China showcases military might in Beijing

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you're listening to the global news podcast from the bbc world service

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway.

We're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Wednesday, the 3rd of September.

President Xi Jinping says China will never be intimidated.

At a display of military might in Beijing, he was joined by the leaders of Russia and North Korea.

President Trump accused them of conspiring against the US.

More than 1,400 people are now known to have died in the earthquake in Afghanistan.

We hear from the disaster zone.

And the US says it's killed 11 narco-terrorists on a boat in the Caribbean.

Also in the podcast, the relatives of disappeared activists in Tanzania seeking answers from the government.

If we knew where he is or where he's being held, or even if we knew he had died and been buried somewhere, at least we'd have a grave to visit and mourn properly.

And could there be a song and dance about the Irish presidency with both Bob Geldoff and Michael Flatley pondering their chances?

The Chinese capital Beijing has today witnessed a huge display of military might and diplomatic unity, with the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea appearing together for the first time.

Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un joined forces to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender to China.

On display at the parade were giant underwater drones, nuclear missiles and a laser air defense system.

Donald Trump said the three leaders were conspiring against the United States.

A Kremlin aide said he hoped the US President was being ironic.

Watching their commemorations in Beijing was our China correspondent Stephen McDonnell.

A huge military parade in Beijing has marked the end of the Second World War in Asia, but also allowed China to show off its military might.

The People's Liberation Army revealed its latest submarine drones, as well as nuclear-capable missiles and laser weapons.

The event has been criticized by those worried that such weapons could be used by this country as it flexes its muscles on the world stage.

However, China's leader Xi Jinping delivered a message advocating what he saw as peace through strength.

Without being specific, he also warned against allowing more conflicts to brew in the world.

The Chinese are a people that are not afraid of violence and are self-reliant and strong.

Today, humanity once again faces a choice between peace and war, dialogue and confrontation, mutual benefit and zero-sum outcomes.

The Chinese people firmly stand on the right side of history.

The words of the Chinese president ending that report by Stephen MacDonnell, Taiwan, the self-governing island that China has threatened to take by force, criticised the parade, arguing the war was actually won by the nationalists who eventually fled to Taiwan rather than the Communist Party, which it claimed didn't contribute to the war effort.

But what should we make of the huge military display in Beijing?

I asked our security correspondent, Frank Gardner.

There are two aspects to this.

One is the

visuals, the optics.

You know, it's sending a very clear message, having three leaders of nuclear-powered countries, Russia, China, North Korea, autocratic countries opposed to the West, seen there together.

And then you've you've got this powerful display of weaponry.

And China has embarked over the last recent few years on an extraordinary build-up of its weapons in all domains, in cyber, on land, and sea, in the air.

And they've been very innovative in some of their designs.

I mean, they lead the world in something called hypersonic weapons.

These are weapons that, missiles, that travel at more than five times the speed of sound.

So they can be, you know, in theory, if you take it to extremes, some of these could fly at two miles a second.

And these are things that I think are going to be worrying the U.S.

Navy that is still trying to retain supremacy in the Pacific Ocean.

Well, how worried should the West overall be?

Are the leaders of Russia, North Korea, and China conspiring, as President Trump said?

I think that's just words, but

there's no doubt that there is cooperation when it comes to the Ukraine war.

North Korea has done it openly, sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia push the Ukrainians out of Kursk, that small salient they were able to get into last summer, and which they did successfully push them out of there at huge cost.

UK defence reckons they lost at least 4,000 killed.

And China has been certainly supplying dual-use equipment that Russia has been able to use, so components for drones and things like that.

It always denies helping Russia's war effort, but the West certainly thinks that it has been.

For China, China, it's really all about trade.

But as you heard there in those words, peace comes through strength, and they think that their best way to achieve global dominance, and of course, they would very much like to be the number one economy in the world, is not only to acquire huge amounts of data, but also to build up its forces.

And it wasn't that long ago that they sailed a naval flotilla round the southern edge of Australia and carried out live fire exercises very far away from China, but certainly rattling the Australians, sending a warning.

Our security correspondent Frank Gardner.

Well, among those attending the celebrations in Beijing was Kim Jong-un's daughter, Kim Joo-A, who travelled with her father.

Another possible sign that she's being groomed to eventually succeed him as leader of North Korea.

Seung-joon-li works at the Sejong Institute, a foreign policy think tank in South Korea.

He told us more about Kim Joo-A.

Kim Jong-un has been projecting this very caring, loving father image by parading around his young daughter since November 2022.

I think she's been seen in public in more than 30 high-profile events.

And I think that is in his interest to keep this up.

Why?

Because in projecting this image, he has nothing to lose and much to gain.

His image as a dictator is somewhat softened up.

In showing that he loves his family, he's projecting to his adversaries, primarily the United States, that, hey, we have power that I will one day turn over to my daughter or a son, one of my children.

We're a dynasty, whereas you in a democracy, you come and go.

Leaders come and go via elections every four or five years.

So you'll be soon forgotten.

But my power is here to stay, and we have all the time in the world, whereas you must chalk up a policy win, a legacy within a time limit.

And perhaps, you know, that kind of psychological operation or pressure might push the United States to resign itself to accepting North Korea as a de jure de facto nuclear weapons possessing state.

Hey, he's a dictator, he's cruel, but look, he obviously loves his daughter, his family.

He's not crazy enough to start a nuclear war, is he?

I think that is also what Kim Jong-un has in mind in frequently showing off his daughter.

North Korea is unique in that it is a communist system, but one that operates in a contradictory way as a dynasty.

Hereditary power has been handed down twice now.

So, Kim Jong-un is the third generational dictator, and his messaging to the world is that one day he will also turn his power down to his daughter.

So, you know, that's a fact.

It's an oxymoron, a communist dynasty, but it is what it is.

And that kind of regime enjoys great advantage, strategic advantage vis-à-vis democracies, because North Korea shows little regard for human lives, even the lives of its own people.

You know, 10,000 casualties, 100,000 battle dead, no big deal for North Korea.

Whereas for the United States or any other democracy, oh, it's a very grave deal.

Three days after southeastern Afghanistan was hit by a magnitude 6 earthquake, the Taliban have said that at least 1,400 people have died and more than 3,000 been injured.

Yamar Baris from the BBC Afghan service has been to the epicenter in Kunar province and gave us this update.

When we went to much affected areas, one was Mazardara, which is in Urgal Valley, we saw a huge devastation there, although to the four-flying areas

where the most of the damage has happened, Still, the roads are closed, but to some part which we got access, we saw complete devastation there.

We went to a village, there were around 30 houses in that village, and they were all destroyed.

We saw the residents, they were in open air, they had to spend the night in the open air, and they had even been, there was a rain, and they told me that they had to stay there.

They didn't have anywhere to go, they didn't have any shelter or any roof on their head.

Then we went to another part of Kunar.

We are at Devago, and that was also one of the places which has been affected very badly.

We were there when we felt the aftershock shocks ourselves.

I was there, I was speaking to a family which had lost seven members, and I was speaking to the head of the family there when that shock, a strong shock happened.

It was really scary at that time.

And we saw rocks falling down from the mountains because a very mountainous area.

But luckily, nobody was hurt in that part.

Although, we received some reports that some people were hurt in other parts of the Conar province.

Today, I went to a hospital, and one another aspect of this disaster is the psychological impact of earthquake on people.

We spoke to many people, and we spoke to the doctor.

The doctor said that now the patients, which they come to them, they cannot sleep at night.

Memories of their loved ones, which they have lost, is very painful.

And they told us that this psychological problem can get very much serious in the coming days, months, and even years.

Yes, this is a very remote area.

Afghanistan, of course, is a poor country.

I've read about aid workers having to walk 20 kilometers to get to the scene.

How is the rescue effort going?

And does Afghanistan need more help?

Well, the rescue efforts are still going on.

As I said, that close to the epicenter, there are villages that have not been touched yet.

The rescue teams have not been able to get there.

Only what the authorities have done, they have sent in commandos and also helicopters to rescue those that they were injured or get some aid to them.

But the rescue teams are not there in order to bring those dead from their rubbles.

They are still under the rubble.

So the destruction is still there.

And the Taliban, they have asked for more aid.

They have told an international community that they need help, and some promises have been made.

For example, Britain, they have promised £1 million.

Likewise, many other countries, including Swiss, Germany, and also regional countries.

Yama Maris of the BBC Afghan service.

A cyber incident has caused major production problems at the car maker Jaguar Land Rover.

Both of its two main factories in Britain are affected.

The company, which is owned by the Indian firm Tata Motors, said it took immediate action and is working quickly to restart operations.

Maura Fogarty has the details.

Jaguar Land Rover is saying that they're classifying it as severely disrupted.

They actually never called it a cyber attack.

They called it an IT incident causing global issues.

I think the exact language they use.

But the result is this.

It caused two factories in England to be shut down.

We understand that they discovered the attack while it was ongoing, and then they shut down their IT systems in order to kind of minimize any damage.

So, the security protocols they had in place, I guess you could say, were working to the point where they could detect it and then shut it down.

Maura Fogarty.

The incident occurred at a key time for sales in Britain.

New batches of cars are released in March and September with updated number plates.

And this attack hit Jaguar Land Rover on the first day of the change.

The former CEO of car manufacturer Aston Martin, Andy Palmer, says the timing is hugely damaging.

We have two plate changes a year in the UK.

September one is particularly relevant.

This is the time of the year where you sell the greater majority of your car sales.

You've got your whole systems for production, making sure that you've got cars in stock, cars ready to go to the retail and your retail operations and to have to stop them all right in this prime time is really really bad news for the company.

We have software that very much links the ordering of parts to the manufacturing of vehicles.

And if you think about the complexity of manufacturing a car, you've got about 100,000 parts which are assembled about one car per minute.

You break one part of that chain and everything stops.

Andy Palmer, former boss of Aston Martin.

And still to come on the Global News podcast.

Going down with a submersible and being able to move around the ship and look at points on there, understand the actual condition of the wreckage and the amazing ecosystem that it's become was really key to it.

The wreck of Captain Scott's polar ship Terra Nova as never seen before.

Sucks!

The new musical has made Tony award-winning history on Broadway.

We the man to be home!

Winner, best score!

We the man to be seen!

Winner best book!

We the man to be quality!

It's a theatrical masterpiece that's thrilling, inspiring, dazzlingly entertaining, and unquestionably the most emotionally stirring musical this season.

Suffs playing the Orpheum Theater October 22nd through November 9th.

Tickets at BroadwaySF.com.

You ever feel that deep pull to the land, to know it, to build something that lasts?

That itch for your own wild country?

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Tanzania is due to hold its presidential election at the end of October.

The ruling party has been in power in the East African nation since independence in 1961.

The government has been accused by rights groups of silencing dissent and opposition leaders.

That's a charge the state denies.

Activists have found themselves at odds with the authorities, some have disappeared, and relatives are seeking answers, as Alfred Lastek reports from southern Tanzania.

At a home in southern Bayer, 57-year-old Yusuf Chaula sits outside his house.

He has been calling relatives for any information on his son.

He hasn't seen him in over a year.

We have made every effort to find him.

We are exhausted.

The police are just telling us that they are continuing with the investigation.

Chaula's son, 25-year-old Shodrak, was arrested, convicted, and fined for burning a picture of the president on a viral TikTok video in July 2024.

He was released by the police, but a month later, he was abducted outside his shop.

Shedrak Chaula is not alone.

Artists, opposition politicians, human rights activists have been abducted in recent years.

Some are never heard from again.

Others are found and they have horrific tales.

I begged them to help me because I couldn't walk.

Instead, they started beating me again, this time with a flat side of a machete.

28-year-old Edgar Mocabella was abducted in Dar es Slam by men he believes were police.

He claims he was targeted after participating in a business owner's strike against government tax policies.

They bet me and started dragging me.

I was pulled all the way into the forest close to a river.

After a while, then I heard what sounded like instructions coming from that vehicle down the hill.

Shoot him.

That's when I was shot in the head.

The ordeal has left him fearful and uncertain of his future.

Madhu William is an activist with the Tanzania Legal and Human Rights Center.

These people have families, they have dependents, and sometimes family members have been urging them to stop engaging themselves on this particular aspect.

Security agencies always promise to

conduct a thorough investigation, but at the end of the day, we don't get feedback on what is happening.

Tanzania's opposition party, Chadema, has also faced challenges.

Party leader Tundulisu, who survived an assassination attempt in 2017 and lived in exile for eight years in Belgium, is now facing treason charges.

Human rights organizations have accused the government of being behind the forced disappearances, something which the government denies.

The government did not respond to the BBC's request for an interview.

When asked for a comment on the allegations against them, the police did not respond to the BBC.

But in a video statement, police spokesperson David Misime said the force acts on information about those missing and investigates the circumstances of those allegations.

In June, while addressing the parliament, President Samir Sulu Hassan directed the police to step up efforts to end incidents of people going missing.

For Yusuf Cha'ula, these words are of little comfort.

This is disturbing us.

If we knew where he is or where he is being held, or even if we knew he had died and been buried somewhere, at least would have a grave to visit and mourn properly.

The heartbreak of not knowing whether his son is alive or dead is all-consuming for Yusuf and for others like him looking for loved ones who have disappeared in unknown circumstances.

Alfred Lastek reporting from Tanzania.

One of the world's most famous shipwrecks has been filmed in detail for the first time.

The Terra Nova carried Captain Scott and his men on their doomed Antarctic expedition more than a century ago.

The British team lost the race to reach the South Pole first and died on their return journey in 1912.

The ship, though, remained in service before sinking off Greenland during the Second World War.

The wreckage was first discovered in 2012.

Leighton Raleigh was part of the team.

Discovering the ship was really done on a budget when you look at some of the big projects.

We had a ship and we needed to test its sonars.

We were transiting across the Atlantic via Greenland and we wanted to do the survey test in the area where we knew it sank.

And we actually found the wreck in 16 minutes.

We didn't have any high-tech equipment at that time so we put a camera rig down and we filmed the wreckage and there were points that gave away that it was the Terra Nova but it's only now recently that we've been able to get a submersible and people down there to verify that.

Why go back?

What didn't you see or didn't you find the first time you were starting to interact with this wreckage?

When we first went there, you know, we could see key points, but we had no control.

It was a towed camera.

So this time going down with a submersible and being able to move around the ship and look at points on there understand the actual condition of the wreckage and the amazing ecosystem that it's become was really key to it and we were able to see points that we could match to the historic pictures from that expedition as well what sort of points because you're talking about how they steered or what just to paint a picture yeah we could see the ship's wheel and you know that ship's wheel which is used to you know turn the ship port to starboard that's been touched by some of the most famous explorers of our age and we could see that sat at the stern of the vessel.

And we could also see the cargo hatches where a lot of the expedition stores would have been put.

And there's a famous picture of one of the polar party who at Parish stood on one of those hatches with the winches behind them.

We were looking at right at that spot where that picture was taken.

And it was somewhat eerie.

Is it all as intact as it was when you first went there?

Are you able to make that comparison?

Have things been taken?

Should something actually be brought up to the surface and preserved better?

It's in generally poor condition from the nature of its sinking.

It wasn't given a coupe de grace by the American Coast Guard to help it sink at the time.

So it's quite mangled.

Nothing's been taken from it.

It's in a really remote location.

And anything that could be salvaged from that, that has to go through the people of Greenland.

The wreck is in their waters.

It's their property.

Ideally, in the future, maybe something small like a steam whistle could be taken to, say, Dundee, where it was built, and be able to, so the people are there can hear the sound of what the Terranova was like from the museum there.

But that decision rests firmly with the Greenlandic government.

Nathan Raleigh, talking to Emma Barnett.

President Trump says US forces have killed 11 people he described as narco-terrorists on a boat allegedly transporting illegal drugs in the southern Caribbean.

He said they were from a cartel under the control of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who he accused of being responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence against the US and Western Hemisphere.

The Trump administration has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the Venezuelan president's arrest on drug trafficking charges.

He has said that Venezuela will fight any attempted U.S.

military intervention.

Our Central America and Caribbean correspondent will grant reports.

The strike on the alleged drug vessel comes amid much heightened tension between Washington and Caracas following the deployment of several U.S.

warships to the southern Caribbean.

President Trump said the U.S.

military had intercepted what he called a a drug-carrying boat, which his administration claims was being operated by the Venezuelan gang Trenda Aragua.

We took it out, he added.

The Pentagon later confirmed 11 people were killed in the strike.

Further details were also provided by the U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on social media, who wrote that the vessel had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.

President Trump said the boat was in international waters, yet the strike could further escalate tensions with the government of President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration accuses of involvement in the illegal drug smuggling trade and has offered a reward of $50 million for his arrest.

The U.S.

accuses him of heading a drug smuggling group called the Cartel de los Soles, meaning Cartel of the Sons, something that President Maduro robustly denies, saying it is a fabrication and a pretext by Washington for regime change in oil-rich Venezuela.

Venezuela is is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years, Mr.

Maduro recently said of the US deployment of warships.

The socialist government has put thousands of civilian militia members on high alert.

We'll grant reporting.

Could Bob Geldoff become the next president of Ireland?

The lead singer of the Boomtown Rats and organiser of Live Aid is reported to be considering throwing his hat into the ring, alongside the likes of dancer Michael Flatley, MMA fighter Conor MacGregor, and numerous politicians.

I heard more from our Ireland correspondent, Chris Page.

Bob Geldof, as you say, is the latest high-profile person to be linked to a potential candidacy for the Irish Presidency.

The election is going to be held on the twenty-fourth of October.

He has said it would be an enormous privilege to succeed the current President, Michael D.

Higgins, who has been in office for fourteen years, but he's got to the end of his second term, so that means there will be a new Irish President elected come later this autumn.

So the fact, I think, that the job hasn't been available, as it were, for so long has led to a huge amount of interest, a huge amount of speculation even.

The question for Bob Geldoff, who certainly has a very high international profile, never mind in Ireland itself, is whether he can actually get on the ballot paper.

That process isn't quite straightforward.

Does it matter if a celebrity wins this election rather than, say, a professional politician?

That's one of the questions really being debated.

A candidate who is very close to being selected is a man called Jim Gavin.

He is one of the most successful managers in the history of Gaelic football, the most popular sport in Ireland.

So he's been selected by the party that's currently the leader of the Irish government, Fina Fall.

He is on a par in Ireland, maybe, with sporting coaches on the likes of Luis Philippe Scolari or Carlo Ancelotti or Alex Ferguson in the soccer world.

So So certainly even the political parties might be looking to celebrity candidates, as it were, to boost their chances.

For the likes of Bob Geldoff, Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts fighter, Michael Flatley, the Irish dancer, has also expressed an interest.

Well, they would likely try to get on the ballot paper by securing the backing of four local councils.

Councils will be holding meetings in the coming weeks to hear from potential candidates, decide whether to endorse them.

There are thirty-one councils in Ireland in total, so that's the route that the likes of Bob Geldoff would be likely to go down, but but there will be plenty of competition with other political parties also putting candidates forward through getting the endorsement of more than twenty Members of Parliament.

Oliver, I certainly think Jim Gavin he hasn't been formally selected yet, but looks like he will be would be among the bookies' favourites.

Also two veteran politicians in the race, Heather Humphreys from Finneguel, another centre-right party currently in the coalition government, former minister in the Irish Government, and Catherine Connolly, a veteran left-wing backbencher.

She's being backed by a range of left-wing parties.

One of the questions also, Sinn Féin, currently the main opposition party in the Republic of Ireland, the biggest party in Northern Ireland, they're yet to decide if they stand.

So a lot still up in the air, but it's an interesting mixture of veteran politicians and potential celebrities.

Our Ireland correspondent, Chris Page.

And that is all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast very soon.

This one was mixed by Rebecca Miller and produced by Oliver Burlau.

Our editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Oliver Conway.

Until next time, goodbye.

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