Global News Podcast - US, UK and other allies call for Israel-Hezbollah 21-day ceasefire

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Israeli PM tells military to keep fighting with 'full force'. Also: President Biden announces the release of billions of dollars of aid for Ukraine, and the world's longest-serving death row inmate acquitted in Japan.

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 Valerie Sanderson and at 13 Hours GMT on Thursday the 26th of September, these are our main stories. Israel's Prime Minister has told the military to continue

striking Hezbollah in Lebanon with full force, despite international calls for a ceasefire. President Biden has announced he's releasing nearly $8 billion of assistance for Ukraine. The world's longest-serving death row prisoner has been acquitted on a retrial in Japan. Also in this podcast. Speaking from beyond the grave, was this the likely voice and language of England's King Richard III, who died in 1485. The world is waiting to see if international pressure for a three-week ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah will be accepted by both sides. The proposed 21-day pause in fighting

has been welcomed by the Lebanese Prime Minister, but is still likely to happen only if other demands are met. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis have been displaced. The Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned the situation in Lebanon is dire. Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon. We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink. Since October, nearly 200,000 people within Lebanon

and over 60,000 from northern Israel have fled their homes. Many lives have been lost. All these must stop. So what are the prospects for a ceasefire? The BBC's Middle East correspondent Yolande Nel is in Jerusalem. I mean, we've had now a short statement from the Israeli prime minister's office dismissing some reports that are circulating of a ceasefire as being incorrect. It says that the prime minister has not even responded to this proposal coming primarily from the US and from France. And it said that there's reports about a purported directive to ease up on fighting in the north.

That's the opposite of the truth. The prime minister has directed the Israeli military to continue fighting with full force and saying that this will continue until objectives are met in Gaza as well. Now, the objectives on the northern front for Israel, it is said, is to return 60,000 displaced Israelis to their homes on the Lebanese border. These are people who have been displaced by the cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces that has gone on in parallel to the war in Gaza. And, you know, Israel has not dismissed the idea of a diplomatic solution to get people back to their homes. But at the same time, it's definitely keeping military options open. And that's why we've heard in the past couple of days, even as two more reservist brigades, infantry brigades have been moved to the northern front on short notice. We've had also the Israeli military's

chief of staff, other commanders talking to ground forces, basically telling them to prepare for a possible military incursion. The chief of staff said military boots will enter enemy territory. But we understand that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is on the way to the United States where he's going to meet President Joe Biden, where presumably this will all be discussed. Of course. And it was interesting that while the prime minister is often somebody who likes to leave a message before he departs the country, especially to things like the UN General Assembly, where he's expected to give his address on Friday.

He chose not to speak, even though this report of a ceasefire was already well in the works by the time he left Israel. We have had a lower intensity of fighting, especially earlier in the day than we've seen in the previous three days of this week. But, you know, there were 75 reported strikes by the Israeli military on Lebanon overnight. We've been hearing about more strikes taking place with details yet to fully come through with strikes even in the north of Lebanon, we're told by media reports. After Hezbollah fired rockets, about 30 were intercepted in the skies above Acre and Haifa Bay. So it does show you this fighting still goes on.

And across the political spectrum, we're seeing a lot of pushback against the diplomatic deal that's currently on the table. While the waiting continues for the outcome of negotiations, let's hear more about what's happening on the table. While the waiting continues for the outcome of negotiations, let's hear more about what's happening on the ground. Our Middle East correspondent Hugo Bochega is in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Well, the country has been paralysed by what's happening. Schools have been shut, classes have been suspended. Many schools have been turned into shelters here in Beirut for the displaced residents coming, especially from the south. We've seen that tens of thousands of people have now fled villages and towns in the south of the country because of the intensity of these Israeli airstrikes. And the authorities are warning that this has put a lot of pressure on public services and especially on hospitals. I think it was, you know, there was a warning yesterday from

the Prime Minister who said that hospitals are unable to treat people because of the sheer number of casualties from these Israeli attacks. So a lot of pressure on Lebanon. And obviously, if the situation escalates, and if there is, let's say, a ground offensive by the Israeli military, this situation could get even worse. So what are people there saying to you? We've been to a shelter here in Beirut and 6,000 people were there yesterday. And obviously people were talking about the intensity of the attacks. Many of them were carrying just, you know, some bags with some belongings. They said they didn't have time to collect some of their possessions.

And I think the fear here is that some of them may never be able to go back home, especially if there is this Israeli ground offensive. There's been speculation that this is the plan of the Israeli military to push Hezbollah fighters away from the border. And many people here told us that they have nowhere to go. So again, these schools, these public facilities have been turned into shelters. And, you know, there is a lot of uncertainty about what is going to happen next for thousands of those people who now have been displaced because of this conflict. And what are the authorities in Beirut where you are? What are they saying? How are they trying to keep people calm? We are hearing from Lebanese

officials who are saying that it is urgent to reach this ceasefire. They say that the country is under attack. I think this is the feeling here. This is the mood here. It's not only Hezbollah that has been affected by these airstrikes, by these attacks that have been carried out by Israel. There is the feeling that the entire country is being attacked.

And I think the main concern here is that we could see an escalation instead of de-escalation. Hugo Bacheca in Beirut and before him we heard from Yolan Nel in Jerusalem. President Biden has announced he's releasing nearly $8 billion of assistance for Ukraine ahead of a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington. In a statement, Mr Biden said all the remaining security funds that had been set aside for Ukraine would be released by the end of his term. It comes amid

signs that were Donald Trump to win November's US presidential election, he might cut funds to Kiev. More details from Danny Eberhardt. President Biden has announced another Patriot battery and more Patriot missiles to boost Ukraine's air defences, a type of long-range glide bomb that will be transferred for the first time, and more training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets. President Zelensky has welcomed the package as a step to ensuring Ukraine's victory. But what he no doubt really wants is permission to use advanced Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia to better protect his compatriots, energy system and armed forces, who are under extreme pressure. There's no word

yet on that. Danny Eberhard, a Japanese man who spent decades facing the death penalty, has been acquitted in a retrial. Iwao Hakamada, who's 88 years old, is believed to be the world's longest-serving death row inmate. In 1968, he was convicted of murdering his boss, the man's wife, and their two children. Shama Khalil is in Tokyo. The judge apologized to the sister of Ioao Hakamada, Hideko, his 91-year-old sister, who has long been attending these trials because of his ill health. The judge said, I'm sorry for taking so long for the court to proceed. And this is precisely because it has taken decades for this legal saga to end.

This is an acquittal for a man that has spent more time awaiting execution than anyone else in the world. And today, Iwao Hakamada was found innocent. And I think the one thing that this case has hinged on is whether the evidence had been fabricated. The lawyers, the defense lawyers, have been arguing that for years, about the credibility of the evidence, essentially, that the red stains found on clothes

that were set to be worn by the killer, the alleged killer, could not have been blood because blood would not remain defence and the prosecution who kept insisting on the death penalty for Mr Hakamada. A key date, I would say, is 2014. He was released from jail. He was granted retrial. And then there was a lot of back and forth again between the High Court and the District Court. And it took until last year for the retrial to be regranted and then today for him to be announced innocent. And after facing the death penalty for more than half a century, how is he now mentally? He is not well at all. His sister, supporters and rights advocates have for years criticized the way that he's been treated. Remember, he has been in solitary confinement, awaiting execution day in and day out for nearly half a century before he was released in 2014. And those who are close to him have said that it really impaired him and really deeply affected his mental health.

His sister today, Hidako, was quite emotional in court. She was smiling outside court. But of course, the question here is how aware he is of what's happening. Since he was released, he was under her care, under her supervision, because of his ill health and because of his mental health. And I think a wider story here, and something that has been raised by rights advocates, is not only how long it lasted, but the nature of how he was treated. And of course, the fact that Japan, only Japan and the United States are the two countries in the G7 states that still adopt the capital punishment. Shyamal Khalil. He's one of England's most controversial monarchs. Richard III is the last King of England to die in battle at Bosworth in 1485. He was suspected of being behind the death of two young royals, the princes in the Tower,

who disappeared from the Tower of London in 1483, where they'd been placed for their safety. Now Richard is set to speak from beyond the grave after scientists use the shape of his head and knowledge of medieval speech patterns and language to recreate his voice. Stephanie Prentice has this report. Anyone watching an adaptation of Richard III will be used to hearing the king speaking like this. If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.

And like this. Now is the winter of our discontent. But now a new study says that instead of speaking with what people in the UK may call a posh or aristocratic accent, Richard would in fact have had a broad accent with flat vowels similar to England's famous Yorkshire tones. A team of researchers examined his skull in depth and tracked speech patterns of the time, bringing together linguists and anatomy experts. And after 10 years of back and forth, they've released a clip of how they think he would have sounded. And madam, the aptly beset you, that you may often hear from you to me comfort.

At such islands as being here, me serve out, tell us Britain. The new development was all made possible after Richard's skeleton was found in 2012 underneath a car park in England's Midlands. The dig revealed Richard had a deformed spine, giving credence to William Shakespeare's depiction of him as a hunchback. And crucially, the skull also allowed forensic archaeologists to recreate how his face might have looked. Next month, the team plan to hold an event to let people hear his voice using a moving, breathing dummy.

Historians have said that hearing his accent will make the former monarch more relatable. And the team of scientists say they're bringing the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty back to life. Stephanie Prentice on England's King Richard III. Still to come on this podcast. Then I felt this thing come from underneath me and grab me and my heart sank and then I was dragged underwater in its jaws and taken down to the bottom of the river. One man's lucky escape after surviving a hippo attack in Zambia. 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. Let's return to the situation in the Middle East. Israel's ambassador to the UN says his country doesn't want a full-scale war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but won't stand by as Israel's northern region is attacked. Israel says its citizens have a right to live in peace, and returning displaced civilians to communities along the border is now one of its principal war aims.

Around 60,000 Israelis have been away from their homes since last October. They were evacuated when Hezbollah started firing rockets over the border at the start of the war in Gaza. For the past year, around 200 evacuees have been living in a hotel at Kibbutz Lavi, just west of the city of Tiberias. With a war raging just to the north, our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams has been to visit. It's an incongruous scene, a dance party in a bomb shelter. After a year of life at Kibbutz Lavi, they're mixing play with safety,

trying for a while not to think about what's going on outside. Rahel Rahamim is here with her husband and five children. They're from Kiryat Shmona, 30 miles north of here, right on the Lebanese border. We thought it's safe here, but all of a sudden, past two weeks, we are running back and forth to the shelter with the kids. How are the kids? They are scared too. They are afraid that there is going to be a siren in the middle of the night and we won't hear it. I will be confident to send my kids to go back to Kiryat Shmona when I can send my kids on the school bus without worrying to death.

Up the road in Kiryat Shmona, some buses are running, but there's no one on them. A city of 24,000 people is mostly deserted. Lebanon is just a couple of miles away, across the mountain that towers over the city. Kiryat Shmona is battle-scarred. Hundreds of buildings have been damaged by the rockets that arrive, usually with no more than a few seconds' notice from across the border.

This is a house that was hit some months ago. And when you go inside, it is a complete wreck. We're here with Major Doron Spielman, a spokesman for the Israeli military. The army, he says, is determined to do whatever it takes to enable Israeli civilians to return to their homes. So you're looking at over 100 homes in Karachmona look like this, where families, if they had lived here, would have been wiped out in an instant. This is what Israel is fighting for. Hezbollah is going to have to move back from the border of Israel. The only way these people are ever going to come back home is if Hezbollah is nowhere even close where they can shoot at them again. Back at Kibbutz Lavi, the hotel manager Moshi Gold shows me how he and his staff are looking

after their visitors from the border. He clearly cares deeply about them. Does he have time, I wonder, to think about what's happening on the other side? We see the pictures at the TV. I'm not happy for what I see, but now I have my own problems. We reached this point, not because we started it or we want it. We've been dragged to this thing after what happened in the south. And I'm very sorry, but now I have to take care of my own people, my own responsibility. Well, let's cross the border again where more than 100,000 Lebanese people have been forced to seek shelter further north.

Schools and offices in Beirut have been turned into temporary shelters for them. Etty Higgins is from the children's charity UNICEF and has been helping set them up. Every day the number of shelters is increasing. As of last night, we had 250 new shelters that are opening to accommodate all of these very traumatised,

internally displaced people. And they're opening and entering shelters in the south, in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, right across the country. And the situation in these shelters is really dire. These are schools. They're not meant to accommodate and house people for long

periods of time. We're currently distributing mattresses, blankets, winter clothing kits for children since many children just fled with the clothes that were on their back, leaving behind their belongings, their medications, documentation. So it's really, really extremely concerning the amount of fear that we're witnessing amongst children that we're receiving in these shelters. And in fact, I can tell you many of the shelters are already full. As of last night, there was more than 50,000 people who are now housed in these shelters and more on the streets. So we're desperately trying now and working under extremely difficult conditions to support these thousands of displaced, mainly women and children. Etty Higgins from UNICEF.

The Sudanese army has launched a major offensive against the paramilitary rapid support forces targeting areas in the capital it lost 17 months ago at the start of the conflict. More details from Richard Kugoy. Witnesses have reported intense bombardments and heavy fighting as army troops crossed two key bridges over the Nile River, previously separating parts of the capital held by the army from areas under RSF control. Waplings struck central Khartoum, where RSF forces had seized territory from the army. The army has struggled to reclaim areas held by the paramilitaries, relying heavily on artillery and airstrikes to dislodge RSF troops entrenched across the capital.

Richard Kogoy. The Chinese government has announced sweeping measures to boost the country's struggling economy. The Politburo promised more government investment as well as cuts to interest rates. There are also pledges for more jobs. Our Asia-Pacific correspondent Stephen McDonald spoke to us from Beijing. Well the main thing that's been promised today from the Politburo is for the government to somehow get a hold of the real estate crisis. Now that's such a big deal here because the real estate sector was a quarter of the gross domestic product of all of China a couple of years ago, and it's been in a

terrible state for years. What they've tried, what they've said today they're going to do, is to strictly control any increase in new commercial housing construction. Now, the reason that is seen as maybe working is that up until now, these developers have been going further and further into debt, building forests of towers in places people don't want them to somehow stay ahead of the creditors. And it's forced the value of all these homes to drop. There's too many of them in the wrong places.

And so if you control it a bit, the idea is that it'll drive up the prices of the places already there. It'll force the developers to finish the ones they haven't finished, and there are an awful lot of them, and restore confidence in the housing market. Well, you've mentioned the housing crisis. I mean, you live there. How bad are things for people in China? It depends. But for some people, it's terrible. Imagine you sink your life savings into buying a new flat, a new apartment off the plan, as you would say, before it's even finished. And some developer, because they've run out of money, hasn't even delivered it. And in the worst

cases, you've had sometimes people camping in the shells of their unfinished apartments in these concrete structures with no windows, just gas lamps and things, no electricity. That's how desperate they are. So for them, it's been terrible. Then on top of that, you've got youth unemployment, huge problem. You've got the fact that people aren't spending enough and you've got a problem also of deflation. There's such a lack of confidence in the economy that people, even those who've got money, are waiting to buy things because they can see the value of everything dropping. The longer they wait, the more the value drops, the more the value drops, the longer they wait. And it's a bit of a vicious cycle at the moment. And will these plans from the Chinese government, do you think there'll be enough to

save the economy or make a big difference anyway? Well, this is the big question. I mean, one of the things that was announced two days ago by the Reserve Bank here is that they were going to limit, reduce the amount rather that commercial banks had to hold back in terms of their reserve funds, freeing up more money for the banks to lend to ordinary families. The problem is ordinary families don't necessarily want to borrow money because they don't have any faith in the economy anyway. Even though that might work as a bit of stimulus, what it requires is a whole change in attitudes here. And that's going to take time to turn around, especially as the government tries to drag this economy out of the way it was into the way they want it to go. It's

a painful process and could take time. Stephen Macdonnell. Around the world, moviegoers are balking at the rising price of refreshments at cinemas, in some instances sneaking in their own snacks and drinks to avoid the high charges. Now some cinema chains are being investigated for unfair pricing. From New York, Tom Brook visited his local cinema to find out more. Buying refreshments when you go to the movies, whether it's a soft drink or popcorn, is a long, much-cherished practice. But nowadays, it really can set you back financially.

The popcorn can't be beat. I've just paid a visit to my local cinema here in New York. I spent $18 for a ticket to see a feature film. I then went to the refreshment counter and I spent a further $11 for this tub of popcorn and another $8 for this soft drink. Now that comes to $37, and that is a lot of money just for one person.

Imagine what it's like if you're going with a group of friends or with a family. Out on the streets of New York, the general view is that the price of movie refreshments is much too high. Whether it's tickets or concessions is way too high at larger chains. I feel like the price is jacked up quite a bit. If the refreshments and the tickets as well were more affordable, I feel like that could definitely attract more people. It's tough for those who work on the front lines. Anthony Squatieri is a server

at a dine-in cinema. Because of high refreshment prices, his server colleagues are the target of customer frustration. If they think there's something wrong with their bill, like they think they've been overcharged for something, they get very aggressive because even if the bill is correct, they're already

spending so much money. Wouldn't some hot buttered popcorn hit the spot right now? Popcorn in cinemas used to be much more affordable, but now its price has become a global lament. In India, there have been complaints of a skyrocketing cost, while cinemas in Israel are being investigated for allegedly operating a price-fixing cartel in relation to refreshments and ticket prices. Some economists see cinema chains operating a restrictive monopolistic practice with high refreshment prices. When you go to the cinema, you don't really have a lot of options.

You're discouraged from bringing your own food in, so it is, in economic terms, a monopoly. So if you want your chocolate, your popcorn, your soda, you're going to end up having to pay whatever price they charge. So since they have you over that metaphorical barrel, there's really no reason why prices should come down. One big underlying factor driving up the cost of refreshments is that box office takings are still down below pre-Covid levels. So cinemas to maintain viability are leaning more heavily on refreshment sales than ticket revenues as their operating costs rise. Some small cinemas like New York's long-established

arthouse Cinema Village are trying to cater to moviegoers frustrated by high refreshment prices. They take pride in offering not just original curated programming, but good quality popcorn, which costs far less than that found in cinema chains. We've cultivated several regular customers who don't even see movies. They come in and they buy our popcorn every day, every other day. So I'm quite proud of that. But with the big cinema chains,

the inflated cost of refreshments is really a reflection of underlying changes in the film business. Covid and streaming services have depressed moviegoing. And until people return in greater numbers, upward pressure on the price of cinema refreshments is just going to continue. Tom Brook. At least 500 people are reported to be killed each year in attacks from hippos. But one British tourist in Zambia had a lucky escape after the canoe he and his wife were paddling in was overturned by one of the creatures. Here's 63-year-old Roland Cherry recounting that moment. There was an almighty crash, much like a car crash really, and our canoe leapt up in the air, so back first, and we were turfed out into the water and we kind of knew immediately what had happened.

But in the kind of the impact, the side of the canoe smashed into my right shoulder and the shoulder was dislocated as we were turfed into the water. So we both arrived in the water. Shirley followed the instruction, which is swim like crazy for the bank. I was unable to swim because I only had one arm, really. So I was trying to do my best with the one-armed doggy paddle. And then I felt this thing come from underneath me and grab me. And I kind of knew and my heart sank what was happening. And then I was dragged underwater by the hippo in its jaws

and taken down to the bottom of the river. And I remember thinking quite vividly that this really isn't the way I wanted to go. There were still many things I wanted to do in life and being killed by a hippo in a river I wanted to do in life. And being killed by a hippo in a river was not high on that agenda. And he took me down to the bottom of the river, and then it let me go. Well, I was relieved to get to the surface, obviously, and took a huge gulp of air. But I'm afraid that wasn't the end of it. The hippo came and grabbed me in its jaws, reared out of the water, and then threw me like a ragdoll. We were there to see the natural world and we wanted to see it,

but I didn't want to see it that close up. Roland Cherry. Well, it turned out the hippo was a mother who appeared to be protecting her young. As for Roland, he suffered life-threatening leg and abdominal injuries but was saved by doctors at the local hospital. And happy ending, he's now raising money to buy the hospital an ambulance. And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, 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 Vladimir Wojciechka. The producer was Rebecca Wood. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time.

Bye bye. 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.