Reports say Flydubai suspect was 'lone wolf' extremist

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton and at 13 Hours GMT on Monday, the 5th of October, these are our main stories. Reports suggest the pilot accused of trying to hijack a fly Dubai plane bound for Israel was a lone wolf extremist. Anger in Japan after a U.S. Marine is arrested. Marine is arrested. Suspected of murder. Also in this podcast, a BBC investigation asks, why are more younger people getting cancer? Those that were born in the 1990s have about three times the risk of developing early onset bowel cancer compared to those were born in the 1950s. And we'll take you to the forests of Madagascar, why lemurs are similar to human opera singers. Let's begin with more developments surrounding last week's fly Dubai passenger plane that never made it to its intended destination, Tel Aviv. Instead, we're learning more about the co-pilot on that flight who's accused of trying to hijack the plane after attacking the flight captain and then sending the plane into a nosedive. The captain fought back and alerted others on board who subdued the co-pilot and safely took over the plane's controls. The flight made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, and the plane's mostly Israeli passengers have now arrived back home. A terrifying experience for all on board that could have ended in tragedy. So what happened? The alleged attacker is now back in the UAE, where he's being interrogated by investigators. And that's why we're learning more about what he might have been planning. Let's get the latest on the investigation from John Donison, our correspondent in Jerusalem. The investigation being carried out by UAE intelligence officers, but I'm pretty sure the Israelis are having a big involvement in that as well. The briefings and the leaks we're getting out of this interrogation is that they seem to be working on the assumption that he was operating as a lone wolf, as they're sometimes called. So he wasn't following orders from a specific organization or a state actor. And in a way, that is less damaging to the Israeli government in terms of. The security failure that allowed this to happen, because I think, you know, a lone wolf is much harder to deal with than someone who's being sponsored or put up to it by someone else or a state actor. What they're saying is that the intention was to take over the plane and crash it into either Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv or a high-rise building in Tel Aviv. And it's this that has led the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to say that. What was prevented by the other pilot and by the passengers who stormed the cockpit was another 9-11-style attack. And, John, there are reports, too, that the co-pilot had a history of posting on social media about his extremist views. There are clear failures here. He had been banned from flying in his home country, Amman, because of his extremist views, and they had been monitoring his social media posts. Some of them are reported to have sort of praise for senior al-Qaeda. And the question is, how could someone who'd been banned from flying in Amman end up getting a job with FlyDubai and then end up flying planes to Israel? Normally, Israel would not allow a plane to be flown by a pilot from a country with whom Israel does not have diplomatic relations, and that is the case with Amman. And it's being reported that this was not the first time he had been making a flight to Israel. He'd actually. He'd actually visited earlier in the year. So, clearly, a real failure of security. A security failure, as you say. So, who's asking tough questions right now inside Israel about that apparent failure? We have to note that we're very close to an Israeli election. We've got an election, a crucial election, one that is very tightly fought, coming up in less than a month's time. Now, last week, when this first happened, I think the sort of general view was that this could be good. For Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is narrowly trailing in the polls, because he is someone who thrives when he's portraying Israel as a country under attack and that he's the only person who can provide security. But now, given that it looks like there was a real failure within the Ministry of Transport here in Israel, why wasn't this pilot vetted? How come he was allowed to fly this flight? And there has been an absolute disaster narrowly averted, really. It's miraculous that it was averted, given when you think of what actually happened. So, the opposition, who are running against Mr. Netanyahu in this forthcoming election, well, they're saying, look, this is another huge intelligence and security failure. And you have to remember that they're already calling out Mr. Netanyahu for his failure to take responsibility for what happened on October the 7th, the greatest intelligence and security failure possibly in Israel's history. And we've got the anniversary of that October the 7th. So, yes, the issue of intelligence, security failures is playing pretty big in the run-up to this election. John Donison. Now, let's look at a story here in the U.K. involving a military airbase used by the United States. A spokesperson for the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has insisted RAF Fairford in southern England is safe, following a decision by the U.S. Air Force to remove a dozen bombers from the U.K. The facility's been used for a long time. It's been used by the Americans for decades, and it's been used to launch raids against Iran this year. But according to U.S. media reports, officials took the unusual decision to remove their B-1 bombers, costing around $300 million each, because of fresh intelligence suggesting Iran was plotting to target the base. Anxieties were already raised at the end of last month, when British police arrested, then released on bail, five people who were reported to be acting suspiciously near the base. A sixth man was also arrested days later. Tehran's denied being involved in any operation linked to the airfield, though it's previously said British bases used to launch bombing raids against Iran are legitimate targets. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, explained why the U.S. had withdrawn its planes. Well, I think it's got to have been prompted by a new threat, a new piece of intelligence, because it was done in such a hurry. So the New York Times, for example, is quoting, unnamed U.S. officials saying that it was done so quickly, so suddenly, that the refueling planes were still on the ground at Fairford, the ones needed to get them back across the Atlantic, while the bombers were already scrambled and told to take to the air. So it was done in quite a rush. It's not unusual for them to be withdrawn back to the continental United States, but to be done in such a rush and in the context of everything that's been going on, and let's just remember that. But that context includes the fact that the U.S. is at war. We're not in Britain, but the U.S. is at war with Iran. Yes, it goes through lulls and dips and troughs, but it is still at war with Iran. And those bombers, those B-1 Lancers, have been taking part in so-called defensive strikes against Iranian missile sites, mostly along the coast. But the intensity of the bombing has dropped off dramatically since then. This is sort of the peak back in March. But the U.S. has already taken some very big financial hits from this war, but mostly around the Middle East, its bases in the Middle East, up and down the six Gulf states and Jordan and Iraq. And the worst of those was on March the 27th, when a precision-guided Iranian strike hit Prince Sultan Air Base just outside Riyadh and cut in half an E3 Sentry AWACS plane. Now, one of those costs just over half a billion dollars. The U.S. can't sustain these kind of financial hits indefinitely. What about the perceptions around this move, though, Frank? Does the U.K. not believe it can protect its air bases or that the Americans can't trust that it can? Well, I think the U.K. would say we absolutely can. We give it the highest level of protection possible. But don't forget that it wasn't that long ago that pro-Palestinian protesters broke into RAF Bryce Norton and spray-painted an RAF plane, causing about a million pounds worth of damage. Now, imagine if those had been involved in some kind of violent, explosive attack. Not them, but somebody else. The fact is they were able to get into the base. So the security at these bases is not perfect. And the U.S. is clearly not taking any chances. And it's not a good look for the U.K. We are the United States' closest military ally on intelligence. And I'm sure that after a while, it may take months, maybe years, the base will return to normal use. But for now, I think there's a perception in the U.S. that it's not safe right now. Frank Gardner, staying with the war in what might seem like an incredible statistic, considering the U.S. Israeli war with Iran has still not ended, oil exports from the Middle East were for a few days at the end of last month higher than the daily rate before the conflict began. That's according to the oil data firm Kepler. Even though the Strait of Hormuz is still not officially open, more oil now is coming out of that waterway under U.S. military escort. Greater use is also being made of pipelines, particularly by Saudi Arabia, which is pumping oil to ports on the Red Sea. On the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula to the Strait of Hormuz. Our business reporter in Singapore is Archana Shukla. The Kepler data that you quoted that suggested that we are getting back to pre-war levels in terms of oil supplies also quoted a data which said that in the last month of September, about 40 percent of the oil from Middle East had bypassed the Strait of Hormuz and was being shipped from other regions in that area. So what these producers and suppliers are doing now are they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are buying oil from the Middle East, they are using alternative ports. So exporters like Saudi Arabia, they've directed oil shipments from Western facilities to Eastern ports like the Ras Tanura and utilized ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman. The United Arab Emirates has set up an elaborate system of shuttle runs in which tankers load inside the Persian Gulf, they exit Hormuz and transfer the crude to vessels waiting outside the waterway. So they have been trying to use alternate east-west pipelines. They're to reach to the other side, the other ports to transfer and supply oil out of the Middle East. Okay, so a lot of routes being used. What about Iran? Is it getting its oil out too? Iran is largely blocked, Celia, from exporting due to the US blockades and domestic storage limits. So they are not freely exporting oil. And we know that, you know, there were data that suggested that in September, their exports possibly collapsed to near zero. Wow. Okay, so some countries, though, said are getting their oil out onto the market. What can you tell us about the global price of oil? The logistics is actually taking up all the costs. You know, there is a war risk premium that is being put. Shipping costs have actually gone up. And all of that is now adding to the oil prices that, you know, countries are paying to import them, especially in the Asian economies that rely heavily on Middle East oil. So the price of oil has been hovering higher, and especially with renewed strikes on Sunday, they have been a bit more volatile. Hundred and one dollars a barrel on the Brent benchmark crude, if that's something that people track. And that certainly clearly indicates that in the coming weeks or months, we are still going to see prices elevated. Most experts we've spoken to say that there is still no clarity on when this war ends. There is a talk from some of the bigger nations like the European Union and the UK to release some of the diesel strategic reserves they have to pull down the prices. And it did affect diesel prices some bit. But then, you know, there is a lot of talk about, you know, the price of oil, you know, then with renewed strikes again, the uncertainty is back. But as Hayley Hassell reports, some scientists believe they may also be finding ways to reduce the risk. They said it's bowel cancer and it's spread to the liver. Four years ago, Leanne was settling into family life with her wife and son. Then, aged just 38, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Now 42, she's living with stage four disease. The first thing that goes through my mind every single time is our son. Like, I just cannot grasp that we have to prepare him potentially very soon. I might not be here anymore. Leanne is part of a worrying trend. Cancer rates in young adults are rising and specialists say they're seeing more diagnoses than were once associated mainly with older age. We're probably seeing, you know, five to 10% of our patients. At the Royal Marsden's Young Onset Cancer Service, doctors say the increase has been dramatic. Here's Dr Nalini Hogan. We're seeing a huge rise in bowel cancer, but also other gastrointestinal diseases. Gastrointestinal cancers in young people. Researchers are trying to understand why. At King's College London, scientists are working as part of the biggest ever global study carried out into bowel cancer. Professor Sarah Berry says something appears to have changed between generations. Those that were born in the 1990s have about three times the risk of developing early onset bowel cancer compared to if those were born in the 1950s. Researchers are looking into possible causes. From obesity and lack of exercise to pollution, microplastics and changes in what we eat. One area of growing interest is exposure to chemicals found in everyday products. After a series of product recalls from discount stores, Panorama commissioned lab testing of four body mists from two stores. One was okay, but two out of a pack of three marketed towards children and bought from home bargains were not. Tests found marshmallow kisses and blueberry muffin body mists, both made in China, contained a chemical known as DBP, which the UK has banned in cosmetics. DBP is classed as reprotoxic. Experts say DBP is a hormone-disrupting chemical, and exposure to it can be a risk during key stages of development, including puberty. Here's Professor Paul Fowler. Applying DBP to the skin could well be associated with increased health risks later in life, including cancers. Panorama wrote to home bargains, but it said nobody was available to comment. Researchers stress that chemicals are only one of a number of possible explanations for rising cancer rates. They're also looking closely at diet and what's happening inside the gut. For Leanne, she's backing more research into understanding cancers in young people. But I would find it amazing if we could stop it for others. Scientists say there's still much they don't know, but the race is on to understand, how more young-onset cancers can be prevented. Hayley Hassel. Still to come in this podcast. We must take action. I have therefore decided to dissolve the Spanish parliament and call a general election to be held on Sunday the 29th of November. Spain's Prime Minister makes a big announcement. Investing with Schwab is like spending a Saturday night in a pub. You can fill your reusable tote with a bit of everything. Maybe you go for some free-range, self-directed investing. Or perhaps you pick up a few farm-fresh trades while you peruse. You can even get help from a dedicated advisor. That's full-service wealth management. Mix, match, and change your mind whenever you want. Because at Schwab, you can invest your way. No matter your goals or appetite for investing, Schwab has everything you need all in one place. Visit schwab.com to learn more. With the new Schwab Teen Investor, teens can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits. It's an account co-owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor and engage with the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at schwab.com. It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing. This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret of the school's head teacher. This was someone I respected above anyone else. And the answer is no. In the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence. If this is leaked to the media, I'll be destroyed. This is World of Secrets, Catching My Teacher. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. Let's go to Japan, where public anger is growing after a US Marine was arrested since his death. He was suspected of murdering a Japanese woman. The body of Anayagi was found in the early hours of Saturday morning in a hotel. hotel room in Okinawa. The Marine, 20-year-old Lance Corporal, has denied the accusations. He's one of 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan. The allegation is the latest in a series of cases allegedly involving American troops in Okinawa. The Prime Minister, Sanai Takahichi, has described the incident as a heinous crime. My colleague, Catherine Biarro-Hanga, heard more from our Japan correspondent, Kurumi Mori. I've been following this story over the weekend as it was unfolding and we're now today getting a bit more detail. But the suspect, 20-year-old U.S. Marine Devin Jacob Ballard, was arrested for murder and robbery of a 39-year-old local Japanese woman named Anna Yagi. Police say that the cause of her death was asphyxiation and they believe that he may have choked her to death. Using some sort of cord in the hotel room. So security footage, police say, showed him enter this hotel with her at around 2 a.m. in the morning on Saturday and then later left without her. But he had her belongings, a backpack, including her wallet. He has denied the allegations. He said to police, watashi wa shirimasen, which means, I don't know. But, police are investigating this case and we are getting details. The family has come out and, you know, asked for privacy, but obviously, absolutely devastated. And the locals, angry. Yes. Tell us a bit more about the reaction to this case there. You know, I've been spending the morning really talking to local residents of Okinawa. One, a 52-year-old mother of a 10-year-old daughter. She was born, raised in Okinawa. She's a true local through and through. And she says nothing has changed since she was a child. And the biggest reaction she had was just not again. That was the first reaction she had. This is something that has been a longstanding tension between U.S. military personnel and the local residents of Okinawa. There's been decades of long history of clashes, of sexual assault cases, you know, drunk driving incidents. So this is nothing new. And they hope that officials will do something about it this time. Kudrumimori Spain's prime minister has called a snap parliament. election for November 29th. Announcing the move, Pedro Sanchez said voters would have to decide whether they want the country to regress or keep moving forward. We must take action and ensure that parliament gives us a much broader progressive majority with which to bring the elites to heel, secure further social progress and continue to transform Spain. I have therefore decided to convene an extraordinary council of ministers this very morning to dissolve the Spanish parliament. and call a general election to be held on Sunday, the 29th of November. On Friday, the Spanish parliament rejected measures put forward by the Sanchez government to deal with a housing crisis that's led to huge protests across Spain. The leader of the conservative opposition People's Party, Alberto Fejo, welcomed the early election. At last, Spain will say what it thinks. The majority will speak again. At last, Spaniards will decide. Not a few, but all Spaniards. At last, we can close this chapter and open a better one. Our correspondent in Madrid, Guy Hedgcoe, told me more about what Mr Sanchez had to say. He essentially said he had no other choice than to call these elections. He used some quite strong language to talk about how difficult his situation was, given what he called the worst parliamentary opposition that the country had ever seen. He said it had no sense of statesmanship. He also talked about economic and social elites, powerful elites, which he said still controlled the country. And he said that these forces were boycotting the kinds of reforms that he and his left-wing government wanted to introduce. Now, the most obvious of those, the housing reforms that he presented last week and which were rejected by the opposition parties on the right. But essentially, he was making a pick to the electorate, saying that this is a left-wing government dedicated to progressive reforms. He described it as a peace-loving, feminist government. And he was warning against the alternative, the parties on the right, which are the Conservative People's Party, which could end up governing with the far-right box. And he warned against what he described as a far-right wave, which was washing over many countries around the world. So some confident words from the prime minister there. But was this a risky move by the prime minister? To call a snap election, his coalition governments had a rocky few months. It has been a very rocky few months, his coalition. There have been a number of scandals affecting his socialist party and also people quite close to him. There's been an investigation into his wife, Begonia Gomez, for her business dealings. She's due to go on trial. Mr. Sanchez and his allies insist that she's done nothing wrong. But his brother has also been on trial as well, found guilty of. of wrongdoing. So it's been a very difficult few months for Pedro Sanchez. He's struggled with the issue of migration. Those tens of thousands of migrants who entered the Spanish city of Ceuta in North Africa a few weeks ago, his government's been struggling to manage that. There are still several thousand migrants in the city there. So it's been very difficult for him. But I think with the housing issue, he seems to feel that he can take back the initiative, because what he can say to voters is, I've tried to tackle this issue. I've taken some urgent quite bold measures to Congress, and yet the parties on the right have rejected them and saying, you need to give me another chance because I want to introduce reforms in this area that would tackle this housing crisis and try and solve it. And if you vote for me, I can do that. Guy Hedgcoe. And last, scientists studying Madagascar's injury lemurs say the animals may be using a vocal technique that's a lot like that of trained human singers. The black and white primates are known for their haunting calls from the forest canopy. And those calls were the focus of a lengthy study by researchers from the University of Warwick and the University of Turin. My musical colleague, Ketchy Ogbona, spoke to Chiara DiGogorio from the University of Warwick. The first time I was in the forest in Madagascar, and I heard them like live inside the forest, what struck me was how loud they were. We wanted to understand a little bit more about these techniques of singing. We used some algorithm to try to understand if they were moving their mouth in a way that would, you know, do the same trick that soprano singers use. At this point, we're going to do a test. What exactly is the similarity between how I sound and how they sound? We are singing primates. They are primates like us. They are like lemurs, but no, there are other primates that use song to communicate. So they make the songs that are composed of different notes that are like harmonics in sound, and they have different like pitch. They follow a like specific pattern. And as similar to us, they are able to, you know, to move the vocal tract in a way that helps them be more intense when they sing. And this is something that we do that like opera singers do, because we have a sound that is produced by our vocal cords, and is the first like the source of the sound of our voice. And then we can move our mouths and all the vocal tract to modify this song. If we want to try together, you can do ah with, you know, your mouth open. But if you want to do oh, you're like changing the shape of your mouth. And this is what also animals do. And there is a specific type of shape modification that is called vocal tract tuning. So they tune the vocal tract so the sound is way more intense than it will be without this adjustment. And this is what injuries do and what like opera singers do. Do they sing to each other? And when they do, what do they say to each other? They use the song to communicate to other like groups saying, you know, this territory is ours, we are here today, we'll be here tomorrow, don't come here. And then the other group replies, oh, yeah, also, this territory is ours. So please don't come here. These are our resources. What does it tell us about the evolution of vocal communication? Here we have what we call convergent evolution, meaning that some traits evolve because they have a purpose and a function for a specific problem. And in this case, the problem that injury has and the problem that maybe human have is to reach person or animals that are far away. Researcher Chiara De Gregorio. And that's all from us for now. But before you go, we need your help. Did you know there are nearly 1300 terms and phrases used by election officials? In the United States. So with midterms fast approaching the global news podcast is joining forces with AmeriCast. Together, we'll be offering you a one-off jargon-busting special, and we want your suggestions, please, for words and phrases that could do with an explanation. Nothing is too simple. In our sights already are Senate, caucus, and gerrymander. Please let us know what else to add. It's the usual address, globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also now watch our episodes in full. Just search for the Global News Podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Rosenwyn Dorrell, and the producer was Vanessa Heaney. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye.