Global News Podcast - 20 years on: Remembering the tsunami

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Memorial events have been held around the Indian Ocean to mark 20 years since the tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people. Also: Did Russia down an Azerbaijani plane? And the rise of non-alcoholic wine.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. You are bound to devote yourself to the long conflict between the light and the dark. The Dark is Rising, an immersive audio adventure, adapting Susan Cooper's classic fantasy novel into a gripping 12-part family drama. Everything had changed. The dark is rising. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. cast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keough and at 14 Hours GMT on Thursday 26th December these are our main

stories. Ceremonies are taking place around the Indian Ocean to remember the devastating tsunami that happened on this day 20 years ago. I felt that the waves took my daughter away. I was so mad at the sea. I can never forget it no matter how many years have passed. And military bloggers and aviation experts have suggested Russia shot down an Azerbaijani Airlines plane. Also in this podcast, how social media is spurring South Africa's criminal gangs to poach rare wild plants. And the killer whale who refused to let go of her dead calf for

17 days now has a new baby. It's 20 years since a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Sumatra island, triggering the deadliest tsunami in history. More than 220,000 people in 15 countries across the Indian Ocean were killed. Commemorations are being held around the region today. Indonesia's Aceh province was the worst hit. In Banda Aceh, people have been praying at a mass grave. In Banda Ache, people have been praying at a mass grave. Urai Sirisuk, a mother who was attending the memorial event in Thailand, lost her four-year-old daughter. I felt that the waves took my daughter away.

I was so mad at the sea. It's very difficult for a mother to lose their child. It's tough. I can never forget it, no matter how many years have passed until I die. Our South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, who's in Bangkok, covered the events twenty years ago. How does he look back at that time? Actually, I think that when I sort of got away from it and reflected on it I was astonished at human endurance and resilience in the face of something that nobody really

could comprehend. I mean we knew what had happened but you know when you're looking at death and grief on the scale that we were it was very very difficult to process but people kept going. We were of course able to go in, it was quite difficult particularly in Aceh where everything had been destroyed, it was difficult even to find a place to stay in because all the buildings were damaged and could collapse. Everything had basically been destroyed in the city but we could get away, people couldn't and when we spoke to survivors there, there was this extraordinary, almost desolate despair. I remember one man who'd come from a community on the coast where everything had gone. He'd lost most of his

family. There were two surviving members with him, I think a sister and a sort of older child. And he said that there was nothing left. All the buildings had gone. But he said there was no one else in the community that he'd managed to find and people were scattered all over the place. There wasn't even the land where his village had been had been completely changed by the power of the waves. So he couldn't imagine how they could ever rebuild. And that sense of complete helplessness was very, very distressing at the time. The number of times I can remember being in tears with the people that I was talking to, but very quickly afterwards, people did rebuild and people bounced back and in a way not having anyone to blame helped.

No one was angry with anybody about this. It had just happened. It was a monumental natural disaster. So basically everybody piled in to figure out how they could rebuild. It was a multinational effort and we saw the Americans, for example, coming in with their aircraft carriers and using their heavy lift military helicopters in a way I don't think they'd ever done before, where they would essentially run an offshore airport because the little airport in Banda Acha was completely overwhelmed and used these

helicopters to pick up aid from depots and take it to very remote communities. And the construction effort of course went on for years but you saw communities building back to the point where if you go to Banda Aceh today you'd hardly know it had happened apart from those really striking memorials they've left in place where you've got entire massive fishing boats on top of buildings and reminding you of how horrible it was. Those who experienced it of course have very vivid memories but they have moved on. So what changes have been made Jonathan to try to prevent a similar disaster happening again? Well it's about responding better to it and there are much more effective warning systems in place. They talk here in Thailand a lot about the system of buoys they've got in the sea that are supposed

to detect sudden rises in sea levels. In Indonesia, they're not so confident in those, but they have other methods of tracking any sort of sudden changes in sea levels, warnings of tsunamis. But the biggest change, I think, is probably people's awareness. Back when that happened, most people had had no experience of a tsunami. Many people said they didn't even know what a tsunami was. Now people know. They know that if there is a tsunami warning and there are sirens on all these coasts now and watchtowers, you get to higher ground as quickly as possible. That can save lives. How is the 20-year anniversary being marked, Jonathan?

I would say reflectively and quietly in the ways that each community feels is appropriate. Down in Thailand, in Phang Nga, where the resorts that were most badly damaged are, you see a lot of foreigners there, people who lost family members. I mean, 45 different nationalities lost their lives. There were official markings of it, official sort of speech is the usual thing. Koh Phi P, where I went, which was absolutely devastated. A tiny island, 1300 people died, many of them foreign tourists. A quiet, dignified ceremony. It's called Disaster Awareness Day, so people remember it.

In Aceh, which is a devoutly Muslim part of Indonesia, a mass prayer session in the great mosque in the capital Bandar Aceh which symbolizes Achenese identity and unlike many mosques actually survived the tsunami quite well because it's built on these very slender pillars and the water just went between it so they had a prayer session there and the sounding of the siren system that they now have rather chilling to hear it but of course back in 2004 people didn't hear anything. You know, the sirens are scary to listen to, but they are a sign that this time round, if it were to happen again, people would be much better prepared.

Jonathan Head. Military bloggers and aviation experts have suggested Russia accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani Airlines plane which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing more than 30 people. No proof has been offered, but the experts believe the plane could have been mistaken for a Ukrainian drone. Our Europe Regional Editor Paul Moss is following the story. 24 hours ago I was sitting in this same chair talking about the crash as the first details emerged. But already it was very puzzling. We were told this was

a flight to Grojny, which had been diverted because of fog, and that the plane then was told to land at an airport, Aktau, in southwest Kazakhstan. Well, first question is why. That is a journey of nearly 500 kilometres across the Caspian Sea. When a plane can't land at one airport because of fog, it usually lands at a nearby one. This is as if a plane was coming into land in Paris, was told there was fog and decided instead to fly all the way to Spain and fly to Madrid. That is the kind of distances we're talking. Then as the plane flies across the Caspian Sea, it is constantly changing direction and altitude. This is an aircraft which looks

like the pilot is struggling to control it. Then it lands at Aktau Airport or crashes at Aktau Airport where there is no fog. So the plane has been diverted because of fog but crashes for another reason. At best that is quite a coincidence. Now immediately a reason was offered for while it was crashed, the theory that it hit a flock of birds. Well, who touted that theory? The first people to come out with a theory was a Russian aviation watchdog. So we have an Azerbaijani flight crashing in Kazakhstan.

Why are the Russians so quick to tell us why it crashed? And finally, we also have interviews with the passengers on the plane. As you know, 29 survived. They say they heard an explosion. So what's being suggested might have happened? Well, as you say, the main theory is that it was mistaken for a Ukrainian drone and shot down. Grozny had come under attack from Ukrainian drones on Wednesday. The Chechen authorities said they'd shot some of those down.

And also we have photographs of the fuselage which show what look like holes. Aviation experts say those are consistent with a missile being fired. I should say though that other theories are available. One is that the plane was not mistaken for a Ukrainian drone but it was hit by a Ukrainian drone. Another theory is that it was the navigation system was deliberately jammed, again, as part of Russian defense measures. And Paul just briefly what's been the reaction from the Azerbaijani and Russian authorities? Well the Russians have said so far it's too early to speculate but you get an idea from looking at Russian

state media it continues to say the plane was hit by a flock of birds. Interestingly they've showed footage of the crash site but Russian state TV is not showing close-ups of the fuselage where you see those holes. They've also broadcast interviews with survivors but cut the bits where the survivors say there was an explosion. Make of that what you will. Paul Moss. Health authorities in Gaza say five journalists were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a broadcast van outside Al-Awda Hospital in the Nusra refugee

camp. It's understood one of the men had been expecting the birth of his child. From Jerusalem, here's our correspondent, Emme Nader. A video from earlier in the night shows Ayman El-Jeddi in a press jacket with his colleagues smiling saying tonight he will become a father. Soon after, their Quds Today broadcast van marked with with large TV and press signs, was hit by an Israeli airstrike. It was parked outside a hospital in central Gaza's Nusayrat area where it said Al-Jedi's wife was about to give birth. Pictures show the mangled wreckage of the van ablaze. The Israeli military said that it had hit what it called a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside. Quds Today is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group that took part in the

7th October attack. The journalists were known to be living and working from their broadcast van. Last week the Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 140 media workers have been killed during the war in Gaza, which has been called the deadliest conflict for journalists on record. Emea Nader Up until two years ago, Ukraine celebrated Christmas on the 7th of January, like the rest of the Orthodox Christian world, including Russia. But after the Russian invasion,

Kiev decided to move Nativity celebrations to December 25th, in line with the Western tradition. But this does not apply to the annexed territories of eastern Ukraine, where people are forced to abide by Russian law. So families that have been split by the war now have to celebrate on different dates. The BBC's Natalia Deis caught up with Afina Kabzynova, a Ukrainian refugee in London, as she was calling her family left behind in the city of Mariupol, which has been annexed by Russia. I first spoke with Afina as she and her mother narrowly escaped from Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in March of 2022.

Now, over two and a half years later, she spends her Christmas alone in the UK, keeping in touch with her family over WhatsApp. Who did you talk to right now? I spoke with my sister-in-law. I just said about how I spent Christmas morning here and how I went to Christmas service in London. As you woke up this morning, you probably learned that Russia has launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, forcing quite a few people to take shelters in metro station on Christmas morning. How does it make you feel? I am grateful. I am in a safe place, in safe country. I feel really sorry for people in Ukraine who couldn't have this happy morning on Christmas Day and they suffer from Russian attacks.

You've escaped in March 2022 together with your mother and you now live in the UK, but what about your mother? My mom decided to go back to Mariupol two years ago and now she is there. She's living under Russian rule, Russian occupation now. A. Yes, she was lucky to have her apartment. It was not destroyed. So she lives in her house with her elder sister who is 94 now and she lost everything. Her block apartment doesn't exist anymore. L. If I understand correctly, to live in Mariupol Pol under Russian control now you have to sort of accept Russian citizenship. Yes, my mom accepted. There is no chance to survive without doing this because you can't even get

SIM card for your mobile phone without Russian passport. Do you have hopes of seeing her again? Realistically, since you said your mother is 85 years old and she cannot really travel freely and you cannot visit Ukraine, do you accept that it may happen that you will never see her again? Yes, I often think about it and the only hope is to finish the war and I will be able to go to Mariupol to meet my mom. What is Christmas Day like in Mariupol? In Ukraine until two years before we celebrated Christmas on 7th January and our traditions were family dinner on Christmas Eve.

Usually we had family gathering, cooking traditional food. As we are Ukrainian Greeks, we have our own traditions. And my mom cooked a special Christmas pie. She put a coin inside a pie. And when we cut this pie, the first piece of pie was for home. And next pieces were for each member of family and who find this coin will be happy. What is life in Mariupol like at the moment? We don't know much about it. Yes, I could say the life has changed and many people connections were lost but we have close family and they spent a lot of time together because

my brother's family, my two nieces live there and they often visit my mom. LARISA The other members of your family, do they still consider themselves Ukrainians or Russians or Greek? How do they feel about what happened to their land? We never speak about politics and I can't say how they identify themselves because they just try to do normal life in those circumstances they have. I'm happy, they are happy, healthy and alive. What do you wish for in the new year? Because, you know, Christmas night is a magical night. So, did you make any wish?

I just wish all people in Ukraine be happy. My family be healthy. I hope one day we wake up and find out that the war is finished and everything will be good and I will be able one day to go back to Mariupol and to meet my mum and my nieces. Athene Kadzinova, a Ukrainian refugee in London. Still to come, the growing market for non-alcoholic wines in France. Actually, I feel like now we're not getting close to it, but we're getting closer and closer every day.

To what? Well, to something which is gonna be a kind of, I think a big revolution in the wine industry. Security forces in Syria have launched an operation against what they call pro-Assad militias in the western province of Tartus. It comes after 14 members of the security forces were killed in clashes in the region on Wednesday. Our Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Usher, told me more about the operation from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon. It's security forces, militias that essentially were involved in the offensive that swept President Assad from power. Also, the kind of elite forces of the HTS group,

the main Islamist group that led the offensive have been involved in this. I mean, showing that the new authorities regard this as a considerable challenge, that they want to quash essentially as quickly as possible so that it can't build into a longer lasting challenge to their authority. It comes, as you were saying in the introduction there, after, I guess, what's the deadliest incident build into a longer lasting challenge to their authority.

It comes, as you were saying in the introduction there, after, I guess, what's the deadliest incident so far since these factions took over 14 police security forces being killed yesterday, and the authorities blaming militias linked to President Assad. So they say, essentially, that they are searching and hunting down what they call the remnants of Assad's militias in the woods and the hills in the province of Tartus.

Tartus is one of the areas in the west of the country where the Alawite community to which Assad belongs. It has its largest numbers, and it's where really the bedrock of support for Assad existed. And so I mean it's not surprising that there is some holdouts there. I mean the big question obviously for the authorities in Syria but also I mean people watching from outside the many different countries that have sent their diplomats and officials to talk to the new leadership are hoping that, you know, things will stabilise. So everyone watching this closely to see whether this becomes a big challenge, a wider conflict, or it's something which can be nipped in the bud.

What are the challenges really in holding the country together that the new leadership has said it will do? They've talked, I mean the leader, Ahmed Al-ShSharah has talked very much of unity and of course that's been a very short supply in Syria. The civil war exacerbated the divisions that were latent in the country in any case and there's been no movement really to heal those divisions. So it's a very big task and part of that task is to try and control the armed factions and Appan Ashar has very much made that his priority not just with the Alawites over in the West but also in the East with the Kurds that also could be a big challenge of a very different kind the Kurds essentially kept out of much of

the fighting until now that could be a new battleground essentially that could be opened up. Sebastian Usher. One result of us being confined to our homes during the COVID pandemic is a surge in demand for eye-catching houseplants, which will attract likes when images of them are posted on social media. An illegal international trade in rare plants

has blossomed in recent years, with South Africa becoming its hub. Demand is particularly high for a type of plant known as succulents, and it's so intense that some of them have now become extinct in the wild. Nomsem Maseko reports from South Africa's northern Cape province. Many of the world's succulent species are only found in this biodiversity hotspot, the succulent karoo, which spans South Africa and Namibia. But now they're under threat from poachers who steal them from the wild to sell abroad.

But this is one of the groups of succulents that have been most severely targeted. I've come to the Richtersfeld Transfontea Park which is working to protect succulent species threatened with extinction and rehabilitate plants seized from poachers by law enforcement. Many of the seized plants are replanted in pots here in an effort to save them. Some of these succulents are just beautiful, just unique. Peter van Veek runs the nursery here. In South Africa we know already of seven species that has been wiped out completely and there are certainly more species that will go extinct very soon. Peter says organized crime syndicates use social media to create a buzz around particular plant species which fuels the poaching and smuggling.

The syndicates, they saw this as an opportunity of making something viral, telling as wide as possible public, we have this super strange looking thing that comes from the African continent and then the public just loses their heads and they say I want to buy one. Criminal networks recruit local people to carry out organized poaching activities and this is having knock-on effects on communities here. I spoke to one woman from a local farming community whose identity we are hiding for her own safety. Her words are spoken by a producer. Unemployment is a reality and in our community it's really bad. When they get the money there's more drugs, more alcohol, children are neglected because mommy is drunk, daddy is drunk, there's no food.

For me it's a really sad story because they've not just stolen our land or our plants, they've stolen our heritage as well. Efforts are being made to address the problem and the police do patrol the area on the lookout for smuggled plants. Work is also being done on the demand side. This is a video from an online campaign in China Work is also being done on the demand side. This is a video from an online campaign in China aimed at educating people about the illegal succulent trade. The country has become one of the biggest markets for poached plants in recent years. But Linda Wong from Clean Internet for Conephtum campaign says people have been responsive once they understand the impact.

The key is awareness. Once people know they want to take actions, they want to take responsibility and to consume those plants to enjoy their beauty in a very responsible way. There's a legal trade in succulents which have been grown in a nursery rather than taken from the wild. Conservationists advise customers all over the world to ask about the origin of a plant before buying one. The hope is that with more awareness, the poaching of wild succulents can be stopped and

South Africa's precious biodiversity protected. Nomsa Meseko. A killer whale that captured the world's attention in 2018 after refusing to let go of her dead calf has given birth again. The orca known as talekwa has been seen with a new baby off Washington state in the US. Steve Jackson has the details. Taliqua's two and a half week journey six years ago made headlines around the world. She pushed her dead calf more than 1600 kilometres in an apparent demonstration of grief. Conservationists are hoping the story this time is a happier one, but they've warned

that early life is a very dangerous time for killer whale calves. Taliqua is an experienced mother and has previously given birth to two young that have survived. The Centre for Whale Research, which is monitoring this pod, says it hopes further sightings will give more clues as to the health of the calf. Steve Jackson, for those of you who've been celebrating Christmas, you may have been enjoying a glass or two of wine, but what about alcohol-free wine? It's become a serious commercial proposition

as producers eye a growing market. It's even catching on in France, as our correspondent Hugh Schofield has been finding out in the home of Claret, Bordeaux. A couple of weeks ago an old part of town and the launch of Bordeaux's first ever carve or wine shop dedicated solely to what just a couple of years ago would have caused any self-respecting Bordelais to splutter into his glass. Vins sans alcohol. This is no fad, no obscure niche in the market. The deputy mayor of Bordeaux is here to lend official approval. But the fact is, alcohol-free wine is increasingly looked on in Bordeaux as part of the future.

Maybe, whisper it not, even a savior in troubled times. Cave owner Alexandre Quétanet. We opened one month ago and we have at least three or four wine producers that came here just because they were willing to know what is a non-alcoholic wine shop. And they say, okay, we want to go there. Who can we talk to? So they don't know how to do it,

but they know that it's an opportunity. My name's Charlotte Bucard, and I'm launching Omai Bay, a sophisticated non-alcoholic winegrower. Among the ruddy-faced Bordeaux wine growers, the daughter of a wine seller, Charlotte also is of the view that this is a huge potential new market. It was through my own experience of pregnancy of not being able to drink wine

and starting to think, well, you know, what kind of alternatives are there instead of just drinking water when you're doing sodas or fruit juices. And so I thought, well, actually, why don't I start my own brand? So what's going on? Why this sudden change in attitudes here in the home of wine to the stuff that's alcohol-free? To find out, I've crossed to the other side of the Garonne River to meet a leading earnalogue wine expert helping to develop Les Vins Sans Alcohol. My name is Frédéric Roche. I am what you would call a one geek. I was born in a barrel and because several things have happened, says Frederick.

On the one hand, the markets changed. More young people are steering away from alcohol. Second and linked French vineyards are in crisis. They need desperately to find new products. And third, with investment money pouring in the technology is improving by leaps and bounds. We started from very very far away and it was pretty disgusting by these days and so we've been working hard and we've made very nice progress and actually I feel like now we're not getting close to it but

we guys are getting closer and closer every day and well to something which is going to be a kind of a, I think, a big revolution in the wine industry. The first non-alcoholic wines were made by boiling off the alcohol, then adding flavoring. Today it's different. The alcohol is removed in a vacuum, so at low temperature, and then the aromas are captured and returned to the wine. That's the theory.

In practice, it's very hard, especially for reds, to recreate the mise en bouche, the mouthfeel. And the non-alcoholics still tend to be rather thin. Cheers. Yeah, that's very, very nice indeed. It's the first time I've done a story about wine in which I haven't felt...squiffy. A few miles from Bordeaux, on the Montagne Saint-Emilion, this is the Clo de Boire wine

estate and its owner Coralie de Boire. A few years ago, she was asked to make an alcohol-free wine for the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain football club. And now it's become an essential part of the estate's income. At the start, she was regarded as a traitor to true wine, even by her own family, but not anymore. Today, if you listen to my father, he said, good job, my daughter, because you are in the locomotive of the train. You know, the economic conjuncture is very complicated,

actually. And if today Chateau Clodebois is able to survive to this conjuncture, it's really because we sell approximately one third of our production without alcohol. And that report was by Hugh Schofield. 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.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Callum McLean and the producer was Vanessa Heaney.

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