Global News Podcast: Niger: Ousted president to be prosecuted

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

I'm Charlotte Gallagher and at 1300 hours GMT on Monday the 14th of August,

these are our main stories. Coo leaders in Niger say they are preparing trees and charges

against the deposed President, Mohammed Bazoum. The far right politician Javier Malay has shocked

Argentina by winning an election to select candidates for the presidential elections in

October. The chief of staff to Madagascar's president has been arrested in London on charges

of soliciting a bribe from a mining company. Also in this podcast, fed up with their government,

the Israelis choosing to leave their home and the teenage boy who survived falling from a ledge

at the Grand Canyon. We're just lucky we're bringing our kid home in a car in front seat instead of in a box.

Niger is still in turmoil following the military coup last month, which saw the

democratically elected President Mohammed Bazoum ousted. Despite calls for him to be immediately

released, he remains in detention. And now Niger's military leaders say there will prosecute him for

high treason. It comes just hours after they said they remained open to diplomacy with the West

African regional group ECOWAS to end the standoff over the coup. I heard more from the BBC's Ankechi

Ogbana, who's been following events from neighbouring Nigeria. The statement read by Amir Spokesperson

last night did not explicitly say why they were going to prosecute him. However, we do believe

that this is linked to Saturday's statement from General Chiani, who said the coup was well intended

and stating that they had struck to stave off an imminent threat that would have affected

not only Niger but also Nigeria. And although the statement did not say what that imminent threat

was, what we do believe that these two were connected.

Mohammed Bazoum, so far as we know, is being held in the basement of his house. Do we know how he is?

Apart from international concerns raised by the UN Secretary of State and ECOWAS

and all other international bodies, we cannot categorically say what his state of health is.

It was reported that he was denied access to medication, his physician, and his food supplies

were also limited as well. In fact, it was stated that he hadn't had human contact since last week

Friday. But we do know that over the weekend, his doctor paid him a visit. I think that was

late Friday. But we do not know what his current state of health is. We also know that his son

and his wife, who are with him as well, were also denied access to proper medical attention.

So we can only imagine what they are going through.

And what's the latest on diplomatic efforts? Has there been any progress?

Well, today, an ECOWAS delegation is expected to meet to push for more talks with the junta.

So we are going to hear later in the day of a delegation. We do not know who would be in that

delegation from ECOWAS to hold talks with the junta ever since they expressed their willingness

to find a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to the political crisis in the country last Saturday.

We also know that the Africa Union's Peace and Security Council

is meeting today as well to discuss the situation in Niger. And this is a fallout from

the willingness, of course, from the co-leaders who say now they're ready to hold peace talks with

anyone who's trying to resolve the crisis in the country. But we can only wait and see what

these talks would hold later in the day.

Appeals are going out from Hawaiian volunteers helping communities recover from deadly wildfires.

They say they need more help from the federal government in Washington.

Locally organized relief efforts have intensified on the island of Maui,

trying to supply food, water and shelter. For survivors of the fire in Lahaina,

Hawaiian's ancient capital. So far, at least 93 people have been killed.

Hawaii's governor said that figure is likely to rise.

It is a harrowing sight in Maui. When those providers, the police and this division,

do come across scenes in houses or businesses, it's very difficult for them because they

know ultimately they'll be sharing with our people that there have been more fatalities.

I do expect the numbers to rise.

With the latest on the events on the island of Maui,

Jason DeRose from National Public Radio has been speaking to Andrew Peach.

I arrived on Maui on Thursday night and as soon as I walked off the plane, what you saw were

tourists who'd been evacuated from resorts sort of camped out around luggage claim and there

were just dozens and dozens of people sleeping at the airport. They had been evacuated from

their resorts on the western side of the island that day or the day before and they were waiting

for their flights home. I also have visited an evacuation shelter at a high school where we saw

300 people are staying in the shelter, others are camped out around the shelter. I'm sleeping

on cots in sleeping bags, kids, adults, whole families sometimes. I spent some time with a

doctor with a mobile van who drives around doing essentially house calls but now he's calling on

people whose houses have been destroyed or who are staying in shelters and doing you know quick

medical checkups. You've also been able to be pretty close to Lahaina, one of the towns that's

been worst affected by this devastating fire. That's right, on Saturday I took a tour boat

along the coast of the island to Lahaina. It was actually full of supplies, water, diapers, ice,

food and the tour operators were ferrying this food up there because the only road into Lahaina

keeps getting closed down whether it's a traffic accident or because they're only allowing officials

in or disaster relief people in and these people on the beach like in bathing suits about a dozen

of them would like run out into the water, grab the cases of water or the diapers and put the stuff

into these pickup trucks that were just parked on the road along the beach and then those pickup

trucks would take off and take it to people who needed it, people who you know haven't had running

water, people who haven't had electricity since Tuesday night when this fire broke out. I could

see the charred remains of buildings and in some places the places where the buildings had been

dried out charred trees. It was it was really devastating to see the winds blew the fire

down the mountain toward the ocean and that's where that real destruction happened where

many of those buildings that were along the ocean there in Lahaina. We're growing used to

hearing these reports on the BBC World Service in recent days but it's such a world away from the

idyllic paradise we imagine when someone says Hawaii at least for people who live elsewhere in the

world. That's true but here's what I've noticed in the past couple of days. Much of Maui is fairly

unaffected. There are people at resorts, there are people walking around with pineapple cocktails,

there are people enjoying the beach so it's not as if all of Maui is destroyed it's it's a fairly

isolated section but an historic section a place where lots of tourists did go it's a beautiful

area the water is amazingly blue it's still beautiful maybe if you just don't look at the

charred areas of Lahaina. Most of the conversation is focusing on obviously what's happened and the

horror of what's happened and the relief operation that's underway. People are starting to talk about

whether the island was sufficiently prepared. Yeah the governor has ordered a comprehensive

review of actions that were taken by officials before and during and after the fires so clearly

he wants to know what happened was enough done were the proper warnings given was there enough

access on the roads to get out you know no matter how much warning you give no one is ever prepared

for a huge part of their town to be destroyed for their home to burn down. Jason DeRose speaking

to Andrew Peach. Next let's go to celebrations in the streets of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

That's after the far right politician Javier Malay shocked his opponents by winning decisively

in an election to select the candidates for presidential elections in October. Mr Malay

is known for his regular TV appearances and famed for his voluminous hair and sideburns

he's also an admirer of the former US president Donald Trump he pushed the conservative block

into second place. Today we are the force with most votes because we are the true opposition

we are the only ones who want a real change because remember a different Argentina is

impossible with the same old people the same old people who've always failed the same old people

who've been failing for a hundred years. Matias C. Bell is from BBC Monday. He started as a journalist

as an economic journalist with extreme ideas and this colorful style and because TV loves this kind

of character he became really really popular so he decided to jump from the TV to politics

and these extreme ideas in a country with 100 percent of inflation annually started to draw

attention and now we have this result. And you're Argentinian. I am. What do you think is his appeal

is it that he's something completely new? I think he has several appeals one is he's an outsider

and he says that the caste he called the old politicians has ruined the country the economic

situation in Argentina is so so serious at the moment but at the same time we have a really toxic

relationship with the American dollar we've been the generation who votes for me late has been

suffering huge level of inflation and local currency losing value every day so the the American

dollar is like the only place that you can trust the only thing where you can be safe and he's

proposing a dollarization of the economy he wants the American dollar to be the local currency

of Argentina and that idea even if it's difficult or impossible is really really attractive.

And I was just looking at his Instagram before we came on out and I saw that he's making a lot of

the fact that the former president of Brazil Bolsonaro is supporting him. Yes absolutely he's

like an Argentinian Bolsonaro with our own local Argentinian field but at the same time he's dangerous

we have to recognize that some of his ideas is like bomb the central bank of Argentina because

he says we have to close the central bank because he's useless so it's like it's not just colorful

some ideas are really extreme. Matias Siebel from BBC Mundo a top aide to Madagascar's president has

been arrested in London on corruption charges I found out more from our Africa regional editor

Richard Hamilton. The chief of staff to the president of Madagascar he's called Romy

Adriana Sue and his French associate Philippe Tabato they were in the office of a British

mining company called Gemfields in London and they're alleged to have asked for a bribe in order

to facilitate in order for the company to to have licenses to mine on Madagascar and it's alleged

that they asked for a bribe of a quarter of a million dollars now it's we don't know any

more details and they've just been charged on Saturday they're due in court again in September

but we think there may have been some sort of sting operation because the National Crime Agency

seemed to have arrested them in this office so they must have perhaps been aware that they

were going to be asked for a bribe. And you said this was about mining which is a huge industry

in Madagascar. That's right there's large-scale mining for minerals like titanium and gold and

silver by multinationals like Rio Tinto then there's also a small-scale mining or artisanal

mining and I went to a place in the south of Madagascar many years ago called Ilacaca which

is very bizarre it's basically one street it's in the south of the island and then alongside the

street there these little stalls and inside you get these men from South Asia examining

through microscopes rubies and sapphires and emeralds and saying how much do you want for them

and it's really weird because it's in the middle of nowhere and it takes about two days on a bus

to get there and it's alleged that children have been used to go down mine shafts for illegal mining

as you say it's a big industry it attracts a lot of investment and actually in the middle of nowhere

you'd meet someone for a beer and he'd have an American accent and he'd have a four by four and

you'd say what do you do here and they go oh I'm into rocks you know precious stones

and how bad is corruption in Madagascar again I was there quite a long time ago but at the time

personally when I when I first arrived I got to the airport I got my laptop in pounded it took

about two hours to get it back from the authorities they kept asking for various bureaucratic forms

and then when when I was talking about it to a friend you know like days later he said they

were asking for a bribe so it's pretty much endemic and it's been a problem on on a national

scale for decades Richard Hamilton since early this year hundreds of thousands of Israelis have

joined unprecedented mass rallies against the country's right-wing government and its controversial

plans to overhaul the justice system now there are signs that more secular Israelis are considering

leaving the country now increasingly they make up a minority in Israel because of the higher

birth rate among religious Jews our Middle East correspondent Yolan now reports

right here in the heart of Tel Aviv more than 30 weeks now into Israel's anti-government protests

there's no sign they're letting up I'm looking across at a huge crowd but there are some protesters

I've met who are planning a radical step leaving the country I'm going to London for a sabbatical

this will be my laboratory to see if I can live outside Israel

after six months joining these demonstrations with his wife children sister and hundreds of

thousands of others top Israeli radiologist Professor Ken Hoffman will soon head to a hospital

in the UK he says he may stay away he believes the country is backsliding on democracy we are

losing our country this is what we feel in the long term if the situation will be so bad and it's

it's worsening every day we will we'll find a place to live outside Israel we all have a

European passport protesters are furious at legislation to limit the power of the supreme

court the hardline government says it's correcting a system where elected politicians are too easily

overruled one recent poll suggested a third of Israelis were now weighing up a move I ask other

protesters here what they think but there are a lot of people that are looking to diversify and

have a plan B in place plan B is the the buzzword now right it would be hard right now but I will

not raise my kids in a country which is not democratic what do we want these demonstrations

are opening up deep social divisions in Israel the current coalition government relies on ultra

orthodox Jews and religious nationalists who represent fast-growing socially conservative

parts of the population increasingly as secular Israelis become a minority in the country they

see a threat to their liberal lifestyles professor Alon Tal is head of the public policy department

at Tel Aviv University it's not clear how many Israelis will actually carry out their threats

to leave but he warns that an exodus could have a big impact on key sectors such as high tech

medicine and academia when the truly talented people who carry on their shoulders the innovation

and the economic development that this country is so dependent on when they decide they've had

enough and they don't want to live in a country that no longer represents them then we could see a

collapse an economic collapse back at the weekly protests in Tel Aviv the national anthem plays

out the demonstrators see themselves as patriots many have served in Israel's conscript military

and spent years more in reserves and some like one young woman I meet or need swear that whatever

happens they'll never move away I actually lived for two years in Manchester loved every minute

but this is my home I don't really see myself live anywhere else

for the crowd here for now the fight is continuing at full volume to try to force the

government to change track on its judicial overhaul but at the same time another challenge is

quietly building up with more Israelis drafting their exit plans

Yolan now in Israel

still to come more than 30 news organizations in the US have signed an open letter condemning a

police raid on a local newspaper in Kansas it's unique to have a search warrant executed on a

newspaper on an news organization in the state because it was just totally off the radar that

this sort of search and seizure would be possible the search warrant would actually be executed

wow what an experience to be a part of the Tokyo Olympics it's so interested in my memory

it's one of the pinnacles of my athletic career on the podium is the podcast where Olympic and

Paralympic athletes share their remarkable stories from the struggles lots of sacrifices lots of

hard work tears a lot of things that the outside world doesn't know to the victories

on the podium from the BBC World Service find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts

at least 30 people are reported missing after a mudslide struck miners digging for Jade in

northern Myanmar the incident occurred in a remote mountainous region of catch-in-state

here's Jonathan head survivors have described a wall of mud rocks and floodwater overwhelming them

as they were digging for Jade sweeping many of the miners away several people are being treated

for injuries and rescue teams are looking for the missing the landscape in this part of Myanmar

is scarred with hundreds of unregulated mines these attract huge numbers of migrant workers from

other parts of Myanmar who come to search for Jade most of which ends up being sold in China

landslides are a constant threat particularly at this time of the year when Myanmar experiences

heavy monsoon rain around 170 people died in the landslide in the same area three years ago

Jonathan head more than 30 news organizations in the US including the New York Times and the

Washington Post have signed an open letter condemning a police raid on a local newspaper

the Marion County record in Kansas it's been claimed the search breached the first amendment

of the Constitution which guarantees a free press max couch is an attorney with the Kansas

Press Association it's unique to have a search warrant executed on a newspaper on a news organization

in the state because it was just totally off the radar that this sort of search and seizure would

be possible that a search warrant would actually be executed it's been reported a judge authorized

the warrant which said there was probable cause to believe identity theft and unlawful acts concerning

computers had been committed as well as the raid at the newspaper's office on Friday the home of its

co-owner 98 year old Joan Meyer was also searched she died the next day and the Marion County record

suggested the raid was to blame after it left her stressed beyond her limits her son Eric claimed

the police were investigating the newspaper because of confidential information it had received

about a restaurant owner a Washington correspondent Sean Dilly spoke to my colleague Alex Ritzen

the target very much of Friday's raid was not only her home but the offices of the newspaper

her son is called Eric they were together the co-owners of a newspaper called the Marion County

record so on Friday around 11 a.m local law enforcements according to the newspaper that would

be all five local police officers and two sheriff's deputies turned up saying that they had a search

warrant which they produced for misuse of computers and identity theft now the law enforcement side

of things is well we're allowed to do this when there's a suggestion the journalists themselves

are the center of criminal allegations but clearly journalistic material itself is protected so there

have been local concerns not just from the newspaper but other journalists about what is

essentially a concerning way to gather material which normally should be gathered by subpoena

there are claims that the reason for the police raid was because the newspaper was investigating

a restaurant owner who'd been convicted of drunk driving but continued using her car without a

license now on how on earth can that have gone from being a newspaper investigation into a raid

by the police sanctioned by a judge on a newspaper well you know you would hope that there's more

information than is publicly available but here's how it played out according to the son Eric he

said that the newspaper was approached after Newell had kicked reporters out of a meeting with a

local politician the politicians representatives very apologetic about this afterwards a newspaper

claimed that they had an approach from somebody giving them information about the criminal conviction

the reason they say that this became particularly relevant is it could have prevented her having

an alcohol license for her restaurant but the newspaper doubting that source they say informed

the police they said look we've been approached with this confidential information that's been

leaked to us Newell is then said to have reported to the local council that her information had

been gathered unlawfully and now you've got quite an extraordinary claim here by law enforcement

that computers have been misused by journalists and that they've misused them in pursuance of

identity theft now you know clearly there better had been evidence to support this in due course

because otherwise there are incredibly large questions looming about the first amendment the

right to a free press and and essentially the idea that police officers would raid journalists

offices essentially for information about sources now law enforcement say that's not what they're

investigating they're investigating they claim criminal activities by journalists

Sean Dilly speaking to Alex Ritzen now have you ever pretended to be busy at work to impress your

manager or colleagues a new survey of workers in nine countries by the messaging platform Slack

has found that people spend more time on performative work that's focusing on appearing busy

than doing actual real work our Asia business reporter Katie Silver told us more what they did

is they looked at the data of about 18 000 workers both in terms of how they were using Slack

and surveyed them and they use this up to the executive level they looked at all types of workers

they've used this data with a research firm and they were looking at performative work

and that is whether or not for example meetings are used to present achievements which has seen

as something performative or whether they were used to make decisions or address issues now

as you mentioned India Japan they were the worst performers as well as Singapore which came in at

number three the UK where you are it was better than the global average it was it scored about 30

percent the global average was about 32 percent and the best countries were the US and South Korea

now if you ask the all important question why it actually comes down to employers rather than

employees and really how they measure productivity that's according to Slack so they say for example

it's whether or not employers measure productivity as activity that is for example how many emails

are sent or how many meetings are attended or outcomes and the problem here is it means that

for many employees it can be a huge amount of wasted effort and the reason really that

employers are perhaps looking at this is that the easier more measurable things to measure

now Singapore was the worst when it came to this almost half of the respondents felt that

their work was impacted by spending too much time on the likes of meetings and emails and

to give you an idea here in Singapore the average or standard working week of a national

company rather than a multinational company is about 44 hours a week rather than the you know in

the UK 40 hours a week with the idea really that you work a half day on Saturday so that was something

that was perhaps contributing to the idea of presenteeism and attending work and emails and

showing your face the other thing that employees as well complained about in the survey was

concept of having to keep their statuses online employees really wishing that their value could

be measured somewhat differently Katie Silver now to a dramatic story an American teenager is

recovering in a hospital after he fell almost 30 meters down the Grand Canyon 14-year-old Wyatt

Kaufman is expected to make a full recovery despite extensive injuries Alice Adley reports

the spectacular natural scenery of the Grand Canyon in Arizona is a draw for up to five million

tourists every year most approach from the southern edge but Wyatt Kaufman and his mother

were at the much less crowded North Rim here the narrow paved path provides incredible views

although it drops off on both sides in some places Wyatt was with his mother at bright angel point

and describes how he was dodging out of the way to keep out of other tourist pictures when he lost

grip of the rock he was holding he spoke to local tv station 12 news Arizona i was moving out of the

way for people to take a picture i was squatting down and hanging on to it i only had one hand on

it so it wasn't that good of grip and it was kind of pushing me back and i lost my grip and i started

to fall back a two-hour rescue ensued involving around 40 emergency workers the boy had to be taken

out of the canyon in a basket stretcher as a helicopter was unable to land due to high winds

he was then airlifted to a pediatric trauma center in los vegas Wyatt suffered injuries to his spine

spleen and lung but Matthew Krupp from the Grand Canyon National Park told abc he was lucky to

be alive witnesses described seeing him slipped from an elevated point out at the end of our

bright angel point he was at risk of falling further into the canyon that he was in such a

good a condition as he was given the distance he fell it's not uncommon for people to fall

in equivalent distance and be either unconscious and unable to respond or deceased Wyatt's father

brian was at home in north dakota when he got the call every parent dreads two hours is an eternity

in a situation like that but when they have to repel down the cliff and get them out of the canyon

in a basket it was one of the most heart-wrenching phone calls i've ever had we're just lucky we're

bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat instead of in a box brian kaufman ending that report

by alice adley and finally to a new insight into the early days of the Beatles letters written by

george harrison's mother about to be auctioned have revealed what she thought of beetle mania

in one louise harrison writes of being disgusted and ashamed of being female after witnessing fans

screaming at a concert steven bailey is the manager of the beetle shop in liverpool and

is organizing the auction he told my colleague michelle hussain the series of letters was written

to one fan janet gray over several years it goes from 1963 to 66 and it literally it tells a story

of the beginning of the Beatles where she's got 30 letters to answer for and feels sort of like oh

gosh that's a lot of letters to 66 where she's got 3 000 letters to answer these are letters from

fans these are letters from fans george's mum was a prolific writer a wonderful person she answered

many probably thousands of letters he would just written to george and what did she think of them

i i think she loved doing it she was obviously very proud of george and she corresponded with

these fans for many years so she obviously got something out of it in one letter she's she's

obviously gone to a concert and is just sat there and totally bemused by the fact that girls have

paid money to stand on seats and scream and she can't understand that let's face it what mother would

generally speaking she's the letters she is very proud of george and what he's done

but also i think the letters show sort of a mother losing her son because right at the start george

is obviously visiting home a lot and towards the end she goes oh we've seen george once this week

you know that that's kind of it so yeah it's a funny thing to do in a way to open fan letters

that originally came for your for your child and then and then continue with correspondence

well this is it i i don't think you know you start off writing to george george's mum responds

and then you start writing to george's mum basically i guess in a way she's what she's

sort of managing the beginnings of a fan club it's sort of yes i mean but it's it's her kind of

own personal fan club sort of thing i say the letters are very fascinating that was

steven bailey talking to michelle hussain and that's all 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 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 producer was rachel right the editor is caron martin i'm charlotte gallagher until next time

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.