Global News Podcast - Pro-EU party wins Moldova election amid claims of Russian interference

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Moldova's pro-European party has won a new majority in parliament after elections seen as critical for the country's future path to the EU. President Maia Sandu warned of "massive Russian interference" after voting on Sunday and said the future of her country was at stake. Also, a new US peace plan for Gaza, promoted by President Trump, would encourage Palestinians to remain in the territory and speaks of eventual Palestinian statehood, but neither Israel nor Hamas has given a conclusive response. The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has ended his bid for re-election. The first rollout of the HPV vaccine in Pakistan, designed to protect women against cervical cancer, has been hit by misinformation. The Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law says he has been denied entry to Singapore. Switzerland has narrowly approved a plan to introduce electronic identity cards. Plus, we get the latest from golf's Ryder Cup and cricket's Asia Cup. 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. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 0500 GMT on Monday the 29th of September, these are our main stories. In Moldova, a pro-EU party wins the election mired in claims of Russian interference. democracy campaigner Nathan Law says he was denied entry to Singapore. Donald Trump says talks on a peace deal in Gaza are in their final stages ahead of a meeting with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. Also in this podcast, Swiss voters narrowly approved the introduction

of electronic national identity cards and in Gulf, Europe beat America to win the Ryder Cup despite a bad-tempered contest. The US-hosted cops have had the Regime in the past, but this crossed the line more often and more publicly. You saw players backing off shots, opponents shushing their own fans, state troopers shadowing a match. That cocktail felt very unprecedented. Results are in for a parliamentary election in Moldova that's being seen as a turning point for the former Soviet Republic. The governing pass has won a clear majority with about 47% of the votes, allowing the party to govern alone. The pro-Russian patriotic bloc came second with 25%.

Pass aims to build stronger ties with the European Union, so for them, the win is welcome news. The election, though, has seen high levels of Russian interference, although that's rejected by the Kremlin. I got the latest from our correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, who's in the capital Chisinau. We were in the governing party headquarters, their election headquarters this evening,

and every so often there was a round of applause and some cheers. drifting down the staircase from upstairs as the results were coming in. And I spoke to a couple of party representatives who told me at first that they were quietly confident as the results came in. But they also said that they were surprised. And I think that reflects the fact that there was so much concern, particularly in the governing party pass ahead of this vote, about the degree of Russian interference in the election process and how that would be reflected in the results. And I think they expected it to have a much bigger impact than they've actually seen. And it looks that they have a substantial margin over the next biggest party or the next biggest electoral bloc.

And that isn't how they had expected this to pan out. They had expected them to be neck and neck and to be real wrangling, political wrangling going on for some time. Although the leader of the main opposition bloc has claimed that actually he's won, it's all fake. And his supporters should come out onto the streets. to defend their vote. So we've yet to see whether that will happen. It's supposed to happen on Monday. Because it really does feel like this whole election

has been a crossroads for Moldova. Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been coming to Moldova for many years, and I think I've talked quite a lot about decisive elections in Moldova, and they always seem to be decisive here. And that's partly because of just the way this country is and the relationship that there is with Russia. You know, this is, and always was, for a... long time, Russia's backyard. And Russia was very keen to keep its influence here, you know,

to keep supporting pro-Russian politicians, of whom there are plenty. And it kind of did that with, you know, differing degrees of success, but for a very long time. And then came the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is on Moldova's border. And it was at that point that the pro-European president, as we now call it, Maya Sando, took the really quite bold. and I think significant step of really pivoting away from Moscow, stepping out of Russia's shadow and moving much more definitively towards building a path towards EU membership.

So really focusing on accelerating the process of integration within Europe and really, you know, talking tough on Moscow. And I think that hasn't happened here before and that is why I think Russian efforts to affect the votes, to influence the vote here, have been so obvious and so large. How will Russia take losing this campaign? It's a good question.

And it's not just Russia, actually. It's those people who genuinely actually wanted to move back towards better relations with Russia. I think those people will be disappointed. The people who took the money to vote in certain ways, how will they respond? Will we see protests? Will there be unrest? I think that's still an open question. Sarah Rainsford.

We have a real chance of great. greatness in the Middle East. That's what President Trump has posted, saying he's once again close to a deal to end the war in Gaza and that everyone is on board for something special. It comes as he's about to meet the Israeli Prime Minister in Washington on Monday. But speaking to Fox News, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared less optimistic than the U.S. leader. Well, we're working on it. It's not been finalized yet, but we're working with President and Trump's team, actually as we speak, and I hope we can make it a go, because we want to free our hostages, we want to get rid of Hamas rule, and have them disarmed, Gaza demilitarized,

and a new future set up for Gazans and Israelis alike, and for the whole region. Michelle Elouz, though, is still waiting for the return of the body of his son, Guy, who was taken hostage by Hamas two years ago and died in Gaza. Mr. Elouz told the BBC he didn't believe the Israeli Prime Minister was interested in finding a solution which would help the hostage families. Since October 7, I actually don't understand my government, and especially Bibi Netanyahu, my prime minister, I hope that's going to be a deal, but I know Bibi Netanyahu is going to destroy this deal as well, and he will not accept the deal of Trump. Trust me, our children doesn't interest in him at all. Believe me, the things that's interesting him at all, believe me, the

Things that's interesting with is only the political correlation. So what is Hamas saying about the possibility of a ceasefire? Walid Kalani is the Hamas spokesman in Lebanon. He claims no knowledge of a US peace plan. The movement issued a statement in the past few hours, saying until this moment, we have not received any proposal from the mediators. However, and despite all this, we are all of this. open to any proposal that is presented to us, and we are ready to consider these proposals

to be positive. The suggestion is that this plan includes the release of all hostages within 48 hours. Is Hamas willing to do that? Distracting people and the world with ideas about proposals that might be unrealistic. These proposals aim to divert eyes from the mass. massacres that are happening in the Gaza Strip. And from this ethnic cleansing of more than a million humans in the city of Gaza. But you can blame Hamas, which launched that operation October the 7th, killing civilians,

even children, which is a clear war crime. You know, that's what started this cycle of violence. The 7th of October was a military operation with political damage. mentions. It was a result of the fact that the Palestinian people have endured multiple tragedies. Ghazza's trip was besieged for 17 years. Before 7th of October, there were more than 5,200 Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation. Some have spent more than 40 years in their cells. The Palestinian people are suffering. They are the only people still under occupation and scattered across the far corners of the earth.

That's why there was the 7th of October, after all hope for solutions was lost. The Palestinians have tried peace with this enemy for more than 33 years of negotiations. Hamas spokesman Walid Kalani speaking to the BBC's Owen Bennett Jones. Donald Trump's vision to end the war in Gaza was presented to Arab leaders last week as a 21-point plan, Our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher, told Bernadette Kehoe how it's different from earlier US blueprints.

We've heard from Mr Trump saying that everyone is on board. What he means by that are Arab countries. He met them during the UN General Assembly a few days ago. We didn't have much come out of that. But what's emerged since in the Arab media, the Israeli media, is this 21-point US plan, this new peace plan, which essentially is what Mr. Trump is talking about. what we're hearing. Other people talk about more clearly now. It's been published fully, some newspapers say that they've got a copy of it. And what's interesting about it is it goes to

some extent further than what we've seen before. What Mr. Trump himself has said is that it's not just about ending the war in Gaza, but actually trying for a kind of new future across the Middle East. Now that is a small part sort of at the end of it. I think the real issue, and you heard that skepticism there from a father of one over hostages, the sense that Netanyahu won't go along with this, but Trump won't be able to persuade him. And I think the major obstacles between Israel and Hamas for things that they haven't conceded on, if this deal is to go through, they will have to, and more, essentially, one shift that there's been from the vision that President Trump laid out months ago, that very controversial idea that Palestinians essentially

would be leaving Gaza and be rebuilt as a big redact. thought that's not part of this plan. Essentially, it says that they should be encouraged to stay. But Hamas has to completely pull out of any role whatsoever in the future of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority at some point will be brought in after it's been reformed. The Palestinians, Gaza will be de-radicalized according to this and become a peaceful neighbor. Now, that's going to be hard for Hamas to swallow total withdrawal and a demilitarization of Gaza and removal of other arms. They haven't accepted that so far. So that's one thing. On the Israeli side, there is talk in this of a potential path if things go well with Gaza to Palestinian statehood.

That's something we heard, Mr. Netanyahu, again at the UN General Assembly, in his very impassioned speech, saying that there's no way he's going to allow that. So, you know, there are still major obstacles that this could all collapse on, as we've seen so many times before. And we have heard this kind of optimism from. Mr Trump before as well, of course. Well, we've seen that, as you say, possible deals apparently close and then disappearing. What are the possible next steps now, though? Well, we're going to have this meeting between President Trump and Mr. Netanyahu. I think, obviously, the focus of it will be this new plan.

Also, I think that President Trump will have a new issue that's arisen the last few weeks over Mr. Netanyahu, which is the attack on Qatar, trying to eliminate. the Hamas political leadership there, which President Trump took very badly. Today, for example, there was a release of a US national from Afghanistan, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, went out of his way to praise Qatar for the vital role that it played in that. So both politically, diplomatically, but also I think personally for Mr. Trump and his business interests and its family interest, Qatar is important, and he doesn't want Qatar to be upset. So I think he'll have some strong words for Mr Netanyahu over that, whether he is able to present this in a way

that Netanyahu feels he has no way to manoeuvre his way out of this, I think is a huge open question. Sebastian Usher, the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has ended his bid for re-election barely a month before voting day. His withdrawal narrows the race to lead the United States' its largest city to a three-way contest between the Democrat front-runner Zoran Mamdani, the former governor, Andrew Cuomo and the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who's now polling a distant third. Will Grant reports. I cannot continue my re-election campaign, said Mayor Adams in a video published on social media.

He was quick to blame the decision on media speculation and on a move by the campaign finance board to withhold millions of dollars from his re-election bid. saying it had undermined his ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign. His decision comes amid pressure from rivals to the Democratic Party's nominee, Zoran Mamdani, who want to narrow the field against the left-wing front runner. They include the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent. Mayor Adams had also been standing as an independent following an indictment for alleged bribery and fraud over international campaign donations.

Mr. Adams had denied the charges and claimed the case, against him was politically motivated. Earlier this year, the Trump administration instructed federal prosecutors to drop the charges. However, the scandal harmed Mr. Adams and any chances he had at re-election. A former New York policeman, Eric Adams, implemented a tough anti-crime policy in New York. But his relationship with the Democratic Party deteriorated during the Biden administration as he criticized the White House's immigration strategy. His time in office has been riddled with accusations of corruption, including against

members of his inner circle. And his own indictment came over allegations he had solicited donations from Turkish nationals and given favours to wealthy benefactors. Will Grant. Pakistan is one of only two countries where polio hasn't been eradicated despite a decades-long campaign because some radical clerics accuse the vaccine of being a Western plot to sterilise Muslim women. And now it looks like something similar is happening regarding the HPV vaccine, which protects women against cervical cancer. Dr. Saida Rashida Batul is the District Health Officer in the capital Islamabad, where take-up of the new jab started off at 29%, but went down to 8% after a week.

She told Owen Bennett-Jones that misinformation and anti-vax conspiracy theories on social media were to blame. Some said it's going to make the girls. infertile. Then some said it's some kind of foreign agenda and it's new vaccine. They're trying on our kids. So there were multiple myths, misinformation. Then we had one video running all around social media with girls, coughing and they were fainting. Actually, it was very old video, but it made a mess. Do you have any idea who was, organizing that disinformation campaign? Mostly it started from Punjab province. They were like social media, young boys, young girls. They didn't know nothing. But just for the sake of few minutes of fame,

that's what I understand. And then you pushed back, the Minister of Health and yourself, went on television and showed your own daughters being vaccinated. My own daughter. I got her vaccinated. And then on 5th or 70, federal minister, he got her daughter vaccinated in front of media to dispel this myths and misinformation. And did that make a difference to the acceptance rate? It really did. On 8D, our coverage went up to 45% in Islamabad, then 53%, 55%, and the second. And the second week was way better than the first week. Well, obviously, that's a huge success and testament to your campaign.

But that's Islamabad, which is meant to be a highly educated place compared to many others. If you're out in the northwest in Khyber Pactunqua, presumably, then that's where the polio resistance has been strongest. I mean, presumably people are just not taking the vaccine there. We have anti-vax here in Pakistan too. But we were not expecting this much resistance in Islamabad, because mostly people are educated. But we have people from Kashmir, from KPK.

People come here for medical interventions. So people come and go. This is guarding against a disease that can be sexually transmitted. Is that part of it that clerics and conservatives are saying this will just encourage our young girls to be promiscuous? Yes. Most of the people, like, they think that you're encouraging girls towards this behavior. So this was making things difficult.

We were expecting 90% of the target from school. It was actually only 16%. We got most of the target in community. Nurses have been shot dead trying to give polio vaccines. Are you afraid that your teams will face violence doing this? It was going towards that. But thankfully, with the intervention of politicians, then some religious scholars too,

they made statements for this campaign. It made difference. I'm hopeful that by next week we'll get up to that target. You say you've had the support of some clerics. Tell us more about that. From the very beginning, we made sure that the clerics and the religious scholars, they are part of our committees. In Islamabad, they didn't make any statement against the vaccine,

but they said we'll just stay quiet because they were afraid. There was one statement from, in Stint, a person in the rally made some statement and it was like against this campaign. So it was from religious party, political party actually. But later on, we had discussion and they made a rebuttal. So basically some clerics are with you and some are against you. Yes. And you know, one positive thing was we had madrasas, religious schools and we got those girls vaccinated.

Dr. Saida Rashida Batul from Islamabad. Still to come, guess what's growing in the UK for the first time? With climate change, because we grow crops now, which 10 years ago, we wouldn't have thought it would be viable. The activist Nathan Law, known for his role in Hong Kong, 's 2014 pro-democracy protests says he's been denied entry to Singapore despite having a valid visa. He's been living in exile since fleeing Hong Kong in 2020 when China imposed the national security law. Hong Kong has cracked down on democracy activists since the umbrella movement and put a six-figure bounty for any information leading to the arrest of Nathan Law and several

other self-exiled activists. Our correspondent, Danny Vincent, told us more from Hong Kong. I've seen a statement from Nathan Law that he's put out. According to the statement, he says that he applied for a Singaporeian visa to go to a closed-door event in Singapore. He was granted the visa around three weeks before travelling to the country. But despite this, he was detained when he arrived. He spent a total of 14 hours in Singapore.

he fears, well, he believes that the decision to deny his entry was political, though he says it's not clear if the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities were involved directly or indirectly. We do know that Hong Kong and Singapore have an extradition agreement. Nathan believes that that is not relevant for people that are considered political criminals. However, he was detained in the country. He was deported. and I think to many activists, many Hong Kongers in exile around the world, they may feel that this is another sign that China is potentially influencing other countries

when it comes to activists abroad. Yeah, that is the worry. Is it likely to be true? We haven't had confirmation from Singapore, the Hong Kong authorities or Beijing, as of yet, but we do know what China's attitude is when it comes to activists abroad. Nathan Law is considered one of the most prominent Hong Kong activists in exile. In 2023, the Hong Kong police issued a 100,000 pound bounty for information regarding his arrest. When the UK government criticised this, the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities basically accused America and the UK of harboring criminals. So we do know what the Chinese authorities' position is with things like this, but we don't have

exact confirmation if that is the reason why he's been deported from Singapore. Briefly, Danny, what is left of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong now? The majority of the Hong Kong's political opposition have either fled like Nathan Law or they've been arrested. There are still ongoing court cases. The biggest court case is Jimmy Lai's case. He's the media mogul and democracy activists charged under the national security law. Many years ago, there were protests across the city. A few years ago, when these trials began, you'd see protests outside court. Now inside and outside core, and there's very little sign of dissent in this city.

Danny Vincent. Rice is generally grown in warm and humid climates, with about 90% of global supplies coming from Asia. But as the world heats up, rice has been successfully grown in the UK for the first time. The trial crop is part of a test to see how Britain's food supply and farming industry could adapt to global warming. Our correspondent Georgina Rannard went to see the rice plants before harvest. Be careful because it's quite boggy in there and once nearly fell over because my belly got stuck. Nadine is showing me the first rice ever grown in the UK. From risotto to basmati, this crop is her pride and joy and completely unique.

I'm only amazed how it's actually doing because they're big, happy, bushy plants. They're all flowering. Working on a farmer's land, Nadine flooded this field and grew varieties suited to colder places. They just started growing and growing and growing. And every time I came here, they look better. This is the edge of the range where rice can normally grow. But this crop flourished this summer, the hottest on record. With climate change, because we grow crops,

now, which we'd 10 years ago, we wouldn't have thought it would be viable. I have to admit I don't eat a lot of rice. You don't eat a lot of rice? I'm more a potato person. Oh. I think if you cut us open, we look like a potato inside of us. We eat quite a lot of them, don't we? We do like chips.

Craig and Sarah's families have been in the fens in Cambridgeshire for generations. But with traditional farming threatened by climate change, they want to diversify. It's on their land that the rice is growing. We didn't think we could contemplate that once upon a time, did we? No, never. A million years. Now we've had our first year of growing it. Yeah.

We see that things need to change and that, you know, the future isn't stable. We want to be able to write our own destiny and not have it decided for us. I suppose from my slightly emotional perspective, I think, like, our legacy for our children and hopefully their children is really important to us and I want them to know that we at least try to make a difference. We personally love the place. We're here through and through. We've been here for 500 plus years.

We've got no choice but to look. Georgina Ranard with that report. Switzerland has narrowly approved a plan to introduce electronic identity cards. Supporters say it will make life much easier for everyone allowing a range of bureaucratic procedures from getting a telephone contract to proving you're old enough to buy a bottle of wine to happen quickly online.

But opponents argue that it could undermine individual privacy and data could be stolen. Imogen folks' reports from the Swiss capital burn. The closeness of the vote in Switzerland is a surprise. Opinion polls had suggested up to 60% backed the idea of digital IDs, which had the approval of the Swiss government, and both houses of Parliament. But it's the second time the Swiss have had a nationwide vote on the issue.

An earlier proposal was rejected in 2021 amid concerns that data would be held centrally and controlled largely by private providers. Today's revised proposal keeps the system in government hands. Data will be stored only on the smartphones of individual users and, crucially, digital IDs will be optional. Citizens can continue to use Switzerland's national identity card if they choose. Those changes seem to have reassured just enough voters

to get the proposal for digital IDs over the line. Image and folks, to sport now and Prime Minister Narendromodi has lauded India's cricket win over Pakistan in the Asia Cup final, Referring to the four-day conflict between the neighbours in May, he wrote on X, Operation Sindor on the Games field, outcome is the same. India wins. Congrats to our cricketers. Politics was never far away from the tournament itself. India refused to accept the trophy from a Pakistani official.

Instead, the team pretended to lift the prize. They'd refused to shake hands with Pakistan in any of the three games they played. And players from both sides made gesture. on the field referencing the conflict. Shobha Day is an author and journalist in Mumbai in India and Talat Hussein is a journalist in Islamabad whose son plays for the Pakistan team. They spoke about the attitude of the two teams

just before the final. The overall mood and the hangover of the previous two matches is too much for the teams to simply conduct themselves as if this were a normal match. And frankly, this is not a normal match. It looks to be in a war between these two countries by other means. It's, I think, important to remind our players on both sides that they're not gladiators, they're not spokespeople for the government, they're not subservient to political forces on either side of the border.

What happens at the border should be resolved not by cricketers or converting the cricket field into a combat zone. They should stick to cricket to see such unsportsman-like behavior. from both sides. And I'm not sure whether they have received instructions from their respective governments to either end this kind of extremely ungentlemanly conduct. Because for a gentleman's game, that cricket claims it is, it seems to be being played without minors gentlemen. It's very important to pass on the right message to younger players. Really, the governments don't have to direct the players to do this. The overall environment is totally vitiated. The two countries fought a war.

referred to by the US President at least three dozen times. It's the talk of the town, as it were. The mood is exceedingly sour. The social media is erupting. I think while the point is well-taken, players trying to resist this. But at times I sympathise with them because the burden of expectations and the burden of social media is too much. Shobha Day and Talat Hussain. In Gulf, Team Europe have retained the Ryder Cup taking place in New York State.

The final day saw an impressive fight back from the US team, but Ireland's Shane Lowry managed to get the half point they needed to keep the trophy in European hands before England's Tyrol Hatton added another half to secure the win. However, the behaviour of some of the supporters has somewhat overshadowed the tournament. The Northern Ireland golfer Rory McElroy was subject to heckling on Saturday,

which was seen as crossing the line. I don't mind them having to go at us. Like that's to be expected. I mean, that's what a way, what Ryder Cup is. I just, you know, whenever they're still doing it while you're over the ball and trying to hit your shot, that's the tough thing. So give us the respect to let us hit shots. Extra security was deployed to keep the rancorous crowd in check.

But why has this tournament in particular seen such levels of player abuse? Brian Arman Graham is the Deputy Sports Editor of Guardian US. He spoke to Owen Bennett Jones from Bethpage Black, golf course. It was calmer today. The singles spreads fans across the course, and the tone was more partisan than hostile. There's been more visible security and frequent etiquette reminders. You still get spikes of noise, but I think we're well short of what we saw yesterday afternoon. Which was quite grim, wasn't it? I mean, I was watching a bit of it on and off, and it seemed very aggressive a lot of it. Oh, it was. U.S. hosted cups have had their edgy moments in the past at,

you know, Brookline, Hazeltine, Kewa, but this crossed the line more often and more publicly. You saw players backing off shots, opponents shushing their own fans, you know, state troopers shadowing a match, you know, that cocktail felt very unprecedented. Well, players shushing the fans, but also players winding them up, frankly. Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of this is part of the sort of like the Ryder Cup, you know, the tenor of these matches. And frankly, it's a way a lot of the organizers sell these matches as something. unique in golf. But I do think this year has been different in as much as, you know, passion

is welcome, but interference and abuse really are not. How much of it is to do with alcohol? I think alcohol has a good deal to do with it. I know this year, for some ticket levels, you know, alcohol was actually free for a lot of ticket holders. You know, but of course that's part and parcel with the ticket prices, which started at $750, you know, on a course where anybody with $70. It's a public course here in New York. So anybody with $70 and a good deal of patients can play it. But, you know, a lot of the ticket prices came with alcohol and I think that was part of it. Brian Arman Graham. And that's all from us for now. But there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. 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. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Chris Cusaris and the producers were Marin Strawn and Anna Aslam. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye.