Trump ally Charlie Kirk shot dead in Utah

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Julia McFarlane, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 11th of September, these are our main stories.

The well-known Conservative firebrand and close ally of President Trump, Charlie Kirk, has been shot dead at a university event in Utah.

Poland's prime minister says his country is at its closest to conflict since the Second World War, accusing Russia of sending drones to violate Polish airspace.

The Israeli military has launched more airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Their health ministry says more than 30 people have been killed.

Also in this podcast, could there once have been life on Mars?

NASA's latest find could be our biggest clue yet.

A chemical reaction that took place billions of years years ago in these rocks shortly after they were formed.

And so I think that's why we're excited, because it gives us something to chase.

We begin in the U.S.

state of Utah.

One of Donald Trump's leading supporters, the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, has been shot dead.

He was taking part in an outdoor debate at lunchtime on Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem when he was hit by a single bullet.

Video footage showed Mr.

Kirk slump in his seat on a stage in front of a large crowd.

This woman described what she saw.

President Trump described Charlie Kirk as legendary.

He said no one better understood American youth than Mr.

Kirk.

The president has ordered flags to be flown at half-mast until Sunday.

Charlie Kirk, who was 31, was a popular but divisive figure in the United States and best known as the founder of Turning Point USA, a non-profit organization that advocates for conservative politics at schools and college campuses across the U.S.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox denounced the shooting.

This is a dark day for our state.

It's a tragic day for our nation.

And I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.

Our North America correspondent Peter Bose has more details about the shooting which has shocked many people across the United States.

Charlie Kirk was just a few moments into one of his typical question and answer sessions at the Utah Valley University, about 3,000 students there in the audience, an open-air venue, and he was taking questions.

The question that he was addressing at the time was about mass shootings.

There was a single shot.

He was shot in the neck.

And we learned a short time later from President Trump, who posted on his social media account that Charlie Kirk had died.

And ever since then, we have been really hearing an outpouring of grief and, it is fair to say, a lot of anger on both sides of the political divide in this country that this could happen.

That a very prominent political figure, a young man who has made a name for himself in terms of galvanizing and organizing students, conservative students, and entering into debates which he shared in his podcast and in social media in a way that has really

used the modern digital world to get his message out.

He was a polarising figure.

He was controversial on a number of different policy areas, but he was, I think, widely regarded as an intelligent young man who took his politics seriously.

And in this case, and in many other occasions during his life, he was exercising his freedom of speech.

Peter Bose reporting.

Next to Poland, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said his country is closer to open conflict than at any time since the Second World War.

Poland says its airspace was violated repeatedly by Russian drones during Tuesday's overnight attack on Ukraine.

Some were shot down by Polish and other NATO pilots.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the incursion showed that Europe had to create a joint air defense system.

Russia's defense ministry said it didn't plan to target Poland and that its drones did not have sufficient range to get there, but it did not explicitly deny that Russian drones might have entered Polish airspace.

In a moment we'll be discussing all the ramifications, but first here's our correspondent in Kyiv, Sarah Rainsford.

Donald Tusk is in crisis mode.

Chairing an urgent meeting of security ministers today, Poland's Prime Minister confirmed that 19 Russian drones had entered his country's airspace.

Polish and other NATO planes were scrambled to intercept them, the first shots fired by NATO since Russia launched its war on Ukraine.

Donald Tusk was clear.

This drone incursion was an act of aggression.

This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.

We need to say it it again loudly and clearly.

Poland today has a political enemy beyond its eastern border which doesn't conceal its hostile intentions.

In eastern Poland, Yugoslav was woken by the explosions.

Adams says the noise was so loud his windows shook.

There were no casualties.

Images we've seen suggest some of the drones were Russian Gerberas with no explosives, likely meant to test Europe's defences and its unity.

NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutter called that reckless.

To Putin, I mean, my message is clear: stop the war in Ukraine, stop violating Allied airspace, and know that we stand ready, that we are vigilant, and that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.

This comes, though, as Russia is escalating its attacks on Ukraine itself with huge and growing waves of drones and missiles.

Now, officials here believe Russia is testing the West, watching how it responds.

Sarah Rainsford.

Poland has invoked Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, calling for urgent talks.

So, what's the significance of that, and can NATO protect every inch of its territory, as the Secretary-General Mark Rutter has said.

I heard more from security analyst Jonathan Marcus.

Article 4 is just a clause in the NATO Treaty that allows countries or groups of countries to call urgent consultations if some sort of security issue arises.

And that's all that's happened in this particular case.

It's a formal mechanism.

It illustrates the gravity of the situation.

In terms of can NATO defend its territory against this kind of thing?

Well, up to a point.

I mean, we don't know whether these drones were deliberately sent into Polish airspace or whether a significant number of drones simply failed and went off course.

We know that of the nineteen or so that entered Polish airspace, four were actually shot down.

Clearly, NATO has the capacity to deal with limited numbers of drone incursions.

I think if NATO was ever in the short term to be in a full-scale war, as Ukraine is, we see that Western armies are simply not equipped to deal with the kind of drone threat that Ukraine is having to deal with every day of the week.

Jonathan, we've seen Russia violate NATO airspace semi-regularly over the past two years, but now we have Poland's Prime Minister saying that Poland is closer to open conflict than at any time since World War II.

How worried should the world be?

I think that's a tad hyperbolic.

Clearly, he has every reason to be angry with Moscow, and so maybe his comments reflect an element of that.

I don't think full-scale conflict with Russia is about to break out anytime soon.

I think, though, we have to be very clear that the very black and white distinction between war and peace that we make in the West is not something that the Russians share in.

In some senses, Russia believes it is already in a conflict with NATO.

We've heard the Russians say this a number of times.

Russia makes quite bellicose threats to NATO countries, most recently towards Finland, only a day or so ago.

And we know that the Russians are carrying out all sorts of subterfuge attacks, cyber attacks and so on.

So in some sense, Russia already believes it is in a low-level conflict with the NATO countries, and NATO countries need to get much wiser to this much more quickly.

Jonathan Marcus.

So what has Moscow been saying about the incident?

Steve Rosenberg is our Russia editor.

The reaction's been quite interesting today because for several hours we heard nothing from the Russian authorities and then we heard the first comments from the Kremlin which basically amounted to sorry we're not going to comment about this then a short while after that the Russian defense ministry issued a statement which basically said yes Russia had carried out what it called a massive strike against military industrial targets in western Ukraine last night including with drones but no there'd been no intention of engaging targets on the territory of Poland.

Now of course there had been no intention of does not mean we didn't do it.

Steve Rosenberg.

Scientists say they have found the most convincing evidence yet that there has been life on Mars.

Unusually marked rocks have been discovered by a NASA probe, and research published in the journal Nature suggests they could have been formed by ancient microbes.

Our science editor, Rebecca Morell, reports.

NASA's Perseverance rover has spent the past four years exploring an area of Mars called the Jezero Crater.

It's dry and dusty, but billions of years ago it was thought to be an ancient lake with a river flowing into it.

The intriguing rocks were found on the riverbed.

They have unusual ringed markings, nicknamed leopard spots by the researchers, and black dots the team are calling poppy seeds.

These features are actually minerals, and the scientists think they could have been produced by chemical reactions associated with microbes.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta from Imperial College College London is part of the research team.

We've not had something like this before, so I think that's the big deal.

We have something that's a chemical reaction taking place that took place billions of years ago in these rocks shortly after they were formed.

And so I think that's why we're excited because it gives us something to chase.

Life isn't the only possible explanation.

The minerals could have been made by natural geological processes.

The only way to find out for sure is to bring the rocks back to Earth for analysis.

Missions to return samples have been proposed, but there's uncertainty because of the proposed cuts to NASA's budget.

Joel Horowitz is one of the team who carried out the research.

He's desperate to get his gloved hands on the rocks.

This sample

has the potential to help us answer that question.

To me, it feels like

there is no stronger motivation than

that

for bringing this sample sample back.

So

I couldn't be more excited about the idea that we would bring the sample back home.

While there's still much to find out, these rocks are tantalizing, and the findings are strong enough to meet NASA's criteria for potential biosignatures, features that warrant further investigation to determine if they really are a sign of life.

Rebecca Morell.

Still to come.

Are you a hugger?

Everybody knows like in everyday life, life, when we feel sad can help us a lot, when you feel happy can be very nice.

A new German study shows that hugging, perhaps unsurprisingly, depends on the relationship to the other person, but also your personality.

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Next to Yemen, the Israeli military has launched more airstrikes on Houthi targets in the country.

The IDF says it struck targets in the capital Sana'a and in Al-Jauf, including military camps and the headquarters of what it called the Houthi military propaganda department.

The Houthi Health Ministry says at least 35 people have been killed.

Sebastian Usher now reports.

Huge plumes of smoke once again rose above Sana'a as the Israeli military hit new Houthi targets in response, it said, to recent attempted drone and missile attacks by the group on Israel.

The Houthi military spokesman has said that journalists working for its media outlets are among the dead.

Last month, Israel killed many senior members of a Houthi's self-declared government, including their prime minister.

They were the most high-profile such assassinations since the Houthis first fired rockets at Israel in support of Hamas shortly after the war in Gaza began.

There was a brief respite during the Gaza ceasefire earlier this year, but hostilities resumed when that broke down.

Sebastian Usher

In the past few decades, Qatar has tried to carve itself a position as the Switzerland of the Middle East, a place of peace and neutrality, where even enemies like the US and the Taliban, or Israel and Hamas, could make deals.

But when Israel launched its strikes on Tuesday against Hamas members in the capital Doha, it seemed to disregard Qatar's state as neutral ground, putting the region even further on on edge.

Our senior international correspondent Ole Garen has been to the site of the attack in an upscale neighborhood of Doha.

There is now a new reality for Qatar and for the Middle East.

It seems nowhere is off limits for Israeli retaliation against Hamas.

Not even a US ally like this hosting a US base.

Officials here say they will try to hold the Israeli leader legally responsible for what Qatar calls state terrorism.

Saudi Arabia has called it a criminal act.

One witness said today he thought the world was going to end when Israel struck.

The noise was so loud my heart was pumping.

I heard five rockets and I ran, he told me.

At the scene of the attack we got a glimpse of the aftermath, a large hole in the belly of a building.

The surrounding area is full of plush villas and foreign embassies behind high walls, a neighbourhood where Hamas leaders felt safe.

Not anymore.

Hamas figures in Doha are uncontactable at the moment, with phones switched off.

There's still no word on the condition or whereabouts of the top Hamas negotiator Halil al-Hayya.

Hamas insists he survived the attack.

One Palestinian source, outside Gaza, claims he was critically injured, but that is unconfirmed.

Oligerin Staying in the Middle East, Israel has ordered the entire population of Gaza City to leave as its forces prepare to capture the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes have continued to destroy tower blocks, and the army says it now has operational control of 40% of the city as ground forces prepare to fight what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the last important stronghold of Hamas.

The BBC's Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson went to southern Gaza near the city of Rafa on Wednesday on a so-called military embed.

This is when journalists are attached to military units involved in armed conflicts.

In this case, military embeds are offered at Israel's discretion.

They are highly controlled and offered no access to Palestinians or areas not under Israeli military control, but they are currently the only way for BBC journalists to enter Gaza at all.

Israel does not allow news organizations, including the BBC, into Gaza to report independently.

Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson sent us this report from Gaza.

I was just about to cross the border here into Gaza.

This is the first time the BBC has been allowed inside Gaza in more than 18 months.

The Israeli army has invited us in today to show us the new facilities they're making there.

Driving along Gaza's border, you just see this kind of wasteland all around along the drive.

And in the middle of the ruins of Rafah here, Israel is building two new aid sites, part of a plan to encourage a million Gazans to move south from Gaza city.

But the question is: with many people concerned about whether these sites are safe, many people without the means to get here, will it be enough to persuade people to come?

The UN says more than 1,100 people were killed trying to get aid from sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began operations in May.

And there have been repeated Israeli strikes on targets inside designated humanitarian zones.

More than 100 people were killed in shelters, in schools, in tents, around aid sites in just a few days at the end of August.

People see that and say, why would we move?

I think the main point to focus right now is to look at the situation on the ground.

We are seeing numerous accounts, and

this is Hamas's MO, exactly because of these types of questions, because their effort is to make international pressure on Israel, not an effort to save lives.

And right now, what is Hamas doing?

Hamas is saying, no, don't go.

You are the shields.

of us.

Don't move south.

This new site is 30 kilometers south of Gaza City, and temperatures regularly reach 30 degrees centigrade.

Many people have no money for transport and no faith that shelters or aid sites are safe.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says this mass evacuation is unfeasible, incomprehensible, and that there's nowhere in Gaza that can absorb them.

Lucy Williamson reporting in Gaza.

France has sworn in a new Prime Minister, Sébastien Le Cornu.

On the same day, more than 300 people were arrested as anti-government protests were held across France.

This protester explains why she had joined the demonstrations.

We want a prime minister from the left.

We want the government to listen to us.

We want real action to help Palestine, to help Congo.

And yeah, we aren't happy with the government we are right now.

We want social inequalities to stop, racism to stop.

Well, 80,000 police officers were on duty, but they've struggled to keep control, as our global affairs reporter Paul Moss explains.

Protesters were met with tear gas in the southern city of Montpellier, and police tried to block their path as they marched through Paris.

But the clue's in the name.

Let's block everything.

That's what the group behind Wednesday's demonstration is called.

And people have indeed blocked streets, buildings, and infrastructure across France, making it hard for police to keep control.

A bus was set on fire, an Amazon warehouse blockaded.

French people currently have a wide range of complaints about their government, and they've been expressing their anger across a wide range of places.

Paul Moss.

It calls itself a leading brand of natural and organic beauty products.

And, according to the Swiss firm Valleda, every three seconds someone buys an item from its skin food range.

But now the company behind the popular skin and baby care products has has commissioned a comprehensive study of its history during the Nazi era.

This follows allegations from a historian that the company made a product which may have been used for human experiments at Dachau in southern Germany.

Our correspondent in Vienna, Bethany Bell, told me why.

There's a new report which was commissioned by the Dachau concentration camp memorial site by a historian, a German historian called Anna Sudrau, and she's been tracing connections between Velede and an SS doctor who was known as Sigmund Rasche, who is known to have conducted really brutal human experiments on prisoners at Dachau.

He was experimenting with hypothermia and exposure to cold.

He plunged people into icy water.

Now, what this new report says is that Velede supplied 20 kilos of a cream that was anti-frostbite to Dr.

Rasche during the Dachau concentration camp.

Bethany, what do we know about Dachau and the sorts of things that have gone on there?

Dachau is near Munich.

It was the first major concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933.

There were many people in prison there.

It's estimated around 40,000 people died there before the liberation in 1945, and some of those deaths have been attributed to medical experiments.

We know that this SS doctor, Sigmund Rasche, was given orders from Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, to experiment with hypothermia and cold exposure.

And we know that there are those who died because of those experiments that he was conducting.

Bethany, how damaging is this for Veleda and its sort of wholesome reputation?

I mean, it's not the only brand that survives today, despite having had ties to the Nazi regime.

It's clearly a matter that Velida is taking very seriously.

We've had the statement from the chief executive saying that the company condemns National Socialism in the strongest possible terms, the atrocities, and that

any fascism, anti-Semitism, racism, or right-wing extremist ideology had no place with them and that never again expresses their stance.

There are other firms that have survived despite close ties with the Nazi regime.

Think of Volkswagen, you think of Hugo Boss, Allianz.

This is something that affected many companies that still survive today.

It's something that people are very concerned about in terms of reputation.

Bethany Bell

Prince Harry, who's currently in Britain for a series of engagements, has met his father, King Charles, for the first time since February 2024.

It's understood the King had a private tea with his son during the meeting, which lasted just under an hour.

Our royal correspondent Daniela Ralph reports personally, publicly, it was a significant moment.

Prince Harry being driven into Clarence's house to see his father, the king.

The first time that has happened in 19 months.

The meeting was private.

No public statements, no details released.

But the fact it happened at all suggests a shift in mood.

Father and son last met in person in February 2024, just after the king announced his cancer diagnosis.

Since then, Prince Harry's legal case over his personal security in the UK has caused further division, in addition to the confessional TV interviews and Harry's memoir Spare, which was critical of the royal family.

But Prince Harry's legal defeat has removed an obstacle in the way of any reunion, and this afternoon there was a clear window in both father and son's diaries.

Daniela Ralph.

And finally, are you a hugger?

Or do you prefer to stay at arm's length from people?

Well, a new German study has been looking at how people hug, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, depends on the relationship to the other person and your personality.

Sebastian Ocklenberg is professor of psychology at Hamburg University and carried out the research.

Everybody knows like in everyday life, when we feel sad, a hug can help us a lot.

When we feel happy, it can be very nice, our friends hack us.

So it's something it's very important to a lot of people, even though it's non-verbal.

We know that there is cultures, for example, if you look to South America or North America, that tend to hack a little bit more like us Europeans.

There's also other culture, particularly in China, where people generally tend to hack a little bit less.

So yes, this is a European study, and the results are valid for European populations.

So the research research says for like platonic friends, usually it's about two to three seconds.

And after that, some people tend to feel a little bit awkward about it.

If you look into romantic partners, the average is seven seconds.

Some people hug up to like 30, 40 seconds.

Some couples stay within the two, three seconds range that platonic friends have.

So generally, I would say if you go over 10 seconds as platonic friends, most people would find it a little bit awkward, but it also depends a lot on your personality.

The shoulder padding is quite common if you have two male-identifying people hugging each other for like a longer time.

You don't tend to do that with your romantic partner, right?

You don't give your wife or your husband a shoulder pad.

That is more something in platonic relationships when you kind of want to downplay the awkwardness a little bit.

Also, it gives you something to do in the situation, right?

So, that's quite common reaction, too.

Professor Sebastian Ochlenberg from Hamburg University.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at BBC World Service.

Use the hashtag GlobalNewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Zabihula Karouch.

The producers were Liam McSheffery and Stephen Jensen.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Julia McFarlane.

Until next time, goodbye.

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