Global News Podcast - Thai heiress becomes country's youngest PM

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand's youngest ever prime minister. Also: Anger grows after Israeli settlers torch West Bank village, and the WHO warns wealthy countries against stockpiling Mpox vaccines.

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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We are recording this at 13 hours GMT on Friday the 16th of August.

Thailand gets its youngest ever Prime Minister. The 37-year-old Peitong Tan Shinawat is the fourth member of her family to get the job. A deadly rampage by Israeli settlers in the West Bank leaves a Palestinian man dead. Even the Israeli prime minister has condemned it. And we look at what's being done to prevent the spread of the contagious Mpox virus. Also in the podcast... These tiny grains prove beyond any doubt Also in the podcast... The Scottish islands which hold the secrets to the Earth's ice age.

Politics in Thailand is a rough business. As well as the possibility of being forced out by a coup, leaders can also be removed by the Constitutional Court. In fact, it's got rid of four prime ministers over the past 16 years. The latest just two days ago, Setar Tawisan. He has now been replaced by a member of Thailand's best-known political dynasty, Paitongtan Shinawat, daughter of the billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawat. At the age of 37, she's been chosen as Thailand's youngest ever prime minister. Paitongtan Shinawat received more than half the votes of the members of the House of Representatives.

Therefore, Parliament has approved the motion to nominate Tharung Pan Chinnawat for appointment as Prime Minister in accordance with Section 159 of the Constitution. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head in Bangkok told me more about the new leader. She's very much a political novice. She's the youngest daughter, describes herself as a daddy's girl, so no-one's under any illusions

that she'll certainly be listening a lot to her father. And, you know, he's still a very dominant figure in her party, Purtai. She worked in the family business up until relatively recently, which is in hotels, and only joined the Purtai party two years ago. She was very much the face of Purtai's campaign last year in the general election because she's young and spontaneous and was seen as more appealing. But her family clearly did not want her to have the top job. There's always a vulnerability in Thailand to being not just losing your job as prime minister, but also ending up with criminal charges against you.

But the unexpected move by the courts to oust her predecessor on Wednesday gave the party no choice really and the MPs of the party insisted it had to be her because they're already thinking about the next election and just her youth and and sort of naturalness as a political performer I think they see will be an asset for them. And will the courts accept her as leader they're not too keen on her father or at least they weren't previously. No, they're not. And the Shinawatra family face still quite a lot of opposition in conservative circles, even though there was a grand bargain last year under which Mr. Taxon was able to return from 15 years in exile with those conservative forces. They're part of the ruling coalition now to keep out the even more reformist radical Move Forward Party, which, of course,

has now been dissolved. But it's an uneasy coalition. Because she's a political novice, it's going to be difficult for her to manage that. And her party's stock in trade has always been about reviving the economy, about making people better off. Thailand's economy is really stuck at the moment in low growth. And the magic populist policies they tried in the past, they could have run out of those. So I think she's going to have a rough ride, not only watching over her shoulder in case she commits some kind of infraction that brings the courts down on her,

as with so many other prime ministers, but also possibly disappointing her supporters by being unable to revive an economy that seems to be stuck in neutral gear. Jonathan Haid in Thailand, next to a familiar sound in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Well, that is a funeral for 23-year-old Rashid Seda, who was

shot dead during an attack by dozens of Israeli settlers, hurling rocks and throwing Molotov cocktails. Another Palestinian villager is reported to be critically injured after the rampage in the Palestinian village of Jit near Nablus. These residents were there. There were about 100 settlers who were armed and they were shooting. The people in the town came to help when they heard what was going on. They saw the gunfire. They were firing live bullets. At 6pm, around 100 settlers attacked. They burnt cars and destroyed homes. Some homes were burnt and we put out the fires. The army came after two hours. I called them myself. I said, where are you? For two hours they have been attacking us and no one

came. The firefighters didn't come either. It was like a war launched against us. Half a million Israelis live in illegal settlements in the West Bank and Palestinians say extremist settlers have become more violent since the start of the war in Gaza. The latest incident though has drawn rare condemnation from the Israeli Prime Minister and even two far-right settlers in his government. The EU's top diplomat says he will propose sanctions against what he called enablers in the Israeli government, while the US has also called on Israel to do more to stop such violence. The British and French foreign ministers who are visiting Jerusalem also spoke

out about the attack. So will this tide of criticism prompt tougher action against the settlers from the Israeli authorities? I asked our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher. Certainly the Israeli government has been criticised for not doing enough to try to tamp down the violence which as you say was already at a high level before October 7th but has certainly got much worse since then. I mean, a lot of the attacks in the past by the settlers were in response to killings, attacks by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere, the rampages that they went on when they attacked villages like this. I think what has drawn this particular condemnation from the Israeli

government, not just from the prime minister, but from these two far-right ministers in his cabinet, was that there wasn't really any spark like that this time. These two far-right ministers who are themselves members of the settler movement, Ben-Gavir and Smotrich, I mean, have both essentially said that this is criminal what happened, but that the settler cause itself is a justified and a noble one. So they're trying to draw a distinction between the two. I don't think that necessarily suggests that there's going to be that strong Israeli action in connection with this. I mean, it's been promised before. I mean, obviously, there'll be an investigation into what's happened. There will probably be arrests. But when we've had arrests before, quite often those who've been arrested are released quite soon. There's a lot of pressure,

not just from inside the far right government, but also from outside, from their supporters. And it's uncomfortable for the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuahu to resist that kind of pressure. But it certainly is very bad for Israel's public image. And we have seen sanctions taken by the US and by European countries against some of the most extreme figures in the settler movement over the past few months. So there has been more of an international response. Whether this will spark that much more, I'm not sure, especially in the context of fears that there could be an all-out conflict across the region if Iran and Hezbollah respond to Israeli strikes recently, which we're still waiting for. And of course, the Gaza ceasefire talks, which resumed yesterday in Qatar, are to continue today. And I think all eyes are really on this.

I think from the Israeli perspective, they don't want more bad PR of a government. So perhaps their response strongly this time is partly motivated by that. But the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, who tries to rise above politics, has made very, very strong comments once again. And essentially what they're saying is this is not who we are. This is not what Israel represents. We're much better than this.

Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher. The World Health Organization says it expects more cases of mpox to be detected outside Africa in the coming days. As you may have heard in our latest edition, the virus has now been identified in Europe and Asia. However, the main vaccine manufacturer says rollouts could be hampered by a lack of orders. Bavarian Nordic is one of the only companies with an approved mpox vaccine. It is now seeking European approval to use its vaccine in children aged 12 to 17 years. The firm's CEO is Paul Chaplin. We're going to need to try and make sure that our vaccine supply is sufficient and maybe involving other manufacturers to increase capacity. Having said all that, the situation in Africa has been

evident the whole of this year. And the only dose order that we've received is the recent order from HERA, where they ordered 175,000 doses, which we topped up with a 40,000 dose donation. So while there's a lot of speculation and a lot of concern, quite frankly, apart from media, no one is really contacting us for doses. The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, has been declared a global emergency after a surge in cases across Africa. The WHO has appealed to wealthy countries not to hoard vaccines and to ramp up production. Its spokesman, Tarek Yeshavaric, explained what's being done to improve access to preventative treatments. Vaccines that exist right now as a preventive tool, we are all looking now that we have this declaration of global health emergency, we are hoping to put in place and start

mechanisms that already exist to roll out vaccines in countries that are experiencing outbreak. This will not be mass vaccination, this will be just for targeted groups that are at a high risk of exposure. We are now working with the manufacturers and we're also looking how we can get those doses into the Democratic Republic of Congo. That has seen the biggest outbreak. They have seen 15,000 cases and more than 500 deaths this year, which is much, much larger than what we have seen in previous years.

So we are really looking. There are a number of steps to be done. Tarek Yeshevich of the World Health Organization. It was known as Snowball Earth, a big freeze which covered nearly all the globe before animal life emerged. Exactly how it came about has long been a mystery, but a small group of Scottish islands may provide a clue to help understanding it, as our science correspondent Pallab Ghosh reports. These tiny islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland hold the key to how the first animal life emerged on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago. Each layer of rock face in the garvalax captures a snapshot of the planet's distant past.

Scientists have now dated fragments of the rock and shown them to be from the only place in the world to have a detailed record of how our planet plunged into the most severe and prolonged ice age in our history. These tiny grains prove beyond any doubt that the Garvalachs are the best and most complete record of a critical period in our history called Snowball Earth, when for 80 million years pretty much the entire planet was covered with ice. If we wind back the calendar hundreds of millions of years, we see that Scotland was in a completely different place because the continents have moved

over time. It was south of the Earth's equator and had a tropical climate until it and the rest of the planet became engulfed in ice. But then something remarkable happened. After the melting of the snowball, we suddenly start to get bona fide, modern-looking animals. It seems counterintuitive that such a big freeze that could have prevented life was actually a spur to generate this explosion of life. After the snowball melted, of course, everything that had adapted to that and diversified in those specialist niches would have had to then compete with each other in some kind of arms race. Geologists have been studying the rocks on the Garvalax for decades,

first on foot and more recently using drones to create detailed computer-enhanced images of the rock layers. If the results are confirmed, these islands could be awarded a golden spike. That's an actual spike hammered in to celebrate the location of a planet-changing geological moment. Elias Rugen imagines what it might be like to receive one of science's greatest accolades. It would be fantastic. Golden spikes around the world are reasonably big deals. The previous one that was ratified was some 30 years ago, so it doesn't happen that often.

Do you think you'll get it? I'm hoping so. It's definitely the leading candidate. I don't think there's many other layers of rock and sections around the world that come close, so I'm quite confident, yeah. Researchers will find out next year whether they and Scotland have won the golden spike. But in the meantime, they press on with their research, studying the rocks that hold the key to the emergence of the first complex life

on Earth. A report by Pallab Ghosh. Still to come on the Global News Podcast. We won the EPL the last time in 2004. It was quite joyous. And we are looking at winning this season. We have that energy of winning. And this is our winning year. Why these football fans in Kenya will be rooting for Arsenal in the upcoming English Premier League. 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 Podcasts

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 says its cross-border incursion into the Russian region of Kursk is necessary to persuade Russia to engage in fair negotiations over its invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it now controlled dozens of settlements and had set up a military command office in the town of Suja, about 10 kilometres inside Russia. The attack, the biggest by a foreign army on Russia since the Second World War, has boosted morale in Ukraine and revealed weaknesses in Russia's defences. But what's been the reaction in Moscow? Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg has been finding out.

Here in the centre of Moscow I can see commuters rushing to a metro station and there are people whizzing by on electric scooters. It never fails to amaze me how normal everything looks on the surface here, when in reality there is nothing normal about what has been happening in Russia for the last two and a half years. So many dramatic events, from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the Wagner mutiny, those armed mercenaries marching on Moscow last year. And now Ukrainian soldiers are inside Russia, seizing territory in Kursk region. For many people in the Russian capital,

the war suddenly feels much closer. The incursion took me completely by surprise. Olesya tells me, I'm tired and I'm worried. It makes me sad, says Laura. It shows that our borders are unprotected. Then I speak to Sofia. I think it's horrible and everything is happening now. It is all Russian responsibility. I think that in every war, responsibility is on those side who started.

You said that it's Russia's responsibility. Do many people think this? No, no. Me and some of my friends. Why do you think most people don't see that? Because propaganda in Russia is very, very big and not everyone has critical thinking. What do you think is going to happen? Now I'm worrying about third world war. But I hope it's just my worrying vladimir tells me he's been fighting in ukraine eventually putin and zelensky will make peace he says but right now this is no special military operation it's a terrifying war. The evening news on Russian TV shows Russian troops in Kursk region trying to restore control.

There is extensive TV coverage here of the Ukrainian incursion, but from a heavily pro-Russia perspective. We'll be victorious, one soldier says. I'm 100% sure we'll win, says another. Then the reporter reveals that the soldiers have an autographed photo of Vladimir Putin with them. The president's portrait also features on their banner. There's a clear message here. Putin will lead Russia to victory.

But what exactly is victory? Two and a half years ago, the plan seemed to be the total subjugation of Ukraine. But right now, Russia is struggling to secure its own border. A few days ago, in stark contrast to the typically triumphalist messages on Russian state television, there was a rare public moment of self-doubt. On a political talk show, a Russian film director suggested that his country might lose the war. We must stop saying that everything in our country is fine, he said. It isn't. He went on. Our TV has been telling us that Ukrainian soldiers don't want to fight. But now we see

they're fighting well. they're highly motivated. Why are we kidding ourselves? The longer Ukraine's incursion into Russia continues, the more likely we are to hear that question again. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg. Hundreds of flights have been grounded in Japan as Typhoon Amphil moves towards the Tokyo region. The storm, classified as the second strongest, is situated off the Pacific coast of the Japanese main island. Our Asia-Pacific regional editor, Klitsia Sala, has the details.

Hundreds of thousands of Japanese travellers were hoping to make their way home at the end of the Obon holiday, one of Japan's three major holiday seasons. Typhoon Hampel disrupted their plans. The busy high-speed Shinkansen bullet train service between Tokyo and Nagoya has been suspended for the day. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have cancelled over 600 flights to and from Tokyo, affecting about 120,000 passengers. Typhoon Ampil is now forecast to head towards the eastern region of Kanto, skirting past the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

Nearly 10,000 residents were told to leave their homes in areas close to the city. The typhoon is expected to bring heavy rain to the region and to pack winds of over 160 km an hour. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the winds will be strong enough to overturn a moving truck and has warned residents to take precautions against flying objects. The agency has classified the storm as very strong, one of two higher categories of typhoons. Authorities urged people to stay indoors and warned of the possibility of mudslides, high waves and flooding. Klitsia Sala. The British government is promising that victims

of a historic infected blood scandal will get their first compensation payments by the end of the year. More than 30,000 people across Britain contracted HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products, mainly in the 1970s and 80s. Melanie Richmond contracted hepatitis C when she was treated with blood products in 1989. She said the announcement of the compensation was a huge relief as she explained how she has been affected. I've started jobs and they've lasted maybe one or two weeks and then I've had to quit because of chronic fatigue or haemorrhaging which is related to the blood disorder. There's been a huge, huge impact. We were being silenced, ignored, and it's only really been the last year where we're being recognised.

Some survivors are set to get up to $3 million in lifelong support. An extra £15,000 or US$19,000 will be paid to a group of former pupils at a school where children were unwittingly given contaminated products as part of medical research. Some of those victims have described that payout as insulting. The government has defended its plans, saying it is giving comprehensive compensation to victims. Here's Minister Nick Thomas-Simmons. In the scheme, there are obviously awards for the illnesses themselves, where there are particular tariff intervals for people and reflecting the impact of the different conditions. There are awards for the social impact, where people suffered sometimes appalling stigma and isolation.

There are awards for what is described in the scheme as lack of autonomy, which are things like the effect on your private and family life. There are care awards. There are also awards for loss of earnings in the past and the future. So that is a comprehensive package. And if you look at some of, look at the intervals, for example, for HIV, which started over £2 million. That's why I really want people to understand that the £15,000 is a small part of the comprehensive compensation package that's being put forward. Minister Nick Thomas-Simmons. As the new season of the English Premier League kicks off, who will football fans in Africa be rooting for? Well, one of the most popular teams is Arsenal.

In Kenya, one Arsenal supporters club is even holding church prayers ahead of crucial games. The fan club there has grown hugely since its inception in Nairobi 14 years ago. It's even been acknowledged by Arsenal FC here. Kelvin Kimathi of BBC Sport Africa has been to meet some of the founding members. Arsenal enjoys passionate support from its supporters the world over. But here in Bungoma Town in Western Kenya, this fan club is taking it to a whole new level. Founded in Kenya's capital Nairobi in 2010, the supporters club is a place for Ghana's fans to celebrate and sometimes commiserate their team.

There are 18 branches countrywide with over 4,000 registered members. I started supporting Arsenal, that was back in 2006, and I was in high school at that time. The only thing that I came to learn was about theory and dream, and that's when I came and said, I want to be an Arsenal fan. I support Arsenal because ever since I knew Arsenal

or joined Arsenal, it has been recruiting Africans. We have seen talents being nurtured at the Emirates. Bukayo Saka is one of Africa's English players, and he's also my African best player. Emmanuel and Irene are among the dedicated Arsenal Kenna faithful. Such is their devotion to their club. The supporters even hold annual interdenominial prayers

hoping for divine intervention to guide their beloved Arsenal to victory. We always go to the prayers and maybe one of these fine days is going to answer us and we are going to get a cup. We always pray for our team, we pray for our fans, we pray for our families and we pray for our country also

and the African fan base so that we also have success. You've seen the previous few seasons. We are progressing. We trust the process. So, when did this fan club first start? Denis Njaou, the club chairman, was instrumental in its creation while still a university student in Nairobi in 2010. I realised it was listed among the most popular brands. And when you look at the fan base, without even struggling, Arsenal has got the majority of fans. The devotion of Arsenal Kenya fans extends into the local community

with charitable activities, from food and clothes distribution to organizing tournaments, tree planting and blood donation events. There are watch parties, and there's the Arsenal Supporters Africa Festival, an annual cultural event for Ghana's fans across the continent. Arsenal has recognized the supporters' club by hanging their banner and a mural of the fans at the Emirates, the club's home stadium. Arsenal recognize us, so we feel good. And the African links continue. Hasno have released their away kit for their new season,

which features an African-inspired design. We look at the new kit this season. It has African colors. It blends the African colors across the continent. And as an African fan, it gives me a sense of identity and belonging to that team. As a Kenyan, I feel those are our colours, with red, green and black. With the new Premier League season about to kick off, these fans remain committed to their team.

This is our season and we are going to have a cup. We won the EPL the last time in 2004. It was quite joyous and we are looking at winning this season. We have that energy of winning. And this is our winning here. That report from Kenya by Kelvin Kimathi of BBC Sport Africa. Now, have you ever realised you've been using a well-known phrase for ages but actually getting it wrong?

Perhaps you have referred to a damp squid instead of the correct term damp squib or talked about the best thing since life's bread. If so, you're not alone. A list of the top 10 misheard sayings in the English language has now been published and Richard Hamilton has been looking at it. A study of 2,000 adults in the UK found that 40% of them had been mishearing common sayings for years, around a tenth of their entire lives. The list of the ten most misheard phrases has now been revealed, and the top ones are wriggle-room instead of wiggle-room, followed by escape-goat when it should be scapegoat, nip it in the butt in place of bud,

and tender hooks rather than tenterhooks. The reason why people get these words wrong is that they're often archaic terms which are no longer in use but sound similar to current words. So, for example, a tenterhook was a nail dating back to the 14th century to stretch wool on a wooden frame called a tenter. A squib is an old name for a firework and in the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that's released into the wilderness while the other is sacrificed. But does it really matter if we get these phrases wrong? Dr Laura Bailey is an expert on linguistics at the University of Kent. It's not really the end of the world if you get something wrong.

You're still using a phrase to mean the thing that you mean it to mean. Sometimes I suppose a bit sad if you lose the original meaning of it by changing it. So you might lose the historical story behind the phrase's meaning. It might matter because it might make you look a bit daft. So it might matter in terms of what other people think of you and make judgments about you. But sometimes I think it would be sad to lose the phrases or the actual meaning of the phrase itself. In the list are words that sound the same, homophones, but differ in spelling, meaning and origin, such as moot point, written with a U, instead of moot with two O's. A moot, by the way, is an old English name for a judicial court. Misheard words or phrases are known as malapropisms or eggcorns.

Interestingly, or maybe confusingly, the word eggcorn is itself an eggcorn, as it's derived from the more common word acorn. Richard Hamilton, the best reporter since sliced bread. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Riccardo McCarthy and produced by Stephanie Zachrisson. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Thank you. 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.