German police shoot dead Berlin Pride attack suspect

Summary

Global News Podcast – German police shoot dead Berlin Pride attack suspect

BBC World Service | Host: Will Chalk | July 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode covers breaking news on German police shooting the suspect in the Berlin Pride event attack, escalating wildfires in France and Spain, ongoing settler violence in the West Bank, geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran, privacy concerns around smart glasses, women's football in Africa, Palermo's shift away from horse-drawn carriages, and the designation of South Sudan’s first World Heritage Site.

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1. Berlin Pride Attack – Suspect Shot Dead

Key Events

• The suspect, 21-year-old Abdul Balut, accused of attacking a Pride event in Berlin—killing a woman and injuring 29—was shot dead after a manhunt.
  • Event timeline: Attack occurred Saturday; suspect tracked and shot Sunday in Spandau.
  • Operation details: Special forces confronted Balut, who advanced with a knife and was fatally shot.
• Balut had previously tried to join Islamic State (IS), was sentenced, and placed in a de-radicalization program.

Community Reaction

• The attack sent shockwaves through Berlin’s LGBTQ community and raised concerns about targeted violence.
  • “The fact that this event is now overshadowed and will forever be linked to this day of death and mourning is of course, a wound in the heart of the entire community.” – Maz Faruki/Janat Jalil, (03:03)

Discussion & Analysis

• Authorities face questions about the effectiveness of monitoring and intervention, as Balut was known to police and had repeat interactions with security services.
  • "He was someone that interacted with the state...but he clearly has managed to carry out this attack under their noses." – Joe Inwood (05:57)

Timestamps & Quotes

• 01:47: Announcement of the suspect's killing
• 03:21: Joe Inwood on the police operation
• 04:59: Suspect background and radicalization

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2. Wildfires in Southwestern France and Spain

Current Situation

• Raging wildfires have forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate in France and Spain; near Bordeaux, at least 40,000 hectares have burned.

Regional Impact

• Authorities call this one of the greatest devastations since World War II.
• Bordeaux mayor: Flames within 15km of the city; evacuation contingency dismissed to prevent panic.

Personal Accounts

• Janat Jalil reports the atmosphere in evacuation centers, the health impacts of smoke, and community criticism of preparedness:
  • "Wherever you go in Bordeaux, you can just smell this really heavy acrid smoke... It's very hard to breathe." – Janat Jalil (08:15)
• Calls for better long-term strategies as climate change increases fire frequency.

Timestamps

• 06:10: Wildfires update
• 07:23: Conditions in Bordeaux and response
• 09:46: Community and climate concerns

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3. Israeli Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank

Incident Overview

• Following a lethal confrontation near Nablus, Israeli settler attacks increase, including burning Palestinian homes and mosques.
• Israeli authorities condemn the violence but increase establishment of farm outposts in response.

On-the-Ground Reporting

• Lucy Williamson describes scenes of destruction and fear among Palestinians.
  • “They say these kinds of attacks have happened here before, but never with this level of violence.” – Lucy Williamson (11:49)

First-Hand Accounts

• Residents and visitors recount terror and injuries:
  • “They came ready. It's scary.” – Markus Westberg (12:22)

Timestamps

• 10:59: Report from Nablus villages
• 12:11: Eyewitnesses and aftermath

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4. US-Iran Tensions—Temporary Pause in Strikes

Diplomatic Update

• US President Trump has paused strikes on Iran to allow space for talks.
• Iranian officials note a halt in regional attacks; US statements highlight both readiness and desire to de-escalate.

Strategic and Logistical Concerns

• US reportedly facing missile defense shortages; officials warn of risks to broader US military readiness.

Timestamps

• 14:01: US-Iran segment
• 14:25: Summary by Peter Bowes

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5. Smart Glasses Backlash – Privacy and Surveillance

Tech Controversy

• Meta’s new AI smart glasses, promoted by Kylie Jenner, face online criticism over privacy and public safety.
  • "The issue is that we cannot opt out of someone else's glasses, right?" – Dr. Sarah Saska (19:48)

Key Points

• Concerns: covert filming, stalking, unauthorized outing, and extortion.
• Tech companies argue smart glasses are inevitable, citing widespread adoption potential.
  • "All those glasses aren’t AI glasses—it’s kind of like, obviously all the flip phones were going to become smartphones..." – Mark Zuckerberg (20:24)

Timestamps

• 18:29: Smart glasses segment begins
• 19:48: Dr. Saska on privacy
• 20:24: Mark Zuckerberg defends the technology

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6. Women’s Africa Cup of Nations—Tournament Begins

Tournament Milestone

• Delayed but now underway in Morocco, featuring 16 teams—a record expansion.

Significance

• Semi-finalists earn World Cup spots; organizers face scrutiny over respect for the women’s game.
  • "If this wasn’t being played in the year ahead of a World Cup, it might have been postponed again." – Maz Faruki (23:39)

Timestamps

• 21:28: Women’s Africa Cup of Nations coverage
• 22:05: Maz Faruki on delays and growth

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7. Palermo Bans Horse-Drawn Tourist Carriages

Policy Shift

• Palermo is phasing out traditional horse-drawn tourist carriages in favor of electric vehicles for animal welfare and modernization.

Mixed Reactions

• Most drivers support the change for animal welfare, some vow to continue the tradition.
  • "I'm staying right here with my carriage. This horse will die with me. Do you understand?" (26:32)

Timestamps

• 24:32: Palermo story
• 25:53–26:51: Perspectives from drivers

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8. South Sudan’s First UNESCO World Heritage Site

Conservation Win

• Boma-Badingilo designated a World Heritage site, protecting vast migration routes of millions of antelope.
• Hopes for improved conservation and future tourism.

Memorable Moment

• "The first time I went to this landscape...I was sure I would never see anything to rival the scale of those landscapes and the wildlife..." – Markus Westberg (28:34)

Timestamps

• 27:20: World Heritage Site story
• 27:59: Markus Westberg describes the landscape

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Notable Quotes

• "We're pleased with that. There's been...praised the police response." – Joe Inwood on manhunt response (04:39)
• "There are big questions for the authorities to answer about why they weren't better prepared." – Janat Jalil on the wildfires (09:46)
• "Hebrew graffiti left by the attackers read revenge..." – Lucy Williamson (11:09)
• "The issue is that we cannot opt out of someone else's glasses." – Dr. Sarah Saska (19:48)
• "But persuading every Nuri to give up their horse may prove the hardest parts of the journey." – Carla Conti (26:51)
• "The main hope is that this will continue to encourage the government to really focus on protecting the landscape..." – Markus Westberg (30:56)

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For further information or to contact the podcast: [e-mail]

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Note: This summary omits advertisements, podcast intros/outros, and strictly focuses on the episode’s core reporting and analysis.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Will Chalk]

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Chalk and In the early hours of Monday, 27th July, these are our main stories. German police have shot dead the man accused of carrying out a deadly attack at a Pride event in Berlin. Wildfires in southwestern France are continuing to close in on Bordeaux. More than 300,000 people have been told to leave their homes in France and neighboring Spain and and we'll have a special report from the occupied west bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers have continued. Also in this podcast, the U.S. ambassador to the United nations says President Trump has paused attacks on Iran to give diplomacy more time and these glasses have

[Dr. Sarah Saska]

led to different forms of stalking, matching a face to a name. People have captured footage that they have then used for different forms of extortion.

[Will Chalk]

Why? Celebrity endorsed smart glasses are facing an online backlash for being creepy and dystopian. After one of the largest manhunts the German capital has seen in years, the suspect in the Berlin Pride attack has been shot dead by police. Abdul Balut was tracked down to the western suburb of Spandau on Sunday. Police say he was carrying a knife when he was confronted by officers

[Lucy Williamson]

during

[Will Chalk]

the operation to apprehend him, he advanced on our officers while armed, was stopped by gunfire from our special operations unit and subsequently died. We will now conduct further investigations into the facts and the precise course of events. Ballou was accused of killing a woman and injuring 29 other people on Saturday when he drove a van into a crowd at the pride event before stabbing multiple people. People in the city's LGBT scene gave their reaction. I'm still in shock. I've been to many large Pride events

[Narrator/Advertiser]

and given the incidents of recent years,

[Joe Inwood]

we've often worried that one of our

[Will Chalk]

events might be targeted at some point.

[Maz Faruki]

The fact that this event is now

[Carla Conti]

Overshadowed and will forever be linked to

[Maz Faruki]

this day of death and mourning is

[Janat Jalil]

of course, a wound in the heart

[Will Chalk]

of the entire community. We have since got more details. It's emerged that Ballute had tried to join the Islamic State group and he'd been ordered onto a de radicalization program. I got more about the police operation from our correspondent Joe Inwood.

[Joe Inwood]

So a rather unexpected location for this whole thing to come to an end. At an allotment in a kind of a leafy suburb to the west of Berlin called Spandau. We haven't been given that much information about what led the police to locate the suspect there, but we understand that when they confronted him, he came at them with some sort of knife or bladed instrument. They haven't given us the specifics on that. And when he did that, they say this police special forces, one of them shot him dead. So it was a conclusion to the manhunt which ended in the suspect's death.

[Will Chalk]

Yeah, that manhunt though, going on for well over 12 hours. That must have been a very anxious time for the people of Berlin.

[Joe Inwood]

Yeah, it clearly was. I mean, there was real, real concern obviously, specifically amongst the LGBTQ community, those who were hosting the Christopher street event. And when you listen to the testimony of those people, there is real, real sadness, anger, but fear. The idea that specifically their community has been targeted, I think has left people really worried. I mean, in terms of the time, it's taken about 15 hours or so, the police have said. We're pleased with that. There's been, I think it was the mayor and a few other people have said, they've praised the police response. I mean, obviously Berlin is a large city, it happened in the middle of the night. And so obviously tracking someone down like that is going to be quite difficult. And I think obviously there's always concern when these things go on a little bit. But I think probably the feeling will be, and this is what the officials have said, that they've got their man and they've done it in quite a reasonable time.

[Will Chalk]

What do we know then about the suspect himself and his motivations?

[Joe Inwood]

Abdul Balut was a 21 year old German born bird of Lebanese heritage. And it's been quite clear from his interaction with the police that he's someone that's been radicalized, interested in Islamist terrorism since 2024. Now back then he was. That's when he first, as far as we know, came into contact with the police because of Islamism. And that's when he started publishing stuff on Instagram about isis. He's then been found traveling to Lebanon via Turkey. And the police say that he wanted to join the Islamic State group. He was arrested at that point and sentenced to three months in prison. He then returned to Germany and was released, but then arrested at Brandenburg Airport. And we've basically seen at that point he got given a one sentence, but that was commuted and he was supposed to go through a de radicalization program. So I think in terms of the questions for the authorities, this is where those questions are going to come, rather than the time it took them to find him, but about the issues that maybe they missed in the lead up to this event, because obviously he was someone that interacted with the state, he was someone they were aware of, but he clearly has managed to carry out this attack under their noses.

[Will Chalk]

Joe Inwood, there. With every passing day, wildfires continue to burn across parts of Europe. The facts become more startling. 77,000 hectares of land has now been scorched in Spain, and 100,000 people have either been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors. And the situation's also very bad in southwest France. Almost a quarter of a million people ordered to leave areas near Bordeaux, where the fires have destroyed at least 40,000 hectares. To put that in some kind of context, regional authorities, authorities say it's one of the biggest devastations of land since World War II. Sophie Broca, who's prefect of Durande, says things are likely to get worse before they get better.

[Carla Conti]

From Tuesday, unfortunately, temperatures will rise again and we'll be back to very high levels, 38, 40 degrees. That is not something that will help us. It could worsen the situation. There will be no return to these evacuated communities as long as the fire is not under control. It is not under control. It will continue to spread and may even worsen depending on the weather conditions.

[Will Chalk]

The newsroom's Janat Jalil gave me this update from Bordeaux.

[Janat Jalil]

It's a pretty desperate situation right now. The wildfires are edging ever closer to the city of Bordeaux in this famous winemaking region at the height of the holiday season. Despite the desperate efforts of more than 2,000 firefighters, who are being helped by thousands of soldiers, police and volunteers, they still haven't been able to bring them under control. They're also using firefighting aircraft, many of which have been loaned by neighboring European countries. But the battle is still going on and time is running out because temperatures are expected to rise again sharply on Tuesday. And the mayor of Bordeaux is saying the flames are now just 15km from the edge of the city. But he's Downplayed reports that the authorities are making contingency plans to evacuate it, because that would be a massive challenge on top of the quarter of a million or so people who've been evacuating from villages, from towns and even from the western suburbs of Bordeaux. Tourism is a crucial part of the local economy, but people with holiday plans are being told to stay away or, if they're already here, to leave as soon as they can. Wherever you go in Bordeaux, you can just smell this really heavy acrid smoke. It's spread all over the city, all over the surrounding areas. It's very hard to breathe. There's this grey haze of ash particles and more than 2 million masks have been sent or are being sent to the region, and people are advised to wear them outside or stay indoors as much as they can.

[Will Chalk]

What local people said about the situation?

[Janat Jalil]

Well, I went to the main evacuation centre in Bordeaux, which is a huge complex with vast hanger like halls where thousands of residents and tourists have taken shelter. It can only hold about 10,000 people or so, but for many of those people, this is just a temporary stop while they make plans to stay with relatives or, if they're tourists, to return home or go to another part of France or. I mostly saw poorer older people, including many residents from care homes who were very confused, but were at least getting looked after by medical staff. And some of the people I spoke to expressed concerns about their homes being looted while they were away. They questioned why the authorities hadn't been better prepared, given that these heat waves and forest fires are basically happening every year now.

[Will Chalk]

But do you think they were surprised by the scale of these fires because of climate change?

[Janat Jalil]

We now know this is going to happen more and more frequently. So there are big questions for the authorities to answer about why they weren't better prepared. But it's difficult because there are also fires raging in the southeast of France, in the Riviera region, near the Alps and on the island of Corsica. So it's very difficult for them to find an easy solution to this.

[Will Chalk]

Janat Jalil in Bordeaux. There, a wave of attacks by Israeli settlers has continued across the occupied west bank after four Palestinian and two Israelis were shot dead in a violent confrontation near Nablus on Friday. Israel's Prime Minister has said he'll speed up the establishment of new farm outposts in the west bank in response. On Saturday night, two mosques near Nablus were set on fire and Hebrew graffiti calling for revenge was left scrawled on the walls. Israel's army says it condemns nationalist violence and is working to prevent incidents of nationalist crime. That's its term for attacks by extremist Israeli settlers. Our Middle east correspondent, Lucy Williamson has spent the weekend in the Palestinian villages around Nablus and sent this report.

[Lucy Williamson]

Since Friday's shooting, a wave of settler attacks has left a trail of charred buildings in the Palestinian villages around Nablus. Two mosques were set ablaze. Hebrew graffiti left by the attackers read revenge alongside the name of an Israeli settler shot near Nablus on Friday. In the nearby village of Sara, residents said six houses were burned by settlers later that day. This is one of the houses attacked by settlers in the village of Sara on Friday. We've been talking to residents who've described their terror at seeing large crowds of settlers cross these hills and head up into the village. They say they threw Molotov cocktails through the windows of houses, setting fire to around six of them, and attacked more than a dozen others. They say that these kinds of attacks have happened here before, but never with this level of violence. One was Hanan Turabi's home. She told me she stayed until the last second as crowds of settlers ran towards her before fleeing with four children.

[Markus Westberg]

They had us with Kai Tabi, visiting

[Lucy Williamson]

from Miami when the attack took place, was left with 12 stitches in his head after settlers wielding clubs invaded the village.

[Markus Westberg]

I work all my life with the Jewish people, with everybody, but like these people I never see. But all of them, they have the COVID face. They came ready. It's scary.

[Lucy Williamson]

Hours later, settlers were spotted again on the outskirts of Sarah. We're just seeing a group of armed settlers gather at the entrance to Saudi Sara village here. Villagers have been watching the outpost all day, waiting for more attacks. And you can feel how nervous people are here. We watch dozens of young men gather in the village to confront them as Israeli soldiers stood guard, firing tear gas to disperse the Palestinians. As the settlers slowly melted away, we just see more army jeeps arrive at the edge of the village. They've been firing tear gas canisters further and further into the village to try and push this crowd back. You can see a few soldiers walking down closer to where we're standing, pushing the villagers back down into the village. There's another group of soldiers behind them at the top of the road. They just fired tlas really close to us. One of the villagers is coming and tried to to cover it with earth. This is a practice routine. The soldiers have been moving down the road towards us. They've told us to go. The tear gas is everywhere. New Israeli outposts have already appeared around this area since Friday. All Israeli settlements in the occupied west bank are illegal under international law, but Palestinians in Sara say that won't protect them from settlers with a government and an army behind them.

[Will Chalk]

That report was by the BBC's Middle east correspondent Lucy Williamson. The US ambassador to the United nations says President Trump has paused the military campaign against Iran to give diplomacy more time. Iranian officials say Tehran has halted its attacks in the region after the U.S. suspended airstrikes over the past two nights. Our North America correspondent, Peter Bose is following developments.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

After 13 consecutive nights of bombing, there is a lull in the fighting. Speaking to Fox News, Mike Walsh said Donald Trump wanted to give the ongoing talks some space, as he put it, a little bit of room to make progress, although he added that the United States remained locked and loaded for more attacks and that more assets had gone into the region. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said talks with Omani mediators aimed at opening the waterways around the Strait of Hormuz were making progress. But US Media reports suggest several factors may be behind the pause in military action, including an attempt to de escalate tensions with Iran and concerns about dwindling stocks of Patriot missile interceptors. Last week, the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, warned that the demands of the conflict and the depletion of weapons supplies could undermine America's readiness to confront other threats unless Congress approved additional funding for the Pentagon.

[Will Chalk]

That was Peter Bowes. Still to come in this podcast, absolutely mind blowing.

[Markus Westberg]

I'd come straight from Antarctica and South Georgia, and I was sure I would never see anything to rival the scale of those landscapes and the wildlife that I came across there.

[Will Chalk]

A migration route for millions of antelope becomes South Sudan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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[Will Chalk]

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[Will Chalk]

this is the global news podcast. Now to arguably the most divisive bit of tech you can buy right now. Smart glasses, which let you take pictures and film videos. Some people love them, some think they're creepy and dystopian, essentially an excuse to invade the privacy of strangers. Meta has recently released its newest version, and the company picked influencer Kylie Jenner to promote them. This report from the Newsroom's Helena Burke.

[Carla Conti]

Hey Meta, take a picture.

[Helena Burke]

Kylie Jenner has over 380 million followers on Instagram, so an endorsement from her for Meta's newest AI glasses is a great get for the company on paper, but this ad is getting all the wrong kind of attention online.

[Janat Jalil]

Hey Meta, translate this.

[Helena Burke]

Opponents say smart glasses raise money. Major concerns about personal privacy, as the discreet filming feature on the lenses allows the wearer to record other people without them knowing. There have already been dozens of instances of women being recorded by men in public without their knowledge, only to later find the videos of themselves posted on social media. Dr. Sarah Saska, the co founder of Feminuity, a consultancy focusing on responsible approaches to technology, says this is just one of many issues with smart glasses.

[Dr. Sarah Saska]

The issue is that we cannot opt out of someone else's glasses, right? So for the most part, the onus is on the wearer ultimately to not exploit the technology. There have been stories about folks who are part of the LGBTQ community, say, being outed without their consent because they've been captured. These glasses have led to different forms of stalking, right? Matching a face to a name, to someone's workplace or their address. People have captured footage that they have then used for different forms of extortion.

[Helena Burke]

The founder of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended his product, insisting smart glasses are the future.

[Markus Westberg]

Glasses, I think, are like the perfect form factor for a device where if you want to have an AI that you let see what you see, hear what you hear, there's a billion or 2 billion people in the world who wear glasses already. So to me, the chance that we look back like a decade from now and like, all those glasses aren't AI glasses, it's kind of like, obviously all the flip phones were going to become smartphones, and I think that's going to happen with glasses, too.

[Helena Burke]

Meta isn't the only company that's developed smart glasses. Vitcher, Xreal and Snap all have their own versions on the market. And photos and videos aren't the only features offered by the glasses. You can also listen to music, take phone calls, read texts and speak to an AI voice assistant, all without using your hands. While many people oppose the technology, others are embracing it. Meta says it sold over 7 million pairs of smart glasses last year. While major tech firms push ahead with further innovations in their AI glasses, responsible tech advocates like Dr. Saska are calling for stricter laws and regulations on covert filming in public.

[Will Chalk]

Helena Burke there on Sunday. The 2026 Women's Africa cup of Nations kicked off in Morocco with a record breaking 16 teams taking part. The favourites are again the defending champions, Nigeria, chasing a record extending 11th title. But the hosts will have something to say about that. Morocco have been runners up for the past two tournaments and their campaign got off to a great start too. They thrashed Kenya 40 Anka Desai caught up with Maz Faruki who presents across BBC Sport and asked about the relief being felt now the tournament has finally kicked off after a delay.

[Maz Faruki]

It is very good that the tournament is finally happening. This isn't really a tournament that they could afford to delay the organisers or caf, African football's governing body, because if you get to the semi finals of this Women's Africa cup of nations, that means that you're guaranteed a spot at the 2027 Women's World Cup. So it had to be played at some point this year to get that qualification process sorted out. Initially, we're expecting this to be played back in March. In fact, it was due to start the very day that CAF actually announced that Morocco rather than Senegal would be awarded the trophy for the men's competition, which is obviously played at the beginning of the year. And the Moroccan organizers point to hosting that tournament as well as having to therefore disrupt. Disrupt some of their other domestic tournaments as reasons why they felt they weren't able to host the Women's Africa cup of nations in that original slot of March. So there was a lot of toing and froing between them and the organizers. Eventually we found ourselves here and actually I think this is probably quite a good slot in between the end of the men's FIFA World cup finishing before the start of the men's European football season start. But of course we also have to think as well about the really disrupted and challenging buildup that the 16 nations involved who therefore have had to endure.

[Will Chalk]

Yeah, and Maz, I think that's something interesting to pick up on because some people might say, well, hang on, is this tournament being given the same platform and respect as the men's, for example, but you mentioned that carrots for the teams that are in the semi finals to qualify for the next Women's World cup, it's also the most expanded tournament ever. Do we get a sense that the tournament, and women's football in Africa especially, is growing and getting more respect?

[Maz Faruki]

I think that some will certainly say there are still frustrations. We point to the fact that actually if this wasn't being played in the year ahead of a World cup, it might have been postponed again. We saw the tournament last year that was played in 2025, that was due to be played in 2024. We've seen previous editions postponed, cancelled entirely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Journalists certainly who follow the women's game in Africa will say that it isn't considered at the same level as the men's game. Having said that, Kath will rightly point to the fact that it is really growing across the continent, the women's game, and will point to the fact that therefore they have expanded this tournament to 16 teams for the first time. And that is obviously really exciting because it allows us to speak about players, about teams we don't know so much about, and it also allows us to have two debutantes at this tournament as well. And two teams are really excited to see how they're going to do in Cap Verde and in Malawi.

[Will Chalk]

Maz Faruki from BBC Sport there the Sicilian capital Palermo is among the first Italian cities to say goodbye to horse drawn tourist carriages after local authorities decided to replace them with modern electric vehicles. The measure will be gradually implemented over the course of the next few months with new animal welfare regulations also expected to come into effect. Carla Conti has the story.

[Carla Conti]

It's a sound that defines Palermo's historic center, but also one mired in controversy. Horse drawn carriages were once a popular mode of transportation for both goods and people across Palermo from the 19th century up until the mid 20th century. In recent decades, though, the traditional carrozza rides have survived primarily as a site sightseeing option for tourists looking for a slow paced journey around the city's landmarks. Their drivers are known in Sicilian as nuri. There were once hundreds of them, today only 36 remain. And now Palermo City Council has unanimously approved plans to gradually replace their carriages with electric vehicles, describing the decision as a historic step for animal welfare. Some Nuris say the transition is long overdue.

[Will Chalk]

All of us carriage drivers agree with it and we couldn't wait for something like this to be approved, especially because people were constantly bothering us. We couldn't work anymore. And it's also about respecting the horses. The climate isn't what it used to be either. It's much hotter now, so it's about protecting the horses as well.

[Carla Conti]

But others insist that the horses are well cared for and say that an electric carriage could never replace them.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Rest assured, the horses are treated extremely well. What's the point of replacing them? What's so appealing about an electric vehicle? You lose the tradition and the beauty of the horse.

[Will Chalk]

I'm staying right here with my carriage. This horse will die with me. Do you understand? It puts food on my table. It has supported my family all my life. Why should that be against the law? When it's too hot, we stay at home and when conditions allow it, we go out. I'm keeping my horse and I'm carrying on working.

[Carla Conti]

Palermo's authorities say the aim is to protect both the animals and the people whose lives depend on them. But the changes won't happen overnight. The authorities now have just under six months to draw up a conversion plan, including financial support for drivers and rules governing the new vehicles. The electric versions could even be designed to resemble Palermo's traditional carriages. But persuading every Nuri to give up their horse may prove the hardest parts of the journey.

[Will Chalk]

Carla Conti There. And we end on some good news, because part of South Sudan has been designated the country's first ever UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Boma Bardingilo landscape, a vast expanse of African savannah, is home to one of the world's biggest wildlife migrations. Becoming a World Heritage site is a highly coveted prize. And whilst it is largely symbolic and ongoing conflict makes Sudan an unlikely tourist destination. It's still hoped the award will help protect the ecosystem from poaching, development and climate change. Markus Westberg is a conservation photographer and photojournalist from Sweden. He told Paul Henley what the area

[Markus Westberg]

is like in the west. It's bordered by the White Nile, so permanent water sources, wetlands, very, very flat areas for hundreds of kilomet. And then as you move east, you move more into woodlands and more mountainous hilly areas. There's four main species that migrate through this landscape, all antelopes. So the most numerous are the white eared cob, a medium sized antelope. There's probably about 4 or 5 million of them and then there's three more species. So Tiang a species of reed buck and a gazelle.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

And describe your experiences of photographing all this.

[Markus Westberg]

Absolutely mind blowing. The first time I went to this landscape, I'd come straight from Antarctica and South Georgia and I was sure I would never see anything to rival the scale of those landscapes and the wildlife that I came across there. Despite having worked in Africa for over a decade at that time, it's incredible, the scale both of the landscape. Right. Even the more conservative estimates for this migratory landscape has it at about the size of England. Other ecologists that you speak to will probably say that it's twice that size and then you can see nothing for an hour and then suddenly you come across one of these megahertz of cob and you can fly over it for 10, 15 minutes and they just never stop coming.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Why do the antelope migrate?

[Markus Westberg]

Water and grass. They'll try to keep their distance from people as much as they can, though they need water. So in the dry season they'll seek out permanent water sources. They'll go towards the White Nile or the wetlands that are scattered around this landscape and that's what brings them into contact with people. But then as soon as the rains come and there's grass and water available elsewhere, they'll spread out. Not very sparsely populated. Decades of civil war, a complete lack of development during that time has meant that there's hardly any permanent human populations in this area.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

But the war hasn't posed a threat

[Will Chalk]

to the animal populations.

[Markus Westberg]

Not really. Many of the sedentary animal populations have been decimated or disappeared altogether, like the Northern White Rhino, for example. But because these particular species move around during the year, even if they were hunted heavily in some areas where there were more people, as soon as they moved on to the parts of this landscape where there weren't any permanent settlements, they'd be fine. But all of the animals need to seek out water and grazing for at least part of the year. And so that's where the hunting would have been at its heaviest.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Would you say that the local wildlife was a source of pride for people?

[Joe Inwood]

There it is.

[Markus Westberg]

Now, a lot of the species that we're talking about have held and continue to hold very important roles in the cultural life of many of the ethnic groups in this area. Area. But even locally, nothing was known about the scale of this wcs, the Wildlife Conservation Society, they conducted an aerial survey about 20 years ago and the numbers they found were a fraction of what we now know to be there. But I know that the news of the numbers, when they came out, they were greeted with both surprise and a lot of pride in South Sudan.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

And what do you think that this World Heritage status will do to this migratory landscape?

[Markus Westberg]

Now, the main hope is that this will continue to encourage the government to really focus on protecting the landscape and in time, as security and development become a bit more widespread, develop a wildlife tourism industry, for example. I know that that's what the minister responsible for this wants.

[Will Chalk]

That was Marcus Westberg there, a conservation photographer. Well, that is all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at [e-mail] you can also find us on XBC World Service. We have a sister podcast called the Global Story. Be sure to check that out. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Nick Randall and the producer was Emma Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Will Chalk. Until next time. Goodbye.

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