UK sanctions Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank and other news stories | Global News Podcast

This is the Global News podcast from the. BBC World Service. And on Tuesday the. 8th of September, the UK has banned. goods made in Israeli settlements in the. occupied West Bank. Today, we refuse to. be bystanders to further suffering and. to the destruction of the two-state. solution. >> A Middle East correspondent asks. Palestinians what they think of the. move. Canada retaliates against. President Trump's latest trade tariffs. And the tech boss Renee H says AI will. cure cancer in our lifetimes.

>> AI is going to not only shorten the. amount of time that those drugs can be. invented, it's going to shorten the. amount of time that you test them. You'll start to replace some human. trials with AI. The British government has announced a. ban on goods from Israeli settlements as. part of what it calls a comprehensive. reset of policy. Settlements are illegal. under international law. Speaking in. parliament, the foreign secretary Ed. Milliband said his commitment to the. two-state solution had led to a deep.

sense of shame about what has been. happening in Palestine. >> Today, we refuse to be bystanders to. further suffering and to the destruction. of the two-state solution. We call out. what is unlawful. We act on the import. of goods from illegal settlements. We. ban advertising of illegal settlements. We act on services to prevent new. settlement expansion. We act on settler. violence. We support accountability for. what has happened in Gaza and we pledge. to galvanize the international community. to confront the ongoing and an urgent.

humanitarian crisis. >> Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams. was listening to Mr. Miliban's speech. He gave this assessment. >> He was keen to draw a distinction. between criticism of Israel uh and the. relationship uh of this government and. and the Jewish population of the UK. But. at the same time, he made it clear that. the government is going to depart very. significantly from the policies of. previous governments when it comes to. the the the measures that you just.

mentioned. Not just a ban on the. products from settlements, something. that many MPs have called for for a long. time, but also on services to. settlements, on the advertising of. settlements in the UK. Um and he used. language that frankly would have been. unthinkable only perhaps a couple of. years ago. He talked about uh the his. agreement with a an Israeli former. brigadier general who said that ethnic. cleansing was going on in the West Bank.

Um so this was I think both in tone and. content an absolutely fundamental. departure with the policies of previous. governments. To find out more about the. potential impact of Britain's sanctions. on Israel, our Middle East correspondent. Yoland Nell has been to the Jordan. Valley to speak to Palestinian farmers. >> The UK says appalling settler terrorism. in the occupied West Bank is driving. Palestinians from their homes.

and that new Israeli plans to expand. settlements illegal under international. law mark the crossing of a red line. Dates are the main crop grown for export. in the Jordan Valley by Palestinian and. Israeli farmers. But now the UK is. looking at a ban on settlement goods. So. what difference could that make? >> About half the palms have no fruits, says Abdul Haleem Abu Omar. It's because.

we lack water. >> Palestinians say Israel denies them a. fair share of resources. This year, the. farmer has few dates to show an exporter. to the UK. Palestinians believe ending trade with. settlements could curb settlement. growth. >> Settlers are very active in the Jordan. Valley and increasingly active. Um, and. they are not obeying any laws or rules. They are going to the fields of the. growers. They are stealing uh from them.

and they are controlling more and more. land. Palestinians want this wide swathe. of fertile land as part of their own. hoped for state. >> So these ones are ready. >> But this Israeli date grower tells me he. doesn't believe Israel will ever give it. up. He's lived in a settlement here for. over 50 years and dismisses the impact. of any UK ban. >> As soon as we have a situation of. pressure and boycott, we always break. out and look for other markets. Though I.

believe that if we get to a situation. when there's no place to sell my fruits. in Europe, we'll find other marketers. >> Meanwhile, Israel's government is. threatening retaliation. >> I want to say just one thing. If Britain. acts against the state of Israel, the. state of Israel will act against. Britain. >> Already, several other European. countries have banned trade with. settlements, saying it's a legal. obligation. But Britain's action is now.

putting a new heavy strain on relations. with Israel. >> Following the collapse of trade. negotiations between the US and Canada. last month, Canadian retaliatory tariffs. on various American goods have come into. effect. Ottawa says it's matching. Washington's latest tariffs dollar for. dollar and the dispute may be widening. President Trump has now threatened to. stop Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier. selling planes in the US unless it. manufactures them there. I asked our. international business correspondent.

Theo Leot what products would be. affected by the new Canadian tariffs. We're looking at American milk, perfume, video games, machine goods, washing. machines, fridges, jackets, t-shirts, all sorts of things. Um, but the way. that the Canadians have done their. retaliation is it's in a sense it's. deliberately unprovocative. It's. retaliation, but it's proportional. retaliation. So, as they say, they're. going dollar for dollar, rate for rate.

with the tariffs on 20 billion worth of. Canadian exports that the White House. imposed tariffs on a couple of weeks. ago. So, at the moment, you have this. standoff, which is the latest salvo in. an ongoing trade war that's been going. on for about 18 months. Um there were. negotiations as you say through the. summer which were designed to put an end. to all of that. Those negotiations were. coming close to an end. It was thought. that a deal would be reached and at the. last moment they broke down. And what we. have now is retaliation and an.

escalation of rhetoric that seems to. show no sign of ending. >> Yeah. Donald Trump making these threats. against the Canadian aircraft maker. Bombardier. Will Canada can be matching. those dollar for dollar? Well, you have. to ask whether the Americans will. actually impose tariffs or any other. sort of sanctions on Bombardier. I mean, Bombardier is not the company it once. was that used to build uh regional jets. and even at one point was trying to take. on the likes of Boeing and Airbus with. its C series aircraft. It's smaller than. that now. It predominantly makes um.

regional and business jets and also um. some military hardware. Now it doesn't. make the planes in America but it does. make a lot of components there and a lot. of US jobs do actually rely on. Bombardier. So whether it would be in. the US interest to sanction Bombardia is. very much open to question. >> Despite the rhetoric though most trade. between the two countries which are. enormous trading partners is still. tariffree. >> Yeah. I mean Canada does 70% of its. trade with the United States. Um that.

trade is worth about 411 billion US. um. the tariffs are on less than 5% of that. Likewise, going the other way, US. exports to Canada, um the tariffs will. affect about 6%. So, yes, in overall. terms, it's pretty small beer. And if. you look at the average tariff rates. that Canada pays, they're about level. with what the UK is is being charged by. the US. Um you know, that kind that kind. of level. Um but it it's where these the.

effect of these tariffs will fall. Who's. likely to be affected? And it is, you. know, in the case of US tariffs on. Canada, it's Canadian manufacturers. And. in the case of Canadian tariffs on the. US, it targets people in Midwestern. states that may turn out to be crucial. in November's midterm elections. Still. to come, a multi-million dollar art. heist at a Renoir museum in France. [music]. The United Nations has called the war in. Sudan the world's largest humanitarian.

crisis. Tens of thousands of people have. died and millions have fled their homes. The civil war has been ongoing for more. than 3 years as the Sudin armed forces. and the paramilitary rapid support. forces fight for control. And now people. are facing a severe healthc care crisis. The medical charity Medicine San. Frontier warns that international. funding cuts are contributing to the. collapse of the fragile health care. system. Cuts of closed medical clinics, hospitals are losing their capacity to.

function and medicine supplies are. running low. Our Africa correspondent. Barbara Plata told me more. >> Last year, the US shut down its maiden. aid agency. So what we're seeing right. now is the continuing impact of that. because the existing grants that USID. had given to organizations operating in. Sudan ran out in June. Uh those. organizations have not been able to find. alternative funding. So they've had to. pull out. Uh and when it comes to health. that means local clinics have either. shut down or severely downsized and that.

has put more pressure on hospitals. MSF. the medical charity gave specific. examples. For example, they said in a. refugee camp in the eastern state of. Gderef, uh the uh maternity and surgical. wards have been closed. In another. refugee camp in the same state, they. said that uh the organizations, aid. organizations are down to 10 from a high. of 35 uh 5 years ago. In central Darur, 45 health centers have lost support. Many of them have closed. One of them in.

particular, a large one, has stayed. open, but with vastly reduced services, no vaccinations, only able to see 40. patients a day, down from 200, and so on. and so on. And so this is compounding an. already quite severe health crisis in. Sudan. >> Yeah, as you say, millions have already. been affected by this conflict, but this. presumably in humanitarian terms means. it could yet get a lot worse. >> Yes, definitely. And that is the. warning. Now I mean we are talking about. specific funding withdrawals and pro.

program closures at a local level. Uh. there is still money coming in. The the. Americans are still the largest donor to. Sudan. Uh some European governments are. prioritizing their Sudan funding even. though they are cutting their. international assistance overall. But. already 37% of Sudan's healthc care. facilities are estimated to be out of. service. Um and now with these local. clinics being shut, that's putting extra. pressure on hospitals that are still. open. MSF is calling them at the. breaking point. You also have you don't.

have health care uh where people live. now. Many of them have to take uh longer. journeys, sometimes dangerous, too. costly for them to take, which means. that they won't seek out health care. Rather, they'll use their meager funds. to buy uh to buy food. And all of this. is happening of course against a very. largecale humanitarian crisis that not. only affects health but food and and and. so on. So the situation is quite grim. >> The boss of one of the world's leading. computer chip makers is predicting. artificial intelligence is poised to.

cause a revolution in healthcare. Renee. H of ARM Holdings has been speaking to. our economics editor Fisel Islam. >> Drugs can take 20 years to be developed. 95% of those R&D efforts fail. AI is. going to not only shorten the amount of. time that those drugs can be invented, it's going to shorten the amount of time. that you test them, you'll start to. replace some human trials with AI, but. more importantly, you'll find a cure for. cancer that today, you and I, other. humans, not in our lifetimes. I believe.

in our lifetime, AI will help cure. cancer. >> So, this is your company that built on. science, but it will transform science. as well. >> Absolutely. >> I want to start pretty big, right? What. does the world look like in 10 years. time because of AI? I do think in 10. years uh we will see physical AI. robotics in a very large way whether. it's around manufacturing. uh cleaning services security. infrastructure maning building bridges. doing repairs uh we will see.

>> so actual actual I mean people talk. about robots and they're not you're the. sci-fi future of actual robots. >> 100% robots prior to AI were built for a. certain purpose you see them in. factories Today they install a tire in a. factory or inside a distribution area. They're the forklifts that move up and. down. With artificial intelligence, these robots can see, learn, and. essentially be reprogrammed for new. tasks. So in the service industry, the.

robot that was programmed to make a bed. can now make a bed, but can also learn. how to arrange the towels in a room or. clean the dust bins or whatever you want. to go off and do. We need to get the. costs down. We need to be able to get. them to be uh lighter, faster, but. that's just an engineering cost issue. that's we're going to get our hands. around. >> And and what about the what about in. your your home life? Do you do you how. would you advise people use it with.

their children? There's some concerns as. well as some opportunities there. >> Yeah, you know the for people who say. gosh, you know, AI is is AI is going to. replace humans and it's going to replace. jobs and knowledge work. AI is going to. be there period. We know that and that's. for all things we have talked about. So. I would tell anyone who's talking to. their kids or in my case grandkids, learn it, embrace it, and become. comfortable with it because ultimately. AI is a utility that's going to allow us. to be more productive and effective. So. don't be afraid of it. >> In the latest high-profile art theft to.

hit French museums, a number of. paintings worth millions of dollars have. been stolen from the former home of the. impressionist painter Pierre August. Renoir. It follows a heist at the Louvre. Museum in Paris last year when historic. jewelry dubbed as the French crown. jewels were stolen and most of the items. remain missing. Our Paris correspondent. Hugh Scofield is on the case of this. latest theft. They're made off with four. artworks which were original. This. museum uh it's quite a well-known.

museum. It's a small museum in the house. where he lived Renoir at the end of his. life. He died in 1919 and it included. there not only his personal artifacts. and furniture and so on but some of his. paintings um nine overall and four of. them were were taken. Now we've just. learned that two were abandoned by the. thieves in their haste to get away. It. seems they had to act very very quickly. because the alarm system worked. As soon. as they they they they broke in through.

the through the garden, went into the. building, but as soon as they put their. hands on a uh on an artwork, the alarm. went off and within minutes the police. were there. Uh so they had minutes to. escape. Uh and in their haste, they left. behind or abandoned two of these. paintings. So they still are missing. We're still missing two of these. original Renoir. of of the four that. they they took from the walls. Um we. know that there were two portraits of. women from the around the turn of the. century and there was one quite famous. picture of his son called Koku Liz Koko.

Reading which I certainly recognized. when I saw a picture of it. But we're. not we're not clear which were the ones. that were abandoned and which are the. two that have been taken. Whatever the. case, the two that they've got will be. worth an awful lot of money. I mean, they're estimating three, you know, putting a figure of3 million euros on on. each of them. But of course, you know, how you dispose of famous paintings on. the market is is another question. entirely. >> It's not the first time there have been. questions raised about museum security. in France in recent times, though, is.

it? >> Indeed not. I mean, you know, we we will. have in mind the uh the heist at the Lou. a year ago. that in a way that's a. different case because the Louver is the. most emblematic museum of all and should. have the most you know sure and safe. security of all. Um the problem larger. problem facing France is it has this. wonderful network of small museums. around the country often little visited. but some of them sometimes containing. quite unusual and expensive works of. art. uh the Renoir museum you'd have to. put at the kind of middle ranking kind.

of museum uh because it is Renoir and. there were original Renoir there. They. would say I think down there that the. security did operate and they're fairly. hopeful that they will catch the. perpetrators pretty quickly because they. had minutes to get away. Uh so I. wouldn't be surprised if we learn uh. quite quickly that the the perpetrators. have been apprehended. But yes, the. bigger point is that there is a weak. point in the French system which is. these small provincial museums all over. the country and the the culture ministry.

is very mindful of this and is you know. working on plans on how to deal with it. One of which is to store temporarily. valuable works of art so that uh in in. other places so that these museums can. have their security upgraded. >> And that's all for this edition of the. Global News podcast. If you'd like to. get in touch, our contact details are. below. Until next time, goodbye. [music].