Global News Podcast - Kamala Harris passes threshold to become Democratic nominee

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

The US Vice-President Kamala Harris has been formally chosen as the presidential nominee by the Democratic National Convention, after receiving enough party delegate votes. She is both the first black and South Asian woman to become the leader of a major US political party. Also: Instagram is blocked in Turkey amid accusations of censorship, and why Zanzibar could become Africa’s Hollywood.

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 Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Saturday the 3rd of August, these are our main stories.

In the US, Kamala Harris has clinched the nomination as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. Nicolás Maduro has been ratified as the Venezuelan president, despite several countries saying the vote was a fraud. Several freed Russian dissidents say they'd refused to plead for mercy from President Putin in exchange for their release. Also in this podcast... People have been asking, shall we call it Zawu, shall we call it Zollywood? It's just a wait and see how this is going to turn out. Could Zanzibar become Africa's latest answer to Hollywood?

And scientists think they've found the reason behind a 3,000-year-old mummy's scream. In the United States, the Democratic National Committee has confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris is officially the party's nominee for president in the forthcoming election in November. Ms. Harris has already secured enough votes from delegates, though voting hasn't yet closed. It followed weeks of uncertainty and increasing pressure on President Biden to step aside, which ended only when he announced he wouldn't run for re-election. Kamala Harris reacted to the news that she's the Democrats' choice for candidate on a telephone call with her supporters. I am honored to be the

presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, and I will tell you the tireless work of our delegates, our state leaders and staff has been pivotal in making this moment possible. I spoke to our North America correspondent, Anthony Zirka. Considering that two weeks ago, Joe Biden was still the presidential presumptive nominee. remarkable twist. And she has been able to consolidate support within the Democratic Party incredibly rapidly after Joe Biden announced he wasn't running. Part of that was because Joe Biden endorsed her. But I think also part of it was that Democrats really wanted to rally around a candidate and not have an extended protracted fight after four weeks of drama and discord after Joe Biden's debate performance at the end of June and the struggles he had since then. So she has enough votes and

I understand there's lots more money piling in. She has at least 2,350 convention delegate votes, which is more than half, which is why we can say now she has the nomination locked up. And yes, as you point out, she has raised a remarkable sum of money, over $300 million. It is by far the most any presidential candidate has raised in a two-week period, about double what Donald Trump raised for the entire month of July. And $150 million that he raised actually is pretty impressive as well. So it just shows all of this pent up emotion, pent up excitement about Kamala Harris and her candidacy after the despair that was going through Democratic ranks for Joe Biden as a nominee after that debate performance. So Anthony, what about the next big decision, the running mate? Well, she has to pick one by Tuesday.

So the clock is ticking on a very rapidly accelerated running mate selection process. According to reports, she has it narrowed down to about six people. She is conducting interviews, some in person, some virtually over this weekend. So we would expect to have a formal announcement perhaps on Monday. In fact, the campaign has said that she is going to hold her first rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her vice presidential pick on Tuesday. And how is she placed in the polls compared to Donald Trump now? The trend seemed to be that this race has tightened

to a virtual dead heat. All of the polls that I've seen recently have been within the margin of error. Some give Kamala Harris a slight lead. Some have given Donald Trump a slight lead. Whatever daylight Donald Trump may have opened up between himself and Joe Biden after that debate performance and in the weeks leading up to the Republican National Convention, that lead, at least for now, has disappeared. So I think it's safe to say that not only nationally, but in these key battleground states going into August and into the stretch run of this presidential election, it is still anyone's contest. Anthony Zerker, now to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, where the National Electoral Council has ratified the re-election of Nicolás Maduro as president.

Candidato Nicolás Maduro Moro, Partido PSU, votos 6.408.000. It follows days of protests and arrests of people who claim the result was rigged, which Mr Maduro denies. On Thursday, the U.S. recognized the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner. The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said there's overwhelming evidence that the opposition beat Mr Maduro in last weekend's presidential poll. On Friday, countries including Ecuador, Uruguay, Panama and Costa Rica followed suit. But Mexico says the U.S. has gone too far in recognizing the opposition candidate as the winner of Venezuela's contested presidential election. Our America's regional editor, Leonardo Rocha, reports.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said no country had the right to intervene in an internal matter. He said the Biden administration's stance risks creating instability in the region. Venezuela's government-controlled electoral commission says President Nicolás Maduro has secured a third term in office. Most countries in Latin America have rejected the official results, but the left-wing leaders of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia issued a statement on Thursday calling for transparency without openly

criticising Mr Maduro. The opposition has published the results of more than 80% of ballots cast, which seem to show Mr. Gonzalez winning Sunday's vote by a wide margin. Leonardo Rocha. It's been hailed as a victory for the United States and its allies, the successful multilateral exchange of 24 prisoners from Russia. You may have seen the emotional family reunions late on Thursday, when some of the former prisoners, including journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan, arrived on American soil. Three of the freed prisoners gave a press conference in the German city of Bonn on Friday. The Russian-British

political activist Vladimir Karamurtza was one of them. He said he refused to sign a petition for mercy from President Putin when in prison and described a conversation with an FSB prison officer on the plane to Turkey. The moment our plane was taking off, he told me, look out the window, it's the last time you're seeing your motherland. I told him, look, man, I'm a historian by education. I don't only feel, I don't only believe, I know that I'll be back in my home country. And it'll be much quicker than you think. But what is the price of their freedom?

Well, the largest swap since the Cold War saw eight prisoners return to Russia, including spies, sleeper agents and a convicted assassin. Garry Kasparov is a former chess grandmaster and prominent Russian dissident. He told Johnny Diamond that the deal with Russia has dangerous ramifications. This deal, you know, would not have happened without Putin getting what he wanted. And I only wonder if he got something else, because there was no parity in this exchange. And Putin is very sensitive to these kind of formalities. And the fact is that he agreed on this exchange, which was two to one, not in his favor, tells me that probably he gained something else from the Americans because Americans were the biggest beneficiaries. Biden administration now needed it so badly to kill Trump's arguments that he could all the only one who would do business with Putin.

So I've mixed mixed emotions. But most important is that these people, especially Vol one who could do business with Putin. So I have mixed emotions. But most important is that these people, especially Volodymyr Karamurza, are free. And I believe that when they recover, we'll be joining forces to fight back for our country. Does Vladimir Putin, to you, come out of this looking strong? We looked at the reception in Moscow. Yes, definitely he gained some prestige.

Again, not among us. I mean, he actually doesn't care what you, me, and people listening to this program thinking about his gains or losses. It's a message to all the facts around the world. As I mentioned, for instance, Maduro now. Putin will not leave you behind if you're working for him. That's the biggest deal for Putin. Again, my fair boss needs loyalty most of all.

And he demonstrated again, unfortunately, to the whole world that he will come to your rescue if you're willing to do his bidding, the most gruesome one. Gary Kasparov. A commemoration ceremony will be held in northern Iraq on Saturday to honour members of Iraq's Yazidi community who were systematically slaughtered and enslaved by militants of the group Islamic State a decade ago.

Only three members of IS have ever been prosecuted for what the UK and UN have described as acts of genocide. Groups representing the Yazidis, an ancient religious and ethnic minority, have called for justice. They also want a collective international effort to help find more than 2,000 women and girls who, they say, are still missing. Our World Affairs correspondent Caroline Hawley reports. The horrors of what happened 10 years ago still haunt the Yazidi people. Thousands of men and older women were murdered by IS fighters and younger women and girls were taken as slaves, many of them repeatedly raped.

Among them is Nadia Murad, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her work to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Six of her brothers and her mother were killed, and she and her sisters and nieces were all enslaved. Today she's calling for international collaboration to bring home women and girls she says are still held by IS militants and their sympathisers in the region. She, along with dozens of groups representing Yazidi survivors,

also wants to see a viable legal mechanism to hold the perpetrators to account and more support to help the community rebuild. Caroline Hawley. On Friday, the Turkish authorities blocked social media users from accessing Instagram. This after an aide to the country's president accused the US-based social media platform of censoring posts related to the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Mr Haniyeh was buried in Doha on Friday, just days after being killed during a visit to Iran. No official reason has been given yet for the decision to block Instagram.

Nehan Kale works for the BBC monitoring service in Istanbul. Turkish authorities blocked access to Instagram this morning. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority announced, but it gave no explanation to why it restricted access to the platform or it did not say for how long the ban would be in force. But a lot of media reports have highlighted that this ban came right after. Earlier this week, the Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun criticized Instagram for what he called was its decision to block content, expressing condolences after the killing of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

And he called it an open and clear censorship attempt. The Turkish media reported that there are over 57 million Instagram users in Turkey, and that makes it the home to the fifth largest number of Instagram users globally. There's been a lot of research showing that, you know, Instagram is actually the most popular social media platform in Turkey and is one of the most preferred social media networks for news for millions of Turks. Nehan Kali. Still to come in this podcast. We ruled out that poor mummification led to this widely open mouth. So what happened then?

The scientist in Cairo studying a 3,000-year-old scream. 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 British Army has issued an apology and paid a substantial amount of money to a black female soldier who was the poster girl of several of its recruitment campaigns. The army admitted that Kerri-Ann Knight had to work in an unacceptable environment where she experienced sexist and racist harassment. The soldier who left the army earlier this year spoke for the first time to our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale. That's the section I was in. Can you spot me? I can spot you. Yeah. Kerri-Ann Knight has put the photos and memories of her army life back in boxes.

She served as a soldier for more than 10 years, but it's been painful revisiting the past. Were you the only black person in there? Yeah, I was the only black female. She knew she'd stand out as a black woman, but she believed racism had been stamped out and joined the army with hope. For some reason, I thought someone in uniform was going to be professional and I was very excited to be a part of that. You've got the instincts. Now, get the train. The army's been trying to broaden its appeal. A series of adverts under the banner of belonging, portraying the army as welcoming and inclusive. A new recruiting campaign rolled out posters seeking snowflakes for their compassion,

selfie addicts for their confidence. One campaign in particular caught the eye of the world. An appeal to millennials with the old wartime slogan, your army needs you. One poster prominently featuring Kerry-Anne. She was the face of others too, but it also made her a target for abuse. I was extremely shocked because I really didn't experience such deep levels of racism. I had to learn the hard way in the army.

It got worse when she became an instructor at Harrogate. It's where the army trains junior soldiers from the age of 16. It's controversial, not least because in the past there have been allegations of bullying. Kerri-Ann says she witnessed it, but she too suffered at the hands of her fellow white male instructors. They'd have Django unchained playing. They would repeat the most, say, racist lines and then they'd chuckle. They spoke outright in the office about lynching me, simply because I had put in a complaint and it was suggested for me to be tar and feathered. Rather than root out racism,

Kerri-Ann says the army closed ranks to protect itself. When they tried to paint out as if I was an aggressive black woman, that was extremely tough if it wasn't for those individuals who supported me, whether secretly or publicly, I would have been broken. Earlier this year, Kerry-Anne took a case to an employment tribunal. The army contested it, but as the evidence mounted, it backed down and issued an apology. It said it accepted Mrs Knight had to work in an environment where she experienced racist and sexist harassment. It admitted the army'd failed her. In a separate statement, the MOD said it had settled the claim with no admission of liability. The army used Kerri-Ann's image to promote its own

as an inclusive, welcoming organisation for all. But her own experience tells a very different story. I would never encourage a woman, especially off-colour, to join the army because it's not going to benefit your life in the long run at all. You're going to be treated less than. Kerri-Ann Knight. The Zimbabwean president, Emerson Mnangagwa,

has been cleaning up the capital ahead of a summit later this month of Southern African leaders. The government has spent millions of dollars fixing up roads and filling in potholes in Harare. And that clean-up seems to extend to preventing any display of dissent, with a string of arrests of government critics. Julian Marshall heard more from the BBC's Shingai Nyoka in Harare. The latest involves four government critics

who were pulled off a domestic flight in Harare earlier this week. They say that they were held in communicado for about eight hours and one of them was severely tortured. And when they appeared in court today, one of them, a teacher's union leader, had bloodstained clothes and he was limping visibly in pain. And they say that they were simply outside the courthouse in June protesting the arrests of 70 opposition figures, 70 opposition activists. The police say that they were chanting slogans, they were holding placards. But there really has been an increase, according to a lawyer's group here, a spike in the number of activists arrested.

And just over the last couple of hours, we understand, according to this group, that a clergyman as well as the leader of a small opposition party have been detained. And so there are a lot of concerns that have been expressed about just what is happening in Zimbabwe in terms of the political climate at the moment. And is the assumption that the government is trying to suppress dissent ahead of this meeting, this summit later this month of the regional grouping SADC?

Yes, and I think that has been the line that the government has used. They say that the opposition supporters are trying to disrupt this summit. And so that's why we've seen, for example, the 78 opposition leaders, opposition activists from the Citizens Coalition for Change, and their arrest in mid-June really set off the spate of detentions. And they were arrested for allegedly meeting to plot public violence. Another group that were detained a few days ago in the northern town of Kariba were also protesting the arrest of the 78. But we've seen a lot of arrests where people are being accused of meeting to plan to disrupt this regional meeting.

It's just a day long meeting of Southern Africa regional leaders. But the government has issued warnings and said that they believe that the opposition is trying to disrupt them. That's why we've seen so many arrests. The capital Harare, Zingai, I understand, has been cleaned up ahead of this summit. Has that been generally welcomed? It has generally been welcomed, even though there have been a lot of disruptions. And so what we've seen is just tens of millions of US dollars invested in reconstructing and repairing the roads. And that's disrupted a lot of the movement over the last three to four months. It's disrupted traffic, but also people that are on the routes where the SADC leaders are

expected to travel have also been asked to spruce up their homes. So while it's been welcomed, I think the concern is that this is just for show that Zimbabwe is investing tens of millions of dollars, not just in roads, but also to construct houses for a meeting that essentially will last a few weeks. And so the concern is that all of this money is being spent, but will it be maintained? Really nothing is being done for the broader population. This is just a show for SADC leaders. Shingai Nyoka in Harare. You may be familiar with the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch. Well, there's another famous scream and it comes from 3,000 years ago.

That's when a woman from the time of the pharaohs called the Screaming Woman was mummified. The clue is in the name. Her gaping mouth denotes horror and its look of terror has left scientists baffled for years. Now they think they know why she ended up looking that way. As Terry Egan reports. Discovered 90 years ago near the Egyptian city of Luxor, this mummy was very different to the usual. While many have calm, optimistic expressions, glancing perhaps at the life to come, this woman was quite the opposite, her mouth wide open as though she were in extreme agony. Aged about 50 when she died, the woman's frightful look baffled scientists. At first they thought it may have been due to substandard mummification, yet she also wore gold and silver rings and was embalmed with

juniper and frankincense, which were expensive imports. Now, using CT scans, scientists think they've explained the look. Dr Sahar Salim is the professor of radiology at Cairo University. We ruled out that poor mummification led to this widely open mouth. So what happened then? There is the explanation that she might have died from agony or screaming and she was opening the mouth and then the muscles contracted from intense emotions and kept the mouth open for 3,000 years. It seems then that the woman underwent something called cadaveric spasm at the moment of death.

It's rare and connected to deaths that occur in extreme physical conditions or under intense emotion. In other words, according to the experts, she died in great pain and the spasm preserved her expression, meaning her look of abject terror has been immortalised for millennia. Terry Egan. The huge success of the Hollywood film industry in California and Bollywood in India is well known, but another burgeoning film industry is in Nigeria. Nollywood, as it's known, is hugely prolific and recently there's been growing interest in scaling up filmmaking in the wider African continent. One of African films' champions is the British film star Idris Elba

who rose to fame in the US TV series The Wire and has been widely touted as a potential first-ever black James Bond. Here he is, receiving citizenship from Sierra Leone back in 2019. I've been so welcomed. It's the first time I'm coming to my parents' country. There's a lot of anticipation. I've listened to stories about Sierra Leone, and I almost feel like I know it.

And as soon as I touched down, it was emotional. Now the government in Tanzania is giving Idris Elba 80 hectares of land in Zanzibar to set up a film studio there. I asked our Africa regional editor Richard Kagoi how important this is for African film. This is a big deal, looking at the fact that it's going to be set up in Zanzibar, which has earned its name as a fantastic and major tourist attraction for people really looking forward to come and sampling, you know, the African sun, white sandy beaches. And also it's been chosen as a destination

for some of major international film festivals, you know, the Zanzibar International Film Festival. So this is a huge, huge investment, and especially on the part of Tanzania and just really opening it up to the rest of the international film industry and a lot of people have been looking forward to this news and seeing it now being actualized. So you have Nollywood in Nigeria what's this going to be called do we know? That's a very good question because people have been asking, shall we call it Zawu? Shall we call it Zollywood?

It's just a wait and see how this is going to turn out. Idris Elba, he is of Sierra Leonean heritage, isn't he? And he's spoken in the past about wanting to develop the African film industry. And it seems like that is exactly what he's doing. That's something that's very close to his heart. If you've listened to him talking so passionately about, you know, the African film industry and how he would like to develop it. He's been lobbying internationally as well, and also lobbying heads of state from Ghana, speaking to President Kofo Ado, and now also most recently to President Samia of Tanzania.

You know, parents coming from Sierra Leone and also from Ghana. He's starred in movies where he's represented prominent African figures like Nelson Mandela in the movie Long Walk to Freedom and also The Beast, which was just filmed about three years ago, entirely in South Africa. So it's been a vote of confidence on his part. And he's sort of like getting a lot of fulfillment to seeing, you know, what started out as baby steps now maturing into, you know, such a huge deal. And he's been passionately following even content creators, even in the continent, and really speaking so proudly about them. So despite the fact that he grew up in the UK in Hackney and East Ham, well, he still maintained his ties with the continent. And is it your sense that the film industry in Africa is really taking off? You would say so. Just looking at the way Nigeria's Nollywood has developed in Ghana

and also in South Africa, plus also the prospects coming out of East Africa, specifically from Kenya, lots of characters also making inroads into the international film industry, specifically like in Hollywood. So the future really looks very bright and promising for the film industry in the continent and how now it fits in within the great scheme of things internationally. Our Africa regional editor Richard Kugoy in Nairobi. And that's it from us for now, but there'll 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 globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global

News Pod. This edition was mixed by Daniel Fox. The producer was Isabella Jewell. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time. Bye bye. 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.