Is Israel planning a full-scale ground invasion of Lebanon?

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You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver

Conway. We're recording this at five o'clock GMT on Monday the 23rd of March. Israel says

it's expanding its ground offensive in Lebanon after bombing a key bridge. Iran says it will

completely close the strait of hormones if the US attacks its power plants. And after

local elections in France, are we any clearer about whether the far right will take power

next year? Also in the podcast, imagine a robot that is not just one robot, but it is made

of parts that are themselves robots. The new AI robots that can keep going even if they

lose a leg. But first, is Israel about to launch a large-scale ground invasion of Lebanon?

That's the fear of the Lebanese president after Israeli forces were ordered to destroy

all bridges over the Latani river. Israel's defence minister said this was aimed at stopping

Hezbollah fighters moving south towards Israel. He also ordered the demolition of homes

in some villages near the border. Fellow minister Amichai Chikli says the operation is aimed at

keeping Israelis safe. Our mission is to create a buffer zone just like we've created in Gaza.

And to make sure that the villages that Hezbollah has turned into a fortress of terror loaded

with ammunition in every second home. Me size anti-tank me size rockets, motor cycles

waiting for invasion, that's our mission. To push backwards the terrorists of Hezbollah

and to make sure that our villages on the northern border will be safe.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says Israel has killed more than 1,000 people in

Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah resumed on the second of March, after rockets were

fired at Israeli territory. Lebanese president Joseph Owens says Israel's actions amount

to a policy of collective punishment against civilians and that its goal is to occupy Lebanese

land. The head of the Israeli military said his forces were preparing for a long campaign.

So what will the offensive look like? This assessment is from our former Middle East correspondent

Jim Muir who is in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Well I don't think it's going to be a great big push up to Beirut or whatever like we

saw in 1982. I think it's going to be much more incremental. They're talking about destroying

all the remaining homes along the border strip, most of which have been destroyed already

actually, systematically as well as collateral damage. And then I think they will probably

want to secure the whole of the area up to the Litani River and it was across that river

that the main coastal highway bridge was blown up today after warning, leaving a huge

crater where the bridge was. So I think they want to basically go very slowly and very methodically

up to the Litani and that would be their new sort of front line as it were. And then

once that's consolidated, press further forward, they've already told the people living in

the area in the next to kind of patch of territory up to the Zaharani River to evacuate and

no doubt they will receive the same kind of treatment. But if they want really to finish

off his below and that seems to be the aim, they'll have to go up into the Bakar Valley

because it's from there that his below has been firing rockets. So the other day it fired a big

missile from the northern part of the Bakar Valley all the way down to near the Gaza Strip. So that's

a clear message that they've got weapons stashed away there that the brought with the Israelis

actually at the moment don't really know where they are. So the speculation they might to eat their

way up slowly into the Bakar Valley, possibly doing a flanking movement through Syrian territory

with armor and coming out into Lebanon from the east. That's kind of speculative but it's a possible

military way of doing things. I don't think they're going to do a big sort of what you call a full-scale

invasion. I'll put in trying to get into Ukraine or whatever or themselves back in 1982. I don't

think it's going to be like that. It's going to be very peaceful, very slice by slice and very

methodical and trying to really clear up. So it doesn't have to keep coming back and hitting

his will again and again. Jimiore in Beirut. Meanwhile, it's just over a day since President

Trump issued his threat to obliterate Iran's power plants if the country doesn't open the

state of whole moves within 48 hours. With less than 24 hours to go until the deadline expires,

it doesn't look as if Iran will comply. In fact, the Iranians have issued a threat of their own.

Saying if their energy infrastructure is attacked, they will retaliate by closing the

state of whole moves completely and striking the energy and water systems of their gulf

neighbors. So how might President Trump respond to that? I asked our Washington Correspondent

Simejola Oshar. The state of whole moves clearly has become a central pressure point for President

Trump. It's made it difficult for him to end the war on his own terms. It's exposed fractures

in the relationships he has with his allies and it's just become something he can't ignore.

How he will respond. Well, we've just received a report from a journalist from Israel's channel 13

who said she spoke to President Trump earlier today and she asked him that very question and all

he said was you'll find out what's going to happen. He said it's going to be very good.

The total decimation of Iran, it's going to work out very well. It's not very clear what he

means by that. He has one option which is to end the war. He could say he's degraded Iran's

missile and nuclear capabilities and then their military. So he's achieved their objectives which

he's already said on truth social that the US is close to meeting or he could choose to escalate

the war. So further attacks along Iran's shoreline to try and force them to reopen the straight.

He could go ahead with his threat and strike Iranian energy infrastructure, the power plants,

the grids or he could also introduce ground forces and try and maybe seize Hague Island which is

a key hub for the Iranians. Yeah and do we know what the American public think of those options

which perhaps they would prefer? The American public are very mixed with this. You've got a

majority to just over 50% if we're to go by recent polls who oppose sending troops to Iran

and oppose this war in its entirety. But when you look at just Republicans, a recent poll by CBS

found that 84% of Republicans do support the strike and within Trump's mega base even higher

around 92% do support for the military action against Iran. Now Republican lawmakers have said

they are supporting President Trump through this war but sending in ground troops would be

a sort of red line. One Republican congressman said he would require more of a briefing, more

of an explanation and what exactly the mission is. Then you've got Democrats who have said from

the beginning this is a war of choice and they've criticized how costly this war is becoming as

well saying that President Trump needs to focus on affordability in America. So you're very

expensive and now the Pentagon is asking for another 200 billion dollars of funding. Is Congress

likely to approve that? President Trump has said this 200 billion dollars is for a lot of reasons

beyond Iran. He says it's also to replenish military equipment and ammunition. Defense Secretary

Pete Hexeth says it takes money to kill bad guys and it's also for what the military may have to

do in the future. Now this is in addition to the Department of Defense's annual $830 billion. So

it is a lot of money. Military funding does tend to get bipartisan support but when you consider

public opinion and public polls around the lack of support for this war politicians here will

definitely have to try and justify this massive spending request because it could come at a

political price if the war and economic disruption from it drags on. Republican House Speaker

Mike Johnson said it's important to adequately fund defense and that it's a dangerous time in the

world but the Democrats have been highly critical firstly because of the size of the request

and secondly because President Trump decided to strike Iran without consulting Congress in

the first place. To meet your law show in Washington. So what's been the view in Iran following

this latest U.S. threat? Gonshe Habebe Azad is from the BBC Persian Service. It's very very

difficult to know exactly what's going on inside the country amid the internet outage imposed by

the government on Iranian people but some young tech savvy people have access to stalling which

is satellite internet have been able to connect although there's a crack down by Iranian authorities

on stalling as well and the voices that I'm hearing are from some young people especially in Tehran

and the cap tool and they don't obviously represent the whole society. I don't hear the voices of

people who have lost the home or don't have food to bring to their table of the economic pressure

that the war has had on them but from what I'm hearing they're very anxious, very tense

and even some of those who supported the war they were saying that this is not right this is a war

on people if they attacked the infrastructures that's not helping the people against the regime.

They're saying even some might turn to the Islamic Republic if the attacks happened on infrastructure

one of my friends in Tehran she was saying that she got straight into shower because last time

that the war happened in June she was stressed because the water was out for three weeks and she

couldn't take a shower so they're very stressed something that I've been hearing from but obviously

as I said I'm not hearing the voice of everyone. Conché have BB Azad of the BBC Persian service.

Some other news now and researchers in the US have used artificial intelligence to create a robot

that can evolve and adapt to its environment. They say it's even able to function if it loses a

leg. The studies lead author is Sam Kriegman from Northwestern University in Chicago he's been talking

to Paul Henley. Imagine a robot that is not just one robot but it is made of parts that are

themselves robots. So here these parts look like a sphere with a cylinder running through them

and these parts can bend like a joint at the knee and so they're basically like a bunch of building

blocks similar to Legos but that can move and that are smart and you stick them together to build

a robot that well if something happens to one part like a leg it's fine because all of the other

parts can continue to run. What's the robot full? There's many possible uses for a robot that can

move quickly in the world that is also resilient so we can imagine in the future such machines could

operate in construction sites clearing mines or just in environments that are risky like a brittle

cliffside and how has artificial intelligence enabled this advance? Okay so now imagine you have

this Lego kit of possible robot parts. How are you going to put them together? If I close my eyes

and I imagine what a robot should look like it's really hard not to just imagine familiar objects

something like a human a dog or a car or a plane. When we want to think outside the box it's good

to use AI to help us expand our imagination so we use computers to run a kind of Darwinian process

of evolution sticking together these smart building blocks in different ways and it's like a

survival of the fittest inside of the computer and the best ones pop out we quickly assemble them

out of our robotic Legos and they hit the ground running. What do you say to people who are worried by

the idea of a robot that can adapt to a changing environment and that doesn't need our help to

self perpetuate? These robots are actually a lot more like Legos than self adapting robots so

they need to be put together by us or another robot and I think this is really fun so you know

Legos are great they're different from other kinds of machines you can think of a car for example

if you use all the parts in that car to build something you can really only build that car

but with Legos you can build a car or a cathedral or anything in between so this allows every day

ordinary people to build their own robot for uses that only they care about. But it's human

intelligence that's in charge. It can be human intelligence that's in charge of deciding what

task we ask the robot to do and how we design them and so you know if you think about the stakeholders

in robotics now the people who are in charge of designing robots because they're so expensive and

only companies and states can afford to build them and maintain them and decide what they should do

then you get certain kinds of jobs that robots are doing but if everyone can build their own robot

using their own robotic Lego kit then it's more likely that those robots will do good than bad.

Professor Sam Creeplin still to come in the podcast an American comedy institution

debuts in Britain. Sir Keir is trying to set boundaries with the president while preserving

their special relationship. I'll see Keir so you're looking for more of a special

situation ship. So what did Brits make of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live?

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this is the global news podcast now a year from now France will be gearing up for a

presidential election that could be won by the far right on sunday all eyes were on the french

local elections for any indication of what might happen in 2027 with the results in the

mainstream left-wing socialists are celebrating after seeing off separate right wing challenges in

Paris and Marseille although a candidate allied to the far right national rally was elected mayor

of niece i heard more about the significance of the results from our correspondent huesco field

let's start with Paris because it's obviously the city which is drawing all the headlines

there was this challenge from the right from Rashida daddy the former minister but it's failed quite

comprehensively she got 40% emmental grigua the continuity candidate got 50% and i think

what's happened is that Rashida daddy proved to be of other divisive she's a very strong

personality but she's someone who's very anchored on the right and i think paris is essentially a

left-wing city with pockets of right wingness in it and she put a lot of people off particularly

after she accepted the support of a far right candidate who dropped out after round one but the

other thing that's very important about paris and i think also reflects a situation across the

country is that the socialist candidate in paris emmental grigua did not accept the idea of a link

up with the far left the far left candidate came through and round one with 11 tobs and

the vote and said let's team up and this happened in lots of towns and cities across france

the far left saying let's get together to beat off the right the fascists and the manual grigua

said no i'm going to do this by myself and he did that and he won and he won convincingly

because a lot of centrists who might otherwise if he'd linked up with the far left said right

or not that went with him this time in other cities in france where the left and the far left

did form these alliances because the left were worried about losing and felt that they'd be safer

by having this big block of votes from the far left where they did that ignoring calls to boycott

the LFI because of recent scandals regarding the murder of that student if you remember a month

ago and they alleged antisemitic remarks by its leader, Rodic Melchor the socialists and greens

allied with the LFI they lost the voters turn to the right and the center they said we don't want

LFI near power in our city to lose is a clear example of that but you could also cite to

came or fair or breast these are cities which have for decades been socialist strongholds but have

gone to the right because the socialist candidate they're allied with the LFI so there's a clear

clear lesson there for the left and the socialists will take great heart in saying right we can do

this by ourselves we do not need the LFI on our outside flank in fact they lose us votes rather

than win us votes now the socialists held off a challenge from the far right in the second

to demasay but in niece and ally of marine lapen one do we know anything more about what will happen

in the presidential election next year as a result of what we've seen now in general the mainstream

parties have drawn confidence and hope from these elections the centrist parties the mainstream

center right republicans party more than alone to their own they control the main cities of france

still and so that will give a lot of encouragement to them when it comes to the presidential election

because quite clearly voters do not want the extremes the big worry for next year is that they're

going to do too many candidates in round one and it could be a candidate from the far right and the

far left get through to the runoff and that is quite possible so that's the big worry for the mainstream

parties the traditional parties of course have been very much on the back foot in recent years but

from these results i'll be saying no if we stay united we can still win these elections next year

you scoffy old in france well italy has also been voting it's currently in the middle of a two-day

referendum on judicial reform which is being seen as a popularity test for the right-wing government

prime minister georgia meloney who has clashed with the courts over some of her controversial policies

backs the proposed changes but opponents say they are a threat to democracy so rain fits and this

report from Rome for georgia meloney this was a new kind of campaigning

it is prime minister swapped her usual trails a suit for a sparkly jumper and she joins a celebrity

rapper on his podcast it was part of her last big push for a yes vote in a referendum that's all

about reforming the justice system here but as her host pointed out it's morphed into a test

of the prime minister herself this will be a defeat but i do not expect meloney to resign this is

Roberto Dalimonte from Lewis University here in Rome she will be politically weakened this will

be the first serious defeat of meloney's government in three and a half years i'm just walking through

the giant archway onto the yes of the popolo this beautiful big square and there's a crowd

gathering here lots of trade union flags at the front there's a stage and a big sign vote no

to defend democracy the left wing opposition in italy are very protective of a constitution that

was written after the defeat of Mussolini and fascism want to guarantee nothing like that ever

returned here and they are wary of georgia meloney the judicial reform she's proposed is complex

and its potential impact isn't clear but meloney has clashed publicly with the courts in the past

over her migration policies for one for people i spoke to in this crowd there is one fear

with this change justice is under stricter control of politicians georgia meloney says that this

is about making the justice system for everybody it's not true no one can be so stupid to think

that the justice for the normal citizen can be faster nothing changes to that side so what's

it for it's for government control you think yeah there's a point

just up the road in villa burgueso the buskers are back

and people sit ice closed soaking up the sun on their faces but georgia meloney's own shine has

faded lately she was once proud of her close ties to Donald trump and yet his war on Iran

isn't popular here nor are the price rises that's causing for meloney and her party fratelli

d'Italia this vote is bad timing my name is Andrea di Giuseppe i'm elected fratelli d'Italia

the opposition can say you should not touch the constitution etc etc we need to make the right

amendment to the good of the people the geopolitical situation it's very tough of course i completely

understand that but this referendum and we need to stay focused on the purpose

georgia meloney says that purpose is simple on social media she's been telling voters to put

the x on their ballot papers next to yes for a more just justice system but the result is touch

and go and losing this referendum would be a blow to meloney for the first time the strong

woman of italian politics would seem vulnerable sarah reinsford in Rome hundreds of people have

protested in Syria against tough new laws on alcohol the demonstrators in the capital fear it's

part of a wider crackdown on personal freedoms by the islamist authorities this report from Jacob

Evans bab tumour is one of the major christian neighborhoods of the historic city of Damascus christians

gathered on sunday for a silent protest because they feel targeted targeted because earlier this

week the governor of the city issued a decree banning the sale of alcohol in restaurants and

nightclubs the move also limits private purchases to just a handful of christian neighborhoods

where drinks can only be taken away in a closed bottle it's a move that's not gone down well

with critics saying it's sectarian rami kusa is among the protesters if the purpose of these

decisions is to test the waters in order to pass similar decisions to restrict public freedoms

and change the city's identity the message should have been received this kind of decision will

not pass and if these decisions were issued carelessly without calculating their repercussions

then this experimentation must stop islam forbids alcohol but about 10% of the one and a half

million inhabitants of Damascus are christians the protesters also fear the restrictions show that

the new islamist government of ahmet al-shara is becoming more conservative other new rules issued

since he took power include female government employees in latakia being banned from wearing makeup

and that modest swimwear must be worn at beaches and pools however following the initial outrage

over the alcohol ban the Damascus governor has issued an apology it said sorry for singling out

the christian community and said the ban wouldn't affect tourist establishments like hotels

also at the protest was morale abu shanab she says the decision should be reversed in full

we have the right to receive an apology but the order has not been withdrawn they said they would

reconsider it but we have no confirmation that it will actually be reversed it threatens people's

livelihoods and divides the Damascus we have always lived as one this is a personal freedom issue

whoever wants to drink should drink and whoever does not want to should not businesses will

have three months to implement the new rules but these demonstrations in Damascus underscore a

growing public unease over which way Syria may go Jacob Evans the comedy sketch show Saturday night

live has been an institution on us tv since the 1970s it inspired many international copies with

this mix of live comedy musical guests and political satire a uk version of the show had its debut

over the weekend and the reviews are now coming in here's a flavor of the first episode a sketch

in which the british prime minister kia stama seeks advice from a gen z advisor on how to deal with

the us sir here is trying to set boundaries with the president while preserving their special

relationship i see okay so you're looking for more of a special situation ship

first thing you got to do you got to forget the phone call these days all about the voicemail

i'll i'll try anything i'll do anything except take a stand

president trump even shared the clip on his social media but did the format as a whole translate

Eric mackleroy is an american stand-up comedian and knows some of the writers on Saturday night live

uk he spoke to Paul Henley i grew up with saturday at live i remember staying up to watch it in like

1978 with a babysitter it was magical so it's always been part of my life but the whole idea of

that cold open where they start with a strong sketch and then go to the host and then go into the

sketches that's new to some people here and i thought it landed it really well i enjoyed the

opening sketch with kure starma struggling to talk with donald trump and i thought it was really

funny is it worth doing everything live it's inviting disaster with cue cards and people for

getting stuff isn't it but that's part of the magic of it this is different than you know film

sketch or even watching stand-up like watching someone live on the Apollo a lot of that is cultivated

over time and created but here this is a show that's created within a week and having it live makes

it special it's more like watching an improv show where they've got the games that improv players

you're giving them a time and a place and an action and they've got to make it happen right there

and because the show is pulled together so quickly it's got that element to it and that's what the

live makes it stand out even more would you like to see it a little more topical some of them were

quite bizarrely not of the day weren't they you're saying Shakespeare isn't topical um well i

like topical humor a lot i'm biased towards that but at the same time it's fun to have weird sketches

that are culturally significant as well like the 45 seconds with four acres there was about

Irish heritage and accents and that to me was a very British piece but not topical but fun and

weird and funny some of it just didn't land right that's part of Saturday Night Live they've

written these sketches within the last seven days they've never had the chance to perform them

in front of a live audience or very little limited chance i have not yet to watch an episode in the

US where i was like uh i didn't really get that one but then the next one comes along

so you get that chance and sometimes it is a bit hit and miss so people need to give it that space

because that's actually part of the show the princess Diana impersonation was a standout moment for me

what did you think i thought yes jackshap the actor that did it stole the show he was off camera

but doing his coquettish looks and little smiles he just stole the sketch and that's another part

of Saturday Night Live as you get to see people come forward and most of these aren't you know

household names these are i know a couple of people involved in the writing and i know Larry Dean

who's in the in the cast but most of these aren't names that most people have heard of yet and

that's another thing that's Saturday Night Live in the US is done it's launched the careers of

some of the biggest names in comedy in the world was it a good translation of US humor you're

in the right position to judge that maybe well i think we use the US format and structure but the

humor was british and i think the other thing they've done which is crucial is they invested

in a huge writing team and that's what makes these things work as i think they've got 15 to 20

writers and you need that because the cast is writing as well Eric McElroy

and that's all from us for now but the global news podcast will be back very soon this

addition was mixed by past systems and produced by Paul Day our editors Karen Martin i'm all

of a conway until next time goodbye

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