tens of millions of dollars in record time and has energised a despondent base. She even seems to have settled on a slogan. We are not going back. Many of those watching weren't alive the last time a U.S. president did this. In 1968, Lyndon Johnson moved aside only to see the Republican challenger, Richard Nixon, ultimately win the presidency. Mr. Biden will hope that history won't be repeating itself with Donald Trump. In North Carolina, the Republican candidate dropped the short-lived unifying tone of his campaign, turning on both the president and his new presumptive rival alike. We officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country,

Trump. For three and a half years, Lion Kamala Harris has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country. If she ever gets the chance to get into office, we're not going to let that happen. Politics is all Mr Biden has ever known, a career which has spanned five decades from, as he put it, a kid with a stutter from Scranton to the White House.

This decision will define his legacy. November's vote will define whether that gamble has worked. A report by Will Grant. A change of pace now, and Australian scientists have genetically engineered flies to consume more organic waste, potentially reducing methane emissions and creating by-products like biofuels and animal feed. The researchers hope to deploy these modified black soldier flies in waste facilities by the end of the year.

Dr Maciek Maselko runs an animal synthetic biology lab at Macquarie University. He told Andrew Peach how this works. Black soldier flies are an insect that is increasingly being used on industrial scales as an alternative for waste management. So hundreds of tons a day of waste, of organic waste, are being taken to these facilities, fed to the maggots from these insects, and then that's being processed into, say, animal feeding ingredients. What we're interested in doing is genetically modifying these insects to greatly expand the waste feedstocks that they can be reared on,

and then also expand the variety of products that they can make, including things like industrial enzymes for textile industry or, say, wastewater treatment. How do you genetically modify the flies and so many of them? We collect the embryos from these flies, and then we have these really tiny glass needles that we make in our laboratory, and we inject a mixture of DNA into those embryos. And then when those embryos grow up, we screen for the insects that have incorporated that DNA into their own DNA, and then we'll pass that down into subsequent generations. So we don't need to be genetically engineering every single insect that's going to be doing something for us. We establish a strain that has this new genetic component, and then that can be greatly expanded to an industrial scale. And will these flies have to then be integrated into an existing ecosystem?

Because you're talking about such vast numbers of them, that would have a huge impact. These aren't flies that will be ever released into the wild. The idea is that they'll be used by these companies that already have really massive facilities. And the numbers are quite staggering. There's facilities coming online that are going to be producing 60,000 metric tons of animal feed protein every year and 20,000 metric tons of oils from these flies. And so this is all in an enclosed facility. So they're just accepting a variety of waste,

rearing these insects on that, and then those proteins and oils are extracted from them. Dr. Maciek Maselko. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. Leave it to the French to spare no details, specifically when it comes to the food. In fact, I'm standing out front of the gym this morning because I've eaten so many baguettes and cheese already in my stay here. We take a look inside the Olympic Village in Paris. 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. Over the past year, the battlefield in Ukraine has been transformed by drones,

targeting both individual soldiers and armoured vehicles. Russia has a 6 to1 advantage in sheer numbers, but Ukraine claims to have the technological edge. It is aiming to produce a million attack and surveillance drones this year alone. On the battlefield, vehicles and even individual soldiers carry detection and jamming equipment. Our correspondent Quentin Somerville has spent the past few weeks on the front line. So the drone detector in the car is beeping

and it looks like it has multiple signals. Yevgeny, what's happening with the drone detector? The drone detector has caught Zala and Lancet drone. Is that why we're driving fast? Yes, as we understand it, the Lancet is a very dangerous thing, but it works in tandem with the Zala and it's hard for them to catch us at speed. We're not a priority target for them, but it's still better not to stop. The drone, unseen from above, follows the route we are taking,

so the men head for an infantry trench, which offers better cover. Both sides in this war are using FPV, first-person view drones, which operators fly manually. They're small, cheap and deadly. The men are squirrelled away in this tiny little wooded corpse. It doesn't give a lot of protection, but because it's summer, the growth is pretty thick and it's enough to to hide

them from from drones so when we were dropped off the car dropped us off very quickly and sped away they're really pretty careful here about not revealing their positions to the russians because it wouldn't take much for one of these fpv drones to to make its way directly onto this position with lethal accuracy. And then we hear it. Okay, everybody's just stopped and staring silently at the sky because we can hear a drone above us. So that drone we heard has passed overhead so we need to get out of here fast

In the shattered village of Lipsy just 10 kilometres from the Russian border I meet one of the 13th Harteu Brigade's drone attack teams. They work from under the ruins of the village's destroyed buildings and operate close to Russian positions, in

range of mortars, so spend as little time as possible in the open. OK, almost there said Petro. So welcome to our castle. There are drones everywhere here on every surface, cardboard boxes full of them. They've all been modified. I mean, the reason there are so many is because a lot of these are single-use kamikaze drones.

They're flown by the pilots towards a target, usually Russian infantry. Sometimes they fly in buildings and through windows and detonate when they see that target. It's remarkable. At the beginning of this war, you'd see the occasional drone, but now there are these drone factories really, which are just producing these munitions at an incredible rate.

Here, in the darkness, on Ukraine's battlefields, the rules of war are being rewritten. It's the first conflict to use drones on this scale, and it's a glimpse into a bleak future where all wars will be fought like this. Quentin Somerville reporting from Ukraine. The conflict in Sudan is being fuelled by a constant flow of weapons, according to a new report from the rights group Amnesty International. It says that recently manufactured arms from countries including China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, the UAE and Yemen are making their way into Sudan in large numbers, often in breach of the existing Darfur arms embargo.

Sudan's civil war has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 10 million people driven from their homes and another 50 million facing a hunger crisis. The BBC's James Copnell has been speaking to DeProse Mishena, Amnesty International's Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact. The weapons are finding themselves in the hands of the parties to the conflict. The parties to the conflict are now armed with these newly arrived, newly manufactured weapons. And it's important that the world, the international community understand this.

Amnesty International analyzed more than 1,900 shipments records from two different trade data providers. We also reviewed open source digital evidence, including approximately 2,000 photo and videos showing that these recently manufactured or recently imported weapons in Sudan have now found themselves into the hands of warring parties. And the carnage continues. This is the point we are making, that this is a global trade in death. Amnesty has documented the presence of recently manufactured weapons in Darfur, which is a violation of the UN Security Council arms embargoes have indicated.

And the embargoes, you know, prohibits all transfer of weapons. What do you think needs to be done to build more of a global consensus to stop weapons and ammunition flooding into Sudan, to stop this war devastating the country? A number of things. Amnesty International is calling for Sudan's international and regional partners to ensure that any of this talk on transition, on peace processes, first of, guarantees justice, truth, reparation measures for recent and past abuses, including all the violations committed during the ongoing conflict. As you know, James, the impact of this war has been devastating.

Amnesty International and other groups have documented civilian casualties, both in discriminatory strikes, direct attacks on civilians. And some of our international humanitarian law partners have estimated that almost 11 million people have been internally displaced and millions more at risk. So it's very, very important that regional and international partners get much more involved in ensuring that we move the process of ongoing peace process and so on.

Diproz Mushena from Amnesty International. Staying in Africa and the death toll from devastating landslides in southern Ethiopia has risen to 257. Search efforts for people who are missing have been hampered by heavy rains. Kalkadan Yiboltal, who's reached the affected area, says it's difficult to bring in aid. It's inaccessible, it's remote and it's highly underdeveloped and it seems because of that the emergency response efforts have been hampered.

We have not seen any big machinery arriving here trying to help people and even the humanitarian support that several real efficiencies are trying to provide to the community are a little bit further away from the actual place where the landslides happened. Kalkidan Yibaltal in Ethiopia. Now, are investors starting to doubt the euphoria surrounding artificial intelligence. Well, on Wednesday, shares tumbled on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined by more than 3.5%. Its worst day since December 2022, after disappointing earnings from heavyweights Alphabet and Tesla.

For more on the stock sell-off, here's our North America business correspondent, Michelle Flurry, in New York. The big tech sell-off dragging down major US markets. What's behind it? Well, there are a couple of things. First, traders are starting to question if they've become too reliant on the Magnificent Seven. No, not the film from the 1960s, but a group of seven high-performing stocks

that includes Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. All of them finished lower on Wednesday. And here's another number for you. $13 billion. That's how much Google spent on its AI efforts in the last three months. The number spooked investors, beginning to focus on the huge sums that are being spent on AI. And they're starting to question if and when these bets will pay off.

Elon Musk's announcement that he was officially pushing back the unveiling of robo-taxis from August to October, well, that didn't help either. Price is also an issue. As one market watcher told me, tech shares have become too expensive. So investors are moving their money into traditional industries in anticipation of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Remember, a recent report showed progress on inflation, and that's increased the odds that America's central bank will cut rates in September. However, not everyone was full of doom and gloom. One analyst I spoke to called Wednesday's sell-off a knee-jerk reaction. We'll find out if that's the case next week

when more big tech companies, including Meta, Amazon and Apple, report earnings. Michelle Fleury in New York. And the sell-off continued in Europe and Asia today, while Wall Street has just opened flat. The Paris Olympics start tomorrow and athletes are settling into their new surroundings in the Olympic Village. Tom Daley is a British competitor hoping to win another gold in the diving. He's been testing the strength of the beds.

This is cardboard. Then you've got the mattress. And then these cardboard boxes with the mattress on top and a mattress topper. And then we get our own little Paris 24. They're pretty sturdy. Devin Haru is CBC Canada's Olympic reporter in Paris. He's been given a full tour of the Olympic village and is impressed. Leave it to the French to spare no details,

specifically when it comes to the food. In fact, I'm standing out front of the gym this morning because I've eaten so many baguettes and cheese already in my stay here. And everywhere you go in the Athletes' Village, there is a boulangerie, a restaurant, croissants, baguettes. So they've really made sure that the athletes have all the food they want. When you walk in through the first gates, right sort of immediately, there's this kind of bougie, classy lounge for the athletes, canopies. They look very relaxed. And, you know, I also want to point out, I think this is important. For the first time in Olympic history, there's actually a nursery in the athletes' village. And that's, of course, for breastfeeding moms, for families to be together. And credit to Allison Felix, the

great American athlete, for pushing that. It's hard to believe it's taken that long for that to happen. They have barbershops, salons. They were getting their nails and hair done. You got to look good for competition. Laundromats everywhere. It's incredible to think that the first Olympic athletes village was right here in Paris, 1924. And they had to pay to stay there because they hadn't conceptualized what this thing was going to look like. It evolved and sort of took full setting in LA. But here in Paris, they had the choice of red or white wine or beer at lunch or dinner. That really tells you how far they've come. There's some great stories about the marathoners in 1924 being fuelled by red wine to get to the finish line. So they were having a

party 100 years ago. Not quite the case in the village in 2024. Reporter Devin Heroux covering the Olympics in Paris. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Joe McCartney and produced by Sean Wales. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. 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, 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.