Global News Podcast: Israel carries out 'limited' forays into Gaza

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Robin Brandt and at 14 hours GMT on Monday the 23rd of October, these are our main stories.

Israel's military has maintained its intensified bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

More aid is getting into Gaza, but the UN says it's nowhere near enough.

Also in this podcast, Argentina's voters prove the opinion polls wrong and back a surprise candidate

for the presidential election runoff next month. And researchers here in the UK say they've made

a major breakthrough treating cervical cancer. This is the biggest improvement that we've seen

in this cancer in almost 25 years. Making those changes has really been what's made the difference.

After another night of Israeli aerial bombardment in Gaza, Hamas says the total number of people

killed there has now passed 5,000. The group carried out the initial massacre of civilians in Israel

two weeks ago, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis. Hamas, remember, is regarded as a terrorist

organization by the US, the UK and some other governments. In addition to those airstrikes

overnight, Israel's military said today it had also conducted limited raids into Gaza to target

gunmen and search for hostages. Daniel Higari is a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

During the night, there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These

raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the next stage in the war.

These are raids that go deep to the contact line. These raids also locate and search for

anything we can get in terms of intelligence on the missing and the hostages. Well late last night,

staff and patients at a hospital in the southwest of Gaza were told to evacuate.

Explosions were heard nearby shortly afterwards. Our correspondent Rishi Aboualouf is in Khan

Yunis in the south of Gaza. Another night of heavy bombardment in different areas, especially

around the Al-Quds hospital in a neighborhood called Talilhawa, southwest of Gaza, where Israel,

for a couple of times called the director of the hospital, asked them to evacuate. The director

told me this morning that we have about 500 patients in the hospital and about 1500 people who

were taking the hospital as a refuge. And he said we decided not to leave the hospital. Last

night about 10 air strikes within few meters of the hospital, maintaining more pressure

when the people there to leave. Most of the building around the area either destroyed or

damaged. And also there was air strikes overnight in Khan Yunis, where I am staying.

About four people were killed in the overnight bombing, so non-stop shilling, non-stop air strikes.

They are bombing everywhere in Rafah south, in the middle, in Nusairat. We have seen air strikes,

so there is no safe place. Most Palestinians are saying there is no safe place. So some of the

people who left their homes, they returned back. Rishi Aboualouf speaking from the south of Gaza.

Well, more aid is entering Gaza. A third convoy of trucks has entered

via the Rafah crossing, with around a dozen making the journey today from Egypt. But the

UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees says at least 450 trucks every day is what's needed.

I've been speaking to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Tom Bateman, about these various strands.

And first I asked him, what do we know about those Israeli overnight raids?

We don't know how effective they have been. There was at least one that we know of that was carried

out in the early days of these hostilities. So they're not new. I think the assumption might be

this kind of thing has probably been happening a fair amount, but we don't hear about most of it.

But what we know today is that the Israeli military says that yesterday forces went in

onto the other side of the fence, so they went west from the Israeli side into the Gaza Strip.

And they said to clear an area of gunmen and weapons and to try to find information about

hostages. Now they say that missiles were then fired at their forces by Hamas,

that one IDF soldier was killed and three others injured. Now Hamas has also spoken about this,

saying it happened east of Khan Yunus, a city in southern Gaza. And the Israeli soldiers crossed

the fence, getting several metres in. They said they engaged with the Israelis and they

claimed they destroyed two bulldozers and a tank before the Israeli soldiers fled.

So clearly activity on the ground, but as I say, I don't think this is new,

and these are very sort of limited incursions it seems like with a very sort of specific goal.

Can I ask you a little bit about the aid that is crossing again for the third day

wrapper from Egypt into Israel? I think a dozen or so trucks today, but the UN making it very clear

that it doesn't think this is anywhere near enough. It's making that extremely clear,

because you know we had around 20 on the first day around 14 or 15 yesterday and then a very

limited number again today carrying food, water, crucially and medicines. But what we've heard

from the UN is that on a normal day before the hostilities there will be hundreds of trucks

of commodities entering Gaza. You know now they're getting just a dozen maybe maximum 20 per day

in this incredibly challenging situation. Just to give you a sense of the crisis, the humanitarian

crisis that is now gripping Gaza. I mean people are being reduced in some cases to drinking saline

or seawater. Some people drinking dirty agricultural water from wells which may contain pesticides

at the same time that the hospitals are on their knees and there's a lack of even basic medicines.

And just finally, even though the Israeli government is telling people to leave the north of Gaza and

head south, it's been doing that for some time now. It is the case, is it, that some of its

airstrikes and other attacks continue in the south? It is targeting what it thinks is Hamas groups

or affiliated groups in the south where people are going? Yeah, I mean the airstrikes are all over.

We were hearing from Rushdie Aboualouf, our BBC colleague in Karnian-ness in that city in the

south. So it certainly seems there's no let up at all in the south. There'd be many fatalities.

I mean in the whole of the Gaza Strip yesterday, according to health officials,

more than 300 people killed. A considerable number of those are in the south. Israel, for its part,

says in explanation to this that it will target Hamas wherever it knows it has infrastructure or

facilities. And I think that's why we're seeing reports from the United Nations that some people

are now simply going back to the north because at least there they think that they might still

have a home to go to. Tom Bateman in Jerusalem. Well, before we move on from Israel and Gaza,

here's a message from the newsroom's Jackie Leonard. Hello, this is a request for your

questions for our third special edition on what's going on in Israel and Gaza. We're getting together

again with our colleagues from the Conflict Podcast to try to bring some clarity to what is a very

complex situation. Anything you want explaining, record us a voice message or simply write an

email and send it to the usual address, globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk, and we will put it to our

Chief International Correspondent Lee's Doucette and other colleagues in the region covering the

story. And don't forget, you can find the first two special Gaza-Israel editions of the Global

News podcast wherever you found this one. Thanks, Jackie. Argentina's voters appear to have proved

the opinion polls there wrong. After the first round of voting in the presidential election

at the weekend, it wasn't the populist right-wing Javier Millay who brandished a chainsaw at one

event who came out on top. Instead, his rival Sergio Massa has taken the lead. With Argentina in a

deep economic crisis, inflation there is over 100 percent. The contest is being viewed as one of the

most important elections in decades. Our South America correspondent Katie Watson, who's in Buenos

Aires, sent this report. As the results came in, celebration. This, though, wasn't just a victory

for Sergio Massa, but for all that came before him. People were waving flags and banging on

drums with the famous faces of perinism and kishnorism, the political movements that define

Argentina. Hundreds of people have gathered in the streets here and many are waving blue and

white flags on long bamboo holes and it's a real Argentinian party here. There's lots of dancing,

there's mistakes on the barbie in one corner, quite next to me. There are people here selling

empanadas and I think it's just a real party atmosphere here. This was the result that few

people, no matter how committed they were to Sergio Massa winning, saw coming at all.

Our country is going through a complex and difficult situation full of challenges and

difficulties. I know that many of those who voted for us are the ones who are suffering the most.

I will not fail them. People might wonder how a man in charge of an economy with inflation

running at 140 percent could win this, but this result says less about Massa and more about the

alternatives. What Massa showed, what we showed, is he's the only candidate that has a serious

project for the country. Basically the other candidates were like criticizing him and they

were like offering things that were like not possible. This was definitely a plot twist in

Argentina's election drama. Many people saw Javier Millet as the star of the show after his

shock victory at the primaries two months ago, no longer that he's not giving up.

Two years ago, if you had told us that we would be competing in a second round with

Kirchnerism for the presidency of the nation, we would not have believed it. We really are

witnessing a historic event. When people went to vote on Sunday, the economic crisis was the main

thing on their minds. Few believe though that politicians can solve it. There are more and

more millionaire politicians and people are getting poorer and poorer. We need to change that equation.

We have to really really think about it and we don't have a really good option. I didn't

came here and said I know who I'm going to vote. I was like I don't really know because

nothing is good. The party went on late into Sunday night. The hard work and campaigning

starts again later this week. There'll be another month of uncertainty until Argentina chooses a

new leader. What is clear though is that whoever wins this will have a huge job on their hands

turning around an economy and population in crisis.

Katie Watson reporting. Every two minutes somewhere in the world a woman dies of cervical

cancer, more than 300,000 each year, 90 percent of whom are in low and middle income countries.

There is some good news today though. There are encouraging results from a British trial that

used existing drugs to treat the cancer in a new way. Michelle Hussein spoke to Dr Mary McCormick

who led the trial at University College London Hospitals. We invited women to attend for chemotherapy

once a week, half a day a week for six weeks before giving them the current standard treatment which is

daily radiotherapy with weekly chemo. So in effect we gave additional chemotherapy for six weeks.

With that approach we found that when we looked at our progression free survival which is women

that were alive without evidence of the cancer recurring at five years, at least one in 10 more

patients alive in the group that had the additional chemotherapy. So 73 percent were alive and well

without the cancer recurring compared with 64 percent in the standard of care on. The important

thing here is that if the patients are alive and well without the cancer recurring at five years

then they're very likely to be cured. So that's what makes this very exciting and this is the

biggest improvement that we've seen in this cancer in almost 25 years. It is so interesting because

you used existing drugs and you changed the sequence as well as bringing in that extra

series of sessions of chemotherapy. What was it that made you think that that could yield a different result?

Well there were some suggestions from trials that were done many years ago

that giving chemotherapy before radiation might improve outcome but the trials were

very small and the results were conflicting. So we went back and looked at that again and

thought how can we make this better and we can give the drugs every week instead of every three

weeks. We can give it over a shorter period of time. In addition one of the drugs the Packley

Taxal wasn't available sort of 25 years ago when all of those other trials were done and we know

that this is a very active drug and it's associated with a high response rate in cervical cancer. So

we put this more active drug in. We gave the drugs every week and we eliminated that big gap

between the chemo and the radiation. So I think just making those changes has really been what's

made the difference. Dr Mary McCormack with a little bit of good news about the treatment of

cervical cancer. Still to come the acoustic ecologist who's documenting wildlife habitats

and the impact of humans. Habitats that no longer exist. The animals have been poached.

That whole herd that I had in the original recording is gone now.

The Explanation is the podcast from the BBC World Service that goes beyond the spin exploring the

important questions about long running stories and the latest global news. An honest explanation

of the events shaping our lives. Search for the explanation wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Welcome back to this podcast the Global News podcast. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan

is facing more criminal charges. A court has decided that he will stand trial on claims that he leaked

classified documents that damaged the country's diplomatic relations. It was only a few months

ago that he was convicted of corruption. His sentence for that was suspended although he

remained in prison awaiting a decision on this new case. Our Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davis

is in Islamabad and she told me more about the new charges. Imran Khan and Jamah Moud Qureshi who is

his foreign minister so both former prime minister former foreign minister were both indicted to

date which means of course that they are going to stand trial on these two charges. Now the accusation

is that Imran Khan leaked classified documents and then subsequently the second accusation is that

that damaged diplomatic relations. This is all in relation to it's been referred to as the cipher case

so back in March 2022 Imran Khan appeared on stage at a rally waving a piece of paper which he said

contained evidence that there was a foreign power there was a conspiracy against his government by

a foreign power and he said that the letter essentially detailed the fact that if Imran

Khan was removed from power that all would be forgiven those were the words that he used when

describing what was in that letter. Now the court and the authorities have now alleged

that that means that Imran Khan has leaked classified information. If he is found guilty

of doing that there is a maximum sentence of two years but importantly the second charge is that

that as a result damaged diplomatic relations that has a maximum sentence of either life imprisonment

or the death penalty. At the time did anything happen though or is this has only come to light

relatively recently? The case and the fact that Imran Khan was potentially going to be

indicted or charged on this case that's been a relatively recent case that's been brought forward

so the way that the court procedures work in Pakistan is that before people are officially

charged or indicted for trial they have to be documents presented and Imran Khan is currently

in prison in the build-up to this indictment in relation to this particular case but no this has

been a relatively recent case this has not been something that was brought up back in March 2022

this has been something that's been happening this year. Quickly just remind us so he's in jail

for corruption but he was going to be released but he stayed in jail awaiting trial on these

new charges. So there's been lots of different court cases against Imran Khan he was firstly

put into jail in August so just under three months ago and that was when he was found guilty

in the case it's referred to as the Toshikana case of not having correctly registered money he

gained from selling state gifts. That sentence was then suspended awaiting appeal although it

still technically stands he's just not currently in prison on that case but because he was also

awaiting this decision about whether he was going to be indicted and what we've been referring to

was the Cypher case he was in prison waiting for that as well so it's all quite confusing but

ultimately he is in prison nearly been in prison for three months and bear in mind that he's also

disqualified for running from election and the general elections are expected here in Pakistan

in early next year. Caroline Davies reporting now here's a figure for you less than two percent

of genetic information studied comes from people of African descent and that has repercussions

on medical research and treating people of African descent. To remedy this scientists are planning

a new initiative to collect genetic material from half a million African people to create what

researchers believe will be the world's largest database of population genomic information.

Aqwasi Sarpong spoke to Anil Shankar of Mihari Medical College in Nashville Tennessee which is

behind this study. The first human population that emigrated out was from northeast Africa so in that

respect the human diaspora that exists on earth today basically has some African ancestry and

that variation in this human diaspora right now we cannot study because we do not have the data set

so this reference genome data set from African ancestry population will allow us to study that.

It is quite shocking that less than two percent of DNA and genomics of people of African descent

has been known what has that been down to is it because people of that descent have been

reluctant to provide that kind of data or the scientific medical community has just been unable

to gather that kind of data. So it has been for two reasons first African people or African

ancestry people or African Americans in the US were not asked to participate in any

studies that were done here and so they are missing and some of the historical mistrust

created by for example the infamous syphilis study at Tuskegee University and and the

neighborhood of that university that created a mistrust so African people did not want to participate

but the younger generation understands that that is so crucial to advancing science and that is

crucial to discover treatments for African ancestry population because they do not exist at this

point of time or it is not clear if the treatments would work on them for example for diseases we

assess risk by polygenic risk score and it is well established now that that is 25 percent accurate

for African ancestry population because all the standards and modeling was done on European

ancestry population. And if you're looking at gathering the data of about 500,000 people of

volunteers there's a lot of data who will own this data how will this be managed? We have

established a new institute called the diaspora human genomics institute so that institute

will govern and store this data and all those DHGI functions will be governed by an ethics committee

and the control will stay in the hands of people of African ancestry. And how long would it take

to collect this genetic material then? For now the goal is to complete this in the next five years.

Anil Shankar now since the 1970s Bernie Krauss has made over 5,000 hours of sound recordings

documenting wildlife habitats around the world. Many of those habitats have now fallen silent

victims of the shift in human activity. Our correspondent Nicola Stambridge met Bernie

Krauss to talk about a new collaborative exhibition of his work here in London.

Descending into darkness at 180 studios in London with sounds from the Senga Senga Forest

in the Central African Republic captured by Louis Sarno produced by acoustic ecologist

and author of the great animal orchestra Bernie Krauss. We had western lowland guerrilla,

African great parrots, Hadada ibis, greater spotted monkey and guinea terraco.

All brought flickering to life with hovering glowing lines of light

an installation designed by united visual artists Matt Clark. On the floor is an array of

small discrete speakers and that's where the sounds of crickets, frogs, birds call from.

And then there's also an outer array of speakers where you get wind, chainsaws in the distance,

planes flying overhead and really it's an interplay between the man-made noises and forests.

The structure is meant to represent a kind of monument to the nature which we can orchestrate

like a sonic rewilding. And as we hear the insects you can see green lights very soothing,

very calming. As you hear the airplanes going over they turn white, they become quite

brittle to the eye actually to look at. And really it sort of demonstrates

you know we can live in harmony through the noise we make but we can also disrupt nature.

Matt and his team have created an algorithm that allows you and the audience to see the sound

and its effect. Some of the recordings of the Bayaka tribe who actually sort of make a lot of

noise music but it's in harmony with the natural surroundings. We learn orchestration, melody, rhythm,

all of these things from the sounds of the natural world when we lived much more closely.

So it's really an epic story of you know how these habitats are devastated by a human endeavor.

And the rainforest has been compromised because of extraction of hardwoods, habitats that no

longer exist. The animals have been poached like the elephants for instance. That whole herd that

I had in the original recording is gone now. In Louis's recordings over time from 1984 to the

time that he died you can hear the sounds of the rainforest diminish. And then there's one of your

other famous sounds over the doors. This is the end. When we watch Francis Ford Coppola's 1979

apocalypse now which he created with Walter Merch and others. I programmed the material for about

a third of the score and did the helicopter sounds. I created that sound on the Moog synthesizer,

my late music partner Paul Beaver and I had introduced the synthesizer to pop music and film

in 1967. So here I am funded by Coppola in that regard.

That report by Nicola Stambridge. Now let's end on a master, a master of movement, mockery and music,

all of it on film. Charlie Chaplin was probably the most famous man in the world at the high

point of his prolific career in mostly silent movies which started more than a hundred years ago.

Well later this week his cane and an outsized suit which he wore to create the iconic tramp

will go up for auction in the north of England. Here's Wendy Urquhart.

Charlie Chaplin was an icon of the silent film era. He starred in 93 films and directed 72 of them

including The Kid, A Woman of Paris and The Great Dictator. His clothes, hat and cane and his penguin

walk are as famous as his movies. Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers so

perhaps it's not surprising that he sought the limelight but his route to stardom was far from

easy. He grew up in abject poverty in London. His parents separated early on and at the age of seven

he was sent to Lambeth Workhouse, a bleak institution providing work and shelter for the poor.

Charlie's mum was later committed to an asylum and he spent his childhood at a school for the

destitute. It was around that time that he started performing on stage and the showbiz

contacts that his parents had made proved to be a lifeline allowing him to tour music halls around

England. But it was the famous suit that was several sizes too big that Charlie wore as the

little tramp in the stage production of The Mumbing Birds in California in 1910 that made

him a household name. He borrowed the suit from fellow actor Billy Ritchie and returned it when

the production ended. Four years later he reprised the role wearing a different suit in The Kid

Auto Races at Venice and he became a global phenomenon. When Billy Ritchie died in 1921

his widow gave the original suit, bowler hat and bamboo cane to the London stage dormant Harry Brown

for his private museum. The cane was signed by Chaplin in 1952 and it's expected to sell

for around $24,000 at auction. The original suit worn by Charlie Chaplin in his first ever portrayal

of the tramp is causing a real buzz in the auction world but if you're thinking of bidding for one

of the most iconic pieces of film memorabilia be prepared to dig deep because it's estimated to

rake in at least $145,000. And that's it 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 or the topics covered in it you

can send us an email the address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk and you can also find us on X formerly known

as Twitter at Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Matt Dean and produced by Judy

Frankel. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Robin Brandt. Until next time, thanks for being with us. Goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.