Global News Podcast - Russian general killed in Moscow car bomb

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Senior Russian general killed. Meanwhile US envoy arrives for talks with President Putin on how to end the war in Ukraine. The Russian foreign minister, in a US interview, said peace negotiations were progressing.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard. And at 13Hours GMT on Friday, the 25th of April, these are our main stories. Russian officials have confirmed that one of the Kremlin's senior generals has been killed in a car bomb attack in a Moscow suburb. The US envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow for talks with President Putin on how to end the war in Ukraine. And aid workers in Sudan say people are dying of thirst and starvation after huge numbers were forced to flee the country's largest displacement camp.

Also in this podcast, how a rare and remarkable caterpillar in Hawaii camouflages itself with bones and body parts. The spider thinks that they're part of a past meal or actually part of its own shed skin. And if they stop doing that, I think they would be removed from the gene pool pretty quickly. As we record this podcast, the US envoy Steve Witkoff is holding talks in Moscow with President Putin on how to end the war in Ukraine. this podcast, the US envoy Steve Witkoff is holding talks in Moscow with President Putin on how to end the war in Ukraine. Donald Trump has claimed that the two sides are close to reaching a deal, but this is thought to require Ukraine giving up large areas of territory.

More on that in a moment. First though, a senior Russian general has been killed in an explosion near his home in Moscow. The Russia editor for BBC Monitoring is Vitaly Shevchenko. General Yaroslav Moskalik is a pretty senior figure. Back in 2015, he was involved in talks with Ukraine held in Paris. This morning, he was killed by a car bomb in an eastern suburb of in an eastern suburb of Moscow. Ukraine never really accepts any involvement in such attacks, but a lot of fingers are pointing in its direction. Well, meanwhile, the special envoy Steve Witkoff is in Russia, hoping to further peace talks. Now, the US deal is thought to require Ukraine giving up territory. Let's hear from the mayor of Kiev Vitaly Klitschko, because he told the BBC in an interview that his country may indeed need to do that.

It's very difficult and it can be a very painful decision, but history already show many examples. For a good example, East and West Germany after the Second World War. Now Germany united. It's cost a lot of time. It's not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be solution. Temporary. So Vitaly, what did you make of those comments?

They did not go down well in Ukraine. Clearly, what Mr Klitschko said is very different from the Ukrainian government's official position. In fact, a deputy Ukrainian foreign minister said that no, Ukraine is not going to accept Russian annexation of any part of Ukraine. It's not going to accept any restrictions on its military. The Mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, has sought to clarify his remarks. He said that, well, he was basically stating the obvious fact that a lot of people are talking about the scenario where Ukraine might be forced to give up territory. He said that Ukraine and its European partners will need to make, and I quote, extraordinary efforts to stop that scenario from being implemented.

Notably, Jackie, he did not mention US partners. As you said, the American envoy, Steve Witkoff, is in the Kremlin talking to Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin issued a video showing the start of that meeting where you can see Steve Witkoff beaming and Vladimir Putin greeting him in English. So it looked like the start of a very friendly meeting. That was Vitaly Shevchenko of BBC Monitoring. The Vatican is making final preparations for the funeral of Pope Francis, which takes place on Saturday as large numbers of people continue to file through St Peter's Basilica to view

his open coffin. During his 12 years as Pope, Francis supported those on the fringes of society. Our Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford has been to visit one of the outreachinges of society. Our Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, has been to visit one of the outreach projects that he created. A few steps away from St Peter's Square, I got a tour of a building with carved wooden ceilings and grand frescoes. A place that was about to be converted into an exclusive hotel until Pope Francis stepped in. Pope Francis started this pontificate saying how I wish a church

poor and for the poor. In this place which is a beautiful palace in the center of Rome became a shelter for homeless where 45 people live as in a family. That's Massimiliano of the Sant'Egidio community, which runs the home for people like Alberto. The 69-year-old has twinkling brown eyes. He'd been sleeping rough for several years. My name is Alberto from Calabria, Italy. How long have you been living here? Four or five months. It's a very good place. You heard the news about Pope Francis, of course.

I feel very sorry because he died, because he was a good Pope. The Argentinian was chosen as Pope 12 years ago when the church was in real crisis. The child sex abuse scandals and Vatican corruption were just two of the problems he had to face head on. Some argue he should and he could have done more, but most agree he did change the focus of the church, away from the elite to the marginalised. When Pope Francis in November 2019 inaugurated, he was smiling, he was sitting with the poor, I can say he felt at home here.

Do you feel his loss quite deeply? Many people are sad, feeling a lack of his voice because he talked about the poor but also made many gestures of mercy for the poor. You can see St Peter's Square through the window and the giant queues that have formed there for days as people wait to file past the pope's open coffin. But it's not elevated, it's on a level with the people Francis served. I just come here, just arrived.

But you changed all of your plans to be here to see the Pope? Yes. People like Madeleine, who tells me she rushed to Rome from a holiday in Iceland as soon as she heard the news. What is it about Francis that you remember that you like? He's a smile, he's a face, very nice. Especially I see he's a very simple person. So at the Pope's funeral on Saturday, there will be refugees and migrants,

as well as inmates from a juvenile prison he visited a few days before he died. Back at the hostel, a volunteer starts dinner with a prayer. Do you think that after Pope Francis with a new pope, not just this project but this legacy, this attitude, this style of church will continue? We hope so. Pope Francis made the revolution Pope Francis made the revolution putting the poor in the centre of the church. I'm sure that heritage will be still alive in the next pontificate. It is that change of culture that most of those we met have welcomed. Catholics from all over the world are here to say their very personal goodbyes

before the politicians and the powerful arrive for the Pope's funeral. Sarah Rainsford. From sandy beaches to dramatic waterfalls to active volcanoes, Hawaii is famed for its natural beauty and it's also home to a remarkable carnivorous caterpillar that covers itself in dead insect body parts which has earned it the name the Bone Collector as Chantal Hartle reports. Until now you may have associated the Bone Collector with the crime novel and film of the same name but it's taken on new meaning in the insect world. The Bone Collector caterpillar raids spider's webs, scavenging for weakened

or dead insects that have been trapped there. To avoid being eaten itself, it then creates a sort of camouflage, covering itself with the various body parts, the odd ant head, fly wing and beetle bone. On top of that, researchers say it has been known to nibble at these insect remains to make sure they fit its own body. So what's behind this seemingly very macabre behaviour? Dan Rubinoff is an insect specialist at the University of Hawaii. To avoid the spiders, we're pretty sure they have to be covered in this stuff. So the spider thinks that they're part of a past meal or actually part of its own shed skin. And if they stop doing that, I think they would be removed from the gene pool pretty quickly.

The bone collector is exceptionally rare, found only on a single mountainside on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. In more than two decades of observing these caterpillars, scientists have found just 62 of them. What's even more remarkable is that researchers believe these creatures have existed for at least six million years. That would make them far older than the Hawaiian Islands themselves. And scientists think there's a lot more they can learn from this unusual species. In the case of these caterpillars, maybe down the line, understanding the genomic basis of how insects see the world, sense the world is

going to be helpful for conserving them but even more importantly maybe for pest control and we'll be able to spray non-toxic things onto crops that prevent pest caterpillars from recognizing them as food. Wouldn't that be nice? But time may be short for conservation efforts. While the bone collector has shown its adaptability, it's also threatened by large numbers of invasive species. Rubinoff says many endemic insects in Hawaii have already disappeared, adding the bone collector could be one new species away from being obliterated. Chantal Hartle, if California were a country, it would now be the fourth largest economy

in the world. That's according to the state governor Gavin Newsom. California is the most populous state in the US and Mr Newsom says its GDP is now more than $4 trillion and has surpassed Japan. The data means that only the US, China and Germany have larger economies. So what's driving the economy in California? A question for our business correspondent Mariko Ooi in Singapore. California Jackie has the largest share of manufacturing and agricultural production in the United States. It's also home to of course Hollywood, the world's entertainment industry, also home to leading technological innovation and also it's

home to the country's two largest seaports. So the economy has been doing very, very well. Though I have to say a currency geek in me would like to point out that it is also about the currency exchange rate between the US dollar and the Japanese yen and the Japanese yen has been quite weak until very recently. So I'm not defending my home country's economy, you know, it has its challenges, but that probably benefited California's economy as well. Currency geek understood. So Kevin Newsom, though, also repeated his criticism of President Trump's tariffs. Tell us a bit more about what he had to say.

Well, he's not been a fan of tariffs at all. He became the first governor to file a lawsuit challenging Mr. Trump's authority to impose those tariffs, saying that he's very much concerned about the impact on the state economy, but also on the country's economy. Of course, we've been talking about these tariffs for, I can't remember now, several weeks now, back and forth, all the changes. And of course, the uncertainty hasn't been helping a lot of businesses either in the United States and elsewhere as well. So he has criticized Mr. Trump once again.

And of course, Mr. Trump isn't a huge fan of Governor Newsom either, a prominent Democrat and potentially a presidential candidate in 2028. So both men obviously not liking each other's opinions on this matter. What is Japan's economy looking like at the moment? Well, it's been doing OK. I mean, I'm talking about, you talking about after three decades of very stagnant, basically meaning very little to no economic growth at all. The economy is doing OK.

But at the same time, it does have a huge issue of demographic issues. So the population is fast aging. In fact, it has the world's fastest aging population in the world. But also, it's shrinking very fast because not many women are having children and as a result the workforce is shrinking as well. So that as to the challenges for the Japanese government because of course the social security costs are ballooning. So all those challenges are weighing on the Japanese economy even though companies have actually been doing quite okay.

That was Mariko Ooi in Singapore. Still to come... I think it will bring in people who don't normally find themselves crossing the threshold of a church. Heavy metal music comes to an ancient British cathedral. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people fleeing the paramilitary RSF in Sudan have been arriving in the town of Tawila in North Darfur state. An aid agency, the Norwegian Refugee Council, says the area has become overwhelmed. Sudan's civil war began two years ago, causing what's been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Norwegian Refugee Council's head of operations,

Noah Taylor, spoke to James Copnell about the situation in Tewila. Tewila right now is a small town in North Darfur. It is now sheltering somewhere between 130,000 and 150,000 people who have come from Alfascia, which is about 40 kilometers down the road. These people arriving in Tewila with nothing. They are arriving with the clothes on their back and very little belongings. In Tewila, they are setting up makeshift camps and settlements, sleeping in the open under a little more than bedsheets propped up on sticks. There is, sleeping in the open under little more than bedsheets propped up on sticks. There is very little in the way of food, there is very little

in the way of water and the aid response and the local authorities here are very overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and the sheer need that these people have. For the people coming from Zamzam camp, which is not far from El Fasher, or indeed from El Fasher, these are areas where famine had already been declared and these are people who then will have made a very difficult journey often on foot. Quite a few of them, I suspect, will simply not have survived the journey to Tawila. The stories we've been hearing are truly horrific. People dying of thirst on the way, people walking the 40-kilometer stretch only to die on arrival. We've heard stories there are still bodies along the road between Al-Fasha and Tawila. This is a harrowing journey, but it is also a harrowing

journey leaving horrific circumstances. We're hearing of people eating leaves, eating charcoal in Zam Zam and in Alfasha just to survive and then having to make that journey through blistering heat, harassed by armed actors all along the way, only to arrive in Tewila where there is very little to go around. Is there much that you can do to provide support for people like you are describing? We're doing everything we can. The aid community have pulled together here to provide what resources and what assistance we can. NRC has been able to support a number of volunteer community groups who are supporting the communities with food and water. There is limited medical services available and we are exploring every option we can to scale up this response to meet the need. But

the resources and the funding available do not go nearly far enough. Resources and funding are clearly one issue. What about the difficulties involved in working in a conflict area? I don't necessarily need you to get into the politics of it, but with the RSF continuing its attacks on El Fasher, with both the RSF and its rival, the Sudanese armed forces, accused of stopping aid, getting into difficult areas, there are challenges beyond simply funding, are there not, to getting help to people? Sudan is a phenomenally difficult place to reach people. To get to Tewila itself is a multi-day drive over incredibly rough terrain and that is because the main road that actually connects Tewila and would connect al-Fasha to Wadid al-Fawr and to trade routes is completely unsafe and unstable for

for aid workers and even for commercial trucks to use regularly. We've been calling for for free and open access to people in need and and to date that just continues not to happen. So until there is access and free passage for relief efforts and protection of civilians, we will continue to see tragedies like this. That was Noah Taylor of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Well for more context on the situation in Sudan, we heard from our Africa regional editor, Will Ross.

At this stage, more than two years into the war, the country Sudan is really divided. So across in the capital Khartoum, which was recently taken by the army, there are calls for diplomats to return to their embassies, a kind of attempt to get things back to normal and people may be feeling that peace is coming. But in the west of the country where we've just been hearing about, the Darfur, the vast Darfur region, the war is, it looks as though it's getting worse. And it's certainly getting worse for the civilians living around El Fasher. This is a large city that's been home to hundreds of thousands of people,

many of whom have been displaced for years because of conflict going on in Darfur. And it's the last city that the RSF, this paramilitary force doesn't control. So it's still in the hands of the army and its allied militias but there's in recent days there's been this attempt, well ongoing attempt by the RSF to capture El-Fasher and they've also pushed people out of the camps, Zamzam and Abushuk, camps close to El-Fasher. So their effort really is to get the people out and to gain control of these areas and it seems they don't care what happens to the people and that's why they're going through such hardships.

And even as all of this is going on, the United Nations says it's reducing food aid to Sudan at a time when it's most needed. What's the background to that? Yeah, well, the World Food Programme is facing a huge funding crisis at the moment. It's talking about needing about $800 million to get through to September, but it's only received about $100 million of that. But for Sudan itself, it says it's already cut back the food that it's providing in some of the famine hit areas and it's saying you know at the moment the rainy season is coming it needs to get food in the right places it's also saying that the conflicts escalating the displacements are getting

worse and they simply can't get the food to the people that need it but on top of all that of course is the ongoing security crisis which just means all these aid agencies can't get to where they need to be. That was our Africa regional editor Will Ross. Well let's return to the war in Ukraine. Life in a country at war is unpredictable. At times it can feel almost normal and then without warning the illusion can be shattered. One place where you really see that contrast is the city of Lviv, more than 500 kilometres west of Kiev. Anna Foster went there to see how conflict remakes the daily rhythm of a place.

That's a school trip right here in the middle of the city of Lviv and the sun is beating down. They're underneath some trees taking some shelter and you can just hear how they're so joyful and happy in a country that you never forget is at war. Because just next to the little crowd there's a sign here and it's propped up against a lamppost in bright blues and yellows and it says, in English and Ukrainian actually, it says volunteer centre, fabric fabric cutting weaving camouflage nets they want people to go inside and to basically help with the war effort. I make nets for military tanks for the Ukrainian front.

My name is Natalia. This is very important support for Ukraine. The front is very important. It's our defense against the enemy. Hello, I'm Marta. I'm a marketing manager. And I'm live in Lviv. I wish the war on our territory was stopped so that people would not die anymore. I wish we finally had peace. Perhaps it's more about someone's image in the world than actually helping. There are many talks, but it would be great to see some concrete results, at least a ceasefire. But it must be honored by both sides. We do honor it but the aggressor doesn't, despite sanctions and everything. Everybody, to a man and woman, has come to a standstill.

And a private ambulance, which has in the front a photograph of a soldier in the front window. Still, every day, bodies are brought back from the front line and people here, they make a point whenever that happens of honouring those who've fallen, even three years into the war. My name, Andriy Sadovay, Mayor of Lviv. I was last in your city three years ago, not long after the invasion. It is a beautiful sunny day here, people are out in the streets. How are you and how are people now?

Every day we have funeral ceremony in my city and every day I put a flower to coffin. It is very tough time for Ukraine, but I think today in Ukraine, we can better understand our future. I am optimist, but I am realist. We feel huge pressure from United States, and I think together with Great Britain, we must come up with good idea about ceasefire. It is possible. Never give up. Only victory.

That report by Anna Foster in Lviv. York Minster is a majestic Gothic cathedral in the north of England with a rich history stretching back more than a thousand years. It's not a place usually associated with heavy metal music. Tonight though that will change as Justine Green reports. York Minster is often filled with the sound of even song but tonight it will sound more like this. The organists will be playing Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and some original songs by the band Plague of Angels.

Not everyone's in favour, some churchgoers have complained it's an outright insult to their faith. But the sellout gig is going ahead and the Dean of York, the very Reverend Dominic Barrington, is in favour. I think it will bring in people who don't normally find themselves crossing the threshold of a church. I certainly think that attracting people into places of worship, whether it is for services or non-liturgical events, I think that is an important part of mission. The band's guitarist, Mark Minott, says people at the Minster are in for a treat.

Everybody there will realise what an incredibly valuable, creative joining of two worlds between the pipe organ of metal music. They will have an incredible time and an incredible experience. Tonight's metal gig could be the first of many for the Grade 1 listed building. Our resident headbanger Justine Green. And that's it from us for now. There will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service just to use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Paul Mason. The producer was Vanessa Heaney. Our

editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye.