Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | September 28, 2026 — Evening Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | September 28, 2026 — Evening Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening from Paris.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Monday evening, September 28th.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: An Iranian anti-ship cruise missile struck a vessel carrying U.S.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Marines in the Strait of Hormuz on September 14th.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Eight Marines were injured, one officer, and seven enlisted.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: They suffered smoke inhalation and concussion-like symptoms, all returned to duty within days.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: The vessel was not a U.S. Navy ship.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Pentagon officials declined to say what it was.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pentagon never announced it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: NBC News broke the story Sunday night, citing three U.S. officials.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: The injuries were quietly logged into
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: the defense casualty analysis system roughly 10 days after the attack
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: with no public statement attached.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Those Marines were not the only addition.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Pentagon also added 29 sailors from a separate incident to the same database this month.
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  SPEAKER_00: The combined U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: military wounded total since February 28th now stands at 861 according
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  SPEAKER_00: to figures Al Jazeera obtained from the Pentagon data.
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  SPEAKER_00: Iran is not hiding its role.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Supreme Leader Mushtaba Khamenei said this week that whenever they have taken
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: that risk, they have suffered harm.
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  SPEAKER_00: He predicted American forces would eventually abandon the Arabian Sea entirely.
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  SPEAKER_00: Iranian state media went further,
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  SPEAKER_00: casting the quiet DCAS update itself as proof
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  SPEAKER_00: that Washington is undercounting its own losses in the straits.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oil traffic has not stopped, but officials disagree sharply on how much is still moving.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Treasury Secretary put current flow at 15 to 22 million barrels a day,
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  SPEAKER_00: Close to the roughly 20 million that moved before the war.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Energy Secretary gave a lower figure, near 13 million.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Neither matches September's own tracked average of 7.4 million barrels a day,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: well under half the pre-war rate.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: 19 tankers transited the strait the week ending September 27th, 17 of them large crude carriers.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: That shipping count fits the lower tracked figure far better than either official's claim.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Some of that gap is by design.
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  SPEAKER_00: Certain tankers run a workaround.
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  SPEAKER_00: They turn off their tracking transponders near Oman's coast and transfer cargo ship
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  SPEAKER_00: to ship, then re-enter the strait to reload.
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  SPEAKER_00: The point is avoiding the high war risk insurance premiums a track transit would trigger.
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  SPEAKER_00: Part of the real flow isn't visible in any of these counts, official or tracked.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: The disclosure landed alongside a second disputed claim from the same waterway.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: IRGC spokesman,
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  SPEAKER_00: Brigadier General Hussein Mohabi,
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  SPEAKER_00: said Iran had captured a second American underwater vessel at the entrance to
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: the strait.
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  SPEAKER_00: He called it not just a hunt.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: Regional coverage of this story is not treating the injuries as an embarrassment
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: for Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is treating them as proof the campaign is working.
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  SPEAKER_00: Al Jazeera pairs the casualty figures with Khomeini's own prediction
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  SPEAKER_00: that American forces will eventually abandon the Arabian Sea.
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  SPEAKER_00: Iran's press TV goes further,
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  SPEAKER_00: calling the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: presence in the Gulf an illegal U.S.-Israeli military aggression and presenting
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  SPEAKER_00: the delayed Pentagon disclosure as evidence that Washington itself doesn't want
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  SPEAKER_00: the American public to see the cost.
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  SPEAKER_00: Where U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: coverage treats the story as a transparency failure,
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  SPEAKER_00: The regional framing treats it as a battlefield result.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: American readers are only now learning that eight Marines were hurt in an attack
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  SPEAKER_00: that happened two weeks ago because the Pentagon never announced it.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Rest of the World Report has tracked this same pattern since earlier this year.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: A disputed casualty count tied to a strike near Manab and the removal of
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: a senior defense intelligence agency official amid disagreements
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  SPEAKER_00: over how battlefield assessments were being characterized.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whether this month's quiet database update reflects that same dynamic has not been established.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Russian drones struck central Kiev on Monday,
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  SPEAKER_00: killing one person and injuring 24, including three children.
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  SPEAKER_00: The strikes at the Ukrainian National Academy of Science is building a blaze
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  SPEAKER_00: and damaged the Education and Science Ministry next door.
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  SPEAKER_00: The private Dobrobat Medical Center also caught fire.
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  SPEAKER_00: Additional strikes hit the Obolonsky, Darnitsky, and Shevchenkovsky districts.
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  SPEAKER_00: As flames spread through part of the Academy of Sciences building,
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  SPEAKER_00: staff and researchers climbed out onto window ledges rather than wait inside
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  SPEAKER_00: for rescue.
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  SPEAKER_00: Firefighters worked ladders up to the windows to bring people down.
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky said a search was underway for anyone still trapped inside.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian journalist Andrei Sapolyenko called the footage reminiscent
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  SPEAKER_00: of 11 September at the World Trade Center.
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  SPEAKER_00: An aide to former National Security
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  SPEAKER_00: and Defense Council Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin was killed at the Academy
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  SPEAKER_00: of Sciences.
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  SPEAKER_00: Orbelin himself was injured.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported the toll.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky confirmed the strike on the medical center.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: The bombardment landed in the middle of a widening rift with an ally.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: At the UN General Assembly last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky disclosed that Ukraine had transferred two captured North Korean soldiers
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  SPEAKER_00: to South Korea.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine captured the pair in Russian Kursk region in January 2025.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were the first North Korean troops taken alive
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  SPEAKER_00: since Pyongyang began supplying soldiers to Russia's war in 2024.
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky said both had been difficult to take alive.
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  SPEAKER_00: One attempted suicide on capture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Seoul said it agreed to receive the soldiers only on condition that transfer stay confidential.
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  SPEAKER_00: It cites safety concerns for the men's families still inside North Korea.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's disclosure broke that understanding,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to South Korean officials,
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  SPEAKER_00: who summoned Kiev's ambassador and demanded a formal apology.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: President Lee Jae-myung called the disclosure very disappointing.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian presidential advisor Dmitry Litvin,
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  SPEAKER_00: Denied any confidentiality agreement existed at all.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: South Korean coverage treats this as a breach of trust, not a miscommunication.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Korea Times gives space to domestic critics of Seoul's own government over
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  SPEAKER_00: the episode, not just the dispute with Kyiv.
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  SPEAKER_00: One opposition lawmaker asked why South Korea could not independently disclose
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  SPEAKER_00: the repatriation of prisoners without weighing North Korea's reaction first,
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  SPEAKER_00: arguing that a country unable to do that isn't fully sovereign.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian coverage runs in the opposite direction.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kiev Independent and Ukrainska Pravda folded Monday Strike into the daily tally of
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: a capital under near-constant bombardment rather than treating it as
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  SPEAKER_00: an isolated event,
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  SPEAKER_00: a framing that leaves little room in Ukrainian coverage for the diplomatic fallout
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  SPEAKER_00: in Seoul.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: An estimated 14,000 to 15,000 North Korean troops are currently supporting Russia's war effort.
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  SPEAKER_00: The prisoner dispute is a reminder
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  SPEAKER_00: that Ukraine's alliances extend well past Washington and Brussels into a part of
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  SPEAKER_00: the world with its own stakes in how this war ends.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's former Shin Bet chief says he will sue Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: for defamation three years after Hamas' October 7th attack.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu accused Ronan Barr of knowing about the coming assault the night
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: before it happened and sitting on the information.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Barr decided not to call and update the Prime Minister, Netanyahu said.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: He added that Barr never alerted civilian security squads or IDF forces in the field
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  SPEAKER_00: and never ordered the Nova Festival evacuated.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Barr rejected the accusation outright and announced plans to file suit.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: He is demanding the release of classified documents and the summoning
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  SPEAKER_00: of Netanyahu's own staff as witnesses.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu's campaign blaming Barr has no basis in reality, Barr said.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: He accused the Prime Minister of selectively releasing documents
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  SPEAKER_00: to manipulate public opinion after three years of refusing
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  SPEAKER_00: to acknowledge responsibility himself.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The two men have been at odds for a year and a half.
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  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu first moved to fire Barr in March 2025, saying he had lost trust in him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Barr said at the time that the dismissal had nothing to do with October 7.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said Netanyahu's demand for personal loyalty ran counter to the public interest.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel's attorney general called the attempted firing unprecedented and questioned its legality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Barr was excluded from security cabinet meetings and Gaza ceasefire negotiations in
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  SPEAKER_00: the aftermath.
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  SPEAKER_00: His term was set to expire in October 2026, weeks after this week's accusation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: Israeli coverage treats this as the latest round in a longer fight over
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  SPEAKER_00: who bears responsibility for October 7th, not as a new dispute between two men.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Times of Israel and Haaretz both place it inside that longer arc,
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  SPEAKER_00: one that has already cost Netanyahu politically.
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  SPEAKER_00: Heretz goes further,
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  SPEAKER_00: framing Barr's threatened lawsuit as an attempt to force disclosure
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  SPEAKER_00: that Netanyahu has resisted for three years rather than as a personal grievance.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel has never held a full independent inquiry into the government's failures
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  SPEAKER_00: on October 7th, the kind Washington convened after September 11th.
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  SPEAKER_00: This lawsuit is the closest thing to public accountability the country has produced
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  SPEAKER_00: so far,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it is happening through a defamation claim between two men rather than
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: a formal commission.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: At least 45 people have been killed in a spree of mass shootings across South Africa
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  SPEAKER_00: over the past week spanning three provinces.
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  SPEAKER_00: No arrests have been announced in any of the incidents.
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  SPEAKER_00: The spree began on September 22nd near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal where 11 people were killed.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Five days later in Wedela southwest of Johannesburg,
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  SPEAKER_00: gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles opened fire on patrons outside
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  SPEAKER_00: a tavern around 9.30 p.m. Saturday then moved inside and kept shooting.
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  SPEAKER_00: They robbed victims of their phones and burned two vehicles before fleeing.
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  SPEAKER_00: 18 people died, including one who succumbed in hospital after the initial toll of 17.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police say eight suspects are being sought.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hours later,
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  SPEAKER_00: and roughly 1,400 kilometers away,
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  SPEAKER_00: three more shootings struck Cape Town the same night.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Gunmen killed 10 and wounded 11 at a venue in Luandal.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Four people were shot on Mathuma Street in Kailisha.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Two more were killed in Joslovo informal settlement.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Police are chasing two working theories for the deadliest attacks.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Provincial Police Commissioner Tommy Mathombone said the Wadala shooting may be tied
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: to a turf war over illegal gold mining in the area.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: It may also be retaliation for a tavern shooting roughly a month earlier.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: At Luandala, police are examining commercial disputes.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: The patrons have been buying alcohol elsewhere and drinking it at the venue,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: cutting into its sales.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: No motive has been established for the Kealitsha or Joe Slovo shootings.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: President Cyril Ramaphosa called the violence an urgent national crisis.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: This cannot go on like this,
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  SPEAKER_00: he said,
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: pledging that security forces would use tracking technology to find
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: the Wedela gunman.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Crime analyst Yusuf Abramji said authorities need to look at wider networks behind
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: the violence, pointing to South Africa's illegal firearms problem.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know,
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: 45 people dead in a week across five separate shootings in three provinces
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  SPEAKER_00: with real investigative leads police are chasing.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Has drawn almost no coverage in the U.S. press.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And a few briefs before we go.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Ebola outbreak centered in North Kivu has passed 8,067 confirmed cases
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: and 3,901 deaths, a fatality rate above 48%.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The vaccine-resistant Bundibugio strain has no approved vaccine or treatment.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: The World Health Organization says the outbreak is far from over and on pace
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: has released $267 million in additional funding as international donors work toward
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: a $2 billion response.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sudan's army and an allied coalition of Darfur armed movements recaptured Sadari
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: and North Kordofan over the weekend,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: a town the Rapid Support Forces had held since April 2023.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is the latest gain in a westward offensive that began in late July.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Retreating RSF fighters looted and wrecked the town's main hospital before withdrawing.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That cut off healthcare access for more than 50,000 people,
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: continuing a pattern seen in other towns the RSF has abandoned across Kordofan.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for tonight's edition of The Rest of the World Report.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you all again tomorrow morning.