Global News Podcast: Israel must protect civilians in Gaza - Blinken

BBC BBC 10/16/23 - Episode Page - 38m - PDF Transcript

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I'm Kathleen Goltar and I'm the host of a new podcast, Crime Story. Every week we bring you

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I'm Robin Brant and in the early hours of Monday the 16th of October these are our main stories.

The US Secretary of State has urged Israel to do everything possible to avoid harming civilians

as it prepares for a major ground offensive into Gaza. The Israeli government says it's

restoring water supplies to southern Gaza although there's no electricity for pumping stations.

In other news as we record this podcast the votes are being counted following Poland's

election, with exit polls suggesting the right-wing law and justice party may be forced from power.

Also in this podcast.

A major exhibition opens in London celebrating the centenary of the Walt Disney animation studios.

It will then tour around the world.

We start with the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who has warned that every

precaution must be taken to avoid harming civilians as Israel prepares a major ground

offensive in Gaza. More than 2,600 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza

since the Hamas assault on Israel just over a week ago. Then 1,400 Israelis were killed.

Mr Blinken added that Hamas' vision for the future of the Middle East was one of death,

destruction and terrorism. He's been holding talks in Cairo with the Egyptian President

Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi before leaving Egypt by plane the US Secretary of State spoke to reporters

and stressed that Israel should do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties.

Israel has the right, indeed it has the obligation to defend itself against these attacks from Hamas

and to try to do what it can to make sure that this never happens again.

As I said in Tel Aviv, as President Biden has said, the way that Israel does this matters

needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity.

Well this was what Egypt's president had to say after the two men met.

The current crisis is a drastic one and I believe that the ongoing retaliation

goes beyond the right to self-defense for Israel and amounts to the collective

punishment of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians living in Palestine.

Another topic on the talks in Egypt were the efforts to open the Rafa crossing.

That's the border crossing in the south of Gaza which is controlled by Egypt.

So what's the current situation regarding that border crossing?

I spoke to our diplomatic correspondent Caroline Hawley.

It's hard to know. I think what we know is that Egypt wants the crossing open to get aid in

because there is aid basically just backing up now in the Sinai Peninsula.

What Egypt doesn't want is a mass influx of Palestinian refugees but I think they are

ready to allow foreigners, the US and the UK are saying they're working to get it open because

it is the only viable route in and out of Gaza and concern as you just heard from President

Sisi about the humanitarian situation is mounting. Anthony Blinken the Secretary of State has been

hearing in pretty much every hour of capital is alarm at what Israel's doing.

And on Iran's possible involvement, I'm just looking at the Reuters news agency here and

we're hearing a warning from Iran's foreign minister saying that the US will suffer significant

damage if the Gaza war spirals into a bigger conflict. What about this issue of Iran's possible

involvement, a possible escalation? How much of a focus has that been for Anthony Blinken

today and others in the Biden administration? Look it's a massive fear. It's the reason why

they've sent a second aircraft carrier to the region. The big fear is what we've seen is skirmishes

along the border between Israel and Lebanon and in Lebanon is the Shia militant group

Hezbollah which is a proxy of Iran and everyone is trying to make sure that Hezbollah doesn't

open up a second front that would really make this war spill over into other countries.

So what we heard from the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullah Hian was these were his

words. If the Zionist aggressions do not stop the hands of all parties in the region are on the

trigger. Well that's very clear that they're on the trigger because of those skirmishes we're

seeing in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. And just quickly Tony Blinken I think extending

the trip and back in Israel presumably four more talks maybe with Bibi Netanyahu as well.

Again I think the Rafa crossing is key just because of how concerned all Arab countries

are. He is hearing warning after warning after warning about the risk of this spreading

if the plight of Palestinians isn't taken into consideration as Israel responds. Caroline Hawley

reporting. Well Jordan is another country that's always felt the pressures of the Middle East

conflict very directly as well as the history of the wars in 1948 and 1967. Jordan is now home to

over two and a half million Palestinian refugees. King Abdullah is currently in London at the start

of a European tour and on Sunday he met the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Recently he has issued

a statement saying that the UK stands with Israel on its right to defend itself. His statement though

did not mention the situation in Gaza. Travelling with the Jordanian delegation to London is King

Abdullah's foreign minister Aimen Safadi. Owen Bennett Jones asked him if Jordan was satisfied

with the British position on Gaza. What we all need to do is to stand with the right of all people

still living in peace and dignity and security. What we all need to do is to work together to

stop this madness that is engulfing the whole region and stop this catastrophic human loss of

life and to what we all need to do is to prevent this this this terrible war from engulfing the

whole region. I mean I totally understand you're arguing for de-escalation and to get back to

stability. What I'm trying to get at is you know you're Jordan in the middle of this.

Are you thinking that the western government's positions are helping you do that or are they

too one-sided? I think emotions have been high the trauma of what happened is understandably

difficult but I think it is our job to think of the enormous cost this is bringing to the whole

region and could even get worse. I think when it comes to our morality it should be one Palestinians

and Israeli civilians are civilians. They need to be protected and I think we in the Arab world

in Jordan came out very clearly in condemning the killing of civilians from both sides.

Our shared human values our ability to move forward requires that the whole world comes out

very clear in condemning the killing of both Palestinian Israeli civilians and unfortunately

we haven't seen that yet. Why is it a war crime to deny food and medicine and and and water to

Ukraine but it is not the same when it comes to Gaza. I think we need to make sure that we are

all on the high moral ground here. I think it's widely accepted a ground force is going to move

into Gaza and one way to protect civilians would be to let them out into Egypt. Would you think

that's a good idea? That's no in the most affirmative way. Memories of 1948 and 67 are still

pretty much there in the region. Population displacement, population transfer will not

solve the problem. What needs to be done is to stop the war and to make sure that Gazans are safe

in Gaza and trying to transfer the the crisis. I'm sorry but we have to be honest with each other

here to transfer the crisis that the absence of hope and the consideration of the occupation has

created to other countries in the region is an absolute no. Well you say that but I think from

Israel's point of view they would feel a lot safer if those people were moved and the whole

region would feel less safe if this war continues and if we do not create a path to a peace for both

Israelis and Palestinians. You have 2.6 million Palestinian refugees in your country. How many

of them support Hamas? Look it's we've got to understand Hamas is not just an organization.

Hamas is also an idea that came to acquire more acceptance as a result of the failure of the

peace process to deliver the peace that Oslo and all the agreements that came after it promised.

Our job has been for long now is to try and create acceptance for a different narrative that

negotiations is the best way to go forward that violence will only be get violence and war will

only be get war but our collective failure to do so has pushed people into the abyss of despair

and we see that manifesting itself in the way that you see. Well that was the Jordanian Foreign

Minister Aiman Safadi. As the conflict in Gaza continues there was on Sunday one positive

development. The water supply to southern Gaza is back on. US officials and then the Israeli

government confirmed that the pipeline supplying water to the area has been reopened. In the past

week since the conflict began over 1 million people have been displaced following Israel's order to

the Palestinians to evacuate the north of the territory. Israeli troops have continued to mass

near Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive but it's not clear when that offensive will happen

and what form exactly it will take. I heard more on Sunday evening from our Middle East

correspondent Tom Bateman who's in Jerusalem. The briefing from the Israeli military this morning

was that the timing will be a political decision. That suggests to me that they are ready from a

military perspective and that seemed to be where their statement from last night was heading. So

really what they're saying is is now down to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new

emergency war cabinet to make that decision. I think there'll be you know obviously a very

large number of considerations and one of those is about the huge sort of operation of logistics

to keep supplying a frontline because the big risk of a military offensive like this as far as the

Israelis are concerned is about getting bogged down in a very very densely packed urban environment

because clearly they're going to be aiming towards Gaza City as one of the places in this

ground invasion. That is territory that Hamas knows very well and as the invasion force the supply

to Israeli troops will be you know one of the key considerations to them. But the answer to your

question is we still don't know when. It doesn't feel like to me it's absolutely imminent as in

the coming hours or tonight but as I say we don't know. And just quickly maybe Tony Blinken I think

back in Israel tomorrow so it would seem unlikely to be Monday. Yeah I mean he said he will arrive

on Monday and yeah I think that's probably a pretty logical conclusion that he wouldn't be saying

that if there was a ground offensive about to start. One of the key things he's looking at is this

humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza. He mentioned that the Rafa crossing between Gaza and Egypt

may reopen. Now that would probably be for a very short amount of time to let some foreign

nationals and dual Palestinian passport holders come out but crucially to let aid convoys go in

with supplies you know reaching this absolutely critical breaking point. Warnings from doctors

the hospitals are on the verge of collapse. And on the water supply what's your assessment of

Israel's decision to reopen the supply to the south of Gaza. Well I think that too was under

American pressure and as you said we had this announcement that the resupply would start to

the south. Now speaking to our colleague Rushdie Abualouf in Khan Yunis now where he is where he's

fled with his family to safety from Gaza City he's saying that there isn't water supply because with

the power out the water can't be pumped. I mean that water is polluted anyway the tap water with

seawater so most of it is undrinkable you still need bottled water or truckloads of clean water

to be brought in that was always the case in Gaza so it may not be the kind of silver lining

that some people were hoping. Tom Bateman speaking to me from Jerusalem. The United Nations Secretary

General Antonio Guterres has released a statement appealing for Hamas to release all of its hostages

immediately and without preconditions. Mr Guterres also made a demand for Israel to grant rapid and

unimpeded access for humanitarian supplies to civilians in Gaza. He said the UN had stocks of

food, water, non-food items, medical supplies and fuel all of which could be dispatched within hours.

Now as we've reported Israel has urged Palestinians to move from the northern

parts of Gaza to the south as it prepares for the next phase of its military operation

against Hamas. Some people though are refusing to go. Mohammed Sherte has stayed in Gaza City

in the north with his family. He told my colleague Johnny Diamond what life is like.

No food, no water, no electricity, no fuel. Where shall I go? What do I have to do? I'm just staying

just at home trying to make the kids not become very scared. If you are in Gaza you're hearing

all the drones over the sky, over the people. The aircraft they are pumping lights to check the

areas, pumping rockets, pumps to the houses. That's the voice. That's me here. We cannot do or go

anywhere. Everywhere they are pumping. Have you been outside of your home? Have you been to any of

the hospitals? I saw at the hospital it become full of IDPs even the hospital. The ambulances

over there they cannot go anywhere because they even attacked some ambulances. They cannot

provide the service. Who is with you in your home right now? I have my parents-in-law, my aunt,

my wife and kids, my daughter it's 12, my son 11 and the little one 7. And what do you tell them

about what is going on? First day I let them, we did like sessions for drawing.

We imagined we draw and we colored the whole international states flags. The second day we

become play sports. The third day we open the schools to read. I cannot lie on them. I just

only think we have hope. Might be Allah will survive us as long we are pray for Allah to

survive us. Is there anywhere safe for you to go? Where shall I go? There are no place to go.

10 days back I was in Israel. I just came back to get a vacation and I stuck and even stuck with

my family. I was begging to move, to relocate my address to the West Bank for the safer area.

But I didn't, I couldn't. It's not mine. I know Gaza Strip, it's always having this

catastrophic escalation, always we lost. It's become like action and reaction,

action and reaction. And I believe I am as one of the people on the loser between both.

Well that was Mohammed Shattay who remains a resident in Gaza city. As Israel prepares for its

ground offensive on Gaza, what are the country's intentions? The Israeli ambassador to the UK is

Sippy Hotavly. My colleague Owen Bennett Jones asked her if northern Gaza should be permanently

depopulated. The thing we want to remove is Hamas headquarters. We're not against civilians. So

actually the question is how the end game will look after Hamas headquarters and of course

all the underground city. Think about it. So I don't know how Gaza is going to look after the

military operation is done but I know Hamas won't be there. So we have nothing against the civilians

in Gaza. Actually we want to keep them protected and we are creating shelters for them and this is

Hamas that is preventing them to get there. Well just to sort of comment on that because I did put

that direct, I'd heard that, and put that point directly to two people today who've made the move

and they both said that wasn't the case that they were free to move. Every person that lives in Gaza

was called to find a shelter in southern Gaza. We want to make sure that won't be civilians

involved and this is why we call the people of Gaza the last 48 hours. We call them to move to

the southern area of Gaza including together with international organizations create shelters for them.

We talked to the Jordanian foreign minister earlier. He said he just couldn't see the

end point of this in that you know you've made it very clear the objective is to destroy Hamas.

He thought you can kill 300,000 maybe in Gaza. Whatever you do there'll still be if not Hamas

then another group that has their ideas. Do you worry about that? I think this argument is irrelevant

because think about the western troops fighting ISIS and making sure that ISIS won't have the

ability to kill any more innocent people. So this is the way we operate. Americans did that with

al-Qaeda. The international coalition did that with ISIS and Hamas must be treated in the same way.

So the international community knows how to fight terrorism and this is what we need to do.

I guess what I'm asking is do you think to ultimately solve this it will need a political

settlement or can it be done with military means because you know military means have been going

on for decades now and it doesn't seem to go away. I mean that's I guess the point. In order to have

a political settlement you need to have leadership in Gaza that doesn't have as ideology like the

Hamas Charter basically to eliminate the Jewish state and to see it as a holy thing to do to kill

innocent Jews. You can't have political arrangements with Hamas ideology that is exactly the same like

al-Qaeda and ISIS ideology. The only thing they want to achieve and and I think they show to the

world their true face is killing innocent Jews in their beds, in their living rooms, in their houses,

walking streets from street and doing those horrible horrific attacks. The Israeli ambassador to the

UK it's Sipi Hotovli. What we heard earlier about concerns regarding the possibility that the conflict

might develop on the Israel-Lebanon border. A missile fired into Israel from Lebanon has killed

one person, the first civilian to die on Israel's northern border. In the current conflict three

others were wounded. One of the biggest factions in Lebanon is Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Islamist

group that's widely regarded as a terror organization including by the Arab League. Hezbollah said it

had fired a missile which hit the village of Shatula near the border between the two countries.

The Israeli military says it's retaliating by striking targets in southern Lebanon.

Our correspondent Anna Foster is near the border. You can hear overhead the sound of

fire whistling through the air. It's been near enough for an hour now. We've taken cover in a

in a wooded area quite close to the border. You can hear all the time the sound of fire going

between Israel and Lebanon. Most of it seems to be coming from the side that that we're actually on

the Israeli side towards Lebanon but there's been return fire in the other direction as well.

And I would say judging by the length of time we've been here, as I say nearly an hour or so,

this is the longest exchange that there has been over this border since the war in the south began.

Anna Foster. Still to come. Run down warehouses in rural Greece seem like an unlikely target for a

heist. But what is inside? Is it money? Gold? Jewelry? No. They are used to store olive oil.

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during

inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us we brought in a reverse

auctioneer which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile, unlimited premium wireless!

15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

New activation and upfront payment for three month plan required. Taxes and fees extra.

Additional restrictions apply. See mintmobile.com for full terms.

I'm Kathleen Goltar and I'm the host of a new podcast, Crime Story. Every week we bring you a

different crime told by the storyteller who knows it best. You got one witness who can't be found.

You got another witness who's murdered. We couldn't sugarcoat the story.

I was getting calls from Cosby's attorney threatening to sue every day.

Every crime in one way or another is a reflection of who we are as a people, as a city, as a country.

Find us wherever you get your podcasts.

That world has in up and spit out a lot of young and attractive guys.

This is the story of one of fashion's dark secrets.

I was overwhelmed. Like I had never seen anything like this.

At the height of Abercrombie and Fitch's success.

This was me being carefully manipulated.

Being lied too tricked and traded like a commodity.

Investigating allegations that would take me into a world of money, sex and power.

This is World of Secrets. Season one, the Abercrombie guys.

Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Welcome back to the Global News Podcast.

Now there is what could be very significant news emerging from Poland.

Voters there have been casting their ballots in a general election.

That was the sound of celebration on Sunday evening at the opposition party headquarters

after exit polls and they are still just exit polls as we record this podcast.

Have nonetheless predicted that the ruling law and justice party has lost its majority.

The leader of the main opposition party, the former European Council President Donald Tusk,

said it was a victory for democracy.

I have been a politician and a sportsman for many years.

I have never been so happy in my life with its second place.

Poland has won. Democracy has won. We removed them from power.

Well, I spoke with our Warsaw correspondent Adam Easton and I asked him,

scenes of celebrations, but these are very early exit polls.

So Donald Tusk says it's his victory. Is he right?

Too early to say. All we can say at the moment is this is an exit poll.

So that's a prediction. We've got no official results.

But the exit poll is showing us that the law and justice party won the most seats,

but it lost its majority quite comfortably and significantly three opposition parties

who are potential coalition partners, one enough to have a comfortable majority in parliament.

Now a crucial factor here is the Polish president and J. Duda,

who is an ally of the law and justice party.

He is the man who gets to appoint the prime minister and who has the first chance to form a

government. And he has said, as is the tradition in Polish elections,

that he will appoint the leader of the largest party in the election, which according to this

exit poll prediction is the law and justice party to try and form this government.

But it appears that the law and justice has no route to a majority because its potential

coalition partners didn't win enough seats either in this exit poll.

So it's looking pretty good for the coalition of opposition parties

and the leader of the main opposition party, Donald Tusk, who you heard.

And just quickly, Donald Tusk, I mean, in terms of victory, if it is his,

whatever the result is, it seems that the voters have turned out in the largest numbers,

I think, since what, 1989?

Yeah, it's again just an exit poll prediction, but it's 73% higher since the fall of communism in

1989. And significantly, the highest turnout was amongst the 18 to 29 year olds, the young people

who more of them voted for Mr Tusk's party than anyone else.

And more of them voted than the over 60s who generally tend to vote for law and justice.

Adam Easton speaking to me from Warsaw, next to the war in Ukraine.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said his troops are making gains around the

eastern and southern front lines has been intense fighting close to the city of Avdivka,

an industrial hub. Ukraine's military, however, says it's still in control of the area.

From Kiev, here's our Ukraine correspondent, James Waterhouse.

Invading Russian forces are trying to tighten their noose around Avdivka.

They control territory to the northeast and south of the city and seem to be making a push

after four months of a Ukrainian counter offensive, which Vladimir Putin claims is failing.

Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast,

he said on Russian state television. This concerns the areas of the Kupiansk,

Zaporizhia and Avdivka directions. The city has been on the front line for the past nine years,

since Russia back set protists in the east of the country. While Ukrainian forces acknowledged

the Russians, in their words, have not stopped assaulting Avdivka in recent days,

they claim to still be in control. Around 1,600 people still live in the city.

Before the war, it was more than 30,000.

Afghanistan has been struck by its third earthquake in a week, killing at least two people

and injuring more than 150. The previous tremors killed more than 1,300 people and flattened

whole villages. From Kabul, here's our South Asia correspondent, Yogi Tilamai.

Dozens of people were rushed to Hirat's main hospital after another major earthquake struck

a rural area that lies to the northwest of Afghanistan's third largest city. The facility

is already full, and while aid agencies have been pitching in, it is still a struggle to

treat the injured. Although the magnitude of the earthquake was as severe as the first one,

the number of deaths is low because people have been sleeping outdoors,

too scared to go into their homes. The region has witnessed multiple earthquakes and big

aftershocks over the past week. Thousands have been left homeless, and as winter approaches,

the Taliban government says food, clothes, tents and other aid is urgently needed.

The president of Azerbaijan has visited the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh,

raising his country's flag in the main city. Karabakh was retaken by Azerbaijan's forces

last month. Ian McWilliam has this report. President Ilham Aliyev, wearing military camouflage,

kissed the flag before it was raised. He said taking control of the region from Armenian

separatists had been the chief aim of his 20-year rule. The main city is called Stepanikert by

Armenians or Khankendi by Azerbaijanis. Nearly all of Karabakh's Armenian population of 120,000

fled the territory in the wake of a lightning one-day offensive by Azerbaijan last month.

On Sunday, Pope Francis, speaking in Rome, called for the protection of Karabakh's

ancient Armenian Christian monasteries and churches. We're going to Greece now,

where there's been a string of high-profile thefts in the country. But the target isn't money or

jewelry. It's olive oil. Aina Aslam reports. Run-down warehouses in rural Greece seem like

an unlikely target for a heist. But thieves have broken through the iron doors to steal more than

$300,000 worth of olive oil in recent weeks amid a shortage of the so-called liquid gold.

There have also been reports of people breaking into homes to steal oil from kitchen pantries

and raiding cemeteries where stockpiles are kept for use in vigil lamps. After thefts of olive oil

and olives, farmers are worried criminals may begin targeting the olive trees next.

Many are already struggling to make a living after heatwaves and drought led to two consecutive

bad harvests. Olive oil is a staple in the Mediterranean diet, but as prices continue to

skyrocket, a third of Greeks have switched to cheaper alternatives like sunflower oil.

A similar spate of robberies in Spain earlier this year led to supermarkets placing locks on

olive oil bottles, usually seen on alcohol. Farmers in the region have blamed what they

call the unprecedented poor harvests on climate change. Extreme weather events have recently

led to food shortages across the world, with tomatoes being taken off the menu at McDonald's

in India and hot sauce lovers in Mexico feeling distinct of red jalapeno scarcity.

Ina Aslam reporting. Now the American actress Piper Laurie has died. She was 91. In a career

spanning several decades, she was best known for playing a domineering and deranged mother

in the horror film Carrie in 1976. Her performance chilled audiences and earned her an Oscar nomination.

Piper Laurie also secured Oscar nominations for her roles in The Hustler and Children of Alessa

God. While on television, she is best remembered for the series Twin Peaks. At one point, she took

a lengthy break from acting to campaign for the American civil rights movement.

Now to the world of animation and film. Founded by two brothers a hundred years ago,

the Walt Disney Company has grown from a small animation studio in California to what is now a

multi-billion dollar entertainment conglomerate, which has captured the hearts and minds of many

generations and embedded itself into popular culture. To market centenary, a huge exhibition

of rarely seen artifacts is traveling around the world over the next five years. It's currently

here in London where our reporter Iona Hampson was given a special tour. The Walt Disney Archives

have opened its vaults to capture the technical innovation and the breadth of stories the company

has told over the past 100 years. My name is Becky Klein and I'm the director of the Walt Disney

Archives. How on earth do you capture 100 years of something so vast and so imaginative? That was

the big challenge with creating this exhibition. What we did is instead of telling a chronological

story, we decided what we would do is go back to our very roots to 1923 and Walt Disney and

Roy Disney, our founders, and look at what they did that we're still doing today. We do a little bit

of chronological storytelling at the very beginning. So you're introduced to Walt Disney and his story

and you see the earliest years of the company and the silent cartoons and the things up to the

birth of Mickey Mouse. And then instead of going on chronologically, we tell each gallery represents

one of Walt Disney's philosophies. While many will enjoy the exhibition with their families,

I went around it with some very unique guests. In the morning, I'll start with a simple

and then I know that if I can do that scale, I know I can do it and then I'll start with a

oh boy, hiya pal, it's me, Mickey Mouse. I'm Brett Iowan. I am the official voice of Mickey Mouse

and I've had that distinguishing pleasure since 2009. And when you go to an exhibition on this and

see Mickey everywhere, do you think that's me? No, I think Mickey is Mickey. When I see Mickey,

I see Mickey Mouse, you know. I turn it into the little kid and I giggle along like everybody else

does. A couple of steps away from the Star Wars objects, I can see the Captain America shield

with Star in the center. I can see the long red dress that Emma Stone wore as Cruella and also the

artwork used to divert the visuals for the 1953 animation Peter Pan. It really shows how

varied the stories are that Disney's been able to show over the years. And the exhibition also shows

what goes on behind the scenes to make these stories come to life. Hi, I'm Eric Goldberg and

I'm an animator and director for Walt Disney Animation Studios. You are surrounded by Disney

as you probably are for many, many years. What do you think it's captured really well? The breadth

of what the Disney Company has done and what Walt has done. These pictures on a wall or monitors is

a trigger for people to go, oh yeah, I remember that. It kind of reminds people how much a part

of their lives Disney is. Some of Disney's past productions have been criticized for their stereotypical

portrayal of non-white characters and elements of sexism. They're issues that companies attempted

to address in remakes with more diverse casting and revised scripts, a move that has brought

Disney into a wider cultural debate. Dr. Sabrina Mittemiah from the University of Kussel in Germany

researches the Walt Disney Company. They've gone with the times and like you know what

what demographics they want to attract. Overall they're still very middle of the road with a lot

of this and I think they couldn't just make films about princesses anymore now and they

shouldn't be doing that either. We're now at a point where people have nostalgia for the films of

the 90s. What I grew up with is already old and is already getting updated again for new audiences

because we've also realized there's some stuff in there that's maybe no longer going with the

times in terms of like feminism depiction of women etc. There are two similar exhibitions that will

travel internationally. While one unit will remain in London until January, the second unit will be

shown in the US city of Chicago from November with more locations around the world announced soon.

Well that report by Ohner Hampson and Mickey Mouse kind of.

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 or the topics covered in it you can send us an email. The

address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X formerly known as Twitter at Global

NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Matt Hewitt. The producer was Liam McCheffrey. The editor is

Karen Martin. I'm Robin Brandt. Until next time, thanks for listening and goodbye.

I'm Kathleen Goltar and I'm the host of a new podcast, Crime Story. Every week we bring you a

different crime told by the storyteller who knows it best. You got one witness who can't be found.

You got another witness who's murdered. We couldn't sugarcoat the story. I was getting

calls from Cosby's attorney threatening to sue every day. Every crime in one way or another

is a reflection of who we are as a people, as a city, as a country. Find us wherever you get your

podcasts.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.

The US Secretary of State says Israel must "affirm shared values" of human life and dignity. Also: the Israeli energy minister says the country has decided to resume supplying water to southern Gaza, and an exit poll says Poland's ruling party is set to lose its majority.