Global News Podcast - Israel calls Spanish PM 'a disgrace' after pro-Palestinian protest

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Israel is angry at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's support for pro-Palestinian protests which ended the Vuelta cycle race. Mr Sanchez said he was proud that 100,000 demonstrators opposed to Israeli participation had turned out. Also: The governor of Utah says the suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk isn't cooperating with authorities, and the brother of Jeffrey Epstein's most vocal victim speaks out.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]

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Your idea of banking that's personal happens here. RBC, ideas happen here. America is changing, and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world,

and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel Wright, and in the early hours of Monday the 15th of September, these are our main stories. The final stage of the Vuelta cycling race in Spain has been abandoned because of clashes between police and pro-Palestinian protesters.

The governor of Utah says the suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk isn't cooperating with authorities and has refused to confess. On a visit to Israel, the U.S. Secretary of State has insisted relations haven't been damaged by Benjamin Netanyahu's strike on Qatar, despite displeasure in the White House. Reports from northern Gaza say at least 50 more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces continuing their campaign of destruction there. Also in this podcast, she was able to take down some of the most rich and powerful men out there and so her voice is still here with us and it's with all of the survivors. The brother of Jeffrey Epstein's most vocal victim speaks to the BBC. The final stage of a major cycling race in Spain has been abandoned after around 100,000 pro-Palestinian protesters entered part of the

the course in the centre of Madrid. Protests around the Vuelta race have been ramping up in the past few weeks with thousands of demonstrators angry at the inclusion of an Israeli-based team. Protesters took to the streets of the Capitol on Sunday knocking down barriers and occupying the road at several points on the course. More than a thousand police officers had been deployed on the streets of the Spanish Capitol. The BBC's Guy Hedgeco is in.

Madrid. These are protests which have been sort of increasing in intensity, it seems, the closer we've got to the finale of de Vuelta. And in particular, over the last week or 10 days, we've been seeing not just people lining the roads of the race, waving Palestinian flags, but we've seen some much more vocal, more physical protests. On one occasion, there was a crash which was apparently caused by protesters who'd run onto the course itself, knocking two riders off. One of those riders, a Spaniard, actually had to withdraw from the race altogether. And I've seen reports that up to 100,000 people were out on the streets on Sunday. Yes, that's the number we've been given by the central government.

So it has been a huge turnout. This day was always in the calendar for protesters because it's the culmination of the race. and that was the reason why we had, for example, 1,500 police deployed today in Madrid. There were a number of occasions when protesters were blocking the road along which the cyclists were riding before they got into Madrid. But the real problem was in central Madrid, where the race was due to finish. There, the protests were getting increasingly violent. For example, people were pushing over the barricades that were separating them from the road,

where the riders were going to be running. And it was the situation in central Madrid, which persuaded the authorities to call off the race altogether. And the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, took a rather unusual stance on this, certainly for a prime minister, which Israel has taken a dim view of. Pedro Sanchez didn't actually address supporters

down in Malaga and the south of the country. And he spoke about the issue of these protests that have been taking place against Israel and in favour of the Palestinian people. And he said, for example, Spain is shining as an example and with pride. He said it's taking a step forward in defence of human rights. And he said, we are in agreement with a just cause such as human rights. Long live the Spanish people.

So that seemed to be a very clear endorsement of the protests that have been taking place. We haven't heard from him since the chaos that took place at the end of the race. But a lot of people saw that as a clear expression of support for the protesters in general. The Israeli foreign minister has responded to this and said that this was absolutely shameful of Pedro Sanchez to talk like that. And that reflects a very tense, fragile relationship between Spain and Israel, which has become more and more tense over the last few days. In particular, since Pedro Sanchez spoke about what he said was Israeli genocide in Gaza. just a few days ago. Guy Hedgko.

The governor of the US state of Utah, Spencer Cox, says the man held in custody over the murder of Charlie Kirk is not cooperating. Mr Kirk, a right-wing activist and close ally of Donald Trump, was shot last Wednesday. Aronaday Mukherjee reports from Washington.

Speaking to ABC News, Governor Cox said the suspect had not confessed to authorities. He said, however, those around him were cooperating, especially his roommate. Governor Cox added that they were collecting forensic evidence and other information that will help them tie any loose ends and more details are likely to come out on Tuesday when they formally file charges. At the press conference on Friday, it was revealed that the suspect's family had told investigators that Tyler Robinson had become more political in recent years and had been against Charlie Kirk's ideology. On Sunday, on Sunday, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visited the Western Wall, the holy Jewish site in Jerusalem.

Mr. Rubio's trip to Israel comes days after the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, a strike which President Trump and Mr. Rubio have both said they were not happy about. Not surprisingly, Mr. Netanyahu was keen to stress the deep relationship between the two countries. I think his visit here is a testament to the durability, the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It's as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western world that we just touched under President Trump and Secretary Rubio and their entire team.

This alliance has never been stronger. Mr. Rubio was also keen to stress the strong relationship. So how will he be expressing his unhappiness and Mr. Netanyan? over the Qatar strike. Tom Bateman is our U.S. State Department correspondent. He's in Israel with Mr. Rubio. Well, I think that President Trump's displeasure is going to be communicated to the Israeli Prime Minister,

if indeed it hasn't already in some of the public messaging. On the way here, Secretary Rubio reiterated that the US was not happy about the Israeli strike on Qatar. But at the same time, suggested this wouldn't, you know, know, change anything about the fundamentals of the U.S.-Israel relationship. I think part of the reason for the irritation coming from Mr. Trump and the administration more widely is because of that strong alliance that they have always had with the leadership in Qatar as a key Gulf ally to the U.S.

and particularly the sort of close ties between Mr. Trump himself and the leadership of Qatar and his key envoy, Steve Wittkoff. I think it was extremely embarrassing for the Trump administration that, you know, they would seem not to have been able to reign in the Israelis in carrying out this action, which both, at least according to the Palestinian account, failed to kill the leadership of Hamas. So, you know, it can be seen, and we still don't have that confirmed independently, but if that is the case, it would be seen militarily as a failure by the Israelis, and at the cost of a huge escalation into the risk.

region with now Arab countries meeting at the same time in Qatar to talk about a response to Israel's action. So you have a growing further sense of Israel's isolation because of this and condemnation from Arab countries and the Europeans and the Americans unhappy about it. Having said that, you know, I think we will still see the ties between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Rubio presented extremely strong, a lot of solidarity. when they have their talks tomorrow. Yeah, and quickly, Mr. Rubio was also asked on his way to Israel about the Israeli offensive in Gaza City.

Thousands have been forced to flee their homes. What do you have to say about that? Well, that was interesting because I think the most noticeable thing is there was no kind of ringing endorsement of this. On the other hand, he didn't criticize it or condemn it either. He just said he didn't want to talk about it, but it would be coming up in the discussions. I think the point is that it's pretty clear Mr. Trump wants a quick and decisive way through this.

You know, he wanted a deal where all of the hostages were going to be released in one go. Now, the way they sought to get that was the diplomatic track, even though they were accusing Hamas of failing to accept the offers on the table. But that diplomatic track is now clearly in pieces after the Israeli strike. So I think there will be some tough words from Mr. Rubio on Monday. Tom Bateman in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive in Gaza City has continued. Reports say at least 50 more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces campaign. Israel, meanwhile, says it's only striking buildings and areas used by Hamas. The BBC's Owen Bennett Jones spoke to Jacob Granger, the emergency coordinator for MSF in Gaza. He's currently around 15 kilometers away from Gaza City. What is happening right now in Gaza City is that Israeli authorities made evacuation order over all the Gaza City. Gaza City since January 2025, it estimated to have 1 million inhabitants.

So me, I went in Gaza City last week to visit my colleagues and my teams over there. You can see high buildings that's really constructed and really destroyed. and really destroyed as well. So some of the buildings are totally or partially destroyed. And you can see people trying to shelter wherever they can shelter. So that would be in a part of destroyed buildings or in the streets between the buildings. It's intensely crowded in really dire conditions. So plastic sheetings, woodstocks and trying to have some kind of

privacy and dignity and this kind of setup. The Israelis have told people that they have to leave Gaza City. Are they actually doing that? There are in a space where they have a lack of access to food, to water, to medical facilities, and they are forced to leave this place, to go south, where there's the same issues, but they have no land, they have no space,

in the South. So in the same way, the Israeli authorities claim that they are opening the so-called humanitarian territory, humanitarian zone in the south of the strip. So that would be in Hanyounis, a small part of Terellbalah governor rates. And now since two weeks, the military operation in Gaza City are increasing a lot, meaning that there are a lot of airstrikes coming from drones coming from aircraft F-16 and destroying buildings and sometimes with prior notice sometimes not it's it's very unreliable so now what is happening is that a part of the population left Gaza city you must understand that the population has to do the choice between staying and being at risk to be hit by a strike, by a bombing, or something

like this, and have a really reduced access to medical care and also little access to food and water, or to go south, knowing that everything costs a lot. So you need to pay for the transportation of yourself. you need to pay for the transportation of the items you have. Just to give you an idea, a small shelter made of woodstock and plastic sheeting would be approximately $1,000 US dollars. Jacob Granger.

Still to come. It's very hard for the world champion to turn around and say to anyone. I'm crying, you know, I want to kill myself, my head's in bits. Can he give me a hug? These are very hard things to admit. The former world champion boxer Ricky Hatton has been found dead at the age of 46. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.

It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in love. London. And this is the global story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. In Britain, the Labour government has had a difficult week. Just days before President Trump arrives for an unprecedented second state visit, the British ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, was sacked because of his close ties to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He says he never

saw any evidence of abuse. One of Epstein's victims was Virginia De Frey, who took her own life in April. She had alleged that Epstein abused her and trafficked her to his friends, including Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles. Prince Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing. Now Miss Dufre's brother and sister-in-law have told the BBC they're proud of all she managed to expose, as Richard Hamilton reports. In their first interview to the British media, Sky Roberts, who's the brother of Virginia Dufray and his wife Amanda, spoke about the pain of their loss, how much Virginia had had to suffer, but also how proud they were of her. She did so many amazing things in her lifetime. She was able to take down some of the most rich and powerful men out there. And so we're still grieving through this

process, but we're also so proud of what she was able to do. And we feel that, sense of responsibility to want to make sure that her voice is still here with us, and it's with all of the survivors. We were very close growing up. She was always like a protector to me. Every day she would light your room up. I mean, every day we miss her so much, but we will continue her fight, and we will not stop until we get justice and accountability for her and for all the survivors out there. In the United States, there's increasing pressure on Donald Trump, to explain the exact nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump is alleged to have written a bawdy letter to Epstein

in a so-called birthday book, and the scandal has also had a huge impact on British politics. On Thursday, the Prime Minister, Sarkia Stama, sacked the UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, following further details about his friendship with the late sex offender. Amanda and Sky Roberts said Lord Mandelson should not have been given the role in the first place. We should have done something sooner. He should have never been given that title. And there are a lot of people that are actively out in our governments, in politics, that are actively holding their titles and positions. We have to put the spotlight on them.

He should not have been given the position in the first place. It speaks to how deep the corruption is in our systems. whether that's linked to the UK, I think anybody that's in that book, including President Trump, should be completely 100% investigated. With President Trump arriving here in Britain this week for a state visit, the shadow of the Epstein affair is likely to hang heavy over the red carpet and royal pageantry. Richard Hamilton with that report. It's now three years since US citizens lost the constitutional right to abortion,

nationwide. Since then, 12 states have banned abortion outright, while others have enshrined the right to abortion in their own state constitutions. The small city of Bristol sits on the border between Tennessee, which prohibits abortion, and Virginia, which allows it, giving rise to local tensions over the issue. Our reporter, Eve Webster, visited the city. Yeah, I actually grew up in Bristol. I come from a very religious family, was put in Christian school my whole life. And so my parents took me to the clinic in Bristol, Tennessee, and had me stand up from her sons as a child. So you were an anti-abortion protester as a child? Yes, a five-year-old. So I felt like that was my retribution. Like, I wanted to give back to women that I had probably made feel bad,

even though I was only a five-year-old. Carrie is a volunteer at Slap, the state-line abortion access partnership. The charity was set up by local residents here in Bristol to serve people travelling across state lines to get an abortion, paying for hotel rooms and escorting people to the clinic through lines of protesters. Escorts like Carrie play loud music to block out the shouts of protesters

and carry large umbrellas to mask the identity of people visiting the clinic. This is Slap co-founder Barbara Schwartz. They've driven sometimes hundreds of miles. They're under stress, under duress as it is, and it really can affect them. Bristol is a small American city with a population of around 40,000. I'm on its main road, which is called State Street,

as on one side of the road is Virginia and on the other, the state of Tennessee. This means that in half the city, abortion is legal, whereas in the other half it is not, even in cases of rape and incest. This has been the case since 2022, when the city's abortion clinic moved just a mile down the road from Tennessee into the Virginia side of town, making it the closest place to get an abortion for people living in many of the southern states. This has fueled the abortion debate in the town and driven some to try and change local laws to stop them.

The town had a lot of people who were devastated that the abortion business essentially walked across the street. This is Victoria Cobb, director of the ultra-Christian lobbyist group, the Family Foundation. They worked with these locals to put forward a change in local planning laws, which would make opening a new clinic or expanding the existing one practically impossible. Our organization has simply come alongside of local individuals who don't want to see their town turn into a destination location where people come from other states, let alone other communities, to have abortions. Ultimately, the campaign was unsuccessful.

Bristol Virginia's City Planning Committee Director Jay Detrick explains why. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, abortion is legal and an ordinance that would not allow that particular use in the city was determined to be not only bad land use planning but possibly illegal. In short, changes to local planning laws would come up against state law. But should the Republicans win this November's state election in Virginia, this could change. Eve Webster reporting from the Tennessee-V Virginia border. Two weeks ago, a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had to land in Bulgaria after its GPS signal failed, forcing the crew to rely on paper maps.

The jamming of satellite signals or the use of fake ones to confuse pilots has prompted plans for land-based backup systems. David Midling is chief executive of Kairos, a company working on creating an alternative to GPS. He told my colleague, Sean Lay, what he thinks the problem is with the use of GPS. We are overly reliant. I would say it's been stated by other experts in the industry that it is a single point of failure for our society. We use GPS for our locations app to get around, but it's also a requirement for navigation, it's requirement for timing, it's requirement for networks and power grids,

so we are overly reliant. And what problems have arisen? Well, fortunately for us, GPS has been very solid. But there are local areas where there's been jamming and spoofing, particularly with the conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we're starting to see the impacts of those conflicts seeping into the commercial world, impacting commercial airline flights, and local networks. We had a recent example involving the President of the European Commission,

Ursula von der Leyen, where I think suspected Russian G. GPS interference, forced her plane to land using paper maps, which sounds archaic nowadays, but also quite striking that something that we've become so dependent on could apparently be cut so easily. Yeah, and that's what we're learning a lot from the conflict in Ukraine, is that what used to be something that was only available for very sophisticated militaries is now become relatively commonplace. Now we're seeing that there are groups that can build kit that can do some very major damage

with very simple hardware, very simple off-the-shelf equipment. And so that's creating a lot more concern for this reliance that we have on that signal from GPS. If it's that open, does that make it comparatively easy to block or to jam or to send a false signal? Absolutely. The reasons the receivers work so well, they lock into that GPS. signal very rapidly is because the information about the signal, the waveform, is published. So you're advertising this to the receivers and the companies that build those receivers, but you're also advertising it to any adversary that wants to do some malicious harm.

So that is, I think, a crux of, you know, where the issue could come in is just the ability to not only jam the signal, but something that's much more concerning, which is the the ability to spoof the signal. Faked the signal so you think you're in a location that you actually aren't. David Micklin speaking to Sean Lay. Ricky the hitman, Hatton, one of the finest boxes of his generation, has been found dead at the age of 46. The British fighter won world titles in two weight classes. Police in his home city of Manchester in the northwest of England say there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. Will Chalk, who interviewed Ricky Hatton in 2018, now looks back at his life.

When I got to Ricky Hatton's gym in Manchester, knowing I was about to meet a boxing superstar, I was expecting this huge aura of celebrity, you know, a huge ego about him. But I was wrong. He was, as basically every tribute that's been paid to him, says the most humble down-to-earth man you can imagine. He was floating around the gym, training with young fighters, giving them tips, and sharing jokes with fellow boxing legend Tyson Fury, who just happened to be there on the day that I showed up. Now, I was there to make a documentary about YouTubers becoming boxers.

And Ricky's take on it was, in short, if it's good for the sport, I'm all for it. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you're a professional boxer, whether you do mixed martial arts, or whether you're just a regular guy as a passion for the sport, as a passion for boxing.

And if he wants to give himself the opportunity to give the fight game a goal, you know, he deserves a shot just like everybody else. Now, raised in a pub on a council estate, Ricky Hatton was proud of his hometown of Manchester. He made his boxing debut at the age of 11, and some of the most memorable of his 45 professional wins were at Pax Stadium's in the city. But he was equally as admired for the fights he didn't win, including two in Las Vegas against Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pachial, with thousands of people from Manchester making the trip to the States to watch him. Speaking years later, Hatton said it was a surreal experience.

Denzo Washington just walks in and says, excuse me, do you mind if you watch you warm up? I mean, no problem, you know what I mean? You know, Sylvester Stallone come in the change room to watch me warm up, you know, on a regular basis. I never thought when he laced the gloves on that, I'd have rocky watching me warm up. But it was those losses, he later said, that led to the darkest times of his life. After his retirement, he was open about his struggles with his mental health, including long periods of depression. It's very hard for the world champion to turn around and say to anyone. one, you know, that, you know, I'm crying, you know, I want to kill myself, my head's in bits,

can he give me a hug? A world champion is saying, can he give me a hug? These are very hard things to admit when you've been seeing as this former world champion, take on anyone, fight, anyone, take all them fans to Vegas, all of a sudden, I'm a broken, man, I'm crying to myself. The football team, Ricky Hatton, supported Manchester City, has been among those paying tribute. The club described him as a humble, down-to-earth human, and one of their most loved and revered supporters. Here is Ricky's friend and fellow boxer Amir Khan.

He was a massive inspiration to me, in my career. Not only that, he came to my wedding. He also came to me when I won my first world title. He was at the fight, giving me all the great advice I needed at the time. And it's just so sad because he was a very dear friend around. Ricky Hatton leaves behind three children. Here he is speaking to the BBC in 2013. Boxing has given me such a great life of what I've achieved and you know the main goal now is to try and become the best dad I've ever done and just my life my boxing life was all about

was providing for my little ones and I'm very proud of the job that I've done for them Ricky Hatton who has died at the age of 46 and that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later and just to let you know we are changing the publishing times of the global news podcast. From today, Monday, the new publishing times will be 0500 GMT and 1,700 GMT. You will find us in your feed as usual wherever you get your

podcasts. Another quick note before we go. The last edition of our pod included a story about the amount of gas the EU buys from Russia, but it gave the wrong dollar amount. In fact, the EU you have spent $250 billion on Russian energy since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We apologize for the error. An updated version of that podcast is available in our feed now. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is global podcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global newspod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and the producers were Alison Davis and Peter Goffin.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Rachel Wright. Until next time, goodbye. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.

I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.