Global News Podcast - Donald Trump woos Arab-American voters in Michigan

Episode Date: November 2, 2024

As the US presidential election approaches, Donald Trump attempts to drum up support from Arab-American voters in Michigan, while Kamala Harris holds rallies in Wisconsin. Also: can avatars help people with psychosis?

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel Wright and in the early hours of Saturday the 2nd of November these are our main stories. Donald Trump has been campaigning in Dearborn, Michigan, the largest Arab majority city in the US, where he hopes to attract support from Arab American voters. The heads of a number of UN agencies have described conditions in Gaza as apocalyptic after weeks of an Israeli offensive against Hamas. The number of people killed in catastrophic floods in eastern Spain has risen above 200, as the authorities issue more weather warnings

for other areas. Also in this podcast... ...the Japanese phenomenon Hello Kitty turns 50. Hello Kitty turns 50. As the US election campaign enters its final few days, both candidates have been continuing their tours of the crucial swing states that will decide the outcome. On Friday, Donald Trump campaigned in Michigan, hoping to attract support from Arab-American voters. He made a campaign stop in Dearborn, the largest

Arab majority city in the US. There he told a crowd of supporters that he wanted to see peace in the Middle East. You're gonna have peace in the Middle East. And they should have peace in the Middle East. But not with the clowns you have in the Middle East. Let me tell you, what you have, you have people in the Middle East that aren't doing their job and you have people in the US that aren't doing their job. When they get it together, when they get it right, you're going to have peace in the Middle East. Donald Trump then moved on to a rally in Warren, also in Michigan. I spoke to our correspondent

Ione Wells, who was outside the event. So with a big Arab community in the US state and given Donald Trump's unequivocal support for Israel, how has he been received there? That is what is surprising, I think, some pundits from elsewhere because despite the fact that as you say he has been critical of Muslims in the past, he's even signed the so-called Muslim travel ban when he was president, he actually is gaining support among the Muslim community in places like Dearborn. And part of that is an anger, a response to that community's sort of feeling towards the

Harris-Biden administration's policies in the Middle East. There is a lot of anger, a lot of upset at the fact that the U.S. taxpayers' money has gone to fund Israel's war effort in the Middle East. And that is something that you hear talking to anybody on the streets of Dearborn. Now, the response to that is kind of mixed. Some people can't stomach voting for Donald Trump, so want to vote for a third party, somebody like the Greens' Jill Stein, or not vote at all. Others are reluctantly voting for Kamala Harris, even

though they're not particularly happy with her Middle East policy, say that they feel they could influence her more from that side of things. Others, though, do say that they feel like Donald Trump is the answer. And he said earlier on his visit to Dearborn that he wanted peace. And I think a lot of people, even though he's not spelt out how he would end the war, have heard that message and it's resonated with them. And Kamala Harris has just hired 400 lawyers. Donald Trump's lawyers

have filed many suits alleging voter fraud. Is that where we are heading? Well there certainly are concerns among some election officials that there could well be challenges to whatever the election result is and part of that is because as we know the polls are suggesting that this race is incredibly tight especially in the seven key swing states where the polls are within the margin of error. And of course, we know that after the last election in 2020, Donald Trump made multiple claims without evidence that there was electoral fraud. Those claims were later dismissed, but his supporters didn't buy that.

They continued to allege that the election was, in their words, stolen. And I think election officials are sort of assuming that there could well be similar challenges made at this election. I think a lot of that will depend though on what the result is and also how close it is in some of those key states where it really matters. Iony Wells in Michigan. Let's move on now to Wisconsin, another of the battleground states which could hand Kamala Harris or Donald Trump the key electoral college numbers to take them to the White House. Both candidates have been doing their

best to scare voters about their opponent. Our North America editor Sarah Smith has been in a Halloween mood trick-or-treating in Door County to gauge the fear factor in the closing days of the contest. Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners. Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. of the contest. of life in America if the other side wins. I'm Kamala Harris. I'm Donald J. Trump. And I approve this message. In places like Door County in northern Wisconsin, which has voted for the presidential winner in every recent contest,

the campaigns are out to frighten people to the polls. And it does feel weirdly appropriate around this spooky time of year. These are my things. Oh, excellent. Happy Halloween. Tracy Andropoulos is standing on her doorstep next to a hall, her pro-democrat and Harris Wall signs, handing out sweets to children,

as she contemplates how she would feel if Donald Trump is re-elected. Oh my God. I will be throwing up and then we'll be deciding, what do we do? We've lived through four years of Trump. We know what he's about and we know have worst-case scenario come on November 5th like there's not gonna be any adults in the room Democrats like Tracy are being told that a Trump victory will mean a dictatorship in which he may try to cancel elections Bring in a nationwide abortion ban and use the military against his political opponents inside America We're looking at a democracy that it may no longer be that way.

Like, I don't know, it's terrifying. So, yeah, like it's Halloween, so it's very emotional. Republicans are scared too. They've been warned about an invasion of illegal immigrants who will vote to keep Democrats in power forever, and been told a Harris victory could literally mean the outbreak of World War III. You have too many options. We can vote. What do you want?

Hey, break the pressure. Heather Socheck is out trick or treating with her son who's dressed up as a football player. Go get your hat and your ball. She's about to vote for Donald Trump for the third time, but she doesn't like the fear tactics both of the candidates employ. Yeah, I feel like they are making us live in fear. Some of us are working two to three jobs and not getting a lot of that family time because, you know, we have to put food on the table and so I do believe that they're making us live in fear just to get our vote.

If Kamala Harris is the next president, what do you think your life in the country will be like? I'm afraid to envision that because, like I said, right now, how we're living is not okay. And I don't know how many of us can do for more years of this. We're a dumping ground. We're like a garbage can for the world. Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable.

They are a true threat to democracy. I'm not a threat to democracy. I'm the one that's going to save democracy. This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better. We can't stand you, you're a sh** vice president. All this fear-mongering is making voters feel as though this election is an existential event that will have disastrous consequences if their side doesn't win. And that's in a country that's already more sharply divided than ever before. Sarah Smith in Wisconsin. New figures show job growth in the US slowed sharply

last month as hurricanes and strike action disrupted the economy. More from the BBC's North America business correspondent, Ritika Gupta. American job growth slowed sharply in October, with the strikes in the aerospace industry depressing manufacturing. There are also 112,000 fewer jobs in September than had been previously reported, according to the Labour Department. But the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%, suggesting the labour market still remains on solid footing. The closely watched report is the last major economic data before Americans cast their ballot.

Polls show that Americans rank the economy as one of the most pressing issues in the upcoming election. Now to other news, and in Spain, the authorities have extended a red alert for torrential rain on the southern coast after flash flooding killed more than 200 people in eastern areas. Dozens remain missing, mainly in the Valencia region, after rapidly rising waters trapped people indoors. Some residents say more lives could have been saved if the local authorities had been quicker to warn of the flood risk. Thousands of volunteers are helping the Spanish military and emergency services with the rescue and cleanup operation, especially in areas where debris strewn

roads are inaccessible and communications remain cut. Our Europe correspondent Bethany Bell reports from Valencia. Streets and parts of the city and many surrounding towns, they're the scars of the devastation brought by from Valencia. is completely blocked with four rows of cars piled on top of each other. With many people still missing there's a strong sense of shock and anger. In the village of Aldaia we met Juan González who's an English teacher. He told us the local authorities had failed his community. It's a mix of anger and sadness. Sadness because obviously all these people that are not here have gone through a terrible agony to pass away. And anger because it's outrageous that our local government didn't do anything about it, knowing they They well knew that, you know, this was coming and did nothing about it.

Volunteers are out in force, battling the mud with brims and spades. Some have walked long distances, across roads blocked to cars, to try to help with the clean-up. Valencia's regional president, Carlos Mazonazon said more troops would be deployed. We have requested additional army troops for tomorrow. They've been on the move since eight o'clock today and tomorrow in principle there will be another 500. As we continue assessing the situation the needs are being integrated to give the army the task, the work and the needs to be handled.

Outside food distribution centres, people are queuing up for supplies. Monica, a volunteer, said she felt compelled to come and help. I came here to help anything they could need, cleaning, coming with the supplies, water, clothes, oil, anything that they can need, all the cleaning supplies also, baths, shower, everything. I need to come and help them. They need everything. Many people here are worried for their family and friends. One local mayor warned that many of the upturned vehicles on the streets could have people trapped inside them. Bethany Bell in Spain.

15 leaders of various UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have described conditions in northern Gaza as apocalyptic. They say the entire population, estimated to be around 400,000 people, is in imminent risk of death. Mike Thompson reports. The UN agency chiefs say Israeli forces are blocking life-saving aid supplies reaching the besieged and bombarded area, despite hundreds of people dying from disease, famine and violence.

They've called for an urgent ceasefire, insisting the entire region is now on a precipice. This comes as the World Health Organisation is set to resume a second round of vital polio vaccinations for children there on Saturday. These were suspended due to the ongoing violence in the north. But the WHO has said some areas there remain inaccessible because of the continuing violence. Mike Thompson Joe English is an emergency communications specialist at UNICEF, the UN Agency for Children. He told my colleague, Rajini Vadyanathan, about the plan to resume

the vaccination campaign. It is absolutely critical that we're able to reach these children. Unfortunately now this has been limited to just Gaza City, which means that there are around 15,000 children under the age of 10, we estimate, in towns like Chibalia, Beit Lahir, Beit Hanoun, who actually still remain inaccessible to us and will be missed by this campaign. And obviously this compromises its effectiveness. And if we're going to actually interrupt the polio virus transmission and stop the possibility of it mutating and posing a threat to more children, not just in Gaza, but across the region,

we have to reach at least 90% of all children. So tomorrow is going to be a good start. We've got more than 200 teams in 106 fixed sites who will be doing these vaccinations but we have to be able to reach these last 15,000 children and the only way that we're going to be able to do that is a ceasefire, a real pause in the fighting to allow us to get into these cities that have been under siege for almost a month now and reach these children. And just tell us about your health work on the ground at the moment. What are the other greatest needs for children at the moment, particularly in northern Gaza? A number of the heads of UN agencies today call the situation apocalyptic and that really

is strong words, but it is true. We are seeing children and families who are in need of everything. We continue to see mass casualty events where large numbers of children are being killed and injured and then rush to hospitals where if they're lucky, there may be a single surgeon, there may be a single pediatrician, but they don't have the supplies, the medicine, the medical supplies that they need to be able to treat children. WHO, our colleagues, managed to get up to Camelard One Hospital and deliver supplies and then two or three days later there was an attack and those supplies were destroyed and damaged. And so it is absolutely catastrophic and it is another reason why we just have to see an end to this fighting.

We have to see a pause in the fighting, a ceasefire and the hostages released. Joe English from UNICEF. People with psychosis can lose touch with reality. They might hallucinate, see things or hear voices which others can't. Now an experimental new therapy is delivering impressive results. It involves the creation of digital avatars, so-called digital characters, based on the voices in the heads of patients and which they can then confront. Tim Frank spoke to Philippa Garrity, a professor of

clinical psychology at King's College London and the lead author of the study in the journal Nature Medicine. She told him more about the use of digital avatars. The way it works is that we discuss with people who hear voices what exactly it is they hear and we work out to understand where they think the voice is coming from, what the source of the voice, what it looks like and then with computer software we sit down with them and we create their own personalized avatar to serve as the source of their voice. That starts with using special software to create the voice as it sounds like the voice that they hear.

That software is going to transform the therapist's voice into the sound of the voice that they hear so that the therapist in some dialogues will be able to, as the avatar, be the voice that the person interacts with. Then, after creating the voice – and that's often very successfully done. People say that they find it uncanny how much it sounds like the voice they hear, they create a face. It can be a human face or it may be a non-human face like a devilish character. Whatever it is, they imagine their voice looks like. That then becomes an animated face which speaks, face which speaks and we enable the person to have a dialogue with their voice where the focus is on helping people no longer to feel controlled by the voice. Right, to be very clear about this is the avatar then it's not using

artificial intelligence to create a conversation with the person. It is the therapist who is, in a sense, having the conversation. Yes, that's right. It's a live voicing of the dialogue with the therapist choosing what to say. And the way it works is that at the very beginning, the therapist will always use verbatim phrases, phrases that the voice here has told the therapist that the voice uses. They have often not explained to anybody what the voice says because the content is often upsetting or shaming. But in order to establish the real experience of the avatar as their voice, we will use those phrases and then we will help very quickly people to stand up to and challenge where the phrases are bullying a risk, obviously a calculated risk, because I guess

part of you must have been thinking, you know, are we risking sort of giving concrete form to something which is being hallucinated? Could we, in a sense, make it more real for the patient? That's an understandable and good question. And I think the first thing to say is that they are there. Those voices are experienced as real, often omnipresent in the person's life. In fact, what we found is that people feel empowered by creating this image and sound which is slightly outside them. They often report feeling that this has given them more power over a thing which actually they are experiencing day by day in their head. The history of working with people with psychosis is that over the past few decades, we used to be

told, don't reinforce the voices that people hear by talking about them. That's when I started in my field. I was part of a movement of psychologists saying, well, they are experiencing these phenomena. We need to understand them better and help them. What we found is that by creating the avatar, they often feel not that they're making them more real, they're already real, but that they can now look at them in a more dispassionate and controlling way. Philippa Garity, a professor of clinical psychology at King's College London. Still to come. I'm very excited we have appointed a new coach in the presence of Amorim. I just hope this guy will bring us good luck and help our team to grow to its past glory and even beyond."

Manchester United have confirmed that their new head coach will be Ruben Amorim, the current manager of the Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon. My talent as an athlete is swimming long halls over the curvature of the earth. Life's Less Ordinary is the podcast with astonishing personal stories from across the globe. My past is very bad and I survived. You have to tell the story. Expect the unexpected. All of a sudden the car exploded.

Lives less ordinary from the BBC World Service. Here's a thing that happened to me. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. France is at a tipping point facing full mobilisation or becoming like Mexico, the words of the French Interior Minister after a shooting and a mass brawl linked to drug trafficking in the city of Poitiers. At least five people, including three teenagers, were injured during the gunfight late on Thursday night. This local resident gave her reaction to the violence. The feeling of horror, of sadness. In the beginning it was nice here.

In this neighbourhood I saw the shopping centre being built. Everything was going well. The kids were fine, we all were. But now it's getting worse and worse. It's awful. Police found the five victims near a bar, reports say. It was riddled with bullets. Police reinforcements are being sent to the city. Catherine Guillardi is a French journalist who's been following the story. For this new minister for the interior, for him, the drug trafficking is actually the fight against it has to become a national cause. And he calls it a Mexicanization, which is quite provocative indeed.

But it's true that drug trafficking in France has changed in the last 10 years. There was five such events like what happened in Poitiers in 2023. Actually the Minister for the Interior is on his way to Rennes, a town in the west of France roughly the same size as Poitiers. So we're talking about the main town of what we call a constituency where a five-year-old child is between life and death after being shot last Saturday as part of a settling of scores linked to drug trafficking. And if you look at a parliamentary inquiry committee that has published its findings last May,

indeed, they say that in the last 10 years, they are alarmed by the spread of the phenomenon to the entire territory. What is new is that it's from medium sized city to rural areas. The penetration of drugs in the French territories has exploded after the Covid and that indeed drugs are no longer for people in urban areas like Marseille, Lyon or Paris. Catherine Ghiyadi, President Macron of France has officially acknowledged that one of the

founding fathers of the Algerian independence movement, Laby Ben Mehdi, was killed by French soldiers and did not, as France had previously maintained, take his own life. Peter Hyatt reports. President Macron's statement on the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the revolt represents a gesture of reconciliation, especially as acknowledging that French soldiers killed Mr. Ben-Hidi contradicts the previous official line that he killed himself. Mr. Ben-Hidi was one of the founding fathers of the National Liberation Front, or FLN, and ran its operations in Algiers during the Battle of Algiers until he was captured and then killed in 1957. He's regarded as

a hero not just in Algeria but also in France where some intellectuals and military men view him as a revolutionary leader and a man of deep personal courage. Peter Hyatt. The Bolivian military says armed supporters of the former president Evo Morales has taken control of a military facility near the city of Cochabamba. It says they've taken soldiers captive and seized arms and ammunition. Warren Bull reports. Central Bolivia is home to many supporters of Evo Morales, a former ally of the current president Luis Arce. Their rivalry has intensified since Mr Morales said he planned to run in Bolivia's presidential election next year.

The two sides have clashed in recent days since accusations resurfaced that Mr Morales had been involved in human trafficking and sexually abused a 16-year-old girl, which he denies. His supporters say they'll maintain blockades and other protests until the investigation ends. In an increasingly febrile atmosphere, they've also blamed the government for an apparent shooting attack on the former president's car over the weekend. The government denies the accusation.

Warrant Ball Next to football. Manchester United have confirmed that their new head coach will be Ruben Amorim, the current manager of the Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon. He succeeds Eric Tenhoug, who was sacked earlier this week after a string of poor results. Amorin will be the seventh full-time boss at Manchester United since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. He won Portugal's top division twice with Sporting Lisbon, including their first league title in nearly 20 years. What do the fans think of the new appointment?

First Charles from Ghana. I'm very excited we have appointed a new coach in the presence of Amorim. I just hope this guy will bring us good luck and help our team to grow to its past glory and even beyond. Hi, it's Georgie. I'm looking forward to this new era at United. It can't really get much worse, so I have to be incredibly optimistic. I'm not an expert in Portuguese football, but the key takeaway

that we've all learned very quickly from the news of this appointment is Ruben Amorim's ability to quickly enable a team to adapt and win. Obviously, it's a completely different beast, Manchester United versus Sporting, but I'm taking his previous successes at the club with a bit of optimism. And I am actually really looking forward to the appointment and his first game later this month. Sophie from northern England and before her, Charles from Ghana. Mathur Amriliwala spoke to the former Chelsea and Everton forward, Pat Nevin, about the new man at Manchester United.

He has been the up and coming star of young managers. He's only 39 years of age, which is quite young for a manager to get this level of job. But certainly Chelsea had looked at him beforehand. Liverpool had considered him as well. So, you know, of the young stars rising just now, he certainly was the main one. And certainly he's done very, very well with sporting in his time there. He's won the league a couple of times. And if you look at also the Iberian Peninsula, you know, five Spanish managers now and he will be the third Portuguese manager

in the Premier League. So eight out of the 20 managers are from that vague area. So that's a stylish place to come from. But you know, that counts for nothing once the game starts because there's pressure and everybody knows. Yeah I'll come to the pressure in a moment but what do you think he brings in terms of style of play, man management, discipline, all of that? Lots of others before have come with that sort of attitude as well I mean I certainly think Van Gaal was known as the disciplinarian, Mourinho didn't suffer fools gladly. You could go through the list all the way back to David Moyes. And it's not really what you bring, it's what when you get there, you can actually do with

the group of players that are there. So yes, he comes with that discipline attitude, but also he's very liked or loved even by some of the players that he's worked with before. But I'll tell you something, players love you when you bring a success. When you're not bringing success they very quickly fall out with you. So all of those things that are in his favour, the adaptability as well technically and tactically, although he does like to play three at the back, which is a way that Manchester United haven't played for quite some time.

There are so many difficulties, not just on the pitch, but off the pitch, the whole culture at the club since Alec has left. He's got a squad, though, that in parts is old, in parts that have failed, in parts that is going backwards. But it's incredibly difficult, isn't it, to actually clear out a squad with so many players sitting there on huge contracts? You can't think about that just now. To change it really certainly in January when we'd like to do it you'll need to wait until next summer so have

to mostly go with what he's got and they haven't really been doing well enough certainly for Manchester United. 14th in the league is completely and utterly unacceptable so yeah he's gonna have to change them, gonna get the best out of them sometimes you do get a little bit of a bounce out of a new manager. Certainly by the end of it, Ten Hag wasn't getting much of a tune out of a lot of those players. So yeah, that helps a little bit. Sometimes just as a footballer, when someone new comes in, you think, right, okay, all bets are off now. I, you know, maybe I was out of the team, I was a bit part player, I could be the number one

now. However, a lot of those players, as you say, haven't been performing to the level that would be expected of them, particularly in the history they've had, but also the cost that they've laid on those players. So yeah, he's got to get the best out of them. That's what management is. Get the best out of the players you've got. But he's got to do it very quickly. Pat Nevin, the former Chelsea and Everton forward. Now a Japanese cultural icon has turned 50. Hello Kitty, arguably Japan's best love creation. The Japanese company behind it, Sanrio, struggled for some years as interest

waned but then its young CEO turned its fortunes around. Our business correspondent, Mariko Ooi, has been telling us more about the cute character loved by children and some adults around the world. When I was a little girl, she was huge in Japan, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. But then I kind of forgot about it until my 10-year-old daughter is hugely into her or other Sanyo characters and she was telling me how all her friends are into them as well. So I did some research and realized that Sandio was losing money about five years ago, but

then it made this V-shaped recovery under this new boss who only took over four years ago and he was like 31 and his birthday is today as well. And I was talking to him about how he decided to diversify away from Hello Kitty, not to lower her popularity, but boost other characters' popularity and so on and so on. But of course, today is her birthday and she is still the most famous. And did you know that Hello Kitty even got a birthday wish from King Charles? It has been a pleasure to learn of the British stories behind certain Japanese cultural icons. Perhaps you would allow me to note one particular individual who turns 50 this year, raised in a London suburb,

a self-made entrepreneur worth billions of dollars and a UNICEF Children's Ambassador on top of all that. So I can only wish a very happy birthday to Hello Kitty. So that was during a state visit of the Japanese Emperor and he looked a little puzzled when you know King Charles talked about Hello Kitty's British background, which is a huge controversy in itself as well. But I asked the boss, Tomoku Nitsuji, what his reaction was when he heard that King Charles sent the message about her birthday. It was an absolute honour. We had no idea, so when I I found out it was a total surprise

but it also made us realize how well known Hello Kitty globally is. So the Hello Kitty's controversy is that she's actually not a Japanese cat. Did you know that? It's quite a well-known fact in Japan but she's actually a British schoolgirl so I did ask him about his reaction to fans' anger. I did a whole programme on it. Or read my online article. There you go, shameless self-promotion. But yeah, fascinating story. So yeah, do check that out. Marika Oye. 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 or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcasts.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Jonathan Greer, the producer was Liam McShephy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Rachel Wright. Until next time, goodbye. around the world. Delivering a renovated yacht thousands of miles around the globe, from Brazil to Europe. It was an opportunity to gain a lot of experience. My path to my dream was beginning. But for the sailors selected, this dream job

quickly turned into a nightmare. Rodrigo, the police are here. There's something on this boat. Whoa. But 10 of cocaine. And a key suspect was miles away. Fox called the shots. He was in charge. But we've found him.

Brazilian police say that you are an international drug trafficker. Well, I'm not. From the BBC World Service. World of Secrets, Season 5, Finding Mr Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts.