Global News Podcast - US urges Israel to ensure peacekeepers' safety in Lebanon

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

President Biden asks Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after the IDF said its troops were responsible for an incident in which soldiers were injured. Also: Boeing to cut 10% of its workforce.

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 Andrew Peach and in the early hours of Saturday the 12th of October, these are our main stories.

Israel acknowledges its forces fired at what it called a threat near a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières says thousands of Palestinian civilians are trapped by Israel's offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza. People in Florida are returning home after Hurricane Milton, but they've been warned to remain vigilant. The planemaker Boeing is cutting 10% of its workforce. Also in this podcast... Flatmate Sophia messaged us saying that she found a scorpion in the top of her package and we hardly believed it until we saw it crawling around.

The parcel from China with an unexpected addition. Israel's acknowledged its forces hit a UN observation post in southern Lebanon, saying it was firing at what it called a nearby threat. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, described the attack as a violation of international humanitarian law. The US President, Joe Biden, said he'd asked Israel not to fire at UN peacekeepers. Our senior international correspondent, Ola Guerin, spoke to Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the UN forces. So this is very concerning because we have seen

a lot in the last 12 months exchanges of fire, but this time it looks more of a deliberate attack against our troops who have been in the south to try to bring back stability at the moment. It is very, very challenging. So this is very deliberate as far as you're concerned this cannot be a mistake? You know we have we are looking into that but how can this be a mistake from an army that is well prepared and they know what they're doing. Is it a war crime there have been suggestions from some in the Italian government that this could be a war crime? I know that several governments have been suggestions from some in the Italian government that this could be a war crime. I know that several governments have been very vocal about what happened.

We are still looking into that, but definitely it's very serious development to attack these people. Our correspondent in Beirut, Jonathan Head, told me more. Israel is being, I would say, a little more contrite than it was yesterday. I mean, bear in mind this is the fourth such attack on one of these UNIFIL bases. In none of them, there have been serious injuries, but the UN is quite clear it believes these were deliberate. I mean, one attack on an observation post yesterday,

an Israeli tank fired a shell at an observation post, and it's probably very fortunate that the two Indonesian soldiers who were injured were not seriously hurt. Today, Israel is saying it takes it very seriously. It's very concerned about what happened, that it will investigate. But it does also state that Hezbollah is operating, it says, very close to these UN bases. It has in the past urged the UN to move away from the bases. The UN, of course, has a mandate to be there. In fact, the UN's mandate is supposed to be to preserve Lebanon's territorial integrity. And, of course, it does have what is in effect an Israeli invasion going around it. So Israel's sort of background explanation is, look, we're fighting Hezbollah on the ground.

They're very close to these UN bases. It's inevitable they'll get caught. I think Israel, you know, the term Israel used was that they were inadvertently shot at. The UN clearly believes that's not the case, that an army capable of such precision strikes elsewhere would not accidentally hit a very clearly marked UN base. And away from the peacekeepers,

more cross-border strikes on both sides today. Yes, I mean, they're not at quite the same pace that certainly going into Israel. We've seen recently, I mean, it's about an average around 200 rockets coming from Hezbollah positions into Israel every day. Most analysts would say that's much lower than you might have expected had Hezbollah been functioning at its full capacity and probably shows the impact of all these Israeli attacks that have hit so many weapons dumps and killed so many Hezbollah leaders. But it does remind, at least I think for Hezbollah's own audience, that they are still capable of striking

back. There are Israeli strikes all the time. I mean, we had the big one in Beirut last night, which killed 22 people. The Lebanese government is saying 60 people in Lebanon have died from Israeli strikes in the past 48 hours. It's a reminder, 24 hours rather, it's a reminder that this is still a very intense conflict. Meanwhile, there are more warnings about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza,

where Israel has stepped up its attacks against Hamas. Israel says its offensive aims to stop Hamas from regrouping. But the medical aid charity MSF says the evacuation of homes and the bombing of neighbourhoods is turning the whole area into what it called uninhabitable ruins. One focus of Israeli attacks over the past week has been the Jabalia refugee camp. Mohamed Salha is acting director of the Al-Auda hospital there. There is the seven day of siege, the Jabalia from Israeli occupation forces. There is a lot of bomb. There's bombing many places, many shelters, many houses, a lot of injured is coming to the hospitals. And the most important things that the Israeli is not As Israel continues to target Hamas and Hezbollah,

our international editor Jeremy Bowen, who's in Jerusalem, considers what its next steps could be. Israel is on the offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, and it's deciding how to respond to the Iranian ballistic missile attack that in turn was retaliation for Israel's offensive against Hezbollah, Iran's main ally. It is a big decision that will affect the next stages of this widening Middle East war. Israeli hawks want to attack Iran's nuclear sites and its oil industry.

President Biden is pushing for a proportionate response on military targets. At the same time, Israel is intensifying its pressure on northern Gaza. The medical charity MSF and other relief agencies active there say Israel is turning the north into an unlivable wasteland. Israel does not allow journalists into Gaza, apart from a few highly controlled visits with the Israeli military. So I went to look in over their fortifications near the now closed Erez checkpoint that used to be the main entrance to Gaza. On the other side of the wall was massive destruction. Heavy Israeli airstrikes and artillery attacks made it feel like the first months of the

war. Columns of smoke rose from strikes in the direction of Jabalia refugee camp and the most northerly Gaza towns, Beit Hanun and Beit Lachir. Israelis are angry and frustrated that their army has not achieved the Gaza war aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages taken on 7 October last year. Hoping for a breakthrough to victory, the army seems to be adopting elements of a plan made by retired generals to force the 400,000 or so civilians still in the north to flee south. The next phase of the so-called generals plan then calls for a total siege, stopping all food, water and other necessities

and treating all Palestinians left behind as legitimate military targets. Retired General Giora Ireland, who conceived the plan, said Hamas and its civilian sympathisers would then have to surrender or starve. Ultranationalists in the Israeli cabinet want to replace Palestinians in northern Gaza with Jewish settlers. As for Lebanon, Israel's strategy for victory over Hezbollah is not clear. Its decision to escalate the war in Lebanon could, like its previous invasions, turn into a long war of attrition. That was our international editor Jeremy Bowen. All the latest on the live page at bbc.com slash news. As people in Florida begin returning to assess their homes and

businesses after Hurricane Milton swept across the state on Thursday, President Biden says the storm has caused an estimated 50 billion dollars of damage. He's promising full federal assistance and says he'll ask Congress for more money. Milton killed at least 16 people and more than two million premises remain without power. People in affected communities could face months of disruption. Our correspondent Gordon Carrera reports from Tampa, the biggest city on Florida's west coast. The water is still rising in some parts of Florida as the heavy rain from Milton drains off and people are being removed from their homes. 31 rescue aircraft, 500 high-wheel vehicles

and more than a dozen boats are currently at work in the state, according to the governor Ron DeSantis. State search and rescue teams across the state have continued to work around the clock to successfully execute rescue missions of individuals as well as a lot of pets on the West Coast, as well as from the destruction from the tornadoes in other parts of the state. Many of the deaths came from the record number of tornadoes that Milton spawned as it moved through Florida, including five killed in St. Lucie. But the number of dead could still rise as the full scale of the damage becomes clearer and recovery efforts gather pace. Power remains out for more than two million homes,

and the overall estimated costs of the hurricane could be as high as $50 billion. The US aerospace company Boeing has announced it's cutting 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce. It's also warning it'll report huge financial losses later this month. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes told me more. A really dire picture has been painted of Boeing's financial position. The CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that the company must shrink its workforce to align with the financial reality. And that reality is a record $5 billion losses in the third quarter of this year. Mr. Ortberg said that meant a move to what he called a more focused set of priorities. He said the state of our

business and our future recovery requires tough actions over the coming months, planning, as you say, to reduce the size, the total size of the workforce by 10%, 17,000 jobs, and amongst other things, slowing down the production of Boeing's new aircraft, the 777X. Now, it feels a bit like things have got very bad for Boeing very suddenly. known for some time that they were facing huge problems, not least Boeing saying that the union has made non-negotiable demands far in excess of what can be accepted if it is to remain competitive as a business. And the strike has already shut down production of some of its major

planes. Tens of thousands of staff have been suspended. Even before the strike, the company had been struggling to recover from, you might remember back in January, that mid-flight incident when a panel blew off a brand new Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet and was forced to make an emergency landing. Several passengers were injured.

The regulators ordered that type of plane to be grounded. So repercussions from that and other financial headaches have led up to today's announcement. And with 17,000 fewer workers, do we know what it is that Boeing stops doing? Well, it's to be seen, I think, exactly how they are going to absorb that 10%. What they are saying at this stage is that those reductions will include executives, managers and other employees. I think the other big and significant impact is on the 777X, this new aircraft delaying its deliveries by a year. This is an aircraft much anticipated, billed by Boeing as being the world's largest and most efficient twin-engine jet.

Peter Bowes with me from Los Angeles. Now to a story about unrest in the French Caribbean island of Martinique. The authorities there have regained control of the international airport after it was forced to shut down by protesters on Thursday. Hundreds of passengers were stranded while flights were suspended, and this all follows weeks of violent demonstrations on the island sparked by high living costs. More from Isabella Jewell.

The sound of police pushing back protesters at the entrance of Aimee Césaire International Airport in the capital of Martinique. 500 passengers were stuck inside the building, according to local authorities, after demonstrators invaded the runway. The French government says it now has full control of the airport platform. This was the latest bout of unrest in recent weeks. There have been several incidents of protests over the high cost of living turning violent. The French administration on the island has imposed a night-time curfew, which will remain in place until Monday. Public gatherings have also been banned, as well as the purchase of items that could be used for arson attacks.

But the authorities say this incident at the airport came about after false rumours spread on social media about the arrival of hundreds of French police officers by plane. In late September, the French government did send in riot police after protesters ignored bans on public gatherings. Martinique is one of several French overseas territories where many people are demanding that food prices be aligned with those in mainland France, where they're significantly lower. Speaking in Paris on Friday, the French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau addressed the situation.

We're also working with judicial authorities to bring a number of individuals to justice, so we're going to restore order. But at the same time, we have to take into account the demands of the population regarding the high cost of living. Earlier this week, one person was killed and scores of police officers injured as demonstrators set fire to a police station, cars and road barricades. That was on Wednesday, one of the most violent nights yet. The government says it's investigating the death, but that no police officers used their weapons.

Martinique has seen similar protests in recent years, many of them fuelled by anger over what some claim is economic, social and racial inequality. Isabella Jewell reporting. Still to come on this podcast as the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to survivors of the atomic bombings of Japan. A survivor of Hiroshima tells us what message she hopes it'll send. I really want people to start talking and stop before it gets really the worst. And I really strongly believe in people's wisdom. 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. The 50 men on trial in France accused of raping a woman who'd been drunked by her husband over the course of a decade, are now giving evidence. In court in Avignon, the men are being shown explicit video footage of themselves with Giselle Pellico, recorded by her husband Dominique. But many of the accused continue to insist

they didn't believe what they were doing was rape. From Avignon, here's Andrew Harding. She's getting used to the daily applause now. Giselle Pellico arriving in court as usual, cheered by members of the public. The rape victim who refuses to be shamed, a symbol in France and beyond of defiance. But today, the focus is not on her or her ex-husband,

who's admitted to drugging and raping her for years. Instead, this extraordinary trial is now focusing on the 50 other men, some out on bail, faces hidden under masks and hoods, men who are accused of raping Pelico as she lay unconscious in her own bed. In court, each man in turn has been confronted with footage of what they did, including video showing Pellico snoring as she's assaulted. We've just been shown yet more videos filmed by Dominic Pellico over the years inside the couple's bedroom.

They are shocking. I'm not going to go into details of what we saw. But clearly the prosecution believes that this is overwhelming evidence, that those men who came into that bedroom must have known that Giselle Pellico was unconscious, that she could not have consented to what happened to her. But most of these accused men insist they are not rapists, that they genuinely believed that they were taking part in some sort of consensual sex game with the couple.

Paul Roger Ganta is a lawyer defending one of the accused. Giselle Péico is a victim. We are sure about that. A victim of her husband, a victim of other guys, but we are not sure she's a victim of all the guys. Some of those on trial say they were tricked by Dominic Pellico, intimidated by him. At his house on the edge of Avignon, we spoke to one such man and agreed to keep his identity hidden since the trial is still ongoing. I said to myself, he's not normal.

This man is a psychopath. I was terrified, naked, caught in a trap. Is there not within you any shred of feeling of responsibility for what you did. But the man offered no real answer, insisting he was simply a victim. Which helps explain the frustration of so many still queuing to watch this trial every day, inspired by Giselle Pellico's courage, but worried too that some of the accused may be hunting for excuses for the inexcusable. Andrew Harting reporting. Trying to restore order in Haiti isn't easy, but now Kenya has stepped in to try to push

back against its heavily armed criminal gangs, promising another 600 police officers for the UN-backed multinational security mission there. So far, 10 countries have committed to a total of 2,900 officers to help. But the Kenyan president, William Ruto, says that's not enough. Kenya and Haiti stand united in calling on the international community to urgently rally behind this mission. And the operational word here is urgently. We have a window of success that is evident from the operations that have been carried out already. Our Africa regional editor Richard Kagoe, join me from Nairobi. Kenya offered to lead the mission, and looking at this,

Kenya offered to deploy about 1,000 police officers to lead the entire mission. So total in terms of contribution from various countries, total of about 10 of them is about 2,900. And so Kenya say that it has taken part in various missions across the world and felt that it was obligated just to help out Haiti restore security and order in the country. Right. So it's looking at the situation thinking we need to do something. Is it also thinking why is no one else doing something? Absolutely. If you listen to President William Ruto, towards the end of last year, when he went public about Kenya's contribution,

he said that Kenya will not just sit back and lament just like the rest of the world. So it was an opportunity for Kenya to demonstrate its ability based on its previous experiences in several missions, and just being able to help Haiti find a peace which sort of has been quite elusive for quite some time, because of the chaos that has been caused by the heavily armed gangs. Give me a sense, Richard, what are these troops actually going to be doing? We've had the advanced guard corps team that was deployed there sometime early this year. That must have been around June. So basically what they're doing is they're helping the Haiti police in protecting key infrastructure.

So, for instance, patrolling universities, hospitals and administrative areas, and are trying to wrestle control of areas which had been captured or had come under the control of the gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. So it's going to be a pretty long road back to normal life elections, that kind of thing in Haiti? Yes, I mean, this is going to be something that's not just a short term. And that's why there was an appeal, especially to international partners, really to put in the kind of support that is required in terms of personnel, in terms of financial resources and also equipment. Yeah, because this is not something that can just be resolved perhaps in a quarter or maybe half a year. It's going to take quite some time. But looks like the finances that are currently available are going to run through to March next year. So there's lots of uncertainty about this. Now, in the last edition of this podcast, we brought you the news

that this year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, which is made up of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks. Toshiko Tanaka lives in Hiroshima and is a survivor of the blast. She was six when it occurred, and she's worked alongside Nihon Hidankyo over the years. She told my colleague James Menendez about why it's so important to remember the horrors of nuclear weapons? So since after World War II, Hidan-kyo, the organization, has been working very hard to tell the world the terror of the atomic bomb. And partly because of that, the nuclear weapon has never been used in war for nearly 80 years. However, it seems like there's a lot of fear going on in Russia, for example, and Israel. There is a growing concern that the nuclear weapon

might be used again. So it is important for us to voice again. Do you think that people are forgetting about the horrors of nuclear weapons and what they can do? So I think the world is forgetting about the fear, the terror of the atomic bombing. However, there's a hope as well. I visited 18 countries this year. I met young activists all over the world and they recognized the terror of the atomic bombing of nuclear weapons. So I have a lot of hope for this younger generation. Toshiko, you were six years old, I think, when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Do you still remember clearly what happened that fateful day? Yes, I do. I clearly remember what happened. I'm 85, so I might sometimes forget what I ate yesterday, but I still remember what happened on that day. I saw an airplane in the sky. Then all of a sudden there was a tremendous flash.

And I was my, I got burned. My head and my neck and right arm was burned. Then suddenly everything went dark because we are under the mushroom crowd. Then I went home. I went back to home, which was my house was entirely destroyed. Then my mother didn't recognize me. And then I saw the procession of people who are severely burnt, walking silently in the procession, and they look like zombies. Yes, people sometimes describe them as ghosts, the ghosts of Hiroshima. The ghost might be a better description.

Do you think nuclear weapons will ever be abolished now that the genie is out of the bottle? I would like to believe in the wisdom of people or humanity. There is a lot of wars going on in Israel, Ukraine and Gaza. And these things are happening as the chain of retaliation. And I really want people to start talking and stop before it gets really the worst. And I really strongly believe in people's wisdom. And thanks to Toshiko's daughter, Reiko, who translated that interview for us. Now, Spain's Supreme Court has upheld a fine of over $1,100 imposed on a man who turned up naked

at a police station. It confirmed he committed an offence of disobedience, having refused repeated requests by officers to cover up, even though he had his own clothes in a rucksack. Danny Eberhard has been covering the details. It seemed a case of barefaced cheek, a man who, four years ago, appeared at a police station in Valencia to lodge a complaint. Barring boots and his rucksack, he was as naked as the day he was born.

The man, named in the media as the day he was born. The man, named in the media as Alejandro Colomar, has had some scrapes in the past over his nudism. Some cases he's won, but not this time. The court backed the police, who said his presence had paralysed the office, with some women colleagues not wanting to see quite as much of him. Among other factors, it said, employees had a right to work in dignity. But it did not condemn him completely. The court noted that his philosophy of life was totally respectable. There are no national rules against public nudity in Spain,

but some areas have passed local laws regulating it. A student in the city of Bristol in southwest England who ordered a pair of boots from China's fast fashion brand Shein got an unexpected bonus gift when a live scorpion also turned up in the parcel. The engineering student enlisted the help of her zoology student flatmate to secure the arachnid in a plastic tub before calling an expert to take it away. Shein said an investigation into the shipment process found all its processes had been followed. Our correspondent Chi-Chi Izundu has more.

18-year-old Sophia Alonso-Mossinger had only ordered a pair of boots from the fast fashion website Sheehan, but then screamed when she thought what was a brown and beige toy started to move. Here are her flatmates, Phoebe Hunt and Oliver James. Flatmate Sophia messaged us saying that she found a scorpion in the top of her sheen package and we hardly believed it until we saw it crawling around. We ended up poking holes in a Tupperware container and putting it in there with tongs. And once it was finally in there, we soaked a paper towel in water,

which it started drinking from really quickly. And then luckily, within two hours, someone came and collected it. Chris Newman is an animal expert, and he says this isn't the first to give it its full name, Olivieris martensi. They have been asked to deal with this month. We deal with stowaways from across the country, not just scorpions, but spiders, lizards, frogs, snakes, that sort of thing. We've had nearly 200 stowaways so far this year. Of those, about 12 have been scorpions. But what's been slightly worrying is in the last month, we've had three of these scorpions actually arrive in various different packages from China. Xin says they're looking into the incident. And while this species can potentially be life-threatening,

luckily for this group of students, there was no sting in this tale. Choo-choo is under reporting. And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this podcast, drop us an email, globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk, or find us on X, where we are at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Joe McCartney. The producer was Rebecca Wood. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thank you for listening. And until next time, goodbye. To be continued... 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.