Global News Podcast - Record levels of malnutrition for children in Afghanistan

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

3.2 million Afghan children under the age of five are malnourished and 700 died in one hospital. Also: huge crowds turn out in Timor-Leste to welcome Pope Francis. And we look ahead to the TV debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

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 Andrew Peach and at 13 Hours GMT on Monday 9th September, these are our main stories.

Growing evidence emerges of record levels of malnutrition affecting children in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Huge crowds turn out in Timor-Leste to welcome Pope Francis at the start of a three-day visit. Also in this podcast, we look ahead to the televised debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and... Certain clients prefer to give me their phone and they want me to go the extra distance of even messaging their spouse, send them a picture of Central Park, send them a screenshot of the run and be like, be home soon, honey.

The mules being paid to run in place of people trying to boost their exercise records on the fitness app Strava. Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented hunger crisis and the country's children are the biggest casualties. 3.2 million children under the age of five are malnourished. Aid cuts and the Taliban's policies, specifically those restricting the activities of women, have resulted in a significant drop in funding to public health care and community nutrition programs. The BBC has found that the direct impact is a rapid rise in child mortality. From Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, our South Asia correspondent Yogati Lamai sent this report, which contains some distressing content.

I'm in the main regional hospital in Jalalabad, which is the capital of Nangarhar province in the east of Afghanistan. I'm seeing in front of me just a sea of people who are coming in, bringing in their sick children. And what we've been told is that every day on an average, about 600 children come here who need to be treated in a hospital, but there are only 120 beds. Even the facilities that are operating, those are being supported at the moment by international aid organisations. But in the past couple of years, we've seen dramatic aid cuts. What we're witnessing in front of us is a direct impact of that cut in aid,

and it's also the impact of the Taliban government's policies, especially their restrictions on women, which have resulted in some donors cutting funds to Afghanistan. I'm in the room where they're treating children with severe acute malnutrition. I've counted seven beds and 18 babies. And from what doctors here are telling us, this is not some kind of a seasonal increase. This is now what they see regularly here. Seven-month-old Hajira Bibi is the size of a newborn baby.

She wears a long red T-shirt, her legs are bare and stick-like. Six of her siblings have died and now she's battling for her life. Her mother, Amina, looks despondent. This is like doomsday for me. I've suffered so much. I feel so much grief. Can you imagine what I've gone through watching my children die? It is because of poverty.

All I can feed them is dry bread and water that I warm up by keeping it out under the sun. One of the babies we've just been shown is in a critical condition. She's a one-year-old baby girl. Her name is Asma, and she's got a little oxygen mask attached to her nose and mouth. She's gasping for breath. She's not blinking. Doctors have told us that they don't think this baby will survive.

Her mum is sitting beside her. Naseeba has already lost three children. I feel like the flesh is melting from my body. I can't bear to see her suffering like this, she says, breaking down into sobs. The doctor tells us Asma might go into cardiac arrest soon. We leave the room. Less than two hours later, she died. We've just come back to the malnutrition ward after a couple of hours that we were in another other part of the hospital and we've been given the news that baby Asma has died and in her place in the little half a bed that she laid left empty I can see already another child who looks severely malnourished there are just so many sick children in need. Yogatilla Maya reporting from Afghanistan. An influential evangelist preacher

and self-styled son of God has been arrested in the Philippines after a long chase. Apollo Kiboloi, who's accused of sex trafficking and child sexual abuse, has been presented at a news conference with several of his co-accused. The interior minister, Benjamin Abalos, described his arrest. He was caught inside the sect's Davao headquarters. The police went inside to look for him, and when Kiboloy and his co-accused were about to go out, the police stepped aside. That's what happened.

They surrendered to the Philippine police. Mr Kiboloy, who's also wanted in the United States, is said to be a friend of the former president Rodrigo Duterte. I heard more about him from our Asia-Pacific editor Celia Hatton. Kiboloy is a preacher who built up him that he was also appointed son of God. And that's when he began to become an evangelist himself. He had millions of followers in the Philippines who used to tune into his radio and television sermons and later online. He really has a devoted following. He's accused, though, by the FBI. He was on the FBI's most wanted list in the United States of, along with a very small group of his inner circle, sending women and girls overseas to the United States on fraudulent visas and getting those women and girls

to use sex in order to solicit what were termed as charity donations to a fake charity. But that money, the FBI says, was actually being used to fund Thiboloi's lifestyle. He had a private jet, he had a huge compound, several homes around the world. So that's why the United States wanted him so much. And the Philippines followed shortly after. And the end of this story, the chase and the arrest is pretty dramatic. Absolutely. I mean, the Philippines and the United States have been hunting for this man for three years. The hunt then focused on one of Kiboloy's main properties, which is 70 acres, huge property.

2,000 police descended on this property and really battled with Kiboloi's followers in order to be able to try to find him. They thought he was in an underground bunker and they started using life detection equipment, the kind of stuff you would use to find evidence of life in an earthquake zone. They found heartbeats underground but couldn't find the entrance to the bunker. They then had started digging underground a tunnel. And that's when either, according to Kiboloi's followers, he surrendered. According to the police, they forced his arrest. Celia Hatton reporting. Outside of the Vatican, Timor-Leste, formerly East Timor, has the highest proportion of Catholics in its population. So maybe it's no surprise that thousands camped out

and lined the streets to welcome Pope Francis as he arrived there. On Tuesday, around 700,000 people, more than half the population, are expected to attend an open-air mass which the Pope will celebrate. There are also questions about child abuse cases, though, linked to the clergy. In a speech in the capital, Dili, he said everyone had a duty to prevent every kind of abuse of young people, but didn't refer to specific cases or acknowledge Vatican responsibility. Christopher White is a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter

and has travelled with the Pope to Timor-Leste. This is a country where the church was instrumental in its independence. And because of that, you know, many church leaders, priests, bishops are considered heroes, almost untouchable type figures. And what we've seen, particularly in the last three years, is that there's a real staggering, shameful history of clerical sexual abuse going all the way to the top. One of the heroes of this country was a bishop by the name of Bello. He was a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1996, and it's been reported quite convincingly that he systematically abused teenage boys and that the Vatican eventually retired him for health reasons. And it just came out in 2022 that the Vatican had sort of secretly sanctioned him. This is a reality that those on the ground here do not actually

believe. You will talk to Timorese Catholics and they hold him in such high esteem that they deny this. So it's going to be very interesting to see how the Pope navigates this place where the church and state are really quite entangled. We're coming up to what could be a crunch moment in the race for the White House. On Tuesday, presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump go head to head in what could well be the only televised debate between them. So how much room for maneuver do the two candidates still have in the polls? I asked CBS correspondent Carissa Lawson. Well, there's not actually much room at all,

especially given the outcome of the two latest polls of likely voters that were just released on Sunday. Those polls show that former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are just about even. It really demonstrates just how close the 2024 U.S. presidential race has become with less than two months left before the November 5th election. In the latest New York Times Siena College poll, Trump leads Harris 48 to 47 percent. A CBS News YouGov poll looked at some of the key battleground states. In Michigan, it shows

Harris leading Trump by 50 to 49 percent. In Pennsylvania, it's a dead heat at 50-50. And in Wisconsin, Harris leads Trump 51 to 49 percent. And as we saw with Joe Biden, these TV moments can be very significant. We've got a situation with these two where Donald Trump in particular is pretending he's doing no preparation for the debate, whereas actually they're both doing loads. Right, exactly. Vice President Kamala Harris has been preparing for this debate by holding mock debates with a Trump like substitute, complete with television lighting and would be moderators asking her very pointed questions. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has been engaging more in policy briefings with his aides, but has actually not opted for any mock debates whatsoever.

Now, both candidates definitely taking different approaches to this high stakes debate that millions of likely U.S. voters will be watching. Voters have said they want to know more about how each candidate will tackle things that they care most about, like the economy and immigration. Meanwhile, some things to note about the debate. It will be 90 minutes long. It will not have a live audience, but it will have muted microphones when the other candidate is speaking, something Donald Trump's campaign wanted and Harris's campaign did not. Harris's campaign actually said it will prevent Donald Trump from having face-to-face conversations with her. But Donald Trump's campaign says they accepted the debate under the exact same terms as the first debate against President Biden

when he was a nominee. Carissa Lawson with me from New York. Now to controversy in the world of running. After a TikTok influencer claimed that some runners are paying so-called mules to run for them and log it on the fitness app Strava. It tracks physical exercise on a map, along with times for other followers to view online. Now, I have heard of this kind of thing,

if staying fit gets you a better deal on health insurance, but I haven't heard of it, just to get extra kudos on Strava. Isabella Jewell has the story. I have to confess that for over a year now, I have been a Strava mule. If you're not part of the Runtalk community, you may be wondering what on earth fitness influencer Veljko is talking about. The TikToker, complete with 1980s mullet and moustache, has gained an online following, posting videos about his training schedule.

Now, though, he's fessed up to making a quick buck by running on behalf of other people for cash. So basically somebody will pay me to run a race with their Strava account on my phone. Sometimes they give me their phones. If I'm being honest, I'm willing to do anything for the right price. The so-called Strava mules, jockeys or surrogates seem to be advertising their services worldwide, with one social media account based in

the UK providing a global network of athletes who charge the equivalent of 33 cents per kilometre of running and 13 cents for cycling. Hardly a fortune, but if you run with several people's devices at once, the fees can add up. But why would anyone pay for such a service? For some, it's part of a wider prank on their friends and followers. That's according to running influencer Veljko. Today's actually a slow mule day. This is a guy who's probably going to run a 240 marathon, but he keeps posting slow times. So then when he does run the marathon, his friends will be like, what? No way. That's impossible. But for others, the reason is more

simple. In a world where we present our best sides on social media, why not try and convince your followers that you're a better runner than you really are? The majority of the clients are just one-off mewling experiences. They just want the glory for one day, one Instagram story. Is it really so different to a slightly photoshopped holiday pic or flattering filter or is it a worrying new trend aimed at deceiving those around you? Certain clients prefer to give me their phone and they want me to go the extra distance of even like messaging their spouse, send them a picture of Central Park, send them a screenshot of the run and be like be home soon honey. Well the run talk community is pretty bemused by the trend,

like this Australian user. I don't know how I got on this side of TikTok, but can someone please explain to me why someone would want a Strava mule? What? For Soph J Fitness, an influencer based in the UK, it's just unsustainable. Crazy the lengths people go to to keep up these fake

appearances. Also, that's so embarrassing if then your friend asks you off the cuff to go for a run with them and you can't keep up. It seems that some people will do anything for kudos. So what happens now that the lid's been lifted on this inventive new social media phenomenon. Isabella Jewell reporting. Still to come on this podcast. I love it. I love all the old furniture. It really brings it into character. I like that we've moved to a castle. It's really exciting. The children being schooled in a medieval English castle. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was.

Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story,

plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region last month boosted national morale, but Ukraine is on the back foot in key parts of the battlefield at home. In the east, troops are trying to hold on to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk,

but thousands of civilians are now fleeing. Abdur-Jalil Abdurasulov has been to the area. Soldiers of the 15th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard rush to their artillery installation. They operate near the town of Selidovo in eastern Ukraine the Ukrainian National Guard rushed to their artillery installation. They operate near the town of Salidovo in eastern Ukraine and have just received an order to open fire. Each crew member has his own task. One soldier turns away to aim the gun, another one loads it.

When ready, commander pulls the rope. Their gun is an old American howitzer, M101. This same type of weapon was used in World War II. Now, Ukrainian forces rely on it to stop Russian troops. And lately, Russian attacks in their area have been relentless, as Dmitry, commander of the unit, explains. The fighting is very intense. We fire up to 200 rounds a day.

The enemy continues their attacks in small groups, sometimes up to 60 people. They're trying to break through our defensive lines, so we provide cover to our infantry. 15 kilometers west of Selidovo is Pokrovsk. This city is a major transportation hub in eastern Ukraine, essential for delivering food, weapons and soldiers in the Russian army. And the sound of explosions is getting louder and louder each day. And this city is already within the range of Russian artillery. The authorities urge local residents to get out while they still can. 69-year-old Maria Goncharenko heeds this advice and signs up for evacuation. Volunteers in blue bulletproof vests arrive to pick her up from an old Soviet apartment block. They take her to an assembly point and help to board a bus. Do I need to pay? Maria asks them.

No, she's assured. it's all free of charge. Then she bursts into tears. We lived peacefully, worked until retirement. And look at what Russians did to us. I curse Putin. Do you know where you're going to, I ask? No, but the most important thing is to get out of this city. Do you know where you're going to, I ask? No, but the most important thing is to get out of this city.

That report from Abduchalil Abdurasulov. According to the United Nations, the civil war in Sudan has killed more than 20,000 people and created the world's biggest displacement crisis. You may have heard in our earlier podcast that the military government has rejected a UN proposal for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force there. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been to Sudan over the weekend and raised the alarm about the famine affecting some parts of the country. I was shaken by the state of many of the tiny, tiny Western children and stunned by the harrowing accounts of their mothers

who have been displaced multiple times. Sudanese are suffering through a perfect storm of crisis. Back in May, a Dutch think tank called the Klingendal Institute warned that two million people would die of hunger and related diseases by the end of this year. Leila Malana-Allen is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, and it's just back from Sudan. I flew into Port Sudan, went down to Omdurman,

which is part of Khartoum State, just next to the capital, Khartoum, which has been recently taken back by the Sudanese armed forces, I went up to Shendi and Athbara, which are areas in between, and then round over to Kassela and Gidaref, which are on the other side of Senar Estate, which is an area that the RSF has been sweeping through at the moment. And that's kind of the bread bowl of the country where most of the grain for the country is made. And how widespread were the food shortages? They're very erratic. What's pretty horrifying to see is the people who are managing to escape

from RSF held areas and frontline areas who are evidently severely emaciated. I was going into hospitals seeing children with severe malnutrition. We're talking five, six months old. Their lungs are starting to fail. Their livers are failing. They've had so little food. They can barely take the formula they're being fed. Their parents, of course, are giving them what food they can get hold of. But those parents, the mothers themselves can't make any breast milk because they've got malnutrition themselves. And they're often waiting so long to get to the hospital because it's so dangerous to cross that sometimes it's too late and children are dying of this. Now, in some areas where the roads have been opened by the army, there is more food. The problem is that prices have gone up 10 times at least in the

last few months because of a huge economic crash. So even where there is food, people can't afford it. What is the solution in a situation where both the paramilitaries and the government army are refusing to have the UN force that might kind of help with making the situation calmer so that they can get food to people? So the aid issue is just one issue here. And the reality is that just managing to open some of the aid pathways, of course, we know that both the RSF and the Sudanese armed forces are blocking access for aid. Some of that has recently been opened, but the majority is still closed. Just providing aid to people

is not going to solve the problem. If you are able to get hold of food, but you are being displaced five, six times, every time your family finds somewhere safe, a militia or an airstrike turns up and you have to flee again, your daughters are being raped, your family members are being killed in front of you. Your children haven't been in school for a

year and a half. Just getting food there is not enough. Now, this is a civil war in that it's an internally fought war, but it's not a civil war in terms of the Sudanese people fighting each other. This is two military groups who are fighting each other with the people in the middle and the people are suffering. The reality is that something political has to be done to force these warring parties to stop and prioritise the well-being of the Sudanese people. Leila Milana-Allen with Levo Di Secco. The tech giant Google is in court facing its second big antitrust case of the year with the US Department of Justice, this time focusing on Google's advertising. Performance Max expands on your AI-powered search campaigns,

so you can drive incremental conversions across Google's full range of advertising channels, including search and also YouTube, display, Gmail, Discover and Maps. Prosecutors argue Google operates a monopoly stifling innovation and competition. Google has long fought back against claims that it's too dominant. U.S. analyst Bob O'Donnell told us what the authorities are concerned about. We have to think about this in terms of the different pieces. I mean, Google, that is Alphabet, is this huge conglomerate and they have many different pieces. This is the ad tech business and it's a portion of the ad tech business. It's not the Google AdWords where companies can buy a word, and if you search

for a word, that pops up their ad. This is a different part of that ad business. In general, Google's advertising business has been quite robust. But again, this piece is separate from that. And what they're specifically looking at here is this ad technology that's pretty much a behind-the-scenes kind of thing where there's a marketplace for these advertisements and how they get placed and how they get bought and sold. Google has been doing a lot of that, of course, because they needed some of this as they developed their search engine and all the advertising associated with it. So one possibility is that if there is a breakup, perhaps it's just a sale of this ad tech, which is not going to impact all the things that we interact with Google and Alphabet. But, of course, from a total business perspective, it would be obviously a big change. So it's going to be interesting to see.

A lot of this is around banner ads. And as you know, more and more ads are happening through mobile devices and other different places. And so it's hard to make a discussion about one type of ad when there's many other types of ads. And I think that's, of course, what Google is going to argue. On the other side, the Department of Justice is going to say, look, there haven't been enough people who are offering this exchange type service. And that's a monopoly and that's a bad thing. And, of course, they just won the first trial. So there's going to be a little bit of momentum from the DOJ against Google on this second one. When the world-renowned street artist Banksy went on a painting spree in London this summer,

it became a huge tourist attraction. There was lots of speculation over what his nine works meant artistically. What do they mean financially for the areas where he chooses to make his mark? This from Sarah Rogers. What makes anything worth what it's worth? I mean, whatever someone's willing to pay. Got one at the end of my road. Has it increased the value of my flat? I'm not sure. Priceless. Any artist is good for attracting people and populating cities. You can't move it, so it's priceless, I suppose.

It's just cool for everybody to see it. Cool to see for free, but there's no doubt the elusive Banksy is a very bankable artist. If you ask a lot of people to name an artist, often they can name Banksy. So when nine pieces featuring animals, including elephants, a rhino and even a cat, appeared sprawled across London, they brought in the crowds. Wow. I'm following their trail to find out how the wow factor is financially impacting the areas they've been left in. The next station is Moorgate.

First historic Guildhall yard where there's piranhas painted on a police box. Madeleine White from Hang Up Gallery is a Banksy specialist. Culturally, he's incredibly valuable and it enters people's lives in a way that it might not if it were hidden away in a gallery. It's not hidden away, but the local authority, the City of London Corporation, have snapped up the Piranha Police Box, moving it outside one of its galleries. Call to chairman Munser Ali. We decided to move it here for the public good, to protect it. We're not in the business to support graffiti art.

We don't support graffiti art, but we want to protect and support Banksy. Why is that? I knew you were going to ask that one. We've had 2,000 people come over here. I'm hoping those 2,000 people will go and then have a coffee at our local coffee shops and increase business for the local businesses. Okay, so is that happening? Let's head to the tourist area of Brick Lane. It's full of shops and global cuisine and a Banksy. Three monkeys swinging across a railway bridge. There's even a tour group as we arrive. Here's that Banksy.

We just walked down the street and it was there. So you didn't intentionally come to this area to look for it? No, we've come for bagels. So is it boosting business? Yeah, people, they stop there, they take a photo and pass. That's it. A lot of people come here, they lay on the stairs, they sit on the stairs. It's not good for the business. But if you're off the tourist beat, like pub owner Mark,

the Banksy depicting a rhino mounting a car five minutes from his pub is very welcome. It's bought a nice weekday lunchtime trade. Thank you very much. Please put one on the side of our wall. Students in the UK are starting their first full week back at school after the summer break. But for pupils at one primary school in the village of Kenton in southwest England, their learning environment looks a little different. The children are having lessons in a medieval castle after their school was flooded. Janine Janssen's been to see how the pupils and teachers are getting on.

Powderham Castle, a stunning setting fit for an earl. But never in their wildest dreams did the children from Kenton think this would be their new school. I thought the teachers were joking. They couldn't wait to enter with fantasies of Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I love it. I love the old furniture. It really brings it into character. I like that we've moved to a castle.

It's really exciting. This time last year, flooding hit Kenton and their beloved school was a complete mud bath. To see what we're left with is heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. First, they shared with their neighbouring school at Kent. Then they moved into this church in Dawlish. The children really have been on quite a journey.

I really miss Kenton School, but I love being on the move, sort of. The Earl of Devon is fantastic. He's been so supportive of Kenton Primary School. He really is such a lovely chap. It really feels quite surreal to come to school, down the drive, up through past the Deer Park, into the castle.

It really has been an amazing experience so far. Everywhere you look, there are castles and turrets. The best thing is probably the playground. We can play football without and slide tackle without hurting ourselves on tarmac. We also see deer day to day and I've seen three buzzards flying around. Today we saw some geese. Going back in time is clearly a novelty. I just love being in the Victorian classroom. There's lots of old tables, which it's really cool because you've got a section underneath to put all your stationery.

Well, they're really weird because some stuff like slips off and falls. And the seats are really uncomfortable. Yeah. They've just found out they've got funding to build a brand new school in the village. But the question is, after the magic of Powderham Castle, will they ever want to leave?

Janine Janssen reporting. 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 podcast, drop us an email, globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by James Piper. The producer was Richard Hamilton. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time, goodbye. 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, Thank you.