Israel reacts angrily to recognition of Palestinian statehood

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

I'm Nick Miles, and at 17 Hours GMT on Monday, the 22nd of September, these are our main stories.

Britain and Germany warn Israel not to annex Palestinian territory in retaliation for the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

The former vice president of South Sudan goes on trial for murder, treason and crimes against humanity.

One of the two favourites to become Japan's next prime minister promises to improve gender balance in her cabinet.

Also in this podcast, promises made, promises broken, how we're falling way short of climate change commitments.

It's indicative of global energy security challenges now, uncertainties about the future, and turning to an old fossil fuel-dependent playbook, if I can put it that way.

Many countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia recognized Palestinian statehood decades ago.

But the latest flurry of diplomatic green lights has been contentious.

That is because it's come from some of Israel's traditionally strongest allies.

Britain, Australia, and Canada all recognised Palestine on Sunday.

And as nations gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, France and a number of other countries will follow suit.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out strongly, saying Palestinians will never have a state and adding that Israel will respond further.

Many believe that could mean annexing the West Bank, a course of action Britain and others have, as I said, warned Israel against taking.

Hamish Faulkner is Britain's Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East.

We are very clear on the West Bank.

The West Bank has seen a huge expansion of violent settlements.

We've done three waves of sanctions focused on that question.

It is vital that the Israeli government heeds those calls.

There will be efforts at the UN this week.

I understand that President Trump will also be hosting meetings about what needs to come next in the region.

It is absolutely vital that there is no further escalation.

Germany has also said there must be no further steps towards the annexation of Palestinian territories.

So, what has the international response been to the spate of recognition announcements?

Our diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, is in New York.

For those people who support what the British and Canadian and Australian governments have done, there's been a welcome, and we know that later on today, the French and various other European nations are going to be following suit here at the United Nations, making similar declarations.

There's a clear attempt to sort of get a bandwagon rolling on this, to sort of for these nations to act in concert together.

But not surprisingly, the State Department has been very dismissive, saying it's performative diplomacy.

And Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has denounced what's been announced very, very vociferously, very angrily indeed, saying that not only do these declarations of Palestinian statehood reward Hamas terrorism, he's also said that this will never happen, saying that a Palestinian state would be a terror state.

What's interesting is if you talk to Western diplomats, they say, look,

some people are dismissing what they're doing as insignificant and symbolic, but they say if you measure what they've done against the scale of the Israeli response and the anger that it has caused, they say that shows that this is something that has landed.

I think the aim of these nations that have decided now is the moment to recognise Palestinian state.

In the past they've all thought this is something that should happen as part of the end game when eventually there may be some kind of political settlement in the Middle East, and you use the gift, the prize of recognition, as a tool of diplomatic leverage to get a deal over the line.

That's all gone.

They're simply now in the business of trying to save the idea of a two-state solution simply because they believe it is under such great threat as a result of the policies of the current Israeli Government.

So I think what they're trying to do is to say, look, you know, we have to start talking about a two-state solution again in a way that hasn't been for many, many years, simply because for a long time it's been seen as a sort of an empty slogan, something that sort of diplomats say, well, we talked about that once, we tried that once, it's not going to work.

I think these countries are saying, look, it is the only solution, because the only alternative to that is some kind of singular state, potentially locked in perpetual conflict, potentially with Palestinians as second-class citizens.

And so I think they just want to get back to that kind of discussion.

That was James Landell in New York.

Well, as we've been hearing, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has condemned the very idea of a Palestinian state.

Our Middle East correspondent, Yolan Nell, in Bethlehem in the West Bank, told me more.

They were stuck, and he was saying there will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.

He was basically pledging as well to continue to expand Israeli settlements on land that Palestinians want for a state of their own.

Already in recent weeks, weeks, Israel has announced plans for more than twenty new settlements.

And they're planning settlement building in E1, this very sensitive area that will really sever the north and the south of the West Bank.

And just coming towards Bethlehem from our office in Jerusalem, there are more of these settler outposts clearly visible on land around this city.

When I went up to the north of the West Bank a week or so ago, it's just really shocking, having not made that journey in the last few weeks, how much settlement growth, how many outposts there are that have have just come recently.

Now, far-right Israeli ministers have been using this occasion to push now for immediate annexation.

They say that should be Israel's natural response.

The far-right minister, Etmar Ben-Gavir, is talking about the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Terror Authority, as he called it, as well.

Of course, it's the Palestinian Authority that governs parts of the West Bank cities like Bethlehem.

It's already in a state of real economic distress because of different financial steps that Israel has taken and the general sort of downturn in the economy.

So it's really difficult to see where exactly things go from here.

What Mr.

Netanyahu is saying is that he's going to consult President Trump when he meets him at the White House in a week's time, and that he will announce when he comes back what Israel's full response will be.

There are other things being talked about in the Israeli media: perhaps a more limited annexation of the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, for example, and that would deal a blow to Palestinians, but might be less problematic for Israel with the White House and with other countries in the region as well.

Broadly, it's important to say that Palestinians do welcome this.

They see this as amounting to an historic shift, particularly by countries such as the UK, which previously had the mandate for Palestine.

The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, called this an important and necessary step towards achieving a just and lasting peace in the region.

But, you know, as more countries take this step, we've also had Hamas calling for more practical measures to end the war.

This is actually, many Palestinians are saying this is what needs to happen now.

If there is recognition of a Palestinian state, then concrete actions need to be taken towards fully achieving that so that the Palestinians could ultimately have control of their own borders.

The war in Gaza needs to be ended as well.

Yolannell.

A precarious peace in South Sudan appears to be in the balance, with the country's suspended vice president, Riyaq Bashar, appearing in court, accused of murder, treason, and crimes against humanity.

The charges relate to a militia attack by fighters allegedly loyal to him, which killed 250 South Sudanese soldiers in the town of Nasir back in March.

Mr.

Mashab was then placed under house arrest.

The presence of Ugandan soldiers in the country is further exacerbating tensions, with fears that South Sudan could see a return to a disastrous five-year civil war, which killed 400,000 people.

In the capital, Juba, these residents told the BBC they were afraid of what might happen.

I'm one of the people who are already afraid of the results.

Should it not come out as expected?

Of course, his forces and supporters have already issued a warning that should anything happen to him, they will fight.

The current development in the country is a little bit worrying and causing a lot of fear and panic among people.

Violence is not the solution.

Our leaders need to go back and sit down on the table because this whole fighting here, the repercussion is not on them.

The repairson goes back to us, the citizen.

I got more from our correspondent in Nairobi, Akisa Wandera, who's been watching the trial.

Dr.

Riak Machara and his co-accused were behind this huge metal bars where they sat as they listened to the proceedings.

And then, of course, there are other members of the public, including family members of those who are accused who are in court today.

I should also mention that the only members of the media that were allowed in were from the state's broadcaster.

Every other member of the media was denied access to the venue on the first day of this trial.

Now, his supporters say this trial is a witch hunt.

It does seem inevitable that it's going to deepen divisions amongst South Sudan's leaders, though, doesn't it?

Of course, and it has already done that since he was placed under house arrest and the allegations that have stemmed from that Nasser attack.

Many of his supporters, including those in the SPLM in opposition, have said that this is an attempt by the President Savakir to consolidate power and dismantle the 2018 peace agreement, where they agreed to rule the country together or share responsibilities in the government.

And his supporters have also argued that Savakir is trying to completely eliminate Dr.

Rik Machar from the politics of the country by bringing into the government his allies and some would say some of his cronies and taking out of government those who are in support of Dr.

Riek Machar, in essence, weakening him within government and also within his party.

And of course, the perception for many is that this will worsen the already existing divisions between Dr.

Riek Machar and the president and hence threaten the peace that has been hanging on a very fragile thread for a while now.

Can you tell me what's the possible outcome for him if he's found guilty?

Well, because he is charged with very serious crimes like treason and and murder, I think those hold life sentences.

But from some of the analysts we've spoken to, they think that this is one of those trials that won't really go to their logical conclusion, that President Savakir just wants to tie him in court and keep him in legal limbo as he works around his own succession ahead of the elections next year.

But it holds the highest penalties because of the kind of charges that he is being accused of.

Akisa Wandera, and the trial has now been adjourned until Tuesday, following a dispute over the court's jurisdiction.

Since the United Nations was established after the Second World War, five nations have held disproportionate power there.

They are the permanent members of the U.S.

Security Council: Russia, America, China, Britain, and France.

They all have the power to veto UN draft resolutions.

So, why just those nations, and why are none of them from Latin America, for example, or Africa?

BBC Africa's Wahiga Mora is at the UN General Assembly to find out and see if it's likely to change.

The US, China and Russia don't see eye to eye on many issues.

But there's one thing they all agree on.

They're all in favor of the African continent getting, one way or another, a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

So why has that not happened yet?

Despite the continent accounting for over a quarter of UN states, they do not have a seat at the big table.

And yet, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres himself says it is long overdue.

We cannot accept that the world's preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people.

But although most UN members agree that the African continent deserves better representation, UN diplomacy expert Richard Gohan says the P five members aren't really ready to share that privilege.

Russia and China have made positive noises about greater African representation.

By contrast, the Biden administration did one year ago publicly commit to supporting Africa to gain two seats without vetoes.

But the messaging from the Trump administration since it took office is that it does not feel bound by what Biden said.

And actually, the Trump administration quite likes the Security Council as it is.

They also fear that reopening the UN Charter would create opportunities for other countries to pledge for their own seat, which would dilute their influence even more.

You have a number of major powers in other regions, most notably India and Brazil, which say they should have permanent seats because of their size and regional importance, and they should have vetoes.

African countries need to come together and decide who would be getting these seats.

Some names are sometimes mentioned, like Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa or Ethiopia, but no clear contender so far.

The African Union has also been mentioned as a possible representative, but at times it has struggled to show efficient diplomacy.

Where diplomacy is tricky is when it comes to parallel decision making between the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council.

There there is often a disconnect over when the two councils are discussing specific issues.

Momentum for the African continent to get a seat at the table is undeniable, but change will not come easily.

Waihega Muara reporting.

Two years ago, countries made commitments at the UN Climate Summit to transition away from fossil fuels.

But new data indicates many governments are in fact doing the complete opposite, ramping up coal, gas and oil extraction.

The report compiled by more than 50 international researchers, compared fossil fuel expansion plans against the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit rises in global temperatures.

It identified what researchers described as a disconnect between climate ambitions and what countries are actually planning to do.

The coordinating lead author is Derek Brokhoff.

I was a bit surprised that it looks worse this time around.

Yeah, it is sobering that there is this divergence.

And again, a complex mix of factors, but I think it's indicative of the

global energy security challenges that the world is facing now, sort of uncertainties about the future, and turning to an old fossil fuel-dependent playbook, if I can put it that way.

I asked our environment correspondent, Matt McGraw, how stark this disconnect was between ambitions and actions.

I think a disconnect is a very polite word for actually a chasm between what countries have promised to do on climate change and what they're also planning to do in in extracting the materials that are making climate change even worse.

That's coal, oil and gas.

This report finds that by 2030 when countries should be reducing their production of those materials, in fact they're producing almost twice as much, in fact more than twice as much as would be needed to keep the world to a 1.5 degree level of warming.

It's about 77% more than would be needed to keep the world to two degrees.

What's going on?

Well there's a number of factors.

Essentially, China has slowed down its move away from coal and they've done that because they've had problems in the past with not being able to supply enough power to their country.

And another factor is that countries are hedging their bets.

They're making sure that they're signing up to improve the number of renewables, but they're also very worried about energy security and the cost of living, and they're looking to develop more of their own energy sources, such as coal, oil, and gas.

And it's the number of big countries that are not meeting their commitments, which is particularly worrying, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly.

This report looked at 20 of the major producers, the United States, China, India, Saudi Arabia, all the big players, and they found that most of them seventeen of the twenty were in fact going to increase one of their fossil fuels by 2030.

And this very week in New York at the UN General Assembly, lots of leaders will be going there, about 40 of them, and they'll be putting on the table new plans to cut their levels of carbon, cut their levels of dependency and production of fossil fuels, while at the same time their other ministries are preparing to ramp it up.

And it's this contradiction, I suppose, that's long been at the heart of the climate issue, but it's very laid very stark in this report.

And so how does this leave the COP thirty, the next big UN climate meeting in Brazil?

A lot of people are going to be pessimistic.

I think there's a lot of headwinds as you as you acknowledge there, Nick.

I mean obviously President Trump's impact, the ongoing war, and this gap between what people are saying and what they're doing.

I think one silver, slightly silver line, is there may be developments this week and we may hear from China promising for the first time to remove or reduce their absolute emissions.

And also, remember that when countries are talking about fossil fuel increases, they're talking about promises, projections, not absolute commitments.

Whereas when they're talking about renewables, they're actually making promises that they have to hold up internationally.

So, there may be some flexibility in these plans to reduce coal, oil, and gas that actually may not come to fruition.

Matt McGraw.

Still to come on this podcast.

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Secondly, there is an environmental agenda.

And finally, there's a general overhaul of its cultural mission.

Why one of the world's most recognizable art museums will be shut for five years.

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Now to the question, what causes autism and can it be treated?

Well, President Trump thinks he may have an answer.

This is him addressing the gathering at Charlie Kirk's Memorial on Sunday.

I think we found an answer to autism.

How about that?

Autism, tomorrow, we're going to be talking

in the Oval Office in the White House

about autism,

how it happens, so we won't let it happen anymore,

and how to get at least somewhat better when you have it.

Well, later on Monday, at an Oval Office event, the President is expected to advise pregnant women in the U.S.

to take Tylenol, known elsewhere as paracetamol, only to relieve high fevers and to link taking the drug early in pregnancy to a rise in autism in children.

The White House will also reportedly promote a drug called leukovarin as a potential treatment for autism.

Speaking to my colleague Sarah Montague, our health reporter Jim Reid looked at the research behind the move.

The vast, vast majority of scientists and researchers believe there's no single cause of autism in children.

It's likely to be the result of a complex mix of factors.

So last month there was a big review paper and an analysis of previous research and compiled by the team at Harvard and the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States.

And they looked at 46 previous studies.

27 of those did report a possible link between the use of paracetamol and disorders including autism.

Another nine showed no significant link.

and four indicated opposite protective effect.

And then in 2024, so just last year, a big major study in Sweden looked at two and a half million babies comparing autistic children, importantly, with their siblings to control for those genetic factors to take them into account.

And they found no evidence to support a causal link.

So the best we can say at the moment on this is the evidence is inconclusive.

The Autism Science Foundation, a big US charity, said that based on the existing data, there is not enough evidence to support a link between paracetamol use and autism.

What about the second huge claim here, which is that there's a possible treatment for autism, this drug called leukavorin?

There have been studies into the levels of folate, that's vitamin B9, in the blood.

And some studies have linked a low rate of folate levels to an increased risk again of autism in some children.

Again, like I say, the findings are not consistent.

Some studies point one way, some point the other.

This drug, leucovorin, is widely used in some chemotherapy treatments and it boosts a vitamin called folinic acid, which is linked to folic acid, but is thought to maybe cross the blood-brain barrier more easily and therefore you can address a deficiency of this vitamin more easily.

There have been four small randomized trials all using different doses, different measurements of success.

One did study just 48 autistic children in the US and did find some improvements in verbal communication compared with the placebo.

But again, even the authors of the study said more work was needed.

But this is the evidence that we know at the moment that has been reported.

That was our health reporter, Jim Reed.

In Japanese politics and boardrooms, the presence of women is rare, but there is a chance that could change.

One of the two favourites to become Japan's next prime minister has promised to improve her cabinet's gender balance to Nordic levels.

A nod there to the fact that Iceland, Finland and Norway are the most gender equal countries in the world.

Will Leonardo looks at the race to become the leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party next month?

Launching her campaign after praying for victory at a Shinto shrine, Sanai Takaichi said people would be very surprised by her appointments.

Japanese politics in boardrooms are still heavily male-dominated, and Miss Takeaichi would, by a surprising vote in Parliament, become the country's first female Prime Minister if she beats her four male rivals to replace the incumbent Liberal Democratic leader.

On other matters, she stuck closer to her hawkish conservative image, saying growing numbers of foreigners were rattling nerves and promising to protect Japan's borders.

Her main rival is the youthful, more centrist agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who's promised to bring prices down for families.

The current Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is stepping down after losing the LDP's majority in both houses of parliament, making the candidate's path to office slightly trickier.

Will Leonardo.

Who will own TikTok if it's not the Chinese?

That has been the question ever since Donald Trump insisted it should be US-owned because of Washington's worries over how Beijing might use the platform to spy on Americans.

The president says the answer may now involve the Murdochs, Rupert and his eldest son Lachlan, who control a large swathe of the English-speaking media market.

We spoke to Ben Smith, editor of the news organization Semaphore and a host of the media-focused Mixed Signals podcast.

So how much of a surprise was it to hear the Murdoch's name attached to the possible ownership of TikTok?

This process has been full of surprises because the U.S.

Congress has essentially ordered that TikTok be shut down and Donald Trump is ignoring that and instead trying to sell it to his friends.

Those include Larry Ellison, one of the richest men in the world who owns Oracle, and now apparently also Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan, who is not exactly a friend or an enemy, but kind of a ally of convenience here.

But not always an ally, is he, of course, because the president is currently suing the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for a vast sum.

The Murdoch's relationships with Trump is very complicated.

Fox News, right now, which is their most important outlet in the U.S., is an incredibly kind of obsequiously pro-Trump television channel.

But the Wall Street Journal is probably tougher on Trump than maybe any other American publication, which is particularly galling to Trump because it's a conservative newspaper.

It has a conservative editorial page.

Murdoch, according to emails that came out in court in 2020, told his deputies deputies after January 6th that they should make Donald Trump basically a non-person, which failed.

But they have a long, complicated relationship.

Do you think if TikTok is partly sold to Rupert and his son Luckland, that would have any implications for that court case?

No.

I mean, the court case is

nonsense litigation.

I think that it's not a case that the Wall Street Journal is concerned about on the law.

It's more a question of are you willing to go to court against the White House.

I think the Murdoch actually are.

A number of American media companies have been intimidated out of going to court at all.

What does it mean for the future of TikTok, which is after all probably the most powerful medium for political communication on the planet?

I think it means that its owners will probably be inclined to help to use it to help Donald Trump's party get restayed in power.

By changing the algorithm.

I mean, it's not quite that simple, right?

It's not a single algorithm.

It's mostly a platform for non-political speech on which all sorts of people see all sorts of things, including lots of BBC programming.

But there is certainly they could certainly put their thumb on the scale and decide that certain trends or certain kinds of speech were too offensive to be permitted and that other kinds should be amplified.

That was Ben Smith, editor of Semaphore, talking to Nick Robinson.

Now for a reflection on nature.

Yeah, we've heard a lot of that last bit here in Britain recently.

After a very warm summer, temperatures have begun to drop, and in recent days, there have been torrential rainstorms.

Monday marks the equinox, with autumn on its way in the northern hemisphere and spring beginning south of the equator.

Tristan Gooley, author of The Hidden Seasons, a calendar of nature's clues and signs, explained what an equinox actually means.

Yeah, it's a fantastic time, a magical time.

The sun spends half the year over the northern hemisphere and half the year over the southern hemisphere.

And as it crosses over the equator, we call that the equinox.

But the words aren't as fun as actually experiencing the change.

So the length of a day changes more in one week at this time of year than in the whole of the months of June or December.

Extraordinary.

And we feel that change, didn't we?

And this weekend, many of us did feel it.

Yes, the sun is moving south, it's getting lower, and we feel that in the temperature changes, changes, but also knock-on effects in all the nature around us.

So it's not a steady change, that's a key thing.

We find that the plants and animals are picking up on this, and we start to see colours changing and all sorts of things all around us every day.

Well, the colour of the leaves is the obvious things we all look for in autumn and that we tend to notice.

What else are you, as someone who's sort of expert in this, looking at?

Well, I think the colour of the leaves is a good place to start because I think a lot of us sort of go, are the leaves have changed?

But actually, if you know where to look, high on the southern side of tall trees is where you see autumn weeks before other places.

So, if you know where to look, so on the way here, I was looking at some tall plain trees, and up on the high southern part, you can see the leaves turning, but low down, it will take weeks more.

So, when people say the leaves are turning, if you've known where to look, you can be weeks ahead, and that's that's just one of many colour compasses, as I call them.

Well, give us some others then.

What else are you looking at?

Yeah, so berries, for example, are not random, and they're responding, they follow the flowers, and those are responding to light to attract the pollinating insects.

So, again, in natural navigation, we think of that as a compass.

We find more flowers and fruits on the south side.

But staying with the leaves, when the leaves start to fall, they're being plucked off by the prevailing southwesterly winds.

Typically, we get more gales as we move on.

And the trees will lose their leaves high on the southwestern side.

So, again, you see these patterns, and our ancestors would have been tuned to this.

Tristan Gooley.

With its vents and pipes making it look like some kind of urban monster, the Pompidou Centre in Paris is one of the world's most recognizable modern art museums.

But for the next five years, it will be closed to the public as it undergoes renovations that will cost half a billion dollars.

More details from the newsroom's Richard Hamilton.

When it first opened in 1977, the Pompidou Centre caused a massive stir, mainly because its escalators, plumbing, ventilation ducts, and electrical wiring were all on the outside of the building to allow more space inside for art.

Nicknamed Notre Dame de Tuyo or Our Lady of the Pipes, it was designed by the architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.

They themselves were inspired by the cultural and political protests of 1968.

The Pompidou Centre has housed the largest collection of modern art in Europe and the second largest in the world after MoMA in New York.

But today is the last day to visit, before a long period of closure.

Xavier Ray is the centre's director.

Five years is too long, but at the same time, it's what's required for a project of this magnitude on a building which spans 70,000 square metres.

Bringing it up to spec involves three things.

Firstly, removing asbestos,

it's a 1970s building in which asbestos was used liberally.

Secondly, there is an environmental agenda and we expect to improve energy efficiency by 60%

after the renovations are done.

And finally, there's a general overhaul of its cultural mission.

The poor state of Paris's often crowded cultural attractions has caused great concern.

Notre Dame itself was closed for five years after a fire in 2019.

And the head of the Louvre has warned that the world's most visited museum is suffering from water damage and poor maintenance.

President Emmanuel Macron has promised that it will be redesigned, restored, and enlarged at a cost of nearly a billion dollars.

The total bill for the renovation of the Pompidou Centre has been estimated at about $500 million,

about half of which will be financed by the French government.

Richard Hamilton.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later on.

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 at BBC World Service.

Use the hashtag GlobalNewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Vladimir Muzetchka, and the producer was Richard Hamilton.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Nick Miles, and until next time, goodbye.

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Each Certipro Painters business is independently owned and operated.

Contractor license and registration information is available at Certapro.com.