Global News Podcast - Russian arms depot erupts after a Ukrainian drone attack

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Russian arms depot erupts after a Ukrainian drone attack where explosions can be seen from space. Also: Hezbollah blames Israel for exploding pagers across Lebanon, and US brand Tupperware files for bankruptcy.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. Life and death were two very realistic co-existing possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference.

It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free.

Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and at at 13 hours on Wednesday 18th September, these are our main stories. Ukraine appears to be behind a drone attack on a Russian military base which has caused explosions that can be seen from space.

Iran accuses Israel of mass murder for its targeted attack on thousands of members of Hezbollah using exploding pages. And Sri Lanka prepares to head to the polls two years on from the devastating financial crisis. Also in this podcast, the party is over, perhaps. Have you ever been to a Tupperware party, Angela Hartnett? I can't say I have, Emma Barnett, have you? No, I haven't lived. Shall we throw one? We should, yeah.

US brand Tupperware is fighting to survive after a bankruptcy filing. We start in Russia, where a Ukrainian drone attack on an arsenal in Western Russia has caused a fire and forced the partial evacuation of residents in the town of Toropets. It targeted stores of missiles, ammunition and explosives, sending flames and smoke high into the night sky. The governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudinyi, said the fire had been caused by falling debris. The Russian Federation's air defence system was activated tonight due to an attack by unmanned aerial devices. The drones were shot down, but there was a fire when they fell. We are currently working to maintain public order,

whilst also evacuating our people and the residents who are there. As Ukraine has ramped up its domestic drone production over the past two years, it has increased attacks on Russian territory. Ukraine's biggest ever drone strike targeted Moscow earlier this month. Just before we recorded this podcast, I heard more from our correspondent James Waterhouse, who's in Kiev. Ukraine is billing this as quite the coup, if you like. We've heard from sources at the country's security service who say this was the targeting of a sizable military site in a Russian town called Todor Pets, where tens of millions of dollars have been spent over the past few years as Russia's military has stored, well, fuel tanks are stationed there, they've

stored a whole host of ammunition, artillery shells, ballistic missiles, and other explosives, all things which are used in Russia's continued invasion of Ukraine. And if you look at satellite imagery, it's a sizeable complex. Now, if you couple that with the explosions we have seen in the subsequent videos, where you're seeing huge plumes of smoke, followed by what are clearly shockwaves, which go for quite a distance, that is reflective, I think, of warehouses being full of ammunition. Yeah, these explosions visible from space. We heard confirmation from NASA that they picked up several heat sources on satellite imagery

and even a minor earthquake was reported. So that will add to Ukrainian delight and it will be a much-needed morale boost. And there's also a broader political picture here as well, where at the moment the West is saying Ukraine can't use the missiles they provide on targets inside Russia. So we're seeing Ukraine say, OK, well, if you're not going to let us, we'll do it ourselves with drones that we continue to manufacture domestically. How much of the weaponry and ammunition that Russia is using in Ukraine would have been stored at this place? Very hard to

quantify. Clearly, this was a major hub. If you look at how Russia fires artillery on Ukrainian territory, if you look at how Russia mounts missile attacks right across the front line, it sustains these kind of strikes on a daily basis. Now, in terms of missile stockpiles, it's thought Russia has around a thousand, and give or take, it'll never let it drop to a significant level. Its economy is on a war footing, and typically it likes to build that stockpile up before unleashing nationwide air attacks inside Ukraine. So this will certainly frustrate the Russians in that endeavor. It'll also crucially frustrate Russia's operations closer to the front line. But to what extent is not yet clear, because we have to remind ourselves that things are not going Ukraine's way

on the battlefield. Still, they haven't for some time. But certainly this sends a message both militarily and politically. James Waterhouse in Kiev. Iran has accused Israel of mass murder after thousands of handheld pages exploded in a coordinated attack that resembled something out of a spy thriller. The Lebanese government says 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador. Among those treating the victims is Dr Elias Warak, an ophthalmologist at Mount Lebanon University Hospital. The least I can say, it has been a nightmare.

Probably this is the worst day of my life as a physician. I believe the number of casualties and the type of damage that has been done is humongous. Unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes. I can tell you that probably more than 60 to 70 percent of the patients ended up with eviscerating or removing at least one of their eyes. And we're talking about young population, about patients in their 20s, and unfortunately the damage is not limited only to the eyes. Some of them, they had intracranial damage, a damage in their brain, in addition to any facial damage, whether to the nose, to the mouth, to the ears.

Unfortunately, most of them, they lost at least one of their hands. There's been widespread condemnation in the Middle East, and Hezbollah itself has vowed to retaliate. Israel has made no public comment. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who's visiting Egypt, denied that Washington had any prior knowledge of the attack. He spoke at a news conference in Cairo. The United States did not know about, nor was it involved in, these incidents, and we're still gathering the information and gathering the facts. Broadly speaking, we've been very clear, and we remain very clear,

about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we're trying to resolve in Gaza to see it spread to other fronts. It's clearly not in the interest of anyone involved to see that happen. So what do we know about the Pager attack and how it happened? Just before we recorded this podcast I asked our Middle East correspondent Hugo Beshega who's in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The reports today suggest that these pages, there were explosives in those pages and that they were detonated remotely at the same time after all these pages received a message that people believed had come from Hezbollah because

these pages had been distributed by Hezbollah precisely because of security concerns, concerns that the Israeli military, the Israeli intelligence agencies could have breached Hezbollah's telecommunications system. So these pages had been distributed, thousands of them, to fighters, to members of the group, to protect them. And instead what happened yesterday was that those pages were used in this unprecedented attack here in terms of the scale of this attack, a massive security breach for Hezbollah,

and an attack that has not only shocked Lebanon, but has caused a lot of anger here because these pages exploded as people were in shops, were with their families at home. Reports here in Lebanon suggest that one of the victims, a girl aged eight, she died when she went to pick up the pager for her dad after the message was received. So there is a lot of anger here in Lebanon following this attack.

Little doubt that Israel and probably the Mossad were behind this. Exactly. And we haven't heard any reaction from the Israelis. This is their natural position every time these attacks happen. But Hezbollah in Lebanon have blamed Israel for the attack and Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate. And tomorrow we are expecting to hear from the powerful head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who's going to give a speech reacting to what happened here in Lebanon yesterday. And again, for almost a year, people here in Lebanon have been fearing that Hezbollah has been dragging this country into another conflict with Israel with these near-daily cross-border attacks.

The Israelis are now saying that the return of tens of thousands of residents who've been displaced because of the violence in northern Israel is one of the goals of the war and I think here today those fears are again on the rise. Hugo Bechega in Beirut. For the first time in a decade, voters are going to the polls in a state election in Jammu and Kashmir. The region is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been the cause of three wars between the rival nuclear-armed neighbours. Thousands have died since the start of a decade-long armed insurgency against Indian rule. The BBC's Riyaz Mazrua, who's in the Kashmiri capital, Sinragar, spoke earlier to my colleague, Victoria Uwankunda.

The last election happened in 2014, and this is for the first time that people are coming out to vote. But a lot has happened in this past decade, because a ceasefire is holding between India and Pakistan, and the level of violence has gone tremendously low in Kashmir Valley, although it's escalating in parts of Jammu, which is in the Himalayan range of Pir Panjab. This is for the first time that I am right now in the hometown of a much celebrated militant commander, Burhan Wani, who was the poster boy of local insurgency in 2016. Back then, when we came here to cover elections after his killing in an encounter, there were people who would refuse to come out of their homes and

polling booths wore a deserted look. But right now, as I'm in his hometown, people are coming out in throes and they're queuing up outside polling stations. So there's a lot of enthusiasm about the voting in these parts where the first phase is happening. Bring us, our listeners, to up to date of why this area is so controversial and important to both India and Pakistan and that they have been a contentious issue between both the countries because Pakistan claims that elections cannot be an authentic expression of political aspirations as mandated by the United Nations resolution. And India claims that people are coming out to vote. That means they are authenticating India's claim on Kashmir. So this claim and counterclaim has made these elections contentious between the two countries.

Give us a sense then of who are the main contenders in this election and the parties who are vying for a seat. You see, BJP for the past 10 years has been telling its supporters and people in Hindu majority, Jammu, that this will be for the first time since 1947 that a Hindu chief minister will be elected and BJP will form the government. But it could not get many candidates in Kashmir Valley, although it is building candidates on all 43 seats in Jammu region, which is Hindu majority region. But a dramatic turn of events came up when former lawmaker, Engineer Rashid was released two months back and now he's out on limited time bail. And he campaigned across Kashmir.

He has fielded his candidates on many seats. And his political slogan is the resolution of Kashmir issue, plebiscite, release of prisoners. So this has given a kind of breather to voters to utilize this political space to express their anger against whatever has happened. Riaz Mazroua. Elections are also being held in Sri Lanka this weekend. For decades, politics in Sri Lanka has been dominated by one family, the Rajapaksas. But their reputation was ruined after the country's economic collapse in 2022, a result of decades of financial mismanagement by the governments in which they played leading parts.

In Saturday's presidential elections, people are hopeful that this could be the beginning of a new era. The BBC's South Asia correspondent Samira Hussain reports from Sri Lanka. The Rajapaksas have dominated Sri Lankan politics for decades. Nammal Rajapaksa is the latest from the political dynasty to enter the presidential race. His family has a long history in Sri Lanka, most notably for sinking the island nation into a crushing economic crisis. Massive amounts of excitement as Namal Rajapaksa takes the stage at this political rally.

Hundreds have come to listen to him speak. Although the Rajapaksa name comes with a lot of political baggage, he believes that he can overcome some of that legacy. His father and his uncle, both forced out of office. But Namal Rajapaksa says he can be somebody new. The Rajapaksas are blamed for Sri Lanka's economic woes. Why do you think you should run? Well, see, it's up to the people who decide.

And we know our hands are clean. We know we haven't done anything wrong to the people or to this country. So we are willing to face the people and the public. So let the public decide as to what they want to vote for. Two years ago, there was a massive uprising against severe food shortages and skyrocketing inflation, a result of decades of financial mismanagement by the Vajra Paksas. Furious protesters defying curfews, phenomenal scenes of people storming the presidential palace. We've come two hours outside Colombo to a political rally, and it's held by Anora Kumara de Sanaica. Now, he is running, saying that he's the representative for the working class. And there's quite a lot of people here.

Several thousand have come out to listen to him speak. There's music. There are pink flags everywhere. People wearing bright pink hats. I see a woman in front of me actually wearing a bright pink dress that matches his political colors. Dissanaiki has become an unlikely frontrunner. Also a strong contender, Sajid Bermudasa, leader of the opposition. There are a total of 38 candidates in these elections, including the current president, Ronald Vikramasinghe. Whoever becomes the next president

of Sri Lanka has got big problems to solve. Not just the economy, but rebuilding the trust of the people too. Samira Hussain. Still to come, we hear from a father and daughter on the importance of getting Sikh music included in music exams here in the UK. It will also help a lot of other young girls and young boys get closer to their religion and faith. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest.

I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts.

But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.

The government of the Netherlands, which is now a coalition dominated by the far-right Freedom Party, has told the European Commission that it wants to opt out of common policies on migration. The previous government had agreed to an EU pact on migration viewed as something of a breakthrough for the bloc. Our Europe Regional Editor Danny Eberhardt reports. Announcing the step on social media, the new Dutch asylum and migration minister, Marjolein Faber, said her country needed to be in charge of its own asylum policy. She belongs to the far-right anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, the senior partner in the coalition

government. It seeks to drastically limit migration. The move may be more about posturing than having a real effect. Last week, a spokesman for the European Commission poured cold water on the idea of the Netherlands opting out of adopted legislation. Opt-outs do exist in certain circumstances, but are rare and negotiated at treaty level across the EU. Danny Eberhardt. President Joe Biden has called on Sudan's warring parties to re-engage in negotiations to end their conflict, which has been raging for more than 17 months. You might have heard the podcast recorded at this time yesterday when we heard the head of the World Health Organization talking about the civil war, saying starvation is almost everywhere. Close to 25 million people,

or half the Sudanese population, are affected by famine, and it's being made worse by the displacement of the population due to the fighting. Our correspondent Barbara Platt-Asher is now in Port Sudan, the de facto capital since the conflict began, and a key starting point to try to get aid in. She gave us her first impressions. It's a port city, obviously, one of the key ports on the Red Sea, And there's a corniche next to the water right across from where all the main harbour is and where the ships come. And in the evenings, we've been walking

along the corniche and there are quite a lot of people out. It's very, very hot here. And so in the evenings, the people come out and sit on chairs next to the water. There are little cafes around. We saw some children splashing around in the water as well. It's always been an important city, but it's become a much bigger factor in Sudan since the war began last year because the war is happening in the capital, in Khartoum. And so the army and the government and so on have basically moved here to Port Sudan. It's become the de facto capital. And so in a way, it's become quite a bit of a hub, like a functioning city, and people have been flooding in. You get a lot of people coming in,

not just the displaced people fleeing, but you get people having moved from Khartoum because they were trying to escape the conflict, but also to set up businesses and so on. So for example, we went to a place called the Grand Hotel. Now, the Grand Hotel in Khartoum is an icon. It was built in the 1900s by the Sudanese Railway. It's a beautiful, iconic sort of building. Here, now they said, well, we can't get to Khartoum, so we're going to open something called the Grand Hotel here,

much more functional, clean and new, but none of the flourishes of the Grand Hotel here, much more functional, clean and new, but none of the flourishes of the Grand Hotel here. And we met a couple of women there who were just showing us around. They were workers. They had come from Khartoum, and they're amongst many who've come from Khartoum here. We went to the market, and it was bustling, absolutely crowded, many, many vendors, many people there, lots of goods to buy, including food, but the prices are really, really high. It's like a war economy. And I chatted with one young man who had come from Amdurman, which is a sort of sister city to Khartoum. He's a student and he had been hoping to enter university there, but he said all the universities, the schools had been shut down

because of the war. So eventually he'd ended up here in Port Sudan trying to find work. Barbara Pletusher in Port Sudan. When we think about climate change, we normally think about the immediate impacts, heatwaves, droughts and floods. But in fragile nations, climate change can do more damage than that. Some analysts describe it as a chaos multiplier. It can worsen existing conflicts by intensifying the competition for scarce resources. So what can be done to lift vulnerable nations out of this cycle of misery? Our climate editor, Justin Rowlett, has been to Somalia to find out.

The country has just experienced its worst drought for 40 years. An event scientists reckon was made 100 times more likely by human caused climate change. It left people literally biting for access to water and to pasture, says Sheikh Don Ismail, a local farmer. There's no respect if you don't have a gun. The harders who lead their animals into the farm stay back when they see my gun. They get scared of me. For the last 30 years, Somalia has been experiencing a brutal Islamist insurgency, a civil war and a whole series of regional and clan conflict.

It means local disputes like these can easily spiral into full-blown battles. And it is not just drought. Somalia has experienced terrible floods as well. The most vulnerable bear the brunt. Mothers bring their babies into a Red Cross hunger clinic in a port town in the south of Somalia. The UN estimates one and a half million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. This combination of climate change and conflict has driven four million Somalis, a fifth of the population, into vast makeshift refugee camps. With little international help, people live in huts made from rubbish they've scavenged.

They have to pay rent as well as for their food and water. It means there is a huge reservoir of people desperate for paid work. Like many men in the camps, Alima Ali Mohammed's husband and four of her sons have taken up the only opportunity open to them. They are rural people with no skills so the only work they could get was in the army. They were desperate. And when you are without food long enough and your children are looking at you, you will do anything. And it's not like climate change is the Somali people's fault. The entire country has emitted roughly as much carbon dioxide from fossil fuels since the 50s as the US has in the last three days. Yep, three days. But Somalia is taking action. We visited a power

station moving over to wind and solar power and training up a new generation of renewable energy engineers. I met entrepreneurs setting up new businesses, including a refugee woman who'd set up her own cafe in the camp. Justin Rowlerton. You can hear more of Justin's reporting from Somalia in the latest Climate Question podcast by searching for BBC Climate Question on any podcast app you use. Norway, one of the world's largest exporters of oil, now has more electric vehicles on its roads than petrol-driven cars. By the end of next year, it's aiming to become the first nation to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Kristina Boo is head of the Norwegian Electric Vehicles Association. It's a real big milestone

that we've reached. Currently, a bit more than 26% of all passenger cars are fully electric, and we're not at 100% yet, but we are quickly getting there. Norway has had a clear goal, and the goal is that in 2025, next year, 100% of new sales are to be zero emission cars, electric or hydrogen. And to reach that goal, the politicians have used the measures they have, which is using our tax system, exempting electric cars from taxes, but more importantly, also slowly increasing the taxes on the sales of petrol and diesel engine cars more and more. So making those cars that we don't want more expensive and EVs more competitive, really. Because in many other countries in the world, most other countries, really,

EVs are still a lot more expensive to buy and to purchase. And on top of that, there's also been, over the years, quite a few incentives when it comes to using babies as well. Kristina Boe from the Norwegian Electric Vehicles Association. Now, have you ever been to a Tupperware party? My producer remembers her mum holding them growing up in the 1980s. Well, it may be the end of an era as Tupperware Brands has just filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The firm, which makes the plastic containers beloved by cooks, is reportedly more than

$700 million in debt. You just think the brand will go on forever. So what's the reaction to this news? My colleague Emma Barnett has been speaking to the chef, restaurateur and Tupperware fan, Angela Harnett. I think it's become generic with anything plastic in a kitchen. You know, I mean, I'm sure I look in my kitchen and there's probably some, maybe Tupperware, but otherwise it's plastic containers that you can reuse and reuse. But you all call it Tupperware because that's what you all think it is. And I think, yeah, it's a shame really,

because I think one, it's obviously tragic for the people losing their jobs and livelihoods. But as well, I think it's something, given that we're all about sustainability and reusing stuff, it's a great thing to have because you do reuse it. You know, it's not having to cover stuff with cling film. It's not having to cover stuff with foil that you get rid of. You know, this stuff can go on forever. So I'm quite surprised that it has gone. You can see it's the level of costs going up transportation use of raw materials and that's what's done it for them is that a pet that's got a view

in the background that is betty boo in the background betty who we cover her dog food in a tough way do you okay well one of the most important bits of detail about how you're storing anyone's food pet or human yeah and just looking at the history of the firm i mean as you say it's become a synonymous word with all food storage containers but the the company founded in 1946 by earl tupper who patented the container's flexible airtight seal and became well known in the 50s and 60s when people and i'm going to go for it women probably largely held tupperware parties to uh to sell these containers have you ever been to a Tupperware party? No I can't say I have Emma Barnett have you?

No I haven't lived shall we throw one? We should yeah because I love you know the other thing I sort of think I always think about Tupperware is you see it come up in so many programs like sitcoms or you know comedies youies. You know, I always remember in Modern Family, everyone arguing. There was this thing about arguing about someone's taken my Tupperware container. So I think people feel very personal about it. Oh, yes. You know, because they can put their Christmas cake in it and they use that every year and it's that same container that seals it.

So I do ask for my Tupperware plastic bag when I give things out, I have to say. Chef Angela Harnett and her dog, Betty Boo. We're going to end this podcast with some Sikh devotional music played by a father and daughter. The reason for doing so is that sacred Sikh music, known as kirtan, has now become part of the universal eight-grade music examination system here in the UK. The top grades can count

towards university entrance via what's known as the UCAS system in Britain. That means five South Asian string instruments can now be studied. Harjinder Lali led the development of the exam grading system. Harjinder's 13-year-old daughter Nanaki Lali has been learning to play the sarungi since she was five years old and singing with it. They've both been telling my colleague Amal Rajan why it was important to get this accreditation. What we wanted to see was to get the recognition, rigour and value. So children are learning these instruments, they're learning how to sing, but they're not getting the recognition and it was really important that we set something up that would get them that recognition and as far as the rigor is concerned set something up that tutors can apply rigorously and give them kind of staged learning and give them a kind of sense of

progression. And what kind of reaction have you had to this news both within the Sikh community and beyond? It's been phenomenal so we're sitting here at the BBC studios today, but we've also been contacted by schools in India. We're launching it in Baltimore, Seattle and Houston. So it's kind of gone all around the world pretty quickly within a week. And how important is it to you that the next generation, including girls like your daughter, are playing these instruments? Well, it's part of our cultural heritage, it's part of our faith, and we want to preserve this, and I think one way of doing that is to give them that recognition that, you know, we're going to get something out of this in the end, and to top it all off, obviously the UCAS recognition is kind of, you know, you couldn't get any better than that, really.

Is your lovely 13-year-old daughter Nanaki there? Are you there, Nanaki? Yes. Hello. So you play the sarangi. Just tell us a bit about that instrument and how hard it is to play. The sarangi is super hard because you have to be able to find the pitch on it without having any frets, and you have to be able to bow in a straight line,

and you have to sing at the same time. So it's super hard. I think a lot of people don't actually know what any of that means so it sounds very hard how often do you practice nanaki me my dad practiced every day at like seven ish for half an hour every day yeah not before school surely no after school yeah and just from your point of view nanaki how cool is it how important is it that these amazing instruments and the culture they're part of is now recognised in this formal way? I think that it's really great because I'm going to start applying to uni in quite a few years away, but that will really help me

and it will also help a lot of other young girls and young boys get closer to their religion and faith. We're going to end the programme with a live demonstration of this music. We've got in the studio Avtar Singh, who's a Taos player from the Namdari community. Here is Avtar Singh playing a Taos player from the Namdari community, and you also heard from Harjinder Lalli and his daughter Nanaki. 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 globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Martin Baker and the producer was Tracey Gordon. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Alex Roots and until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning.

Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with

a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.