Global News Podcast - MSF charity pulls out of Haiti's capital after attacks on staff

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

MSF pulls out of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince after attacks on staff. Also: US approves supply of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, why olive oil prices are plummeting and tennis bids adios to Rafael Nadal.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. How are we going to unravel this all? From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets, season five, Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The charity MSF says it is suspending operations in the violence-riddled capital of Haiti because of threats from police. In a change of policy, the US agrees to send landmines to Ukraine to try to slow the Russian

advance. And a woman thought to be Thailand's worst serial killer is sentenced to death for poisoning a wealthy friend. Also in the podcast, some rare good news on two fronts for the polar bears of northern Canada and olive oil consumers around the world. Plus... Don't let anyone dim your light because your age, your gender, your background shouldn't be a barrier to what you believe in. Words of advice from America's latest young entrepreneur. young entrepreneur. The charity, Medecins Sans Frontières, has a pretty fearless reputation. Doctors Without Borders, as it's called in English, sends medical teams into some of the world's most violent and unstable conflicts. But even for MSF, the situation in Haiti has

proved too much. The collapse of any meaningful central authority and the rise of gangs across the Caribbean nation have prompted MSF to announce it is suspending operations there. In the early hours of Tuesday at least 25 gang members were killed after an attempted attack on an affluent suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince was rebuffed by civilian vigilantes and police. This resident in Pietonville said people have had enough. We're not going to give up the area. We're not going to leave. And the day we rise up, nobody will stop us, neither the government nor the bandits, nor anyone else who's stopping us from living. We're asking for unity because no one will force us to flee our neighbourhood.

We're asking for unity because no one will force us to flee our neighbourhood. Our correspondent Will Grant has reported from Haiti many times. He told Paul Moss what had finally driven MSF to halt its operations. This decision to suspend their activities really comes at the end of a very, very difficult month for MSF. Specifically they announced that on the 11th of November one of its ambulances that was claimed three young men was stopped by Haitian law enforcement. The Medecins Sans Frontieres personnel on the ambulance were violently attacked, they were tear gassed and two of the patients were taken from the vehicle then taken outside hospital grounds and MSF says they were executed

by the police in conjunction with a paramilitary self-defense organisation, seemingly working alongside Haitian police officers. A horrific incident. MSF obviously say they have decided to suspend their operations in the Haitian capital with a heavy heart because they've been there for 30 years, but go on to list a number of other incidents in the recent past that have taken place that have simply made life unworkable for them for the time being. Médecins Sans Frontieres is just one charity, albeit a very effective one. How much difference is it going to make to the situation in Haiti if they do pull out? They have a good reputation, they do important work in Haiti. By their own estimates they

provide care to more than 1,100 patients on an outpatient basis, more than 50 children with emergency conditions. They have five different hospital facilities and a number of these sort of mobile hospital units. So to have something like MSF operating is a very, very important resource and I think it will be felt, albeit not a huge organisation in terms of its reach. It is a very important one. I remember talking to you earlier this year about the situation in Haiti when Kenyan police officers had arrived and more are now promised. Is there any sign of security being re-established there? Honestly, Paul, I don't think so. There was an initial improvement in matters, but it

does now appear that it's been very, very transitory. It doesn't seem like any meaningful control of the capital has been gained by the Haitian police working alongside the Kenyan police officers. As we speak there has been something around 25 killings in one part of the Haitian capital in a single day. The police say that it was the result of an attempt by gang members to take over an upscale suburb of Pied- of Pietonville and the residents themselves barricaded the streets, helped the police to defend the neighborhood from an invasion. As you can imagine just spiraling violence that

continues to worsen and no sense at all that the Kenyan police officers have a handle on this situation and of course we have to add that politically it looked no better either. The interim Prime Minister Gary Conneal was fired early this month by the ruling council not even six months after he first took office. Our Central America correspondent Will Grant. After more than a thousand days struggling against the Russian invaders Ukraine is on the back foot losing territory in the east as well as in its bridgehead in the Russian region of Kursk. With the Trump presidency fast approaching the US has been stepping up its support for the Ukrainian military relaxing restrictions on the use of long-range attackms missiles and now

agreeing to supply anti-personnel landmines. Anti-mine campaigners have condemned the decision but American officials said Kiev had committed to not using the devices in built-up areas. I heard more about the change in US strategy from Paul Adams in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnieper. The hope is that by providing these additional anti-personnel landmines, Russia's slow grinding advance in the east can somehow be blunted or at the very least slowed down. Essentially, what you have in the east is a situation in which the Russian forces are

gradually inching forward. And one of the tactics that they are using is sending small teams, sometimes three or four or five men, sometimes on foot, sometimes even on bicycles, to get in behind the Ukrainian lines to preoccupy the Ukrainian defences and artillery while the larger Russian force edges forward. It's the kind of tactics that we saw the Wagner group using during the capture of Bakhmut. It sounds simple, but it's very difficult for the Ukrainians to deal with. And so the use of landmines, which of course a lot of people are very squeamish about,

is arguably one of the most effective ways of dealing with this. They're designed to stop infantry moving forward. The type of landmine that's being provided, we understand, are called non-persistent. They can become inert after a set period of time, anywhere between a few hours and a few days. So the whole point is to allow Ukraine to hold on to as much territory as possible ahead of any peace negotiations that Donald Trump may have in mind sometime next year. Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Kiev has posted a warning about a possible significant air attack

and it's closed for the day. Could that be linked to these recent decisions by the Biden administration? It's certainly possible. We have had similar warnings in the past. I think this may be the third this year and they have sometimes been followed, if not immediately, but within a few days by a significant Russian attack. Of course we've seen several of these mass attacks in the past year. We don't know the nature of the intelligence that the Americans are basing their decision to close the embassy on. I think there is a feeling that some kind of Russian response, perhaps another mass drone and missile attack, might well be the sort of thing to expect. And so out of an abundance of caution they say they are taking this step but as I say it's not unprecedented.

Paul Adams in eastern Ukraine. She is believed to be Thailand's worst ever serial killer. Sararat Rangsi-Wutaporn is accused of murdering 14 people with cyanide. An online gambling addict she's also been accused of swindling victims of thousands of dollars. Now in the first of 14 murder, she's also been accused of swindling victims of thousands of dollars. Now, in the first of 14 murder trials, she's been found guilty and sentenced to death. The details from our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatton. The murder she's been convicted of started last April when Surarath Rangasivuttapan invited her wealthy friend Khoi on a trip to release Khoi fish into a river.

It was part of a Buddhist ritual. They went to a place outside of Bangkok to do this. And Khoi, the wealthy friend, is seen on video collapsing on a fishing pier. Sir Rat Ransi-Wutipon is then seen going over to the victim,ving some of her possessions and then just leaving the scene. And that was really the damning evidence in the trial. As investigators looked further, they found cyanide hidden in her car. And that's how they seized on the idea that she had used cyanide and she was the one who did ministered it to her victim. It's interesting, Olly, because the victim's family didn't believe initial reports that

she had died of natural causes. And they're the ones who pressed for her to have an autopsy. And that's how police started unraveling all of these cases. And that's why they say they believe that this woman killed 13 other victims. Yeah. How did she get away with it for so long? I think she got away with it assuming that investigators are right and she's found guilty of these other cases because she targeted people in many different provinces in Thailand.

She targeted people we think in eight provinces over a span of eight years. Police bungled the other cases. They just accepted the idea that these other victims had died of heart attacks, and it was accepted. Now that investigators have gone back, they see that many of the victims had the telltale signs of cyanide poisoning, black fingernails and toenails. And they've also connected all of these people, these apparent victims, to the alleged murderer, Sir Ratrangzi Butipan. Now, she hasn't gone to trial in these 13 other cases yet,

but financially, she's connected to them. She either owed all of them money or they had money that she suspected to have stolen. Celia Hatten, our Asia-Pacific regional editor. The UN climate negotiations in Azerbaijan are due to end this week with the decisions likely to have an impact thousands of kilometres away. Over the past five years alone the polar bear population near Churchill in the Canadian Arctic has declined by more than 25% as rising temperatures melt the ice. But as our science correspondent Victoria Gill has been finding out, this has been a rare good year for the bears. I am here on the tundra near Churchill, Manitoba in northern Canada. It's home to one of the most southerly populations of polar bears in the world.

They call Churchill the polar bear capital of the world. And there is a polar bear sleeping just nearby. We are safely high up and in a vehicle that it cannot reach and we are just quietly watching it having a snooze. Now I'm here with the polar bears international team including Dr. Flavio Leiner. Flavio, what is happening here in terms of the weather? So the western part of Hudson Bay, the ice stuck around really long in spring. The bears could use it to hunt for longer than usual. The bears we saw come

on shore this summer looked really good. Some of the ones we've already seen today looked pretty good so they really profited from this unusually good year. The bears really need that sea ice don't they? I heard one of your colleagues refer to polar bears as blubber hunting ice bears, which I really like that expression. Why do they need the ice so much? The bears use the ice as a hunting platform to hunt seals, which is their main prey.

Seals are a lot of fat, so they really actually go after this very calorie-rich diet. So this hunting platform is essential for them. It's basically their grocery store with less sea ice available in given years. It's really affecting how much they can eat and starting to affect their survival rate. Because although it's been a good year this year, what is the pattern of the sea ice? Yeah the reason we talk

about this as being a good year is because it's a single year that looks like it used to look like in the 1980s but since then on average the years have been getting less and less ice covered in summer so this ice-free period in summer where they cannot hunt seals has extended by over a month now since the 1980s. Of course you can have a good year a bad year, this variability is super imposed on this long-term trend but over the last 40 years the trend was very clear towards less ice and so like less opportunities for bears to hunt seals. Is that having a measurable effect on the population here? Yeah the bears here in

Western Hudson Bay are the best studied ones so we have actually good data there and we see that since the 1980s their population has basically been cut in half from about 1200 bears to about 600 now. Is that directly connected with the planet warming emissions that we're putting into the atmosphere? It's simply the fact that we're warming the planet, so it gets warm enough to melt the sea ice early in spring, and it takes longer in the fall to be cool enough for the ice to form. So it's a function of the warming of the entire planet and the Arctic as well.

And it's worth mentioning that the Arctic region warms actually faster than the planet on average. So that's another reason why the changes we're seeing here are so rapid. Dr. Flavio Lerner talking to Victoria Gill. Rising food prices have been a big concern for many of late, but after a surge in recent years, the cost of one item, olive oil, may be coming back down. At the start of the year, it was up 150% compared to the end of 2021. But the world's biggest producer, Spain's Diolio, now says prices could halve to explore why that's happening and what caused the spike in the first place. James Kumarasami spoke to olive oil sommelier Irene Jorjoro. spoke to olive oil sommelier Irene Giorgiolou. Like so many things in our life these days, climate is behind a lot that goes wrong and unfortunately prolonged drought and very high

temperatures throughout the Mediterranean have impacted on the production of countries. So Spain being the biggest producer in the world last year produced 830,000 tonnes. Well, this year, and this is the good news that the Orleo want to share, is expected to produce between 1.2 and 1.4 million tonnes. So you can immediately see that if the pricing is dependent on supply and demand. The expected increased supply is a very good reason why we consumers should be happy. Toby So happy. Does that mean necessarily the prices are going to fall as far as they seem to be predicting? Tricky. Of course, we all need a good story. And Deolio, with about 180 million liters bottled and sold worldwide and need to spread the good word,

if you like. However, it is a little bit early. The harvesting has just begun. And we won't really know until December and January how well all the countries have done. Also, they are middlemen. There are different reasons why the olive oil is priced what it is, and we find it on the shelf of the supermarket. So are we going

to see it as low as that? Probably not, but it's nice not to have the fear and the sentiment at the moment is quite negative with regard to olive oil and if De Oleo are trying to change that, well good for them because I'm a big proponent of olive oil, particularly extra virgin olive oil, so any good news is a blessing. Is there something that an olive needs in particular to produce lots of good quality oil? Is there a perfect set of conditions? Well the olive tree needs the water. You see, when it is flowering and fruiting in the spring months, it needs the water then

in the ground. In the summer months, actually the olive tree is quite drought resistant. So in the summer months, when typically in the Mediterranean we don't have a lot of rain, July and August, it doesn't matter. If the ground, however, doesn't have enough water in the early autumn months, then the olives are not going to plum up and have a lot of oil content, because they do have water content. And what we've seen in Italy this year is some late rainfall in the autumn, very near to harvest time, the olives have absorbed it, but they

don't have enough time to convert it to olive oil. Olive oil sommelier, Irene Georgioulou. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. I just want to be remembered as a good person and a kid that follow their dreams and achieve more than what they ever dreamed. The end of an era as Rafa Nadal retires from tennis. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot.

There's something on this boat. A ton of cocaine. There's something on this boat. A tan of cocaine. There was a lot of adrenaline. I couldn't believe what was happening. And the Man Brazilian police believed to be at its centre. Fox. Fox. Fox called the shots. From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets,

Season 5, Finding Mr Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts US president-elect Donald Trump has nominated the billionaire investor Howard Lutnick as his commerce secretary if confirmed by the senate Mr. Lutnick, a Wall Street veteran, would be in charge of a 50,000 strong commerce department. Mr Trump has pledged to impose major trade tariffs, which could have huge implications for the global economy. Ritika Gupta is our New York Business Reporter. Donald Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Cantor Fitzgerald's

CEO, Howard Lutnick, will lead the White House's tariff and trade agenda with additional direct responsibility for the office of the United States Trade Representative. As Commerce Secretary, he would be responsible for enforcing the sweeping tariffs that Trump campaigned on, for which Lutnick has expressed fervent public support. Yet many economists forecast that Trump's tariff proposals could cause inflationary effects for consumers. Lutnick, whose domain stretches from brokerages to real estate, had previously been considered for the role of Treasury Secretary. He's been one of Donald Trump's biggest promoters from the business world in recent months.

Wall Street is keeping a close eye on Lutnick's positions on various policies. He's advocated for more jobs for Americans and criticized the US, Canada, Wall Street is keeping a close eye on Lutnick's positions on various policies. He's advocated for more jobs for Americans and criticised the US-Canada-Mexico trade pact as hurting US auto manufacturing jobs. Lutnick is also a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, with Canter Fitzgerald launching a financing business that provides leverage to investors who hold bitcoin. He's also a staunch supporter of Israel in line with Trump's position. Ritika Gupta.

The president-elect joined another member of his new team in Texas on Tuesday, standing alongside his advisor on government efficiency, the world's richest man Elon Musk, for the latest test flight of the SpaceX Starship Mega Rocket. The company said the launch was a success in testing out hyper power wrapped to engines in space for the first time. But the second ever attempt to catch the rocket booster on its return to Earth was aborted, sending it splashing and exploding in the sea. Last month the catching process worked, proving that boosters can be caught and reused, drastically

cutting the cost of spaceflight. Space journalist Ken Kramer watched the latest launch. They had to be super cautious with the president-elect there and it's very possible journalist Ken Kramer watched the latest launch. It looked like it was a perfect splashdown So everything looked like it would have worked perfectly the upper stage seemed to land very well in the Indian Ocean Guided just to where they wanted it to be a really important milestone was they were able to relight the upper stage engine While they were in space and that's critical so that they can direct it to the moon and into Earth orbit for future flights Because for NASA this is the human lander for the Artemis program so it's got to work and now the new president has to decide is he going to continue the Artemis program is he going to change it and with a Musk there hopefully they will because President Biden has been a strong supporter of NASA unfortunately in the house the

MAGA Republicans cut the NASA budget by 10 percent, so that delayed a lot of science missions this year. So with Musk there, maybe he'll support it. America needs to be a leader in space, because if we don't, China is nipping at our heels. If we cut the Artemis program here in the U.S., the Chinese are moving ahead. They're not cutting anything. They're going to land on the moon by 2030. They are testing new moon rockets and astronaut capitals to go to the moon. They're going to launch 2026. They have a space station there. We have one, but it's aging, the International Space Station. And it's going to come to an end around 2030, 2031. So the US needs a new commercial space station, but that all costs money. So

that's where it's critical that the next president supports space. Otherwise the Chinese will take over." Space journalist Ken Cremer. Social media influencer Logan Paul is facing fresh questions over his cryptocurrency dealings. He has promoted cryptocurrencies to millions of followers online and appears to have caused prices in these investments to spike, leading to suggestions he could have profited from sales of any tokens he held. The BBC has seen new evidence suggesting he promoted investments without revealing he

had a financial interest in them. Paul is also facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit over a failed crypto project called Crypto Zoo, all of which he denies. Matt Shea has this special report. We've been investigating the influencer Logan Paul for nearly a year. His critics say he may have made personal gains by misleading his fans about cryptocurrencies. For this, he denies any wrongdoing. We travelled to interview him at his gym in Puerto Rico to ask him about his allegations in person, but it didn't go as planned.

I had to say, the real Logan Paul looks very different. Did you come all the way over here to ask about how I look? He sent a look-alike and trolled us. Is Logan coming? I'm right here, bud. This is your interview. What do you got?

Let's just get out of here. I'm not doing this. And then, a crowd of supporters came shouting abuse. The allegations relate to the way the influencer has used his social accounts to promote cryptocurrencies. Like in 2021, when at the height of his interest in crypto, he posted about an Elon Musk themed meme coin to his global following. What he didn't say is that he may have been a secret holder of the token.

Our investigation looked at an anonymous crypto account with close links to Logan Paul. We noticed the anonymous account was first funded by Logan Paul's public crypto account, then from his fan club's NFT project and it purchased a large amount of the coin. Moments before the tweet, it bought almost $160,000 worth. When the market peaked 12 hours later, it sold its holding at roughly $120,000 profit. Shortly afterwards, the price crashed. So it appears an account with close connections to Logan Paul made a lot of money from that

tweet by buying directly before and selling after. I went to the head office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. They regulate 40% of the world's capital markets from here in Washington, D.C. I asked their chair, Gary Gensler, about the laws around promoting crypto. They're supposed to tell you if they get paid, how much they get paid, whether they own the tokens, whether they've made money on the tokens, whether they actually know something about the project. And we at the Securities and Exchange Commission have brought a number of cases in these areas

over the years. Gensler couldn't speak specifically about poll, but he told us, Influencers, whatever their name might be, don't go out and tout something and mislead the public. Because it's illegal. Yeah, it's also wrong. There are still questions around Paul's crypto activities, but instead of answering them, he chose to send a lookalike.

In doing so, he appears to be ambivalent about what happens to fans who invested based on his endorsements. And with a class action claim filed for his failed CryptoZoo project, the allegations around Paul exploiting his significant platform to promote cryptocurrency continue to mount. Logan Paul has consistently denied any wrongdoing and blames other team members for the failure of the CryptoZoo project. Matt Shea, and there are more details in the new BBC documentary called Logan Paul Bad Influence. Now imagine having an idea, making it happen and being so successful that the government

offers $11.5 million of backing, all before you become a teenager. Well that is exactly what happened to 11-year-old Nigerian-American student Eniola Shokunbi after she designed clean air filters for her aging school's classrooms in the US state of Connecticut. Eniola told LaQuesha Borak how she came up with the idea. In fifth grade, one of my classmates brought an article about a group of scientists bringing an air filter through the White House. And when I heard White House, I was intrigued because I'd always wanted to be the first African-American female president. So I read the article and after researching, I learned that this was an inexpensive DIY air filter, something you can make with just $60. And that's a really small price to pay in exchange for the benefits and protection that

it provides. So I thought we could make it for McDonough since it was almost 100 years old. And also a lot of my friends were falling sick and getting allergies. And due to its old age, my school didn't have a lot of the modern technology to improve indoor air quality. So I thought we could experiment

and see if these air filters would work for us. But first I had to know how to build one. I wrote a letter to Marina Creative Yukon Health in the University of Connecticut. And not only did she send the blueprints, but she also brought a team of scientists to McDonough to help us make it ourselves. We made enough filters for the whole school,

but I had a mission and I wanted to get one of these air filters into every classroom in the state and eventually the country. I went to the EPA in North Carolina to get the air filter officially tested. And it turned out that the air filter was effective. It took out 99.4 of the viruses in the air in just 60 minutes. So, what have you learned the most that you weren't expecting about this whole process? For me, it was just like a lot of people were unwilling to get this through. A lot of the

people didn't think that these air filters were necessary, even though the proof and evidence is right in front of them. So that was one of the greatest and biggest shock. Another one was like the government believing in you actually listening to an 11 year old who they never met before. It shows how much America values the kids' opinions and values and beliefs and how they're not afraid to take answers from kids who are younger than them.

Inoda, what would you share a tip to get a government official to get an adult to listen to somebody of your age? Never giving up. Not only government officials, but a lot of people are going to try to gaslight people or try to tell you that what you're doing doesn't work. Especially as a girl, they're not going to believe you. But if you believe in yourself, you don't need anybody Young entrepreneur Eniola Shokunbi. So my message is just don't let anyone dim your light because your age, your gender, your background shouldn't be a barrier to what you believe in. Young entrepreneur Eniola Xokunbi. The Spanish sports legend Rafael Nadal has played his final game of professional tennis. Nadal ended his glittering career on Tuesday night with a defeat in the first singles match against the Netherlands in the Davis Cup in Malaga.

Had Spain won the tie, Nadal might have had the chance to play again. Our tennis correspondent is Russell Fuller. Nadal said it didn't quite work out. Mind you, he played pretty well for a 38-year-old with his injuries and lack of matches in the last couple of years, but he fell short and Spain ultimately lost the tie. So the chance of progressing and that fairytale end perhaps with Spain winning the Davis Cup on Sunday with Nadal playing some sort of role has gone, but at least people in Spain got to see him on court one more time playing singles and he had the big send off with the video message from Serena Williams and Novak

Djokovic and Andy Murray and Roger Federer and actually maybe that's more important? Russell Fuller, well Roger Federer paid an emotional tribute to his long-term rival saying Nadal challenged him in ways no one else could. Richard Bain is a super fan having been to watch Nadal play 77 times. He explained why he thinks the player is so special. It's his attitude and spirit that he plays with. It's a never-say-die attitude. He fights point for point. He's never broken a racket in his whole career. He's a great role model to kids.

I was once a kid myself and I really admire what he's done for the sport and the rivalries he's created and the legacy that he leaves on. Yeah, really bittersweet but a lot of emotions to process as a fan." And Rafael Nadal himself reflected on his final time on court in front of a packed crowd. Rafael Nadal, Rafael Nadal's father The way that I would like to be remembered is like a good person from a small village in Mallorca. When I was a very, very small kid and I had a great family that had the chance to support me in every single moment. Just a kid that followed their dreams, worked as hard as possible to be where I am today. And at the end of the day, being honest, a lot of people work hard,

a lot of people try their best every single day. I am one of these that I have been very lucky that life gave me the opportunity to live unforgettable experiences because of tennis. So I just want to remember as a good person and a kid that follow their dreams and achieve more than what I ever dreamed. Rafael Nadal on his retirement from tennis. And that's all from us for now but the Global News podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Daniel Fox and produced by Nikki Virico, our editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. There's something on this boat. A tank of cocaine. There was a lot of adrenaline. I couldn't believe what was happening.

And the Man Brazilian Police believed to be at its centre. Fox. Fox. Fox called the shots. From the BBC World Service, this is World of Secrets, Season 5, Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts.