Dozens killed in train crash in Spain

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1:11This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and at 1600 GMT on Wednesday, October the 28th, these are our main stories. There's been a major train crash in central Spain, with at least 64 people dead and many injured. Most of the votes have now been counted in the Israeli election, but it's not yet clear who will govern the country. And we speak to two students in the Bahamas about the legacy of slavery, as King Charles continues his visits of the Caribbean island nation. Also in this podcast... We're not giving up yet. We may, in fact, rise from the ashes, but it's been a very tough go. The passengers of an ocean cruise that was supposed to last for three and a half years

1:54have been put ashore in Cambodia. We begin this podcast in central Spain, where at least 64 people have died in a train crash. A major rescue operation is underway. The incident involved two high-speed trains. One of them was believed to be stationary. Dozens of people have been injured. This man, who was on one of the trains, described what happened. All of a sudden, the train hit us from behind. Suddenly, we saw the train on our left. Everything was overturned. Some people were thrown into the air. They're very badly injured. How can this happen with the technology we have? It is not normal. Our correspondent Guy Hedgcoe is at the scene in the one of them lying half on its side. I can see a carriage which has come off the rail line and it's halfway down the embankment.

2:52We have had that latest death toll number you mentioned confirmed, at least 64 people who were killed. The worry is that that number could increase further. We've been warned by the authorities that that could be the case because the number of dead has been increasing throughout the morning. We do know that at least 80 people were injured in the crash, 50 of those seriously. And those who were injured are receiving treatment, some of them in a nearby sports hall, which has been adapted. Others in nearby hospitals. Some have been taken to Madrid, which is not far away. It's a couple of hours' drive away from here, in helicopters in some cases. But there is a massive deployment of emergency services here,

3:40fire services and ambulances and police. I'm looking at pictures, Guy, on the television screens here in the studio. As you say, there seems to be an enormous presence there around the train vehicles. How are the emergency services coping? Well, it's difficult because it's quite an isolated spot. It's not that far from Madrid, but it's in a part of Spain which is sparsely populated next to a village, but a very small village, a village of Urda, which has a very small population. And this part of Spain, it doesn't have sort of the kind of communications and infrastructure that you might expect in the bigger towns and cities or, in many cases the road. So that, I think, has made it more difficult for the emergency services to carry out their tasks.

4:33But, you know, they have been here in enormous numbers. I mean, just a moment ago, a convoy of about 10 or 12 police vehicles came past. There have been a number of helicopters at the site and lots of ambulances coming to and fro from the site taking people who are injured either to the nearby hospitals that are treating them or further afield to Madrid in some cases. And this is not the first fatal crash to happen on this line in Spain in the last year. What's been the reaction there to this? Well, I mean, it's still very early, but I think people are dumbstruck because we had an awful crash in January, a little further south from where we are now. As you say, on the same line, 46 people killed.

5:23That came as a huge shock and it triggered a massive debate in Spain about the state of the country's rail system. I think we're going to see more of the same over the coming days and weeks. People looking very carefully at the state of the rail system, investment in it and whether it's being managed in the right way. Guy Hedgcoe. To Israel now, where most of the votes have now been counted in the general election. At this stage, the group of parties allied to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is ahead, but short of a parliamentary majority. Exit polls had initially suggested the bloc of his main rival, Gaddy Eisenkot, was running neck and neck with Mr Netanyahu's. We'll have the latest on the vote count in a moment, but first Lucy Williamson has

6:05this report. Jerusalem's Makne Yehuda market is just waking up this morning. The election's over, the counting is happening and the wrangling has just begun. Political opinion in this market is fiercely pro-Netanyahu. So how are you this morning? Not good. You say no good? Yes. Why no good? In a basement cafe, I find Shlomi, a regular early morning customer, in exactly the same seat I found him in two days ago before the vote. You want a baby winner? You don't think he's won? Now it's techo, you know what? It's like neck and neck. Just off the market's main street, we find Yossi Mizrahi, the only stool holder to openly support Eisenkot. He says he's developed elephant skin from all the arguments he's had here.

7:00What do you think about the result? You've woken up this morning. Who's going to be your new prime minister? I cried because I saw the vote. I saw the numbers. You think Bibi's going to win? Yes, Bibi's going to win. Israeli politics is the art of coalition, and both sides will struggle to form a majority without the support of Israel's Arab parties, who seem to have massively expanded their share of the vote. It's very, very complicated. Nobody knows. It depends on the Arabs. And the Arabs, the Arabs is the only winners in these elections. Do you want Gadi Eizenkot to join with the Arab parties? Yes. I'm saying all the time the Arabs is facts here and the Jewish is facts here. Nobody is going anywhere.

7:55We are here together. David, the fishmonger next door to Yossi, someone he argues with a lot, disagrees. Who has won this election? Bibi, Bibi. You think Bibi's won? Yes, Bibi. Do you think Bibi Netanyahu should make an alliance with the Arab party? No. No. Listen, we're good with the Arabs. All the years, all the life. But the Arabs, it's not good with the Jews. I'm just looking through all the messages that have come through since last night from voters we've met across the country over the past couple of weeks, supporters of all sides. There's one here from a Netanyahu voter that came through quite early last night saying he hopes the opposition will fail to form a government. And another one here from a British voter who flew in specially from

8:50the election. The drama's not over, he told me. And another one here from a young Israeli woman I met on the campaign trail saying she's learnt never to underestimate Netanyahu. It could take days for a clear result to emerge from these elections and far longer for any one party to form a coalition. Some Netanyahu supporters here this morning are calling for a government of national unity. After the highest turnout here in years, Israeli voters know the prospect of having to rerun this election hasn't gone away. Lucy Williamson. Just before we recorded this podcast, we got the latest on the election results from our Middle East correspondent, Yolande Nell. We're now up to something like 85% of the regular vote having been counted.

9:40And just a word of caution here, because we're not going to get until tomorrow Thursday the absentee ballots counted which make up several hundred thousand this time it's thought with so many soldiers being among that vote so we won't get a final result we think until late on Thursday but this is the vast majority of regular votes that's been counted and for the past few hours things have steadied in a certain direction. Now, just bear in mind that for any political party, political bloc, rather, to have a majority in Israel's parliament, they need 61 at least out of 120 seats. At the moment, neither the veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, have got that with their blocs.

10:29So the Likud-led bloc of the prime minister has 54 seats at the moment. That is a drop of what it had four years ago. Mr Netanyahu teaming up with his ultra-Orthodox Jewish and ultra-nationalist parties, at the last general election, they had a clear majority of 68 out of 120 seats. But if you look at Gaddy Eisenkot, he does not have a clear path to power either at the moment. It's currently coming out with him getting 49 seats for his change bloc. And the only way that he would be able to make a majority government or to have a minority government that worked would be to rely on the support of the Arab-led parties. Now, at the moment, they're getting an unprecedented 17 seats in the new parliament. Israeli Arabs represent about 21% of the population. And in

11:28the past, their turnout has been much lower, often because voters are disaffected. It was really pushed up this time. When I spent time in the north in recent days and in Israel's mixed cities, you find so many voters are just desperate to get rid of Israel's most right-wing ever government. They feel it has been a disaster for the minority of Arabs in this country that has really stirred up racism and hatred. But the problem is that on the campaign trail, most of the Jewish opposition parties ruled out entering into any coalition government with the Arab-Israeli party. So, Yolande, what happens next? Could Israel's Arab minority-led parties, could they become kingmakers here? I mean, certainly they do hold the balance of power, but will they be able to use it?

12:20One of the suggestions that's come through from the joint Arab list, which is the bigger of the two Arab-led lists, is that it could be a safety net for a changed government, a minority government, basically saying that they will give their support to votes on key issues. But there is the smaller party of Mansour Abbas, which has said that he wants to be in a new government. But at the moment, you know, there has been so much delegitimisation of the Arab parties, it's become almost a taboo for most of those Jewish opposition parties to sit in a government with them, even to rely on their support. Yolan Nel. Now, to elections that already have a result in Serbia. Despite that, though, there's still no clear idea

13:05who will lead the new government and how ministers will be chosen. That's because the Student List Party, which decisively defeated the long-time populist leader Aleksandar Vucic in Sunday's election, has, until now, been a leaderless movement. Discussions are taking place about how the new government should be formed. But few of the winning party's newly elected lawmakers have previous political experience. Our correspondent Nick Thorpe reports from Belgrade. 48 hours after the landslide victory of the Students' List and Serbian elections, they're still cleaning up Pioneer Park in central Belgrade. For the past two years, the public could not set foot here. It was ringed with police barriers.

13:55Now the barriers have gone and workmen are cleaning up the rubbish. That's a metaphor, says Sofia Mandic, a human rights lawyer and head of the Centre for Judicial Research in Belgrade, for the clean-up she now expects in public life. Many people in the judicial system waited for this moment. They were under huge pressure. Their drawers are full of cases and we are expecting for them to start working even before the new government is formed. The courts, the judges and the prosecutors are in place, she says. With the daily political pressure which they felt in the past from the previous government gone, they will now be able to do their jobs, she hopes. Katerina Stankovic is a paediatric surgeon and number two on the students' list,

14:45one of their 140 deputies elected to Parliament on Sunday. She's set to be a key figure in the new government. I think that we have to be surgeons now. We have to be surgeons now because we have to cut everything that is bad here. There is a lot of corruption here. There is a lot of wrong things that were not in just five, six or ten years that was made here a long time ago. So we have to cut it and this cut have to be sharp now. A peculiarity of the students list was that none of their representatives have any political experience. Katarina Stankovic is optimistic that other countries can learn from this very Serbian experiment. I hope that this is the role model for democracy for the whole world,

15:33I hope so. And I have to say that it started as a student movement and now it's the movement of the whole people in Serbia. In the newly liberated Pioneer Park in Belgrade, children play on the swings and people walk their dogs under the oak and chestnut trees. Sofia Mandic, the human rights lawyer, says the election result will turn Serbia away from its position under the Vucic government as an ally of Russia and back towards Europe. Not so much because of the foreign policy the new government will pursue, but as a country which respects the rule of law and prosecutes high-level corruption. Serbia, with these elections, turned again towards the EU, to the EU path. We are geographically on EU soil. We are surrounded by EU countries,

16:26and that's our place. And I think we are heading there now, from now on. Under the Serbian constitution, the new parliament must assemble within 30 days. The parliament then has 90 days to elect a new government. But there's a sense of urgency in the air. The people still celebrating their newfound freedom are impatient for change. Nick Thorpe. Still to come in this podcast... I was a career guy my entire life. My career was more important to me, truthfully, than my family was. And once I changed that, I'm enjoying myself. The Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas reflects on the decisions he's made in his life. At PNC Wealth Management, our brilliantly boring investment philosophy is designed to help create confident investors.

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19:39Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send money abroad with your everyday bank? Choose the smart way. Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that where's my money feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply. This is the Global News Podcast. King Charles is meeting the Prime Minister of the Bahamas on the second day of his Caribbean tour. One of the issues he's having to address on his trip is Britain's record on slavery in its former colonies.

20:30There's growing pressure from some of them for financial compensation for the impact it's had on their societies. On Tuesday, the King acknowledged what he called the injustices of the past. Speaking at a youth rally, he praised the people of the Bahamas for courageously carrying the legacy of their ancestors, but he stopped short of giving an apology. To find out how young people are reacting to the state visit, Anne Soy has been speaking to two students at the University of the Bahamas, Shelby Gardner and, first of all, Terran Bryce. I feel as if a lot of Bahamians aren't really knowledgeable of our colonial past, the history of the transatlantic slavery, particularly chattel slavery, and how the colonial rule has, you know, exploited our ancestors' free labor

21:22and entertainment for centuries. I think that as Bahamians, we are kind of indoctrinated in a culture to, for lack of a better term, pedestalize whiteness. So the king being a symbol of that colonial past and that whiteness, there's some value from his visit that can be kind of like a catalyst for some kind of repertory justice to be taken place. Shelby, what do you think? I agree. I think in terms of especially considering the effects of colonialism on our educational system, there is lack of knowledge about certain topics and certain history. And even in terms of our social studies book, the first social studies book written by a Bahamian was just published last year. So all these years that we've been reading about history,

22:14not from the point of view of our people, but from the point of view of perpetrators, our exploiters, our colonizers. And I think that is the issue that I take with the king coming is not necessarily him coming but coming on the basis of all that has happened and not well he's acknowledged it but it feels like as if he's removed from it or his family and and England is removed from the things and the sufferings that in the Bahamas that we have suffered. And the suffering we still have today that we see in our economic, we see in our education system. Well, the king has recognized slavery as the darkest days in human history. Does that make a difference, Shelby? I think it is a step forward. It's a step

23:07towards getting reparations. It's a step towards acknowledging the truth. But I think further, as the reparations committee has spoken about, is that a formal apology would take it a step further because it is one thing to acknowledge the pain and suffering of a people, but another thing to acknowledge your part in it and also to make a further attempt to make up for your part in it. Teron? I think that with a formal apology comes a level of accountability. And I feel like that's something that's continuously skated around. The impact and the effects of slavery are still kind of very prevalent in our socioeconomic reality. Terran Bryce and fellow student Shelby Gardner. You might remember two years ago a ship,

23:56described as a cruise for life with luxury cabin residences, set off from Belfast in the United Kingdom for a voyage around the world that was going to take more than three years to complete. Many of the passengers sold their homes to take up permanent residence on the ship. Now these so-called permanent cabins have turned out not to be so permanent after all. Soaring global fuel costs have led the US-based operator of the ship to halt operations, leaving passengers stranded in the port city of Sihanoukville in Cambodia, with many on board left wondering if their dreams of a life at sea might have come to an end. The BBC's Claire Graham has more. This is not the first time that we have come across this group of passengers. There are around

24:41200 of them. This ship set sail from Belfast in Northern Ireland in 2024. After spending four months unplanned at dock, they were having repairs carried out on the rudders and gearbox of this ship. The residents made themselves at home in Belfast, but that is absolutely not what they'd signed up to at the time. They were staying in hotels, apartments, guest houses. But what they were really looking to at the time. They were staying in hotels, apartments, guest houses. But what they were really looking forward to, Pete, was their permanent home on board the Villa V Odyssey. Many had sold up their own homes, mainly in the US, and had plans to spend several, if not more years, circumnavigating the globe. However, as we've been hearing, the price of fuel, which has been pushed up with wars

25:26in Europe and the Middle East, that has made it incredibly, incredibly difficult for the company to keep going as it is. So yesterday, it started to emerge that these shipmates were being shuttled off board in Cambodia, not part of the planned trip, put into hotels and other accommodation. They were told for an unknown period of time yet again. It's clear that this ship has been facing difficulties with the cost of fuel and residents have been told it's time for a temporary layup. As you can imagine, residents have either been incredibly devastated by this or are remaining hopeful that the company can get through some of these financial pressures. I've been speaking to Holly Hennessy. She lives on board the Villa V.

26:11She's originally from Florida. She brought her cat with her to live aboard the ship and she spoke to me from a hotel room in Cambodia yesterday. It's sad. I'm hopeful. I hope there can be a saviour or a reiteration. It is truly an amazing way to live and we're not giving up yet. We may, in fact, rise from the ashes, but it's been a very tough go. And what is the operator saying? What happens next? OK, well, the company behind this is called Villa V Residences. In a statement, they said that the extraordinary fuel costs have made its current operating model extremely challenging. They say they're trying to address the increases in fuel costs. They're evaluating restructuring and recapitalisation. They also give a sense, Pete,

27:01of how the fuel expense rises have played out. They've said that historically it would cost around US$1,800 per cabin to fuel, basically. That has now reached US$6,000 to US$8,000 in parts of Asia. They say they simply cannot pass increases of that scale onto residents. And that means that it has become unsustainable, that sheer amount of financial pressure. Claire Graham. Now, how many of these classic Hollywood films can you name? Please don't go. I didn't mean to. Please, I'm sorry. I'll tell your wife. You tell my wife. I'll kill you. You won't learn anything I don't want you to know. Yes, I will. And I'll nail you. You'll just fall in love with me. Now, you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, buddy?

28:04It's the free market. and you're part of it. Clips from the films Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Wall Street. And the connection? Well, the star of all of them is the actor Michael Douglas. He's just released a memoir, One Hell of a Ride, where he details his long career as an Oscar-winning actor and producer. Katja Adler has been talking to him about his 60 years of movie-making, including living in the shadow of his famous actor father, Kirk Douglas. Well, he was an extraordinary man. There was no getting around it. I think as a young child, it was, how can I ever be the man that my father is? I mean, he was leading the Roman armies, Spartacus. He was the fastest gunslinger of all the actors.

28:50He was really good at handling guns. He could juggle. He could do so much. It was a large image to kind of overcome. And then I realized that we're fairly unique, that between the two of us, you know, we've done 130 films. And, you know, it's something to be kind of proud about. And so I thought it was a legacy that should be told, passed on to my three children, all who are acting now. Are they also Nepo babies? They are. They are Nepo Nepo babies. Yeah, I was so totally offended at this remark. You did used to prickle at it, didn't you? Well, I do because every mother and father in the world try to help their children, and a lot of them go into their own businesses. It's just that show business, I guess, is a little more colorful,

29:43but cleaners or the grocers or the gas station, they all try to help their kids. And then the final reason of writing one hell of a ride was my memory. And I found I was getting short on remembering all the experiences. So to be able to go back in and go through these films and remember all the good times. You don't go easy on yourself in the book, right? No. You look into addiction affairs, your son's imprisonment. So what's your legacy then? My professional legacy is, we use the baseball expression, I have a good batting average. I made a lot of films. I actually surprised myself when I was going over them that had been successful. And I'm proud of the fact that a number of them still maintain sort of food for thought.

30:35And these days you're enjoying time with your family. I am enjoying time. I had cancer about 16 years ago. I had stage four cancer and got through that. And after that, I sort of just changed my priorities. I was a career guy my entire life. My career was more important to me, truthfully, than my family was. And once I changed that, I'm enjoying myself. Actor and producer Michael Douglas. 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. You can also now watch our episodes in full. Just search the Global News Podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Pat Sissons. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye. home's guest love from across the country. Our curated list takes the guesswork out of planning so you can spend less time searching

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