Global News Podcast - Zelensky says Russia will be held accountable for Poltava attack

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

President Zelensky says Russia will be held accountable for a deadly missile attack in Poltava. Also: Prague honours the man who saved Jewish children from the Nazis, and NY governor's ex-aide charged as Chinese agent.

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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Wednesday 4th September.

The Ukrainian president has vowed revenge for a missile strike on a military academy that killed more than 50 people. A former aide to the governor of New York has been charged with acting as an agent for China. And France has called for a new migration agreement with Britain after 12 people died trying to cross the Channel by boat. Also in the podcast. 800,000 children in this country know the name of Nicholas Winton. I hope, you know, in another 100 years, people will know who Nicholas Winton was. Prague honours the man who rescued hundreds of Jewish children

from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. But we begin with an update on that breaking news that came in as we recorded our earlier podcast, a Russian missile attack on the central city of Poltava, many kilometres from the front line. The Ukrainian authorities now say more than 50 people died and more than 200 were injured when two ballistic missiles hit a military academy and nearby hospital. Service personnel were among those killed. An investigation is underway amid claims an outdoor ceremony had been targeted. It's one of the deadliest attacks in two and a half years of war, and President Zelensky vowed

to hold, quote, Russian scum to account. These residents described the moment the missile struck. The air raid alert started in just a minute and then there were two explosions and we thought it was somewhere in our house. Then we got ready to go outside and realized that it was the communications institute. At home, we immediately ran into the bathroom with the child, but then gathered ourselves. On this side, all the windows were smashed in the entrance and in the neighbour's house. We were at home at the time. It was nine in the morning and there were two very strong explosions. We were very scared.

We quickly ran to the bathroom because it was really scary. Fortunately, nothing knocked us out. But there is a house nearby. Everything was blown out, all the windows. We don't have a basement in our house, so our only option was to sit there. I got an update from our correspondent at the scene, Nick Beek. Oliver, we're just outside this particular location

that was hit so devastatingly earlier today. At the moment, I can see the emergency services working in the dark, fire teams going through the rubble. You might every now and then be able to hear the periodic crash of debris being thrown out of the window as they try and clear buildings. And just looking up at these buildings, there's hardly any windows in them that are not broken, that haven't been blown out. And that gives you an indication of this blast. It really was huge. As well as the emergency workers, you've got lots of Ukrainian soldiers around here. We can't get particularly near because of the sensitivity of this site,

the fact it was a military location and there was training done here. A devastating strike and some questions about the possibility of lax security, how this was allowed to happen. The military have been talking about the utmost importance of protecting life and protecting people who are serving their country. I mean, it's worth stressing that this is a city which, although like so many other places in Ukraine, has experienced missiles, has experienced regular air raid alerts, but it is very far from the front line. Not far, though,, from the range of Russian missiles which hit with devastating impact. I'm just looking actually at a few more firefighters going towards the building or what remains of the building. We heard earlier that people were under the rubble,

not clear whether they'd been located, were still alive and could be moved out, or whether in fact they had died and were unaccounted for but certainly the emergency services will be staying here for a long time because of the huge impact of this. And how does this fit into the wider conflict it's south of Kursk where the Ukrainians were on the advance and west of Donbass where the Russians are pushing forward? Well it's central Ukraine and you could say it's both literally and figuratively right in the middle of this conflict, because it's got nothing directly to do with those two parts of the ongoing war that you mentioned. But it is somewhere which, along with other towns and cities, have been hit time and again by Russian missiles. And this reign of terror,

as President Zelensky continues to call it. He said the Russians were scum today and said in light of what he saw happening in this city, the Western world, Western partners, those in NATO, need to do much more to help protect Ukraine from strikes like this in the future. Nick Beek in Poltava. Well, Yuri Sack is a senior advisor to the Ukrainian government. What was his reaction to the attack?

Of course, the first initial reaction is shock, despite the two and a half years of this war. And despite the fact that one might think that, you know, people of Ukraine would be used to these kind of tragedies by now. But every time something like this happens, it is if it is happening for the first time. So lots of casualties, you know, another terrorist attack by a terrorist state. And, you know, the world is standing by and not giving us the permission to use the long-range weapons. These missiles came from more than 400 kilometres away, we understand. How come people didn't get any significant warning of the strikes?

Well, in fact, the investigation into what exactly happened is ongoing. And what we have had confirmed by the Office of the General Prosecutor by now, that the air raid siren was on a lot of actually people who were there, they did manage to seek shelter in a bomb shelter. But of course, there were those who didn't respond appropriately to the air raid siren. And hence, we have such considerable numbers of casualties. What about the target today in Poltava? It was a military one, wasn't it? It was a military university where young cadets have been present to almost celebrate the beginning of the academic year. So it was an educational facility,

it wasn't a military facility. And in addition to that, of course, we have to say that this was a double tap attack by the Russian terrorist state, which means that after the first missile that hit the educational facility, the second one came and it also hit the hospital nearby. Ukraine has constantly asked, as you are asking now, to be given free reign to hit targets further afield and notably inside Russia. But this attack came from Crimea. Surely Ukraine has the green light to hit targets there? Well, I think we still, our general staff and our military leadership has not confirmed yet where exactly this attack came from. What we keep saying that there are more than 200 targets inside the Russian territory. Just in the months of August, we were the target of almost 1,000 missiles of different kinds.

Some of them are launched at Ukraine from the Crimean launch pads. Some of them are launched from the Russian territory, Kursk region, Belgorod region, Bransk region. So the more we degrade the Russian army, the more we degrade their ability to strike us, of course, the safer will be our people, the sooner we will be able to reach some just peace. Yuri Sack talking to Paul Henley. When Poland and Israel moved to impose reforms on their legal systems, they faced huge protests and accusations of creeping authoritarianism. Is Mexico now going the same way? Well, before President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hands over to his successor next month, he's trying to push through changes that will see judges elected by

a popular vote. Last month, judicial workers began an inde through changes that will see judges elected by a popular vote. Last month, judicial workers began an indefinite strike over the plans, and on Tuesday, demonstrators blocked the entrance to Congress as lawmakers were about to begin debating the matter, forcing them to move to an alternative venue. As I heard from our Mexico correspondent, Will Grant. The event is going ahead in the Magdalena Mixhuca sports complex that was used in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. It's a reasonably short distance from the legislative palace and that's because as you said the entrance to the congress building was being blocked by law students, by those striking workers from the legal system and also people who were

working for the supreme Court have gone on strike as well. So there was quite a number of people. They were going to make it very, very difficult as well as those deputies who oppose this reform. So the decision of the governing coalition has been to move venue altogether. Yeah. Does it seem likely they'll be able to stop this reform? It doesn't, to be perfectly honest. All the theatre to one side of changing venues and so on. The truth is, this is President Andres Manuel López Obrador's brainchild. He wants to see it go through.

He's convinced it's necessary for a root and branch reform of the judicial system in Mexico, which he says is corrupt, is no longer fit for purpose, is infiltrated by organised crime. And when he says that he wants that with the supermajority that they have in the Houses of Parliament, it is going to be extremely difficult for any group blocking this to actually be able to prevent it going through. But there's not just criticism inside Mexico. The US isn't happy about it. But there's not just criticism inside Mexico. The U.S. isn't happy

about it. No, definitely not. You can tell that Washington isn't impressed at all with this reform. Their belief is that it undermines democracy. The U.S. ambassador, Ken Salazar, said that Mexico's democracy faced a major risk recently, which was a clear reference to the president's plan to reform this system, allow voters to pick judges. That would be 7,000 judges who would be up for votes sometime next year and then again a couple of years later. Nevertheless, Mr. López Obrador doesn't tend to listen too closely to that kind of criticism. He's very much of the belief that that's interference in national affairs shouldn't take place and that, you place and that he is there to do the will of the Mexican people and this was always on his agenda.

And with this indefinite strike, is the justice system able to function? It's pretty snarled up, as you can imagine, at least during this period. We will see how long it goes on. It's going to be interesting to see that the Supreme Court itself goes on strike and one wonders exactly what the effects will be there on the sort of running of the nation as well. It is significant, and I think symbolically it's significant as well. It's saying, you know, from the López Obrador side, this is the will of the people because the judicial system isn't fit for purpose, while those who actually work in the judicial system saying, we don't want this,

this undermines democracy, and it's going to basically politicise the judiciary and make it another branch of the executive. Our Mexico correspondent, Will Grant. A former aide to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, has been arrested and charged with being an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government. Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, were arrested at their home on Long Island on

Tuesday. Ms Sun pleaded not guilty and was released on a $1.5 million bond. The details from Neda Tawfiq in New York. Prosecutors allege that Linda Sun followed orders and directions from the Chinese government to advance Beijing's political interests. Ms Sun is accused of shaping the governor's private phone calls and official public statements to conform with the expectations of representatives of the Chinese consulate. It's also alleged that she blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to the governor's office. In exchange, it's alleged that she and her husband received economic and other benefits. Prosecutors say the couple laundered the monetary proceeds

to purchase New York real estate worth $3.6 million. Netta Tawfiq. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. How many more bathrooms do you need? How many more toilets do you need? You put these things in and the more you put in, somehow the more luxurious your home is. So just how many toilets is too many in a home? You're 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. It is an extremely dangerous journey, but despite the efforts of the British and French governments, migrants are still determined to try to cross the English Channel.

The French authorities say at least 12 people died on Tuesday when their boat capsized. It is the deadliest disaster in the Channel this year and has prompted France to call for a new migration treaty with Britain. Our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield reports. In sadly now familiar circumstances, the boat carrying around 60 people across the Channel proved unfit for the task. The rubber launch began breaking up and by the time rescue vessels were at the scene, all those who'd been on board were in the water. In a major operation, they were brought to shore by boat and helicopter. Just outside Boulogne-sur-Mer, an emergency centre was set up

to provide medical treatment for those less badly injured. Others were taken to hospital. France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin came to Boulogne to offer condolences to the bereaved and thanks to the emergency services. Today, those affected by this tragedy are people from the Horn of Africa who are trying to join their families or work in conditions that are not acceptable in France. It is important to re-establish a standard migratory relationship with our neighbours and friends in Great Britain. Otherwise, despite the efforts of police, we will not be able to stop these issues affecting northern France. This is the most serious incident in the channel this year and brings the overall number of dead since January to nearly 40, a big increase on 2023.

French officials blame the rising toll on unscrupulous traffickers cramming too many people on boats that are clearly unseaworthy. Hugh Schofield in Paris. Well, the issue of migration is being highlighted in an unusual art exhibition in London. The city's subway system features art on the underground at tube stations, and the latest offering is called A Taste of Home by the British photographic artist Joy Gregory. It's just been unveiled at one of the busiest gateways into Britain. Penny Dale went to Heathrow Terminal 4 to find out more.

We are now arriving at Heathrow Terminal 4, where this train terminates. If you look up and around in this concrete ticket hall, you'll see a series of prints of fragments of plants in different shades of blue. Some have words on them. An ancient woman who has lived all seasons wonders the earth gathering chamomile. I think they are quite special. It's like maybe Chinese tradition like tie-dye. It's quite welcoming really. As people we can commonly connect through food and I think that's a really nice way of showcasing that even though we are from very diverse backgrounds there are some commonalities.

We'll go somewhere quieter Joy. Yeah, okay. Joy Gregory has created 24 images of plants. She's weaved in the names of herbs and spices like cardamom, caraway seeds and pimento, as well as some lines from two poems. There's one that's sort of like all these blue leaves that are two different colours of blue that sort of wind round. They remind me of veins, they make me think of humans and also make me think of thought and feeling and that's the thing that makes me feel quite emotional along with the poetry. There's one about home, no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. And that is very true, that is very true, because you have to save your life and you will then try to do whatever.

Usman Khalid runs the Haven Coffee Shop in north-east London. He trains refugees and he organises comedy nights and art exhibitions as a way of challenging misconceptions about asylum seekers. He left Pakistan in 2007. For freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of thoughts, freedom of what I want to decide for myself on the basis of religion. People from all over the world have been coming to Britain for centuries to work in the cotton mills during the 18th century industrial revolution, in hospitals after the Second World War and to escape oppression and conflict in their own countries. But as Joy Gregory says, people are not always made to feel welcome.

We've had many years of rhetoric around migrants being a negative thing within our spaces. People think about people coming for asylum as having no skills and no knowledge and no training. I think in 10 years' time we'll be inviting people to come and stay because we need people. Like my parents were invited to come from Jamaica to come and help build the country after the war. We're all migrants in some sort of way.

A taste of home came out of some art workshops Joy Gregory held for about 100 people who are seeking asylum in Britain. Her inspiration came from the fact that there are no facilities at their temporary accommodation to cook a meal from scratch. Instead, there are just microwave meals. That could be your fate for maybe five years while you're waiting for your case to be heard. And I just think cooking and food is the thing that makes it feel like a whole person. If you're feeling homesick, you'll find yourself something that reminds you of the home. And the spices are the things that actually make you think of home

because they're the particular flavours that you add to your food. That report by Penny Dale. The main opposition party in Uganda says its leader, Bobby Wine, has been shot in the leg and seriously injured by security agents in the capital, Kampala. Bobby Wine has emerged as the strongest rival and a thorn in the side of Uganda's long-term president, Yuwere Museveni.

I heard more from the journalist Solomon Sawanja, who is in Kampala. So what we know for now, Bobiwine has been receiving healthcare at one of the national hospitals in Kampala. We cannot absolutely verify without doubt that he was shot. However, what we know, because I was on the ground, he sustained a major injury after a scuffle between his supporters and the police. What we know also is that Bobby Wine was attending a Thanksgiving ceremony for his friend, after which he stopped along the roadside and tried to speak to his supporters. The police refused and asked him to get back into the van and drive away. And that's how the scaffolding ensued. And during the process, you know, tear gas was fired. People were throwing stones at the police.

There was a scaffolding. During that scaffolding, he sustained an injury. However, I need to add and emphasize that we absolutely cannot verify that it was a gunshot. What we know for sure, he sustained an injury and is receiving medical care at a hospital in Kampala. OK, but there definitely was a confrontation. And just remind us of how the authorities have treated Bobby Wine in the past. Certainly, Robert Chagulanyo, Bobby Wine, is currently the biggest opposition leader in Uganda. And of course, he has given a bloody nose to President Yoram Sevini

in terms of the political warfare, if I can say. Bobby Wine has come out to challenge human rights violations, illegal detention, arbitrary arrests. And he has been indeed been arrested in the past by military officers. His campaigns have been muddied by violence. It's needless to say that a number of people have died belonging to the National Interplatform Political Party. He certainly has faced the brunt of the incumbent President Yoramu Seveni. Solomon Sowanja in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Now, here's a question. How many toilets do you really need in a home? Kevin MacLeod, presenter of a TV show about dream dwellings,

has sparked a debate among property designers by saying he's annoyed by the over-provision of toilets. That is, houses with more toilets than physical occupants. The BBC's Sarah Montague asked him why he's so exercised about it. If you look at the history of toilets and of the flushing toilets, it's been a 500-year slow march. Sir John Harrington installed a flushing toilet for Queen Elizabeth I in the 1570s or something.

And I once wrote a stage show really principally around this, the history of the toilet, because I've always found it fascinating how drains are at the very foundation, literally, of our civilisation. No drains within cities, cholera breaks out within days. So I think there's a very strong historical kind of narrative here which seems to have accelerated very alarmingly in the last 20 years. The en suite bathroom is sort of, everybody would love an en suite bathroom. That's understandable, isn't it? If you're building your dream home. Yes, indeed. And I think all of the

research demonstrates that adding an en suite can add up to 7% to the value of your home. So thereafter, yeah, how many more bathrooms do you need? How many more toilets do you need? Let's turn to the toilets because you're noticing what lots of individual toilets, what even on the ground floor? Yep, dotted around. Why? I honestly think it is some form of extension of the bathroom idea that you put these things in and the more you put in somehow the more luxurious your home is. In fact, an extension of this idea is the adoption of the Japanese technology of the heated seat, the toilet that plays you music, that has a bidet function that self-cleans and steams and all of these and does your laundry, as far as I know. One thing that's interesting to me is that the investment in bathrooms seems to pay off. That seems to be reflected in the value of homes. The investment in toilets, that's less clear.

What's the weirdest loo you've seen? My favourite was actually a long drop composting toilet that Ben Law built for himself in the middle of the woods in Sussex. It was a two-seater and it was on a raised elevated platform and you could sit behind a wicker panel and look out and gaze over the forest. And it was the most magical place. It taught me actually that we're missing something here. Where are we heading with this, do you think? You make the point about the Japanese loo systems. I suspect that we're heading towards this kind of rash of the toilet as the shrine. In these toilets and bathrooms, are you seeing increasing bidets, if not the Japanese version? The bidet, I think... For your feet, obviously. Yeah, I think if you make the car comparison, it's like the early steam cars. I think the bidet,

I think it's had its day. The Japanese flushing electronic thing is probably the future. I'm tempted to ask you if you've ever used one of those Japanese lids. No, I have not. And I don't think I'd be comfortable doing so. Kevin MacLeod talking to Sarah Montagu. A new road in the Czech capital Prague has been named after a British man who helped save hundreds of mostly Jewish children from the Nazis in the run-up to the Second World War. Sir Nicholas Winton, who died in 2015 at the age of 106, was famously modest. In fact, the first time that many of those he saved on the kindertransport had heard of him was when they were contacted by the BBC programme That's Life in 1988.

In a poignant moment of television, the presenter, Esther Ranson, revealed to an unsuspecting Sir Nicholas that the studio audience was made up entirely of people he'd rescued from what was then Czechoslovakia. This is a picture of Nicholas Winton himself with one of the children he rescued. Back here is the list of all the children. This is Vera Dearmont. We did find her name on his list.

Hello, Vera. And I should tell you that you are actually sitting next to Nicholas Winton. Can I ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton? If so, could you stand up, please? And the entire audience stood up. Well, among those taking part in the programme was Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines. She was nine when she left Prague

with her three-year-old sister Eva and travelled to England. She was eventually reunited with her parents more than a year later. Now aged 94, Lady Milena was in Prague for the new Nicholas Winton Street unveiling ceremony. She told my colleague James Kumarasamy what the day had meant for her. I think it's difficult to stop anyone in the street and say, have you heard of Nicholas Winton? Practically every person in this country knows his name. Not long ago, we were having a conference and someone said,

do the children know his name? And it so happens that today with us was a man who regularly travels around schools. We've just worked out that 800,000 children in this country know the name of Nicholas Winton. Gosh. Yes. And for you, can you tell us, as you stand there in Prague, what you know of your own story, the circumstances in which you left Prague? Well, my own story I only know because one day a telephone rang

and this voice said, this is Esther Ransom. And that was 40 years after it all happened. Because prior to that, none of us, and there are hundreds, knew how we got on that train. And the past was almost forgotten. Because even then, you know, in England, Holocaust was not mentioned really until after we found Nikki. The survivors refused to talk about it for many years. And then all of a sudden, we now all know, you know, what's happening. We're saying we need a new Nicholas Winton because there are so many children who need to be helped today. What comes

around goes around, if one can say that. Am I making sense? You're making perfect sense. As you're there now, do you have any instinctive memories at all of that time? I have no memory of it. I have an autograph book, which my grandfather gave me the night we were leaving. And I call that my memory because in that he wrote a message, never to forget the land I'm leaving. By 1939, the adults realised what was happening, Austria, the Jews were already being arrested, but we as children were not aware of it. You talked about the next generations and needing people, the youngsters to remember what happened. And so it can never happen again. And you're someone who has spoken a lot at schools and talked to young people. What is it that connects young people do you think to your story is it the separation is it that the

older sister having to look after a younger sister is it these sort of basic things because i talk to different ages and the youngest ones that i talked to about nine and ten and i also ask the teachers they must prepare the children for what would be a sad story. The little ones I mainly talk to about having to leave home and why. And I have one sample letter that was written by a nine-year-old. I used to say to the children, do you ever say I hate you? Which children do to their parents? And she said, now, after what you told us, I cherish my parents because I have parents to cherish.

And that is a nine-year-old child writing a letter. And I've got hundreds of them. And the older they get, the more I tell them, the more I will explain to them about the camps, about how my grandparents and my cousins all died in the camps. It does resonate with them. There is absolutely no doubt. What do you feel? Do you feel Czech? Do you feel English? What do you feel in your heart? Of course, I'm British. We've lived here since 1939. But I think in my cultural soul, I really feel very Czech. And do you think there's a little bit of Czech in Sir Nicholas?

Oh, I'm convinced after all those years. There must be, yes. And he is there now in name as well as in memory. He is here to be remembered for always because, you know, Prague is full of names of famous Czech people who've gone down in history. And so this will be another one where I hope, you know, in another hundred years, people will know who Nicholas Winton was. Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines. Now, before we go, it is just over two months until the US presidential election. Whoever wins will make history. And ahead of the votes, we'll be putting together a special edition of the Global News Podcast in collaboration with our friends at

AmeriCast. So if you have any questions about the election, then please email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or find us on x at globalnewspod. And if you can send us a voice note with your question, then all the better. And that's all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and produced by Alison Davis. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life.

I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to

BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.