Global News Podcast - 14 year old boy arrested after four killed in US school shooting

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Two pupils and two teachers died in the incident at Apalachee High school in Georgia. Also: animal groups say Russian "spy whale" was shot.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Thursday the 5th of September, these are our main stories.

Police in the US state of Georgia say a 14-year-old has been detained following a high school shooting in which four people were killed. The US sanctions Russian state media executives as it accuses Moscow of a widespread campaign to interfere with this year's presidential election. Mexico's Congress moves ahead with controversial judicial reforms despite widespread protests. Also in this podcast, animal rights groups say a much-loved whale suspected of being a Russian spy was shot dead. The injuries that are clearly visible are so serious and so concerning that we want the police to be involved in an early stage of this process. We start with a story that is all too sadly familiar. A school shooting in the US which has left four people dead. Officials have named a 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, as a suspected

gunman. The school in the state of Georgia is around 70 kilometers northeast of the state capital Atlanta. These students described the moment they realized a shooting was underway. We heard some loud bangs like gunshots in the hallway and we hid. Some of them were panicking, felt like they were going to pass out or something. And after like 20, 15 minutes, the cops came. Two police officers came in with their guns, telling us that this is not a drill and that we're still not safe. The school is still not safe. The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Chris Hosey, gave this briefing to reporters. This is a murder investigation. The shooter is in custody. His name is Colt, that's C-O-L-T,

Gray. He is a 14-year-old student. He is a 14-year-old student here at the high school. Again, he has been taken into custody. He will be charged with murder and he will be tried as an adult. President Joe Biden said he was mourning the dead and that Americans could no longer accept such shootings as normal, a sentiment echoed by the Vice President Kamala Harris as she spoke at an election rally in New Hampshire. And it's just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It's senseless. We've got to stop it. And we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. I heard more about the shooting from our U.S.

correspondent, Nedda Torfik. Law enforcement were on the scene within minutes, they say. They also actually had two resource officers who are posted at the school who were the first to encounter the suspect. And they said that when they encountered the suspect, he immediately surrendered, got on the floor and was taken into custody. Now, they have identified him as Colt Gray. He is a 14-year-old who went to the school, who is a student there. And they say that before they apprehended the suspect, two students and two teachers had been killed, and nine others also suffered gunshot wounds and are being treated at the hospital. They have been able to interview the suspect and get in touch with his family

and they say he's going to be charged as an adult for murder. And that's despite the fact that he's only 14 years old. That's right. And, you know, inevitably it's raised the question, how has a 14 year old been able to go into school with a gun without any kind of warning signs beforehand? You know, this is something that has happened before in the United States, of course, school shootings have become something of an epidemic. And it's become such a normal part of students' lives that it's really intolerable. And we've had the Vice President Kamala Harris

talking about this gun epidemic. We've had the President Joe Biden talking about how this has to stop. He has tried in the past to bring in tighter gun controls, but failed. This shooting comes two months before the US presidential election. It's occurred in a crucial swing state. Will it be any different this time? Could this shooting play into the political considerations? Well, look, Kamala Harris was campaigning in New Hampshire, but she took the time to stop and speak about Georgia. And she said this is going to be an issue in this election. You know, look, I've been covering school shootings since Newtown, Connecticut in 2012,

when 26 people were killed, including 26 and seven year olds. And after that, when there was no action, many felt it would be almost impossible to get any kind of political will to change laws. You know, parents of those students, families of those students have become activists. Since then, there have a real kind of problem in getting the two sides together. You have those who want to protect the right to bear arms, the Second Amendment, and who fear that any kind of stricter regulations would just take away their rights. And you have those who want universal background checks, bans on assault weapons, who feel that those kind of what they say common sense gun laws should be something that is easy to get through. There should be compromise. But there hasn't been a way to kind of bridge that gap over the years. And right now, as you say, there's a presidential election. And so it's very unlikely that there will be any movement until at least a new president

is elected. And even then, it really depends on what shape Congress is in. Neddatorfik. The US has for years accused Russia and other hostile nations of attempting to influence its presidential elections. Now it's announced that sanctions have been imposed against two editors of the Russian state broadcaster RT, accusing them of spreading Kremlin propaganda to influence this November's election. Eight other people said to have been involved in

the operation have also been sanctioned. The U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would aggressively counter Russian efforts to undermine American democracy, including taking action against multiple internet domains he said were engaging in covert campaigns to interfere with the U.S. election. These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites like the Washington Post or Fox News. But in fact, they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests,

and influence voters in the United States and in other countries. Internal documents of the Kremlin describe the content as, quote, bogus stories disguised as newsworthy events, close quote. A correspondent in Washington, Jenny Kumar, told us more. Well, there's some 65 days until the US presidential elections and the Biden administration has called out what it says is Russian interference in that vote. Now, multiple government agencies have announced a range of measures to tackle the spread of Russian disinformation, and that includes visa restrictions, sanctions and indictments. Now, amongst that, the US Treasury Department has indicted

the managing editor of RT, the Russian state broadcaster, and her deputy. Now, they're accused of spending £10 million to secretly pay an unnamed company in Tennessee to spread thousands of videos on social media. Now, in a statement to the BBC, RT has dismissed the claims in a mocking statement saying, 2016 called and it wants its clichés back, a reference to Russian interference in past US elections. So why would Russia do this? Well, the US says it's because it wants to sow division amongst American voters and to undermine

international support for Ukraine, which Russia invaded two years ago. Now, the US says it's not just Russia doing this. It also points to Iran and China. And last month, it accused Iran of hacking the Trump campaign and leaking documents. It also has accused Iran of trying to hack the Harris campaign. Jenny Kumar. Next, let's turn to Mexico, where demonstrators took to the streets to express their alarm over controversial reforms to the country's judicial system. Despite the protests, the reforms were approved by the lower house of the Mexican Congress in a marathon session on Tuesday night. Under the plans, which also have to be approved by the Senate, 7,000 magistrates and judges, including Supreme Court justices, will be elected by popular vote. The opposition and rights groups say it's an effort by the outgoing president,

Andres Manuel López Obrador, to concentrate power in the hands of his left-wing party. I asked our correspondent in Mexico City, Will Grant, to tell us more about these reforms and why they're so controversial. I think it's the element of the popular vote for pretty much every judge in the country and magistrate, including those sitting on the Supreme Court. That is the element which those opposition parties and the protesters believe that is undermining Mexican democracy, but which supporters of President López Obrador claim is a sort of root and branch reform of the judiciary, which is riddled with corruption, much of which comes from the malign influence of organized crime. It's interesting the timing of this because President López Obrador's term finishes soon. His successor, Claudia Scheinbaum, is from the same party. So why is he doing this now? system in Mexico isn't fit for purpose anymore, that is beholden to political elites in the

country. And as I mentioned, it contains the organized crime, the influence of organized crime. So I think it is something that was very important to him personally and to his political project. With him stepping down, even though his successor has committed to the project, I think it's something that he himself wanted to sign into law. And of course, he has both the lower and upper chambers of parliament. So it's going to essentially be rubber stamped by his supporters. So it looks like this is going to go through. But this move is also creating tensions with the US and Canada. the free trade agreement of the North American region, have real reservations about what this means for Mexican democracy. We've seen investors pull out and be very, very spooked. The market's clearly spooked by what's going on because it looks to markets at least that this is a sort of authoritarian move,

that this, as you mentioned in your introduction, is an effort to concentrate power in the hands of the executive and certainly in the hands of the party loyal to President López Obrador. So yeah, it will go through almost certainly, but it doesn't stop it being very, very controversial still. Will Grant in Mexico. Here in Britain, there have been calls for government's action over building safety after an inquiry found that all 72 deaths in the Grenfell Tower fire in West London in 2017 were avoidable. Survivors and victims' families have also criticised what they called the long delay for justice after the blaze. The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the tower block because of a faulty fridge,

before the flames then raced up the sides of the building, trapping residents on the fourth floor of the tower block because of a faulty fridge, before the flames then raced up the sides of the building, trapping residents on the upper levels. The inquiry blamed years of government inaction and corporate greed and dishonesty for the disaster, which was caused by flammable cladding. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has apologised to the families. Speaking in Parliament, he said his government would take action to hold those responsible to account. In the light of such findings, it is imperative that there is full accountability, including through the criminal justice process,

and that this happens as swiftly as possible. So I can tell the House today that this government will write to all companies found by the inquiry to be part of these horrific failings as the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts. Two residents of Grenfell Tower have spoken to the BBC about the events of that day, more than seven years ago, and how they hope Wednesday's report will bring about real change. Our special correspondent Lucy Manning went to meet them. 72 names were read out by the inquiry chairman. One of them was Khadija Khaloufi.

In northwest London, her mother, brother, sister and niece watched as Sir Martin Morbick remembered her and the others who died. The 52-year-old lived on the 17th floor of Grenfell, and it's believed she went to check on another family as she tried to escape. She never made it out of the building. Her brother Karim now has the 1,700 pages of the report that amplifies his feelings of injustice, grief and fury. When you're hearing that everything was avoidable, you heard also because of their dishonesty, you have anger inside you. You said, what are they waiting for to make charges, to give us justice?

We are traumatised. We are empty inside now. Marcio and Andrea Gomez and their two children were trapped on the 21st floor. They survived, but Andrea was seven months pregnant and baby Logan was stillborn. Mr Gomez said the police always said they needed to wait for the inquiry and now it has reported the police investigation must give them justice. We knew exactly what our truth was. It's great to see it now in black and white, written down, but you can see there from the fraudulence, the greed, the dishonesty that was going on.

Does it give you the answers about how and why your little baby died? No, I don't think it gives me the answers of how Logan died or how anybody died. I mean, we can't think it gives me the answers of how Logan died or how anybody died. I mean, we can see there it could have been all avoidable. There is anger among some of the bereaved that the six-year inquiry meant the police investigation was delayed and no charges are expected any time soon. Grenfell wasn't just a building but a community. And those who died there, the babies, children, parents and grandparents were killed, the report is clear, by dishonesty, disregard and greed. That report by Lucy Manning. There's been an unexpected twist in the death of a much-loved whale. If you remember Valdemir,

he was the beluga whale discovered off the coast of Norway back in 2019, wearing a harness with a mount for a camera. That led some to suspect the whale, who showed interest in people and seemed used to them, had been sent by Russia on a spying mission. Well, Valdemir remained in Norwegian waters, but this week he was found dead and now an animal welfare charity which got to see the whale's dead body says he was shot repeatedly. Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss reports. They live for decades and their high intelligence means that some whales are open to being trained so it was perhaps inevitable they would be seen as having a potential military use. Both the old Soviet Union and the United States operated programs

which included beluga whales as well as dolphins. Sea mammals were tried out for rescuing navy divers, spotting enemy vessels and even detecting mines. So when a beluga whale turned up off the northern coast of Norway with what seemed to be a camera holder, there was obvious suspicion it had been sent on a Russian espionage mission. The harness had a label saying St. Petersburg. But despite the apparently hostile intent of his handlers, Valdemir became something of a celebrity, an aquatic James Bond who never strayed far from Scandinavian waters.

But that all ended this week when Valdemir was found dead by two people out fishing. Among those who examined the carcass was Siri Martinsson, a vet from the animal charity NOAA. She believes the whale had been shot. The injuries that are clearly visible are so serious and so concerning that we want the police to be involved in an early stage of this process. So that is why we have filed a police report today. It'll take three weeks for an official autopsy report to be issued but without any obvious assailant it's possible Valdemir's death will remain as mysterious as his sadly interrupted life. That report by Paul Moss.

Still to come. I obviously got myself a trolley. I went straight over to the fruit and veg section where I got a pineapple, placed it upside down in my trolley. So what exactly is happening in supermarket in Spain? If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts

or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. There's been chaos and gridlock across Nigeria after a hike in fuel prices by the state-owned oil company exacerbated a chronic shortage. Nigeria's national petroleum company, NMPC, put up the price per litre of petrol by 40 US cents. Will Ross reports. Nigeria's state-owned petroleum company said mounting debts and rising global fuel prices had led to the shortages.

At many filling stations there are long queues, with some people sleeping in their cars. But it's not just motorists who need to fill up. Most homes have small diesel generators because the electricity supply is so inadequate. Now many people are pinning their hopes on a new oil refinery set up by one of Africa's richest men, Aliko Dangote. It's just started producing

petrol, but in a sign of how topsy-turvy the whole industry is, the refinery has had to source much of its crude oil from as far away as Brazil. Will Ross, the concept of dynamic pricing when companies suddenly inflate prices at times of high demand is relatively common in the US, but it's starting to become more of an issue in Europe, especially for live music events. Recently, there was outrage when concert tickets for the rock band Oasis more than doubled in price while people were queuing online to buy them. The EU Commission has now said it will examine the practice, as Chantal Hartle explains. When it comes to booking things such as airline tickets, hotels

and some ride-hailing services, dynamic pricing is nothing new. There's no legal issue here either, as long as businesses follow consumer laws. But there are concerns that this strategy is becoming increasingly common in the music industry, pricing fans out of gigs. Last weekend, fans of the band Oasis spent hours in an online queuing system for the group's reunion tour. The advertised price of a standard ticket was US$177. But for some who continued to wait, a pop-up message appeared alerting them that, due to high demand, the fee had gone up to more than US$400. At that point, some, like Ford James, gave up.

I was queuing for around five and a half hours or so, but refused to pay that price when I eventually got through. It was far too expensive to justify the cost, really. In the US, laws have been introduced in Minnesota and Massachusetts which force online ticket sellers to disclose the total cost up front, prompted by a number of issues when Taylor Swift fans attempted to book tickets for her last US tour. The upset about ticket price inflation has now reached Brussels.

The EU Commission has confirmed it will look into dynamic pricing as part of a review of digital consumer laws. A spokesperson said the strategy could potentially breach EU policies if the price was increased after a consumer had put the tickets in their online basket. The Dutch MEP Lara Volters went one step further, saying new laws were necessary to protect music fans from being ripped off by what she described as a soulless practice. Chantal Hartle. If you think about illegal smuggling, perhaps weapons or drugs come to mind, but conservationists around the globe are increasingly worrying about plant smuggling,

the practice of harvesting rare and often endangered species from one country and shipping them off to another. Gardeners are buying the illicit plants online, often without knowing that they're breaking the law. So the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew here in London and Traffic, an NGO dedicated to protecting wild species, are teaming up with eBay to try to get the plant thieves off the platform. Dominique Prinsloo is a project manager for traffic in Cape Town in South Africa. Celia Hatton started by asking her how big this business is. It's probably much larger than the general public expected.

We've had hundreds and thousands of plants seized in South Africa that were making their way to overseas markets. Unfortunately, it's not just South Africa. The Southern Africa and East Africa is at rate as well with a lot of plant species in demand from various countries in these regions. And how organized is this market? Who's going out to seize these plants and who's profiting? This is actually quite an organized crime. It's a lot more organized than was originally thought. It's very much, unfortunately, locals in South Africa and other Southern African countries are recruited to access these plants in the wild, harvest them, and then bring them to hubs in South Africa where they are collated and shipped to markets overseas. And what plants are trafficked the most?

In South Africa, particularly, we have got succulent plants from dwarf succulents, which only occur in certain areas in the western part of the country, to sort of taller succulents. Some of the main species that we are seeing are part of a genus called Conophytum, which is a dwarf succulent with very pretty flowers. And these are unfortunately illegally harvested en masse. We've had over 1 million seized plants represented over 600 different species that have been illegally harvested. So it's a big business. What does this mean for ordinary people who might be interested

in buying plants online? Is there any way to tell if a plant is trafficked? It is quite challenging to tell whether a plant was illegally harvested or harvested from the wild versus artificially propagated. We at Traffic, along with a few other organizations, so our partners at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, as well as the South African National Biodiversity Institute have worked together to coming up with ways that buyers can find out whether their purchases of plants are legal, sustainable, and ethical. So it's very difficult to tell from looking at an advert online. We do encourage buyers to ask more questions to the sellers, specifically, you know, where do the plants come from? What is the species? Is it protected by national legislation? And is it threatened by illegal harvesting? And what about prosecutions? Have

we seen any attempts to really shut down these organized rings? There have been numerous successful prosecutions. There has been a lot of awareness by various organizations and law enforcement agencies trying to make sure that prosecutors and magistrates are aware of the severity of the crime, trying to ensure that the attention that's paid to the case and that the penalties that are given are adequate to try and deter individuals from getting involved. And last, Dominique, why does it matter so much that we shut down this practice of selling illicit plants online? What would happen if we didn't try to stop it? This trade severely impacts biodiversity in South Africa and also southern Namibia.

This area supports more than 6,000 succulent species, of which 40% are endemic. And what we're seeing is single, you know, illegal harvesting episodes have resulted in whole species extinctions. So losing these species, it degrades ecosystems, it deprives South African communities of their natural resources and it also criminalises individuals who are drawn into this illegal harvesting

and this trade for financial gain. That's why it's so urgent that it must be addressed. Dominique Prinsloo from the conservation NGO Traffic. Now, are you looking for a date? I don't mean the fruit, but a fruit could help you find one. The reason I say that is because people in Spain have been going to supermarkets to try to find partners. Between 7 and 8pm local time, people have flooded to the Mercadona supermarkets all around the country and they've put an upside down pineapple in their basket to show that they're single. They hope other people with pineapples will notice them and make a move. The trend has gone viral on

TikTok and in Bilbao, the police were called in because of rowdy scenes at one supermarket. So why are people going to supermarkets to find love at all? Luke Jones spoke to Shalini Kellinghouse, a relationship coach based in Barcelona, and Alice Garnett, a journalist who went to Spain to give it a go. First, he asked Alice how it all worked. I obviously got myself a trolley, went straight over to the fruit and veg section

where I got a pineapple, placed it upside down in my trolley uh went straight over to the fruit and veg section where i got a pineapple placed it upside down in my trolley then there was a couple of other things that you could get to indicate what you were looking for so if you got lentils because they've got a really long shelf life that indicates you're looking for something long term if you get cucumbers i'm not going to go into what that means but you can read into that what you will. Very wise. And there were other things like chocolate and confectionery meant that you were looking for something short but sweet.

Olive oil meant you were looking for someone with money. Like all these different, basically whole codes and stuff. So I had to figure out what to put in my trolley. And you tried it. I mean, how did it go? Honestly, I think I was there on the wrong days of the week oh no yeah so I know that what you mentioned before about the police I think that had happened on like a Thursday or Friday which makes sense because in the UK like Thursday's a big day for going out for like young professionals whereas you know Sunday Monday not so much so

I was unlucky I think was my timing. Shalini you're a relationship coach why are people resorting to this? I think it's much like this whole running club trend that is happening globally as well that people are just tired and they're very you know I think we have a pandemic of loneliness and mental health issues and people people, we need visceral experience. We need real life experiences. We need each other. And I think people crave interactions. And I think it's kind of, you know, because of social media and the pandemic, we've kind of gotten a bit isolated.

And people have lost the ability to kind of, you know, the natural ability to approach each other. And, yeah, so they're looking for ways to interact in real life. But we've got all these dating apps for that purpose now haven't we why do they need to wander around the local supermarket with bar of chocolate and some olive oil in their basket and waiting someone to wink at them the dating apps are not really working for most people it's um you know i think it's created an idea of objectifying each other objectifying ourselves it's kind of a numbness and and a dopamine you You know, people get dopamine kicks out of apps, but not so much partners. And much of these apps, they're also

not designed for you to find actually someone. They're just designed for you to keep, be on the app and stay on the app. So yeah, I think it's just not working for people. And they just, you know, maybe dopamine, you get dopamine hits, but you don't get intimacy. And they're just craving intimacy in real life interactions. The relationship coach, Shalini Kellinghouse, and before her, the journalist Alice Garnett, on an unusual way of finding love. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Darcy O'Brie. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Joliot. Until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts.

But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.