Oliver Conway (0:00)

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Thursday 8th May. Ukraine says Russia is still attacking despite declaring a three day ceasefire. Vladimir Putin is gathering his allies in Moscow to mark 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany. Europe is also celebrating VE Day and India and Pakistan have accused each other of new drone attacks. Also in the podcast, remember that creamy taste you waited for? Remember it again with Weight Watchers Grand Collection. Weight Watchers. This is living. The weight loss giant goes bankrupt. And so far it's only black smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel. Vladimir Putin has been gathering his allies in Moscow as Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. But the Kremlin is concerned about security after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks closed the city's airports. The victory day parade in Red Square on Friday is of huge importance for President Putin and he even declared a unilateral three day ceasefire to try to make sure it goes smoothly. As Kremlin adviser Andrei Fedorov explained, Russia seriously is concerned about possibility of attack by Ukrainian drones tomorrow May 9, which is a celebration day, Victory day. And yesterday, as you might know, 509 drones attacked Russia. So this is the concern of our leadership. The ceasefire was supposed to start at midnight Moscow time, but the Ukrainian military said Russian troops continued to attack in Eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian MP and serving soldier Svyatoslav Yurash accused Russia of lying. Again. We see Russia as being disingenuous actor as it always was, and pretending they're doing something while doing nothing. The truth is that again, we are the first country to desire peace. Alas, we want peace that lasts. We don't want a peace that breaks apart in no time and Russia takes another attempt to try and kill us and destroy us. Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor at BBC Monitoring, gave me this update on the truce declared by Russia. It's not holding. Within the past couple of hours, Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of violating this ceasefire. The Defense Ministry in Moscow is saying that Ukrainian forces have attempted to break into Russia's Kursk region. Twice attacked Russian forces in an occupied part of Ukraine's Donetsk region. 488 ceasefire violations by Ukraine so far, according to the Russian military. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andriy Sibiha says that Russia has committed 734 cease fire violations. 23 attacks by Russian forces are apparently still ongoing, according to the Ukrainian foreign minister. And he says that this, quote, unquote Parade ceasefire is a farce. And how will Ukraine be marking V Day? Because of course, Ukrainian soldiers were very important in the victory over Nazi Germany. It's marking the victory in Second World War today in a more commemorative and solemn and sad way, because what happened all those years ago is so tragic. Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video on social media saying that Ukraine is under attack again, meaning that whatever caused Second World War is still alive and needs to be destroyed. Vitaly Shevchenko. One of Vladimir Putin's most important allies since the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago is the Chinese President, Xi Jinping. The two men have held talks today in Moscow. Mr. Xi said that Chinese troops would take part in the Victory Day parade in Red Square and highlighted the strength of their relationship. China will work with Russia to shoulder the special responsibilities of being major world powers and permanent members of the Security Council to stand up bravely, jointly promote the correct view of World War II history and maintain the authority and status of the United Nations. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard told us more about the symbolism of the visit. You had this Incredible scene from St. George hall in the Kremlin with these two leaders approaching down the very long hall on red carpets before shaking hands. There was military music, music and national anthems. So this will be going around Russian state media. It basically symbolizes for President Putin, Russia is one of the great world powers and we have one of the two great world leaders, really, President Xi and President Trump. He has come here to Russia for our big national day and the commemoration of the end of the Second World War, the defeat of Nazi Germany. This really matters. The two leaders have spoken, they've called each other dear friends, and what they're trying to do is cement and build on their strategic alliance. So things like energy deals, pipelines from Siberia into China, that sort of thing. And that relationship is really key. The European Union and the west think China is a key enabler of the war in Ukraine. So there's other countries watching this meeting closely too. Danny Eberhardt. While Russia celebrates VE Day tomorrow, some European nations have today been marking the moment the war in Europe came to an end exactly 80 years ago. Bells ringing out at Westminster Abbey at a special commemoration service. Veronica Kirby was just six years old when Victory in Europe was announced. This is how she remembers that day. Great excitement in all the houses around where we live. It's indescribable, really, because everyone was so relieved. It was an impromptu street and everybody just brought out what they had even the music teacher in the street allowed her piano to come out in the road. In France they celebrated yesterday the 7th of May, as our correspondent Andrew Harding explains. I'm in northeastern France, champagne country, in the beautiful city of Reims. And I'm at a ceremony outside a secondary school which 80 years ago was also the headquarters of General Eisenhower's Allied forces. And it was here, at 2:41 in the morning on the 7th of May 1945 that the German military first officially surrendered. In the city of Reims stands the schoolhouse where the terms of unconditional surrender. Out of his side. I've come upstairs now into the room where that surrender was signed. The walls plastered with giant maps of France, of Europe. And here's the big wooden table where the German chief of staff, Alfred Jodl, put his signature to the document, the surrender terms. Monsieur Landy? Oui. Andrew Harding. En chante. I've come now to meet a 91 year old Frenchman, Claude Lundy, who was a student, 11 years old. And at that school in Reims where the surrender was signed, I once saw General Eisenhower being driven past. We knew something was going on. Then on the afternoon of the 7th, when we heard the document had been signed, people gathered in a giant spontaneous crowd. We were all happy we'd won the war. We went wild. We'd been under occupation for four years. My parents had helped British pilots to escape. We'd had to keep that quiet. The ceremonies are continuing here in Reims. A convoy of old American army jeeps just driving past me. I'm Helen Ayer Patton, the granddaughter of General Patton. He was part of the whole liberation. So Reims was on his path. I've been contemplating the American spirit and do we still have that get up and goness to do what you did in Second World War? And you think America still does? I do. Do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing that the Russian government isn't invited here? I don't think it's correct. We don't have to stop honoring those who were because one day the same thing could happen to us. I think you have to take this as an opportunity for reconciliation. Reach across an enemy line and see what happens. It is a huge missed opportunity for a different view. I've tracked down one of the organizers of this anniversary's event, a very senior French diplomat, Philippe Etienne. The war is back in Europe, so it's more important than ever to give this testimony and to pass this message to the newer generations. What is the price of freedom? What the former generations have given for us to be free to live in our democracies. This message resonates. People see what's happening to the east of our continent. My name is A.K. louis, 18 years old. I need to be here just to commemorate my grandparents. I think Europe is in danger if we don't remember the past. We don't know who we are and we need to remember every year the past and don't try to remake the past. Sound advice from an 18 year old who's still studying at the school where 80 years ago, one signature ended a war and changed the world. Andrew Harding in France. Will we find out the identity of the 267th Pope later today? Well, cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday afternoon, beginning their conclave to choose a new leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Black smoke emerged from the specially installed chimney at around 9pm indicating their first ballot had been inconclusive. This morning, they voted again, twice, and again failed to elect a successor to Pope Francis. There are two more ballots due this afternoon. And as Pope Francis biographer Austin Ivory explained, it could still happen. Every conclave is different. But just so you know that in 2013, at this stage, the man who would become Pope Francis Bergoglio was actually then well ahead. But he hadn't yet got to the two thirds, but he clearly had the momentum. And then back at lunch back at the Santa Marta, everybody was coming up to him saying, you better get your speech ready and asking him about his health. He said that's how he knew it was likely. And it actually, however, took longer to get to the two thirds because one of the ballots in the afternoon was spoilt. In other words, it was when two ballots were stuck to each other, so they had to do a complete recount. So just to say things can happen, you know, but actually, if there's no slip up this afternoon, we could get a white smoke. And it's always possible to go into tomorrow. But the last two conclaves, it has been decided in the afternoon of day two. Austin Ivory, and if you want to know more, we have a special global news podcast, how Will the next Pope Be Chosen? Where our religion editor answers your questions. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. And still to come on the global News podcast, it's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by a piece of space debris, the Soviet spacecraft expected to crash back to Earth in the next few days. India's attack on Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday, and Pakistan's response marked the worst escalation between the nuclear armed nations neighbors for two decades. The rest of the world called for restraint, but it seems violence is continuing. Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged gunfire across their de facto border in Kashmir. While the two nations have accused each other of launching drone strikes, Pakistan's military said it shot down 25 Indian drones. This man is in the city of Karachi at around 9:15 in the morning. Something hit my place. Some say it was a drone and some say something else. It hit my house and broke my rooftop. Everything became dark below the machines which were kept in the bathroom and other things inside, everything is broken. There was dust everywhere after we all came out the house. Well, for its part, India said it had neutralized attempts by Pakistan to launch a drone and missile attack. This analysis from our South Asia regional editor Anbarasan Atirajan in Delhi. It seems to be another dramatic escalation between the two sides because India and Pakistan now accuse each other of using drones and missiles targeting respective military installations. As you said. Pakistani's military spokesperson earlier in the day said 25 drones from India which entered Pakistan's airspace had been shot down and they reached quite a few cities including Lahore and Karachi. So there were these drones coming from India, according to the military spokesperson. But in a short while ago then the India said they were only responding to Pakistan because overnight Pakistani military, according to the Indian officials, Indian Defense Ministry, they were sending missiles and drones targeting their military targets. And we were hearing about explosions in the city of Amritsar, that's in India, close to the border with Pakistan. And people thought it was a military drill last night. Now we're getting some kind of a picture of about there seems to be a drone warfare going on beneath the surface between the two sides. It shows that the heightened tension still continues. And even though both sides, they say that they don't want to aggravate further, but there seems to be another type of warfare going on. Yeah. Meanwhile, in Pakistan itself, the US Consulate in Lahore has told its staff to shelter. How significant is that? Well, because this morning there was an explosion heard. Now India now says that they had reliably learned one of the air defense systems of Pakistan was destroyed. So we don't know whether this drone was weaponized. So following these explosions now the US State Department is issuing this. This is like asking people to stay indoors, which means probably they had some information or intelligence or by looking at what happened with the drones coming to various cities, probably asking people to stay because you as one of the eyewitness was saying how this one of the drones was falling. The man was talking from Karachi. So maybe that might have triggered them to issue that advisory. Anbar San ETI Rajan Next to the latest in Sudan's civil war now into its third year. Attacks on the city of Port Sudan, believed to be by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have continued for a fifth day. The city is in territory held by the regular armed forces. The UN boss Antonio Guterres has expressed deep concern, saying it's a major escalation that could lead to large scale civilian casualties. Richard Hamilton reports. As the conflict has raged in Darfur and other parts of the country, Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast has remained a relative safe haven and a key hub for international relief efforts. It has also provided camps for thousands fleeing fighting elsewhere. But all that has changed. Many observers have been taken by surprise as the regular army had made significant advances in the last few months, even retaking the capital Khartoum. Adib Abdelrahman Yousef is the former governor of central Darfur now living in Port Sudan. The life situation is very hard. There is no power, there is no water, food. What is going on in Port Sudan? Crime against humanity and more crimes beside the fact that it could consider as a terrorist attack. Civilian population are paying the highest price of this people. They run away from different part of Sudan seeking refuge and protection here in Port Sudan. Still they are safe attacking them here. There have also been reports of drone attacks setting fire to fuel depots in the city of Kursti in the southern White Nile state. The RSF has not commented on these strikes, but they have ramped up their drone campaign since losing control of Khartoum in March. On Tuesday, the army backed government severed ties with the United Arab Emirates, accusing it of supplying the RSF with weapons. Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied arming the RSF despite reports from UN experts, US politicians and international organizations. The war has in effect split the country in two, with the army holding the north, east and centre and the RSF in control of most of Darfur as well as parts of the south. Richard Hamilton Two Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City are reported to have killed more than 30 people. One hit a restaurant that served as a community kitchen. There's been no comment so far from the Israeli military. The attacks took place just meters from a Medecin Sans Frontiere field hospital. The clinic's medical activity manager, Tian Minh Dinh sent us this voice note and while she was recording, another strike could be heard in the background. We received reports overnight of dozens killed and Many more injured. We had children, women and elderly inundate our field hospital in Azawaida exceeding our capacity. The degree of suffering is really overwhelming. ICUs across Gaza and OTs are working throughout the night. One of our patients is a four month old with significant lower limb injuries. He was orphaned at 2 months of age when his parents were killed in another airstrike. He's completely alone in the world. Another injured was an elderly man who was recently discharged from our inpatient department. He had been with us for three months for third degree burns sustained in a previous airstrike. He was sheltering in the school. This is the third time he has been injured in an airstrike shelling. He lost all his children in the first airstrike. It really is non stop. I don't know if you can hear it in the background. The drones are nearly deafening and the airstrikes are ongoing. The Palestinian healthcare workers are tired. But despite losing their own family members, their houses, they work around the clock to provide care to victims of war. This is a plea to whoever is listening to not forget them and to not forget the innocent civilians who are the real victims of this conflict. Tian Min Din in Gaza City. The Israeli Embassy here in London is reported to have been the target of a plot by five Iranians suspected of preparing an act of terrorism. Four men are still being questioned. Iran's Foreign Minister has said his country categorically denies any involvement. Robin Simcox is the UK's commissioner for countering Extremism. The Iranian regime focusing that kind of target within the west is rare, but it does happen. The US previously thwarted a Iranian linked plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. and last year a couple of grenade attacks took place against Israeli embassies in Sweden and Belgium, both linked back to Iran. Now this isn't always completely obvious. This is the Iranian regime doing this. They don't advertise it. Often criminal gangs are used as proxies to provide a kind of semblance of distance between them and the act itself. It would not be so unusual to see this happening in the west because there is precedent. I think generally from a public understanding perspective, the scale of Iranian backed activity in this country is probably underestimated. We're increasingly aware of the hard power side of things. But Iran also looks to spread its influence in the UK via religious institutes. It controls television channels, charities, educational institutes, online disinformation campaigns, all by organizations that share Tehran's aims and objectives. And presented as a, I suppose, a religious obligation for Shia Muslims. Inside and outside of Iran to display obedience to the Supreme Leader in terms of what happens next, obviously there's a lot of moving parts to do with Iran. And when you think about terrorist attacks in the UK carried out by Al Qaeda, isis, whatever it may be, they are claimed by the organizations, they're proud of them. The Iranian activities I think are a bit more subversive and a bit subtler. They are probably a bit more strategic in their targeting. And we have been trained, I suppose over a course of years for understandable reasons to think of non state actors carrying out acts of violence in our countries. Whereas Iran is a state and it has become increasingly brazen in the things it will consider doing in our country in order to advance its objectives. It's an outlier, I suppose, which is what makes it so unusual and maybe so hard to combat. Robin Simcox, Commissioner for Countering Extremism in the UK Next we look to the skies because space agencies are tracking part of a Soviet era craft expected to crash back to Earth in the next few days. Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of a failed mission to Venus. It's not known where the debris will land, but with 70% or so of the Earth covered by ocean, scientists say it's unlikely to cause much damage. Our science reporter Maddie Malloy told us more. So the Soviet Union launched several missions in order to try and explore Venus. Now one of these missions involved this spacecraft, Cosmos for 482, which was launched in 1972, but due to a malfunction it never made it out low Earth orbit. But the interesting part is that this capsule was designed to withstand the extreme conditions of Venus, which means it has a robust heat shield and a durable structure. And because of this, experts believe that it could survive its descent through Earth's atmosphere. While there's some uncertainties about the re entry, including where it's going to land, the risk to people on the ground is low. So even if some fragments survive, they're unlikely to cause significant damage because 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by sea. Mr. Stem Lemon, senior Space Debris Mitigation Analyst at the European Space Agency, had this to say. We will be mostly able to tell people around the world where it won't come down. So if you ask what the risk is that something happens to you as an individual, it's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by a species of space debris. There's not much rips for people personally then over the past 60 years of space activity, there has been more than 6,000 space launches, which has resulted in over 50,000 trapped objects in orbit. And only 8% of these are active satellites and the rest is junk. But experts have predicted that the problem will only get worse. Maddie Molloy People with celiac disease go to great lengths to avoid biscuits, pasta, bread or any other food containing gluten. But some avoid other activities like kissing for fear of triggering an allergic reaction by ingesting tiny fragments of wheat, rye or barley. So scientists at Columbia University in the US have set out to prove that kissing could be safe even with allergies. Dr. Anne Robinson explains how the study was conducted. Picture 10 couples so they're facing each other and one of the pair has coeliac disease and the other one doesn't. The person who doesn't have celiac disease ate 10 crackers with gluten in it and then half of them washed out their mouth and the other half just waited five minutes. And then all 10 couples were presumably there was some kind of bell or something, like some speed dating, speed kissing thing. And then they were all instructed to then kiss one another for 10 seconds. Then they measured the saliva of the person with celiac disease to see how much of that gluten had ended up in their mouth and whether or not their partner had washed out their mouth or just waited the five minutes. Nobody with celiac disease had significant amounts of gluten in their mouth. So the inference is that you can go ahead and your partner without celiac can eat their wheat crackers and then they can wait a couple of minutes and then they can kiss you and you'll be alright. Dr. Ann Robinson finally to news that one of the biggest names in weight loss has gone bankrupt. Weight Watchers had been synonymous with dieting in the Western world for more than six decades. I hate diets, but I lost weight fast with Weight Watchers new program and I hate hate starving myself. But with their new fast and flexible program, I don't have to. The new food plan lets me live the way I want, eat with my family and friends, still have fun and in no time. Here I am an advert for Weight Watchers. But what's the reason behind its downfall? Katie Silver is our business correspondent. The company says it's going to remain fully operational and that members won't feel the impact. But it has declared bankruptcy in the U.S. its debts, which are more than 1 billion doll, can now be written off, giving it time to agree new terms with its lenders. And according to the company, it says that it had a significant amount of debt, some dating back decades. The company also says that for more than 62 years, Weight Watchers has empowered millions of people to make informed, healthy choices, staying resilient as trends have come and gone. But of course, Weight Watchers, for many of us, is very synonymous with the 1990s. I remember my mother going to meetings every week and it was all about points and calculating your points and exactly how much you would have. And now in the last 15 or so years, I've seen the rise of both bariatric surgery and then following on from that, of course, these hugely successful weight loss drugs, which have become very, very popular. And as a result, the company has seen its subscription revenue dropping significantly. The company now needs to look at whether or not it can pivot. It does, for example, also offer injectables, and they want to now try and help people find sustainable weight loss after they come off this medication. And to give you an idea, its revenues from the injectables were up about 57% in the most recent quarter. The question is, how can it pivot? That's something that's going to be interesting to watch, especially when it has so synonymous with these more traditional forms of weight loss. We saw, for example, back in 2018, it even changed its name to WW. Trying to shift the promotion beyond weight loss. Katie Silver. And that is all from us for now. But the Global news podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Rebecca Miller and produced by Stephanie Zacharison. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time. Goodbye.