Cheat Sheet | Huntingdon train stabbing, Air India survivor and Women's cricket victory

0:00How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow. Right, it's exciting. Time to launch a podcast. I know, let's do it. Hello, I am Sophie Ridge. And I'm Wilfred Frost. Welcome to the very first episode of Cheat Sheet, the podcast that gets you up to speed with what you need to know.

0:45So we've done all the scrolling, we've done all the reading so you don't have to, so we can bring you the news that you need to know in 10 minutes. So it is Monday, the 3rd of November. What have we got coming up? Top story still that police are trying to find out what the motive was for Saturday's mass stabbing on that train from Doncaster to London. We'll discuss exactly what we know and what we still don't know. I've been speaking to the sole survivor of the Air India plane crash. So he was the only person to survive that awful accident that killed 241 people on board, including his own brother.

1:20So it's a miracle, but a tragedy wrapped into one. It absolutely is, and it's a great interview. And we're also going to be talking about India's victory at the Women's World Cup. Right, so let's start with the train attack. So a 32-year-old man is being held on suspicion for that mass stabbing. It took place, of course, late on Saturday, Doncaster to London. Eleven people were treated, nine initially in life-threatening injury conditions. One of those was the train's guard, who's now being described as a hero for trying to protect passengers, putting himself in harm's way. He is the only man still in a critical condition.

2:03So of those other 11 that were treated, only one is down, is still in a critical condition. It sounds terrifying for those on board. Let's listen to one of them, Amira Ostalski. Honestly, I'm scared to sit on the train again. And I feel like I will always be very scared to sit on a train because it could happen at any time. And when it happens to you personally, you don't want to live through that again. And you want to make sure that no one else does. I mean, it's just appalling, isn't it? As you say, the train worker still in a life-threatening condition. The other person who many people are pointing to is the driver as well, who his quick thinking meant that he didn't just stop the train in the middle of nowhere.

2:41He made a request to make an unplanned stop in Huntingdon And so they were able to kind of quickly as possible, you know, get to some help. So what else do we know? The attack isn't being treated as a terror attack, is it? It's worth reminding for everyone that what leads to something being classed as a terror attack. And that's if the motives of the individual are clearly aligned to a religious or extremist organisation, then you can call it terrorism. And they're still trying to find out what the motive is. And therefore, you don't jump to that particular conclusion. conclusion. They've said that he's a 32-year-old British-born black man.

3:17And there was initially somebody else arrested as well who's been released. But as you say, I think the two standout bits this morning are the horror of what it would have been like to be on board as we heard from that witness and the heroism, particularly of that security worker and the quick thinking of the driver.

3:36So you might remember the Air India crash back in June. It was a flight from India heading to London Gatwick as it happened. And 241 souls on board died. That was all souls on board, bar one. One survivor. And Sophie, you've done this extraordinary interview with him. It is that extraordinary image of the one survivor stumbling away, able to walk away from the wreckage. So I sat down with Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. He was sat in seat 11A. Lots of people now booking that seat on planes. It was a miracle, his survival. But I think if you asked him, he wouldn't see it that way. He would see it as a tragedy.

4:20Because this is a man who is utterly broken by what happened. He told me that all he does is sit in his room on his own, not watching TV, not listening to the radio, on his own, in silence, thinking about his brother. Because his younger brother was on the flight too, and he lost his life. And frankly, that's destroyed Vishwashi Kumar's life as well. What happened? When did you first realise something was wrong? It's quite difficult to explain to myself. Do you remember it? It's very hard. How's it been for your family? Oh, it broke down and it's... I'm so sorry. that you didn't ask for this, you were the victim.

5:11Do you leave the house? Do you go out? Do you do things?

5:19I just sit on my bed all day. I just think about my brother. Your brother who died? He's my younger brother. I mean the emotion of it Sophie is what jumps out most of all, clearly you felt the emotion he was showing as well but there's also a point to this which is that he thinks that Air India are being far too slow and ungenerous in how they're helping him as the sole survivor and the families of those who lost their lives His life is broken, his life is utterly broken, he has a four year old he can't talk to, he has a wife who is effectively as carer now and they feel understandably um that air india needs to do more to help this family um with mental health needs with the physical the health needs as well now i should say uh that air india have actually come back to us so in a statement they've said we're deeply conscious of our responsibility to provide mr ramesh with support through what must have been an unimaginable period care for him and indeed all families affected by the tragedy remains are absolute priority.

6:32Then they say senior leaders from across Tartar Group continue to visit families to express their deepest condolences. An offer has been made to Mr Ramesh's representatives to arrange such a meeting. We'll continue to reach out and hope to receive a positive response. The whole interview is, I should say, on YouTube as well, if you did want to watch. So Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been in the news unrelentingly over the last couple of days for obvious reasons after he was stripped of his prince title and kicked out of his house by the king. President Trump has now weighed in. I feel very badly.

7:07I mean, it's a terrible thing that's happened to the family. That's been a tragic situation. And it's too bad. I mean, I feel badly for the family. I think President Trump there is expressing his sympathy for the king as opposed to necessarily individual members of the family. Of course, he's facing pressure himself to release more of the files. What jumps out to me overall is that Prince William's heading to Brazil for the UN climate conference known, you know, obviously as COP and for his own Earthshot prize. And this is going to be a distraction. He'll want to do press whilst he's there. He'll want to talk to people about his Earthshot prize.

7:45He's going to be asked about this almost solely. Yeah, it's so difficult, isn't it, for the family just to shake any of this off. And I guess that was the whole point of why they did it in the first place.

7:58talking of climate change Wilf you've met the new US ambassador to the UK Warren Stevens so I know this guy's a billionaire he's good mates with Donald Trump he loves British food apparently which I quite like because we don't get that much praise from that many people so I'll take it but he's also got some interesting views on oil and gas right he also I should mention loves football our football but he's a Spurs fan oh that's good I like him then I almost cancelled the interview but no so we were catching up in Aberdeen, obviously the oil and gas capital of the UK. And by the way, timed as Ed Miliband and Keir Starmer head off to that same climate change conference.

8:33So I think when you then hear some of the messages in his interview, it's clearly meant to be a warning. It's clearly meant to be we, me and President Trump, think the UK should change your energy policy. It's going to take all energy for all countries to compete in the 21st century for AI and data centres and so um i don't think ed milliband is necessarily wrong but i think i think it's an incorrect policy to ignore your fossil fuel reserves both in the north sea and and on shore so he's basically saying ed milliband isn't wrong but he is also wrong um i mean this guy's supposed to be a diplomat that wasn't that diplomatic i love you i think that's diplomacy trumpian style that was quite clear.

9:20Do you know what makes it even more pronounced? If you watch the full interview, which is again on the Ridge and Frost YouTube channel, he kind of said that the prime minister was listening to him. He said, I've had multiple meetings with President Trump and the prime minister on this. We're lobbying him hard on it. And he said specifically, people in the government are listening, prime minister, absolutely. So, you know, if we do see a change in policy, which we might not, it sort of reveals perhaps a little bit of a divide between Starmer and Ed Miliband on that topic. But at the moment, obviously, we haven't seen that change.

9:53Now, for the first time ever, India are Women's Cricket World Cup champions. So they beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final. ICC Women's Cricket World Cup trophy. It was a massive win for the side. And of course, fans were thrilled. It was also a big turnaround because the team lost three consecutive games during the group stages. I always find this quite interesting. I think often you see teams having a loss earlier on, almost kind of shaking them into action and then going on to win. Like we've seen it in World Cups, in football as well before. So they come so close and it was a really epic final.

10:33But I'm also interested in this because as someone who watches quite a lot of cricket myself, the Indian influence in the game is so much and the money as well. And you can just see if women's cricket takes off in India, that could have a huge impact on the game worldwide as well. One of those rare times where you're kind of supporting India because of what it can do to the game overall. Obviously, I wouldn't have done if England were in the final, but it could be a great catalyst for further development in the game. 35 ,000 were there in the stadium. It was in India, by the way, and it's set to be, we haven't got the numbers yet, quite comfortably the highest broadcast ratings for a women's cricket match of all time.

11:12Congrats to India. well that is your cheat sheet for today thank you so much for joining us particularly for this first episode we do want to hear from you as well give us feedback let us know what type of stories you want to hear about email us it's a cheatsheet at sky.uk and also of course follow us on apple spotify wherever you get your podcasts as well we've done it first one first one in the back we have to go and get ready for the show now yeah we better go that's it see you later

11:41How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.