Global News Podcast - Russian missile strike in Ukraine kills over 30

Episode Date: April 13, 2025

More than 30 Ukrainians killed in Russian missile attack on Sumy. Also: Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City's last functioning hospital, presidential elections in Ecuador and Gabon, and scientists grow human teeth in a lab.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Moss and in the early hours of Monday, the 14th of April, these are our main stories. More than 30 people have been killed in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, prompting outrage from Western leaders. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed parts of Gaza City's last fully functioning hospital. Israel says its forces were aiming at a Hamas command and control centre. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan say they've taken control of a refugee camp in the Darfur region after days of heavy shelling.

Also in this podcast, this new technology has potential to be a game changer for dentistry. Scientists have grown human teeth in a lab for the first time using research they believe could revolutionize dental care. The chorus of condemnation is still pouring in. The killing of Ukrainian civilians is hardly new. Russia's rockets have been launched into towns and cities across the country. But the death toll of 34 in the city of Sumy makes this the deadliest attack so far this

year. The horror perhaps aggravated by the fact that victims were on their way to Palm Sunday church services. The US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that Russian forces had now crossed any line of decency. The Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Lepavsky, said Russia was led by murderers. Of course, words can feel rather impotent in the face of so much suffering. Indeed, Ukraine has again and again said what it needs is not just sympathy but more military equipment to fend off attacks like this one. Ludmila Voronina lives in Sumi and described

what happened. An awful morning, an awful day. My husband went to the market, I stayed at home day. My husband went to the market, I stayed at home and I've heard a great blow. My house jumped, everything in my house jumped. It was an explosion from two ballistic rockets, first and in two minutes the second. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyky has of course had plenty of occasions to condemn Russian aggression. But Sunday's attacks seem to bring out particular outrage. Medics, all medical services are doing their best to help, to save as many people as possible. I'm grateful to all the services that were on the spot in a matter of minutes

and started rescue operations. The strike hit right in the centre of the city on Palm Sunday. Only a complete bastard can do such a thing." Our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse has witnessed the aftermath of many Russian attacks. But just after arriving at the site of this latest one in Sumi, he described to me a scene of unusual destruction and suffering. It was quite a difficult site really. The first impressions were one of a smell of stagnant water and blood in the air. There was a gaping chasm as you often see which presumably was the epicenter of one of the missile blasts. They were separated by about 200 metres.

There were puddles of blood. Bulldozers were digging away and clearing the way. We could see piles of foil blankets that had been used to cover the dead and the familiar scarring caused by shrapnel on the sides of buildings. I mean, this is right in the heart of the city of Sumi and the moments of impact occurred on a clear Sunday morning as there would have been more people about celebrating Easter and sadly rescue teams are well rehearsed in these kinds of clear up operations but this is a city that is hit almost daily and for a strike to stand out

in the way that this one has I think is a reflection of how serious it is. It happened just after the US envoy Steve Vitkoff had been in Russia talking to Vladimir Putin about a possible peace deal. I mean am I I wonder if I'm reading too much into this to wonder if this particularly lethal missile attack was intended to make explicitly clear Moscow's determination to carry on firing weapons at civilian targets. Yeah I mean it couldn't be more of a stark departure from the ceasefire efforts being spearheaded by America. You have Steve Witkoff, a senior US envoy, warmly being greeted by Vladimir Putin

in St. Petersburg where they discussed what seems to be Russia's terms or continued demands for the ends of this war. Whereas if you take the city of Putin in St Petersburg, where they discussed what seems to be Russia's terms or continued demands for the ends of this war. Whereas if you take the city of Sumi, if you take the region of Sumi, notwithstanding the devastating strike we've seen today, which is the worst I make in about two years, it is a region where thousands of Russian troops are gathering to mount an offensive, says Kiev. It is where we are seeing an increase in airstrikes and I think there is no evidence suggesting that Russia is relinquishing or deviating from its ultimate goal of taking as much of Ukraine as possible despite the ramping geopolitics around peace.

James Waterhouse. Hospitals are supposed to be protected under humanitarian law but in Gaza they've been hit repeatedly. And Sunday saw Israeli missiles destroy the operating theater and intensive care unit at the only functioning hospital in Gaza City, according to Palestinian doctors. Israel sent a warning shortly beforehand, they said, telling them to evacuate patients from the Al-Akhli Arab Baptist Hospital. They were warning the patients and their relatives to evacuate quickly. We ran outside and then the bombing took place. Some were scared, some were screaming and some were crying. When we returned and sat down in our places, they told us that there were no longer any doctors,

nor any kind of treatment, nothing at all. So we had to go back and leave. I swear to God it was terrifying. The whole situation was difficult because I've already been injured. And as for my three daughters, one had her leg amputated, the other had her hand amputated and the third had her body full of platinum plates. Where should I go with them?" Israel has repeatedly defended its attacks on hospitals, arguing they're used by Hamas as military bases. And as our correspondent in Jerusalem, Gary O'Donohue, reports, Sunday's destruction of the operating theatre was no different.

It was around midnight when two missiles struck the Al Ali hospital in Gaza City, destroying the emergency and reception department and damaging other structures, according to medics on the ground. It's been reported that Israel gave a 20-minute warning to hospital staff to evacuate before the strike on the Anglican run facility. Mohammed Abu Nasser was a patient in the hospital. All night I was in the hospital, terrified. In the middle of the night, where is the patient supposed to go?

I haven't slept a single minute out of fear. All night glass shattered on us inside. The emergency room here is the only one still functioning in Gaza City. And now even the emergency department and the labs are gone. Israel says Hamas regularly uses hospitals as cover for its fighters. And in a statement, it said it had used precise munitions and aerial surveillance to mitigate harm to civilians. Hamas called the strike a heinous and filthy crime and demanded an international inquiry. While there are no reports of any direct casualties from the strike, church officials in Jerusalem say one child who previously suffered a head injury died as a result of the rushed evacuation.

Al Ali was the only fully functioning hospital in Gaza City and has been hit multiple times since the beginning of the war. Gary O'Donoghue. The residents of the Zamzam refugee camp in Sudan had already lost their homes and were suffering what were described as famine conditions. Now it seems the camp has been taken over by the rebel group known as the Rapid Support Forces. The group had already been shelling the camp, killing more than a hundred people. And all of this marks an escalation in violence, according to the United Nations. Among the dead were nine aid workers attached to the charity Relief International.

Its Sudan director is Kashif Shafik. Unfortunately, I lost my staff. I lost my brothers. We were the only organization who were serving the population of more than 500,000. And I was just debriefed by two female staff who survived. They explained that RSF, they entered into facility, and they shot on the head one time and three times on the chest and killed nine staff who were inside that bunker at that time.

The initial attack was sort of warning. They were hunting, they were chasing all the health facilities within the Samsung camp. Still they are trying to target other locality but we witnessed yesterday they have targeted Abushog and also we got information that another health facility being targeted the clear message they have given when they first time attacked the clear message was to leave. Kashif Shafiq next to Myanmar and a sound normally heard there at this time of year. That's from a traditional New Year celebration in Myanmar three years ago. But it's rather

different this year. The military junta has ordered people not to sing or dance because of the devastating earthquake which hit the country two weeks ago. The traditional five-day festival is instead being marked in somber style, as we heard from our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatton. The irony is, while the regime is arguing that people should not sing, should not dance, should not really mark this traditional festival, it's really the highlight of the year in Myanmar usually, it's also the same junta that's being accused of stopping aid from getting to those who need it and is actually forcing volunteer groups, the only people who are handing out aid

right now, to register before and to receive permission from the junta before they hand out any aid. So I've just read of one account of a volunteer group who traveled to the epicenter of the quake, the city of Mandalay. They had about a thousand dollars worth of hospital supplies with them that they wanted to hand out because that's in great need at the moment and they were stopped by junta officials from handing out that aid and the only thing they could do was hand the aid directly to officials from the military regime and to leave the area. They were sort of escorted out.

And so we have these two things where the Junta is stopping people from celebrating new year, but they're also not getting them the aid that they really desperately need. People are still crouched in really flimsy shelters, plastic sheeting propped up on all sides that are really open on the sides. They're really exposed to most of the elements and this is really going to become a problem starting next month because that's when monsoon season is going to begin, four months of monsoon season and so that's why many people

in Mandalay, in the neighbouring area of Sagaiing, are really concerned because they're just not getting the help that they need and they don't really see a way forward at the moment. Celia Hatton, could the work that dentists do be in for a radical change? It seems there may now be a new approach if one of your teeth needs a filling or a bit of root canal work. Rather than going through the terror of sitting back in a chair and having someone stick a variety of unpleasant implements in your mouth, it may one day be possible instead to have a new tooth grown for you. At least that's what scientists in London are hoping, as Ella Bicknell reports. Veneers and implants have never been more popular as more of us try to achieve that

perfect smile. But what if there was another way to fix your teeth, one that involved growing a brand new set in a lab? It may sound like science fiction, but work by scientists at King's College London suggests it might soon be possible. Their prosthodontics team alongside researchers at Imperial College have developed a special material that allows cells to communicate with each other. This is actually a section of little tootlets which were formed in a dish. Already the cells which are responsible to make the enamel and the cells which are responsible for making the other parts of the tooth, they're all already committed.

They will be forming the dental tissues once we implant them. Ana Angelova-Valponi is the director of regenerative dentistry at King's College. She says it was a pioneering project she couldn't resist joining. This idea of actually replacing in a biological way and regrowing a tooth was the one which drew me here in London and I have stayed here and we have developed this research further. Now that the team have successfully created the environment needed to grow teeth, the next challenge is getting them from the lab to the patient's mouth. Dr. Sush O'Toole is a clinical lecturer in prosthodontics at King's College London.

So this new technology of regrowing teeth has potential to be a game changer for dentistry. Will it come in in my lifetime? Probably not. Will it be in for my children's dental lives? Maybe and my children's children hopefully. According to a 2022 World Health Organisation report, more than 3.5 billion people worldwide will suffer from oral disease at some point in their lives, curtailing people's ability to eat and speak. And in severe cases, bad oral health can even be linked to heart problems and infections if bacteria enter the bloodstream. The idea is that lab-grown teeth would naturally regenerate and integrate into the jaw, creating

a new set of pearly whites that is stronger and far more durable than traditional fillings or implants. Ella Bignall. Still to come in this podcast, how much is a human life worth? He said he didn't keep count of how many people he killed, but he probably killed about a dozen people, so he made at least $2 million per hit. We speak to the investigative journalist who met a real-life professional hitman. Unless you've been hiding under a very large pixelated rock, you've probably heard of Minecraft. It's the best-selling video game of all time, and the franchise's first feature film is in cinemas now. But how much do you know about the game's creator, software developer Marcus Persson?

Find out about the man behind Minecraft on Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, motives and money of some of the world's richest individuals, Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Politics in Gabon used to be a simple affair. For more than half a century, the West African nation was run by a man with the surname Bongo. First it was President Omar Bongo and then in 2009 his son Ali Bongo took over and aside from the name what they had in common is that they grew very rich while at least a third of the

country continued to live in absolute poverty. That era became history two years ago when President Bongo jr. was overthrown in a coup and now the man who led that coup, Brice Oligye Ngema, has won an election, one that's being billed as the country's first ever free and fair contest. Speaking after the result was announced, he painted a pretty rosy picture of the future ahead. Let us be builders, builders of peace and justice. May God bless you. May God bless Gabon.

Thank you for this great victory. Mr Ngema's victory was widely predicted. But as our correspondent in Gabon, Paul Njia, told my colleague Julian Marshall, the margin of his win places him in a strong position. It was a convincing victory for Ngema and for his supporters because he said that he's really the main man for the job. After ousting former president Ali Bongo from power in 2023, he presented himself as the change the country needs. And that's the idea, that's the personality that the people of Gabon fell in love with, as I would say. But on the other side of the aisle, there are those who say that he is really, really

not ideal, because first he's a man from the military and he had promised to hand over power to civilians but that he didn't keep to his words. He later on said he is now a civilian because one of the preconditions for members of the military to run in elections is that they will have to renounce their military titles in order to take part so that's what he did he now considers himself a civilian. And are people pleased that he's been elected president? Yeah, some people we've seen are really pleased. They've been celebrating the victory, most especially because he's the man who took the country off the Bongo dynasty, as they call it here. So they kind of see him as that liberator. So he

has a very good... he's like a demigod in this area people really really look up to him but there are also those who believe that because he was part of the previous system nothing is really going to change and that he's seemingly going to continue the practices of the previous regimes were the elections free and fair were there international observers there they were international observers and by and large what they said is the process was quite fair, was quite free, a few complaints of some organisational lapses. But then most people here say that the process was peaceful and transparent.

I mean Gabon is oil rich and it is generally agreed that over the years the Bongo family siphoned off a lot of that wealth. Is Brice Oleg Ngema going to make the people of Gabon wealthy? He has promised to tackle the poverty that's in the country, to provide jobs for young people and also face the corruption head on. Remember, he criticised the previous regime of practising corruption and he's saying that he's going to change that and become a very good person to put the country in the good books. But he himself has been criticised for or accused of corrupt practices in the past as well. So it really remains to be seen what more he's going to do. Paul Njea. Meanwhile in South America, a presidential election has also been taking place in Ecuador.

You really couldn't get more contrasting candidates than the man and woman vying for the job. In one corner is the incumbent Daniel Nuboa, who's best known for his self-styled iron fist approach to tackling gangs and gangsters. This in a country which has become South America's murder capital because of drugs related violence. Challenging the president is Luis González, who describes herself as an animal lover and whose campaign also emphasized social welfare programs and the alleviation of poverty. As polls closed I spoke to our South America correspondent, Aini Wells. She told me first about the issues which have dominated the campaign.

The polls certainly suggest that security is the top concern for voters still in the country and that's because while homicides, violent crime, slightly reduced under Daniel Nabowis tenure, progress has been slow and they still remain very, very high. And so certainly voters, both those who support Daniel Nuboa but also those who oppose him, think that security is one of the most important issues. The economy is also a top issue for voters too. It has high employment at the moment. The country faced widespread blackouts, power cuts last year as well

that caused significant economic damage. Daniel Naboa has been emphasizing the need to create more jobs for young people, build various sort of infrastructure projects. Luisa Gonzalez has talked about rapidly sort of increasing social spending programs, welfare programs as well, to alleviate poverty. So it's something that both candidates are pretty mindful of. President Naboa, I see he said, he'll only accept the result if he thinks there were no irregularities in the voting. I wonder, should we take that as a warning that he may try to hold on to power, even if he's deemed to have lost? Well, he certainly has sort of rolled the pitch a bit, claiming that there could be

some irregularities. In fact, in an interview he did with me quite recently, he did claim that the first round of the election had voting irregularities, even though independent election observers said that they hadn't received any evidence of that. So I think, interestingly, the government has decided to ban people taking photographs in voting booths and around polling stations. And that is because it is thought

that that could make people more vulnerable to be exploited, particularly by criminal groups, essentially people being told to vote for a certain person and provide photo evidence of it. So that is a practice that's now been banned in Ecuador for this vote to try to crack down on any potential of voter fraud. Ione Wells. Now how much is a life worth? That might sound like a rhetorical question, but it's one that many people do in fact have to answer, assessing whether it's worth introducing new medicines, for example, or how much to pay in compensation for a fatal accident. These and other situations require what might sound like a very cold calculation about the value of someone living or the cost of them dying.

It's a subject the journalist Jenny Kleeman has investigated, one she discussed with the BBC's Tim Harford. She told him about a man she met who had his own particular reason to evaluate the price of a life. He was a hitman. He's called John Elite. He is somebody who has served time in prison for murder, for being a hitman. He was a hitman for the Gambino family, one of the five families of New York. So he killed people for the mob. And in return, he would get, he said to me, not so much a fee per hit, but he would get opportunities. He would get the chance to participate in a business or own a parking lot or something like that. Opportunities would open up in exchange for the murders that he committed. He said he didn't keep count of how many people he killed, but he

probably killed about a dozen people. So he made at least $2 million per hit. And that seems maybe not unreasonable. Life is very valuable. Killing somebody seems very risky. Would hit men normally get $2 million to kill somebody? This is the really interesting thing that I found out is that the price of a hit, the cost of commissioning a hit, has very little to do with the value of the life taken. It's to do with the desperation of the person

being employed to take that life. And actually, the average cost of a hit in the UK is surprisingly affordable. I interviewed some criminologists who have looked into this and it's about the cost of a secondhand family-sized car. But then again, we only know about the hit men who are unsuccessful, the ones who get caught. We only know about their prices, the kind of hit men of our imaginations who turn up with silences, kill people and then disappear into the night.

We don't really know how much they charge. Jenny Clemen speaking to Tim Harford. And if you want to hear more on the cost of human life, search for Tim Harford's programme More or Less, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. It's more than 60 years since the first woman travelled into space, the Russian Valentina Tereshkova. Now an all-female crew of astronauts is preparing to blast off on Monday on a Blue Origin rocket. They include Lauren Sanchez, fiancée of the rocket's owner Jeff Bezos, as well as TV presenter Gail King

and the singer Katy Perry. She says it's a chance to inspire young girls. I am feeling so grateful and grounded and honored to be included with this incredible group of women. I am talking to myself every day and going, you're brave, you're bold, you're doing this for the next generation to inspire especially young girls to go, I'll go to space in the future. The craft will only be in space for a few minutes before returning to Earth. Some have questioned the merits of the trip and whether it's worth the expense. One of those who has been critical is the actress Olivia Munn, who told NBC Television the trip was gluttonous.

I know this is probably obnoxious, but it's so much money to go to space. And there's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs. Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. I mean, what are they going to do up there? So what does a real astronaut make of it? Susan Kilreane is an American aerospace engineer, the youngest person to pilot a space shuttle at the age of 35. She told Rebecca Kesby there was a strong element of PR about the whole exercise. I honestly think it's a start to get more publicity for Blue Origin.

That being said, anytime somebody goes to space, it's exciting, it's risky. Perhaps in many of these women's cases, it's something they've dreamed about doing for a long time. And hopefully they will come back from this adventure and promote Earth in some way, the fragility and how we need to protect Earth, because they're only going to be weightless for about three minutes. So it's not like any life-changing science is going to be weightless for about three minutes. So it's not like any life-changing science is going to be done. It's mostly going to be about how they speak about the

experience afterwards. So just in terms of your own experience then, what did it do for you being out in space and looking back at the Earth from a completely different perspective? You know, I had that often phrased astronauts overview effect where at some point during the flight I was looking at the horizon and for the first time I realized how thin that blue horizon is that surrounds Earth and that's all that's keeping humanity alive.

And it really sunk in with me that it's our responsibility and by everybody on this planet to protect our atmosphere. You mentioned that this trip, I think it's going to be about 11 minutes on the Blue Origin rocket. Lots of people, including we just heard there the actress Olivia Munn saying this is a lot of money to spend. Is it worth it? Well, I mean, it's their money and they've earned that money and they can do with it what they will. It's not much different than somebody paying $50 to go to a theme park and ride roller coasters, except it's a much greater scale. I think that had I not made it to NASA as an astronaut and been selected and had the

opportunity, I'd be wanting to save my money up to make a trip into space any way I could get there. And so I kind of understand where these women are coming from, that they didn't get the opportunity to be selected as astronauts. Maybe they didn't even want to be NASA astronauts, but they do want to go to space. And I don't think anybody gets in a rocket and goes to space without feeling very compelled to do so because of course it is risky and it is expensive. The former NASA astronaut Susan Kilreane. 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.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Holly Smith and the producer was Ella Bicknell. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Paul Moss. Until next time, goodbye. In the fall of 2001, while Americans were still grappling with the horror of September 11th, envelopes started showing up at media outlets and government buildings filled with

a white lethal powder, anthrax. But what's strange is if you ask people now what happened with that story, almost no one knows. It's like the whole thing just disappeared. Who mailed those letters? Do you know? From Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, and CBC podcasts, this is Aftermath, the hunt for the anthrax killer. Available now.