Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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I'm Alex Ritson and at 16 hours GMT on Friday the 27th of February, these are our main stories. Pakistan says it's killed almost 300 Taliban officials and militants in Afghanistan as the conflict between the South Asian neighbours escalates. Another purge at the top of China's military as President Xi punishes any sign of perceived disloyalty.
Also in this podcast, people in Gaza mark Ramadan under a shaky ceasefire after two years of war.
Before the war, God be praised, we were very well off. Now, God be praised that we are alive.
And we'll hear from Cuba about the consequences of the US oil blockade. Let's start the podcast in South Asia and the sharp escalation in hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is causing alarm across the region. That's the sound of the emergency services responding to a series of explosions in the Afghan capital Kabul overnight on Thursday.
Pakistani warplanes also bombed the city of Kandahar, another stronghold of the country's Taliban government. These people in Kabul described their experience.
We were all asleep when the plane came in very low.
As soon as I heard the sound of the aircraft, I got up. I saw the plane descend and drop two bombs. Then it went back up again. It was around 2am. All of us, including the women, ran downstairs.
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Chapter 2: What recent actions have Pakistan and Afghanistan taken against each other?
Yama Baris in Kabul. China and Iran have offered to mediate to try to end hostilities. Our correspondent in the region, Yogita Lemoye, has been telling me more about this latest escalation.
This is the latest serious escalation in months of hostilities between the two sides. And there's been a blame game that's been going on. So Afghanistan's Taliban government says that the ground offensive it launched last night was in response to Pakistan's airstrikes in Afghanistan in February in the in a province close to the border with Pakistan.
Pakistan says it was launching those airstrikes because it believes Afghanistan's Taliban government is supporting and I'm quoting the Pakistani government here, is supporting anti-Pakistan terrorists who are launching attacks in Pakistan, including the deadly attack recently in Islamabad targeting a mosque in which dozens of people were killed.
So this is a blame game that has been going on for several months. The last serious escalation was in October 2025. There were attempts to mediate at the time by Qatar and by Turkey. And while a fragile ceasefire followed, which has been broken, there was no proper agreement between the two sides on ending hostilities.
Yogita Lemurye. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a news story available every weekday. Nine senior officers of the Chinese military have been officially removed as delegates to the country's annual parliamentary session just days before it's due to start.
It's being seen as a sign that Xi Jinping's crackdown within the upper ranks of the People's Liberation Army is continuing. I heard more from our China correspondent Stephen McDonnell, who's in Beijing. We just got a readout saying that the following delegates to the National People's Congress have been removed. Five full generals, four other senior officers. No explanation why.
It's not unusual in this opaque system. to not find out the details of these things. But obviously, if they're delegates to this Congress, this annual Congress, and they're a few days out before that Congress is about to start, removed from the Congress, well, it shows they've been purged. And so the important thing really is that... It's ongoing for months now.
Xi Jinping has been cutting a swathe through the upper echelons of the PLA and nine more. It seems incredible, but they just keep going down. Yeah. And people have talked about them perhaps being seen by President Xi as potential rivals. But are there potential rivals? Would anyone dare? It is an interesting question. Analysts would say it doesn't really matter how real the threat is.
It's how Xi Jinping feels about the threat. So it's not so much maybe that he would realistically think a couple of generals are going to get together and lay on a coup, but the idea that power could even a little bit be slipping from his hands or that there could be groupings within the party not really listening to him. He's just so all-powerful. We've not seen anything like it since Mao.
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