This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Music I'm Janet Jalil and it's 16 Hours GMT on Tuesday the 28th of October.
These are our main stories.
The world's strongest storm of the year closes in on Jamaica, with warnings of catastrophic flooding and several deaths already reported.
It comes as the UN warns that the world is still way off track to meet its Paris climate goals.
American researchers say satellite images from Sudan show evidence of mass killings by RSF fighters after they seized the army's last stronghold in the west of the country.
And... Basil!
The actress Prunella Scales, who played Basil Fawlty's domineering wife in Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93.
The Caribbean is used to hurricanes, but not on the scale of the one currently battering Jamaica.
Hurricane Melissa is predicted to be Jamaica's most destructive on record.
Anxiety has been mounting for days now as people try to prepare as best as they can for the Category 5 storm, which has been described as the strongest one this year anywhere on the planet.
It's due to make landfall as we record this podcast, after days of slowly meandering across the Atlantic, so we don't yet know the full extent of the damage it will cause, but several deaths have already been reported.
Claudia Suleiman lives in the town of Whitehouse on the south coast of Jamaica.
Everybody is anxious and everybody is worried, more than in another storm I have faced.
We know we're dealing with something really, really big.
The trees are bending right now.
All of us in Jamaica, you know, we have got fear in country.
We pray for the best.
Richard Anderson is a production manager for the Omega Church, a Christian radio station based in Kingston on the eastern side of Jamaica.
Earlier, he told Paul Henley how local people have been preparing for the storm.
People are taking it serious.
I mean, I've been getting messages from some people who said they have not slept a wink.
What kind of preparations are you making?
Personally, you know, we have... secure the windows at the radio station.
So we have secured enough easel to last us a couple of days, which should be enough.
Hopefully there won't be any tower damage because, last thing, one of our tower sites got damaged.
About 40 feet of tower broke off at the top.
Looking outside in the street, is it obvious which buildings are more vulnerable?
You have experience of these storms.
Well yes, I've had a few rides at this very location, because we tend to ride out of town at the station.
There's a housing complex to our left, but it's primarily business complexes where we are.
And most of them have taken the precautions to protect the buildings. to the best possible state.
So I don't think there's a lot of vulnerability around here, but with a Category 5, anything is possible.
And what precautions is everyone taking?
You're talking about blocking the windows up.
How exactly?
Boarding them up with ply boards so they make sure all glass windows and even doors are buttoned down.
People pulling down their awning and strapping them down.
Some people are working shutters.
And then for the low-lying areas.
Most people have been asked to move into the shelters, which are filled.
Are people listening to all the warnings?
Are they acting appropriately?
I think so for the most case from what I've observed.
As I said, you know a lot of people have been moving into the shelters.
You know when the people are in the low-lying areas that would be concerned about flooding and stuff.
The shelters are on higher ground, are they?
Yeah, most of them are.
And most of the shelters are like school buildings, so strong buildings that are upstairs and are generally in safe areas.
So for the most part, people are taking the warning seriously.
How do you feel about the storm, Richard?
Is this just part of Caribbean life or is it something that's becoming more and more common?
You know we have had storms over the years, but Jamaica, most times the storms have turned passing very closely.
Even though they did damage, they weren't direct hits.
Since Hurricane Gilbert, this is the strongest expected to hit us.
This is expected to be a direct hit across the western end of the island.
So I think people are taking this a little bit more seriously.
Richard Anderson of the radio studios of Amiga Church.
Well, Jamaican officials have urged people on the island to obey evacuation orders rather than risking their lives to protect their homes.
Matthew Samuda is Jamaica's Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change.
Paul Henley asked him if government warnings were being heeded.
In some cases, yes.
Obviously in others, no.
I don't think in any country are disaster risk warnings all adhered to.
In my own constituency, we have over 400 persons in shelters.
The government has made over 800 shelters available and activated them for Jamaican citizens.
But what we have tried to do is certainly those in low-lying areas on the south coast that are flood-prone and will also be affected by what could be a 17-foot storm surge.
We have put in place an evacuation order.
So it's a little more than just a strong encouragement.
But at the end of the day, citizens have to take some personal responsibility.
We've made the National Bus Service available.
We've made the JDF, the JCF, which is our Defence Force and Police Force, as well as our Fire Brigade and our Ministry of Labour and Social Security, as well as our local municipalities, staff available to assist with evacuations.
Jamaicans are famously independent-minded people, and the urge for them to stay with their property in their homes is a strong one, isn't it?
Very much so.
Very much so.
And it is something that we do have to contend with.
It's often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast every morning.
So you know, we can't ignore the culture of Jamaican people, but we do have a duty to make them aware of the fact that this is not your normal hurricane, which they have become accustomed to.
This is a Category 5 with 175 mile an hour sustained winds.
17 foot storm surge.
This is 30 to 40 inches of rain on the back of three weeks of rain that we've had before, because October is our traditional rainy season.
So it is prime for flooding.
When you layer in storm surge and you layer in sustained winds of 170 miles an hour, which we've never experienced, with gusts of 240.
Now is not the time for culture or time for, you know, feelings.
It's actually the time to be safe, to be smart.
And we're encouraging Jamaicans to follow the guidance of the government.
And how do you mitigate practically against those two key dangers of wind and rain?
Well, the first rain is really that we've spent the last two weeks repairing and cleaning drains right across the length and breadth of Jamaica.
You know, at the back end of your rainy season there would be a lot of silt and debris in your drains.
So usually we'd clean, do another major drain cleaning exercise nationally in December, the tail end of the rainy season.
So you do it before midway and after.
So we've had to do another major drain cleaning a little earlier than usual to try and mitigate against the level of flooding that we will have.
On the wind side.
The only mitigation is really securing your property as best as possible hurricane straps, making sure your roofs and your windows are sealed as best as possible, and praying.
And if you know that your structure is simply not in the condition to withstand that.
That sort of when.
Then you go to a shelter which you know is built to particular specifications to be able to provide some level of security.
Do you look at the pending storm and think this is a freak event?
Or do you think this is a sign of climate change and there's more to come?
Climate change is going to make freak events become more normal.
I think that's the better way to articulate it.
Jamaica would have experienced hurricane peril last year at the very beginning of the hurricane season, which was incredibly devastating.
When one thinks of the tail end of the hurricane season now having a Category 5, highest wind gusts ever recorded, some of the lowest air pressure, some of the strongest drywalls have ever been recorded at this time of year.
When the water should be cooling, it's incredibly unusual.
So it does lead to the area of climate change.
I mean, Jamaica is very clear that the climate has already changed.
Our weather patterns have already changed.
We've seen saltwater intrusion in our wells.
We've seen coastal erosion.
We've seen deteriorating soil quality, all of the slow onset. are already present in Jamaica.
We do acknowledge that we're on the front lines of the crisis.
But as it relates to major storms and just the impact of the shifting weather patterns, it does suggest that we are going to have to, But certainly your agriculture sector is going to come under severe pressure when you have this sort of storm and this sort of flooding.
And we are going to have to deal with what is a reality for us.
And in fact, Jamaica's had close brushes with hurricane disaster before, but not for a long time has it really borne the brunt.
You've not been in the middle of the storm, have you?
This is a bit different.
The eyes of storms have literally scraped the south coast and the east coast many times over the last 30 years.
So we've gotten both the front of the eye wall and the back of the eye wall to come just in line with land right.
So we've felt hurricane conditions and experienced winds above 120 miles an hour multiple times.
Over the last few decades.
We did have Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Dennis come on shore in 2004 and 2005.
So it's not that we have limited experience, but this is not your normal hurricane.
This is a very different beast.
And that is why it is so stressful and that is why there is a great deal of anxiety in the Jamaican public, both locally and living abroad.
Jamaica's Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change Matthew Samuda.
What's made Hurricane Melissa so powerful is exceptionally warm seas in the Caribbean for this time of year.
Recent years have seen the hottest temperatures on record around the world.
So inevitably, many have questioned whether climate change has contributed to the force of this storm.
Well, this all comes as the UN has warned that global efforts to slow the warming of our planet are well off track.
It says that, of the nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris Agreement a decade ago, only 64 nations have submitted carbon cutting plans this year.
Ahead of the COP30 conference in Brazil next week, the UN's climate change secretary, Simon Steele, urged world leaders to accelerate their efforts.
The science is equally clear that temperatures absolutely can and must be brought back down to 15 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible after any temporary overshoot, by substantially stepping up the pace on all fronts.
That acceleration must start now.
Our environment correspondent Matt McGrath told me more about this latest gloomy UN assessment.
The review is carried out by the UN on the carbon cutting plans that every country is obliged to submit to the UN under the Paris Agreement.
As you say, around 200 countries signed that agreement 10 years ago.
They put plans in every five years to say what they're going to do to tackle emissions, tackle the root cause of climate change.
And when the UN looks at these plans, they found that this year, only 64 countries had submitted them.
They also included the statements of intent from the European Union and from China.
And they say that by 2035, that would bring down global emissions by 10%.
But that's not near enough to keep the global temperature threshold of 15 degrees Celsius, which countries have signed up to.
And for many developing countries who believe it's a life or death temperature threshold, they would not be close to keeping the temperatures to that level.
And in fact, they'd need to cut emissions by well over half over the next decade.
And at this moment in time, as we're seeing, countries are a bit shy of telling what they're doing.
And when they do tell us what they're doing, it doesn't add up to what needs to be done.
Donald Trump's climate scepticism can't have helped in all this.
So what does this all mean for the COP summit next week?
Donald Trump's scepticism in some respects has spread to many countries in some ways, even though that in this review, the United States pledge made under Joe Biden is still being counted in.
That's part of the reduction seen over the next 10 years, but most people believe that won't happen.
As President Trump has said, he is going to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement or is taking them out of that.
It doesn't set the scene for big ambitions next week, when countries gather in Brazil to talk about climate change and to see what they're doing.
On the positive side of the ledger, the UN would point out that look, lots of countries haven't come forward with plans yet.
They may do so next week.
There's big expectations around India.
Big expectations around Indonesia and many other countries that are high emitters.
And there's also a sense of realism about this that this is what countries say they're going to do, but in the cases of China, they're likely to overachieve what they promise.
And they will also say that look, this is the first time in nearly 200 years of industrial progress, if you like, that emissions are starting to come down, and they will do so over the next decade.
So they recognise that this is not as good as it could be and is nowhere near as good as it could be.
But in the political realistic position the countries are in right now, they believe that they can get a bit more, but not to the level of keeping that temperature threshold alive.
And there's a growing acceptance that that won't happen.
Matt McGrath.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed to respond after Hamas handed over human remains which he says did not belong to any of the dead Israeli hostages still missing.
Hamas promised to return all their bodies as part of the ceasefire deal agreed earlier this month.
But it says recovery has been difficult because some bodies are buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel.
The latest remains handed over apparently belonged to a hostage whose body had already been returned.
Mr Netanyahu said this violated the ceasefire.
Our Middle East correspondent Yolande Nell is in Jerusalem.
Forensic testing was carried out after this casket was handed over to the Israeli authorities by the Red Cross.
They had collected the remains from Hamas inside Gaza.
And then it's been widely reported in the Israeli media that what's been discovered is not one of the missing 13 deceased hostages held by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups, but in fact appears to be the remains of of one of the hostages who was sent back before more of their remains.
It's quite a grim discovery, really.
And that person has already had their burial.
We don't have more. details about who that might be.
You can imagine, it's extremely distressing for the families of the deceased hostages, those who've come back before and those still waiting for news about their loved ones.
But this is having a big impact politically and an impact on the ceasefire agreement.
There has been this ongoing row, with Israel accusing Hamas of knowing more about the locations of the bodies and not doing enough to return them, as though it is holding on to these remaining bodies as kind of bargaining chips.
Hamas has been saying that there are bodies that are deep underground in collapsed tunnels that have been attacked by Israel, under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
We understand that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will now be talking to the Americans in particular, about what to do next.
The Americans have previously stepped in to stop Israel taking further action against what they see as violations of the ceasefire.
But Israel is very much wanting to act now, at this point, and you have far-right ministers within the coalition government saying that this is the time for Israel to resume its fight and destroy Hamas.
Yolande Nell.
We're often told about the physical and mental benefits of going for a walk, but is one long walk better than several short ones?
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that people who walk for at least 15 minutes without stopping, or about 1500 steps in a row, generally have better health outcomes.
Our health reporter, Michelle Roberts, has been looking at the findings.
The study looked at more than 33000 adults aged 40 to 79 in the UK who walked fewer than 8000 steps a day.
The researchers from the University of Sydney and the Universidad Europea in Spain tracked their health over eight years.
People who walked in longer stretches had a lower risk of heart problems than those who walked in short bursts.
Whether that's because they were fitter to begin with isn't fully clear from the study, but the researchers did try to control for this by taking into account factors such as whether the person smoked, was obese or had high blood pressure.
Even among the least active, those who walked under 5000 steps a day, longer walks appear to make a difference.
Still to come in this podcast, a new study finds that going to a museum to admire beautiful paintings really is good for you.
All of it pointed out the fact that when we view art, we have this heightened sense of engagement, but we have this amazing sort of relaxation effect.
You're listening to the Global News Podcast.
Let's turn now to the devastating civil war in Sudan, where the army has lost its last Western stronghold in this vast nation.
For the past year and a half, the city of Al-Fasha has been under siege from the rival paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces, which built a huge earthen wall around it to stop people escaping while it bombarded them.
Then this week, the army acknowledged that the RSF had finally managed to seize the entire city.
And now fears are mounting about what will happen to up to a quarter of a million civilians who've been trapped inside El Fasher during all this time, around half of them children.
Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab in the US analyzes satellite images, and its executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, says the images out of El Fascia show there's been a mass killing since it fell.
It's been just over 24 hours of RSF control of Al-Fasher and the sum of all fears has been realized.
We see clear evidence of house-to-house clearance.
Operations, particularly in the Darajula neighborhood near Saudi Hospital, with what appears to be piles of objects consistent with human remains, between 15 to 2 meters in length.
The fall of al-Thasher could mark a significant turning point in Sudan's civil war, in which tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly 12 million displaced.
The RSF now has complete control of the vast Darfur region.
It denies accusations from aid agencies that its fighters have been killing civilians.
Our reporter Akisa Wandara in Nairobi told me more about what the Yale researchers have established.
They have been analyzing satellite images and using open source data.
And they say that they've seen clear evidence of mass killings in and around El Fasha.
And they've also identified what they call clusters of objects that are consistent with human bodies and reddish soil disturbances near the earthen wall that the RSF built all around El Fasha, about 57 kilometers long, to keep people from getting in or getting out of the city.
So they're saying that from the evidence they've collected so far, there are suggestions that...
People may have been executed while trying to flee.
And they're also saying that their findings are very consistent with reports that the RSF forces are targeting civilians, particularly those from non-Arab communities.
And the big fear is that as well as revenge killings, this could actually be ethnic cleansing.
Just describe what the situation is like in Al-Fasha, where people have been under siege for a year and a half, many of them starving.
Well, the situation is dire.
Several humanitarian groups have described it as a famine like situation where people do not have access to food, don't have access to water and medicine.
This is a city that has already been under siege for about one and a half years now.
And in the past 24 or so hours, communications has been largely cut off, making it extremely difficult to get real time updates on what the situation is like for the more than 200000 people who are believed to still be trapped inside El Fasha.
The UN said yesterday that 26000 people are believed to have been able to flee the town, but the situation remains unknown and what it would be like for the Hundreds of thousands were still trapped in the city.
And of course, the RSF is being accused of committing summary executions.
They have denied this, but several groups have come out to say that there's been evidence to support that so far.
Akisa Wandera.
The BBC has established that Prince Andrew hosted the sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at his private home in Windsor Castle in 2006.
A photo of the three of them has been confirmed as having been taken at the property during 18th birthday celebrations for Andrew's daughter, Princess Beatrice.
Two months earlier, a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.
Our UK political correspondent Rob Watson told me more about the photo.
Maybe the best thing I could do is describe it because I'm looking at it right now.
As you say, it's from 2006.
There are three people in the photo.
It's a beautiful sunny day.
It's in the garden apparently of the lodge where Andrew lives.
On the left of the photo is Harvey Weinstein who's in prison for sexual assault.
In the middle is Jeffrey Epstein, who we think committed suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking couple of years ago.
And then there's Ghislaine Maxwell, and they're in fancy dress.
She's currently serving a prison sentence for trafficking.
Sunny day, all smiling.
It's very different from the image we have of today and the photo itself is not new, but what's new is that The BBC has identified that it was definitely taken in the garden of the home where he currently lives.
And this is further damage for not just Prince Andrew but potentially for the royal family, because King Charles was heckled yesterday by a member of the public over Prince Andrew's links with Jeffrey Epstein.
That's correct.
I mean, I'll take that in two parts.
I mean, firstly, the damage continues for Prince Andrew.
I mean, I think we were on the air a couple of weeks back Jeanette, when he had given up his titles in order to try and get himself out of the news of the world.
That has completely backfired.
There's a second question as whether the contagion has spread to the rest of the royal family, and you're absolutely right.
It was quite striking to hear Charles being heckled.
A man asked the king how long had he known about Andrew's friendship with Epstein.
He was asked whether the royal family had asked the police to cover up.
I mean, I would say at this point, Jeanette, it feels...
So the crisis swirls mainly around Prince Andrew.
What should happen to him?
What should happen to his living arrangements, rather than spreading more broadly to the royal family?
But be in no doubt, I mean clearly.
King Charles, his son and heir, Prince William, are very worried indeed about the repercussions of all of this.
You might think that wandering around a museum, looking at wonderful works of art, makes you feel better about life, and that's now been backed up by a scientific study.
Researchers from King's College London used sensors to measure the responses of people viewing masterpieces by artists including Manet, Gauguin and Van Gogh, and they found that the experience had a positive impact on three different systems in the body the immune, hormone and nervous systems all at the same time, thereby reducing stress levels.
Tony Woods from King's College led the research.
We've known from studies of large numbers of people that visiting art galleries is beneficial for our mental health and well-being.
But we didn't know why.
So we wanted to look at the mechanisms.
We wanted to put individuals in front of authentic paintings and see what happens physiologically, what happens in their body when they view art.
We looked at how the nervous system controls our heart activity.
We looked at the endocrine system, ie the hormone levels, the stress hormones, and we looked at what happens to our immune system.
All of it pointed out the fact that when we view art, we have this heightened sense of engagement, but we have this amazing sort of relaxation effect, and that's reflected across all three systems.
We had copies exactly the same size and exactly the same paintings in a laboratory setting and they didn't show the responses that we got in the gallery.
So we can quite confidently say that the museum effect and the effect of looking at the original art that's having this beneficial effect.
There's something definitely about looking at the real art, having that wonder and awe about how it was painted, looking at the brushstrokes compared to just looking at a very good print.
Researcher Tony Woods.
One of Britain's most loved actresses, Prunella Scales, has died at the age of 93.
In a career spanning nearly 70 years.
She was best known for starring in the 1970s TV show Fawlty Towers as a domineering wife of the accident-prone and irascible hotel manager played by John Cleese.
Despite, or perhaps because of its very British humour, the show is still loved by people all over the world.
David Slitto looks back at her life.
Sybil Fawlty.
Prunella Scales described her as an appalling dragon.
I am going to make you regret this for the rest of your life, Basil.
But she was a pillar of a comic masterpiece and a highlight of a long acting career.
Do you really imagine, even in your wildest dreams, that a girl like this could possibly be interested in an ageing, brilliant teen stick insect like you?
Prunella Scales had grown up in Surrey.
Her mother had been an actress, and aged eight, Prunella declared that she too would act.
But she soon learned that certain roles would elude her.
In British comedy if you're a woman, in order to be really funny, you either have to be postmenopausal or so eccentric as not to be a sexual threat.
You can be.
Funny and hideous, or funny and old, or funny and eccentric.
But you cannot be funny and pretty and clever.
One early film role was Hobson's Choice.
Hello, Father.
And her big TV break is Marriage Lions with Richard Bryars.
But it was a dysfunctional talky hotel that established her place in British comic history.
Sibyl in Fawlty Towers was funny and terrifying.
Basil!
Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution gave her one of her best roles, playing the Queen.
So, now that it's a fake, what are you planning to do with it?
Put it out for the bin men?
And then, in her 80s, she took to the water with her husband, Timothy West.
Cast off, please.
Aye, sir.
The Great Canal Journeys was TV at its gentlest.
Life at four miles an hour.
But it was also a moving portrait of a marriage and the slow ebbing of a bright and witty actress as dementia took hold.
Dementia.
You're not bothered by it, are you?
Well, I think elderly people get it anyway, don't they?
Well, some do, yes.
And this was their final canal journey.
It's magic, isn't it?
And the end of what was nearly 70 years on stage and screen.
David Slitter, looking back on the life of the actress Prunella Scales, who has died at the age of 93.
MUSIC
And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.
This edition was mixed by Kai Perry.
The producers were Muzaffar Shakir and Chaz Geiger.
The editor is Karen Martin.
I'm Janette Jalil.
Until next time, goodbye.
