Global News Podcast - Alleged 'Iranian plot' to assassinate Trump

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

The US has brought charges over an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump. Also: calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign over an abuse scandal, and why Swedish police can now seize luxury goods.

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Saturday the 9th of November, these are our main stories. The US government has brought charges against three people in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before he was elected the next president. The billionaire Elon Musk has taken part in a telephone conversation between Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. A panel of global food experts has warned that areas of Gaza face a strong likelihood of famine unless immediate action is taken. immediate action is taken. Also in this podcast...

You're masking anti-immigrant sentiment and racism and you're dressing it up really pretty and calling it border security. Our reporter in Arizona has been finding growing opposition to Mr. Trump's plans to deport a million undocumented migrants. Back in July on the campaign trail, the now soon to be next US President Donald Trump narrowly missed being killed when a bullet grazed his ear. Now there is news of another alleged plan to kill him. The US Department of Justice says three people have been charged with a plot to murder Mr.

Trump and other US citizens, orchestrated allegedly by Iran. Our correspondent Anna Foster is in Washington for us. This is an indictment that has been unsealed today. So in terms of timings, it's unclear, but it points towards a plan potentially happening in September. Now, the US Attorney General Merrick Garland has put out a statement and said that the Justice Department has charged what he has described as an asset of the Iranian regime, who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect

Donald Trump. Now apparently in that mix there were also several other U.S. citizens, a journalist apparently in there as well. And this points to an individual called Farhad Shaqeri, 51 years old. Now, the U.S. government says that he has not been arrested. He's believed to be in Iran at the moment. But two named accomplices have already appeared in court here in the U.S. It's one of those moments where we don't know how advanced that plan was, what it involved. But the suggestion is that the Iranian regime gave this man a week to try and kill Donald Trump.

He said that that wouldn't be possible in that time frame. And the IRGC then paused it. But as you identified right at the start of our conversation there, given that there was that assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life during the campaign in Butler in Pennsylvania. This really plays into that and suggests that there was another attempt at least being discussed on Mr Trump's life. Anna, meanwhile Donald Trump still in the early days of putting together his administration,

he's been on a call with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and interestingly he was joined by Elon Musk. What does that say? Do you think about the role that Mr. Musk might play in the government? It's interesting isn't it? This has been described as a lengthy call between Donald Trump and President Zelensky and the suggestion is that Elon Musk was clearly in the room for at least a small part of it and he handed over the phone. In other words, you would give your friend the phone to say hello to someone on the other end. And apparently, President Zelensky thanked Elon Musk for the Starlink satellite systems, which have been really crucial during the war in Ukraine where

a lot of the communications have been taken out. As to what it means for Elon Musk's future, well, there's this discussion about him having some sort of role in Donald Trump's administration. what that might look like, nobody quite knows. They've talked about something a bit new, something different, maybe leading a new department of government efficiency where he would cut costs and slash through regulations and that sort of thing. But it shows that at this moment when Donald Trump is putting his top team together, somebody like Elon Musk is clearly there and in the room while he's doing it. And briefly, Anna, some votes are still being counted from November the 5th. What's still

at stake? Just waiting for Arizona now. That's the last state. Nevada was also called for Donald Trump, which means that six out of those seven key battleground states have now gone to him in this broad sweep. Interesting because, again, the economy was key. He went to Las Vegas, he promised so many hospitality workers there that their tips would no longer be taxed. He also did really well again with the Latino vote which people thought in the last weeks of the campaign he would lose. Doesn't change the result, we already know that he's president, he's well over the 270 electoral college votes. He'll

also win the popular vote as well, but it just gives us a bit more insight into why he was so successful. Anna Foster talking to us earlier. Donald Trump has repeated his intention to carry out mass deportations of people living in the US illegally, saying that there would be no price tag on how much he's willing to spend to make it happen. Illegal crossings over the Mexican border went up considerably under Joe Biden. But how feasible are the president-elect's plans? Emma Vardy reports from the border state of Arizona. At Jorge's Garage, a family car business in Phoenix, there's Latino music on the radio

and several big shiny pickup trucks with enormous tires raised up being worked on. Donald Trump had succeeded in winning over many Latino workers like Jorge Gonzales whose family moved to the US from Mexico 20 years ago. He has the right tools for the job. He knows the right people, he knows how to make money, he has something to prove. I think those are ingredients for a good recipe. Jorge's father, the big boss here, has come to the same conclusion. As a person I don't like him, but as a politician I like how he run the economy. Some Latinos think he managed the country better.

Here in downtown Phoenix the walls are painted with murals depicting the struggles and the journeys of immigrants and you can tell this is an issue this place feels very close to and that it struggles with. We're splurging today. The Villalobos family and their friends have made America their home for generations and there's despair at the prospect of the return of Donald Trump. I really had hope for humanity and I feel like we were let down. As Monica passes around the empanadas, the conversation turns to what will happen to many friends and families

who have members of their households who are undocumented migrants. You have mixed-status households, and so when you threaten one member of a family, you threaten an entire family, and you threaten an entire community. Do you think it will change the atmosphere for the America that you live in for Latino communities?

Absolutely. You're masking anti-immigrant sentiment and racism and you're dressing it up really pretty and calling it border security. It's emboldening the worst of us. And that sentiment is felt on the street. It's felt at work, it's felt at schools. It is something we have to fight every single day. And it's exhausting to be resilient this long. I feel terrible. I feel powerless.

Monica's niece Alexandra, who's a 19-year-old university student, believes deportations could tear apart communities. When we talk about undocumented migrants here, who are they to you? It's your neighbors, it's the people you see in the grocery store. To know that those people are in danger and their families could be torn apart at any moment now, it's terrifying and it's heartbreaking. Legal aliens are stampeding into America by the millions of... We will do large deportations. We're going to get these people out. There are an estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in the US,

many of whom have lived and worked here for decades. Donald Trump could use his presidential powers to order mass deportations, using the police, the military and border officials to track down and arrest migrants, but it may be costly and time-cons consuming and is likely to face legal challenges. I've come to a local law enforcement training centre and I've come to meet the local sheriff Mark Lamb who knows all too well what the challenges are of policing a border state. Once you start holding people accountable, securing the border, a lot of these folks

will go back on their own. And then we can go after the criminals, gang members, people that were vetted or weren't vetted. We find those. And I think really that's how you have to start. But in Arizona, where hundreds of miles of desert borders Mexico, the task is enormous. I don't think anybody has the resources right now. That's what President Trump's going to have to really line out and define and the people

he picks are going to really have to figure out what that looks like. That report was by Emma Vardy. A committee of global food experts has warned that there's a strong likelihood of famine in areas of Gaza. As Israel continues its offensive against Hamas. The committee said immediate action is needed from all involved to avert what it called a catastrophic situation. Our Middle East regional editor Mike Thompson reports. The warning from the

Independent Famine Review Committee comes just days after the UN's World Food Program issued a similar alert. It called on Israel to stop blocking food and other supplies from reaching besieged areas of northern Gaza, where at least 100,000 people are trapped. Last week, the Israeli parliament voted to ban the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mike Thompson. Meanwhile, the United Nations and East Jerusalem. Mike Thompson. Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is calling for justice for what he has described as horrific violence in Israel and Gaza. A new report documents in detail the conduct of both Israel and Hamas and warns that the widespread killing of civilians could amount

to war crimes or even genocide. Israel has rejected the report. Jeremy Lawrence is the spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office. We've been gathering the personal details of those killed by strikes and shelling and other conduct of hostilities. Of those fatalities that we have verified so far, we have found close to 70% to be children and women. The five to nine age group represents 7%, 10 to 14 at 6.5% and 0 to 4 at 6.5%. So the numbers are really quite shocking and quite telling. How did you go about verifying those personal details given the constraints?

And I just wonder what is the total number of people whose details you did manage to verify? We have a very rigorous process we use at OHCHR. To verify a number we need three independent verifications, and then we go into more precise detail. When I say personal details, it's the age, the sex and the circumstances where that death occurred. How many people's details did you manage to verify? So where we're at stand at the moment, it's just over 10,500. We will endeavour to go through all of these numbers. But already what we can see, the numbers and the percentages

are really quite telling. You mentioned the circumstances of each person's death. What more can you tell us about those? What we're finding is that close to 90% of fatalities involve the killing of five or more people. Many of these killings are taking place also in residential areas. You may recall we issued a report six months ago on the use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas. So there were six emblematic cases which we followed there where 2,000 pound bombs were used.

And now under international humanitarian law or the laws of war, the principles are that there must be distinction, precaution and proportionality in any act. Did you also gather any evidence as to whether the deaths of civilians were deliberate in any way? This is what we need to look at more, because this then takes it to a whole new level. What we do know is that the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality in many cases do not seem to have been observed. Have you also been looking at what Hamas did on October 7th and indeed in the weeks and

months after? We had from the very start, our officers spoken about what happened on October 7, the horrific events that took place, and outlined that these are indeed breaches of IHL in themselves and human rights law. So these could constitute equally crimes against humanity and war crimes. And indeed the Commissioner has said there needs to be justice. How will that come about? So in the first instance when it comes to justice, we would encourage the national courts to be taking the lead. Now, beyond the national courts, there are other means as well. So there are international mechanisms, the International Criminal Court and the ICJ,

the International Court of Justice. You mentioned the ICJ, the International Court of Justice. Given all that you've said about what has been happening in Gaza, what is it that the Office of the High Commissioner is calling on member states to do now? What are their responsibilities? The High Commissioner is calling on the states to assess arms sales or transfers and provision of military, logistical or financial support to a party to the conflict with a view to ending such support if this risks serious violations of international law and it's important. Jeremy Lawrence speaking to James Menendez.

and it's important. Jeremy Lawrence speaking to James Menendez. Still to come. The church needs to be an institution that believes in accountability and in integrity. And if it's going to speak out on moral issues, makes sense for its own leadership to be, I think, what we used to call holy. Pressure grows on the Archbishop of Canterbury to stand down after a report found the Church of England covered up abuse.

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Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. A new law in Sweden will now allow police to seize luxury items from anyone who can't prove they acquired them legally, even if they're not suspected of a crime in the first place. It's part of a new set of measures by the government to clamp down on criminal gangs. I spoke to our Europe regional editor, Paul Moss, about this sudden rise in gang crime and whether these new measures will work. The problem is really bad. By some measures gang violence in Sweden is now the worst of any country

in Europe. Last year 53 people were shot dead in gang conflicts. There were also bombings and stabbings and what's really alarming police is the age profile. There's a lot of evidence that some of these gangs are recruiting very young children to carry out killings because in Sweden they're below the age of criminal responsibility. In other words, if they're caught, they don't go to prison. And one estimate is the size of the criminal economy in Sweden is now 10 to 15 billion dollars a year. All of that started soaring about two years ago when the violence level went up. And this is also having a political effect because the police say a lot of these gangs, the members are from the Balkans or from the Middle East and that has aggravated tensions

already there. There was xenophobia already. Far-right parties were saying, look, immigration is ruining our country and that's been fuelled by the gang violence. So how does this new law work then? It works on the basis of a rather stereotype image of the gangster like something out of a movie. You know, we have this idea of gangsters liking expensive suits and expensive accessories. You know, you could call this the bling law because what it says is if you own expensive

things police can demand that you explain how you paid for them. So if you are apparently unemployed with no obvious source of money and yet they see you wearing a Giorgio Armani suit, driving a Porsche around Stockholm, perhaps checking the time on your Rolex watch, they will now have the power to seize these. Now that is very controversial because it reverses the usual idea of the burden of proof. Traditionally you are innocent until proved guilty. Here you've got to prove you're innocent. The Swedish Parliament's ombudsman criticized the new law for that reason. Even the Swedish justice minister said the law was indeed offensive,

but he said it was necessary. And what the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, has said is that we are targeting luxury goods because luxury goods are used to lure people into the gang lifestyle. I mean, it sounds to me like what they're saying is that, you know, part of being a gangster is looking like a gangster. And what they're hoping is that if you can't show off your wealth then some of these budding Al Capone's and budding Pablo Escobar's will decide well it's not really worth getting the money in the first place that cash without flash isn't worth having. Is that going to work? Well we'll see.

Paul Moss. Three weeks ago there was a huge outpouring of grief from fans of the boy band One Direction after the death of one of its members, Liam Payne. The 31-year-old pop star died after falling from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. Now Liam Payne's family in the UK are preparing for his funeral. Prosecutors in Buenos Aires have said three people have been charged in connection with his death. Our reporter Nikki Schiller told us more. They say it follows a forensic analysis of Liam Payne's phone, so they looked at his

calls and his message history. They also say they reviewed over 800 hours of video footage from security cameras at the hotel in Buenos Aires and also on the nearby roads. They've also spoken to dozens of people including hotel staff, family members, friends and medical professionals. And they say that these three people have been charged. The first person is someone who accompanied Liam Payne daily during his stay in the city, according to the prosecutors. And they have been charged with abandonment of a person followed by death and the supply and facilitation of drugs. That first charge can carry a sentence of between five and 15 years in prison and the other two, a hotel employee and a third person, also

charged with supplying drugs but they haven't named those three people. And we're also getting more details about what state Liam Payne was in at the time of his death. Yeah, absolutely. So this is coming from the toxicology tests that the public prosecutors' offices again revealed. They say they revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body. Now the post-mortem examination determined that his cause of death was multiple trauma and internal and external hemorrhaging. That, of course, as a result of that fall from the third floor balcony of the hotel.

But the prosecutor's office say that those medical records also suggest that Liam Payne may have fallen into a state of what they're saying is semi or total unconsciousness. And they say that rules out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by him. So they conclude that he did not know what he was doing nor did he understand it. And apparently he didn't adopt a reflex posture to protect himself when he fell. So that backs

up that theory that he was unconscious. Yeah, absolutely. And obviously this investigation is still continuing. So we haven't got all of the full details. They say they are continuing to investigate his broken laptop, other devices that were seized. And they've also carried out nine raids at properties in Buenos Aires. So I think this investigation obviously only still in its early stages, even though these three people have been charged. Nicky Schiller talking to my colleague Janet Jalil. The head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Justin Welby, is under pressure to step down.

That's after a report published this week revealed that he knew about the behaviour of one of the most prolific abusers associated with the Church of England. Until his death in 2018, John Smythe abused more than a hundred young men and boys in the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Bishop Julie Conalty is the deputy safeguarding lead for the Church of England. She says this week's report raises a number of areas of concern. The other area is around South Africa actually where John Smythe was living prior to his death and whether or not the Church of England did enough to ensure that young men and boys

were protected from John Smythe in South Africa. And I think that is a really serious issue for me. I'm quite angry about this because if the Anglican Communion means anything other than a hangover from colonialism, then we have a duty to work with primates and bishops in other countries. We absolutely could have done more as a church to ensure that people were safer in South Africa. Bishop Julie Conalty there. Speaking to Channel 4 News here in Britain, Justin Welby said he'd been listening to the survivors calls for him to resign.

I've been giving that a lot of thought for actually quite a long time. I've taken advice as recently as this morning from senior colleagues and no I'm not going to resign for this. If I'd known before 2013 or had grounds for suspicion that would be a resigning matter then and now but I didn't. Our religion editor Alain McBall is following the case. So just how damaging is it for Justin Welby? Extremely damaging. I mean reading it is very tough in terms of the descriptions of the kind of abuse that went on for nearly five decades but what is startling is just how many people within the church knew about the nature of the

abuse at these Christian summer camps and then in Africa. We know now that there was a report that was handed to church officials as early as 1982. The report talks about an active cover-up then. Eventually, Channel 4 did a documentary in 2017 that exposed all of this and again at that time the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he hadn't previously known about the extent of the abuse. We now know from this report that actually he did in 2013. And the point about that is, after 2013, the report also talks about the fact that there was further grooming, further abuse that happened in South Africa. Not only that,

of course you had lots of survivors who were also not being helped, and one in particular, Mark Sturbe, I asked him how he'd felt about Justin Welby's response to the report. I think we need to remember that the reason why the victim known as Graham went forward and reported in 2012-2013 was because he was first and foremost deeply concerned that John Smythe might still be abusing in Africa. So he went forward and I think was dealt with appallingly by Ely Diocese, by the Bishop of Ely and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby is right to apologise, but I think he's wrong not to resign.

The Church needs to be an institution that believes in accountability and in integrity and if it's going to speak out on moral issues makes sense for its own leadership to be, I think, what we used to call holy. Mark Stebb ending that report by Ali McBall. Some residents on the tiny island of Agalega in the Indian Ocean have become increasingly concerned about India's presence there. They believe an agreement between Mauritius and India, apparently to boost development, is actually about developing a confidential military base. Jacob Evans spoke to Valerie Sanderson. So Agalega is a really, really remote island of just a few hundred people,

and to get there you have to take a boat, which a few days and it only goes four times a year. So it is really inaccessible. And what happened in 2015 is the Indian government and the Mauritian government signed a deal to build some new developments on the island for the benefit of the people and to improve connectivity. However, the locals and some local media and some experts have been quite suspicious about what this really means. And that's because on the island there's now a new three kilometre runway.

The previous one was only 800 metres. There's this big massive new jetty and a lot of other developments. And this deal which the two governments have signed has never been publicly released. It's been shrouded in secrecy. And that's led a few people to believe that it isn't quite all what it seems. And what do they think it might be? So of course we can't go to the island and looking at satellite imagery really shows the stark contrast.

So you've got this massive runway, you've got these two hangars and you've got this jetty. And speaking to experts, they think that this can host military capabilities. And locals have sent me photographs of this military aeroplane which belongs to India on the runway. And the reason why they think this can happen is because it allows India to improve its reconnaissance in the area and monitor Chinese submarine activity. However, when I rose that to the Mauritian government, they categorically denied. They said there's no way we'd ever allow military infrastructure on our island. However, the location of Agalaga to the northeast

of Madagascar deeply increases the area India can surveil. And also, China is looking to build and invest along the East African coast and there's no real hegemony in the Indian Ocean and this increases India's presence there. So what are the people there getting out of this? So I've spoken to a number of islanders from Agalaga. A few of them have left. They feel they've been exiled from their own island. So they've told me that certain areas have been cordoned off, beaches they can no longer

go to. Some feel they may be forced from their home soon. And there's also been this new hospital built among other community projects. And I was on the phone to one of the islanders the other day and he told me a child who'd burnt himself with cooking oil was taken to the hospital and he was turned away. And they said that this hospital is only for Indians. And as a result he had to fly the 1,100 kilometres to Mauritius for medical treatment. And the people I've spoken to, both in Mauritius and the people on there, feel that this is far more controversial than what meets the eye. Jacob Evans. And let's end the podcast with a joyous sound, the bells of Notre

Dame Cathedral in Paris, which rang out together on Friday for the first time since a fire devastated that cathedral more than five years ago. Of the sound of the eight bells in the Northern Belfry came a month before the cathedral, A World Heritage landmark is scheduled to reopen following painstaking restoration work. And that is 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 or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Stephen Bailey. The producer was Alison Davis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles. And until

next time, goodbye. I'll be looking at the battle to save endangered languages in Africa. These are languages that have not received documentation. These are languages that are not even taught in schools. That's tongue and talk, keeping languages alive in Africa. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.