Global News Podcast: Niger coup: tensions increase over threat of military intervention

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

I'm Alex Ritzen and at 14 hours GMT on Monday, August the 7th, these are our main stories.

We don't have weapons, but we do have our hearts. We have our blood and we've decided to put our

blood at the service of our country's defence. This is why we are deployed, not only at the

main crossroads in Nehemi, but also at many points and crossroads in the interior.

Mali and Bakina Faso agree to provide what they call a joint delegation to aid the generals

behind Niger's coup as they warn hostile neighbours against sending troops in. A worsening security

situation in Ethiopia with fighting in Amhara and a reported mass roundup in Addis Ababa.

And Donald Trump's legal team must respond to the US Justice Department by 5pm local time.

Also in this podcast, we find out the link between our feathered friends and good human mental health.

The position of Niger's generals defying an ultimatum to reinstate the elected president

closing its airspace and preparing for defence will only have been bolstered by two other countries

run by military governments, Mali and Bakina Faso. They've said they'll send a joint delegation

in solidarity in the face of possible armed intervention from other West African states.

The French national airline has now suspended flights to the capitals of Mali and Bakina Faso,

meanwhile the regional bloc ECOWAS is divided over weather to act militarily.

Niger's spokesman, Amadou Abdramane, said his country would resist any interference.

Niger's armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the

unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory

and the honour of our homeland. This demonstrator said people stood resolutely behind the coup leaders.

We don't have weapons, but we do have our hearts. We have our blood, and we've decided to put our

blood at the service of our country's defence. This is why we are deployed, not only at the

main crossroads near me, but also at many points and crossroads in the interior.

The army said it believes preparations to invade Niger have begun, but gave no evidence.

Earlier I spoke to Chris Iwaka, who's on the border between Nigeria and Niger.

The border here, there is some form of tension amongst the people of the border communities,

essentially because if there's going to be any particular lesser deployment, for instance,

if ECOWAS chooses to deploy, they will be the one that will be well affected. Are they already

affected as a result of the border closure? Because all their businesses appear to have been grounded.

But right now what we've seen is a form of defiance from the coup leaders in Niame,

and we've also seen the kind of support, seemingly, from the people, especially in the capital,

and which appear to be bolstering the energy of the coup leaders, who have also gotten the support

of some West African neighbours. So why are Mali and Burkina Faso being so supportive?

Well, right now what we know is that Mali and Burkina Faso, they are French-speaking countries,

they've been under the same colonial power, that's Panda France, but they've been the colonial power

at a time, and currently they are also ruled by the military. So it is more like showing

solidarity to another comrades who has now joined a league. So with Burkina Faso, Mali

and Nijie sharing common boundaries, making a trism, it could also help in bolstering their hold,

the hold of Burkina Faso military junta and that of Mali in power, why they will help the Nijie

group to consolidate. However, this is what the ECOWAS leadership is really angry about and wants

to stop, because they fear that any consolidation of power by the military within the sub-region

could also encourage for that coup, which would destabilise the region. And don't forget too,

that within these two countries, they have in common these groups linked to Islamic state

group as well as al-Qaeda that are actually creating havoc in the Sahel.

Iwaka, and staying in Africa, tension in Ethiopia's Amhara region between the army and

local militias has been on the rise for months, and now fighting between them has worsened.

Over the weekend, thousands of people were reportedly arrested in the capital Addis Ababa.

Calqadan Yibbaltal is there and gave me more details about those detentions.

According to activists, particularly unlined with the militia group that are fighting,

these people were ethnically profiled, that's what they accused the government of,

and they were members of the Amhara ethnic group that live and reside in Addis Ababa,

that they were arrested and some of them were detained in schools, and then they were transported

to different detention centres. The government has not provided any figures about that, but

in a statement through journalists over the weekend, the communications minister here

confirmed that there have indeed been arrests made. He said that these arrests were made

in connection with the violence in the Amhara region.

Our Africa editor, Richard Hamilton, told me more about the background to the conflict.

In April, the federal government said it was dismantling regional militia with the intention

of integrating them into the national army, but this has been seen, particularly in the

Amhara ethnic region, as a move to undermine regional authority, and they're worried that

it will leave them vulnerable to attacks from outsiders or rebel groups.

Now, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has tried to unify Ethiopia, which has in the past

traditionally been fragmented into different ethnic regions, and national unity, you'd think,

sounds like an admirable goal, but what we saw in Tigray was a terrible brutal war that crushed

the Tigrayans and committed human rights abuses, and tens of thousands of people were killed,

millions displaced. There's been a ceasefire now, but there have been calls for Abiy Ahmed to return

the Nobel Peace Prize that he won in 2019 for ending the conflict with Eritrea, and the Amhara

forces actually helped the federal troops in Tigray, but it now looks as if Addis Ababa is turning

its attention on the Amhara region and trying to weaken it. And on Friday, it declared a state

of emergency in Amhara, and this gives them power to impose curfews, ban, for example,

the carrying of guns and weapons, ban public gatherings, make arrests, conduct searches without

warrants, and limit media outlets and broadcasts, and the US in particular expressed concern about

the situation in the Amhara. So basically, it's a very worrying development. Richard Hamilton.

Now to America, where Donald Trump's legal team have a deadline of 5pm local time to respond to

the US Justice Department, which is seeking to limit what the former president says in public

about his election interference case. Mr Trump has already suggested that the judge,

Tanya Chukton, should be removed from his case because he says she will not give him a fair

trial. I spoke to CBS News reporter Wendy Gillette. If it is granted, this protective order would

do a couple of things, potentially stop Trump from making any sort of threatening remarks on

social media and prevent him from sharing any evidence in the case. Prosecutors referenced

a Trump post he made on Friday. He wrote, if you go after me, I'm coming after you.

Just one example of Trump's comments, both online and during speeches in which he attacks

witnesses in cases against him, political opponents. And lately, the special counsel

himself, Jack Smith, the other day he called them deranged. Trump's legal team wanted more

time to respond to this request for a protective order. They asked for a few more days, but the

federal judge said no. Doesn't this play, though, to, well, Donald Trump's narrative in a way in

that he's going to try and make out he's being gagged here, isn't he? And that may play well

with his electoral base. Yeah, exactly. He has railed against the Justice Department saying

the indictments are just an attempt to silence him and his campaign. And a lot of people believe

that the majority of Republicans certainly believe that. He says the charges have no merit, that

they're baseless. He calls it another Russia hoax and says that Smith is mentally ill,

and he's also still calling the election rigged and saying he was the rightful winner.

And he wants the judge, in the case Tanya Chuktan, to be removed saying he won't get a fair trial.

Does he have any grounds to get the judge removed or any justification for saying that?

No, no justifications at this point. Just basically saying we can't get a fair trial

in Washington because it's too liberal. His lawyers have suggested possibly moving the trial to

West Virginia, but there's no real legal basis for it. And the legal experts say it's doubtful

that that is actually going to happen. Wendy Gillette. He was one of the world's longest serving

leaders. But last month, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hoon Sen, announced that after nearly

four decades in power, he would step down and hand over power to his oldest son. Now the King of

Cambodia has officially appointed Hoon Manite to succeed his father as Prime Minister. The

change at the top, if it is one, follows elections which the opposition labelled a sham. It was barred

from running candidates, and the ruling party claimed all but five seats. So is this a dynasty

in the making? Jonathan Head is our Southeast Asia correspondent. It looks like it doesn't it? And

it's not just one family's dynasty. I mean, Cambodia is a country with very weak institutions,

and it's more or less run by a collection of families with Hoon Sen, the most powerful figure,

but a lot of other big families who've got very rich and powerful with him. Many of them are also

ministers, and some of them are also handing over to their children. The Defence Minister and the

Interior Minister among them, two very powerful positions. So not just one dynasty, but several

dynasties in the making. I think it's a mark of how nervous the leaders are about this transition

that they're handing over to their own families. It does not like they trust anybody else in the

business of power. And of course, it does give, I suppose, some element of continuity for Cambodians,

because Hoon Sen is the only leader they've known for four decades. What do Cambodians feel about

this? Well, if they're critical of it, they'll be keeping pretty quiet, because it's very risky

to be critical of Hoon Sen. Opposition leaders have found they're either jailed, prosecuted,

or driven into exile. There have been political activists killed. So whatever Cambodians feel,

I suspect some of them are unhappy about that the chronic corruption and inequality in the

country, the kind of rapacious environmental destruction that's gone on under Hoon Sen.

Others, particularly older Cambodians, actually appreciate Hoon Sen's strong leadership, the

fact that they've had a quarter century of peace and development after some pretty dreadful years

in the 20th century. So I think feelings will be mixed. So from what you're saying, it doesn't sound

like much is actually going to change? It won't, because Hoon Manette's an untested figure in

politics. He's been prominent in the army. He's also completely different from his father. His

father had this searing experience of fighting in the civil war in Cambodia, of being under the

Khmer Rouge. He's a very, very tough, wily street smart man. Hoon Manette's been brought up in a

very wealthy, comfortable family. He's Western educated. But because he's inexperienced, his

father is keeping quite important political positions and has made it clear he will continue

to influence things from behind the scenes. This is a very big moment for Cambodia, but as a political

transition, it's one that Hoon Sen intends to manage and to take some time over to be sure

that his son can be properly embedded and that he doesn't face any challenges from other people

and other political factions in the country. Jonathan Haid. Three years after crowds poured

onto the streets across Biela Rouge, protesting against a rigged presidential election, some

of its highest profile political prisoners are being held in isolation, denied visits,

calls or even letters to their families for months on end. They include Maria Kolesnikova,

who was sentenced to 11 years jail for her role in the peaceful street rallies,

which were eventually crushed by police using violence. No one has heard from her since February.

And even now, security forces are still hunting out and arresting opponents of Alexander Lukashenko's

long rule, our Eastern Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford reports.

We will win all together because evil will defeat itself. Maria Kolesnikova's prison

letters to her sister were always upbeat. Keep strong and everything will be all right.

Even as she served an 11-year sentence for protesting against the authoritarian

rule of Alexander Lukashenko, your sister, Maria. But in February, the letters to Tatiana,

with their smiley faces, suddenly stopped. Maria's family and her lawyer have been unable

to see her either in almost six months. It became an incommunicator detention when you don't have

any news. Which must be pretty scary, right, for you as a foreigner. For sure, yeah. I could just hope

that it will not break her, but of course it influences anyone's mind in the end.

Three years ago, Maria Kolesnikova was one of the leaders of a giant wave of protests

against a rigged election for presidents. She was hugely popular, energizing the crowds.

In the end, those protests were crushed with mass arrests and police violence.

But the protest spirit hasn't died.

Instead, Belarusians have got creative.

In Warsaw, I met two women dressed up as grannies in house coats and head scarves,

chatting and cackling on a sofa and blowing their noses. They were filming a skit for social media,

with a photo of Lukashenko propped up behind them like an icon.

They were sending up his supporters, fighting a repressive regime with laughter.

The granny activists bled Belarus after the protests, like tens of thousands.

Anna says her home has been searched, her relatives threatened, but she can't stay silent.

I think it's a betrayal. Maybe that's too harsh of me,

but if we forget all the people in prison, then we're betraying them.

If we don't speak out, who will? In Belarus, everyone is silent, because it's impossible to

say a thing there. So every week, she organizes a rally in Warsaw to chant for a free Belarus

and freedom for the political prisoners there.

All the key opposition figures are now being denied visits, calls or letters.

We're here because we want our country to be free and democratic and we fight for it.

There's just 30 or so protesters here in the centre of Warsaw wrapped in the red and white

Belarusian opposition flag. Of course, it's nothing like the scale of the protests that we saw three

years ago inside Belarus itself. It is hard to keep that protest spirit alive here in exile,

but that's what they are trying to do and to tell anyone who'll listen that the

repression inside their country hasn't stopped.

Spending in the crowd, there's a young woman, her arms painted with dramatic tattoos.

Inga escaped Belarus after three months in prison. She was arrested two years after the mass protests

when police found a picture of her on a friend's phone draped in an opposition flag.

She tells me the women in prison were treated like animals,

but it's something else that upsets her more.

When you get arrested and the whole prison is full of political detainees, it's insane.

It feels like a nightmare. All these amazing, educated people are all in prison. That's so hard.

We don't even have the right to speak. We're locked up in prison, just for our words.

I remember when Belarusian activists would shrug off the long sentences given to their protest leaders,

like Maria Kolesnikova. They were sure Lukashenko wouldn't last that long.

Three years on, they're singing their protest songs in exile,

and many prisoners are being punished even further now, not freed, held in total isolation.

Sarah Rainsford. Research carried out in the US has made a connection between mental health

conditions and the diversity of birds in a region, Terry Egan reports.

The emphasis on the helpful effects of nature is often placed on green spaces, lush open fields,

cloudless blue skies. This research highlights the importance of a diversity of birds to that

equation. It seems the lower that diversity of birds is, the higher the number of hospital

admissions related to mental health conditions. The research was carried out in the US state of

Michigan and compared the observations of birds done by citizen scientists with hospital admissions

for anxiety and mood disorders. It suggested a direct correlation and follows on from research

conducted last year, suggesting that watching birds or listening to birdsong was linked to mental

well-being, with the effects lasting up to eight hours. The lead author Dr Rachel Buxton said this

had wider implications. If species diversity can affect mental health at the severe end of the

spectrum, then it's possible the decline in biodiversity across the globe may be intricately

connected with our anxiety and mood in general. Investing in nature, she said, improving and

conserving communities of birds should not be viewed as a luxury, but a necessity.

Terry Egan

Still to come on the podcast? We felt that it was not a safe environment to be in and we knew when

we took that decision how difficult that was going to be for young people who've spent two years

raising money. Why, despite years of planning a 40,000 strong scouts gathering is being called off

in South Korea.

Do you ever feel a bit overwhelmed when you check the news on your phone first thing in the morning?

Whenever I open up my phone, they're just endless warnings of more extreme weather to come.

I'm Hannah. I'm the presenter of a new podcast called What in the World from the BBC World Service.

We're going to be here trying to help you make sense of the world around you,

so you can feel a little bit better about what's happening in the world.

You can find What in the World wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

And now.

The sound there as India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was welcomed back into parliament

having been reinstated as an MP. He'd been sentenced to two years jail for defaming the

prime minister, but that's now been revoked. So what will it mean? A question for our South

Asia regional editor and Parasan Etirajan. This is a big boost for the main opposition

Congress party. As you heard how the MPs from the Congress party and not only from the Congress

also alliance partners were cheering as Mr Gandhi was coming to parliament building as they have

a debate on a no confidence vote against the government. So what they were arguing was the

whole case was politically motivated. This was all to prevent Mr Gandhi from raising

uncomfortable questions against the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi.

And then they also cite the Supreme Court's comments which said that the judge in the lower

court did not give a proper reason why he was disqualified. Just to explain the case that in a

campaign meeting in 2019 Mr Gandhi allegedly made some slur against the surname called Modi.

Which is also the surname of the prime minister Narendra Modi. So in a defamation case he was

given a two year jail sentence and that automatically disqualified in parliament. But then the Supreme

Court has suspended the sentence and that is what made Mr Gandhi to come back and that has given a

big boost to the Congress party. Now they can say that Mr Gandhi will now raise all valid questions

in parliament. Yeah, it's quite a thing that the courts triumphed in the end, but actually the main

opposition leader went up against Narendra Modi and was sentenced to two years in prison. That's

quite scary. That is why he was talking about how they were not being allowed to raise very valid

issues, people's issues, issues concerning the country in parliament. He was questioning what

kind of democratic principles we have because if you look at the judgment by the Supreme Court,

the interim order, which clearly states how come like from a lower court, then another court,

then high court, then it came to the Supreme Court. Does it have to come all the way to the

Supreme Court? Which took only a couple of hours to say that no, this particular judgment was not

valid. And that is why Mr Gandhi himself was questioning about how India's institutions,

which act as checks and balances in a democracy, were compromised.

Anbarasan Etirajan, a grieving mother and her lawyer say they've been targeted by a campaign

of abuse after suing an Irish conspiracy theory newspaper which falsely claimed her son died

after being given a COVID vaccine. Deaths following the vaccines are extremely rare,

but conspiracy theorists worldwide have used unrelated deaths to spread misinformation,

our social media and disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring reports.

Adele Campbell's 18-year-old son Diego took his own life in August 2021. Over a year later,

she realized a conspiracy theory newspaper called the Irish Light had included a photo of him in

an article which suggested the COVID vaccine was to blame for his death. In fact, the BBC has been

told Diego had not been vaccinated when he died. Adele Campbell and her solicitor, Kiran Marholland,

are bringing a civil case against the paper and its editor, Gemma O'Doherty,

for harassment with defamation. A campaign of abuse followed. Mr Marholland said people who

supported the Irish Light called for him to be executed. Ms Campbell said her life has been

made hell. Gemma O'Doherty and the Irish Light have not responded to the BBC's request for comment.

However, in online posts, Ms O'Doherty denies harassing Adele Campbell and her legal team.

Marianna Spring

After decades of trying and failing, scientists in California have been able to create the second

ever successful nuclear fusion reaction. When nuclear fusion was first achieved last December,

some thought it may have been a stroke of luck. But this latest experiment could take us one step

closer to the dream of abundant clean energy. Alfie Haberschen reports.

Alfie Haberschen

Conventional nuclear power comes from fission, where atoms are split. But this new process,

fusion, is where atoms are smashed together. It's the process that powers the sun and is capable

of generating more power than it takes to produce it. Scientists have been on a quest to recreate

nuclear fusion on earth since learning about it in the 1930s, because it could generate almost

four million times more energy per kilogram than burning oil or coal. Today, it feels even more

important in the battle against climate change, offering the dream of limitless clean energy,

with a reaction that releases no greenhouse gases or radioactive waste byproducts.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US have now demonstrated nuclear

fusion on a small scale for the second time. This suggests the first demonstration by the

California-based National Ignition Facility last December was not a fluke. They fired giant lasers

into a long gold cylinder, which created 50% more energy coming out than the lasers put in.

The US Energy Department called it a major scientific breakthrough, but immense barriers

stand in the way before we see nuclear fusion lighting our homes and offices. On a small scale,

creating a nuclear fusion reaction is extremely expensive, and the equipment involved still requires

huge amounts of energy. Never mind the cost of powering a whole fusion power plant.

It's taken nearly a century to get this far, and there's still a long way to go.

Alfie Habashon

We've heard lots about the dangerous impact that scorching heat waves are having on people around

the world this summer, but what about under the sea? Oceans have hit their highest temperature on

record, bringing new challenges to fish and other marine life. Dr. Katharine Longo is principal

climate change scientist at the Marine Stewardship Council working on fish sustainability.

Katharine Longo

Just like any other animals on Earth, fish have their range of temperatures and ocean

conditions in which they thrive, and then once the temperature goes above or below what they are

used to, they start suffering. And so what happens when there is a sudden change, which is a heat wave,

is that most fish will look for waters that are better suited to them. And so what we might see

is that they move suddenly, and even fishermen might see that they're not fishing the same species

anymore. All of these different species are moving at the same time, and so they are moving looking

for food, but also their prey items might be moving as well, and so they might not be able to

find it. That might mean that they're not able to create these future generations, and so in the

years to come we see less and less of them. Climate change scientist Dr. Katharine Longo

The Philippines has accused China's coast guard of firing water cannon at its vessels in the

disputed South China Sea. Mila has described the actions as illegal and dangerous. Philippine ships

were delivering supplies to troops on the Spratly Islands, which China claims as its territory.

I got more from our East Asia editor, Jason Lee. Well essentially the Philippines is saying it will

do all it can to protect the sovereignty in the South China Sea. Now the second Thomas Shaw,

which lies about 200 kilometers from the Philippines, is part of the Spratly Islands you just mentioned,

and is held by the Philippines, but claimed by China as well. Earlier today we heard from the

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos saying that he summoned China's ambassadors to the Philippines

and presented him with pictures and videos of the incident that took place on Saturday,

and in a press conference that ended a few hours ago, Manila said that it will continue to file

diplomatic protests to reaffirm its commitment to the second Thomas Shaw and make clear it will

never abandon the Shaw. What's the view from China? Well China's coast guard, which carried out this

interception, issued a statement regarding the condemnation from the Philippine military.

It said it took what it calls necessary controls against the Philippine boats that had illegally

entered its waters, it claims. China now says it made temporary special arrangements for the

Philippines to transport food and other necessities to the second Thomas Shaw, where there are some

of its troops stationed there, but that Manila was bringing large quantities of construction

materials Beijing deems as illegal through the Shaw for some time. Now Beijing said it

had repeatedly expressed concerns to the Philippines through diplomatic channels

over the situation on the Shaw and suggested the two sides hold talks over the situation,

but that Manila failed to respond to their suggestion, and that on Saturday, Philippines

once again tried to deliver this construction material so they had no other choice than to

intercept these two vessels carrying such materials. Now Beijing defends its position,

saying the second Thomas Shaw is part of its territory, and that China will continue to take

necessary measures to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and urged Philippines actually to

accept the proposal for bilateral talks. Jay Sung Lee. The motto of the international youth movement

The Scouts is be prepared, but they weren't. It's all gone horribly wrong for the organisers of the

World Scout Jamboree, a two-week camp out for 40,000 teenagers from around the world in South

Korea. The event's now ending early because of an incoming typhoon. Before that, the site's

sweltering temperatures, inadequate toilet facilities and a lack of food forcing children to

go hungry led several countries to walk out. The UK was one of them. Matt Hyde is the chief

executive of the UK Scouts. Matt Hyde. We felt that it was not a safe environment to be in,

and we knew when we took that decision how difficult that was going to be for young people

who've spent two years raising money, and that's why we feel so let down, because we were put in

an invidious position. For under half thousand British Scouts had to be relocated into hotels

in the capital Seoul. Our correspondent Jean McKenzie is there and told me more.

Jean McKenzie. I think it's fair to say that it's not gone to plan. I mean clearly a typhoon

is unfortunate, which is the reason it's been given for pulling all the teenagers out of the site,

so 45,000 of them who are attending this event. You know that's not something that can be avoided,

but yeah, as you alluded to, this has been beset by problems from the very start. We were getting

reports as early as day one that the conditions on the site were not good enough. Late on Friday

night was when the UK team decided that they were going to pull all of their team out. They were the

first ones to do so. Now part of the problem has been that it's just so hot here. It's so hot and

humid at the moment, but it's not that atypical for this time of year in South Korea. The real

issue is Stevan, the fact that there was no shade on the site and very little provision given to deal

with these very hot and humid temperatures. Alongside that, you had concerns about the sanitation.

So when I spoke to the chief executive at the UK Scouts earlier, he was saying to me, you know,

this actually wasn't down to the heat. It was because the toilets weren't clean enough. The

showers weren't clean enough. There wasn't soap. There weren't enough medical staff. All these things

came together essentially to create a site which they felt wasn't safe enough, which is why they

made that decision on Friday. Others have followed them in pulling out, but yeah, clearly this decision

to put everyone out of the site today is a major one. Yeah, we spoke a couple of days ago and I

was impressed by the way you told me just how enormous this site was, this sea of tents almost

as far as the eye could see. How on earth are they going to remove more than 40,000 young people

and rehouse them? Yeah, I mean even this mission to get the four and a half thousand British Scouts

off the site over the weekend was a big one. They had to get them in buses back to Seoul. They had

to find the hotel rooms for them, which in a capital city in the middle of August is not the

easiest thing to do. So we think they're going to have to put on more than a thousand coaches

tomorrow to try and get all the children out and they're going to be using public spaces,

so public halls, schools, gyms, those sorts of things. There had been a big K-pop concert that

was planned for later in the week, which they're going to have to look for indoor venues for,

because of course it doesn't necessarily mean that it's an end to the jamboree,

it just means it's an end to the camping. So they still have to find all the activities

for the kids to do and honestly this morning I think the UK team are feeling pretty pleased

that they got out first. They did get a bit of a stick that perhaps they'd overreacted or they'd

been premature, but they're the ones that got to Seoul first and have managed to hoover up all those

hotel rooms, but look it's cost the UK Scouts more than a million pounds they told us today and

that's going to come out of their reserves and probably impact the programs that they're able

to do for the next three to five years. So this will have ramifications for all these organisations.

Gene McKenzie in Seoul

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

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

The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on Twitter at Global News Pod.

This edition was mixed by Chesney Forks Porter and the producers were Phoebe Hobson

and Anna Murphy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritzen, until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.