Global News Podcast - UN condemns Israeli attacks on peacekeeping bases in Lebanon

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

The UN Secretary General describes Israel's attacks on peacekeepers' bases in Lebanon as intolerable and a violation of international humanitarian law. Also: Japanese atomic bomb survivors win Nobel Peace Prize.

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 Alex Ritson and at 13 hours GMT on Friday 11th October, these are our main stories.

A UN source says Israeli forces have, for a second day, fired at an observation post belonging to its peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon. It comes as residents of Beirut mourn at least 22 people killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes. Pakistani police say gunmen have killed at least 20 workers in an attack on a coal mine in Balochistan. And the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Also in this podcast, is this the future of transport? The robo-taxi represents the pinnacle of innovation. Designed without steering wheels or pedals, it embodies the future of travel. We begin in Lebanon, where after Israel carried out its deadliest attack on central Beirut on Thursday, there have been more exchanges as the war between Israel and Hezbollah continues.

And a United Nations source says Israeli forces have fired again at an observation post belonging to the UN's peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said it was a violation of international humanitarian law. What has happened is obviously condemnable. There was naturally a reaction from many sides in solidarity with the peacekeepers that were wounded and in telling Israel very clearly that this incident is intolerable

and it cannot be repeated. Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Asher spoke to Hannah Gelbart. Very similar to what happened on Thursday, basically saying that Israeli forces fired at an observation tower down in South Lebanon where UNIFIL, there's around 10,000 troops down there to try to prevent violence, to try and ensure that peace and security are maintained there. And we had an incident on Thursday, where this happened, and two Indonesian soldiers were injured as they fell from the tower after it had been hit. And what we're hearing now is almost exactly the same,

that an observation tower was again hit and that two other soldiers, this time from the Sri Lankan contingent, as far as we know from the Lebanese news agency, have been injured. We don't know the seriousness of those injuries. I think the fourth such attack by Israeli forces on UNIFIL bases in the past two or three days, Israel has essentially told UNIFIL that it should withdraw further from the border up to about five kilometers away. UNIFIL has said that it is determined to remain in post, though there has been some movement, they've said, of their troops. And in terms of reaction,

we've had the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described, he was actually talking about the incident on Thursday, but he described it as intolerable and a violation of international humanitarian law. And this comes after what was the worst attack on central Beirut in the latest upsurge in the violence between Israel and Hezbollah. Our correspondent Karine Torby was at the scene this morning. People here, they are standing looking at what used to be a multi-storey building reduced to complete trouble. This building, I'm just standing in front of what remains of it,

stands between two other buildings, almost wall to wall. This is a very residential area, extremely crowded, extremely popular. And as I said, people are still in total disbelief and shock. All the people I spoke to told me we never saw it coming. We never thought that this could be a target. And this area actually has been considered safe to the extent that many people who fled their houses from the Bekaf, Dahia, the southern suburb of Beirut, came to seek refuge in this place. Seb, tell us about the situation in Beirut and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. Well, I think the concern in Beirut is obviously that attacks which have been very,

very heavy on the southern suburbs where Hezbollah has perhaps its main base, those attacks which have been on an almost nightly basis and usually have a warning beforehand, often a very short space of time between that warning and the strike. So people in Beirut have, to some extent, got used to that. Many of the people from that area have left and gone to other places in Beirut or beyond, finding it very difficult to find shelter, sleeping on the street. This attack that happened on Thursday evening, what we understand is that the target was again a senior Hezbollah figure and we're hearing that he may not have been there at the time

and may have survived the attack. The figure given by the Lebanese authorities is that at least 22 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Obviously, it's very, very concerning for everyone in Beirut now that the expansion of Israeli strikes seems to be growing almost by the day. And we're seeing that in other parts of Lebanon too. I mean, the latest figure that I saw for people who've been displaced in Lebanon was more than a million. So the humanitarian situation is understandably getting worse by the day.

Sebastian Asher. As well as the airstrikes on Beirut, Israel's forces are pushing ahead with a ground offensive in southern Lebanon. But they're being met with resistance. The Israeli border town of Metula has seen heavy rocket fire from Lebanon in the past few days. Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson was taken into the town, now under military blockade by the Israeli army. The Israeli border town of Metula juts right up into Hezbollah territory. The Israeli army is taking us in. Nadav Shoshani is a military spokesman. You can see now we're protected by the trees,

but if there is a Hezbollah terrorist in there, he has a direct line of fire and has direct sight of us. No one has lived here for a year except the military. In that time, half the houses have been hit by Hezbollah. We're walking quickly up this road because it's part of the village that's exposed an indirect line of sight from one of the Lebanese villages. This community is perhaps the most exposed in Israel, surrounded by Lebanon on three sides. Part of it too dangerous to even enter. Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon

began along this stretch of border. The mayor, David Azoulay, shows us where a rocket landed in a house last week. It's the third time this house has been hit in the past few months. We hear Israel's air defences intercept the barrage overhead. Civil defence teams monitor Hezbollah activity around Metula 24 hours a day. We're taken into the war room, run by civil defence volunteers like Sharon. It's a narrow, cramped space space filled with more than a dozen screens,

its cameras picking out the traces of Israel's invasion last week and buildings destroyed in neighbouring Lebanese villages. In the last few weeks, because of IDF operations, they have moved back a bit or hid and focused heavier on projectiles and rocket fire rather than those suicide drones or direct fire like anti-tanks or RPGs. 160 rockets were fired at Metula on a single day last week. Another house was hit four days ago. The kind of attack, Nadav Shoshani says, Israel's invasion is meant to stop.

Hezbollah terrorists are within a few hundred meters from these houses. Right behind us in that ridge is Lebanon. And while IDF troops are operating, Hezbollah has been embedding itself and preparing for a war with Israel for decades, building bunkers and rockets under houses in southern Lebanon. We have to go. There's an alert and we'll keep on going. We leave to more warnings of rockets. Matula, a litmus test of Israel's war goals, is still empty of residents, not yet secure. Lucy Williamson. We go to Pakistan now where officials in the southwest of the country say unidentified gunmen have shot dead 20 miners

at a coal mine in the province of Balochistan. Workers at the coal mine have gone on strike, demanding security. I spoke to our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasan Etirajan. What the officials are saying is that past midnight, more than 40 armed militants, they entered into the mine area. And they asked all these workers to come out. So they were shot at a point-blank range. And they also fired grenades or rocket launchers to destroy some of the smaller mines and vehicles. And they fled after about an hour. Now, this has caused a huge concern and alarm among these mine workers. Balochistan is very rich in mineral resources. There are several coal mines there. And this attack came out of the

blue because this particular region, what according to the workers, were not targeted earlier, even though there were previous attacks. Now, the workers and the locals, they have been holding protests in the main town in the district of Duki, asking the government to provide security to them, and also blaming the authorities for not providing them any early warning. And no group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is going to fall on the Balochistan Liberation Army, isn't it? The Baloch separatist rebels have carried out similar attacks in the past. They also attacked some of the Chinese installations in the port city of Gwadar. In fact, a couple of days ago in southern Karachi, there was a huge explosion in which two Chinese workers were killed,

for which some of the Baloch rebel groups, they took responsibility. So there is also the anger about how what the Baloch rebels say, the Pakistani federal authorities exploiting the resources from the province, but not getting anything, giving anything in return to the people. So there has been a discontent, anger, simmering tensions between the Baloch people and the Pakistani government. And that is why they say we will even target all those foreign countries or companies who are coming to invest and operate in Balochistan province. And this is also causing concern for Pakistan because the attack came just a few days before a summit of

the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and also repeated attacks on the Chinese installations that is causing concern for the Pakistani authorities. And Barasan Etirajan. Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors, has won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the group's use of witness testimony to ensure nuclear weapons must never be used again. The announcement was made in Oslo by

the committee's chairman, Jørgen Votni Fridnes. No nuclear weapons have been used in war in nearly 80 years. The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidanki and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of the nuclear taboo. Hannah Gelbart found out more from our diplomatic correspondent James Landell. It's been around since 1956. It essentially represents the survivors of those who were caught up in the two nuclear explosions, the atomic bombs in Japan at the end of the Second World War. There are about 100,000 of them still surviving. And this organization has represented them for many, many years, not just in terms of looking after them and trying to promote their rights,

but also more broadly, to try and campaign not only against the use of nuclear weapons, but also the stockpiling, the spread, the fact that more countries are still trying to get them. So to that extent, it is, I think, a safety first option by the committee because they've gone for something relatively non-controversial and something that many countries at least will be able to pay lip service to. And there were 286 nominations for this year's prize. Why was it that Nehon Hidankyo won it when the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine to many people will seem more pressing? Because quite often the committee is cautious about awarding prizes to people who are actually taking part in current conflicts. There was a lot

of speculation that, for example, the UN organization that supports Palestinians in Gaza, UNRWA, had been nominated. Also suggestions that the International Court of Justice had been nominated. Both of those two suggestions were hugely controversial. A petition of 12,000 signatures against that had been going strong. Look, I think what they've done here is they said, look, let's go for something non-controversial, but equally significant. And that's because of this. The threat of nuclear war hangs over the conflict in the Middle East and also the conflict in Ukraine, because in Ukraine, there has been repeated threats by President Putin to use

tactical nuclear weapons if the allies supporting Ukraine escalate too far. And in the Middle East, the fear of Iran having some kind of nuclear capability is shaping a lot of thinking. So that's what the committee is targeting. James Landale. It's the biggest mystery in mountaineering. 100 years ago, British climbers Sandy Irvin and George Mallory tried to be the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were last seen about 200 metres from the top. Now, an old cracked leather boot with the remains of a foot and a sock with the name A.C. Irvin has been found on the north face of the mountain.

DNA testing is being carried out. Asia-Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton told Hannah Gelbert more about the young mountaineer. Sandy Irvine was just a young Oxford student when he was recruited to join George Mallory and the rest of the British climbing team that wanted to be the first to summit Everest. He wasn't actually an experienced climber, but his skill was that he could fix anything.

And he became Mallory's primary climbing partner because he could fix the oxygen tanks that Mallory decided that they really needed to depend on if they were going to try to be the first to summit the mountain. And so that's why it's unclear whether the remains are his. For years, mountain teams have been trying to find the remains of both Mallory, which were found about 25 years ago, but the remains of Sandy Irvine. And so now the finding, the discovery of this boot with, as you said, a label with his name on it, does indicate that it could actually be him. And that could answer even a few more mysteries if more equipment and more remains can be found.

Celia, does it answer the question of whether they made it to the top? Well, it doesn't answer yet, but there are some clues that have already been found. So, for example, George Mallory, when his body was found, he was found with his snow goggles tucked inside his pocket. So that suggests it was evening when the two mountaineers might have fallen down the mountain. And so that means they would have been on the way down from the summit, meaning they probably did summit. He also was not found with a photo of his beloved wife. He always said that he had wanted to leave the photo at the very top of the mountain. And so the fact that he was found without that photo

suggests that they actually did make it to the top of the mountain 100 years ago. If that's true, that would have been 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary summited the mountain in 1953. Celia Hatton. Still to come in this podcast, breakdancers beware. Then it goes a little something like this.

Doctors warn too much upside-down spinning could give you a conehead. Thank you. 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. Authorities in the US state of Florida have warned residents not to return to areas hit by Hurricane Milton. Fallen power lines, debris and a lack of drinking water all pose risks. At least 16 people are known to have been killed.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, expressed his sympathy for those impacted. Our hearts are also with the many Americans across southeastern United States who've been affected by first Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Many people in the region still recovering here from the typhoon last month and we're thinking about them as well. Sarasota County took a direct hit from the hurricane which made landfall near Siesta Key. Resident Katie Curran told the BBC that her neighbourhood now resembled a war zone. We basically lost everything because we were hit with two hurricanes in a row in the past two weeks. We're moving out all the debris

from our house as were all of our neighbours. Our neighborhood looks like a war zone. And of course, I have been thinking of war zones around the world in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Israel, and now in Lebanon, like so many people displaced, homes destroyed. And now suddenly what I had been watching, this was our neighborhood, how it looked, just decimated. Our reporter Tom Bateman is in Florida. We've heard really from a range of officials and I think the message has been quite consistent that what they believe is, although there was very intensive warning over the course of three days telling people to evacuate because

they thought this was going to be potentially the most destructive and devastating storm in a century particularly if it was going to hit Tampa Bay that was the region it was aimed towards heading in perpendicular head-on slamming into that part of the state that was why there was this very very severe sense of warning for about three days, telling people to get out or they faced dying in the face of this storm. Now, that did lead to a very significant number of people going. What we've heard, really, from all of the officials that have been speaking about this throughout the course of today is they believe that the fact that warning was heeded saved lives.

I mean, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, said that he believed around 80,000 people had fled from that immediate danger area, and that made a very significant difference. And I have to say, driving across this state today, I think that's true, because we've seen a lot of damage and destruction, particularly a lot of flooding,

and it feels like it was because of the fact that people got out of harm's way, that more damage wasn't done. In one big apartment block where people weren't part of an evacuation order, you know, lives were put in danger. And so I think it was the fact that people were able to get away that limited some of the damage that could have been done. Tom Bateman in Florida. Staying in the US, the former president, Barack Obama, has admonished black men for what he said was their flagging enthusiasm for supporting the Democrat candidate Kamala Harris. America's first black president made the comment during an unannounced stop at a Harris campaign field office in Pittsburgh. He made a direct, impassioned plea to black men to support

Vice President Harris, a key demographic she is struggling to mobilize. Mr. Obama said men were coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses not to vote for her and asked them to compare her with Donald Trump. On the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person. And you're thinking about sitting down? And you're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses? I've got a problem with that, because part of it makes me think,

and I'm speaking to men directly, part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president. Barack Obama. We turn now to Ukraine and the eastern city of Volodya, which fell last week to the Russian military. Ukrainian forces had been defending the strategic city since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion two and a half years ago, but it ultimately fell to Russia's enormous advantage in weapons and troops. A BBC Eye investigation has been focusing on this very city. Number 17, My House of Horrors,

captures the transformation of a single family home there and the three people who became intertwined by the war. Catherine Biaruhanga spoke to Victoria Arakelian, who is one of the producers of the film. Volodar is a pretty small city in eastern Ukraine. Before the full-scale invasion, the population was 15,000. And last month, there was just 100 people. And earlier this month, Russians actually did take Volodar after two years of trying. We found the house actually when we and my team at BBCI were working on our piece on 155 Russian Brigade that were assaulting Volodar for two years and about their massive losses. And while we were working on that, we came across a video where a Russian soldier is filming inside the house and actually flipping through the photo

album. And we could see some views from the windows. So it offered the possibility to geolocate the house. And we really wanted to do so because it was such an unsettling and also intriguing moment to try and see whose photos were that. And so we eventually did. And that's how it started. And so you were speaking to one of the residents of the home, Marina? Yes. Once we found the address of the home using geolocation, I found the owner.

It was Marina. I called her and asked her if she is ready to talk to me and if she knows that Russians were in her house, and she already knew that at this point. So we flew to Germany and talked to her. We got the mortgage and rebuilt the house. The old one was just a box. We made every floor plan ourselves.

We knew how every corner and room would be. Everything was planned with such passion. And that's when you turn to the combatants in the war. Tell us about them. so when we went and talked with marina she mentioned that besides seeing the videos of russian soldiers in her house she also came across a video where a prisoner of war essentially that was being held in her house was being rescued and and the pow was ukrainian So she showed us the video and she talked about it at length. So we decided to find him as well. Alexei is a Ukrainian soldier. He just volunteered

with the army. He was an IT specialist before. So he was held captive in Marina's home. And turns out he spent in the basement of her house 46 days. Three of those weeks, Russians were holding him captive and then they had to retreat. After that, he was basically left alone and he almost died of hunger and thirst. I was able to find some crumbs on the floor. There was a piece of a cracker which a mouse stole from me at night.

I hid it and then the mouse probably stole it because I couldn't find it. Fima is a Russian soldier who filmed this initial video that started our whole film and investigation, basically. He filmed that with his GoPro camera. He's a member of Russia's 155th Marine Brigade, and they were the ones that were leading the assault in Volodar Duchess at the time. You know, actually, I felt so cold-blooded. For a second, to be honest, these thoughts ran through my mind about who lived here and how. But I understand there were no civilians at all. And what happened to Alexei and Fima? Where are they now?

Alexei, after some time he spent in different countries receiving treatment, is now back to Kiev and he's preparing to retire from the army because his injuries are basically incompatible with further service. He still has a bullet in his back and doctors are saying it's too dangerous to remove it. But other than that, he is trying to keep very positive and he says he wants to pursue dancing because that was his hobby before. And FEMA is basically back to the front lines at the moment. And for more on this story, you can watch the full BBC Eye documentary, number 17, My House of Horrors, now on BBC iPlayer and the BBC World Service YouTube channel. Is this the future for vehicles on our roads, or another false dawn for those

dreaming of driverless cars? Elon Musk has given us a glimpse into Tesla's long-awaited robo-taxi, or cyber cyber-cab powered by artificial intelligence. The robo-taxi represents the pinnacle of innovation. Designed without steering wheels or pedals, it embodies the future of travel as we inch closer to a world where cars drive themselves. The tech entrepreneur pulled up on stage in the AI-powered vehicle with its metallic, futuristic exterior, promising it will be on the market as early as 2026.

Our North America technology correspondent, Lily Jamali, has been watching the launch. The technology involved here is a real departure from competitors like Waymo, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, which also owns Google. And they use a different set, a suite of technology, LiDAR, radar, ultrasonic technology. LiDAR is a very expensive technology

that uses lasers to try to basically create a 3D picture of where the vehicle is at any given time. Musk, with this project, is doing away with that using much cheaper cameras all around the car and, you know, feeding all of the inputs that they get from that camera into AI, using that AI to basically teach the car how to drive itself over time. And that's actually a pretty controversial approach. When I talk to technologists, I would say there's a little bit less excitement, even a little bit of wariness, frankly. I was talking to an academic about it in the run up to this event. She said

she's not even staying up for this. She called it a dog and pony show. Musk has many times pushed these deadlines back on this technology on a fully self-driving Tesla. Now he has to put his money where his mouth is. Lily Jamali. And finally, a warning for all you break dancers out there. Limit those head spins. That is the advice published in the British Medical Journal. Why?

It could give dancers a cone-shaped head. David Lewis is following the story. Cartwheel kicks, windmills and worms, all key moves that go into making a great breakdancing routine. But new advice has come in for those athletes who like showing off their moves upside down. Don't go too wild on those head spins or you risk developing a cone head. The warning comes from doctors in Copenhagen after medics there treated a Danish dancer with the condition known in sporting circles as breakdance bulge or headspin hole. The man in his 30s developed a protrusion on the crown of his head. He needed it surgically removed. An MRI published online shows his skull with a clear bump, probably caused

by friction with the floor. In radiologic descriptions, the term conehead sign is used, medical experts wrote. And he was a keen breakdancer, very keen, dancing five times a week for 19 years. So how does it happen? Well, the condition can start off with hair loss, tenderness, and then a major bump on the head, which can become plainly clear to see. Experts said that although the bulge was getting bigger over the years, it hadn't impactedly clear to see. Experts said that although the bulge was getting bigger over the years, it hadn't impacted his ability to dance on his feet or head. He reportedly became tired of having to wear a cap to hide his bump and opted for surgery. Breakdancing is a high intensity workout. The strongest competitors will hurl, dive and hop around the floor in a big display of athleticism.

Sprains, ankle twists and even fractures are not uncommon. The sport made headlines this year, debuting at the Olympics in Paris. The man who's choosing not to identify himself told the BMJ case reports he was now pleased. The outcome is much better than it looked before, and I'm glad I had it done. 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 Daniel Fox

and the producer was Anna Murphy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. 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.

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