Global News Podcast - Blinken visits Haiti to hear of progress on gang violence

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has urged Haiti's interim government to set up an electoral council to organise presidential elections. Also: is there a link between noise and infertility?

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janak Jalil and in the early hours of Friday the 6th of September, these are our main stories. America's top diplomat visits Haiti in a show of support for a nation struggling to free itself from the grip of gangs and corruption.

President Biden's son Hunter enters a surprise guilty plea in a tax evasion case. Providers of VPNs say they've seen an unprecedented surge in demand in Brazil since the social media platform X was banned there last week. Also in this podcast, the actress Gillian Anderson talks to the BBC about her new book, a collection of women's sexual fantasies. And I did include my own fantasy in the book. Any clues which one? No. Haiti has been gripped by gang violence for years. The situation shows little sign of improvement despite the recent deployment of a long-awaited international force which includes hundreds of police officers from Kenya and is funded by the United States. The US Secretary

of State, Antony Blinken, travelled to Haiti to try to push forward the process of organising elections. Mr Blinken said he hoped to see an electoral council established next year. The critical next step that we spoke about is setting up an electoral council with the objective of putting Haiti on a path to elections next year, but also to creating a secure environment, not only for the elections, but to making sure that services can be delivered to the Asian people as soon as we need it, as all of them can move forward. So how much of a difference has the US funded international force made in Haiti? Our Central America and Caribbean correspondent is

Will Grant. It's dropped out of the headlines a little bit compared to a few months ago, but that's not a suggestion that the humanitarian crisis isn't just as severe as it has been over this past year, a few years really. I think the difference about what this international force might have made is simply shoring up the security situation a little better. These 400 or so Kenyan officers supporting the Haitian national police has at least bolstered the police a little bit and brought a period of calm. Now, critics suggest that that period of calm may have been sort of on its way anyway,

and they haven't really made any great inroads to taking back territory or pacifying the country as a whole. Nevertheless, I think Haiti has enjoyed, would be the wrong word, but maybe experienced a few more weeks of calm than it had earlier in the year. So tell us about Mr. Blinken's visit. What is he hoping to achieve from this rare trip to Haiti? Well, part of it will be symbolic. It is a message being sent out by the Secretary of State that the US supports that international force that are there fully in support of the Transitional Council and the new

Prime Minister. Those direct meetings between the two of them, they can put issues on the table, questions about how the United States might be able to bolster humanitarian aid to the nation. But I think also there is an element about seeing the neighbour, the Dominican Republic, which will be the second part of his trip. Obviously, that is a very strained relationship. The Dominican Republic has not necessarily welcomed Haitians with open arms. Indeed, has deported Haitians back to the country in the midst of a crisis. So there'll be conversations on that front too. Will Grant. President Biden's son Hunter has pleaded guilty in his tax evasion case, appearing to surprise federal prosecutors who are ready to begin his trial in Los Angeles.

He'd previously denied allegations that he intentionally avoided paying $1.4 million in income tax to fund a lavish lifestyle. Hunter Biden has already faced one criminal trial this year, having been convicted of offences related to the possession of a gun in June. I spoke to our correspondent Emma Vardy, who was on a busy street in Los Angeles, and started by asking her why Hunter Biden has made the sudden decision to change his plea. It's pretty clear that having gone through a criminal trial earlier this year was personally very difficult for him and his family and loved ones and that seems to be the basis for him deciding to kind of put an end to this and accept going for a guilty

plea. He just put out a statement saying when he went to trial previously, he didn't realise the anguish it would cause his family. And he says, I will not put them through it again. So clearly, this is something which he has discussed with people he loves behind the scenes as well as his legal team. And that has brought him to his decision today. Now, previously, of course, when his father, Joe Biden, was running for a second term, this case took on a huge amount of political significance, too father, Joe Biden, was running for a second term. This pace took on a huge amount of political significance, too, because Joe Biden's opponents were using Hunter Biden's crimes and his wrongdoing to try to cast shadow over Joe Biden as well. The stakes are a bit lower politically now, but of course, there's still huge interest in the dealings of the president's son,

the first president's son to ever been convicted in this way. And this would have been the second criminal trial that was set to get going in which lots of his public affairs during the period in which he was addicted to crack cocaine would have been laid bare once again. Clearly, that was very painful for his family last time around. And he's decided to put a stop to it now and to plead guilty. And so when will he be sentenced, and is he likely to face a lengthy prison term? Well, the judge has reminded the court today

that he could face prison of up to 17 years. We expect, though, and legal commentators have suggested it could be quite a lot less than that, particularly also now because of his guilty plea and other mitigation that they will put forward in, for example, things that he has now fully paid his taxes. There's no outstanding money owing. But, you know, these are serious offences and up to 17 years is what he could be facing. It is, though, also quite rare that somebody faces these tax

fraud charges. And Hunter Biden's team pretty much argued quite often that it was partly that he was so high profile that he was being held up in this way. Now, his sentencing won't take place now until December. So quite a way off. And the heat, again, would have come out of things quite a lot by then as well, because, of course, that is after the November election that people are very focused on. Emma Vardy. Providers of virtual private networks or VPNs say they've seen an unprecedented surge in demand in Brazil since the social media platform X was banned there last week. A Brazilian Supreme Court judge ordered that X be suspended after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to take down several accounts accused of spreading disinformation.

Ione Wells reports from Sao Paulo. X was banned in Brazil after it was ordered to suspend dozens of accounts accused of allegedly spreading disinformation and then failed to meet a deadline to name a new legal representative in the country. People using VPNs to access it can face fines worth nearly US$9,000. Despite this, VPN companies say demand has surged. One firm, ProtonVPN, said their platform had seen a 1,840% increase in sign-ups since the ban compared to their normal rate. Their general manager said the ban amounted to censorship.

X's owner, Elon Musk, has accused the judge of destroying free speech. Ione Wells. The newly appointed French Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, has pledged to work for respect and unity in what has become a politically divided country. Mr Barnier was unveiled on Thursday as a choice of France's president Emmanuel Macron after two months of political deadlock. An election in July saw votes divided between left-wing, centrists and far-right groupings, but with none gaining a majority. The veteran French conservative, who was the EU's Brexit negotiator, faces the formidable task of trying to put together a government

that won't be toppled by the left or the far right. I approach this period, this new chapter that is opening with great humility. Perhaps the wisdom that comes with grey hair is what is needed for this new chapter, this era, this period, to be a useful one for the French people and for France. Our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield, told us more about Michel Barnier. He's most famous in Britain and maybe around the world as being the man who negotiated Brexit for the EU. But in France, he does have a longer and older profile. He has, as you say, is a veteran of the centre, right, the old Gaullist party. Not that means much anymore. He's 73 years old now, looks young, but joined Parliament way back in the 70s.

At one point, he was the youngest member of Parliament back then. He served as minister several times, foreign minister under Jacques Chirac, before then going to Europe. Obviously, he's very pro-European, very sort of marked by that experience, and his pro-European credentials are very, very high. And then culminating there with the long period as negotiator for Brexit.

So he's, you know, he's got a long, long track record. But what you can't say of him at all is that he's some kind of maverick or unconventional figure. He's the most conventional figure you can imagine and very, very much an establishment figure. And that is, I guess, both a strength and a weakness now. I mean, he's certainly got plenty of gravitas and experience. But at a time when, you know, the voters are supposed to have kind of said, you know, we want no more of the establishment, what they've got is a lot more of it with him. So what will his priorities be? And crucially, will his appointment be enough to end the political instability in France? I don't think it'll be enough to end this instability.

You heard there how the left and this alliance with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand of the far left, very much at the head of it, they are up in arms. They see that their cause is legitimate. They feel that they won the election. They should therefore have the choice. The left should therefore be the first to have dibs at the prime ministership. So they're out to get him. The question is, really, is the populist right also out to get him? I mean, if the two of them, the left and the populist right,

decided they didn't want him, then he would be out without any shadow of a doubt. But for the time being, the populists of Marine Le Pen are kind of holding fire. They're saying we'll see what happens. You know, we'll see what his program is. If he is tough on immigration, if he starts improving public services, then maybe, you know, we can give him a lease of life. But, you know, he is very, very much dependent on that equation. And if as soon as the hard right decides they don't want him, they can vote him out. Hughescofield. Let's stay in France for a case that has stunned and horrified the country. A man has gone on trial accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his wife after he drugged her at their family home near Avignon. The court has been told the abuse went on for more than a decade and that the woman's

husband had filmed what happened. On Thursday, the woman, who's now in her 70s, began telling her story in court. She's waived her right to anonymity in order to help other women recognise if they're being abused in the same way. And just to warn you, this report by our France correspondent Andrew Harding contains distressing details. in her own bed, drugged by her own husband. On the witness stand, the 72-year-old described the moment her happy marriage collapsed, when a French policeman showed her pictures seized from her husband's laptop, pictures of strangers raping her. This is a translation of her testimony. It was hard to recognise myself. Then the officer showed me a second photo and a third. I asked him to stop. It was unbearable. I was lifeless in my bed and a man was raping me.

My world fell apart. I'm speaking now not for myself, but for all the women who are drugged and abused. Her husband, Dominique, had filmed it all, asking only that the men warm their hands and take other steps to avoid waking his wife. Dominique has already confessed to all this, but many of the other alleged rapists told French police they either didn't know she was unconscious or presumed her husband's consent was somehow enough.

After testifying, Pellico chose to face the cameras again, masking the devastation she said was inside her. I think I've said everything I could. It's not easy. There is a lot of pressure. We're going to have to fight to the end. This trial is going to last four months. Campaigners here say the problem of drugging and raping is far wider than reported. They hope the courage shown by Giselle Pellico

will now lead to wider changes in laws and attitudes. That report by Andrew Harding. Crowds of Palestinians have been queuing at medical centres in the south of the embattled Gaza Strip for their children to be vaccinated against polio in the second stage of a campaign that has so far seen more than 180,000 youngsters inoculated. Gaza's health ministry reported the first case of polio in 25 years last month in a baby. As a devastating Israel-Hamas war has left many families living out in the open without basic facilities and exposed to sewage and disease. These parents said they were terrified for their children. There is a lack of hygiene. Food and water are not clean.

This vaccination is important for them to protect them from diseases that might spread due to malnutrition and poor sanitation. I fear the new diseases that have surfaced due to the type of life we currently live, moving from a tent to a tent. We hope that this vaccine protects them from any complications. I asked our Middle East regional editor, Mike Thompson, who's monitoring the situation in Gaza from Jerusalem, how the vaccination process is going. It's proceeding very well, according to the UN. They say they have managed to vaccinate, as you said, there are 189,000 children.

So that's fine. But it's very challenging because here you have a place that's been devastated by this ongoing conflict. Apparently two thirds of the roads are damaged. Half the hospitals are out of action. You've got so many displaced people. In fact, most of the population of Gaza is displaced. Some of the children that they'll be looking to vaccinate aren't actually in these poor ceasefires, so they won't be able to reach some of them. But aside from that, they're somehow managing to make quite good progress. And how will this continue? How long will these ceasefires last for?

Well, each zone has three days and a possible extra day that Israel's agreed to if they haven't managed to catch the children they need. And already in the last zone, in the central area of Gaza, an extra day had to be added. So after the south, everything moves on then to the north. And they're hoping in the end to be able to reach 640,000 children in Gaza. And they do need to get about 95% of the children there to effectively vaccinate them. The only thing that I've seen that seems a bit worrying is the UN saying that a second dose would be needed in late September, partly because I haven't heard so far that pauses have been allowed for that, unless of course it's

the case that they're able to give, there's a local place that could store the vaccines, although that's hard to imagine in a place that's so wrecked by conflict. Mike Thompson, staying on the topic of urgently needed vaccines, three weeks after the World Health Organization declared the latest MPOX outbreak a global emergency, the country at its epicenter, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has finally received its first vaccines. Nearly 100,000 doses of an MPOX vaccine were delivered to the Congolese capital Kinshasa, with a similar number expected in the next few days.

Since the start of the year, this vast country has recorded more than 650 deaths. The vaccines donated by the European Union still have to be transported to eastern Congo, in a country which has poor roads and lacks even basic health care in many places. This message from an MPOCs patient in Congo was sent to the BBC by the charity MSF or Doctors Without Borders. My name is Madua. I knew I was infected when things started appearing on my body. I started taking treatment earlier in vain before being brought here. I don't recall encountering anybody. I ate meat, but I don't know if I got it from there. I was wondering with it since treatment in hospitals was not helping me much until the

wife of my uncle brought me here. She told me to see specialists who arrived to treat it. I spent three months and a week with the grace of God. I followed treatment and got healed by the grace of God. Our Africa health correspondent Dorcas Wangira told me more about the vaccination process in the DRC. We've seen 99,000 doses there about arrive. We're expecting more on Saturday. So this is very important because vaccines do play an important role in any outbreak, not just mpox. Is this enough though? Some say that this is just a drop in the ocean because DRC initially needs at least 3 million doses. Africa CDC says the continent needs 10 million. So what can 200,000 doses do? And this particular vaccine requires two doses administered within a space of four weeks. So 200,000 doses may just probably go to 100,000 people. But it's still worth a shot for a disease

that is affecting many people, particularly in this country. But it's still worth a shot for a disease that is affecting many people, particularly in this country. But these vaccines have arrived in Kinshasa. They still got to be transported thousands of kilometres to get to the people that need them the most. Why is this taking so long, given the fact that the World Health Organisation declared the latest mpox outbreak a global emergency three weeks ago. So why has it taken so long? WHO says that it would not take shortcuts. There's a process that has to be followed in terms of getting an emergency use licence. However, because of the situation in DRC, even without that licence,

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, could procure the vaccines and have them delivered. On your question of why would it take so long in-country, when you look at the DRC, it is a huge country. The most affected areas are also forested areas, hard to reach, hard to access. And we have conflict in eastern DRC particularly. So there has to be safety considerations, cold chain considerations. This vaccine needs to be stored at a particular temperature. How do you move it around within that cold chain? Will they use helicopters? Will they use motorbikes? Will they use vehicles?

All this logistics need to be considered. And there's also another question. These vaccines, I understand, are only intended for adults. Yet most of the deaths from MPOCs this year have been children, I think four out of every five. Yes, and that is a concern that the partners, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi, and DRC's government is considering. There's also another vaccine manufactured by Japan's KM Biologics, and it has been recommended in children who are much younger, but then we still do not know when they'll be available in-country

and whether they will be administered to children so soon because there's no data on how it would work in the context in DRC. Our Africa health correspondent, Dokus Wangira. Still to come. We've known for some time that noise produces stress and stress produces cardiovascular heart disease. Now new research has drawn a link between noise and infertility. Thank you. News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Pod. Sweden is abolishing its flight tax to boost aviation.

The tax of between US$7 to US$50, depending on the length of the flight, will be dropped next summer. Environmentalists are outraged at the move, which is aimed at getting people to take more flights. Andrew Peach spoke to Sweden's infrastructure minister, Andreas Karlsson, whose responsibility for transport. A country like Sweden, with vast distances and many sparsely populated areas, aviation plays a crucial role in domestic travel. It enables connections between loved ones across the country and serves as an important driver of Sweden's economy.

And despite aviation's important role in the transport system, it has unfortunately been deprioritized for many years. So does that mean people aren't traveling within Sweden to go and see family and all of that kind of thing as a result of these taxes? It's only been in place for six years. Yeah, and we see now that the Swedish aviation industry is in a difficult situation. We have problems with the domestic routes, and we need to see how we can strengthen the competitiveness in the aviation sector. The aviation tax, which was constructed by the former government,

hits planes with sustainable fuel in the tanks just as hard as those without. That means the aviation tax doesn't have any incentives for more climate-friendly solutions at all. Sweden's infrastructure minister, Andreas Carson. Staying with matters aeronautical, now, are you sitting comfortably? If you are, then you may be listening to a downloaded version of this podcast while you're on an aeroplane. Plane seats may not always be comfortable, but it seems many of them are made with great care and ingenuity. Some can cost tens of thousands of dollars each, especially if you're lucky enough to be a first class, where they come fitted with the very latest entertainment systems, luxury upholstery and of course loads of legroom.

Roger Hearing has been speaking to our reporter Chris Baranyuk who's been visiting factories in Northern Ireland where nearly a third of the world's aircraft seats are made. These seats are designed to go into a pretty compact space but still offer a huge range of functionality. You think of it like a big bit of technology packed with different capabilities. I mean, you've got the reclining seat itself that can recline fully into a two meter flat bed. You've got storage and stowage for anything you might bring on the plane right there in your seat. You've got entertainment systems. In some of these seats, they come with a 32 inch TV screen. They even have cooling systems to keep some of these seats, they come with a 32-inch TV screen. They even have cooling systems to keep all of the electronics from overheating. So it's packing all of that into a repeatable

compact space that makes them so precise and difficult to do. Yeah, and I guess you do, I mean, sit on them, bounce up and down on them, I don't know, are they comfortable? I didn't get the chance to bounce up and down on them. I think they may have taken umbrage at that. But I did get the chance to lie down in one briefly and very comfortable, I have to say. I think really you'd have to lie there for about seven hours to really test them. But they do have robots at this production line where they are, the robots are interacting with the seats and moving tray tables in and out thousands and thousands of times to see if they'll hold up to constant use or repeated use over their lifetimes. And I guess, I mean, you're testing the luxury end of the market there, I guess.

But they're also economy seats. Do the companies make those? I guess they're different. These companies in Northern Ireland, I mean, there's three that tend to get mentioned. In particular, there's Thomson Aero, Collins Aerospace, and there's also Alice Blue Aero. And these companies tend to specialize in business class and first class seats. That's what they really want to do is specialize in that high end part of the market. There are other companies around the world who make a lot of economy seats. Safran is a good example there in France. But the precision engineering is very highly desired by airlines, by aircraft manufacturers for this premium part of the aircraft.

They want to be able to choose from a big range of seats that come with the latest technology, fine leather, fine fabrics. They want to set themselves apart. This is what Thompson Aero told me they'd like to appeal to. And that's what they really specialise in. It's a bit strange in a way, I suppose, that Northern Ireland will be getting such a big slice of the market in this. I mean, do they have particular skills there? Yes, it might be surprising at first to hear that just under a third of the world's airline seats are made in Northern Ireland. But it does make sense when you think about it. I mean, Northern Ireland has a long history of manufacturing. People may be familiar with Harland and Wolfe, you know,

the shipyard of one of the biggest shipyards in the world. And more recently, consider companies like Right Bus. You know, they've made the new Routemaster buses that were introduced in London some years ago. And Northern Ireland also makes and exports a lot of machinery that's used in agriculture and construction. So there is a bit of a pedigree in manufacturing in Northern Ireland. And the companies that work in these sorts of areas are actually desperate for more and more staff. You know, there's lots of evidence that they would like to hire more people. Thompson Arrow is one of the companies that really wants to expand right now. Chris Baranyuk in Northern Ireland.

New research has drawn a link between noise and infertility. It's a Danish study published in the British Medical Journal and it seems to affect older women, not younger ones. One headline is that noisy neighbourhoods could be linked to a nearly 15% increased risk of infertility in women over the age of 35. It seems to have a small effect on older men as well. At the same time, the study found a link between air quality and male fertility. Evan Davis spoke to Jill Belch, a professor of vascular medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland.

I think it's a really interesting study, not least because it's drawing people's attention to the dangers of noise. We've known for some time that noise produces stress and stress produces cardiovascular heart disease. And I think what's interesting here is that we're seeing this same stress affecting fertility. And as one in seven people globally suffer from infertility, it really is a very important study. Right. So the root would be stress. Now, we also have this finding. This is basically work in Denmark on a very, very large sample of people. And so you're looking at kind of broad patterns in the data. The air pollution effect on men rather than women, what could be going on there? Yes, again, another interesting result. We do know, for example, that women's eggs are there

right at the beginning when you're born. They're there, ready to go. Men, in contrast, they make their sperm every three months. And of course, dividing cells are much more susceptible to toxins like air pollution. So that's possibly one reason. Another reason could be, and this is particularly for the nitric oxide gases, which weren't studied, but which have been shown before to be linked to male infertility. Nitric oxide gases from cars actually are absorbed through the skin. And I think we all know that where you store your sperm is actually just hanging out there and is much more in the open air as opposed to the ovaries, which are tucked nicely in your body. So there are some reasons for it. Well, look, going back to noise pollution,

have we not been thinking about this enough? I mean, I was obviously very surprised to hear this conclusion. Is this something we should be thinking about more then? Yes. In the UK, we only have legislation about noise between the hours of 10pm and 7am. So actually, there's no guidance at all in the number of decibels you can have

during the day. And we do, when a house is being built, somebody will come along and look at the traffic and say, oh, yes, you need double glazing here or you don't. But the difficulty is that this study actually showed an effect at quite low levels of sound. And so I think this is going to affect town planning. It's going to affect insulation in houses and really needs to be looked at very thoroughly because we're probably going to need new legislation in due course if this study is validated. The advice from the Chief Scientific Officer at Care Fertility was that people trying to conceive shouldn't be unduly concerned by the research. I mean, just any words of advice to people in that position?

Yes. I mean, in fairness, we know, for example, that drinking a lot of alcohol, being overweight, being underweight, all contribute to infertility. But you can't get away from a study in the fact that you mentioned yourself, about 14% of these women were actually affected by noise. And if you're sitting out there and you are struggling to have a baby, you might be thinking, oh gosh, could it be the main road running past? And I think this does deserve more work. And then we need to take action if it's validated.

Professor of Vascular Medicine at the University of Dundee, Jill Belch. Just over 50 years ago, a journalist called Nancy Friday wrote a book, My Secret Garden, all about women's sexual fantasies. It was a bestseller and a revelation. That was 1973. Now the actress Gillian Anderson, one of whose many roles includes playing a sex therapist in the TV series Sex Education, has compiled her own collection of women's fantasies

called Want, which were emailed to her anonymously by women from all over the world. Our culture editor, Katie Razzell, has been talking to her. I don't want to have sex. Okay. Do you want to have a seat? After playing Jean Milburn giving advice to teenagers in the Netflix series Sex Education, Gillian Anderson invited women to tell her their sexual fantasies. Now, 50 odd years after Nancy Friday did something similar in My Secret Garden, she has compiled an anthology of the letters they wrote. I find it hard to read them and not think,

who are they, what's going on in their lives? I mean, ultimately, this is not my book. This is the book of every woman who contributed. And there is still, for many people, a shame or a taboo about talking about sex and talking about your sexual fantasies. Yeah, I mean, even though we have, you know, shows like Sex Education and Euphoria and Fifty Shades of Grey and the multi-billion dollar porn industry, it's in our faces, on our screens, on our phones all the time. And yet talking about what goes on inside our minds makes people really uncomfortable.

Major Mulder, I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you. It's 30 years since Gillian Anderson first made her mark as Dana Scully in the TV show The X-Files. She's played powerful and interesting women ever since, including Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson in The Fall and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Do you not think, as I do, that Stella is beautiful? Many of the fantasies are from older women. They have insight, they appreciate their emotional maturity. So the ageing process, I'm glad to hear it as I'm very much ageing,

does have its benefits, but I know it's also quite brutal. And as an actor in the public eye, I wonder how you approach ageing. I've certainly gone through periods where it struck me quite harshly that I too am ageing and almost feel like one needs to go through a mourning of, you know, mourning youth at various stages. Is that tears? How's the mourning going? Oh, just really deep feelings. You know, it's very moving and slightly melancholic.

You seem fairly comfortable about sexuality and sex. Is that right? Is that fair? Yeah, I am. I'm very comfortable with it. And I did include my own fantasy in the book. Any clues which one? No. Shut up. There's no way! Mine will stay anonymous.

That was the actress Gillian Anderson talking to the BBC's culture editor, Katie Razzell. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Matt Dean. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil. 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?

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