Global News Podcast - Spain floods: dozens killed in Valencia

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

More than 70 people have died in Spain after the country’s worst flooding in decades. Also: China has successfully launched its youngest-ever astronauts into space, and are animals more fond of alcohol than we thought?

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Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jeanette Jalil and at 14Hours GMT on Wednesday 30th October, these are our main stories. Dozens have been killed by flash flooding in Spain, with some areas inundated by years worth of rain in just eight hours. The European Union imposes hefty tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. As famine looms over Sudan, the World Food Program appeals to the world to do more to end the devastating civil war there. Also in this podcast...

As China successfully sends its youngest ever astronauts into space, we get rare access to their launch base. And Australian police recover 40,000 stolen rare coins linked to the children's TV show Bluey. Torrential rain has caused flash flooding in Spain killing more than 60 people in the southeastern region of Valencia. In the town of Chiva, a tourist hotspot, more than a year's worth of rain fell in just eight hours. Videos posted online show cars floating along swollen, muddy rivers and some people hanging onto trees or roofs to avoid being swept away. These residents described what they saw. A flash flood came down from the mountain, bringing pine trees, branches and everything

at the same time. It went through the ravine, breaking one of these bridges, and took three or four cars with it. A house at the entrance of the town just disappeared. There were at least two people. They just don't know if they're still missing or not. Tens of thousands of homes are without electricity. Trains have been cancelled, schools closed and other essential services suspended. The military helped to evacuate communities and is also helping with rescue efforts.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters that the government was doing everything possible to help people in the affected areas. There is lots of people suffering and people facing uncertainty, but we're going to help them. We're going to have all the resources for those people to be able to recover, recover their lives and also their homes. To the towns and cities that have been affected by this, I'm just saying the same. United, we're going to recover everything. Your cities, your squares, your bridges. Spain is behind you. Our correspondent in Madrid, Guy H Hedgeco gave us this update. The situation is still pretty desperate across much of eastern and parts of southern Spain, particularly the

Valencia region on the Mediterranean coast, which has been the hardest hit area with these flash floods. Rescue efforts are still going on. Many people spent the night either on the roofs of their houses or of other buildings or in their cars as they waited for the floodwaters to subside and waited for rescuers to come because they couldn't return to their homes which had been flooded. Many of them have returned now but there are still people being rescued. There are members of the military working with the emergency services. They've got sniffer dogs out looking through this tremendous quantity of rubble that has

been left by the floodwaters in many areas. So they're out looking for survivors and possibly we could see the death toll rise even further. That seems to be the fear. And there's an enormous disruption across that area of Spain. So the rail link, high-speed rail link between Madrid and Valencia, which has been affected by the flooding. There are many other rail links around the Valencia region, for example, which are not working, and also across other areas in the south. There are a number of flights which have not been able to land in Valencia Airport

and there have been dozens of roads which have been closed, many of them still remain closed. Guy Hedgecoe. Well more flooding is expected in Spain as the week goes on. A severe weather warning has just been issued for the northern region of Catalonia. BBC weather presenter Darren Bett explains why the country has been so badly affected. The Spanish Met Service are saying that the reason it was so wet is something that they call gotafreia or Dana, which is an acronym for essentially what is a cold pool of air higher up in the atmosphere. So if you look at the surface pressure charts over Spain there was no named storm because there were no particularly strong winds, it was all happening higher up in the atmosphere so above the top of the mountains. You had a pool of cold air and usually cold air at the same time

you've got warm air coming in from the warm Mediterranean Sea and that is a recipe for huge amounts of uplifting air so instability the air rising rapidly producing an awful lot of rain in a short space of time and today there is an amber rain warning from the Spanish Met Service for the Valencia area and there could be something like 140 millimeters of rain so not anywhere near as bad as it was, but more rain, not good news. These gotafreer events, these cold pool events

do tend to happen across this part of Spain. So that in itself is not unusual. The rain that came out of it is unusual. And it could be that global warming, climate change is having an effect, because as we know, as you warm the world, you more moisture which can potentially give you more rain and what we're seeing here is an unprecedented amount of rain in such a short space of time. Darren Bett, well the floods in Spain are just part of a bigger global problem according

to climate scientists. The latest study on climate change suggests that almost half of the Earth's land surface had at least one month of extreme drought last year. The annual report published by The Lancet found that at the same time, extreme rainfalls, like the ones that Spain is experiencing, had increased. Here's our population correspondent Stephanie Hegarty. Since the 1980s, the area of the world's landmass affected by drought has tripled. In the 80s, 15% of the world saw drought for one month or more, and last year that figure was 48%. The increase has been particularly dramatic in Brazil, which saw 9 months more of drought

last year compared with the baseline of the 1950s. Somalia saw 10 months more. Last year was the driest year on record. It was also one of the wettest. This analysis from the Lancet Countdown on Climate and Health found that 61% of the planet saw an increase in extreme rain in the last decade when compared with the 1960s. Many places are facing a double hazard. When intense rain follows drought, the soil is especially vulnerable, causing severe damage to agriculture and to public health. Stephanie Hegarty. While the success of the world's attempts to tackle climate

change could hinge on the outcome of the US presidential election due to be held in less than a week's time, Donald Trump as president pulled the US out of the Paris 2015 climate agreement before that decision was later reversed. He and the vice president, Kamala Harris, have been making some of their final pitches in a race that the polls suggest is neck and neck. Speaking at a rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump said Kamala Harris didn't have what it took to be president and outlined what he would do if elected.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago? We will end inflation. We will stop the invasion of criminals into our country. In a televised speech in Washington, Kamala Harris told the tens of thousands of supporters gathered there that it was time to turn the page on conflict, division and drama. She also had some sharp words for her Republican rival. He was told by his staff

that the mob wanted to kill his own vice president, and Donald Trump responded with two words. So what? two words. So what? America, that's who Donald Trump is. But the vice president's speech may have been overshadowed by footage of President Joe Biden describing Donald Trump's supporters as garbage. A correspondent in Washington, Samira Hussein, told us more. On the one hand, you have Kamala Harris really presenting herself as the next president, you know, appearing very presidential, speaking from the ellipse with the White House in

the background. But yes, her boss may have just eclipsed her in terms of his political gaffe. He was speaking at a Zoom event with Latino activists in which he was responding to this comment that was made by a comedian over the weekend at a Trump rally where he said that Puerto Rico is a floating island of garbage. Well, in response to that comment, President Biden said, well, the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something. I don't I don't know the Puerto Rican that I know, or Puerto Rico, where I'm in my home state of Delaware. They're good, decent, honorable people.

The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization is seen as unconscionable. Now, of course, the Biden administration, or rather President Biden, took to social media very quickly to try and backtrack any of those comments, really making the point that he was referring to that particular comedian in his comments and not to all Trump supporters. But now the question very much for the Kamala Harris campaign is how much damage has this done. Remember we're only six days to the election and it is incredibly tight so anything could tip the scales.

Samira Hussein, China is aiming for the moon, literally. It aims to put a person on its surface before 2030. It's all part of what President Xi Jinping says is his dream to build his country into a space power. But this has rung alarm bells in Washington with the head of NASA saying he believes that the US and China are locked in a new space race. In its latest mission, China has launched a space rocket carrying three astronauts to its homegrown space station for a six-month stay. Laura Bicker was granted rare access to the launch base from where she sent this report. I'm standing at the edge of the Gobi Desert waiting for the launch of Shenzhou-19.

This is China's latest mission to its homegrown space station called Tiankong or Heavenly Palace. The BBC has been given rare access to this launch centre and I'm just about a kilometre away from the spacecraft itself. So we're expecting one almighty roar. This launch is yet another step in a growing space race. A battle which could eventually decide who owns the moon. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Fire. Ha Tianyuan, please leave. The three chosen to fly to China's home-grown space station were introduced from behind glass

to prevent infection. They include the country's first female space engineer, Wang Haoci. I dream of exploring the vastness of space, waving to the stars, and of course looking back at my homeland. My deepest affection will always be for my motherland, no matter where I am. I will keep striving and working tirelessly. The team have trained together for a year to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks. The pilot is a veteran, but both Wang and her crewmate are China's next generation of space explorers. And this year they watch their country carry out an historic first and collect lunar samples from the far side of the moon. China also has a fleet of satellites in space and has plans for

many more, a rival to Elon Musk's Starlink. After meeting the astronauts we were allowed right next to the spacecraft several hours before launch. You can hear the announcement in the background, final preparations are being made. President Xi has described China's space ambitions as the eternal dream, but every year that dream gets a little closer. This country is making technological advances with every mission to space. And it has, Washington worried. The head of NASA has said that the US and China is in a new space race. Li Yinyang from China's manned spaceflight agency told us the country's discoveries belonged to the world.

discoveries belonged to the world. I think his concerns are unnecessary. We adhere to the principles of peaceful use, equality, mutual benefit and joint development. Hundreds have gathered along the streets in the dark to wave flags and brightly coloured lights as the Taikonauts make their last few steps on earth before heading to the launch site. The brass band strikes up ode to the motherland as young children kept up late for the occasion. Their chlicks are adorned with the Chinese flag. Shout every note.

This is a moment of national pride. China's rivalry with the US is no longer just based here on Earth. Both could soon be staking territorial claims well beyond this planet. That report by Laura Becker. Still to come on the Global News podcast, researchers find that it's not just us humans who turn to alcohol to drown our sorrows. When male flies are rejected by a mate, they tend to increase their intake in alcohol. With the opposite

female side, it reduces their choosiness of mates. So there's quite some interesting behavioral implications. 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.

For months now, the World Food Programme has been warning that Sudan is on the edge of becoming the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Yet the civil war raging there has received scant international attention, overshadowed by other conflicts like those in Gaza and Ukraine. Speaking after a visit to Port Sudan, the head of the World Food Program, Sydney McCain, said a vital border crossing at Adre from Western Sudan to Chad may close next month. She warned that with 25 million people already facing a hunger crisis, this would be a catastrophe. She was speaking to our reporter, Anne Soy,

who asked her what was needed most to alleviate the suffering of Sudan's civilians. We need to cease fire. We need it now. And if we don't get that, you're going to see millions of people very close to starvation or entering starvation and dying as a result of it. There's 25 million people that are food insecure right now. And Sudan in particular, because it's such a complex country, and right now there's not enough border openings for us to get our food in at scale. If they close Adre, which is a very real possibility, we won't be able to get in.

The authorization for the reopening of the Adre border is due to expire mid-next month. From your conversations with the authorities in Sudan, did you get the sense that they're considering prolonging that authorization? They're not hopeful that it's going to stay open, I'll be very honest with you, and they give the reason that they can't control the flow of what's coming in and, you know, they have

various reasons for it. I disagree. We need to keep everything open and open more so that we can feed people. As I have said publicly and I told them, there's no way that we can help stave off famine unless we can have complete access and safe access and secure access in every way. As you know, humanitarian aid workers have been targets and safe access and secure access in every way. As you know humanitarian aid workers have been targets most recently and that's not only unacceptable but we can't operate. If I have to risk, you know, can I send them in? Is it too dangerous today?

And I don't want to do that. We're good at what we do and we need to get in there. I remember earlier in this conflict that your warehouses were looted. What's the situation at the moment? It's dicey. The political and military unrest and the factions that have a great deal of unrest right now are completely collapsing what little system there was and that makes our job even tougher and even larger. And so for WFP it's important again that we get in a scale

that we open every possible crossing, that we give every advantage to any way to get food in, air drops included, even though they're very expensive but air drops have to be a part of this, and to give us full access and we don't have that. Are you able to do any air drops at all at the moment? No, right now, no. What we were told is a clearance of sorts but it's not been finalized at all. And since the Adre border was reopened in August, has that made any difference for the operations on the ground? It allowed us to get more trucks in, but then the problem was the rains. And we simply physically couldn't get our trucks into where they needed to go in a timely fashion because the roads were impassable,

or in many cases they'd wash the bridges out. It's again a very complex situation and it's also something that I really would like the world to pay attention to. We need funding to be able to continue this and we need everybody focused on this as well. I'm always the eternal optimist that things will get better but I'll be honest on this one, I'm very scared. What do you need to be able to operate in Sudan? Ceasefire. Every entry open. The world funding, helping fund this also. As I said earlier, this will be the largest humanitarian crisis ever on this planet if we don't get a hold and if we don't get in. The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, talking about the crisis in Sudan.

Trade tensions between the world's leading export powers have been ratcheted up further. The European Union is hiking up tariffs on electric vehicles from China, potentially to as much as 45%. The EU says this is because Chinese carmakers get unfair subsidies which allow them to undercut European rivals. But Beijing says it's the EU tariffs that are unfair. Here's Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian. What I want to emphasise is that the European Commission's insistence on conducting anti-subsidy investigations on China's electric vehicles and imposing high tariffs is a typical act of trade protectionism. It will harm China-EU industrial and supply chain cooperation, harm the interests of European consumers and harm the EU's green transformation and global efforts to combat climate change.

The European tariffs are another setback for Chinese producers who are already effectively shut out of the North American market after Canada and the US imposed even higher tariffs of 100 percent. Our business correspondent Nick Marsh told me more about why the EU had taken this step. Nick Marsh told me more about why the EU had taken this step. The EU argument is that China subsidises its EV industry to the point where European carmakers aren't able to compete on price. So, you know, China's gone really, really big on EVs. It's by far the world leader. The government sees it as a way of kick-starting the economy, which hasn't been great recently. It's a way to move on from the old ways of generating growth, which were things like

construction and manufacturing. The problem is that China isn't the only country that wants to get in on the act when it comes to EVs, and Western countries want to develop that industry too. They're just behind. And the EU is worried about this scenario where Europe is flooded by cheap Chinese-made EVs and no one will want to buy the European-made ones, hence these tariffs. But the EU is not united on this. Germany and Hungary oppose the move because they're worried about a trade war. Yeah, I mean, Hungary has a good relationship with China politically and economically, generally. Germany too, but more pertinently when it comes to cars, EVs, German carmakers sell

a lot to China. They manufacture in China, you know, they're a big part of the German economy. And frankly speaking, these German carmakers, they didn't want anything to do with these tariffs because they don't want to be caught up in any blowback. In terms of a trade war, I think that's the last thing either side needs. I mean, China, we know, has already been looking at retaliatory tariffs on things like European pork, brandy, cheese. So if that does happen, that's not going to go down well with European producers of those products. But China has now lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over these EU tariffs. Yeah they've lodged this complaint with the WTO because basically they say that you know for as much as the Europeans say it's unfair how much China is subsidizing the EV companies, China says well it's not our

fault that we're so far ahead in the EV race you know that's your own fault and we're getting punished for this so they've complained to the WTO. They are going to want to get this sorted out quickly through negotiation though, because Beijing already has enough on its plate when it comes to trade, especially with the US and Canada, you know, they've got 100% tariffs on EVs. So that makes Europe an especially crucial market to sell to. You know, that's the last market really that they have to sell to when it comes to, you know, people who will be able to buy these electric vehicles and it's one they can't really afford to lose. So you would imagine that they'd play on

these divisions among the European players, try and create some room for negotiation because otherwise it does become a trade war which as I said neither side truly wants. Nick Marsh. Now a story involving one of the most watched children's shows around the world. Bluey. The award-winning Australian animation follows the life of a puppy and her family who live in Brisbane. Its popularity has generated all kinds of merchandise including limited edition bluey currency. But just before those coins were due to be released earlier this year, they disappeared from a warehouse in Sydney. Police say they've now recovered around 40,000 coins but they're

still searching for the rest, as Simon Atkinson reports from Brisbane. It was always going to make headlines when the Australian Mint decided to release bluey coins but news that more than 60,000 of the one dollar pieces had gone missing before they could find their way into people's pockets sounded far-fetched, even for a fictional cartoon. On Tuesday police raided a house west of Sydney and arrested a woman, the third person to be charged over the alleged theft. Hours later 40,000 of the missing coins were found. The more than 20,000 are still missing.

Bluey has been a huge international success and is broadcast in more than 60 countries. But while many of its stories finish with a heartwarming message, this one is set to end in a courtroom. Simon Atkinson. Now, what do elephants, spider monkeys and fruit flies have in common? There's scientific evidence that they're just some of the animals that are found to consume alcohol or ethanol in the natural world. A team at the University of Exeter here in England has been documenting the trend. The lead author of the study, Anna Boland, has been speaking to Celia Hatton.

We wanted to collate all this knowledge and the data that's out there to look at ethanol use outside of what we know how humans use ethanol, which is quite widely discussed. And there's some really great examples out there. Tree shrews, for example, have been found to feed a lot on fermented nectar of the Burton palm. We have evidence that wild chimpanzees ingest fermented raffia palm sap.

Lae-Anne Holt Do we understand why animals might want to indulge in ethanol or alcohol? Is there evidence that animals are actually wanting the alcohol, the effects of alcohol, or do they just overindulge in sugary substances containing alcohol or ethanol? That's a good question. And there's a few hypotheses out there as to why animals might be feeding on these fermented food sources. Whether they're targeting the ethanol specifically or not, we still don't have much data on. So we don't know if they're showing a preference for these things. It could just be that, for example, sugary foods such as fruit, necks and saps, when they're infected by yeast, ferment. And since animals might feed on these food sources, they'll just automatically ingest ethanol as part

of the diet, whether they're sourcing it for the ethanol or not. Other hypotheses that have been put forward is that ethanol has been found to have some medicinal benefits. Also, it could be nutritional for energy-seeking purposes. Even potentially, although again, not very tested, particularly in the wild or nature, are the cognitive influences of ethanol. It's very unlikely that animals will be chasing intoxication. As you know, when you're drunk, injuries are more likely and if you're an animal, predation becomes more likely and it would greatly decrease your survival probability. And what about the example of male fruit flies though? Didn't you find some evidence that they indulge in ethanol more often under certain circumstances? Can you explain? Yeah, so there's a pretty cool study that looks at when male flies are rejected by a

mate, they tend to increase their intake in alcohol, which I'm sure maybe don't know many humans can relate to. And then with the opposite female flight, it reduces their choosiness of mates. So there's quite some interesting behavioural implications that alcohol could have on some species. Again, still know quite little about the behavioural implications in a wild context. Anna Boland from the University of Exeter. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on Ex at Global News Pod. This edition

was mixed by Chris Lovelock, the producer of A Shantel Hurtle, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jullio, until next time, goodbye. 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.