# Gunmen attack South African house party

- Show: Global News Podcast
- Published: 2026-09-23
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/135067274_97c1c97facd3.html
- Audio: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0pc273z.mp3
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Gunmen stormed a house party near Durban, South Africa, killing 11 people including a pregnant woman in what police believe may be a contract killing. The attack shines a spotlight on one of the world's worst murder crises, where around 60 people are killed every day. This week's podcast also covers IMF warnings over soaring debt costs in wealthy nations, China's breakneck AI data-centre build-out in Inner Mongolia, a study showing films with female writers outperform male-only teams by 34%, and new evidence of a hidden space near Tutankhamun's tomb.

## What this episode answers

### How many people are killed in South Africa each year, and what is the government doing about it?

South Africa loses around 60 people to violent crime every day; the government has deployed the military onto the streets to support police in some areas, though only a temporary reduction in violence has resulted and no lasting solution has been found.

### What fiscal warnings did IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva deliver to advanced-economy governments?

Georgieva warned that while external shocks are beyond governments' control, domestic policy is not, and urged advanced economies to bring down inflation and tackle their debt problems head-on, also flagging concern that massive AI investment could be inflating a bubble.

### Why has China chosen Inner Mongolia as the site for a concentrated push to build AI data centres?

Inner Mongolia was chosen because of its abundant renewable energy resources, with vast wind turbines and solar panels powering data centre clusters built by companies including Huawei on land that was farmland just months ago.

### How do films made by women compare commercially to those made by all-male teams, and why do women remain a minority in the industry?

Films with female involvement in writing or directing generated a median profit 34% higher than male-only teams with comparable budgets, yet women participated as director or writer on only 27% of films over the past 30 years, which researchers attribute to studios' risk-averse financing practices entrenching the status quo.

### What has been discovered near Tutankhamun's tomb, and what are archaeologists planning to do next?

Surveys using thermal imaging, ground-penetrating radar, geological mapping, and tomography suggest a hidden corridor or chamber may lie behind the western wall of Tutankhamun's tomb, and archaeologists are seeking permission to drill into the adjacent rock to investigate, with speculation—unconfirmed—that it could hold Queen Nefertiti's tomb.

## Article

## Eleven killed at South African house party — 'murder for hire' suspected

On Tuesday night, gunmen burst into a house party in a township near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, killing 11 people, including a pregnant woman. The BBC's Johannesburg correspondent said the area is notorious for murder-for-hire, and that police are investigating the attack as a contract killing.

South Africa loses around 60 people to violent crime every day, placing it among the countries with the highest murder rates in the world. Low prosecution rates and slow court proceedings mean that arrests, when they come, can take a long time. Earlier this year the government deployed the military onto the streets to support the police — a measure the correspondent described as a sign of just how serious the situation has become, with some areas inaccessible to police unless soldiers are present to back them up. Violent crime has fallen temporarily in areas where troops are deployed, but no lasting solution has been found.

## IMF sounds fiscal alarm — UK and US debt costs at record highs

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva used the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to warn advanced-economy governments in an interview with the BBC. "External shocks are beyond our control, but domestic policy is not," she said. "The time has come to bring down inflation and tackle the debt problem head-on."

BBC business reporter Ijoma Ndukwe provided context. Tensions over oil supply have fed through the Strait of Hormuz into inflationary pressure, prompting governments to raise interest rates and pushing the cost of servicing government debt sharply higher. In the UK, debt interest payments in August 2026 hit their highest monthly level since records began in 1997. US national debt has doubled over the past decade, surpassing $40 trillion. With Prime Minister Andy Burnham's first budget due next month, the UK is bracing for decisions on tax rises and spending cuts. Georgieva also flagged concern that the enormous volume of investment flowing into AI could be inflating a bubble.

## Farmland turned into data centres in months — China's AI build-out in Inner Mongolia

BBC China correspondent Laura Bicker filed a report from Inner Mongolia, where vast wind turbines and solar panels blanket the steppe and land that was farmland just months ago is now occupied by clusters of AI data centres built by companies including Huawei. The region was chosen for its abundant renewable energy resources.

The Asia bureau chief of *The Information* noted that despite the handicap of US semiconductor export controls, Chinese AI laboratories are catching up rapidly. AI is already woven into daily life — robot deliveries, police patrol assistance — and Beijing has shown no sign of accepting any narrative of slowdown. Yet behind the official confidence, some farmers told the BBC's correspondent off camera that losing their land to construction was far from welcome, even as they praised the government on the record. US and Chinese leaders are scheduled to meet at the White House on Thursday, with AI expected to be a central topic.

## Films by women earn 34% more — yet women account for only 27% of the industry

Researchers at the University of Mainz in Germany analysed roughly 200,000 films released over the past 30 years using box-office data from IMDb. They found that films with female involvement in writing or directing generated a median profit 34% higher than male-only teams working with comparable budgets. Greta Gerwig's *Barbie* — the top-grossing film worldwide in 2023 at approximately $1.5 billion — was cited as a prime example. Despite this outperformance, women participated as director or writer on only 27% of films over the same three decades. The researchers concluded that studios' risk-averse financing practices are the key factor entrenching the status quo.

## Hidden space beyond Tutankhamun's tomb — the search for Nefertiti

Archaeologists are seeking permission to drill into the rock adjacent to Tutankhamun's tomb. Surveys using thermal imaging, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), geological mapping, and tomography have raised the possibility that a corridor or chamber lies behind the tomb's western wall. Historian Bettany Hughes told the BBC that the theory — first proposed around a decade ago — that the space could contain the tomb of Queen Nefertiti cannot be ruled out but has not been confirmed. She said the more exciting finding is simply that an unknown space may exist at all. More than a century after its discovery, Tutankhamun's tomb may still be keeping secrets.

## Takeaways

- South Africa's murder crisis — roughly 60 deaths a day — continues despite military deployment on the streets, as the Durban house-party shooting that killed 11 people, suspected to be a contract killing, illustrates.
- The IMF is urging advanced economies including the UK and the US to cut debt urgently as interest costs hit record highs, while China races ahead with a massive AI data-centre expansion in Inner Mongolia to compete with the United States.
- A study of nearly 200,000 films found that female-led writing teams outperform male-only counterparts by 34% at the box office, yet women have been involved in only 27% of films over the past 30 years, a gap researchers attribute to risk-averse studio financing.