Global News Podcast: Palestinians given 24 hours to leave northern Gaza

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I'm Janet Jalil and at 13 hours GMT on Friday the 13th of October, these are our main stories.

Israel orders more than a million people in northern Gaza to move south ahead of an expected

ground offensive. But the UN warns the evacuation order will have devastating humanitarian consequences

in such a densely populated and impoverished area. The Republican nominee drops out of

the race for US House Speaker, creating more chaos for Congress.

Also in this podcast, the biggest takeover in gaming history has just been completed.

And the fact that we can now make some sort of paving slabs, paving stones from the lunar

regolith is something that's really exciting and it opens up a whole world of possibility.

Plans to build roads on the moon to help us humans live there.

Some residents of northern Gaza are fleeing after an Israeli warning that they should

move south. Hundreds of cars and trucks, heavily loaded with possessions, even mattresses are

heading south into what is already one of the most densely populated parts of the world.

Many fear they'll be caught up in the anticipated Israeli ground offensive, which is expected

any day now. Many families are walking on foot. Some are bringing along their cows,

camels, sheep and donkeys. Gaza resident Suzanne Barzak recorded this message as she was packing

her bags to leave.

We were hesitant about what we heard. We were very perplexed and confused whether these

information are true and what are we going to do because the shelling didn't stop since then.

There is no safe passage to go, but many of my friends have already moved and have already

reached this out in early areas. We want to make sure first that there is a safe passage

so we can all move here. We are here like five families of around 30 people. We are packing

and getting ready to move. But many, many, many people are still hesitant about this.

They consider this a part of the psychological work on the Gaza civilians. And some others

are telling like this is a part of a bigger plan of immigration towards Egypt, say, and they are

choosing to stay in their houses, whatever happens.

The UN is warning that it will be impossible for the population of northern Gaza, more than a

million people, to leave within 24 hours as the Israelis are demanding, especially when they're

under constant bombardment, suffering from food, water and fuel shortages, and when thousands

have been wounded and entire neighborhoods destroyed by Israeli warplanes. A spokesman

for the Israeli Defence Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, defended the announcement.

People should listen if we're saying that you should evacuate. The first thing that you should

do when you wake up in the morning is take the necessary belongings and evacuate. That would

make their situation better. We have the right and we have the obligation to defend the people of

Israel. You can't expect Israel not to defend its civilians because Hamas is hiding behind hers.

As we've just heard, the evacuation order has triggered suspicion among some residents. Hamas

has called it fake propaganda and urged citizens to ignore it. That's what Amjad Shabat has decided

to do. It needs months to uproot 1.1 million people to evacuate from the northern of Gaza to

the southern Gaza in less than 24 hours. No, we're not leaving. It's better to die under the rubbles

of our houses than to leave our houses to be bombed. This is hilarious. This is hilarious.

Where are we going to go? To Sinai? To Egypt? Where are we going to go? No, we're not leaving.

We're staying in our houses. Next to where I say there is a school that became a shelter of thousands

of people, more than 50 people pile up in one room that forest by four meters. Where will they go?

Where will they go? We believe that this is part of the psychological war that Israel has been

targeting us as civilians. If we're not killed by their airstrikes, we're killed by the news that

they're asking us to evacuate or to our houses to be threatened or our relatives to be killed.

So some gardens are staying put. Some are fleeing or preparing to flee,

but many, like Farah Abu-Sedo, are stuck in between, unsure what to do.

I'm seeing the people right now in front of me. They hold on their bags and their things and their

papers like they want to run away, but all of them also shocked like where we should go.

That is the question. Where we should go. It's only one city and it's a small city. There's no

place. There's no escape. They bomb us every single night without any mercy. They whip it out. A lot

of a street, a lot of buildings, a lot of shops. There's nothing left. And the thing is no one

protect us. There's no safe place here. There's a lot of children out there fight. People and bring

a woman. What are we going to do? We've got nothing to do right now. No one help us.

We heard there from residents of Gaza as a way up that agonizing decision of whether to stay

or to flee. So why is Israel ordering people in Gaza to move south? Our chief international

correspondent, Lee Juset, is close to Gaza in southern Israel. Israel's military priority now

is to intensify its attacks on Hamas's infrastructure. And one of its key targets

is the underground tunnels that Hamas uses to keep itself safe, to store no doubt food and fuel.

Its military supplies for what it knows will be an even greater Israeli assault on the coastal

strip. It could also be where they are holding the hostages. But if Israel smashes the tunnels,

it will also be destroying the houses, the residential towers which live above the tunnels.

So it is asking people to leave as a matter of urgency. It wants to get on with its military

operations. But even in a country at peace with the greatest of resources moving more than a million

people is an almost impossible ask. Lee Juset in southern Israel. But more accounts have emerged

of the atrocities committed by Hamas Gunman who rampaged through southern Israel on Saturday.

One of the most horrific massacres happened in the Kibbutz of Qafar Azar,

one of the last villages to be recaptured by Israeli soldiers. Our correspondent Nick Beek

went to meet one of the survivors who says the crimes she witnessed justify a full-scale Israeli

ground offensive in Toghaza. Just to warn you that Nick's report contains details you may find distressing.

We hear them shooting people, shooting kids and the people tell them please, please no, please no.

From her hospital bed, 22-year-old Neta Portao relives the Hamas massacre in her village.

Pins hold together her left leg where she was shot five times.

Sitting next to her, failing to stop his tears, her boyfriend Santiago. He's too upset to speak.

We start to hear gunshots. They start one apartment, one apartment, one apartment,

start to break the windows, break the doors and start to shoot. You sound people screaming.

The killers filmed themselves on the loose, murdering dozens in the Jewish community of

Far Azar. Trapped in her home with no Israeli soldiers to be seen, Neta realized the only

person who could save her was her dad, who she hadn't spoken to in six years. Hiding,

staying silent, she managed to message him.

They are close, she writes. Lock the doors, her dad replies.

Please, answer please. But the gunman soon found Neta and Santiago.

They started to shoot like in a month, like with nothing.

Neta was hit in the hand and both legs.

Santiago screamed at me, Neta, please stand up, start to run. If you don't stand up, we're going

to die, we're going to die. Santiago managed to carry her to safety a few streets away,

where they hid under a big pile of rubbish, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

Neta texted her dad again.

Dad, they shot me, help. I'm coming, he replies.

When Shimon Portal, a plainclothes policeman, arrived at his daughter's village,

he said gunmen shot at children, as well as him.

Eventually Shimon found his daughter, near her burnt out home, and drove her and her

boyfriend to hospital, leaving behind many bodies, far as one of many villages targeted

last weekend. Neta says Israel must now respond in the strongest possible way.

They come to kill us. I don't want the Hamas anymore in my life.

They need to destroy them one by one. I want peace with all my heart,

but I think it's not going to be peace.

Have you been thinking about what may happen to civilians in Gaza,

if there is a big ground operation by the Israeli military there?

All what I said is for the Jihad and the Hamas. My country didn't want to hurt the civilians.

I don't think they need to die like I don't need to die. They like me, but we need to fight.

Neta, a survivor of one of the massacres in Israel, speaking to Nick Beek.

To the U.S. now, where Capitol Hill has seen more chaos. Just a day after being chosen as a

Republican Party's nominee to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, Steve Skellis has pulled

out. If you look at where our conference is, there's still work to be done. There are still

some people that have their own agendas, and I was very clear. We have to have everybody put their

agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. Mr. Skellis had narrowly

beaten the right-wing hardliner Jim Jordan in a secret ballot, but with Republicans only having

a narrow majority in the House, he was unable to win over enough of them to replace Kevin McCarthy,

who was ousted by Trump supporters earlier this month. So what happens now? Our North America

correspondent, David Willis, explains. Steve Skellis's decision to withdraw from the race

plunges this process into an agonizing process. Into further chaos, the House can't act on pressing

issues such as aid for Israel, aid for Ukraine, or the imminent government funding deadline,

which is little less than a little more than a month away at the moment. All the time,

there is no leader of the lower House. It's possible that fellow conservative, there were

Ohioan Republican Jim Jordan, whom Steve Skellis defeated in a vote on Wednesday,

could make another run for the position. Some say it's unlikely, though, that even he would be able

to secure the votes he needed from this deeply divided House. So possibly there could be a

third contender, somebody from outside the current leadership ranks, perhaps, but it's all a bit of

a mess and it's all up in the air right now. David Willis, it's hoped that one day we humans will

return to the moon. The last time anyone set foot there was December 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission,

and NASA astronauts could be back as soon as 2025. But what about staying there long term,

even building on the lunar surface? The challenge for future landings is that the surface is almost

like a powder. That's according to Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who described what it was like.

There might be a solution, though, and it involves lasers. Scientists are developing a new technology

to melt lunar dust to make it into a strong, glassy material that could help visitors get

around the moon. Sean Cleaver is the industrial manager of the European project that provides

power and life support systems for astronauts. She spoke to my colleague, Amal Rajan, about this new

technology. It's really exciting to hear that something has been done towards the infrastructure

that we're wanting to build up on the moon. So the whole Artemis program is huge. There are so many

elements that need to come together. It's not just about the spacecraft, which is the element that I

work on, but it's also about thinking about how, once we get to the moon, how are we going to make the

best use of the lunar resources? And the fact that we can now make some sort of paving slabs,

paving stones from the lunar regolith is something that's really exciting, and it opens up a whole

world of possibilities. Well, if you can do paving slabs, you can do presumably quite complex services

that you could potentially build launch pads on. Absolutely. And that's one of the key elements

that I think we're going to start to see in the next decade or so when we return to the moon.

Of course, when we go, we're going to need to have habitats, but also maybe launch pads so that we

can return our astronauts back to the earth and also other sort of structures that we can use

to help us carry out the work that we're going to the moon to do. So whether that be scientific or

whether that be some sort of mining or exploration, having the capability to build is really quite

game-changing. Where has all that got to? The idea of habitats on the moon seems rather

distant to most people listening to right now. I suspect, Sean, where are the prospects for

actually putting, if not whole ecosystems, habitats on the moon? How far away is it?

Well, it's getting really close now. So last year, we saw the launch of Artemis-1.

That was the test mission to fly the spacecraft Orion around the moon and return it to the earth.

Now, next year, we will be doing that again, but with a crew of four astronauts. So they

won't be landing on the moon next year, but they will be orbiting the moon a little bit like they

did in Apollo 8 all those years ago. And then the following year, so 2025, that's when we're really

going to be thinking about, can we land some astronauts now on the moon and kick off this whole

new chapter of lunar exploration? So we are really talking in the next five years to get somebody

back down on the lunar surface. And then, of course, from there, the program will just grow.

The plan is to start then building infrastructure both on and around the moon and then seeing what

we can do with the moon to benefit us back here on Earth.

Sean Cleaver from the Orion European Service Module program.

Still to come on the Global News podcast, Olympic organizers look ahead to the 2028 games

with some possible new sports. Baseball, softball, flag football, lacrosse sixes, squash and cricket.

But before we move on, let's hear about this week's happy pod with Andrew Peach.

Yes, there are many things in the world it's hard to feel positive about, one of them being

the climate crisis. But we've been talking to the tech giant Bill Gates and he says there are

reasons to look on the bright side. Also this week, scientists in Spain on a new way of spotting

breast cancer, the Caribbean island that's been turned from a desolate rock to a wildlife haven,

and world records being smashed all over the place from the fastest marathon in Chicago

to the biggest pumpkin in Minnesota. Do join me for the happy pod available in this feed or

wherever you get your BBC podcasts every Saturday. Welcome back to the Global News podcast.

Hundreds of Afghans who wish their lives to work with the UK in Afghanistan have been stuck in

Pakistan for months or even longer having fled from the Taliban. They're waiting to be relocated

to Britain where they're eligible for resettlement. But some say they're now living in fear of

deportation as Pakistan has started taking a tougher approach to migrants without visas.

Our Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davies has this report.

Karachi's courts have already seen many Afghans in the last few weeks

rounded up in raids, detained, chained, accused of being here illegally.

Pakistan's government announced that illegal migrants would be deported in November.

It scared many here, particularly the Afghan community.

Among the thousands that came to Pakistan after the Taliban government took power

are hundreds who risked their lives working for the British,

including translators for the British army, all told by the UK government

to come to Pakistan so they could be processed for a UK visa.

But they're still waiting, with their children living in hotels in Pakistan,

with no legal access to school or work. Some have been here for over a year.

Many were too afraid to speak to us. Others only agreed if we didn't use their voices or names.

Worried if they were identified, it could affect their visa case

or their families still in Afghanistan under the Taliban government,

despite the Taliban's declared amnesty on those who worked with international forces.

This man worked with the UK authorities.

Afghans are all under a lot of stress. Not just my family, but everyone.

It has caused all of us psychological problems.

His friend was a translator with the British army.

We are scared. Our Pakistani visas have expired.

We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know if we will be arrested or not.

And they fear they cannot go back.

If we go back, we will be at even more risk than before.

Before we left Afghanistan, if our lives were at 50% danger,

now they are in 100% danger.

Their passports they say are with the UK government. Their Pakistan visas expired.

Marzia, not her real name, was a teacher with the British Council.

She's heavily pregnant, but says she was told by her caseworker

at the International Organisation for Migration

not to leave the hotel, even for doctor's appointments.

So we speak on the phone.

I don't know what to do.

It's impossible for me to give birth to my baby inside my hotel room.

There isn't any facility. There isn't anyone to help me.

There's a lot of problem and my and my baby's health will be in danger.

We work for them honestly, and it's time for them to help us.

Five others said they were also told the same by their IOM caseworkers

or the hotel staff on their behalf.

The IOM said it does not give this advice.

Marzia told us she's feeling increasingly hopeless.

The BBC understands that the UK is in touch with the Pakistan authorities

to try to make sure people on these schemes aren't affected,

but many we spoke to didn't feel reassured.

The UK government told us it's made an ambitious and generous commitment

to help at-risk people in Afghanistan

and continues to honour its commitments to bring eligible Afghans to the UK.

But the main answer those we spoke to want is when.

That report by our Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davies.

Now to a huge development in the world of gaming.

British regulators have approved a $69 billion deal for Microsoft

to buy the maker of the Call of Duty video game franchise Activision Blizzard.

The US and EU had already backed the deal, the biggest in gaming history,

but the UK's competition watchdog originally had concerns.

Our business correspondent Mark Ashton reports.

After a near two-year battle, the biggest takeover in the history of gaming

has finally got the green light.

Activision Blizzard makes hits like Candy Crush World of Warcraft

and one of the biggest selling video game series of all time, Call of Duty.

Microsoft's takeover bid was blocked in April by the competition and markets authority,

which oversees mergers and acquisitions in the UK.

The regulator feared the deal would had Microsoft too much power over the cloud gaming market,

where games are bought virtually and can be played on a variety of devices

and could limit the availability of some of the most popular games on rival platforms.

A revised deal will now hand the French video game publisher Ubisoft

the rights to distribute Activision's titles on PCs and other consoles.

The CMA said that would reduce costs for gamers.

Mark Ashton

More than a hundred years after it was last played at the Olympics,

Cricket could be making a return to the games.

Back in 1900, Cricket was one of only 19 sports at the Paris Games,

but now it's being considered for Los Angeles in 2028 alongside several other sports

after a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The IOC president is Thomas Bach.

These five sports are baseball, softball, flag football, lacrosse sixes, squash and cricket.

But it's not a done deal just yet, as I heard from our sports news correspondent

Alex Kappstick.

The Indian media broadcasts haven't paid for the rights to broadcast the LA games in 2028.

The last deal was worth around 20 million dollars.

This deal with Cricket involved, as is expected, will be worth more than 200 million dollars,

so experts have predicted.

Yeah, and you can't really understate how big the audience could be,

because we're talking about the most populous nation in the world, India,

where Cricket is almost like a religion.

And it's also a country which traditionally is done very poorly at the Olympics.

Yeah, you're right.

And I mean, if you look at the medal tables over past Olympics,

India does not feature high up on the list at all.

It used to do quite well at hockey.

In fact, they got a bronze medal in hockey at the last Olympics, summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Only two individual gold medals.

One is shooting and one in Tokyo, actually, in the javelin.

And they would have high expectations of doing well at a Cricket Olympic tournament.

It will be a shortened tournament, just 16s involved in the short format of the game,

the T20 format of the game.

But yes, you're right, it's a massive sport here.

It's the World Cup in India at the moment.

And everywhere you go in the city of Mumbai,

India is probably the same all over the country.

There are big screens showing whatever game is on at that moment.

And lots of Indians glued to the television,

glued to their radios in the car, listening to what's happening.

They love this sport and we're talking about,

I mean, I was speaking to one media expert

who felt that this would guarantee Thomas Bach and his Olympic movement

an increase of around six to seven hundred million eyeballs

watching the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 2028.

So as Thomas Bach explained, it's a win-win situation.

Alex Capstick, a Japanese man who posted an online video of himself licking a soy sauce

bottle at a restaurant has been given a suspended three-year prison sentence.

As Harry Bly reports, the video was just one of several,

though went viral, causing widespread outrage.

This video was posted on social media in February.

It shows a man licking a communal soy sauce bottle at a sushi restaurant.

It happened at Kura Sushi, a chain sushi restaurant in the city of Nagoya.

But this wasn't a one-off.

It was part of a dozen copycat videos that emerged around the same time,

amassing millions of views.

Others showed a customer licking his fingers and touching dishes passing by on the conveyor belt.

Another saw a man licking a set of chopsticks on someone else's dish

and an unused tea cup.

Immediately restaurants reacted.

Several sushi chains limited the use of the traditional conveyor belts

that carry food to diners.

Kura Sushi, Inc., which has 500 restaurants across Japan,

installed surveillance cameras equipped with artificial intelligence.

And then the police got involved,

arresting three people in March on suspicion of public nuisance.

On Friday, 21-year-old Ryoga Yeshino appeared at Nagoya District Court,

where he was given a three-year prison sentence suspended for five years.

So why did he do it?

He wanted online notoriety.

Yeshino told the judge,

I did it to satisfy my desire for recognition and wanted to be popular.

What I did was very stupid.

Harry Bly.

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,

you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on xatglobalnewspod.

This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen,

the producer with Chantal Hartle.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jenna Jaleel.

Until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.