Global News Podcast - US-Turkish protestor killed in West Bank as Israeli forces opened fire

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

The Israel Defence Forces say it is investigating after Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot at a protest in Beita. Also: Starliner capsule heads home to Earth without stranded astronauts.

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. Céline Dion. My dream to be an international star. Could it happen again? Could Celine Dion happen again? I'm Thomas Leblanc, and Celine Understood is a four-part series

from CBC Podcasts and CBC News, where I piece together the surprising circumstances that helped manufacture Celine Dion, the pop icon. Celine Understood. Available wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jeanette Jalil, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 7th of September, these are our main stories.

Israeli soldiers are reported to have shot dead an American woman in the occupied West Bank during a protest against Jewish settlements. The judge in Donald Trump's criminal hush money case postponed sentencing until after the US presidential election. At least 70 children are still unaccounted for after a deadly fire at a school in Kenya. Also in this podcast, the Bossa Nova legend Sergio Mendes has died at the age of 83. We begin in the Middle East. A 26-year-old American woman is reported to have been shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. Ayşenor Ezgi Aygi, whose Turkish descent was taking part in a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita near Nablus when she was shot in the head. A fellow activist, Jonathan Pollack, was also there. What happened today is no accident. It is the continuation of the killing

of 17 of Beta's residents during demonstrations since 2021. It is an intentional killing that is now receiving the light of day because she is an American citizen. It was an intentional killing that cannot be justified. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the killing. The Israeli military says it's looking into the incident. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, gave this reaction to the death. We deplore this tragic loss. Now, the most important thing to do is to gather the facts. And that's exactly what we're in the process of doing.

And we are intensely focused on getting those facts. The UN has called for a full investigation into the death of the American-Turkish dual national. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Mike Thompson, told us more about how she came to die. She was attending, attending apparently a regular demonstration against settlement expansion in the West Bank, which has been increasing at quite a pace. And according to local media, Israeli troops try to suppress the demonstration. They use, it's said, live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas to try and stop what was happening. And in the midst of all this, it thought the young American woman was hit in the head.

She was then taken to hospital in Nablus, but medics there were unable to save her life and she was pronounced dead. It was only a few weeks ago in the village of Gite in the West Bank that around 100 settlers invaded the village. Cars were burnt, homes were burnt down and a local resident was killed in the clashes that followed. And these attacks have been increasing, especially since the start of the Gaza war, causing quite a lot of alarm. And there have been several people killed. This latest shooting came after the Israeli army ended one of its most destructive raids in the occupied West Bank for years in the city of Jenin. Over the course of more than a week, Israeli forces killed dozens of people and caused widespread destruction of streets, homes and businesses. Israel said it was acting

against terrorists. Some of those killed were militants, but some were children. Lucy Williamson sent this report from Jenin. After more than nine days of virtual siege, people here are impatient to reclaim their city. In Jenin's cramped refugee camp, residents were emerging this morning, stunned and exhausted to assess the damage. We found Khalid Abu Sabir in his basement apartment. The army had evacuated him and his wife, he said, before blowing up a cave under the mosque next door.

There's just nothing left of Khalid Abu Sabir's home. It's just mountains of rubble, tiny sticks of furniture sticking out of it. It feels like we are starting our lives all over again. This house was all we had. We didn't expect the whole house to be destroyed. We don't know where to go. On the floor above, we found Mustafa Antir, standing stunned in the flat of his daughter, Asil.

It's damaged, but intact. He tells me he and his daughter both left the camp during the incursion under heavy fire, and that two others who evacuated were shot. It was impossible to tell where it was coming from. Explosions, drones, shootings, here, here, and from the sky. We evacuated in groups of 10 to 20, taking roads not completely safe. Those carrying white flags were far from us. Aseel arrives minutes later, carrying her five-year-old daughter. Mustafa waves her in and pulls her close for a hug. Don't be scared, he tells her. Aseel looks around, too shocked to speak, her daughter silent in her arms. For the past nine days and ten nights, gunfire and explosions from inside the camp

have broken the silence over Janine. Israel said that 14 terrorists had been eliminated during this operation and dozens of explosives destroyed, along with a weapons storage facility beneath a mosque. Khalid told us there was nothing in the cave they blew up. Today, the dead were released along with the living. Bodies kept for days in hospital morgues buried in the cemetery next to the camp. Among them, Mohammed Zubaydi, an armed fighter.

His father, once the local leader of Al-Aqsa martyrs' brigades, now in an Israeli prison. Abu Fariz, who lives in the camp, was at the funeral. They come, they go, they come back, we don't mind. The one we lose is a martyr. The one they lose goes to hell. Today we can't confront them directly. We attack and retreat, each trying to hunt the other.

Inside Janine camp, old bullet holes sit side by side with fresh graffiti celebrating Hamas. Years of violent confrontation etched into its walls. Operations end. The battle here never has. That report by Lucy Williamson in Jenin. A judge in New York has delayed Donald Trump's sentencing over his criminal hush money case until after the US presidential election. He was found guilty earlier this year of falsifying business records

to cover up payments which were made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election. I spoke to our correspondent, John Sudworth, who was outside Trump Tower in New York. Essentially, this will be seen as a victory for Donald Trump. It's certainly what his lawyers were pushing for. The letter from the judge in response to their request to delay this sentencing makes it sound as if it's been agreed

through gritted teeth, making the point that the case they were making that to deliver this sentence ahead of the election would risk influencing that election. You know, it's been something that Judge Merchant at every stage of the trial and what's happened afterwards has been at pains to dispute. Today, I concede that, however unwarranted, as he put it, there could potentially be the impression of a conflict of interest, that people may interpret the sentence as being somehow designed to influence the election or in some way influenced by it. And for those reasons, because of that risk of appearing to be tainted in that way, he has agreed to postpone it until, as you say, November the 26th.

Democrats are not going to be happy about this, but it was a difficult dilemma for this judge because whichever way he decided, he was going to face criticism. Yeah, I think you have to agree with that. It was a very tricky decision. This is a very contested, divisive political landscape that this election is taking place in. This case, obviously, right at the centre of it. And the risk for the judge, as he admits himself, was the appearance that more than justice was being done here, that something else was at stake. Of course, the counter argument, what some would now see as the risk, is it means Americans go to the polls on November 5th

not knowing whether one of the candidates, one of the leading candidates, the Republican nominee for president, is going to face either a fine, although many people see it as unlikely, but it's still there as a possibility, a custodial sentence. Those things, of course, are significant. But now the knowledge of which of those two options he is likely to be given

will have to wait until after they've cast their votes. John Sudworth. As we record this podcast, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is beginning its journey back to planet Earth, leaving behind its two stranded astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who remain on board the International Space Station. The empty capsule, which had developed technical problems, undocked automatically from the ISS on Friday evening. This is the moment it did so. Separation confirmed. Starliner is now backing away from station and starting its return to Earth. Starliner's thrusters will then complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting lab.

The two astronauts will now have to wait until next February when they're expected to return to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon, extending a stay that was supposed to be eight days to eight months on the ISS. Richard Trebeau is space reporter at Orlando Sentinel Media Group. He explains what all happened to the Starliner capsule on its journey back to Earth. It has a six-hour flight return home, targeting a landing in the desert in the White Sands area of New Mexico. And then after that, they're going to ship it back to Kennedy Space Center, where Boeing's factory is for the Starliner, and go over all the data and see if they can fix all of the problems

that they found on the flight up when it went up there back in June. It's not a great look for Boeing. They've got plenty of other issues on their plate. But NASA likes the vehicle. They just wish that all the little parts that have failed on this trip were a little bit more reliable. Space reporter Richard Tribute. A fire at a boys boys boarding school in Kenya has caused devastation. At least 17 children are already known to have died but the agony continues

not just for their families but for those of dozens of other boys who still don't know their fates. Kenya's deputy president says 70 children still remain unaccounted for. The fire began at night in a dormitory at the school in central Kenya before engulfing the building, which mainly consists of wooden planks. The cause of the blaze is still not clear. Our Africa correspondent, Barbara Kletascha, reports from the scene. Parents gathered at the school, overcome with shock and sorrow. They were taken to see the bodies of the children still in the dormitory, many burnt beyond recognition. The fire broke out overnight while the boys were sleeping.

Some escaped the flames by crawling under beds. Others ran into the night. John Githogo said there was no news of what may have happened to his nephew. He said it was torturous and painful waiting to find out. Many people in the neighborhood rushed to help the firefighters. In the chaos, boys went missing. The deputy president, Rigathi Gashagwa, visited the school to comfort the parents there and urged others to report if they had picked up their children. We still have 70 kids that are unaccounted. But that does not mean that they are perished or they are injured.

The word is that they are uncounted for. We are praying and hoping for the best. This is a terrible tragedy. But fires at boarding schools in Kenya are common, many said to be because of arson. It's not known what caused this one. Officials have promised a thorough investigation, which might bring a certain resolution at some point. But right now, there is only raw grief

and anger. Barbara Pletasha reporting. In an earlier edition of this podcast, we told you that the country worst affected by MPOC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, had finally received its first batch of vaccines against the virus, three weeks after the World Health Organization declared the current outbreak a global health emergency. The highly infectious disease has killed more than 650 people in Congo, most of them children. Many of the cases are in remote eastern parts of the country, but as our correspondent in the town of Goma, Simi Jolauso, reports, it will still be some time before they receive the vaccine. The arrival of 99,000 doses of the vaccine that could help curb the MPOC's outbreak

has been long awaited. Although health officials have said they may only begin giving jabs in October, giving them time to train health workers. It's not pleasing news to the thousands in camps for internally displaced people who are eagerly awaiting them. Like Faraha Makambo, who lives in Mujah camp near Goma. Her three children had mpox. Let the doctors bring us the vaccine. The vaccine is very important because if the disease progresses,

children will already be protected and there will be less risk of contamination. The epidemic may spread, but it won't be very dangerous if we are protected. Nima Asifiwe, who lives in the same camp, agrees. Our children get sick every day from mpox. That's why we want help with the vaccine, so we can be protected. There will be several challenges to get those vaccines to this eastern region of the DR Congo. There's the vastness of the country, the precise temperature at which the vaccine must be kept and transported. Then, of course, there's the ongoing fighting between the army and armed rebel group M23.

It's a concern of Dr Gaston Bulambo, head of North Kivu's provincial health division. The conflict is having a profound effect on the vaccination programme in general. It's not just vaccination against Mpox, but even the whole vaccination programme is suffering because of difficulties in getting vaccines to health zones. This is due to insecurity. The government has said in the meantime it's trying to relieve the overcrowding in camps and provide hygiene supplies, things people there have long called for. Simi Jaloso in Goma. Still to come, scientists discover a substance that makes the skin of mice transparent.

The researchers did an experiment where they rubbed it on the belly of a nude mouse and you could see the internal structure, the liver, the kidneys, the colon, that ordinarily obviously you can't see in a mouse. So could this be a breakthrough that revolutionizes biomedical research? Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step.

But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. Cé Celine Dion. My dream, to be an international star. Could it happen again? Could Celine Dion happen again? I'm Thomas Leblanc, and Celine Understood is a four-part series from CBC Podcasts and CBC News, where I piece together the surprising circumstances that helped manufacture Celine

Dion, the pop icon. Celine Understood, available wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. President Zelensky has appealed again to Ukraine's military allies to authorise the use of long-range missiles to attack targets within Russia. At a meeting in Germany, he said this was the only way to bring about an end to the war. He spoke to representatives of about 50 nations at the United States Air Base in Ramstein before then holding talks with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Here's our defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale. This was the 24th meeting of the US-led Ramstein Group, set up to keep the flow of Western weapons and ammunition to Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion. But it

was the first time President Zelensky had attended in person, a sign that he sees this as a critical moment in the war, keen to make the most of Ukraine's recent incursion into Russia. He started with familiar themes. Ukraine was grateful for Western support, but still needed more. He politely chastised allies for failing to deliver on previous promises of more air defences. He noted that supplies of long-range weapons from the US, UK and France had slowed. Once again, he pleaded with allies to allow Ukraine to use those weapons to hit targets inside Russia itself. Now we hear that your long-range policy has not changed. We think it is wrong that there are such steps. We need to have this long-range policy has not changed. We think it is wrong that there are such steps. We need to have

this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory. Yes, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace. There was no indication that President Zelensky had shifted minds. Germany's defence minister said the policy on the use of long-range missiles hadn't changed. The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said it wouldn't turn the tide of the war. There were new pledges of military aid, including shorter-range missiles, artillery and armoured vehicles. But President Zelensky will still leave frustrated. Jonathan Beale. Now, this sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it could well be a breakthrough that revolutionises biomedical research. Scientists have discovered that a commonly used food colouring can make the skin

of a mouse temporarily transparent, allowing them to see its organs function. If successfully tested in humans, it could have wide-ranging applications in medicine and healthcare. The research has been published in the journal Science. Dr Christopher Rowlands, a specialist in using light to study biology from Imperial College in London, spoke to Anita Anand about the procedure. It's literally a dye, it's a food dye, tartrazine. You've probably eaten some, maybe even today, it's commonly found in many crisp products and that kind of thing. The key insight of the researchers was to, instead of trying to look for a material that makes the tissue not absorb and not scatter, they said, okay, what if we don't care about absorption,

but we just care about the scattering, and we can use a dye that uses a phenomenon known as the Kramer's-Kroening relations to alter the refractive index. Are you talking about a cream that you can rub on the skin? I mean, shave a mouse, rub this on the skin, and you can see through it without the use of anything else? Not necessarily through it, but certainly through much deeper into its organs than it ordinarily would be able to. So the researchers did an experiment where they rubbed it on the belly of a nude mouse and you could see the internal structure, the liver, the colon, that ordinarily, obviously, you can't see in a mouse.

But that's amazing. I mean, the repercussions could be extraordinary for human beings without any kind of operation or indeed radiation of x-rays. You could get a really good look quite deep inside a human body. I think it's important to be clear, we're not advocating that people go out and buy a tetra-targazine and rub it into their skin. It is an FDA approved food dye, so we think it's safe, but it's safe for consumption and we don't know if it's safe

for rubbing into your eyes or something. Okay, yes, all right. That's very good. Do not do this at home. But is this going to be a revolution? Certainly for my field, yes. We routinely in optics struggle to get light to go more than a millimetre or so into tissue. There are advanced techniques that require you to use multifoton lasers, very expensive lasers to image deep. And we argue about a millimetre, a millimetre and a half. And these guys have come along and said we can image nearly a centimetre into tissue. OK. So when you put this stuff on the nude mouse, can you just wash it off and the mouse is fine? Apparently so. And this is one of the revolutionary things about it,

is it appears to be completely benign. You wash it off and it goes back to being opaque, just exactly the same as before. It scurries off, runs away and is fine. Amazing. Dr Christopher Rowlands from Imperial College in London. Now. That's a distinctive bossa nova classic, Masha Kanada, by the Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes, who's died at the age of 83.

He helped to popularise bossa nova and samba with Western audiences and was also known for putting Brazilian twists on English songs such as A Look of Love and the Beatles' The Fool on the Hill. Our entertainment correspondent Mark Savage told us more about him. You might not recognise his name but if you play those songs people know them around the world. Masha Kanada in particular, a cover of the George A. Ben song, but his version is the definitive version, a really slinky, kind of seductive, sun-kissed Brazilian pop song that conquered the charts in the late 60s and kind of triggered his career. He was born in Brazil and studied classical piano. But when he heard Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, he decided that

was what he wanted to do, because suddenly he discovered you could improvise. He'd never been told studying classical piano that you could stray from the notes that were written on the page. And that inspired him to form jazz quartets. Then the bossa nova craze happened in Brazil. He started getting into that and moved to the US in 1964 because of the military coup in Brazil. And there he realized that he could not only make jazz, but he could popularize bossa nova. And he used both the Western idiom. He would cover a lot of Western songs by acts like The Beatles and Frank Sinatra

and combine them with Brazilian rhythms. But he would also bring Brazilian songs and westernize them. And he just introduced the world to this song. You know, before that, really all that America knew of Brazilian music was Carmen Miranda, you know, with her towering hat covered in grapes and bananas. But he really brought a sophistication to Brazilian music in the US. And the great thing about him was that for generation after generation, they kept discovering him.

His appeal was enduring. Yes. So, you know, he recorded 35 albums. For the first 20 years of his career, he recorded an album a year. And of course, you know, his skill was in arranging because a lot of those songs were covers. You know, he did The Look of Love and he performed that at the Academy Awards. That brought him to a bigger audience. He covered The Beatles' The Fool on the Hill

and Paul McCartney wrote him a letter and said, that is my favourite version of that song. But as you say, over generations, he got rediscovered by hip hop artists who would sample his music. And then he started taking an interest in what they were doing and did a collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas and then an album of collaborations with modern pop artists. So he did duets with Justin Timberlake and Erykah Badu, and he was recording and performing right up until November last year. And then unfortunately, he had a bout of Covid that affected his respiratory system and he had been ill for much of this year. And his family said he had passed away peacefully in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. Our entertainment correspondent Mark Savage looking back on the life of Brazilian musician

Sergio Mendes, who has died at the age of 83. 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, 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 Sid Dundon. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jonat Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step.

But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. Celine Dion. My dream? To be an international star. Could it happen again? Could Celine Dion happen again? I'm Thomas Leblanc,

and Celine Understood is a four-part series from CBC Podcasts and CBC News, where I piece together the surprising circumstances that helped manufacture Celine Dion, the pop icon. Celine Understood. Available wherever you get your podcasts.