Sep 21, 2026 · 29 min
Typhoon exposes Japan’s fragile urban routines
Typhoon hits Japan causing landslides and cancelled flights
The episode connects a dangerous storm in Tokyo with wider stories about political control, displacement, public safety and institutional failure.
- 1Typhoon Dujuan brings evacuation warnings, landslides, power cuts and widespread disruption across Tokyo.
- 2Russia’s tightly controlled election and Germany’s far-right gains raise questions about democratic accountability in Europe.
- 3Reports from Gaza, Yemen and Indonesia show how conflict and institutional failures leave civilians with few protections.
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The report on Gaza’s planned evacuation and demolition of more than 250 unsafe buildings captures the human cost of infrastructure collapse when alternative shelter is unavailable.
The brief
Typhoon Dujuan hits Tokyo with heavy rain, strong winds and evacuation warnings, cancelling flights, trains and events while threatening landslides, power cuts and further disruption.
The episode widens from immediate weather danger to a Belgian-led operation that makes nearly 500 arrests and seizes drugs, weapons and ammunition across Latin America and Europe.
In Gaza, authorities plan to evacuate and demolish more than 250 wartime-damaged buildings, but residents face the central problem: there is little safe shelter to replace them.
Reports from Yemen, Germany and Russia trace different forms of insecurity, from refugees escaping renewed fighting to far-right electoral gains and a Kremlin-controlled parliamentary vote.
The most intimate stories concern protection: allegations of abuse at an Indonesian boarding school, sensors supporting dementia care in Britain, and a fatal fight over sun loungers near Athens.
Katya Adler
Tokyo
Vladimir Putin
BBC World ServiceListen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.