Global News Podcast - Pro-EU leader ahead in tight Moldovan vote amid claims of Kremlin interference

Episode Date: November 3, 2024

Moldova's pro-EU president Maia Sandu appears on course for a second term. The King of Spain is met by angry protesters during a visit to flood-hit Valencia. US presidential candidates make last pitch for support.

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and in the early hours of Monday the 4th of November these are our main stories. In Moldova, the pro-EU President, Maya Sandu, has pulled ahead of her pro-Moscow challenger in a pivotal election. King Felipe of Spain says he understands the anger and frustration of people in flood ravaged Valencia. In the closing stages of the US presidential election campaign, both main candidates make a last pitch for support in

seven key states. Also in this podcast... They're singing in a language that is essentially a foreign language within their own country. It's the language of religion. It's like Latin to Europe or Ge'ez in Ethiopia. The unique musical tradition of Bhutan. Voters in Moldova are waiting to see who's won the second round of the presidential election there. It's a contest that's seen as a choice between a European future or a return to Russian influence.

Events have been moving pretty quickly. The first early results put the pro-Western President Maya Sandu behind her opponent. As we record this podcast, she's pulled ahead. Earlier on Sunday evening, the president thanked people for coming out in large numbers to cast their ballots. I thank everyone who participated in the vote from all localities in the country. I especially thank those from Kishinau who participated in large numbers to vote today. I also want to thank the young people who set a voting record today and our citizens

from outside the country who have shown exceptional mobilisation. My colleague Fiatoslav Kamenko is in the capital, Kissy now. Just a few minutes ago, Maya Sandu was receiving congratulations from her supporters because we are in her headquarters. We have big screens with numbers from Central Election Committee screens were the numbers from Central Election Committee and it appeared that she is winning and the most probably she will become the next president of Moldova. And everybody was happy here in her headquarters. There were a lot of hugs. There was a bouquet of white roses. So basically with the most votes counted inside the country and the voting process going on abroad We can be pretty sure she will win with a comfortable margin of her opponent

And this is quite a change because it's not so long ago an hour or so ago that it looked like her opponent might win well The thing is that the votes from the little distant polling stations are counted as first and only afterwards the votes from the big polling stations from big cities and what is more important from abroad counted a bit later and those votes that are counted later they are favorable those polling stations those regions are generally more favorable for they are favorable. Those polling stations, those regions, are generally more favorable for Maya Sando. So it's no surprise that first numbers

from Central Election Commission were favorable for Stojan Oglo. It's no surprise. In terms of claims about Russian interference, first we should say if there's been any, it hasn't worked. How realistic do you think those claims are? Basically, I spoke to the representatives of both candidates and both Mr Stoyanoglu's supporters and Ms Sandus' supporters. They agreed that there is a web of Russia-controlled

voters who just sell their votes and vote for the person whose surname they basically received via SMS in the morning of the voting day. Ms. Sandu said that this web is working for her opponent. She declined. So this web of Russia controlled voters exists but we are not sure about the number of voters in this web. And we are not sure about the influence they had on the second tour of elections, because during the last two weeks, a law enforcement agency of Moldova made a terrible job to search for them, to find the key members of this lab. There were hundreds of searchings on the whole territory of the country. And I think the influence of this factor is much less than it could be.

But we can be pretty certain that Russia would not have wanted Maya Sandu to be re-elected. Let's talk about whether this feels like a fundamental choice that Moldova has made here, that it wants to look to Europe rather than to Moscow. Well, you know, polls that were held in Moldova showed that majority of its citizens support Western integration of the country. And after this referendum that was held two weeks ago, I think people had an opportunity to think once again which way for their country they are going to choose. A lot of Moldovans know that Europe is closer to their country, is richer. I spoke to one of the voters

like two weeks ago and he said that there is no choice between Russia and the European Union, Europe for any reasonable person because there was no single military conflict in European Union since 1950s and Russia is like at war all the time. And peace is the basic value for Moldovans who live like very close to Ukraine, which is at war with Russia. So I think that peace is the basic value for Moldovans, and they believe that Europe is more suitable for realising this value than Russia. Sviatoslav Kamenko with me from Kisinau. Now to Spain, where the king was confronted by

angry crowds during a visit to the town worst affected by the flash floods in Valencia. King Felipe was pelted with objects and mud as security struggled to protect him. The King was part of delegation which also included the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, and the President of the regional government. Juan Bodera is a member of the Valencian Parliament. It's reasonable that people are angry. The Regional Government, they were the responsibles of the emergency coordination and they didn't listen to any warning. The response of the National Government is also questionable and the King comes to date and people are angry.

It's a very bad decision. Our correspondent Bethany Bell who's in Valencia told me about the confrontation with the King. He was visiting the town of Paiporta. I visited it earlier this week and dozens of people died there and the anger boiled over. There were people chanting murderer at him, people threw mud at him and the Queen and the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and it was understood then that the King and Queen suspended another visit that they were planning to make to another area that was struck by the floods. So this was a real outpouring of anger. Now obviously people are devastated because of the flooding and everything that's been

lost as a result. But why are people blaming the King, the Prime Minister, the authorities for what happened? Many of the people I've spoken to here over recent days say the authorities are not doing enough. They accuse the authorities of not having them warned them properly and then they say that the response has been very very slow. Now the authorities have said this is an exceptional situation they have sent thousands of troops and police here that they are undertaking searches of underground garages, the piles of cars

that were sort of pushed up by the flood waters where people may have been trapped. But the victims of this have said that they're still struggling in many places, they're not receiving the kind of help that they need and many of course are still very worried about the missing. And it's still not clear exactly how many people are unaccounted for. And obviously in many senses this is now a clear-up operation but it's incredible to think that so many days after the flooding they're still looking for people basically, still hoping to be able to rescue people.

They're still hoping to be able to rescue people but here there have been these enormous numbers of volunteers who have been coming to the flood-stricken areas with brooms, with spades, carrying food, doing everything they can. And I watched this morning in one area where you could see bulldozers clearing away the debris that what was once furniture, what was once part of people's homes, but you just imagine all of those homes are still filled with mud. Awful conditions. And one bit of conversation that I keep hearing is that the meteorologists

are keen to say, however unusual this was, we did predict it, it was known that it was going to happen. So there are questions about the communication of that information to the people who are then very quickly affected. Yes indeed and some of the people I've been speaking to who said they received the warnings well after the floodwaters were already risen so there are big questions to be asked. Now what we're having now today I don't know if you can hear in the background it started to rain again there have been alerts of heavy rain in southern Valencia. That, of course, is making the situation for rescue workers and the victims of last

week's flood even more difficult. And there have been warnings out now in the town of Aldea, which I visited a couple of days ago, where people are being urged to seek higher ground. Bethany Bell with me from Valencia. The polls still suggest a dead heat between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in the US election on Tuesday. In the final days of campaigning it's all been about those seven swing states which will likely decide the outcome. Donald Trump has been to three of those battlegrounds. He's been speaking at a rally in North Carolina before going to Georgia,

but his first stop was in Pennsylvania where he spoke to supporters for almost two hours without any notes, taking swipes at his Democrat rivals, the media and those opinion polls. This now or never, this is it. This is the moment. We've been waiting nine years for this and we got two days and we got all this crap going on with the press and with the fake stuff and fake polls and by the way the polls are just as corrupt as some of the writers back there. They can make those polls sing they can make them sing they brag about it. I got a poll I'm ten points up in Iowa one of my enemies just puts out a poll I'm three down. I'm not down in Iowa

The significance there is that Iowa is not a swing state it was won comfortably by Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 Kamala Harris chose to go to Michigan to woo voters and she spoke at a service at a gospel church in Detroit Here in Michigan right now each of us has an opportunity to make a difference. Because in this moment, we face a real question. What kind of country do we want to live in? What kind of country do we want for our children and our grandchildren? A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, justice and compassion.

And the great thing about living in a democracy, as long as we can hold on to it, is that we have the power, each of us, to answer that question. As we record this podcast, Kamala Harris was due to speak at a rally in Lansing, Michigan, from where I spoke to our correspondent, Ioni Wells. You can probably hear behind me, just at this this moment there's a Mexican wave going on in the crowd of people standing up with their Harris-Waltz banners. It is expected that Kamala Harris is going to come and address this crowd as her final stop here in Michigan after a sort of whistle-stop tour all around the state earlier today.

Now this is of course one of those other key swing states. It's very, very close in the polls at the moment. Now we're told that Kamala Harris's message tonight is going to focus on a more optimistic closing note that she's not going to really focus this speech on attacking Donald Trump. Obviously we heard from Donald Trump earlier that his big message was a lot of criticism around the Democrats, about the media, about the voting system. We're told that her message for one of the final rallies here in Michigan is going to be a much more optimistic one as polling day nears. Both candidates are trying to be the agent of change.

Trump wants to be economic change from the Biden administration and he keeps asking people if they feel better off than they did four years ago. Kamala Harris very much wants to be change in terms of a new generation of leadership, a change in the style of US politics. That's right and actually speaking to people in the queue to get into this rally tonight here in Michigan, a lot of particularly the younger generations that I met in the queue were telling me that that is what they like about Kamala Harris, particularly because she would be the first female president.

They like the fact that she would be the first president of Indian descent, first African American female president as well. So I think there is, as you say, a lot of people do see her as a sort of a candidate that represents change when it comes to a new generation of leadership. Now, as you say, Donald Trump is trying to present himself as a change candidate, given mostly that economic message that, as you say, he's been stressing over his last couple of events. Really, I think for Kamala Harris, as I say, this is about trying to land a kind of optimistic

message as they just have really only a day to go now of this campaign. Iony Wells with me from Michigan, all the latest at BBC.com slash news. Illegal miners in South Africa are known to take big personal risks in the hunt for untouched gold or diamonds in abandoned mines. The authorities are clamping down, making hundreds of arrests in Northwest Province. I've been talking to our Africa regional editor, Richard Kigoye. We're hearing from the South African Police Service that they have arrested more than

500 illegal miners after they surfaced because of what is suspected to be starvation and dehydration. So this was happening in an abandoned mine, which is about 200 kilometers south of Johannesburg. It's part of an operation that was launched slightly over a year ago involving the police and the army targeting illegal miners. So these are people who are not certified. They're carrying out these illegally,

mostly in these abandoned mines with the hopes of getting possibly, say, gold deposits. The reason that people do this, even though it's obviously dangerous, is the prospect of finding really valuable material they can then sell on. Apart from arresting them, what else are the authorities doing to try and stop this? Yes, so there's this operation as I mentioned, it's called Vala Omgodi, which translates to closing the pit. So what they're doing is they're, you know, coddling off some of these abandoned mines, simply because it's a black market sort of type of business. And

this has been denying the South African government millions in terms of revenue. It's also been undermining established mining companies and there's been a growing sense of discontent especially from local residents across South Africa because the illegal miners say to not only just be involved in this transaction but also they have been involved or engaged in criminal activity. And what they're after is uncut diamonds fundamentally? Yes, majorly diamonds and gold because South Africa has the largest deposits of gold worldwide.

And what we had from the authorities is that as part of the operation they managed to arrest close to 13,000 illegal miners and in the process they have recovered uncut diamonds which is valued to be about 1.8 million US dollars. That's just in the past 12 months and close to about 2833,000 in cash. Our Africa regional editor, Richard Kigoya, reporting. And still to come in this podcast, video games, Olympic style. We've got a report for you from the world's most popular e-sports tournament. Honestly, like nothing you'll ever experience. So excited.

Extremely excited. Yeah. My talent as an athlete is swimming long halls over the curvature of the earth. Lifeless Ordinary is the podcast with astonishing personal stories from across the globe. My past is very bad and I survived. You have to tell the story. Expect the unexpected. All of a sudden the car exploded. Life's Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service.

Here's a thing that happened to me. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Let's return to the US election. Kiev might be 8,000 kilometres from Washington, but the war in Ukraine could have an impact, at least in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where campaigners are battling for the support of Ukrainian Americans. Voters with Eastern European heritage traditionally lean conservative, but Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's differing views over the conflict between Kiev and Moscow is causing some to switch sides. Evhenia Shidlovska from the BBC's Ukrainian service begins her report in Washington.

The service begins her report in Washington. The race for the White House isn't the only competition taking place in Washington at the moment. At this 10k race in the heart of the US capital, a group of Ukrainian veterans are taking part to try and make sure their country isn't forgotten during the presidential election. The cost of the war with Russia on the group is all too visible, with many of them running on prosthetic legs. Dmytro Kamenshchik lost a hand when his drone unit was hit near Bakhmut.

His father was killed fighting in the war last April. Support of American people, American state, is very important. For some voters, Ukraine is already a major issue. We are traveling to Pennsylvania, a key swing state that has one of the biggest Ukrainian-American communities in the U.S. For America's future, for Ukraine's future. Here, in the city of Philadelphia, this noisy and colorful demonstration has been organized in support of Kamala Harris.

Companer Mary Kalina tells us why Ukrainian Americans are taking part. The issues at stake for Ukraine are existential. In this state there are 120,000 people of Ukrainian descent. And that is more than the number of people who decided the last two elections in 2016 and 2020. Harris wants to continue the U.S.'s significant financial and military support for Kiev. But Donald Trump's policy is very different. Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled.

We're going to get it settled and stop the death. Trump's critics fear a rapid deal to end the war would mean Ukraine having to give up territory to Russia. These campaigners think this could mean that traditionally conservative-leaning Eastern European voters like Ukrainian Americans and Polish Americans will switch to Harris in this incredibly tight swing state. But not everyone agrees. This is Timothy Kuzma, a leader of the Polish-American community.

A lot of Polish people supported Trump previously and they're going to continue to support Trump in the future. And I don't think many Pol polls believe that Trump will abandon Ukraine. Back in the Washington area, John Burns, from the Concerned Veterans of America campaign group, says a growing number of people in the U.S. don't want the war to be prolonged. It's not in the U.S. interest. That's just going to take more weapons and more financial resources than what we can really afford to spend. So whoever comes in as president, we're really looking for them to push for that negotiated

settlement, force conditions that will end U.S. funding for the war, U.S. weapons support, U.S. munitions going to the war. But some warn that bigger risks could emerge in the future if U.S. assistance is cut. Here is Melinda Haren from the Atlantic Council. What happens in Ukraine will not stay in Ukraine. And we see that now with the situation getting worse and North Korea sending troops in. We can't blindly close our eyes even if we are 5,000 miles away. Just as the race for the White House could play a huge role in the future of Ukraine, the war will be one of many factors that will affect who will be the next US president.

The authorities in the Thai capital Bangkok are introducing new measures to regulate the ownership of dogs and cats. The number of pets will be restricted according to how big people's homes are, and they'll all have to be microchipped. Here's Richard Hamilton. Welcome to the Tiger, your number one source for news and lifestyle content to keep you posted on all things Thailand. Earlier this year, the Tiger website and YouTube channel

reported on the problem of some breeds of dangerous dogs. That's right, a pit bull attack in Bangkok's Charoenpon Market has sparked safety concerns after a resident was bitten twice by the roaming dog on August 28th. The incident, which occurred in the busy... It's estimated that there are nearly 200,000 cats and dogs in Bangkok, including almost 30,000 strays. The authorities say changes to the law are being introduced to maintain public health,

prevent disease and reduce nuisance. It said the city would be zoned to control the number of dogs and cats owners can keep, based on the size of their living area. This means that a person with a small apartment could only have one or two pets, while enormous houses could have up to six, as some people currently have more than that. But the move might prompt accusations that poor people are being unfairly targeted. Owners could also face fines of up to $300, as well as a month in jail if their dog bites anyone or barks loudly, causing a public nuisance. A mobile veterinary unit will be responsible for neutering dogs and cats that do not have owners. Aggressive dogs will be taken to the city's dog shelter.

The regulation also imposes tough restrictions on certain breeds, including pit bull terriers and rock violas, whose owners must obtain special permission. From next year judges in Mexico are set to be elected by the public under a controversial reform approved last month. Few countries allow that to happen and the members of the Mexican judiciary think it will threaten their independence and the rule of law. On Wednesday, eight of the eleven judges on Mexico's Supreme Court resigned over the issue. Next week, one of the 11 will be putting forward a possible compromise, but the Mexican president Claudia Scheinbaum seems unlikely to change her mind. Professor Margaret Satterthwaite is the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

She's concerned about what the reform could mean. Judges should be selected based on their capacity and training, their ability to do the job, and their ethical background. It's very unusual to imagine that a popular election would ensure that people would be making decisions on that basis. The second concern is that replacing an entire judiciary at once is simply something that states do not do. But others say reform is badly needed. Arturo Avilla is the spokesperson for the governing Moreno party in the Chamber of Deputies. I guess this reform introduces a system where

citizens of course can elect judges. Some of the states, for example, in the United States, they do it while aiming to improve judicial processes to reduce privileges. Really, we have a very bad judicial system. We need to make changes and we did it. Let's get more on this from Mary Beth Sheridan, the Mexico correspondent for The Washington Post. There's a lot of concern and alarm even among people in the judiciary and the legal profession.

There's a lot of worry that this will really open the door to the ruling party taking control of the judicial branch or other people getting elected like drug trafficker supporters, because it's going to be a lot easier for people to win elections who have a certain backing, a certain amount of money. But the public has supported very much the ruling party and hasn't really become aware of what this is going to mean. There has been actually a pause that's notable in investment.

Now, it has not been massive. And I think that there's people in the investment community who just think it's probably not going to be carried out the way that it's being proposed right now, because the scale of the change is so massive. But I think the government certainly has signaled it intends to do this. So I think there could be some further economic fallout if this does continue to go forward. People never stop arguing about whether video games count as sport. Traditionalists say true sports need physical effort, running, throwing, hitting a ball. But video games or e-sports as they're likely to be called continue to find new fans and the grand final of the most popular of the esports tournaments took place in London. It was won by the South Korean team T1.

Tickets sold out in minutes but one person who did get one was our reporter Andrew Rogers. If you're wondering just how big this final is, we'll let the crowd here at London's O2 Arena do the talking. Yes, that's almost 15,000 people cheering on the best players in the world at League of Legends. It's a five against five multiplayer battle arena game. The rules are simple. Teams choose characters with specific powers who then need to outwit the other side and destroy their virtual base. Think of it like a game of chess, if each piece had dozens of different moves. It's fast paced and tactical, part of the reason these fans love it.

It's usually in Asia or stuck in North America so coming down to our doorstep is really nice. Honestly, like nothing you'll ever experience. So excited. Extremely excited, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah! It's also one of the few eSports that's popular globally, bringing together teams and viewers from Europe, North America, and League's biggest market, Asia. Jon Needham is president of eSports at Riot,

which makes League of Legends. We just love the venues here. It's a really great city that I think reflects the diversity of our player base as well. We have tons of passionate fans across Europe and it's just very easy for them to get here. These are the sorts of events politicians want to see more of too. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, says today's event could add £12 million to the capital's economy through spending

today and future tourism. Now wedged in the Himalayas between China and India, the tiny nation of Bhutan has a unique musical tradition called Zongdra, with songs in an ancient language used by Buddhist monks. Producer Ian Brennan has been to Bhutan to record an album by a group called the Bhutan Balladeers. He's back to Martin Venard at this year's World Music Festival WOMAD, along with Khinchang Chodan from the group, who explained what their songs are all about. We are singing the song which is related to the temple, it's related to the spiritual

person, to our king and the people and we are also expressing our gratitude towards the country. And Ian, how did you come across these musicians? We went to Bhutan specifically to meet musicians and singers. And Bhutan is called the least visited place on earth. They've tried to limit tourism, so it's very expensive to go there. And we were so lucky to meet the collective, and we recorded 17 singers and three hours of music in the forest by the world's largest sitting Buddha, which is 169 feet high

at the top of a mountain that was, we could see the back of its head the entire time we were recording. And what was it that stood out about the music and the instruments to you? Well, I think that there's a directness and a relationship to the land itself, and many of the songs are about the land. The horse is our friend is one of the songs. Guto, sewa, bumba, ta.

But also that the singing is seemingly simple, but incredibly complex. and they're singing in a language that is essentially a foreign language within their own country. It's the language of religion it's like Latin to Europe or Ge'ez in Ethiopia. Their instruments is a wooden flute, a lute and a two-stringed violin or fiddle. What is it that's notable about those to you? Well, you know, it's interesting because just when they were playing here live at Womad, the sound man is a cello player, it turns out, and he was really taken with this. And he said how powerful it was to him, how much it resonated with him as a cello player

to hear his double string lute being played and how much it impacts you very emotionally. And so I think there's a resonance there in the voices as well. I mean, a lot of the record is acapella, solo voices, duos. So you have a national index of happiness in Bhutan. How happy does the music make you feel? Music is everything to me. The music makes me happy. The music changed my mood.

A happy ending. Thank you. And that's a report from Martin Venard. And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this edition, email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or you'll find us on X where we are at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producer with Stephanie Tillotson, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thank you for listening and until next time,

goodbye. I'm Krassi Twigg from the Global Jigsaw Podcast from the BBC World Service, where we are examining what one official called Russia's Special Demographic Operation. The country's population is shrinking fast and its leaders have come up with a range of measures to reverse the decline. Will the plan work? The Global Jigsaw looks at the world through the lens of its media.

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