Reuters World News - Gazans’ shattered IVF dreams, a Nazi slogan and coral reef stress

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

An Israeli strike on a Gaza IVF clinic destroyed 4,000 frozen embryos along with the dreams of Gazan families. A far-right German politician is on trial, accused of using a banned Nazi slogan. And global warming means the world’s coral reefs are under massive stress from bleaching. * This podcast was corrected. An earlier version incorrectly referred to an Israeli air strike destroying embryos in a Gaza IVF clinic. It was an Israeli shell. We are looking for your feedback to improve the podcast. Please take two minutes to answer this survey. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, the crushed dreams of Gazan families whose embryos were destroyed in an Israeli strike. A far-right politician tests the boundaries of free speech in Germany. And our oceans reach an alarming tipping point. It's Thursday, April 18th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Kim Vennel in London. And the United Israel does all what you're trying to defend the regime.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will make its own defense decisions, as the West pleads for restraint in its response to Iran's weekend attack. Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah members in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday night, raising concerns about further escalation on Israel's northern border. To the south and months back in, December, an Israeli shell hit the Albazma Clinic in Gaza, the largest fertility center in the enclave. It exploded inside the embryology unit, blowing the lids off five liquid nitrogen tanks. As the nitrogen evaporated and the temperatures rose, more than 4,000 frozen embryos and 1,000

specimens of sperm and eggs were destroyed. Along with them, the dreams of Gazan couples hoping to conceive babies through IVF. Royter spoke to one patient, a woman whose life changed forever that day. Andrew Mills has her story. Sabasafraari is a 32-year-old woman from Gaza. She and her husband tried to get pregnant naturally, but after about a year of trying, they were unsuccessful, and on their doctor's recommendation, they turned to IVF. Going through IVF for SEPA was, she described it as a psychological roller coaster. And she had, you know, unfortunately, two failed attempts, which was she described as imperably sad. So it was a really happy moment in September 2023 for her when she became pregnant.

Two days before her first scheduled ultrasound appointment, the war began. Her entire neighborhood, her entire life was turned into a war zone. After about the first month of war, she and her husband moved south to Khan Yunus and then a week or so later actually made it out of Gaza into Egypt. and she got to Cairo, and one of the first things she did was have an ultrasound. And that first ultrasound showed her that she was actually carrying twins. But unfortunately, just over a week later, she said that she felt pain, that she felt a shift in her belly, and she knew that the miscarriage was starting.

Mine on a hen's fine. After the miscarriage, it wasn't long before her thoughts turned to the five frozen embryos that she had at the al-Basma clinic in Gaza City. She told us that even though Gaza was a war zone, even though she had worked so hard to leave it, her immediate thought was to go back to where those embryos were so that she could have another attempt at IVF because the desire to have a baby was so strong. But those embryos are now gone. Reuters asked the Israeli military about the strike.

It said it was looking into the reports. Israel denies intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure. The U.S. House will take up a long-awaited vote on aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific as soon as Saturday. The announcement from Republican Speaker Mike Johnson comes despite fierce opposition from the right wing of his party. At least two of the most conservative House members have threatened to try and oust Johnson as Speaker if he goes ahead with the vote. I'm not here today because I want to be here. I'm here today because I felt that I must come forward because I do not want to see 787 or 7-3-7-3-7 crash. Words of warning from Sam Sellepour at a Senate hearing on Boeing's treatment of whistleblowers.

Boeing's safety culture has been under fire since a January-minute. air panel blowout on a near-new 737 max-9. The company has challenged Saleppo's claim against the 787 and 777. Panic after a massive volcano eruption in Indonesia. At least 800 people in North Sulawasi province have been evacuated after multiple eruptions of the Ruang volcano. A trial kicks off in Germany today against a prominent far-right leader accused of using banned Nazi slogans.

Madeleine Chambers is in Berlin. Madeline, who is Bionn Hooker? Yes, so Bion Hooker is a prominent member of the AFD, which is the far right party in Germany, the Alternative for Deutschland. He is a regional politician in the eastern state of Turingia, but he is very high profile because he's on the radical wing,

even of the AFD. He's officially allowed to be described as a fascist, according to a previous German court ruling, and he's often hitting the headlines with his outspoken views. One of his main themes that he keeps coming back to is history and historical references. He wants a much more positive approach to German's history, which is obviously problematic in a country like Germany. What is he accused of here? He said, Alice for Deutschland, which is a slogan that was used by the Nazi Party's stormaptailing, or the SA, which was the paramilitary wing of Hitler's Nazi Party. In Germany, any use of slogans, propaganda, symbols that are linked to organizations that have banned or seen as anti-constitutional,

which include the Nazi Party or any other terrorist organization, they are banned unless they used in an educational context. But his defence is that he, as a history teacher, was not aware of the origin of the term Alice for Deutschland. Why is this trial so important? It comes at a time when the AFD, his party is under scrutiny for what they stand for. He is on the nationalist end of the party, but the party itself nationally is second in most polls. If he's found guilty, The actual punishment could either be a fine or it could be, in theory, it could be up to three years in jail, but that seems to be very unlikely. Under the sea, a sea change is taking place right now. Scientists have confirmed the world's coral is undergoing a fourth mass bleaching event, happening simultaneously in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

It's seeing brightly colored coral turn a ghostly white, caused by our warming oceans. Gloria Dickey is Reuters Climate and Environment Correspondent. We've had previous bleaching events in 1998, 2010, and 2014-2017, and all of those bleaching events coincided with an El Nino climate pattern, which naturally leads to warmer seas. However, this time around, we also have this on top of climate change or about a 1.5 C degree of warming over the past 12-year period on average. So we basically seen El Nino combine with some of the worst warming that we've seen and record ocean temperatures around the world.

And that's really pushed things to this kind of catastrophic state at this point to have both those effects at one time. We've lost about half of the world's coral reefs already just in the last century. And that's not just due to climate change. That's due to pollution and overfishing and things like that too. We spoke to ecologist David Abura, who said it may now be too late for the world's wreaths. A realistic interpretation is that we have crossed the tipping point for coral reefs. They're going into a decline that we can't stop unless we really stop the CO2 emissions at which point,

at some point in the future, that decline of reefs of corals can stop. Why does coral bleaching matter? A quarter of all marine life will rely on coral reefs at some point during their life cycle. So that means that they also support really important coastal fisheries. Corals also provide critical storm protection because they form. a barrier around coastlines which helps stave off storm surges and coastal erosion. So all told, one estimate puts the value of coral reefs annually at $2.7 trillion economic and ecological services.

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