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Ukrainian security service say their officer shot dead
00:29:26
Local media say Colonel Ivan Voronych was gunned down at close range in Kyiv
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- [00:00]
Katie Watson
This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Katie Watson and at 13 hours GMT on Thursday 10th July, these are our main stories. Another ship attacked and sunk in the Red Sea. The Houthis say they did it. Ukraine's capital, Kyiv is hit with a barrage of Russian drones and missiles sweeping us. Foreign aid cuts could lead to soaring numbers of new HIV infections. We hear from affected patients and doctors also in this podcast.
- [00:41]
Unnamed Migrant
If the authorities catch me, then I'll try again. I won't stop until I get to Great Britain.
- [00:48]
Katie Watson
As the French President's state visit continues, here in the uk, we meet the migrants desperate to make the journey across the English Channel. Police in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv are investigating the shooting of what the Security Service says is one of its officers at close range. It comes after another overnight bombardment by Russia. Kyiv was hit by hundreds of drones as well as missiles, killing two and injuring more than a dozen people. There was damage reported across the city, forcing thousands of residents to take shelter. President Zelensky said the attacks proved that Russia was not interested in peace.
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Unnamed Migrant
Last night they launched another massive attack on Ukraine, mainly targeting our capital, Kyiv.
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Danny Eberhard
The attack involved Russian Iranian shahed drones. These drones have been heavily upgraded to.
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Unnamed Migrant
Cause more destruction and to be harder to shoot down. Ukrainians now face attacks by hundreds, hundreds.
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Danny Eberhard
Of these drones every single night.
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Unnamed Migrant
And this is pure terrorism.
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Katie Watson
He was speaking at a conference in Rome aimed at mobilizing support and investment for Ukraine. He appealed for more defence supplies and missiles. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard, gave me the latest on the Kyiv attacks.
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Danny Eberhard
There is video of this targeted assassination. What it shows is a man leaving an apartment building. It was this morning. He walked to the corner of the street and then a masked assailant ran up to him and shoots him repeatedly at close range. Now, the Security Service of Ukraine has confirmed that an officer of its own was killed. It hasn't named him, but sources have told the Ukrainian service of the BBC that it was Colonel Ivan Voronich. Now, the. The presumption at this stage is that it was a targeted assassination by Russia. There is an investigation underway at the moment. A former Security Service employee has told the BBC that Voronech was one of those who founded a department in the Security Service that, as he put it, is now creating many problems for Russians. But it's not clear precisely what specific operations targeting Russia or Russians that. That Voronich might have been involved in.
- [03:15]
Katie Watson
Of course, this also comes as there's intensifying strikes in Ukraine.
- [03:20]
Danny Eberhard
Yeah, so We've had another night. President Zelenskyy said 400 drones, 18 missiles. It's slightly less than the night before where you saw more than 700 drones and missiles being used. But nevertheless, these are colossal quantities. They're designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences. They're called combined attacks. So explosive drones, decoy dr, and also ballistic and cruise missiles, so difficult to defend against. President Zelenskyy has said it's an obvious escalation of terror. He has called for a greater acceleration in sanctions against Russia so that it feels the consequences of its terror, as he put it, faster investments in weapons production in Ukraine and funding for air defences and drones. The latest figure we've had from an official in in Kyiv is that on top of the two killed that you mentioned, 22 people were injured in these attacks, which basically damaged or destroyed a medical center, residential high rises, office blocks and some industrial facilities. We know that Russia says that it targeted military industrial capabilities in Kyiv, as well as damaging the infrastructure of an airfield. We don't know where that airfield may have been. Other areas were attacked in Ukraine overnight. So Kharkiv Sumi, these sort of areas as well.
- [04:44]
Katie Watson
Danny Eberhard. A cargo ship has been attacked by Yemen's Houthi militia and sunk in the Red Sea. It's the second vessel the Houthis have sunk in a week. The Liberian flagged Eternity Sea was said to be heading to the Israeli port of Eilat. Ten of the crew members have been rescued, but the fate of the others on board remain unclear. The Houthis later released footage of alleged radio contact with the ship and of the missile launch. This is Yemen naval forces calling you.
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Unnamed Migrant
In channel 1 6.
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Katie Watson
How do you read me? Over.
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Dr. Jessica Pugsley
Yes, come in.
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Katie Watson
Yes, come in. Sir, this is motor missile Eternity.
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Unnamed Migrant
You can contact with the ship Barrion.
- [05:22]
Myani Jones
To go back to rescue all of you.
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Katie Watson
Don't worry, I confirm.
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Unnamed Migrant
Hurry, abandon the ship. How do you copy, over?
- [05:36]
Katie Watson
I got more details from our Middle east regional editor. So, Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem, we've heard from the Houthis.
- [05:44]
Sebastian Usher
I mean, it's the Yemen Navy saying that they took some of those crew members, but they're giving them medical treatment, looking after them, essentially taking them hostage, but they haven't given numbers, so it's unclear if there are more crew members who may be in the sea. The rescue workers are saying that they're continuing to look for them. And also we heard from the rescuers saying that four of those on board were killed. We haven't had that confirmed by the shipping company itself. But those will be the first fatalities that there have been for a long time.
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Katie Watson
There's clearly an increase in activity by the Houthis. What's behind it?
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Sebastian Usher
I mean, it's not entirely clear. The Houthis, essentially they started these attacks on shipping and the missiles that they fire at Israel. We had one just last night, which was again intercepted by the air defense here. But they began those attacks after The Hamas led October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel meant, of course, course, for subsequent Israeli offensive against Hamas. And the Houthis were saying that they were doing this in solidarity with the Palestinian people. But what has happened is that the Houthis and the US Came to an agreement that they wouldn't attack US Targets anymore. But that agreement didn't include any targets the Houthis consider to have connections with Israel. It's clearly a resurgence. So it may be trying to show that proxies in the region who are connected to Iran can still show this kind of activity against Israel. It may also be connected to these ceasefire negotiations that are going on at the moment between Hamas and Israel.
- [07:24]
Katie Watson
And on those negotiations, can you tell us about the latest?
- [07:29]
Sebastian Usher
Well, they don't seem to have moved forward. I mean, we are hearing different reports. The Israelis have been talking it up a bit again in the past day or so, just as the Trump administration has. What we've been hearing from the Hamas side has been much more downbeat. I mean, Hamas did issue a short statement a few hours ago saying that they'd shown their flexibility by agreeing to free 10 hostages, which is part of this ceasefire proposal, but saying that there's intransigence on the Israeli side. A senior Israeli official not named was saying that the Israelis don't expect there to be a deal done in a day's time. It may take a week, it may take a couple of weeks. And I think also significantly saying that the ceasefire for 60 days, a temporary ceasefire is possible, but during that time, Israel is ready to discuss a permanent end to the war, but only if Hamas agrees to disarm.
- [08:31]
Katie Watson
That was Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem. A new report by the United nations says the global response to HIV and AIDS is in crisis. The warning comes after a collapse in funding triggered by the Trump administration's cuts to U.S. foreign aid. That decision has already l led to mass closures of mother and baby clinics in Africa and severe shortages of life saving antiretroviral medicines. The UN says the cuts could result in a surge in infections as well as an additional 4 million AIDS related deaths by the end of the decade. Our correspondent Myani Jones is in South Africa, which has the highest number of people living with HIV anywhere in the world and has seen firsthand the impacts already being felt by patients, doctors and researchers.
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Myani Jones
I'm at the Wittkoppen Clinic in northern Johannesburg. In their waiting room there's about 50 people here waiting to be seen. This is a clinic that sees over 200 people a day, most of them from lower incomes, some of them migrants, and it's been affected by the USAID cut. This is a clinic that is a lifeline for people that often don't have somewhere else to go. We visited the Vidkopen Clinic shortly after the cuts were first announced and spoke to some of its patients who were anxious about their impact.
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Unnamed Migrant
So firstly, when I was sick without the clinical attending the clinic, my life was so bad.
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Myani Jones
Daniel is a South African truck driver.
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Unnamed Migrant
Since I get the treatment from Vetkopen Clinic, I'm fine, I'm fine. So I'm living better than the same. It's not the same life that I was living before.
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Myani Jones
So it's possible that there's going to be less staff, less medication. How does that make you feel?
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Unnamed Migrant
I don't think that my life gonna be better than the way I am. No. I'm worried because I don't know how we can go and find help. My name is Dina, I'm hairdresser. Today I've got an appointment for my prep.
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Myani Jones
What would you say to Americans who say that American taxpayers shouldn't be paying for health care in South Africa?
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Unnamed Migrant
No, no, no, no, that is not a good idea. We are all human beings. They mustn't separate. This is Africa, this is America.
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Myani Jones
Although this clinic is still open, dozens of others have closed their doors. Scientists here are warning this could lead to a spike in infections. The public health system here is stretched and can't absorb all the patients who used to get their care from USAID funded initiatives. And frontline healthcare isn't the only affected area.
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Unnamed Migrant
I'm Abdullah Elai, I'm an associate professor at the Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit. More recently we've been developing vaccines for hiv.
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Myani Jones
So tell me now that the US has decided to cut that funding, how has your work been affected?
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Unnamed Migrant
It basically stopped the work. Initially there was nothing we could do. So when the stop order came, that meant we had to stop everything.
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Myani Jones
How disruptive was that interruption?
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Unnamed Migrant
Extremely disruptive. It set us back months, probably could even be a year or so.
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Myani Jones
Many of the developments in HIV prevention which have benefited patients around the world, were trialled here in South Africa. Now the country's researchers say they need emergency funding if this work is to continue.
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Sofia Batica
To the international community. We are pleading for support because of the this cause.
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Myani Jones
Dr. Petiwe Matutu is the CEO of University South Africa, an umbrella body that represents the country's public universities.
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Sofia Batica
South Africa is leading in this area and it's not leading for itself. It has an effect on the global health. So it may appear to be a South African thing. South Africa just lends itself to be the best environment where this kind of research can be done at the moment. But the effects of HIV and AIDS are everywhere in the world.
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Myani Jones
The South African governments and international donors have pledged some $54 million to plug some of the US funding cuts. But given the last year that Americans spent $450 million on HIV funding to South Africa, this bailout won't be enough to cover the need. This could have devastating consequences for global health.
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Katie Watson
Miami Jones reporting from Johannesburg. As part of a three day state visit to the uk French President Emmanuel Macron has been holding talks with the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. They're expected to hammer out a deal on irregular migration after both leaders said more needed to be done to stop small boats crossing the English Channel. But why do so many people want to come over to the uk? Our reporter Sofia Batica is in the French port city of Calais.
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Sofia Batica
A familiar scene In Calais, it's early morning at the beach. People are scrambling to board a small boat desperate to reach the UK and soon this journey could become even more difficult. It's expected that for the first time, French police will be allowed to intercept boats in the water after they've launched. But will it stop people from trying?
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Unnamed Migrant
If the authorities catch me, then I'll try again. I won't stop until I get to Great Britain.
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Sofia Batica
Gammul is from Egypt and is 27. He's with a group of about 50 migrants listening to music and drinking tea near the city center. Why do you want to try, even if it becomes really difficult?
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Unnamed Migrant
Because the language is easy to learn and because it's a safe country, they will listen to me and give me a chance. I'm sure they will help me.
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Sofia Batica
In some parts of the city, makeshift tents have been springing up along the canal right next to holiday homes by the beach. They're here one day and gone the next. In one of them, we meet Abdelrahman. He's getting ready to try and reach the UK by boat for the fourth.
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Unnamed Migrant
Time we can try again and again to cross to uk, but it will.
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Sofia Batica
Become harder to cross the Channel.
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Unnamed Migrant
Yeah, we understand that. We try. You see the people going to port and try. If police coming, catch the port, they come back, they try again and again and again. That's why it's a game and we gonna win.
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Sofia Batica
But it's a dangerous game. And critics are warning that the new measures could make these journeys even more perilous. Li Di works with an NGO that helps migrants in Calais.
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Unnamed Migrant
We know already people die crossing the Channel.
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Katie Watson
It's physically dangerous.
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Unnamed Migrant
And so policies that make it more.
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Katie Watson
Dangerous for people to cross the Channel.
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Unnamed Migrant
Will ultimately mean more people die.
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Sofia Batica
President Macron says the UK and France together are addressing the major challenges of our time. But the reality is that the migrants here are fleeing war, persecution and extreme poverty back home. They are willing to risk their lives to get to Britain. So any political agreement between the UK and French governments is unlikely to put them off.
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Katie Watson
Sofia Batica reporting from Calais. Still to come in this podcast, it.
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Dr. Jessica Pugsley
Affects their identity, their dignity, their privacy during what is a quite a challenging time. So it is important for us to be able to prevent the hair loss.
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Katie Watson
A new technique that scientists say will prevent cancer patients from losing their hair. Geologists in Scotland say they've settled a century old debate about how some of the islands in its picturesque landscape were formed. They've uncovered an ancient crack in the earth that suggests a network of erupting volcanic fissures formed the Inner Hebrides on the west coast, much like how islands in Iceland and Hawaii originated. Dr. Jessica Pugsley led the study and told us more.
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Unnamed Migrant
As a geologist, what's wonderful is we get to see windows into the past. We're often looking at jigsaw puzzles if you like, but we've only got 10 pieces of that jigsaw puzzle. But to actually stand on an area where we have so much evidence, so many pieces of that jigsaw puzzle to really put together the story of how this area once formed is what's really incredible. Now, the Isle of Mull and where we looked is it's near Calgary Bay, which is a beautiful section of Mull. It's idyllic. But to see that it had such past, where you've got magma and fountaining and lavas, you know, 60 million years ago, is what's incredible, kind of getting that kind of window into the past. Now it's been a long standing theory that these kind of landscapes, these are lava flow series of big stack sequences of lava flows and that they once formed by these fissures to actually get one exposed in the cliff line. That has great 3D control, because the sea stacks and everything like that can really clearly kind of give us the evidence that we've needed in order to see. And it's actually an area that's been looked at in the past. Lots of fantastic geologists have worked on these areas. And we flew a drone around the area and made 3D models, and that gave us new insights and new methods to actually identify what we're looking at.
- [18:13]
Katie Watson
That was Dr. Jessica Pugsley. The technology behind your AI searches, emails and photo storage is surprisingly thirsty. And as data centers grow around the world, demand for water to cool the servers that run them is also rising. But there's local pushback growing to find better ways to run them without draining resources. The BBC's North America business correspondent, Michelle Fleury has been to the US State of Georgia, America's new hotspot for data center construction, to find out more.
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Unnamed Migrant
Okay, so I am going to pour.
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Thomas Shannon
This into the tank.
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Michelle Fleury
For Beverly Morris, this has become part of her daily routine.
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Thomas Shannon
The water won't come through the water lines to fill the toilet tank, so.
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Unnamed Migrant
I have to fill it with a bucket of water. It's plugged with sediment.
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Michelle Fleury
She bought a home in mansfield, Georgia, in 2016, drawn by the peace, the trees, the seclusion that changed when a massive metadata center moved in next door. Now she buys all her drinking water.
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Thomas Shannon
No one should have to be afraid.
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Unnamed Migrant
To drink their water.
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Michelle Fleury
Since construction began, her well has turned murky. The sediment that's from her taps. And she says it wasn't there before. We contacted Meta. Facebook's parent company told us being a good neighbour is a priority, but that this had nothing to do with them. They commissioned a study which found its data center operation did not adversely affect groundwater conditions in the area. Still, Beverly isn't reassured.
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Thomas Shannon
My everyday life, everything has been affected. I've lived through this for eight years.
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Michelle Fleury
The rise of AI means more data and more data centres to handle it. These digital workhorses use huge amounts of power and water to stay cool and discharge wastewater in the process.
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Thomas Shannon
Extremely polluted water coming off of the QTS property.
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Michelle Fleury
Flint riverkeeper Gordon Rogers and his colleague George show me what's at stake. A damaged creek next to another data centre, this one owned by qts. Clean water should not be a luxury for some, Gordon tells me, but a right for all.
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Thomas Shannon
We do not live in a society with fiefdoms where there's a Lord of the manor, and the lord of the manor gets to decide whose property rights are superior to others.
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Michelle Fleury
QTS says its data centers meet high environmental standards and bring millions in local tax revenue. But local activism threatens the US boom, with $64 billion in projects delayed or blocked nationwide.
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Myani Jones
Literally anything that you do today on your computer, your mobile devices, the apps.
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Unnamed Migrant
You use, they're mostly powered by data centers.
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Michelle Fleury
Professor Rajiv Garg at Georgia's Emory University specializes in cloud computing. He says data centres bring jobs and revenue, but challenge now is making them sustainable.
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Myani Jones
We can recycle a lot of the water that we get from the rain from sewage, and we can use those.
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Unnamed Migrant
To cool these data centers so we can optimize the resources that are being used.
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Michelle Fleury
And while Meta disputes that it has caused the problems with Beverly's water, there's no doubt the company has worn out its welcome as her neighbour.
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Thomas Shannon
I can't sell my home.
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Unnamed Migrant
I would prefer not to live here.
- [21:43]
Thomas Shannon
This was my perfect spot before, but it isn't anymore.
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Katie Watson
Michelle Flaherting there President Trump has escalated his fight with Brazil, announcing he's planning to impose a 50% tax on goods exported from the country to the US, further increasing a political row with President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva. He also denounced the trial of Brazil's former leader, Jair Bolsonaro. Mr. Bolsonaro is accused of plotting a coup after losing elections nearly three years ago. President Lula, who warned against foreign interference, said he was ready to reciprocate if the Trump administration extends tariffs. So what's going on? Thomas Shannon is the former U.S. ambassador to Brazil.
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Thomas Shannon
First, I thought both the remarks and the threat of tariff was a very troubling development in the U S Brazil relationship. This is a long standing relationship of a lot of importance for both countries for obvious reasons. Two great continental democracies and economies in the Western hemisphere and for the President Trump to put himself into the middle of a political and judicial dispute in Brazil is distressing for the Brazilians, but I think distressing for anybody who values the bilateral relationship and then using a threat of tariffs to try to move the Brazilians in the case of the accusations against Bolsonaro is just not going to work. And so I just don't see any happy outcome in this current situation.
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Danny Eberhard
President Trump has put tariffs on plenty of countries, plenty of sectors too. Is it your contention, though, that what is happening in Brazil is as much political, his disapproval of the court case against the former President Bolsonaro as it is economic?
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Thomas Shannon
It certainly appears to be the case I mean, the United States has a trade surplus with Brazil and has had one for quite a long time. The charges that the President has delivered against the Brazilians first relate to the BRICS summit and stands that Brazil has taken along with the other BRICS countries. But then, most recently, the concern about how President Bolsonaro is being treated during his court case, which the President himself links to how he was treated in the United States. And so from my point of view, this is almost an entirely a political move by President Trump.
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Danny Eberhard
Does he have a case that former President Bolsonaro is being mistreated?
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Thomas Shannon
I don't believe so. I mean, we're in the midst of a court case now in Brazil that is going to lay out the facts. It is a case that has to run its course, and Brazilian institutions will make the determination. But it certainly appears from the evidence that is available that President Bolsonaro, upon losing the election, began to work with other members of his government in order to prevent a peaceful transfer of power to Ignacio Lula da Silva, who won that election. And so I, I think that Brazil is, is pursuing a case that has merit.
- [24:47]
Danny Eberhard
Mr. Bolsonaro obviously denies that, and we'll wait and see what happens in court. Indeed, what's going to happen now in terms of Brazil's response, though? It seems like they're going to put their own tariffs on the U.S. this.
- [25:02]
Thomas Shannon
Is, you know, what President Lula indicated in a statement that he made earlier today. We'll see how they do that. On what items it would be regrettable, obviously, but. But the Brazilians have to respond for political reasons.
- [25:17]
Danny Eberhard
Is there an argument to be made that this, in terms of domestic policy popularity, could even boost President Lula, that fighting back against President Trump would be good for his own domestic standing?
- [25:31]
Thomas Shannon
It could very well be. I mean, this is an interesting political moment in Brazil at this point in time. President Luda's popularity has been declining over time, and although as has former President Bolsonaro, but the country still has a very strong center right political movement. And in that regard, I also think that what President Trump has done is really an effort to tip political favor in the center right towards President Bolsonaro or someone in his family, I don't think it's going to work. But it's an effort to involve the United States in the intimacies of Brazilian politics. That is not wise.
- [26:14]
Katie Watson
The former US ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, speaking to the BBC's James Koppner. Scientists have discovered a new technique they say could stop cancer patients from losing their hair. During chemotherapy, by cooling the scalp of the patients and by adding a lotion that contains antioxidants, they managed to prevent the medication from reaching and damaging the hair follicles. Dr. Nick Georgiopolis from Sheffield Hallam University is one of the researchers behind this.
- [26:41]
Dr. Jessica Pugsley
Our study has shown that we have now a better understanding of what temperature we need to reach in order for cooling to be effective. For some patients, scalp cooling can work very well, but it doesn't work as well for others. And that's where with our research, we try to acquire a better understanding of why that is. Our research has shown that cooling can be so, so effective at protecting hair follicles, completely rescuing them from the toxicity of chemotherapy. However, it is obvious to us now that the reason why it might not work for some patients is because the scalp hasn't reached adequately low temperature for it to be effective. For some patients and for some chemotherapy treatments, scalp cooling can be 90% effective. You can completely prevent hair loss, but for other chemotherapy treatments, it does not work as well. We believe that this could be perhaps because these chemotherapy drugs are a bit more toxic. Also because naturally the heads of some of the patients will not cool adequately enough. The device delivers the same amount of cooling, just that there is patient variability. Hair loss is visible. It is a very highly distressing and traumatic side effect of cancer treatment. Frighteningly, some patients may even refuse chemotherapy due to the fear of hair loss. Of course, the chemotherapy is there to save their lives, and that's important. But losing the hair essentially tells them as they look in the mirror, and also not just themselves, but their families and their friends that they're sick. It reminds them of that. So it affects their identity, their dignity, their privacy during what is quite a challenging time in their lives. So it is important for us to be able to prevent the hair loss and help them deal with the journey so much better, with more positive spirit.
- [28:47]
Katie Watson
Dr. Nick Georgiopolis and that's all from us for now. But there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on XBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global newspod. This edition was mixed by Rosenwin Doral and the producer was David Lewis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Katie Watson. Until next time. Goodbye.