Four countries boycott Eurovision over Israel's inclusion

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:47I'm Celia Hatton, and in the early hours of Friday the 5th of December, these are our main stories. Several countries have pulled out of next year's Eurovision Song Contest after it was confirmed that Israel could participate. A prominent Palestinian militia leader and Hamas opponent has been killed in Gaza. Members of the U.S. Congress have reviewed classified video of a strike on an alleged drug boat which killed two shipwrecked men. Also in this podcast, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo sign a peace deal in Washington and... There are estimates which suggest that there are about 200 people dying every hour.

1:30globally because of these type of infections. Why a hospital in Britain is telling people not to wash their hands.

1:43We begin with the controversy around one of the world's biggest annual television events, the Eurovision Song Contest. Four countries have pulled out of next year's competition after organizers decided that Israel will participate, despite calls for it to be excluded because of the war in Gaza. The boycotters are Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, which is one of the event's top funders. Eurovision is a musical extravaganza known for its glitz and glam, but increasingly it's becoming deeply political. While the competition's slogan is United by Music, the dispute over Israel's participation appears to be tearing it apart.

2:25Here's Eurovision expert Dean Vuletic. It's a historic moment for the European Broadcasting Union. This is certainly one of the most serious crises that the organisation has ever faced. Next year, we're going to see the biggest political boycott of Eurovision ever. The decision by the four broadcasters came after a meeting of the organiser, the EBU, when a majority of its members agreed to tighten public voting rules, but not to hold a vote on Israel's participation, meaning its entry is still welcome next year when the competition turns 70. Natalia Gorshak is the head of the Slovenian public broadcaster, which decided to pull out.

3:08If we excluded Russia like one week after they attacked Ukraine, I think the same rules should be applied also to Israel. You have two years of complete destruction of one territory. While Israel has welcomed its continued inclusion, the 1998 Israeli winner Dana International denounced the four boycotting broadcasters and said their decision was violent and insulting. Ilan Zoller is an Israeli journalist focused on Eurovision. I'm very happy because I think Israel should be in Eurovision. It's important. Israel is one of the best countries of Eurovision. with sending big songs almost year after year.

3:52Personally, I think there's no place for politics. Everyone should put politics aside. It's a competition between broadcasters. And I'm very happy, but I'm a bit sad because my favourite countries are usually the Netherlands and Spain and they bid wrong, so yeah. Janat Jalil got more details from our music correspondent Mark Savage. Tensions over Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest have been festering for two years now, ever since they responded to the deadly 7th October Hamas attack by invading Gaza. And of course, as the death toll has risen, those protests have become more and more vociferous.

4:32Today in Geneva, there was a meeting of all of the member states who take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, and some of them were pushing for a vote on whether or not Israel would be allowed to participate next year. Now, in the end, the organisers did not allow that vote to go ahead. Instead, they pressed for a vote where people would ratify a package of measures that will make the public vote for the Eurovision Song Contest, where people phone and text in slightly tighter to avoid outside influence, to counter accusations that there had been government campaigns to get people to vote for certain acts across Europe.

5:10Tied to that vote was the idea or an agreement that they would not press ahead with a vote on Israel's exclusion. So when that motion passed, Israel sailed through to next year's contest and immediately four countries pulled out. And the speed with which they issued their press releases suggests that they were prepared for this eventuality early on. Yes, emotions riding high here. There had been questions about whether the Israeli government had influenced the public vote, given that the Israeli entry came top in that public vote. That's correct. And that's what they were talking about there. There was a campaign that was funded by the Israeli government to advertise Israel's entry on YouTube, on social media.

5:51And there was even a post on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Instagram account advising people outside of Israel how they could vote for the act. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that the scales were tipped in Israel's favour. It was a very popular song going into the contest, but some eyebrows were raised at how big that campaign was. So how big a crisis is this for the Eurovision Song Contest? Can these divisions be healed? I think if you look at what the Spanish delegation said going into this meeting today, it feels like the rift is very, very deep and very wide. They said they had lost faith in the management of the Eurovision Song Contest, that today's meeting should never have been necessary in the first place.

6:38And they look at examples like Russia being kicked out of the contest after it invaded Ukraine and are asking why that hasn't happened in this case. Now, the EBU does have an answer to that. It says that Russia's state broadcaster had contravened the terms and conditions of its membership. It was more about following rules and policies than it was about the actions of the Russian government. They say that Israel's broadcaster, Khan, has been compliant with all the rules. And also, there's a sense in which many countries want to protect press freedom in Israel because Khan is an organisation that has sometimes been at loggerheads with the Netanyahu administration.

7:18And there was a fear that if they were kicked out of the contest, then that would mean there would be a cut in funding, tighter controls over its output. Mark Savage. Let's turn to the latest from Gaza, where a prominent Palestinian militia leader who opposed Hamas has been killed. Yasser Abu Shabab was a Bedouin tribal chief who led a group operating in Israeli-controlled territory near the southern city of Rafa. Hamas had accused him of collaborating with Israel. He'd been one of several men jostling for power as the region prepares for the second phase of the U.S. ceasefire plan. His militia, the Popular Forces, said he was shot while trying to resolve a family dispute.

8:03But Venisha Mingus, a journalist with the Times of London who recently interviewed Yasser Abu-Shabaab, says there are reports that he may have been assassinated. Yasser Abu-Shabaab was a 35-year-old smuggler from Rafa in southern Gaza, who at the start of the war in Gaza was in a Hamas prison on drug trafficking charges. So quite an unlikely figure to end up leading a militia. However, in May last year, he emerged as leader of what he called the Popular Forces. He declared the group to be an anti-Hamas militia working towards a terrorism-free future for the Strip. But it is worth noting he never really had the support of Gazan civilians, even though many are anti-Hamas, as he's seen as a collaborator with Israel.

8:52Now, when I interviewed him, he denied this, although it is clear he's been working with Israel as he has been operating under their areas of control. And he said that he was funded and supported by powerful members of the Tarabin tribe, who are a Bedouin tribe which stretch from Egypt to the UAE. And he said they provided the weapons and the money to keep their group going. So a lot is left to be verified regarding the circumstances of his death. However, I spoke with Israeli sources today who have coordinated with him and they said it is indeed true he has been killed. I believe the most likely theory is that his group was infiltrated by Hamas, who then used their access to attack the group and capture members of his group.

9:41We know that his death occurred in the area under his control in Rafa, which is beyond the yellow line. So it's in an area controlled by the Israelis. So that makes this quite significant as he was Hamas's number one target and was assassinated within the Israeli area of control. And this definitely undermines that image of dominance and leaves the other anti-Hamas militias within their area, fearing that the Israelis cannot protect them. Venetia Mingus. To elsewhere in the Gaza Strip now, Gaza City in the north, where Palestinians have begun initial work, despite a lack of construction materials, on restoring two cultural heritage sites destroyed by Israel during the war.

10:25The hope is that ultimately they can rebuild the Great Omari Mosque, the oldest mosque in the territory, and the historic Pasha's palace. International journalists are not allowed to report freely inside Gaza, so Yolan Nel is following their progress from Jerusalem.

10:46With pickaxes and wheelbarrows, dozens of Palestinian workers are clearing rubble from the ruins of the medieval Great Omri Mosque in Gaza City. Its distinctive octagonal minaret is now just a broken stump. The Israeli military says it bombed what it called a tunnel shaft and terror tunnel during the war against Hamas. Since the Gaza ceasefire, work's begun to clear and sort the stones. But Israel isn't yet allowing building materials to enter Gaza, and that limits what can be done, says Hosni Amasloum, an engineer from RUAC, a local cultural heritage organisation.

11:26The challenges we face are, first of all, scarcity of resources. iron and construction materials. Then we're using primitive tools and being very careful because the stones here are 12 or 1300 years old.

11:45Nearby in the old city, another Palestinian team is taking away buckets of rubble from what's left of the Pasha's palace, exposing the mosaic floor. Gaza's history stretches back some 5 ,000 years, The palace was originally an historic fort, where it said Napoleon stayed in 1799. The Israeli military told me it had no information about why it targeted this site in the war. Dr Hamouda al-Dakhtar, who's in charge of the cleanup, says Palestinians care deeply about their heritage. We are dealing with a building that expresses the identity and memory of the Palestinian people. We are determined to preserve what's left of this important landmark.

12:29UNESCO has verified damage to 145 religious, historic and cultural sites since the start of the war, including Roman cemeteries, the ruins of early churches and an ancient Greek port. It will be a long time before any meaningful restoration can take place. But the start of work marks a step forwards. Yolan now. To the US now, where the Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing sustained political pressure. Much of it centres around his involvement in a September attack on what the U.S. says was a drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean. After the initial hit on the boat, two survivors, left clinging to wreckage, were killed in a follow-on strike.

13:14The White House has already said Mr. Hegseth authorized the attacks, but did not give the order to kill. To clarify exactly what happened, the man in command of the operation, Admiral Frank Bradley, has shown a select group of U.S. lawmakers an unedited video of the incident. Admiral Bradley has also backed up the Trump administration's account, saying that he was the one who ordered the second strike on the boat. After the briefing, a visibly upset Democrat congressman, Jim Himes, told the media that he was horrified by what he'd seen. What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service.

13:55You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who are killed by the United States. But the Republican senator, Tom Cotton, who also watched the footage, said he'd seen nothing illegal and called them righteous strikes. He also gave, perhaps, the most detailed description yet of what appears to have happened. I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight. And potentially, given all the contacts we heard, of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists.

14:43So what exactly did lawmakers see and hear in this briefing? Our North America correspondent is Peter Bowes. This was a closed-door meeting for members of Congress from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. High-ranking members from the relevant committees, so the Armed Services Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, they were shown classified, unedited video footage of the strike, which happened on September 2nd. This is the strike that involved the two survivors attempting to climb back onto the boat. And the briefing included a review of the boat's condition, the presence of drugs, the threat assessment that is said to have justified this continued military action.

15:26And the members were able to ask questions about the timeline, the legality and the operational decisions that were made during this incident. So are we closer to clearing up the confusion about what happened with this strike in September and who ordered it? Well, that appears to have been the main purpose of the briefing. The lawmakers heard from Admiral Frank Bradley, who explained his reasoning for ordering the second strike, and he said that he acted within his authority, that he made the decision, not the Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. We know from an interview that Mr Hegseth gave a couple of days ago that he claims to have watched the first strike live, presumably by remote video, but he said he didn't see the survivors and was informed afterwards that the Admiral chose to sink the boat and eliminate the threat.

16:15Can you tell us more about what Admiral Bradley said? Did he give any reason for the second strike? Admiral Bradley and the White House, indeed, say the strikes were lawful because the survivors were still considered a legitimate target. So that gets to the crux of his reasoning. But some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, who are very concerned about the rules of engagement, as they've been explained to them during this briefing. So Peter, what's the bigger picture then when it comes to future US strikes? Not long ago, we heard about another US attack on a boat. What are the details on that? And what does it tell us?

16:58Well, yes, the US military has conducted, they say, another of these deadly strikes on an alleged drug smuggling boat, killing four. We don't have many more details on that just yet. But, of course, the September 2nd incident was the first of a long series of these kinds of strikes that have killed more than 80 people so far. So there are no signs that this is going to end. However, interestingly, a couple of days ago, during a cabinet meeting, President Trump said that there were now very few boats travelling on the water, including fishing boats and other vessels, which is a claim where he is suggesting that there is evidence that these strikes have drastically reduced this maritime activity and have therefore justified the action.

17:46Peter Bowes. Still to come in this podcast, the mysteries of a medieval pandemic. They have this coincidence that the only region they import their grain from happens to be infected already by plague. why a volcano may be to blame for the spread of Black Death.

18:15If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:53A peace deal's been signed between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ceremony in Washington was presided over by the U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration helped broker the agreement. The compact we're signing today, which will be known as the Washington Accords, everybody sort of liked that name, formalizes the terms agreed to in June, including a permanent ceasefire, the disarmament of non-state forces, provisions for refugees to return to their homes and justice and accountability for those who have committed illegal atrocities. This could mark a turning point for the two African countries, which have been at odds for decades.

19:38Tensions spiked earlier this year when the armed rebel group, the M23, believed to be backed by Rwanda, seized Goma, a city in the DRC. But at the signing, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC President Felix Chisikedi sounded cautiously hopeful the fighting would stop. It's up to us in Africa, working with our partners to consolidate and expand this peace. There will be ups and downs on the road ahead. There is no doubt about it. Rwanda, I know, will not be found wanting.

20:26I want to believe that this day marks the beginning of a new path. A demanding path, certainly difficult, but a path where peace is no longer just a wish, but a goal. The Democratic Republic of Congo will fully play its part with dignity, with awareness and consistency, and with the support of its partners. We remain vigilant but not pessimistic, clear-eyed but resolutely optimistic. The deal negotiated by the Trump administration includes economic incentives for both Rwanda and the DRC and plans for U.S. companies to mine some of the DRC's valuable minerals. But will it secure a lasting peace?

21:11A question for our Africa correspondent, Shinga Njoka. Many people who have been following this conflict for over the last 30 years agree that it is an important step. The United Nations, for example, has said that it's an opportunity to turn the page. Many would say that the escalation that had happened at the start of the year when the rebel forces, the M23, had taken over vast swathes of the eastern part of the country and they were threatening to move on Kinshasa. in really statements that would have destabilized the country as a whole, that when the U.S. stepped in to offer this mediation role, that that halted the progression of the M23.

22:00But what we've seen over the last week or so is that just days before this peace agreement is signed between the two leaders, that they've been trading insults on both sides in the sense that the Congolese army has accused the M23 of taking over certain villages and the M23 has accused the Congolese government of bombing, of carrying out air raids and trying to sabotage this peace deal. Over the last 30 years or so of this conflict, there have been many, many attempts at mediation, at dialogue. There's been military intervention by the African countries, the regional countries that surround both countries as well as the African Union.

22:45And all of those deals have fallen apart. I think there is optimism in the sense that many are hoping that President Trump might be able to exert pressure by threatening sanctions on the leaders if they do fail to adhere to these commitments. But I think it's also important to note that this peace deal is being signed by the Congolese government as well as the Rwandese government, whereas the M23 is neither of those, even though it's backed by Rwanda. So, you know, the main fighting force in the eastern part of the country is not party to this peace deal. There's a separate parallel process that's being mediated by the Qatari government.

23:29But it's a very kind of haphazard approach to peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Shingai Nioka. Here in the UK, a public inquiry has found the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, bears moral responsibility for the poisoning death of a British woman near the city of Salisbury in 2018. Don Sturgis died from exposure to the chemical Novichok, which had been used by Russian agents targeting the former spy, Sergei Skripal. He and his daughter Yulia fell seriously ill, but survived the attack. The UK's Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said the report was a grave reminder of the Kremlin's reckless aggression and disregard for innocent lives.

24:15The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected the findings, calling them tasteless fairy tales. The BBC's Tom Simons told Janat Jalil more about the case. Sergey Skripal and Yulia Skripal had picked up the Novichok, which had been smeared on the door handle of their house in Salisbury. They had been taken ill in the town centre. And quickly, within a few days, it became clear it wasn't the use of a nerve agent. And then fast forward some months later, and I think the months are quite interesting because what happens is the three GRU officers have a fake bottle of perfume that they've carried this Novichok around in.

24:53They have dumped it somewhere in Salisbury, and it's been picked up by Charlie Rowley, who's the partner of Dawn Sturgis. he appears to have kept it for some months and then given it to her as a present and she rubbed it on herself and on her wrist and then probably smelt it as well and was taken ill and you know very very quickly was unsavable despite the care that she was given by and it was praised in this report so you have this awful incident where a normal 44 year old English woman is caught up in a global espionage plot and that is quite an astounding thing to even say out loud. And it later emerged that the Novichok in this perfume bottle could have potentially killed thousands of people.

25:37So tell us what this report has found today. What is it saying today? It has said that contrary to what has been claimed in some places that this is some kind of fake attack perhaps carried out by the British to make Russia look bad, no evidence of that, that it was carried out by these three GRU intelligence officers as the Metropolitan Police found, that they would not have done this without it being signed off by superior officers, that they did it fairly recklessly, almost without trying to not be caught. I mean, they didn't hide their faces on CCTV or anything like that. And therefore it was clear this was an attempt to shock everybody about what Russia could do, and that none of that would have happened without the knowledge of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

26:21And so the blame, the moral blame for this is laid firmly at his feet by the inquiry chairman. And the big question for a lot of people will be what lessons can be learnt to prevent another such attack? Because it isn't the first time that there's been a nerve agent poisoning in Britain. Well, so I think it's fair to say, given that we'd had the Livinenko poisoning, the Russian journalist poisoned with radioactive material some years before in the UK, that this was sort of on the radar of the intelligence services. But Sergei Skripal felt that he was safe, and I think that appears to have had quite a big play in this.

27:00He felt that he'd been pardoned effectively by the Russians because they'd allowed him to leave the country as part of a spy swap. What perhaps hadn't been taken seriously enough was that he was working with British intelligence, briefing them on what he knew about the Russians, and the Russians had said, as a famous quote from Vladimir Putin, where he says that traitors will choke on the pieces of silver that they've swallowed, that there was an anger there. And despite the fact that Sergei Skripal did not want to be put in a safe house, to be given a fake name, all that sort of thing, perhaps there wasn't enough done to make sure that he was safe and that this couldn't happen.