This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel Wright and in the early hours of Wednesday the 7th of May, these are our main stories. India launches strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan vows to retaliate. Oman says it has mediated a ceasefire deal between the US and the Houthis in Yemen. Canada's newly elected prime minister tells Donald Trump his country will never be for sale.
Also in this podcast, Friedrich Merz becomes Germany's new Chancellor after surviving a shock defeat during an initial vote in Parliament. and we hear testimony from a Syrian man who drove truckloads of bodies to mass graves under the Assad regime. The hardest part to see was the bodies, how they were tortured. To see the torture on them, it was hard to process. We start in Pakistan.
Where explosions were heard near the city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir just after midnight local time. The Indian government says it attacked nine sites across Pakistan in response to last month's militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Just before recording this podcast, we got the latest from our South Asia regional editor, Ambarisan Etharajan. It's a faster developing story. And about an hour ago, we were getting reports of these explosions in Musafirabad. Pakistan administered Kashmir and within a few minutes the Indian government issued a statement saying that They were targeting what they called as terrorist infrastructure inside Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir.
tensions following the attack on tourists in Indian administrator Kashmir two weeks ago and there have been a lot of pressure from within India that India had to respond forcefully because Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting the separatist rebels. in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad. Now, what the Indian government is saying is that our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted.
But then the Pakistani military has come out with a very strong statement saying that the strikes will not go unanswered and that it would respond at a time and place of its own choosing. So now we are getting reports of civilians. talking about these explosions in Moussafirabad and there are reports of casualties but we cannot independently confirm the versions by both sides both India and Pakistan what really happened on the ground
There are multiple lines coming out on agencies and by Pakistani and Indian media. At the moment we cannot confirm any of those things. What we know is that There have been explosions inside Pakistan and India says that it carried out missile strikes inside Pakistan. The Pakistan Prime Minister has issued a statement. What has he said?
Now they have strongly condemned these attacks and what they call it is as The foreign ministry also talking about this is an attack on the sovereignty of pilots, a very major charge against India. Now about these governments, I have been talking for the past few weeks on how and when they will respond because people are expecting some sort of military action.
against Pakistan by Indian forces but nobody knew what level of military action or how forcefully they will respond because the UN and other international players have been urging both sides to show restraint. because this can easily go out of control because these are two nuclear armed rivals and there is also the China factor.
So there were a lot of appeals from the other players to both countries to show restraint. But what we are witnessing now is an ongoing situation now. This all depends on how Pakistan is going to respond and what. chain reaction it is going to create in India. Ever since the start of the war in Gaza, Houthi fighters in Yemen have been launching attacks against Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
In response, the US has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis, which are backed by Iran. This was stepped up significantly in March. President Trump has said this would now stop as the Houthis have capitulated because they don't want to fight the US anymore.
The Gulf state of Oman said it had negotiated a ceasefire in return for the safe passage of commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Omani foreign minister, Saeed Bad al-Busaydi, announced the deal in a post on X. We've voiced part of his statement.
Following recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana'a in the Republic of Yemen with the aim of de-escalation, Efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides. In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping.
About 15% of global shipping traffic passes through the Red Sea. The deal, though, doesn't include Israel, as I heard from our correspondent in Jerusalem, Hugo Bushega. This was a surprise announcement that was made by the president and there has been confirmation of what he announced by Oman saying that he had acted as mediator in these talks between the Americans and the Houthis. So the Houthis would... stop its attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and in return the US would halt.
its attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen. But what is very important here is that There has been no mention of Israel in these statements by Oman, by President Trump. the Houthis have also been attacking Israel and there has been some reaction from a senior Houthi officials indicating that these attacks by the Houthis on Israel
are likely to continue. But is Israel going to stop attacking the Houthis as part of this agreement or is that not part of it? Yeah, so it doesn't seem that Israel has been involved and in fact... some reports in Israeli media suggested that the Israeli authorities didn't know that the president was going to make this What is also interesting is that this announcement came hours after a huge airstrike by the Israeli military targeting Sana'a.
The capital of Yemen, the airport, was the main target, the Israeli military said. this was infrastructure that was being used by the Houthis and that this was in response to that missile attack by the Houthis on Sunday that hit an area just outside. Ben Gurion Airport, which is the main international airport in Israel. So what we're hearing from the Houthis indicating that this attack...
on Israel are going to continue. I think the tensions between Israel and the Houthis are likely to continue as well. But Amman seems to have been playing a crucial role in the negotiations between the US and the Houthis. Why have they been so involved? Yeah, let's not forget that there have been some talks as well between the Americans and the Iranians being mediated by Oman, and this is something related to...
Iran's nuclear program. Now the Houthis are obviously supported by Iran. And I think what Oman has said is that perhaps these negotiations between the Houthis and the Americans were part of a strategy to try to de-escalate tensions across the region. So it could be that what happened here, you know, this deal between the Houthis and the US.
could be part of these bigger talks and bigger conversations happening between the Americans and the Iranians, which have been mediated by Oman. Looking ahead, President Trump will be in the Middle East next week. and mentioned that there will be a big announcement before that. Do you have any idea or inkling whether that might refer to something in the Middle East? So what the president said came just hours after his special envoy for the Middle East.
Steve Whitcoff said that there could be an announcement of more countries normalizing relations with Israel so no details about which countries he could be talking about but also the expectation or perhaps the hope that negotiations could try to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. Hugo Buscega. Well, when the US president made that announcement, he was speaking to reporters at the White House after receiving the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, for talks.
There have been tensions between the neighbours after Mr Trump suggested Canada should become the 51st US state. Mr Carney stressed his country was not for sale and never would be. Our North America editor, Sarah Smith, reports. A friendly greeting outside the White House with matching fist pumps from the two men for the cameras suggests they want to try to get along, but there's history here.
Before the Canadian Prime Minister arrived, Donald Trump posted on social media saying America does not need Canadian cars, energy or anything else except their friendship and claiming that the US gives Canada free military protection. Then sitting beside Mr. Carney in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked if he still wants to make Canada the 51st American state. It would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens.
You get free military, you get tremendous medical cares and other things. I do feel it's much better for Canada. As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale. It's not for sale. It was Mark Carney's promise to stand up to Mr Trump that helped him to win re-election last week. Canadians want him to push back against the anti-Canadian rhetoric, as well as the tough tariffs that have been put on their exports to America.
but as other world leaders have found, antagonising Donald Trump can be very counterproductive. Sarah Smith in Washington. Next, to Germany, where, after two attempts to secure a parliamentary majority, the leader of the conservative CDU party, Friedrich Mayer, has now been elected Chancellor of Germany. He lost the first vote, falling six votes short of the 316 majority he needed, the first time that's happened in post-war German history. Our Berlin correspondent Jessica Parker reports.
As MPs arrived to vote, it seemed as though the day would run like clockwork. But then, the bombshell. Friedrich Mertz may cut a tall, confident figure, but he had fallen short. Some MPs within his own coalition had, it appeared, not voted for him to be Chancellor, an unprecedented failure. As chaos ensued, we tracked down Johan Vardefel, Mertz's choice for foreign minister. Can you tell us what on earth has happened? Why has Friedrich Merz lost this mate?
The simple reason is that not enough parliamentarians from the coalition voted for him. This is democracy in a free country. So, of course, it's an obstacle, but not a catastrophe. It's not exactly known why some MPs failed to initially back Friedrich Mertz in this secret ballot. There's speculation about disgruntlement with key leadership figures and over the distribution of government jobs.
but MPs from both the coalition's centre-left and centre-right parties were quickly urged by colleagues to act responsibly. On the second round, Mr Mertz made it through. Nevertheless, his first day in office has been a PR disaster. The main opposition party, the far-right Alternativa for Deutschland, said it revealed this government's fundamental weakness.
And Mr Mertz's pledge to be a strong leader for Germany and Europe at a time of great insecurity has been seriously undermined. Jessica Parker Still to come. It is related that on first coming to the parish, there was a piece of ground on Moss Robin farm, where on Sabbath afternoon, the people used to play up Was football played in Scotland 200 years before England? India and the UK have agreed a landmark trade deal after three years of on-off negotiations.
The deal will make it easier for UK firms to export whiskey, cars and other products to India and cut taxes on India's clothing and footwear exports. Here's the British Prime Minister, Zakir Starmer. This is a historic day for the United Kingdom and for India. because this is the biggest trade deal that we the UK have done since we left the EU.
And it's the most ambitious trade deal that India has ever done. And this will be measured in billions of pounds into our economy and jobs across the whole of the United Kingdom. India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, also described the agreement as an historic milestone. With more, here's our business correspondent in Mumbai, Archana Shukla.
From British chocolates, cosmetics to whiskies and cars, all of this would become cheaper for Indian consumers as India has cut tariffs significantly. Talk of whiskies and gins where tariffs have been cut to half. to 75% or on cars where tariffs have been cut from 100% to 10% but under a quota. UK has cut taxes on footwear, textiles and food products where Indian companies will get bigger market access. in the United Kingdom.
Remember both India and UK do trade worth 42 billion pounds which would get an additional boost of 25 billion pounds by 2040. according to the deal. Where India has scored a big positive in this deal is on social security where it exempts companies to pay Social Security taxes in multiple countries, it will be a positive for Indian companies like in the IT sector that send employees on short term visas.
But the deal does not mention anything about contentious issues like immigration, student visas or on the controversial carbon tax that the United Kingdom levies on imports on a product such as steel. Even then, the trade deal becomes very significant. Remember, it is the first big trade deal between two major economies signed since US President Donald Trump's tariffs appended global trade. Both India and UK have been looking for newer markets to sell their products.
and secure trading partners. Also, this would lay down the groundwork for what India could offer to its other trading partners, especially the United States, with which it is also negotiating a trade deal. Archana Shukla in Mumbai. Five months after the dramatic fall of President Assad, Syria is trying to emerge from the ruins of civil war and the decades-long dictatorship.
Hundreds of thousands of people are known to have died in prisons and torture centres, and the job of tracing these people and finding their remains will be a monumental task. Tim Franks reports from Damascus where he heard testimony from a man who for years drove truckloads of corpses to Assad's mass graves around Damascus. Just here where I'm standing. It's
Pretty certain that there is a mass grave. We're the first international media to come to this site, and we've come with one extraordinary witness. My name is Hussain Allawi Al Manfi. I also go by Abu Ali. What was your job? I was a driver in the Assad army. working for the medical services department. Okay, you were a driver, but what was your cargo? My cargo was human being, bodies of dead, deceased people.
I'll be collecting from the Harasta Military Hospital. Once that trailer was filled, then I would hook it to the truck. then drive it to the mass grave. and it will be 16 meter long truck. Okay, a 16 meter trailer filled with bodies, that's hundreds. It would average about 200 bodies to the trailer, sometimes 150.
Okay. And how often were you making this journey? In this specific location, we would do two trailer trucks per week. Okay. And who do you think these bodies were? Where did they come from? I guess they are civilians, mostly civilians. The only identifying things were on the bodies or numbers, or sometimes stickers. stuck on their chest or their foreheads and the numbers were always referring to the intelligence branch where specifically these civilians were tortured to the
So we're at the site of one big trench here. This is the third one we've seen. and there are several others here, just at this big trench. Have you any idea how many bodies this might have accommodated? Yes. It's in thousands. Thousands of bodies here? Yes, there are thousands of bodies. How do you... How have you... processed this. Once I parked my truck and pulled the bodies in. You cannot say anything good or bad. You have to be silent because of the other intelligence agencies.
They were there. What I would do, I would walk away and look at the sky. Or look at Damascus, because this mass grave oversees the city of Damascus. It was very disturbing. The hardest part to see was the bodies, how they were tortured. To see the torture on them, it was hard to process. It's one thing and it is an enormous thing to exhume the human remains from these mass graves. It's another order of magnitude to work out who these people were.
when they died, how they died, who was responsible. The next step will be taken here in the Forensic Identification Laboratory. It's pretty much brand new. It's in Damascus and Dr. Anas Al-Hurani is one of the senior staff. So we're walking into a bare room which has got two medical tables and on each table There are just row after row of femurs. Yes. This is what we've gathered from one of the mass graves, and it's a mix What do you mean by mixed mass grave? The mixed mass grave meaning that
body was thrown one after another. That means all the bodies were on top of each other. and it was extracted in a random way Do you have the capacity to do DNA analysis? There are a lot of difficulties with the DNA tests. One of them is the high cost to do one single day and it tests it costs Two and a half million serum pounds. That's about 250 US dollars. Yes, that's for one single test. And in the example of mixed mass graves, To put all the parts of the body, you might do 20 to 25 DNA tests.
And for sure, I think that there are a lot of difficulties getting the DNA test kits from outside due to the high costs and sex. We got informed that some of these chemicals could be used in different things, in military use or other things. That's why it was perhaps it. So we've got the femurs of 32 bodies in this room. Yes. Some observers say there's maybe 130,000 Syrians who had disappeared by the last regime. at the rate that you are going
How long will it take to identify Syria as missing? I can tell you that. Random mass graves where all the bodies are together, it takes us sometimes months for a single case. It takes months to identify a single case. So it will take us a lot of years to close the subject of the missing ones. Dr. Anas al-Hurani from the Syrian Forensic Identification Center ending that report from Tib Franks in Damascus.
It's generally believed that the game of football in its modern form was invented in 19th century England. But one historian says he's discovered a football pitch from over 200 years before that. In Scotland, Alfie Habersen reports. Running around large fields chasing after ball-shaped objects, that's been happening around the world for centuries.
but a nearly 200 metre long patch of grass with girls, flags and 20 men who aren't allowed to touch the ball with their hands. That's a great source of national pride here in England. We invented the biggest sport in the world and drew up its rules in 1863. But football historian Jed O'Brien thinks that's not quite right. I have always thought football has been played in Scotland for hundreds of years. Not mob football, proper football. And of course it's always been very hard to prove it.
Because working people never kept records. But now, a piece of evidence to back up his theory. A letter from the Scottish Reverend Samuel Rutherford in the early 1600s. It expresses anger that weekly football matches on Sunday are getting in the way of the day of worship. It is related that on first coming to the parish, there was a piece of ground on Moss Robin farm, where on Sabbath afternoon, the people used to play football. This is one of the most important sentences
I have ever read in football history. The letter even goes on to order that large stones are put in the way to stop the matches, and that's what led Mr O'Brien and his team to dig up evidence of what they say is now the world's oldest pitch. Here's one of the archaeologists. About 20 centimetres deep in this test bit here. And what the stone is sitting on is a slightly clearer, what we call an old ground surface.
This backs up the story that a barrier was put across an open space. It's not about stock control. It's not about agriculture. It's not about land boundaries and ownership. It's temporary. Mr O'Brien says it's time for history to be rewritten, but it's still not known how similar the exact rules of this game were to the one which came 200 years after. That may be the real test of whether Scotland deserves credit for what we consider to be the beautiful game.
Before we go, a reminder that ahead of the conclave that begins on Wednesday, my colleague Nick Miles has recorded a special edition of the Global News Podcast with our religion editor, Ali McBall. For the entire period of the Conclave, All of the cardinals will be staying essentially on the premises of the Vatican in this guest house. They will have access to no mobile phones or any other electronic items.
like that. They'll be able to read no newspapers. They'll have no communication with the outside world. They'll move from the guest house each day to the Sistine Chapel, a stunning chapel of course, with some of the most famous frescoes in the world, painted by Michelangelo of course. And that is the holiest of voting chambers, if you like, for the coming days. So there can be up to four votes a day. The first we'll hear of anything having been decided is when we see...
smoke from the chimney. It'll be black smoke. when the voting papers are burnt, if there's no decision, but if there is a two-thirds majority. on any single candidate, then we will see white smoke, and it's after that that the new Pope will walk out on the balcony of St. Peter's behind me. For more on that, listen to Global News Podcast, How Will the Next Pope Be Chosen?
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 the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod. This edition was produced by Judy Frankel and mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Rachel Wright. Until next time, goodbye.