Global News Podcast - Sudan suffers deadly cholera outbreak

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

An outbreak of cholera in Sudan is reported to have killed hundreds of people. The epicentre is in North Darfur - home to a large number of displaced people. More on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. President Zelensky has been in London ahead of Friday's Trump-Putin summit. Taylor Swift has a new album coming out. And when is it right to take your shoes off in the office? 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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This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. A cholera outbreak in Sudan, more than 2,000 people are reported to have died. Last minute diplomatic talks between President Zelensky and the British Prime Minister here in London, a day ahead of Donald Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin. How to curb plastic pollution. Also in this podcast. We've made songs that I'm so proud of. I mean, it felt like it felt like catching.

lightning in a bottle. It's good news for the Swifties, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has a new album coming out. Sudan has been gripped by conflict for more than two years as the Sudanese army and the rival rapid support forces vie for control of the country. It's been devastated by the fighting and subsequent mass displacement and famine. Tens of thousands of people have died. Now the medical charity, MSF, says the country is experienced. seeing the worst cholera outbreak for many years. Fatalities have already reached more than 2,400. The epicenter of the disease is the town of Toiloh in North Darfur,

home to huge numbers of refugees. I got more details from our correspondent Barbara Plattusher, who's in Nairobi. There was this sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of people into Toiloh because of the fighting in the nearby city of Elfasher in recent months. So you can imagine the struggle to provide clean water and hygiene enough latrines for all those people, which is in already desperate circumstances. So the MSF estimates that people in the camps in Tohila have less than half a water that meets the WHO emergency threshold.

Plus it's the rainy season. So the flooding from the rain amplifies the contamination of water. And it's spreading well beyond the camps, MSFs says. It's surfacing in other parts of Darfur and also across the border in Chad in the refugee camps there. Any sign of vital aid, including medicine, getting there? Well, not into Elfashad itself, where the rapid support forces have held the city under siege for more than a year, despite the calls for the RSF to ease the blockade with aid trucks ready to go. They have not indicated that they will, at least not at this point. In terms of the cholera in Tawila in particular, yes, there is some aid coming through, although it is a difficult journey for aid workers to Tawila because of security.

and bad roads. For example, the MSF says it has set up 500 latrines in the area so far. It's working with the Sudan Health Ministry on vaccinations and other things, not only in Tuila, but in some other parts of Darfur in central and southern Darfur where the cholera has surfaced. But, you know, supplies are very limited, partly because of the access problems I mentioned, but also partly because of funding last week.

The World Health Organization said it had received less than a third of the money for which it had appealed. And Barbara, what's the latest on the ground regarding the fighting in Sudan? We understand that Sudan's army chief is reported to have met the U.S. senior advisor for Africa in Switzerland. What do you think is going on? First of all, neither the Sudanese army nor the U.S. has confirmed that meeting took place. That came through media reports, which said that they did have a secret meeting in Switzerland between the head of the army, Abdul Fattar Bahrain, and also Donald Trump's Africa advisor, Masad Boulas.

So according to the different media reports, some said this was to discuss a U.S. peace plan. Others said to discuss this more narrow agenda of humanitarian access and a ceasefire. We don't know where that's going. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. was involved with Saudi Arabia and numerous attempts to try to get ceasefires, which never happened. What we could say, if this did indeed happen, it would be the highest level contact that the Sudanese military-backed government has had with the Trump administration so far. plet usher. Last minute, diplomatic talks have been taking place between Ukraine and Britain, with the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin just a day away. After meeting the British Prime Minister, Kirstama, in London, President Zelensky posted online that they'd had a

detailed discussion about possible security guarantees for Ukraine. The European Commission has welcomed President Trump's assurance that the US would participate in giving security guarantees to Keeve. Our diplomatic correspondent, Paul Adams, gave me the latest on the face-to-face chat here in London. The European idea is to make sure that when Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump sit down in Alaska, the European and Ukrainian perspective, the red lines that they have, are ringing in Donald Trump's ears. And that's why we have seen meeting after meeting, statement after statement, and a lot of symbolism too. I mean, just look at Downing Street this morning. Sarkia Stama, the Prime Minister, going out and meeting President's Elizabeth.

Zelensky in person, the sunflowers that were in the vase as the two men sat in the garden at Downing Street having their conversation. And then Sekeir Stama walking Rodimir Zelensky back to his car afterwards, all about showing that Europe has Ukraine's back and that this is the message that is being sent primarily, I suppose, to Donald Trump. There are new lines, aren't there coming from the Kremlin, but what we can expect at this summit in Alaska taking place on Friday? Yes, a little bit more detail. There will be obviously the one-on-one meeting between the two leaders. That will then be followed, the Russians say, by talks involving Russian and American delegations. We don't know exactly who will be in those delegations, but this is not going to be, it seems, just simply a one-on-one meeting without anyone taking notes, something that, of course, would have caused great anxiety among Ukraine's European allies. There is also talk, of a joint press conference afterwards.

That is a tantalizing prospect. I think the world will be waiting to see what the message is after that meeting. And the Russians are also talking about the potential for trade and economic cooperation between Russia and the United States. I think this is one of the carrots that the Russians are dangling in front of Donald Trump, hoping that his transactional business-orientated mind might be interested in such language. But I think what the Europeans obviously are hoping for is a conversation that focuses on a ceasefire and, as we keep hearing, viable security guarantees for Ukraine.

Paul Adams, despite Israel's pledge to allow more supplies into Gaza, more than 100 aid groups say Israel's restrictions are turning into a complete ban, with tons of life-saving supplies going to waste. Israel blames Hamas for exploiting the aid, despite an internal U.S. government report, finding no evidence of this. The Secretary General of MSF, Chris Lockyer, explains the difficulties his organisation is facing.

It's been a battle to even get the most basics of supplies in. We're still struggling to get anything which is remotely strategic from a medical point of view in. I mean, we're still having to reduce the medical protocols around changing dressings, so that's a huge infection risk as well as dealing with the initial causes of the huge amounts of violence, which are still happening in Gaza today. Meanwhile, there's an emerging debate

over the lack of reporting in Israel about the DAR humanitarian situation in Gaza. With the exception of some websites and the daily newspaper, Herrets, Israeli media is not reporting on the desperate plight of Gaza's 2 million residents. Many Israelis don't believe that people are starving in the strip.

Our international editor, Jeremy Bone, has been speaking to people in Israel and the occupied West Bank to gauge public opinion there. The car bumped down a dark and twisting road to Esh Kodesh, a small Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank, and then lights, music and wine, a bar selling pizzas, soldiers from the settlements, decompressing after a tour in Gaza.

It's a slice of the American West, a saloon in the land that customers believe was given to the Jews by God. Most of the customers are armed. The bar feels. relax and happy, and everyone here will tell you that Israel has nothing to apologize for in Gaza, the West Bank or Jerusalem. Aaron, who calls himself A. Wise, a father of seven, an academic-turned winemaker, who is still an IDF reserve officer who's fought in Gaza. Come down to a tunnel in Gaza, see what it means to not have oxygen, and try to fight terrorists that are hiding behind women

and children, and try that for a couple days and see what happens. It's not easy. It's very easy to sit in an air-conditioning room and judge people who do that. Where's hard, people die, and it's terrible. What should end now? It kind of reminds me of my kids, you know, they're in the car and they're like, I want to get there now. Sometimes you can't always get there now.

Sometimes things take time. Like Ayy, most Israelis agree, they had no choice but to fight against Hamas, but that is where the agreement ends. It's a sultry Saturday night in Tel Aviv and outside the national theater, crowds here have gathered for their regular protest against Benjamin Netanyahu demanding an end to the war and the return of the hostages.

It feels like a different country to the settlers' wine bar up in the hills. We wish to replace Netanyahu's government, bring back all hostages at Adil and ending Netanyahu's war in Gaza. We have a great army which can protect the border, which can stay outside of Gaza's trip and just protect the border. On the edge of the rally, there's a big sign demonstration with hundreds and hundreds of Israelis holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed by their country's armed forces. The protesters realize that they're a minority of a minority, but they say their demonstrations are getting bigger. I refuse to stay silent while it's happening, a genocide and starvation of people deliberately. Do you think there are Israelis who might

consider your traitors doing something like this? They do, a lot of them. They say that we should just Go to Gaza. This is what they say. Just go to live in Gaza. Israel was divided before the war. The war has made Israel more divided. And this side of Israel, represented at this demo, are people who do want to end it. But there are many others, supporters of Netanyahu, supporters of the extreme right, who have very different views to those of these people here. I'm in Tel Aviv in the place that's become known as Hostage Square,

where families and supporters of the Israeli hostages inside Gaza, that have been gathering and demonstrating and protesting. And I'm with Dahlia Shandlin, who is a columnist, a pollster, and she follows Israeli opinion about the war very closely. We have data showing that the majority of Israeli Jews, close to 80%, openly say that they are not concerned with Palestinian civilian suffering. They simply either are sort of suppressing it

because they just can't handle the sense that Israel might be doing something wrong. But I think for the most part, they also believe that Palestinians are extremely convinced to the rest of the world, as if there's no direct evidence of these things, as if it's all Hamas with some well-oiled campaign machine. The war has left Israel unhappy and divided, and I get the feeling that most of the political energy is coming from the religious nationalist right.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the longest-serving and most divisive leader Israel has ever had. He might find a way to win another term, but Israelis and the Palestinians and the rest of us, will be feeling the consequences of the Gaza war whenever it ends for many years. Jeremy Bowen, reporting from Israel. There had been hopes that multinational talks in Geneva this week might result in an agreement to help curb global plastic pollution.

But as we record this podcast, hopes of a treaty have hit a wall. Countries, including the UK, Colombia and EU nations, rejected a draft treaty text as unacceptable and unambitious. Almost 100 countries have called for tougher measures to limit plastic production and for tighter controls on the toxic chemicals used in the process. But a group of all producing states, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, want lighter-touch regulations. New proposals drafted by the chair overnight

are expected to be put to delegates in Geneva in an attempt to rescue the talks. Health experts warn that plastics are causing disease and death from infancy to old age, costing the world more than a trillion dollars every single year. Richard Thompson is a professor of marine biology at the University of Plymouth in southern England and a coordinator with the Scientist Coalition for an effective plastics treaty. He spoke to James Cotnell. Plastic pollution has escalated considerably from 5 million tonnes of plastic produced in the 1950s to over 450 million tonnes today.

The majority of that is single-use items. Substantial quantities now contaminate our planet. literally from the poles to the equator, from our highest mountains to our deepest oceans. So it seems to be then two sides to this, as it were. We've got people like the European Union, Panama, Chile, Mexico, Colombia. They want their concern about a lack of a legally binding measure for the limit of plastic pollution. Is that right? I mean, is that something that could be achieved?

Potentially, I mean, that's just one of the contentious issues. You know, it's a question of, I mean, the things that I would like to see in the treaty is, yes, measures to reduce total plastic production it's clear that we're producing more than we can handle by any measure in waste management we need regulations on the chemicals that are used in plastics we need to develop criteria to make sure that the plastic products we use are essential essential to society because of the immense external costs that I outlined and you could think of many examples of non-essential the microbeads in cosmetics that are now banned but I hear of nobody complaining they can't wash them themselves with millions of bits of plastic, for example. And then for those plastic products that bring essential use, we need to make sure they're safer and far more sustainable. So that's, that's what we're aspiring, aspiring towards. There needs to be financed to support it to make sure there's a just transition and prior informed consent from, you know, indigenous people's and fence-line communities who have been particularly badly affected over time. So there's a lot to

the treaty. It's not just about a cap. I think the evidence is before the member states, You know, they've heard the evidence. What we need now is them to act on it. And the frustrating thing for me is, you know, the United Nations was brought together to facilitate cooperation between nations. What I fear I'm seeing is more, it's facilitating competition between nations, even though they've got the best science before them. They sort of some are using it as a means of positioning themselves for competitive advantage. And that seems frustrating. It's not very many, and I suppose my plea would be for the majority, which are seeking a high ambition here, to have courage and to stick by their guns.

You know, there have been threats from some bigger nations, thinly veiled, but let us sense, you know, that might imply that tariffs could be imposed if countries, smaller countries don't maybe toe the line. So I think it's really important that we have strength and unity here, and we act for the solutions that are needed for the planet. and for human health as well. Professor Richard Thompson. Still to come on this podcast? If someone has stinky feet, we will call them out and saying, hey, you're not allowed if you do that. Like, better wash your feet and come.

Is it ever appropriate to take your shoes off in the office? Temperatures combined with strong winds have been fueling wildfires across large swathes of southern Europe. In Spain, three people have died this week. Earlier, the Spanish government asked the EU for urgent help, requesting two water bombing planes. In Greece, firefighters have made progress, tackling a fire threatening the city of Patras in the west of the country. Here in the UK, scientists have warned that urban areas are becoming the most vulnerable to wildfires. Researchers at Imperial College London say the risk is being accepted. accelerated by global warming.

Here's our climate editor, Justin Rolat. It's Monday the 14th of July, and a huge wildfire has broken out on parkland on the outskirts of London. At its peak, the fire covered an area the size of more than 12 football fields. It took 125 firefighters to battle the flames. There have been three more wildfires in the capital this week alone, part of a pattern of increasing numbers of urban wildfires in the UK. At a lab in Imperial College London, Guillermo Raine, Professor of Fire Science,

is exploring the impact of rising temperatures on wildfire risk. Because the longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves climate change is bringing a changing how urban wildfires behave. Let me show you. He arranges straw on fireproof plates. One sample contains a tiny bit of moisture, the other is bone dry. He uses a blowtorch to set them a light. Well, clearly, the dryer fuel is spraying the fire faster.

But it's not that a little bit drier is a little bit faster. It's that a little bit drier is much faster. So it's not linear? It's not linear. It's exponential. So the hot of the weather, fires get ignition. significantly more intense. The little bit drier is the fires get worse. Professor Rain has also developed a computer tool

to help predict when conditions are ripe for what he is calling a firewave. This plot of data is showing how dry the atmosphere is, anything above the red line. It's very dry and very concerning for wildfires. And 10 consecutive days would mean a possible firewave and that might happen by Saturday or Sunday. The scorching heat of 2020,

showed what's at stake. There were more than 350 separate incidents with homes destroyed during what was the London Fire Brigade's busiest day since World War II. The idea is that this vehicle doesn't leave the job when there's a whilefire happening. The fire service heard the alarm

and has been investing in Kit. It's training officers to use new all-terrain vehicles which rapidly dows flames across a long firefront. Wildfires present such a risk to us because we have a lot of open spaces in London. Blake Betts is a borough commander with the London Fire Brigade. And in London, those open spaces very often border on residential properties and the potential for those fires to spread towards those residential properties is real. We know that extreme weather events are becoming more common

and that means that we've taken a much more proactive approach. Two large moers are cutting back vegetation in East London. The aim is to try and minimise the fire risk. Cutting fire brakes to help slow, hopefully stop fires before they reach buildings. Does heat waves get more frequent, more long-lasting and hotter? The potential for a firewave, a whole series of fires igniting simultaneously, is increasing. and that could potentially overwhelm the emergency services and threaten homes, infrastructure and lives.

Justin Rowlatt. The Pacific Nation of the Marshall Islands is about to make sporting history as it plays its first international football match. The remote island chain, which is home to about 40,000 people, had previously been the self-proclaimed last country on earth without a football team. But a few years ago, the English coach, Lloyd Owers, was drafted. in to change all that. It was as simple as we needed balls,

bibs, cones, goals and collectively we had a good strategy, good plan of what we wanted to do. January 23, we put that into action and unbelievably it just really boomed with the worldwide media from the first moment and yeah, it just continued to grow and we've built good connections,

we've managed to get equipment on Ireland, we've got partners on Ireland in terms of coaches and I remember standing in a field in Maduro in July 23 thinking like if no one's going to turn up, Unfortunately, they did, because two years on from that point, we're playing our first games. For us, we desperately want to be a part of a Confederation. You know, that's the next step for us.

I think we've exceeded all expectations, including our own, in terms of how quickly we've got to a stage we've got to. And we've done it with really little financial backing. You know, we're solely reliant on owners and sponsors. And we could have taken the easy options with these games to play regional nations, and we'd have done really, really well. but we want to be confederation members. We want to be FIFA members at some point. The team will take on the U.S. Virgin Islands at the Outrigger Challenge Cup in Arkansas on Thursday

in their first ever competitive game. Lucas Shriver is one of their players. I'm pitching myself at night. It's really an incredible feeling. And I think the coaching staff have done a great job just bringing together many people on the team from just diverse backgrounds, like people from the mainland of the market.

Islands and in the U.S., Hawaii. So, yeah, it's been really incredible to be a part of history. And, yeah, we're going to go out and try to make the Marshallese proud. Lucas Shriver. The singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has made her first podcast appearance, where she revealed the details of her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl, which will be released in October. The music star opened up about her 12th record on a podcast hosted by her boyfriend.

Friends predictably have reacted with absolute delight to news of her latest opus. I was on live on TikTok and we're all crying in the chat and I'm like tearing up because, like, she is so genuine in everything that she does. I am fully on the bandwagon that I believe that Taylor Swift will go down in history and be studied in the same way that Shakespeare is today. Last year, we found out how miserable she was in 2023. Now, this year we're going to find out how happy she was with Travis last year and now. The newsrooms reporter and resident Swifty Holly Gibbs, tell me more. In this podcast, which was a two-hour sit-down with her boyfriend Travis Kelsey and his brother Jason, we learned the details of her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.

More than a million fans flooded to the YouTube stream of New Heights to hear these details. What's got fans the most excited is seeing who has produced this album with her. Max Martin and Shelbach, who worked with Taylor Swift on pre-ex. previous albums such as Red, 1989, and Reputation. So this gives us a big hint of what we're going to hear. It's going to be pop heavy and it's going to have tracks on it that might sound similar to the upbeat tunes of Shake It Off or Blank Space. Here is Taylor Swift talking on the New Heights podcast. We've made songs that I'm so proud of. And so basically, we've never actually made an album before where it's just the three of us. There's no other collaborators.

It's just the three of us making a focused album where, I mean, it felt like it felt like catching lightning in a bottle, honestly. And Taylor Swift actually said that her goal for this album was to have melodies that were so infectious that you're almost angry at it. Bangers, essentially, is what she said. She's a busy lady, isn't she? She is. So this album was actually recorded during the ERAs tour, which wrapped up in December last year. And as we know, was the largest grossing tour of all time. 10.1 million tickets were sold for 149 shows across the world.

Fans have been wondering what Taylor Swift would do next. And Taylor Swift has said that this album will explain what was going on behind the scenes and it was actually worked on while she was performing on tour in Europe. She said on the podcast New Heights that she was flying back and forth to Sweden to work on it. There was large speculation after her tour that her next release might be a re-record of one of her old albums. But a few months ago, as we know, she announced that she announced that she was. brought back the master recordings, which she also spoke about on that podcast, and was actually very emotional about it and spoke about how it felt to own her life's work.

Now, you're a fan, a personal fan. What's your takeaway? Was it really exciting to see her? Because she doesn't give many interviews, does she? No, she doesn't. And it was the first time us as fans got to see her and her boyfriend, Travis Kelsey, interact together and actually sit down together. Before that, we've just seen clips on social media, of them at football matches, or paparole. artsy photos. As for how excited I am about this album, very excited as I, as all of the Swifties are, because this album is going back to her pop roots, which might even attract even more fans. Our very own Swifty, Holly Gibbs. Now, what's the dress code where you work? Are you comfortable with it? Or do you think it's too formal or even too casual? Well,

in the US, some companies have brought in a no-shoes policy, and that means taking your shoes off when you come into the office, slippers are optional. The movie is getting lots of reaction online. Some people are surprised and some are aghast. And some are saying, actually, this is the norm in their part of the world. One of the companies with their no shoes in the office policy is Smallest.a.i, a startup that builds AI voice models. Diana Burton spoke to their CEO, Sadashan Kammath.

We just wanted our office to be like a house. We did not want it to be like a professional setting. So people sit on the floor. People can sleep on the floor if they want to lie down in random places. And then if you get your shoes in, it gets a little dirty. So generally, we kept like a nice carpet and like for people to just come in. And that's the reason we said, hey, keep your shoes outside so that people can treat this like a house. People are more productive.

I've seen people just get drenched in their work and just forget about where they are, how they are sleeping, all of those things. What about socks? Would you say to your workers, you need to wear socks? Because if people are going around barefoot, there could be a bit of a funky smell. Yeah, I think personal hygiene generally is something, a kind of culture we have in our office is someone has stinky feet. We will call them out and saying, hey, you're not allowed if you do that. Like, better wash your feet and come. Apart from the no shoes rule, is there any other dress code that you have?

As long as they wear something, they're. welcome in office. Just wear something. Yeah. Just just wear something and like don't offend anyone, but like you can wear your shorts, you can wear bermudas, like don't come topless, don't wear your underpants, but like just just wear anything, anything that is normally you would dress outside and you're completely fine with it. Stinky feet in the office, yuck. Suddarshan Kamath speaking there to Leanna Byrne. And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email.

The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen. The producers were David Lewis and Stephanie Zackerson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.