Global News Podcast - Ukraine claims to control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had brought war to others and now it was coming back. The local Russian governor said some 28 villages in the region had fallen to Ukrainian forces. Also: White House says an Iranian attack on Israel could come this week, and scientists find a reservoir of liquid water deep in the crust of Mars.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. 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 Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janette Jalil and in the early hours of Tuesday the 13th of August these are our main stories. President Zelensky of Ukraine has said his military's offensive inside Russia's border

region of Kursk is intended to force Moscow to consider peace. As Greece struggles to control wildfires approaching Athens, European countries are sending firefighters, aircraft and vehicles to help. Also in this podcast, water is the most important molecule in shaping the evolution of a planet and its climate. And we've identified how much of it is present and where it's sitting. Scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars, deep in the rocky crust of the planet. Nearly a week into Ukraine's stunning incursion into Russia, its army chief says Ukrainian forces have now seized a thousand square kilometers of Russian territory and are continuing their

offensive operations in the region of Kursk. This seems to have been confirmed by the governor of Kursk, who got a dismissive response from President Putin when he told him on a video call that Kiev's troops had taken control of more than two dozen villages. Ukraine's President Zelensky said his country's actions were designed to force Russia to make peace. General Sersky reported that about a000 square kilometres in the Kursk region are under control. These are in particular the areas from which the Russian army has been striking at our Sumy region. As of today and since the 1st of June, there have been almost 2,100 attacks on the territory of Sumy region. That is why liberating the border from the Russian military is a purely security issue for Ukraine.

The authorities in Kursk say more than 180,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as Russian forces appear to be on the back foot despite their vastly greater manpower. President Putin, at a meeting of his senior military officials, said Kiev's forces would be kicked out. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow. Today, Vladimir Putin tried to show he's in control and confident of victory. He told senior aides that the main task is for the Russian defence ministry to force the enemy from Russian land. The adversary, he said, would receive a worthy response. The Kremlin leader was referring to Ukrainian troops

who seized territory across the border in Russia's Kursk region. How much territory? The Kursk governor told President Putin that now Ukrainians controlled 28 settlements in his region and had advanced seven miles from the border. The president cut him off. Leave the numbers to the military, he told him. Officials in Kursk region say that more than 120,000 people

have been evacuated from the combat zone. Another 60,000 are expected to follow. There's an evacuation too in a part of neighbouring Belgorod region, where there are fears of a similar Ukrainian incursion. In Moscow, we saw volunteers organising a collection of food and clothes to send to evacuees. Ilya Krestianinov, who's in charge here, says the dramatic news from southern Russia is spurring Muscovites to donate. I think everyone is rather stunned and shocked. No one understands what is happening, how this can be, but they know that they can help. There are people who lost their homes. They need shelter, they need food, they need supplies,

and they need medical help. And that's why they are here to help us. It was their country that invaded Ukraine. Russians are now having to deal with unforeseen consequences. Steve Rosenberg. So has Ukraine's big gamble in sending its troops into Russia paid off? Vitaly Shevchenko from BBC Monitoring is following developments. The very fact that they're still there almost a week after the incursion started is extraordinary. And it's a slap in the face for Vladimir Putin, because if we think back to how this special military operation, that's how they call it in Moscow, how it was launched. He said Ukraine was preparing to invade Russia or attack Russia. And I'm going to keep you safe.

I'm going to stop all that. I'm not going to allow any attacks to happen. And now, two and a half years into the special military operation, dozens of villages in Kursk region are under Ukrainian control and the authorities in Moscow, they're trying really hard to explain to the public in Russia what's going on. You say it's a slap in the face for Vladimir Putin, but what is going on here? Why are Russian forces, given their much greater numbers,

their greater firepower, not able to get the Ukrainian forces pushed back into their own territory. Well, one possible conclusion we can draw from this is that the Russian army isn't as mighty as Vladimir Putin would want people to believe. And also, for the past couple of years, it's been focused so heavily on Ukraine's east and Ukraine's southeast, that the northeastern part of the border between the countries, it hasn't actually been neglected. But from what we've seen of the kind of Russian soldiers apparently captured by the Ukrainians, they're new, they're fresh, they're inexperienced. and the hardware they've been given isn't clearly enough to stop the Ukrainians from advancing. Big question is, can Ukraine sustain this?

An even bigger one is, can this change the dynamic of the war? The longer they're there, the more difficult it is for them to stay because Russia clearly is bringing reinforcements into the area and supplying their troops that are still there. In enemy territory. That's no mean feat. But the big hope is that Ukraine, the big hope for Kiev, is that Ukraine will be able to redraw the geography of the conflict, distract Russia and show to the West that it's not necessary to be afraid of any escalation by Russia, even if you invade Russia itself.

Vitaly Shevchenko. As fears grow in Western countries that Iran is about to launch a major attack on Israel, the leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy have called on Tehran not to do so. This came after the five Western allies spoke to each other about how to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and secure a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. The White House National Security Advisor is John Kirby. President Biden spent a little bit of time this morning speaking to his counterparts from the UK, from France, from Germany and Italy, largely to discuss these tensions in the Middle East,

largely for all the leaders to repeat what they have said before in terms of reaffirming Israel's defense and the need to get a ceasefire in place, to get the hostages home, and to send a strong message that we don't want to see any rise in violence, any attacks by Iran or its proxies. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, also spoke to the new president of Iran, Massoud Pesachian, warning that an attack on Israel in retaliation for the killings of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah would carry a serious risk of miscalculation and would not be in anyone's interests. Our correspondent, Vera Davis, is in Jerusalem. There have been increasingly credible

intelligence reports in Western governments and in the region, and perhaps an increasing expectation here that sooner rather than later, Iran will follow through with its vow to respond against Israel, either directly or indirectly through Hezbollah for those attacks, beliefs have been carried out by Israel in Iran and in southern Lebanon against senior figures in Hamas and Hezbollah. How and when those Iranian responses will take place, we simply don't know. But the Israeli government says its military is prepared for an attack. All of this comes against increasing international pressure for Iran to pull back from the brink.

The Americans have increased their naval presence in the region. There's been a coordinated effort from the governments of France, Britain and Germany persuading Iran not to go through with an attack. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has spoken to the new Iranian president, again emphasising that level of international concern and saying that any Iranian attack might jeopardise peace talks that are meant to take place later this week, indirectly between Hamas and Israel. But it's looking increasingly perhaps uncertain that those talks might not even take place. It's very difficult to second guess what the new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwa and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want to get from those talks

and whether either man is prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve a ceasefire and to secure the release of those hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Wira Davis. The Venezuelan government says that 25 people have died in protest since the contested presidential elections two weeks ago. Almost 200 others have reportedly been injured. Leonardo Rocha reports. The information was shared by President Nicolás Maduro during a cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis. Mr. Maduro

accused opposition leaders of financing and organizing the attacks and urged the justice system to use an iron fist against them. The UN and human rights groups have reported a similar number of victims but have blamed Venezuela's security forces for most of the violence. The opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, says he won last month's election by a landslide. Many countries in the region, including the United States, have rejected the official results, saying there was widespread evidence of fraud. Leonardo Rocha. Two days after a major wildfire erupted in Greece, hundreds of firefighters are battling to stop it spreading as it edges ever closer to the capital, Athens. With flames towering up to 25 metres high,

fanned by gale force winds, thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate. It hurts. We've grown up in the forest. We feel great sadness and anger. Homes have been burnt and smoke and ash has descended on Athens, with power cuts reported in several parts of the city. A host of European countries, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia and Turkey, are between them sending hundreds more firefighters, aircraft and trucks. Soldiers have been called in to help. Dimitrios Pipikos is a reservist for the

Greek army. The situation is chaotic. Our military unit's been here from the beginning and we're trying to help the fire unit and the volunteer teams. We're surrounded by fire here. As summer's become hotter in Greece because of climate change, wildfires have become more frequent in recent years. Eleni Marie Vili was a deputy mayor of Athens and is now the global chief heat officer for UN Habitat and the Atlantic Council. I've been in tears today because I know the places that are being burned. I love some of these parts of my country. I really, really care for them and I've known them since I was a child. In the latest update, as we record this podcast, the authorities say there are signs of improvement.

They say there's no longer an active fire front, but there are still many active hot spots as the hot, windy weather continues. We got more from our correspondent in Athens, Jessica Parker. Well, I'm just looking over at a northern suburb of Athens and there is lots of smoke rising from the area possibly a little bit less than about half an hour ago when we first got to this location but of course this fire that's been approaching the city of Athens the capital city began in the north and east regions of Attica around Athens. And that's the direction that we're looking out at at the moment. And while we've been here, we can absolutely smell that smoke. Not only that, though, I heard explosions.

And then I saw briefly a sort of small fireball. And there have been reports of cars and fuel tanks being caught up in the blaze and exploding as a result. I can't say for sure exactly what it was I saw, but it certainly was some kind of explosion. And then just a moment ago as well, there was a helicopter going over that area. Clearly, there's lots of resources that have been deployed to the area, whether on the ground or from the air to try and fight the blaze. And how bad is the damage? It's difficult to say at this point because obviously a lot of the areas

that are really badly affected, you can't yet go to, but thousands of people have been evacuated. Hospitals have been evacuated. People are incredibly worried about their homes, their businesses. That region that I mentioned around the sort of northeast of Attica,

there's a lot of pine forests, very flammable, so lots of concern about destruction to wildlife as well. And now, wildfires in this area have happened before. This is a known and very real risk for people who live here or maybe for people as well who come on holiday here or head to the coast. And actually, it wasn't that long ago, back in 2018, that over 100 people died in a seaside town in the area. It was a blaze ripped through there.

So it is a very known danger. But I think, again, people are angry and they are upset that they're in this position again, once again after it's obviously happened over a number of years. people are angry and they are upset that they're in this position again, once again after it's obviously happened over a number of years. Summers in Europe are of course becoming increasingly hot. You've also got gale force winds there. Greece is really struggling to cope and there's now international aid on the way. Yes, so France is sending a helicopter, 180 firefighters, 55 trucks.

Italy's sending two aircraft. The Czech Republic, 75 firefighters. Spain and Turkey are also set to send help as well. Jessica Parker in Athens. It's the question that space enthusiasts have been eagerly asking for decades. Is there life on Mars? And now there's been a big development that could help to answer that question. Scientists say they've identified large reservoirs of liquid water deep within the planet's crust. The findings come from a new analysis of data from NASA's InSight lander, the probe that touched down on Mars six years ago. Our science correspondent Victoria Gill assesses what this discovery means for our hopes of exploring the red planet. It's so low pitched it's difficult to hear, but this is the rumble of the wind on Mars. It was detected by sensors on the InSight lander, which was sent to the red planet in 2018 to listen.

That's what made this discovery of liquid water possible. As well as sensing the Martian breeze, the probe recorded more than 1,300 Mars quakes, vibrations emanating from inside the red planet. Scientists have now studied that seismic record in detail to work out exactly how Mars moves and what material those seismic waves are travelling through. This showed that deep in the rocky Martian crust, inside cracks in the rock, there are large reservoirs of groundwater. Here's Professor Michael Manger from UC Berkeley. Water is the most important molecule in shaping the evolution of a planet and its climate. And we've identified how much of it is present and where it's sitting. And when you say a lot of water, like how much and how do you know? Excellent question. So we think we know how much space

is full of cracks and those cracks seem to be full of water. And if we take all that water and put it on the surface of Mars, it would be a layer of water one to two kilometres deep. Mars' surface is etched with channels and ripples that paint a picture of its watery past. And the researchers believe that this discovery answers the question, where did all that water go? But they say tapping into it to supply future human exploration of Mars will be very challenging. The reservoirs they've detected are at depths of between 10 and 20 kilometres,

which would be difficult to drill even here on Earth. Victoria Gill. Still to come... They've done a great job so far in getting this bird to this age, a few days old, and feeding him and keeping him safe. The two male flamingos who've hatched an egg and become caring fathers to a chick. To be continued... 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. More than 20 people are now known to have died after a landslide at a massive rubbish dump in the Ugandan capital Kampala, according to police. Rescuers are continuing to dig through the waste in the hope of finding more survivors after the landslide on Friday, which followed weeks of torrential rain. Police say that five children are among the dead. This resident, Mohamed Kirondi, lost seven members of his family in the disaster. I have lost my family here in Kitezi at the landfill. I have lost seven loved ones. The garbage buried them under. My wife and children are all dead. We have retrieved four bodies, but the rest have not yet been found.

The search is still going on. We hope they will be found. The Ketezi landfill, which covers an area that's roughly the size of about 20 football pitches, is the only one serving the whole of Kampala, a city home to an estimated four million people. Shamim Nabakusa is a Ugandan journalist in Kampala. What we can confirm is security has a number of 21 individuals so far discovered dead, but also the authorities from within the area who say it's about 23 individuals. So there's a little bit of a mismatch in the numbers, but for government, what we can take is 21 of those. And also what we are sure of is that whenever forces are advanced at that point,

at least there's quick attention to individuals who are on the side, but also how much can be done in terms of excavation to find out for the bodies that could be from within, because we know Kitesi is a very highly populated area. And so each family could have lists of individuals within a home, at least seven. So most of the families could have numbers that are more than what is expected but also because of how the area is and the uphill that it had become, you expect that even many children go down the slope to play if have been able to watch the videos or that very length, the slopes of the main Kitesi road down to that field children and many could be still trapped down there in the landfill because

it gives an easy road for children to play and even for the individuals who live along the routes there because it's steep from within and it gives an easy ride for anybody who wants to go there and get to see but it's still a tough task it will be a hard one for government to deal with. And until a misfortune like this happens, that's when often government wakes up and gets to realize that there's such a big challenge to deal with. And we know that maybe this will be a wake-up call for government.

Individuals are still trapped from within. It could be a wake-up call for government. The only unfortunate is whether heads will have to roll on this very one and how much has been sunk into the garbage business itself. In just Kitesi alone, about 4 billion shillings per financial year is spent in there. Can the ministers of Kampala and the Kampala Capture Authority be able to account how this money has been utilised and how they were able to watch over a population die

over something that they have known here for years. That was Shamim Nabakuza in Uganda. Outside Indonesia, it's bound to become a general knowledge question. What is Indonesia's capital? Jakarta, of course, but sometime not so far away, that answer will be wrong. It will be Nusantara. The city is being built in a forested area on the island of Borneo, about 1,200 kilometers from Jakarta. Andrejka Natalegawa is an associate fellow for the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Owen Bennett-Jones asked him why they're moving the capital. Part of the reasons why the current Indonesian government under President Joko Widodo has

decided to move the capital city of Jakarta over to Nusantara, the new capital city location, is manifold, right? The multiple reasons why. First and foremost is that Jakarta currently faces serious environmental challenges related to the usage of groundwater. And as such, the capital city is currently sinking. And so the government has decided that in order to alleviate some of these environmental concerns, you know, deciding to move the capital city to this new site on the island of Borneo in order to move, alleviate these environmental concerns and shift the government and sort of the seat of power away from Jakarta, which as it currently stands is currently the entertainment, the business and other hub of the Indonesian country.

Sinking how fast? At a very fast rate. It's expected that, you know, by the middle of the century, over about a third of the city will be underwater, right? And so there's a serious concern just about what this means for people who live there, the government and how it functions. And so the selection of Nusantara, the new site as the capital city, is in part a reflection of these fears of environmental disasters. The island of Borneo is less susceptible to, for instance, geological events related to earthquakes and volcanoes. And so there's some safety in selecting this site due to its lesser risk of natural disasters. But I was reading it's quite remote, the new site, isn't it?

So how will communications to and from work? Well, that's right. So this new site currently rests on what was formerly, I believe, an industrial sort of forestry zone. There are other major cities on the island of Borneo and in the Indonesian portion of the island in Borneo, and I'd point to cities like Palankaraya, for example. So there are urban centers scattered across the island. But compared to Jakarta, the current capital city, the Nusantara site is fairly remote. It still takes some time to drive from the new site to the existing cities around it. There needs to be a build out in terms of highways, in terms of ports,

in terms of airports. And these are all part of the plan as it relates to the government as it's building out this new capital city site. Andreeka Natal-Elgawa. It was an ordeal twice over. First, the glamour model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped from a photo shoot in Milan in 2017. Then she faced a backlash from British tabloid newspapers which accused her of lying. Her story is being re-examined now in a BBC drama entitled Kidnapped, the Chloe Ayling story. Our culture reporter Yasmin Mufo has been speaking to her. It's the story of a kidnapped model that caught the world's attention. Police in Italy are investigating the kidnapping of a British model. So she was held for nearly a week. Her the boot of a car, bound and gagged.

Her kidnapper had driven her 120 miles to a remote farmhouse where he demanded a $300,000 ransom. Six days later, he released her at the British consulate. I've been through a terrifying experience. I've feared for my life second by second, minute by minute. I am incredibly grateful. Now, a new BBC drama, Kidnapped, is telling the former glamour model's story with her involvement. All I wanted was facts to be laid out and everyone to know what actually happened. But her story hasn't always been believed. People just read the headlines and don't dig deeper into the case.

So when you're seeing a headline that it was faked, it's going to stick in someone's mind and they're going to think that and assume that. The tabloids accused her of faking her abduction, profiting from it and being involved in a publicity stunt. If the whole trial was transcribed in the media, there wouldn't be a single doubt in anyone's mind, which is what the drama shows. but it's because they only would blow up headlines saying that he said it was a publicity stunt because that's what everyone else was saying. But they didn't mention the fact he changed his story multiple times, first said he had leukaemia and needed to raise money, then he was hired by Romanians and like

his story was never just one story and that was never shared. Even the writer of the new drama, Georgia Lester, didn't know what to make of Chloe's story at first. I don't think I read the articles, to be honest. I think I read the headlines and probably like most people, I did make a snap judgment. She hopes the show will give people a new perspective on Chloe's story and how the media treats victims. They didn't have all of the facts and they were much more pointed to the way she behaved, the way she dressed and the job that she did, opposed to actually the trauma that she had endured. Chloe's experience of not being believed is more common than you might expect. We often hear stories of survivors telling us that we are the first people that actually believe them. Josie Wilby from the women's charity Solace that supports survivors of gender-based violence says that many victims have a very similar story.

I think we often feel that unless a survivor is the perfect survivor, that we don't believe them because maybe they aren't seen as vulnerable enough, they aren't responding to the trauma in the way that we sort of want them to as a society. So, for example, they're not crying or upset. If I was not a model, do you think people would have the same opinions of me? I don't think so, no. At the time, I had no control over it. There were things that were missed out.

It was all going in a direction that was not true. Looking back, would you, for example, in that initial press statement that you gave, do you almost wish that you'd forced yourself to cry just so you could get everyone off your back? No, because that would be faking how I'm acting. Like, I shouldn't have to fake how I'm acting. Like, that was genuinely how I was feeling at the time.

I was happy to be home. I was happy this was over. So why shouldn't I be smiling? This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react to something bad happening. Former glamour model Chloe Ayling ending that report by Yasmin Rufo. A zoo in the southwest of England is celebrating two proud fathers who have successfully hatched an egg. It's believed the two male flamingos adopted the egg after it was abandoned by another couple. Harry Bly reports. These are the Chilean flamingos who live at Paynton Zoo in the county of Devon

in southwest England, home to Curtis and Arthur. These vibrant pink birds are part of what the zoo calls the Love Lagoon, a homage to the popular reality TV series Love Island. This pair of male flamingos, Curtis and Arthur, are one of several flamingo couples to have hatched chicks at the zoo for the first time in six years. And while neither male laid this egg, they're raising the chick as their own. They're doing a fantastic job and we see them swapping over quite often. We've seen both of the parents feeding the chick and defending the chick. You know, they've done a great job so far in getting this bird to this age, a few days old, and feeding him and keeping him safe. This is Lisa Ward, team leader of birds at the zoo. It's not known exactly how Curtis and Arthur acquired this egg,

but it's thought to have something to do with a surge in the number of breeding pairs this year, meaning the flamingos are building nests closer together. So what we think has happened is that the pair that laid the egg for whatever reason, possibly because of aggression around the nest, have left it. And so this other pair have come in and adopted it and have done a great job and have hatched it and are now rearing it. This is by no means the first time same-sex parenting has been observed in the avian world. Here's Lisa Ward again. It does happen. I think I'm right in saying it happens a lot with

large social species that live in large groups. It happens fairly frequently with penguins and also with flamingos as well. The chick, who is yet to be named, will be raised by its two dads for around three months before it's time to fly the nest. Harry Bly. 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 at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll.

The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jalil. 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