UAE quits oil cartel Opec after six decades

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1:08This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Anka Desai and in the afternoon of Tuesday the 28th of April, these are our main stories. The United Arab Emirates says it's quitting OPEC and OPEC +, dealing a heavy blow to the Saudi-led oil cartels. Ukrainian drone strikes have caused a huge fire at a Russian oil refinery in the Black seaport of Tuapse. And details of a crash in Indonesia where at least 15 people were killed when a long-distance train smashed into a stationary commuter train east of the capital, Jakarta. Also in this podcast, an Austrian man has pleaded guilty to planning a terror attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna nearly two years ago.

1:53A member of India's wealthiest family, the Mbanese is offering to save the lives of 80 hippos threatened with being culled. The animals are currently in Colombia, having been introduced to the country by the late drugs baron Pablo Escobar. And the family of Kenya's new marathon world record holder prepared to welcome him home. When I saw Sebastian pull ahead, I was so excited. I started celebrating and did not even watch the end of the race.

2:23The United Arab Emirates says it's leaving the group of oil producing countries OPEC and OPEC plus after six decades. In a statement, the UAE described the decision as being part of its long-term strategic and economic vision. The decision is being seen as a heavy blow to the groups and their de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, as the war on Iran continues to cause major disruptions to energy supplies. Our business reporter Jonathan Joseph explains what it means for global oil supplies. It's going to lessen the grip of OPEC on the global oil market. OPEC is a group of 12, soon to be 11, oil-producing countries that control around a third, perhaps a little bit more, of the global oil market.

3:07They decide how much oil they're going to put onto the market and therefore that has a major influence in terms of supplies. But of course, America and Russia are also up there. America is the world's biggest oil producer still, so it also has a lot of clout. But OPEC without the UAE will have less influence. UAE is a significant exit for OPEC because it's one of the few countries in OPEC that has a significant amount of spare capacity, which means that it can respond to global events, that it can change how much oil it's pumping out. It has obviously plans to do more. We've had a statement from the Energy Ministry which is talking about this exit is going to happen on the 1st of May and it will help meet the changing demand in the global economy.

3:55Obviously, prices have been elevated because of the Iran war, trading at more than$110 a barrel for most of the last week, which is significantly above where they were before this conflict began. This statement also saying that the country, the UAE, is going to gradually ramp up its production. John Sfakianakis is the chief economist at the Gulf Research Centre. He gave his reaction to the development to Lucy Hawkins. This is huge and clearly highlights the tension that has existed for quite some time between the UAE and OPEC and specifically Saudi Arabia. This is a moment of tension for also the relations between the two countries.

4:38A lot of people expected, at least those in the energy markets, that the UAE would decide at some point. There was a lot of rumor over the last year, two years, that the UAE is going to exit. They finally did it. I think the justification is the war. and now it's the time for them to go at it alone, which means that OPEC, of course, is going to be effectively Saudi Arabia and some of the other countries. Very important move, however. A big move, but in terms of the UAE, what are its plans now? What's it going to do? Presumably increase production, John? Absolutely, Lucy. They already invested a huge amount of money, upwards of$150 billion, to take production now to 5 million barrels by 2027.

5:29But they have a plan to extract more oil off the ground to take capacity to 6 million barrels, which means that Saudi Arabia, which has a capacity of 11.5 million, it's going to be a contender. And they will pump more oil, which means that more supply. And that is going to be an issue. But the UAE wants to clearly extract oil, benefit from that and to get out of the difficulties of being an OPEC member to contest and has been contesting for a long time with Saudi Arabia as to the price, the quota. The quota, which allows the UAE to produce three to three million barrels capacity, as I said, four and a half right now, close to five, is always an issue, was always an issue.

6:18And they wanted to pump more, produce more money. And now they said we're going at it alone. That's it. Thank you. So this means lower prices? This potentially could lead to lower prices. Once we get out of this unbelievable crisis, which is creating huge demand destruction, over the years, the UAE will push for more production. Absolutely. But for now, we're going to stay at these elevated and even more so high oil prices as the issue of Iran and the Iran crisis continues. John Sakyanakis, the chief economist at the Gulf Research Center, speaking to Lucy Hawkins. Staying with all, and in Russia, the Kremlin has accused Ukraine of destabilizing global energy markets after renewed drone strikes caused a huge fire at a Russian oil refinery.

7:07Ukraine has targeted the facility in the Black Seaport of Tuapse several times this month. The attacks have badly damaged the environment, with thick black smoke billowing from the site. Ukraine says it strikes energy facilities because they fund Russia's continuing invasion. Russian state media say President Putin has ordered the emergencies minister to visit Tuapse to oversee firefighting efforts. I had more from the news editor from the BBC Russian service, Famil Ismailov. This is the third time the port of Tuapse itself and this major refinery had been hit by the Ukrainian drones. And the refinery itself is quite a big facility.

7:47It has a high volume production About 240 ,000 barrels of oil go through it every day. It is owned by Rosneft, Russia's major oil company, and it had completely stopped production because the storage facilities had been hit, and you could see that from the satellite pictures that it completely burned out. The refining itself produces heavy oils, and they go to China, Malaysia, Turkey. But there's also the port. The port itself is a federal-level cargo port facility at number three in terms of cargo exports, imports on the Black Sea for Russia. So it's quite a big deal. Yeah, and it's also having a big impact, I imagine, on the local people and the environment as well because of the repeated drone attacks.

8:30Absolutely. That's the worst because the locals are just trying to survive. And this is not just the industrial town. It's also a seaside resort town. And lots of people, you know, they were waiting to go to the beaches. The season is just starting. It's coming to May holidays. And all that is now ruined. And more than that, last week we saw in the local chats that there's been so-called black rain in the city. So everything, houses, pets, even when they went out, animals, trees, cars had been covered in soot and in some places even little drops of oil. And that takes time to clean and that's really not healthy because as the local authorities reported, the concentration of harmful particles in the air exceeds the acceptable levels two, three times.

9:20Famila, how much of a financial impact is this going to have on Russia's war effort? It's going to be sizable. In terms of losses, we're talking about 800 billion rubles. At the moment, this is just about a bit more than$10 billion, just on Tuapse. Cumulative losses from Ukrainian strikes are much bigger because Ukrainians managed to get to the far-flung facilities. Some of those like Ustsluga on the Baltic Sea, thousands of miles from the front line, had been hit. And Ustsluga is a major oil export facility. But we're talking, and also it will take now time to restore the production, to restore the storage, to fill up the...

10:02But the major thing is morale, because the morale among Russian population is going to hit hard as well. Famille Ismailov. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. Now we go to Indonesia, where at least 15 people have been killed and dozens of passengers injured after a long distance train smashed into a stationary commuter train. Most of the dead are women. A women-only carriage bore the brunt of the impact.

10:40You can hear the sound. There are rescue teams that had to race to free some survivors following the deadly train crash near the capital, Jakarta. The tragedy happened after an electric taxi broke down on an intersection of train track. A train hit the taxi. That accident in itself didn't lead to any fatalities, but a commuted train waiting further down the line, unable to move past the crash site was struck from behind by a long-distance train travelling from the island of Java. A Jakarta correspondent Astudestra Ajingrastri spoke to me earlier. Basically, there were three different trains and one car involved in that accident, but all of the victims and the casualties were coming from the train that got hit by the long-distance train.

11:29And you've also been hearing from survivors? Yeah, so BBC Indonesia spoke with survivors. Many of them say that everything happened extremely fast, even within seconds. So when the crash occurred, they say it suddenly went dark and the air becomes suffocating, making it very difficult to breathe. one survivor who we spoke to say that they felt like they had already died. So mind you that the train is a very efficient transportation for Indonesians. It's cheap and it's fast. So every time on a rush hour, like after office, it is very full until about 10 p.m. It's always packed and full. And of course, the woman carriage, it's all female passengers in there.

12:21But also, most of them are bringing like their babies and then elderly. So lots of vulnerable people that is on that carriage. And Asadestra, when it comes to the public transport system in Indonesia, just tell us a bit about that, because it's got an aging infrastructure and poor maintenance. So Are accidents like this quite common? It's actually, yes, it's quite common, especially for the railway. So our railway system, a lot of it are still coming from when the Dutch colonized Indonesia, which is more than 80 to 100 years ago. So it's very old, but maintenance is also not quite good. So accidents like this rarely happen, but it happened.

13:10and when it happened it involved a lot of casualties. The president Prabowo Subianto today while visiting the survivors in hospitals he said that he acknowledged that these infrastructures need to be renewed and he pledged to find a solution to actually prevent things like this to happen again in the future. Ajakarta correspondent Astridestra Ajingrastri. Now to an animal rescue story on a big scale in more ways than one. A member of India's richest family, Anand Dambani, is offering to save 80 hippos in Colombia that are at risk of being culled. Our global affairs reporter, Paul Moss, told me more about how they came to be there.

13:54This was because of a man I think many in our audience will have heard of, Pablo Escobar, the famous Colombian drugs lord, regarded as, called the king of cocaine, possibly the richest criminal literally in history. A man, yeah, mainly involved in the cocaine trade, but with a sideline in murdering his opponents. And like many people with great wealth and power, he was accused of becoming something of a megalomaniac. And at one point he decided he fancied having some hippos on his estate. So, you know, as casually as you or me might get ourselves a cat or dog, he had four hippos flown in. Now, Pablo Escobar was eventually killed in a shootout, at which point the hippos escaped.

14:33And since then, they've been living wild and crucially breeding. There are now more than 200 of these enormous animals eating local vegetation, and they're accused of also attacking fishermen and at one point invading a school. So Colombia decided that they were going to cull 80 of these animals. This caused a huge outcry, and as you say, Anand Ambani has now offered to fly these 80 hippos to India and house them in his own private zoo. Right, so tell us a bit more about him and why he exactly wants to do this. Well, he's from one of the, as you said, the wealthiest family in India. They're valued at nearly$100 billion.

15:10And just as Pablo Escobar has huge wealth and also influence, the Ambani's too, though I obviously should stress their wealth was acquired legally. Yes, the son and heir who famously had a wedding last year, which cost more than$500 million, wants to put these animals in his private zoo. He's offered to fly them to India and do it all himself privately. So how has this idea gone down and the practicalities around it? Well, you know, Ambani Zoo is already controversial. It's a private place. The public aren't admitted. Last year, India's Supreme Court ordered an investigation into whether animals there were being mistreated.

15:44More seriously, though, there has been a criticism that animals are being kept in the zoo that aren't really suited to Gujarat's climate. Now, ironically, that was said exactly the same thing was said when Pablo Escobar brought the hippos to Colombia. And conservationists are worried anyway about this zoo. They're worried that animals are kept there that aren't suitable for the climate. And Anton Barney has issued a statement saying these animals didn't choose where they're born. They're living sentient beings. We have a responsibility to try to save them. So he thinks he's doing a good deed. Whether that will impress the conservationists who are worried, we're going to have to wait and see.

16:22Our global affairs reporter, Paul Moss. Still to come in this podcast. How to create a team that can work together for such a long period of time. How to counter any issues a team could have in isolation, in confinement. We explain how six volunteers are going to isolate themselves in a sealed pod for months and simulate a potential mission to Mars.

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19:11This is the Global News Podcast. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which spanned 149 shows across five continents, was the highest grossing of all time. But her opening concert in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in 2024, narrowly avoided ending in tragedy after a bomb plot was foiled. A 21-year-old man is on trial in Vienna, charged with terrorism and other offences. Our Vienna correspondent Bethany Bell has been in court. This 21-year-old man who's been named only as Beran A in line with Austrian privacy laws has admitted guilty to the charges concerning the Taylor Swift concerts. He also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization, but he pleaded not guilty to some of the other charges he's facing, including planning an attack in Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

20:03He appeared in court this morning, escorted by security officials wearing masks. He was handcuffed. The handcuffs were taken off him when he was brought into court. And we heard from the prosecution saying how a nearly completed bomb was found at his house after he was arrested because of a tip-off from the CIA just before the first Taylor Swift concert in August 2024. Do we know any further on what he was planning to do at all? The prosecution said that he had been trying to buy weapons illegally and bringing them into Austria. They say that he'd got instructions from the internet about how to construct a shrapnel bomb.

20:49And a shrapnel bomb, they say, is something that is very characteristic of Islamic State. They also say that he had sworn allegiance to Islamic State. This trial is expected to go on until the end of May. Just very, very briefly, Bethany, it had a big impact, didn't it, locally within Vienna and in Austria and across the city? Not just in Austria. People had come from across the world to go to those Taylor Swift concerts, all three of which had to be cancelled. I met fans at the time who'd flown in all the way from California, in Asia, and there was a real sense of great disappointment. Fans in tears handing out friendship bracelets and singing in Vienna.

21:36Bethany Bell reporting from Vienna. To the US now, as King Charles III and Queen Camilla are on day two of a four-day state visit. So far, it's all been very manicured, with cups of Earl Grey tea and a garden party on the lawn of the British Embassy. There's much anticipation of the King's visit to Congress later. It comes at a time of heightened diplomatic tension between both countries over NATO, Greenland, Ukraine and the Chagos Islands. And President Trump has openly criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer many times, most recently over his refusal to support him in the offensive against Iran.

22:13As we record this podcast, President Trump is giving the King and Queen a ceremonial welcome to the United States at the White House. For what we can expect later, here's our correspondent in Washington, Shama Khalil. We're expecting King Charles to be in the building that I'm looking at right now, the capital, where he's going to address a joint meeting of Congress. And this is really the centerpiece of his visit. This is where he gets to send a message from the UK to the United States. And it comes, as you were mentioning there, tens times between those two countries, that special relationship being tested, because time and time again, And we've heard President Trump lambast and criticized the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, for what he sees as the lack of support from the United Kingdom in the war with Iran.

23:00The Prime Minister has always said that he's acting in the country's interest. Now, we are expecting him to say that the countries have always found a way to come together, even though sometimes they don't see eye to eye. He is going to also express sympathy about what happened Saturday, because remember, this royal visit comes just a couple of days after that shocking night on Saturday, the third attempt on the life of President Trump when an alleged gunman tried to storm the ballroom during a media gala. So, yes, of course, security is tight because of this royal visit, but I think it's been notched up with a sense of tension because of what happened on Saturday.

23:39OK, Shaima, it's a careful balancing act, isn't it, for King Charles III? Yes. Because he can't get too political. and Donald Trump has always said that he loves the royal family, he loves the king. So is there a lot of pressure? Because I guess the UK government will be thinking, OK, he has some soft power. What can he deliver? I think what he can deliver is what you can read between the lines. Yes, he cannot get too political, too directly, if you will. And yes, he has a little bit of leverage because of that soft power. And I would also say because of that personal chemistry between the two men, Because unlike the turbulent relationship that Donald Trump has with Keir Starmer, you'll find that he has a lot of affinity for the monarch, that he's described him as a great man, a brave man.

24:27He said that absolutely this visit could repair the relationship between the two countries. So when they were sitting down yesterday, for example, there was a sit down that was meant to last for 20 minutes. It lasts for double that amount. So you could see that there is that chemistry between them. But of course, there are bigger issues, the relationship between the two countries. But also remember that Donald Trump has also lambasted NATO and he'll speak about that as well. Shama Khalil reporting. Next, if the Artemis 2 mission earlier this month made you all excited about space, gave you a glamorised view of maybe one day experiencing it for yourself, then it's time to provide some balance.

25:04Over to our reporter, Will Chalk, to bring us all back down to Earth. I think while the idea of going to space might seem attractive to a lot of us, the reality is if you're going to Mars, say, that's six months of travelling in extremely close quarters with your fellow astronauts. If by the time you get to Mars you all hate each other, well, that's not ideal to say the least. So that is why six brave volunteers have just started the European Space Agency's SOLIS 100 isolation study. So they're spending a hundred days locked in a small building together no sex no alcohol no daylight only tinned food they have to exercise for an hour a day but they can only shower twice a week the only contact they'll have with the outside world is a weekly video call and also shoving their arm through a hatch for a regular blood test but they're not allowed to make eye contact with the people doing it and just to be perfectly clear they will never actually be leaving us earth the space station in question is rooted to the ground in Germany.

26:05OK, so who on earth would actually want to do this? We don't know their names, but we know their age between 26 and 36 from six different European countries. They do get paid. It's around$27 ,000. And they are currently doing this experiment. They're currently spending their days doing exactly what they do in space and following a strict daily schedule. Now, this is actually a repeat of an experiment that was ran in 2010. and that one went on for 520 days, six male volunteers in a fake space station in a car park in Russia. This is a taster of the video diary of one of the participants, Diego Urbina.

26:44Simple things such as the blue sky, such as, I don't know, going dancing in the evening. I love that. And here I am not able to do it. my family. I miss them a lot and my friends. Now another man who took part 15 years ago is Romain Charles. He has been speaking today in honour of this new experiment starting. When we think about going further in space exploration, the human factor is still a big question. How to create a team that can work together for such a long period of time, trying to get finer and finer markers of how to counter any issues a team could have in isolation, in confinement.

27:29So quite good, I think, Anka, this experiment in putting life into perspective, because I think we all get annoyed with our colleagues, with our family, with our friends sometimes, but we can all be thankful that we're not locked in a small room of them for 100 days somewhere in Germany. Will Chalk reporting. Let's go to Kenya's Rift Valley province now and the village of the record-breaking marathon runner Sebastian Sawe. They've been celebrating there since the 31-year-old became the first person to run the distance in under two hours in London at the weekend. His parents say his achievement will change not only their lives, but those of the whole community.