Global News Podcast - Russia strikes Ukraine in one of the biggest attacks of the war

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

President Zelensky says the world must respond firmly after Russia attacked Ukraine with one of its heaviest bombardments of the war. He accused Moscow of deliberately killing civilians and spurning ceasefire attempts. Russian missile strikes on Kyiv also damaged the offices of the European Union. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accused Russia of targeting the EU and of stopping at nothing to terrorise Ukraine. Also: new research points to climate change encouraging the spread of wildfires; people have taken to the streets in Indonesia for the second time this week to protest against what they see as excessive pay and benefits for lawmakers, and Rwanda has received the first US migrants deported to the African country under a controversial new deal. 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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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. And Valerie Sanderson and at 13 hours GMT on Thursday the 28th of August, these are our main stories. Russia rains missiles and drones on Ukraine in its second biggest attack since the war began. New research points to climate change encouraging the spread of wildfires. In a drier and hotter world, we are going to burn more. And we're going to burn more severely and we're going to continue to burn in higher frequency. Also in this podcast, more protests take place in Indonesia. And Rwanda has received the first U.S. migrants deported to the African country under a controversial New Deal.

We start in Ukraine where there's been the second biggest assault on the country, since the war with Russia began more than three years ago. In the capital, Kiev, residential areas have been hit by massive Russian missile and drone strikes overnight. More than 20 districts in the capital were targeted. A five-story building has been destroyed and a shopping centre hit. As we record this podcast, at least 16 people are dead, including four children. First responders are clearing rubble and looking for survivors. Sophia was in a building that was hit.

At first, I heard an explosion just in the background, then one strong explosion, and then the windows were broken. I wanted to get up and run. But I waited a couple of seconds, and there was a second explosion. We ran out. There were no doors or windows. Honestly, it's never happened before that they attacked so close to me. Everyone is suffering now. It comes to any area.

As we can see, no negotiations have yielded anything yet. Unfortunately, people are suffering. President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Moscow of choosing ballistics instead of the negotiating table. Ukraine's interior minister, Iho Klamenko, is at the sea. It's a demonstrative terrorist attack. I don't think anyone wants peace in the Russian Federation. And this is a challenge even to our international partners, because today's attack, which was complex and involved drones and missiles,

proves only one thing, that Russia is following its own path. the path of terrorism. They continue to try not only to destroy infrastructure, but also to intimidate our people in order to make us panic and feel uncertain. Our correspondent, Katie Watson, is in Kiev. So it's still a very dynamic situation on the ground. I'm actually standing outside the five-story building.

We got hit by a missile in the early hours of this morning, a missile that went through the third, fourth floors and absolutely destroyed and made part of the building collapse. There are still rescue workers on the rubble. The rubble is still burning, and there are diggers coming in to remove that rubble. And I've been told that here in this site, there are 10 people who were in this part of the building

who lived here. The authorities can't get hold of those people. They're trying to understand whether they were in Keeb at the time or perhaps they're still trapped. So this is still very much a rescue mission. The numbers are unclear. It's a very difficult situation on the ground. Of course, this is just one of more than 20.

sites that was hit overnight here in the capital. The assault by Russia has attracted widespread condemnation. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, described it as barbaric. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard, gave us more on reaction. We've seen lots of reaction within European leaders, so key Ukrainian allies. Ursula von der Leyen was quite strong. She actually accused Russia of targeting the EU and stopping at nothing to terrorise Ukraine blindly killing civilians, she said she was talking about an attack in Kiev that damaged the

offices of the EU delegation there. That attack also damaged the offices of the British Council. So assets of two of Ukraine's most important allies of all. And both EU and Britain have summoned Russian diplomats over that. Antonia Costa, who's the head of the European Council, He said he was horrified by yet another night of deadly Russian missile attacks. The EU will not be intimidated. Russia's aggression only strengthens our resolve to stand with Ukraine and its people. The EU is talking about introducing more sanctions, a 19th package of sanctions against Russia. Sarkir Stama, Britain's Prime Minister, said Vladimir Putin is killing children and civilians

and sabotaging hopes of peace. This bloodshed must end. So a very similar sort of responses there. Danny Eberhardt. Climate change has intensified the spread and frequency of wildfires that swept through several countries in southern Europe this year. That's according to new research. The study by the World Weather Attribution Group

says the reduction in winter rainfall, followed by high summer temperatures, were among the main reason for what's been the worst wildfire season for decades in the region. Bikam Eccasad from Istanbul Technical University says more recurring and severe fires are likely to continue. In a drier and hotter world, we are going to burn more and we're going to burn more severely

and we're going to continue to burn in higher frequency. There will be more wildfires which will eventually stretch the suppression efforts then regionally for this part of the world. Our climate editor Justin Rolak reports. Wildfires lit up the night sky in Turkey this summer. There were similar scenes in many European countries, where helicopters and planes were brought in to try and control the flames.

Europe has experienced its worst wildfires on record this year, and, say, scientists, today, climate change was partly to blame. The report from the World Weather Attribution Group looks at the fires that raged this year in Turkey, and Cyprus, but says similar results are expected for the record wildfires in Spain. Climate change helped set the scene by reducing winter rainfall in the region by about 14%, the researchers say. Then there were the scorching temperatures in the days preceding the fires, made 13 times more likely by climate change, the team calculated. They peaked at over 50 degrees

Celsius in Turkey, for example, a record for the country. Finally, there was the combination of hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the spread of the wildfires. The researchers estimated they were made 10 times more lightly and more than 20% more intense by climate change. And the scientists warn worse is to come, potentially overwhelming emergency services, unless planet warming emissions are dramatically reduced. Justin Rowlett. There have been more protests in Jakarta as hundreds gathered at the Parliament Bill, demonstrating against the high salaries and allowances enjoyed by lawmakers,

which amount to 30 times the average wage. Police in riot gear fired tear gas and water cannon. Today's action followed earlier demonstrations this week that also descended into violence, leading to the arrest of hundreds of people. There's been growing evidence of discontent with the government, with protesters calling for better wages and protestors. for workers. Our reporter as to Destra Agingrastri from BBC Indonesian, who's at today's protest, told me more. The protest actually has been going on since the morning. So in the morning,

mostly labours that are marching at the front of the parliament building. They were chanting and singing and mostly peaceful protest. But after midday, different groups started to come in, students and civil organizations. And that's when chaos started happening. Several groups are clashing with the police. So about one kilometers from where I'm standing, the police still trying to disperse about a hundred protesters. They shout water cannons and they also deploy tear gas. And even from where I stand, I can feel that, you know, it's hurting the eye. You say there was chaos. What protesters doing? So these protesters, because they are being pushed back by the police,

they are now started to throw rocks. And they also now have closed the streets. And it really affect the public transportation to the area where they protested. Is it just happening in Jakarta or are there plans for other protests throughout the country? BBC Indonesia received reports from different cities. are mostly peaceful. But protests against the lawmaker's salaries and allowance has been happening for a few days on Monday. The same protest also happened and it ended with chaos. At the end of the day, they arrested more than 300 people. They accused of rioting

and vandalism. Why is there so much anger about the lawmakers' salaries? Is it because there is a real cost of living crisis in Indonesia? Economic reasons is definitely one of the reason why people are frustrated and anger. The Indonesian feel now the prices of living has been very high. And even before the US hit us with 90% tariffs, a lot of manufacturers and factories has been closed and it resolved in layoffs of thousands of people. And Indonesia is also now facing the reality that we have a lot of skillful unemployment. So people are graduating from university, but there's no job.

So that frustration eventually lead them to do protest in social media and now in real life. Astu Destra, Ajeng Rastri in Jakarta. Navidia is the world's most valuable listed company thanks to its dominance of the market for both chips and software for artificial intelligence systems. On Wednesday, it reported more than $46 billion in revenue in just three months up to July, better than Wall Street had expected. But market analysts fear a potential showdown in AI chip spending, influenced in part by President Trump's trade war with Beijing,

which has included bans on the transfer of market-leading technology. Lily Jamali is our North America technology correspondent based in San Francisco. She told Alex Ritson about Navidia and its success. InVidia has had quite a year and actually quite a good couple of years now because they have been making the very sophisticated chips that have fueled the current AI boom that we are in. They do have pretty good rivals like AMD, for example, but they have blasted past other competitors, incumbents like Intel,

which is just across town from NVIDIA and Santa Clara, California. And when you think of AI, you think of NVIDIA, and that's why so many investors have expressed such interest in owning a piece of this company because they don't want to miss out. There's a lot of FOMO around AI, and NVIDIA is really at the heart of that.

It's making a fortune, revenues of almost $47 billion. In just the March to June period of this year, What are investors worried about that? There is talk of a bubble, isn't there? There has been talk of a bubble for some time. And in recent weeks, we've seen the rollout of OpenAI's GPT5, which didn't get quite the reception that I think CEO Sam Altman there was hoping for. There's also been some negative publicity around the role that these generative AI chatbots play in people's lives, the impact they're having on children. for example, on teenagers that use these products. And so amid that spate of negative publicity,

there's been a little bit of, you know, I'd say an uptick and skepticism about AI in general. So how is NVIDIA caught up in the U.S.-China dispute? The background here is that a couple of months ago, the Trump administration banned the sale of what are called H20 chips. Now, these are chips that NVIDIA specifically designed, designed and makes for the Chinese market. They are made to comply with U.S. regulations that were put in force to basically quell national security concerns, concerns that these chips might

somehow benefit Beijing, specifically the Chinese military. Now, Envidia boss Jensen Wong was able to successfully lobby President Trump to overturn that ban. In the meantime, you know, some of the feedback that we're hearing from analysts is that this uncertainty, this confusion, is giving a really nice runway to Chinese competitors to Nvidia and encouraging the chip ecosystem there. You're saying that if Nvidia is blocked from exporting these chips, China will just make its own. Yes, and that's the issue that has been flagged by these analysts.

And the argument they're making is when Nvidia does well, the U.S. economy does well. They said that our products are designed for the benefit of the U.S. economy, the U.S. leadership. So you could hear them really making a pitch on this call. And I think, again, as we often see, these companies use the race between the U.S. and China in AI as a cudgel to try to get their way. Lily Jamali. Still to come.

I swear to God, I felt that I might never reach another place again. The story of a pregnant woman's perilous journey through one of Sudan's most. active war zones. Seven migrants deported from America to Rwanda have become the first group to arrive there under a new deal. Kigali said only four of the deportees had opted to stay. Our Africa regional editor, Damesquen to Basai, reports. The arrival of the seven deportees marks the start of an agreement

between Washington and Rwanda, which could see up to 200, 150 migrants resettled in the East African nation. It's not been revealed where they're originally from. The Trump administration has also been negotiating third country deportation deals with other African states, including South Sudan and Eswatini, arguing they're necessary when home countries refuse to accept returnees. Rwanda has faced criticism over its human rights record and concerns that deported migrants may face further removal to unsafe nations,

but the government there insists it can provide protection. Tabescan, the Bessai. Vigils and prayer services have been held in Minneapolis in memory of two children, aged 8 and 10, who were killed during a shooting at a Catholic Mass. The attacker has been named as 23-year-old Robin Westman. Another 17 people were also injured. Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum said gun laws need to change.

When I was first elected to Congress, we had a band against assault weapons. Now, salt weapons are prolific around the United States and being used in so many of these tragedies. Today, it was at a church. There were parishioners there, teachers, parents, very young children. This was just a heinous, cruel act, and it's really struck our community. You know, let's pray for the families, but Congress needs to stop praying to get a solution. Congress has the solutions in front of them.

we need to pass common sense gun laws. Our correspondent Tom Bateman is in Minneapolis and give us this update. Well, the police investigation is very much focusing on a couple of things. First is the search of premises. So, you know, we were at the church in the hours after the attack. There was still a very large police cordon around it as the search continues inside there for more evidence, but also at three other locations. And these are all described by the police as residential.

linked to the assailant Robin Westman. So beyond that, we now have the social media accounts that have been trawled by the police. And in particular, this YouTube video, more than 10 minutes long, that was timed for release at the same time as the shooting took place. And in it, the assailant is heard, first of all, describing and filming a four-page journal, much of which is a series of messages to the assailants family, but also discussing feeling depressed and wanting to carry out an attack. And then what is an extremely disturbing commentary, basically,

as a series of guns, ammunition and magazine cartridges are shown off, all containing messages that are racist, anti-Semitic and other very violent messages scrawled on to these cartoons. As that commentary continues, that YouTube video has been taken down now, but is, of course, a key line of investigation for the police and the FBI. And of course, you know, as ever, again, this becomes political, because, you know, we heard both from the mayor of Minneapolis and from Tim Waltz, the governor of the state, a former vice president nominee that ran in the presidential election, of course, last year, saying that, you know, look, we keep coming out and saying the same words every time,

and yet, of course, nothing changes. And the mayor himself, with that sort of, you know, deeply heartfelt statement, saying that it is not enough to give thoughts and prayers in this case when you already had children at prayer when they were shot. And just this call that, of course, goes unheeded every time this happens for something to change, and of course it never does. Tom Bateman. In Sudan's Civil War, the Southern,

Cardiff and region has become a central battleground after the army recaptured Khartoum from its paramilitary rivals earlier this year. Once again, civilians have been caught up in the fighting and aid groups can't send in supplies. The BBC has followed the journey of one young woman who fled her home in order to protect her unborn child. Our Africa correspondent Barbara Plet Usher gained access to her audio diary from the Global Campaign Group Avaz and reached her by telephone after she made it to safety. We're not using the Sudanese woman's real name to protect her identity.

In the month of May, Amira embarked on a perilous journey. The paramilitary rapid support forces had just seized the city where she was living, and Nahud. The road out was dangerous, but she felt she had no choice. She was seven months pregnant. Amira recorded an audio diary as she fled.

There were no hospitals anymore. no pharmacies, and I was afraid if I stayed longer, I wouldn't find any vehicles heading out, because travel had become almost nonexistent. Sudan's civil war has brutalized civilians for more than two years. Now the front line has shifted to the southern region of Kordofan, through which Amira traveled. The paramilitaries and their allies controlled all the transport, Amira said.

An argument between the RSF truck driver and one of the passengers got ugly. The driver immediately pulled out his gun and threatened to shoot the young man who had rented the truck. Everyone was pleading with him, begging him not to shoot. Eventually, the driver put his gun away, but the young man stayed behind. The next day, the travelers made it to Alfula, the state capital of West Cordofan. But Amira didn't want to stay there any. longer than she had to, because the army was closing in.

If the army reached Elfula, I didn't know what would happen, especially because soldiers had begun targeting people of certain ethnic groups that they thought were linked to the RSF. My husband is from one of those groups, even though he has nothing to do with the RSF. After leaving Alfula, it took Amira three days and several changes of vehicles to get to the border with South Sudan. The travellers were regularly stopped at RSF checkpoints and forced to pay.

Food was very expensive. Water was scarce. And in the middle of the journey, in the middle of a forest, the vehicle broke down. That was her lowest moment. I swear to God, I felt that I might never reach another place again,

that I would die right there. But it wasn't the end. Amira and her husband did eventually manage to hitch a ride on a pickup truck piled high with vegetables. The next day, travel was slowed down by rain and mud and flooding, but finally, they made it to the border and safety. Hello, can you hear me? I caught up with Amira after she arrived in Kampala, Uganda.

She was relieved to have reached safety, but desperately worried about her family members who'd stayed behind and sad and anxious as she prepared to give birth. I'm very afraid of the feeling of giving birth because this is my first baby and I won't have my mother with me. It's so overwhelming. Amira is a women's rights activist

who took up relief work during the war. Her group was viewed with suspicion by the military, she said. Some members were arrested. I was afraid of the army and military intelligence. They would arrest young men and keep them detained. But when the rapid support forces came, they were not any better. They loot. They raped. Both sides have denied allegations of war crimes.

Do you have any thoughts about what the future might be? I hope that Sudan's situation will improve. It won't be the same safety as before. But if the war stops, they will at least be some kind. of security. That report by Barbara Pletusha. A court in Hong Kong has finished hearing closing arguments in the trial of the media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who's accused of breaching the territory's strict national security laws. No date has been set for the verdict. Jimmy Lai was born in mainland China but fled to Hong Kong at the age of 12 after stowing away on a fishing boat. He went on to build

a fortune in the fashion world and later became a democracy advocate and got into newspapers. James Reed Jimmy Lai was a leading figure in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and a persistent thorn in the side of China's ruling Communist Party. The newspaper he founded, Apple Daily, was widely read before it was shut down by the authorities in 2021. He's being prosecuted under the national security laws imposed by Beijing in response to mass pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. He's accused of conspiring to publish seditious material and colluding with foreign powers by lobbying for sanctions against China.

Mr. Lai denies the charges, saying he curtailed his activities once the laws came into force. The 77-year-old has been in custody since 2020 and could face life in prison if convicted. The United States and Britain, where he holds citizenship, have called for his release. Many in Hong Kong regard him as a hero who risked his wealth and status to defend the freedoms of the city. His son, Sebastian, says he's in jail for the truth on his lips, the courage in his heart and the freedom in his soul. James Reid. State media in North Korea say the country's leader Kim Jong-un will attend a huge military parade in China to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War.

It's likely to be the biggest multilateral diplomatic event the North Korean leader has ever attended. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is also one of the 26 heads of state who've been invited. Laura Bika is our Beijing correspondent. It's taken us all by a bit of surprise. We knew that the Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on his way, but we did not know that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would also be coming. Now, I think we all will be really wanting to see exactly the seating arrangements. Will President C have Vladimir Putin on one side and Kim Jong-un on the other?

Now, it's worth pointing out at this stage that when it comes, to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. China has tried to maintain a neutral stance while urging all parties to come to a peaceful resolution. But it's going to be very hard for President Xi to maintain that neutral stance with both of these leaders standing next to him while Chinese troops march through the centre of Beijing. But both of these leaders owe China a lot. North Korea gets around 90% of its imports from China. Russia certainly gets a lot of money with regards to oil and energy purchases made by China. And the United States has accused Beijing repeatedly of providing components to Russia

that it could use in its war effort in Ukraine. That is something that China denies. What I do think certainly with the optics of this is wonder what, part, can China play, if any, in persuading these two leaders to end the invasion of Ukraine? We know that that's something that President Trump wants China's help with. Is this something that can happen on this occasion? So that's one of the questions we'll be asking. And does this raise the prospect in the future of all three leaders meeting at some point, President Trump?

Laura Bicker And that's it 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, 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 James Piper, the producers were Charles Sanctuary and Tracy Gordon. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye. Thank you.