The World Today
Australians reveal dangerous journey from Lebanon
ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Hello and welcome to The World Today. It is Wednesday, the 9th of October. I'm Sally Sarah, coming to you from Nunnawal Country in Canberra and acknowledging other custodians. Today, bracing for impact, millions of people in Florida prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton as the Category 5 system approaches. And Farmboy, turned international opera singer, brings his talents back home to regional Australia. Finding your voice will make you more assertive. Finding your voice will make you feel more comfortable being you. And I think it's about authenticity. There have been emotional scenes at Australian airports today with more Australians touching down safely after fleeing Lebanon. The return comes amid reports that Israel's forces have killed the successor of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in addition to other key commanders. Experts now warn the weakened Iranian-backed militia could be further radicalised by the deaths. David Escort prepared this report. Hi. Relation at Brisbane Airport. Rima and Hana Bamonsour embrace. Reunited after a government repatriation flight brought Hana home from Lebanon's north. While Hana wasn't in direct danger, Rima Bamonsour says as fighting continues to intensify, there was a fear that that could quickly change. It's safe up north, but we didn't know how the situation is going to escalate. So we thought it's better for him to be back home. We feel sorry for the people in Sass and Beirut in the cities. We sent our regards and our love to them. We grateful. We're happy to have him home and happy for all the Australian people to be back. We worried about the one left back home, not just our loved ones. We're very blessed to have Australian passports, so we can bring our loved ones home, but we still have family home. Now, safely in Australia, Hana thanked the government for its help. Good to be back. Very good to be back. Very good to be back. Very good to be back. Very good. God bless Australia. It's very good service. Very good. God bless Australia. I'm going to be paying my taxes 100%. But it wasn't an easy journey. Other travellers told the ABC that as their plane took off from the tarmac in Beirut, they could see explosions nearby. I think when we were in the airport, we saw like some missile or smoke. More than a thousand people have been killed in Lebanon. Since Israel's incursion began several weeks ago, Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah fighters. The latest killed include two Hezbollah commanders, considered successors to the group's slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hezbollah's capabilities have been crippled by the operation. We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of his replacement. He urged the Lebanese people to throw out the militant group. Do you remember when your country was called the Pearl of the Middle East? I do. So what happened to Lebanon? A gang of tyrants and terrorists destroyed it. That's what happened. There is a better way. A better way for your children, for your cities, for your villages, for your country. You deserve to restore Lebanon to its days of tranquility. You deserve a Lebanon that is different. One country, one flag, one people. But Hezbollah's deputy leader, Na'im Qasem, hit back. I would like to reassure you, our capabilities are fine. And what the enemy said about our capabilities being affected is a delusion. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says it's clear the militant group is on the defensive. For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire. You had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one. And now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they've changed their tune and want a ceasefire. I think it's not surprising, given the situation they find themselves in. Former Australian Defense Force Brigadier Ian Langford, who has worked for the United Nations on the Israel-Lebanon border, says despite the fact Hezbollah are in disarray, they remain formidable. Senior leadership would be in a state of panic. However, at the regional and at the local level, the leadership would remain fairly intact. It's worth reminding ourselves that Hezbollah have deployed more than 100,000 rockets within about 25 kilometers of the Lebanese-Israeli border or the blue line in the south. Also, there are up to 200,000 anti-tank-guided weapons deployed across that region, so their defenses in southern Lebanon remain formidable, notwithstanding the fact that their leadership has become fragmented and would continue to be in a state of disorganization and for some near panic right now. He says there is a risk that the leadership vacuum inside Hezbollah could lead to an even more extreme leader seizing power. The leadership vacuum that has been created effectively through the removal of Nasrallah and his key lieutenants really has opened the pathway for an alternate leadership model that is very much more invested in terror as a weapon and is invested in escalation as an outcome. Israel says its objective is to allow Israeli residents to return safely to the northern region, so far more than a million people have been displaced by the fighting. That's David Escort reporting, once in a century hurricane is expected to make landfall in Florida's Tampa Bay area. More than 5 million people have been told to leave in one of the largest evacuations in the state's history. Hurricane Milton is headed towards the coast. Only two weeks after Hurricane Helene claimed more than 200 lives across several states. Kirby Wilson is a journalist with the Tampa Bay Times newspaper. It's incredibly anxious here. We've never seen a storm like this. Nobody who's alive has ever seen a storm that's threatened the Tampa Bay region in this way. The last storm to directly hit the Tampa Bay region was in 1921, and so this would be the first direct hit since it's become the incredibly highly developed, sprawling, low-lying, coastal metropolis that it is. We've got large portions of the population that are on the barrier islands, extremely, extremely exposed to storm surge, and then wind damage in a way that, again, we just have never seen before. Having a look at the map of Tampa there, Kirby, I see that the Tampa General Hospital, that's actually on one of the islands there in a very low-lying part of the city. It is, and that has long been one of the major infrastructure concerns when it comes to the possibility of a hurricane directly hitting the region. The Tampa General Hospital does have a sort of ingenious innovation that's called an aqua fence that they put around their entire campus, and it can withstand 15 feet of storm surge, and it's actually been deployed in recent hurricanes. The aqua fence repelled the water that rushed in from Helene, and it can withstand up to 15 feet of storm surge. What do the highways look like with so many people trying to get out of the area, and I see there have been some fuel shortages as well? Yeah, so many people left yesterday, and so many people seemed to have heed the calls to leave. And in part, I think because they remember the very recent experience of Helene, where they saw their neighbors in beach towns submerged after the storm surge. How confident are city officials that they can deal with Hurricane Milton? That's an interesting question. I think they're confident that they can convince people to leave, which is really all you can do in a situation like this. We still have so much debris on the ground from Hurricane Helene. So many people's homes were flooded in Hurricane Helene, and they brought their possessions out to the curb in hopes that the garbage would take them away. Those couches, coffee tables, chairs sitting by the roads are potential projectiles that will be hurled in the 100 plus mile an hour winds that we're going to see. And there's basically no way for local officials to clear out all that debris in a little less than two weeks ahead of this next storm's landfall. I think we are prepared from the perspective of communicating the risk in a way that I've actually never seen. People are less apathetic about this hurricane than any of the other ones that have threatened the region, and I'm heartened by that. But I also think it's very possible that this place, this pocket of 2.1 million people in America's third largest state is never going to be the same after this week. What do you think is the wider political backdrop you're only weeks out from a presidential election? How much focus is there on the government in getting its response right to this hurricane? It's an interesting dynamic because it's not the incumbent that's running for president here in Joe Biden, but it sort of is because Kamala Harris is his vice president. So I think if the administration is seen to have majorly botched the response, it could certainly affect the outcome of the race, sort of similar to Hurricane Sandy, how President Obama was seen to have done pretty well and that disaster and it may have helped him. There has been the sort of typical partisan bickering. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who's a staunch Republican, wouldn't take a call from Kamala Harris and said that she shouldn't be calling him and he deals with Biden. And she said that he was putting politics ahead of a storm response. The optics certainly will play a role in the national race as any major news event this late in election season would. That's Kirby Wilson there, a journalist with the Tampa Bay Times newspaper. [MUSIC] On ABC radio streaming right across Australia online and on the ABC Listen App, this is the world today. The Northern Territory has the highest criminal reoffending rates in the country, but a new program in Central Australia focused on Aboriginal women is working to change that. It's a six month alternative to prison where the women and sometimes their children, too, live on the outskirts of Alice Springs taking part in education and rehabilitation programs. After four years, 80% of the women who have completed the program have not reoffended, as Stephanie Smile reports. [MUSIC] Sharon Briscoe and her four-year-old son, Tysia, are reading together in the sun. It's a different way of life for the 23-year-old who spent years living on the streets and struggling with addiction. I was on meth and the user for quite a while. She spent time in and out of prison, but when she had the choice to spend six months at the Alice Springs alternative to custody, life skills cab, she took it. Just mistakes I've made in my life. I had my ups and downs with my family, but I can't blame anyone for my mistakes. I'm here now, and I'm happy to be here because, yeah, trying to make a change in my life. The program for Aboriginal women provides intensive support and tailored rehabilitation services, instead of traditional prison time, and for Sharon Briscoe, it means she can live with her son. I feel that, you know, it's better to be with my son and rekindle my love and my bonding with him, and we could heal together, you know, instead of me, because of my mistakes I've made in life, you know, put him aside and his feelings aside, you know, so I actually considered that and wanted to come out because of both of us. She explains she's tried rehabilitation programs before without much success, but says she feels empowered by this approach. So in prison you're getting told what to do from guards a lot, you're abide by their rules, you know. Here it's different because there are support workers, but it's nothing like prison, you know. You get more of an opportunity to be yourself free, but there are rules that we have to follow and abide by because it's your mistakes that led you here, you know. You can dress with your own clothes, it's life skills for, you know, the outside. When you get out of these gates, it's what you want to make of yourself. So the human beings first and foremost, they're not a number. Eloise Page is the Chief Executive of Drug and Alcohol Services Australia that runs the alternative to custody facility. She calls it a whole person approach, where women focus firstly on themselves and then prepare for life in the community. We listen to their voice in how the program operates, how this facility is maintained. This is their home, it's their responsibility, they play a role in its upkeep, they play a role in determining what programs are delivered and what service providers come out here and provide service to them, they have choice and control. And ultimately they have a choice as to whether they come here or not. Northern Territory authorities are struggling with the highest rates of recidivism in the country, but after four years of operation, Eloise Page says there's evidence her program is working to break that cycle. Approximately 80% of women who go to prison reoffend, whereas 80% of the women who came through the alternative to custody during the evaluation period, 80% of those did not reoffend, so it's the opposite. Even those who reoffended, they either had a lower level of violence or less a number of offences than previously, so there's been harm reduction across the board. She acknowledges there's a new country liberal party in power in the Northern Territory with a clear tough on crime outlook, including plans to open new women's prisons. But she's hopeful the evidence that justice alternatives do work will help convince the new government to support programs like hers and others. I think that we want the same thing that the CLP want and that's a reduction in offending, and I've already reached out to the CLP, certain members of the CLP, to have those discussions, and I've had some discussions already around how we can support to achieve that goal. We'd like to see more investment into therapeutic approaches like the alternative to custody. I also think there's work that services like DASA could do with prisoners and in prison. So we stand by, along with many other AOD services and health services, to work with the government to address the root causes of crime and to turn this around in our community. In a statement, the Northern Territory Attorney General says the government will uphold the Aboriginal justice agreement, which commits to offering alternatives to custody. That's Stephanie Smal and Roxanne Fitzgerald with that report. For many of the producers running Australia's 34,000 livestock properties, isolation is a part of life, but as sail yards close across the country, farmers say they're losing one of the few opportunities for connection and support. And experts warn it could have impacts on the mental health of some rural communities. Brandon Long reports. At the lately sail yards west of Brisbane, cattle and sheep are being bought and sold at a rapid pace. But there's a lot more than just auctions happening here. Going to the sail and talking to the owl mates, that sort of helped me get off my bum and instead of sitting at home, feeling sorry for myself. I mean, the sail yards were a godsend for me in that aspect to just talk things over and just realise them. I'm not alone. A 69-year-old Steve Lehman is a quietly spoken but cheerful cattle farmer from Prince Law, a rural community about an hour's drive west of Brisbane. Mr Lehman's wife of 46 years passed away a few years ago. It was catching up with mates at the sail yards that helped him get through. The sail yard is worth a half a dozen psychologists, I think. For many farmers, trips to the sail yards are their only opportunity to see people outside of their immediate family. 89-year-old retired Gragia Tom Mulcay says there's no better place to clear the mind. You needn't have to be silly or blind to come through a sail. It's a camaraderie of the other farmers that get together and those discussions you have is an enormous help to the mental side of our farmer community, enormous help. But the local council has voted to close the yards next year due to the cost of bringing them up to environmental and safety standards. It's part of a worrying trend. In Queensland alone, at least five complexes have shut their gates in the past 17 years, with 38 remaining. Susie Tegan is the CEO of the National Rural Health Alliance. She says the closures are a real issue for rural communities. Even though a lot of trading is now done on apps and online, they're the structure or the fabric that pulls everything together and it's really important that we continue to maintain that and see the more people we lose from communities and the more industry we lose because we don't have health services, the more that is going to happen. And then one day somebody will wake up and go, "Oh, jeez, we didn't see that coming." She says financial concerns and natural disasters are big pressure points for farmers' mental health and a lack of access to professionals makes spaces like sale yards vital. People are choosing not to go to a doctor in particular at the moment or a nurse or a psychologist because A, they can't get in. B, they might have to travel many kilometres. I only spoke with somebody today and they said, "Oh, I've got an appointment in the city but I'm going to have to get up at three in the morning to drive to the city because it will take me that long because all I could get was a nine o'clock appointment." And with cattle the focus, Susie Teigen says it helps break the ice and provide an opportunity to open up. You might be talking a little bit about the livestock, but then at the same time you might be saying, "Oh, look, I haven't been right lately. I've been feeling really down. I lost my wife a year ago or I'm still not coping." You know, I'm not dealing with the fact that this is third year in a row that we've had a drought. North of Toomba, a livestock agent is taking matters into his own hands. Wade Hartwick launched monthly sales in the area back in 2022 to service the region's smaller farmers. A lot of people have been probably retired that go there and catch up with their old mates or their old colleagues over the years and it's a good morning out. A lot of them just come there and have a talk and talk a bit of bullshit. Well, they're there. It's good. Actually, a lot of fellas I've known there will be life. Meanwhile, back in Laidley, a saliards working group has been formed to try and find a solution. Steve Lehman is choosing to remain positive about the situation for his children and grandchildren now following in his footsteps. There's always a solution no matter what the problem is. It's a beef producer. Steve Lehman there, ending that report from Brandon Long, and if you or anyone you know needs help, you can call Lifeline and the number is 131114. Growing up on a sheep and capital property in central west of New South Wales, Hugh Francis was often told to go outside because he was too loud, but his voice became an asset as Hugh became an international opera singer. Now, back visiting the family property is running voice and singing classes for locals to help them find their own authentic voice. Toby Heming's reports. Hugh Francis has hit plenty of high notes in his 30-year operatic career. He's clocked up more than 200 performances at the Royal Opera House in London's common garden from the Ring Cycle to Tosca. Hello! Come here. Now, a long way from London, he's back on the farm where he first found his voice. I grew up here on the farm and if my sister and I were too loud, we were never told to shut up, we were just told to go outside. You know, you're yelling after dogs and you call enough to sheep and you're yelling over motorbikes where you're up in the shearing shed and they're shearing so you have to... So the whole instrument from a very young age is geared for sound production. Long before he was performing on stage to thousands of people, Hugh Francis was running around on this 1,100 hectare sheep and cattle farm outside Wellington in central West New South Wales. He knew Opera was his calling after taking a workshop in primary school with the renowned Australian conductor Richard Gill. But it took you a while to take the plunge. I lived in Sydney and worked in sales and marketing and public relations for 10 years, but I was never doing what I really, really wanted to do. His singing teacher gave him the push he needed. And she said to me, "Well, you're better to go away and be a small fish in a big pond than stay here in Australia and be a small fish in a small pond." At 28 he cashed in his superannuation and left to study the craft in England. Despite starting late, he's worked consistently and credits his resilience to growing up on the farm. You lose a potty lamb or one of your dogs gets bitten by a snake and it hurts. But you go, "Well, I've got to get over that." Hugh is back in Wellington helping his mum out on the property. And while he's here, he's teaching his craft to the locals. You exhale, your tummy goes towards the mattress, towards the floor. The voice is a wind instrument. There's a reason why we call someone a gas bag. The person who normally says, "Don't like what they sound quite often. They've been subject to someone who has said to them, "Please don't sing." The amount of students mature age and young who've come through our door over the years that were told to shut up even by teachers, by their parents, by a grandparent, and that has scarred them for their whole life. Until they suddenly pluck up the courage again at 55, 65, even 70 years of age to walk back in the door and say, "I'd like to learn how to sing. I always used to do it as a child." When local builder Sean Leggett heard about Hugh's classes, he knew he needed to attend. All these years I've been harbouring the fear of singing. Today I'm going to overcome it. How do you feel now? I feel like our loads have been taken off my shoulders. Honestly, I didn't know how I would react when I came in here. I wasn't sure if I was going to have that reaction where I would just clam up and Hugh's such a good teacher anyway. He put you at ease and that's how I got through the night. So I'm really, really happy. The last few years I haven't sung much at home, but with Hugh, I'm actually singing around the house again. Hugh's teaching has made me breathe better and I feel a lot better for it too. Hugh's goal with his classes isn't to make you a better singer. It's to make you feel better about singing. Finding your voice will make you more assertive. Finding your voice will make you feel more comfortable being you. And I think it's about authenticity. Hugh will soon head back overseas to prepare for more opera performances. But he hopes his Wellington students continue to sing. (SINGING) What a beautiful story. One thing better than a country kid made good is bringing their talents back home again. That's Toby Hemings reporting there on the career of Hugh Francis. And that is all from the world today, team. Thanks to your company, I'm Sally Sarah. Hi, I'm Sam Hawley, host of the ABC News Daily Podcast. The UK's electricity grid is now coal-free. Last week it closed, it's last remaining coal-fired power station, earlier than expected, and became the first G7 economy to dump coal. Today, energy expert from the Gratton Institute, Alison Reeve, on how the Brits did it and when and how, will do the same. Look for the ABC News Daily Podcast on the ABC Listen App. (MUSIC)