Ukraine’s ‘crisis of corruption’, and the SpaceX rocket off Christmas Island | Global News Podcast

This is the Global News podcast from the. BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton and. on Wednesday the 19th of August, these. are our top stories. Ukrainian politics. in turmoil as a senior member of. President Zilinsk's team is sacked and. the former defense minister calls for. wartime elections. Israel opens up bids. to build new housing in the occupied. West Bank. And joint US South Korean. military exercises are cut short 6 days. earlier than planned. Also in this. podcast, scientists say they're stunned.

by how quickly children's lungs can. recover in the wake of pollution. restrictions and a special global. competition to find the world's. strongest giant water lily. >> One of our gardeners, he stood on it. He's not one of our smaller gardeners. either, 102 kilos. >> We'll start in Ukraine. We often talk. about Russia's war on that country. But. today, a lot is going on with Ukrainian. domestic politics. In the last few.

hours, Ukraine's president Zalinski has. dismissed a deputy head of the. presidential office. No reason was given for sacking her, though that change comes shortly after. anti-corruption agencies said she'd been. linked to a group accused of. moneyaundering. Those same agencies have. been carrying out raids today, targeting. current and former lawmakers and top. government officials. That's all. unfolding not long after Ukraine's. former defense minister, Mikail Federov,

called for wartime elections, which are. prohibited under the constitution. In a. video posted online, he said Ukraine was. facing a crisis of governance and. corruption. >> Democracy cannot be held hostage by. Russia. We must find a lawful, safe, and. realistic mechanism that would allow. Ukraine to restore a fully functioning. democratic process even under conditions. of a long war. >> Mr. Federov was a popular defense.

minister. His abrupt sacking in late. July led to mass protests. Many credited. him with overhauling Ukraine's armed. forces, tackling corruption, and using. data and advanced technology to improve. Ukraine's standing in the war. Ukraine. hasn't had an election in a while. President Zilinsk's 5-year term as. president was due to end in May 2024. However, elections have been suspended. in Ukraine while the country's under. martial law in place since Russia's.

full-scale invasion in February 2022. I. asked our Ukraine analyst from BBC. monitoring, Vitali Shvchenko, about the. significance of this latest dismissal. within the president's office and the. corruption rates. >> Ukraine has been battling corruption for. a long time. And for many people, the. success of this battle determines. Ukraine's success battlefield in its war. against Russia. So today, two of.

Ukraine's key anti-corruption agencies, they they published what they said were. uh excerpts of intercepted conversations. uh between members of what they call a. criminal group discussing ways of you. know laundering money to pay bribes. and. they said that uh this group includes. former and current members of parliament. and also an official from the.

president's office. So on the one hand. it's a. uh a setback or an inconvenience at the. very least for president Zalinski but on. the other hand it shows that under his. leadership Ukraine is doing something to. combat corruption. That's interesting. It's all going on as. we've also had this call from Mikailo. Federov, the former defense minister,

calling for fresh elections. What more. can you tell us about him and also uh. that call for for new elections? >> He is popular at the moment. I've had a. look at u opinion surveys in Ukraine and. at the moment he is Ukraine's. um most of third most popular uh figure. but that does not seem to be enough for. Mikuela Federov to force Vimmer Zalinski.

hand on any of the issues that he wants. resolved such as holding a uh an. election despite what Ukrainian law. says. And it says that as long as. there's martial law, you can't hold. elections. Mero just does not have the. political cloud to achieve that. Even. though he's shot up in popularity, he is. still lagging behind Wim Zalinski and uh. his supporters, Mal Fedro supporters are.

still rallying in in Kiev and in other. parts of Ukraine. But the scale at the. moment, Celia, it's it's nowhere near. enough to pose a a challenge to uh. Voldemir Zalinski and also Mika Federov. seems to be an outlier in this respect. No other prominent figure in Ukraine or. an opponent of Vimmer Zalinski is. calling for fresh elections. Even Mal.

Federal's supporters, they are demanding. his reinstatement, not Zalinski's ouster. or an election. So my prediction, if I. were to go out on a limb, is that uh. that ship has sailed and it is going to. blow over. >> Next to the Middle East, and in. particular, what's going on in the. occupied West Bank. Almost half a. million Israelis live there and all. Israeli settlements there are considered. illegal under international law. And now.

Israel has just opened up bids for the. construction of more than a thousand new. homes east of Jerusalem. Yolan Nell is. our correspondent in Jerusalem. This is. an area that is called Ewan. It's just. to the east of occupied East Jerusalem. and uh close to another large Israeli. settlement in the West Bank um called. Mal Adamim. And the reason this is so. important for Palestinians, why the. international community has really for. years um you know tried to get Israel to.

keep any plans to develop there on hold. is because it really disrupts the. contiguity of the West Bank. um it makes. a kind of large Israeli development. between Ramla and Bethlehem and it sort. of bicts the West Bank. So that is why. really for about three decades Israel. has shelved plans to develop there. That. changed last year when the farright. finance minister Bezel Smotridge who.

also has responsibilities for setting. Israeli government policy in the West. Bank. He announced that there would be. three and a half thousand new settler. homes that would be developed in that. area. And he said he was acting in. response to various countries including. the UK recognizing a state of Palestine. Now what has happened since then is that. there have been attempts by um. Palestinian bedin residents of that. so-called E1 corridor and uh Israeli. NOS's including peace now NGOs's against.

occupation uh really to try to to stop. or delay um the implementation of this. the opening of construction tenders. which of course is is the big step but. what's happened uh in the past day is. that the government has put out despite. that active court process going on. tenders for half of the houses. And the. way it's constructed the um the deal. that could happen would mean that. contractors could sign before uh the. Israeli elections which are due at the.

end of October. Once contracts are. signed with contractors, it's much more. difficult for any future government to. try to stop this process from happening. >> Yolan, what's the significance of the. timing of all of this? We have to note. that Israel is planning to have. elections in late October. That's right. And I think this government wants to do. as much as possible to create what they. call facts on the ground before those. elections happen because if you look at. the polls at the moment, um they. indicate that the prime minister's L. could party and his coalition parties.

are not um on track to keep power. Uh so. they want to kind of you know protect. what they would see as being their. legacy. And this Israeli government has. authorized 104 settlements in the past. three and a half years with all. settlements being illegal under. international law. There's been the. surge in settler violence in the West. Bank. We saw that last week with a lot. of focus on Kusra, this Palestinian. village south of Nablas, um where two. Palestinian families have been besieged.

in their homes by a group of settlers. And that remains ongoing until now. Those families still unable to move. They're trapped by the settlers there. >> Meanwhile, the conflict in Gaza has. taken a huge toll on those inside the. territory. The health ministry there. says more than 70,000 Gazins have died. since the conflict began. More than. 1,200 of those who died were killed in. Israeli strikes in Gaza since a. ceasefire was announced last October.

Many others are still missing, presumed. dead. Israel does not allow journalists. free access to the territory. Our. correspondent John Donison has this. report from Jerusalem. >> In Gaza, so much has been lost. More than 70,000 lives, hundreds of thousands of homes. And then there are the missing. Ahmed al- Madhun was 21 when he was last.

seen alive. The young man who has Down syndrome. disappeared in May 2025 after popping to. the shop. >> His family say Ahmed was loved by. everyone. and always joking around. For his parents, Majia and Nidal, it's. the not knowing that's hardest. I haven't lost hope. Whether I find him. alive, find him dead, find him buried,

if they just tell me here he is, then I. will truly be at peace. >> Bodies are being recovered from under. the rubble all the time. This month, a mass funeral for more than. 100 people killed in an Israeli strike. in 2023, but only now being laid to rest. It's. feared thousands more bodies are still. to be discovered. Ahmed may well be dead, but there's.

another reason why Gardens go missing. >> Ida Al Drimley shows us a picture of her. son, Mahmood. He too disappeared in. 2024. Ida feared he'd been killed. But then. this summer, a photo emerged on social. media showing two Israeli soldiers. posing with a Palestinian prisoner, blindfolded and bound. >> The family believes it's Mahmood.

My heart was torn into two when I saw. the photo. I was relieved that my son. was okay, but at the same time, how can. they humiliate him and other prisoners. like him? We asked the Israeli prison service. about Mahmood. They said they had no. record of holding him. The Israeli. military declined to comment. In Jerusalem, I meet Tal Steiner, an. Israeli lawyer who works to locate. Palestinians who may have been detained. by Israel. >> It's an open wound that doesn't heal.

They have no rest. Not even in knowing. if their relative is dead or alive to. bring him to proper burial. not knowing. where their family members are. Uh that. is uh really adding an insult to injury. and a very difficult mental situation to. be carrying for months and years. >> Amid the destruction, the Red Cross. estimates there are more than 5,000. people missing in Gaza. For their. families, the displaced and the. homeless, they're still not able to. grieve.

>> The air that we breathe has a huge. impact on our health. Unfortunately, we. can't choose the quality of that air. And if you live in an urban area, more. often than not, that air will be. polluted. Six years ago, London became. the first city to bring in what's called. an ultra low emission zone. All. vehicles, including passenger cars and. motorbikes have to comply with strict. emission targets. Drivers of higher. polluting vehicles, have to pay a daily. fee or face fines. Now comes the first.

evidence of the impact that those. changes have had on the health of a. group of children. Our reporter Nick. Miles has been looking into this. What. Queen Mary University have done, they. took 3,000 children. They compared 1500. in London where there had been a. reduction in these emissions over the. last 5 years and they compared them to. people in in a town called Luton, a. relatively small town where there hadn't. been much um pollution in the past. and. the people have been talking about as. stunning a stunning result really. Well,

let's listen now to one of the. researchers Chris Griffiths. The. children in London before the ULES was. introduced had smaller lung volumes. compared with the Luton children and. then as air quality improved uh we saw. acceleration of lung growth in the. children in London relative to those in. Luton. So that after only four years the. the measure that we was using were uh. was forced expiratory volume in 1. second. So after only four years they.

caught up the lost lung growth that. they'd experienced from prior exposure. to pollution. So this is an astonishing. finding. >> So what impact might this report have? >> Well, you just got to look at the impact. that particularly strong cases have had. in the past. There was one case of a of. a 9-year-old girl who died from an. asthma attack. She was living next to a. very very busy road in London. And for. the first time, the coroner put on her. death certificate the cause of air. pollution. And that had a huge impact.

It brought in some of the UL legislation. that we're seeing now. What perhaps we. may well see and what a lot of the. authors of this report are saying to me. is that we really do need this result, this very very graphic result of lungs. coming back to life. if you like, of. young children. We need that to actually. give the political will um a little bit. of a bolster because there has been a. lot of um opposition to these ulles um. over the last 5 years. It's expensive. for people. A lot of people see it as a.

tax on the poor, people who can't afford. um particular cars that are much more. modern. So, um what is the the hope for. the future? Helen Wood is another member. of this study. >> I'm not a policy maker. I'm a just a. scientist, but I I would hope that our. policy makers and our elected. politicians would look closely at this. evidence that we've produced because. it's an important study. It's a very big. study and it's the first study to show. an improvement in lung growth associated.

with a reduction in air pollution. following a public health intervention. >> And politicians around the world, she. hopes as well because there are 200. cities in Europe alone that have got. these kind of low emission zones in. They're also in place in some Chinese. cities in Singapore and elsewhere. And. people will hopefully look at these. reports and say, "Look, it does have an. impact on people's health." And when um. politicians are looking at these. costbenefit analysis um of of the. pressure of perhaps keeping down costs.

against people's health, they will come. down on the side of people's health more. often than they have in the past. Still. to come in this podcast, Christmas. Island locals wake up to a surprise as. debris from a Space X starship floats. off the coast. Uh, looked a bit closer. and then realized it was a rocket, a. space rocket. >> Next to South Korea and an announcement. that the joint military exercises with. the United States will be cut short and.

finished 6 days earlier than planned. This comes just days after President. Trump said he wasn't happy with US. participation in the drills. He. described them as being costly and. hostile towards North Korea. I heard. more from our South Korean correspondent. Jake Quan. >> Well, this is a major exercise that. happens every year and it is between the. United States and South Korea. And this. year some 18,000 South Korean troops. were to participate as well as you know. troops from around 12 countries around.

the world. These are Americas and South. Korea's allies participating. And then. what we are hearing is that this 11-day. exercise will be cut in half. So this uh. Friday will be the last day as the. Americans withdraw from uh the the. exercise after having done only the. first half of it. And this is a training. exercise that has been done nearly every. year. Uh there was a time that Mr. Trump. had suspended it in 2018 in the say for. the sake of currying favor with. Pyongyang but it was reinstated in 2022.

and like that time uh this is a training. that takes months to prepare and it is. really unprecedented it would be cut. like abruptly like what we've seen today. and it is really a symbol of South. Korea's uh kind of alliance and. America's commitment to protecting South. Korea from possible adversaries. H Jake, why is Donald Trump citing the US. relationship with North Korea right now? Are there developments in that.

relationship? >> Well, it's difficult to understand. exactly what prompted Mr. Trump to focus. on North Korea suddenly. He claimed that. he has a great relationship with Kim. Jong-un and this is partly why he is. suspending uh the the exercise with. South Korea. But we haven't seen any for. example letters or communication. happening between the two countries. Uh. we haven't heard anything from North. Korea yet. Uh any response to what. President Trump has claimed. Uh so you.

know it is difficult to say exactly why. now but some of the observation has been. that you know Mr. Trump is currently. having some difficulty ending the war. with Iran and maybe he's looking for a. win by you know moving some attention. back to North Korea. he had uh that. unprecedented a very historic meeting. with Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader. back in 2018 and perhaps he is trying to. restart some of that. But at the same. time in the if you look at the same. post, he does talk about some.

frustration and disappointment with. South Korea not helping him out in the. Iran war. So some of us are also seeing. it as a punishment of South Korea. What. does this mean for the US relationship. with South Korea in in terms of trade or. or diplomacy? >> Well, I think there is this concern in. South Korea that you know what used to. be a very separate issue of security, American commitment to South Korea and. the South Korea's trade with the United. States, it is all being mixed up in in.

in under the Trump administration. And. for South Korea, you know, they will try. their best to kind of navigate this. issue, but they're trying to see the. silver lining because for South Korea, they have been asking Mr. Trump to speak. to Kim Jong-un, and it seems to be. heading that way possibly. >> To Somalia now, it's been grappling with. decades of instability and the ongoing. violent insurgency by the militant. al-Shabaab group, as well as prolonged. droughts and severe flooding. On top of. that, it's now facing cuts to its aid. budget and rises in fuel and fertilizer.

costs because of the conflicts in. Ukraine, Iran, and the Middle East. Now, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, is warning that nearly 1.9. million children are expected to suffer. from malnutrition in Somalia this year. Nearly half a million of those will have. severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest. form of malnutrition. and Soy spoke to. UNICEF's global spokesperson James Elder. who's in Somalia. >> In the first six months of this year,

we've seen a 50% increase versus last. year of girls and boys, babies being. admitted to stabiliz centers with. complications. And why? It's simple. Because when you have fewer facilities, you have longer journeys for moms and. their babies. And longer journeys means. later treatment. And later treatment. means more severe illness and more. preventable death to be perfectly. honest. So, and we're seeing aid cuts. closed doors to health care. They're. shutting down those nutrition service. and they're just pushing everything that. kids need, water, education further and. further out of reach.

>> How important are those services that. you're talking about that are closing. down now because this is a country that. has been in crisis for such a long time. >> Yeah, they're everything. I met a boy. yesterday, Abdullah. He's a teenager. He. wanted to be a mechanic, right? He was. always tinkering with machinery in his. village. And al-Shabaab noticed this and. they offered him work and training as a. mechanic. Now, he had no opportunity. He. was desperate to support his widowed. mom. He took it. It was a lie, right? He. was thrown into the battlefield. He. tried to escape. He was caught. He was. eventually wounded in battle and he was.

captured by government forces. Now, again, go back before these aid cuts. really bit. And UNICEF, we supported, you know, more than 160 children who'd. been in those armed groups, enrolled in. training centers, electrics, mechanics, cooking. They got starter kits that. helped them start their own business. They got jobs or they, as I say, created. small businesses. Now, aid cuts mean for. a boy like Abdullah, no starter kit, no. kickstarts. >> A 52 m long SpaceX rocket has been. drifting off the coast of the remote. Christmas Island, some 1500 kilometers.

off the coast of Western Australia. The. spacecraft was launched in Texas in late. July and released 20 satellites before. the upper part of the rocket re-entered. the atmosphere and landed in the ocean. Engineers from Elon Musk's SpaceX have. now retrieved the rocket and are. analyzing it. But that initial recovery. operation was hampered by rough seas. Among the locals who went to have a look. was David Watthorn, chair of Christmas. Islands Tourism Association. I just uh.

drove to work one morning in my. two-minute commute on Christmas Island. Uh pulled up at our diving center, scuba. diving center. Got out of the car and. looked out to what I thought was uh. three ships, which are some ships which. are quite common. Uh looked a bit closer. and then realized it was a rocket, a. space rocket uh just out at sea that was. being towed. Um I was able to get my. crew together. Uh we got the boat uh off. the jetty and went out to have a look.

>> Alice Gorman is a space archaeologist at. Flenders University in Adelaide. She. spoke with Casha Madiraa about the. rarity of this kind of event. >> It's pretty rare. Normally these rockets. break up before they reach land or sea. intact. And normally a lot of space junk. simply burns up in the atmosphere. So. people don't even realize that it's. coming in every day. So to see a whole. rocket of this size floating intact in. the ocean, a pretty amazing sight.

>> So is it a mistake that it didn't burn. up and break apart? >> It was intended to land upright uh to. test the feasibility of sending. something reusable back from orbit. So. this was all part of the plan, but it. was a test launch. So if something had. gone wrong, that was kind of also. expected. But normally the impact of. coming through the atmosphere and then. hitting the ocean. It often breaks.

rockets apart. So it's extraordinary. that this one landed whole. It didn't. sink. It didn't release any toxic fuel. into the environment. So it's a pretty. good result for SpaceX. We're hearing. more and more about the this kind of. space junk that is incredibly damaging, even tiny little particles. Should we be. concerned about having something this. size land back on Earth? >> Something this size is not going to be.

launched that frequently for a while, but the intention is Elon Musk is. envisaging a launch of the Starship, you. know, on a daily basis. So, if they. perfect that reusable return to Earth. technology, that's great for the. Starship. But we're going to see more. spacecraft re-entering from orbit and. the sheer number of the anticipated. spacecraft means that more parts will.

survive intact to Earth, usually parts. of the fuel system. So we do have an. increased risk that people or property. or environmental harm might happen. >> What can the scientists learn from this. then. >> from this Starship re-entry? One of the. key things is how the heat shield. performed. So that's all the ceramic. tiles that you can see on the outside. Some of them definitely burnt up when it. re-entered, but a lot of them are still.

present. The starship is going to be. used to actually send people humans to. and from the moon. So how that heat. shield performs is absolutely critical. to their ability to survive coming back. to Earth. So this is what the scientists. are going to be particularly interested. in now. How that heat shield survived. And finally a competition to find out. how much weight a giant water lily can. bear. Unbelievably, these plants are.

strong enough for a grown person to. stand on. About 40 gardens around the. world are taking part this year, including the Royal Botanic Gardens in Q. here in London. Alex Summers is curator. of living collections at Q. He's been. speaking to my colleague Emma Bernett. >> We do it for a very good reason, which. is celebrating the majesty and diversity. of the plant kingdom and and any any. route we can get out there to do that is. fantastic. So in the case here the water. lily way off uh across about 40 botanic.

gardens and zoos globally we we all grow. these large water lilies and they have. these rigid air pockets in them and that. allows them to carry an enormous amount. of weight in the sense of what we've. done here at Q obviously one of our. gardeners he stood on it he's not one of. our smaller gardeners either 102 kilos. so maybe maybe we'll win across that. across that network of Botanic Gardens. >> the competition takes place across. Instagram Tik Tok and Facebook and this. year's heavyweight champion of water. lilies will be announced on August 28th. And that's it for this edition of the.

Global News podcast. If you'd like to. get in touch, our contact details are. below. I'm Celia Hatton. Goodbye.