Tens of thousands of Lebanese return home after ceasefire
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A 10-day pause in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has led to tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese families returning home. Despite the ceasefire, Israel has said it reserves the right to continue targeting the Iran-backed militant group. It also says civilians could be forced to move again. Also: finance ministers and central bankers express concern about a powerful new AI model that could undermine financial systems. Large crowds gather in Douala, Cameroon's biggest city, for a mass with the Pope. Harry and Meghan are in Australia. Is the trip about making money or for charity? And Japan unveils a new word for extremely hot summer days.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.5 | I'm Alex Ritson, and at 16 hours GMT on Friday the 17th of April, these are our main stories. |
| 0:19.3 | As a fragile ceasefire in southern Lebanon seems to be |
| 0:22.7 | holding, the people who fled the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah start returning home. But is |
| 0:28.1 | it safe? Meanwhile, Lise Doucette meets people in Tehran, whose neighbourhood has been shattered |
| 0:33.5 | by the bombing there. And the threat posed to the global financial system by artificial intelligence. |
| 0:41.5 | Also in this podcast, the Pope holds an open air mass for hundreds of thousands of people in the city of Dua in Cameroon, |
| 0:50.0 | and some scepticism of Harry and Megan in Australia. |
| 0:59.0 | There was an article in one of the papers that accused them of using Australia as an ATM as a cash machine. |
| 1:10.0 | A 10-day ceasefire is now in place between Israel and Lebanon following talks between the two in Washington. But the success or not of the truce will depend to a large extent on Hezbollah, |
| 1:15.4 | the Lebanon-based militant group backed by Iran that's been attacking Israel. |
| 1:19.9 | It's already said it has its finger on the trigger in case Israel violates the ceasefire. |
| 1:25.4 | Just hours into the truce, tens of thousands of people started returning to their homes in southern Lebanon, |
| 1:31.6 | even though Israel says they could be evacuated again if the fighting resumes. |
| 1:36.9 | What matters is that we're returning to our village, our hometown, our land. |
| 1:42.0 | We will not leave our land no matter what. I don't know if my house is |
| 1:46.0 | destroyed or not. What happened to it? If it's destroyed, it changes nothing. I will pitch a tent |
| 1:51.1 | in front of it and stay there. It's what everyone wishes for. This is the land where I was born, |
| 1:59.3 | and we want to return at any moment. I left at 8pm |
| 2:02.6 | and waited inside on for four hours until the road opened. Even if it had taken a day or two, |
| 2:08.7 | the most important thing is that I'm returning. Our correspondent in Lebanon, Karin Torbay, |
... |
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