The World Today
US Israel relationship under pressure
ABC listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Hello and welcome to The World Today. It is Thursday, the 3rd of October. I'm Sally Sarah, coming to you from Nunnawal country in Canberra and acknowledging other custodians. This Thursday, a controversial list of changes to the NDIS comes into effect, just 48 hours after it was announced. And there's a fat bear in there. Animal lovers cast their ballots for the fattest Alaskan brown bear as the creatures prepare for hibernation. 747 is a two-time champ. 32 has yet to take the crown, but we'll see how that shapes up later in the week. These are the classic big brown bears that I think of and I think of a brown bear. I don't think they have anything to worry about and bulking up for the winter. The death toll in the Middle East is rising, five people have been killed and around a dozen injured by an Israeli airstrike in the heart of Beirut. Meanwhile, violence continues on the Israeli Lebanese border. Eight IDF soldiers have been killed, fighting in southern Lebanon after Israel launched its ground operation. In Gaza, Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 people, including women and children. For Australians still in Lebanon, the message remains to get out immediately. Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the government has secured more seats on flights for those who wish to leave, with 80 people set to depart today. An additional 500 seats have been set aside on commercial aircraft leaving the country this Saturday. A Royal Australian Air Force plane is also on standby in Cyprus. We are very worried about the situation escalating. If Beirut airport closes, the options for departure become even less. Israel is promising retaliation after yesterday's missile attack by Iran. But US President Joe Biden says he won't support any retaliatory strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. I call the media the G7. We'll be discussing with the Israelis what they're going to do. But all seven of us agree that they have a right to respond. But they should respond, and of course. As tension escalates, the relationship between Israel and the United States is coming under strain. Dov Waxman is Professor of Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Biden administration is in an extremely difficult situation right now, because on the one hand, as you note, it is eager to try to avoid an escalation between Israel and Iran that will result in a regional war that could draw the United States in. But at the same time, as Israel's most important allies also committed to Israel's security. And so it has to kind of try to thread this needle between supporting Israel and providing Israel with the defense it needs without being seen to support Israel's escalation, whether that's in southern Lebanon or against Iran. So it's in a very tight situation. Is there more leverage now for the Biden administration? Because in some ways, Israel needs the US more now? Well, Israel, I think, has needed the United States all along. I mean, that was clear from the early days after the October 7 attack. But while Israel relies upon US support, both the provision of weapons and diplomatic support, that hasn't really given the Biden administration, the United States government, the kind of leverage it would like to influence Israel's actions. And we've seen time and time again that President Biden, his administration, have been advising, pleading with the Israeli government not to do certain things. And then the Israeli government Prime Minister Mr. Niyar, who's gone ahead and done them. So I think it's been very apparent that the United States, or his president Biden himself, is unwilling or really unable to significantly restrain Israel. What do you think about the way that the Biden administration has handled this relationship since October 7 last year? Well, I think, initially, it did a good job in expressing very strong support for Israel's reaction, retaliation against Hamas for the October 7 attack, and also for sending US forces into the region to try to prevent a regional escalation. But as the year has gone on, as the war in Gaza is intensified, US policy has been often reactive, and the United States has often appeared to be a kind of bystander, almost helpless bystander, while at the same time enabling Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. As you're reflecting this bilateral relationship between the US and Israel doesn't exist in isolation, what do you think the US handling of Israel has done to the United States relationship with other countries and the way that it's viewed? Well, certainly, I think for many months now, there has been a real erosion of the United States' stature. But at the same time, I think, in this particular moment, there is possibly, even though this is not being publicly expressed, slightly in degree of satisfaction, I would think, among US allies about the weakening of Hezbollah and by extension the weakening of Iran. So although on the popular level among the public, in the region and beyond, there's a great deal of frustration and opposition and antagonism toward the US. I think within the regimes, in the region, within the governments and senior leaders, there is probably less opposition and more of a recognition that actually, Iran is a great danger in the region, is the threat that they most fear and to the extent that Iran's proxies are being weakened, that may ultimately benefit them. That's Dov Waxman there, professor of Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The New South Wales Supreme Court is today deciding whether a pro-Palestinian rally will be permitted ahead of the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year. But pro-Palestine groups say the rallies will proceed regardless of the ruling. The stand-off has sparked debate about the boundaries of free speech. Elizabeth Kramsi reports. Whichever way the New South Wales Supreme Court rules, pro-Palestinian groups say their weekly rallies will continue. Josh Lee's is from the Palestine Action Group. We've been protesting for 51 consecutive weeks now. We're certainly not going to stop now. Today's Supreme Court hearing is between New South Wales police and organizers of the rally. Thousands of people are expected to gather in Sydney's CBD, marking the one-year anniversary of the Israel Gaza conflict. But police want the event stopped due to safety concerns. Josh Lee's told ABC Radio's Patricia Carvellis, the event is an opportunity for people to mourn lives lost in Gaza and Lebanon. Well, it's mainly about it's a chance for Palestinian and Lebanese people to come and grieve for the thousands of people who have died and for their loved ones. We have many people who have lost family. Yeah, of course. And that is absolutely devastating for those people, right? It's unbearable for those people. But of course, there's an unbearable reality for other people too. So I find it unusual that you're not going to be grieving for the October 7, victims as well. Well, people are welcome to grieve for whoever they want. Our focus, of course, given that we are the Palestine Action Group, is to talk about the Palestinian and Lebanese victims. Joel Bernie is the Executive Manager of the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. He says the protests over the last 12 months haven't been friendly. So the idea that the anniversary of that said massacre is the time that these type of groups are going to go out to the streets. Are they protesting the military action in Gaza? Or are they celebrating the massacre of Jews on October 7? He says tensions are high in the Australian community. There is no doubt that the social cohesion in our country is at a very, very delicate and very, very bad level and has been since the hours after October 7 started and have only got progressively worse. And now we've got to a stage where a year later we're having conversations about other Aussies coming to the streets to celebrate the deaths of over a thousand Jews within a 24-hour period by a list of terror organization. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles asked protesters to consider the timing of their action. This is the anniversary of the loss of significant numbers of civilians, people who are going about their ordinary lives, who were not engaged in any form of combat or conflict. And it is a day to remember them. New South Wales premier Chris Minnes agrees. Not the right thing to do, hugely unsympathetic to those that are going through pain at the moment and not in keeping or in recognition of the fact that yes, there's been protests that have taken place in Sydney, but surely one of the other 364 days of the year would be more appropriate. But what does banning a protest say about free speech? Greg Barnes' essay is a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance. Problems in Australia, including in New South Wales, is that there's no adequate human rights protection, so there's no right to freedom of speech, as you have, for example, in the United States or Canada. And how that's policed, Greg Barnes says, is a further issue. One of the difficulties will be trying to stop a protest in circumstances where people are determined to do so. We saw this in universities earlier in the year, and it would create a real difficulty for police because you would have to have hundreds of police essentially arresting hundreds of individuals. That's Greg Barnes' essay from the Australian Lawyers Alliance, ending that report from Elizabeth Cramsey. On ABC Radio, right across Australia, streaming online and on the ABC, listen out, this is The World Today. Thanks for your company. Major changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme commenced today, including a contentious list of what participants can and can't spend their money on. The list was only revealed on Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours before coming into effect this morning, sparking criticism from participants that they weren't given enough time to digest the changes. I spoke a short time ago to Evan Young from the ABC's Specialist Reporting Team. So what we're talking about here is a clear delineation of what constitutes a NDIS support. So previously, nothing like this existed and that meant that some things that, you know, maybe don't pass the pub test had been charged to this game either by accident or by what the minister likes to call dodgy providers. So this list is quite detailed, but largely it includes items or services that are either directly linked to someone's disability or managing that disability and things that are evidence-based. So the list comes with a 12-month transition period, during which people won't automatically accrue a debt for accidentally buying something that's not on the list. That's been a big concern for some participants, as long as it's under $1,500. So we spoke to the minister, Bill Shorten, yesterday about all this and this is what he said. Whilst the scheme is working really well for a lot of people, the lack of clarity has led to some scams, some rods, some non-evidence-based therapies. So in all good conscience, I can't keep driving by something which ultimately undermines the sustainability of the scheme, the trust in the scheme and rips people off. That's Bill Shorten there, the minister for the NDIS and Evan, what's the response being? Many in the disability community are worried, especially on that timeframe of being given less than two days to see the list before they actually became law this morning. There's also some uncertainty about what happens if someone incorrectly spends more than that $1,500 figure we mentioned earlier. A lot of people with disability as well just really thrive on consistency and stability. And so big changes like these, things that are going to have material impact on their funding, what we're always going to cause, some anxiety, and algives from the Disability Advocacy Network Australia, articulated some of those concerns this morning. It's extraordinarily quick. I mean, these are Essentials Public Services for 650,000 people with disability and their families and things are changing with incredibly short notice everyone scrambling at the moment to make sure that people know what they can or can't do, but also know what the consequences now are if people get it wrong. That's algives there from the Disability Advocacy Network Australia. Evan, the list has dominated the headlines, but there are a few other changes coming into effect today as well. What's there? So a lot of the things coming in today are quite small, but there is another sizable one and that's relating to funding amounts and periods. So for those who aren't familiar with this game at the moment, plans currently show individual support items, but now new plans, so not existing plans, just new plans, will be shown as a total budget figure and indicate how long that funding needs to last for. This is basically an attempt to save money. We've obviously heard a lot about the growing cost of the scheme and stop what the government is calling intra plan inflation when a participant spends their funds quickly and then requests a top up. There's also more power for the NDIA, the National Disability Insurance Agency, which runs the scheme to step in and change the management of someone's plan from self-managed to agency managers if it suspects that fraud is occurring or funds are being misused, although some participants are worried that those new powers don't include enough safeguards for them. That's the ABC's Evan Young there. New data from the health department shows that despite increased funding for the aged care sector, many older Australians in residential aged care are still not getting the minutes of care per day that they should be. The data indicates that six out of ten aged care homes are still falling short on their mandatory minutes of direct care and also on registered nurse targets. Advocates say the for-profit sector is most at fault and there needs to be better scrutiny on how government funds are being spent. Rachel Mealy reports. Over the last five years, funding for the aged care sector has increased by close to $13 billion. Much of that increase has been triggered by the Royal Commission into aged care, which threw a spotlight onto care standards in nursing homes around the country. Since this time last year, residential aged care providers have been required to give a mandatory average of 200 minutes of direct care to each resident per day, including 40 minutes from a registered nurse. But it's still not happening. Pat Sparrow is the chief executive of the Council on the Aging. It's deeply concerning. The care minutes are an important part of making sure that older people in residential aged care are getting the right level of care or getting good quality care. We know from the Royal Commission that hasn't been happening. This was a recommendation from the Royal Commission. So to hear that it's been in place for about a year and we're still not meeting, it is very concerning. She says in the three months to June this year, less than a quarter of for-profit providers met both their registered nurse minutes and their total care minutes over the quarter. It seems from the data that's been released that we're seeing that it's in metropolitan areas and also that it's for-profit providers who aren't meeting it. Now there may be some reasons why that's the case, but those are trends that need to be looked at. We would have expected that it would have been more of an issue in rural and remote areas where there have been workforce shortages, but that's not the case. Craig, gear is the chief executive of the Older Persons Advocacy Network. There is a disparity between some providers who are meeting—are able to meet and in the same location, providers who are for-profit are not meeting those targets. Older people have told us they want transparency about where this money is going to. They want to make sure that it's going to direct care and they want to be accountability. So if one provider can meet the target and another doesn't, it does ask questions about why is that the case. These minutes should be the bare minimum to care because it makes a significant difference in older people's lives in residential. It shouldn't be going to profits and we know that some providers are able to meet the targets. The federal government has introduced major changes to the aged care sector and hopes its aged care bill passes through Parliament before the end of this year. The Act doesn't include criminal penalties for providers who breach care standards, but it does allow for civil penalties. Craig Gear says aged care providers who aren't meeting their funding requirements need to face consequences. I think what we are looking for in this new aged care act, the bill that's before Parliament at the moment is that the greater protections and greater consequences come into place, including strong civil penalties, where aged care providers aren't meeting their obligations and we really want the government to make sure that action is taken where they don't meet their obligations. The aged and community care providers association was unavailable for comment. That's Rachel Mealy reporting. Beneath the bustling Japanese city of Tokyo, an ambitious project to mitigate the impacts of climate change is underway. Increasingly violent storms have pushed the city to construct a vast new underground tunnel in an effort to prevent flooding of homes above. But experts say that city officials can't simply build their way out of climate disasters. Alexandra Humphrey has filed this report. Massive downpours are becoming increasingly commonplace in Tokyo. As typhoon Chanchan lashed the area in August, water flooded a massive underground chamber north of Tokyo. The deluge was enough to fill the city's baseball stadium almost four times over, but instead of inundating homes, it was safely pumped out to sea. The system is believed to have prevented more than $1.5 billion in damage over 23 years and now work is underway to expand it. Shuna Tomo is the construction site manager. As the climate changes, these kinds of rains are expected to become more and more frequent and to have even greater impact, so we intend to strengthen the provision of these facilities in order to ensure the safety and security of the people of Tokyo. Sita Omori is a professor of environmental science and climate risk at Tokyo University. He expects the system to be relied on more heavily in coming years. The basic cause is that as temperature rises, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases, meaning that relatively larger quantities of rainfall. It's one of a number of major infrastructure projects being undertaken around the world to help cities mitigate the effects of climate change. In Venice, Italy, dozens of flood barriers are being installed. With Jakarta slowly sinking, Indonesia is going so far as to construct a brand new capital city. We can't build our way out of trouble. We're going to have to have a whole of society response to adapt to climate change. Peter Combs is a visiting professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. No matter how big you build the infrastructure, the only always something that comes all over makes it fail as we learned in LISMOOR and places like that in Australia. So the new conversation is about how do we live with this new normal and how do we find a way that the entire society can adapt and be resilient. Some of the risk will be mitigated by changing the way we plan for our society, more resilient houses, better warning systems, being better able to avoid a more extreme risk than you thought was going to happen using our clever clever technology. A major challenge facing cities around the world. That's Alexandra Humphrey's reporting. The furry curves of Alaska's brown bears are being celebrated this week with the chunkiest vying for top spot in the annual Fat Bear Week competition. The bears of Katmai National Park have been feasting on salmon in the lead up to hibernation and fans around the world have been watching them become rounder on live internet feeds. Stephanie Smile reports. As summer fades, the bears of Katmai National Park are busy body building by feeding on the salmon in the Brooks River. They're nearly at their chunkiest before hibernation on the Alaskan Peninsula, making it the perfect time to vote on their physique. As a fuel for reproductive success and survival, it's hard to overestimate the importance of fat. Mike Fitz is from the explore.org website that's hosting live streams of the region and the bears doing their thing. That per week is a celebration of bears, salmon and the health of Katmai and Bristol Bay. Bears are a conspicuous example of the region's productivity and ability to support the last great salmon run on earth. The start of this year's Fat Bear Week was rough with some unlucky fans witnessing the death of a bear during a fight on one of the live streams. But the show must go on. This year's 12 competitors have got numbers, but also nicknames like chunk, grazer and gully. Katmai National Park Ranger Sarah Bruce has just taken part in a live online discussion about some of the contenders. I'm 747 is a two time champ, but these are the classic big brown bears that I think of and I think of a brown bear. I don't think they have anything to worry about and bulking up for the winter. It's a big deal for fans with 1.3 million votes cast last year. One first round match this year will pick gully who's an eight-year-old male and has developed a taste for seagulls against female and mother bear 909. Mike Fitz explains getting round before winter is crucial for lots of reasons. Any fat that they carry from this year into next spring, that'll be put to use as they pursue mating opportunities. And that's true of all of the adult males who we've talked about so far. We talk about fat as important for the hibernation season, but it can be really a fuel for the springtime season as well. Until recently, it's been all about judging on the look of a bear's curves. But Naomi Boke from the Katmai Conservancy says scientists have started trying laser technology. These are approximate estimates, but much better for everyone than putting a bear on a scale, right Mike? Scientists found one bear was estimated to weigh about 562 kilograms and others weren't far behind. So with so many furry round options, how will voters choose? Here's Naomi Boke and Sarah Bruce again. These are really interesting matchups. Now 856 in his kinder, gentler demeanor and his huge size. I think he's got a good shot at winning this one. I always vote for the one who is a little bit further behind, so I'm going to wait to see who's falling behind and give them my vote. Fat bear fans will be casting their votes until next Tuesday. That's Stephanie Smale reporting 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. Almost a year since the October 7 terrorist attack, war in the Middle East has escalated with Iran firing a wave of ballistic missiles on Israel. So what happens next and is there a way to avoid more bloodshed? Today, Hussein Abish from the Arab Gulf States Institute. Look for the ABC News Daily podcast on the ABC Listenout. [BLANK_AUDIO]