Global News Podcast - Ship carrying aid for Gaza bombed by drones

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Activists accuse Israel of a drone attack on a ship carrying aid for Gaza in the waters off Malta. Also: Germany's second-biggest political party is classified as extremist and the tourists who saved a great white shark.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and at 14 Hours GMT on Friday the 2nd of May, these are our main stories. Aid agencies in Gaza say mass starvation is possible and describe scenes of children combing through rubble to look for the remains of their parents. Israel has carried out an airstrike near the presidential palace in the Syrian capital, Damascus. We find out why Germany's second largest political party has just been designated an extremist groups and the group of strangers who risked their life to save a great white shark. Also in this podcast, these are criminals. You just really don't know who you're dealing with. I think firm principles tend to fold in the face of reality on stuff like this.

With cyber attacks on retailers on the rise, we find out whether paying hackers off is the solution. Crew members of a boat carrying aid to Gaza say they've been attacked by Israeli drones in international waters off Malta. It comes as agencies warn of mass starvation as people fight for food there amid a breakdown in public order. Activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition accuse Israel of hitting the front of their vessel twice overnight, causing a fire and damaging the hull. A video shared by activists on the social media platform X appears to show the moment the boat was attacked by drones.

A nearby container ship recorded the distress call. Yes, conscious, this is Malta, what is the situation on board? Ship is firing now. Well, there has been no independent confirmation of the allegation and no comments so far from Israel. The activist Greta Thunberg, who was due to board the ship, said the fight for the Palestinian people would continue. What happens now is uncertain, but what is certain is that us human rights activists will continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor.

Meanwhile, the International Arm of the Red Cross says humanitarian work in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse, two months after Israel imposed a blockade on aid supplies. The spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza is Hisha Manah. We are talking about hospitals running out of medical supplies. We're talking about people finding food with nearly luck. The prices of the remaining food supplies in Gaza went massively expensive beyond anyone's capability. If the humanitarian aid is not resumed within the following few weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross will not be able to maintain its humanitarian response. Community kitchens that provide hot meals for thousands of families every day.

Nearly the only one meal that these families and these children have will not be able to continue working. Here's our Middle East correspondent, Yalan Nel. A hot meal is hard to come by in Gaza, but these cooks are busy preparing one for some 6,000 displaced people. Today's dish is koshari, made with lentils, rice and a spicy tomato sauce.

In the past we used to cook rice with meat, with protein. Now there is no any type of meat or vegetables also in Gaza. The people rely on our meat. Sami Mathar from the humanitarian organization American Near East Refugee Aid, or INEARA, oversees this community kitchen in Khan Yunus. We only have 25 tons of rice, 8 tons of lentils and 100 bags of pasta. This is enough to cook the next 10 days. After that, we cannot continue in our kitchens because there is nothing in the market." The vast Anirah warehouse is now empty. Israel blocked all goods to Gaza two months ago and then resumed its military offensive, saying this was to pressure Hamas into releasing

hostages. Food stockpiled during the ceasefire at the start of this year has all but run out. With little fuel left in Gaza, the Aneera team has loaded up a horse and cart to transfer their packages of food to Almawesi, a sprawling, crowded tent camp on the coast. This elderly man says the koshary will be enough for his family of seven. A weary-looking mother says these handouts are her last lifeline. At this time, it's excellent, because there's no cooking gas, no food. I collect leaves to start a fire just so we can have a cup of tea. The nearest workers are logging every portion of food they give out in the camp. Israel

has accused Hamas of stealing aid, but the UN and humanitarian groups say they closely monitor their supplies. We have a software program with a database of hundreds of thousands of people, including IDs, their names and also the address, the coordinates of the camps to ensure the transparency and distribution. With rising cases of acute malnutrition among children, Israel's close allies, including the UK, are pushing it to lift the Gaza blockade. There have been warnings that starving civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. Back at the food kitchen, the huge cooking pots are washed up at the end of the shift.

For now, Gazans have no choice but to take life day by day, hoping that tomorrow will finally bring relief. Yulan Nel, we're going to stay in the Middle East now because Israel has struck a target near the presidential palace in Damascus. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a clear message to the new authorities in Syria that Israel will not allow any threat to the Druze community. In recent days there have been deadly clashes involving the Druze minority in Syria. I got more on Israel's intervention from Shana Oppenheimer, who's from BBC Monitoring

in Tel Aviv. Shana Oppenheimer Well, since the fall of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Israel has made these increasing overtures to various sects in Syria, notably the Druze, and they're really trying to portray themselves as this regional protector of minorities. They see the Druvs, among with several other sects, as key potential allies. The Druvs, notably in Syria, are along the border zone, so they are potentially a strategic partner for Israel as it's quite wary of the new government and their interests. So it serves Israel's interest to have some kind of buffer zone, if you like, on that

border between Syria and the Golan Heights area and Israel proper. Certainly, and it's worth mentioning that there are Druze that live in Israel as well as the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, and some in Israel kind of very much see are Druze that live in Israel as well as the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. Some in Israel very much see the Druze quite favorably. Some of them do serve in the Israeli army. Some of them are seen as quite loyal to Israel. Others of course are a little bit more loyal to their Druze communities in Syria. But Israel has made these kind of increasing

gestures and statements about how Israel will not allow any harm to the Druze. And they refer to them as the brothers of the Druze community in Israel. And Shanna, what about that comment from the Druze leader in Syria saying that the authorities are carrying out a genocide? I imagine it's very difficult to verify that, but what has been going on as far as you can tell? Well, sectarian violence erupted earlier this week following the circulation of this audio recording, which people said kind of was of a Syrian Druze cleric insulting the Prophet Muhammad, which is a quite controversial thing to do, as you can imagine.

And there was some kind of deadly clashes in suburbs of Damascus. But this idea that there's this genocide, I think it really echoes the way that Israel sees things too. And they've also kind of talked about a massacre of Druze and that they need to be protected. There has been some kind of agreement between the Druze and the Syrian government but kind of how this plays out is kind of unclear. Schena Oppenheimer. Germany's domestic intelligence service has decided to classify the right-wing AFD political party as an extremist

organisation. The party's co-leaders described the decision as a serious blow to German democracy. The Alternative for Germany saw massive support across the East in recent parliamentary elections, standing on a platform of opposing immigration. Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss told me more about the report. Well it has something very specific to say. It says the AFD does not consider German citizens with a migrant background, particularly from countries with a large Muslim population,

to be equal members of the German people. And what it says therefore, the party it claims would exclude people based on their ethnicity from the democratic process and that it says is incompatible with the German constitution. Now I should say you may be getting a sense of déjà vu here when you hear this designation as extremist because individual regional areas, the AFD party there has been designated as extremist but now it's the entire party that's been given this designation and by the country's official domestic intelligence agency. And Paul, what's this going to mean in practice for the party? It does have a practical meaning, it's not just a name, what it means is the authorities

in Germany now have the right to monitor the AFD with greater scrutiny. They'll have more right to, for example, intercept its communications. It can recruit informants from within the AFD. Now bear in mind we are talking about Germany's official opposition party and yet the country's spy agency has the right to invasively spy on them as extremists and a threat to democracy. This really is an unprecedented step. And how has the AFD responded? Well you won't be surprised to hear that they are not happy at all.

First was Anton Barron, a regional lawmaker, who said the old parties are now using the most politically questionable means. We then had an official statement from the ASD which said the party was being publicly discredited and criminalised. It said that the decision that had been made by the domestic agency was clearly politically motivated and they insist they will appeal. Now I should say the Interior Minister, the German Interior Minister, Nancy Fesser, has already replied to the suggestion of political influence. She says not at all. It was an independent investigation

taken on by the domestic intelligence agency. I should say though that whatever the criticism that the AFD makes of this decision, in some senses you could argue that actually this is going to be very good from them. They have always insisted they are the outsiders, the insurgents, that the establishment is trying to crush them and silence them and now they can look and say, look, you see, it is happening. Paul Moss. The populist right of centre party Reform UK has won a significant election in England, overturning a huge governing Labour Party majority.

It is the anti-immigration party's first ever by-election win and appears to confirm that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. Its leader, Nigel Farage, said the results so far showed his party was a major player. I think we've supplanted the Conservative Party now as the main opposition party to the Labour government. I think the messages we're getting in many places where we didn't quite win was that if you vote Conservative you actually get Labour and we've bitten very hard into the Labour heartland.

There were also elections for six mayors as well as elections for local authorities. I asked our political correspondent Rob Watson if these results are as impressive as reform says. Very short answer to that question Nick, is is yes I mean I could almost just stop there but they are truly impressive because it's not just winning the by-election MP they've also won one of their first local government elections they also have won a one of the mayoralities so absolutely they're doing well although of course with that having styled themselves as the party of disruption the party of change, we're not

the others, we think the system is broken, now of course they will have to deliver to some extent. So this is very much beyond the normal sort of midterm, well not even midterm, it's only what seven, eight months since their last general election, but local elections usually give the incumbents a bloody nose and they've certainly given the Labour Party bloody nose. Do you think it goes beyond that though? Well that sort of depends on what happens next Nick, but I mean yes to the extent that it's not just the Labour Party that's got a bloody nose here, it's the Conservatives who were in power before Labour and of course really what

you're seeing and this is what is so fascinating and presumably very worrying for the two main parties, you're seeing reform benefiting from just the intense unpopularity of the relatively new Labour government and of the course the Conservatives who went before it. I mean, what you find when you go out in Britain is just a vast amount of anger at the system, the politicians and funnily enough by the way that also includes reform. The extraordinary thing about British politics is that even though they've made these gains they still only have five members of parliament out of 650 don't they and they will be saying

look this is a representation of what is wrong with the British political system. They will, but I think that they'll also be saying, look, if you just give us a few more votes, we can be there. We can be the party that ends a hundred years of dominance by Labour and Conservative. And I think that is the big question that this that these set of elections are raising Nick and that is you know is this somehow a temporary phenomenon the idea that the Conservatives and Labour won't be ruling this country as they have for the last hundred years or is there something more permanent and of course we won't know that until the next elections the next elections but you can see that there is a state of flux out there. This is an unhappy, sour, sour mood country and the beneficiary is Mr. Farot.

Rob Watson. Still to come in this podcast. Thomas was based on a small wooden engine that my father had made. I think one term that I've heard used is Thomas unites the world in friendship. You sort of think that's amazing, that's wonderful. It is 80 years since one man's attempt to amuse his sick child with the story of a tank engine turned into a global phenomenon. phenomenon. Now to the cyber attacks that have been targeting online retailers, including heritage brands like Harrods in the UK. The hackers paralyse web operations, steal customer data and hold companies to ransom. How should they respond? Well the boss of the British chain Marks and Spencer is urging customers to come into its stores to shop in person as the retailer works day and night to tackle an attack that has crippled its online operation. Nick Stower is the CEO of

Monsoon and Accessorize and sells on M&S marketplace. They've been impacted by this week's attack. My colleague Amal Rajan spoke to him about the extent of the issue. We're targeted constantly. I think just along with most of the other retailers, there are attacks that go on in various shapes and forms all the time. I think people don't realise that, but it's a constant issue for us. What do you think these cyber criminals actually want? I think they generally want money and that's why they're going after the bigger retailers. I don't think it's, you know, they might have some cool celebra but I think this is about money.

And do you have a firm principle that you'll always refuse to give them that money or, speaking frankly, have you in the past considered whether or not small payments may be necessary in order to protect your customers' data? Well, I think firm principles tend to fold in the face of reality on stuff like this. Do they? Do it. Well, we've got a business to run. And the challenge with some of these attacks is it can completely sink the business. I mean, I think our going in principle is we wouldn't pay a ransom. And I think most people would be in the same boat. I think how you navigate that when it's actually happening is probably

another matter we haven't had to cross that bridge yet. Helen Dickinson is the head of the British Retail Consortium. Amal Rajan asked her what the sector globally can do. This is concerning for customers and concerning for all businesses. These attackers are becoming more sophisticated, often they're organized groups or people and they are very good at finding a weakness in any system and every business needs to be aware that this is a threat that exists. If cyber criminals demand money, ransom, should bosses pay? These are criminals. You just really don't know who you're dealing with. Make sure that as a business that you're dealing with, you have some support from some expertise. There's

a lot available in the market. And obviously the National Cyber Security Centre is there as well. Helen Dickinson, Africa to Yemen is one of the busiest but overlooked migration routes in the world. The mixed migration centre estimates that a hundred thousand migrants arrive in Yemen annually, most from the Horn of Africa and now migrants are getting caught up in Yemen's conflict as well. Earlier this week 68 African migrants were killed in a US airstrike on a detention centre in the northwest of the country. The BBC's Priya Sippy takes a look now at this migration route and asks why so many are

making this journey. In Hodon district in northwest Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, 35-year-old Mohammed Abdullah Mahmoud speaks to me on a video call via a local translator. Mohammed says he is now working as a rickshaw driver since he returned four years ago after he was deported from Saudi Arabia. He had been living there for five years. Like hundreds and thousands of others, Mohammed arrived in Saudi Arabia via Yemen, crossing the Gulf of Aden by boat. The Mixed Migration Center estimates

that 100,000 people a year take this journey, most of them coming from the Horn of Africa. It's one of the busiest migration routes in the world. And it's also one of the most dangerous. Thirty minutes into our journey out at sea is when I realized that the boat was teetering. They forced seven Ethiopian men off the boat into the sea. The migration route takes two branches. Migrants either leave from Obeq in Djibouti to arrive in Lodge in southeast Yemen, or

they leave from Basaso in Somalia to arrive on the Shabwa coast in southwest Yemen. Many boats have capsized over the past decade. It was a very distressed ride. Water kept flowing into the boat. All the migrants on the boat were putting their palms together and taking the water out of the boat so the boat wouldn't sink. Migrants are also vulnerable to exploitation and abuse along the journey. Isla Bonfilio is the regional head at the Mixed Migration Centre, a global research network.

In the research that we carried out last year, which was with approximately 350 refugees and migrants that we interviewed, a majority also said that they perceived their smuggler as a perpetrator of a number of abuses, which included physical violence, theft, extortion, robbery, sexual violence, kidnapping. It's really important to stress how blurry the line can be at times between smuggling and trafficking. Despite Yemen being embroiled in a civil war since 2014, Ayla says that authorities don't deter the significant numbers moving through the country. Most migrants actually want to go to Saudi Arabia, where there is a high demand for migrant

labor. In 2019, we had a number of reports that year in Libya where migrant detention centres have been targeted by airstrikes. It underscores the importance of really making sure that migrant detention centres are not in locations of active conflict. Back in Mogadishu, Muhammad is about to start his shift. He says that he has faced difficulties and challenges being back in Somalia, but he still warns other people about taking the migrant route.

Priya Sippy. Now, when a car breaks down, it's not uncommon for a group of people to help the stranded motorist by giving them a push. But what about helping out a stranded three metre long great white shark? That is exactly what a group of total strangers did in southern Australia recently, as Stephanie Prentiss explains. For tourist Nash Kaur, his day at the beach with his family took a dramatic turn after seeing a dark shape in the water. We thought, what's going on here? So we had a bit of a look ourselves and we saw a shark

in the shallow waters, not too far off the land. And I thought, I better go back and get my drone. So I ran back, got up close and yeah, it was a shark stranded on the beach. The shark was stuck on a shallow shelf next to deep water, appearing to be ill or exhausted and not moving. Great white sharks rely on moving to breathe properly and can suffocate if trapped. After some debate, the men decided to take action. To be honest, I sort of did have some thoughts about,

oh, why am I going out here? But as we were going out, my young son, he turned to me and said, Dad, my heart's pounding. I said, yeah, mine's beating pretty fast too. Along with some locals, he used crab rakes, a tool to dig crabs out of sand to move the shark into deeper waters. And thankfully, it swam away without turning back towards them. I was talking to them on the way back in.

And I said, is that something you've seen before? They're like, nah. I said, why did you guys go out? And they're like, oh, we just wanted to help it. So yeah, it was just, I guess, one of those things you just do when you see something in distress. Marine biologists watching the drone footage have said while shark strandings are not common, they advise contacting environmental authorities instead of stepping in, saying human safety has to come first. Stephanie Prentice. And we end this pod with...

Well that music will have transported some of you at least to the fabled island of Sodor, home to one of the world's most famous fictional trains or should I say tank engine, Thomas. This month marks 80 years since the Reverend Wilbert Audry published the book that began a global phenomenon with the TV series based on the book airing in more than 100 countries and being translated into dozens of languages. My colleague, Rajini Vajanathan, has been speaking to Wilbert Audry's daughter, Veronica Chambers. My brother had measles in 1943 and to entertain him, my father started to tell him stories because railways were in my father's blood. And eventually

father decided that he would try and illustrate a song which was down at the station early in the morning. And he did the front parts of locomotives. That's the easiest thing to draw. He put faces on them to make them more interesting. And there was a sad face and a happy face and a tired face and so on. And my brother, he didn't like the sad one because it was a bit like he was feeling because he wasn't very well with measles. And he said, why is this one sad, daddy? Father had to make up something to explain why, which was he hasn't gone out of the shed for a long time. And why hasn't he been out? Because all the other engines are bigger and

stronger and they get chosen first. And between them, they made this story of Edward's day out when he had to go and rescue a bigger engine that had broken down. That was the beginning and Edward was the first one and then Henry and Gordon were introduced in other stories. So Thomas didn't appear in the very first book. And so how did Thomas then end up becoming the main character, the number one? Thomas was based on a small wooden engine that my father had made for Christopher out of bits and pieces. And this was a little tank engine and he was painted blue and he had a coach and a truck as well. And on his side was painted NW, which actually then stood for Nowhere Railway. So father also decided he'd paint a number on

the side and the number one is the easiest number to paint. Oh, so it's as simple as that. As simple as that. What do you think is the enduring legacy of what your father's done with Thomas and his friends. I think one term that I've heard used is Thomas unites the world in friendship. And frankly, we could do with that now, couldn't we? Because we have seen children in foreign countries with models talking in their own language and suddenly the word Thomas comes out and you sort of think that's amazing that's wonderful. Veronica Chambers, daughter of Reverend Wilbert Audry, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine. And that's all from us

for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. Quick request from us though before we go we want to hear where you're listening from so we can update our shiny new map in the office. You can email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk with your town or city. And whilst you're about it, feel free to leave us a voice note because we do love to hear from you. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag at globalnewspot. This edition was mixed by Derek Clarke and the producer was Stephanie Prentice. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.