Ukrainians close to a Russian front line are told to leave immediately

00:00: Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

00:05: from across the world, the latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are

00:11: supported by advertising. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

00:18: I'm Andrew Peach and at 13 hours GMT on Thursday 10 August, these are our main stories.

00:24: Ukraine has told vulnerable people in an area close to Russian front lines to leave immediately

00:30: because of an increase in Russian attacks.

00:32: The leaders of the Kuwaiti Niger are announcing

00:34: you government as West African countries consider military intervention.

00:38: And an Ecuadorian presidential candidate is assassinated just two weeks before the polls open.

00:46: Also in this podcast,

00:47: I understand that they want to put him away for life.

00:56: It's hard for me.

00:57: while people in Russia say they're living in fear as former Wagner troops return home.

01:06: The Ukrainian authorities have issued a mandatory evacuation order around the city of

01:10: Kopiansk and surrounding areas in the Harkiv region due to what they say is intense Russian

01:15: shelling. Earlier, a Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konoshenkov claimed successes in the

01:20: region. In the Kopiansk region, assault troops have made advances along the front

01:27: line during offensive operations. During the day, counter-attacked by the armed forces

01:33: of Ukraine were successfully repelled in the Lugansk People's Republic and in the Harkiv region.

01:40: Ukraine's military said the situation around Kupiansk was difficult but under control.

01:45: Kupiansk was one of several cities and towns in Ukraine recaptured last September.

01:49: In recent weeks, Russia has been trying to take the cities and towns again.

01:53: Our correspondent Huga Bachega is just back from Ukraine and told me more.

01:57: It's interesting because over the last few weeks and months we've been talking about the

02:01: counteroffensive in the east of the country, in Donyass, also in the Zapodizia region of Ukraine.

02:08: But this is happening in the northeast of the country. So perhaps far away from those areas where

02:13: the Ukrainians are trying to make some gains. This is happening in the hard-killed region.

02:18: And the Ukrainians are saying that this is now the main direction of the Russian offensive.

02:22: So they're trying to make some gains there in the Kupeansk region of Ukraine.

02:28: And now we're having this announcement of a mandatory evacuation in 37 settlements in this part of the country.

02:38: And what we're seeing is that we've seen reports in recent days suggesting that fighting has intensified in this area.

02:48: and I think today the message from the local authorities making this announcement said that

02:54: Russia has been shelling this area for almost every day and they're trying to advance in this

03:00: direction. And I think what is interesting is that the Deputy Defence Minister in Ukraine

03:06: earlier this week said that Russian forces had formed a large group that is now attempting to

03:13: break through Ukrainian defenses in that part of the country and people talking about tens of

03:18: thousands of Russian forces now in their part of the country.

03:21: So we're going to hear more about our suspect.

03:23: And also Ukraine's navy wants a humanitarian corridor to get its ships out of ports where

03:30: they've been trapped for a long time now back into the Black Sea.

03:34: How will that work?

03:35: That's a very good question.

03:36: So the announcement was made today by the Ukrainian authorities that this humanitarian corridor

03:42: is going to be created to let dozens of ships there are now trapped in Ukrainian ports to sail

03:49: into the Black Sea. Obviously, this is perhaps the way that the Ukrainians have come up with

03:55: to let these ships sail into the Black Sea after the collapse of the grain deal. So we don't know

04:04: how this is going to work. We haven't had any kind of reaction from Moscow. Obviously, Russia

04:08: has been saying that any ship could be considered a military target in that part of the world.

04:16: What the Ukrainers are saying is that they're going to put cameras on the ships to show that

04:20: this is a humanitarian mission with no military purpose, but we don't know how this is going to work.

04:25: Here you go, Bashaga, who's just back from Ukraine.

04:28: Two weeks after the coup that toppled Niger's president, Mohammed Basoum, the regional

04:32: grouping of West African countries, Ekko Was, hasn't yet said how it intends to resolve the crisis.

04:37: Today, ECOWAS leaders are meeting in Nigeria's capital of Boudre to talk about whether to seek a

04:42: diplomatic solution or take military action. There's also been concern expressed by the US, France

04:48: and the UN Secretary-General about the health of the former president who's being held by the

04:52: coup leaders. Africa editor Andrew Harding told me more about the divide within ECOWAS.

04:58: Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, Senegal, key players in an organization a grouping that

05:05: had at some stage been able to intervene militarily in a number of countries, but these days it's

05:12: a lot more complicated and it's I think far from clear whether their initial threats to use

05:19: military force in Niger to restore democracy can be followed through. It couldn't happen without

05:25: Nigeria's endorsement and right now Nigeria has problems of its own priorities of its own

05:34: and there is a sense, I think, a growing sense that people in Nigeria and in other countries

05:40: want to give negotiations, diplomacy and economic sanctions a bit more of a chance to work,

05:47: to see if they can cut some sort of deal with the coup leaders in Niger to edge them towards

05:53: some sort of promise of a transition. Certainly no sign thus far, two weeks into this coup that

06:00: that the military are going to stand down.

06:02: They've even announced a new cabinet today.

06:04: That's right.

06:05: Very much forging ahead of you like,

06:08: and clearly the timing meant to send that message

06:11: to these regional leaders meeting across the border.

06:15: They've also perhaps been turning up

06:17: screws by continuing to keep the president, you mentioned, President Bazoum, who's essentially being held hostage

06:25: at his presidential compound in Niyama, in Niger's capital.

06:29: and growing reports of concern from the Americans and others about the conditions in which the

06:35: President and his family are being kept. And concerns too about the possibility, at least in

06:42: the future at some point, that Russia might try to exploit this period of instability by sending

06:49: invagna mercenaries as they've done with some success in neighbouring Marley and elsewhere.

06:56: Our Africa editor Andrew Harding.

06:58: The Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has said the country's presidential election

07:02: will go ahead as planned this month after a candidate was shot dead at an event in the capital Keto.

07:08: Fernando V. Avicencio was killed in a burst of gunfire as he was getting into his car.

07:13: A state of emergency is now in force.

07:15: Mr. V. Avicencio's friend Dr. Carlos Figueroa described how he found out about the death.

07:26: I was assisting two patients that arrived in Jolt. I thought Fernando made it out, but

07:31: when I went to the clinic to help injured patients, I entered the emergency room and I saw

07:36: Fernando was dead. He didn't have vital signs.

07:41: Alas and America editor is Vanessa Bushluter. Carlos from whom we've just been hearing

07:46: their described the scene of the murder.

07:49: He and Fernando Yaví Sencio left a campaign event at 6.20

07:54: in the afternoon in the capital Kito, this campaign event in the center of

07:59: Kito in the financial district held at a

08:03: previous building that had been a school previously, had run very well.

08:08: He'd shake in hands with voters and 30 seconds after he left the building,

08:13: there was a hail of bullets, Fernando Villavicentio received three bullets to the head and died

08:21: and nine people were also injured in this horrific attack.

08:26: A way to deal with who might be behind this?

08:28: Yes, a gang calling themselves Los Lobos, the wolves, has claimed responsibility for this killing.

08:35: They released a video in which they wave around their rifles and threaten other politicians.

08:42: This is a surprising development because I think most people in Ecuador, including myself,

08:49: had thought that a different gang called Los Choneros was behind this killing because

08:54: Los Choneros had threatened Fernando Villavicencio just last week.

08:59: They had threatened his life and Fernando Villavicencio had been giving a security detail,

09:05: But that security detail was not able to save us life when he was attacked last night.

09:11: And in terms of the state of emergency, what does that mean for the conduct of the election that obviously is ongoing?

09:18: There were some voices in Ecuador which questioned whether the election maybe should be put on hold

09:22: or delayed, but it is going ahead.

09:25: And many actually quoting Fernando Vifencio, Viva Vifencio himself, who said just weeks ago

09:32: when a different politician, a local mayor was killed, he said that people should not

09:37: be cowed, that democracy should continue. So I think in his honour, the elections will

09:43: go ahead. And of course it is a, you know, important exercise in democracy to hold this presidential election.

09:50: Arlesn America editor Vanessa Bushluter. In Hawaii, the number of deaths resulting from

09:55: wildfires on Maui Island has risen to 36. The worst affected area is the popular

10:01: Resort City of Lahaina, which has been almost totally burnt to the ground.

10:05: Mason Jarvey, who suffered burns fleeing the fire in Lahaina, said the situation there was devastating.

10:11: I resident of Lahaina for about 18 years and we just have the worst disaster I've ever seen.

10:19: All behind is burnt to crisp and it's like on fog lips.

10:26: Over 2,000 people have been displaced and moved to special shelters or hotels.

10:31: of the federal emergency management agency urged people to be cautious.

10:36: They're still fire going on, life's being saved, so please follow your local officials,

10:42: listen to their message and make sure you're safe, make sure you have a plan, make sure

10:47: that if you have questions you're working with your local officials.

10:51: To find out more, I spoke to CBS correspondent Jared Hill.

10:54: One of the things, Andrew, that we know here is that because of the conditions on the

10:59: ground. It had been difficult for officials really to get through a significant portion

11:03: of the island of Maui to be able to tell exactly who was unaccounted for because they were

11:09: sheltering in a car or a hotel without access to a phone to tell people or if they had in

11:15: fact died. And while we don't know the circumstances around any of these deaths at this point,

11:20: again it does appear that as they're able to get more onto the island they're learning

11:24: more about just the level of destruction here.

11:28: Do we know about what's happening in Hawaii now?

11:30: It's nighttime on the islands, of course,

11:33: and the authorities continue to do their work in the wake of what's happened.

11:37: Yeah, so there are kind of two things that are happening.

11:39: Here, one, there are the efforts to continue putting out these fires,

11:42: which had been raging really on that island for hours there.

11:46: So there's the fires-oppression effort,

11:48: but then there is also this certain rescue mission that is continuing to happen.

11:52: Again, trying to see where people might be and get folks to safety.

11:57: There's also an effort here to make sure that the people who have been able to evacuate

12:01: the island of Maui have somewhere to go.

12:03: There are shelters that have been set up on some of the neighboring islands.

12:07: There are also efforts to get people on planes to be able to fly out so that they can worry

12:13: as little as possible about people that might be on the island and just try and focus

12:17: on getting the fire out and making sure that it's safe for anyone to return it a later date.

12:23: And the last thing we need is more communities affecting.

12:25: the weather forecast in terms of controlling the fire versus the possibility of more fires breaking out or spreading.

12:32: Right, so the winds have died down significantly from the peak of this.

12:36: Remember, this is all related largely to a hurricane.

12:38: They didn't actually touch the island of Maui, but the winds helped to fuel some of these flames.

12:44: Those winds have died down, which have allowed for the crews there to continue with their

12:48: fire suppression, getting helicopters in the air to down some of these fires with water.

12:54: continue for as long as it takes.

12:56: CBS correspondent Jared Hill. The Vagler group of Russian mercenaries has now

13:01: ended its deployment in Ukraine and that means many of the fighters it

13:05: recruited from prisons including murderers are now free. But as Arseny Sokolov reports,

13:11: not everyone is ready to welcome them.

13:16: A village hole in southern Russia. A young woman in a crazily potent

13:20: Being a blue jumpsuit with waist-length brown hair is dancing with a group of excited children.

13:30: Organizing parties and games for young people is 19-year-old Tatiana Mastika's first job, and she loves it.

13:39: But hours after one event like this, back in April, Tatiana was murdered.

13:44: By a gang whose alleged ring leaders should have been safely behind bars, serving time for another murder.

13:51: But he had been let out years early to fight in Ukraine, let out and pardoned.

14:01: Thanks to this man, Yvgeny Prigorzhen found out the mercenary company Wagner.

14:08: He taught prisons to recruit tons of sowns of convicted murderous rapists and robbers.

14:16: They were used to kill Ukrainians in the bloodiest battles of the war, and many of them lost their lives too.

14:23: But those who survived have now left Wagner and are walking the streets of Russia again.

14:28: And in some cases already committing new crimes.

14:32: How could you raise your hand against the child?

14:37: Someone who wasn't threatening you in any way, a child who had just started to leave, for whom all doors were open?

14:48: That's Nadezhda Plyshkov.

14:49: The mother of the children's entertainer Tatiana Mastika.

14:53: Tatiana's body and that of her bosch, Kirochupko, were found buried in Woodland in the Krasnodar region in early May.

15:01: Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing.

15:04: One of them, Zimjan Kivarkan, who denies any wrongdoing, had already been serving an 18-year sentence for crimes including murder.

15:14: But he was released after only six years to fight a new crane.

15:18: Then, like other criminal recruits, he was free to go home with a pardon.

15:25: Let me draw your attention to the word pardon.

15:28: That's not the same as Amnesty.

15:30: Olga Romanovna is the founder of Russia Behind Boss, an organization campaigning for prison reform.

15:37: A pardon is given to an individual personally by the president himself, and the law says it comes after reconciliation with a victim and a good report from prison.

15:51: None of this happens when Wagner criminals are pardoned, but even so, they can restart their lives with a clean slate.

15:59: Indeed, they are officially regarded as heroes.

16:02: At least 20 serious crimes by former Wagner convicts have been reported.

16:07: Murders, rapes, grievous bodily harm.

16:10: But the real number may be greater, because it's now illegal in Russia to discredit anyone

16:16: involved in what's officially called the special military operation.

16:20: law could in theory even be used against the police themselves.

16:31: Lach numbers of mourners attended the funerals of the children's entertainer's Kirilchupko and Tatiana Mastika.

16:38: And since then, tens of thousands of people in Krasnada have signed a petition to demand

16:43: that the chief suspect, Demyan Kivarkan, gets a life sentence if he is convicted of the murders.

16:50: Tatiana's mother, Nadiazda, doesn't think it will have much effect.

16:56: Of course, I understand who was responsible for my daughter's death, and I know he had the previous conviction.

17:04: I'm not stupid.

17:06: I understand that they want to put him away for life.

17:10: But that's not what it is.

17:14: It's hard for me.

17:17: Sorry.

17:18: In today's Russia she thinks, the victims of so-called heroes can't expect real justice.

17:26: I'll send you soccer love reporting.

17:30: Still to come in this podcast, an announcement for Tate of Swift fans as the US dates on her record breaking tour come to an end.

17:45: In the US, a man who made violent threats against President Biden has been shot dead by the FBI

17:50: in Utah. The shooting happened while agents were attempting to serve him with an arrest warrant,

17:55: just hours before Mr. Biden's planned visit to the state. Our correspondent in Washington is Nomiya

18:00: Ikbar. The suspect's name was Craig Robinson. We understand he was 75 years old. And there was

18:06: was a criminal complaint that had already been filed in the district court of Utah regarding

18:13: serious concerns about him. So one of the charges that he was facing was threats against

18:18: the president. I've got the criminal complaint in front of me. But FBI agents conducted a

18:23: surveillance of his home back in March. They wanted to talk to him about his social media

18:27: posts. He told them according to the complaint to come back with an arrest warrant which they did.

18:32: Now when you look at the criminal complaint and the evidence that they had compiled against

18:37: him, including social media posts that he'd put up and they're very dark messages.

18:42: They show violence towards President Biden and other notable Democrats, also glorifying guns.

18:47: One particular post which worried agents and that has been cited in the criminal complainters

18:52: when he posted, I hear Biden is coming to Utah, cleaning the dust of the M24 sniper rifle, welcome buffoon in chief.

19:02: Now we haven't been given any details on exactly what led to the shooting although our

19:07: party stations, CBS says, or enforcement sources told them that there was a gunfire of

19:11: some sort. And the FBI told the BBC in a statement that they're following their policy which

19:16: is to now refer the case to the agency for a review.

19:20: Nomeo Apal in Washington. The World Bank has suspended new loans to Uganda in the wake

19:25: of a tough new law against same-sex relations. There's already been a negative reaction on

19:30: the markets with the Ugandan shilling weakening sharply after the announcement.

19:35: My colleague Divina Gupta spoke to Fabrice O'Dar, an advisor with Open for Business, a coalition

19:39: of leading global companies dedicated to LGBT inclusion, formerly of the World Bank.

19:45: He explains how significant this decision is for Uganda.

19:48: The budget of the Ugandan government is very reliant on external aid.

19:54: In fact, the budget of the government is about 13 or 14 billion dollars and you could see

20:01: that 1 billion dollar usually comes from the war bank.

20:04: But there is another aspect to it which is that the budget of the U.K. and government

20:08: is also dependent on boring from various sources.

20:14: Is this sort of intervention by the World Bank enough for the government in Uganda to reconsider their decision?

20:22: On the side of the wall bank, the objective is not so much for the Ugon-Dun government to reconsider the anti-omosexuality act.

20:31: It is to say, well, look, it's impossible for us to have effective development project

20:37: if you intentionally bar an entire segment of your population from benefiting from development efforts.

20:43: But in effect, then, a lot of questions have been asked, and especially by listeners as

20:48: as well whether this sort of ends up being counterproductive and hurting locals in Uganda.

20:54: That's a very legitimate question, right?

20:56: Which is, ultimately, the poorest in Uganda

21:00: are the victims of the political manipulation

21:03: of LGBTQ plus people by President Musevini.

21:07: But ultimately, the World Bank,

21:10: if it wants to respect its policies,

21:12: cannot land to Uganda, if Uganda refused to acknowledge knowledge that there are LGBT people,

21:19: that are deserving of development efforts in the country.

21:22: And you know, one of the things that I said today

21:24: is that the World Bank would have done the same thing

21:27: if we were talking about other underrepresented minorities.

21:31: Like if there was a similar piece of legislation

21:33: on daily people in India or butch, what people in Congo or Roma people in Europe,

21:39: the World Bank would have been in the same situation

21:42: in having to say, well, look, we cannot continue

21:45: to a new lending activity until you have solved this problem.

21:50: For Bruce O'Dars.

21:51: In other LGBT news today, Iraqi authorities have ordered media outlets when referring

21:56: to the topic to refer to homosexual acts as sexual deviance and to also avoid using the term gender in broadcasts or publications.

22:05: A government spokesman said the order still requires final approval and at a penalty

22:09: for violating the rule hadn't yet been set but could include a fine.

22:13: and C1 is a journalist in Iraq.

22:16: Let's not forget that this is only a resolution.

22:18: It's not necessarily a law.

22:20: Therefore, it cannot be like put into the law and imposed on these people.

22:25: However, there are very dangerous implications of such resolutions,

22:29: because the community is already suffering from a law.

22:32: They are already been persecuted for being who they are.

22:36: And this will in the long term, may cause even more harmful implications

22:41: this will cause what is already a culture, a society that does not accept these people,

22:49: will just cause them to antagonize against the community even more. It's not said yet how the

22:55: order is going to be carried out whether there will be, I don't know, people will be arrested

23:00: or they will be fine for this, but even if there is a payment or a fine regarding the use of

23:05: the word homosexuality or even gender for that matter, it's going to be very bad for journalists

23:11: us that are covering such stories and covering the lives of the LGBT community.

23:16: I didn't see one in Iraq. Australia's national science agency and Boeing have announced plans to

23:23: develop sustainable domestic jet fuel. A craft will be powered by renewable sources and that could

23:28: significantly cut carbon emissions. From Sydney, our correspondent, Phil Mercer. Research has

23:34: said that Australia has enough agricultural waste, animal fats and vegetable oils to make almost

23:41: 5 billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel by 2025. A Boeing 747 jumbo carries about 240,000

23:51: litres of fuel. By changing the molecular structure of waste products, using a range of different

23:58: pressures and temperatures and sometimes adding hydrogen, scientists believe they can create a fuel

24:05: that's almost identical to its traditional kerosene cousin.

24:10: Max Temminghoff is from the CSIRO, Australia's National Science Agency.

24:16: Sustainable aviation fuel or SAF for short is a safe replacement for fossil-drived conventional jet fuel.

24:23: Instead of being produced from crude oil, it's generated from non-fossil raw materials or feedstocks.

24:29: And the beauty of that is that it provides a net reduction in CO2 emissions when compared

24:34: to its fossil-derived quifflet. SAF costs up to two to four times as much as conventional jet fuel.

24:41: Apart from costs, various other challenges must be overcome in Australia. They include

24:47: guaranteeing the supply of raw materials and conforming to international regulations.

24:54: The International Energy Agency has said that aviation accounts for about 2% of global

24:59: or CO2 emissions, but it's one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonize.

25:06: The IEA has also asserted that planned production of sustainable aviation fuels would satisfy

25:13: just a small fraction of demand by 2027.

25:17: Quantess Australia's National Carrier wants 10% of its fuel to come from sustainable

25:23: sources by the end of the decade.

25:27: Mercer in Sydney. It was the final date of Taylor Swift's record-breaking tour at the

25:32: Sophie Stadium in Los Angeles. Fans had an idea something special might happen, some kind of

25:38: announcement. They were right. A new album called 1989 Taylor's version is on the way in a couple

25:44: of months in October. I own a hampson is here with more. So just explain to us what the Taylor's

25:49: version of each album is. Yes, a Taylor Swift has been on a personal mission for the last couple

25:54: of years to re-release her first six studio albums. The reason for this is that in 2019,

26:01: she came in a dispute with her former record label Big Machine Records,

26:05: the founder and the new owner who wanted to sell all of her six albums that they owned

26:11: their masters of to a private equity company. It's estimated this was sold for about $300 million.

26:17: Taylor Swift was not happy about this because they were the masters. They could control things

26:22: like the licensing of the song, so whether it's used in an advert or a film, for instance.

26:27: So what she's been doing is re-releasing these songs, which are almost covers of her songs in that sort of technical way.

26:33: The strip back a bit.

26:34: Absolutely.

26:35: A bit more acoustic.

26:36: For sure.

26:37: So what the differences are, of course, has sound a bit more mature, her voices mature,

26:41: but there are just like differences in the production, some of the lyrics, so there

26:44: are differences, and you find that with Taylor Swift fans, they'd much rather listen to the

26:49: Taylor Swift versions, the Taylor versions of it rather than the originals.

26:53: Okay. Now, the announcement on the 9th of August to be

26:56: next expected because she dropped hints. They're all to do with numbers. I think the hints,

27:01: aren't they? I mean, what dates something's going to happen, that kind of thing.

27:03: Taylor Swift loves to give clues to her fans and her fans love to try and understand them,

27:08: whether they're in her music videos or on social media.

27:11: With this social media post that she released today, she was talking about how 1989 is one of

27:17: of her favorite re-records, there'll be five new, unreleased tracks, which she says are

27:22: some of the best that she can't even believe they were ever left behind.

27:25: So this will be really exciting for Taylor Swift fans.

27:27: And this comes at the end of the North America section of her Ears tour, which has broken

27:33: all kinds of records and even caused earth tremors in Canada a few days ago.

27:37: That's correct.

27:38: This is a huge tour, 44 songs that are divided into a 10 acts, three hours long, so it is a marathon to get through.

27:46: And what's amazing about this is that the Eri's tour is expected to be the highest

27:49: groting tour of all time, which is expected to have $1 billion in sales.

27:55: This even surpasses Elton John's record, his farewell yellow brick road tour, so this

28:00: just shows how big this achievement is.

28:02: Lots of talk about Taylor Swift online today.

28:04: Thanks, Leonor.

28:08: And that's all from us for now.

28:09: Before we go, though, clarification of the item we carried in the last edition of the

28:13: global news podcast about the death of the musician's sister Rodrigues. We

28:17: inadvertently suggested that he was popular in South Africa among young black

28:21: people protesting against apartheid. However, a number of listeners have been in

28:25: touch to say his popularity was predominantly among white South Africans and we say

28:29: thank you to those of you who pointed that out to us. Thank you. If you'd like to

28:32: get in touch about anything in this podcast and the stories we include it, drop us an email, globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk, your

28:40: find us on Twitter at Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Chris Lovelock, the producer

28:46: was Ione Hapson, the editor is Karen Martin. My name is Andrew Peach, thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.

28:58: World Football, the Women's World Cup, is the podcast telling the global story of the tournament.

29:03: We have so proud of our team, hope our guests.

29:06: We're speaking to the fans who have traveled down under as they share all the excitement of this incredible competition.

29:12: Oh my god!

29:14: I think we're still in the running, they go all the way.

29:16: I'm really, really proud of Vietnam music.

29:17: This is probably the biggest moment in their careers and Australians right behind them.

29:20: World football at the Women's World Cup, from the BBC World Service.

29:25: Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.