Train hits Belgian school bus in fatal crash

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1:07You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 hours GMT on Tuesday the 26th of May. A train has hit a school minibus on a level crossing in Belgium, killing four people. Iran has warned it has the right to retaliate after the US launched fresh attacks. And a rescue operation is underway in Laos for seven people trapped in a cave complex. Also in this podcast. Everything these days is up in the air with regards to demand for electric vehicles. Everyone's trying to find their feet and Ferrari's no different. Ferrari launches its first ever electric car.

1:53A serious accident at a level crossing in Belgium has killed four people, including two children. A train hit a school minibus after it went through the barrier. Our global affairs reporter Paul Moss has been following the story. This happened at a small village called Buchenhout in the northwest of the country, not far from the capital, Brussels. It seems there was a minibus carrying children with a driver and also a supervisor. and just after eight in the morning as it crossed the level crossing there was what police have described as a violent impact between the minibus and a train and I say extremely violent a spokesman for the train company has said that the minibus was thrown 15 meters in the air now if that's true it really does show the horrible power of the impact we can see images on television of the bus lying on its side next to the railway tracks the latest we're hearing is that two child passengers were killed along with the driver and the children's supervisor.

2:51There were more than 100 people on the train. Their lives, they weren't injured. I mean, obviously, this is an early time to be talking about what exactly happened. But it does feel like here, there really is a complete mystery, as I think we can hear from Thomas Beck, and he's a spokesman for IFRA Bell, the company in charge of Belgian railway infrastructure. The bus was driving on a parallel road next to the railroad track and then it took a left turn to go onto the level crossing. But then you see that there are barriers which are down and there are red lights that are flickering. We have no idea why the minibus didn't stop.

3:27That's something the investigation will have to look into, of course. Now, obviously, any accident which involves children is going to be particularly upsetting. But it seems that the victims here, and indeed those who survived the accident, were children who were already suffering from serious difficulties. This was addressed at a news conference by Kurt Mearns. He's Deputy Commissioner for Education in the East Flanders region, and he's speaking through an interpreter. It is a very dark day for our school. This is a special needs education school. We offer education to children with emotional disorders, all sorts of learning difficulties.

4:10I would like to share my deepest sympathies with the families of the victims. I wish as much as possible courage to all our pupils for whom this is a very dark day. Kurt Mearns there. And Paul, just looking at pictures from the scene, it's hard to see how robust those barriers are. But what is the safety record of level crossings in Belgium and elsewhere? Well, level crossings are recognised everywhere as a place where accidents are particularly likely to happen. But it does seem that Belgium may have a particular problem here. It's a small country, but with a very large and therefore dense railway network, which crisscrosses towns and villages.

4:50According to the Reuters news agency, in the last five years, 36 people have died in 168 accidents at level crossings. Now, I want to stress that's just one source. When you look back, it does seem that these are usually caused, the accidents are usually caused by the driver of the road vehicle rather than the train. But I want to stress at this stage, we don't know what happened. There's no evidence so far that the driver was responsible of the minibus. Our global affairs reporter, Paul Moss. As you may have heard in our previous podcast, the US launched new airstrikes on Iran overnight, claiming they were defensive in nature.

5:27The attacks confounded hopes that a peace deal was imminent, despite an Iranian delegation travelling to Qatar for talks. So what do these US strikes mean for the ceasefire? Here's retired US Army General David Petraeus. They've been very carefully characterised as self-defence, defensive in nature, so therefore the ceasefire is still in effect. But of course rules of engagement never deny a force the right to defend themselves, and that's how they're characterising these particular actions. The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps said it shot down a US drone and fired at a warplane during the attack.

6:05I got more on the Iranian response from Sivash Ardalan of the BBC Persian Service. I think the response that we saw was the one that IRGC described, a little bit more heavy on details than what the CENTCOM communique had said in terms of the sequence of events and the casualties and so on. The RGC said that they fired upon a US aircraft and a drone and then they shot down another US drone. But again, no details on casualty figures or the sequence of events or to what extent damage was inflicted on either side. So you have really competing narratives with each one framing their action as a reaction to the other side's aggression.

6:45Interesting that the Iranian delegation with the top negotiator is in Qatar, which only recently came under attack by Iran. Yes, Qatar has now, along with Pakistan, playing a mediator role. And one of the reasons for that is that Qatar now holds a huge chunk of Iran's frozen assets. And a big part of these negotiations, as far as Iran is concerned, is getting the U.S. to allow Qatar to unfreeze these funds and let Iran have access to them. But the figures, we're not exactly sure. Some people are talking about$6 billion, some people$12 billion, and some people$24 billion. So we don't know exactly how much Iran is supposed to get in the initial phase of these talks, which sees a ceasefire for 60 days and then moves on to the more sticky issues.

7:33Now, we haven't heard much from the Iranian people themselves recently, but there was talk that the internet was going to be switched back on today. Is that going to happen? There was a lot of hopes yesterday after a presidential body called the Organization for Cyberspace, said that it held a meeting and upon President Pezesh-Ghion's orders, asked the authorities to open up the international Internet. But then today, the judiciary stepped in following calls from hardliners. What are you doing? Who said that you have to open the Internet? Still, we have security issues and so on. the judiciary came and said, well, this body, this presidential body, there's a lot of legal ambiguity about its status.

8:14So basically suspended it. And that's all we know for now. So signs of continued divisions inside Iran itself. At least as far as the internet connection, yes. Siyabash Ardalan. And since we spoke to Siyabash, the internet monitoring group Netblox has said that live data shows Iran has now partially restored internet connectivity. The US attacks on Iran coincided with renewed Israeli strikes on Lebanon after Israel's Prime Minister vowed to crush Hezbollah. Our correspondent in Lebanon, Lina Sinjab, told us about the impact on the people there. There was a wave of panic that spread, especially here in Beirut, in the southern part of the city in Dahye neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been under attack since the start of the war.

9:03But after the statement coming out from the Israeli prime minister yesterday saying that they will escalate attacks on Lebanon, residents, those who managed to stay in the undestroyed parts of Dahi, left quickly in big numbers. There was like big lines of cars, of civilians rushing out after 10 p.m. from Dahi neighborhood in anticipation of an airstrike that could hit Beirut. But, you know, airstrikes continued throughout the night in the south and in Bekaa Valley. Beirut was spared until this moment. But actually, the drone is hovering over the city in intensive way that everyone is worried about an imminent attack that could happen anywhere.

9:50And what do you make of the timing of this decision by the Israelis to intensify their attacks on Hezbollah? Well, it seems if we follow the pattern of the negotiations with Iran, although the Iranians are saying that the Lebanese case should be attached to the Iranian ones and any ceasefire in Iran should be applied to Lebanon as well. But it seems that whenever we see that there is a sort of an approachment of a deal between the Iranians and the Americans, the Israelis intensify attacks on Lebanon to stress that Lebanon's war is not connected to any deal with Iran and that they are determined to continue what they've started, as they say, eliminate any threat from Hezbollah and disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon.

10:38But Hezbollah still seems able to fight back despite what years of attacks by the Israelis. This is what we're seeing day in, day out. Hezbollah is basically saying that they're retaliating for Israeli violations of the ceasefire. They're saying that they're attacking Israelis on Lebanese soils, but sometimes we can see that they're also attacking in northern Israel. But the Israelis, you know, war on Lebanon is far bigger and worse than any damage Hezbollah has caused to Israel. For many Lebanese here, those who stand with Hezbollah, they feel that this is the only group that is defending the Lebanese rights, especially those from the south.

11:23But even in the south, there are people who are angry with Hezbollah and blame it for this whole war and for the loss of homes and of lives in Lebanon. Lina Sinjab in Beirut. And our diplomatic correspondent James Landale has more on the tensions in the Middle East on the BBC News YouTube channel today. Just search for Global News Podcast in the podcast section there. Next to Sydney, where a light show went wrong after drones started falling out of the sky.

12:00Footage of Monday night's event showed dozens of lights dropping down mid-performance. The drone splashed into the harbour or nearby marina with reports that some only narrowly missed hitting people. We heard more from our Sydney correspondent, Katie Watson. It's called Starbound and there are around 1 ,000 drones. It's a display that lasts about 12 minutes, but on Monday night, as the music started playing, about 89 drones started dropping and they landed in the water in Darling Harbour. It's an area called Cockle Bay. There were a couple that seemed to kind of hit the marina. Most of them, I think, fell in the water.

12:40And Sky Magic, which has put on, it's a UK company with different branches in Singapore and the US. They said that effectively during the performance, there was a technical issue. It was because of an unforeseen change in the radio frequency environment occurring after takeoff. So basically, some of these drones landed in response to some compromised position just dropped. Yeah, it's quite extraordinary seeing the footage as the show goes on, and then suddenly these lights just start falling to the ground. I mean, it could have been really dangerous. Yeah, and it's interesting, because when you watch the drone show, you can hear music, but then apart from that, there's just silence.

13:23So you just see these different shapes moving in the guy and forming different patterns. But suddenly you could see these lights go and then you could hear them dropping in the water. I think some dropped to the marina. I mean, around that area, it is full of restaurants, hotels. There's a couple of museums, definitely tourist central. And Vivid is a time that many people come. I think there's a lot of marketing towards the likes of China. So huge audiences who come to see the various light displays. But, you know, the drone show, I think it started in 2024. and is certainly, you know, one of the main draws, definitely one of the most talked about events at Vivid.

14:03Yeah, and there were a couple more displays planned, but those now cancelled. The next two have been cancelled. I think they're going to now evaluate their government agencies, so they're going to do a full assessment before they make a decision on the remaining schedule. But I think in all, they were meant to do 22 shows over the next three weeks. So if that's removed, it's a pretty considerable tourist to space. Thank goodness nothing happened to any of the people who were attending. Katie Watson in Sydney. Still to come on this podcast... We will get a report through from a member of the public, maybe a dead bird of prey found in suspicious circumstances or a bird of prey found in a trap.

14:47On the trail of people killing protected birds of prey.

15:20We'll be right back.

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16:43What does this deadly outbreak tell us about how prepared or not we are for an international health crisis? For more, check out the global story on BBC.com or wherever you listen.

17:01You're listening to the Global News Podcast. A large rescue operation is underway in Laos after seven people looking for gold in a cave complex became trapped. Heavy rain triggered flash flooding and blocked their exit.

17:21Well, now experts involved in the famous 2018 rescue of trapped teenagers in Thailand have arrived in Laos to help with the search. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head is monitoring events from Bangkok. They're pretty confident they're very close to these trapped gold miners. They think they may only be 20 metres away from them. The problem is it's not a cave system, as you might understand it. It looks to me like people have been informally digging into the ground they're tunnelling in to try and get what they believe is gold to pan for gold there. And so the channels that these rescuers are working with are very narrow.

17:56Indeed, they're literally squeezing between cracks between the rocks and then going along passages sometimes only half a metre wide. They're dealing with large amounts of running water. It's continuing to rain there. a lot of silt and sand has been brought in by that water and that's then blocking access as well so it's been a pretty grim process they've got big pumps in there though they would like to have bigger ones that are pumping the water out of this underground cave system they reckon that if they keep persisting and these are pretty awful conditions they hope to reach these trapped men quite soon and we don't know what the time scale is we also don't know what state those trapped men are in there's not been any clear signs of life from them but they're hopeful that they've managed to move into some upper chambers that would have been above the levels of the water yeah i mentioned that those experts from the previous rescue have arrived on the scene how much help will they be able to provide well they've got a lot of experience of working in these really grim dark conditions very narrow spaces with surging water the rescue operation which i covered eight years ago in thailand was on a much bigger scale they there were far bigger distances to cover and you needed proper cave diving experience.

19:04I mean, people were diving with breathing equipment through submerged and very narrow tunnels over quite long distances. These trapped miners are much, much closer to the surface. But still, this is very, very difficult, constantly changing conditions. And there's one who's a very well-known Finnish cave diver, but he's Thai counterbutt. That specialist cave diving knowledge and experience and equipment is very, very useful in this kind of rescue. They're the ones who are going in into these unbelievably claustrophobic conditions and helping to find a clear way through to where they can reach those who are trapped.

19:39So there's a team of about 20 who've come from Thailand. They've brought some of their equipment as well, combined with local Laotian officials who don't have that range of experience. That cave rescue in Thailand lasted for three weeks. It was very intense and a lot of people learnt a great deal about how you deal with these largely unmapped underground cave systems. Jonathan Head. The United Arab Emirates has long been accused of supporting the paramilitary rapid support forces in the brutal three-year civil war in Sudan, allegations the UAE denies. Now, Human Rights Watch says it has unearthed evidence that the UAE recruited Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the RSF and that they may have been involved in atrocities during the fall of El Fasha in Darfur.

20:24This is further evidence of the involvement of Colombian mercenaries in the fighting, as reported by the Conflict Insights Group last month. The Human Rights Watch report was co-authored by Jean-Baptiste Galapag. We wrote this report on the basis of an investigation that lasted over a year, relying on interviews with two of the Colombians, as well as other sources, including survivors of abuses in El Fasher, but also on a number of documents and very extensive open source analysis of some of the content that these Colombians posted on social media and satellite imagery. And putting the picture together, we found that these Colombian fighters had transited through two UAE military bases in the UAE before the deployment to Sudan.

21:15That includes one base called El Wahba in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi, as well as another base called El Hayati, which had previously been used in a similar scheme when a UAE-based company had hired Sudanese to fight in Libya in 2020. And what's really relevant here is that, you know, this is ostensibly a private operation. The Colombian fighters were hired apparently by a company called the Global Security Services Group. But this company, we found, is very close to the highest levels of the UAE government. For instance, it was created by the Secretary General of the UAE Presidential Court in 2016.

22:00He later sold these shares, but he stayed in business with the CEO of the company. We also found that the brother of the ruler of the UAE has sought to purchase the services of the company for private guards in 2019. And we also spoke with a former employee of the company who described working on a super yacht for that company. And the super yacht was owned by the uncle of the UAE ruler. So when you put this all together, it appears that the sending of these Colombian private military contractors is a state-backed operation. We found the first evidence that the Colombians were not only in El Fasher during the siege, which had previously been reported on, but that they're also present at the site of mass killings and mass rape by the Rapid Support Forces when they took over the city of El Fasher in October last year.

22:53Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, the UAE, says it does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict, including Sudan. The bird conservation charity, the RSPB, has recorded almost 1 ,000 illegal attacks on birds of prey in Britain between 2015 and 2024, including shootings, poisonings and trapping. It says more than half were on or near land managed for game bird shooting. Shooting groups deny that persecution of these birds is widespread, but the RSPB wants game bird shooting to be licensed, so estates face tougher consequences when protected birds are killed.

23:35Our climate and environment editor Justin Rowlett has been out with the charity's undercover investigations team.

23:44Dawn on the high moors of northern England. Howard Jones, an investigator from the RSPB, is taking cover in the bracken with a high-powered telescope. So we'll be hidden away covertly, watching the individual that we've been told is killing birds of prey, watching their movement, seeing where they're going, understanding their patterns of behaviour. Yeah. He's trying to gather evidence of crimes that are very hard to prove. Deadly attacks on birds of prey. Most cases start with a tip-off. We will get a report through from a member of the public, maybe a bird of prey found in suspicious circumstances or a bird of prey found in a trap.

24:28It can prompt investigators to install hidden cameras and microphones, as they did at a location in Yorkshire in 2024. The camera showed a buzzard, a protected bird of prey, caught in a legal trap. The gamekeeper arrives in an all-terrain vehicle, dressed in camo gear and carrying a stick. Instead of releasing the buzzard, as he should do, he beats it. Oh, yeah, that's horrific. Mark Thomas heads up the RSPB's special investigation. unit. It's horrific. So this is a trap bird and he's just beating it. And it's a fully protected bird. It's on the ground and even though he's hit it several times it's still alive.

25:12You can see the wings moving. Earlier this year the gamekeeper admitted killing a protected bird and was fined. This is about money. It's about rearing the maximum number of game birds to be shot for money and removing any predators that impact on that be it whether they're protected or not. Shooting bodies say they have zero tolerance for illegal killing and that those responsible are a tiny minority. Marnie Lovejoy is with the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. What we should do is strengthen law enforcement to persecute these pockets of individuals who commit these crimes. These crimes have no place in the modern shooting community.

25:59Another RSPB investigation gathered footage from North Yorkshire which shows hen harriers, one of the UK's rarest birds of prey, being targeted. Where is it? Gamekeeper Raxter Dingwall and two other men arrive at a roost shortly before dusk. You had any joy up there this afternoon? They talk in code by radio, discussing how to kill protected birds. We've disguised the other men's voices. Can you see it? Can anyone see it? A bit later, Dingwall walks towards the hen harrier roost. A few minutes on...