Global News Podcast - First private spacewalk a success

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

The SpaceX mission sees the first private spacewalk. Jared Isaacman was followed by fellow non-professional astronaut, Sarah Gillis. They were testing new space suits. Also: wine is made from bananas in Malawi, and Jon Bon Jovi helps talk woman off a bridge.

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 Janet Jalil and at 13 hours GMT on Thursday the 12th of September, these are our main stories.

A billionaire becomes one of two astronauts to conduct the first ever commercial spacewalk. We look at what this means for the future of space travel. The family of the jailed Belarusian opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikova, say they fear she is being slowly killed. Also in this podcast... Bananas are selected, peeled, sweetened and doused in yeast and lemons to preserve taste. They're then fermented to make wine. The ingenious new way farmers in Malawi

are using overripe bananas. We start in space where shortly before we recorded this podcast, a new frontier was breached about 700 kilometres above Earth, the world's first spacewalk by a private citizen. Billionaire Jared Isaacman was first out of the spacecraft. He was then followed by fellow non-professional astronaut, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. They were testing their next generation spacesuits with the aim of eventually a mission going to the moon and then Mars. This was a moment where Mr. Isaacman emerged as a crew on Earth watched. There is our first view of the forward hatch wide open to space. Once again, this helmet cam, that structure we see is the space walker. This is Jared now egressing through the forward hatch of Dragon Resilience.

I have a feeling the crowd is about to go wild. We're safe yet. Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world. The words of Jared Isaacman as he emerged from that spacecraft. Well, the two astronauts were outside the capsule for a total of 15 minutes as they conducted a series of mobility tests on their spacesuits. Dr. Kathleen Lewis is a space historian.

She gave her reaction to the first ever commercial spacewalk. Those were remarkable words, but what I found even more remarkable is that flexibility in the elbows and the shoulders of the suit. Operating inside a spacesuit is like operating inside a sealed balloon. Dr Simeon Barber, who is a planetary science specialist, said he hoped this milestone would encourage other scientists. I hope that is inspirational to other people watching as well. You know, Sarah Gillis started as an intern at SpaceX and now has just stepped out into space. I just hope that inspires the next generation of scientists and engineers to get involved in space.

I asked our science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, what it was like watching the live pictures of this groundbreaking spacewalk. Emotional, I think is the word. I have to say, as a kind of hard-boiled science correspondent, I've seen lots of missions, and the risk is that it stops being so special. But when we saw what Jared saw, he had a helmet cam, it was a point-of-view picture. He clambered up through the hatch and emerged this beautiful view of the Earth. And he's saying, it looks like a perfect world.

It was that one small step moment. Historic words for an historic moment. There have been spacewalks before, but this is the first time it's been carried out by a totally private crew. It has a lot of firsts as well. It also did it without an airlock, but it went incredibly smoothly.

The private sector has today shown that it can do everything NASA can do, but more cheaply. So this is the start of something. But just right now, it's a job well done. A job well done. And it was interesting looking at these spacesuits because they do look different from what we're used to seeing. Tell us about why they're so important, what they were testing, these two astronauts when they went out in these suits. The space suits we saw, some of us saw in the Apollo missions, and you can still see, are very bulky. You know, the space is cold, it's extremely cold. And also there's a vacuum of space and you need to have backpacks. And so, you know, astronauts look like kind of snow people.

And even the modern day suits since then are slimmed down. But these new spacesuits from SpaceX are slimmer still. And the watchword has been comfort and reusability. But also, the suits are designed to be reusable. At the moment, spacesuits are developed for one particular astronaut. So if you can reuse a spacesuit, use them for another person, that saves a lot of money. Not having an airlock saves lots of money. And the whole idea is to reduce costs so you can have more missions to space to try and build infrastructure on the moon and around the moon, make space travel more commonplace. Human spaceflight is back with a vengeance.

And who knows what's possible, particularly with the private sector driving it now. Palaib Ghosh, with the aim of eventually sending a mission to the moon and then to Mars. Four years ago, Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko was almost forced from power by huge street protests. One of those imprisoned in the crackdown that followed was the opposition leader Maria Koliashnikova, a figure sometimes compared to the widely admired Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian jail. Now her family say they fear that she's being slowly killed as she's kept in solitary confinement and not given enough food. The news of her plight came as Mr Lukashenko began a surprise release of other political prisoners,

leading some to wonder whether he's signalling to Western governments that he wants to reduce his own political isolation. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford reports. On March 10th, 2023, she was pushed in a punishment cell in total isolation. Tatiana is desperately worried about her sister. It's an even more horrible punishment cell. Maria Kolesnikova was locked up for leading peaceful mass protests in Belarus in 2020. Crowds rallying against an election rigged to return Alexander Lukashenko to power. But the activist is being punished further in prison, kept in isolation for 18 months now. No visits, no letters, no calls and increasing concerns for her health. What we hear she's starving in the colony, her illness requires a diet. She basically cannot eat what the food they provide in the colony.

I believe that she already passed such a critical weight loss that endangers her life. I think that any means should be used to help her, to save her, because her situation is critical. Just walking through this pedestrian area of central Warsaw and people in the coffee shops here, the vast majority of them are speaking Russian. A lot of them are from Belarus. A lot of them took part in those protests in 2020 and left, so they didn't get arrested. For Dmitry Lukša, this city is now home. The journalist spent 28 months locked up. His only crime was to report on the opposition protests and then on his country's complicity in the war on Ukraine. In one prison camp, he worked breaking rocks alongside men convicted

of murder and drug smuggling. But he tells me up to 30% of the inmates were there for their politics. You can spot them by the yellow tags they have stitched on their chests. This summer, though, Dmitry was suddenly pardoned by Alexander Lukashenko. He is one of about 80 political prisoners released so far in a series of surprise amnesties. Maybe those who started the process, the arrests, realised they went too far. I don't know.

But it's such a moment of joy to be home, to hug our families and to breathe freely again. The main thing is that this process is happening, and for it not to stop. Fake media are presenting the pardons as proof of a caring, humane leader. There's another election due next year, so it is possible Lukashenko's looking to soften his image. Others think he's signaling to the West that he wants to engage. The chances of big-name prisoners like Maria Kolesnikova getting out look slim. Dmitry thinks about Maria Kolesnikova a lot. She became hugely popular during the 2020 protests.

But Dmitry knows how in prison, political detainees are singled out for extra punishment. And even though he's out now, he admits he jumps at every noise. Terrified, the police are coming for him again to lock him up again. You understand that you've done nothing wrong and they shouldn't be coming for you. But you can't tell your heart that, Dmitry says. It is the brutal Belarus of today. And your heart is afraid. That report by Sarah Rainsford. The head of the UN has described an Israeli attack on a school in which six UN workers were killed as totally unacceptable. It's the fifth time that the school in Gaza has been

hit by Israeli forces since the start of their current war with Hamas. The Hamas-run health authorities say 18 people were killed in all. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, said it was the single deadliest attack for its workers since the war began. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Daniel DeSimone, told us more. This attack took place on Wednesday. It was an airstrike by the Israeli military. The UN agency concerned, UNRWA, says two airstrikes hit a school in its surroundings in Nusrat, in central Gaza, and among those killed was the manager of the shelter and other team members.

And they say that the school has been hit five times now since the war began, and it's home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children. And Yunra says no one is safe in Gaza. Yunra's head has said that at least 220 of its staff have now been killed in Gaza since the war began between Hamas and Israel in October last year. And the UN's head, Antonio Guterres, says that these dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said 18 people were killed in the strike yesterday, and the UN says that six of its staff were among those killed. So what has Israel said in response to this?

Well, so the Israeli military said that it conducted what it called a precise strike on terrorists who are operating inside a Hamas command and control centre in the compound, and that it was being used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks against the Israeli military and Israel itself. And they say that prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. Now, Israel argues that this is another example of Hamas effectively exploiting civilian infrastructure for its own ends. So where does this leave the work of the UN-Palestinian agency? Because it has so much to do here. We've just had this polio vaccination campaign. It's trying to protect people who are homeless,

who are suffering diseases and malnutrition. This makes their job even harder, doesn't it? Well, it does. Well, their head, Filipe Lazzarini, has come out since what happened yesterday and said that the humanitarian staff premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war. There's no sense in which they're going to stop their operations because of this. But the senior UN staff are coming out and be very, very critical following what happened yesterday.

Daniel De Simone. Now, if you open your fridge and see a black, overripe banana, you might think about making banana bread or banana muffins. Well, in Malawi, extreme weather patterns are forcing farmers to experiment with new ways of using their harvests. Some of them are now turning overripe bananas that would otherwise go to waste into a surprising new product, wine. And as Anne Okuma reports, it seems to be a hit with both producers and consumers. Emily is clearing weed from her once thriving banana plantation. A severe heat wave has turned most of her harvest into scorched soil and dried up leaves.

It is sad that we have to go through all this waste. The heat here is unbearable. All our hard work and investment is lost. Extreme weather events in Karonga District, northern Malawi, have become more frequent. Farmers here face a challenging mix of harsh heat and intense rain. Emily relocated her farm from the shores of Lake Malawi to higher grounds to protect her land from flooding. But now, searing temperatures have made farming nearly impossible.

Some of the bananas tell off their branches. Some you can't even see where we planted. Down at the old farm, our challenge was loads of water from the lake. Up here, we have way too much heat from the sun. All this makes our bananas ripen very fast and go to waste. So instead of throwing away overripe bananas, Emily and her colleagues have put them to better use. They use overripe bananas to make wine. Bananas are selected, peeled, sweetened and doused in yeast and lemons to preserve taste. They are then fermented to make wine.

Tennyson Gondwe is the CEO of ComSip Cooperative Union, which has been helping women venture into this business. There was quite a lot of problems for the farmers to transition from banana as a subsistence crop to winemaking. To maintain quality and taste of the banana wine, that's why we are saying we have invested very much in capacity building to train them on how to have quality production and also to maintain the taste. That's why we also have our colleagues in the Bureau of Standards, which is trying to certify. We have also assisted them with the equipment for them to measure the quality and

the quality content of the banana wine. Vineyards that rely on stable climates are threatened by the unpredictability of climate change. So could bananas replace grapes for winemaking? What is for sure now is that banana wine has proved a success in neighboring markets in Tanzania and Rwanda. But what about here in Malawi? Back at the farm, winemakers have a taste of their labor. This is very sweet wine. You need to be seated to enjoy the flavors. Adapting to climate change is a tough challenge for farmers around the world. But as the farming community in this part of Malawi can testify,

there can be alternative solutions. As they say, almost goes, if life gives you overripe bananas, make wine. Anna Kumu reporting. And staying with eating fruits or plants, reaching for some medicine in the first aid kit to treat an injury or sickness is fairly common for us, but it's not something we would generally expect animals to do. Now researchers in Gabon studying plants eaten by wild gorillas say the primates could hold clues to future drug discoveries, as Rebecca Wood reports. Fewer than 150,000 western lowland gorillas

survive in the wild in Central and West Africa. They live in dense forest, feeding on stems, bamboo shoots and fruits. Now scientists have discovered that amongst that diet are plants with medicinal effects that could help fight superbugs in humans. The study took place in Gabon's Mokalabadudu National Park, where researchers observed the behaviour of the primates and recorded the plants they ate. They also interviewed people living in a nearby village, including traditional healers and herbalists, about the plants used in local medical practices. And they then found four native plant species were used by both, and when tested, all showed antibacterial activity against at least one multidrug-resistant strain of the bug E. coli. And the one they're most excited about is the bark of the fromage tree, which they say showed remarkable activity against all strains of the infection.

The observation adds to a growing body of evidence about the way primates use plants to keep healthy. A wounded orangutan in Indonesia recently made headlines for using a plant paste to heal an injury. And in 2022, scientists reported on chimpanzees that were seen apparently applying insects to wounds. Although the researchers say it's not clear if this particular group in Gabon were consuming the bark as food or medicine, it's hoped further research on the four plants may yield promising drugs to treat bacterial infections, a sort of primate prescription. Rebecca Wood. Still to come, why Argentina's pensioners are on the streets calling for more money. And we hear how the rock star Jon Bon Jovi helped a distressed woman in need. 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. The former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, who spent a decade and a half in prison for crimes against humanity, has died at the age of 86. Mr Fujimori, who was of Japanese heritage, won the presidency in 1990, defeating the writer Mario Vargas Llosa in a surprise result. His decade as president was marked by sieges and massacres, including a four-month hostage drama at the Japanese embassy in Lima. He was loved by many for crushing the notorious left-wing Shining Path

guerrillas, but hated by others for the ruthless, authoritarian and corrupt way he governed, including the use of death squads. He was released from jail last year because of ill health. Danny Eberhard looks back on Alberto Fujimori's controversial legacy. Alberto Fujimori came to power as a true outsider. His background was humble, born in 1938 to Japanese immigrant parents. An agricultural engineer by training, he emerged from relative obscurity in academia

to win the presidency in 1990 and promptly cultivated the image of a maverick. He took over during a perfect storm of crises, the country crippled by hyperinflation and a bloody insurgency by two left-wing guerrilla groups, the Tupac Amaru revolutionary movement and the much bigger Shining Path. On the economic front, his neoliberal program of shock therapy soon ended Peru's hyperinflation

and ushered in a period of rapid growth. He also authorized a fight back against the insurgency. 1992 proved a breakthrough year, above all with the capture of the leader of the Shining Path, Abimael Guzman. Within a couple of years, the Shining Path was defeated as a major threat to the state. This, for his supporters, was perhaps Alberto Fujimori's crowning achievement. The threat from the rebel insurgency hadn't completely abated, however. In late 1996, Tupac Amaru guerrillas took 800 guests hostage at a party being held at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, demanding the release of imprisoned comrades. The president refused. During the long standoff that followed, all but some 70 hostages were released. The drama gripped the world. Then, in April 1997, the crisis came to a head.

Peruvian commandos stormed the residence, killing all 14 guerrillas. Only one hostage died. After the siege, Mr Fujimori reiterated his hardline stance. Gentlemen, in Peru, we will not accept terrorism. In Peru, we are not going to accept terrorism. In Peru, we're going to lay the foundations of the principles of democracy. But a growing number of critics attacked what they saw as Mr Fujimori's increasing disregard for Peru's domestic institutions. This trait had first manifested itself in 1992,

when he dissolved Congress after accusing it of obstructing progress. His democratic credentials were further weakened by a series of scandals, culminating in 2000 when his former intelligence chief, Vladimir Montesinos, fled the country after video evidence emerged of him bribing opposition politicians. Soon after, President Fujimori fled to Japan. As a dual national, he evaded Peruvian justice, but in 2005, on a visit to Chile, he was arrested and subsequently extradited to Peru. There he was convicted in a series of trials, on charges including corruption and abuse of power. Most damningly, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for being behind two death squad massacres in the early 1990s. It was the first time a

democratically elected Latin American leader had been tried and found guilty in his own country of human rights abuses. Danny Eberhard with that look back on the life of Alberto Fujimori. To the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires now, where there have been some violent disturbances outside the parliament building. Thousands of people protested against President Javier Millet's veto of a rise in pensions. The protesters, many of them pensioners, tore down police barriers and banged pots and pans. Police responded with pepper spray and rubber bullets. Our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Natalio Cossoy, told us why anger is running so high.

Pensions represent a big chunk of government expenditure and when a government wants to implement a plan like Milet's, it definitely ends up touching pensions. And Natalio, they were trying to get an 8.1% pension, right? That sounds quite a lot until he realised that year-on-year inflation was 240%. Just give us an idea as to how pensioners in Argentina get by on $230 a month. How far does that go? That's not enough to cover the basic basket of goods and services you need to live. Every month, what we've been getting from the previous government,

and this one is a discretional bonus that tries to compensate for that and means that they just about manage this basic basket of goods. But it's really, really tough for them. And President Javier Millet came in promising to slash government spending. And is it having the desired effect of improving the economy? Well, in terms of slowing down inflation, for instance, it's been working rather well, if you wish, although inflation seems to have found its basic level where it doesn't seem to be able to move down from that, which is around 4% a month. But at the same time, all this cutting in spending has caused a very serious recession. So

in terms of a recovery of the economy, I think we can say we're far from there. In terms of how inflation is looking, it's looking better. And the government wants to show that it can control the budget so that in the future, it might be able to borrow money from abroad, which it currently can't. Natalia Kossoi in Argentina, talking to Nick Miles. Europe's consumer rights group has accused some of the biggest game developers of deliberately tricking players into spending more money than they intended. The group and more than 20 of its member countries have filed a complaint with the European Commission.

Olivia Noon reports. The consumer rights group says many of the companies, such as those behind Fortnite and Minecraft, were manipulating players into overspending on in-game virtual currencies. The group said players, particularly children, were vulnerable because they weren't aware of the true value of online currencies. Games often allow players to exchange real cash for gems, points or coins. The group is calling for these to be displayed at all times in real world currency and stressed that while children are often those playing the most, they lack financial literacy. Olivia Noon, one of our

biggest stories this week has been the US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. And perhaps the most outrageous highlight was Mr. Trump's false claim that Haitian immigrants in the city of Springfield in Ohio were abducting and eating pets. A claim that was immediately corrected by one of the moderators who said a local official had denied that any such incidents had occurred. The claims have also been dismissed by the Republican governor of Ohio, local police and the city authorities. But how do the Haitian community in Springfield feel about the former president's claims? Willis d'Orsanville is a president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, Ohio.

It's so shocking and sad at the same time, and it creates some fear amongst the Haitian immigrants in Springfield. They fear for their lives, and they fear as well for their kids' life. They are so concerned that this will not escalate to violence. So, which why just to help them to understand that it might be for political aim, but it's a shocking news for the community. They feel very scared for their lives because of that.

Seeking to occupy the highest office of the USA. I think they should do better. They are well-educated folks who know how to check the veracity of anything. That's the first thing. And the second thing is that Jerry Vance made the tweet on Monday, and the debate was Tuesday night. And they have more than 24 hours just to check the authenticity. They could just call the city manager here in Springfield. They could have normally go on their website or the Springfield's police department website to see if anything of that is true. Just a call away, they could have normally just verified anything. But I am happy that the city officials and the city manager and the police department,

they all rejected that claim about anything that has to do with people letting pets in Springfield. Willis d'Orsanville of the Haitian Community Support Centre in Springfield in Ohio. Now, time for a quick message from Oliver. Hi all, just a quick reminder that in the run-up to the US presidential election we'll be doing a special podcast in collaboration with our friends at BBC AmeriCast. But we need your help to come up with questions to put to the team in the US. So if there's anything you'd like to know, please send us an email to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or tweet us at globalnewspod. And if possible, please record your question in a voice note. Thank you. Now, if you're a fan of the rock star John Bon Jovi,

here's another reason to be one. He's been praised by police in Nashville in the US state of Tennessee for helping a woman in distress who was on the ledge of a bridge. Video shows him going to talk to the woman who'd climbed over the bridge's railing before then helping to guide her to safety. David Lewis has the story. Newly released CCTV images show the tense moment John Bon Jovi, sporting his trademark leather jacket and dark jeans slowly walks over to the distressed woman. Dressed in blue, she's holding on to the railings on the wrong side of the bridge barrier. Below her is the Cumberland River. As members of the public nervously watch on and some snap photos, the 62-year-old rock star gives her a wave, leans across and engages her in conversation.

After a short exchange, he can be seen with the aid of another bystander who was talking to the woman, helping the person back over the barrier to safety. Once she's safe, he gives her a big hug. Later images show the star leaving the bridge, accompanying the woman. According to separate footage put out on social media, Bon Jovi was in the Memphis state capitol shooting a music video. The Keep the Faith and Bed of Roses singer has plenty of experience in helping people in need. The artist has for many years sponsored homeless and vulnerable young people in the United States through his John Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. Messages of appreciation have now come in online.

Metro Nashville Police Department wrote a shout out to John Bon Jovi and his team for helping a woman on the Sagan Tala pedestrian bridge. While Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said in a statement, it takes all of us to help keep each other safe. David Lewis, so what do you do or say if you find someone in that situation? Let's hear from someone who's had experience of this. Sophie Walters volunteers with Samaritans, a UK charity that offers emotional support to anyone who's struggling to cope. I came across someone as I was walking along a towpath who looked very distressed.

And I stopped and I asked if they were OK. And they said, no no they weren't okay and I sat with them for a while and just chatted and I think when someone is in that zone they're convinced that no one cares about them and that the world would be better off without them and I think just showing that that you do care makes a huge difference. And then my main priority was to get them away from the zone of danger to a situation where I could get help because I knew that if I could give them time for those feelings to pass and to ponder what was happening in their life, then they might make a different decision. Sophie Walters from the charity Samaritans.

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, 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 Jack Graysmark. The producer was Tracy Gordon. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jalil.

Until next time, goodbye. 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.