President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned growing protests in Turkey in the days since the arrest of a key opposition figure. Also: flights resume at London's Heathrow Airport after shutdown caused by fire at electrical substation.
Chapter 1: What are the main stories covered in this episode?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Saturday the 22nd of March, these are our main stories. Riot police in Turkey have clashed with demonstrators as tens of thousands come onto the streets of main cities in the country to protest against the detention of the popular mayor of Istanbul.
Heathrow Airport is beginning to get back to normal after a fire at a nearby electricity substation shut down Europe's busiest hub, causing chaos. A hearing is taking place in the US to decide on the legality of the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. also in this podcast.
I think if America doesn't help Ukraine, that a ceasefire will be agreed soon, but on extremely unfavourable terms for Ukraine.
Chapter 2: What is happening with the protests in Turkey?
As negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine continue, we hear from troops in the region of Sumy, close to the Russian border in the northeast. For three consecutive nights, thousands of protesters have flooded the streets of Istanbul and other cities over the arrest of Turkish President Erdogan's main rival, Ekrem İmamoğlu. On Friday night, there have been scenes of violence.
The area around Istanbul's city hall was brought to a standstill, with riot police deploying tear gas near to where Meir Imamoglu is due to stand trial on charges of bribery. Addressing the protesters, Turkish opposition leader Özgür Ozil called for his release.
Democrats are not afraid of the square. Democrats are brave, respectful of protest and understanding. But dictators are afraid of squares. If, Erdogan, you are afraid of this square, then you are a dictator. If you try to harm the mayor, Istanbul itself will break the hand that reaches out against its will.
President Erdogan has denounced the demonstrations, calling them acts of vandalism and street terror. I got this update from BBC's Hilkan Boran, who's in Istanbul.
We've heard of numerous reports about clashes in Istanbul and the capital Ankara in a major province called Izmir and other provinces across Turkey. And the Interior Minister Ali Alikaya has announced that there were clashes and that 97 people have been detained in relation to the demonstrations tonight. And just to remind you, there are protest bands in place in Istanbul, Ankara and and Izmir.
So technically, everyone who's going out in these provinces are in breach of law, but law enforcement officials have so far been tolerant of these protests. But we have seen some instances where the police employed tear gas and water cannons, as well as some protesters attacking police barricades with numerous different things.
And President Erdogan has said he will not tolerate this. What is going to happen in this court case?
So far, we do not have a clear indication of what is going to happen, but we know that Imamullah and other people who have been detained alongside him who are almost numbering 100 people, are charged with crimes like bribery, with corruption, with rigging tenders, etc.
So we might expect some of those allegations to be officially leveled against Imamoglu and his associates when he faces this trial. Going forward than that, we do not have an exact idea of what is going to happen. What we do know is that the main opposition party is planning to announce Imamoglu as their official candidate. They're going to declare Imamoglu
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Chapter 3: What is the situation at Heathrow Airport after the fire?
as their official presidential candidate on Sunday with ballots going to be set up across Turkey in a show of support for Imamoglu.
And are they calling on people to come onto the streets again?
Yes. So far, they have been calling on people to hold protests every night in Istanbul and in major cities. And we are expecting to see more protests throughout the weekend with the culmination possibly on Sunday with this ceremonial voting for Imamoglu's presidential candidacy for the main opposition party.
Hilkan Boran in Istanbul. As we record this podcast, the situation at Heathrow Airport is still far from normal after Friday's blackout caused by a huge fire at an electricity substation nearby. Very few flights landed and took off, mainly to relocate aircraft and to bring planes into London after so many were diverted or grounded on airfields around the world.
leaving passengers stranded, like Adam Brown on a British Airways plane en route from Washington to London.
Somewhere over the Atlantic, an announcement came over and said that there was a fire at Heathrow and that we had been diverted to go back to the Washington DC airport. So there are groans and grumbles, of course, and some confusion and slumber. And then we got ready and turned around and came back to the airport.
A normal day would see more than 1,300 flights carrying nearly 300,000 passengers. I spoke to our correspondent Tom Simons, who's at Heathrow.
If flights have resumed, and they have, in a very small amount of cases, there aren't many of them. A plane is just taking off in front of me, but I've been here for about an hour. I haven't seen anything really take off or land until the one that you can probably hear in the distance taking off. So this is very, very unusual for Heathrow, usually a flight every 45 seconds.
There may be knock-on effects, but actually the airport says that by closing today, it hopes to get everything running again. And I think apart from one or two, or perhaps a handful of flights that have been cancelled, that is what is being promised. Passengers are being told, turn up as normal, you don't have to get here early, you should be able to fly.
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Chapter 4: How is the conflict in Sudan affecting civilians?
IATA, the International Airline Association, is not happy. It says there are many questions to be answered here. And also the British government is saying it would like to take a look at what happened too.
Tom Simons. Sudan's army chief says there'll be no talks with the paramilitary rapid support forces until they retreat and lay down their arms. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was speaking at the funerals of two soldiers killed shortly after his forces had captured the presidential palace in Khartoum. The BBC spoke to a woman in Omdurman, close to the capital, about the latest situation there.
Because of the poor quality of the line, we have voiced up our answers.
Actually, this is a very good step for the people of Sudan.
Actually, this is a very good step for the people of Sudan because, you know, the Palace of Sudan is a kind of symbol of sovereignty for Sudan's people. People are very happy because now the palace is back to Sudan's people. We can say not just for the army or for the military, it's just for the Sudanese people.
Today people are so happy that the army is controlling the palace, but they cannot celebrate because they fear gathering, because wherever they're gathering there is bombing, so people are just celebrating in their homes. They can't go out because of the shelling.
The other important thing for us, that the palace is now with the Sudanese people, the place where the palace is located is the heart of Khartoum, which is the capital. That's where most of the ministries are located and the government institutions. So it's the heart of Khartoum. And when the palace is back, that means the area is back to the Sudanese people.
And hopefully this war is coming to an end just in that area. The last days were terrible, actually. They were terrifying days because the shelling was going out and coming in.
The RSF was bombing Omdurman.
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Chapter 5: Who was Oleg Gordievsky and what was his impact on the Cold War?
There's a smell of death around this place, so it really paints a picture of what's happened here during the war. These fresh graves, we're told, hold victims of RSF fire. But both sides are condemned for war crimes. The army's accused of mass killings elsewhere. Abdin Durma is digging a grave. He did that before the war. Now he does nothing else.
Bodies come straight from the hospital, he says, 25, 30, sometimes 50 per day.
There's no time to sleep until the last body is buried. And then I sleep for half an hour or 15 minutes until I get another call. People die from bullets, from shelling. People are killed sitting in their homes. There's so much death.
Abdin's phone rings again. Another body is ready for burial. Watching him work, it's clear the wounds of this war will continue to haunt Sudan, whatever the military outcome.
Barbara Platt-Usher reporting from Khartoum in Sudan. One of the most important Western spies of the Cold War, Oleg Gordievsky, has died at the age of 86 at his home in England. He worked secretly for Britain's intelligence service MI6 for 11 years while he was employed by the Soviet KGB.
He was credited with changing the course of the Cold War by helping the West understand the Soviet perspective. Speaking to the BBC in 2008, he explained why he did it.
It was certainly the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union and other communist countries. It was so outrageous that I decided, now it is the end. I must stop working for this criminal, awful regime.
Ben McIntyre is the author of The Spy and the Traitor, the greatest espionage story of the Cold War, about Oleg Gordievsky's double life. He spoke to Paul Henley about why Gordievsky is credited with stopping a third world war.
Well, Oleg Gordievsky was able to open up the KGB for the West in a way that had never happened before. He just cracked it open and he was able to tell people both MI6 and latterly the CIA, not just what the CIA was doing, but what they were planning to do. And that is gold dust in intelligence terms. He was able to put the West one step ahead.
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