A vehicle ploughs into a gay pride event in Germany

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0:44That's schwab.com slash Washington Wise. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Chalk and in the early hours of Sunday, July 26th, these are our main stories. A vehicle has ploughed into a crowd at a pride event in central Berlin, killing one person. At least 16 others were wounded. The authorities in southwest France have ordered around a quarter of a million people to evacuate as devastating forest fires continue to burn. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, says firefighters are working to save lives as wildfires continue to blaze west of Madrid.

1:29Also in this podcast. If I close my eyes and my life to what's going on here, I don't know if I'm contributing to the future. By living here, I have the naive feeling that I can hopefully be a thorn in the side of my co-settlers. We hear from the Israeli volunteers meeting ill Palestinians at the border to drive them to hospital.

1:55But we begin in the German capital, where one person has been killed and several others left with life-threatening injuries after a vehicle drove into a crowd celebrating Berlin's Pride Parade. Julian Mifek was there. He says it's a sad day for the queer community. We have a beautiful pride today and now it's a terrible situation. Yeah, it's very difficult for me. I'm shocked. Christopher Street Day, which is one of Europe's biggest annual LGBT events, has now been called off and the area cordoned off as well. We've seen videos showing people evacuating and helicopters circling overhead as a manhunt continues for the driver who, we're told, fled the scene.

2:41We've heard from police as well the suspect has been identified by them as a member of the city's Islamist circles. The German Chancellor has vowed to punished the perpetrator for what he called this horrific act, while the mayor of Berlin said the city's freedom had come under attack. Johann Iflander from Berlin police gave this update. According to the investigation, around 10pm a vehicle entered the Tiergarten from the area of Lennestrasse. Our officers are searching intensively for a possible suspect or suspects. A large police presence is on the scene and investigators are working to establish the circumstances.

3:22I got more from the BBC's Michael Steininger, who's in Berlin. A van ran into a crowd of people at the edge of the large Tiergarten Park, which is in the centre of Berlin, right next to the iconic Brandenburg Gate, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered to celebrate the Berlin Pride March. We think that that van injured at least a dozen of people. Police say possibly one dead, maybe more. We think that the driver left the car and fled on foot. So there's now a large manhunt underway. Police are looking with helicopters and with lots of forces using torchlights and floodlights to look for a potential perpetrator in the darkness of that large park, which is in the centre of Berlin.

4:18Yeah, I mean, Berlin is famous across Europe, isn't it, for its LGBT scene. I can only imagine that Berlin Pride is an absolutely massive event. That's right. I was in the city centre myself today. And as usual, this day every year, the city centre is completely taken over by revelers, by the queer community. There are lots of parties all over town, people in garish dresses and very exotic attire all over the place, and then they converge, they gather around Brandenburg Gate in the late afternoon, early evening, when the party really takes off and when there's a concert, when there's floats, all kinds of things, entertainment.

5:03so I can only think that this was been a very very abrupt and very very horrible end to that kind of party. Now we don't know the motive for this yet and we're not here to speculate obviously but what we do know is that this is far from the first time in Germany that a car has driven into to a crowd at a big event. It is not and I think people are nervous about these events the authorities are nervous about these events. The area around the Brandenburg Gate had been called off and secured for several days prior to this event already, but it's a very large area with lots of major roads converging on this particular point.

5:47So it is very hard to kind of secure the whole area and basically make everyone safe. We did have several incidents in the recent past where cars were used to injure people, to kill people for whatever reasons. We had an incident not long ago in Leipzig. We famously two years ago had an incident where a man ran into a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg in eastern Germany and killed several people. So it is unfortunately not a new phenomenon. Michael Steininger in Berlin. Well, let's bring you an update now on the wildfires burning in Western Europe. More than a quarter of a million people have now been forced to leave affected areas.

6:32Take southwest France. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents alike have been instructed to leave Biscaross, the Cap Ferry Peninsula and seven small towns west of Bordeaux. And with the weather making things harder for firefighters, the French Prime Minister has warned the wildfires will just continue to burn. Then there's Spain, where about 90 ,000 people have been told to flee an area west of Madrid or to stay inside their homes. Joe Inwood has this report. In one of France's most popular tourist areas, houses burn. This is the wildfire in Gironde in the southwest of the country, seemingly out of control.

7:13Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes as the flames approach. Standing in front of a burning house is one of the men tasked with tackling the blaze. The wildfire was driven by the wind, he says. Overnight, evacuation notices were sent to a number of villages on the outskirts of Bordeaux. Cars filled the road. Those inside were leaving everything behind. Some could not escape on their own. At one care home, elderly residents were transferred to ambulances. Others did not hear the warnings. Rebecca Pappin was on holiday in the town of Biscaross. She was sleeping with earplugs in when the message arrived and became trapped there with her children.

7:57There were water planes in the sky that were dropping water. There were firefighter helicopters in the sky and the entire distance was just a wall of flames. But it was quite far away from my house, but I could see it very clearly from the upstairs level. So I went down to the beach, but at the beach it was the strangest atmosphere because everyone was acting like nothing was wrong and nobody had any idea how serious it was. It is not only France that is suffering under record wildfires. Spain has declared a national emergency, the first time it has done so because of wildfires. Two blazes near the capital Madrid have now joined up.

8:35There are fears they could soon merge with a third. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the area this morning. Right now we have a window of opportunity this weekend to fight the fire, and therefore protect lives, to protect communities, and ultimately to bring this extremely serious fire under control as far as we're able to. Both countries have requested help from the EU, which has sent seven water-bombing planes. but their real hope comes from a change in the weather. Conditions are improving slightly but there are warnings of another heatwave next week. So that's Joe Inwood. Staying with the situation in Spain, my colleague Anka Desai spoke to the BBC's Sergi Ficada who's currently in the country.

9:26So what's happening on the ground in and around the Spanish capital? There's these two fires still ongoing. They have burned around 35 ,000 hectares and they are far from being under control. So right now we know that over 60 ,000 people have been evacuated from their homes nearby these areas of Madrid and also in Abila, which is west of Madrid. They have been asked to flee to other locations. So in places like community centres and sports facilities have been set up and turned into temporary overnight shelters. Other people, exactly the opposite. Around 20 ,000 people have been asked to stay indoors, to be under lockdown, because local authorities believe that that's the safest thing for them.

10:12But yeah, these fast moving fires are forcing authorities to evacuate more and more towns. And the perfect example is that the place in which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gave a press conference earlier today, the command centre in which lots of people were operating, had to be moved because the fire was approaching that area as well. So this is right now far from over. And Soji, I guess a real concern is the fact that some of the fires have joined up. This is a case of conflagration. Yeah. So when this fire started a few days ago, the ones in Madrid were actually two different blazes. And in that case, those two blazes ended up merging into one big fire, which is the one that we have now close to the capital.

10:57Now, the other one in Western Madrid, in Avila, that is also growing. And now the fear is that both of these already big wildfires may merge into even a bigger one. This hasn't happened yet, but depending on the direction of the wind in the coming hours, this is something that may happen. And obviously authorities are concerned about this because then it would be even a bigger fire and potentially more difficult to tackle. Yeah, how are the authorities coping and what sort of help are they asking for? So authorities are saying that they are using all the available resources available in the country to tackle the fires, including deployments from the military, civil protection, anything they can basically.

11:40But at the same time, they admit that as of now, this may not be enough. So they have asked help from the European Union and there have been additional resources sent from countries like Greece or Italy. They are sending two water dumping aircrafts each, also help from neighbouring Portugal. They are sending around 100 personnel from there. But this may not be enough. And the issue here is that while obviously there is lots of focus and attention in these very big wildfires in central Spain, there are other smaller wildfires happening across the country. Just a few hours ago, another one started near Valencia.

12:18So all the services are extremely busy. So what authorities are saying is like, hey, we're doing everything that we can, but we admit that it may not be enough. It's the BBC's Sergi Ficada in Spain. And let's get a little bit more on this as well, because as we've been hearing, with temperatures expected to remain high, the fear is that winds will continue to fuel and drive the fires. And as Chris Fawkes from BBC Weather explains, wildfires create unique conditions that can also fan the flames. The problem is with wildfires, they make their own winds. Because you've got all this heat going up into the atmosphere, it will suck in the air from the surroundings, and so the winds can change very quickly.

13:01It causes problems because then those winds blow embers onto surrounding areas and can spark new fires and make it very, very difficult for firefighters to keep on top of. And in terms of the forecast, OK, we've seen a bit of rain into western areas of France, but looking again ahead to what we've got coming, we've got very little rain on the cards over the next few days because the storms that we have seen are working into the Alps over the next 24 hours. Rainfall totals then for the rest of this week, pretty much nothing across these wildfire areas. And worse than that, actually this week we're going to see a renewed severe heat wave build across Spain and France that will see temperatures again climbing into the upper 30s to low 40s.

13:42So this incredible heat that we've seen time and time again this year, it's going to come back this week. And that's not the kind of forecast that people will want to see if we're looking at trying to bring these fires under control. Chris Fawkes there. Now, it's something not many people would have predicted even a few weeks ago. A meme in India becoming a protest movement so powerful it's brought down a government minister. But that's exactly what's happened. The cockroach janta party have been celebrating in the streets after the country's education minister resigned. They've been protesting for five weeks now.

14:16It's one of the largest displays of dissent in years against the government of Narendra Modi. The unrest was driven by anger about the leak of crucial exam papers earlier in the year, which then forced millions of students to re-sit the test. Yagita Lamai reports from Delhi. Punching their fists in the air, the leaders of the student movement announced to waiting crowds that they had won and the education minister had resigned. So around me I can just see scenes of jubilation. People were hugging each other, chanting. There was some music on and there was also dancing. These are the first reactions that we are seeing from the site of the protest.

14:59People who do not ordinarily have power, that they were actually able to make the minister resign. I think it's fantastic for our democracy. Whatever else may happen. I've been attending such a movement of mass scale for the first time in my life. And I feel like a citizen today, actually. That's why.

15:18What had begun as anger over entrance exam leaks and a crude comment from India's Chief Justice likening jobless youngsters to cockroaches turned into a ground movement the government never saw coming. For the first time in his 12 years as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi seemed at his wits end, posting nightly videos trying to connect with the youth of his country. The climb down is a big setback to his strongman image. And the past few weeks have also seen the popularity he once enjoyed take a severe blow. Yagita Lamai. Still to come in this podcast. If you respect that mountain, mountain respects you.

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17:30This is the Global News Podcast. Every day, dozens of Palestinian patients from the occupied West Bank cross into Israel for desperately needed specialised medical care they can't get at home. And waiting to drive them to hospital are Israeli volunteers, who've increased in number since the October 7th attacks in 2023. Since the war started, it's become an increasingly rare space for Israelis and Palestinians to Speak and Build Trust, a meeting of two worlds amid the trauma of war. Naomi Sherbel-Bull has been joining the patients and volunteers for the car journeys from the checkpoints to hospitals in Israel.

18:11Every week, 24-year-old Nasser Adi stands with his mother on the edge of Beit Elmar in the occupied West Bank, waiting for a lift to hospital in Israel. Heightened tensions in the West Bank after Hamas' October 7th attacks and the war in Gaza that followed, as well as the recent unprecedented rise in settler violence, make his journey for treatment even more fraught. The situation is always there. If anyone starts any problem at the checkpoint or carries an attack, the impact can affect us all. So I am always on guard. Thankfully, nothing has happened to me personally, but I always stay cautious.

18:58There isn't any prostitutes. I still have Jewish friends, but at the same time, there is fear. And it goes both ways. They are also afraid of Arabs. Nasser is one of thousands of Palestinian patients who are treated in Israeli hospitals every year, paid for by the Palestinian Authority. He suffers from a rare enzyme disorder which can be life-threatening. Even leaving Nasser's home is far from straightforward. Just arrived at one of the entrances to Beit Umar, there's a bright orange gate which straddles the road into town. And most of the roads that provide access to the town have been blocked in this way for much of the war.

19:43The Israeli military say that it's a security measure. But it makes life here very difficult, preventing residents from driving in and out of town. And so at the gate, people have to get out and then walk across the Orange Gate and take another car or taxi to continue their journey.

20:10Despite the bleak outlook, the family has an unlikely ally trying to support them.

20:2078-year-old Myron Joshua from a neighbouring settlement laughs and chats in Hebrew with Nasser and his family. I definitely became what I call an unsettled settler. Myron is a volunteer from Road to Recovery, a charity which drives Palestinian patients from the West Bank to hospital in Israel. He lives in Kva Etsyon, the first Israeli settlement to be built in the West Bank, in 1967. Under international law, settlements are illegal. I can understand Israelis who look to me and say, but if you're so unsettled about what's happening, why don't you just leave? If I close my eyes and my life to what's going on here, I don't know if I'm contributing to the future.

21:03By living here, I have the naive feeling that I can hopefully be a thorn in the side of my co-settlers, and that I can also reach out to Palestinians and help them in ways I couldn't do it in the past. Driving through the checkpoint into Israel every week, the group casts an unusual image. Myron, an Orthodox Jew, wearing a kippah, driving Nasser and his mother, Supper, wearing a hijab. Myron calls it a tent of Abraham. The minute young people don't come into contact with Israelis, the fact that Israelis don't come into contact with Palestinians, we demonize each other. But since October 7th, it's almost as if we're building the fear, but the fear is real, the fear is true, but we're like casting it in cement, making it so we can't deal with it.

21:57Last year, 55 ,000 visits by Palestinian patients were approved by Israel, 50 % more than the year before. According to international law, as an occupying power in the West Bank, Israel does have a legal obligation to provide access to health care. But a third of patients, and the carers who request to cross with them, still had their permits refused by Israel. For those that navigate the permissions needed, these volunteer drivers make that access to life-saving treatment possible. It's actually grown from taking him to the hospital, to friendship, to almost a partnership. And I'd be creating hope, right?

22:36But I pray to feel that one day be hopeful. I'm a pessimist. A realist. You can hear more on that as well. Just search for Driving Across the Divide on the documentary podcast, which is available wherever you get your podcasts from the BBC World Service. It's not a look Russia would have wanted for one of its most high profile sports events. Athletes and spectators forced to take shelter because of a nearby Ukrainian drone strike. Some people left the stadium at the National Athletics Championship in Yekateringburg, while others hid indoors. The event was taking place near to a facility operated by the Russian retail giant Wildberries.

23:20It comes as Ukrainian officials say the capital Kiev came under attack early on Sunday, claiming Russian forces had been targeting the city with ballistic missiles. Ankur Desai spoke to our global affairs reporter Paul Moss about these latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The first we heard from this about this was early on Saturday when the Sverdlovsk region's authority said there'd been a drone attack by Ukraine, which they said had been repelled. They said just a bit of debris had fallen. Then footage emerged showing smoke coming out of a site in Yekaterinburg. That's the biggest city in the Sverdlovsk region.

23:56Now, when you look at those pictures, you know, it's hard to say, but it doesn't look like just debris. It looks like something hit its target. Either way, there was a huge amount of disruption. This outlet for this office, in fact, of wildberries had to be evacuated. And much more embarrassingly, they had to suspend the national athletics championships because of this nearby drone attack. I think we can hear from someone who was there. We were sitting in the stands when they announced over the loudspeaker that everyone was being asked to go under the stands. After that, they announced a missile threat and didn't even say how long it would last.

24:32I'm in a bit of a worried state. It's hard to overstate just how embarrassing this is. The national athletics championships in Russia would normally be very prominent. But since Russia was banned effectively from most international sporting occasions, it's had particular importance. So to have it disrupted by a Ukrainian drone really will annoy the authorities in Russia. Bear in mind also Yekaterinburg is 2 ,000 kilometres inside Russia. So it's just another sign of Ukraine's success in penetrating deep inside the Russian heartland. And Paul, why would Ukraine be so keen to hit a retail outlet like Wildberries rather than military or, let's say, more strategic target?

25:10Yeah, it might sound like a low priority. Well, what Ukraine says is that Wildberries supplies kit to the Russian military. Russia denies this. But in fact, if you look at Wildberries website, you can see they sell things like camouflage gear, body armor. Now, given that Russian soldiers often have to buy their own kit, it clearly can and probably does supply the Russian military. But I think there's something else going on here. This is just another way which Ukraine is bringing the war home to ordinary Russian people. Wildberries is massive. It has more than half of the e-retail exchanges in Russia.

25:46It's often called Russia's Amazon. And also a larger number of Russians sell their stuff through wildberries. That goes from major companies to ordinary artisans. So this is really a blow. Several of their facilities were actually hit and badly damaged last week. Billions of dollars worth of stock destroyed. And just before you go, we're also hearing about an attack in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. What more can you tell us about that? Yeah, this is not confirmed, but it was in the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye region, a village called Kirilivka. And what the Local administration says, bear in mind this is a Russian occupier administration, they say a Ukrainian drone hit a tourist camp, killing 11 people, including four children.

26:25No way to confirm this. Ukraine hasn't said anything. In fact, they've been busy boasting of hitting another oil refinery. This one in Tumen, that's even further into Russia than Yekaterinburg. So once again, showing that they could hit deep inside Russia and that they could do so accurately. That's Paul Moss. Two students have been expelled from a Nigerian university after being accused of what were termed homosexual activities. Nigeria has strict laws against same-sex relationships, with those convicted facing up to 14 years in prison. Mukwachi Okafel reports from Lagos. The university announced on Friday that two students had been expelled over alleged involvement in a same-sex relationship, while four others were suspended for one academic session over fighting on campus.