Colombians vote in a stark choice between left and right

24:31That's GoodRanchers.com. Good Ranchers. American meat delivered. Is the American dream still possible? I'm Asma Khalid, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. One of the most successful exports the United States has ever sold the world is the American dream, that tantalizing promise of a better, freer, richer life. But is it still attainable? I feel like the American dream is alive but not well. For more, listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

25:26at schwab.com slash Washington Wise. That's schwab.com slash Washington Wise.

25:36You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. Britain's Prime Minister, Sakhir Starmer, may not have long left in his job. Several of his ministers have reportedly urged him to lay out a timetable for his departure. This follows a by-election win last Thursday for the man thought most likely to succeed him, the former mayor of Greater to Manchester in Northern England, Andy Burnham. Sakia's been under pressure to step aside since his governing Labour Party did very badly in local elections in May and his personal popularity in public polls is also very low. Well, Rob Watson is our UK affairs correspondent.

26:11Does this begin to look inevitable to you, Rob? Very much so, and certainly to the Labour politicians that I've been speaking to and BBC colleagues and other political correspondents have been speaking to, They think that the end is very much nigh for Sir Keir Starmer, that it could come in the next few hours and days. And for the simple reason, Julian, that while Keir Starmer himself is absolutely, he would love to stay, he thinks it's crazy for him to lose his job, but it's about numbers. And essentially, support has just drained away for him from inside the governing Labour Party. And if you ain't got the numbers, you can't fight it.

26:49even though two years ago he won a landslide in a general election. Yes, absolutely true. But we are living in a different time in British politics. We're living in the era of volatility this last decade since the Brexit referendum. And I think it's worth pointing out as well, Julian, that it was always a bit loveless towards Keir Starmer. He wasn't swept into power in 2024 with the same enthusiasm that greeted Tony Blair after he'd ended a long period of conservative government. So he wasn't that popular to start with. And, you know, the British public, the British voters have developed a visceral, a truly visceral, I mean, in some ways, inexplicable dislike for Keir Starmer, Julian.

27:32But furthermore, they've also sort of, and you might say this is unreasonable, they think that they were promised change after 14 years of Conservative government and in the two years they haven't got it, so he's become massively unpopular. Well, I mentioned Andy Burnham, who is likely, I wouldn't go any further than that, to succeed him. He's talking about change as well, isn't he? He is, but I think there's a great deal of scepticism about that. I mean, it's certainly true that they would be very different as personalities is where Sir Keir Starmer is certainly in public at least a rather sort of joyless, dour character.

28:06Andy Burnham is much more likeable, I suppose you could say, relatable, sort of easier to laugh, often talks about hope. But actually, if you think about their stated aims, I mean, both of them are politicians of the centre-left. They both say their priority is to sort of improve the living standards of ordinary people. And on those sort of key questions, foreign policy, major difference, not evident, key domestic policy, the size, role, intervention and funding of the state. Again, it's not clear that there are major differences. And in any case, although there are many in Labour who would like to see the government move more to the left, or as its critics would say, even more to the left, Mr.

28:49Burnham will be hugely constrained by the fact that Britain already has very high levels of public spending and taxation by historical standards, and is also up to its neck in debt. So, you know, his room for manoeuvre limited. Rob, thank you. Rob Watson on British politics. You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. I'm Julian Warwicker. Well, let's return to the talks taking place in Switzerland between the United States and Iran, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar. In the last couple of hours, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the Jewish News Syndicate International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, referred to those negotiations and repeated his position on Iran's nuclear program.

29:32No matter what happens in the talks, with an agreement, without an agreement, I pledge to you that Iran, as long as I'm Prime Minister, will never have a nuclear weapon. Never. As long as we need to protect our people, we will remain in the security zone in South Lebanon. And the reason, the reason is perfectly understood. No country would be asked to do otherwise. Well, there has been a lot of talk about the divergence there is between the US and Israel on how to approach Iran. And this is part of a bigger question about Washington's ability to shape the international order on its own terms and whether that ability has taken a severe knock in recent months.

30:19Dennis Ross is a former US envoy to the Middle East under Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton with long experience in the region. I asked him what he thought of Washington's current ability to shape that international order. Well, it does feel a little bit different right now. On the one hand, you still have the use of American power, and clearly the whole world is kind of watching, waiting, holding their breath. but we also clearly can't seem to shape things quite the way we want and part of that is a Trump administration that pretty much goes it alone and isn't doesn't shape an environment doesn't mobilize those who might share its objectives to be supportive and actually to help exert leverage in support of those objectives and I think so much going it alone then oftentimes leaves the United States alone.

31:12In this particular case, it's interesting. We're working with Qatar and Pakistan to be the go-betweens, to be mediators, certainly not necessarily traditional American allies. We're not depending upon American allies to embrace the same objectives and, for example, make it clear that the idea that Iran could be managing the Straits of Hormuz, which is an international waterway, there should be a collective international voice saying it's not conceivable, it's not acceptable that Iran should be trying to take control of an international waterway. This would set a terrible precedent. And yet we're out there pretty much alone.

31:54So that does seem to reflect that by going it alone, we have less ability to sort of shift the environment than we might. I mean, you mentioned the Trump administration, which is clearly key to what's happening now. But if there has been a diminution of America's ability to shape the international order, as you describe, has that not been a more gradual thing? Could you not point to other recent events pre-President Trump, where, again, that level of influence was to a degree limited? well as the world has become more more multilateral as there are more powers who also can compete with the united states and we move from we had a bipolar world to a unipolar world to a multipolar world almost by definition the united states is not going to have the same leverage that it once had Still, in terms of military power, economic power, no one is more able to affect the international environment.

32:55And that ability to affect the international environment makes certain that the U.S. still probably plays the most prominent role. Can it exercise and shape the behavior of others the way it might have before? In some ways, I would say it was probably always an exaggeration to assume that that was the case. Regardless, it's probably less now than it was before. And to your point, I think it's fair to say the evolution of the international system into one of greater multipolarity almost made that inevitable. You're there in Israel at the moment. On a specific point, how do Israeli-American relations look to you just now?

33:32And where do they go potentially from here? More complicated, more complicated than we've seen them. that's a diplomatic term the reality is that the Trump Netanyahu relationship is clearly not perceived to be what it was but also there's a public attitudes in the United States have been changing it'll be very interesting to see we're going to have an election in Israel by the end of October before the end of October it'll be very interesting to see if there's a change in government and a different prime minister with the Israeli democracy having demonstrated it's still a vibrant democracy, how much might that have an effect on the American public attitudes towards Israel?

34:19I suspect to some degree, but we've also seen some kind of cosmic changes. And at this point, I think, you know, we're seeing an America that is rethinking a variety of different kinds of relationships. I'm not sure exactly what we'll see in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, but if the Israeli democracy again sort of demonstrates that it's alive and well, I suspect that the strongest supporters of Israel in the States, including some who have some difficulties today with Israel, I suspect some of them will say, look, let's give this new Israeli government a chance. We're seeing democracy in action.

34:57That's what's always bound us Israel, you know, that may move us back in a different direction. But we're going through a process of change, for sure. And what of the traditional Gulf allies of the United States, many of whom have been on the receiving end of attacks from Iran since this war began? I think that they will hedge bets in a lot of ways. They will obviously make their own kinds of quiet deals with the Iranians, but those will stay within bounds. They'll try to have certain understandings, but their trust level of Iran is probably lower than it's ever been, but also a recognition of the trouble that Iran can cause is also acute.

35:41So they'll make their own kinds of accommodations within bounds. They won't walk away from the United States, but they will decide that it makes less sense to be dependent on the United States. they'll hedge bets in terms of China, not because they think that China will be able to help them in a security sense, but they'll still see some value in, in a sense, placing bets on a number of different places. The one country that will gain more than any other is probably Ukraine, because they've shown they have cost-effective answers to drone threats. And that will be something that will build up Ukraine in the region, but also build up Ukraine even vis-a-vis the Russians.

36:24Dennis Ross, former US envoy to the Middle East.

36:31Now, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo is approaching 1 ,000. As of Saturday evening, the government said that there'd been 247 deaths. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in mid-May. and now there's growing concern about the number of cases at a camp for displaced people in Bunia in northeastern Congo. Well, Patrick La Rochelle is an American doctor who at the start of the outbreak was living in Bunia with his family and working as a medical missionary before he was evacuated. He's now back home in the United States.

37:09I asked him what had happened to some of his colleagues who stayed. Our hospital has lost two of our staff members, one doctor and one nurse, and then the brother of our medical director died several days ago. But then there's so many people in the community. I spoke to one of my Congolese friends the other day and asked him how many people he knew personally that had died. And this was about a week ago, and he said 30. And his wife had, the day prior, knew eight people that died that day. So the scale of death, you know, whole families have died. I wanted to ask you about the situation in Bunia, the Kikonze camp for displaced people there.

37:48What's the latest you're hearing on that? There's now a lot of transmission in Bunia, and I think the concern in these displaced camps is that I think there's 15 ,000 people or so in the Kikonze camp. They're living very close to each other. Water is always a problem. Sewage is a problem. Families are very close together. Some of these communities have expectations that you will honour the body by touch. Also, when you're sick, you go to the hospital with lots of people. And so isolation is really scary for them. And their practices expose them to illness. And so I think there's also, I'm told, a significant amount of resistance and fear at the camp.

38:31We work pretty extensively at the ISP Displaced Persons Camp. And there's not so much resistance because I think in part because we've worked there so long. And so there's trust of our Upendo project, which my wife runs with a Congolese colleague. And people are not resistant when they come and say, we need to test this person. Or there's a lot less resistance. But from what I understand, there's considerably more resistance at Kigonze. And there have been over perhaps around 30 people that have died in the last week. So very concerned about uncontrolled transmission there. We should complete your story.

39:07You were evacuated to Prague and quarantined in Prague. Just describe that situation in terms of how you were looked after there. I was very well taken care of. Thankfully, I didn't require too much care. I never got sick. So the concern was that I had a high risk exposure and that I might become sick, but I did not. I did receive an experimental monoclonal antibody that will hopefully soon be available in Congo in clinical trials. and so perhaps that protected me from the disease but I was isolated in a what they call a bio box for 21 days thankfully something about my my personality makes it such that I tolerated that pretty well and I think the time in the in the bio box gave me a lot of time to stay in connection with my my colleagues and in Bunya and Nian Kunde and try to advocate for them.

40:02I mean you you hinted this in what you said a moment ago that there clearly is a stark contrast isn't there between what you were able to receive by way of treatment and what people back in in DR Congo have available that's not a criticism of you but I wonder what your reflections are on that it's absolutely true and it's it's painful to see I think living in Congo long term I think you have to become somewhat accustomed to those contrasts because you know that if you, for instance, if you don't go out on vacation, you will burn out and you will not last 11 years there. And so you have to find certain ways to stay healthy as an expat.

40:44It's an amazing thing to invest so much in the care of one patient, to value the life of one person so much. The tragedy is that it doesn't happen for everyone. And so I think the goal is not necessarily to stop evacuating expats or, you know, stop giving Western care to them. I think that the goal is to provide the best care possible in places like Congo to Congolese. And do you want to go back yourself? I do very much so. On the other hand, I've already been separated from my kids for a month, But it's hard to be away when you see your friends suffering, when you see them working so hard. And one thing I've been trying to do from afar is to encourage people to trust my Congolese colleagues and the response, because the resistance and the fears are such a huge barrier to getting this outbreak under control.

41:44That was Patrick LaRochelle, who was a medical missionary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. until May he was speaking to me from his home back in the United States. You're with NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

42:05This is Julian Warwicker with NewsHour, live from the BBC in London. Well, too often the impact of conflicts around the world is measured in numbers, the numbers who've been killed and injured. What those statistics fail to do is to tell the stories of the lives lost. One such story has emerged in southern Lebanon in recent days, the story of a marine conservationist, Mona Khalil, in her 70s. Her house near Tyre was hit by an Israeli airstrike last week, and she's since died of her injuries, prompting many tributes to a woman who, for more than 25 years, dedicated her working life to protecting endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles along that stretch of the Lebanese coast.

42:48Here's a clip of her standing on the beach talking about how protecting Mother Nature made her feel strong. Now I'm living my life. What I like to do, what makes me feel strong, what makes me feel good, this, protecting Mother Nature. I'm a fighter. Mona Khalil. Well, I've been speaking to one of Mona's friends. Monique Basila, also Lebanese, met Mona on the beach and became her friend. I had three kids and I was desperate to show them something related to nature because my husband and I, we really love animals and we wanted to teach our kids how to respect nature. So a friend of mine told me about this wonderful lady who lives in the south of Lebanon and who who has a bed and breakfast, and she teaches people about protecting the sea turtles.

43:46I remember that when she opened the nest, she took the first turtle. She found that there are hatching, and she took the first small turtle in her hands, and tears were going down from her eyes as if she gave birth to something. And since that summer, 2012, till the last time I saw her, 2022, I did not miss one summer without going at least twice for the laying the eggs and then for the hatching in August. What was she like in that environment? What was she like on that beach when the turtles were there? She would clean the beach. That was the most important thing for her. And look for anything that can disturb the turtles, like plastics.

44:34And at night, no one would come near the beach so the turtles are not disturbed. She was like the guardian of this beach. And during the nesting season in May and June, she would search for the nests, count the eggs, protect them from predators and rising water. So if the nest is close to the water, she would put it somewhere else carefully. Yeah, in July and August, she would return daily to monitor the nests and make sure the hatching emerged safely. I mean, it's extraordinary dedication. What was it about those creatures, do you think, that gave them a special appeal for her? Well, I don't know really what happened to her.

45:17I know that Munna lost her son when he was young. She never discussed why and how. Then she moved to Netherlands to live there for 20 years to recover from this shock in her life. And when she came back in 1999, she was at this beach, which is their beach. It's where she was raised and she was young. And she was at night and she heard something. She discovered this green turtle. and she was during releasing her eggs and she fell in love. She learned that these species are endangered and she dedicated, she promised that she's going to help them. And I think that was a way for her to get out of her misery and her loss.

46:07You mentioned the Netherlands. She painted her house orange, didn't she? Yes. In recognition of that. Yes, she is very, very grateful for the Netherlands because she says that they helped her a lot recover from this shock and to be able to continue in her life. How well known did she become in Lebanon for the work that she was doing? Well, she was very well known, but not enough. Because, you know, the situation was not helping. We had a lot of war, we had a lot of conflict. She spent a lot of time educating children. That was her main, main concern. She would say that I want to educate the children because these are the future.

46:49They are the future. They will help me continue my mission. So she would kill herself. Actually, she died because of this. When you think about the risk that she was living through because of the war that was going on around her, I mean, were you one of those who perhaps said to her, have you thought about moving away? Have you thought about going somewhere safer? well since March when this last conflict started I think I called her at least at least once a week begging her just begging her to leave and she would say no this is the nesting season this is where my turtles need me I'd rather die protecting them I just can't leave now and she was alone like she was she thought that if she is alone in this house in the orange house and I would like to say that the Orange House was not surrounded by anything.

47:47So she was feeling safe that there was no way that something will hit her because she was alone in this house and she had her beach and she was sure that she would rather die protecting their nests, their turtles, instead of going back to Beirut and being in a safer place. I sense from the way you describe her that she was a very determined, mean a very single-minded person. Is that fair? She's so unique. I mean, Muna has a very, very strong character. She would fight leaders in Lebanon when they had like a resort that might have lights that disturbed the turtles. I mean, the biggest leaders that no one can even say a word to them.

48:35She would do as much as possible so they can turn off the lights at night to protect the sea and to make sure that the turtle can come at night to lay its eggs. Muna had a very, very special character. And you need to be that strong and that focused in order to do what you can do in a country like Lebanon. I mean, she did this all from her own money. She had two kinds of turtles to protect the green turtles and the loggerhead, I think they call them. And so determined. And what now? I mean, the legacy is obviously there because of the work she's done. But how is the work maintained from here? I wonder.

49:16Well, Julian, it's so sad to tell you that we have no more Orange House. The whole Orange House is on the floor and Mona is gone. I have no idea what's next. I don't know if we're going to be able ever to go back to her place. We have no idea what the future is holding for us. But I know for a fact that you can't even say the word sea turtle in Lebanon without a person thinking about Mona Khalil. Monique Basila speaking to me about the life and work of the marine conservationist Mona Khalil in southern Lebanon. And that's it for this edition of NewsHour. Thank you very much for listening. Stay tuned to the BBC World Service.

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