Global News Podcast - Strong aftershocks hit Afghanistan after quake kills more than a thousand

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Aftershocks have struck eastern Afghanistan - two days after a powerful quake in the same region killed more than a thousand people and injured thousands of others, according to the Taliban government. Rescue efforts following Sunday's quake have been complicated by landslides that have blocked roads, making land travel difficult. Helicopters have been deployed to search for survivors. The Taliban government has appealed for international help. The UN has released emergency funds. Also: Trial of Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro enters final phase, and Trump orders US Space Command to move from Colorado to Alabama.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

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It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jonut Jalil and in the early hours of Wednesday the 3rd of September, these are our main stories. Powerful aftershocks hit Afghanistan as the survivors of Sunday's earthquake mourn the hundreds, possibly even thousands, who have been killed.

The Supreme Court in Brazil considers its verdict in the trial of the former president, Jaya Bolsonaro, who's accused of plotting a coup. The African Union has called for a ceasefire in Sudan's civil war to allow aid to reach a village that's been buried by a deadly landslide. Also in this podcast, most importantly, this decision will help America defend and dominate the high frontier, as they call it. President Trump announces his relocating, US Space Command from Colorado to Alabama. We'll tell you why. The Taliban are appealing for international aid as Afghanistan struggles to deal with the latest disaster to befall one of the poorest countries in the world. They say that an earthquake on Sunday in the remote mountainous east is now known to have killed more than 1,400 people with thousands

more injured. Powerful aftershocks continue to be felt, even as blocked roads hamper rescue efforts. Only a few countries have offered to help so far, as even in the midst of this disaster, the Taliban is not letting up in its restrictive policies on women and girls with reports that many more men are being evacuated for medical care as the Taliban does not allow male medical staff to treat female patients. This doctor at a hospital in Jalalab, told the BBC about the types of injuries she and her colleagues have been treating. Today, around 15 patients were brought to us. Along with their injuries, many of them were pregnant and had obstetric complications and trauma.

Some of them had head injuries, others had spinal or other body parts. Seven or eight underwent surgery. One had a fractured leg. Another had a broken back. We provided first aid and ultrasound support. The biggest challenge here is poverty. Many were trapped under debris, and since there were no female rescue workers,

men had to assist and carry them. We are four female doctors here, along with nurses. Across all wards, there are about 100 admitted patients, and we have around 12 beds here. Out of those 100, nearly 50 are women. Yamaburi, from the BBC Afghan service, was able to get to the worst-hit province, Kuna, and he told us what he'd seen.

We went to a village and saw that the village had almost 30 houses. They were all destroyed. We saw people out on the street. They had spent the night in open air. We went to another area in Nurgal district. We were speaking to a family which had lost seven members. While you were speaking to them, we felt after shock. It was a very strong aftershock, very scary, and we could see the rocks falling down, but luckily nobody got hurt.

Most of the victims and the injured from Konar, they have been moved to the neighboring province, Nangrahar, because they have got a Velikwit hospital. We went into the hospital because, yesterday, actually, a lot of the victims and the injures were brought there. So I wanted to see that what is the situation like one day after. So today also, tens of the victims have been brought there. And when I spoke to a man, his name was Nader Khan. He was also from this Mazur Dara, which is the affected area. This guy was in his 60s. He told me that his two sons, his two daughter-in-laws, and his grandchildren died in front of him because the house collapsed.

He was injured himself as well. He managed to save only two grandchildren, but because he was injured, he could not help the others. Then the rescue team got there. They rescued him and his two grandchildren, but he didn't know where they were because they had been taken to different hospitals. And this person was literally crying in front of me. I had to give him time in order to calm down and then he became able again to tell me more about the tragedy that had happened to him. He was telling me my house is completely destroyed. My children are dead. They are still under the rebels or not. I'm not sure because I don't know. I do not have anyone to go back to or I do not have any home to go back to. Yamah Buries in Afghanistan. The verdict and

sentencing phase in the coup trial of Brazil's former president, Jaya Bolsonaro, began on Tuesday at the Supreme Court in Brazil. The far-right politician is accused of masterminding an attempt to stay in power after losing his bid for re-election to the left-winger Louise Inasio Lula de Silva three years ago. Just days after Mr Lula's inauguration, Mr Bolsonaro's supporters stormed several government buildings in Brazil. One of the Supreme Court justices, Alexandra de Morais, said that in a country with a history of military rule, the alleged coup plot constituted an attempt to establish a dictatorship. The country and the Supreme Court can only lament that in Brazil's Republican history,

there has once again been an attempt at a coup d'etat, an attack against the institutions and democracy itself, with the intention of installing a state of exception and a true dictatorship. Mr Boltonaro is currently under house arrest, and if convicted, he could, for more than 40 years in prison. He's always denied any wrongdoing and he's found an ally in the US President Donald Trump who's called the trial a witch hunt and used it to justify imposing hefty tariffs

of 50% on some of Brazil's goods. Our South America correspondent, Ione Wells, attended the proceedings in Brasilia and she told us more about what led to this trial. Well, I think the main event that most people might remember is the day, January 8th, 2023, when thousands of Jaya Bolsonaro's supporters stormed government buildings here in Brasilia, including the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress, vandalizing the buildings and essentially calling for him to return to power and for the military

to join them in scenes that were reminiscent to many of the capital riots that had taken place in the U.S. after Donald Trump had lost an election there. This, though, was a the culmination of what prosecutors, the judges and police have described as a much bigger coup proposal that Bolsonaro is alleged to have masterminded. This includes allegations that he had drafted a coup plan and held a meeting with top military commanders, essentially asking them to back it. There are also allegations that Bolsonaro had full knowledge of a plan to assassinate President Lula de Silva, who was then the president-elect, as well as his running mate, one of the Supreme Court judges, Alexander de Morais. So these allegations stem back before those

riots that took place in Brasilia and were the culmination of months and months and months of Bolsonaro's sowing doubt on the electoral system without evidence, which judges and prosecutors say was essentially an incitement for his supporters to rise up and attack government buildings in the way that they did. So talk us through what's been happening in court today. Well, today, this panel of five Supreme Court judges has started considering its verdict in the trial. We've heard from some of the judges, including Alexander de Morais, who's leading this case, as well as the Prosecutor General in Brazil.

Now, Alexander de Morais has said it's regrettable that another coup has been attempted in Brazil. He said the aim of it was to establish a true dictatorship, words that are very poignant here in Brazil, which, in living memory, had a military dictatorship. The prosecutor general said that the only reason that this coup failed was because it didn't have the support of the army and air force commanders. This is something that's been reflected in the evidence that's been presented in this trial. Evidence presented by police suggests that while the Navy commander had expressed support for this plan, those other military commanders hadn't. Mr Bolsonaro has always denied these allegations.

We're expected to hear further from his lawyers and his defense as this trial proceeds, but he is accused of trial of being. politically motivated. Oh, New Wells, in Brazil. President Trump has announced his relocating U.S. space command from Colorado to Alabama. The decision ends a long-running dispute about which state should host the facility, which oversees operations such as satellite navigation and missile launch warnings. Mr. Trump made the announcement at the White House. We had a lot of competition for this, and Alabama is getting it.

This will result in more than 30,000 Alabama jobs and probably much more than that and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, and that's billions, because it can't be millions, it's billions and billions of dollars. Most importantly, this decision will help America defend and dominate the high frontier, as they call it. A North America correspondent, Anthony Zerker, told Katrina Perry why Mr. Trump had made the decision to move U.S. space command from Colorado to Alabama. When asked about Colorado, he blamed the voting systems there, the mail in voting systems.

He called it corrupt. There's no evidence of corruption in voting by mail. But that was this explanation in part for why it was moving from a state, Colorado, that is Democratic, supports Democrats, voted against Donald Trump, the last three elections, to Alabama, a state that has supported him, as he noted, it's going to bring billions of dollars in spending and thousands of jobs to that area at a cost of the jobs there in Colorado. It's a very clear benefit for a state that has been on his side from the very beginning. We should say, though, that this move of Space Command from Colorado to Alabama is something that he tried to do before. It's been a bit of a political football. At the end of his first term, he did designate Alabama's the location for this Space Command, the permanent location for Space Command. And Huntsville actually has a long history, as Donald Trump mentioned, Rocket City.

It's where NASA had a research laboratory and a missile space. command there from the very early days of the U.S. space program. So it is not a surprising choice, but then Joe Biden decided to keep it in Colorado, also maybe for political reasons. And now Donald Trump's back in office and is going back to Alabama again. We'll see if it sticks there. Anthony Zucker. Hundreds of people in Sudan have been killed after a landslide engulfed their village in the western region of Darfur. The African Union has urged the warring sides in Sudan's long-running civil war to lay down their guns to allow humanitarian aid in. Our senior Africa correspondent, Anne Soey, reports.

Pictures show the point where the village of Tarsin once lay, although it's impossible to tell now, as the area is completely covered in mud. A local armed group which controls the mountainous area, the Sudan Liberation Movement, said as many as a thousand people may have been buried alive and that only one person survived. The group which has largely stayed out of the ongoing war in Sudan has appealed for help from the international community. The UN agency in charge of humanitarian affairs has said it may take a while to get to the remote village. Its deputy coordinator in Sudan is Antoine Girard. We do not have helicopters. So everything is on cars in the very bumpy road. It takes time

and it is the rainy season. So some of the time we have to wait a couple of hours, maybe sometime a day or two, to cross a wadi, a valley with water. So it is indeed a very difficult place to reach. Humanitarian access would also need to be granted by both the army and its rival in the war, the rapid support forces which controls March of Darfur. Both sides have so far offered support following the tragedy. An Soy, a BBC investigation into one of the longest running mysteries in the Middle East, the disappearance of a prominent political and spiritual leader, Musa al-Sada,

has uncovered a body that could belong to the missing cleric. Musa al-Sada traveled to Libya in 1978, never to be seen again. Moj Sharif reports. In March 2020, a BBC team filming in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, was seized by Libyan intelligence officers and imprisoned for six days. Freelance journalist Kasim Hamedi was with the team. In each interrogation, they asked me, who were your sources in Libya? Who helped you to know about Sadr, to the mosque, to the morgue?

They were investigating the disappearance of one of the most prominent political and spiritual leaders in the Middle East, Musa Sardr. Born in Iran, Sadr came to Lebanon to work with its disadvantaged Shia Muslim community. His message was one of inclusivity. I was striving to serve the custom poor in tear, as much as I was working to serve the Muslim poor. In August 1978, Sadr traveled to Libya at the invitation of the former dictator Colonel Gaddafi.

After a few days, he disappeared. What happened to him has remained a mystery. The BBC team in Tripoli was eventually released without charges, but their treatment showed just how sensitive this story remains almost half a century later. In 2011, Kassam Hamedi located a secret smorg in Tripoli. He'd been told he'd find the body of Musa Soder there. Two things struck me immediately.

The look, the color, the hair. A gaping hole in the skull suggested a bullet wound or heavy blow. The finding may corroborate an allegation when Libya's former Justice Minister had made to Kassim on that same visit. On the second or third day, they forged his papers, saying he had gone to Italy.

They killed him inside a Libyan prison. A former regime insider alleging what many had long suspected that al-Sauder had never left Libya alive, but was the body that of the missing cleric? Kassim had photographed the face of the body in the morgue. The BDC gave the photo to a team of computer scientists at Bradford University in the UK. They've developed an algorithm designed to identify people from imperfect images,

like the one taken at the morgue. In a human face, the way a computer looks at the faces, it looks at various dimensions, if you like. Professor Hassan O'Gale leads the team at Bradford. What I'm going to do is I'm going to run this image against everything else. that we know is him, yeah, and see, let's see what happens. The results were compelling. 60s, they are either siblings, close relatives.

So there is a high probability that it could be him, yeah. The BBC team returned to Lebanon to show their findings to Musa Soder's son, Sadrudeen. He didn't seem convinced. I thank you for what you did. We've been through a lot of these stories and more than one point I've seen in this film proves to me that this has nothing to do with us.

The Suther family, along with many of their supporters, have always maintained that he is still alive. They believe he's being held in a prison in Libya and hope one day he will return. Mooshreif reporting there. The BBC has asked the Libyan authorities to comment on the fine things of this investigation. it has received no response.

Still to come, the songwriter and singer Sting is being sued by his former bandmates over alleged lost royalties. In the 1970s and 80s, the band produced some of music's best-known songs. And the legal dispute is centred around how the royalties from their hits were distributed between Sting,

guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stuart Copeland. America is changing, and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

As we record this podcast, China is preparing to host a massive military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Asia, but also to show off its weaponry and growing diplomatic sway. Joining President Xi Jinping will will be the Russian and North Korean leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. It's the first time that Mr Kim, who arrived by Armoured Train, has attended a gathering of world leaders. From Beijing, here's our China correspondent, Laura Bicker. Kim Jong-un is making his boldest diplomatic move in years.

His signature Armoured Train has made its way to Beijing as he prepares to sit shoulder to shoulder with China's President Xi and Russia's Vladimir Putin at a grand military parade. in the Chinese capital to mark the end of the Second World War. This will be the reclusive young leader's first major international event, alongside more than 20 other world leaders. And it's the first time a North Korean leader has attended a military parade in Beijing since 1959. Mr. Xi has already held talks with President Putin,

who claimed ties between the two were at an unprecedented tie. It's been a big week for Mr. Xi. He's just hosted 20 world leaders for the largest ever meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But the biggest spectacle has yet to come. Marching troops, Air Force flyovers and new military technology are expected to be center-stage during the parade. The parade is important.

It will highlight the discipline of our soldiers and their morale will be high. The parades will showcase China's strength and let the world know we are a big country and we have power. It will be full of pride and patriotism, but it's also a clear challenge to the West and a chance for Xi Jinping to project his growing power and influence. That report by Laura Bicker. Since the military coup overthrew the elected government in 2021, Myanmar has been engaged in an increasingly brutal civil war, involving rebel forces from different ethnic groups. Tens of thousands of people are thought to have died in the fighting, which initially saw the rebels make big gains. But now China is giving support to the Burmese military government.

Those gains are being eroded. Ed Butler has been hearing about the economic forces driving. having the war and has visited a rehabilitation centre inside Thailand where wounded rebel soldiers go to recover. The Sunshine Medical Facility in Thailand feels like a haunted place. The injuries of 100 or more former service personnel revealing the type of warfare that's driving Myanmar's conflict these days. Kokand, a former soldier and amputee himself,

shows me and my translator E, some of the injured. The military side, they shot a lot of R.B.G. and bone, they have to go and take back the weapon, which didn't explode, and then explode in my hand. A rocket-propelled grenade. It exploded in his own hands. He was holding it. There's a man lying in a bed now. His eyes are closed. He's got a... a drip into his nose, some kind of neck injury. What happened to him? Mota. Mota, Mota, Bionji.

A Thai, me, I don't know. At the time, I'm going to say, what you're going to say. In front of the found line here, the Mota bone, he got injured. So it was a brain injury? Yeah, brain injury. It's common. The military, they use drone. They drop the bomb, a weapon they got from China and Russia.

Particularly this year, we've been saying that military also utilised drone tactics, even improvised designs of drones. And because military has a lot of resources, they can also order a lot of customates UAV drones from China and other countries. At Sue Monthant, a researcher on the conflict, she says the military balance has begun to shift in the ruling governments favor as China has become an increasingly major partner. Criminal groups are also playing a role now, she says. In their search for new revenue streams, both sides in the conflict are

being influenced by gangs who are profiting from the chaos. Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, says this makes the prospects for peace ever more distant. Alicit actors have thrived due to the ongoing conflict in the country. The pace, right, at which they're able to consolidate extremely lucrative illicit markets, it's really picked up, right? So you've seen the globalization of scam centers. Scam centers are now able to reach the whole of the world. You're seeing billions of dollars of revenue coming in, which further fuels the conflict. They also have access to natural resources, access to narcotics, trafficking of drugs, smuggling.

How are you going to have a peace process in the country when you have all of these armed actors, including the Myanmar military, that are sitting on these massive illicit businesses? These are major questions that there's no clear answer to right now. Back at the Sunshine Rehabilitation Center, my translator E, sits beside another victim. This one practically comatose. It's a trauma injury from a massive aerial explosion, she says, the face of future conflict. Even two weeks ago, three of my friends passed away at the same time because of airstrike. It's common.

The military now they are using really high-technic systems. High technical systems. Yes, yes. So in the near future, this revolution starts moving to anti-war. You need money to fight now. That report by Ed Butler in Thailand. Police in Pakistan say a suicide bomber has killed at least 11 people at a political rally in the restive province of Balochistan. The Balochistan National Party had been marking the anniversary of their founder's death four years ago at the rally in Quetta.

No group has claimed the attack so far. A Pakistan correspondent Azadamashiri reports from Islamabad. Police have told the BBC. see that none of the Balochistan National Party's leaders were killed and that their event had just ended. This is yet another violent episode in a province where multiple militant groups operate. For decades, Balochistan has been home to a nationalist insurgency. Several separatist groups accused the federal government of exploiting the province's natural resources. Some accused the Balochistan National Party of being complicit by working inside the political system. Yet, the party

does call for more rights and autonomy. Despite the instability, Pakistan's military and civilian powers still see the province as their ticket to growing the economy and have been encouraging foreign investment. Police have warned the number of casualties from this latest incident could rise. Asadamishiri, from Paris to London to Washington, financial jitters are back. There's a vote of no confidence in the French government in a week's time, which is expected to lose, despite its warnings about excessive debt. In the UK, the cost of long-term borrowing has hit its highest level in 27 years. And in the US, Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to bend the US Central Bank,

the Federal Reserve, to his will, as he tries to fire one of its governors, Lisa Cook, on unproven allegations of mortgage fraud. I spoke to the BBC's chief economics correspondent Darshini David about all this, and I started by asking her, why British borrowing, costs are so high. We've seen an increase in the borrowing costs on these 30-year bonds, largely because the concerns across Europe about the levels of government debts. And this really just cast a spotlight on what is going on in the UK, because we've got a situation here where the Chancellor is likely have to find extra money in the autumn budget to stick by her financial rules. Financial rules, ironically,

which are there to try to keep down borrowing costs. What we're seeing at the moment is market saying, actually, even though this is a concern, economists think that we're not headed for a crisis by any means. This is not the 1970s. They're saying there shouldn't be talk of bailouts, as we saw in the 1970s from the IMF. We're a long way from a crisis. But it does actually cast that little bit of attention on the fact that this is a conundrum for the UK in other countries as well. How do we try and manage our public debt? And the situation in the UK is more stable than, say, for instance, in neighbouring France. and yet it has the highest inflation of the G7. So why has the UK got so much debt?

It's an interesting situation when you're comparing the countries. In Europe as well, there are concerns about the levels of debt. When you look at those bond deals there, they're the highest since the financial crisis. But there too, people are saying, don't panic. We're not looking at a financial crisis by any means. The situation is far more stable. And when it comes to inflation, there are some oddities as well, different ways of, say, setting energy prices, different ways in which food prices have been impacted.

And part of that has got to do with domestic policy as well. Some of the tax rises in the UK have actually added to inflation in a way that means it is higher than an average in Europe. And that too contributes to interest rates being higher and therefore bond yields being higher. You can see how all these things are connected and therefore why there is concern about the UK in particular in some areas when it comes to debt. But ultimately, we've got to remember there is a plan to actually bring debt down. And when you look at these bond markets, even though there have been some pretty alarming-sounding headlines, what is interesting is when you look at the sales of these bonds, there's no shortage of appetites.

Investors are ready to buy them, which means there isn't a point at which we should be worried either here or across the EU. But beyond Europe, there is also huge debt in the US and concerns there about Donald Trump's attempts to force the central bank, the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and how this could erode its independence? There are concerns there about President Trump's relationship with the Federal Reserve, what that could mean at a time when inflation, say, is set to be particularly stubborn in the US, not least because of his trade policy and the impact of those tariffs. So those are causing some nerves too when you talk about the US markets,

in particular for equities for shares, but also for bonds as well. And also that means that we are seeing some interesting movements in markets elsewhere. with the likes of gold and silver and platinum. We've seen sort of those at very high levels in recent months, and those tend to sound alarm bells because it means that investors are nervous. They're looking for safe places to stash their cash. But it's an interesting one because we are looking at the concerns here being largely about debt and inflation,

rather than say about recession, which has typically been the thing that's got an investor spooked in recent years. Darshini, David. The songwriter and singer, Sting, is being sued by his former bandmates in the police over alleged lost royalties for songs they recorded together. Andy Summers and Stuart Copeland have gone to the High Court in the UK because they believe they're owed around $2 million.

Lawyers for Sting, who wrote all of the band's biggest hits, say the claims are illegitimate. Here's our entertainment correspondent, Lisa Mazimba. In the 1970s and 80s, the band produced some of music's best-known songs. And the legal dispute is said, entered around how the royalties from their hits were distributed between Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stuart Copeland. Sting was the sole writer for many of the band's most successful singles.

The band had an agreement that when he wrote a song, for certain categories of those royalties, a percentage, usually 15, would go to each of the other two members. But some of the contractual agreements were reached long before digital downloads and streaming. Summers and Copeland assert that they're entitled to a percentage of the income from those as well. but Sting says that they only are entitled to some of those. The High Court case also covers other categories of income, such as the commercial exploitation of songs in other media.

Sting has denied that Summers and Copeland are contractually entitled to what they claim and says that, in fact, the pair may owe him money that has been overpaid to them. These are Mazimba. 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 Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll,

the producers were Liam McSherfrey and Arienne Cochee. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jean-Lat Jalil. Until next time, goodbye.