Global News Podcast - Argentine police investigate death of One Direction star Liam Payne

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Police in Argentina are investigating the death of Liam Payne - a former member of boy band One Direction - who fell from a hotel balcony. Also: President Zelensky has urged EU leaders to accept his 'victory plan'.

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Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and at 13 Hours GMT on Thursday 17th October these are our main stories. Tributes are being paid to Liam Payne, a former member of one of the world's most successful bands who's died in Argentina. Ukraine's President Zelensky takes his victory plan to Brussels. And in Bangladesh, an arrest warrant for the former Prime Minister Sheik Hossina over killings during the uprising that led to her downfall. Also in this podcast...

The first woman to walk on the moon will wear this suit. First person of color will wear this suit. The first non-American will wear this suit. High fashion meets zero gravity. Tributes are being paid to the former One Direction star Liam Payne, who's died at the age of 31. He fell from a balcony in Argentina where he was on holiday with his girlfriend.

Singer had opened up in recent times about the extreme loneliness and challenges that came with being in one of the world's biggest boy bands. There was a lot of loneliness. On the days that you have off, there's not really anybody actually around to hang out with that often. And also, you don't really want to go outside. I developed a really bad case of agoraphobia, which was not nice. I think we all suffered from that quite a lot. So your life sort of shrinks just as it's expanding as far as... Yeah, and you can do anything you want. and you can do anything you want and you can buy anything you want you can do anything. Yeah. But you don't really

know what it is you want to do and you haven't really got many people to do it with. The emergency services and the police said in a statement that Liam Payne died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. The police were called after receiving reports of an aggressive man who may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Crowds of fans gathered at the hotel in Buenos Aires for a candlelit vigil. It's such a loss. One Direction has been a part of me since I was like eight years old. When I read about this, like my heart stopped for a second. I find out the news in my home and I needed to be here to know this is real.

Our music correspondent Mark Savage told me more about Liam Payne and his career. In 2008 he went on to X Factor in the UK and auditioned for Simon Cowell who actually at the time said you are too young for this, go away, do your exams and come back in two years when you are more prepared. He came back and auditioned in 2010 but he didn't make it through as a solo artist. In the end the judges decided that Liam and four other boys, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, would work better together as a unit and put them together as One Direction.

They didn't win the contest. They actually came third. Yet, when they released their debut single, they very quickly became the biggest band in the world. For five years, they were at the top of the music industry heap. They sold 70 million records, including songs like What Makes You Beautiful, Best Song Ever, Steal My Girl, History, many of which Liam co-wrote. He actually discovered he had a latent talent for songwriting once he was put into the studio. But of

course the pressures of that fame were immense. He spoke to me several times about the fact that when they went on tour they were put in hotel rooms and essentially locked in overnight because it wasn't safe for them to venture outside and when they were outside they faced screaming fans but also intense scrutiny from the press and I think it was a lot for a teenager to take on board you know he was only 21 when the band split up. And I've heard him talking in Eclipse today about how lonely the whole thing was. You're playing the biggest arenas in the world with tens of thousands of people screaming your

name and yet during the daytime you're often thinking, well what do I do? Who do I hang out with? Exactly, yes. The band had each, but obviously when you are stuck in a hotel for months on end, you probably want to do some other things. And Liam did speak about the fact that, you know, often what he would do was just open the minibar and turn to drink. And alcoholism was a problem that plagued him throughout his entire life. He did go into rehab a couple of years ago. The last time I interviewed him in 2019, he was telling me that he had just completed

a year of sobriety. But obviously those demons kept rearing their heads. And is it possible to explain what it was about One Direction that made them so successful? They had the backing of Simon Cowell, but it takes more than that to become, I think, the biggest band since The Beatles. I think part of their opinion, boy bands tend to be very, very controlled. You know, there's very slick choreography, they never say anything that steps out of line or could upset fans.

And One Direction were kind of almost the anti-boy band. They weren't very polished. They deliberately didn't do complicated choreography on stage because they said that they couldn't. That made them feel more approachable, more human, more like the sort of band that maybe your brother's friends would put together. And Liam in particular was the sort of person who would go and speak to fans outside hotel rooms. He was very humble. He was very invested in the music. You know, he talked at great length about how much he enjoyed the process of writing. And I think there was just something about that.

The fact that although they came from this big show business machine and a reality TV show, they had a sense of authenticity that a lot of boy bands didn't. Our music correspondent Mark Savage. US warplanes have hit five weapons storage locations in Yemen controlled by the Houthis who are backed by Iran. The Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since the war in Gaza began. I heard more from our correspondent in Jerusalem, Yolan Nel. What we know is that these long-range B-2 stealth bombers were launched to carry out airstrikes early this morning and the Pentagon's statement that defence secretary Lloyd Austin

has quoted saying that they targeted five hardened underground weapons storage locations in Houthi controlled areas of Yemen and there are reports locally that there were airstrikes around the capital Sana'a which of course the Houthis have held now for ten years and also strikes around another Houthi stronghold Sa'ada. We've not got real reports there on the damage or casualties. I mean the Houthis have been attacking ships for many months now in the Red Sea. That's been linked to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, but they've also been firing missiles at Israel. And we heard just overnight there was one drone that was shot down over the Red Sea. The strike does seem to be meant also as a

kind of indirect warning to Iran about US capabilities, remembering of course that the Houthis' main sponsor is Iran, and Iran of course has twice targeted Israel in recent months with these big ballistic missile attacks, the latest one at the start of this month with Israel's retaliation to that expected to take place soon. There's a lot of talk this week about aid getting into Gaza and the huge and sharp reduction there's been and the amount of aid that's been getting in in recent weeks. That's right and this you know has been sort of twofold really. We've had sort of like from people on the ground, particularly in the north of Gaza,

talking about the increasingly desperate conditions there with Israel fighting, what it says, a regrouping Hamas operatives in Jabalia. In this ground offensive in the north, there have been tens of thousands of people trapped now for days, and they say that they've really run out of food. Things got desperate. Then we got that letter that came from the US on Sunday,

an address to senior Israeli ministers demanding really that there should be a surge in humanitarian aid going into Gaza. And then what we've seen over the past three days especially is that there have been improvements, including lorries going back into the North for the first time this month. 50 lorries went in yesterday. But still, you know, we've got the different international players, especially the US, saying they're continuing to monitor this. And at the UN Security Council yesterday, we had the US ambassador saying that Washington will make sure Israel's actions on the ground don't amount to a policy of starvation that she said would be horrific and unacceptable. Well as we heard from Yolan Nel there, Israel's currently mounting a fresh

ground offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza. Today the Hamas run health ministry says at least 22 people have been killed, some of them children in an Israeli strike on a school. The Israeli military says it carried out what it called a precise strike on a meeting being held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters and insisted that steps had been taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. Israel isn't granting international journalists access to Gaza at the moment, at least not independently, so our correspondent, Furgor Keen, in Jerusalem put together this report to give us a sense of the dire situation there. Groups of men are digging through the rubble in this neighborhood of Gaza City. A hand sticks out from the pile of masonry. It is dust covered, a streak of blood on the fingers

and wrist. In the background, a young girl is watching. She is motionless and seems to be in shock. A man standing beside a collapsed building describes how his young brother saw their parents die. I took out my younger brother at the last moment. He told me, I heard my mum and dad reciting the Shahada. I don't know how we can go back to our home in the north without my mother or father or brothers.

The humanitarian crisis in the north is described as catastrophic by aid agencies. America has accused Israel of refusing or impeding up to 90% of aid to northern Gaza in the last month. From Jerusalem, I spoke by phone with Dr. Hussam Abu Safir, the director of Jabalia's Kamal Adwan Hospital. We are talking about collective punishment for the health system in the Gaza Strip. Consequently, we urge the world to intervene and impose their humanity over the Israeli army, to open humanitarian corridors that allow the entrance of medical tools, delegations, fuel and food,

so that we can provide humanitarian services for the children, newborn babies and patients who are in need. Israel says it is addressing American concerns. The army says it only targets terror cells and released a video of what it said was Hamas firing from within a clinic in Jabalia. In a narrow alley in the camp, several ambulances are parked. Most of those inside them are dead. Bodies are piled up, all ages.

Blood seeps from the forehead of a small child. Every day, people in Jabalia plead for peace, for food and medicine. They plead, but know their voices cannot make it happen. Our correspondent, Fergal Keane, reporting. An arrest warrant has been issued for the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Shekhar Sinha, who fled to India after mass demonstrations against her. A tribunal in Bangladesh has ordered her to appear in court to face accusations of crimes against humanity.

Our South Asia regional editor, Anbarisan Ethirajan, told me more about the arrest warrant. This was issued by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal. This is a domestically constituted tribunal and no links with the United Nations or any other international bodies. Now there have been several demands within Bangladesh to prosecute Ms. Asina because of what happened during a 15-year tenure. Basically there were allegations of rights abuses, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. And according to the latest government figures,

more than 700 people were killed during the mass uprising against her government in July and August. And that is why some of these prosecutors, the chief prosecutor said, crimes against humanity charges should be brought against her. And this International Crimes Tribunal started its proceedings today. Now they've issued its arrest warrant against her and this International Crimes Tribunal started its proceedings today. Now they've issued his arrest warrant against her and 45 others

including senior leaders of her party of Army League and former ministers but she's currently in India at the moment. She fled the country during the protest and when I spoke to her son, Sajib Wasif, a couple of weeks ago he denied all these charges of mass killings and all these charges of mass killings and also these extrajudicial killings during a tenure. I was going to say we spoke to her son on the BBC World Service at the time of her ousting and he basically said Bangladesh will fall apart. It's got this interim government which seems to have a fair bit of support. How is that going? It's been a

two and a half months since this new government took over and it has been a mixed reaction for people. One thing is the media and also people can express their opinions and voices, their views very clearly without any fear of being arrested or getting disappeared altogether. But at the same time, the government is also struggling to contain inflation, the prices of food commodities because they came with a lot of expectation. They thought things will change overnight but government doesn't function that way. You still have prices of essential

commodities high and at the same time there are lots of political forces pulling this government in different directions and that has also attracted a lot of criticism. And Barisan attheranjan reporting. This year's Stirling Prize, which recognises the UK's best new architecture, has been awarded to the Elizabeth Line in London. This rail project is named after Queen Elizabeth II, who opened it in 2022. It carries around 700,000 passengers every weekday and links Heathrow Airport with the

centre of London. And now it's an architectural triumph because while stations have been nominated in the past, it's the first time a whole train line has been nominated, let alone one. Here's Liso Muzimba. The judges of the UK's most prestigious architecture prize described the 62 mile long Elizabeth line as a tour de force. They also noted its quietly calm environment and said its scheme-defining muted palette of perforated cladding, sensitive lighting and coherent wayfinding systems created what it called an intuitive frictionless experience. Neil McClements is from the architectural firm Grimshaw, which was part of the design team. It's been a long journey, this project.

I think we started back in 2009. I think at that point in time, we were looking at trying to create a very positive experience for passengers using the line. It's quite a new piece of infrastructure. These stations are much bigger than a typical underground station. So there was a real focus on trying to elevate that experience for passengers and create a new benchmark for the railway. So if you take the tunnel stations, they're deep underground.

We tried to capture as much space for the passengers as possible in terms of expressing the engineering. But we also used lighting as a way of trying to uplight the spaces to make them feel generous and then vary the lighting along the passenger journey so it didn't feel monotonous. We also put a lot of work into just improving things like the acoustic environment. A lot of these are quite subtle changes but together they add up to what has really created a new experience for passengers and I think it's why the public has reacted so positively. And it's paid off in terms of this prize. Can I just put to you one objection, if I

may, which is I saw this from an architect called Ian Ritchie in the Times this morning. He said, surely the Elizabeth line is engineering infrastructure, by all means give it to the engineers that would show respect and help dissolve professional design apartheid, but it's hardly evolutionary architecture. What do you say to that objection? I think one of the things that we think is really important is actually it's not just about either architecture or engineering. This project is very much about the whole industry coming together. You know, it's been a story of collaboration and I think that's very much the case with the station architecture. It

took its cues from the engineering, from the use of sprayed concrete for instance, that's what created these very curvaceous junctions within the tunneled environments. That was about opening up sight lines to help again ease those flows, make the station safer. This was all really the architects and the engineering teams working really closely hand in hand together to get the outcome. And that was Neil McClements speaking to Amal Rajan. Still to come in this podcast. He's such a big part of our history and our tradition. It's really wonderful that we get to celebrate it. It's important to note that the King is just as much the King of Australia as he is the King of England. King Charles and Queen Camilla head to Australia. 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. Ukraine's president Zelensky is in Brussels. He's been presenting what he's calling his victory plan to EU leaders, which he says will put Ukraine in a strong enough position to end the war with Russia by the end of next year.

Mr. Zelensky said his first priority was for an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO. Ukraine is a democratic nation that has proven it can defend the Euro-Atlantic region and our shared way of life. And for decades Russia has used the geopolitical uncertainty caused by Ukraine not being in NATO. Now the fact of an immediate invitation to Ukraine to join NATO would be decisive. Of course membership would follow later. Putin just must see that his geopolitical calculations are worthless. Other key elements include getting access to long-range missiles and a refusal to cede territory to Russia. The Kremlin has

dismissed the plan and warned it would push NATO towards direct conflict with Russia. My colleague James Kompnor has been talking to Vadim Halaychuk, who's a Ukrainian MP currently in Kiev and a member of President Zelensky's party. We see undecisiveness coming from our partners coming from our partners and Russians exploit that they Right away. They see that as a weakness and push through their narratives their ultimatums We all remember that Putin himself said the condition Not for peace but for starting talking about ceasefire is that Ukraine pulls out its troops from?

Donetsk Luhansk, it's, Zaporozhia, all those regions, and declares that it's never going to stay neutral forever and will never join NATO. We will not bound to such ultimatums because we understand it's not realistic. He is not going to negotiate. Therefore, we need our partners to understand that. This is not a way to go. To try to appease the dictator, the air grasser, we have to present our own plan, peace through force, as we did. So you talk then about wavering Western support. How do you intend to convince Washington, where we may see, for example, a Donald Trump presidency in just a couple of months, with perhaps very, very different perspective on Ukraine to Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, but not just Washington, other Western

capitals too, to continue or even increase support? Well, yes, unfortunately, we have seen a few examples of how difficult it is to navigate American politics during the election campaign. And quite frankly, this is what we are told by our American friends, wait till the elections are over. The rhetoric will change because that's how it works. But we continue to work with our European partners. President Biden just announced another $425 million, I think it was, for Ukraine. It sounds a lot of money, but given the sorts of expenses you have, how costly weapons and so on are, is that just enough to keep things ticking over? Well, this is how this assistance works. Every couple of months or so, a new package comes in to replace and replenish what we

use. Ukrainian industry has grown tenfold ever since the 2022. So in terms of the weaponry, in terms of the ammunition, we're doing fairly well. We do lack long range ammunition. We do require that permit finally to use that ammunition against Russian targets deeper into Russian territory where they keep attacking us from, especially we're talking about airports and aviation.

Now, with less than three weeks to go until the US presidential election, polls suggest the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump could not be closer. So both candidates are reaching out to as many voters as possible. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump held a pre-recorded event with women voters in Georgia. Later, Kamala Harris appeared for an interview on the conservative news network Fox News, and she said as president she would do things her way. My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency. And like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences,

my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership. I, for example, am someone who has not spent the majority of my career in Washington D.C. I invite ideas, whether it be from the Republicans who are supporting me who were just on stage with me minutes ago, and the business sector, and others who can contribute to the decisions that I make. Our correspondent in Washington, Rowan Bridge, watched the interview. It was quite a testy exchange at places. You saw Kamala Harris being repeatedly pressed on some of the issues that are seen as her

weaknesses I think and some of the issues that Fox viewers care most about. About a third of that interview, for example, was about immigration policy and if it had been too weak under the Biden administration. And what you saw in her answers was the way that she would deliberately and repeatedly try and shift whatever the topic was back onto Donald Trump and what he had done as president or what his plans were. I think the other thing that was interesting or that really struck out for me was how she answered about what was different between her and President Biden. And this has been a sort of area of contention where

she's been criticized for some of the answers that she'd given in the past where she said, you know, she couldn't think of anything that she would have done differently or worse to that effect. And that has morphed into the answer that she gave today, which was that my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency. So she's shifting the tone slightly, but it's always that difficulty of being part of the administration, but also wanting to distance yourself from it. And it's a bit of a gamble for her to go on Fox News. I mean, this is a conservative news network. They wouldn't normally be on her side.

No, I mean, I think this is part of a deliberate strategy here by Kamala Harris to try and reach out to Republican voters and yes of course she's not going to reach the sort of MAGA devotees that are died-in-the-world Donald Trump voters but that wasn't what this was about. The fundamental thing you have to understand is that this election is a national election but effectively comes down to six or seven states that are going to decide this election one way and another. And within that, you're talking tens of thousands of votes probably within those states. And so I think

what this was about was trying to win over or reassure or give moderate Republicans who find the idea of voting for Donald Trump difficult, a reason to vote for Kamala Harris if they live in those swing states. And so the idea is I don't need to peel off millions of voters. I just need to convince enough and move the dial a bit in those swing states. And I think that's what you saw in this was an attempt to try and reach some of those voters. Now, you know, I think a different question is, will it work? But I think that's what the strategy was here. Rowan Bridge in Washington talking to Charlotte

Gallagher. King Charles and Queen Camilla are en route to Australia for their biggest overseas trip since the King began cancer treatment in February. Last year a YouGov poll found a third of people thought the monarchy was good for Australia. One in five thought it was bad. There was talk of a vote to remove the King as Australia's head of state, but that's off the table at least for now. So how enthusiastic are local people about this royal tour? Our correspondent in Sydney, Katie Watson, has been finding out. With a night of bottomless drinks, a three-course dinner and an auction packed with royal memorabilia, the University

of Queensland Monarchist League's annual ball was a sell-out. The evening kicked off with a rendition of God Save the King, followed by Australia's national anthem. There was great excitement about what will be King Charles' 16th official visit down under. It's no mean feat to travel 10,000 miles and across 10 different time zones, all the while going through cancer treatment. That, say these students, speaks volumes about his fondness for this country. I'm really excited. I think he's such a big part of our history and our tradition, it's really wonderful that we get to celebrate it.

When the King comes to Australia, people aren't going to line the streets waving Union Jacks. They're going to be waving the Australian flag because it's important to note that the King is just as much the King of Australia as he is the King of England. But Australia's republic movement says the country needs to move on. It's released a tongue-in-cheek video called the Farewell Oz Tour encouraging people to think about a future without the Royals. Nathan Hansford is the organization's co-chair. We've been independent for a long time now but that last little step of independence for us is splitting away from the monarchy,

having an Australian, somebody who lives here, somebody who represents us, someone who is able to go and attend events, not every 10 years, but every week. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has long made it clear that Australia's future should be won without a monarchy. This visit comes just a few months after Albanese's government shelved plans to hold a vote on a republic. People here are facing a cost of living crisis, so there just isn't the appetite for what many would see as a distraction.

This campaign has been a heavy weight to carry. And last year was a game changer too. The government was defeated in another referendum when Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to Indigenous people. For many First Nations people, voting on the monarchy just isn't a priority. Allira Davis co-chairs Uluru Youth Dialogue. We're not white Australia anymore, we're a brown Australia.

We have a very multicultural, diverse background coming from all nations and it'd be very interesting to see a brown head of state or a black head of state but before we do that we need to include our First Nations and acknowledge and recognize that. Alira Davis who co-chairs the Uluru Youth Dialogue ending that report from Katie Watson. North Korea seems to have stopped using its own unique calendar that considers year one to be 1912, the birth year of the country's founder Kim Il-sung. It's now gone back to the Gregorian system.

Mickey Bristo reports. Although there's been no official announcement, North Korean government statements and media outlets have mostly dropped the Juche calendar, which was adopted in 1997, three years after the death of Kim Il-sung. The system has no year for before his birth. This year was supposed to be 113, but North Korea was now reverted to 2024, like most other places in the world. Analysts believe the change is aimed at strengthening support for North Korea's current leader Kim

Jong-un by playing down anything that celebrates the life of his grandfather. When NASA astronauts return to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, they'll do so in style, wearing Prada. The Italian fashion house has teamed up with the private space company Axion Space to design its new spacesuits for NASA's Artemis III mission, which is planned for September 2026. The story from Wendy Urquhart. Prada is famous for its pricey designer wear, but this is a brand new direction for the fashion house. The spacesuit was unveiled in a slick promotional video in Milan on Wednesday. The base colour is white with patches of grey to protect the astronauts

from extreme temperatures and lunar dust. But Prada fans will definitely recognise the red stripes on the forearms, the waist and backpack from the designers Linear Rosso ready-to-wear line. Axiom space president Matt Ondler is thrilled with how the spacesuit has turned out. The unveiling of this spacesuit has an historic moment. Two years from now, when NASA flies the X-3 mission, the astronaut will be wearing this suit design. The first woman to walk on the moon will wear this suit. The first person of color will wear this suit. The first non-American will wear this suit.

And they will go in places that are incredibly hazardous extreme environments. The astronauts will also have helmets and visors that fend off solar radiation and provide better vision and they'll have special gloves and boots so that they can take spacewalks for up to eight hours. NASA's 30-day Artemis 3 mission will take off two years from now in the hope of putting four astronauts on the moon. And if it's successful, it will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. Now before we go, the UN's annual climate change conference starts on 11 November in

Azerbaijan. Ahead of that, we're making a special edition of the Global News podcast and we have a request. Here's my colleague Nick Miles is going to be quizzing two of the BBC's top climate change experts. A record breaking hurricanes in America, droughts and floods in China and around the world the highest sea temperatures on record. Climate change has never been so clearly with us, but sometimes it can be confusing to say the least about what

the UN climate change conference is trying to achieve and what it delivers. Which nations are leading the way and which are dragging their heels. We need your questions to put to our experts. Just email us globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Thanks. And we'd be even more grateful if you could email us a voice note with your question. That's it from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this podcast, drop us an email globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk or you'll find us on X where we are at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Vladimir Mizechka.

The producer was Rebecca Wood. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening and 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.