Global News Podcast - German far-right's 'historic' victory

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Germany's AfD becomes first far-right party to win state election since Nazi era. Also: the mysterious death of the 'Russian spy whale', and the South African beauty queen crowned Miss Nigeria after a nationality row.

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. Life and death were two very realistic co-existing possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference.

It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. 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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Israel after six hostages were killed in Gaza. The unions have called a general strike. And Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, has come under heavy attack by Russia. Also in the podcast... When he was first spotted, he was wearing a camera attached to a harness labelled Equipment of St. Petersburg.

This and his friendliness towards humans sparked rumours the mammal had been trained by the Russian Navy as a spy whale. The mysterious death of a young whale allegedly recruited by the Russians. A far-right party is on course to win a state parliamentary election in Germany for the first time since the Nazis. According to exit polls, the AfD, or Alternative für Deutschland, looks set to become the biggest party in Thuringia, while coming a close second in Saxony. Both states are in the former East Germany and a

fertile ground for the party's anti-immigration, anti-Islam message. The regional elections came just over a week after a mass stabbing by a suspected Islamist in the German city of Zorlingen. Björn Höcke, controversial head of the AFD in Thuringia, hailed what he called a historic result. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then you win. And today, dear friends, we have won. Well, despite its victory, the AFD may struggle to find coalition partners. But the result is another sign of how voters are abandoning the centre ground,

with a new far-left party coming third in both states. It is a significant blow to the governing SPD and other mainstream parties in Germany. Nils Schmidt is the Social Democratic Party's spokesman on foreign affairs. I think this is a rather new challenge to German democracy because for many years most Germans trusted democracy to work things out. And for the first time, at least since I'm active in politics, we see large parts of German society just dropping out of the democratic discourse and of the workings of the democratic system. But what has attracted voters to the AFD?

A question Alex Ritson put to our correspondent in Thuringia, Jessica Parker. This has been cooking for quite a long time. There's a few things driving it. Frustration with immigration policy, people very frustrated by what they see as a failure of mainstream parties to deliver stronger controls, frustration in the East about the way reunification's been handled and feelings of inequality between the East and the West.

And the AFD's anti-establishment message seems to chime with people here. There's other policy issues as well, such as their call to stop sending weapons to Ukraine and just overall a frustration with the parties that have dominated German politics over recent decades. Their detractors call them Nazis. Are they? And what does their election mean for German politics?

They are designated here in Thuringia, this state, by domestic intelligence as right-wing extremists. Björn Hukka, the leader of the party here in Thuringia, is a particular lightning rod for controversy. And to give you sort of examples as to why this Nazi narrative comes up and criticism comes up, he was fined twice this year for knowingly a court found using a Nazi slogan. He denied knowing of its origin. But there's things like that that have contributed to deep concern about some of the people within Alternative for Deutschland. But he actually is even a controversial figure within the party, and there have previously been

efforts to kick him out over other things that he has said. However, what the AFD will say is that the government, domestic intelligence, the media is basically conspiring against them and smearing their movement. And that is something you hear over and over again, whether it's AFD activists or just people who are thinking of supporting the AFD. What impact might this result have on wider German policies on migration on Ukraine? On migration, it's already started to have an impact. Last week in the wake of Zorlingham, the traffic light coalition government were announcing tougher controls on knife crime and asylum laws. The CDU, the Conservative opposition party, they've been striking a

tougher tone as well. So you're already seeing some shifting narratives. This is a year out from the federal elections and the coalition government of Chancellor Schultz's SPD, the Greens and the Liberals. They are not popular. They are very publicly divided on a number of issues. There's almost a post-mortem conversation going on already. No one seems to expect that this framework can hold into the next election. I think the CDU have hopes of becoming the largest party in that election. But certainly the AFD do appear to be on the march, particularly here in the east. Their popularity actually slipped over the year from a

high point early in January on a national level, but they really have held up in the east. Although there's also another interesting insurgent force with the Sardau-Wagenknecht alliance, a new party launched this year and she's done really well. Projections suggest that in Saxony she's got 11.9% of the votes in a new party this year and here in Thuringia 15.5% of the vote and for a party that's launched just this year that's quite an incredible position to catapult yourself into. The BBC's Jessica Parker in Thuringia in Germany. Israel has blamed Hamas for the killing of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza on Saturday. But some of the families of the captives are angry at the Israeli government's failure to agree a deal to get them out.

Israeli trade unions are increasing the pressure on the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to secure a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. They're calling a general strike. The Israeli authorities say the six hostages were shot at close range shortly before the military reached them. On Sunday, there were huge protests in Tel Aviv and outside Mr Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem. Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson has this report. Their faces have become icons here. their names as familiar to Israelis as those of their own friends. 23-year-old Hirsch Goldberg-Pollin, an American-Israeli. Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino.

Alexander Lobanov, who never got to meet his new baby. Therapist Carmel Gatt, described by other hostages as their guardian angel. Eden Yerushalmi, whose last words to her sister were, they've caught me. The argument, the comfort of many, was that Hamas would protect them as assets, that younger, fitter hostages like these were the ones who would survive. Instead, Israel's army says they were shot by Hamas in a tunnel under Rafah as Israeli forces battled above them. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Hamas would pay the price. While Israel is conducting intensive negotiations with the mediators

in a supreme effort to reach a deal, Hamas continues to firmly refuse any offer. He who murders hostages does not want a deal. Outside Mr Netanyahu's office, thousands came to protest. A giant red flag above them, a signal, they said, that the last red line had been crossed. Outside the Israeli prime minister's office, the crowd have been shouting, murderer. There's a real sense of anger here. One woman said, it feels like October all over again.

The crowd here are holding posters of the six hostages that have been confirmed dead and Israeli flags that have been altered to include the yellow ribbon symbol of the hostage families. Many of the people here believe Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, just doesn't want a deal. And if a deal is no longer possible, they say, then the hostages are no longer valuable to Hamas. Lee Siegel's brother Keith is still being held captive in Gaza. As one of the hostages, Almog Sarusi, was buried in Israel, new protests were born.

Israel's labor union has called a general strike to press for a ceasefire deal. Benjamin Netanyahu is being confronted with a choice. Peace in Gaza or war at home. Lucy Williamson in Jerusalem. Well, last week, the BBC heard from the mother of Hirsch Goldberg, one of the hostages found dead on Saturday. In that interview, Rachel Goldberg spoke about how the fate of the hostages rested with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwa. There are two men who hold the decision, just two. And until those two men decide that this game which we feel that it is a game that we are pawns

in a game that our our loved ones our children our spouses our mothers our fathers our grandparents and our grandchildren and all of the innocent people in Gaza are pawns in this game between these two men until these two people decide that each is going to give in a little bit and stop this for the sake of the people in the entire region who are suffering horrendously. It won't end. So on the one hand, I'm heartened that people are beginning after almost a year to understand the complexity of this situation and that it should not be them or us. But on the other hand, it's not in those hands. It's in the hands of these two men. Rachel Goldberg talking to the BBC last week.

Well, Sharon Leveshitz is a London-based filmmaker whose parents were taken hostage on the 7th of October. Her mother was freed, but her 83-year-old father, Oded, is still missing, presumed captive in the Gaza Strip. So has she had any news of her father? I haven't had a sign of life for many months. So there's no new news of my father. We know he's in Gaza.

We know he was alive and he was with other hostages in the first weeks, but we have no further knowledge of his well-being, his whereabouts, his condition. And obviously you're worried sick and your mother is worried sick. So what do you think needs to be done about it? Can you see any way to help him? I think at the moment, this must be the killing of the six young hostages in cold blood. These hostages were very much alive less than a week ago. They were killed because there's a delay in signing the deal. Israel government and Hamas are putting more and that will force the hand of

the government of Israel and of Hamas to sign this deal and bring about an end to this horrific, horrific episode. I think the Israeli government's point of view is that it needs to, as they put it, finally defeat Hamas first. I mean, can you understand that position? I think that the governments of Israel often come up with this saying, not full well, that it is impossible to defeat Hamas by keep fighting like that. It will take years. And really, it will cause so much hate and death and carnage that new people will join Hamas then. The way to defeat Hamas is to make an alliance of sane Muslim countries in Israel that wants security and stability in the region. That will be the way to defeat Hamas, by defeating the causes that lead people to join Hamas in the first place.

Right, so that's your point of view. Why do you think the Israeli government doesn't agree with you? I think the Israeli government is led by a bunch of extremist people that do not in any way reflect the majority of the people of Israel. 60% of the population in Israel believe that a deal should be reached, that the proposed deal should be reached. And so they're working very much against the interest of the majority. Only 12% are against the deal. The majority of the Israeli population, they're doing that for their own political survival.

They're doing that because they know that once the war World Service, but we do broadcast in the Middle East, and hostages in the past have been given radios to listen to us. If your father is listening, what do you want to say to him? I want to tell him that we're holding on to mum. It's her birthday today. She's 86. She's amazing. He's amazing. They celebrated every birthday she had in the last 65 years together. And we can't wait for both of them to be reunited. And we'll make more birthdays, parties then. Sharon Leveshitz talking to Owen Bennett-Jones.

A beluga whale suspected of being trained as a spy by Russia has been found dead off the Norwegian coast. The body of the animal was found floating in a bay in southern Norway, as Clitzi Asala reports. The cause of death of the beluga in Norwegian waters is a mystery in itself. He was young and had no visible injuries, so his body was taken to the nearest port for examination. When he was first spotted off the coast of Norway five years ago, he was wearing a camera attached to a harness labelled Equipment of St. Petersburg.

This and his friendliness towards humans sparked rumours the mammal had been trained by the Russian Navy as a spy whale. Experts say this has happened in the past. Moscow never responded to the allegations. Glitsiya Sala. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. Being with them in their world is just a magical experience. Over the last 20 years, I've become an expert in underwater seal behaviour. Recording activity that's never been seen before. But just how close is too close when it comes to observing animals? Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life.

I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. 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 Bengal famine in the middle of the Second World War led to the deaths of at least three million Indians who at the time were British subjects. It was one of the largest losses of civilian life on the Allied side and isn't remembered with a memorial or even a plaque. Kavita Puri travelled deep into the countryside in West Bengal to meet some of the few survivors left. They were speaking about the tragedy for the first time and some of their recollections are distressing. I was only nine years old then. During the famine, my father was poor. He could no longer afford to buy rice. He took us to Kolkata. He said,

if we lived here, we would die of hunger. Jamuna Pakaeth is 91. She is tiny, but speaks with authority. He carried me on his shoulder from the village to the station. My mother and brother were with us. We went by train towards Calcutta. The train was packed. Many hadn't bought tickets. They were desperate. It was a harrowing scene and almost unimaginable that a nine-year-old could witness such suffering. Babies were hungry and crying for food. A mother was holding her baby on her breast, but she was not able to feed her as she was not producing any milk. Her breast had dried up from starvation.

The baby died while on her breast in the train. Once in Calcutta, there were many people on the streets. They were asking for food or money. Soon, she joined them. She's never forgotten one young girl who showed her kindness. She was fair, a bit plump. The girl gave us two pieces of bread with jaggery. My brother ate one and I ate the other piece.

Our parents didn't eat any. Her father soon managed to get a job, so they were just about surviving. If you had stayed and not gone to Calcutta, do you think you would have survived? We would have been dead. We wouldn't have survived. We would have had no food. We would have starved to death. That was the reason why Dad took us there.

We travel deeper into the Sundiband jungle near the border with Bangladesh and stop at a mud house. An elderly man is sitting, waiting. He's bare-chested in a dhoti. He's in his 90s and his name is Sheikh Qasem. His voice is a whisper. My older brother died of hunger. I was very young at the time.

I was crying so much, uncontrollably. My mother couldn't stop me. These survivors, old now, towards the end of their days, lived through a devastating famine when they were British subjects, forgotten casualties of World War II. But they didn't forget, even if others may have. When I think of my older brother, I feel very sad. I weep. I still cry for him. He had left us. It is now my time to leave too. A report from West Bengal by Kavita Puri. Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, suffered a heavy Russian missile attack on Sunday evening.

Officials said more than 40 people were injured, five of them children. President Zelenskyy renewed his call for Ukraine to be allowed to use Western-supplied weapons deeper inside Russian territory. Earlier, the Danish Prime Minister, Meta Fredriksson, and other NATO leaders at a security forum in Prague said they supported the lifting of restrictions. Here's our security correspondent, Frank Gardner. Ukraine, said Denmark's Prime Minister, should get all the military support it needs without the restrictions on weapons use currently being imposed by certain donor countries.

Of course, everything has to be in order with international law. But as long as it is according to international law, I would suggest, and my advice to all of us is to not talk about restrictions and put it the other way around. They need to be able to defend themselves. And self-defense is also about using weapons the other way. The U.S. and Germany are known to be the most wary of lifting those restrictions for fear of escalation and dragging NATO into direct confrontation with Russia. But Denmark's Meta Fredriksen told the Globesex security conference here in Prague that, in her words, all discussions about Russia's red lines must end. The head of the Czech army, General Rekha, said the recent Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region showed that NATO should not be scared of Moscow's threatened red lines.

Western assessments of Russian intentions, he said, were too cautious. The former commander of US land forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, went further and was sharply critical of his own country's policy of restraint, not allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons like the army tactical missile system inside Russia, he said, was doing more to protect Russian airfields than it was to protect Ukrainian civilians from attack. Our security correspondent Frank Gardner. The Nigerian team at the Paralympics must be hopeful of a good showing in the powerlifting. After all, they have topped the medal table at two of the last three games. That success has

been driven by the women powerlifters, including Foleshade Oluwafemiaho who turned to the sport after her dreams of becoming a nurse were crushed. She faced many other challenges on her way to medal success as Isaiah Akinremi found out when he met her. Nigeria's female powerlifters are used to pushing the limit. At the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago they won six medals, with three of them gold. And Folashade Uluwafemiayo

was among the champions. Tokyo 2020 was one of the best games. My first outing, which was London 2012, it was a great experience for me. Then going to Tokyo again is a great one. The 39-year-old picked up a silver at those London Games and has since enjoyed huge medal success with world and Commonwealth titles. But this was not her first choice of career.

After catching polio as a young child, she wanted to become a nurse. But as a wheelchair user, she felt discriminated against after a family friend discouraged her from applying. Because of the discrimination, I couldn't. Because I went there to get a form. I was told I would not be able to do it. So I felt bad. Is it because of my disability that I can't become a nurse? I was weeping, so my mum was consoling me because I felt people with disability, there's no life because they cannot get to where they want to go. But I still have the ambitions that I'm still going back for that nursing school.

I will still go there. With her nursing ambitions on the back burner, her uncle introduced her to wheelchair powerlifting and a sporting career with the very successful Nigerian team, Blasum. But her route to sporting glory has not been easy. In 2013,

she was suspended for two years for a doping violation. She maintains the banned substance was in her system because of medical care she received after being rushed to hospital following a miscarriage. She then missed Rio 2016 because she was pregnant and says her two sons inspired her comeback for Tokyo. And she isn't the only powerlifter in the family.

Her husband, Tululokwe Taiwo, has also competed at two Paralympics. She impresses and inspires me. I am always proud of her. And I boast that she is my wife. I always encourage her because sometimes when she lifts the weight and is discouraged, I always tell her, you can do it. Winning these medals, it means a lot to me. It makes me feel among my other colleagues. I'm not feeling discriminated. So I feel I'm still more better than others, as the able bodies.

I want to make Africa proud, Nigeria proud, myself and my family and my federation. Pola Shade Oluwafemiaho talking to Isaiah Akinremi from BBC Sport Africa. And staying in Nigeria, Chidima Edetshina, a former Miss South Africa contestant, has been crowned Miss Universe Nigeria. The 23-year-old, who withdrew from the South Africa pageant amid controversy over her nationality, will now represent Nigeria at the Miss Universe competition in Mexico this November. Richard Kogoy reports. Born to a Nigerian father and a South African mother with Mozambican roots, Chidima Adesina faced opposition from some South Africans, including a government minister who questioned her eligibility.

She was investigated by the country's Home Affairs Department amid debate over her citizenship status. The probe found her mother committed fraud and identity theft to obtain South African nationality. After her story made headlines worldwide, Adesina was invited to compete in the Nigerian BD pageant, away in caps of what has been a challenging few weeks for the law student. Richard Kugoy. Now, just how close is too close? This week, a seal conservation charity wrote to the BBC, apparently alarmed at the actions of the seal whisperer,

a doctor who spends time with grey seals. The charity is concerned that Dr Ben Burville's proximity to the creatures might encourage other humans to get too close to other seals. Here's an extract from the BBC's Seal Whisperer. Being with them in their world is just a magical experience. Over the last 20 years, I've become an expert in underwater seal behaviour, recording activity that's never been seen before. So where should the line be drawn between recording animals and interacting with them?

Steve Backshaw is a wildlife presenter who's made a career of getting up close and personal with a variety of wild animals. I have so many memories of other wildlife presenters interacting with wildlife in ways that triggered me towards wanting to do this for a living. I think one of the most potent was Sir David Attenborough working in South Georgia with southern elephant seals. And as he was trying to get his pieces of camera out,

these giant four-tonne, five-tonne elephant seals were stampeding towards him, and he appeared to be trying to bat them off with a broom handle. All these are females. They came ashore about a month ago to pup, and now they're ready to breed again. Which was one of those moments that makes you think, that is absolutely brilliant, and that is exactly where I want to be in the future. So deciding whether or not to interact with an animal is a very complex thing,

and it's something that takes a huge amount of experience and knowledge and years in the field. Often you'll find, particularly in my job, that if you can hang a little way away from them and just go about your business, look like you're doing something interesting, they're intelligent, they're interesting animals animals they may well come and glance over your shoulder and try and find out what you're doing and when that happens then something magical can

happen after i would probably say that one of the proudest moments of my entire career was interacting with seals well california sea lions during a live broadcast of a program called big blue live so we were diving in really dicey conditions completely live beamed around the world and in this country to i think about six or seven million people on lines to the surface in high sea state conditions and the water was filled with sea lions. Well, this is a truly unbelievable spectacle. We are at the base of Lobos Rocks and surrounded by California sea lions. It was one of the diciest and most exciting things that's ever happened to me. Even more so because every single thing that I was doing on camera was being transmitted from the surface by someone banging on the bottom of a boat

with a wrench because that was the only way they could communicate signals to me. These creatures are completely transformed here in their underwater world. They can appear to be clumsy when they're on land, but here they are agile, graceful, and sit through the water. And the bottom line is that if there's ever any danger of stress to an animal, that you move away and you leave it well alone. And they have lots of ways of showing you that. Depending on the animal group, there will be various kinds of body language, possibly verbal communication, certainly ways that they will show you whether they are accepting of you in their space or not.

And I think that with seals, that is probably more pertinent than with any other kind of animal. Steve Backshall, whose Ocean UK series starts next month. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Tom Bartlett and produced by Alison Davis. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway.

Until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic, coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning.

Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. 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.