Counter-terrorism police investigate fire at Heathrow power station. Also: Sudan's army recaptures presidential palace in Khartoum and Abercrombie & Fitch's former boss is accused of abuse by 40 men.
Chapter 1: Why is Heathrow Airport shut down?
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We are recording this at 14 hours GMT on Friday the 21st of March. Europe's busiest airport Heathrow is shut for the entire day, causing travel chaos around the world.
After nearly two years of civil war in Sudan, the army recaptures the presidential palace in Khartoum, and the former boss of Abercrombie & Fitch is accused of abuse by 40 men.
Also in the podcast... There's only been three made, so incredibly rare. I think that with commission it will exceed a million dollars.
E.T. goes under the hammer. Every day, around 230,000 passengers travel through Heathrow in West London, making it the busiest airport in Europe. But today, its runways are quiet, with no planes coming or going after a big fire knocked out the electricity supply nearby.
Chapter 2: How are global flights affected by Heathrow's closure?
More than 1,300 flights are affected, and aviation consultant John Strickland says it could be some time before services return to normal.
The way this is going to play out is really a small version of what we saw with the 9-11 terror attacks way back more than 20 years ago.
And while that was a much more widespread challenge, for Heathrow this is exactly the same because the airport being closed entirely means many, many long-haul flights were already on their way to Heathrow and there will be frantic efforts by airline staff to get other aircraft on route, diverted to other places.
Lucy Adler is stuck at Delhi Airport, back where she started after nine hours in the air.
So I was on a 5 a.m. flight out of Delhi, which was supposed to land at Heathrow for sort of 10 a.m. And literally exactly halfway through, Captain woke us all up and kind of said, hey, there's been a problem. There's been a fire at Heathrow. And actually, you know, we're going to need to. And we all thought he was going to say land at a different airport.
What he actually said was, turn around and go back to Delhi. So yeah, it was a bit of a shock to the system to hear we were flying a whole nine hours to end up back where we started.
Our correspondent at Heathrow Airport, Charlotte Gallagher, told us more about how this all happened.
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Chapter 3: What caused the fire at the Heathrow power station?
Well, it was a pretty dramatic fire. There were essentially flames shooting out of the top of this substation, which isn't at Heathrow Airport, but it's pretty close by and it supplies the majority of Heathrow Airport's power. And people living near the substation said it sounded like an explosion and their houses were rocking. Around 100 people had to be evacuated from their homes.
And actually, when we arrived this morning, we could smell the smoke. It was pretty strong. So there was obviously this huge concern about the fire. And then now, of course, there's this huge issue with Heathrow Airport. It should be incredibly busy at the moment. Where I am now, it's deserted. There aren't even any cars being allowed near the airport.
The only cars are police cars, and they're here to turn people away and tell them to go back home.
Yeah, I mean, what does that mean for passengers, not just here in the UK, but around the world?
Well, because this airport is so crucial and deals with hundreds of thousands of passengers every day and 1,300 flights every day, it's having a huge knock-on effect because the aircraft aren't where they're supposed to be. So they've not taken off from Heathrow to go to various airports around the world. Aeroplanes that are stuck at various airports to come to Heathrow, they're stuck there.
So it's this huge strategic mess, basically. They don't know where to put people at the moment. And some aeroplanes have been able to land at nearby airports like Gatwick Airport. Others have gone to Munich, they've gone to Paris, they've gone to Shannon and Ireland. But it's having this massive effect.
And even though the airport will be hopefully back open at midnight tonight, there's not going to be this magic wand that means everything's going to go back to normal and the schedule will be up and running because... The aircraft simply aren't where they're supposed to be.
So there's going to be a couple of days of really significant disruption at Heathrow Airport and other airports across the world.
And presumably quite a lot of costs. Who will pay that? Will it be the airport itself or airlines?
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Chapter 4: What is the latest development in Sudan's civil war?
counter-terrorism police are involved. It's not because at this stage anyone's seen anything to suggest that the fire was deliberately caused and was sabotaged, but it's because of the possibility in the back of people's minds. Well, could some hostile state or a terrorist group have spotted this vulnerability and decided to target it?
So counter-terrorism police are leading the police side of the investigation. They're quite clear that at this stage there's no evidence of foul play, but they'd be foolish to
not to look for it and so that's what they're doing and also if at some point down the line it does become clear that this was a deliberately caused fire you wouldn't want the counterterrorism or police officers to then get involved you know several days down the line you want them to be involved from the start.
Daniel Sanford. When civil war broke out in Sudan nearly two years ago the rapid support forces captured most of the capital Khartoum including the presidential palace. Now after months of fierce fighting the army has taken it back. Footage from inside the palace showed troops and volunteer fighters waving flags and wandering around rooms littered with rubble.
A spokesman for the Sudanese army, Nabil Abdallah, said they now controlled key parts of the capital.
In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful. In a timeless, heroic battle, our forces crowned their successes today in Khartoum, where they were able to crush the remnants of the terrorist militia of Dagalo. In the areas of central Khartoum, the Arab market and the buildings of the Republican Palace, a symbol of the sovereignty, pride and dignity of the Sudanese people.
And in the buildings of the ministries.
Well, it marks a big victory for the armed forces, though the RSF say the battle is not over yet. And a drone strike is reported to have killed a number of journalists and army officials. I got the latest from our correspondent in Sudan, Barbara Platasha.
There has been a lot of celebration at the palace because the Sudanese army recaptured it early on Friday morning. The soldiers entered the complex. It's been a real moment of victory for the army. This has been a goal that they've been wanting to achieve for a very long time. The military objective is It's sort of obvious, really.
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Chapter 5: What are the allegations against Abercrombie & Fitch's former CEO?
And as long as the RSF was holding it, it was holding more than its natural homeland, its natural base, which is the west of the country, Darfur. For all those reasons, it's a very important step for the army. to be able to take back the capital. Now, as I said, there will still be fighting as the RSF fighters are still in the city.
They do control an area to the south and the military has indicated that the offensive will continue to push them out.
But the overall picture is that the army is, what, slowly pushing back the RSF across the country?
The army has made significant gains in certain parts of the country, especially in central Sudan. This was Jazeera State, which the RSF took over sort of a surprise attack because it's really outside of its natural range of control. The army took that back a couple of months ago, and since then it has really been on the forward foot.
pushing from the central Sudan towards Khartoum, coming towards Khartoum from the north as well, coming at it from all different sides, clearing the districts of the city and then culminating in the center, squeezing the RSF there and trapping them there in order to get control. So they have taken back large parts of Sudan.
Having said that, the RSF has the west of Sudan and also parts of the south. So what you're seeing actually is a hardening of divisions there. between zones of control of the army and the RSF.
More than 40 men have now come forward to accuse the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch of rape, sexual assault or drugging. Mike Jeffries, who was charged with sex trafficking in October, is facing multiple lawsuits, alleging he assaulted men under the pretext of offering them possible modelling opportunities.
The BBC's Rhianna Croxford broke the original story and has continued with her investigation.
Lawyers have told me that these allegations now span 22 years, from 1992, when Mike Jeffries became chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch, all the way to 2015, shortly after he stepped down. Now, these claims have been brought by former models. But for the first time, they've also been brought by former employees or people who were employees of the company at the time.
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