Global News Podcast: Israeli police clash with Eritrean asylum seekers

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get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Sunday, the 3rd of September, these are our main stories.

Israeli police have opened an internal investigation into the use of live fire when they

tried to break up clashes in Tel Aviv between rival groups of Eritrean asylum seekers. Nearly

150 people were injured. Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine's richest men who was earlier named

a suspect in a fraud and money laundering investigation, has been ordered to remain in

custody for two months. The Nobel Foundation has cancelled its invitation to the Russian ambassador

for this year's prize ceremonies after widespread criticism.

Also in this podcast, we bring you some tropical rock.

We pay tribute to the American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who's just died aged 76.

We begin in Israel.

Where there were widespread clashes in Tel Aviv on Saturday, nearly 150 people were injured,

including some police officers when there were violent confrontations between

rival groups of Eritrean asylum seekers. Hundreds of protesters had broken through

security barriers at the Eritrean Embassy. To stop a government-sponsored cultural event,

they'd earlier asked the Israeli authorities to cancel. Police in Israel have now opened an

investigation into the use of live fire by officers during the clashes. Our correspondent

in Israel, Yolan Nel, told me more about the extent of the trouble. This is really something

that seems to have caught the authorities in Israel very much by surprise. Really what happened

is that activists opposed to the Eritrean government say that they were asking the authorities to

cancel an embassy event, an event organised by the Eritrean Embassy that was scheduled for

Saturday afternoon. Then, according to what we can gather from Israeli media reports, the

demonstrators marched towards this venue where the embassy gathering was supposed to take place

in central Tel Aviv. At the beginning, police managed to hold them back behind barricades,

but then they managed to break through. A statement by the Israeli police said that

the officers used their guns firing them in the air because they felt that their lives

were in danger. You can see from the videos that were shared on social media that they're also

actually street battles between Eritreans opposed to the government back in Eritrea and those who

support the government in their home country. Israeli police say they were trying to separate

the two sides here. Of the Eritrean asylum seekers, of which there are 26,000 or so in Israel,

of those who are opposed to the government, why do they say they need to claim asylum in Israel?

The numbers are a bit disputed, exactly, but they make up the biggest number of sub-Saharan

Africans who are here, and most of them arrived illegally years ago crossing in through Egypt.

Now, the people asylum seekers from Eritrea say they fled danger, they fled persecution. Of course,

we know about the compulsory military conscription under slave-like conditions,

according to some human rights groups that exist in Eritrea. It's seen very much as one of the

world's most repressive countries. I mean, there was one man who was talking at the protest about

why he was just so very much against a festival being allowed to take place, organised by the

Eritrean embassy, and he talked about why he had run away from Eritrea in the first place.

Why did we run from our country? Because of the dictator, President Afewaki. Why are they

celebrating this festival here today? Why did the Israeli police give them a permit to celebrate

this dictator? We are completely opposed to it. But actually, there are also Eritreans who do

support the government, who are present here in Israel, and they would not appear to be in need

of sort of international protection as refugees, according to UN guidelines. But because the

authorities in Israel and other countries don't really make differentiations between asylum

seekers, they don't ask them detailed questions about their political affiliations. They're all

just classed as Eritrean asylum seekers. So that's how we get this situation.

Yolande Nel. Well, staying in the region, and doctors have told the BBC, an unarmed Palestinian

man shot and left critically wounded as he ran away from Israeli forces, was hit to be killed.

Video of Amid al-Jarub being struck was widely viewed online, coming amid a rise in violence

in the Occupied West Bank. Israel says its forces' lives were endangered. Our Middle

East correspondent Tom Bateman reports. A gunshot echoes across a street in the Occupied West Bank.

This is the sound from mobile phone footage of Amid al-Jarub, a Palestinian man, being shot in the

back of the head. He was unarmed, running away from the position of an Israeli military jeep,

and apparently heading to try to help an injured man.

People scream as they see he's hit, and he is now critically wounded in hospital. The shooting

last week happened during an Israeli military raid, with the West Bank again gripped by violence.

The video was circulated widely online, sparking an outcry from human rights groups.

At the family home, his father, Ghalib, holds Amid's youngest child. They fear he may never come home.

My feeling is that this was a cowardly and cruel act at the same time, says Ghalib. My son was on

his way to do a humanitarian act. He was not carrying a stone or a weapon and had no intention

of attacking the army, he says. This year, the West Bank has been ignited by violence the worst

in two decades. Just days before Amid was shot, Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis in the

nearby town of Hawara. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls this a wave of terrorism in the

West Bank, and the military has again intensified its detention raids. Troops entered the village of

Beta reportedly to arrest a man who might know the attackers whereabouts, residents through

stones and broken masonry at armored vehicles, and Israeli snipers took up positions. The Israeli

border police didn't answer questions about why Amid was shot, but it said its forces used

live ammunition in Beta as a violent riot was endangering troops' lives. The footage is among

the clearest documentation in recent years of lethal force used without what rights groups say

is any justification. The last fortnight has seen yet more Israelis and Palestinians killed as this

conflict in the West Bank sinks to depths not seen in two decades. As for Amid, his younger

brothers now see the blood that still stains the street here. It will be a long wait for another

family unlikely to get any real answers. Tom Bateman reporting. Lawyers for the Ukrainian

oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky says he will not post bail and will appeal against a court order

that he beheld in custody for two months. They say he's now being detained at the security

services headquarters in Kiev. He's a suspect in a fraud and money laundering investigation.

In his nightly address, President Zelensky thanked law enforcement officials for their

efforts as he addressed the question of corruption without naming Mr Kolomoisky directly.

Of course we will protect Ukraine and return freedom to our entire land,

and each of us feels that this will be a Ukraine of different rules. The borders will be the same,

democracy probably just as turbulent, freedom as always, but certainly with no business as usual

for those who robbed Ukraine and put themselves above the law and any rules.

Our correspondent Paul Adams reports from Kiev on the background to the detention of the Ukrainian

oligarch. Ihor Kolomoisky has been under investigation for some time. Now he's officially named in

connection with a fraud and money laundering case suspected of moving millions of dollars out of the

country between 2013 and 2020. It's the latest move by a government which says tackling corruption

is one of its highest priorities, and it has personal relevance for President Zelensky.

Mr Kolomoisky owned the TV channel which broadcasts the show in which Mr Zelensky,

then a comedian, played the role of a schoolteacher who unexpectedly becomes President of Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky has always rejected the notion that he's somehow beholden to the oligarch who gave

him his break. Not everyone is convinced by today's move. Anti-corruption activists fear that Mr

Zelensky is weakening the power of Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau in favour of the state

security service, which they praise for its conduct in the war, but see as highly compromised when it

comes to the issue of tackling graft. Paul Adams, let's stay in Ukraine because on Friday students

went back to school after a summer break. As the new term begins, pupils and teachers face the deadly

threat of Russian missiles and drones. Vitaly Shevchenko investigates.

It was a quiet summer morning in Romani, a provincial town in northern Ukraine,

on Wednesday the 23rd of August. As the Yana Prokopenko, a local headteacher left for work,

she told her husband she had to hold some meetings to prepare for the new term.

But shortly after 10 o'clock, she was dead, together with her deputy, secretary and a librarian.

They were all killed by a Russian kamikaze drone, which almost completely destroyed their school.

Mrs Prokopenko's husband Valery is distraught.

When I looked into her eyes, I saw so many plans there. It was my wife's life. She was there 24-7.

She was passionate about that school. I swear there were no military there.

Russian airstrikes are a constant danger facing Ukrainian teachers, children and parents

as the new school term begins on the 1st of September. According to the Ukrainian authorities,

more than 360 educational establishments have been completely destroyed and more than 3000

damaged during the war with Russia so far. To minimize this deadly threat, many students will

be studying remotely and it is up to the local authorities to decide whether schooling will

be conducted in the classroom or from home. Their decision depends on the security situation in

each region and on whether schools there have bomb shelters. The war has had a devastating effect on

the qualitative education in Ukraine. The UN's Children's Agency UNICEF says that Ukrainian

children are now not only learning more slowly but also beginning to lose what they learned

while their schools were fully functioning. And it has been a while since schools were fully

functioning in frontline cities such as Zaporizia where remote education has been in place with

brief interruptions since COVID restrictions were introduced back in spring 2020.

Konstantin Samilo is a head teacher from Zaporizia in eastern Ukraine.

This isn't normal schooling. The children who haven't seen proper schooling for three years,

they are poor, poor children. I dread to think what will happen if this goes on for another year.

I won't even have any idea what to do with those children. But whatever impact distance learning

may have on education in Ukraine, teachers, officials and parents all agree that safety

comes first. Vitaly Shevchenko. There's been an abrupt U-turn at the Nobel Prize Foundation

in the Swedish capital Stockholm in a row over who should be on the guest list for this year's

awards ceremony. The Russian, Belarusian and Iranian ambassadors to Sweden were all included,

but after a massive outcry, they've all now been disinvited and it seems to have required

the intervention of a rather unexpected figure. I spoke to our Europe regional editor Paul Moss

and asked him how did the Nobel Foundation end up in this tank? The Nobel Prize Award ceremony is

a big deal in Sweden. This is a country known for informality, but there you get the full

pomp and ceremony with formal dress. Incidentally, I think that might be why Bob Dylan didn't show up

when he was awarded the Literature Prize a few years ago. It is standard practice to invite all

the ambassadors to Sweden, which includes, controversially this year, the Russian, Belarusian

and Iranian ambassadors, controversial because of Russia invading Ukraine, Belarus for assisting

the invasion and Iran for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, including those women not

wearing the hijab. And this isn't just a matter of keeping things simple, you know, give an invite

to everyone. For some, it is actually part of the ethos of the Nobel Prizes to be inclusive.

Vida Helgeson, who's the executive director of the Nobel Prize Foundation, she defended the decision

saying this common approach promotes opportunities to convey the important messages of the Nobel Prize

to everyone. So given that, what prompted the Nobel Foundation's change of mind? Well, as you said,

there was a lot of anger. The Swedish Prime Minister was one of many who weighed in and said

it was important in particular to isolate Russia in every way. But here's the funny thing, the

Nobel Prize Foundation stood its ground, refused to back down. Until much to everyone's surprise,

the King of Sweden joined this chorus of critics. Now, bear in mind, this is a man who does not get

involved in controversy, if he can help it. But he said he might not attend the ceremony. Now,

that seems to have swung it shortly afterwards. The invites to the Russian, Belarusian and Iranian

ambassadors were all canceled. It's sort of like Cinderella in reverse being told, actually,

you will not go to the ball. So is that the end of the matter? No, it is not. And here's why.

One of the most eagerly anticipated prizes is the Nobel Peace Prize. And that is not awarded in

Sweden. But next door in Norway in the capital Oslo. And so far, the ambassadors of Russia,

Belarus, and Iran are still on the guest list. Now, that is particularly controversial because

one previous winner from Belarus, Alicia Beliatsky, is actually imprisoned in Belarus on what most

trumped up charges. A previous Russian winner of the Nobel Prize, the journalist Muratov,

Dmitry Muratov, only this week, Russia declared him to be a foreign agent. So a lot of people are

saying the Belarusian and Russian ambassadors have particularly no place being at the Peace Prize

ceremony, given how they've treated past winners. And they're calling on Norway to follow Sweden's

lead and to disinvite them. Our Europe regional editor, Paul Moss. The American former diplomat,

Bill Richardson, has died at the age of 75. The Democrat congressman made his name negotiating

the release of Americans held abroad. Simon Pondsford looks back at his life.

Bill Richardson spent decades seeking freedom for Americans at the mercy of repressive regimes,

from Iraq to Cuba to North Korea. Face to face with the likes of Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro,

he persuaded them to hand over their prisoners. Bill Richardson said the first rule of negotiating

was to know what makes people tick and let the other side save face. President Bill Clinton liked

his deft diplomacy and made him America's envoy to the United Nations. Bill Richardson's foundation

said the world had lost a champion for those held unjustly abroad. Simon Pondsford, you're

listening to the Global News podcast. Bike theft is one of the most common crimes in the world,

and the problem is especially rampant in cities where cycling is popular. This includes the city

of Ulu in Finland, where 10% of the town's 200,000 residents were victims of bike theft last year.

Local police say bike theft is not a priority, so a group of frustrated citizens have decided

to take matters into their own hands. Erika Benka joined them on one of their patrols,

searching for stolen bikes. So today I'm volunteering with Ilka and trying to find stolen bikes.

So your best friend's bike was stolen from the schoolyard? Yeah, so now she doesn't have a bike.

Ulu, there is many students. It's expensive to live in Finland. When you're a student,

you don't have a lot of income, so it's sad that they get stolen. Last year almost 2,000 bikes were

stolen in Ulu, a city of 200,000 just below the Arctic Circle. Cycling is popular here. In the

summer, 77% of people use their bikes to get from A to B. It's easy, and it's safe. The terrain is

flat, and the city has a thousand kilometers of dedicated bicycle paths, the biggest network in

Finland. We found a bike from Kakkuri, Ulu. There was two to 14 years old boys who had stolen it,

so they just ran away, and police asked to give the bike to them. So if we've not come to the

police station to hand over the stolen bike to the police, they will deal with it now? Yes.

Bike theft is not a priority for the police. They told us they concentrated on crimes against

life and health. The police would not even confirm how many stolen bikes they managed to find in Ulu.

They don't have resources, they don't have time. This is Tina Jussila, a former nurse. She's out with

Olivia collecting abandoned bicycles. Was in the forest. Was in the forest? Yes. We just dumped

in the forest. Yeah, yeah. It looks like it's in a good shape, so we are now taking this bike back

to its owner. Is it your son's bike? It's my son's bike, yeah. How old are you? 11. And your bike was

stolen? One month ago. So it needs a bit of work, but... It needs something, but it's nothing big.

Thank you guys. Olivia and Tina are volunteers who call themselves bike patrolls. The group was

set up less than a year ago by Ilka Pulkinen, an ordinary citizen determined to find a solution

to the problem of bike theft in Ulu. I want to help people get back bikes. Yeah, get back now

over 1000 bikes, but this is so good here. A man with a clear sense of purpose, Ilka is proudly

tapping his chest while keeping an eye on his phone that never stops ringing or beeping.

I have got maybe 50, 60 messages today, what I have to check now in the evening and next night

we are there two, three, four, five hours, I don't know. Ilka set up a website and a Facebook page

last year. They are called stolen bikes in Ulu. People have been messaging him there if their bikes

have disappeared or if they see an abandoned bike. As Ilka and the team take a break grabbing coffees

and cakes, I asked them why they give up their free time to chase stolen bikes. This is retired

army officer Reimu Vanhanen. I've always wanted to do something good for other people and now

when I'm retired, I have all the time in the world to do it. I don't need any salary or something.

It's very nice to see someone is smiling and saying that you are doing great work.

That report was by Erica Benker in Finland. Still to come. Held in Black Rock Desert, the

annual festival is one of America's most well-known cultural events. Festival goers usually have to

deal with high temperatures, dust and sand. But now more than 70,000 people have been stranded

at the event in Nevada because of rainstorms. Ever wondered what the world's wealthiest people did

to get so ridiculously rich? Our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire, takes one billionaire at a time

and explains exactly how they made their money. And then we decide if they are actually good,

bad or just plain wealthy. So if you want to know if Rihanna is as much of a bad gal as she claims

or what Jeff Bezos really did to become the first person in history to pocket a hundred billion

dollars, listen to Good Bad Billionaire with me, Simon Jack and me, Zing Zing, available now wherever

you get your podcasts. The road to success seems quick. My first try to go to the Olympic games

was in 1980. Everybody's been seeing me run for years growing up. Get to know the people behind

the medals as Olympians and Paralympians share their stories. My story can help so many other

victims and survivors. On the podium from the BBC World Service. The journey in the ups and downs.

Listen now by searching for on the podium wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Now to Mongolia.

And that is the sound of a welcome ceremony for Pope Francis, who's on his first visit to Mongolia,

which has one of the smallest Roman Catholic communities in the world, some 1500 people.

In a speech in the capital Ulaanbaatar, Pope Francis spoke about the need to protect the

environment. He also met the president of Mongolia. Our Asia Pacific editor Michael Bristow gave us

more background on the visit, which is also being seen as an opportunity to send a message to

Mongolia's giant neighbor, China. This is a tiny, tiny Catholic population. And so one wonders why

the Pope has gone there. Well, he often says, and that's been reiterated over the last couple of

days, that he likes to go to the periphery of the Catholic world to show the universal nature

of the church. And certainly going to Mongolia would fulfill that. Also, he gets to talk about

some universal themes that affect the whole world. So on Saturday he's spoken about issues such as

environmental degradation, which is a problem in Mongolia. There's creeping desert, there's pollution

in the winter from burning of coal. So it gives him a platform to talk about those issues as well.

There's also the place where Mongolia is. It sits in East Asia right next to China,

which has millions of Catholics. And the Pope has spent a good amount of his time trying to

improve relations with China five years ago. He signed an agreement with the Communist Party there

to jointly administer the Catholic Church in China. And he said, yes, countries have nothing to fear,

secular institutions have nothing to fear from the Catholic Church because they're pushing no

political agenda. That would seem a direct reference to Beijing and to his attempts to improve relations

with the Chinese Communist Party. This is why governments and secular institutions

have nothing to fear from the Church's work of evangelization, because the Church has no political

agenda to advance, but is sustained by the quiet power of God's grace and a message of

mercy and truth, which is meant to promote the good of all. Interestingly, there doesn't appear

to be an official delegation from mainland China. There is a delegation from Hong Kong, but not

from mainland China. You would imagine that perhaps hundreds of thousands of Chinese Catholics would

have wanted to go across the border there to see the Pope. They haven't gone. It's an indication

of just how difficult the Pope's job is in trying to improve relations with China.

Michael Bristo. The military junta in Gabon says it's reopening all borders with immediate

effect. They were closed after Wednesday's coup. Thomas Nadi reports. A spokesman for Gabon's

military announced the reopening of the borders on state television. The government of President Ali

Bongo was ousted shortly after he was declared winner in elections where he ran for a third term.

School leader General Bryce Olegier in Gema has given reassurances that the suspension of state

institutions will be temporary, but the opposition has warned that the junta is showing no signs of

returning Gabon to civilian rule. General in Gema had said he will not rise to hold elections to

avoid what he described as repeating past mistakes. Thomas Nadi. India has launched its first mission

to study the sun just days after the country made history by landing a spacecraft near the moon's

south pole. Large crowds gathered to watch the rocket blast off from the southern state of

Andhra Pradesh. A reporter Azadeh Mashiri monitored the launch. This was Aditya L1's liftoff.

The launch was from Shiharikota on Saturday. After an hour and four minutes of flight time,

the Indian Space Research Agency declared it mission successful. This is India's first

space-based mission to study the sun. The aim is to help scientists understand solar activity,

its effect on Earth and near space weather in real time. A few thousand people gathered in

the viewing gallery set up by the Indian Space Research Agency. It was near the launch site

to watch the blast off. Now let's break down what's installed for the spacecraft itself.

It has to orbit the Earth several times before being launched to its destination. That's L1.

1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth and according to scientists, the journey will take

four months. Once there, that's when the spacecraft can begin to orbit the sun. Now,

of course, this is a huge moment of pride for India and it's also only a week after India

celebrated its first unmanned landing on the moon. That became the world's first ever probe

near the lunar south pole and it made India only the fourth country to celebrate a soft landing on

the moon. Now, of course, these are big gains for India's space ambitions itself, but India's

scientists also insist these will be big gains for the scientific community at large.

As are the Mashiri there. More than 70,000 people have been stranded at America's famous

Burning Man Festival in the desert state of Nevada. Because of rainstorms, they've been

told no one can enter or leave the site, which has turned into a bit of a mud bath. From neighboring

California, James Clayton has the latest. Held in Black Rock Desert, the annual festival is one

of America's most well-known cultural events. Festival goers usually have to deal with high

temperatures, dust and sand. But footage on social media shows them struggling to walk on muddy paths

after the rain. Organizers have said no driving is permitted until the surface dries up, with the

exception of emergency services. One man at the festival told the BBC that most events had been

called off as they largely take place in the Playa, a dry lake bed where there is currently no way of

getting in or out. The festival is in the middle of nowhere, deep in the Nevada desert. It's a hard

place to get to. And with more rain and unusually cool temperatures expected on Sunday, many may

be stuck in the mud for a good while yet. James Clayton in California. Now take a listen to this.

That is Margaritaville, the mega hit of the American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett,

who's just died at the age of 76. His brand of music was known as Tropical Rock,

and it made him millions of dollars. I heard more from our North America correspondent, Peter Bose.

Jimmy Buffett always had a dream of becoming a country singer. He was a busker. He worked for

a while for the music magazine Billboard, and he went on to develop the tropical rock genre in

Florida. With his breakthrough album, which was Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,

it included the song Margaritaville, which was a huge success. It enjoyed 22 weeks in the chart

here. It was a song that captured the imagination of people through its, you know, somewhat melancholy

lyrics. It's about a beach bum drinking on his front porch, lamenting a lost love, nibbling at

sponge cake, observing the tourists, and generally feeling sorry for himself. It was a big hit,

though, and it really catapulted Jimmy Buffett and his musical style to success.

A lot of tributes from around the world. Big names like Elton John say that Buffett was a

unique and treasured entertainer. Many more tributes coming in as well. What about the appeal

of Tropical Rock? Can you sum it up? It's fantasy land. It's escapism. You know, when you're having a

really bad day, you might close your eyes, imagine yourself sitting on a beach, sipping a margarita.

As Jimmy Buffett once said, it's part of the human condition that you've just got to have some fun.

And he had a lot of fun, especially with his music, which was a mixture of country, pop, folk,

and rock, and included songs like this classic.

I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes, big kosher pickle,

and a cold draft beer. What is there not to like about those lyrics? And that's probably why he had

legions of fans. By the way, they were known. His fans were known as parrot heads because of the

colourful headwear that they would don for his concerts. So great musician, great showman. It

was also a great businessman, wasn't he? He made a lot of money. Yeah, that's the fascinating thing

about his story. He might have been singing about the simple life, but in reality, he was a workaholic.

He capitalised on his fame and the way that his music connected with people to build his billion

empire, which was made up of restaurants, resorts, merchandise selling, even retirement

communities based on the Margarita brand. He was clearly a marketing genius.

Pisa Bose on the life of the American singer-songwriter, Jimmy Buffett, who's died age 76.

And 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 GlobalPodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X, formerly known as Twitter,

at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Philip Bull, the producer was Liam McCheffrey.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Mars, and until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.