World's strongest storm of the year hits Jamaica

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2:33This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil, and at 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 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? The actress Prunella Scales, who played Basil Fawlty's domineering wife in Fawlty Towers, has died at the age of 93.

3:29The 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.

4:12Everybody 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 people who said they have not slept a week. What kind of preparations are you making?

4:49Personally, you know, we have secured the windows at the radio station. We have made sure we have top up with diesel fuel for a generator because if the power will go out at some point. So we have secured enough diesel 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 right at this very location because we tend to ride out the storm at the station.

5:26There'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 states. So I don't think there's a lot of vulnerability around here, but, you know, 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 plyboards, so they make sure all glass windows and even the doors are buttoned down. People pulling down their arning and strapping them down. Some people have working shutters, you know, and then for the low-lying areas, most people have been asked to move into the shelters, which are filled.

6:06Are people listening to all the warnings? Are they acting appropriately? I think so for the most cases from what I've observed. As I said, you know, a lot of people have been moving into the shelters. You know, the people who are in the low-line 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, the people are taking the warnings seriously. How do you feel about the storm, Richard?

6:38Is 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, there weren't direct hits. Since Urquhain Gilbert, this is the strongest storm 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 serious. 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.

7:15Matthew 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 our 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.

7:52So 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.

8:26It'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 the time for, you know, feelings.

9:11It'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 do another major drain cleaning exercise nationally in December, the tail end of the rainy season. So you do it before, midway and after.

9:45So 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, you know, 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 sort of wind, 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?

10:20or 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 burial last year at the very beginning of the hurricane season, which was incredibly unusual. When one thinks of the tail end of the national hurricane season, having a Category 5 highest wind gusts ever recorded, some of the lowest air pressure, some of the strongest, dry drywalls rather than have ever been recorded at this time of year when the water should be cooling, it's incredibly unusual.

10:57So 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 events 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 adapt. But certainly your agriculture sector is going to come under severe pressure when you have this sort of storm and this sort of flooding.

11:32And 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 as 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 eyewall and the back of the eyewall to come just in line with land, right? So we've felt hurricane conditions and experienced winds above 120 miles an hour multiple times, you know, over the last few decades.

12:07We 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.

12:43So inevitably, many have questioned whether climate change has contributed to the force of this storm. 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 1.5 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible after any temporary overshoot by substantially stepping up the pace on all fronts.

13:33That 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.

14:10And they say that by 2035, that would bring down global emissions by 10 percent. But that's not near enough to keep the global temperature threshold of 1.5 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 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 sell what they're doing, it doesn't add up to what needs to be done.

14:41Donald 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.

15:16On the positive side of the ledger, the UN would point out that, look, lots of countries haven't come forward with the plans yet. They may do soon 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 that, you know, 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.

15:45So they recognize 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 will be gone past in a number of years. 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.

16:21But 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 that are held by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups, but in fact appears to be the remains of one of the hostages who was sent back before more of their remains.

17:10It's quite a grim discovery, really. And, you know, 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.

17:46Hamas 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.

18:22Yolande Nel. 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 1 ,500 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 33 ,000 adults aged 40 to 79 in the UK who walked fewer than 8 ,000 steps a day. The researchers from the University of Sydney and the Universidad Europea in Spain tracked their health over eight years.

19:06People 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 5 ,000 steps a day, longer walks appeared to make a difference. Michelle Roberts. Still to come in this podcast, a new study finds that going to a museum to admire beautiful paintings really is good for you.

19:46All 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.

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20:21My name is Toma Renault. I'm the CEO of Iliad Group. Iliad is the number five telecom operator in Europe. When we expanded into Poland in 2020, we knew it would be a successful venture. Since then, we have invested over 4.5 billion euros in the Polish economy and become the country's leading mobile operator with Play. Here, we have access to over a million graduates with skilled professionals across IT, software, tech, engineering, and manufacturing. And on top of that, we benefit from favorable business regulations in order to support telecommunication network deployment, in order to push digitalization in the public sector.

21:07We also have direct access to global markets. I like to think of it as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Poland has a culture of innovation and that drives business forward. Poland embraces technology early. Digitalization is progressing rapidly in both the public and private sectors. And that's why we are here. To innovate, to invest, to grow together. global brands and rising scale-ups alike choose poland as their base for smart long-term growth poland the place where scale-ups become standouts find out more at poland your place to grow.com this advertisement feature is paid and presented by poland's ministry of foreign affairs looking for the perfect place to grow your business for over 30 years poland has been a launchpad for innovation at the heart of Europe, powered by world-class research and ambitious young talent.

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23:02You'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.

23:43Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab in the US analyzes satellite images And its executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, says the images out of Al-Fasha show there's been a mass killing since it fell. It's been just over 24 hours of RSF control of Al-Fasha and the sum of all fears has been realized. We see clear evidence of house-to-house clearance operations, particularly in the Dara Jula neighborhood near Saudi Hospital, with what appears to be piles of objects consistent with human remains between 1.5 to 2 meters in length. The fall of El Fasher 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.

24:35The 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 analysing satellite images and using open source data and they say that they've seen clear evidence of mass killings in and around El Farsha 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.