All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2025E07.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-HiNGS_track3_[eng]

Hello and welcome to Global Eye

from the BBC World Service.

I'm Carine Torbey, the
BBC's Beirut correspondent,

and this week I'll be bringing you
up-to-date with

what has been a tumultuous year

in my home country, Lebanon.

In the next half hour, we will bring
you some of the best of

our global investigative journalism
and reportage.

Just over a year ago, Israel
launched a sophisticated

and unprecedented attack on

the Iran-backed political
and armed militant group Hezbollah,

detonating thousands of pagers

and walkie talkies booby-trapped
with explosives across Lebanon.

It was the opening strike
in an Israeli campaign

that would cripple Hezbollah

and leave much of
the country devastated.

I'll be exploring how
what happens here could shape

the future of the entire
Middle East.

Later in the programme...

..we'll be in Hong Kong,
where new crackdowns

have meant only people seen as loyal
to Beijing can hold public office.

The Eye team goes behind
closed doors to

what life is really like
in the city now,

uncovering a growing culture
of surveillance

and people informing on each other.

And... Hey, Klaus. Hey.

Is that the pass?
Yeah, this is the pass.

..we'll bring you the story of
a female scientist going

to extraordinary lengths
and battling nature's extremes...

It's a lot of snow, huh?
Yeah. Super dangerous.

..to collect data that could help
save the planet and us.

I was born in Lebanon
and I've been reporting from here

for the last decade.

It's a beautiful
Mediterranean country

where opposites coexist
and differences

are embraced and celebrated,
with Shia and Sunni Muslims

and Christians living side-by-side.

But Lebanon's place in the world,

bordering Israel and Syria,

two of the region's most
influential players,

means it's been in
the middle of conflict for decades.

And over the last 12 months,

Lebanon has been through one of

the most turbulent chapters

in its modern history,

with a brutal conflict
escalating between

the Islamist Shia group
Hezbollah and Israel.

This is one of the sites
where an unprecedented

event took place last year.

On September 17th and 18th,

thousands of pagers
and walkie talkie radios

booby-trapped with explosives
detonated across Lebanon.

The devices belonged to
members of Hezbollah.

Dozens of people,
including civilians,

were killed and thousands injured.

Israel later claimed responsibility.

EXPLOSION

Within weeks of the pagers attack,

Israel invaded southern Lebanon,

its sixth such incursion

in nearly 50 years.

It followed almost a year of
cross-border hostilities.

The day after Hamas' attack
on Israel in October 2023,

Hezbollah had begun attacking
Israeli military positions,

firing rockets,
missiles and drones into Israel

in support of Gaza.

Hezbollah, like Hamas,
is backed by Iran,

and both have called for the
destruction of Israel.

Hezbollah emerged out of
Shia militias formed

to resist Israel after its invasion

of southern Lebanon during the
country's 1975-1990 Civil War.

Its political wing has been
an influential force

in Lebanese politics,

with seats in Cabinet
and Parliament,

and in some parts of the country,

it has managed schools
and hospitals.

For decades, the group was led
by Hassan Nasrallah,

until he was killed in an Israeli
air strike in September 2024.

His funeral, held at a packed sports
stadium close to his shrine here,

was intended as a show of defiance.

But Hezbollah has been severely
weakened over the past year.

It is believed that much
of its infrastructure

has been destroyed
in southern Lebanon,

its weapons arsenal
has been depleted

and thousands of its
fighters killed.

The conflict has had a massive
impact on the population, too.

Over one million people have been
displaced and thousands

are still unable to return to their
homes in the border towns.

Last year, I spoke to terrified
families who feared,

with good reason, that nowhere
in Lebanon was safe for them.

A ceasefire was agreed in November.

But a year on from the invasion,

the destruction continues.

Israel is still carrying
out air strikes

in what it says are operations

to target an ongoing
Hezbollah threat,

including in this part of the city.

Israeli forces have moved back from
the south but are still occupying

several areas on the border.

And there are political
considerations at play here, too.

Lebanon's new US-backed government
is pushing to disarm Hezbollah,

now led by cleric
and politician Naim Qassem.

He has rejected that.

Hezbollah and its allies have been
a major political force

representing the Shia community,

with the party's MPs having
the largest number of votes

among the electorate in the country.

Fresh elections next year will be
a major test of Hezbollah's power.

These developments unfold against

a backdrop of
deep regional volatility.

Lebanon stands at the heart of

the Middle East's most
explosive fault lines.

Instability here could cause

the unravelling of
the wider Middle East.

Now we're going to take you
to Hong Kong,

where the BBC Eye team
has been investigating

the rise of "patriots-only rule" -

legislation brought
in by China to ensure only people

it deems patriots
can govern the city.

Critics warn Hong Kong
is drifting towards

a climate reminiscent of
the Cultural Revolution,

with the arrest of
opposition figures,

the silencing of critical media
and a growing culture

of surveillance
and anonymous reporting.

KNOCKING

When Britain returned
Hong Kong to China,

the territory's freedoms were
guaranteed for 50 years.

But is that promise being kept?

China declared that only patriots
can rule Hong Kong.

Now, words can be a crime

and safety is found in silence.

In the scramble to prove loyalty,

is Hong Kong risking
its liberal identity?

Ronson Chan is an award-winning
veteran reporter

and former chairman of
the journalists' union.

He's an outspoken defender
of press freedom.

THEY SHOUT

Ronson's popularity grew
when he livestreamed

the 2019 pro-democracy protests

to millions of viewers.

In 2020, after a year of
demonstrations, China acted.

Bypassing the city's parliament,

Beijing imposed
the National Security Law.

The law granted sweeping
new powers to the police,

including increased surveillance
with severe penalties

for vaguely defined offences,

such as undermining the government

or colluding with foreign forces.

Beijing's move worked.

Hong Kong went from being one of
the most liberal cities in Asia

to arresting journalists
and academics.

Hundreds were arrested
for speaking up.

Many of the city's
independent news sites

were forced to close.

Ronson livestreamed
his home being raided.

As the police gained more powers,
a "patriots-only rule" emerged -

only those who swore loyalty
to the Chinese Communist Party

could hold positions in government.

Businessman Innes Tang
has long campaigned

for closer links
with mainland China.

After the law came into force,

Tang and his team posted
videos each time

they reported people to the police.

They monitored the media
for possible cases.

Tang set up a hotline for the public

to report any national
security offences.

Tang says he used his own money

to organise rallies
in support of the police,

as they took on
the pro-democracy protests.

As a culture of
anonymous informing takes hold,

at least 32 political parties,

activist groups
and media outlets have shut down.

Tonight, Book Punch is hosting
a talk about the war in Ukraine.

The officer stayed for 15 minutes
and then left.

The event was allowed to continue.

He came back two more times
that evening

and told Pong he might be prosecuted

for hosting a public event
without an entertainment licence.

Pong says Book Punch
has been inspected

as many as 10 times in 15 days
by different government departments.

Every school now
has mandatory lessons

designed to build national identity
in young people.

Chan Lui Ling-yee helps schools

promote a stronger sense
of Chinese identity.

Liberal studies have been replaced

by a course on citizenship ideals,
lawfulness and patriotism.

Books which contain
so-called "bad ideologies"

are purged from public libraries.

Some new textbooks falsely state

that Hong Kong was never
a British colony.

APPLAUSE

CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

Visits to mainland China

are now mandatory
for all high-school students.

Ronson Chan says press freedom
in Hong Kong has been decimated.

Whilst live-streaming,

Ronson was arrested and
charged with obstruction.

Worried that the rise of
the patriots has gone too far,

Tang has stopped reporting suspects.

An estimated 300,000 Hongkongers
have left the city

since the National Security Law
was imposed.

For many Hongkongers like Ronson,

it is the love for their city
that makes them stay.

Now, here's some of the best content

the World Service has produced
across the last few days.

For twice-weekly analysis
of what's going on

inside the White House,
catch Americast.

This week, the team go behind the
scenes of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

And regular viewers may remember
that, a few weeks ago,

Global Eye came to you from Alaska,
presented by Anna Holligan.

While she was there,
Anna met a local community

powering itself
from a micro energy grid,

and the scientists turning
mushrooms into insulation.

Hear more on
People Fixing The World.

Listen to both of these
on BBC Sounds

or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, the extraordinary story
of a female scientist

undertaking challenging expeditions,
navigating glaciers and hurricanes.

Heidi Sevestre is a glaciologist
battling nature's extremes

to collect scientific data that
could help save the planet and us.

This is her story.

So that's all your stuff here?

Yeah, so this is...
Well, it's not all of it,

but you know
it's a luxury expedition

if you don't have to
cut your toothbrush in half.

Yeah, you're right, actually.
I haven't cut mine yet!

I'm Heidi, I'm a glaciologist,

and I love ice,
I love ice and snow.

Oh, yeah, right, yeah.
But...

Klaus is a journalist
but also a scientist

who founded a charity
called Project Pressure.

So Klaus called me a few months ago.

He told me, "Look, Heidi,
I really want to go back to Uganda

"to see the glaciers
of the Rwenzori Mountains."

Tiny, tiny glaciers located
between Uganda and DRC.

As soon as I got this phone call,
I told Klaus

I would totally clear up my schedule
to join you on that expedition.

So the goal of the expedition
is basically

to map the beautiful glaciers
of the Rwenzoris.

I mean,
this has never been done before,

so we are truly pioneers,
travelling to

probably one of the most extreme

and one of the most remote
environments on Earth.

We use two different tools.

We use drones to basically
take a lot of pictures

of the surface of the glaciers.

Putting the pictures together

gives us a 3D model
of the surface of the ice.

But then we also need
another instrument

to measure what's happening beneath
the surface of these glaciers,

and this is where I come in.

We need to totally lay this out,

so I don't know if you want
to take one end.

Please, tell me what to do,
you're the boss.

You see there's
a little socket here.

Ready? Sure! OK. Let's go!

My job is to pull
a ground-penetrating radar,

which is an instrument
that basically

sends radio waves through the ice,

and we measure how long it takes
for the radio waves

to travel through
the entire ice thickness.

Oh, yeah, things are happening,
for sure.

If they take a long time to travel,

it means that there is
a lot of ice underneath our feet,

and if they don't take a lot of
time, it means the ice is very thin.

Finally, we are in Uganda.

I very rarely start expeditions
surrounded by forest.

Usually, where I work,
there are no trees,

there's only ice and snow.

I feel way out of my comfort zone,

but I have the very best possible
people around me.

I have Klaus,
I have the local experts,

the local mountain guides,
the porters.

They don't feel intimidated at all
by what we're trying to do.

There are many risks associated
with an expedition like this

in these really high mountains.

Many years ago,
when I was a young student

studying glaciology,

I triggered my own avalanche
that buried both me and a friend,

and luckily we both survived.

My goal is to be really aware
of our surroundings

and to make sure
we don't get into trouble,

because I know what it feels like
to get in trouble.

Hiking through a very dense jungle
is overwhelming,

but it's also incredibly beautiful.

As we continue
going up the mountains,

the air is starting to get
a little bit colder,

we feel the humidity even more.

There is fog dancing around
those trees.

It feels like we're surrounded
by kind of like very old landscapes

that has been totally left untouched
by human civilisation.

Hey, Klaus! Hey. Is that the pass?
Yeah, this is the pass.

We finally reached
Scott-Elliot Pass,

and from the village,
from the community,

it has taken us four days of walking
to make it here.

But we're almost there,

just another couple of hours
of more hiking to reach base camp.

You can put it over there.
Thank you.

The Rwenzori Mountains
are truly incredible,

because they are the highest

and most permanent source
of the River Nile.

So all the water coming
from these mountains

is being used by millions of peoples
all the way to Egypt.

So understanding how much ice is
left in these mountains is crucial,

because it gives us information

about how much longer
will we be able to benefit

from the water coming down
from these glaciers.

So base camp is where our research
expedition actually truly begins.

Our plan is to hike
a couple of hours

to reach the Stanley Plateau,

which is the largest ice mass
in the Rwenzori Mountains.

As we walk up,
I turn on my head lamp,

and I notice that
everything around me

is covered with
many, many inches of snow.

It's a lot of snow, huh?
I think it's super tricky.

It's going to take us twice
as long to get up there,

and it's super dangerous, yeah.

Ah, first steps on Stanley!

So I'm finally stepping
on the glacier,

and there is not one second
to waste.

Pulling a radar on a glacier
at this altitude

is definitely very hard work.

And as soon as my guides

help me to put that heavy backpack
on my shoulders,

I feel my back absolutely seizing.

I have to make a decision
in a split second.

Am I going to be able to
pull the radar or not?

And to be fair, I don't have

any other options
than doing the science.

Every step I make, I can feel pins
and needles in my lower back.

It's taking every gram of energy
I have left in my body,

but still I keep going.

And I can see that the data
we're collecting is amazing.

And so that gives me, you know,

fantastic motivation to
just keep going.

Even though I'm in a lot of pain,
I absolutely have to keep going.

Let's just go down, I guess,
towards the weather station, no?

Our data that
we're processing right now

will probably show how quickly
these glaciers are melting

in response to climate change.

So we not only want the communities
to use the data,

but the entire world
to really understand

the value of these glaciers.

You know, if we lose these glaciers
of the Rwenzoris,

not only we lose a big part

of the identity of the people
from the Rwenzori Mountains,

but it's so much more than this.

We lose a part of our human culture,
of our human identity.

We're transforming environments

that will never go back
to where they used to be.

Thanks for joining me in Lebanon.

We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Please let us know on social media.

Global Eye will be back next week.
Goodbye.