Global News Podcast - Hero pilot tells his story from hospital bed

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

An Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, says he fought to open the cockpit door of the stricken Flydubai airliner because he was determined to save the lives of his passengers and crew. Also: Washington urges European countries to start using their diesel reserves. We look at the student demonstrations against school conditions in France, where there have been more violent clashes. Kenya is at a crossroads, as its young people challenge the political elites who've governed the country for decades. The English football club, Manchester City, files an appeal against an independent commission's ruling that found it guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules. London's Kew Gardens prepares to undergo a major refurbishment. Starbucks opens two branches in the Chinese region of Xinjiang - but the move is criticised by US congressman, John Moolenaar; and the attempt to free a large shark trapped in a canal in the South Korean city of Busan is halted.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] Photo: Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, speaking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his hospital bed Credit: Narendra Modi YouTube Channel

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It's late 2007 and while attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever. She joined Facebook as chief of operations in 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable. And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of billionaire tech leader Cheryl Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 13 hours GMT on Friday the 2nd of October, these are our main stories.

The airline captain hailed around the world as a hero speaks to the Indian Prime Minister from his hospital bed. A diesel crisis looms as President Trump threatens an export ban and the US pressures Europe to release its strategic fuel reserves. Also in this podcast. Chances are only for old people. As youths, we don't have a chance anywhere. And the only thing that we want is employment, employment, employment. Could young Kenyans be about to change the country forever? I was not going to let others die.

The words of Captain Schmidt Machar from India, who was the pilot of the fly-de-by plane which plunged more than 5,000 meters during an attempted hijacking. He was stabbed in the cockpit on Wednesday morning by his co-pilot, reportedly from Amman. The plane was going from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with Captain Macha managing to open the cockpit door. If he hadn't done so, passengers may well have not been able to overpower his attacker and save the more than 170 people on board, most of them Israeli. The captain has been speaking to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call from his hospital bed.

His words are spoken by a translator. I had suffered so many injuries that I had fallen down and at that time I said to myself that if I did not get up and sir I have been flying planes for 17 years I have been a captain for the last 11 years I can tell what is happening to the plane even with my eyes closed. When I was down on the ground I felt like a flight was going down

and I knew for sure that this would be the last push. Just do it. The door is right there, and even then I was still being beaten. I just opened it, sir, and everyone else came in, and everyone else had an equally important role in it. But consciously, sir, I was saying that I was doing it for my own survival. But at the same time, I also knew that I could not let them all die. Smith Machar speaking on Narendra Modi's YouTube channel.

The Indian Prime Minister praised the captain for his courage and quick thinking. Listening to the video was our Middle East correspondent Yoland Nell, who's in Jerusalem. This is the first time we've heard from him since that fly- Dubai flight made its emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, telling us a little about what was going on. I mean, what was new here is just to know his own thought processes. certainly we've seen in some of the chaotic footage that was shot inside the plane by passengers, how much he was covered in blood as the passengers were forcing their way into the cockpit when he was being stabilised on board.

And he was saying even then he hit me so many times and he said that he couldn't squeeze his hand. He's on the ground also at one point asking when the police are going to come as they've arrived in Saudi Arabia. But, you know, he is saying really here with a bandaged head with tubes in his nose from the hospital in Abu Dhabi, where he's now said to be in a stable condition. He's telling the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just what exactly he went through. Of course, his actions, which involved then opening that cockpit door, really helped avert a disaster on board. And he has been hailed as a hero by several world leaders.

What stage now is the investigation at and who is leading it? So the Emirates lead the investigation. This was their plane that was involved and we're told that the co-pilot who was arrested when the plane landed in Saudi Arabia was taken back to the United Arab Emirates. The chief prosecutor there said to be looking into whether this was indeed a terrorist attack, whether this man was acting alone. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out saying that this was Islamist radical indoctrination that the man had been through and said that he was clearly suicidal from what was being said on board. We know that the Israeli security agencies have been speaking to the passengers who are on board the plane collecting their testimony and that Israel is participating in this investigation.

President Trump also was asked about this by journalists. you know, what was going on. And he said that if Iran was found to be involved, then it would be hit hard. And Yoland, thousands of Israelis are stuck in Dubai. Why is that? So thousands are stuck in Dubai because Fly Dubai has now suspended its flights pending this investigation. So many Israelis have gone there for the Jewish holidays. And Israeli flights have not been flying directly between the United Arab Emirates and Israel since the war.

started with Iran for security reasons. Now repatriation flights are scheduled to begin. There have been some delays because of differences with the UAE about security protocols that should be involved, but we're now told that they should begin quite soon. Yoland Nell. With problems over the supply of diesel because of the wars in Iran and Ukraine and prices soaring as a consequence, the US is looking for other means of increasing supplies. Washington is considering banning diesel exports and it wants European countries to start using their reserves. Now, while it's rejected the threat to ban diesel exports, the European Union says it's ready for collective action with the International Energy Agency on the stocks of fuel. The U.S. trade representative Jameson

Greer says he's been working with European nations to try to find a solution. There is an eagerness on both sides to work together to get more diesel to the market. We know that France, Germany, in Italy, they're sitting on reserves. I think, you know, I won't put words in their mouth, of course, but I think they would love to have a cooperative path forward with the United States on how we get more diesel to market. Getting some of that diesel that's in the reserves is part of that equation. To find out more about what's going on and what it might mean, I spoke to our business reporter in Singapore, Achana Shukla. Well, the United States wants European countries to open up their diesel stockpiles, release them in the market to increase supplies, global supplies,

and bring down rising diesel prices, which we've seen have hovered to record highs in the recent days. And we know that the European Commission has said that the UK has also spoken with some of the member countries in the European Union about the situation, about releasing stockpiles and discussing scenarios. This also comes at the backdrop of the threat from President Trump that he may look at stopping exports of US diesel, which has somewhere in the recent past become a supplier of last resort for this refined product, very crucial for transport, farming equipment, and even for industries. Yeah. How dangerous a moment is this? It is crucial because, you know, prices have gone up substantially. In the US, diesel prices have gone up by 70% since the beginning.

of the Iran war. And it is becoming a major political concern and a talk point ahead of the midterm elections. And that is something where President Trump may want some actions happening and be seen as doing something around that. Global supplies are squeezed. We know the Strait of Hormuz, while the supplies through the Strait of Hormuz has improved in the recent past, but it hasn't gone back up to the previous levels. There have been Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries that has also squeezed supplies. And recently, even, even, Even China has said that they would be looking at their domestic market and reducing exports of diesel. And that definitely is squeezing global supplies.

For UK and the European Union, it is an even graver situation because both these regions depend heavily on the United States for import of diesel. About a third for Britain and about half of what the European Union needs in terms of diesel requirement comes from the US. So there is definitely a lot of deliberations to deal with. supply in the market and for the prices to come down. Achana Shukla. Kenya could be at a crossroads as its young population challenged the political structures which have governed the country for decades. Older people may see them as a disruptive influence,

but younger adults will be taking their recent street protests to the ballot box at forthcoming elections. With 75% of Kenya's population under the age of 35, they have the numbers to make a difference. But can they really convert protest into political power and challenge the embattled President William Ruto? Barbara Plet Usher reports. The energy is building ahead of elections in Kenya next year.

I'm at a rally for a possible presidential candidate who seems to have quite strong support from young people from Gen Z. The rallying cry is no. No, they say to poverty. to corruption, no to the governing party. The main attraction here is a young senator, Edwin Safuna. Many in Kenya's digitally savvy generation, Gen Z, see him as one way to challenge the old guard. They're angry with political leaders, they say, do not offer them a future.

I'm here to participate in a revolution that we want a new Kenyan youth leader. Who knows the common problems that are facing the young people? These are only for old people. As youths, we don't have a chance anywhere. Yeah. And the only thing that we want is employment, employment, employment, employment. Many young people didn't bother to vote last time. Now, they're courted by opposition leaders like Mr. Sifuna.

This election in 27 is when this theory that the young people are advancing will be put to the test. It's too early to say how much Edwin Sufuna might shape the election outcome, but he does seem to be carrying the energy of the youth movement and giving it momentum. Two years ago, that energy had a very different feel. Gen Z protesters stormed Parliament to stop a controversial tax bill. They were crushed by a police crackdown that killed and injured dozens. But Kenya's youths, have found another way to press for change.

A trendy social media campaign hopes to instead harness that momentum at the polls. So here, these were people who'd actually come out to register that day and you turned it into a party. Ademba Allen's is behind the drive urging young people to register, outside traditional tribal voting blocks.

There has never been a case where there is a block that is not affiliated to any person or any party. They just want to vote in the right leaders. it's more of a swing vote because you cannot tell who we are going to vote for. The party of President William Ruto is doing badly in the polls, but it's fighting back, also making a pitch to Gen Z. At this town hall meeting, promising the community a new stadium, more jobs, better roads.

The party's youth leader, Keriuki in Gunjiri, insists the president is already delivering for young people. The president is a listening president, and he's been able to now come down to the youth, get what their concerns are, give them jobs, and that has absolutely, even for the party, given us a head start. So the event is over, and I'm standing outside the building, and I can see that people who are leaving are being handed money, 350 shillings. So it seems that may have been one of the incentives. to attend the meeting.

That's only about three US dollars, but such payments are common practice in Kenya, and politicians can use larger sums to try and influence votes. It shows the importance of both money and tribe in politics here. Less than a year to Kenya's election, it feels like politics might be changing, but nobody yet knows what the energy of Gen Z voters could mean at the ballot box.

Barbara Petasher from Kenya. The English football club Manchester City has filed an appeal against an independent commission's ruling that found it guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules. Andy Swiss has the latest. In a statement, Manchester City confirmed that at 7 o'clock last night they lodged what they called a comprehensive appeal. The opinion, as City called the Independent Commission's ruling,

contained clear material errors of law, principle, and fact and is unsafe, they said, and they insisted they were innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League. The result of the appeal is not expected until next year. Earlier, the Football Association said the Commission's findings had significant implications for the integrity of the game, and it would take action where appropriate. But the FA added it wouldn't comment further until the Premier League's disciplinary process was complete. Andy Swiss. Still to come in this podcast.

The city has named the shark an honorary ambassador for the city, saying that the online poll actually showed strong support for this idea. South Korea's new obsession, Bukangi the Shark, stranded in a waterway, drawing in thousands of spectators. It's late 2007, and while attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever. She joined Facebook as chief of operations in the United States. 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable.

And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of billionaire tech leader Cheryl Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. To France, where violent clashes are continuing, sparked by a wave of student demonstrations against conditions in schools. In Paris, emergency services are tackling fires. while police in Brest have used tear gas against protesters.

According to the French Education Minister, over 100 schools have suffered severe damage since the unrest began last week. Authorities have arrested nearly 2,000 people with the majority still in police custody. As of Friday, more than 400 schools remain closed due to the ongoing disruptions. Our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield,

has been monitoring the situation. They started more than a week ago, 10 days ago, in the northern Paris suburbs, high immigration, very populous area, Senzani, where they were focused on these demands of more money, more investment, more buildings, more teachers and so on. At the beginning of this week, they spread. They began to spread across the country. Obviously, social media has a lot to do with it.

The message got out. Obviously, there is an echo there, because undoubtedly conditions are not great by French standards. They're getting worse. So there's that effect, the kind of copycat effect, and the fact that this is something which many people agree with. but there's also, I think, undoubted factor of a political element, and there's a question that the hard left has been behind all of this, not in the sense of starting it off, but certainly supporting it, promoting it,

and as far as the government's concerned, the far left, the hard left, Jean-McMélaunch or the presidential candidate of the hard left, has something to answer for, for provoking and egging on the protest. Yeah, the French Justice Minister has suggested that some of the protesters are not high school students. Is he right? Yes, he's undoubtedly right. We've seen it for ourselves. We've had the testimony of school heads who've said,

and many of them have been molested, who've said that the people are molesting them were in general, not their own pupils, but people from outside. I've seen it with my own eyes, people who are turning up at demonstrations carrying homemade fireworks, mortars, as they called them here, which are a very common weapon in street protest.

So yes, there's definitely an element of the kind of professional urban activist who's leaching onto this. And yet the underlying stated rule, reasons for the protests. For many of the kids who are taking part, they're real, aren't they? They are. A bunch of teenagers regard their conditions as not being acceptable, and it's true that, you know, there's not enough money to supply everything they want. There are plenty of gaps in the timetable where teachers don't turn up, can't be replaced. There are too many people in the classrooms and so on, but I think one has to keep this in a kind of perspective too. France is in general,

a very lucky country when it comes to investment education. It's certainly not languishing at the bottom of the European tables when it comes to money, it's near the top of them. So it's a lot to do with expectations what children think and teenagers think they should have and aren't getting. And the other point is, of course, that there is no money in the state coffers anyway because the country is so incredibly indebted. There will be people listening watching this in other parts of the world who find it extraordinary that students are burning down their own schools. Indeed. And the cost is in millions already, which would be what could have gone towards some of their demands, insulating rooms against the heat and the cold and providing

expertise and so on. No, I mean, I'm afraid this does form very much part of a French tradition of unrest and that undoubtedly the fact that there are these urban activists leap-frogging on the back of this movement explains why it has in many places turned violent. And you can see that, you know, there is a split between rather innocent teenagers who come out thinking they're going to enjoy an afternoon of high excitement, complaining about things which are genuine grievances for them, and the others who, who, who come on, who they won't just avow, because they regard them as legitimate as well, but who are much more professional and know what they're doing.

Hughes-Cofield in Paris. Q, in London, remains one of the most cherished and prestigious botanic gardens in the world, drawing in more than two and a half million visitors every year. One of its biggest attractions is the huge palm house, which is described on Q's website, as a remarkable indoor rainforest with tropical plants from some of the most threatened environments on the planet. But the hot and humid conditions inside have taken their toll

on the Victorian building's ironwork and glass, so it's undergoing an $87 million refurbishment. It starts in around a year, so beforehand the glasshouse has to be completely emptied of tropical plants and trees inside. Our science editor Rebecca Morel has been to Cue to find out more about this mammoth task. I'm inside the world-famous palm house at Cue Gardens.

It's more than 175 years old, and it's about to under go a makeover on a massive scale. But standing here at the moment, it's looking a bit more sparse than usual. And that's because the 1,300 plants that are in here are all going to have to be shifted for the renovation. So we started actually containerising plants in the palm house a little over a year ago now, and we're roughly cleared about half of the collections in here. Tom Pickering is head of glasshouse collections at Kew, and he's looking after this huge plant move. It's a really daunting task emptying the collections from the palm house.

Some of them are historically really significant, so are actually older than the glasshouse itself, while other plants are kind of really important conservation species. How are you going about the process? So at the moment we're really focusing on the smaller, herbaceous and medium-sized woody plants. Those are going to be cleared first and then hopefully we'll have the space in which to work

where we're going to be using heavier lifting equipment in order to contain right some of the really big plant. One of the plants being moved today is a cycad. It looks like a sort of short palm. It's not that huge but it's still taking a team of three to move it. The plant is taken about 50 metres away to a temporary greenhouse. It's about a quarter of the size of the palm house.

We've had to reshuffle a lot of times. As you can see, we're limited on space, so we're having to put certain plants next to each other just to maximise the amount of space we have here. Leaf Starkey is a horticulturalist at Kew. The renovation, which will start in autumn next year, could take up to four years, so the plants will be in here for a while.

We're in here every morning, watering the plants, checking the condition. We're trying to limit the sort of growth because we don't want to get too big, before they moved back into the palm house. How do you do that? Treat them me. Well, yeah, I can try and keep them in relatively small-sized pots. But as anyone who's attempted to move a plant knows,

some really don't like to be shifted. With so many precious species, Q isn't taking any risks. I've come behind the scenes to the propagation glasshouse where the team here have been busy growing backups of all of the plants. Basically, if any of them don't survive the move, it means there's a botanical plan. It's quite challenging because we have to propagate around 1,300 species with very different characteristics.

Angelica Gentile leads the propagation team for the Palm House project. Some species have proved very tricky, particularly ebony. We have been trying so many cuttings. How many cuttings did you take? Hundreds of cuttings. And so far, this is the only one that rooted. That was the most exciting moment for us. I can still remember the morning when I spotted two tiny black roots coming out of the port.

So we'll take a bed and a section. Back in the palm house and Tom Pickering and the team still have a lot to do. In the next six months, everything that's left is going to have to be removed. But as the beds thin out, Tom says it's revealing the glass house in a new light. It's quite incredible to see the structure. as you remove the plants and you open up this, basically, this incredible feat of engineering. I think it will feel more like a cathedral. Rebecca Morel.

A US congressman has criticised the decision by the US coffee company Starbucks to open two branches in the Chinese region of Xinjiang where China has been accused of human rights abuses. John Moulinar, chairman of the Select Committee on China in the House of Representatives, said an American company should not be doing business in Xinjiang. Over the last 10 years, it's thought hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Uyghurs have been put into re-education camps, been imprisoned or have been subject to forced labour. The UN Human Rights Office previously said China's actions in Xinjiang

could amount to crimes against humanity. The BBC's Mickey Bristow, who spent many years reporting on China, told me more about why the decision to open these coffee shops is so controversial. It does seem strange on first hearing, but I think firstly it's about who it is. Starbucks, big American company. They were one of the first big American firms

for actually move into China. First opened their shop there in 1999. It seemed to symbolise America's acceptance, really, of China onto the global stage. So that's important. Secondly, it's about where it's happening, Xinjiang. For the last few decades, the Chinese government has been accused

of committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Ten years ago, particularly they ramped up repression there. They put people in re-education camps and they forced them into doing jobs that they didn't want to go. They separated parents from their children, all kinds of things. The Chinese government said they were doing that

to tackle religious extremism and separatism. But as you mentioned, the Human Rights Office there suggested there could be crimes against humanity. So there was a lot of pressure for companies not to do any business in any way connected with Xinjiang. So for Starbucks now to be opening two coffee shops there in a runchie, the capital of Xinjiang, what the airport, one in the Grand Bazaar.

It seems as though they're exceeding there, suggesting everything's okay in Xinjiang. What's China said about this? All along China thinks they're doing nothing wrong in Xinjiang to this specific ferroi. It's responded, it said essentially, all the criticism is just naked lies. And that there's now a stable society in Xinjiang,

economic growth, religious harmony, racial unity, all these nice things. Indeed, there is, to some extent, that's because the repressionist, so strong in Xinjiang at the moment. And human rights groups said, well, yes, it is because of this repression. And by Starbucks moving in here, it's essentially saying to the Chinese going, it's okay what you're doing, we don't mind, you can do what you want to do. So that's why there's been such an outcry about Starbucks actions. Mickey Bristow.

A fresh attempt to free a large shark trapped in a canal in the South Korean city of Busan has been halted after problems with a net being used to guide the fish. Rescures were attempting to gently steer the creature towards the sea before the net got caught on the bottom of the waterway. The three and a half metre long fish, nicknamed Bukangi, has attracted hundreds of thousands of curious spectators as we heard from the BBC's Sophie Jung. Forget about K-pop in this world right now. So the latest sensation in South Korea is not BTS. It's actually a shark. So this three and a half meter shark got stuck in a canal two weeks ago in the port city of Busan in this tiny waterway.

So it got stuck in what's called Northport in Busan. So in Korean, that's Pukang. So that's where it got its nickname Bukkangi from. So experts believe it is a type of a copper shark, and it got stuck while chasing its prey into the waterway and couldn't find its exit and ended of being stuck there for two weeks. So the shark has gathered national attention. So over 600,000 people have flocked to see the shark along the waterfront park. And it has gained attention of the city as well. The city has named the shark an honorary ambassador for the city, saying that the online poll actually showed strong support for this idea. And it's helping the local businesses as well. They have seen a huge boom in customers and sales. And just to show you

how far it has gone, there's a meme coin launched after Bukangi online. Now you can trade those as well. So what started initially as a, you know, just a wildlife incident, has turned Bukong into national celebrity in South Korea. Sophie Jung in Singapore. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at bbc.co.com. You can also now watch our episodes in full. Just search for the Global News Podcast on YouTube.

This edition was mixed by Nikki Brum. and the producer was Mickey Bristow. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. It's late 2007, and while attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever.

She joined Facebook as chief of operations in 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable. And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of billionaire tech leader Cheryl. Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts.