Global News Podcast - Deadly attack at Manchester synagogue

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

At least two people have been killed in an attack outside a synagogue in Manchester in northern England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Three others are in a serious condition after the incident, in which a car was driven at people and a man was stabbed. Greater Manchester Police have confirmed the suspected assailant was shot dead by armed officers. Detectives have declared it a terrorist attack. Also: the head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza tells mediators he does not agree to the plan set out by US President Donald Trump to end the war with Israel. Rescue workers in Indonesia say there are no longer any signs of life under the rubble of a school which collapsed in East Java, with nearly sixty people still missing. Britain's Royal Society is marking 75 years since the mathematician and Second World War codebreaker, Alan Turing, created a test to help distinguish a machine from a human. And an ice core from Antarctica that may be more than 1.5 million years old is being melted down by scientists to unlock key information about Earth's climate.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and at 16 hours GMT on Thursday the 2nd of October, these are our main stories. An attack on a synagogue in northern England on the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur leaves two people dead. Latest indications from Hamas suggest it may not accept Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan. Hope turns to anguish in Indonesia as rescuers at a collapsed school. where dozens of boys have been trapped for days, say there's no sign of life. Also in this podcast... The reason we're so excited about it is because we hope it's going to be the longest ever continuous ice course,

spreading back at least 1.2 million years, maybe a bit older. Scientists hope to unlock the mysteries of the world's oldest ice by melting it. Police in the UK say two people have been killed and three others seriously injured in a car and knife attack at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester. Mobile phone footage from the scene shows two armed police officers warning people to get away from the building because they fear a suspect has a bomb. Everybody else. Get back. If you're not involved, move back. Get away. Somebody's standing in touch with you. Everybody else. He has a ball. The officers then shot the suspect, who it's now confirmed was also killed. It took time to establish this because he appeared to have an explosive device strapped to him.

A bomb disposal unit has been at the scene. The attack happened on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar Yom Kippur. Christian Wakeford, a local member of parliament, spoke of his shock and sadness. A day of atonement, and for something like this to happen any day, today it's shocked for everyone in this community which is a diverse area but for a community that can't even let their loved ones know they're safe because they can't pick up a phone it's challenging for everyone so again nothing but respect for gmp and the emergency services that got here straight away but absolutely thoughts and prayers for all those suffering from the

attack either directly or indirectly as they're waiting to hear from their loved ones It's now been declared a terrorist attack by British police. The Prime Minister Kirstama, who was attending the European Security Summit in Denmark, cut short his trip to rush back to the UK to chair an emergency meeting. He's ordered security to be stepped up at synagogues across the UK and said the fact that this attack had taken place on Yom Kippur made it all the more horrific. Our religion editor, Al-Ali MacBul, spoke to me about its timing.

The timing of it seems significant to a lot of Jews who feel that if you are trying to maximize the amount of harm that is felt most broadly across Jewish communities, this is the day on which you'd carry out an attack. And Yom Kippur is, as you say, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It's a solemn day already. It's a day of atonement. It's the day on which Jews believe God is sort of sealing the fate of each person for the coming year. It's a day, interestingly, where a lot of people, a lot of Jewish people don't work, but they also, a lot of them, don't access social media or television. So some people here may not know details of this attack until nightfall today. A lot of people would be oblivious to what has happened. But it is also a day on which a lot of Jewish people who don't necessarily regularly visit a synagogue for services will do so.

And so security is something that we've seen, increased on Yom Kippur, certainly in this country, synagogues. And this has given obviously more reason for security to be increased in the future. Absolutely. We've got the authorities promising to do that. But this kind of attack is for a lot of Jews, their worst nightmare. This is something they feared for a long time. Even before the October the 7th attacks from Gaza into Israel two years ago, a lot of Jews have spoken about their security concerns. No question. And for many years now, there is an organisation that's set up in this country, the Community Security Trust, that provides security at synagogues, at Jewish schools, at Jewish community centres. They also have, over the last 40 years, recorded anti-Semitic incidents, and they had the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents on record in 2023.

And that has sustained really over the past two years. there have been spikes in the past when there have been, when there's been conflict in the Middle East, because we've had a sustained conflict. So we've had a sustained level of anti-Semitic attacks. Now, for the most part, over the last couple of years, it's been abuse. There has been some desecration and vandalism at synagogues and Jewish schools. But it was always the fear, as you say, that it would become more violent. We would have an incident like this. And so I've spoken. talking to a number of Jews today this morning who are willing to speak on a day like Yom Kippur who say perhaps now people might listen to our fears. The thing is, you know, there is a huge spectrum of belief across Jewish communities across Europe. We've seen increasingly those who question Israel's policies and military policies, but clearly those carrying out, the person who carried out an attack today, those who carry out anti-Semitic incidents are not. thinking in that way. They're looking to cause harm in any way they can.

Our religion editor, Alim Makhul. When President Donald Trump set out his 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza earlier this week, he also gave Hamas an ultimatum of three to four days to accept it, or in his words, pay in hell. The plan, which is backed by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, proposes an immediate end to the fighting and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages within 72 hours in exchange for hundreds of detained Palestinians. Hamas has yet to issue an official response,

but the BBC now understands that the head of Hamas's armed wing in Gaza, Isaldine al-Hadad, has told mediators he does not agree to the plan. Our Middle East correspondent Yoland Nell told me more. This is information that is coming to us via BBC sources. And Azadine al-Haded is the most senior Hamas commander left in the Gaza Strip

after Mohamed Sinwar and Yahya Sinwar were killed by Israel during the war. And this is really a strong reminder that whatever is agreed by Hamas leaders outside of Gaza, whatever assurances they can be given via regional mediators who are putting a lot of heavy pressure on them, and that's Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in particular. They cannot really agree anything without. the cooperation of Zaddin al-Haddad. He is the person who is controlling the cells who in the end are holding the hostages. Now, we do know what the main sticking points are for Hamas when it comes to this deal. They've made that very clear. This requirement for the group to disarm is said

that it would not do that unless there's a sovereign Palestinian state created. And Hamas has really said to see this 20-point plan as being a kind of surrender document. Hamas also hasn't wanted to give up the hostages that it's holding within 72 hours as the plan requires without more guarantees that there'd be a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war because the hostages for them are seen as their last bargaining chip. And it's also been saying that this idea of an international stabilization force coming to Gaza, well, that would amount to a new occupation and that it would oppose it. And meanwhile, Yoland, the Israeli Navy has intercepted boats carrying aid to Gaza overnight

and detained some of the activists on board. The Mexican filmmaker Carlos Perez Osorio was among those on the Global Sumod Flitola, and just listen to this voice note that he sent to the BBC while this interception was happening. Our command is to keep going forward, and that's what we're doing. We're going forward, and we're losing communication with other ships.

We have to stop this, and we will not stop. This mission might be intercepted, but the spirit is alive, and we won't stop until Palestine is free. So a very defiant note there from this activist. There are hundreds of activists on board this flotilla, some of the boats still heading towards Gaza, these activists from dozens of country.

What's the international response been to Israel's seizure of the boats and the detention of the activists? There's been a remarkably strong international response. This is the biggest flotilla of its kind that has set out to try to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, saying that this is illegal, and to get humanitarian aid to the strip where it's desperately needed. Israel says that the flotilla set out as a provocation

and it said that alternative routes were offered to get the aid into Gaza. It's been a huge operation by Israeli naval commandos on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar when most people are fasting and it's pretty much a lockdown in Israel. There's about 500 passengers on about 45 boats and they do come from all around the world. There have been protests in Italy and Spain about the flotilla and what's happening

and a measure of how much international attention there's been. both governments of those countries sent naval vessels to protect their citizens, particularly while they were in international waters. Yoland Nell For the past few days we've brought you news of the frantic efforts in Indonesia to try to reach dozens of people, most of them boys, trapped under the rubble of a school which collapsed in East Java. So far, five deaths have been confirmed.

More than 10 survivors have been pulled out and placed on stretches with a line of rescuers carefully passing them a lot. along, like this student who had to be pulled out of a cramped space below a massive slab of concrete. Rescue teams have avoided using heavy machinery until now because the structure of the building is so unstable. But now it's the news the parents waiting nearby have feared. With around 60 people still believed to be missing, rescue workers say they've detected no more signs of life in the wreckage. The boarding school collapsed suddenly on Monday while construction work was going on to

add additional floors, even as the rest of the building, was still being used to teach children. Shortly before we recorded this podcast, Astidestra Agen Grastri gave us this update from the site of the disaster. As of this morning, the rescuers announced that they have found no more signs of lives and they are bringing the heavy equipment. They're bringing cranes to take away slaps of massive concrete in the hope that they could recover more bodies at the site. And what do we know about the cause and what could have been done to prevent this disaster?

So, yeah, after it went down on Monday, the investigation or a lot of experts also, So involving the assessment of the building told us that the original building of two-story mosque is not strong enough to sustain the additional floors that they're adding. And it's just that the infrastructure is not the recommended for taller buildings. And now the collapse has become sort of like a pancake layered lapse. And it's also, the rescuers say, looks like a spider web. So when they're trying to take out some pieces of the buildings from upstairs, it is connected to other parts of the building. And so they are very worried that a little bit of wrong move and it will create another collapse.

But now, since they see no more signs of life, recovery efforts, they think would be much faster when they still have people underneath the life. They have to be extra careful not to make any hazardous move. And you've had parents at the site for the past three days. It's hard to imagine what they're going through right now. After the announcement this morning saying that there's no more signs of life, the parents, they're sad, but I see they're also relieved because in the past few days there are many people frustrated

because they don't know what happened to their sons or their children. And now, when they already know that, you know, there's no more hope now, the aim is to get their bodies back and buried them properly. Now, they also started the identification process because a lot of the dead bodies that already been recovered from the scene has no identities. So now the families of people who are missing, collecting their DNAs to the authorities so that it can be compared to bodies that would be recovered. Astidestra Aging Rastri in Indonesia. Britain's Royal Society is marking 75 years since the mathematician and early computer scientist, Alan Turing, created a test to help distinguish a machine from a human. The test was first published by the Second World War Codebreaker

as an idea he called the imitation game, later the title of a film about his life. The anniversary comes at a time when artificial intelligence systems have advanced so far the Turing test is arguably obsolete. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman explains. The Turing test is used to measure not a machine's actual intelligence, but how convincingly human that machine can be in written responses. The idea is to see whether human judges can be fooled into thinking they're interacting with real people. The test was proposed decades before modern artificial intelligence tools such as Chatch E.PT came along,

and it was used for many years. But in 2014, a chatbot called Eugene was reported to be the first machine to pass the cheering test. Some scientists dispute this on the grounds that Eugene had been given the persona of a teenage Ukrainian boy. And they claimed this provided a convenient excuse for any English language issues or odd replies the chatbot generated. The cheering test is now considered outdated as technology has advanced. But distinguishing AI from a human has arguably become more important than ever. Zoe Kleinman. Still to come on the Global News podcast, a half-trillionaire.

Elon Musk becomes the first person to see his wealth top $500 billion. Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals? That's become a familiar chant in Morocco this week during protests by young people over worsening public services. The protesters argue the government has instead prioritised spending on preparations for the Football World Cup, which Morocco will co-host in 2030. On Wednesday night, police opened fire on demonstrators attempting to storm a police station, killing two people. Since the rallies began last weekend, there have been hundreds of arrests and hundreds of people injured. Our global affairs reporter Sebastian Usher told me more about the deadly violence at the police station. This was in a city in the south Le Clea and security forces essentially opened fire

when a group tried to break into their headquarters and get their firearms. Again, that giving a sense that this could be mutating into something moving away from a peaceful protest that the group which, I mean, there's no leader to this, but there's one group called Gen Z-212 and you can tell from that this is the youth of Morocco that really is out on the streets has been insisting that they should remain peaceful. But as I say, what happened last night, what's been happening in the last two or three nights gives a sense that this may be getting out of control.

And this seems to be an echo of similar youth protests in countries like Nepal and Kenya. Just tell us about specific concerns of these young people in Morocco because they're really angry about the lavish preparations for the Football World Cup. It's the comparison, as you were saying, in that quote and in the chant.

It's a comparison between the large amounts of money, the billions, that's being spent on developing those stadiums for 2030 when, along with Spain and Portugal, Morocco is going to be hosting the World Cup. And, I mean, this is not a new problem in Morocco, but unemployment is rising social services have been bad in many, many places. I mean, Morocco way back, you go back to 2011, the Arab Spring when the protests erupted, it looked like Morocco might go the same way. But something about its system and the monarchy kept it in place. So there have been protests since, but they're generally kept within limits. This one has the chance of bursting out of that and becoming something far bigger than Morocco's seen for years.

And it's harder for the authorities to handle because there is no formal leadership, as you say. Yes, I mean, that is an issue. But that also has become an issue we've seen in many other countries. When there isn't that leadership, it means that the protests can become, in a sense, without any real clear driving purpose and then this movement towards violence towards other people joining it who maybe have different concerns

means that the protest can kind of be diminished and that's something which the authorities will always use if they can to try and break up that momentum. Sebastian Usher a liquefied natural gas platform meant to bring prosperity to the West African nation of Senegal

is at the centre of controversy. The facility, mainly run by the British multinational oil and gas company BP, was built on the maritime border between Senegal and Mauritania after natural gas was discovered there in 2015. But local fishermen in San Luis, a major fishing hub in northern Senegal, say the platform has greatly disrupted their trade and caused unemployment. The BBC's Paul Nijia has been to San Luis to hear more about their concerns. In this one's Busefi,

fish market in St. Louis, the bustle is gradually fading away. Locals say it's because fishing, the main economic activity of the more than 250,000 people who live here, is on the decline. To find out what's changed, I'm hopping on a canoe and accompanying local fishermen to the sea. Ten kilometers offshore, I'm struck by the site of a giant liquefied natural gas platform run by the British multinational oil. and gas company, BP, and its partners. 25-year-old fisherman, Gora Fall, tells me access to the platform built on the natural reef

where they mostly got their fish is restricted. But BP says safety zones around infrastructure are standard practice to protect people and assets. After nearly an hour of fishing within a 500-metter limit, foul's catch is nothing to be proud of. We are frustrated because before, from noon, we were satisfied with a catch made. But now, we can stay until 4 p.m., twiddling our thumbs without fish. The fisherman has brought me to a place on the sea which he says BP plants to erect an artificial reef to attract fish.

But according to him and several other fishermen have spoken to, the area is highly unfavorable because it lies just four kilometers away. From the coastline. After spending time at sea, we return to land to meet with representatives of the local fishermen's association. Seated by the seashore, under a shelter made of sticks, the spokesperson, Nala Diop, tells me they don't believe in BP's promise to build the artificial reef. When they came in 2019, they told people, we are going to build you eight artificial reefs to at least replace our diatara,

which is the natural reef. They said it, written in black and white in 2019. From 2019 to 2025, nothing has been done. It's been six years. However, in a statement to the BBC, BP said it is building an artificial reef complex with ten clusters within it. It added that work is already underway as the reef is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Regarding concerns about the site chosen to host the reef complex, the multinational said a technical assessment concluded that a cluster of reef pyramids in one location allows more effective management and protection of that reef. But uncertainty is growing and the community believes the entire supply chain is reeling from the impact of the scarcity of fish. To BP, though, concerns about Senegal's fishing stocks

predate the gas project. Another fear is that much marine life could become endangered following a gas liquid nest in the sea last February. BP said it acted in a swift and transparent manner when the incident happened, but Mamadu Bar, an ocean campaigner with the environmental NGO Greenpeace Africa, doesn't quite agree. It's not an accident because in the environmental impact study, normally this type of disaster is taking into account and their mitigation measures.

Staying for a month or a month and a half, half. To find a solution means the environmental impact study was not very serious. So we can't describe this as an incident. It's a disaster. BP has already begun exporting liquefied natural gas. Onshore, though, the people of St. Louis now wonder what the future holds. Paul Nijia, reporting from Senegal. Can Europe shield itself from Russian threats? Is the question European leaders have been wrestling with in recent weeks after a series of airspace intrusions by Russian drones, some of which forced a temporary shutdown of the Oslo and Copenhagen airports last month. Now, the European Union is working on a plan to establish

what it calls a drone wall, a defence system meant to shield the bloc's eastern flank from Russian incursions. On the Thursday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told the meeting of EU leaders in Denmark that any drones encroaching on European airspace, should be destroyed. A close neighbour of Denmark is Norway and its defence minister is Ture O'Sandvik. My colleague, Priya Rai, asked him how Norway planned to defend itself. We see the drone wall as more a concept of systems, where we can integrate different radar systems and surveillance systems

to watch the space over Norway and the eastern flank of the EU to standardise. and to standardise solutions. And first of all, learning from Ukraine, which is the world champion of air defence right now. So we are learning from the Ukrainians. We are developing technology together with the Ukrainians. And we want to integrate and be a part of this with the EU states to develop it further. But are you doing enough?

I ask you this question about after the fact that there were incursions over Danish airspace and also drones affecting airports in your own Norway. So what specifically is Norway doing and contributing to this? First of all, I think it's important to remember. We are not in war. Norway is not attacked. We have had drone observations, too many of them, but we have not yet got them confirmed.

The police are looking into it. We have not concluded who the actor is doing this. We have had some arrests on some tourists. But it's legal to fly drones in Norway. I'm not talking about attacking armed drones like Shaheeds, as we saw in Poland. It's more like a surveillance or civilian drones that are reported of observations. Sure, but nonetheless, it has also caused high-level European leaders to come together and discuss a drone wall. We spoke earlier to an Estonian MP, Marco McKelsohn, who said Europe's plans for its defence to be 2030 ready is just too late.

The Danish Prime Minister has said we do. have to be able to defend ourselves totally by 2030. But is that soon enough, do you think? We have capacities, both within NATO, in Norway, to shoot down drones. What we're talking about is that we cannot use our most expensive, most advanced systems to shoot on cheap drones like we saw over Poland. And like we know that they are flooding the air in Ukraine with if there were going to be an attack. So we want to develop cheaper systems, more multidis, allied air defence systems. The Norwegian Defence Minister Ture O'Sandvik.

The electric carmaker Tesla had a bumpy start to 2025. CEO Elon Musk's political interventions in the US and elsewhere and increased competition are thought to have contributed to weak sales, particularly in Europe. But things are now looking up for the Tesla boss. As the company's share price has gone up again, so too has Mr Musk's net worth. The Forbes' Billionaire's Index has reported.

reported that he's the first person to achieve a net worth of $500 billion or half a trillion dollars, also taking into account his many other businesses. The economist, Simon French, spoke about the uptick in his fortune. This is largely the return of Elon Musk from the political fray in Washington to lead the business. The sense from investors, not backed up by certainly European countries, sales of Tesla, the stardust that he's sprinkled over that brand in the past can return. And that's rather aligned to the incentives that the Tesla Board have put in place, which could make him if he achieves those very, very stretching targets,

a trillion dollar compensation package in 233. So investors have concluded that his incentives financially are aligned with their incentives of shareholders. There are certainly investors that do worry about executive compensation. But there are probably an equal number of investors who worry that if you don't offer that compensation in what is a, whether we like it or not, a global battle for talent, that talent will often take its location elsewhere, its intellectual property elsewhere. So I think it's a pretty mixed split, actually, between those who worry about the societal impact and those who worry probably more saliently, actually, on the impact that does to economic growth, to earnings, to development, to innovation. Economist Simon French European scientists have been busy

over the past few weeks trying to unlock one of the major mysteries of our planet's climate. They're analysing the oldest ice ever recovered from Antarctica thought to be around 1.2 million years old. But it's not the ice itself

the researchers are interested in, it's what's trapped inside. Once melted, it releases materials that give them a better understanding of what wind patterns, temperatures and sea levels were like more than a million years ago. Our science editor, Rebecca Morel, has been to the British Antarctic Survey Base to see the process firsthand.

It has been a hive of activity here for the last six weeks because scientists have been working around the clock to study some of the most precious samples collected from Antarctica. And it all starts here in the freezer. So we're going to go in. It's minus 23 degrees. So we're not going to go in for too long because all of our kit stops working, which makes it a bit more exciting.

I'm joined by Dr. Liz Thomas, who's head of the ice core team here. Just tell us how precious these samples are. Where were they collected from, first of all? These are really valuable pieces of ice that we're currently melting. And they come from a core that was drilled in East Antarctica over many seasons. It's part of a big international collaboration funded by the EU.

And the reason we're so excited about it is because we hope is going to be the longest ever continuous ice course, spreading back at least 1.2 million years, maybe a bit older. Liz, the ice looks so clear, but there's a lot of stuff in there that you're studying, isn't there? It does. It looks exceptionally clear, and it's very beautiful, in fact. But that is quite deceiving, because inside there, we know from using all of these instruments that there is a huge amount of information about our planet, so about the climate and how the environment has changed. And what we're doing is measuring that further back in time to be

able to reconstruct what's been happening beyond a million years ago. And up to now, you've only had ice that's 800,000 years old. So this pushes it back way further. I mean, why is it important to look back? Is it all about looking forward, I suppose? Ultimately, yes. So our longest previous ice score went back 800,000 years. It was able to really place the current increase in carbon dioxide in this longer term context and show that it's outside of the range of natural variability. What we're doing now is we're starting to go even further back in time to an important period in our climate history when we believe that the ice sheets were smaller than they are today, sea levels were higher, and we think it may have been that the carbon dioxide

in our atmosphere was actually higher. This makes it a really interesting analog for how our climate is currently evolving and how it may look in the future. It's all about trying to find out what happens next. And the only way you can do that is to look back. Exactly. Liz, thank you very much. We're going to let the scientists get on with their work here because this is their last day of melting. So after that, the ice has gone. And it's still mind-blowing to me that you've spent, you know, years collecting the stuff, hundreds of scientists working on it. And then essentially to study it, you have to destroy it really. But there is still going to be months, even years worth of research to continue

after the ice has turned to liquid. But yeah, really important stuff going on in this freezer here. Rebecca Morel And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast

at BBC.co.org. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag at Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen. The producers were Shantal Hartle and Chaz Geiger. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time, goodbye.