Global News Podcast - Nine critically injured in mass UK train stabbing

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

In the UK, counter-terrorism police are leading an investigation into a mass stabbing on a train near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. Nine people are in critical condition after an attack described by witnesses as ‘like a horror film’ with passengers trying to flee through carriages and barricading themselves in bathrooms. Armed officers boarded the train and arrested two men at the scene. Also: President Donald Trump threatens military action in Nigeria, saying an attack would be ‘fast, vicious and sweet’, after accusing the government there of allowing mass killings of Christians. Spain’s foreign minister has offered one of the country’s clearest acknowledgements yet of the brutality of the sixteenth-century conquest of Mexico, and we hear from Jamaica, where Hurricane Melissa has killed at least nineteen people and left hundreds of thousands without food, power or clean water. Plus, the Pushkin Institute in Moscow unveils what it says is the longest word in the Russian language.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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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 John Sudworth and we're recording this edition in the early hours of Sunday the 2nd of November. Our main stories, counter-terrorism police in the UK are dealing with a large-scale stabbing incident on a train.

with witnesses likening it to a horror film. I had a guy suddenly run past going, run, run, there's a guy stabbing literally everyone at everything. I put my hand on this chair, and then I look at my hand and it's covered in blood, and then I look at the chair and there's blood all over the chair. After Hurricane Melissa, badly needed aid flights begin to arrive in Jamaica,

and a long-awaited apology from Spain over its conquest of the Americas. Also in this podcast When someone says let's impose tariffs on foreign imports It looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs And sometimes for a short while it works But only for a short time

Canada apologises to Donald Trump Over an anti-tariff ad campaign It ran in the US featuring former President Ronald Reagan We begin in the UK where counter-terrorism police are investigating a mass stabbing on a train which has left nine people with life-threatening injuries. Police and other emergency services are at the scene in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire after armed officers boarded the train and arrested two men.

They were responding to reports that multiple people had been stabbed with witnesses describing bloodied passengers trying to escape through carriages and barricading themselves into bathrooms. Ollie Foster was on the train and told us how some of the victims tried to save others. I had guys suddenly run past going, run, run, there's a guy studying literally everyone, everything.

At first, there was a few of us kind of looking at each other like thinking, it was it a joke, like to Halloween, I'd be pranking. But then you could kind of see in their faces that were being serious. I put my hand on this chair, like just trying to. kind of push myself forward and then I look at my hand and it's covered in blood and then I look at the chair and there's blood all over the chair and then I look ahead and there's blood all on the chairs and I'm thinking okay this is pretty serious and someone kind of said they thought they had a gun so we ran to the end of the carriage kind of we called the emergency alarm

and just trying to work out and we barricade the doors can we lock the doors there was a girl bless her who was really really in a bit of state because the guy actually tried to stab her and one of the older guys was an absolute hero blocked it with his head and he's got this, like, gash. He had this gash on his head. He's got his, he's got a thing of gash on his neck, and he's kind of getting, we're kind of giving him, like, jackets to keep the pressure on the blood. And then it felt like literally forever. But eventually the train kind of stopped. Everyone's kind of running off. I didn't look back. Two people that I was with did, and they believe that he was a black man in his mid-20s, and that was all that they saw.

Videos from witnesses outside the train show emergency services rushing to the station. Two, four, six, eight. There's at least ten ambulances, twelve ambulances. Oh my God. Dean McFarlane was on the platform when the train pulled in. I see a guy hanging out of the train door bleeding. As I look further up the platform, I see people running down the platform panicking and bleeding.

And that's when I heard someone shout, he's coming, he's coming. and I see a guy suddenly running down in a black hoodie, I can't tell whether that was one of the attackers or whether that was one of the victims. So obviously I grabbed a load of people. Just said to please get out the station, go, go, go. For the latest, I spoke to our correspondent, Barry Caffrey.

Ten people have been taken to hospital. Nine of those ten believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries and one person being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. This took place aboard a train on Saturday evening. And British Transport Police have said that at around 20 to 8 in the evening, they were called to reports of a multiple stabbing aboard that train in Cambridgeshire. British Transport Police say that officers immediately attended Huntington Station alongside paramedics. Armed police from Cambridgeshire, police boarded the train and arrested two people in connection to the incident.

Those two have been taken to police custody. and they say that 10 people have been taken to hospital. Nine of the 10 have suffered life-threatening injuries, we understand, and one of them being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. They did confirm that there have been no fatalities. This has been declared a major incident. Counter-terrorism policing are supporting the investigation too while they established the full circumstances of the incident.

But of course, this was a 6.25pm train service on a Saturday. evening. Presumably, there would have been a lot of people on board that train travelling into London for a Saturday evening out. I would imagine a very, very difficult traumatic experience for those. Lots of footage, which has been shown on social media too, of all of the emergency services and the paramedics at the scene and also of officers running up along the platform towards the front of the train. As you say, Barry, clearly a terrifying incident for the passengers. There's been some political reaction. as well? There has. Sir Keir Stormer, the Prime Minister, released a brief statement calling this

an appalling incident in Cambridgeshire. He said it was deeply concerning and he urged people to follow the advice of the local authorities. Of course, the local MPs said very similar. Kemi Kemi Badenok from the Conservative Party saying very similar to. I should have mentioned to you too that an eyewitness told the BBC that they saw a man bolting down the carriage with a bloody arm saying that they've got a knife run, and another eyewitness describing a man collapsed on the floor. Barry Caffrey. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious and sweet. That's how Donald Trump chose to announce possible US military action in Nigeria, after his administration accused the government there of allowing the mass killing of Christians. Mr. Trump, who's made it his mission

to be seen as a global peacemaker, said Washington may go in. Guns are blazing. Nigeria has rejected the claim that Christians are disproportionately targeted by Islamist insurgents in the Muslim majority north of the country. Daniel Lipman, a reporter for Politico, covering the White House, doesn't believe the president will follow through on his threat. If you look at what analysts who study Nigeria say is that Christians are actually not the majority of the victims, that actually Muslims in the majority north are primarily targets of attacks, but often by other Muslims, the Islamist insurgents. This has been a longstanding problem in Nigeria. You also have to wonder, did Trump see something on television? Did Nigeria

political analysts give this to him to try to tweet out or Christians? Remember, he won the 2016 election in large part due to American Christians who were very happy that he was going to install pro-life justices on the Supreme Court. And so he is once to almost repay the phase. and help Christians wherever he can. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes has more on President Trump's ultimatum to Nigeria. It is an extremely strongly worded post from, as you imply, a president who prides himself on stopping wars. His tone here is very aggressive. He is threatening to send U.S. forces into Nigeria with, as he puts it, guns are blazing.

If he says the country doesn't stem what he describes as the killing of Christians by Islamists. He said he's asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack. If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, he writes the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria and attack with the goal of completely wiping out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these, as he puts it, horrible atrocities. And this comes just a few days after he warned that Christianity was facing an existential threat in Nigeria.

I remember in the last few days that he put Nigeria on a watch list of countries where they thought there was some kind of concern. Why now then is this statement being made compared to those last few days and the feelings there? It hasn't come out of the blue. This decision really follows months of lobbying by US officials who've argued that Christians in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, are facing to use their term genocide. Conservative politicians have led the charge. In March, the US Congressman Chris

Smith called for Nigeria to be listed, as you say, a country of particular concern, a CPC. Now, some background here, Donald Trump, had listed Nigeria as a CPC during his first presidency, but the decision was reversed by Joe Biden. And then last month, the US Senator Ted Cruz, Congressman Riley Moore, accuse the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to the mass murder of Christians. An existential threat, as we have heard, to Nigeria's Christian population, according to the president. Have we heard anything from the Nigerian government in response to this yet? Yes, there has been a brief response. The country's president said that the characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant

does not reflect its national reality. This is President Te Nubu, posting on X on Saturday, saying religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Peter Bowes speaking to the newsroom's Chris Barrow. Hurricane Melissa is now known to have claimed at least 19 victims when it smashed into the island of Jamaica. But it also left hundreds of thousands of people without power and much-needed supplies. Aid has started arriving, including on a first flight from Britain, but the dwindling supply of clean water, food and fuel is beginning to take a toll on the exhausted islanders.

The BBC's Will Grant travelled to Trelawney outside the resort of Montego Bay and sent this report. It has taken longer than expected, but for Jamaicans affected by Hurricane Melissa, the welcome arrival of help. Tons of humanitarian aid from a range of foreign governments and aid agencies is finally making it onto the tarmac at Kingston Airport. And hand by hand in a human chain, soldiers are loading the emergency packs onto trucks.

They include everything. The families stranded by the storm will be needing, cooking oil, tin goods, rice and so on. The Jamaican Defence Force is loading them onto trucks, getting them to their hub, And from there they tell me to anywhere on the island that most needs them. Off-arm, the seawater could smell there. One place they're urgently needed is in the tiny hamlet of Long Bay on the outskirts of the tourist resort of Montego Bay. Here, the majority of houses have lost a roof.

Some homes, like Colleen Barrett, have gone completely. It's totally devastated. Most of the board structures, not most, all of the board structures are down. No roofing. We have babies here. We have disabled here. Water is a source of life. And we don't have any water. We can't cook. We can't take a shower. It's too much. It's too much to bear, trust me. I'm still living in the car. Right now my clothes are wet to have on the same clothes for about three days, four days now. Her friend, Darren Willis, helping her to mop out the mud from the money exchange shop she works in, is in similar circumstances.

He's been sleeping in his car and hasn't changed his clothes for three days. Home? My car is my home right now. My car is my home. I don't have any home right now. All it is flat, no roof, no walls, nothing. Everything is flat. All the thing may remain is just a foundation. So believe me, I don't have anything. I don't have a TV again. I don't have a computer again.

Nothing is there. And in some places, tempers are beginning to fray. On the road to Montego Bay in Trilorni, some have spent an entire day queuing at the petrol pumps for fuel only to get to the front. Jerry can in hand to be told there is none left. For Shea Jones, carrying her three-year-old daughter on her hip, desperation is fast setting in. Every day, it's rurs and runs every day. No food, no mail, no gas, nothing. I'm here from 4 o'clock this morning trying to get guests and I cannot get anything.

We don't have any cash, we don't have any food, we don't have any water, we don't have any food. Electricity, nothing. Nothing. Aid agencies have put together videos of their emergency supplies in Kingston. It is yet to reach the neediest in Trelawney or in flattened villages like Long Bay. That report from Will Grant. Russia has been trying to seize the key frontline town of Pokrovsk since 2024 as part of its push to take full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

Now, the country's top commander says his troops are facing difficult conditions as they defend the city against Russian forces. General Alexander Siersky says elite special units have been deployed to keep supply routes open, but he insists Ukraine still holds Pockovsk. From Kiev, here's our correspondent, James Landale. Pekrovsk is a crucial transport and supply hub on Ukraine's eastern front line. Russian forces have been trying to seize it for more than a year. and recent advances of race fears the city could fall. General Sersky said the situation was most challenging. His troops were facing a multi-thousand enemy force, but denied they were surrounded. He confirmed he deployed elite special forces to protect his supply lines, which army sources

said were all under Russian fire. The Defence Ministry in Moscow claimed Ukrainian troops were surrendering and 11 of their special forces had been killed after landing by helicopter, something denied by Kiev. So the picture on the ground is confused, but much is at stake. If Prokrovsk fell, it would be the biggest city seized by Russia since Bahmoud in May 2003. Its capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of Donetsk. It might also help Russia persuade Donald Trump its military campaign was not stalling. Little wonder, President Zelensky said overnight, defending Prokrofts was a priority.

James Landale. For years, Mexico has urged Spain, to apologise for the brutality of its 16th century conquest of the Americas, when millions of indigenous Mexicans were killed by Spanish conquistadors. Now, at the launch of an exhibition of Indigenous Mexican art in Madrid, Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, has offered one of the country's clearest acknowledgments yet of that past. As in every human story, it has had,

light and darkness. There has also been pain, pain and injustice towards the indigenous people. We dedicate this exhibition to. Recognizing this today is just and too lamented. It's because that is also part of our shared history and we cannot deny it or forget it. Mexico's President Claudia Scheinbaum welcomed the gesture, describing it as an important first step towards reconciliation. Our global affairs reporter, Mimi Swayby, told us more. This comes after Mexican President Claudio Chambam revived the call earlier this week, saying reconciliation requires acknowledgement of past

wrongs. Mr. Alvarez said the relations between Spain and Mexico are a very human story, full of light and shadow. But he said the injustices, now five centuries ago, cannot be denied or forgotten, as they are representative of the shared history between these two countries. This is one of the clearest acknowledgments by a top Spanish official of the suffering that was caused to thousands, millions of indigenous peoples across Central and South America. This move now opens the door to diplomatic reconciliation. Clashing interpretations of the conquest have led to nearly seven years of very strained relations.

In 2019, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former president of Mexico, sent a letter to Madrid demanding an apology from the monarchy for abuses committed during Spain's conquest, but also during the three centuries of colonial rule after that. This request was rejected by Spain's foreign ministry. The government defended the nation's shared history, but it dismissed the idea of an apology. And now we're seeing the first acknowledgement, and as Claudia Shainbaum has said, the first step to forgiveness. And that is going to take a long time. She made it very clear in her press conference this morning that not all is forgiven. This is the first step in a long journey of reconciliation. Mimi Swayby reporting. Also in this podcast, a one word Russian mouthful.

Tetragidre piranel cyclopental tetragidre, period, But what does it mean? 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, 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. The Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has apologised to Donald Trump for a TV advert that went out to Americans. In the ad, the voice of Ronald Reagan was used to warn of the dangers of tariffs, one of Mr Trump's signature policies. Perhaps not so surprisingly, this irked the US president. Mr Carney's apology shows world leaders proceeding with caution when it comes to diplomacy with Donald Trump.

David Lewis is following the story. There's do's and don'ts to dealing with any world leader, but you might have to be extra careful when handling the notoriously thin-skinned Donald Trump. After a disastrous ad campaign blew up in Canada's face, the country's downcast-looking Prime Minister Mark Carney faced the press in front of no less than six Canadian flags, offering a mumbled apology to his southern neighbour.

I did apologise to the president. The president was offended by the act, or by the ad, rather. And it's not something I would have done, which is to put in place that advertisement, and so I apologize to him. The spat stems back a fortnight or so. The Canadians, for reasons only, they know best, put out an advert on US TV voiced using excerpts of a Ronald Reagan speech

talking down tariffs, of which Trump is a fan. With soft music playing, the 40th U.S. President spoke over shots of American flags, families and farmers. When someone says, let's impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while, It works, but only for a short time. The ad was commissioned by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He'd initially stood four square behind it. We have achieved our goal, he crowed, insisting the TV spot had garnered one billion views.

Trump's response, crooked was his word. He then announced he was suspending trade talks with the Canadians and adding extra tariffs to Canadian goods. Talk about an own goal. Soon after, Ford agreed to suspend the ad campaign, but only after it went out during the World Series baseball games. Fast forward a few days and there may be a rapprochement of sorts following Mark Carney's apology,

which he gave President Trump personally while meeting him at a gathering of Pacific Nations. Speaking on Air Force One, Trump acknowledged the Canadian mea culpa and that they had spoken. He apologized for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial, you know, it was the exact opposite. Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. The fact that Ronald Reagan loved tariffs,

has been disputed by economists and his former staffers. But one thing is clear, be careful when annoying President Trump. The Japanese city of Nagoya is the fourth most populous city in the country, famous for making cars and being a relatively uneventful place. In fact, the name possibly derives from the Japanese word Nagoyaka, meaning calm. But since 1999, one man has been desperately trying to find the person who murdered his wife in one of the country's most high-profile unsolved cases. Satura Takaba has been preserving the apartment where his wife Namiko was stabbed to death,

hoping to bring her killer to justice. Well, now it looks like that's happened. A woman's been arrested and Japanese police say she's admitted to the crime. The BBC's Will Leonardo told me more. 26 years ago, Namiko Takaba, a 32-year-old new mother and housewife, was found stamped repeatedly in her house. steps away from her two-year-old son who was unharmed. For years, a police investigation yielded few clues, despite them interviewing around 5,000

people, and the case went relatively quiet for everyone, apart from her husband, Satoir. He, as he would, moved out to the apartment, but having been told that his wife appeared to have defended herself, and therefore that some of the blood and the scene might have been from the attacker, he decided to maintain paying rent and kept the apartment as it was, with the blood stains on the floor, children's toys and place, that sort of thing. All in the hope that it might help in any eventual eventual. investigation. For decades it seemed in vain, but earlier this year, signs of activity resumed with officers repeatedly questioning a local woman over the murder. And she at first refused

DNA testing, but then changed her mind, and police have said that the DNA was a match for that found at the scene. And what do we know about the suspect who says that she did do it? Yes, so she's a woman called Kumiko Yasufku. Yasufu was a distant, chartered acquaintance of the husband, Satolu Takawa. The husband has suggested in recent days that she may have had a crush on him school where they were in the same sports club and apparently she used to even send him Valentine's gifts and a year before the murder were talking 1998 they'd met at a reunion where they'd spoken in passing and he'd apparently confided to her about the trials of married life and in an even more disturbing turn of events after the murder satir and the suspect moved house and it ended up

living very close to each other meaning that he unwittingly would have been walking the same streets as his wife's word of her for many years and so do we know what happens next i'm presuming there's some kind of court case or trial or something? Well, according to Japanese police, she appears to have confessed to the killing. The Japanese justice system is kind of very much focused on obtaining confession. So it's unlikely to go to a full trial. What it might go to, what we're going to have is a sentencing, which I imagine, you know, this lack of a full trial will be a relief for the husband Sato,

giving the huge amount of media interest in this case. On Saturday, the suspect was brought back to the crime scene for the first time, in this flat that the husband has maintained for all these years. You know, she came in in a van on a huge heavy police escort and media were kind of being pushed back behind cordons so you can see how much of a big impact this case has had in the country. Well, Leonardo, running the equivalent of 200 marathons in 200 days

is no mean feat for even the youngest and fittest of athletes, but one British man who's just completed this feat at the age of 66 is being used as a guinea pig by scientists who are monitoring the impact on his body. Steve James ran around the coast of Great Britain and told us about the science part and why he's taken on this challenge. They're interesting to see what's happening to my muscles. We know that I've lost weight. I've lost 10 kilograms, but a stone and a half.

But what is the composition of that? How much of it is muscle wastage? And that is the bit that are interested in, particularly in people who are older. So every couple of weeks I've had to do tests, limb circumference, weight. weight, blood tests, everything is plateaued out. My blood markers apparently are consistent. There's no deterioration. So I'm looking out of my muscles and in particular not overstretching myself. So particularly coming downhill, the older joints, particularly the knees, are quite susceptible. So I have tried to look out of my body as best I can. I've been able to eat anything, which is quite nice. So I've been

feeling a lot, making sure I'm hydrated. Just, yeah, trying to take care of body over a long period, which is different to say somebody who's running a marathon where it's three, four, five hours when they can rest. It's also the inspiration of somebody in my age that just because you get to 60 or whatever, it doesn't mean life stops. There is still plenty of time to, for most people, not everyone I appreciate, for most people to go out and do something that they've always wanted to do. Steve James, 66-year-old mega runner. Every language has its Quirks, English learners, for example, have to deal with difficult pronunciations, including words that are spelt the same but said differently. But we're about to hear a word that will

hopefully never come up in a spelling test. The Pushkin Institute, which promotes Russian, has declared it the longest word in the language. My colleague, Will Vernon, spent many years in Moscow. I'll let him take it from here. Tetrigidriperanyl cyclopental tetrigidre piridinavoe has been identified as Russia's longest word. 55 letters in length, it's taken from an academic paper, referring to a chemical compound containing the structures of two liquids, pyridine and cyclopentane. Not the most useful word then, but certainly the largest.

The previous word believed to be the longest in Russian was previsok monogarasmaitistu. she. Entered into the Guinness Book of Records in 2003, it was a polite way of addressing bureaucrats in the 19th century. Will Vernon, easy for him to say. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topic's covered in it, you can send an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. UK. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service.

Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Zabihula Karush and the producer was Guy Pitt. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm John Sudworth. Until next time, goodbye.