Paul Moss

Jake Kwan reporting. Still to come in this podcast. I think it's a shame because it should be a free attraction, being one of the most important monuments in Rome. I think it's fine to pay. It will add to cleanliness. As Rome tries to manage over tourism, visitors to the city tell us their thoughts on a new entrance fee for the capital's most famous fountain.

This is the Global News Podcast. It was last month that the United Nations Committee against Torture said it was worried about reports coming out of Israel, reports which suggested the country had a de facto policy of torturing Palestinian detainees. Israel rejected that claim, but now two Palestinian men have told the BBC they were beaten and sexually abused by prison guards while in Israeli detention. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, John Donison, has this report, and...

It was very much a plan B. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped that the European Union would agree to lend his country perhaps close to 200 billion dollars using frozen Russian assets as collateral. Instead, as you heard on an earlier edition of this podcast, he's getting just over 100 billion to fight Russia's invasion and the Russian assets are not involved. Now Mr. Zelensky has thanked EU leaders.

And he did so just as Kiev claimed a new and perhaps controversial success on the battlefield, attacking and badly damaging a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean. And that marks a significant shift, according to Elizabeth Braugh, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, as she told my colleague Lena Nathu.

It's one of the highlights for any tourist visiting Rome, the majestic Trevi fountain. But that's just the problem. Being a highlight, the fountain is often severely overcrowded, and it's become a focal point for the more general debate in Italy about the problem of over-tourism. Rome city officials do have an idea for how to deal with the Trevi crowds, charging people for visiting. But critics fear this would turn a public square into a ticketed attraction. Carla Conti reports.

It was nearly 90 years ago that the then unknown writer Tennessee Williams wrote a letter to his mother, in which he mentioned a radio play he'd sent to a local radio station in the hope they might consider broadcasting it. It may lead to something, he wrote, hopefully. Well, Williams did of course become something, with works like A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof becoming huge hits on stage.

and later famous as critically acclaimed films. And now, all these decades later, the script for that early radio play has been discovered. He's going upstairs without a light. Yes, he likes to move around in the dark, poor man. He stopped on the landing. Yes. What's he standing there for, I wonder? Goodness knows.

Andrew Gulley speaking to Sean Lay.

And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag hash globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Lee Wilson and the producer was Carla Conti. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Paul Moss. Until next time, goodbye.

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A scam exploiting vulnerable families with sick children.

I would have done anything to get the medicine for Khalil.

Millions of dollars pour in, but the families never receive the money.

He told us it wasn't successful.

As I understood it, the video just didn't make any money.

Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Paul Moss, and at 4.30 GMT on Monday 15th December, these are our main stories.

Australia's Prime Minister has promised to crack down on anti-Semitism after Sunday's deadly attack on a Jewish festival in Sydney.

Chile's new far-right President-elect, José Antonio Cast, has promised to restore respect for the law after winning Sunday's run-off.