# Monday 24th August 2026. Ukraine shopping mall double-tap. Iceland referendum. Panama water. Canada-US trade war. Darwin on ticklishness...

An episode of [Simple English News Daily](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505603790), 23 Aug 2026, 8:09.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/op3.dev/e/adbarker.com/stream/K1GF85x83ZWP88Cz18NfA8bx/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74602763/24_08_26.mp3

Become a supporter at send7.supercast.com for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, transcripts, vocabulary lists, worksheets, quizzes and more... The price will go up in September, so lock in your lower price in August! World news in 7 minutes. Monday 24th August 2026. Today: Ukraine shopping mall double-tap. Serbia fire. Iceland referendum. South Africa shooting. Guinea landfill collapse. Ethiopian runner. Panama water. Canada-US trade war. India sea rescue. Pakistan Khan prison. Australia Russian arrest. And ticklishness. With Stephen Devincenzi Become a SEND7 supporter! • Ad-free listening • Bonus quiz episode every Friday • Daily transcripts (written by us, not AI!) • Vocabulary lists • Wednesday worksheets • Ask questions in Ask Me Anything episodes • 10% of our profit goes to Effective Altruism charities. You can become a supporter at send7.supercast.com For more information about SEND7 visit send7.org/contact or send an email to podcast@send7.org

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Good morning. This is send seven world news in seven minutes.
[0:06] Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Devinchenzi. Today is Monday, the twenty fourth of
[0:10] Speaker 1: August twenty twenty six. Starting in Europe today in Ukraine,
[0:22] Speaker 1: a Russian drone attack on a shopping center in the
[0:25] Speaker 1: central city of Krivri has killed at least sixteen people
[0:30] Speaker 1: and injured over one hundred. Officials have described the attack
[0:34] Speaker 1: as a double tap because a second drone hit the
[0:38] Speaker 1: shopping center while emergency services were attending. Rescue operations are continuing.
[0:44] Speaker 1: There has been a fast rise in civilian deaths in
[0:48] Speaker 1: Ukraine this year as Russia has increased its drone and
[0:51] Speaker 1: missile attacks and because Ukraine has a lack of air
[0:54] Speaker 1: defense against ballistic missiles. There has also been a rise
[0:59] Speaker 1: in Russian civilian deaths from Ukrainian attacks this year. However,
[1:04] Speaker 1: they are still about ten times less common than Ukrainian
[1:08] Speaker 1: civilian deaths, according to data from the Russian Conflict Intelligence Team. Yesterday,
[1:15] Speaker 1: the leaders of Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland traveled to
[1:19] Speaker 1: Ukraine for Ukraine's flag Day and held talks with President
[1:23] Speaker 1: Vladimir Zelenski. During her speech, Denmark's Prime Minister Metafredrickson gave
[1:30] Speaker 1: a description of Russia's double tap strike on the shopping mall.
[1:34] Speaker 2: Forty eight hours ago, a shopping mall was hit by
[1:37] Speaker 2: a Russian attack cruel atrocity against civilians, and when brave
[1:43] Speaker 2: emergency responders rush to save lives and put out fires,
[1:47] Speaker 2: the mall was struck again, a so called doubled tap
[1:54] Speaker 2: strike once, wait, strike again, radical description which blurs what.
[2:03] Speaker 3: It really is, pure evil. That is the backdrop for today.
[2:11] Speaker 3: It is the backdrop for the last four and a
[2:14] Speaker 3: half years. Dear friends and dear heroes. Today my heart
[2:20] Speaker 3: goes out.
[2:21] Speaker 2: To every man and every woman on the battlefields of Ukraine.
[2:26] Speaker 2: All of you, brave Ukrainian soldiers fighting to defend your country.
[2:32] Speaker 2: You never asked for this war, yet you stand firm
[2:39] Speaker 2: fighting for what you know is right. A free Ukraine,
[2:44] Speaker 2: a free Europe. Your security is Europe's security. When you
[2:50] Speaker 2: defend Kchiv and Odessa, you also defend Riga, Helsinki and Copenhagen.
[2:58] Speaker 1: In Serbia, firefighters from the European Union are helping to
[3:02] Speaker 1: fight wildfires in the Deliblato nature Reserve. A Russian fire
[3:08] Speaker 1: fighting plane also arrived in Serbia. A few days ago.
[3:13] Speaker 1: In Iceland, there will be a referendum about joining the
[3:17] Speaker 1: European Union on Saturday. The question is should negotiations on
[3:22] Speaker 1: Iceland's membership in the European Union start again. Opinion polls
[3:27] Speaker 1: are showing a very close result. If talks do continue,
[3:32] Speaker 1: then another referendum about whether to join the EU would
[3:36] Speaker 1: happen after a deal is agreed. Africa. In South Africa,
[3:43] Speaker 1: the world champion boxer Zolane Tete has been shot dead.
[3:48] Speaker 1: Tete was attacked by two armed men and no reason
[3:52] Speaker 1: has been given. Tete held the world Junior bantamweight title
[3:57] Speaker 1: from twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen and the world bantamweight
[4:00] Speaker 1: title from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen. In Guinea, at
[4:06] Speaker 1: least thirty people have been killed after the collapse of
[4:09] Speaker 1: part of a rubbish land filled site. Ethiopian runner Yomif
[4:15] Speaker 1: Kajelcha has broken the world record for the half marathon
[4:19] Speaker 1: with a time of fifty six minutes and fifty one
[4:22] Speaker 1: seconds at the Buenos Aires Marathon in Argentina, Americas. The
[4:30] Speaker 1: Panama Canal will limit the number of ships that can
[4:34] Speaker 1: pass through each day because of the expectation of low
[4:39] Speaker 1: water levels passing through some of the canal's locks requires
[4:44] Speaker 1: fresh water to raise and lower ships. This water is
[4:48] Speaker 1: also needed for the population of Panama. Canadian Prime Minister
[4:53] Speaker 1: Mark Carney has said that Canada will match United States
[4:57] Speaker 1: tariffs after trade talk's collapse this weekend. On Saturday, Carnee
[5:02] Speaker 1: gave a public statement in which he said that Canada
[5:06] Speaker 1: could not accept the US offer and said that tariffs
[5:10] Speaker 1: would be introduced to protect Canadian workers and industries.
[5:14] Speaker 4: We cannot accept what they've offered, and we will not
[5:19] Speaker 4: give what they've asked. Canada will match Washington's new tariffs
[5:24] Speaker 4: dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers,
[5:29] Speaker 4: families and businesses. Our response will be concentrated in sectors
[5:34] Speaker 4: such as steel, dairy appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, electronics.
[5:40] Speaker 4: Canada fuels American growth, supplying ninety nine percent of their
[5:44] Speaker 4: natural gas imports, eighty five percent of their electricity imports,
[5:48] Speaker 4: sixty percent of their crude oil imports. I don't think
[5:53] Speaker 4: they want us to stop sending any of that energy.
[6:00] Speaker 1: Asia and Oceania. India's navy and coast Guards are searching
[6:06] Speaker 1: for twenty two people after a cargo ship sank off
[6:10] Speaker 1: India's east coast yesterday. Two people have been rescued. In Pakistan,
[6:16] Speaker 1: former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been returned to prison
[6:20] Speaker 1: after briefly visiting hospital. The Supreme Court last week said
[6:25] Speaker 1: that Khan should be transferred to hospital. In Australia, a
[6:30] Speaker 1: man has been arrested for allegedly passing information about Ukrainian
[6:35] Speaker 1: military activity to Russia. The Russian Australian man was arrested
[6:40] Speaker 1: in the city of Brisbane, with authorities saying that he
[6:44] Speaker 1: joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces last year and then passed
[6:48] Speaker 1: information about military personnel and locations to Russia. And Although
[6:54] Speaker 1: he is most associated with theories of evolutionary biology, Darwin
[7:00] Speaker 1: was also right about tickling. According to a new study,
[7:05] Speaker 1: tickling is the touching of the body in a way
[7:08] Speaker 1: which causes laughter and uncontrollable movements. Scientists tested five theories
[7:15] Speaker 1: about what causes ticklishness. Darwin's theory from eighteen seventy two
[7:20] Speaker 1: was found to be the closest match to the reports
[7:23] Speaker 1: of four hundred and fifty people. Darwin's theory was that
[7:26] Speaker 1: the parts of the body that are least often touched
[7:30] Speaker 1: are the ones that are most likely to be ticklish.
[7:34] Speaker 1: A big thank you to Araceli in Spain for becoming
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[7:56] Speaker 1: up during August and you will keep our old low
[8:00] Speaker 1: price before our prices go up in September. On Wednesday,
[8:04] Speaker 1: you will be with Ben Mallet. Have a great day.

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