Global News Podcast: Pakistan's former PM jailed for three years

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.

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

I'm Charlotte Gallagher and in the early hours of Sunday, the 6th of August, these are our

main stories. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan tries to rally his supporters as

he faces three years in jail. A U.S. judge has been asked to limit what Donald Trump

can say about his election fraud case. And could a new pill help millions of mothers

with this?

It's a very big problem. The estimates are that between 10 and 15 percent of women who

have given birth experience some form of depression.

Also in this podcast, will Niger's coup leaders meet Sunday's deadline to reinstate the president

or face potential military intervention? And why surfers are helping to revive Sri Lanka's

battered tourism industry?

But first, the future political career of Imran Khan, Pakistan's former Prime Minister

looks uncertain. He is in custody after being sentenced to three years in prison on corruption

charges. He denies wrongdoing and his lawyers say they intend to appeal. In a video recorded

before his arrest, Mr Khan urged his supporters to protest peacefully against his detention.

His party, the PTI, says there have been protests in several cities with some arrests. Our Pakistan

correspondent, Caroline Davis reports.

The sound of sirens blaring as police cars whisked Imran Khan away from his home in Lahore.

For the second time this year, he's been arrested. Early today, a judge in Islamabad found him

guilty of not declaring money gained when he sold state gifts. Calling him dishonest,

he sentenced Imran Khan to three years in prison. Last time Mr Khan was arrested in

May, there were protests, some of which turned violent. He was released, but his PTI party

has faced a dramatic crackdown. Many of his senior party leadership were arrested, then

announced that they had left the party. Police picked up thousands of his supporters. In

a pre-recorded video released after his arrest today, Mr Khan said his supporters should

not sit quietly at home.

Peaceful protests should continue until you get your right. This is your fundamental

right to choose your government through voting. Now we are in a situation where a puppet government

has been imposed on the people.

A small number of his supporters gathered outside Mr Khan's home in Lahore but were

quickly moved on by police. Several hours on since the arrest and there have not been

reports of mass protest. Today's decision will lead to Imran Khan's disqualification

from the upcoming election. I spoke to Mariam Arangzeb, the Minister for Information and

Broadcasting.

It's pretty useful for your party that your main political opponent has just been disqualified

in the run-up for a general election.

You have to be accountable for your deeds and law. This has nothing to do with politics.

A person who has been proven guilty by the court has to be arrested.

Mr Khan's lawyers intend to appeal against the decision, but for now he is being held

by police, his political future deeply uncertain.

Caroline Davis In the past six months, Donald Trump has

been indicted three times and arguably his most serious alleged crime is conspiring to

subvert the 2020 US presidential election. Now prosecutors in Washington have asked a

judge to issue an order which would limit what the former president can publicly discuss

about his election fraud case in public, including on his own social media platform.

Our North America correspondent, Sean Dilly, has been telling me more.

On Friday, Jack Smith, the lead prosecutor in this case, filed a motion with the court

asking that they limit what Donald Trump is able to say in public. This wasn't in direct

response to anything Mr Trump had tweeted. Mr Smith did cite one of the tweets earlier

that day, where Mr Trump said that if someone comes to hear me, he's going to go for them.

This is something that the court would be a little bit sensitive about. The judge did

say that as part of the terms of bail that Mr Trump shouldn't intimidate the witnesses.

But essentially what Mr Smith has done, as I said, Mr Trump has quite a long history

of attacking lawyers and witnesses and judges in his ongoing legal cases. And we'd like

you to not let him release any of the information that we have to give the defense by law.

So if you stop him from doing this, judge will release the material. That's the bottom

line.

And how unusual is this request?

It's not too unusual. I mean, any criminal case anywhere in the world, particularly in

America, is a minefield of processology. I mean, there's a bit of background noise here,

whether it's very relevant to this particular application. Donald Trump's legal team in

his Florida case, for example, has said he needs time to prepare. And in that case, the

prosecution was saying, no, no, we're ready to go now. And the judge actually sort of

met them in the middle on that one. In that case, this is a classified documents case.

And he's due to face trial on that case next May. A date's not been set for this one in

Washington that revolves around the election cheating claims. Now, it's the most important

case because it relates to when Donald Trump was president of the United States and the

allegations are serious, that he tried to rob American voters of their right to vote and

he tried to cheat to stay in the White House.

No matter what the ruling is, it will depend if Donald Trump follows it. And we know that

he kind of is very much his own man.

Whoever you are, you really don't have much of a choice about following court orders. You

either comply with them or you don't. The judge made it very clear as far as the terms

of release are concerned that if he, for example, were to intimidate witnesses, that in itself

would be a crime. He was asked to say that he understood that. He said he did understand

it. There's always going to be that discussion as to what protection he's entitled to under

the First Amendment to the Constitution, which is the right to free speech. But again, what's

at stake here? I argue the prosecutors. It's not necessarily the words. It's what is the

intent of those words and is it calling anybody to action? Is it intimidating witnesses? Is

it going to interfere with the due process of law?

Sean Dilly. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says Russia has attacked a blood

transfusion centre in the northeastern city of Kupiansk. From Kyiv, here's our correspondent

James Waterhouse.

He claims tonight that a blood transfusion centre has been hit by a Russian guided missile

in the Kharkiv region. There are unconfirmed reports that it was close to a village that

was near to the front line. And there is a reality here. If you live close to the Russian

border or if you are close to the front line, you are typically in range of missiles and

artillery fire. And it is a daily occurrence where strikes like these take place. Now,

if there is accuracy to President Zelensky's claim, it appears once again a medical building

has come in harm's way. We've seen it before with a maternity hospital in the besieged

city of Maliyupol last year. We've seen it in a mental health hospital in Nipro just

a few months ago. This is a war that is synonymous with civilian areas being directly targeted.

Now, in President Zelensky's tweet, he says this war crime alone says everything about

Russian aggression. He says defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values

life. We're told there are dead and wounded, but we don't know much outside of President

Zelensky's tweet. James Waterhouse in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is hosting talks

to discuss a road to peace in Ukraine. Representatives from around 40 countries are there, including

China and India, but not Russia. The 10-point peace plan by President Zelensky is being

seen as a potential stepping stone to a peace summit in coming months. Kira Rudik is a member

of the Ukrainian parliament. She says they hope to persuade neutral countries to support

Ukraine. For us, it is critical that members of the global south would come on board, not

only in voting for resolutions for supporting Ukraine in the United Nations, but also actually

going on the supporting particular points of the peace plan, such as the nuclear security,

the food security, restoring of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and many others.

Our chief international correspondent, least you said, told me more about the significance of the

talks. Well, the fact that they're taking place is important. The fact that there are, as you said,

some 40 countries, including China. China didn't attend the last big meeting that Ukraine played

a leading role in in Copenhagen, but it was persuaded to join these talks in the Saudi

point city of Jeddah. It wants to emphasize the importance of dialogue, but equally, it has also

emphasized that it will not allow it to be turned into an anti-Russia meeting. What the

Ukrainians and the Americans are saying is they want all these countries to discuss the 10-point

peace plan that President Zelensky came up with quite some time ago. Some of those principles

are easy ones about grain sales, about exchange of prisoners, but others would be totally unacceptable

to Russia, including the complete return of all territories, including Crimea occupied in 2014,

sending Russia to the International Criminal Court, blaming Russia for the entire war.

This is a very different world now. The Ukrainians and their NATO allies want to see this as a

manikin struggle good against evil, but these countries like Saudi Arabia, South Africa,

India, Brazil, they're not just neutral. They refuse to take sides.

So does Russia feel isolated at all by the fact that these talks are taking place with these 40

countries? Or, as you say, there are many countries there that don't agree with Ukraine's way forward?

Russia has not surprisingly criticized it. It has described it as an anti-Russia coalition,

but I think it would be reassured by the fact that the Saudis are hosting it. Mohammed bin

Salman, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, has made it absolutely clear that in his new Saudi

first approach to foreign policy, he looks both east and west, but most of all he looks to Saudi

interest. He works with the Russians on trying to keep oil prices down. He works with the United

States on trying to find peace in Ukraine. So Russia knows that countries like Saudi Arabia

aren't taking sides, at least not for now. Least you said. Next, post-natal depression often occurs

within six weeks of giving birth. It has a huge impact not only on a mother's well-being,

but also how she can bond with and care for her baby. Until now, treatment for the condition was

only available as an injection administered in hospital, but the U.S. has just approved the

first pill for postpartum depression, which is expected to be available later this year.

Pam Belek, who's a health reporter for The New York Times, told me more about the drug.

It's called Zerzouvet, and the key things about it are that it appears to act very quickly, so

people can see some easing of depression beginning at three days, and that's much faster than standard

antidepressants, which do work for postpartum depression for some women, but they can take

several weeks to take effect. And the other thing that's interesting about this drug is that you're

only meant to take it for two weeks. It's not something that you have to agree to be on for

months, and that could be important for someone. And you've spoken to a woman who took part in

the trial, haven't you? Yes, I did. She's actually British, but she's living in North Carolina now,

and she described to me how when her son was born five years ago, she had really kind of classic

symptoms of this kind of depression. She was very concerned that she was a bad mother. She was worried

that something would happen to him, that she would do something that would either neglect him or just

make him an unhappy baby. It was very debilitating for her, and so she learned about this clinical

trial she participated, and she said to me that it didn't actually take effect right away, but

over time, she really just started to feel calmer, and she was able to just enjoy being with her son.

And you've been researching postpartum depression for years. How big of a problem is it in the United

States? It's a very big problem, and I don't think it's just a problem in the United States. The

estimates are that between 10 and 15 percent of women who've given birth experience some form of

depression. Sometimes it starts during pregnancy, sometimes it starts within a year after giving

birth, and that's probably a low estimate because unfortunately, it has been kind of shrouded in

stigma, and women are sometimes reluctant to seek help or they don't recognize what's happening to

them. And what are the medical communities saying about the impact that this pill could have? I mean,

you talked a bit about stigma there, especially. I think the medical community is quite encouraged

by this, and I think they feel that it's not actually so much that the pill itself is so much

better than anything else that's out there. It probably isn't. It probably has about the same

effect, although it does act quickly, and that's a big plus. But they feel that having a pill

specifically designated for this condition brings attention to this condition, tells people it's

a real problem, and is very likely to encourage more women to seek treatment, and importantly,

encourage the doctors they see who are not always psychiatrists to recognize that this might be an

issue to try to screen for it, diagnose it, and treat it. That was Pam Bellock from The New York

Times. A terrorist attack, the coronavirus pandemic, and a devastating economic crisis have

recently battered Sri Lanka's tourism industry, but now tourists are starting to return, and it

could be crucial in helping put the economy back on track. Archana Shukla reports from Arugam Bay,

one of the world's top surfing destinations.

As the sun rises over the turquoise waters at Sri Lanka's eastern coast,

the tide is turning for the better. The surfing beaches in Arugam Bay are buzzing with surfers

waiting to catch the perfect wave. 26-year-old Krish is training a family of three from Israel.

Return of tourists to the island's coast has meant he's giving surf lessons every day.

A much-needed breather after the economic crisis last year.

In this town on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, the peak of the economic crisis coincided with

their main tourist season. Lonely Planet had named Sri Lanka the top tourist destination in 2019.

Many small businesses like Krish had invested, hoping to reap rewards from the booming tourism

potential, but have struggled since then. I had a dream that I wanted to set up a cafe,

so I put all the money for that cafe 2019. But then I didn't expect that 2019 we're going to have

a bomb blast and two years of pandemic and then economic crisis. But foreign tourists are back,

giving a boost to Sri Lanka's tourist trade, which is one of its biggest foreign currency earners.

Yasmin, a surfing enthusiast from Germany, was one of the very few tourists who visited

Sri Lanka last April during the worst of the crisis. She's returned this year to enjoy a full surfing season.

So when I came last year to Arugambe, there were a few shops open and here were almost no people.

To see now like the difference, it's a good atmosphere now.

Some of the tourism industry's bigger players are optimistic about navigating the patchy recovery.

These Sri Lankans didn't expect the recovery to be this fast.

Hirankure is the chairman of Jetwing Symphony, a travel and hospitality chain.

He says return of the flights back to the island nation is promising.

So the Emirates, the Qatar's, the Singapore Airlines, AI India, all these big carriers

are coming back and they're increasing their frequencies to the country,

along with our national carriers, Sri Lanka.

To help prepare the economy, Sri Lanka received $3 billion from the IMF

and in exchange promised to reduce state expenses.

Subsidies on fuel, power and cooking gas have been cut, making them expensive,

and taxes have been steeply raised.

In the last year, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans have left the country

seeking better opportunities.

The vibrant tourism sector, dependent on skilled chefs and trained manpower,

now faces a challenging puzzle to fill the gaps left behind.

That was our Charnat Shukla.

Still to come on the Global News Podcast,

the creators of Lonely Planet celebrate 50 years of traveling

and a whopping 150 million book sales.

We bought an old car in London.

We drove it to Kabul in Afghanistan.

We carried on to Kathmandu.

An Israeli security guard has been shot dead by a Palestinian attacker

in a busy area of Tel Aviv, according to police.

The gunman was also killed.

On Friday, a young Palestinian man was killed in an attack

by armed Israeli settlers

in a village to the east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

From Tel Aviv, here's our Middle East correspondent Yolanda.

Two guards working for Tel Aviv municipality were out on patrol

when they noticed a man who looked suspicious,

but he didn't respond to their calls to stop, according to Israeli police.

As the pair got off their motorcycles,

the man is said to have pulled out a pistol and fatally shot one of the guards.

His partner then shot the Palestinian gunman.

Israeli security forces say that the attacker was from near Janine

in the northern West Bank,

and that he'd been wanted for the past six months.

The Tel Aviv shooting follows an attack by Jewish settlers

in the village of Burka on Friday night,

which has further raised tensions in the West Bank.

Israeli police say they've arrested two settlers

on suspicion of involvement

in the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian man.

Yolan, now.

Bangladesh is grappling with its worst-ever outbreak of dengue fever,

with heavy monsoon rains helping drive up infections.

Our South Asia regional editor,

Ambarasen Atarajan, has been telling me more.

This year has been pretty bad for Bangladesh.

What the authorities are talking about is a record number of deaths,

nearly 300, and still the monsoon period is not yet over.

That is expected to peak sometime in late August or in September,

and we are also seeing tens of thousands of people infected.

Even though most cases people can be treated at home

by taking simple painkillers,

but some people who develop very serious symptoms

like in a fever, nausea, or body hair,

they have to be admitted in hospital.

Now, the issue is there is no proper treatment available for dengue,

and that is making things complicated.

Now, how this develops?

Because people get bitten by infected mosquitoes,

and that is how the disease spreads.

Wherever the water is stagnant,

especially in big cities like Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh,

and people are having problems,

and now Bangladesh as a developing country,

even though it has health infrastructure,

it is not sufficient enough to meet these extraordinary numbers.

And that is why now experts are advising people

to cover yourself fully, even during the day,

to avoid these mosquito bites.

And I've been reading that global warming

and the changing weather pattern

is linked to the spread of dengue fever.

How's that?

What experts are saying is that,

usually from June to September,

when in the subcontinent where you have monsoon rains,

because of the changing weather pattern,

now you have these unseasonal rains,

sometime starting from April.

This is prevalent in more than 100 countries,

particularly tropical and subtropical countries

in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

The experts are worried about the disease

moving to sub-Saharan Africa or even parts of Europe,

where this is not an endemic.

But the changing weather pattern, the changing rains,

is why the World Health Organization estimates

that probably between 100 to 400 million people

getting infected every year,

even though most cases are not serious,

even if a fraction of that number

could have a huge impact on health infrastructure,

particularly in developing countries.

Embarrassing atirajan.

The seven-day deadline given by West African leaders

to the military in Niger expires today.

The regional bloc, Ekho Was, has told the junta

who carried out the coup

to reinstate President Mohammed Bazoum

or face potential military intervention.

Priyanka Sippy has been speaking to people

about their daily life in Niger

since the coup almost two weeks ago.

This is Sadi Susani,

a local government chairman of Maradi,

a city in the south of Niger.

When we spoke to him, he was in his car

trying to charge his phone.

The electricity had been out for more than 24 hours.

Nigeria recently cut off the power supply to Niger

after the coup.

That move took away around 60% of the country's electricity.

For the first time, there was power cuts

and there was a blackout.

So it's like already electricity has become a problem.

And that is not all.

Sani says the price of basic food staples is increasing.

The prices of products and items are already going high.

Shops are open but scarcity for some products is already there.

There is a kind of anxiety and fear in the air.

Mustafa Bakker lives in Niger's capital, Niame.

He runs a food business.

He has seen the same hike in food prices

and thinks that worse is to come.

For now, it's too early to see what exactly will happen.

But in 10 days, I believe if there is a lack of goodness,

price will double because we feel that there will be no more food in two weeks.

Those are the sounds of protesters gathered in Niame

to demonstrate against the strict sanctions placed on Niger

from the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS.

Protesters say that the sanctions are illegal and inhumane

and it could be ordinary families that pay the price.

31-year-old Ismaqeel Ahmadou lives in Niame with his wife and two children.

He makes and sells jewellery and this is his family's only source of income.

He says business has been slow since the takeover.

We don't even have a single customer.

There are others like myself who have also closed their stores.

If this continues like this, our future is in big trouble.

As discussions between ECOWAS continue,

Nigerians are left to wait for their fate.

And while the coup has received mixed reactions in the country,

with some Nigerians showcasing their support for the military takeover,

all are praying for peace and stability.

Priyanka Sippy with that report.

Now, a surprise participant at an indoor cycling class in California has raised eyebrows,

even among the star-studded residents of Santa Monica.

James Llewellyn takes up the story.

A dark room, pounding music and sweaty bodies.

No, it's not a nightclub, it's an indoor cycling session.

They've become some of the most popular fitness classes around the world,

espoused even by world leaders and celebrities.

So, when the TikTok influencer Hannah Harmelin arrived at her Taylor Swift theme session

in Santa Monica and spotted security guards outside,

she thought her wildest dreams had come true.

I'm like, what is going on?

My mind immediately goes like,

holy f***, Taylor Swift is about to be riding in my 7am SoulCycle class.

Like, she's performing in LA, like, celebrities do this all the time.

The mystery deepened during the class.

Three security guards stood in the corner throughout,

and the instructor kept the lights down low,

raising hopes among the cyclists that they had a pop legend in their midst.

And of course, you've heard of like Justin Bieber coming in and singing a song

and like Beyonce and Jay-Z, like, riding class.

So, I'm freaking out the whole time.

So, the class ends and I'm looking around trying to see where she is.

Turns out it was the prime minister of the UK.

Apparently, he's a Swiftie.

Rishi Tsunak is in California for a family holiday

and has previously confessed his liking for Taylor Swift.

His wife is also a fan of indoor cycling classes.

She's rumoured to have joined Jill Biden for a session

the day after the King's coronation.

But Downing Street wouldn't be drawn on the prime minister's latest

foray into the world of high-tech exercise,

saying it wouldn't provide a running commentary on his very Californian holiday.

That was James Lewellyn.

And finally, years before the internet, mobile phones and Google Maps.

Adventurous backpackers set on travelling the world

relied on the Lonely Planet Guide, which is now 50 years old.

Over the decades, more than 150 million books have been sold,

giving travellers tips on budget hotels, the best bars,

and how to get cheaply from A to B.

Tony Wheeler co-founded the Lonely Planet with his wife Maureen.

He told Gary O'Donohue how it all started.

We bought an old car in London.

We drove it to Kabul in Afghanistan.

And we sold the car in Kabul.

We carried on to Kathmandu.

We went down to another K, Kuda Beach in Bali,

and then hitched a ride on a yacht and ended up in Australia.

And then the following year, 73, which was 50 years ago,

we decided we should do a book about this.

And that was the start of Lonely Planet.

And what was your idea?

What did you think you had to tell people?

This is so long ago, before mobile phones and the internet

and readily available information.

And we'd had a lot of trouble finding out what we were going to do,

where we were going to go, how we were going to do it,

where we would stay.

All those questions that travellers always have.

And basically, we found out by asking other people.

That was the main source of information.

And we thought there was demand there,

that people asked us what we did.

And we said, yeah, let's make a book about it.

We didn't take it to any publishers.

We were living in Sydney.

And this was a short-term thing.

We were going to be there in Sydney for a year.

Then we were going to go travelling again

and eventually end up back in London, we thought,

which never happened.

We didn't have the time to wait around

and see what publishers thought

and wait for decisions to come back.

So we decided to do it ourselves.

We just published the book, found a little local printer,

got copies printed, brought them back to our basement flat in Sydney

and borrowed a stapler and stapled them and trimmed them

and took them around the bookshops.

How many did you sell?

We initially printed 1,500,

which we thought seemed like a lot of books.

And I took a day off work because we both had full-time jobs.

This was an evenings and weekend project.

I went around the bookshops and to my utter amazement,

the bookshops liked it.

And then they got a little bit of publicity.

And before you know it, we'd sold the whole lot in a week.

So we had to go back and print more.

We're in a very different world now.

There's a million different review sites.

There's mobile phones.

Other days gone of an author or two authors,

you and the page telling you what to go and look for,

telling you what's good, what's bad.

Is this a whole kind of crowd sourcing thing?

Has that replaced Lonely Planet as an idea?

No, it's supplemented it.

I mean, there's room for both.

I still use guidebooks.

I sometimes have them in digital form.

I sometimes have them in paper.

If people want adventure,

if people want to go somewhere and be off the beaten track,

they will do it.

They will find their way there.

That was Tony Wheeler.

And that's all from us for now.

But there will be a new edition

of the Global News Podcast later.

This edition was mixed by Lewis Alsop

and the producer was Emma Joseph.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Charlotte Gallagher.

Until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.