Welcome to americast. Hello, it s sarah, and i m in the bbc s bureau in washington, dc. And it s justin in the worldwide headquarters of americast in london, england. It is such a big question, isn t it, whether or not the american election is affecting the events in the middle east, and vice versa, whether they will affect the outcome of the election? and a fascinating one, i think, because we often say that foreign policy doesn t really impact on us elections. But i wonder if this is creating enough background noise that it will get into people s heads. I don t think anyone s going to go to the ballot box thinking, you know, i do or do not agree with the administration s policy on precisely the two state solution between israel and palestine. But i do think it creates an atmosphere that will influence people s thinking. So, if we re answering that question first do events in the middle east affect the american election before we get to looking at it the other way around, i think
We start in the middle east, where there have been more overnight israeli strikes in the lebanese capital, beirut. These pictures show a large explosion following one of those strikes. Earlier on saturday, the israeli military had issued orders to residents of specific buildings in southern beirut to evacuate. We don t yet know what was hit in the strikes but israeli forces have bombed areas reported to be hezbollah strongholds. They have also clashed with hezbollah fighters in lebanon s southern border region. The israeli military says it has killed 440 hezbollah fighters since the start of the ground invasion. Meanwhile the border region remains tense hezbollah has fired rockets into northern israel, with reports that this residential buildings were hit. Also on saturday, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, addressed iran 5 missile attack on his country earlier this week saying israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks and we will do so.
Energy infrastructure in ukraine has been a key target of russian air strikes. I ll speak to maxim timchenko of ukraine s energy giant dtek about keeping the lights on and the people safe whilst under attack from russia. Wherever in the world you rejoining us from, welcome to the programme. Now, at the beginning of september this year, the heads of the uk and american foreign intelligence services wrote an unprecedented article, saying that stability of the world was under threat in a way not seen since the cold war, and since then, there s been even more instability. Those in the industry call it a permacrisis, a sense that the world is lurching from one extreme event, such as the covid pandemic, to another the multiple international conflicts. In the middle east, fighting, bombing and fatalities on multiple fronts. In europe, russia s invasion of ukraine rages on into its third year, and the threat of that escalating is now seen as greater than ever before, with fighting now on bot
A difficult information vacuum. On the hezbollah side, they dont let journalists on the hezbollah side, they dont letjournalists into those areas freely. You need permission to go in, you need permission to go in, you need permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you can permission to go in, you need permission to move around. Its not somewhere where you can no not somewhere where you can go in and independently verify that there was nothing there. Equally, when the idf say that it is a hezbollah Command Centre or weapon storage site, they dont always provide information to cooperate that, either. So you are left in a position where the two sides
And as First Minister of scotland when his party faced the latest in a series of crises. John swinney, welcome to political thinking. Lovely to be with you, thank you. It has been something of a rollercoaster six months, havent it . You retire from Front Line politics, then the First Minister of scotland is forced from office and you decide to come back into Front Line politics, come to your partys rescue. Then Rishi Sunak calls a surprise early election in the summer, then you have a bit of a kick in the general election, the westminster election. Has it all been very stomach churning . Its been absolutely a whirlwind. A whirlwind, i think is the best way to describe it, because i quite literally, in the days before Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister, was making further plans about what would be my gentle scaling down of political activity. And i was actually on the day that he resigned, giving a reflective speech about 25 years of devolution in scotland down here in london. And