Deadly Russian drone hits Ukrainian railway station

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1:02Your nearest Shell station is less than five miles away. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and at 14 Hours GMT on Thursday, October 29th, these are our main stories. More than a dozen people are killed after a Russian drone hits a crowded railway platform in Ukraine. Following the election in Israel, could Arab-led parties join the coalition that forms the next government? And in Spain, rescuers are still searching the wreckage following a crash between two high-speed trains that left at least 69 people dead. Also in this podcast... Nobody does what's right for the people, and it's like writing a letter to Santa Claus these days. Ahead of the U.S. midterm elections,

1:53voters tell us they're worried about rising prices. Let's begin in central Ukraine, in the city of Dnipro. It's one of the country's big transit hubs. And now there's been a major attack on that city's main train station as it was full of people. Officials there say a Russian jet-powered drone hit a platform, killing more than a dozen. The attack happened as people were on the station's platform boarding a train. Our BBC Monitoring Chief Analyst Vitaly Shevchenko gave us more details. The train was about to depart for a neighbouring city, Zaporizhia, and I understand that that's why the platform was so crowded. People were waiting to board the train, and even though the air raid alarm had sounded, it appears that they stayed on the platform.

2:53Perhaps they worried that if they seek shelter, the train would leave without them. I'm seeing lots of really, really graphic photographs and videos emerging from the scene showing bodies strewn on the platform, the train riddled with shrapnel holes. And Vitaly, this isn't the first time we've seen Russian attacks on railway infrastructure. It seems to be quite a target these days. It is a significant target for the Russians, given how important trains are for Ukrainians. It's a big country, not everyone has a car. And that's why people rely on trains so much. And it's not just trains, it's transport in general. In Zaporizhia this morning, the city where this train was headed, a bus was targeted by a Russian drone, four people injured.

3:59Another bus was hit as well in Zaporizhia, one more person injured. Apart from Dnipro, there was an attack in Chernihiv, which is north of Kiev. Two 15-year-old girls were killed there. There's lots of footage showing utter carnage and devastation in central Chernihiv. In Kramenchuk, two more people died as a Russian drone hit an apartment block. Russian attacks are absolutely relentless, Celia, and that's why people, they don't often take shelter. It's just happening too often. Why are these Russian attacks getting through? Is it that the Russian drones are faster and more powerful? Or is it that the Ukrainian defences are weaker? It's a combination of factors. Russian drone technology is getting better.

4:48They've started deploying jet-powered Shahed drones, and this is what I understand hit that train platform in Dnipro. And the Ukrainians are only able to intercept between half of them and 60% of these jet drones that Russia is sending. They've also started deploying a weapon that's something in between a drone and a missile, the kind of loitering missiles called Bandarol. And that's what hit that apartment block in Kraminchuk today. And Ukrainians are trying to catch up with them with these new weapons, but obviously it takes time. And Vitaly, just briefly, what's the latest on the Ukrainians' use of Elon Musk's Starlink internet system? Has that been fully restored yet? As far as I understand, it has been restored.

5:43And lots of questions are being asked about why these restrictions happened in the first place. Vitaly Shevchenko. As we record this podcast, in Israel, 90% of the votes have been counted from Tuesday's election. But there's still immense political uncertainty. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc is the largest, but that alliance doesn't look like it will get the 61 seats needed to control parliament. The group of parties under the main opposition leader, Gadi Aizenkot, is predicted to have fewer seats. His main route to power seems to be in alliance with the Arab-led parties, which look set to win an unprecedented number of seats, perhaps 19. So, Arab-Israeli parties could hold the balance of power,

6:28but only one of the Jewish parties have said they will work with them. So, how likely is it they'll be part of the future Israeli government? Dr. Maha Saba is a member of BALAD, one of the main Arab parties, and a candidate in the election. She said they would negotiate only with Gadi Eisenkot's bloc, but there could be conditions to joining his alliance. We are thinking about considering political cooperation, but cooperation cannot be unconditional and it cannot come at the expense of our principles. So if we want to support another government, we have conditions and we have commitments to our voters that we want to advance equality, addressing discrimination, ending racist policies, and especially that we want to end the crime and violence among our communities. We cannot be part of any coalition that is still dealing with

7:28occupation, with discrimination and with racist policies for Arab and Palestinians anywhere. Our diplomatic correspondent James Landisle explained how likely it was a coalition could form to include the Arab-led parties. Well, I think the bar is high, but it's not impossible. The pure arithmetic shows, as of now, that if the opposition bloc were to join in any capacity in any way with the Arab bloc, then potentially they would have a majority over Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition. But there's a long way between that and reality, because although the opposition parties have indicated that they would be willing to talk, there are huge obstacles. A lot of the opposition Jewish parties have said throughout the campaign

8:16that they would not form any kind of coalition with the Arab parties. The Arab parties themselves may come to the table with a very long shopping list of demands. There is the legacy of October 7th just hanging over the whole of Israeli politics in the moment. And whether or not Zionist parties of whatever colour are really ready to sit down in Parliament with Arab parties, it's a big question that. Is that cooperation still taboo in Israeli politics? There are precedents for this. Back in, I think, 2001, there was a government that briefly stood with the support of one Arab bloc, but it didn't last very long. And I think that would be one of the questions that the Arab parties would ask, is it worth throwing in their lot with the opposition parties if it doesn't actually

9:06mean permanently that Benjamin Netanyahu leaves Israeli politics? What about Benjamin Netanyahu? What options does he have to form a coalition? Well, Mr. Netanyahu, we think if, well, once the final numbers are confirmed, his governing coalition would be the larger of the two main blocks with around 53 seats. The first question, of course, is, is he chosen by Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, to try to form a government? That is a big question, and just by having the largest block doesn't necessarily mean you get first dibs at this. It's the president has to be convinced that the person he is asking has the best chance of forming a government. So I think the question for Mr Netanyahu would be which other political parties can he peel off from his opponents to try and form some

9:56kind of a government. There's been talk of some kind of unity government, essentially taking some of the opposition bloc parties and potentially sitting with them, perhaps at the cost of Mr Netanyahu's current ultra-Orthodox allies, and seeing if a government can be formed there to get over the magic number of 61 that they need. Of course, there is another alternative, which is that there's failure to form a government. In that case, then, potentially in some months to come, there might be another election here. And during that process, Mr Netanyahu, as the incumbent, remains caretaker prime minister. In other words, he stays in power. So the longer there is gridlock, the longer Mr Netanyahu stays in power. And potentially at another election, he might do even better.

10:42Because if there were a second election, would the Arabs vote in such large number if they just felt disillusioned by this process? And would so many Israelis fly in from around the world to vote in a second election when they failed to oust Mr Netanyahu this time? James Landale. Rescuers in Spain are continuing to search through wreckage following a deadly train crash involving two high-speed passenger services that killed at least 69 people. They're looking for possible survivors and bodies still trapped in the twisted carriages. Spain has begun three days of mourning following Wednesday's accident, which happened south of the capital, Madrid. Guy Hedgcoe has this report. Helicopters ferry injured passengers to hospital after they are pulled from the wreckage of yesterday's train collision. Soon after 9am, a high-speed train belonging to Spanish company Renfe,

11:48travelling from Madrid to the southern city of Seville, ploughed into the back of a stationary train owned by Italy's Irion. Chaos ensued as some carriages slid off the rails down an embankment. This passenger recalled the moment of the accident and its aftermath. Suitcases started flying, people started screaming. It was very hard to see. There were dead bodies, there were missing limbs. And I don't know if that's something I'll ever recover from and get used to. The crash happened on the plains of Castilla-La Mancha, next to the sleepy village of Urda, about 100 miles south of Madrid. I'm next to a sports hall in the town of Urda, which has been used as a makeshift hospital where many of those who were injured received treatment.

12:48People who suffered more serious injuries were taken to hospitals elsewhere in the Castilla-La Mancha region or further afield to the capital, Madrid. More than 100 people were hospitalised in total. Around 50 have now been discharged. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the crash site, promising to find out what caused the tragedy. His transport minister, Oscar Puente, said that a computer failure followed by human error had meant that after being forced to stop, the Renfe train had been prematurely told to continue its journey. A decision, the minister said, which caused the collision. Audio of a conversation between the driver of the Renfe train and a rail controller in Madrid, which came to light hours after the accident, appeared to back up this theory.

14:00This is the second major rail crash in Spain this year. In January, 46 people were killed when two trains collided on the same route. Today, train drivers across the country are staging a 24-hour strike over concerns about the rail system's safety. The action had been planned before this latest crash. Meanwhile, as emergency workers continue to sift through the twisted wreckage, there are fears that the death toll could climb even further. Guy Hedgcoe Families of victims of a deadly crowd crush in South Korea have demanded that footage of the disaster be removed from one of the world's most popular video game series, Call of Duty. The latest installment of the hit series involves the fictional invasion of South Korea by North Korea. It includes several seconds of real footage of

14:59paramedics at the scene of the Crush in central Seoul that killed nearly 160 people four years ago. The footage was used in the game to represent civilian casualties from the fictional invasion. Our correspondent Jake Kwan is in Seoul and told us more. I think we need to remember that this tragedy happened four years ago today. So, you know, if this game were to avoid controversy, it really chose a bad time to release the game because it came out just a week ago. And what the Birid family have seen is in the early kind of news montage that depicts the fictional invasion of South Korea, the game makers have used real video of the crowd crush where, you know, victims were receiving first aid, you know, a man performing CPR and rows of bodies on the ground and ambulances.

15:53And these were real videos from that tragic day when 159 people were killed. And so the victims' families demanded that the game maker remove this footage and said that this inclusion is indecent and improper. And, you know, I have to also point out that how this event, which happened in central Seoul, is still very much a fresh memory for a lot of Korean people. And this is what the victims' family have said, is that the witnesses and first aid workers that day were still living with the trauma and the pain of the day. Incredible, really, that this incredibly popular video game series, which is fictional, has a fictional storyline, is featuring real footage. How did people discover that this was

16:41the case? This game sold very well in South Korea. It's shot up to the number one sold game in a popular publishing platform called Steam within days. And, you know, some of the players started pointing out that some of the scenes pictured didn't seem fictional. They recognize exactly where this image came from, probably because, you know, that the image of that night has been seared into a lot of us, you know, the image of that night has been seared into a lot of us, you know, certainly people who are living in Seoul. I remember we remember seeing, you know, just footages of videos and some of us were actually there. I remember, you know, chasing after the victims' families and actually seeing

17:20the first aid being done in real time. And the victims' family were notified of it. You know, there was a lot of sharing of the post on social media. And they have actually gone to all the major media and asking them to verify whether this is indeed from the actual night. And this is how, you know, it kind of turned into a controversy. And we've seen this report being carried by all the major media in South Korea. And just briefly, Jake, what is the game's publisher saying now? Well, the publisher Activision have told the local media that, you know, it wasn't their intention to make light of what happened, this tragedy. But they didn't go as far as to say what they will do in the future, whether they will remove the footage, whether they will issue any further statement.

18:09And that is what we're waiting on. Jake Kwan. Still to come in this podcast, the UK communications regulator explains how it plans to check the age of young people ahead of a social media ban for under-16s. They'll find ways to bypass all of these, taking someone's ID, trying to use a fake image, just trying to hack and bypass the verifications. But one teenager says users will be looking at ways to get around the system. So, we're sorry. And you're welcome. PNC Wealth Management member Finn Recivic. Results vary by customer and are not guaranteed. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number. 10,000. That's the number of new businesses that join Odoo per month.

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21:06fees. Be smart. Get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply. This is the Global News Podcast. Let's turn to the United States, where on Wednesday, the U.S. Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, decided to hold interest rates steady. It's an important decision because it comes just before the midterm elections. And one topic playing on the minds of voters more than any other is the cost of living. Samir Hussain sent this report from New York State. New York's third congressional district, one of the wealthiest in the state and country. It's a competitive race, with the high cost of living very much on the ballot. If there's a moment where it slows down a little bit and I can let you in, I will.

21:55It's busy at the People's Pantry. Rising prices make places like this food bank a lifeline. Chris, do you need diapers this week? Unfortunately, we do see an increase since everything started to get so expensive. You know, gas prices, prices of food, everything is so expensive. I mean, I go to Dollar Tree and it's $12. I go to McDonald's, it's like $23. It doesn't end. Everything's very expensive. I struggle, but I survive. I'm not out on the street with a tin can collecting money, you know. A lot of people are hurting right now. And we need a little booster. It's definitely going to influence my vote because I want to see change. I don't even know who I want to vote for anymore. But even locals who don't struggle with food insecurity

22:45decry America's affordability crisis. And they're left feeling disenchanted and frustrated. Wages have been stagnant for quite a long time and the cost of living is just increasing like crazy. The price of rent is like astronomical and forget about housing market in general, like a million dollars for a knockdown house is unacceptable. Do you find yourself skewing Democrat or Republican? Typically Republican, but I'm also in a place now where I feel like they're very much two wings of the same bird. I don't think there's really a difference anymore. I feel like there's a lot of other people that are living a dream, but I can't live it. Doesn't that make me mad? Truly. I have a good job. I make good money, but I can't afford a house.

23:30The right tells you they're going to do one thing and don't do it, and the left says the same thing and they don't do it. So nobody does what's right for the people. And it's like writing a letter to Santa Claus these days is voting, you know? You don't have to look very hard to find people that will say that the cost of living is the most important issue for them right now. What is less clear is how many people will actually take that message with them to the ballot box. Samira Hussain. Here in the UK, as in many countries around the world, there's been a lot of talk about social media and whether there should be a ban on it for those under the age of 16. The communications regulator Ofcom

24:11has just published a report about effective ways to identify which social media users are under that age threshold. It's an important task because starting next year, children in the UK will be banned from accessing 10 of the biggest social networks, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. This 15-year-old, George, says at the moment age verification software can be pretty easy to get around. It's within nature of teenagers to go against the rules and stuff like that. So they'll find ways to bypass all of these, either by taking someone's ID, trying to use a fake image, or even just trying to hack and bypass the verifications. Critics say children have been able to use social media to see images of murders and pornography.

25:04Our technology and AI editor Zoe Kleinman has been following the story. Here in the UK, we have a social media ban coming in in April next year for children under the age of 16. And in order for that to work, the technology companies that run the biggest social platforms which are involved in the ban have to identify which of their UK users are under 16, which of them are aged 16 to 18, because there are additional restrictions for them, and which are aged 18 and over. So they don't have to know exactly how old you are, but they do have to know whether you're in within those age brackets. But it's tricky, because as we know, teenagers can look dramatically older or younger than they are. And as George has just told us, you know, they also know how to get around

25:50things. So what Ofcom has done today is published four ways that it says it believes are the best ways to identify those age groups. And they include traditional ID like a passport or a driving license for those older teens who may have them, digital ID services, facial scans, which Ofcom says has improved. And you know, sticking a fake moustache on is no longer going to make you look older than you are. And finally, banking details, which is really interesting. It's not quite clear how that might work or how the banks might be involved. But, you know, potentially a way for identifying how old you are by what kind of a bank account you have, for example. So it's interesting that the UK is going through this

26:29because a similar ban was already introduced in Australia. But some teenagers are finding ways to get around the restrictions there. Yeah, I mean, I think that is always going to be the case. And nobody, including here in the UK, is saying that it's going to be a, you know, a silver bullet. No, a ban is going to be 100% effective. And of course, there are some adults who may well help children to get back onto the, to sneak back onto social media if they really want to. But what Ofcom, the regulator, is saying is that it's been looking at how Australia has carried out its ban, and it's decided to take a tougher approach and to force the technology companies to be much more rigid in the age verification tactics that they use in order to make it more

27:11difficult for children. And some tech companies are saying, actually, we'd like the phones to be able to do this. You know, when you get your phone, you should be able to say how old you are and then you'd be immediately blocked from everything that wasn't within your age group. Ofcom, the UK regulator, says that's fine, but it's not going to absolve the social networks of their responsibilities as well. Zoe Kleiman. And last, scientists have long believed that the chemical ingredients that fuelled the evolution of life on Earth arrived when comets hit our planet, carrying the chemicals along with them. But now researchers at the University of Cambridge are questioning the comet theory. Dr Richard Enslow was the lead author of

27:51the study into that particularly chaotic period in the formation of our Earth. He's been speaking to Nick Robinson. In this work, we were revisiting this long-standing idea that ice-rich comets formed in the outer regions of the solar system delivered these key chemical ingredients for life. And so although comets are rich in these carbon and nitrogen-bearing molecules that we do think were very important for pre-Bartic chemistry, what we found was that the majority of these fragile molecules were largely destroyed as these comets struck the Earth at tens of kilometers per second. So how have you managed to ascertain that now in a way that wasn't possible to know before? What was really exciting working on this study was that we could pull together

28:32recent advances in many different areas of science, including in our understanding of comets, the early solar system, and recent computer models of cometary impacts with the Earth. And these computer models were particularly important as they could tell us about the chemistry that happens in the seconds after a comet impacts the Earth and is heated to tens of thousands of degrees. Now, if the comet didn't kickstart life on Earth, that begs a rather big question, what did? Yes, and this is a great question that lots of groups worldwide are tackling as we speak. And so it's possible that these carbon-based molecules might have come from carbon-rich asteroids called carbonaceous chondrites, but it's possible instead that they might have been produced in situ on the early Earth,

29:13maybe involving volcanoes or surface hydrothermal vents, removing the need altogether for extraterrestrial impacts. Tell us more about the first carbonaceous chondrites. So these are carbon-rich asteroids, so more rocky bodies that we find between Mars and Jupiter. And there's been lots of really exciting missions recently going to study these bodies and looking at the types of complex carbon-based chemistry that we can find on their surface. So from the sounds of it, far from being disappointed that this story that we've all grown up with is wrong, you're excited about the other possibilities. Yes, absolutely. I think what I find really exciting about our results is that they can help us focus our attention on these other ideas

29:57about where hydrogen cyanide could have come from. And I think these are natural lines of investigation to consider and follow up in future work. Dr. Richard Anslow, speaking to Nick Robinson. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Nick Randall. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye. And Grainger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Grainger to keep products moving and trucks rolling so his operation runs smoothly no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.