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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Celia Hatton and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 10th of September, these are our main stories.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he ordered the strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital Doha, but Hamas claims its leadership team survived.
The International Criminal Court has opened its war crimes case against Joseph Konyé, the leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.
Also in this podcast... The Earth's poles are melting, and melting fast.
And for some researchers, desperate times call for desperate measures.
But now polar scientists are warning that new controversial approaches to fighting climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic are dangerous and unlikely to work.
We begin in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, where explosions were heard on the ground on Tuesday.
Sharmi, a Philippine woman, was close to the building in Doha, targeted by Israel.
I was in my room and then I heard a loud bang three times before I go outside.
And then when I go outside, saw a lot of birds on the sky coming from the other side.
I was really nervous.
I locked the door because I'm alone.
So I locked everything.
Shortly afterwards, Israel said it carried out a strike targeting the senior leadership of Hamas.
They're said to have been holding a meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal.
Qatar has served as a mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas, and the group's exiled leadership has been based there for many years.
It was then reported that Khalil Ahaya, the Hamas leader and chief negotiator, was among those targeted.
Hamas later said five of its members had been killed, but it said the attempt to assassinate its negotiating team had failed.
The White House has told the BBC that the United States was notified of the attack.
Then, a few hours later, speaking at an event in the U.S.
Embassy in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had this to say.
On this day, as in previous days, Israel acted wholly independently, wholly independently, and we take full responsibility for this action.
And this action can open the door to an end of the war, end of the war in Gaza.
I spoke to our diplomatic correspondent, Paul Adams, who's in Jerusalem, and asked what exactly do we know about the Israeli strike on Doha?
We know that it was carried out by Israel.
We know that it involved almost certainly airstrikes involving a number of Israeli aircraft firing a number of projectiles at a single building known to be the place where Hamas officials gather.
Beyond that, it starts to get pretty murky.
At what point was the White House informed?
It was informed At some point just before, but we don't know exactly at what point did the Trump administration have an opportunity to say no to this operation, but decided not to do that?
That is a major question that many in the region are asking.
And, of course, crucially, how successful, in Israeli terms, was it?
They had a statement from Hamas in which they have included a list of the people killed...
And it does not include any of the senior leaders that the Israelis have been talking about.
It includes Khalil al-Hayya, and indeed his son and a number of other officials, but nobody of any great consequence.
That is clearly not what Israel thinks has happened.
I've done you a favour.
I've gotten rid of these people.
Now it's up to you to accept the terms of a ceasefire agreement, the latest terms put forward by the Americans.
Incidentally, in that same speech, Mr Netanyahu also said that Israel has accepted those proposals.
And it is of course worth noting that that those Hamas officials who had gathered in Doha, we presume were discussing precisely this question whether or not to say yes or no to the latest set of American proposals.
And the strike on Qatar, which was hosting negotiations, a huge red line crossed here.
Can you put that into context for us?
Yeah, and this is a major moment.
As you say, Qatar has played this very important role, hosting the negotiations, playing a vital role as a mediator over the last two years.
The presence of Hamas, an organization regarded not just by Israel but the United States and many other countries, including Britain, as a terrorist organisation.
That presence in Qatar has always been an awkward one, but it is one that has been tolerated by everyone, including Israel, who allowed, and indeed encouraged, Qatar to funnel money to Hamas for years and years and years, before the attacks of October 7th, perhaps believing that Hamas could somehow be bought off.
So it was always an awkward thing, but everyone involved had come to rely on the presence of Hamas in Qatar and the role of the Qatari authorities to try and find some way out of the current situation.
And that goes some way to explaining why the Qataris are so incandescent with rage at what has happened today.
And just briefly, Paul.
I mean, if Hamas is telling the truth and many of its top leaders are still alive and well, did Israel make a huge miscalculation in all this?
Well, if it emerges that they did not kill the senior leadership then yes, you could argue that this was a kind of mistake, because it crossed all sorts of diplomatic red lines, sent shockwaves across the Arab world.
It has annoyed the Americans.
All of this would have been a price worth paying in Israel in the eyes of the Israeli government, had it achieved the effect of decapitating the Hamas leadership.
If it has not the damage done to Israel around the region and its diplomatic relations and its relationship with Washington.
In all sorts of ways, it might be seen as having been a gamble that simply did not pay off.
But we simply have to wait to find out exactly what happened.
Paul Adams in Jerusalem.
Of course, the United States is a key player in all of this.
And also against this background, Qatar hosts the region's largest US military hub, Al Udeid Base, containing 10000 troops.
In Washington, the White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, gave more details about Tuesday's Doha attack.
This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals.
However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.
President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did.
The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack.
President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead released and this war to end now.
President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace.
Caroline Levitt.
I spoke to our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes.
So the Doha attack is posing some diplomatic challenges for the U.S. president.
There's a very clear disapproval of what's happened from President Trump.
And that's very apparent in this statement, when we hear that the president feels very badly about the attack.
And it was very clear from what the press secretary was saying that Donald Trump found out about this from the US military as the strikes were underway.
Although we should say that the timeline, the sequence of events that led to the US being informed, and exactly how that happened is still quite unclear.
But in terms of tone, interesting.
Just listening to that statement again, it appears as if the president is trying to set himself up as the mediator in this situation.
That, while clearly disapproving and he's expounded a little bit on this on Truth Social, suggesting that as soon as he knew about it he tried to take measures by instructing the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to inform the Qataris about the impending attack, but that it was too late to stop it.
And then again moving on to talk about the peace process, although at this stage, this moment, it seems difficult really to talk about a peace process but the president again seemingly wanting to move forward as if the peace process isn't entirely dead.
I mean, it does call into question who's really in the driving seat here, doesn't it?
I mean the White House has confirmed to the BBC that the US was notified of the attack not consulted, but notified.
I mean, what does that say about the relationship between the United States and Israel?
Well, it's still unclear what that means, notified.
Who notified?
What was the process?
What was the role of the Pentagon?
What was the role, if any, of Israel?
But to your broader point yes, the events of the last few hours do suggest that Israel is in the driving seat, for better or worse, and in many respects for worse.
As far as this president is concerned, this isn't the direction that he wants to see the peace process moving in.
And it's difficult to see, especially again from the Israeli perspective, how they envision any future peace process, and especially a ceasefire, in the wake of what's happened in terms of this attempt to eliminate Hamas.
And yet again, Donald Trump finds himself in the middle of it, but seemingly powerless to really determine events hour by hour.
Peter Bowes.
Qatar has gone on to condemn the strike by Israel as reckless and cowardly.
The Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister is Mohammed bin al-Durrahman al-Thani.
The attack happened at 3.46.
The first call we had from an American official was at 3.56, which is 10 minutes after the attack.
And after that, President Trump has spoken With His Highness the Emir, he condemned the attack.
The US government positioned that they have no knowledge about the attack, nor any coordination about it, until it started to happen.
Our correspondent Azadeh Moshiri sent this report from Doha.
This is the closest we could get to the place where those explosions happened.
The strike happened and that's because there is a heavy police presence.
Many roads have been cordoned off and there are also multiple helicopters that have been circulating.
That's because this is a residential area that also hosts multiple embassies the embassy of Ukraine.
There's a sign for that behind me as well.
The Qatari Interior Ministry has been saying is that this is safe now, this is a safe city and they have reason to want to reassure residents that this was safe.
A strike specifically on one of the headquarters of Hamas leaders in Doha.
Because the people that we've been speaking to are stunned.
They can't believe that this has happened in Doha.
Israel is saying that it took measures to mitigate any harm to civilians.
But one man we spoke to said that what it feels like to him is that the entire Middle Eastern neighborhood in his words is now at risk.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said the strike was a flagrant violation of territorial integrity.
Saudi Arabia described it as a criminal act.
And Turkey accused Israel of expansionist policies and terrorism.
For an Israeli point of view.
Shanley spoke to Dor Harlop, chair of Zionist Horizon and a member of the Likud Central Committee.
Does he think there's a risk in this attack on Doha, given the role Qatar had been playing in facilitating the negotiations to try and bring Israel's hostages home from Gaza?
I believe that this strike today has a very specific message to all the people of the part of who have been planned or being part of the execution of crimes against humanity, like they have been doing Hamas have been doing.
In October 7th 2023, there is no place under the sky that you will be safe.
Does that mean then, that it is not possible to negotiate with these groups, that you cannot have negotiations, indirect or direct?
Because in the past Israel, as the Qataris say, said to the country, said to Qatar please will you host these people so the negotiations can take place.
Please will you play a mediating role?
America too said that about Hamas, just as it had about the Taliban beforehand.
Are you saying now that from now on, Israel will not intervene?
Have direct or indirect talks with people who have been involved in what you call terrorism?
It's not only me calling that terrorism.
I believe this is a very not something that we should be arguing about.
It's not an argument, it's a question.
Yeah, so so the thing is like that.
Okay yeah, we have seen until now that the people who have been hiding in Qatar didn't lead us to any better deals or better situation in Gaza.
They only holding our hostages more firmly, okay, and not willing to compromise.
But negotiation did lead to release of some hostages, more hostages than the Israeli military has been able to free in different situations okay, in different timings.
There was different and the first days when President Trump has been inaugurated there was a different climate in the situation.
And now we see that the things is pretty stuck And I believe that the leaders of the state of Israel have seen that those people in Qatar that they have been hiding over there didn't help us to get into anything better, anything more advanced in the negotiations.
So now it's their time to go, OK?
Dor Harlop, a member of the Likud Central Committee, speaking to Sean Lay.
And now to other news.
The International Criminal Court has begun hearing a war crimes case against the notorious Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Konya.
He's accused of a long list of crimes at the ICC, including murder, abduction and forcing thousands of children to fight as soldiers in his brutal Lord's Resistance Army.
In an ICC first, the accused, Joseph Konya, was not there to hear the charges against him.
He's a fugitive who's managed to evade capture for the past 20 years.
The court heard chilling accounts of atrocities by Joseph Konya.
Leonie von Braun is an ICC prosecutor.
All his essential contributions are directly linked to the attacks on the IDP camps, the abduction and enslavement of people and the use of children in hostilities.
Throughout the charged period, Mr Coyne regularly issued orders to LRA commanders to attack kill, mistreat civilians.
Our correspondent in The Hague, Anna Holligan, told me more about him.
And a warning, some people may find some of the details here disturbing.
He has been one of Africa's most wanted fugitives ever since this ICC arrest warrant was issued two decades ago.
If you search engine his name, the words child kidnapper, warlord and prophet are among those that come up.
Here's why.
So Joseph Konyé is the founder and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, more commonly known as the LRA.
He said he wanted to install a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments and he was fighting for the rights of the Acholi people in northern Uganda.
His rebel fighters were absolutely notorious for hacking off their victims' limbs or parts of their faces.
You may have seen some of those images.
The ICC has put together a list of 39 charges, among them murder, sexual enslavement rape, torture and, as you said, forcibly recruiting children to fight as soldiers in his rebel ranks.
According to the prosecution, his forces systematically abducted civilians, targeting children working in fields or on their way to school, and forced women and girls into sexual slavery.
Anna, why has the court decided to proceed with this case in his absence?
As I said, he's been on the run for 20 years.
What sort of precedence does this set?
Well, it's a first for the ICC.
So this is a real historic moment.
The absentia hearing allows the ICC to formally present evidence.
And if the judges agree that there is enough of that evidence, have everything ready to go straight to trial.
But perhaps of wider global significance, especially right now, is the precedent this sets.
So it's almost like a test case for pursuing high profile fugitives who are unlikely to be arrested anytime soon, such as, for example, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, or Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom are wanted by the ICC.
So it's strategic, it's symbolic.
This is the ICC signaling that evading capture will not indefinitely block justice, or at least not these early pre-trial stages.
Anna Holligan.
Polar scientists from the University of Exeter in England are warning that new controversial approaches to fighting climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic are dangerous and unlikely to work.
They say what are known as geoengineering techniques, which include efforts to refreeze the Arctic, could distract from the urgent need to move away from fossil fuels.
Our climate reporter Mark Pointing has more.
The Earth's poles are melting, and melting fast.
And for some researchers, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Radical ideas include artificially thickening Arctic sea ice by pumping seawater over its surface in winter or releasing tiny reflective particles into the atmosphere.
Supporters argue that more research into geoengineering would help society to decide whether it could help.
But dozens of polar scientists have made up their minds.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Science, they warn these methods are unlikely to work and could have unforeseen consequences for weather patterns and the environment.
The lead author, Martin Siegert, professor of geosciences at the University of Exeter, says that countries should simply focus on reducing emissions, the root cause of climate change.
We don't think the polar geoengineering ideas are viable.
We don't think that they are feasible, i.e. they won't work.
We don't think they can be afforded.
They'll cost too much money.
There's no governance at all to support them.
But the very fact that geoengineering is being considered by some highlights the failure to get climate change under control so far and many scientists' fears for the planet's future.
Mark Pointing.
Still to come.
Good news for those who have concerns about driving electric vehicles with short-life batteries.
A Chinese company is offering hope.
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Experience the confident clean of Little Dude Wipes.
Available exclusively at Walmart nationwide.
The U.S. electric grid is approaching a breaking point.
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Most supplements aren't easily absorbed, which means your body might not be getting the nutrients it needs.
We'll be right back.
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And with a monthly subscription, it's easy to stay consistent.
Symbiotica makes wellness simple.
Ready to feel a difference?
Go to symbiotica.com and use code IHEART for 20% off.
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Code IHEART.
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Next to Nepal.
There have been arson attacks in several cities in the country as anti-corruption protests there escalate.
The prime minister has already resigned amid public outrage over the killing on Monday of 19 of the protesters.
Here's Electra Naismith.
The resignation of KP Sharma Ali appears to have done little to calm protesters.
Demonstrators broke into Nepal's sprawling seat of government in the capital, ransacking offices and setting fire to the parliament building.
Homes of political leaders and party officers have been targeted in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dangadi.
Hundreds of inmates were freed from a prison in Kailali after protesters there took it over.
Nepal's army has urged restraint and called for national unity, but the Gen Z movement seem in no mood to compromise on their call for government reform and accountability.
A letter Naismith.
Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, says a Russian airstrike on a village in the east of the country has killed more than 20 people.
He said, many others were injured during the attack on the village of Yarova, about 10 kilometres from the current front line.
Rahul Tandon spoke to Vitaly Shevchenko, the Russia editor for BBC Monitoring, who gave more details of the Russian airstrike.
The people who got killed were queuing up to get their pensions, so mostly elderly.
And the reason why they had to queue up for their pensions is because that village is really close to the front line.
So no banks, no infrastructure.
And those, they're mostly elderly ladies.
They couldn't leave.
They were too infirm to leave.
So the way it works, the Ukrainian Postal Service, Ukroposhta, dispatches a van full of cash.
They queue up, they get their pensions, they spend them.
And Russia targeted that queue, even though...
The distinctive white and yellow Ukroposhtovan was so easy to see.
I presume it wasn't difficult to see that those people were elderly pensioners, 24 dead.
Vitaly, we had that attack over the weekend right at the heart, didn't we of the Ukrainian government as well?
Now we have this attack that you have so vividly described.
What is the sense in Ukraine then?
Are they expecting more of these attacks to intensify even more?
They're getting worse and the sense in Ukraine is that of betrayal by Ukraine's allies, who taught the talk but so far have been unable, possibly some of them unwilling.
Which one do you think it is?
Well, of course, there are people at the top echelons of power in the West who would want this to end.
Donald Trump, he keeps saying, I want this to end.
The fact is...
Not enough of them are prepared to spend enough money and possibly take difficult decisions involving the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine to make the stop.
Because Vladimir Putin.
Clearly what this is telling us is that he has absolutely no intent to de-escalate.
His appetites are still the same as they were.
And after all the summits, after all the talks in Turkey America Moscow, I have to say he has very little to worry about.
That's why on Sunday he dispatched the highest ever number of drones to attack Ukraine, 810.
That's why that bomb hit that queue in Donetsk region.
And Vladimir Putin, he is absolutely unconcerned.
Switching gears.
Now to a problem that's been challenging car makers for years energy transfer and storage.
It's a particular problem for those who are trying to get us to switch to vehicles with electric engines.
There are two primary concerns.
How far can we drive our electric vehicles before we run out of power?
And when that happens, how long does it take to charge the battery back up again?
Well, the world's biggest manufacturer of EV batteries, China's CATL, has unveiled two new batteries that it thinks might go a long way to easing those concerns.
Will Bain heard more from the energy storage expert, Dr. Andy Leach.
So there's actually two announcements here.
There's the super long life and long range battery, and there's the super fast charging battery that they've announced.
They're using those names as they've been quoted by CATL.
The super long life and long range battery has up to 758 kilometers of range and with a 12-year or million kilometer lifespan, which is really pushing the bounds of what consumers are going to want and need.
The superfast charging battery has a slightly shorter range of just under 500 kilometers, But it can charge its battery in 10 minutes, adding 08 kilometers per second when it's at its peak charging, and still with a reasonably long range.
This is addressing some of the big concerns around consumers where People want long ranges.
They're worried about they have range anxiety.
And one of the challenges is maybe having a long range.
The other is speeding up the charging time so that when you do stop, you're not stopping for so long.
And I ask this with slight trepidation because you're right, right.
This is the kind of golden goose, isn't it, that all battery makers are trying to do and all the car companies want their batteries to be able to do.
So what have, in the simplest terms possible, what have CATL managed to do that others haven't to allow it to do those two different things?
So CATL have been, I'd say, incrementally improving their offering over the last couple of years.
They've been offering new sort of versions of this Shenzhen battery since 2023.
One of the key benefits that they've done is they're doing this with the cheaper lithium ion phosphate technology.
So this is a less expensive than some of the more nickel and cobalt containing batteries which historically have been used, and more in EVs, in Europe and North America.
So they're sort of using a technology that's been mainly developed in China.
They're expanding it into the European market, which is something that's happening very rapidly in the last couple of years.
And yeah, they're offering particularly fast charging, but also longer range battery packs.
So great news for those kind of slightly beleaguered European car makers, particularly the big ones in Germany, to help them be more competitive in a space where they've kind of lost out to the Chinese car makers.
What about what it means for European battery makers and the battery sector itself?
Because that's something the German leader, Friedrich Merz, has been talking about.
For sure.
So just to touch on that first point quickly.
So CATL already have companies such as Tesla BMW Volkswagen Stellantis, Volvo and Mercedes as their customers.
So these manufacturers that produce and sell cars in Europe are gonna be benefiting from this technology, which is really being marketed at the European industry.
In their press release you can see comments about being specifically tailored to the European leasing market.
So yeah, as you say, this is a really good opportunity for those players to get their hands on some of the best batteries in the world.
However, if you're a battery manufacturer in the region, This is a challenge for an already challenging industry.
We've seen companies such as Northvolt, British Volt, running into a lot of trouble in the last few years and sort of going into bankruptcy.
This continued technological development from the incumbents like CATL and this announcement, and earlier this year we saw BYD making an announcement on a fast charging battery.
Also, a Chinese-based company is really moving the goalposts for people trying to build things locally.
Dr. Andy Leach.
Well, let's end with our main story the Israeli strike in the Qatari capital Doha, targeting the senior Hamas leadership that had been meeting there.
So where does this all lead to in the long term?
I spoke to our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, and I asked him what Israel's attack in Qatar will do to its relationships in the region.
I think one of the big questions is whether the Abraham Accords can survive.
These were brokered primarily by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, and This saw United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Morocco all establishing full, normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
And despite the carnage that has ensued from the atrocities of October, the 7th 2023, with a Hamas-led raid out of Gaza into Israel.
Despite that and all the 60000-plus deaths reported from Gaza, those Abraham Accords have so far managed to survive.
Those governments in Abu Dhabi, in Manama, in Rabat have decided that their relations with Israel are too important to cut off.
But this is going to put them under severe strain.
I'm not so far hearing anything immediately that they're about to break it off, but it will be very unpopular with their populations that they still have full diplomatic relations with a country that is prepared to, in their eyes, sling its weight around the region in the way that Israel has been doing.
Because this is very different from retaliating say, against the Houthis in Yemen, who keep firing missiles at Israel, or Hezbollah, for example, in Lebanon, who were firing a lot of missiles at northern Israel.
Qatar has never attacked Israel.
Qatar is supposed to be a neutral country.
So the region is pretty angry about this.
And it also calls into question the US here, because it's not possible that the Israeli F-35s could have carried out this raid without notifying the US in advance, because otherwise they'd have been shot out of the air by US air defence at Al Udeid at the airbase in Qatar.
Frank Gardner.
You can also find us on X at bbcworldservice.com. use the hashtag Global News Pod.
This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll.
The producers were Liam McSheffery and Stephen Jensen.
The editor is Karen Martin.
I'm Celia Hatton.
Until next time, goodbye.
