Global News Podcast: Huge manhunt after gunman kills at least 16 in US state of Maine

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Valerie Sanderson and at $1,300 GMT on the 26th of October, these are our main stories.

A huge manhunt is underway in the American state of Maine following a mass shooting.

Our shades are down, our doors are locked, our windows are locked.

We've got the majority of interior lights off.

We'll get the latest from our correspondent in the US.

Israel says its incursion into Gaza overnight is the biggest since war broke out.

We'll also hear about Pakistan's plans to deport all illegal immigrants, many to Afghanistan.

Also in this podcast.

We have elections and it's a choice between two guys that in the late 70s and early 80s.

And they say that's pitiful because where's the young crowd?

Former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gives his verdict on the US presidential race.

As we record this podcast, a major manhunt is underway in the US state of Maine.

Hundreds of police are looking for a man who's thought to have carried out a series of shootings in Lewiston

that have left at least 16 people dead.

Dozens are also injured and armed police are stationed outside the local hospital.

Officials have named a man 40 year old Robert Card as a person of interest

and described him as armed and dangerous.

He's an army reservist who recently spent time in a mental health facility.

People living in Lewiston have been told to stay indoors and businesses have shut their doors.

Shana Cox is sheltering at home with her children and she told the BBC what precautions she's taking.

Our shades are down, our doors are locked, our windows are locked.

We've got the majority of interior lights off and we're ensuring that no one's leaving the home.

I have a couple of my children's friends here tonight because this is the place they were at 7 o'clock

when everything began and I'm sure my story is like so many others.

North America correspondent David Willis told us more.

They have identified 40 year old man Robert Card as a person of interest in this incident.

He is an army reservist, he's a certified army firearms instructor

who was known apparently by local law enforcement officers to be suffering from mental health issues.

Now he's been deemed armed and dangerous by officials, as I say a manhunt,

underway involving hundreds of police officers in the state of Maine.

Schools have been closed for the day.

Local residents have been urged to stay indoors.

It's an extremely worrying, terrifying situation for many people in this fairly small community.

And what's the latest on casualties?

Well we know that at least 16 people have died.

There are reports in the media here that it could be 20 or perhaps more than that.

And around 50 people are said to have been injured in these two attacks.

The attack on the bowling alley and attack on a local bar and grill.

But they've set up a center for relatives of people to coalesce and find out details about their loved ones.

And apparently there has been a lot of heartache as you can imagine.

It is early in the morning still here on the east coast of America.

And as you mentioned Val, people are waking up to this,

what is already the deadliest mass shooting of the more than 500 that the United States has seen so far this year.

A mass shooting is defined as one in which four or more people are either killed or wounded.

This is a country in which gun violence is shockingly, alarmingly common.

Where there are more guns, would you believe, than people.

But calls to tighten the gun control laws here are invariably opposed by Republican members of Congress

who defend the constitutional right to bear arms.

David Willis in the US.

Israel says its incursion into Gaza overnight was its largest operation since the war broke out almost three weeks ago.

The military claims its hit 250 Hamas targets in the past 24 hours.

The health authorities in Gaza which Hamas runs say more than 7,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far.

Israel has been talking about an invasion for some time,

but there's internal and external pressure on the country to act and not to act.

Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher explains.

There's an imperative felt within Israel to a large degree to take the strongest ever action that it has against Hamas,

not to do what it's done in the past, which is essentially to pound Gaza for a few weeks, possibly a month or so,

in which time large numbers of Palestinian civilians will be killed as well as Hamas members.

And obviously we've seen that to a greater extent than we've seen previously.

We're talking about from figures from inside Gaza, 6,500 people, more than 6,500 people have been killed there.

That imperative remains and the Israeli government has said that it wants to eradicate Hamas.

It still stays by that, but the question is, is that actually an achievable option?

And I think that is part of the reason why we saw a very fast mobilization,

hundreds of thousands on the Gaza border, others sent up onto the northern border in case there's an attack by Hezbollah,

a major attack, but we've seen them waiting.

We've seen the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we've seen the Defence Minister,

you have got to go there almost daily and say it's coming, wait.

But the waiting is raising questions in Israel and beyond.

Is this really what the Israeli government, is this what the Israeli military is now planning?

Now overnight we had this biggest incursion so far by Israel.

They went in with tanks and they came out.

Are they going to start doing that more as time goes on and try and degrade and show that they're degrading in a bigger way than they have before Hamas?

Or are they still ready to take this huge challenge on of trying to completely eradicate Hamas?

That will involve going deep down underground in Gaza.

This immense network of tunnels that Hamas has created there and fighting in the most difficult possible terrain.

Now they're trained for this, they have a place in Israel where they practice this.

So that is something that they can deal with, but the cost, casualties not just inside Gaza to Palestinians that we've seen,

but to Israeli soldiers could be meant and the hostages, what will happen to the hostages?

Sebastian Asher.

We've just been hearing about the humanitarian position in Gaza, but what's it like for people living there?

Well, Justin Webb has been speaking to a Gaza resident who we're calling Saab.

Since our house was bombed, it was the 13th of October and I lost my dad that day.

So we came to my aunt's house.

We stay here with my two or three sisters all together with their kids.

These hard times we try to stay families together to feel kind and safer and to be honest,

if we die, let's die together.

We also believe in this since no shelter or safe place is in Gaza, so we try to feel safe by each other.

But at the same time, we try to keep some members of the house or some members of the family in another house

that if we die, let's not die also all together.

Like, let's at least keep someone to keep the life and to keep the message after us.

I can hear children in the background there, Saab.

What are you saying to them about what's going on?

What really hurts us are the children.

Unfortunately, nowadays there's no children.

They grow up many years in 20 days, but we try to keep them somehow not that too much worried.

We try to calm them down as much as we can, keep them busy together, playing or doing anything

so that they don't pay attention to whatever happens.

Even when they hear sounds, sometimes they see it because it is so near us,

but sometimes when they don't see it, we try to just tell them that it's not pumping,

it's just another sound, so we try to comfort them as much as we can.

Are you able to give them enough to eat and to drink?

To give everything in Gaza is a challenge.

To give the water is a challenge.

To give the food is a challenge.

To give the bread is a challenge.

Everything is a challenge.

To stay alive is the biggest challenge in Gaza nowadays.

What do you think that the outside world should be saying and doing now, Saab?

Because you're someone who has lived in the outside world.

You went back to Gaza, didn't you?

You lived abroad.

What do you think should be happening now?

They must stop this.

I have no idea.

But those people suffering, those people have a right to stay alive.

Those people, no matter what, we must keep them alive.

We must keep them safe because a soul is a soul and a human is a human.

We have to see them like this because now they are dying.

I don't want to say like anyone, but like nothing.

They are dying like literally like nothing.

Saab, speaking to us from Gaza.

Well, the BBC's Director General Tim Davy has attended a meeting of politicians

from the UK's governing Conservative Party to discuss the corporation's coverage of the conflict.

Members of the 1922 Committee expressed concern that the BBC doesn't describe Hamas as terrorists.

The BBC does include the word terrorist in its coverage, but only when it's attributed to others.

Here's our media correspondent, David Sillito.

One MP described it as a forthright exchange of views.

The meeting, which took place behind closed doors, had been planned long before recent events in Israel,

and the coverage of migration and local radio cuts were all discussed,

but the MP's main concern was the word terrorist.

There was, it was said, deep disappointment that the BBC didn't simply call Hamas terrorists.

Tim Davy said the word was far from banned, but the corporation took care to say

who was describing someone as a terrorist.

BBC reports regularly refer to Hamas as being a prescribed terrorist organisation by the UK government.

However, many were far from one over.

One said if there was one thing that managed to unite Conservative MPs,

it was the BBC refusing to simply declare that Hamas were terrorists.

David Sillito, coming up.

This wasn't a typical money laundering organisation that was operating in the shadows.

This was operating essentially in the high street.

The criminals were arguably too successful.

A year on from the deadly crowd crush in South Korea,

its survivors have told the BBC that they are still traumatised by what happened

and lack of answers is making it difficult for them to heal.

Nearly 160 young people were killed when they became trapped in an overcrowded alleyway in Seoul

as they celebrated Halloween.

Despite well-documented feelings, no one has been held responsible,

although the authorities insist that they have made changes ahead of this weekend's Halloween celebrations.

Our sole correspondent, Jeanne McKenzie reports.

Joohyun has returned to the narrow alleyway where she was almost crushed to death.

There were people on top of you, trapping your legs.

I couldn't move at all, even my fingers, legs or arms, I couldn't move.

There are so many screams, who's helped me, I don't want to die.

This is the sound of the alley that night, their confusion and fear

as people funneled in from three directions.

The pressure of the crush was so great, it ruptured the muscles and nerves

in both Joohyun's legs, paralyzing them for two months.

Are you fully recovered now?

Actually, no. I have pain on my knees, legs and my foot, the right side, yeah.

Nearly 160 people died that night,

but a year on, thousands more still carry physical and emotional scars.

Hey, Jinsung, it's Jeanne here.

This is Jinsung, who was caught in the crush with his mother and younger sister.

As he focused on keeping his mother alive, his sister was killed.

Initially, I wasn't able to leave the house, I was very scared at night.

The smallest sound would paralyze me.

Sometimes, I still remember the look of my mom, not being able to breathe.

Over time, Jinsung says his grief and fear have been overtaken by anger.

The emergency services finally arrived on the scene,

but an investigation found they came too late.

The investigation also concluded that despite predicting danger,

the authorities had failed to prepare for this event,

and while various low-level officials are being investigated for this,

still no one has been held responsible.

And the survivors in the bereaved say they've been stonewalled

as the authorities have tried to shift the blame.

In the centre of Seoul here, a memorial has been set up

with photos of most of those who died that night.

But it's not an official memorial, it's been set up by the families.

And ever since, they've been taking it in turns to stand guard here,

24 hours a day, to stop the authorities from trying to remove it.

Today, it's Song Hyejin's turn.

Hyejin's teenage son survived the crush,

but his best friend and his girlfriend were killed.

Unable to cope with the trauma, he then took his own life.

He was a completely different boy after the tragedy.

Before, he was a very bright, talkative kid,

but afterwards, hardly ever spoke.

The government and the local authority ultimately failed

in their duty to protect lives,

and there's been no accountability or apology for that at all.

We need to know what happened and who was responsible in order to heal.

We have asked the national government, the local government

and the police to talk to us, to tell us what lessons they've learned

and how they plan to keep people safe this Halloween.

But they've all declined.

They've told us that this isn't the right time to talk.

There's a sign at the end of the alleyway,

and it reads, if we don't remember, history will repeat itself.

And that's a big concern here,

that unless people take responsibility,

then Korea is vulnerable to another one of these disasters happening.

Gene McKenzie.

An unusual edition of George Orwell's novel 1984

is going on sale at a charity shop in Wales.

The artist David Trigley has pulped 6,000 copies

of Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code,

and republished them as the dystopian classic.

David Trigley says the project is an exploration of what can happen

to a highly successful book in the years after it's published.

Our entertainment correspondent Colin Patterson has been to meet the artist.

In 2017, an Oxfam shop in Swansea

put up a sign asking for people to stop donating copies of The Da Vinci Code

because they had so many.

This gave the artist David Trigley an idea,

and he started collecting them, ending up with more than 6,000.

There's a problem with an unwanted book that is going to get pulped anyway,

but it's interesting to take one book and make it into one specific other book,

and it was my decision to make 1984 with it

because I think it's still a really important book for people to read.

Because it's more than 70 years since George Orwell died,

his work is in the public domain,

meaning that David Trigley was able to recycle The Da Vinci Codes

into 1,200 hardbacks of a new 1984 edition.

The twist, this Saturday they will be sold in the same Oxfam store,

which originally put up the sign.

Colin Patterson.

The Pakistani government says it's finalised a plan

to expel all illegal immigrants from next month.

Most of the undocumented migrants thought to number more than a million people

are from Afghanistan.

The government's going ahead with the extraditions

despite calls from the UN to halt deportations of Afghan nationals

saying they face security and economic issues back in their home country.

I asked our South Asia editor and Barrison Etherajan about Pakistan's plans.

It's a big challenge the government admits

that we are talking about more than a million people.

In fact, the Pakistani government talks about 1.7 million illegal immigrants.

Most of them are Afghan nationals.

They had fled that country over the years during the Taliban regime in the late 90s

and also during the war between the US-led forces and the Taliban.

And after the Taliban took over in August 2021,

more than half a million people had now fled to neighbouring Pakistan.

Where are they living?

Mostly they are living in Khyber Pakhtun co-op province,

which borders Afghanistan and also in Balochistan.

And there are tens of thousands of people in the city like Karachi

where many of them are involved in business.

They have settled. They have their families.

They have their businesses. They have formed a community.

And now these people are worried what will happen when they go back

because the economy has not started really in Afghanistan.

Seems the Taliban take over and there are security issues.

And most importantly, what will happen to the children's education?

Will the women, the girls' children, will they be allowed to school?

These are some of the worries faced by the Afghans.

But the government of Pakistan says they have to leave by the first week of November.

And what is the government going to do?

Is it just going to go house to house and ask people for the documents?

Now what the government is saying, they are now carrying out various surveys

about where these people are and now Pakistani media says

hundreds of Afghans have been taken into custody.

Those who the government deems that these are undocumented migrants.

But the government also insists that they will not take any action against

those who have refugee status and also those who are Afghan nationals

with the valid documents, those who are staying in the country.

But they are going only after those undocumented Afghan nationals.

Now why this happened?

Because now the Pakistani government talks about a number of suicide attacks

in the country and many of them they say they were linked to Afghan nationals.

And that was one of the trigger points.

And the second point is about Pakistani Taliban militants carried out large-scale attacks

in the bordering areas.

And they came from Afghanistan according to the Pakistani officials.

So they are very angry with Afghan Taliban for not taking action against them.

So these are some of the trigger points which led to this government's decision.

But the government says, no, we need to take decisive action against these illegal immigrants.

Is there sympathy for them?

There are many people because it's very complicated.

It's not simply about Afghan nationals.

There are people who are married to local Pakistani women.

And also they do businesses and the children grew up in Pakistan for the last 20 years.

And there are people like, for example, some of the political parties,

Islamist parties are saying, no, they should not be driven back to Afghanistan

where they will face more problems.

And as they talked about, like education, security and economy,

and these people have settled in Pakistan itself for a long time.

And there are people who are talking about,

especially the UN and rights groups,

say they should not be forced to go back to Afghanistan.

And Barisan Ethirajan.

Sometimes you can be arguably just too successful for your own good.

At least that's the lesson that could be drawn from the arrest in Australia

of seven members of a suspected Chinese money laundering syndicate.

They came to the police's attention when they opened new currency exchange shops

during lockdown when everyone else's businesses were suffering badly,

as Phil Mercer in Sydney told me.

The allegation is that this syndicate was operating

as the authorities here in Australia have been describing in plain sight

with shop fronts in about a dozen locations across the country.

Investigators say that this wasn't a typical money laundering organisation

that was operating in the shadows.

This was operating essentially in the high street.

Now, Australian detectives say that they were first alerted

when this money transfer business started expanding during COVID-19 lockdowns,

even though many of its international tourists and student customers had left the country.

So this is an investigation that has spanned 14 months.

And in the last day or so, we've seen hundreds of police officers

and other specialists raid properties across five Australian states,

culminating in the arrest of seven members of this alleged Chinese crime syndicate.

They were turning over a lot of money, weren't they?

The allegation is that what's known here as the Long River Gang

laundered more than 140 million US dollars over three years

through this currency exchange business across Australia.

Now, this wasn't a small operation.

This particular company was one of Australia's largest independently owned remittas

or money transfer companies.

The investigation also had the help of investigators from the US.

So in the end, four Chinese nationals and three Australian citizens have been arrested.

Many of them are due back in court next year to face what will be.

You'd imagine very serious allegations.

Phil Mercer. He made his name as a bodybuilder, a movie star

and then moved into politics as the Republican governor of California.

Now, the Austrian-American Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Britain,

promoting his self-help book.

In it, he says, rest is for babies and relaxation is for retired people.

Justin Webb spoke to him about his book and about next year's US presidential election.

I've never dreamt of being a motivational speaker,

nor have I dreamt about writing motivational books or anything like that.

I do have a lot of really great ideas that I have figured out.

Not that I have studied other books.

I've never read a self-help book, period, right?

When I read it, it's really striking, almost from the title onwards,

Arnold Schwarzenegger philosophy.

Yes, it's about doing the things that make you the best person you can be,

but it's also a lot of it about meshing in with the world.

Well, because I think that in the end, we have to recognize that we are not self-made people.

I am a creation of a lot of help.

My parents, my coaches, my teachers, my mentors that motivated me

and who made me successful in my movies.

It was the fans.

You have a great love for America, always have had.

It's in a considerable mess at the moment, isn't it?

And not just politically, socially as well.

How do you view what's happening at the moment in America?

Well, I think that I look at things much more in a global way.

I see unrest and internal conflicts all over the world, and people are fighting.

And the same is in America. The extreme right and the extreme left are fighting.

You know, we have elections, and it's a choice between two guys that in the late 70s and early 80s.

And you say, that's pitiful, because where's the young crowd?

Where are the young thinkers and leaders?

Do you think Joe Biden should step down?

I'm not about to say that because that's something that he has to decide and that his party has to decide.

It's not so much the age that bothers me when it comes to intelligence.

It's just what bothers me is the energy level.

It needs energy to bring both of the parties together,

because when you have Democrats and Republicans work together, big stuff can happen.

Immigration reform, healthcare reform, wiping out the debt and the deficit that we have in the United States.

And the only way you can tackle it is if both of the parties work together.

Can you see that happening again?

Of course it can happen.

In that case, what would a Trump second term look like for America?

Would it be the kind of reaching across the aisle that you've just described or not?

Why would we talk about that when it is literally impossible?

No, trust me, he would not be our next president.

Why are you so sure?

I think that he will get maybe the nomination, but because the majority of people are not interested in him.

I think it's a waste of time to talk about a Trump presidency because it's a fantasy.

And I hate to talk about fantasies, I like to talk about reality.

Donald Trump is 30%, 33% of the votes, which is the hardcore right, and then you need over 50% to win.

And he's not going to have that.

Right, you're convinced.

If he is nominated, there will not be another Trump presidency.

Look, as I said to you, I'm not always right, but I think I'm right on that one.

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

And that's it from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email.

The address is GlobalPodcast at bbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at Global NewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Chris Kazaris and the producer was Charlotte Gallagher.

The editor as ever is Karen Martin.

I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.