Global News Podcast - America marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Episode Date: August 28, 2025Twenty years on, Americans remember Hurricane Katrina, which killed nearly 1,800 people and caused $125bn in damage to the city of New Orleans. Also: the battle over control of the US's public health ...agency, and the hunt in New Zealand for a partner for a rare snail.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Ever feel like car shopping is designed to make your second guess yourself?
Is this a good price? Am I making the right choice?
With car gurus, you don't have to wonder.
They have hundreds of thousands of cars from top-rated dealers
and advanced search tools, deal ratings and price history.
So you know a great deal when you see one.
That's cairg-g-U-R-U-S.ca.cagurus.cagurus.ca.cagurus.ca.
Box, a delicious streamer.
Collider says everyone should be watching.
Catch Britain's next best series with Britbox.
Streamer claim new originals like Code of Silence.
You read lips, right?
And Linley, based on the best-selling mystery series.
Di-I, Linley.
Take it from here.
And don't miss the new season of Karen Piri coming this October.
You don't look, look, please.
I'll do that as a compliment.
See it differently when you stream the best of British TV with Britbox.
Watch with a free trial today.
You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Friday the 29th of August.
20 years on from Hurricane Katrina, we hear how New Orleans has recovered.
UN experts say Palestinians have been disappearing at food distribution centres in Gaza.
Israel denies involvement.
And Rohingya refugees tell us how they were dumped in the sea by the Indian authorities.
Also in the podcast is giving cash the best way to end homelessness.
I was like, oh my goodness, this is a weight off my mind.
Wow.
It came at the perfect time.
There's no words to describe leaving the stress behind.
And a right-handed and a right-handed snail can sort of fit together like puzzle pieces.
But a lefty can't.
If they try to get with a righty, it's a bit awkward.
The New Zealanders helping try to find a major.
for a rare snail.
But first, it was one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the United States.
Twenty years ago today, at just after six in the morning, Hurricane Katrina made landfall
in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans was spared a direct hit, but its flood defenses
were overwhelmed by the storm surge and heavy rain. The city, which sits partly below sea
level was inundated, triggering one of the largest population displacement since the Great
Depression. One thousand eight hundred people died across the region, and the storm caused well
over a hundred billion dollars worth of damage. The then-president George W. Bush was
criticized for the government's slow response. As one of our Washington correspondents at the
time, James Kumar-Assami had an eyewitness view of the chaos and returned to the city in the
following years.
The house is floating away.
People are dying. They're dying. Babies are dying.
They got an old lady over there right now. They're dead in the chair.
People are dying. We're starving.
With every day, the level of desperation here is rising.
Thousands of people are still trapped inside New Orleans
in a city where the authorities appear overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
The head of New Orleans' emergency operations
described the relief effort as a national disgrace.
Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming.
they're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something and let's
fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country. Throughout the area hit by the
hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild
their communities and their lives. These days, the dark green trams are once again trundling
slowly along the edge of New Orleans' historic French quarter. But a year ago, the scene was very
different. I remember standing here on the corner of Royal and Canal streets and watching as a man
in a Salvation Army hut handed out sandwiches to desperate people, a shotgun prominently displayed
at his side. When I was on the roof on Monday, August the 30th, looking at my parish and seeing
22 to 25 feet of water everywhere, and I'm thinking, gee whiz, this is going to take two or three
years to recover. We're approaching two years and we're nowhere near scratching the surface.
Fata, who was council chair of St. Bernard's Parish, one of the worst-hit neighborhoods.
Twenty years on from the disaster, James caught up with him and with Barron LaFrance, a resident of the lower 9th ward,
who he met while trying to rebuild his ruined house. First to Joey.
It was a horrific time for all of us. We were the probably most devastated community ever in the United States.
With right about 24,000 homes, we could identify five locations that did not flood. So that tells you,
the massive devastation in the whole parish.
And I know the Ninth Ward had probably 100% devastation
for their area of New Orleans.
Yes, Byron, that's where you were.
What are your memories of the hurricane hitting
and the floodwaters rising?
Well, my house went out without power,
and when we came back, it was gone.
When we first met, you were just starting to rebuild.
You had plans.
Tell us about the rebuilding.
How did that go?
I started rebuilding on my own man, my father.
My block was my family.
We stayed on this whole block, and we all were homeowners.
We had nowhere else to go.
Some of us had this bought homes, and we was knee deep in debt with the mortgages.
So our own position was to rebuild.
Well, my dad told me to do this.
We have no city.
We have no city hall.
Who's going to tell us to stop building our houses?
We went ahead.
We went out of U-Haul truck, and we went anywhere we can go find building supplies,
and we bought it back home, and we started rebuilding our house ourselves.
And how long did it take you to rebuild?
It took three months to get the house finished, but then we didn't have any electric.
And how long then until you did get power?
I got power about a month later.
What was the situation with you, Joey?
Well, we had several aspects of the storm, not including the storm, that we had to overcome.
We had the largest single land oil spill in America here in St. Bernard Parish.
So the folks who live within that footprint of the oil spill could not rebuild until EPA came in and designated the area safe.
And what about you personally?
My house, well, it was probably the last one to be rebuilt.
Being chairman of the St. Bernard Parish Council, myself and the other council members put our lives on second to rebuild the community.
And we all felt the same.
If we can't bring our parish back, there's no reason to bring our homes back.
So that was our guiding light to rebuild the government.
the infrastructure so the folks could come back home. Until today, we're still not at
70,000 people, but probably around 50,000. So what we're doing now is still trying to
rebuild our community back to what it was. So the work continues 20 years on? Yes, we're not
finished yet. We're bringing back everything that the folks who live here before Katrina can enjoy
again. Byron, what are your thoughts about where you are now and the impact that Katrina
had on you and your family?
It's not a community anymore.
We don't have the essentials to sustain anything here.
There's not too much in this area anymore for me to do.
You're saying it's still not a community,
or it's not a community anymore, 20 years on.
No, it's not.
What keeps you there?
What keeps me here,
it's just something I built from the ground up with my father.
Just a final thought, Joey, from you,
when you reflect on that time 20 years ago,
what impact do you think, Hurricane Katrina?
had on you and on your area?
Well, it actually changed everything for everyone.
The community is not the same group of folks who were here prior to Katrina.
It has changed drastically and individually.
I had children who had young children who had to relocate for school, for their kids, my
grandchildren, and that changes your community when your family moves on.
So it's not the same, but we're trying to bring it back as best we can.
Two residents of New Orleans reflecting on the impact of Hurricane Katrina two decades on.
The White House has confirmed that the head of the U.S. Public Health Agency,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been sacked after a month in the role.
Lawyers for Susan Monores have accused the Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
of weaponizing public health for political gain.
In a statement, the White House said she was, quote,
not aligned with the President's agenda of making America healthy again.
The Washington Post has reported that Jim O'Neill, the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services,
will serve as the acting director.
In recent months, several leading scientists have left the CDC.
This emergency physician in Texas said undermining the agency made his job as a health worker increasingly difficult.
Data is what we have to rely on for all of our decisions.
What are the number of measles cases or COVID-19 cases in Texas?
What is going on when it comes to things like the,
availability of certain medication. When we don't have that data, it's hard for us to make those
decisions for our patients and to be able to give recommendations and guidance with confidence.
Mr. Kennedy says the sacking is necessary to ensure the competent functionality of the agency.
There's a lot of trouble at CDC and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term
in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self-esteem and make
that agency, the stellar agency that it's always been.
Gerald Gay Stolberg writes on health policy for the New York Times.
Sean Lay asked her for her assessment of the Trump administration's approach.
I think this is just a very, very extraordinary exertion of power by the health secretary
into the independence of the CDC director.
Our reporting shows that Secretary Kennedy wanted Susan Minar as the director
to not only fire some top CDC officials, but also to embrace, without question, the recommendations of the vaccine advisory committee that he, Kennedy, installed to advise the CDC on vaccine policy.
And ordinarily, there's this committee of outside advisors, they're experts, and they advise, and the CDC director uses his or her expertise to either accept or reject the recommendations.
Kennedy fired the whole committee all 17 members a few months ago
and installed new people, many of them skeptical of vaccines,
and now he wanted Monarras to accept their recommendations.
And she said, no, I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to let you interfere with my scientific independence.
In the end, though, she's an appointee of the administration.
I mean, she'd actually taken up the job comparatively recently,
having been nominated after the president's original pick dropped out.
But in a sense, she knew what sort of administration.
she was going into, shouldn't she, if she can't accept the policy, have resigned, something
she's refused to do? That's a good question, but she's standing on principle. And yes, she knew
the administration that she was going into. But Secretary Kennedy also said at the outset at his
confirmation hearing, that he wasn't going to take anybody's vaccines away, that he wasn't going to
mess with this advisory committee. He assured a senator of that. And I think he has gone farther than
many people expected or anticipated. He just crossed a line or wanted her to cross a line
that she was not willing to cross. She says that Kennedy can't fire her, and she's right.
She is appointed by the president. She's confirmed by the United States Senate. That means
she serves at the pleasure of the president, and she and her lawyers want Trump to fire her
personally. He hasn't done that. He's just put out his press secretary.
to say, yeah, she's fired.
Health policy reporter Cheryl Gays Stolberg.
UN human rights experts say they are alarmed about claims
that starving Palestinians are being seized by the Israeli military
at some of the controversial food distribution sites in Gaza.
The alleged disappearances, including that of a child,
reportedly happened at aid collection points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,
which is backed by the US and Israel.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says 22 Palestinian,
have been killed while seeking assistance over the past 24 hours.
More details from our correspondent in Jerusalem, Emirnada.
Food distribution sites in Gaza are already known to be chaotic and deadly.
Now a group of independent rights experts have alleged that some Palestinians are being seized as they seek aid.
Sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were introduced by Israel in late May to replace
UN-led food distribution. They've proved controversial, with Palestinians forced to walk long distance,
into Israeli-controlled military zones to reach the sites.
The UN experts say they have received reports of a number of people,
including a child, who've gone missing at the centres,
and that Israel is directly involved in the disappearances.
They say the Israeli military is refusing to provide information
on the fate and whereabouts of persons who've been detained,
and they are urging Israel to stop what they call a heinous crime.
The Israeli military hasn't responded to the BBC's request for comment.
The GHF told the BBC there was no evidence of disappearances at their sites.
The experts said they fear that the reports of disappearances
will discourage individuals from accessing food aid, aggravating the risk of starvation.
Last week, the UN's Human Rights Office reported that it had documented more than
1,800 Palestinians who've been killed while seeking food.
Over 1,000 of them in the vicinity of GHF sites,
most of these killings appear to have been committed by the Israeli military.
they said. Allegations denied by Israel.
Amir Nader. Should you give cash to people who are homeless? Does it help them? Or would they end up
spending it on drugs or alcohol, as is often claimed? Researchers have been looking at this
question, and a study in Canada suggests that direct cash grants can be an effective route out
of poverty. Now, a similar project's being rolled out here in the UK, as Richard Hamilton explains.
In 2018, the New Leaf Project in Vancouver gave 50 homeless people $5,500 each.
They also monitored 65 other homeless people who they didn't help.
A year later, they found that those who had received the money spent fewer days homeless
but had not spent the cash on things like drugs or alcohol.
In 2022, the Centre for Homelessness Impact began a small pile.
study in Britain, giving people $2,700 each.
That's now been extended to a much wider trial of 250 people in London and Belfast.
Michelle Binfield is the organisation's director of programmes.
In the first pilot, we saw a little bit of resistance on the part of the workforce
that were supporting homeless people in some other projects.
They admitted that themselves in the beginning that they were reluctant to refer people
and worried about what might happen.
Over time, I think that reluctance and that nervousness sort of dissipated as they saw, people
spent it on things that were very sensible for them. So generally, I think the trust built up over time.
The project we're running at the moment is run as a randomised control trial. So basically we've got
half a group of people that get the money and half that don't. So we really are going to be
able to measure very robustly, very scientifically, whether the money makes a difference to people
in exiting homelessness. Greater change is a British charity that is already
applying the principle of direct cash grants.
One of those who's benefited is Laura Burns,
a single mother who was facing eviction.
Greater change gave her $800.
I was like, oh my goodness, this is a weight of my mind.
I'm, wow, completely stunned.
But I'm actually used the money as part moving
and part paying off the debt.
It came at the perfect time.
There's no words to describe leaving the stress behind.
The charity has paid out nearly $1 million this year to more than 400 people.
It says they are giving them dignity and the agency to make their own decisions.
It's estimated that 150 million people worldwide currently experience homelessness.
They face increased risks of trauma, mental health challenges and substance abuse.
Life expectancy is also 8 to 13 years less.
than the general population.
There are also significant economic costs.
In the UK, for example, a hostel costs around $37,000 a year.
So this research suggests that giving someone a few thousand dollars
to get them back on their feet actually saves money in the long run.
Richard Hamilton.
Fifty-five years ago, the British artist Ralph Stedman
was hired to illustrate a magazine story by the American journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
Their partnership, which went on to include the cult novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
helped make Stedman's artistic style one of the most recognizable of the past half century.
A new exhibition of his later work has opened here in London.
Ralph Stedman has been speaking to Peter Gauphin.
Ralph Stedman has been documenting the world around him for more than 60 years,
and his body of work still looks like it's been dropped in from another dimension.
Lines slash like razor blades, ink spots, splatter-like blood,
the human form stretches to its weirdest and most grotesque.
But look for the story it tells.
Drawing is about content and not style.
Content is everything when it comes to what you're doing.
That's how I like to think of it, really.
Something with a subject of interest.
Like Donald Trump or something.
Stedman has drawn at least four caricatures of the U.S. president,
including one that depicts him as a giant baby.
Stedman has sketched and skewered some of the most powerful figures of his time.
From Richard Nixon to Margaret Thatcher, George W. Bush to the British royal family.
He's illustrated editions of classic literature, animal farm, treasure island, and several books of his own.
It's a career so long and so prolific that a new exhibition at the Muse Gallery in London,
which covers its latter half, still contains 30 years' worth of work.
The show is curated by his daughter, Sadie Williams.
It's a selection of some of the prints that Dad's has done, probably going back to about the 1990s.
Dad's embraced all sorts of forms of printmaking, including etching and now GKL digital printing.
And the first printing press was invented in 1440.
So in a way, this exhibition contains 600 years of printing techniques and technology.
Stedman's own artistic story begins in an airplane factory.
I went to the Haverland Aircraft Company first.
and I really didn't like factory life.
And then I saw this advert,
you too can learn to draw and earn pounds.
His journey took another turn
when he met the American writer Hunter S. Thompson.
Of all the people I go and meet
to be somebody like Hunter Thompson
as quite a weird thing to me,
it specified the things I had to do in life.
Stedman's irreverent illustrations
proved a perfect match
for Thompson's gonzo journalism.
an outrageous style of reportage that puts the author at the heart of the action.
Their collaborations establish them as chroniclers and heroes of culture and counterculture.
Thompson took his own life in 2005.
And at 89 years old, Stedman's output has slowed a little.
But to generations of writers, artists and fans, the pair are still giants.
We were so unlike each other.
I think that was the attraction, really.
They gave our lives a bit of a shape.
It may have been a shape of snake or something.
Artist Ralph Stedman, talking to Peter Goffin.
Still to come on the Global News podcast.
For somebody on myself who's never drunk alcohol,
being offered a wine menu every time I go out and eat,
it was just really disappointing.
Whereas if I had been given a water menu,
I would be spending a lot more money.
The restaurants offering their customers a whole range of waters.
This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe.
With Wise, you can send, spend and receive up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps.
Plus, Wise won't add hidden fees to your transfer.
Whether you're buying souvenirs with pesos in Puerto Vallata or sending euros to a loved one in Paris,
you know you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups.
Be smart.
Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise.
Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com.
Tise and C-N-Capply.
The following advertisement feature is presented by GoTurk.
Ever thought about taking a detour?
Turkey is known for its breathtaking beaches and mouth-watering cababs.
But did you know it's also a hub of ancient histories,
a verdant land for produce and wine,
and home to Michelin-Star cuisine that surprises and delights.
What more could you ask for?
Look no further than the Aegean region of Turkey.
It has it all.
Discover culinary excellence in Erla Ismia
by sampling local produce in restaurants along the way.
Experience history in Teos,
an ancient Ionian city in Sera
where they loved a good glass of wine so much
they built temples in honour of Dionysus,
the god of wine and theatre himself.
And feel the sand beneath your feet
along the Aegean's stunning beings.
Or maybe the wind through your hair, kite surfing along the Aletjata coastline.
Turkey isn't just about the sunlanger, it's about the adrenaline.
If you thought you had Turkey all figured out, try out the Turkagian lifestyle.
Back in May, alarming reports emerged of deported Rohingya refugees being forced off an Indian navy vessel and into the waters off the coast of Myanmar.
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority,
face violent persecution and genocide at the hands of Myanmar's military governments,
while the country is also in the midst of a brutal civil war.
More than a million Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries, including India.
In an exclusive interview, some of those refugees have been telling the BBC
how they were left in the sea by the Indian authorities.
Samira Hussein sent this report from Delhi.
A group of seven men appear on my screen.
They're all sharing a mobile phone.
We were so helpless.
We were waiting for someone to come.
They're desperate to tell their story,
how they were thrown in the sea and ended up stranded in Myanmar,
a country they fled in fear of violent persecution.
We don't feel secure in Myanmar.
This place is completely a war zone.
That's Sayad Noor, and he's one of 40 card-carrying,
UN-recognized refugees living in Delhi
who were put on planes to the Andaman-inikobar Islands
then put on a naval vessel in the Bay of Bengal
headed towards Myanmar.
14 hours later, they were told to board smaller boats.
We were brought to two lightboards.
Our hands were bound for more than seven hours.
They asked us to jump off the lightboat one by one
and we swim around 100 plus meters
to get the seashore.
When you got on the bus
to go to the boats,
who took you on the bus?
The same Navy.
How do you know they were Navy?
Because of the bus in inscription
like Barthianawasena.
The Hindi word for Indian Navy.
Then, he says,
one by one, they were pulled aside
on the boat and questioned by
Indian authorities.
They would call someone and talk in Hindi
and they will even say something
like, why didn't you become Hindu?
They question to Christian, Rohingya Christians, why did you convert Muslim to Christianity?
Why didn't you become a Hindu?
And even they threaten us to uncover our pains to confirm whether we are circumcised or not.
And they said, why did you come to India? Why didn't you choose another country?
Despite being registered as UN refugees, the Indian government says the more than 20,000 Rohingya refugees
living in India are illegal immigrants.
This is a matter of life and death for these people.
Tom Andrews is the UN's special rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.
I've been receiving reports of refugees being detained,
interrogated, mistreated.
These are people who are not in India
because they want to be.
They're there because of the horrific violence
that is occurring in Myanmar.
They literally have been running for their lives.
We put these allegations to the Indian government, who did not respond to our requests for comment.
I'm walking up the stairs of a four-story building in Vigasboudi neighborhood in Delhi.
I'm going to meet Noural Amin. He's 24 years old.
Nouraliman's parents, two brothers and sister-in-law, are among the 40 deported refugees now in Myanmar.
We are humans, not animals.
How can you just throw people into the sea?
In my heart, there is only this fear
that the Indian government will also take us
and throw us in the sea at any point.
India's Rohingya community already existing on the margins
are now living in fear,
not welcome in their home country
and not wanted in the country where they sought refuge.
Our report by Samira Hussain.
Britain, France and Germany have taken the first step
towards re-imposing sweeping sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
The European powers formally notified the UN Security Council of their intentions
after concluding Iran's nuclear program remained a clear threat to international peace and security.
Here's our diplomatic correspondent, James Landau.
Iran's nuclear program may have been damaged by Israeli and American airstrikes in June,
but Britain, France and Germany believe the country is still breaching commitments it made in 2015
as part of an international deal. Iran agreed to curb its nuclear ambitions and capability.
In return, the UN lifted punishing economic sanctions.
But the European signatories say Iran has enriched and stockpiled so much nuclear fuel
and restricted the access of UN inspectors that it's no longer complying with the deal.
They're particularly concerned at the whereabouts of 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium
that's close to weapons-grade purity.
If Iran doesn't give UN inspectors full access and agree other terms,
then the sanctions will automatically resume in 30 days.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbasaragchi, said the European decision was illegal and unjustified.
Much depends on how many countries enforce the sanctions if resumed,
but Iran is already economically weak and may not cope easily with further restrictions on its trade.
James Landau.
When asking for water in a restaurant, you may well be offered still or sparkling
But some establishments now provide a whole range of options
from a water menu similar to a wine list.
The trend began in the US more than a decade ago
but it's spreading as a result of changing attitudes to alcohol
and restaurants struggling with tighter margins.
La Popot in North West England has recently launched a water menu of its own
with the most expensive bottle coming in at around $25.
Its water sommelier is Doran Binder.
How does one become a water smelé?
By accident really, because,
because when I found out about this, I thought it was a joke.
Honestly, I'd never heard anything so funny in all my life.
And then, through the journey of learning about water,
it stops being funny very, very quickly,
and it becomes very, very serious very quickly,
and that's where my passion for this has come from.
So the waters on the menu really are about elevating,
epicuring experiences for diners in fine restaurants,
and that's when we're starting.
Hopefully this is going to trickle down
and become more popular as more and more people are,
drinking less alcohol. And for somebody like myself who's never drunk alcohol, being offered a
wine menu every time I go out and eat, it was just really disappointing. Whereas if I had been
given a water menu, I would be spending a lot more money when I go out and dine. So it's all
about the measurement of minerals in water and that's what drives mouthfeel and that's what drives
the taste of water. So all of the waters, the seven waters that are on the menu all have
completely different TDS, totally these old solids and they all taste completely different. It
because of that. So super low TDS waters, distilled water has a metallic taste, dry mouth sensation
because there's no minerals being added to your mouth as you're drinking the water, all the way
up to 3,300 TDS water, Vichy Celestine, which is natural carbonation, water that comes out of the
ground carbonated at the source by modern nature. So delicate flavors of food dishes go with
the lower TDS waters and bolder flavors of dishes go with higher TDS waters. And this,
that would be pairing, but there's no reason why you can't contrast and do the exact reverse
because what happens is foods that we don't season, you can line your mouth with water and
minerals and it changes the taste and the flavour of food and you need to try it. And when you
experience it, I call it levelling up in life because it's like another dimension opens up
that's always been there, but we just missed it. Restaurants are noticing that people are
drinking less wine, less alcohol. So restaurants to survive will have to make up that income
deficit from somewhere. And I'm hoping that water might come and save the date.
Water, Somelier, door and binder. A garden snail might seem an unlikely subject for a dating
campaign, but New Zealanders are attempting to find a love match for a rare gastropod which has a
shell that coils to the left instead of to the right. Unfortunately, this genetic difference
means the snail's dating pool is rather limited. Chantal Hartle has the story.
If you're left-handed, you'll know it's not always easy.
a world that isn't geared up for your needs.
And the same could be said for Ned the snail.
Giselle Clarkson was digging around in her garden
when she stumbled across him.
It was that uncanny valley type thing
where you're looking at something
and something's wrong,
but you just can't put your finger on it
because it's really subtle.
And at first I thought perhaps it was another species altogether.
And then I twicked and I realised I had a rare lefty.
It's thought just one in 40,000 snail
have a shell that spirals in an anti-clockwise direction.
Ned can't mate with the majority of the world snail population
who spiral the other way
because their reproductive organs are located on the opposite side of the body.
Thankfully, Giselle understood his difficult predicament.
She got in touch with the magazine New Zealand Geographic,
which has started a campaign asking residents
to search their gardens, parks and vegetable patches
to try to find another left-coiled snail.
Anyone lucky enough to find another lefty is encouraged to put it in a jar with some spinach and contact the magazine.
Ned is currently in a fish tank in Giselle's home to protect him from hungry birds while he waits patiently for his first date.
And history tells us there may be hope for Ned.
In 2017, an international search was launched to find a mate for Jeremy, another lonely lefty discovered in London.
Two eligible left-sided mates were found, but made headlines when they ended up coupling with each other instead.
Jeremy eventually mated with one of the pair and produced offspring with exclusively right-spirling shells.
Gentile Hartle.
And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon.
This edition was mixed by Lee Wilson and produced by Nikki Verico.
Our editors, Karen Martin.
I'm Oliver Conway.
Until next time, goodbye.