Global News Podcast - Deadly attack at Turkish aerospace company

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

The Turkish interior minister said that the two attackers, a man and a woman, were killed. Also: two lost ancient cities have been discovered in the mountains of southeastern Uzbekistan.

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Thursday the 24th of October these are our main stories. Turkey says five people have been killed in a terror attack on a state-owned defence and aerospace firm. US media reports say the Justice Department has warned Elon Musk that his $1 million prize a day offered to some registered voters may break election law. Boeing reports losses of more than $6 billion as it struggles to tackle strike action and safety concerns.

Also in this podcast, archaeologists have discovered two lost ancient cities along the Silk Route in Uzbekistan. We begin in Turkey. The government says five people have been killed and more than 20 others wounded in what it calls a terror attack at a state-owned arms and aerospace company near the capital Ankara. The Turkish Interior Minister said two attackers, a man and a woman, had been killed. Video on social media show a pair of heavily armed assailants getting out of a car before immediately opening fire. The Turkish authorities have banned news outlets from broadcasting the footage

and have imposed restrictions on social media. Our diplomatic correspondent, Caroline Hawley, reports. From the car park outside the headquarters of Turkey's state-run aerospace company, someone filmed as the attack unfolded. First came the shooting, then the explosion, followed by more gunfire. CCTV showed two attackers, one a man, one a woman, just outside the building, carrying large rucksacks and automatic weapons. The man then enters the headquarters. Security forces rush to the scene as employees took refuge in shelters.

The company makes both civilian and military aircraft as well as drones. No group has yet said it was behind it but suspicion is likely to fall on members of a Kurdish separatist group called the PKK, which has carried out similar attacks before. President Erdogan had just arrived in Russia to attend the BRIC Summit of Emerging Economies. I thank you for your condolences. I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and wish God's mercy to our martyrs. The two attackers were killed by the security forces. An immediate

blackout has now been imposed by the Turkish authorities as they investigate who did this. Caroline Hawley, for a more detailed assessment of who may have been behind the attack, here's our security correspondent Frank Gardner. This is what police in Britain would call an MTFA, a Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attack. Two attackers, as you said, armed with automatic assault rifles, a lot of spare magazine clips, rucksacks, an explosion was set off and they targeted an aeronautical company that was named as something called Tushash, absolutely right at the heart of Turkey's aeronautical industry.

Turkey produces its own plane, a thing called the Khan. It also produces, very popular with some clients, Turkish drones called Bayraktar or TB2s. So the immediate question of course springs to mind is who would have done this, who or who sent them and why. And just to run through the kind of list of possibilities that investigators would look at, top of the list would be anybody linked to the PKK, which is the Kurdistan Workers' Party. They are Kurdish separatists. They've been fighting an on-off, intermittent, four-decades-long insurgency, guerrilla insurgency against the Turkish state. They are a prescribed terrorist organization by the EU and Turkey and many other countries. And they are still thought

to be the most likely culprits of this. There is a Kurdish party in the Turkish parliament, which is immediately condemned this attack. Another possibility that, of course, people will have inevitably thought about, but I think probably dismissed very quickly, is so-called Islamic State, the IS Islamic State group. Why? Because one of the attackers was a woman, and we've not seen any examples. Female suicide bombers, yes, but we've not seen women in sort of frontline combat roles by ISIS that I can think of.

It would be very unusual. And there is also the possibility that could a state have sent this? Turkish drones were instrumental in letting Azerbaijan win its war against Armenia because Turkish-supplied drones destroyed Armenia's tanks, but that was over some time ago. There's also Ukraine. Ukraine gets some of its drones from Turkey. But Turkey and Russia are close allies, and it's very hard to imagine that President Putin would authorize something like this when he is hosting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan

in Kazan in Russia. So I think attention is going to come back onto the Kurdish separatists. Frank Gardner, with less than two weeks to go until Americans vote for their next president and polls suggesting a very tight race, the US media is reporting that the Justice Department has issued a warning to Elon Musk, saying his $1 million a day giveaway to registered voters meant to boost Donald Trump's campaign could violate federal law. This comes as there's been a flurry of headlines of Mr Trump being described by his former chief of staff as a fascist and someone who admired dictators.

John Kelly, a former Marine general, made the extraordinary intervention at this critical point in the election in an interview with the New York Times. Mr. Kelly recounted how Mr. Trump had praised Adolf Hitler. He commented more than once that, you know, that Hitler did some good things too. First of all, you should never say that. But if you knew what Hitler was all about from the beginning to the end, everything he did was in support of his racist, fascist life philosophy, so that nothing he did you could argue was good. The US vice president and Democratic nominee, Karla Harris, pounced on the comments denouncing

the former president as unhinged and dangerous. So yesterday we learned that Donald Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star general, confirmed that while Donald Trump was president, he said he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had. Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him. It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans. I spoke to our correspondent in the US, David Willis, and started by asking him about the reports

that the Justice Department has issued a warning to Elon Musk saying his $1 million a day giveaway to voters could violate federal law, which some Democrats had said from the start was illegal. That's right, Jeanette. Yes, media outlets here reporting that the US Justice Department has written to Elon Musk's Trump-supporting political action committee, it's called America PAC, saying his $1 million giveaway to registered voters, which is a ploy on Mr. Musk's behalf, intended to benefit Donald Trump's campaign, of course, it could violate federal law. Now, Elon Musk promised to pay a million dollars a day, every day until the election, to a single random voter, and that raised concerns on the part of Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro. He's a Democrat.

And he questioned the legality of this move. And he's called for law enforcement agencies to investigate. It's illegal in the United States to incentivize voter registration with cash or with prizes. And now, according to reports here, the US Department of Justice has written to Elon Musk's Political Action Committee saying that indeed the sweepstakes might be illegal. The Justice Department has declined to publicly comment on these reports. Elon Musk, for his part, has branded this matter concerning Janet. And David, also a lot of concern over these reported remarks by Mr Trump praising Adolf Hitler. And these comments are being made by a very respected figure, a former Marine

General John Kelly, who served under Mr Trump. That's right. And he was the longest serving White House Chief of Staff, of course, was John Kelly, he's a former four-star Marine general and this is the first time that he's spoken so openly taking a big swipe at his former boss and he told the New York Times, Jeanette, that Donald Trump prefers the dictator approach to government and that he fits the definition of a fascist and Mr. Kelly also told the news outlet that he regularly, he, Donald Trump, regularly praised Adolf Hitler and wanted, he said,

the sort of generals leading the US military who worked with Adolf Hitler. And General Kelly also said in this interview that Donald Trump had, in his view, no understanding of the US constitution and no concept of the rule of law. Now Donald Trump's spokesman has denied these allegations and has called General Kelly's accounts of his time in the White House debunked stories. Indeed a statement released by the Trump campaign branded Kamala Harris, a stone-cold loser who's increasingly desperate

because she's flailing and her campaign is in a shambles. David Willis, the playmaker, Boeing has reported huge quarterly losses of more than six billion dollars. The company has been facing crises on several fronts, including a strike by 33,000 workers which has halted the production of several aircraft. As we record this podcast, they're due to vote on a deal to end the strike action which has lasted nearly six weeks. Boeing has also suffered problems with safety concerns, including its spacecraft Starliner which left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. Here's our business correspondent

Theo Leggett. For Boeing the stakes are climbing ever higher. It's hemorrhaging billions of dollars thanks to a safety crisis, delays to aircraft programs and a damaging walkout by workers in its Washington state heartlands. The six-week-old strike has paralysed production of its best-selling 737 as well as the 777 and the 767 freighter. Richard Abelaphia is managing director of consultants aerodynamic advisory. He says Boeing's financial situation is deeply concerning.

Their finances were quite precarious leading up to this strike with about 45 billion dollars in net debt. And now of course this strike has halted their biggest single revenue stream by a wide margin, the 737 production program, which means they're losing billions more. And they've announced plans to increase debt by up to another 10 billion and also to dilute equity by issuing new equity. So this is getting into serious territory here. Workers in the Pacific Northwest have been demanding a 40% pay increase over four years

as well as the return of traditional defined benefit pension plans, which were abolished a decade ago. They're being offered 35 percent, as well as a $7,000 bonus and improvements to retirement packages, but no return to traditional pensions. These workers on the picket line outside Boeing's 737 plant in Renton, near Seattle, said that wasn't quite enough. I think it's a decent contract, but I think it's it's not what we asked for. And I feel like the contract, it's not going to push the company forward in the long run.

I have seen the new contract. It's looking better. But it's not quite there. I'm kind of if it passes, I'm OK, but I don't think it's going to pass. I think if they came with that in the beginning, there never would have have been a strike but they're going to have to do a little better. I think they're close. Boeing is also coming under intense scrutiny from regulators over safety, following an incident in January when an unused door fell off a brand new plane shortly after takeoff. Its new high-tech long haul aircraft, the 777X, has been repeatedly delayed. Airlines won't receive it until 2026,

five years later than planned. Separation confirmed. Starliner is now backing away from station. And its Starliner space program has suffered embarrassing failures, leaving astronauts stranded in space. According to analyst Bjorn Fem of Liam Company, all of this is the result of past mistakes. It's a perfect storm because they are basically losing in all corners and it's the result of actually 30 years of mismanagement where they have been prioritising the short-term profit instead of making good business decisions and long-term decisions. The man charged with sorting out the mess is Boeing's new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg. Ending the strike and getting the production lines up and running again will certainly be a key priority.

But much more still needs to be done if Boeing's to leave a turbulent period behind it and fly into clearer skies. Violegate reporting. Archaeologists say they've identified two lost ancient cities in Uzbekistan on the Silk Road trade route. The researchers say they're up to 1400 years old. Jacob Evans reports. The Silk Road was a vital network of trade routes stretching from the eastern expanse of China across the Eurasian continent to the foothills of Europe. Now scientists have unearthed a bustling city along the road, nestled in the rugged mountains of southeastern Uzbekistan and hidden for centuries. It's called Tugun Bulak and may have had tens of thousands of inhabitants,

making it one of the largest cities in Central Asia at the time. Using new drone-mounted laser technology to map the terrain, the team found evidence of houses, plazas, watchtowers and roads, while kilns and furnaces suggest an industrial economy, perhaps of steel. The researchers also found a far smaller second city five kilometres away, but one which suggests the early spread of Islam in the region. Jacob Evans. Still to come. There are actually 210 pieces of music in total,

but they're all in a various poor state. So example some of them have burnt edges, some of them are ripped, many of them are incomplete themselves. How scraps of music recovered from outshirts have led to a piece composed by a Polish prisoner being performed for the first time since the Second World War. you can listen to them without ads. Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. You're listening to the Global News podcast.

The United States has warned that North Korean troops will be regarded as, quote, legitimate targets if they fight alongside Moscow's forces in Ukraine. Washington says about 3000 North Korean soldiers have already been sent to Russia for training. But a White House spokesman, John Kirby, said it still wasn't clear whether they will be deployed to the front line. We don't really know what they're going to be used for, if they're going to deploy, where they're going to deploy and to what purpose. I can tell you one thing though, if they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they're a fair game. They're fair targets. And the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they're defending themselves against Russian soldiers. So the possibility that there could be dead and wounded North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine is absolutely real.

Moscow and Pyongyang have denied that North Korean troops have been sent to Ukraine. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg has been speaking to the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and asked him about these claims. Alexander Lukashenko has been in power for 30 years. He's been accused of stealing elections, of dismantling democracy, and he has a close relationship with the Kremlin. So when I sat down with the leader of Belarus, I asked him to comment on reports that at Russia's request, North Korea had sent troops to fight against Ukraine.

Rubbish, Mr Lukashenko replied. Knowing his character, Putin would never try to persuade another country Rubbish, Mr Lukashenko replied. Knowing his character, Putin would never try to persuade another country to involve its army in Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. But if the reports are true, I asked, that would be a step towards the escalation of the conflict, replied Alexander Lukashenko. He denied that the Kremlin had asked him to dispatch Belarusian soldiers to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.

But in 2022, you did allow Putin to invade Ukraine from Belarusian territory, I reminded him. How do you know I allowed it? He retorted and added several thousand Russian troops had been on exercises in southern Belarus. Putin had started withdrawing them along the road by the Ukrainian border. And at some point he redirected them to Kiev. They must have been provoked. Well, didn't you call Putin to ask what was happening? No, Mr Lukashenko said,

he didn't call me and I didn't call him. They're his troops and he can move them however he likes. That comment reflects just how much power and influence the Kremlin has today in neighbouring Belarus. That report by Steve Rosenberg. Israel carried out another series of airstrikes in Beirut on Wednesday evening. Lebanese state media said six buildings were flattened in the southern suburb of Lailaki, while the pro-Iranian broadcaster Al Mayadeen reported that one of its offices was destroyed. Further south, Israel has for the first time targeted the historic centre of the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre. Videos showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from

a seafront area that's only a few hundred metres from UNESCO World Heritage listed Roman ruins. Israel said it was hitting Hezbollah targets. Waiyad Faraj is a Tyre resident whose house was destroyed. Like everyone else, we left Tire. We took the children, grabbed what we could and fled. Suddenly, while we were sitting by the sea, we heard that our house had been destroyed. We came back and saw that our house had collapsed and was in ruins. Our reporter in Beirut, Emir Nader, told us more about the Israeli strikes on Taya. This morning the Israeli army spokesperson issued an evacuation order for Taya. This was a neighborhood, not just a

building, but really a few streets, a district in the center of Taya that the Israeli army said should be evacuated by its residents, and that was around 11.30. Then we started to see videos emerging of the Lebanese civil defense driving around the streets using a microphone, a megaphone, telling the residents to leave immediately. Then around two hours later, we began to hear the first reports

of the Israeli army striking. Those strikes continued throughout the afternoon. And really in the past couple of hours, we've started to hear some accounts and see some videos of residents who felt it was safe to return and to see the damage that's happened in Tyre. And some of those very first videos show us damage to many buildings in the centre, including shops and residential homes. And it's not just the damage to Tyre that is a concern, it's also not just the residents but also all the many people who have fled other parts of Lebanon to this historic city.

That's correct. There's a ground campaign as well as Israel's airstrike campaign and that ground campaign moving through the south of the country, upwards, has sent around a quarter of Lebanon's population leaving their homes. They've been displaced into other parts of the country. Some have come up through the south and have been in Tyre, and others from Tyre have moved further north. You know, Lebanon seems to be managing the fact that a quarter of its population is displaced. They seem to be managing it fairly well, despite some tensions happening, but there are people sleeping in the streets

here in Beirut. We see them just outside where we're staying, sleeping in the main square here in Beirut, sleeping in doorways, as well as the many people who have been kindly welcomed into fellow Lebanese people's homes and buildings that have been made available to them. And it's not just Tyre that is being hit by the Israeli strikes, the authorities in Lebanon are saying that dozens of people have died in the last 24 hours alone because of this Israeli military action. Israel has escalated its campaign of airstrikes here in Lebanon in the past month. And in that time, the Lebanese authorities have announced that over 1,900 people have been killed,

28 of whom were killed in the past 24 hours. There's definitely been a sense in the past week or two that this escalating, widening campaign of airstrikes is leaving no population center, no area of the country untouched and no place really safe. We're seeing airstrikes from the very south of the country to the north, from the eastern border with Syria to, you know, western cities like Tyre, like Beirut, where all of these places are being hit.

In Lebanon and in Gaza, the latest Israeli strikes are reported to have killed more than 40 people there, most of them in northern parts of the Palestinian enclave, where Israeli forces are intensifying their assaults. They say they are to prevent Hamas regrouping. Israel has faced mounting international criticism, with the US threatening to cut arms shipments if the amount of aid allowed into Gaza doesn't rapidly increase soon. Now a former senior official on Israel's National Security Council has called on IDF soldiers to refuse to carry out orders which could result in war crimes in Gaza. Israel does not allow foreign journalists independent access into the territory so our special correspondent

Fergal Keen sent this report from Jerusalem. Iran Etzion is a long-standing critic of Prime Minister Netanyahu. He's also steeped in the traditions of the Israeli diplomatic service and served under four prime ministers, including Mr Netanyahu. He was deputy head of the country's National Security Council. He told me Israeli troops might be committing war crimes in northern Gaza where even the United States has warned Israel it needs to surge humanitarian relief or risk a cut to military aid. Mr. Etzion said he feared there was a widespread will for revenge. We're not a gang, we're not a terror

organization and we're not a militia. We're a sovereign country, we have our history, we have our morals, we have our values and we must operate under international law and under international standards if we want to continue to be a member of the international community which we do. The leading British war crimes lawyer, Professor Philippe Sands, KC, has told the BBC that while Israel had a right to self-defense after the October 7th attacks, it was now violating international law. It has to be proportionate.

It has to meet the requirements of international humanitarian law. It must distinguish between civilians and military targets. It doesn't allow you to use famine as a weapon of war. It doesn't allow you to forcibly deport or evacuate large numbers of people. It's impossible to see what is going on now in Gaza, as it's impossible to see what happened on the 7th of October and not say crimes are screaming out. We asked the IDF for an interview but they said no spokesperson was available today and referred us to an earlier statement which says the IDF will continue to act as it has always done according to international law. Today the Army's humanitarian relief

wing said it was their policy to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian assistance into Gaza without any limits. Vogelkein. Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla have received a ceremonial welcome in Samoa. The royal couple flew to the Polynesian nation, which is hosting a major gathering of Commonwealth leaders after their tour of Australia, the first by Charles as King. Katie Watson reports from Samoa. This small island nation extended a big welcome to the King and queen. Samoa's police band celebrated their arrival. The main road from the airport to the capital is one long welcome party.

Flags flying from across the Commonwealth spruced up villages and Christmas lights flashing on homes and trees. We are Samoan people, we always extend our hospitality, same with the King. We have this great opportunity to welcome him. One of the King's priorities on this trip is climate change. He's chosen to visit a mangrove restoration project and the national park. And it's a subject that matters to islanders here. The Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable when it comes to rising sea levels. The King will then spend Friday with Commonwealth leaders, climates expected to once again dominate

the agenda as smaller members try to convince richer nations to do more to support them. At this meeting of nations brought together by British colonisation, historical links to the slave trade are bound to come up, the governments ruled out an apology and financial reparations are not on the agenda either. Neither would the King be able to say anything as he needs the government's approval. It's been an intense trip for the King and Queen, a packed agenda both here and in Australia. They travel back through 12 different time zones on Saturday. Katie Watson in Simoa. Now to a piece of music that was written by a

Polish prisoner whilst he was being held in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. It's been rediscovered and is being performed for the first time since the Second World War. Adam Kopinski wrote the piece called Kolisanka or Lullaby in 1941. It's thought he was a conductor of an orchestra at Auschwitz that performed for the Nazi officers who had probably spent the day engaged in the mass murder of his fellow prisoners. The piece was found by the British musician Leo Geyer who studied the scraps of music recovered from Auschwitz after the

war. He told Rebecca Kesby more about it. Well one of the reasons why it's taken such a long time for this music to come to light is the state of the manuscripts themselves in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. So there are actually 210 pieces of music in total, but they're all in a various poor state. So, for example, some of them have burnt edges, some of them are ripped, many of them are incomplete themselves. So it requires a certain amount of music detective work to piece it together to work out what you actually have. But in this particular case, this is a very unusual example of an original composition, which there are very few to begin with. And then further to that is that the composition itself is in fact complete. So what we

are able to hear is the music exactly music called Lullaby. And Leo, given the circumstances in which it was written, he was actually in Auschwitz as a prisoner at the time. But this piece of music is actually lovely, isn't it? It does sound like a lullaby. Indeed, in many ways perhaps we would expect a composition from Auschwitz to be wracked with grief and sorrow. But actually this piece is about escapism and that is clearly very obvious when we hear the music itself. And Kopinski, of course, would have witnessed things beyond words. And what he wanted to do in this composition was to reach beyond the barbed wire and to evoke a happier memory.

Yes, and the humanity of it as well. I mean, I mentioned that he was the conductor of the orchestra, which again seems surreal that this dreadful hellscape of suffering had such a thing as an orchestra that would perform for the guards and the officers. But I mean, is there a chance that this music may have been heard beyond the confines of where the Nazi soldiers were and maybe some of those imprisoned there could also have heard it? I would be relatively confident in saying that this piece may well have been performed but in secret and we know that quite a lot of these secret performances took place across

the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex and Kopinski himself often gave these performances with a few select members of prisoners who would have, I'm sure, relished the opportunity to hear something to suggest a glimmer of light in otherwise total darkness. Do you think there's a chance that there are more manuscripts that were squirrelled away somewhere that we still haven't found? Well, there certainly are because I've spent eight years studying them. And this original performance that we have put out today is the first of many. And this is part of a opera ballet production that we're going to be putting on in London in June next year. And we're

also going to be doing an international tour following that. So this really is the first opportunity for the public to hear our work. But I think what it really shows is the power of music. To be able to write music in that way, in those circumstances which are beyond our imagination, really shows that Kopinski had a real artistic flair and the ability to transport you elsewhere. That was the musician Leo Geyer talking about the rediscovered music that had been played in Auschwitz during the Second World War. And that's it from this edition of the Global News Podcast. But before we go, here's my

colleague Nick Miles with a request. Hello, I am hosting a special edition of the Global News Podcast ahead of the UN's climate change conference, which starts next month. We want you to send in your questions for our experts to answer. Anything climate related and what the world is doing to try to address the problem. We've already had lots of questions in, some from Brazil about how much pressure companies are under to meet their emissions targets. And several of you want to know three simple things we can do to reduce our own carbon footprint. Just send us a voice note with your question to globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. Thanks very much.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer is Liam McSherry. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts

or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts.