Global News Podcast - Russia launches major attack on Ukraine after Trump criticism of Putin

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

After President Trump's criticism of Putin, Russia launches major attack on Ukraine, in heaviest single bombardment of the war. Also: Taiwan begins biggest war games, and what do emojis say about us?

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Katie Watson, and at 1300 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 9th of July, these are our main stories. Ukraine's air force says Russia launched its heaviest bombardment of the war overnight, attacking the western city of Lutsk with more than 700 drones and missiles. President Trump and Israel's Prime Minister, Benjaminanyahu meet again, raising hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages to their families. A study says a recent heatwave across Europe led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people. Our cities are still not designed to be able to really withstand these extreme heatwaves that we are frequently seeing now.

Also in this podcast, Elon Musk's X platform has removed posts by its AI chatbot Grok after it made several comments praising Hitler. In response to a question asking which 20th century historical figure would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said to deal with such vile anti-white hate Adolf Hitler no question. And Taiwan embarks on its largest ever military exercise in an effort to ward off growing threats of a Chinese invasion. But first, Russia shows no sign of wanting to end its war with Ukraine.

Ukraine's Air Force says that overnight Russia launched a record number of drones, targeting primarily the northwestern city of Lutsk. I heard more from our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, who's in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. This was another very typical night, even though the numbers are kind of eye-watering, 728 recorded drones, although it's worth noting that about half of those were proper explosive drones, the other half are decoys. And that's very, very typical of the way Russia mounts these large-scale aerial attacks. It launches waves and waves of drones, real and fake, designed to overwhelm and confuse

Ukraine's air defense system and then it launches a number of ballistic and cruise missiles as well and those are the ones that are really designed to do the most damage. Now given all of that it seems as though the Ukrainians had a pretty good night they say that they either shot down or diverted huge numbers of drones and shot down seven cruise missiles. We do know that the targets in Lutsk were hit. The military is a bit cagey, in fact very cagey, about exactly what the damage was.

We know there's a military air base there which has been attacked before. It's also a logistics hub, it's very close to the Polish border, so it's a significant strategic location, which is why the Russians were clearly intent on trying to attack it. And what's been the reaction from President Zelensky? Well for him it is just a reminder of two things. One, as you said in your introduction, you know, proof that Russia still hasn't abandoned its war aims, that

all talk of ceasefire, which was obviously dominating the news for quite some time earlier this year, is really being rebuffed on a pretty regular basis by Russia, and of course underlining once again the importance of Ukraine securing enough air defense equipment. And on that front, I think the Ukrainians are feeling slightly more sanguine this week than they were last week, following the news that the Pentagon was suspending delivery of key bits of equipment.

They will have been reassured by the language from Donald Trump about the resumption of supplies and indeed by the kind of talk that we heard from Donald Trump in the last 24 hours in which he is expressing more and more frustration with Vladimir Putin. I mean I think the Ukrainian view is what's taken Donald Trump so long to reach the conclusion that much of the rest of the world reached a long time ago but still they will be relieved to hear him talking in those terms. Paul Adams in Kyiv An unscheduled White House meeting between President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu has raised the stakes at talks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. It was the second time in as many days that the two men had met. It took place as a Palestinian official told the BBC that talks in Qatar on a possible deal to end the fighting and second time in as many days that the two men had met. It took place as a Palestinian official told the BBC that talks in Qatar on a possible deal to end the fighting and free Israeli hostages were deadlocked over Israel's refusal to allow the unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Speaking before he met Donald Trump, Mr Netanyahu was adamant that Israel wouldn't budge from its demands. We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas' military and governance capabilities because Gaza must have a different future for our sake,

for everyone's sake. And no country will settle for less, we certainly will not. These are all things that I discussed with President Trump. I may discuss further with him. The US plan is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. El-Akhaimi's husband Tal was killed fighting Hamas on October 7, 2023, in the kibbutz that was his home. His body was taken intoth, 2023, in the kibbutz that was his home. His body was taken into Gaza, where it's still being held.

She says hostages' relatives are enduring a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. I thought this is an opportunity for hope, maybe, to end this war, to bring all of them back, and to start to build some kind of a new life. And this time it seems like it's going to be real. It's going to happen this time. And maybe it will, but at the moment it seems like nothing. So is this surprise second meeting between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu a sign

that the ceasefire negotiations in Qatar are making progress? Valerie Sanderson spoke to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Sebastian Usher. I think it's certainly an indication that that's how they want to portray it, they want to show it, but we haven't had any real comments from either of the two meetings that the two men have had which give any sense of real movement forward and what Mr Netanyahu said in his latest comments after that meeting that he had with President Trump. I mean he talked about the importance of getting the hostages released, alive and dead, but also about the equal importance of making sure that Hamas, its military and

governing capabilities are completely destroyed. Now that can't really be achieved through ceasefire without a resumption of hostilities afterwards, and that has been the sticking point again and again, that Hamas wants a guarantee that there won't be a resumption of hostilities. We're also hearing from the talks themselves that there are technical details, important ones, that are still being discussed. The Hamas team, from what we're hearing, a Palestinian official close to the talks, saying that the feeling is that the Israeli negotiating team doesn't really have the authority to make any decisions itself.

It's referring anything that it hears from Hamas. These are indirect talks, so messages passed backwards and forwards between the two sides, that it can take any decisions on that without referring to Ms Netanyahu. So that sense we're getting from Hamas side, the Palestinian side is very, very different, far more downbeat. Certainly, when we're hearing from the American administration, as you were saying, what Steve Whitcoff has said, supporting what President Trump said a few days ago that a deal might be

done within days. I mean if Mr. Witkoff does go off to Doha in the next two or three days that might be a sign that things are getting closer. It might also be a sign that he's needed in order to try to really shake things up and get them moving. How crucial do you think the relationship is between President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in all this? It's been hot and cold hasn't it over the years. I mean there have been times when they've seemed pretty much in lockstep and times particularly with President Trump when he's seemed very displeased with the Israeli Prime Minister and that was the same in his first term. A lot of it, what's happening at the moment, does seem to be very much an initiative from the Trump administration, from President Trump himself. And as with everything connected with him,

it's complicated because although he's clearly pushing very hard for this, he's also giving you know, mixed signals. And some of the things which may get in the way of any agreement are things that President Trump himself has said, in particular, the idea he first put about weeks ago that people from Gaza might have to be moved out of Gaza at the end of the war. That has come up again just in the last two or three days and I think it's something which again is really having a very negative effect on the Hamas side in the talks. Sebastian Asher talking to Valerie Sanderson.

The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, authorized her security forces to use lethal weapons against protesters, a BBC Eye investigation has found. In a leaked audio recording, which has been verified by the BBC, Hasina is heard saying she's sanctioned her security forces to shoot protesters wherever they were found. Around 1,400 people were killed and 12,000 were injured in weeks of violence that rocked Bangladesh in July and August last year. After students took to the streets to protest against a new law restricting access to government jobs, BBC Eye reporter Riddhi Jha has the details.

This is where the bullet struck. It hit right here. When the protests started, he joined in for the country. A bereaved father holds up the shell of his son, Miraj Hussain, who he lost last year on August 5. It was the day that the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, had resigned. It should have been a day that Miraj celebrated, as his brother Pavel explains. August 5th was a joyous day for everyone. But hearing that my brother had died, it's impossible to explain how difficult it was for us. For 15 years, Bangladesh was ruled by Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party. Critics say her reign became increasingly corrupt and authoritarian.

But she struck a nerve with young people, igniting protests all over the country, when last year she reinstated a controversial job quota system. About 30% of jobs were set aside for the families of veterans who fought in the country's war of independence. 23-year-old Abu Saeed was the youngest of nine children and the first in his family to go to university. His goal was to get a government job. A lone figure with his arms wide open, he was protesting on the 16th of July when he

was shot and killed by police officers. His death sparked the revolution. The killings by the police continued, and a few days later, Sheikh Hasina says she authorized an order to the police and security forces in a leaked call that has been verified by BBCI. I have ordered all of them to be arrested tonight. Everyone has been informed.

Wherever you find them, catch them. I have issued an open order now. Now they will use lethal weapons. Wherever they find them, they will shoot. A spokesperson for Hasina's Awami League party said they couldn't confirm whether this was an authentic recording, but insisted it didn't show any unlawful intention or disproportionate response. One of the main flashpoints in the capital Dhaka was Jatabari. It was where the climax of the protests, known as the March for Dhaka, occurred on the 5th of August.

Among those protesting that day were two friends, Shawon and Miraj. Shawon explained the reasoning to join. Miraj believed that change was necessary. He felt that the problems plaguing Bangladesh required solutions, especially discrimination in jobs and unemployment. Whenever he saw injustice, he protested against it. That day was one of the worst incidents of police violence

in the country's history. Analyzing hundreds of videos, photos and eyewitness accounts, the BBC found that police officers indiscriminately fired at protesters for over 30 minutes. As news came in that Sheikh Hussain had fled to a military airbase, the army who had been outside the police station left. Mirage was filming all of this when the police opened fire. He was one of 52 protesters killed that day. As anger erupted protesters stormed inside the police station killing at least six officers. In response to the BBC

investigation the Awami League said mistakes were made by some of the security forces but it was not a plot by the political leadership to commit violence against their own people. The Bangladesh police says it deeply regrets what happened and has launched criminal investigations. Hasina has been given a safe haven by the Indian government. In Bangladesh, she has been officially charged with facilitation, conspiracy,

and failure to prevent crimes against humanity. For Mirage's family and friends, the grief is still raw. But they cling to the hope that his death might help free the country from tyranny. You can watch the iDocumentary The Battle for Bangladesh on BBC iPlayer or the BBC World Service YouTube channel. Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup says it's working to remove inappropriate posts made by its chatbot, Grok. That's after users shared screenshots showing it making positive references to Adolf Hitler. The BBC's Chris

Valance is following the story and told me more about these anti-Semitic and pro-Hitler posts. If you remember the early days of chatbots, so many of them carried a warning saying this may produce inaccurate or offensive answers. The GroK chatbot, which is integrated in X, certainly came up with some offensive posts. I mean, there are a lot of them. Among the most troubling statements by GroK were in response to other offensive posts celebrating the deaths of children in the recent Texas floods. In response to a question asking which 20th century historical figure would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said to deal with such vile anti-white hate,

Adolf Hitler, no question. And according to reports at some point, Grok started referring to itself as Mecca Hitler. The posts were according to the ADL, a not-for-profit group formed to fight anti-Semitism, irresponsible, dangerous and anti-Semitic, plain and simple. And what has X been saying? So they've removed them. Yes. I mean, XAI, which is Elon Musk's AI startup, sort of became the parent owner of X and associated businesses said it was actively working to remove the inappropriate posts since being made aware of the content. XAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. And it also said that thanks

to millions of users on X, we were able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved. How do you think a chatbot like Grok might have started to produce messages like this? Well, in a sense, we're going to be involved in a bit of speculation here because one of the problems with these AIs, these large language models, is to a certain extent they're black boxes. It's not entirely clear how they work. On Friday, Musk said that GroK had been improved and according to one tech publication, The Verge, the changes included telling it not to shy away from making claims which were politically incorrect, as long as they were well substantiated. I mean, whether those changes in some way inadvertently led to what we're seeing, we don't know.

I think one thing to say though is the. We don't know. I think one thing to say though is the timing really couldn't have been worse because it came as XAI was due to launch its next generation language model, Grok 4, on Wednesday. So, you know, they'll want to have everything fixed before that happens. That was Chris Valance. Still to come, the power of the emoji. We'll be discussing the impact of the pictures used in electronic messages on how we talk to one another. They're like this new thread through language. They're not language as such, but they are

changing the way that we communicate. China's influence stretches far and wide from its global economic power to its expanding regional military reach. But nowhere is its clout more keenly felt than close to home in Taiwan. The growing threat of invasion across the straits that separate the island from the People's Republic of China lies behind Taiwan's decision to carry out its biggest ever military exercise. For more on this, I spoke to our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatton. Well we're seeing the largest number of troops take part, 22,000 reserve troops. But Katie,

we're also seeing a lot else. We're seeing new weapons being tested out for the first time. So mobile rocket artillery launchers that have been given to Taiwan by the US. We also have Taiwan's own surface-to-air missiles that were developed inside Taiwan. And I would say that the scope of these exercises has grown over the years. So the first phase of these exercises to take place in the next few days will simulate what the Taiwanese troops should do if central command is just wiped out and what they need to do if they have to make their own decentralized decisions. And then later on in this 10 day exercise, they're going to simulate what to do if there is a full scale invasion. So they're not mincing words anymore. That's

really what they're practicing for. And these exercises are taking place a particularly tense time, aren't they? Absolutely. I mean, tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, some would say have never been worse. We've been seeing almost daily patrols sent by Beijing across air, land, and also a lot of cut cables, communications cables, whether that's an accident or whether that's deliberate remains to be seen. But we've also been seeing Beijing has been unveiling new weapons lately. So picture huge barge ships that can lower pylons into the water to create huge offshore bases just

off Taiwan, can connect to each other by bridge. And they've also just unveiled a new graphite bomb that can take out whole communication systems. So no matter how impressive the exercises are, is this about military might or is it a propaganda exercise? It's propaganda on both sides, really. I mean, every time Taiwan or Beijing unveils a new weapon that reportedly can do X, Y or Z, you know, it is a bit of a propaganda exercise because both sides want to show the other what it can do. I would say the unknown quantity here is the United States. Would the United States step in to defend Taiwan

if need be? Under law, yes, it's supposed to, but it also maintains a bit of ambiguity as to when it would step in and what it would constitute an attack on Taiwan. Celia Hatton. A show about the life of a working-class family in a former mining town in Nottinghamshire in central England was a huge hit at the National Theatre in London last year and is now transferring to the West End. It's also been translated and performed around the world. Till the Stars Come Down centres on the wedding day of Sylvia and Marek, a Polish immigrant, and explores themes of unemployment and migration in a

so-called Red Wall area where the majority of people until the 2019 general election had always voted for the Labour Party. The play was written by Beth Steele whose father was a miner from the area. He was one of the last, the dinosaur. So he worked in Welbet Colliery and then later Thoresby which shut in 2014 and the whole of Nottinghamshire really is pit village after pit village and it has recently obviously undergone huge change with the closure of the mines and deindustrialisation generally. It's a place which turned red wall under Boris Johnson, voted Brexit overwhelmingly 70% and has just recently voted for reform. I mean these are

tiny towns that actually have a huge national story But the only time we look at that story is at the time of a general election, when we want something from these people, and then we put a microphone under someone's face or we write an article with a few quotes. The amazing thing about a play is that as an audience, you sit with these lives of these people for two hours and you get to see them living their politics,

not just arguing about it over a dinner table, they are shaped by this. So you fall in love with these people, you get furious with these people, but what you don't do is walk away dismissing them and that is the value of theatre. The play has productions going on all around the world. I mean, last month I was there in the opening in Japan. You cannot get a more different culture than Mansfield versus Tokyo. But actually, because yes this is a specific place, yes this is working class lives, but guess what? That can be universal too. It doesn't actually have to be succession. It can be people that have as

much to say, as much love, as much loss. If the play and the drama has big emotional heart then that actually translates and you can be in Tokyo and I sat there on the opening night and at the final 20 minutes I heard people weeping behind me and I was like okay. That was Beth Steele. Areas of Europe have been experiencing record-breaking heatwaves this summer. The soaring temperatures have led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people, according to a scientific study. Frederica Otto is an associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London. She contributed to the report and says it highlights the need

for change. Our cities are still not designed to be able to really withstand these extreme heatwaves that we are frequently seeing now. It is so important to adapt to the climate change we already see but also to stop burning fossil fuels. Because out of three deaths, two would not have happened if it wasn't for climate change. Our Europe editor, Danny Aberhard, told Valerie Sanderson more about the scientists' findings. They were looking at 12 cities across Europe, Milan, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Lisbon,

Athens, Rome, to mention a few of them and they took 10 days the end of June beginning of July which was this time of this extreme heat wave the worst heat wave in Western Europe on record so they said 2,300 people died of heat related causes in that time but the important thing they extracted using historical data from climate change is that 1500 of those 2300 died because of the difference that climate change has made. So they're talking about a rise of between 2 and 4 degrees on top of what would have normally been a heat wave that would have killed some people. So that is significant. That's basically, effectively, two thirds

of the people who died of heat-related illnesses in that time in those cities were because of climate change, they said. And they're calling this kind of thing a silent killer, aren't they? Yes, absolutely. So silent killer because they make a comparison with big disasters.

For example, the floods that hit Valencia earlier this year. Those get a lot of media attention, heat waves don't. A lot of the people who die are elderly people with underlying health conditions. 88% of these people fall into that category, also some young people, but they're often not listed officially as having died from heat.

So these are estimates, they're not official figures yet but they've tried to turn this round quickly to show the impact of this silent killer. June in general was the third hottest month globally on record, the hottest month in Western Europe. Danny Aberhard speaking to Valerie Sanderson. Now do you write with emojis or occasionally deploy the little pictograms when sending messages? If you're partial to expression via emoji, what's your icon of choice? And what can our use of certain emojis tell us about ourselves? Emma Barnett, who loves a

strong arm emoji herself, spoke to Keith Houston, author of the book Face with Tears of Joy, which tells the story of emojis. And to Susie Dent, author and lexicographer. They're like this new thread through language. They're not language as such, but they are changing the way that we communicate and it seemed worth writing about them. I think they are doing this, if I can use a very zeitgeisty term, I think they're changing language so that it's very vibe based. I think you can read a word and your brain sees

the word and it translates into some meaning that you hold for the words in your head. But I think emoji because they're graphical, I feel like it's beamed straight into your brain in a slightly more direct sense. There are some emoji that you would never read them out. You would struggle to know how to read out hand with painted nails, for example, but you instantly know what the sender means. Yeah, or not. I mean, there's confusion, isn't there? I mean, Susie, let me bring you into this. When someone sends you an errant aubergine, you need to know what the context is, don't you? You absolutely do. And I think that was actually bound for a while. And so people started writing out the word aubergine. So that's an example of language of a word replacing an emoji. But yeah, sometimes I think they are ambiguous. So you're flexing biceps, Emma. I think you

could be doing a playful flex yourself or you could be conveying something much more profound, you know, mental fortitude and determination, et cetera. So you need the context almost to understand the emoji. So I don't think that always shortcuts. No, and I think there can be confusion. And I think, I mean, I think I'm just tired quite a lot of the time at the moment with small children and strange hours where I just want to say, yeah, strong, we're still going to my fellow mothers in particular at times. But some people really don't like it as well, do they, Keith? Because they want words, they want more. Yeah, I think it's seen as quite unprofessional in some cases. So you see them a

lot even at work. I work as a software engineer and lots of people use emoji in messaging apps, but it's very rare to see one in an email, for example, or a more formal document. So there are definitely contexts where they're not really acceptable yet, but I think it's hard to deny that they're accepted in everyday language. Sadie, are you a fan of someone who adores words? I definitely think they have their place, for sure, because we're speaking with our fingers nowadays. We're tapping away on our screens, et cetera. We really need sometimes to add context.

I think we've all become a cropper sometimes if we send something and it's interpreted, because we haven't got the body language or the voice to add that kind of context. So I do use them, but I don't think as Keith said, I don't think they're ever going to become a language because they're not emerging organically by democracy. You know, there's a committee, a consortium that decides on them. And if it grew exponentially, it becomes a bit like an instruction manual. So I definitely think they have their place. I think Keith's right, they're kind of creeping into contexts we might not want them to be

famously in Trump's government, for example. I think there are places and that's the case for language, always. You know, we are experts at code switching. We are generally speaking with specters of context and we know when to use things and when not. That was Suzy Dent and Keith Houston speaking to Emma Barnett. That's all from us for now. There will 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 globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC

World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Hannah Montgomery and the producer was Vanessa Heaney. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Katie Watson. Until next time, goodbye.