Israel approves death penalty for October 7 attackers

Summary

Global News Podcast – Israel Approves Death Penalty for October 7 Attackers

Date: May 12, 2026
Host: Alex Ritson, BBC World Service

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Episode Overview

This episode provides an extensive update on major global news stories, with a primary focus on Israel’s passage of a death penalty law for October 7 attackers. Additional reporting covers EU sanctions on Israeli settlers, UK political turmoil, Afghan civilian casualties from cross-border strikes, developments in the Philippines' war on drugs, France’s Africa engagement, and new research on arts and aging. The reporting combines on-the-ground perspectives, expert analysis, and interviews.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Israel Approves Death Penalty for October 7 Attackers (01:09–05:55)

Main Points:

• Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) passes a law enabling the death penalty for those found guilty of participating in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks.
• The law passed with overwhelming cross-party support: 93 votes to 0.
• Empowers a panel of judges (civil and military) to impose the death penalty by majority vote.
• Public trials will be live-streamed from a specially set up Jerusalem courtroom.
• Law likened to the Adolf Eichmann trial (1961), the only previous civil execution in Israel.
• Approximately 300–400 Gazans held as criminal defendants related to these attacks; 1,200+ held as 'unlawful combatants' without charge.
• Human rights groups criticize the law’s fairness; concerns about trials, torture claims (denied by Israel), and alignment with international standards.

Notable Quotes:

• Yoland Nell (Jerusalem correspondent) at 02:51:
  “This law passed with 93 votes to 0, an unusual level of cross party support… empowering a panel of judges using both civil and military law to hand down the death penalty by a majority vote… key parts of these hearings expected to take place or begin in about a year’s time… going to be shown on a livestream.”
• On public sentiment (04:34):
  “Recent polls have really indicated that there is growing support for the death penalty, particularly among Jewish Israelis… bereaved families… want to see an independent commission of inquiry too into the 7th of October attacks.”

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2. EU Sanctions on Israeli Settlers & West Bank Violence (05:55–10:35)

Main Points:

• EU imposes new sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of supporting violent colonization of the West Bank.
• Surge in Palestinian casualties tied to settler and Israeli military actions.
• On-the-ground reporting from Nablus and Jenin:
  • Case of Naif, shot by Israeli forces amid disputed circumstances; CCTV suggests he was walking away.
  • Dr. Hassan Hamad (first responder): “They don’t need excuses to open their fire... nobody will punish them.” (08:33)
  • Settler desecration of a Palestinian grave, forcing family to exhume and rebury remains; UN labels it emblematic dehumanization.

Notable Quotes:

• Dr. Hassan Hamad (first responder), 08:33:
  “They don’t need excuses to open their fire and because they know that nobody will punish them, nobody will stop them.”
• Mohammad Alasa (bereaved son), aftermath of grave desecration:
  “How can we be safe as Palestinians when our dead relatives aren’t even secure in their graves?”

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3. UK Leadership Crisis – Keir Starmer and Labour Party Division (10:35–14:28)

Main Points:

• Ministers resign from PM Keir Starmer’s government following poor election results; over 60 Labour MPs demand his resignation.
• Split cabinet: some support Starmer, others criticize his refusal to step down.
• Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall voices strong support.
• Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, and political correspondent Rob Watson, underline seriousness and growing untenability of Starmer’s position.
• Leadership challenge requires 81 Labour MPs to trigger formal contest.

Notable Quotes:

• Liz Kendall (Science and Technology Sec.), 11:52:
  “The Prime Minister has my full support in that sense... There is a process to challenge the leader. No one has made that challenge.”
• Rob Watson (Political correspondent), 12:56:
  “Britain is plunged into a deep, deep crisis with the governing Labour Party profoundly divided over what on earth to do next… it feels to me as though this is utterly untenable... how it resolves is not clear.”

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4. Deadliest Attack in Afghanistan: Pakistani Airstrike on Kabul Rehab Center (17:38–22:45)

Main Points:

• At least 400 Afghan civilians killed since Pakistan launched cross-border operations (Oct 2025–May 2026).
• UN confirms 269 killed in a single airstrike on Kabul drug rehab center (Omid Center), Mar 16—the deadliest incident in decades.
• Pakistan denies civilian deaths, insists targets were militants.
• First-hand accounts from grief-stricken families, mass graves, destroyed patient records.
• Taliban government denies militants were present, calls for war crimes investigation.

Notable Quotes:

• Relative of victim (graveside):
  “My brother’s body was in pieces. There was nothing left of him to give to us, so they buried him here. He was a simple boy who never harmed anyone.”
• Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, 22:11:
  “Targeting civilians is a war crime. International organizations should investigate… and prosecute those responsible accordingly.”

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5. Philippines: Senator Refuses Arrest Over Drug War ICC Warrant (23:00–27:06)

Main Points:

• Former police chief and current Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa seeks sanctuary in parliament to avoid ICC arrest for his role in Duterte-era drug war killings.
• De la Rosa denounces the charges as an attack on Philippine sovereignty.
• Chaotic scenes as he evades arrest, secures apparent immunity in Senate chambers.
• Political feud between Duterte and current President Marcos; ICC jurisdiction contested.

Notable Quotes:

• Senator Ronald de la Rosa, 23:49:
  “Why should I surrender?... We have existing Philippine courts. Why should we be taken away by these foreigners? This is an attack on our sovereignty.”
• Jonathan Head (Southeast Asia correspondent), 26:11:
  “The real argument the Duterte camp makes is that an ICC warrant shouldn’t apply in the Philippines because the Philippines is no longer a member. Now, the Philippine Supreme Court has disagreed with this.”

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6. France Seeks a Reset with Africa (27:06–31:35)

Main Points:

• France co-hosts Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, aiming to revamp relations beyond former West African colonies.
• Summit seeks to emphasize economic opportunities, critical minerals, mutual benefit.
• Skepticism remains among East African nations—France seen as arriving ‘late to the party.’
• Region increasingly orients towards China, Turkey, UAE, India etc.

Notable Quotes:

• Richard Kergoy (Global Affairs Reporter), 27:52:
  “It’s maybe a strategy to revamp its image and... to reset relations... focusing on economic opportunity.”
• On regional skepticism, 29:09:
  “A lot of people see France as coming a little bit too late to the party... there’s still a level of skepticism, especially amongst the general population.”

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7. The Arts and Slowing Biological Aging (31:35–34:27)

Main Points:

• New research led by Professor Daisy Fancourt (UCL) demonstrates that regular engagement in the arts is correlated with a slower epigenetic aging process.
• The benefit is comparable to physical activity, independent of demographic and lifestyle factors.
• Engagement includes a wide array of activities—performing arts, crafts, attending events, even digital participation.
• Diversity and frequency matter; “try to prioritize even small amounts of engagement, but on that regular basis.”

Notable Quotes:

• Professor Daisy Fancourt, 32:05:
  “We found that people who engage more in the arts have got this younger epigenetic age… it’s actually the same effect size for arts engagement that we see for physical activity.”
• On practical advice, 34:06:
  “It can be helpful if we start to frame arts engagement... like get your five a day of vegetables and fruit or get your 10,000 steps… on a regular basis, ideally on a day to day basis.”

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• 01:09 — Headline: Israel passes death penalty law
• 02:51–05:55 — Yoland Nell explains mechanisms and implications of the law, public and political reactions
• 05:55–10:35 — West Bank settler violence and EU sanctions, including harrowing personal accounts
• 10:35–14:28 — UK political drama and insight into Labour Party’s leadership crisis
• 17:38–22:45 — Afghan civilian tragedy, with moving testimony from victims’ families
• 23:00–27:06 — Philippines senator’s dramatic flight from ICC arrest, contextualized by Jonathan Head
• 27:06–31:35 — France’s shifting Africa strategy scrutinized by Richard Kergoy
• 31:35–34:27 — Professor Daisy Fancourt details science connecting the arts and healthy aging

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Tone & Language

• Factual, global in scope, with empathy for individual accounts of suffering and resilience
• Analytical when covering legal and political developments
• Nuanced and objective, featuring both policy and personal perspectives
• Encouraging public engagement and critical thinking, especially in the health and research segment

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For Listeners:

This episode offers essential context on urgent international policy shifts, their human impact, and even practical personal health insights. Hear perspectives from those on the ground and experts interpreting the world’s most pressing stories.

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Contact:
To respond to this episode or suggest stories, email: [e-mail]
Find the BBC World Service on X (formerly Twitter): @BBCWorldService #globalnewspod

Transcript

[Alex Ritson]

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[Alex Ritson]

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and at 15 hours GMT on Tuesday 12 May these are our main stories. Israel's parliament passes a new law that permits the death penalty for those found guilty of taking part in the October 7 attacks. The EU approves fresh sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank. Britain's embattled prime minister tells his cabinet he's going nowhere as he faces growing calls to resign. Also in this podcast we speak to our reporter in the Afghan capital Kabul, who tells us about the deadliest single attack on on the country in decades.

[Professor Daisy Fancourt]

And so we can look at these patterns to see if someone is older or younger than the number of birthdays they've had. And we found that people who engage more in the arts have got this younger epigenetic age.

[Alex Ritson]

New research suggests participating in artistic endeavors could slow the aging process. On 7 October 2020, three Hamas led fighters killed more than 1200 people in southern Israel. Another 251 were kidnapped. Now Israel's parliament has passed a new law to impose the death penalty and conduct public trials for those involved in the attacks and kidnappings. Human rights groups have criticized the legislation saying the trials will not be fair and some confessions have been extracted through torture which Israel denies. I heard more from Yoland Nell in Jerusalem.

[Yoland Nell]

This law passed with 93 votes to 0, an unusual level of cross party support in the 120 seat Israeli parliament, the Knesset. And what it basically does is it's empowering a panel of judges using both civil and military law to hand down the death penalty by a majority vote. And key parts of these hearings expected to take place or begin in about a year's time, they're going to be shown on a live stream in a specially set up Jerusalem courtroom. So all of that has led to comparisons with Israel's trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, which was shown on television back in 1961 in he was hanged in 1962, the last person to be executed, actually the only person to be executed after conviction by an Israeli civil court. Although the death penalty has remained on Israel's statute books. And so a lot of politicians were talking about this as being appropriately historic. And they're saying that the rules are different from normal criminal trials because of the scale of the cases and the import of the cases. And the rules have been adjusted to allow sort of fast tracking really, because you have numbers are not totally clear. 300 to 400 Gazans reportedly held by Israel as criminal defendants accused of involvement in the 7 October attacks. And there are, I should say, another 1,200 or so held as what are termed unlawful combatants without charge, mostly from Gaza as well. And advocates of this new law say it's going to meet international standards. Human rights groups disputing that.

[Alex Ritson]

Yeah, not a single lawmaker in the Knesset voted against this. Is that view reflected among the general population?

[Yoland Nell]

So, I mean, for decades, interestingly, Israel has been a de facto abolitionist state. But that has changed. Back in March, the death penalty for terrorist law passed that was aimed at Palestinians who were convicted of serious terrorism offenses. It doesn't apply retroactively. So that's why this legislation was needed specifically to deal with the events of 2023. But the 7 October attacks were the deadliest ever day in Israel. And recent polls have really indicated that there is growing support for the death penalty, particularly among Jewish Israelis. Not the 20% or so of the population who are Arab Israelis, but this really, you know, when there have been polls that have taken place recently, the support was highest according to what they showed when it came to carrying out the death penalty on the Hamas operatives who led the 7 October attack, victims of the attacks that bereaved families. They've been cautiously supportive about this, but they like most Israelis, according to the polls as well, they want to see an independent commission of inquiry too into the 7th of October attacks. They're saying that this is Only part of the justice for those who carried it out. They also want to have a full inquiry so that those who are, you know, the authorities in Israel who were responsible, they should take responsibility. At the moment, the Israeli government is only agreeing to a government led inquiry.

[Alex Ritson]

Joland Nell in Jerusale. The European Union has approved new sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of supporting what it calls the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank. There's growing concern about a surge in the number of Palestinians killed and injured as a result of attacks by Israeli settlers and accusations of excessive force by the Israeli military. The idf, as Wira Davis reports

[Rob Watson]

in

[Wirra Davis]

a Nablus hospital, the cries of a newborn as new life emerges from tragedy. Hours before Yaman's emergence into the world, his father's life had been cut short by an Israeli sniper. Well, we're now walking up to the Shami family home in the old city of Nablus. It's a beautiful house and this should be a happy house because their daughter had just given birth to a baby boy. But it's also a huge time of sadness here and the mother and father in law said they're bereaved. Amidst their happiness, they treated Naif like a son of their own. He might grow up thinking the Israelis shot my father, that his heart might be filled with hatred. God willing not say the grandparents Mikawe and Fahiye in conversation. To whom can we complain? They ask me when they who judge are also our adversaries. That Sunday morning, Naif was keen to get back to the hospital where his wife was due to give birth to their first child. He'd locked up his kebab shop here in the heart of the city and he wanted to get away because Nablus was tense. Israeli troops had come into the town that morning and they were clashing with some youths who were throwing stones. As he crossed the road to the spot where I'm now standing, Naif collapsed on the floor. He'd been shot in the back of the head. Israel said he may have been part of a group that was throwing stones and agitating. But pictures taken on local CCTV and on some phones seem to suggest that he was walking away from the scene and certainly did not appear to be throwing anything. Dr. Hassan Hamad was first on the scene as Naive collapsed to the floor, fatally injured. We've again asked the IDF about claims, including from eyewitnesses, that he was not involved in any stone throwing.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I was sure and I saw Naif. I saw him and I know him. Before Naif is not from these people who are throwing stones. We know these people also from my experience. They don't need excuses to open their fire and because they know that nobody will punish them, nobody will stop them.

[Wirra Davis]

That sense of impunity was also felt here, near Jenin in the northern part of the west bank, as mourners paid their respects to the family of hussein assassa, an 80 year old patriarch who died of natural causes when the old man's sons buried him in the village cemetery. Within an hour, Israeli settlers descended on the grave, hacking at it with tools and trying to remove the body. Under the gaze of Israeli soldiers and the heavily armed settlers, the brothers had to dig up the grave themselves, carrying the shrouded body of their late father down the hill to relative safety. The IDF later said it condemns any attempts to attack in a manner that that harms public order, the rule of law and the dignity of the living and the deceased. Mohammad Alasa is the eldest brother. We got back to my father's grave just in time, he tells me. They'd almost dug down and reached the body. How can we be safe as Palestinians when our dead relatives aren't even secure in their graves? After being forced to unceremoniously dig up their father's body, Hussein's remains have now been reinterred here in a cemetery in a neighboring village. The Israeli army says it's investigating and they say they tried to confiscate tools the settlers were using to damage his grave. The UN called this an appalling and emblematic example of the dehumanisation of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

[Alex Ritson]

That report from Wirra Davis. Ministers have started resigning from Keir Starmer's government as the embattled British Prime Minister fights to stay in office following last week's abysmal election results. One of them is the high profile Jess Phillips. She said in her resignation letter that she had given up believing that Keir Starmer could bring the change she wanted to see. On Tuesday morning, members of the press shouted questions at Mr. Starmer's senior ministers as they went into 10 Downing street for a cabinet meeting.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Do you have confidence in the Prime Minister? Should the Prime Minister fight on? Ministers? Has the Prime Minister lost confidence in the Cabinet?

[Alex Ritson]

As we record this podcast, more than 60 out of Keir Starmer's governing Labour Party's 403 MPs have now demanded he go. Despite this, he's steadfastly refusing to do so, delivering a defiant message to his Cabinet. He said that Whilst the past 48 hours had been destabilizing. The process for challenging a leader had not yet been triggered. A split in Keir Starmer's cabinet emerged on Monday, but on Tuesday, several ministers spoke out in support of him after the meeting, among them the Science and Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall.

[Yoland Nell]

The Prime Minister talked about the challenges we face as a country, the crisis in the Middle east, the impact on the cost of living here, and that this government is, we'll do what we were elected to do, which is serve the British people. The Prime Minister has my full support in that sense. Let me just say this. There is a process to challenge the leader. No one has made that challenge.

[Alex Ritson]

But the Labour mp, Paulette Hamilton said that Keir Starmer had been stubborn and reckless.

[Richard Kergoy]

What he's now done is he's thrown the gauntlet out and him himself has started whatever civil war you'd like to

[Reporter/Interviewer]

talk about that will happen in the party. People were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the way

[Richard Kergoy]

he's come out, it won't be pretty. And that's what worries me as a nurse. I worry about his mental health and

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I worry that the way he's handled this, it doesn't make us look bright on the world stage.

[Alex Ritson]

Rebecca Kesby got the latest from our political correspondent, Rob Watson.

[Rob Watson]

Overall, once more, Rebecca, Britain is plunged into a deep, deep crisis with the governing Labour Party profoundly divid over what on earth to do next. So familiar scenes, if you like. I was thinking about it when we heard those shouts of will he resign? It was similar to what we heard when, of course, the Conservatives were in power for 14 years. But to sort of bring you up to date, where we are is this sort of tense standoff between the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, making it clear to his cabinet and beyond that to the party. Look, I'm not going anywhere unless someone challenges me. A standoff between him and a substantial chunk of the Labour Party that thinks it's just not working. With Keir Starmes as our leader, something needs to change. So it feels to me as though this is utterly untenable, that you just can't quite go on like this. But how it resolves is not clear, Rebecca.

[Yoland Nell]

Right, so we've had some fairly high profile resignations so far from ministerial positions and junior positions as well. But what would need to happen to actually trigger the mechanism of a leadership election?

[Rob Watson]

Well, technically, what you would need is 81 Labour MPs to say, we're having a leadership challenge and this is the person. So that's technically what? But obviously what you're saying before that is a draining away of the Prime Minister's authority. He mentioned ministers resigning. I think it's now up to three. So if you add that overall to something like 20% of Parliamentary Labour members, Labour MPs saying the Prime Minister needs to think about his position, you see what a tough place he's in.

[Alex Ritson]

Our UK political correspondent Rob Watson

[Rob Watson]

still

[Alex Ritson]

to come in this podcast.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Why? Why should I surrender? How about you? Would you surrender to them if you were a Filipino? We have existing Philippine courts. Why should we be taken away by these foreigners?

[Alex Ritson]

A senator in the Philippines takes refuge inside the country's parliament in an effort to avoid arrest over his alleged role in former President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

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[Yoland Nell]

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[Alex Ritson]

This is the Global News podcast. At least 400 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since a cross border conflict with Pakistan broke out in October last year. According to the latest numbers released by the un, Pakistan has carried out a number of airstrikes in Afghanistan accusing the Taliban government of harbouring militants responsible for attacks in Pakistan, a charge the Taliban denies. A majority of the deaths in Afghanistan were caused by a single strike in Kabul. The UN has now confirmed that at least 269 people were killed when Pakistan struck a drug rehabilitation center In Kabul on 16 March, the deadliest mass casualty incident in Afghanistan in recent decades. Pakistan denies it hit civilians, saying it precisely targeted military installations and terrorist infrastructure. I spoke to our correspondent in Kabul, Yogurta Lemurie.

[Advertisement Voice]

One of the reasons why this incident has shocked people so much is this is not a country that's a stranger to conflict and war. It's endured four decades of it, but in recent history you've never seen a single strike with that kind of death toll. And even the UN report released today is saying at least 269. They're saying that the actual number could be significantly higher. Afghanistan's Taliban government actually puts it at more than 400. And the reason they say that it could be significantly higher is because there were many bodies that were charred beyond recognition. The list of the patients who were admitted to this drug rehabilitation center actually was burnt in the fire. And so there are families who've not been able to find their loved ones at all or the remains of their loved ones. And that is the reason why I think it's sends shockwaves through this country and we have been speaking to the families of some of the victims. We've come off the main roads of the City. And we're going to meet the brothers of Muhammad Anwar Walizada. He's one of the people who was killed in the bombing at the rehabilitation center. Muhammad was the elder brother of Mujtapa and Siddiq Walizada. And we are just about to speak to them to understand what happened. On the night that he was killed, Siddiq received a call telling him that the Omid Rehabilitation center where Muhammad was admitted had been bombed.

[Alex Ritson]

At the beginning, it was just chaos. They were dead and wounded in every hospital. We were still hoping that my brother might be alive. Four days later, we found his body cut in pieces.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

He has six children.

[Alex Ritson]

No matter how hard we try, we cannot replace their father.

[Advertisement Voice]

The airstrike ripped through parts of the 2000 Bed Omid Rehabilitation Center. Omidh opened a decade ago, back in 2016, at an abandoned NATO base, well before the Taliban seized power in this country. We've driven up one of the hills surrounding the city of Kabul to a graveyard where we're going to meet the family of another victim of the airstrike at the rehabilitation center. Masouda's younger brother, mirwais, who was 21 years old, was killed in that airstrike. And just behind us, actually, I can just see rows and rows of graves. This is the mass grave in which we're told, about 80 to 90 of the victims who were killed in that airstrike, they were buried here. My brother's body was in pieces. There was nothing left of him to give to us, so they buried him here. He was a simple boy who never harmed anyone. After our mother died, I raised him like a son. He lost his job, and that's why he got addicted to drugs. The Pakistani government says that the people in that hospital were not civilians, that they were terrorists, that they were being trained to be suicide bombers. What would you like to say to that? Pakistan is lying. There were no militants or military there. They were men who were admitted to UMAID to get healed and return to their families. We spoke to the families of more than 30 victims who also rejected Pakistan. In response to the BBC, Pakistan denied it had hit a hospital, drug center or civilian facility. The Taliban government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Targeting civilians is a war crime. International organizations should investigate the incident and prosecute those responsible accordingly.

[Advertisement Voice]

This is a huge attack right in the heart of Kabul. One of the big claims of your government since you seized power has been that you brought safety and security to the people of Afghanistan. Is Kabul safe now?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Kabul is definitely safe. Our Government is trying to control and eliminate threats against people.

[Advertisement Voice]

Despite the Taliban's assurances of safety for a people who are recovering from decades of war, this new conflict with a former ally, Pakistan, has renewed fears of a return to violence and bloodshed.

[Alex Ritson]

Yogurt Lemuria with that report to the Philippines now, where a senator has taken refuge inside the country's parliament in an effort to avoid arrest over his alleged role in former President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. Ronald de la Rosa fled into the Senate building on Monday as police sought to detain him after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him. There are allegations that the former police chief oversaw the deadly war on drugs, causing the deaths of thousands of people. Mr. De la Rosa has been in hiding since his former boss, Mr. Duterte, was arrested and taken to the Hague last year on charges of crimes against humanity. Mr. De la Rosa spoke to reporters shortly after fleeing into the Senate. Why?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Why should I surrender?

[Advertisement Voice]

How about you?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Would you surrender to them if you were a Filipino? We have existing Philippine courts. Why should we be taken away by these foreigners? This is an attack on our sovereignty.

[Alex Ritson]

Police later said they would not arrest him while he was in Parliament. I spoke to our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, who began by describing the chaotic scenes at the Philippines Parliament.

[Jonathan Head]

Senator Delarosa, who as you say, has been missing in action from the Senate for several months, pretty much since rumors emerged that there was going to be a second arrest warrant from the ICC served on him, suddenly appeared at the door. There must have been expectations he might turn up because National Bureau of Investigations officers were there. He says they tried to stop him entering. He says he managed to barge his way through. He's a big bull of a man. You're really burly figure. And then if you look at the security camera video, you can see them chasing him up the, the fire escape stairs. And he's, he's quite a heavy man, but he was running just ahead of them, breaking through doors, got into the Senate chamber. Now the Senate, the upper house of the Philip in the Philippines, is at the moment dominated by allies of President Duterte and of course sympathetic to Bato de la Rosa. So the president of the Senate then announced that he was under the sanctuary of the Senate and that he cannot be arrested there. There's some debate in the Philippines whether that is or isn't exactly possible, but there's a bigger picture here. On the one hand, you've got the quest for accountability for those thousands of drug deaths in which De la Rosa, as the police chief at the time and the right hand man of President Duterte, is a key figure. And the ICC says there are definitely strong grounds for him to be prosecuted. He's never been brought to trial or even an attempt to do so. In the Philippines, you also have this epic feud between the family of President Marcos and the family of President Duterte. They were allies when they won the election four years ago. They've fallen out badly. And of course, the Duterte camp say the Marcos government's willingness to cooperate with these ICC arrest warrants is all political. It's all an attempt to damage the Duterte camp. Sarah Duterte, the Vice President who is now facing impeachment, is also the front runner to win the next election in the next two years.

[Alex Ritson]

And that's the thing. He says these charges are politically motivated. Are they?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

No.

[Jonathan Head]

I mean, it's an ICC warrant and it's been very carefully thought through. Also, there is enormous amounts of evidence that Batadala Rosa was a key architect of the policy of allowing massive killings of alleged drug dealers. You know, I think there would, the ICC would argue they've spent years sifting through the evidence. There's a very strong case. The real argument that the Duterte camp makes is that an ICC warrant shouldn't apply in the Philippines because the Philippines is no longer a member. Now, the Philippine Supreme Court has disagreed with this. In the case of President Duterte, the Philippines was a member of the ICC when these killings in Manila started. And remember, the charges relate to earlier killings in the city of Davao. President Duterte pulled it out in 2019. But all these charges relate to actions before that. And the Philippine Supreme Court has agreed that that does make people in the Philippines still liable for what they did at that time.

[Alex Ritson]

Jonathan Head for decades, France has had a problematic relationship with Africa. Several countries on the west of the continent have pivoted away from their former colonial master and been taken over by military governments and strongmen. In response, President Emmanuel Macron is co hosting the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi together with his Ken counterpart, William Ruto. That was the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, being played at the opening of the conference, which is designed to showcase France's revised approach to engagement with Africa. I spoke to our global affairs reporter, Richard Kergoy, who is in Nairobi.

[Richard Kergoy]

Well, it's largely seen as an attempt by France perhaps to broaden its relationship away from areas which are considered to be traditional areas in West Africa where France was a former colonial Power. And it's maybe a strategy to revamp its image and also to reset relations with Africa. Because the perception about France's relations with Africa has really been affected, especially considering what has been happening in West Africa, where it fall out with some of its former colonies, which include Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. But largely France has been saying that it's an opportunity for it to reset its relations, which is largely focusing on economic opportunity. They want to see how they can engage in a relationship that is largely mutually beneficial. But I think beneath that, it's seeing how does it remain still relevant and how does it engage still parts of the continent that maybe still look at it favorably.

[Alex Ritson]

Yeah, you talk about mutually beneficial opportunities. Opportunities. What is it specifically that France wants? And are the East African countries really all that interested?

[Richard Kergoy]

That's interesting, because if you listen to President Macron's presentation on the first day of the summit, what he said is Africa really needs to be helped, you know, in terms of its ambition to become sovereign in the sense that relations, especially with former European colonial powers, it shouldn't focus on just aid, but focusing on economic opportunity. So capacity building, especially when it comes to issues of critical minerals. But then in East Africa, I think a lot of people see France as coming a little bit too late to the party. Many people asking themselves, what is France really getting in return? Beyond, you know, the announcements in terms of the multimillion dollars investment that it has announced, a lot of people that you would speak to in Uganda, in Kenya, in Tanzania, they would say they don't want to have the burden that has been associated with French colonialism from what they witnessed happening in parts of West Africa and Central Africa. So there's still a level of skepticism, especially amongst the general population. But generally, if you look even at the leaderships of the countries within the East African region, they're saying, okay, well, it's great that you're coming here, but then it's an opportunity for us maybe just to diversify the relations that we have. So coming in as another entity that we can relate to. But then you wouldn't say, really, there's just generally that excitement that you would have expected.

[Jay Shetty]

Yeah.

[Alex Ritson]

And this has been generally the economic age of China in Africa. What are other Western countries? Britain has had a big influence in Kenya. What are they going to make of this?

[Richard Kergoy]

Well, Britain was a former colonial power, but Britain's influence over East Africa has been winning over the years. And what we have seen right now is a lot of countries in East Africa broadening their relationship and ties with other countries that become very close to China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and also India. So what they're saying is that this is not likely really to upset Western countries, because the challenge would be really refine the value proposition in terms of how they deal with countries, especially within East Africa. What is it that you'll be offering different that perhaps then they will generate that excitement. But I think if you talk to people in Dar es Salaam, in Kampala and in Kenya, the idea is really just to broaden its engagement beyond its traditional partners.

[Alex Ritson]

Richard Kagoi Want to slow the pace of aging? Don't fancy exercising or improving your diet? Well, why not try a bit of culture? New research suggests that participation in the arts is not just good for your soul, but actually slows down your body's biological clock. The lead researcher is Daisy Fancourt, who's professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London. She spoke to my colleague Nick Robinson.

[Professor Daisy Fancourt]

We've been looking at a particular way of measuring biological aging called epigenetic clocks. So essentially, we're all born with our set of DNA, but our lifestyles can decide which parts of our DNA get read out. So a bit like a recipe book. The recipes are there when it's printed, but we only choose to make some of them. And we've been looking at a process called DNA methylation, which is when a molecule called methyl attaches to our DNA, making it hard to read out a bit like sticky pages in that recipe book. And as we get older, there are particular patterns of DNA methylation that tend to occur. So we can look at these patterns to see if someone is older or younger than the number of birthdays they've had. And we found that people who engage more in the arts have got this younger epigenetic age.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And the problem with these sorts of studies is always you've got to try and screen out everything else that could have an impact, lifestyle, age, geography, and so on. You've done that, have you?

[Professor Daisy Fancourt]

Exactly. That's been a big part of this study, is considering the demographic and socioeconomic factors that could actually explain this relationship, but also disentangling this from the other kinds of lifestyle and behavioral factors that we already know influence epigenetic aging. But interestingly, the relationship is there independent of those, and it's actually the same effect size for arts engagement that we see for physical activity.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

That's fascinating. Well, let's drill down a bit on what you mean by engagement. Do you literally mean If I read 10 pages before going to sleep or have the radio on? Or do you mean that I have to go and sing in a choir?

[Professor Daisy Fancourt]

We've looked at a really broad range of activities within the index. So we looked at performing arts, so making things crafts, music, dance, as well as people going to cultural events, whether that's museums or libraries or carnivals, gigs, festivals. We used a very broad inclusive index that captured a lot of modern and digital participation as well as but we found it's not just about frequency of engagement. Diversity of engagement also appears really important.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

So doing different things, not just the one thing that obsess you. And if people want some advice, really, I mean, I know you're not there to give advice. What would you say?

[Professor Daisy Fancourt]

We're all used to the kind of advice we have for diet and physical activity like get your five a day of vegetables and fruit or get your 10,000 steps. And I think it can be helpful if we start to frame arts engagement in a similar way behaviorally. So trying to find a rule for ourselves that tries to prioritize even small amounts of engagement, but on that regular basis, ideally on a day to day basis.

[Alex Ritson]

Professor Daisy Fancourt talking to Nick Robinson. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email [e-mail] you could also find us on X@BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. Don't forget our sibling podcast, the Global Story, which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Louis Griffin. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time. Goodbye.

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