Global News Podcast - How will violent unrest influence France's election?

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

With President Macron's final months in office set to be marred by the continuing protests and riots, how will the violent unrest influence France's upcoming election? Our reporter says the government's failures could help the far-left and far-right at the polls. Also: four soldiers are killed in a fire at a Canadian military base; Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro butt heads in Brazil's presidential TV debate; we speak to the son of the American journalist attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank; a Kenyan doomsday cult leader awaits court verdict; and recycling sportswear - do you want to buy an Olympics kit originally made for an athlete?The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail] Photo: A French firefighter extinguishes a blaze as clashes between riot police and demonstrators continue. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing. This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret, of the school's head teacher. This was someone I respected above anyone else. And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence. If this is leaked to the media, I'll be destroyed. This is World of Seward.

Secrets, Catching My Teacher. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and in the early hours of Monday, the 19th of October, these are our main stories. President Macron calls for calm after France is shaken by a weekend of violent and wren. We ask, how will this influence the upcoming election? A huge fire at a Canadian military base kills four people and injures dozens more. Tension as Brazil's left-wing president faces off with his rival on stage. Also in this podcast,

My mother is unstoppable and she will continue doing her work. We speak to the son of an American journalist, who's recovering from an attack by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. President Macron has addressed the nation after one of the worst outbreaks of disorder in modern French history. He again called for calm and sought to draw a divide between peaceful protesters and the rioters he blamed for the destruction

that's left many in France shocked. He pledged to bring those responsible for the violence to justice. People across the country spent much of Sunday cleaning up shattered shop fronts, burnt out cars, charred bikes and piles of debris on the streets. Our correspondent James Waterhouse sent this report from Paris. One of the most evocative images from these protests has been of the 19th century town hall in DeMoge to the southwest, being devoured by the flames. The blame for this destruction of French history, heritage, has been squarely aimed at a violent minority of demonstrators. In Paris and beyond, half a million people had filled cities across France to protest over the future of their country.

They were mostly peaceful, but as we saw in the capital, in the wings were those who wanted to take advantage of the disorder. And when the early evening arrived, they did. The police seemed to retreat in the face of what ministers are calling an organised network. It was at 5pm when this electric bike shop was. plundered. With no one to stop them, dozens of masked looters made several trips as they emptied the stock, even taking the time to browse. Just so he pushed here, then he cut here. The owner, Hassan Ahmed, explains what he's lost. 100,000 plus. It's my life, whole life here. I don't know. I don't know what I do.

With the arrival of daylight, it became apparent how the rioters didn't discriminate with who or what they targeted. We felt completely safe with the gates closed. And then we heard the gates being lifted from all sides. I don't know if someone hit me or how it happened, with an iron bar, I think. They set the fire in the shop at the ground floor with people living just upstairs. Everything is closed because it's smashed. And you've seen protests before. France has seen protests before.

But have you seen this damage before? Never. Never. And I'm going to be very honest. I have been scared. President Macron addressed the nation. Watching these images, we all ask ourselves, what are they thinking? How can French people do this to France? Those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable. Upcoming presidential elections will determine France's future course, but this chapter has exposed the strength of feeling over the challenges this republic faces

and the depth of division on how to overcome them. The response from political figures across the spectrum has highlighted those deep divisions ahead of the presidential election in April. Our reporter Pierre Antoine Deney told me the government's failure to control the protests could help the far right and the far left at the polls. There's been failure in the intelligence. There's been failure in the planning of these protests, definitely when it comes to Saturday. And I think overall there is a failure when it comes to the state and its response to the policy. protests that were led by pupils on the suburbs of Paris back in September. How it all evolved and brewed into the scenes that we saw on Saturday, obviously there will be questions as to how the government responded to this may have added fuel to fire and essentially

created the situation and the perfect storm for all these protests. And I think everyone will be fairly confident in condemning this violence, talking about how this has gone way too far. But the problem remains that these protests and the demands from these protesters have not been met yet. So this is a watershed moment for the country. It's impossible to talk about what happened at the weekend without talking about the violence.

In its eight-minute address, Emmanuel Macron, mostly talked about the violence. mostly talked about how the Republic will stay strong. The state will not yield to the violence and to the protesters. So it will be important for the protesters now, for the students who have been leading that movement, to control the narrative again, to be in charge of the narrative again,

unless they distanced themselves quite heavily from the violence, then their messaging will be completely forgotten. How much do you think this could influence the presidential election that's coming up? because you have Jean-Luc Menachan on the far left. He has associated himself with the peaceful protesters, and he's been out protesting peacefully. And then on the far right, you have Marine Le Pen,

who's very anti-protesting, and she's sort of positioning herself as the candidate of law and order. How much do you think it could influence the election? Definitely. The two names you've mentioned are the big winners of this protest, one way or another, because Jean-Luc Melanchon can talk about how he's been warning the government about these protests and how the youth will have their

moment and will have what they call their revolution, da-da, marian le Pen will say we've been warning you about France has an immigration problem and then these people out there in the suburbs just want violence. That's been her rhetoric. So the big losers out here are the people in other candidates in the presidential hopeful anywhere in between these two because they cannot condemned enough while also not being called out for being part of Emmanuel Macron's legacy, for being part of Emmanuel Macron's government. And when you're looking at the polls, it's more and more looking like France is heading towards a second round, obviously very early on in the political campaign, a second round between Marianne Le Penh and John Lich-Melanchon,

even more so since the protests began. Pierre Antoine, Deney. At least four people have been killed and nearly 20 others are in a critical condition after a fire at a military base in the Canadian state of Alberta. Victims were taken to hospital across the province after local ones were overwhelmed. This eyewitness described what he'd seen at the local hospital. I seen burns. I seen people that were getting unloaded out of the back of that military vehicle. They were wrapped in pretty much tinfoil. I heard people screaming inside of those vehicles you know, that will never end up being out of my mind.

Like I said, it was just a scene from a war movie. Prime Minister Mark Carney described the fire as one of the worst peacetime tragedies for the military on Canadian soil. Those we lost, those who were injured, were training to defend Canada, to serve Canada. And now Canada serves them.

We'll be there for their families for as long as they need. We will care for the injured through every step of their recovery. And we will stand by the women and men of our armed forces as they bear the weight of this loss. They will not carry it alone. CBC's senior reporter Jennifer Yoon told us more about what happened. The fire broke out during training exercises and rapidly moved through the base, fueled by strong winds going up to 100 kilometers an hour, so massively strong winds.

And those strong winds carried the fire through an area where soldiers from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were conducting a live fire exercise. That is, they were carrying out drills with live munitions. We know that this wasn't an act of terrorism, but we also don't know what caused the fire. Major General Wade Rutland with the Canadian Army said today that range control knew that there was a grassfire in the vicinity, but a decision was made to continue with the drills for a certain amount of time. time. And when the wind shifted, the fire was about a kilometer away, and it was a matter of 30 to 60 seconds before the fire was right on top of the troops. And this grass fire grew so fast and was so intense, it appears to have crossed established fire breaks on the bases before reaching the

training zones and causing that damage and those fatalities and those injuries. Ritalin also did reveal the names of the four soldiers who died today. Private A.com. Hayden Goulding, Private Sean Ferrell, Private Hayden-like Mark and Sergeant Morgan Wong, all of them came from either British Columbia or Alberta, so the two westernmost provinces in Canada. And I do want to make you pay attention to the fact that three of those killed had the rank private, which means they're quite young at the beginning of their careers. And I imagine now there will be a lot of questions, not least from the families of those people, about what went wrong and should the exercise have been stopped sooner?

Absolutely. But it's not clear what was causing this fire to ignite and why it became so strong. And that's still under active investigation. And the major did tell us today that he doesn't want to answer any more detailed questions because this will take inquiries. This will take investigations and that will take time, including answers on whether this fire was preventable. And if so, to what extent? But I do want to tell you, remarkably in the meanwhile, While as we wait for those answers, the rest of the battalion is still slated to go on training because these troops were getting ready to deploy to Latvia. That is Canada's largest overseas military deployment. Canada commands a multinational NATO brigade there, and it's a way to try and deter Russian aggression. So the soldiers who were hurt and killed were getting ready to go to Latvia in April or May, and soldiers that are left in the brigade who are not part of the immediate group that sustained really heavy casualties are still slated to go and they will still go through that training. That was Jennifer Youen from CBC. Ahead of what's expected to be a tight election,

Brazil's left-wing president Luis Sanacio Lula de Silva and his right-wing opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro, have been facing off in their first televised debate. Lula was defeated by Bolsonaro, the son of the jailed ex-president Jaya Bolsonaro in the first round, defying Paul. predictions. Mirna Torres-Andrade, who attended Lula's rally, said the election was a matter of defending basic rights. The far right doesn't engage in dialogue with people. It wants power all to itself. This is the danger that we'll lose our rights, our vote, the right to health care, education and everything else, all of which are being threatened. The environmental issues as well,

that is something that we need to protect. Meanwhile, thousands of Bolsonaro's supporters were gathered in Sao Paulo, dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag. I hope for a fairer Brazil, a Brazil that governs for all, a Brazil with less corruption or no corruption, where we can walk our streets safely, and also an economy with less public debt. The public debt is exorbitant in the country.

We have a court of justice totally on the side of the current government. Our correspondent Luis Fajardo followed the presidential debate, and he told me what had been said. It has been a very bitter and divisive campaign, and therefore it's little surprised that the debate has also been very confrontational, a lot of accusations, strong accusations, even the body language of the candidate suggesting a very aggressive position, both of them knowing that this could be a definitive moment. Some of the issues that have been considered during the debate are the issue of public safety, the perception in large parts of Brazilian society that crime is out of control and what both candidates are expecting to do about it. Bolsonaro has often presented himself as the law and order candidate.

There have also been discussions about the economy. Of course, Lula making the point that he has been the person who has, during the many years he has been in power, he managed to help a lot of Brazilians escape poverty. And there has also been the recurring issue of accusations of corruption, both sides accusing the other of having people in their immediate vicinity, relatives, close age, touch with corruption. So all of these issues that have been characterizing the election campaign in Brazil and certainly have been part of the discussion this year. And in recent South American elections, there's been a clear move to the right. Do you think Brazil will follow that or can the left hang on to power? Well, Brazil is, of course, seen as a key country in this potential move to the right. Brazil is the largest country in Latin America. It has the largest economy and the largest population.

The opinion polls suggest that it is a very close election. Bolsonaro, again, overperformed, I guess, in the first round. But recent opinion polls had showed Lula trying to close down on this and getting the distance even closer. So again, it is very, very close, apparently. the race that is about to be defined in Brazil in the next few days to see what the largest country in Latin America is going to do, if it's going to keep its leftist government or if it's going to join the trend of many other countries in Latin America and move to the right.

That was Luis Fahade. Still to come in this podcast. In football, 60% of all professional football kit is incinerated. Actually setting this product on fire. Got kids who can't afford to play. Surely there's got to be a better way to look at that problem. A new solution to stop professional sports kits going to waste. Now, journalists generally don't aim to become the story.

But last Friday, pictures of the American photojournalist Heidi Levine were beamed across the world after she was beaten by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The reporter had been close to an area where Palestinian farmers attempting to harvest olives were also attacked. Ms. Levine, who's Jewish and works for the Washington Post, has been covering the Israel-Palestinian conflict for decades. A job she says is very, very personal to her. Her son, Michael Milner, is by her side in hospital where she's receiving treatment. Celia Hatton spoke to him. My mother has sustained a lot of injuries from the attack. After the attack, she was immediately evacuated to the Ramallah hospital, or she was first treated for her wounds.

And once she got there, they decided that they don't have the ability to treat all of her wounds and asked if we could transfer her to a hospital in Israel where she was transferred to. The next day, she had to undergo an operation on her left hand because a lot of flesh was missing and she needed a skin graft and what's called a flap procedure. We're now hoping to see if she regains full mobility on that hand. But because she has four cracked vertebrae and a broken rib, it's really difficult for her to move and to get out of bed on her own. She said that she was wearing her helmet and a flack jacket,

which she said she believed protected her. Did it offer her some protection? Yes. I sincerely believe it saved her life because in the videos, you can see her being thrown to the ground time and time again. There's also been some puncture wounds and a lot of lacerations on her body. And the doctors suspect it could be either from a sharp object or a knife.

They are just not able to determine. But witnesses have told me that they saw the Jewish terrorists using batons with nails on them. So I don't think she would have been able to sustain such injuries without the flapjacket and be able to walk away from this. And I told her, the settlers will be the ones that kill you. I'm really scared about that. And she and I are very concerned that the situation is ongoing.

The following day, there were more violent attacks, including on Polish diplomats, which is extremely upsetting to me. And I don't see justice yet. And I'm very upset about it. Michael, I can hear how upset you are in your voice. And I'm sorry that you're dealing with at the moment. You do have my sympathies. I want to bring up the words of Benjamin Netanyahu.

He released a statement early Friday evening. Actually, his office did. The Prime Minister's office said the facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Fala, during which the Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation. Were you surprised by this reaction by the Israeli press? Prime Minister? I was stunned. Given all the videos and photo evidence, I was absolutely stunned that Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu is choosing to deny this event. It's just remarkable and very, very

upsetting to hear the word allegedly at such a time. My mom is beyond offended by that statement, and so am I. Michael, just one more personal question. You said that your mother's had a hand operation. Do you think that's going to affect her ability to continue working? Luckily, it's on her left hand, and so it won't, you know, affect her ability to operate her camera as much. But I can tell you, even if it did, she would find a way out. My mother is unstoppable, and she will continue doing her work. That was Michael Milner, son of the American journalist Heidi Levine. A verdict is expected to be delivered soon for a Kenyan doomsday cult leader accused of murdering 191 children. Pastor Paul McKenzie led hundreds of his

followers into a forest near the Kenyan coast where they were told to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus. More than 400 bodies were found and authorities say 600 people are missing. Our Africa correspondent Thomas Macquana reports and a warning this report contains disturbing details. Pastor Paul McKenzie, preaching in southern Kenya in 2019. He's telling followers in a parked tent that the end times are coming, that they should shun modern medicine and education, and that the devil had infiltrated modern life. Hundreds of people in plastic chairs watch and applaud.

But soon, he'd ask his followers to more. from the church into somewhere much more remote. He began to tell them to move to Shaka Hola Forest, a barren dry piece of land about an hour's drive in from the coast. Mackenzie told them that if they fasted to death, they would meet Jesus. Hundreds followed and hundreds died in one of the worst cult-related mass deaths in history.

I am now in Shaka-Hola Forest. This is where McKenzie set up his camp and led hundreds of people to their death. Hundreds of people starve themselves in here. And looking around, there isn't much happening. Mostly dead trees. And you can hear goats bleating in the distance. But it's hard to understand how someone would choose to live here. It's even harder to understand why someone would choose to die here.

There were so many bodies, the police hired low. locals to dig them up. Motorcycle rider, Jaffa, tells me some of the bodies were so decomposed. They were like porridge. Salam says he once accidentally scraped off someone's nose when digging. One grave had 12 children in it, he said. Forty-eight-year-old security guard Stephen Mui. lived with his pregnant wife and five kids

in a tiny house in nearby Malindi. He told me she took them all to the forest after hearing Mackenzie preach on TV. She was the only one who survived. Every time I walk and see children, I see the faces of my dead kids. But it's too late because I know they're dead. Sometimes I can't sleep.

If Pastor McKenzie was in front of you right now, what would you tell him? If I met Pastor McKenzie, one of us would have to die. Sometimes I ask myself, why am I alive? I just can't. Astonishingly, some still support the pastor. I met Peter Shukrani, a 23-year-old who says he was ill. when he joined Mackenzie's church. Peter was almost dying when he was rescued from the forest,

but he remains a follower. I still love him, and I still think of him as my pastor. If he committed murder in front of you, would you, would that change how you feel about him? No, because I never saw or heard that he did anything bad. The remains of over 400 of McKenzie's followers are being preserved in refrigerated containers at Malindi Morg. Just a few days ago, as the sound of intense prayer

for a nearby church filled the air, eight more bodies were released to their families. For those who lost family members in this tragedy, nothing can bring them back. But some are hoping that today's verdict will bring some small measure of closure. Thomas McQuana reporting.

Finally, somewhere in a warehouse, there are boxes of sports clothing sitting untouched collecting dust. It's difficult to sell all these professional kits and they often end up in landfills or destroyed. But a new project is hoping to give them a second life. Hundreds of items from TeamGB,

the British Olympic squad, will be sold online with the proceeds going to charity. It's the brainchild of Joanna Chococon. who set up five thread. She spoke to my colleague, James Menendez, about the project, starting with why there's so much spare stock. It's because so much of it is produced about two years in advance. That's way before you know which athletes are going to be competing in the games.

And so you have to have enough for every eventuality. So this can lead to 20 to 40% overordering of excess stock. People just don't know what to do with this. So organizations, of course, will store this stock. But a lot of it, they are prohibited for, and reusing some of the time, or they simply haven't got the pathways to be able to reuse it.

Sometimes that's because of IP, so intellectual property. Sometimes it's to do with performance and innovation. You know, they don't necessarily want this product to be reused. Also, you've got to think about the sensitivity of the athletes. For example, if you've trained all your life to be in the Olympics, and part of that is that you get this team kit that you get to wear at that event, you know, there's something quite precious about that.

And then if it is simply kind of reused, you can buy it anywhere. Does that take away from all of the work that you've done? Do you think, though, that athletes would really mind, especially if it was a couple of years later, if that kit was given to charities or youth clubs, you know, kids who could wear it? What we know is that a lot of families tell us

they can't afford to buy kit in order for those kids to play. So we have to break down those barriers to participation. And for me, when you've got kit that is ultimately being destroyed, for example, in football, 60% of all, professional football kit is incinerated. So we're literally setting this product on fire. And you've got kids who can't afford to play, surely there's got to be a better way to look at that problem.

Do you have any estimate at all overall how much kit we're talking about that doesn't get used that's either stored in boxes or is destroyed? For example, if we take a tournament like the World Cup, it was estimated that 20 million kits this year went to waste after the World Cup. But we know, for example, there's 100,000 tons of, sportswear that goes to Landfill every year. So that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So what exactly is it that you're trying to do with this partnership? So this is TeamGB clothing, is it? Yes. There is a number of items that are already on these websites. Essentially, as those items are bought by people who need them, more will go on the site. And the great thing about this is a lot of the time, the money that is generated from those sales actually goes towards the sports organisation's trust or it goes towards charity. So there's a real win-win. here. That was Joanna Chicova speaking to James Menendez. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag

Global NewsPod. Don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Chris Lovelock and the producer was Ruby Gleason. The editor is Karen Martin. Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time, goodbye. It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing. This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret of the school's head teacher.

This was someone I respected above anyone else. And the investigation led by students, he's trying to silence. This is destroyed. This is World of Secrets, catching my teacher. Listen, on BBC.com. The BBC app or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.