Global News Podcast - British spies and special forces named in Afghan data breach

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

The personal details of British spies and special forces soldiers were included in one of the worst security leaks in modern UK history. Also: Rosebud - the wooden sled from Citizen Kane - sells for millions at auction.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. deal ratings and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. That's cargurus.ca. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen and in the early hours of Friday the 18th of July these are our main stories. What may have been Britain's biggest ever data breach was even worse than first feared. It's now emerged the personal details of British spies and special forces were leaked. Monsoon flooding in Pakistan kills at least 60 people in the last 24 hours. Investors in Facebook's parent company Meta settle an $8 billion privacy lawsuit with its founder and other executives.

Also in this podcast, New plans to give 16-year-olds the vote in UK general elections and... It's probably the most famous prop in the history of cinema. The wooden sled from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane becomes the second most valuable movie prop ever sold. Earlier this week we reported on a security breach here in Britain that's been described as one of the worst in the country's history. The names of thousands of Afghans who'd worked with the UK forces and were trying to flee the Taliban were accidentally leaked by a military official in 2022. But a special court order kept the news hidden from the

public until now. And as the veil of secrecy lifts, it's emerged that the leak was far worse than originally reported and included the details of British spies and special forces personnel. Our correspondent, Joel Gunther, reports. included the details of British spies and Special Forces personnel, our correspondent Joel Gunter reports. This was already a huge scandal. On Tuesday the country learned that the details of thousands of Afghans at risk from the Taliban had been accidentally leaked by someone in UK Special Forces headquarters and a secret scheme had been set up to bring them to the UK. Now we can report that the data breach was much, much worse than previously thought.

It contained personal details of more than a hundred British officials, including those whose identities are most closely guarded, members of special forces and spies. The revelations began emerging when a rare superinjunction over the whole affair was lifted. But the judge in the case issued a new injunction that prevented our reporting that British spies and special forces were involved. That could only last so long though. In Parliament the Defence Secretary John Healey revealed that British military and government officials were affected and details began to come out in newspapers not party to

the court case. Today in an emergency hearing at the High Court, the Ministry of Defence relented. Media organisations could report the most damning revelations, that officials with some of the most closely guarded identities in the country had been compromised. Lord Beamish, the chair of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, expressed dismay. I'm just astounded at this, is the idea that members of MI6 should be on this list. First question, why was this information

being communicated on what we call the low side rather than high secure system? And the other point is that we get quarterly reports from all the agencies, and we have not heard anything about this breach at all. And that question needs to be asked why. Taken together, the leak of the personal information of both at-risk Afghans and British security personnel make this one of the worst security breaches in modern British history. Joel Gunter, our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, considers the potential consequences

of this data breach. For a case officer in the secret intelligence service MI6, having your name and details outed in public is potentially a career killer. For serving and former members of the equally secretive special air service and special boat service, such leaks can, in theory, expose them to the risk of deadly reprisals, given the lethal covert operations that some of them will have taken part in during their time with special forces. So the new revelations about the data breach in 2022 are certainly shocking. But the leak was belatedly discovered in August 2023. That's given Britain's intelligence and special forces

communities nearly two years to come up with ways to mitigate this disaster. Amongst the worst case scenarios that they will have had to consider is that Russia, China and Iran may also now be in possession of those leaked names. But for now those who have most to fear are the 600 former Afghan government soldiers and their estimated 1800 relatives who are still in Afghanistan. Whatever routes out were being suggested to them will have now been compromised. The publicity surrounding this whole story will also inevitably re-energise some within the Taliban to hunt down those on the leaked list and exact what they perceive as rightful revenge against those who cooperated

with British forces over a period of two decades. Frank Gardner. More than 60 people have been killed in Pakistan's Punjab province in the past 24 hours because of heavy monsoon rains. It's been one of the deadliest days of the rainy season in the country so far this year. Our Pakistan correspondent Azadeh Mishiri has been visiting the city of Rawalpindi where a public holiday has been declared. She told me why. The main reason for that was to encourage people to either evacuate or to stay home and stay in safety. The situation is safer now, but throughout the day helicopters were

rushing to find people who were either stranded on rooftops and they were pulling them up to those helicopters with ropes or there were people who were unfortunately being pulled away by some of the streaming currents and some people survived others didn't and when you speak to people there is real shock at the fact that across this one province in just a single day more than 60 people were killed. Yeah how devastating have these floods been compared to what normally happens? Well, Pakistan is no stranger to flooding. It's no stranger to monsoon season. In fact, it desperately needs monsoon season because Pakistan also goes through periods of very

serious droughts and so farmers need them to replenish their water supplies but they carry great risk. Here a lot of people were killed, most of them in fact officials say because rooftops collapsed. There are homes that are in poor condition, they're dilapidated is what officials have told us and so many people were crushed under the pressure of that. Others were electrocuted, some people drowned. This did cause general disruption. Flights were cancelled. Some were delayed and motorways were shut. Since late June, nearly 200 people have been killed since the start of this monsoon season. If you compare it to other seasons, Pakistan has suffered greatly from monsoons and people that you speak to still

remember what happened three years ago when about 1700 people were killed. And so this doesn't approach that level of devastation. But people are very concerned because the forecast is warning there should be more floods and rainfall in the next few days. Is global warming a factor in this? Well, Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. And that's despite the fact it's got one of the lowest carbon footprints. And scientists warned that climate change puts the country at risk of more frequent and extreme weather events like these. So in that sense, yes, it does have a role in this. And so when you speak to people,

they do feel like there's inevitability in terms of what has been happening. But despite that, a lot of their anger is also very much directed towards the government, especially when it comes to people who've suffered real loss. Today in Raalpindi, I met one man, Shaul Kat, and he said rescuers were too late for his 16-year-old son. Bilal fell into a sewage stream that was overflowing today and Chauquat said he and his neighbours were the ones who had to pull the body out, that rescuers had arrived too late. And what he said simply was that he expects the government to do more. He said, today I lost my child, but tomorrow it could be more children and other families could suffer.

Azadeh Mishiri. A French appeals court has ordered the release of one of the country's longest serving prisoners, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant George Ibrahim Abdullah. He spent more than 40 years in custody despite numerous attempts by his lawyers to get him released. The Israeli embassy in Paris said Abdullah was a terrorist who should spend his life behind bars. Europe regional editor Danny Eberhardt has more details. Georges Ibrahim Abdullah founded a Marxist Lebanese militant group that was mainly active in the 1980s.

Pro-Palestinian, it targeted Western and Israeli officials. It was behind the killings in Paris of a US military attaché and an Israeli diplomat. Abdullah was given a life sentence for involvement in those murders and the attempted murder of a US consul in France. Now the French court has ruled he's no longer a threat to the public, calling his lengthy spell behind bars disproportionate. The US has consistently opposed his release, as have French prosecutors who've argued that he's not changed his views. They may yet try to block his release. That's set for Friday

next week on condition he leaves France for good. Danny Aberhart. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and its parent company Meta, has settled a lawsuit filed by his company's shareholders just one day after the case went to trial. The agreement was announced just before Mr. Zuckerberg and other senior executives were expected to testify about violations of user privacy. Our tech correspondent, Lily Jamali has been following the case. It was an eight billion dollar case and it was brought by shareholders a couple years ago after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in 2018. So for people who don't quite remember the details there, that's where we saw the data of millions of Facebook users leaked

through a third party app. That data ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, which is this now defunct political consulting firm that had worked with Donald Trump's campaign back in 2016, his successful first presidential campaign. Metta ended up paying millions and ultimately billions of dollars in fines stemming from privacy violations, including one to an entity called the Federal Trade Commission. That's our top antitrust watchdog. Here in the United States, it was a $5 billion record fine. And shareholders said that the board of directors that's supposed

to oversee executives like Mark Zuckerberg not only failed in their duty to protect user privacy but then by signing off on these huge fines they were protecting executives. So what does this settlement mean for Mr Zuckerberg and the other Metta executives and the Metta shareholders? This allows these executives and directors to avoid testifying under oath at trial. These are some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, not just Zuckerberg, but Cheryl Sandberg, who was his right hand at the company for a very long time. And then there's this host of past and present board members, people like Peter Teel, Reid Hastings, who's the co-founder of Netflix. As you say, this was an $8 billion

lawsuit. We don't know the value of the settlement, but assuming money has changed hands, where is it coming from? We're going to find out eventually just how much money these executives are paying out. Oftentimes companies carry something called DNO insurance. So there is this insurance policy that companies have. It's possible that Mark Zuckerberg will never pay a dime out of his pocket that that insurance will fully cover. All of us in the press corps are very curious what that number is. How much did Mark Zuckerberg and these other figures pay or agree to have the insurance pay perhaps in order to make this case go away? We should know probably in just the next few weeks. Lily Jamali.

A prop central to one of the most famous opening scenes in cinema history has sold at auction for nearly $15 million. It's the sled from the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. Professor J.D. Rhodes of Cambridge University writes about cinema and has just published a book on props. Owen Bennett-Jones asked him why this sled is quite so valuable. The film's entire mystery is constructed around the identity of something called Rosebud that we only realise in the very, very last moments of the film is the name of this sled.

It's one of the most celebrated films in the history of world cinema and American cinema in particular, but it's its entire mystery and it's a film that proceeds by peeling away one layer after another of the mystery of the identity of its central eponymous character, Citizen Kane. That whole mystery hinges on the identity of this object, this prop called Rosebud. I mean, I think one other prop fetched a larger sum, which was the red shoes in The Wizard of Oz. Exactly. I mean, you could argue as to whether or not those are items of costume or actually props, but in any case, one of the other most valuable props to have been sold on the auction is, of course, one of the several copies of the Maltese Falcon that were produced for that film's production.

And that's another film that's a film that is named after its central prop as well. It's funny you should say that. I was just thinking if I wanted to, you know, if I rustled up 15 million dollars and wanted to buy a prop, I thought the Maltese Falcon would be quite a good one. You know, if you had limitless funds, what would you be buying? I mean, immediately for some reason the knife and psycho comes to mind. That's probably the wrong answer. Slightly grim. Yes. Well, in your book, what did you conclude about the role and importance of props? I mean, cinema depends on many things, but people always have to be doing things, and

they do things with things. So part of the pleasure of narrative cinema is watching people go about their business, and that business can't happen without objects, the objects that surround us, of course, in our everyday lives. So the book, which I wrote with my friend and collaborator, Elena Gorfinkle at King's College London, sort of takes this uncelebrated part of the film production process and puts it in close up and looks at it in some detail. Because part of the film production process that's been taken for granted throughout most

of film history, and we thought it would be interesting to sort of look at what does film look say from the props eye view from the bottom up. I've always been rather impressed with the Rosebud story, so I was a bit disappointed to see that Orson Welles, the director, as he got older, said it was rather corny. I mean the film is in a sense kind of hamily constructed around this central mystery, which is delivered with great portentousness and then pursued across the film by this investigative journalist. But the film, I think the film productively and

interestingly plays with the corniness of this central conceit and sort of redeems itself from this potential excess of sentiment, partly by the way in which it manages the mystery and the gratuitousness of the sled, which we actually only see really twice in the film, but we of course hear about it and are fascinated by its identity across the film's duration. Hasn't the world gone mad paying $15 million for a sledge. I mean, there are other indications that the world has gone mad, but this is probably one of the leading minor indications. But it's a testimony, I suppose, to the power that the history of cinema and that films have over us, and the way in which the objects, not just the bodies of the performers, but the objects that constitute cinematic mise-en-scene have over our memory

of cinema and also the way that they help us construct our own cultural memories, our experiences of being in the world. Professor J.D. Rhodes. Still to come, the biggest transfer fee in women's football ever, as Arsenal pay $1.3 million for Canadian forward Olivia Smith. It's a privilege and an honour. Everything that they've accomplished is just so massive and for me to now be a part of that, I'm very excited. The British government has confirmed plans to lower the voting age for UK general elections from 18 to 16.

16 and 17 year olds are already allowed to vote in elections for the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales. The governing Labour Party made the promise before it came to power last year. Ministers say the move will help restore trust and boost democratic engagement in a changing world. The Minister for Democracy, Rishinara Ali, explained the government's reasoning. This is a really important change, this is a seismic change in terms of how our democracy works and giving young people a say in the future of our politics and our country. Young people at the moment can work at the age of 16, pay taxes, join the army,

so there's no reason why they shouldn't have the right to vote from the age of 16. These teenagers welcomed the lowering of the voting age. I think that there's so much opportunity if young people become more involved in the political system. I feel like more could be done to ensure that we know exactly what parties are about. When you're 16 you can join the armed forces, you know, you can have a job, you can pay taxes but it just seems not right that they don't have the right to vote. Our UK political correspondent Rob Watson told Oliver Conway just why the government is doing this.

I can tell you their argument and that is that it's all about modernising democracy. That as you said you have 16 year olds voting in parts of the United Kingdom in Scotland and Wales and the government says why on earth not in England and they point out that you can do things like pay taxes, get a job at 16, so why on earth shouldn't you be able to vote? But I don't think there's any doubt that the broad idea is to recognise that, you know, voter turnout is going down and that if there was anything you could do to reverse that, you should give it a try. Of course they've been criticised by the main opposition Conservative Party

saying, well they haven't fought this through very properly and how come you could be able to vote at 16 but you can't get married until you're 18 or fight in a war until you're 18. So there's been some sniping from the sides although I think it's not entirely clear if the Conservatives will actually oppose it. Yeah is there any consensus about what impacts this will have on the way the whole population votes? Well, yes, in the sense that opinion polling suggests that the younger you are, the more likely you are to vote on the left, right? I mean, then Oliver,

that's the same pretty much in most countries in Western democracies, but I think if anyone was really hoping that this was going to sort of transform low voter turnout, there'd be cause for concern because turnout at the last election was 60% of eligible voters which was the lowest it had been in 20 years and you know what's going to come next Oliver, which was the group, the age group with the lowest turnout at 18 to 24 year olds, so it's probably going to be an uphill struggle based on what's already out there, the evidence already out there.

But absolutely, I mean, in terms of if people do vote, young people do vote, are they going to vote more on the left? You betcha. Although there have been suggestions that say across Europe and perhaps in America, some younger people are actually turning rightwards now. Yeah, there was some interesting polling polling done which absolutely suggested that the biggest beneficiary of 16 year olds being given the vote would be Labour and also the Ecological Green Party but absolutely the other big beneficiaries would be the anti-immigration and clearly right of centre Reform Party so it wouldn't all be cream and votes for Labour

and the left. Rob Watson, there are a handful of countries that have already brought down the voting age to 16, including Brazil, Argentina and Austria. So how successful has it been in Austria? Karin Giannone asked Julia Parthi-Müller, senior scientist at the University of Vienna's Centre for Electoral Research. It was introduced in 2007, so already 18 years ago. And regarding the impact, we have recently evaluated quite comprehensively, and it was surprisingly limited. So while the hope of the politicians introducing

this reform was to boost turnout and foster long-term engagement among young voters. The results were somewhat modest, so the young voters, they vote at similar rates like the 18-year-olds, but it didn't really boost turnout. On the other hand, it also didn't have any negative impacts. I wonder, did it make a difference between right and left? Did the voting gravitate leftwards with a load of young people now voting for the first time?

No, so we observed surprisingly little impact, both with regard to turnout, but also with regard to political extremity or voting patterns. So overall, the young voters, they are also of course rather small cohort, so it did not fundamentally transform the political landscape of Austria. So as a result of it, we didn't find much change in either direction. And I wonder, you know, it's been what 18 years now since Austria introduced voting for 16 year olds. Have you noticed a difference in political engagement?

Did that have any effect that people are more politically active and continue to vote more consistently as they age? Unfortunately not really. It wasn't that transformative as it was hoped initially. Well there was a bit of indication that there was a bit of a boost in the first election so maybe due to the novelty of the measure. In the long run we didn't see so much of a difference, but on the other hand it is of course a good idea to have a very inclusive democracy and in that sense it may still be worthwhile to promote young people with this opportunity to be able to vote. Julia Parthy-Müller. A court in Poland has convicted three doctors of directly

endangering a patient's life after a pregnant woman died from septic shock in a case that outraged abortion rights campaigners. The woman identified only as Isabella was admitted to hospital in the 22nd week of pregnancy carrying a fetus with severe developmental defects. Adam Eastern reports from Warsaw. Isabella's face has become a symbol of Polish women's fight for broader access to legal abortion. Her death in 2021 caused street protests across the country. Months before, a Constitutional Court ruling took effect banning abortions performed because of fetal defects, which before the

ruling accounted for 98% of legal pregnancy terminations. Isabella's baby had been diagnosed with such malformations. Her family say the ruling meant doctors at the hospital in the city of Pstynna were afraid to intervene, contributing to her death. An investigation found the court ruling did not affect the doctor's actions. Adam Easton. A new transfer fee record has been set for women's football. The deal struck by the London side Arsenal to buy Canadian forward Olivia Smith from Liverpool is especially notable for UK newspaper headline writers as it makes her the first million pound female player in the history

of the game, that being about $1.3 million. It's also 46 years after the same milestone was reached in the men's game when Nottingham Forest signed Trevor Francis for a million pounds. Our correspondent Deleth Lloyd, who's at the Women's Euros in Switzerland, told me more about Olivia Smith. She's still only 20, Olivia Smith. She's a Canadian international. She made her debut for Canada at just 15 years of age, and luckily for Arsenal. She's already had one season in the English Women's Super League under her belt. She joined Liverpool a year ago from sporting in Portugal, where she perhaps first caught the eye in Europe as well. She scored seven goals in 20 appearances last season. She's very attacking as well,

so I think she'll be an exciting addition to what is already a very exciting Arsenal side. Remember, they won the Champions League title in May. It's understood a number of clubs were chasing her, but Olivia Smith opted for Arsenal, saying it's her dream to compete for the biggest titles in England and Europe and it is a huge statement from the Gunners. Yeah what does this milestone say about the popularity of women's football? Well it clearly indicates doesn't it that the women's game continues to grow. It has

been for a number of years. The women's game in England went professional in 2014. We know United States of America have long since led the way, haven't they, with the NWSL? I think it was only a matter of time before we broke the £1 million barrier as well. As recently as January, we saw Chelsea of the WSL splash out £900,000 on the USA defender Naeemie Girma from San Diego Wave. Up until then then it was Rachel

Kundanandji from Zambia who was the world's most expensive footballer following her move to Bay FC a couple of years ago for 675,000 pounds. It was only a matter of time for this to happen and I'm out in Switzerland like you say for the women's Euros and it just continues to attract more people. Many of the matches out here have been sell-outs. I was at Italy against Norway last night on Wednesday night in Geneva. More than 26,000 fans in attendance. So yes, it's on the up and up. Briefly, will women ever be paid the same as men?

Perhaps not in mine or your lifetime, but I'd like to believe that one day it will be possible because we are hopefully getting there, even if it is slowly but surely. Deleth Lloyd. The American singer Connie Francis, who had a string of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, has died aged 87. She was the first woman to reach number one in the US. Connie Francis had recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after one of her songs began trending on social media. Our media and arts correspondent David Silito looks back at her life. It was in 1957 that Concetta Franconero, a young singer from New Jersey, was on the

verge of giving up. She'd grown up being taken to talent shows by a father who was desperate to make her a star. She had one record left on her contract. My first nine records were bombs. They added up to 18 songs that were nowhere. I had one more session left on my contract, one more shot at making it. As usual, my father was convinced he had the answer. As usual, I thought otherwise. That song was Who's Sorry Now. She had her hit. The tunes that followed... Stupid Cupid, you're a real mean guy. Let's stick on your collar. Let's stick on your collar. No to tail on you.

And Vacation. B-A-C-A-T-I-O-M. Made her a star not just in America, but across the world. This is Vacation in Japanese. Take the sun. She was also a campaigner for the rights of victims of crime. The consequences of a violent rape in 1974 and the murder of her brother had left deep scars.

In the 80s, I had 17 involuntary commitments in nine years in five states to mental institutions. As the years passed, she returned to the stage and a new generation in recent months have discovered her music through TikTok. Pretty little baby. Lipsyncing to the song, Pretty Little Baby brought her a viral hit, aged 87.

A career she feared might have been over before her 20th birthday. That lasted more than 70 years. David Silito on the life of Connie Francis who's died at the age of 87. 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 globalnewspod. This edition was produced by Judy Frankel and Peter

Goffin and mixed by Pat Sissons. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritzen until next time, goodbye.