Global News Podcast - Wildfires in France and Spain force mass evacuations

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Firefighters have warned they are still not in control of a major wildfire near Bordeaux and fears grow that the situation in France and Spain will worsen as a fresh heatwave arrives. More than 300,000 people have been evacuated. Also: the Sudanese army says it has taken control of a major highway from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which links the capital Khartoum to the besieged town of el-Obeid. Three people are killed in a shooting at a food festival in Seattle in the United States, despite the city's strict gun laws. The German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens, sometimes called Dr Death, has died; he was known for developing a technique called plastination, allowing him to display and dissect human bodies and animals in detail. A documentary film is being released about how the British pop duo Wham! made history in 1985 by becoming the first western band to perform their music in China. And the curse of County Mayo's Gaelic football team is over as it triumphs in the all-Ireland final after 75 years.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] Photo: Firefighters battle wildfires in Gironde department, France Credit: REUTERS

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Don't play games with us. A vicious gang of hackers causing chaos for businesses, councils and hospitals. What if I don't finish this treatment and his cancer grows? But they didn't care. I'm dying laughing. Making outrageous demands for money. They wanted millions.

It was high tech and high stakes. The country's under attack. And it was highly secretive until someone exposed it all. Cyberhack, Season 4, The Conti Files. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and at 15 hours GMT on Monday the 27th of July, these are our main stories. More than 300,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in France and Spain as wildfires continue to rage.

We get the latest from Sudan as the army claims a victory against a paramilitary group, the RSF. Another mass shooting in the US. Three people are killed at a food festival in Seattle. Also in this podcast, the controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagen's, who preserved and displayed bodies has died. And? A 75 year, island is going to go out of me. Oh, my God, oh, my God.

Oh, wonderful. A 75-year sporting curse is finally. We start the podcast in Western Europe where multiple wildfires are burning across France and Spain. Firefighters and local authorities are bracing for yet another heat wave and with temperatures of over 40 degrees expected in the coming hours, there are fears the bad situation is about to get worse. In the French region of Gironde alone in the southwest of the country, 200,000 people have already been forced to evacuate. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a crisis meeting on Monday and is set to visit the region later.

One fire is just 15 kilometres from the city of Bordeaux. The region has asked tourists to stay away and has cancelled holiday camps. Jean-Luclés is president of the Girond department and in charge of the firefighters. He's warned that France needs more help. It's not under control now. The whole white fire are one-hand. 120 kilometers. So it's very, very long. We would need, I suppose, more planes and a lot of more people. It's not possible now to put firefighter trucks every 100 meters or 300 meters. We don't have enough

people and enough trucks. And even, I think, France, don't have enough. In Spain, more than 75,000 people have been evacuated across the country. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been visiting an area in the Valencia region where a huge fire is out of control. He's declared a civil protection emergency. Our correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, has been watching developments. The fire they're battling in southwestern France is the country's worst in decades. In the Gironde region, around Bordeaux, the military are now helping firefighters and police, but still struggling to bring the flames under control. This firefighter says what they're facing is unusual, a fire that speeds up, then slows down, moves left, then right, he says. It is very hard to read.

Locals are pitching in trying to protect property and land. Using tractors with water tanks were just buckets, attempting to dampen down smaller fires before they can take hold. It makes you want to cry. Honestly, it's horrible. We're overwhelmed. The firefighters are doing what they can, but there aren't enough resources. So we're helping them. But honestly, it's hard.

It's really hard. Because every time one fire is doused, it seems there are more sparks. Tens of thousands of people have had to abandon their homes for camp beds in sports centres and in schools. Michelle left Archeson on the coast on Friday and says the road back is now impassable. She had been hoping to go home today, but the fire is still spreading. The mayor of Bordeaux has stressed reports the city itself is being evacuated a false.

But France's interior minister called conditions unfavorable, and a regional official has warned tourists to stay away or to leave until this fire has been contained. In Spain, there are now a dozen fires blazing, including new ones near Valencia, where helicopters have been shuttling through thick grey smoke, to empty sacks of water onto the flames. Outside Madrid, the immediate danger seems to have eased, but the interior minister called the fires there the most aggressive Spain has ever. seen. And the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, warned of difficult hours ahead.

He said the flames had already torched six times more land than last year. One reason is all the vegetation produced by a very wet winter that's made more fuel for fires when the summer is as dry and as hot as this one. Michael Byrne is a climate scientist at St. Andrews. is really the perfect storm for wildfires and why we are very confident as climate scientists that this threat of wildfires is really only going to go one way and that way is more severe, unfortunately. In Spain and in France, the word used most often for these fires is unpredictable. And this week, once again, the temperature is expected to rise. Sarah Rainsford. And you can hear an interview about these wildfires with our climate editor on our YouTube channel.

Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a news story available every weekday. Next, Sudan's Army says it's taken control of a strategic highway linking the capital Khartoum to the city of El Abade following two days of fierce clashes with the rapid support forces. It marks the Sudanese Army's first major offensive against the paramilitary group in months, with the Civil War now in its fourth year. The RSF has amassed troops around El Abade, where around half a million people are trapped,

cut off from food and essential supplies. The UN has been warning of a humanitarian catastrophe. So what could the opening up of the highway mean for the people trapped there? I spoke to our Africa correspondent, Thomas Macquana. This means that the city is now not under siege as it was over the past month and more. So the city of El Obed is near the central part of Sudan, particularly a state known as northern Kodofan state, and it's the capital of that state. And over the last few months, it's been facing a lot of drone strikes by the paramilitary rapid support forces. And this particular road that you're speaking about, known at the Al-Sadarat Highway or the export road is the road that critically links what is the capital Khartoum on the northern side,

with the city of El Obede that is the end point of that road. And that town of El Obed, which has been under siege over the last few months, surrounded by Aresaf and facing heavy bombardment, that town is where most roads meet connecting Darfur State and all the other southern states. And so for Aresaf, it was important and crucial to control this town because it meant that they could get supplies to all parts of Sudan, including the capital, to fuel their war. And for the people of El Obed, this means that there is more supply. humanitarian support, which has been lacking, as you know, the UN and the EU sounded the alarm

over an impending humanitarian crisis because of the bombardment in that town. And could this be part of a bigger offensive, perhaps, by the Sudanese military? It could. It could because as the Sudanese Armed Forces was announcing this major win and celebrations were seen across El Obed and other neighboring towns, there was also an order by the Sudanese general Arburan to widen this attack against RSF because this is seen as a win and as you know, momentum works like that. And if you can get more supplies in many places,

it supplies that win wars, military supplies, personnel, and the faster you can get people to places, the easier it is to win. So if that declaration is anything to go by, it means that this war might be raging on. Thomas McQuana. In recent years, more and more countries have been seeing the arrival of what's known as digital nomads, foreigners who come to live and work remotely,

typically using the internet and a special visa. Their presence can be good for the local economy, but some complain it can also be detrimental to local people. In one such case on the Indonesian island of Bali, a running club that's popular with digital nomads is facing a backlash for allegedly turning away Indonesians. Immigration officials have now banned two. Dutch nationals who were linked to the club from re-entering the country.

I got more details from my correspondent in Indonesia, Lisa Tambunen. This running club is popular among digital nomads. And recently, it came under fire after several Indonesian nationals shared screenshots online, saying they were rejected or ignored during the club's registration process for a recent running event. These allegations quickly gained traction on social media. There were many posts and among the online post was by a mixed couple where a partner who had an Indonesian name and number said that their application was delayed while her partner who applied using his foreign name and number was immediately approved. And this scandal ignited a massive social media uproar drawing heavy criticism from both local citizens and Bali-based expatriates who noted that foreign visit.

visitors must respect Indonesian laws and culture rather than build exclusive enclaves. And what's been the response from the Running Club to all this? The Running Club has issued an apology, claiming that the mistake was due to an automated onboarding system that had unintentionally introduced registration buyers. In a statement, they also claim that Indonesians made up the largest group of participants nearly 25% for this event that gained so much attention. However, two people who are linked to this running club have been banned from re-entering Indonesia. So Indonesian immigration

authorities imposed this ban after they had actually left. And I saw quite a lot about this on social media. And it seemed that this wasn't just about the running club. There was also a feeling in Indonesia that local people born there were being pushed out for these people that were coming to do their digital nomad work, pushing up the prices and then excluding Indonesians from events like this. Yes, it can be said that these viral allegations in relation to this running club and also surrounding this whole scandal has reignited existing frustrations at foreigners who are perceived to be acting with entitlement in Bali and building exclusive communities. on the island. So it has also reignited this anger towards what is perceived to be

Indonesians and local citizens who are being left out of activities on their own island. Lisa Tambunan, the German anatomist Gunter von Hagen, sometimes known as Dr. Death for Preserving and displaying human bodies, has died. He was 81. Dr. von Hagenz became famous for developing a technique called plastic. allowing people and animals to be preserved and dissected in remarkable detail. Danny Aberhardt reports. Gunther von Hagen's invented plasticination in the late 1970s, perfecting it over the years. It'd seen human bodies encased in plastic blocks, but wanted instead to preserve them from within.

He developed techniques to replace the fluids and fat in donated human corpses with rubber or polymers. For him, it opened up and... anatomy to the wider public. The incredibly detailed specimens showed organs, the cardiovascular system and parts of the nervous system too. They've been used as teaching aids at universities or by research institutes. They've also been displayed to millions worldwide in his touring body world's exhibitions, so the fascination is clear. But many recoiled. Some religious leaders were outraged by what they saw as a desecration of the human body. Other viewers found them ghoulish or sensationalist, all charges von Hagen's rejected. He thought outrage, though, was a natural response, as he told

the BBC. Very natural when it comes to our own mortality, our own life, when that we are mortals, it becomes very emotional, and not everybody has thought about it and is comfortable with this idea. Von Hagen's, a showman who wore a trademark black hat, certainly did not shy away from controversy. There was a plastinated body of a pregnant woman, her belly cut away to reveal her fetus, and a graphic coupling of adults having sex. The poses were dramatic, including sportspeople in action, and there were animals too, horses, a bear, a giraffe, even an elephant. The controversies extended beyond the displays. After accusations in a judge, German magazine that von Hagen's had used bodies of Chinese people who'd been jailed and executed,

he said it was highly improbable, but that he couldn't rule out that, unknowingly, some such bodies might have been delivered. He agreed to return seven Chinese bodies for burial. The institute he set up says its donors give full informed consent and can change their mind. It says well over 20,000 people have signed up worldwide to be plastinated for posterity. As for Dr von Hagen's himself, in a statement, his family said that, at his request, his body will be plastinated too. That was Danny Aberghard. Still to come in this podcast. They took us to the Great Wall of China, which was extraordinary.

I remember looking on at George and Andrew, and that is actually when I realised, oh my gosh, this is big. And I just knew the world was going to know who George and Andrews. Andrew and Wham were. How the 1980s pop stars, Wham, took Communist China by storm. Games with us. A vicious gang of hackers causing chaos for businesses, councils and hospitals. What if I don't finish this treatment and this cancer grows? But they didn't care.

I'm dying laughing. Making outrageous demands for money. They wanted millions. It was high tech and high stakes. The country is under attack. And it was highly secretive until someone exposed it all. Cyberhack, Season 4, The Conti Files. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News podcast. There's been a mass shooting at a food festival in the US city of Seattle near the Space Needle landmark. At least three people have been killed and five others injured, including a two-year-old boy. These people described what happened. There were so many people that I've seen on the ground. It was horrible.

It was hard to tell anything. I mean, I was just asking people if they were okay. Everything was just so chaotic once they told us to go back again. We started running. It was like br-h-h-h-h-hap. And then it was like bop, bop, bop. I don't know weapons, but I guess it was like probably a semi-automatic. And then it was probably pistols after that.

We were probably 20 feet from wherever the shots were. First thought there were fireworks. And then everybody flooded and ran past us. ran through the garden and we ducked and we decided to keep running with the crowd until we got and I looked up for the space and it'll just try to keep track of where we were it was really scary it's the first mass like shooting anything I've ever been involved in assistant police chief tyrone davis gave this update this afternoon we had officers working our bite of seattle event at 601 p.m. gunshots were heard we had officers in the immediate area when these gunshots went

off. Officers responded and addressed one of the shooters. That person gave up and was taken into custody. There was another person that we believe that was also involved that fled the scene. And officers began an active search for that person. He went on to say that two people may have been firing at each other. Washington State has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. But the mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson, said much more had to be done. I'm sorry that we're having to be. having to gather here tonight under these tragic circumstances. What happened here today at the Seattle Center was an unbelievable tragedy, a horrific act of violence.

My heart right now is with the victims and their families and with everyone in our community who is reeling from what happened here today. We have far too much gun violence in this city and in this country, and we're coming off of a week in Seattle where we've had three major incidents of gun violence in just a few days. We have a lot of work to do as a city. and as a country to make this better. The Mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson. The British pop stars Wham made history in 1985

by becoming the first Western band to perform their music in China. Some footage from that time has been unearthed and will be shown for the first time in a new documentary released in cinemas worldwide on the 28th of July. Two young men in a sort of geopolitical situation. You're not really going to come and ask us about our opinions, are you? Wham's timing was exquisite. There was a hunger in China for connection with the West.

The film, Wham, Ten Days in China, tells the story of George Michael and Andrew Ridgley, staging two concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou. They were fairly unknown in the country, and people weren't sure what to make of them or their music. Anita Annan spoke to Pepsi, who was one of WAM's backing singers, about what she remembered of the tour. As far as memory goes, it's not visual for me.

It's like a feeling. You know, we were in a culture that we'd never been in before. Also, we did feel that we were being scrutinised. You know, wherever we went, we were, like, looked at. Like, we were in the market and people were looking at us, thinking, why are you wearing those lovely green hats with the red star? We really felt totally out of our own culture. For us, the first song going on stage, seeing the audience,

usually we're usually met with like a barrage of applause and loud screams, but there was nothing. And it was bright lights. We went on stage and we were almost like stopped in our tracks because it was so strange. We were not getting a response from the audience other than the audience. other than the audience that were very far back, right up at the auditorium,

where they were like dancing. And I think they were sort of foreigners from the embassy or whatever. So they were kind of letting loose at the back. But unfortunately, they were marched out. They were told not to do that. So we were not getting the reaction that we were usually used to. Were you aware of what a historic occasion it was? You know, the first Western band to go to communist,

China. Did you feel like ambassadors? Did you feel like trailblazers? We just thought another show, another country, but you know, there was strategy involved regarding doing the China gig, because by doing China, it meant the world's lens were on us. One thing that you may not be aware of is just how many Chinese say that was the moment that hearts and minds opened and that they were first introduced to this beat that didn't make any sense, these people who they didn't understand, and a music that they were unfamiliar with. For Shirley and I on tour with Wham and Chana, we were literally two Peds in a pod, like moving around because it just felt very, very strange. And in fact, the moment I knew

that something extraordinary was happening was when we started to perform freedom. I don't want your freedom. I remember us coming off stage and thinking, Wow, that song, I think, did something. Because at the time, it was very kind of, there was lots of restrictions, et cetera, et cetera. We were just there doing a job. You two just sort of seemed to be sort of, you know, very much happy go lucky and sort of, you know,

taking things as they came, you with Shirley. But I just wonder what it did to George, Michael in particular, and Andrew Ridgely, who were just used to coming out on a stage and everyone knowing them and adoring them and screaming their neck. and they're not having that. I hear what you're saying, but they knew why they were doing it.

They took us to the Great Wall of China, which was extraordinary. I remember looking on at George and Andrew because there was a lot of press. These two guys with this wall behind them, which was built by hundreds of people, blood, sweat and tears, and there was George and Andrew. And that is actually when I realized, oh my gosh, this is big. This is really enormous. And I just knew the world was going to know who George and Andrew and Wham were right then. That was Pepsi speaking to Anita Anand.

Now, to a moment of sporting history in Ireland. Oh, my God. He sent it all the time. Oh, my God. Delirium. Delirium. They have to get a goal. It's over.

It's 30 seconds. There's five seconds to go. He has to have to play. Thank you, referee. Yeah. Do you think they were excited there? That was County Mayo's Gaelic football team, ending a 75-year losing streak

after winning the All-Ireland Championship in doing so, shaking off a curse that is said to date back to 1951. Andy Watters is a sports reporter at the Irish News and he's been telling me all about that curse. Folklore has it that on the Tuesday after Mayo had won the... This would have been their third.

iron title and there was a back to back win. So they were coming back on their bus from Dublin to joining the celebrations in Mayo and they came through the little town of Foxford and there was a funeral taking place at the time. Now people have looked into it and apparently there's no evidence that there was a funeral in Foxford on this Tuesday. I don't want to ruin the whole folklore end of it or the mystique. But anyway, so the legend has it that the players maybe were celebrating or had celebrated a bit too zestily and they were disrespectful to the cortege and the priest told them,

listen, you'll never win another all are in New York County. You'll never win the San Muggar again until every member of that team has passed away. And the last member of that team died, was it in 2023? And yesterday it was their first final since then. Yesterday was their first final indeed.

And they had lost 11 finals since 1951. There was five games after 2012. You know, they seemed to find new ways to lose every time. You know, they scored two own goals in one game, you know, missed penalties, players getting sent off. Yeah, obviously yesterday and finally got over the line, you know, that outpouring of emotion was really, you know, amazing. And did people really believe in the curse, do you think?

There was no real mention of the curse for quite a few years. But then it sort of started getting a bit of traction then. it's around 2010, you know, people, oh, do you know, there's this curse and then everybody started getting into it. And whether you believe it or not, that 75 year wait came down end. So a huge moment of celebration and a huge moment of relief as well for people in Mayo. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Kerry, or the sort of old money aristocrats of Gillick football, they've got 39 All-Ireland titles behind them. They were the defending champion. everybody expected them to win.

But at the same time, everybody was hoping, I'd say, Kerry and was hoping that Mayo would do it. And certainly, even though they got off to a bad start yesterday in the final and looked a wee bit nervous and you were wondering, oh God, are these bad habits going to resurface? They were the better team and fully deserved their win. Andy Watters. Well, Sean Carney is a Mayo superfan.

He was at the game in 1951, aged six. and he was there yesterday, aged 81. He's been telling Rebecca Kesby about the moment his team won. When the final whistle went, I'm telling you, I gave a big shout up my all. And I was fit to cry, but I didn't cry. Because it was such an occasion.

It should be the second biggest occasion in my life. The first one was when I married my good wife, Mary. And she was there with you to watch it. She was, she was. You were six the last time your team won. Do you remember that? It was six. Yes. There was a child, but I remember it vividly. The team came up in the main street of the town of Claremaris on a truck.

And there was people walking in front of it in a torchlight procession. And they came up to the square, they were all on the truck, and we were all cheering them and clapping them. And so since then, Sean, the team has made it to, I think, 11 finals and been thwarted every single time. Talk us through the heartbreak of that. It has been terrible. especially the two finals of 2004 and 2006, we encountered the same team as we encountered yesterday, and we got a very bad beating.

So going into yesterday's final, we all had a touch of trepidation about what the outcome might be, but they played like heroes and they won like heroes. They did indeed. My family are from Mayo, and I know how much it means to everyone there. That was Mayo superfan Sean Carney.

And if you want to hear more about the curse of County Mayo, you can find it on the BBC's amazing sports stories podcast. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at Global Podcast at BBC.com.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. Now, Margaretta from Moldova, has been in touch to say she's listening to the Global News Podcast almost daily over the past six or seven years, either when running in a park in the capital, Kishanow, early in the morning, well done, Margueretta, or when walking to the office. Margarita says, thanks to the podcast, she often feels like one of the smartest people in the room. Thanks, Margueretta, and we've put a pin in Moldova on our world map. And also, don't forget our sister podcast,

The Global Story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Sarah Kimberly, and the producers were Judy Frankel and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. And I'm Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time, goodbye. A vicious gang of hackers, causing chaos for businesses, councils and hospitals. What if I don't finish this treatment

and his cancer grows? But they didn't care. I'm dying laughing. Making outrageous demands for money. They wanted millions. It was high tech and high stakes. The country's under attack. And it was highly secretive

until someone exposed it all. Cyberhack. Season 4, The Conti Files. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.