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Israel casts doubt on whether it will accept a new ceasefire proposal
00:29:49
Israel demands release of all Gaza hostages, casting doubt on ceasefire proposal
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Julia McFarlane
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Which is why you can count on Grainger for professional grade products and next day delivery. So you have everything you need to get the job done. Call 1-800-granger clickgranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and in the early hours of Wednesday, 20th of August, these are our main stories. Israel casts doubt on whether it will accept a new ceasefire proposal Trump rules out US boots on the ground in Ukraine, but says Putin will face a rough situation if he doesn't cooperate. Also in this podcast, 10 years after 71 people died in an unventilated truck abandoned in Austria, we hear from their families.
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Hazem Khali
Imagining like putting a lot of people in one truck and no air. It's just like a disaster. All of that was because of money.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Over the past few days we've focused on peace efforts in Ukraine, but behind closed doors there have also been strenuous negotiations towards ending the fighting in Gaza. On Monday, Hamas told the BBC it had accepted a proposal by Arab mediators involving a 60 day truce and the release of half of the hostages. On Tuesday, an official in Prime Minister Netanyahu's office has told the BBC they would only agree to a ceasefire if all 50 remaining hostages, dead and alive, are released. The latest proposals were part of a last ditch effort by Qatar and Egypt to secure a ceasefire and a hostage release agreement to potentially avoid a major Israeli offensive to fully occupy Gaza. David Mensah is spokesman for the Israeli government.
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Amir Nada
The Prime Minister has laid out a.
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Julia McFarlane
Plan for the future of Gaza and that means our ambitions are no more.
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Didier Ryckner
No more partial plans, no more dancing.
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Amir Nada
To the Hamas tune.
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Didier Ryckner
We want all of our hostages back. We're not interested in partial deals.
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Julia McFarlane
Our principle now is extremely clear. All the hostages must be released immediately.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
I asked our correspondent in Jerusalem, Amir Nada, if progress could still be made.
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Amir Nada
It's certainly dashing hopes. This isn't, as you've mentioned, the formal response by Israel to Hamas's agreement to that proposal. But it does seem quite strong, the language that we're hearing from Israeli government officials. It does indeed look like they may reject the proposal that Hamas has signed up to, or at least try to substantially renegotiate it. And for many it is a surprise because they this is a deal the basis of which was essentially being negotiated upon as recently as last month. However, others have also pointed out this hardening of language from the government in recent days. And we heard just in the past few days Prime Minister Netanyahu talking about no more partial deals and that Israel was pushing for the full release of Israeli hostages. We obviously don't know if this is part of a negotiating tactic as well. And we also don't know when an official Israeli response might come. But the deal, as we understand it, did include some softening of Hamas's position. And so there were some hopes that it would receive a positive response in Israel. That doesn't look to be the case.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
We've heard from a White House briefing that the United States continues to discuss that ceasefire proposal for Gaza that Hamas has accepted. Can you tell us more about what we believe is in those proposals?
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Amir Nada
So we understand from sources who are close to the talks, close to the negotiation, the discussions happening in Egypt that it is essentially the same deal that was originally drafted by the US envoy, Steve Witkoff. It would have involved an initial 60 day ceasefire period in which half of the hostages that are in Gaza would be released. That includes living and those who aren't the dead hostages, the bodies that remain there. It would see prisoners, prisoners being released from Israeli prisons going back to Gaza. It would see Israeli troops withdraw from parts of the Gaza Strip towards a buffer zone. And there had been some softening, it seemed like, of Hamas's position on those points. And now if we are to understand the messaging from these officials close to the prime minister, it looks like those concessions aren't enough for the Israeli side and they'll push for a full release of Israeli hostages.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Amir Nada President Trump has ruled out sending American troops to Ukraine as part of any peacekeeping deal. In his first interview since talks at the White House with President Zelenskyy, Mr. Trump told the Fox News program Fox and Friends that he had hopes that Vladimir Putin would move forward with plans to end the war. But he acknowledged it was possible the Russian president didn't want to make a deal. He also repeated that Kyiv would not join NATO. After confirming US troops would not be sent to UKRA, Mr. Trump insisted that major European powers would step up. Instead.
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Didier Ryckner
We've got the European nations and they'll front loaded and they'll have some of them, France and Germany, UK they want to have, you know, boots on the.
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Julia McFarlane
Ground, not in, not.
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Didier Ryckner
I don't think it's going to be.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
A problem, to be honest with you.
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Didier Ryckner
I think, I think Putin is tired of it. I think they're all tired of it.
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Julia McFarlane
But you never know.
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Didier Ryckner
We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks.
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Julia McFarlane
That I can tell you.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Our North America correspondent, Aruna Day Mukherjee gave us this update at the moment.
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Julia McFarlane
From what we've gathered in terms of statements from various leaders who were part of those conversations yesterday and Donald Trump himself by way of that interview and the brief clip that you played out is that the focus and the thrust seems to largely be on two aspects. One, to try and get that bilateral meeting done between the two leaders of the warring countries of Ukraine and Russia. We still don't have a timeline of that, which I think is very critical. We're waiting to get more details about what exactly will be the plan, the structure, because, you know, only after that can there be a possibility of a trilateral. And the second aspect that remains the focus at the moment in conversations would be the attempts by the US along with their allies, to try and work out those security guarantees which they feel will be critical for Ukraine going forward, for Ukraine's security. Now, the obvious spot is, which we've heard from the European leaders, is Europe is likely to have, you know, the ability to deploy troops on the ground, although that the modalities of all of that are still being worked out. But I think the news lines that came out of President Trump were important, that he's completely ruling out boots on the ground for the US but talking about support and also indicating at one point that it could be air support. Now, we still don't know what exactly that means, whether that means surveillance, combat, you know, intelligence, we still don't know, but essentially saying that there will be some form of US Presence. But I think all of that is being worked out. As Caroline Levitt, who was holding a briefing, said, that options are on the table, but this is something that is still work in progress and it's being worked out.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Did we learn anything new from that press briefing from Caroline Levitt?
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Julia McFarlane
Well, just reiteration of what we've heard from President Trump. There were a lot of questions, you know, that revolved around what many feel to be confusion about the meetings that President Trump is trying to have with President Putin. But there have been no firm details revealed about that, which, you know, is something that we are still waiting for.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
ARUNDE mukherjee well, no reaction so far from President Putin himself about all of this, but one of his advisors, the former deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Fedorov, told the BBC that Monday's meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders was significant for Moscow.
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Didier Ryckner
It was clear demonstration that transatlantic unity is still existing. There were a lot of hopes in Moscow that it will be not so, but it has happened. Now we can see a kind of roadmap for the further developments. Now we are standing on even more serious period of talks, negotiations because after yesterday's meeting in Washington, there are no way to step back.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
So what's next then? Is a peace agreement even possible? Earlier I spoke to our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams. I asked him what the Ukrainians are likely to want to achieve from further diplomatic talks.
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Paul Adams
First of all, an end to the fighting and then some guarantees that Russia will not attack again in the future. And that is not a simple matter at all. That's going to involve not just pieces of paper but all kinds of ways in which Ukraine's long term security is guaranteed through the provision of Western military equipment, the presence in Ukraine of supporting elements from the so called coalition, of the willingness to a whole host of issues. And then of course there is the question of territory. And I think the Ukrainians know perfectly well that painful sacrifices are looming, that some of the territory that Russia has taken over in the past 11 years, starting with Crimea in 2014, is very, very unlikely ever to be returned. So what you tend to hear Ukrainian officials talking about is, well, we're not going to legally recognize Russia's conquest of any of our sovereign territory. We will cling to that principle ferociously. But there are examples of other conflicts around the world, frozen conflicts in which territorial status was put to one side and people just sort of got on. And I suppose that is sort of what Ukraine is hoping for, that no one is going to be persuaded to legally recognize Russia's occupation of, say, the Donbass.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Well, on that we also heard Fedorov admit that if Putin were to conquer the remaining parts of Donetsk, it may take him several years. And so is there an issue that actually Putin is not just playing for time, but hoping to get something out of these talks that he cannot achieve on the battlefield?
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Paul Adams
Oh, absolutely. I mean, we're talking about the last 25% or so of the Donetsk oblast and this area known as the fortified belt or the fortress belt, a series of cities, including Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, which have been essentially the front line for the last 11 years. For all sorts of military, strategic reasons, the Russians would dearly like to get behind that fortress line. And for all sorts of military reasons, Ukraine wants to stop that happening because it would leave other parts of Ukraine to the north and the west, vulnerable should Russia decide to attack again in the future. And so there will be a lot of attention given to that little chunk of territory.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
And Paul, lastly, do you think all the recent developments take us any closer to that Putin Zelensky face off?
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Paul Adams
I mean, in one sense, yes, they do, because everyone is now talking about it and the ground that needs to be prepared before it happens is now starting to be covered. But, you know, I don't think anyone should get ahead of themselves here. There is an awful lot of stuff that has to be sorted out. Territorial discussions, all the discussions about security guarantees before a meeting of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy can really take place. That that's the sort of event that you can imagine capping a process rather than coming in the middle of a process.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Paul Adams. Ten years ago this week, a refrigerated truck was found abandoned on a motorway in Austria. The doors were wired shut, the air was off and there were no vents inside. Police found the bodies of 59 men, eight women and four children. Our central Europe correspondent, Nick Thorpe, has been talking to relatives of some of the victims.
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Nick Thorpe
I've travelled to the town of Kanke in Iraqi Kurdistan to meet the family of some of those who died in the truck. Hazem Khali and his wife Ghurje lost their daughter Elin, aged 14, their son Allend, aged 16, and Hazem's younger brother, Harish.
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Hazem Khali
This was the last picture he took. The family. It was on the 5th of August, 2050, and the place is the border between Turkey and Iraq. So this was the last time he saw them.
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Nick Thorpe
Vranca prison in Bulgaria, a forbidding fortress of a building at the foot of the Balkan mountains. Metrody Georgiev, 39 years old, sits opposite me. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. As one of the leaders of the smuggling gang who organized that truck, how did you feel towards all those people.
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Hazem Khali
You were moving.
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Amir Nada
The first time?
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Didier Ryckner
You feel sorry for them. But after the fifth year, don't these.
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Amir Nada
People are prepared to get into trucks without even asking? No one's forcing them to do it. They're prepared to die on the road rather than go back to the countries they came from.
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Nick Thorpe
By August 2015, thousands of asylum seekers a day were crossing the Serbian border into Hungary. From there, gangs like this one drove them on to Germany. The 71 migrants were squeezed into the back of that particular truck just before dawn. Soon after it set out, they started banging and shouting. The driver got worried and rang Metodi. And Metodi rang the boss, an Afghan called Samsor, to ask what to do. Keep driving, he said, and if they die, dump the bodies in the forest. We know all this detail because the Hungarian police were tapping their phones. This evidence was so damning, the judge passed down the maximum sentences. But Metodi still proclaims his innocence.
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Didier Ryckner
To this day.
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Amir Nada
I don't feel guilty. Everyone makes mistakes, right? I regret what I've done. I also have a family. I'm not a monster to kill these people deliberately. I didn't kill anyone.
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Nick Thorpe
Back in northern Iraq, we sat on cushions on the floor of Hazam's tidy home. Hazem feels justice has been done.
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Hazem Khali
He's saying, this one who did this thing, they are not humans. Because imagining, like putting a lot of people in one truck and no air, it's just like a disaster. He's saying all of that was because of money, to get more money. So let's leave it for God and the European governments to give them what they deserve.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Hassam Khali finishing that dispatch. And you can listen to Nick Thorpe's full report, the truck that Shocked the World, on the BBC World Service or as a podcast, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Still to come in this podcast, an art historian in France wants to stop the loan of the Bayard tapestry to the uk.
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Didier Ryckner
We compare often with La Jouquande Mona Lisa with paintings by grandmasters. But paintings by grandmasters are many. There is only one Tapestrit bayou.
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BBC Announcer
Who'S abducting 100,000 children in China each year? And how was a cult where paedophilia, murder and torture were commonplace allowed to operate in Chile for nearly four decades? At True Crime Reports, a new video podcast from Al Jazeera, we'll investigate these stories from the global south and beyond. True crimes that often haven't reached the headlines in the West. I'm Halemah Yuddin. In each episode, we'll take you to a different country. You'll hear from experts and first hand accounts from those right at the heart of these stories. True crime reports. Find us under Al Jazeera's YouTube channel podcast tab and wherever you get your podcasts.
- [17:36]
Narrator / Main Presenter
Weather forecasters have issued a red alert for Mumbai as the Indian city experiences heavy downpours and flooding. The authorities have urged residents to take care as further rainfall is expected along with high tides when more than 20cm of rain have fallen in the city in the past 24 hours, the highest volume in one day since 2020. Our South Asia correspondent Yogita Lamai reports from Mumbai.
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Yogita Lamai
Life has been thrown out of gear in Mumbai after two days of heavy rainfall. Government offices were closed and the private sector was told to allow its employees to work from home. A holiday was also declared for schools and colleges. There was flooding in several parts of the city with videos of half submerged vehicles being shared on social media. The Mithi river, which runs through the city, came dangerously close to breaching its banks, so hundreds of people living close to it were evacuated and are being sheltered in schools. At railway platforms, passengers were told that trains were suspended because of flooding on the tracks, but rail services have now started to resume. While the airport didn't close, dozens of flights have been delayed. Heavy rainfall is normal for Mumbai during the monsoon season, but authorities say the intensity of the downpour over the past two days has been unprecedented. The weather department says there could be more rainfall overnight and people have been asked to stay indoors.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Yogi Telmai, the charity Save the Children estimates that around two thirds of child marriages happens in regions with higher than average climate risk risk. The reason? Vulnerable populations in these countries are at risk of being pushed further into poverty by extreme weather events and child marriages can be seen as one less mouth to feed. In Malawi's lakeside district of Mangochi, a region increasingly wracked by drought, some families dependent on fishing and farming say there is no other option. The BBC's Ann Okumu reports.
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BBC Announcer
It is early morning in Mangochi on the shores of Lake Malawi. 16 year old Hawa stands barefoot by the water. Hawa was just 16 when she got married earlier this year. The legal age to marry in Malawi is 18. More frequent droughts have badly affected her family's income from fishing and farming and with very little money for basics or education. Hawa says she believed marriage was her only option. Some days my father would come back home with nothing from the lake. There's been lots of hunger. It's very tough. I decided to get married because I want to help my parents. But she was underage did you try to stop her?
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Nick Thorpe
It hurt me to see her make that decision, but I was concerned. I would have loved her to continue with her education.
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BBC Announcer
According to the charity save the children, 40 million girls will be living in hotspot countries by 2050 who will be at a greater risk of extreme climate, events and child marriage. Defined as any marriage Involving someone under 18, Malawi is among the top five countries most affected. The current law defining marriage came in 2017 with a minimum age of 18. The age of sexual consent remains at 16, but marriage below the minimum age is not criminalized. Arrests are only made when the girls involved are under 16 and a sexual offence has been committed. MacBain works with the locals and the Malawian government to help prevent or overturn child marriages and to reintegrate underage brides back into the education system.
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Amir Nada
The law that we have, starting with the Child justice act, the amended constitution, all those speak to protecting the girl child, but then the traditional law or customary law does not take that into consideration.
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BBC Announcer
So far, he says, they have removed hundreds of girls from such marriages since 2023, collaborating with legal officers, traditional chiefs and the police.
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Amir Nada
After withdrawing them from child marriages. There is no support.
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BBC Announcer
Although Hawa says she's happy in her marriage and it's clear she was not pressured to marry, beneath the weight of her sacrifice, she still carries the drive of who she hoped to become. If we had everything at home, I would have loved to continue with my education, become a teacher and better my life. And as long as climate change continues to worsen poverty, the hopes and the potential of young women like Hawa may remain unfulfilled.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Ann Okumu India says it has conveyed its concerns to China about a mega dam being built on a river that runs through Tibet and India. Delhi said the dam along the Yarlung Sang Po, known as the Brahmaputra in India, would have implications for states lying downstream. Our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasa Netarajan, has more details.
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Julia McFarlane
China has started constructing what will be the world's largest hydropower dam in Tibet that could have a serious impact on millions of people downstream in India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh India's concerns were raised during a meeting with the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi in Delhi. China hasn't commented on those discussions, but earlier Mr. Wang said that two countries should regard each other as partners instead of adversaries. Mr. Wang also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has confirmed his visit to China later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and Barasan Etarajan.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Now, if you believe the publicity, this year's US Open Tennis Championship is bigger and better, thanks to the introduction of a new look mixed doubles event. The biggest tennis stars are teaming up to win $1 million to compete against each other in the first week of the championship in New York. And the format now consists of much shorter matches. But not everyone is happy about it. Some specialist mixed double players have been brushed aside, no longer invited to take part because they're not seen as big enough draws. Instead, the blockbuster lineup includes pairings such as multiple Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz, who was paired with the former US Open winner Emma Radkannu. This is what they said before the tournament started. I would like to know how much of the court he can cover in New York.
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Jonathan Jericho
I just gonna surf.
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Didier Ryckner
I'm gonna pull myself, you know, away.
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Amir Nada
And I let her play.
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Didier Ryckner
She will cover all the court. She will be the boss.
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Jonathan Jericho
I will do whatever, whatever she want me to do. That's it.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Well, the two young big hitters actually lost their match to number one seeds Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula, who headed straight to the quarterfinals. BBC Sport described that game as entertaining the crowd on the edge of their seats. Our sports reporter at Flushing Meadows in New York is Jonathan Jericho, and he spoke to the BBC Nick Hatton about the new format.
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Jonathan Jericho
It's certainly polarized opinion, that's for sure. Got announced in February that the US Open were going to reimagine the mixed doubles. And then in June, sort of excitement levels went up another notch when the superstars were announced who were going to play, namely Carlos Alcaraz and Emirad Kanu, and lots of other star names too, including Nova Djokovic, iga, Sviontek, Jannik, Sinner, who's actually now pulled out. And it's been the talking point in the tennis world for the past few months, for sure.
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Amir Nada
Yeah, it's a bold move, isn't it, by the United States Tennis Association. Why have they done this?
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Jonathan Jericho
And the rationale was to elevate the event and create greater focus on the sport. And that means bringing it forward before the tournament, separating it from the singles and the other doubles judge. It's been streamed on American primetime tv. It's been streamed across the world. So their argument is that they're putting more eyeballs on tennis and the stars. Now the cynics will say, is that true, or are they doing it just for money and to try and increase revenue? In this week before the Grand Slam tournament, I'm stood outside the media center here at Flushing Meadows and there's hundreds, thousands of people milling around who are obviously here spending money, not necessarily on the gate admission, but in the shop on food, on beverages, etc. It does seem like it's sold out for tomorrow night, which is when the semi finals and the final will be held.
- [26:14]
Amir Nada
And the men's and the women's doubles will remain, of course, as part of the US Open, which starts on Sunday. But how much of a slap in the face is this to those who usually play in the mix?
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Jonathan Jericho
A lot of doubles players are pretty angry about it. They see it as a lost opportunity to compete in a Grand Slam and win a Grand Slam title. And others say it devalues the Slam as well. Jamie Murray, who's obviously one of the most famous British doubles players, he kind of told me that he thinks that it's a glorified exhibition and that it's taking opportunities away from doubles players. Now, you know, there's a big, huge cash prize for the winners of $1 million. That's five times more than the champions, the mixed doubles champions received last year. It's a big, big chance to earn taken away from those players.
- [27:00]
Narrator / Main Presenter
Jonathan Jericho speaking to Nick Hatton. And finally, non to the loan of the Bayard Tapestry. That's the title of an online petition in France which has now received more than 43,000 signatures. The campaign was launched in July after this announcement in London by the French president Emmanuel Macron.
- [27:20]
Paul Adams
In the run up to the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Conqueror.
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Paul Adams
France will loan the United Kingdom the bayeux tapestry.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
The 70 meter long embroidered cloth depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, culminating in, of course, the Battle of Hastings. The loan, part of a proposed art exchange, would mark the first time the medieval tapestry would be displayed in the United Kingdom. Art historian and journalist Didier Ryckner created the petition. He described the work.
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Didier Ryckner
It's called a tapestry, but it's not quite a tapestry. It's an embroidery and it's very, very thin, you know, it's very long and very thin. It's 70 meters long and it's on a linen canvas and it is very fragile. There are many holes, many tiers, and it is why it's so impossible, so delicate, so dangerous to make it come to England. It is a unique object. You know, there is no other work of art of this kind anywhere in the world. It is the only embroidery of this size as old as this one, you know, so it is a heritage of humanity and we cannot Play with this. We cannot put it at risk only for political and diplomatical reasons.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
So if they were to transport it to the British Museum, how would they do that? And what is the danger? What are you worried about happening?
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Didier Ryckner
I am worried about what the restorers told me and the curators who have worked on this work of art. And they tell me. Everybody tells me the same thing. It's very fragile and they want to put it in a box and to make it travel by road, not by train, not by plane, but by road. They tell it there are less vibrations by road, but there are many varsions. Anyway, any move is very delicate and very dangerous for the embroidery. Every researcher and curators who have worked on this piece of art tells there will be a tearing, there will be holes. The wool which is on the linen could fall. Some of these accidents will be irreversible.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
In your petition, you described this loan as a true heritage crime. Can you talk to us about that? About how important this tapestry is to France?
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Didier Ryckner
This tapestry is important to France, but it is important for England. It is important for the world. And there is no other work of art of this kind. We compare often with La Jou Conde, Mona Lisa, with paintings by grandmasters. But paintings by grandmasters are many. There is only one, Tapestrit Bayeux.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Lots of people have really criticized the idea of this and that the Bayotapestry. It's not worth endangering such a unique piece of art. Why do you think the British Museum Museum is willing to give it a go?
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Didier Ryckner
I am very disappointed by the British Museum because it is a museum and they know very well it's not possible to do this without a risk.
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Narrator / Main Presenter
Well, they have said that their collections department can handle this and does this sort of thing all the time.
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Didier Ryckner
Yes, but not all the time with such a work of art. And it's not believing. I don't believe it's dangerous. I know it's dangerous because I have tokens with many restorers who worked on the tapestry and they all tell me it's very dangerous for the tapestry. I think symbolically it would be a great thing to lend it to England, but it's not possible. It's just not possible. We should be united, English and French, to tell it's not possible.
- [31:07]
Narrator / Main Presenter
Didier Rigneur and that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk. you can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and the producers were Guy Pitt and Stephanie Tillotson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time. Goodbye.