Global News Podcast - Dozens killed in Iraqi shopping centre fire

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Dozens die in a fire at a shopping centre in the Iraqi city of Kut, opened only five days ago. Also, Syrian government forces pull out of Sweida province, and a Malian photographer whose work is displayed on local buses.

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. Cargurus.ca. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 13 Hours GMT on Thursday the 17th of July. A fire ripped through a new shopping center in Iraq, killing more than 60 people. Syrian government forces pull out of the province of Sweda after days of sectarian violence and Israeli airstrikes. And Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky appoints a new Prime Minister. Also in the podcast, the Malian photographer displaying his work on local buses. People don't really know what is Mali and I think Mali is one of the biggest cultures

in West Africa so I really want to show the world. And a woman who avoided death by playing cello for the Nazis in Auschwitz turns 100. The shopping centre which burnt down in the Iraqi city of Qutub, overnight is reported to have only opened five days ago. At least 67 people were killed as the blaze swept through the five-storey building. The fire appears to have begun on the first floor above the main shop before quickly spreading. Aerial footage from the scene showed the entire front of the building in flames lighting up the night sky while a group of people huddled on the roof hoping to be rescued. Today mourners visited the charred structure.

Emergency services have been working to recover bodies from the rubble. I got this update from our Arabic correspondent, Salih Nabeel. Search operations are still ongoing. Some of the bodies are too charged to be identified. Local authorities have been asking people to provide DNA tests so that they can help identify some of the bodies. They will be later moved to another local province where they will be buried. A lot of angry questions on social media asking about

whether or not adequate safety measures have been put in place, asking why there were no fire exits, why it took so long for the firefighters to contain this tragic scene. A lot of accusations for the local government for not doing enough to try and minimize the damage and minimize the number of casualties caused by this tragic fire. Interesting you mentioned the lack of fire exits. Some footage from last night showed some people had made their way to the roof of the building hoping to get away. Do we know what happened to them?

We don't know exactly whether or not they have been rescued. A lot of details are still very sketchy, but you're right, there were a lot of people trapped on rooftops not knowing where to go. And that again raises the questions whether or not adequate safety measures have been put in place in this mall that was only open a few days ago and you'd expect many people to go there explore it and at the time the fire took place it's a really busy time in Iraq because we are talking about 9 or 10 p.m. local time where people go shopping escaping the heat of the morning it's an exceptionally hot summer in Iraq where degrees are over 50 degrees Celsius. So that kind of explains

why the number of casualties has been so high and we expect it to rise even further as more of the bodies are recovered by the search teams on the ground. Yeah, tell us more about the scene today as daylight reveals exactly what happened. We still have civil defence forces and security forces around the shopping mall. We have bodies being moved to nearby hospitals, families, heartbroken families gathering near the hospitals, a lot of them sobbing, crying, wailing and again a lot of accusations are being leveled against the government because we have a lot of malls being built in Iraq recently but we don't know yet whether or not they have the adequate safety measures to protect people's lives.

Arabic correspondent Salih Nabil. After coming under heavy attack by Israeli forces the Syrian military has begun withdrawing from the southern province of Sweda. The province has been hit by sectarian violence in recent days. A Syrian monitor said more than 500 people had been killed, including civilians, Druze fighters, Bedouin fighters and more than 200 government personnel. The Syrian government has struggled to unite the country after President Assad was overthrown late last year. The interim Syrian president, Ahmad Asherah, says responsibility

for security in Soweda will now be handed to religious elders and local factions and anyone who has abused Druze citizens will be held to account. I heard more from our Middle East correspondent, Yolande Nel. We've heard that it has become calmer since the latest ceasefire was announced there that Syrian government forces have largely withdrawn, but there are still some militias in the area, sporadic clashes being reported. Of course, this all started this latest sectarian violence with tit for tat kidnappings and attacks between the local Sunni, Muslim, Bedouin tribes and the Druze who predominate in this area.

They have their own armed factions in this southern province of Sweda as well. When the Syrian government forces intervened ostensibly to restore order, there were also claims that they were clashing, particularly with the Druze militias and in some cases claims to they attacked civilians. We've also got a situation where a number of Israeli Druze and Druze from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights still seem to be in southern Syria. If you look at live pictures of what's been going on up along the fence between the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights and southern Syria, people have gone to the aid of their fellow Druze, they said, members of their families in many cases.

The Israeli government has been calling on residents, citizens of Israel to return, but that obviously hasn't happened in full yet. And what do you make of these latest comments from the interim Syrian president? He's really been addressing Israel as well as the Syrian people with this televised address, saying that the Syrian people aren't afraid of war, they're ready to fight if their dignity is threatened, and also telling the Druze minority in Syria that their rights will be protected. His government rejecting any attempts, he said, for them to be dragged into the hands of what he called an external party. This comes after those powerful Israeli airstrikes yesterday in Damascus.

Of course, Israel has also been attacking government forces in Sweda saying that that is to protect the Druze there and also its acting, it says, in its own national security interest, trying to keep a military Syrian force out of southern Syria just across the border from where Israel has got its own citizens. So is President Al-Sharah trying to say to the Israelis, you don't need to get involved, local people there will control the security in Sweda? He really sees this as being a big threat to the stability of his country, he's accusing Israel of undermining that.

It's not the first sectarian violence we've seen in Syria since his government came to power late last year after toppling President Bashar Assad. But really, you know, this is being seen as the most serious threat yet to his government's attempts to try to consolidate its power over the country with the different minority groups. Yelena now in Jerusalem. The Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has carried out his first major cabinet reshuffle since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. Yulia Tsaridenko is the new Prime Minister while her predecessor Denis Mikhail takes

over the Ministry of Defence. I heard more from our correspondent in Kiev, Charlotte Gallagher. Yulia Tsaridenko, as you mentioned, is going to be the new Prime Minister of Ukraine. That's the nomination that's been put forward by President Zelensky. And she is already a fairly powerful figure within the government here, but crucially she has close links to the United States. And it was her that really pushed through the minerals deal with the US that President Trump had been asking for, had been wanting. And when it was faltering she was really the key figure that got that deal done. She's respected by senior US politicians. So I think her appointment shows

how much President Zelensky values that relationship with the United States and wants to keep it on track because it's not always been the easiest relationship, but certainly at the moment it's very good between the two countries. Ukraine is getting those Patriot defense air missiles that's been asking for, so they want to keep that relationship on the road. Danech Mihail, the current Prime Minister, he's outgoing now and he's going to be in charge of defence here and one of his key priorities will be essentially increasing the number of weapons made inside Ukraine. So President Zelensky says they need to rely more on making weapons in their own country.

Currently about 40% of weapons used on the battlefield are made here. He wants to make that 50% and they also want to start producing more drones that can intercept the attack drones that are being fired in from Russia. So that's one of the key things they want to be making inside the country. And why is President Zelensky carrying out this major reshuffle now? I think there needs to be, he believes, a bit of a re-energising of his government after three years of this war to give the government a bit more energy. So this reshuffle, I think hopefully he thinks will give her that. And also I think it shows,

as I said, he wants to prioritise the relationship with the United States and having someone like Yulia Saradenko, who is so close with the US in that key position does really cement that relationship with the United States, certainly. And what's the latest in terms of the drone war between Russia and Ukraine? So three Ukrainian drones actually reached Moscow overnight. The mayor of Moscow says three were shot down over Moscow. And it's not totally unusual to have drones reaching Moscow, but the citizens there have kind of been cushioned from the war in the way that people living in border areas of Russia and people in Ukraine haven't been. So three were shot down over there.

We've not heard reports of any injuries or any damage. One came down in Belgarod in Russia as well. One person was killed there. In Ukraine, more drones were sent up overnight over Ukraine and there was an attack in Donetsk yesterday. A Russian airstrike killed at least three people. It came down near a shopping center and flats, killed at least three people and more than 27 people were wounded. So it certainly doesn't seem like there's much move towards a ceasefire on either side. Ukraine says it wants peace,

it's looking for peace, but Russia continues to send these attack drones over every night, hundreds of drones and of course missiles as well. Charlotte Gallagher in Kiev. As we record this podcast, a concert is being held at Wigmore Hall just a few hundred metres away to celebrate the 100th birthday of renowned cellist Anita Laska-Valfish. She co-founded the English Chamber Orchestra, but as a 16-year-old German Jewish girl in the Second World War, she was forced to play for the Nazis in the Auschwitz death camp.

She spoke to the BBC's Nick Robinson. Music saved my life. It was all accidental, you know. I didn't know there was an orchestra in Auschwitz, but when I arrived, you get a sort of interview with another prisoner, whose job it is to interview. And when she asked me what was I doing before the war, I said I used to play the cello. You know, fantastic. So you joined an orchestra? Yeah. It saved my life because they wanted music. The

Nazis wanted music, the camp guards. Yeah, we mustn't forget it was the days before television and there was no entertainment other than music really. So you were expected to entertain the people who were planning to kill you? I suppose you can put it like that. It's often asked, and forgive me for asking you, how much you knew when you went to Auschwitz. Did you know everything that was happening? Everything. The moment you go in there, you know everything. And so you must have thought your time would come?

Of course. So playing the cello, you thought what just bought you a little time? Yes, brought me a little time. Our job was to play marches for the thousands of people who went out to work in the various factories surrounding Auschwitz in the morning and the marches again in the evening. Do you remember when you first realized the Jews were going to be blamed for everything in Germany back in the 30s? It didn't take too long. It started off at school when I was about five or six or seven. In 1933 when Hitler appeared, I was trying to wipe the blackboard and a child said,

don't give the Jews a sponge. That's how quickly how young you can influence people. Do you remember telling your mother your father that this had happened? No I don't. I probably did. Did they think it would blow over? Yes. My father thought it would. The Germans can't be that stupid but they were that stupid. And now when you look at the world, do you fear that antisemitism is still there? Unbelievable, what do you mean still there?

It's bigger than ever. If anything goes wrong, it's all the Jews. And what's your explanation for that? Stupidity, brainless stupidity of people who react like that. When you came here to Britain and music became your life, you chose not to talk about what you'd been through, to share what you'd been through. No, I didn't choose.

I was never asked. Because there is a sort of reticence, especially in English people, I could understand quite well. What do you ask? I hear you've been in a concentration camp. Tell me about it. reticence in especially in English people I could understand quite well what do you ask I hear you've been in a concentration camp tell me about it you know it's have you got five months time I'll tell you what it was like you know it was an impossible situation but you like all concentration camp survivors you carry the evidence there's a number a. It was only Auschwitz who did that. Did you sometimes have people spot that number?

Yes, of course. What you got there? A telephone number? What about your own children? Was it something you wanted? I didn't tell them either. I did not want them to grow up with hatred, even though the very hateable things happened. For people who are not musicians, can you describe for us the joy the cello playing gave you? No, it's not describable. It's just a wonderful thing to do.

Concentrate on something that is totally outside the misery of everyday existence. Anita Laska-Valfish. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. People who love it, whether or not it tastes different, whether or not it's healthier, they cannot be convinced that they just prefer this and they'll pay a premium to get it. Cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Will it make a difference to Coca-Cola? Next to one of the worst disasters in South Korean history which took place in October 2022. Waves are coming in from both sides and more people fell. I lost my friend and I had to turn around and I told the crowd you can't come this way, people are dying.

159 people were killed in that crush in Seoul during Halloween celebrations. The authorities and police were blamed for poor crowd management and a slow response. The then president Yoon Seung Yeol rejected calls to resign. But the new president, Lee Jae-myung, is now reopening the investigation. Our correspondent in Seoul, Jake Kwon, told me more. This was one of the deadliest events in recent memory here. It was right after the Covid restrictions were lifting and this was really the first big occasion for people to go out. So especially at Itaewon, this is a district in central Seoul known for its nightlife and Halloween celebrations.

So the streets were very, very packed. I remember my friends already avoiding the area and their phones lost signal because the network couldn't handle the volume. And then at around 10pm, the alleyway right next to the underground train station was dangerously crowded. And this alleyway, it's a slope and it funnels narrower towards the bottom. So when a few people lost balance, suddenly many people, especially young people, young women especially, were crushed beneath.

And there were police that night, but they were mostly tasked with policing protests nearby or guarding the presidential office, which is in the same area. Now they have already looked at what happened. Why are they reopening the investigation? So after the incident there was a police and prosecutorial investigation. The trial is still ongoing but so far the top figures in the government, the minister in charge of public safety example or the sole chief of the police were left, you know, let off the hook. Only the local district police chief and his subordinates were punished. And this led to some of the families of the victims crying foul and accusing the government

at the time of avoiding responsibility. Now there is a special fact-finding commission right now that had launched last year, but they could only set up by having no binding power. So no power to summon a witness or to search for evidence. This is why the new government, there is now this full political impetus to launch a probe that actually has a bite. Yeah, I mean, could this add to the legal woes of the controversial former president Yoon Seung-yol?

Well, it's going to depend on how far up the probe can go and what kind of evidence it unearths, but if there were any attempts by Mr. Yoon to cover up or shield his officials from punishment, it could add extra legal trouble against him. However, Yoon is already facing the biggest legal woe anyone could ever face. I mean, he is accused of treason, leading an insurrection which is punishable only by death or life in prison. So this is probably the least of his worries. And what's been the general reaction in South Korea? Well, I think a lot of the public feels that whatever happens, this kind of tragedy must

never be repeated. I think there were far too many really in recent years of these tragedies. I mean, there was the Seoul ferry sinking, there was of course this Itaewon crush and most recently the 179 people dead after an airplane crashed and this is why the new president, Lee Jae Myung, is saying that he's one of his primary mission of this administration will be to make sure that you know the government will find answers as to why these things are repeating and make sure that these tragedies are never repeated.

And I was talking there to Jake Kwan in Seoul. Civil rights groups in the United States are currently suing the Trump administration over its controversial efforts to deport undocumented migrants. Videos of arrests of people at workplaces in their cars or while out shopping have gone viral. But another video by New York City tour guide David St Boswell is also attracting interest. He says a climate of fear is causing tourists to have second thoughts about travelling to the US and told Victoria Uankunda all about his experience. A country's image is paramount in terms of tourism. You want to have a place that is accepting to all types of people, whatever their skin color or sexual orientation.

And if you project an image of exclusivity and prosecution, essentially, tourism tends to flatline, particularly from countries that he picks fights with, i.e. Canada, Mexico, places like that. People who do come already say they would not have come if they hadn't have booked their ticket a year in advance. They looked into options to not come, but instead they just went through with it because they couldn't get a refund for their ticket. So I do anticipate this trend to continue as people continue to feel less

welcome. I give tours of very vibrant neighborhoods, Chinatown, the Financial District, Little Italy and these neighborhoods are characterized by walking shoulder to shoulder with people but because of the lack of tourism the streets are now much emptier. How has all these changes affected your life, your livelihood? I've probably lost about 50% of my income since January. I work for myself. I also work for two different tour companies.

One of them completely went out of business last month because the decline in business was that rapid. And it was such a self-inflicted wound. We didn't need to do this. We did not need to make America such a scary place to come to. But people are paying attention to what's being said. And they hear and see the message, which is don't come here. And they're listening.

What are some of the experiences that some of the visitors you've had on your guiding tours have told you they've had to go through just to get inside the United States? A lot of people compare it to traveling to different areas of the world. Like I had a British family of five go on a tour with me a week ago and they talked about how pleasant it is to arrive in a place like Dubai. They feel very welcomed. But at the airports here, JFK, you queue in line for an hour, two hours after a long flight and you almost feel herded

like cattle. And when you do get up to the front of the queue, you face a very skeptical person who doesn't seem at all pleased that you have arrived. So it's a very abrupt and almost hostile energy that I think a lot of people encounter when they arrive to New York. There's this sense of it's something to be endured getting into America not something that is like, ah welcome you're here. New York tour guide Davidson Boswell. A photographer in Mali has decided to take his art out onto the streets of the capital Bamako. Buses in the city known as Sotramar are often brightly decorated with uplifting slogans and pictures of celebrities.

Now the inhabitants of Bamako can also see buses adorned with vast artworks by the photographer Nibay Ponzio showing scenes from Marley and Life. James Copnell spoke to him. So I wanted to show my photo series to everybody on the street because when I did exhibitions in the past, some people were afraid about coming into the art gallery. I think art galleries made a wall for people. So I wanted to show my work on the street because the street linked everybody.

I really wanted my work to be seen by everybody, by people going to school, people going to work and people going on the market. That's why I show my works on the minibus called Sotrama here. And those minibus, those Sotrama, they in some ways are a work of art already. You might have a picture of a religious figure or of a famous footballer or of an American president on them. So in a way you're contributing to what is already a sort of living artwork. Yes. Every day when I'm driving here, I saw this show drama and I see some slogans, some images and I think art is really part of the Malian scene.

So I just wanted to show to people that images are also art and to make them understand what is my work. People were really proud of and that's the things I wanted. I wanted Malian to be proud of their culture. So people warmly welcomed my exhibition on the bus. And when I look at your work more generally, it seems to me that you really want to show the values and the importance of Malian culture, the way people dress, the things they do in everyday life. Is that right?

Yes, I really want to show the Malian value, the Malian way of life, because people don't really know what is Mali and how people live in Mali. And I think Mali is one of the biggest cultures in West Africa. So I really want to show the world. Tell us about one of your photos. There are four young girls with sunglasses. Just describe that photo to us if you could. This photo is taken on aid because because I document Eid since four years now. Eid, the Muslim religious festival holiday.

Yes. And I was completely amazed by the earth style, the traditional fabrics, the vibrant color on the children faces. So I wanted to give a tribute to Malian cultural identity. So the background is Basin and is dyed by a technique called Gala and the children are wearing, I think it's Vax, but most of the time they wear Basin too or Bogo law or African fabrics. There is quite a lot of negative news about Mali in the world at the moment. Headlines about jihadist groups and coup d'etat and social problems too sometimes. Is it important for you to show another side of Mali to the world?

For me, it's important to show to the people positive image of Mali because people who live outside only have bad news of Mali. And we have to rebalance their perspective with good image, celebration and the real way of living of Malian people. So that's why I'm doing my work. Malian photographer Nibbe Ponziot. Now, Coca-Cola may not be that good for you, but it is certainly popular with 1.9 billion of them sold every day. Recent advert for the drink. In the United States, it is typically sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. But President Trump says Coca-Cola has now agreed to use real cane sugar in the American

market as it does in other countries like Mexico, Britain and Australia. Mr Trump is a regular drinker of Diet Coke which uses an artificial sweetener. He even has a button installed in the Oval Office to alert aides when he needs a top-up. So why all the fuss about the key ingredient in regular Coke? Mari Carpenter is a US journalist who's investigated the health impact of fizzy drinks. The reason high fructose corn syrup is in Coke, the reason it's in so many food products in the US, is that when it started to come onto the market in a big way starting in the 1980s, 1990s, it's so much cheaper. The simplest way of saying it from a health perspective,

no, I mean, it's sugar, whether you're getting it from high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar or beet sugar, it's still going to have very similar effects on your health. But partisans of this Mexican Coke will tell you that it tastes better. People love the flavor of it. I think a lot of people do think that it may be less harmful. A lot of people don't like the idea of high fructose corn syrup. And there's sort of a less tangible thing about it is, you know, it comes in this retro bottle. I mean, remember when Coke used to come in this sort of narrow wasted glass? Well, it still does in the Mexican Coke, you know, and so it's got this feel, this nostalgic feel. So people who love it, whether or not it tastes different, whether or not it's healthier,

they cannot be convinced that they just prefer this and they'll pay a premium to get it. Murray Carpenter. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett and produced by Oliver Burlough, our editors Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.