Global News Podcast: Spanish FA president Rubiales resigns over kiss

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

I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Monday the 11th of September,

these are our main stories.

The suspended Spanish Football Federation President,

Luis Rubiales, has resigned after he forcibly kissed a player

following the country's Women's World Cup win.

Some aid has started reaching mountain communities in Morocco

that were worst affected by the earthquake,

but many villages are almost totally destroyed.

Aid groups in Sudan have denounced the military

after its airstrikes killed dozens of civilians in Khartoum.

Also in this podcast,

we speak to an amazing lady who is recording the sounds of the birds

and animals in Europe's last primeval forest

without being able to see any of them.

After weeks of refusing to resign for kissing a female player

during World Cup celebrations,

the Spanish Football Chief, Luis Rubiales,

has finally caved into the growing calls for him to quit.

Jenny Emoso, the player he grabbed and kissed,

filed a legal complaint against him last week.

While still insisting he'd done nothing wrong,

Mr. Rubiales announced his departure on a British television show

Uncensored, hosted by the journalist Piers Morgan.

Our reporter, Sergi Fukada,

who's been following this story for the past three weeks,

says the announcement came as a surprise.

Closest allies in the past few weeks were kind of distancing from him.

In fact, today he's admitted that he couldn't continue

leading the Spanish Football Association

and that he doesn't want this whole incident to harm the Spanish football.

But I have to say that he's living fighting at the same time

because he said that he's been really proud of his work in the past few years

and he talks about this proportionate campaign against him.

Yes, he was very emotional defending himself even now,

but he's also admitting that Spain wants to host the Men's Football World Cup in 2030

and this fury is standing in the way of that.

What's the reaction been in Spain itself to this whole affair?

Probably an overwhelming majority

are celebrating or at least pleased that he's gone.

In fact, the phrase, no voy a dimitir, I will not resign,

has been trending on social media.

So lots of people mocking him because just a few days he was saying one thing,

well, now he's done the opposite.

The Spanish government is probably pleased as well

because they have been trying to get rid of him for the past few weeks.

But yeah, overwhelming majority of people happy with this decision.

And we've just recently seen the Spanish football coach Jorge Vilda going.

He's going now, Luis Rubiales.

What does this all mean for women's football in Spain?

I think that this is a victory for the Spanish national team

because you may remember that some of the players

didn't actually take part in the competition

because they went to changes with the coach, with the federation.

And for women as a whole, this is an issue that was more than football.

It went beyond football, I would say.

And this is something that everyone in the country has been talking about.

And Mr. Rubiales was very, very isolated on this.

Sergio Ficada, next to Morocco.

And the government says it's distributing aid from several countries

as a number of people known to have died in Friday's earthquake

has risen to more than 2,100.

Villages in the Atlas Mountains have been using their bare hands

to dig out people who've perished in the earthquake.

But I've also been working with rescuers to try to find others

who may still be alive under the rubble.

It's reported that some survivors are struggling to find food and water.

Some hilltop villages, many of them built of mud bricks,

have been almost totally destroyed.

The authorities say thousands more people have been left with severe injuries.

Many villagers are still waiting for news of missing relatives.

There are a lot of blocked roads, a lot of people can't find their parents

and a lot of people are still under the rubble.

Everything went down on them, the mountains, their homes.

Our correspondent Nick Beek visited one village in the Atlas Mountains

where nearly half the residents have died or are missing.

Just to warn you, you may find his report distressing.

We're right in the middle of a community that has been plunged

into the deepest sense of grief.

A mother of a young girl who's just been pulled out of 10-year-old collegia.

She's weeping, another lady is just fainted.

Down to our left, there's a family who have lost 14 loved ones.

People are inconsolable there, holding one another.

But what can you say at this point?

The bricks and stones of the traditional houses of the Atlas Mountains

were no match for the size of this quake.

The village of Tefracht leveled in seconds.

Nearly half of the 200 inhabitants here are confirmed dead,

with many more missing or in hospital.

They feel lost, they lost everything.

They lost their family, they lost their houses, everything.

Hassan knows exactly where his uncle is buried under the rubble.

But there's been no attempt to recover his body.

This is from Allah and we thank Allah for everything.

But now we need the help from our government.

They are very late to help people.

The first professional emergency teams to arrive here

have been Spanish firefighters and their dogs.

It's not a search for signs of life, but for the dead.

There are no miracle rescues in Tefracht,

in this epicenter of suffering.

Nick Beek reporting there.

While a short distance away in the popular tourist city of Marrakech,

the death toll has been much lower,

but many historic buildings have been badly damaged.

Businesses there have started reopening,

but there are worries that tourists will stay away.

Our correspondent Anna Holligan spoke to us from a restaurant in Marrakech.

The picture is so different though here in Marrakech.

We are inside the Medina now, inside the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And I've been speaking to people who run the businesses,

the suites, the markets that are synonymous with Marrakech.

And they're worried for a different reason.

They're worried about their livelihoods.

They're worried that tourists will see these images, hear about the death toll,

and stay away.

And I was just speaking to a gentleman who runs a spice stall.

And he said, we need you more than ever.

You need to come.

He wanted to be at home with his family today,

but he said he had to come to work because he needs the money.

Where I am now, you might be able to hear,

we're inside one of the restaurants on the edge of the square now.

Lots of tourists, lots of locals.

Our view is of the Jma El Fna.

Most of the minaret has crumbled, partially collapsed.

They've cleared away the bricks, most of the rubble as well.

And what the local people are asking us is,

please show the other side of this.

Please show that we are back in business.

We are trying to get on with our lives.

But there is, I mean, the picture up there in the Atlas Mountains,

close to the epicenter, it is absolutely devastating,

as Nick was saying.

Yes, because people there need the aid

to get to those remote mountain villages.

But as you're saying, people also need visitors

to keep coming to Morocco,

because it has been affected so badly by the pandemic.

But people must also be living in fear of aftershocks,

even though in Marrakesh.

Absolutely.

And as we were driving in here this morning,

we saw thousands of people camping out on the grass sheets

over the palm trees for some level of protection.

They're afraid to go home,

but at the same time, as we walk around these ancient streets,

there are whole facades of buildings just collapsed.

Some people have no home to return to.

And we're expecting, again, lots of people to be camping out,

because the fear of aftershocks is still very present,

not just among the local residents.

And it's thought about a quarter of this city,

of 1.2 million people, has been affected by the earthquake.

Tourists too, though, they're staying out of the hotels,

out of the riyadh.

And many of them are searching for ways to help.

We've spoken to people who describe diving under their beds.

They thought it was some kind of terror attack

when the quake hit.

Now they're out looking for people to help,

to hand out bottles of water.

We've seen images of queues outside the blood donation centres as well.

People who want to do something to help those who live here

and have nowhere else to go.

Anna Holigan in Marrakesh.

Next to Sudan.

Even by the dire standards of the civil war

that has racked the country for the past five months,

it's a horrific attack.

Nearly 50 civilians were killed,

and dozens more maimed or injured in an army airstrike

on a densely populated area in southern Khartoum,

where fighters from a rival paramilitary force, the RSF, are based.

Residents accuse the military of using drones to target the market,

a charge it denies.

The medical charity, Medicine Sans Frontières,

described the scene as carnage.

MSF staff have been treating civilians with horrific injuries.

Rebecca Kesby spoke to Loretta Charles, a medic.

She told her the first she knew about Sunday's blast.

Some people may find the details distressing.

This morning, we felt the impact around seven o'clock in the morning,

and then shortly thereafter,

we saw the smoke rising from the area of the market.

Could anything have prepared you for what happened next?

What sort of casualties started coming in,

and what kind of condition were people in?

We started receiving the wounded,

and they were mostly the blast injuries.

So we had traumatic amputations

and penetrating trauma to the head, the chest, and the abdomen.

So around 7.30, we started receiving patients,

and we received about around 60 wounded coming through the door,

and total today, we had 43 deaths.

This is at the Bashair Teaching Hospital, I think, isn't it?

Which is a pretty big hospital,

but did you have enough supplies and enough medics on duty

to handle that kind of scenario?

Yes, we had just received a shipment of supply,

which was wonderful,

and we have wonderful Sudanese colleagues

who, when there is an event such as this,

they all come in, whether they're on shift or not.

Loretta Charles, a medic with a charity MSF

at the Bashair Teaching Hospital in Khartoum.

I heard more about the attack

from an Africa regional editor, Will Ross.

This was an attack by the Sudanese military on Goroh market.

This is in the Mayo area of southern Khartoum,

and that area, as you say,

is where a lot of the rapid support forces are based.

They're kind of embedded in the population.

So even though the Sudanese military is saying,

we do not target civilians,

it seems that they viewed this as a legitimate target

because it's known to be an RSF area.

There are also some reports that the market that was hit

was where a lot of goods that have been looted by the RSF are sold.

Now, it's been five months of conflict.

Neither side seems to be near victory,

nor showing any sign of wanting to pursue mediation.

Where do we go from here?

Well, that's the question.

Nobody really knows.

It seems to be a complete kind of log jam

with neither side willing to back down at all

or come to some agreement over sharing power.

You've got the two generals, Al Burhan,

the kind of military leader of the country,

and Hermetti, who's in charge of the rapid support forces.

They have sort of through intermediaries tried talks before.

And it's certainly the case that the problem in Khartoum now

is that the civilian deaths are going up quite sharply

because it seems that the sort of threshold

that both sides are putting up in order to agree

whether they're going to carry out an attack

is just getting higher and higher.

And civilians are trapped in the middle

between these fighting forces.

We're also hearing of terrible clashes in North Darfur.

El Fasha with a serious number of casualties.

MSF is reporting during Saturday's fighting.

And I've spoken to another resident of Khartoum

who's told me that in the north of Khartoum,

so far away from where this market is located,

there have also been a lot of airstrikes

with more civilian deaths.

Will Ross.

Police in Chile have clashed with demonstrators

during a march attended by President Gabriel Boric

on the eve of the 50th anniversary

of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

President Boric blamed a small number

of masked activists for the disruption

and said many of those attending the demonstration

were relatives of those tortured and killed

during military rule.

Here's Leonardo Rosha.

Salvador Allende died on September the 11th, 1973.

Last month, his government announced a plan

to search for more than a thousand people

who disappeared during the Pinochet regime.

Some 3,000 people were killed in the 17 years he was in power.

Leonardo Rosha.

Here in the UK, Manchester University Museum

in the north of England has started the process

of handing back dozens of artifacts belonging

to an indigenous community in Australia.

The return of these objects is part of a larger effort

by Western countries to repatriate artifacts

that were taken from former colonies.

The objects in this case were taken

from the Anindili Aqua community

on an island off the coast of Australia.

Beth Timmins watched the handing back ceremony

in northern England.

That's the song of Yana Mamalia,

Ayan Kidaba, Langua,

playing at the University of Manchester's Museum.

It's about 14 clans and is sung by aunties

from the Aboriginal and Anindili Aqua community,

celebrating the return of 174 artifacts.

Across the world, requests for cultural heritage

required during colonial periods are gaining momentum.

And this collection, traded and bought by sociologist

Professor Peter Worsley in the early 50s,

will now be returned to its rightful owners in Groot Island,

off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory,

one of whom Alda Danjibana Nolene Lalara

was tearful as she thanked those at the ceremony.

The Worsley collection includes fishing spears,

boomerangs and shell dolls,

painted with totemic designs to represent Mamarica

and Borough clans.

I spoke to delegates from the Anindili Aqua community,

Nolene and Macy Lalara and Amethia Mamarica.

I'm so proud of my people.

It's been a wonderful journey for me on the way to Manchester

and I hope you guys also from all around the world,

I hope you're also happy about your artifacts have been returned.

And why is it important for you to have these shells

and the other 174 objects?

The artifacts are going back home

and you want to give the knowledge and skills to our future leaders.

It's not only a shell, it's got meanings and stories

about the doll shells and it's very important to us.

On the table, there are some shells that are about as big as my finger.

Some of them are wrapped in parts of fabric,

which have been hand painted with ochre.

Some of them are smaller and they represent the children

and some of the shells look like they've been wrapped with string.

They're beautiful colours and designs

and no one's being allowed to film or photograph what's on the table

because of its importance in the ceremony today.

After a grueling four flights over three days,

this part of an Anindili Aqua heritage will be back in Grute Island,

where Amethia told me her grandmother had played with them half a century ago.

All these things, we bring it back home because it's got a dream time stories in it,

our history, it's got everything on it, our toll terms.

So we need these things, our ancestors,

all in time to bring them back to our country for our future,

to keep on doing it, to make it a life.

That report by Beth Timmons.

Still to come?

Running is what saved me and it is very emotional

because I guess, you know, I have to just go and enjoy myself now,

time with my family and my kids.

One of Britain's greatest athletes, Mo Farah,

has run his final competitive race.

Unexpected Elements is the podcast that sifts through the week's news to unearth surprising

nuggets of science.

I really wanted to look at an animal that, as far as we could tell at least,

doesn't seem to age.

Okay, you have my attention, tell me more.

And uncover the unexpected connections between them.

I think now's the good time to talk about worms.

Really? Worms?

Absolutely.

Unexpected Elements from the BBC World Service.

Amazing stuff.

Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Welcome back to the Global News Podcast.

After signing a new strategic partnership with Vietnam,

President Biden has denied that the US is attempting to isolate China.

Mr Biden made the comments nearly half a century after US forces pulled out of Vietnam,

ending the disastrous Cold War era conflict there.

The communist leader, Nguyen Fu Chow, described the two countries as critical partners

at a critical time for the world.

From Hanoi, he is our Asia-Pacific correspondent, Laura Bicca.

The United States is forging closer ties with China's communist neighbour.

Hanoi has upgraded its partnership with Washington to its highest level of diplomatic ties.

A deal the Biden administration has pushed for as it tries to counter China's growing

influence across the Asia-Pacific.

In the last six months, Mr Biden has also made packs with Japan, South Korea,

the Philippines and islands in the Pacific, which Beijing condemned as part of a Cold War mentality.

Are they right, Mr President? Is it a danger of a Cold War?

I think we think too much in terms of Cold War terms.

It's not about that.

It's about generating economic growth and stability in all parts of the world.

Once one of the world's poorest nations, Vietnam is now one of the fastest growing economies in Asia,

and the US is offering to help.

Big names including Google, Microsoft and Apple have all shifted parts of their supply chain here

in recent years, part of a strategy to move more semiconductor manufacturing out of China.

Hanoi will happily work with Washington to grow its economy,

but will not want to be put in a position where it has to choose the US

over China.

Instead, it is likely to try to balance its relationship with both superpowers.

Laura Bicker in Vietnam

The US and Iran have reached an agreement that will see five detained Americans freed by Tehran

in exchange for several jailed Iranians and eventual access to about $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets.

This comes after two years of negotiations and its latest in a series of high-profile prisoner swaps.

The Biden administration has negotiated to try to bring home

US citizens it believes have been wrongly detained.

I put it to our Middle East regional editor, Mike Thompson,

that the deal would come as a surprise to some.

It all happened in a very surprising way.

There were eight rounds of talks over a long period, and these involved

US and Iranian officials in Doha in separate hotels,

and it all had to be done by a shuttle diplomacy because they wouldn't meet in the same room.

And the clincher was the agreement over the $6 billion of Iranian money proceeds from

past Iranian oil sales that were to be paid back to Iran,

not directly.

They go to Qatar from banks in South Korea,

and they're only to be spent on humanitarian services.

But this could happen as early as next week.

And if it does, then the US prisoners in Iran will be able to fly to Doha,

and the Iranian prisoners in the US will also fly there

and can go home from there.

So quite a surprise, but it's been a bit of a journey getting there.

And how has this come about, given the fact that US and Iran are bitter adversaries?

Indeed.

I mean, they've been locked in long negotiations,

along with some other world powers,

over the 2015 deal to give Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.

That's been ongoing, but it's floundered and got pretty much nowhere.

And then there's been at the background to all this,

there's been US concern over Iranian expansionism in the Middle East,

and it considers that still to be right.

So this really is an agreement which is separate to the ongoing problem,

which the US State Department has described, for instance,

diplomatic relations with Iran as one of not much trust.

So that pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Mike Thompson.

Just last month, the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly

visited China to try to improve deteriorating relations.

But now questions are being asked about whether that was a wise move.

After reports emerged that a parliamentary researcher

believed to have linked to several leading members of the governing conservative party

was arrested back in March on suspicion of spying for China, along with another man.

The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who's been attending the G20 summit in India,

said he'd raised the issue with a Chinese Premier Li Chiang.

With regard to my meeting with my Premier Li,

what I said very specifically is that I've raised a range of different concerns

that we have in areas of disagreement,

and in particular my very strong concerns about any interference

in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.

Our political correspondent Nick Erdley told us more about the two arrests.

Well, officially the police have confirmed that two men were arrested back in March

under the Official Secrets Act.

And our understanding is that one of those men who's in his 20s,

who was arrested in Edinburgh, is a parliamentary researcher in the House of Commons

who has links to some pretty senior conservative MPs in the British Parliament,

the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in Parliament,

a woman called Alicia Kerns.

Tom Tuggenha, who's the security minister now,

although my understanding is that this was before he had that senior government job.

But he's raised those big questions about the vetting procedures for Parliament,

about Chinese influence in British society,

and it's reignited this debate that's been going on for ages actually in the UK

about what the government's approach to China should be.

Because we had the British Foreign Secretary in China just last month

trying to re-engage after years of deteriorating relations,

and now this has been taken so seriously that the Prime Minister,

Rishi Sunak, has been speaking to the Chinese Premier on the sidelines of the G20 Summit about this.

But some will say, is that enough?

I think you're absolutely right, and when you speak to those conservative MPs

who have concerns about the government's approach to China,

they point to that visit from the Foreign Secretary the first in five years last month,

and they say, why is that happening if at the same time we have real concerns

that Chinese actors are infiltrating the UK Parliament?

The argument you hear from ministers in the UK government is, well, look, we can't ignore China.

It's a hugely important economy and geopolitical player,

and we need to have those relations, particularly when it comes to some of those debates over things

like Ukraine. But there are an increasing number of conservative MPs, some of who have

been sanctioned by China, who say it just isn't enough, and we need to take a much stricter approach.

Especially given the fact this isn't the first time there have been such accusations of Chinese

interference. No, MI5, the spy agency in the UK, took a pretty unprecedented step when it named

a woman a few years ago and said that she had strong links to the Chinese Communist Party.

She'd been donating to some British politicians, including a prominent Labour MP,

Labour, the main opposition party. That led to a number of questions about Chinese influence,

and speaking to members of Parliament today, I think the main concern a lot of them have is

that this is still happening, that after that case a few years ago, this hasn't been fully dealt with.

Nick Hurley, one of Britain's greatest athletes, Mo Farah, has completed his final

competitive race, saying afterwards that it was very emotional and that running is all I know.

The 40-year-old, who's won four Olympic gold medals, finished fourth in the so-called Great

North Run in Northern England. Tens of thousands of other runners also took part in the half

marathon. Joe Wilson was watching. From Newcastle to South Shields, the Great North Run is the biggest

event of its kind in Britain. Some 60,000 participants started on a day too hot to be

comfortable. So Mo Farah led the elite race for a couple of miles. That urge to win remains after

a career of 10 global gold medals on the track. He's now 40 and those victories elude him.

But he completed this half marathon waving to spectators and high-fiving hands. His position

was fourth and his status finished. That suddenly seemed like a lot to take in.

Running is what saved me and without having something to do and something that could make

me happy, it would have been very difficult for me. It is very emotional because I guess, you know,

I have to just go and enjoy myself now, time with my family and my kids. But all I know is running

and that's what made me happy for so many years. He may no longer compete to win,

but of course a Mo Farah can still run. Tens of thousands had their own compelling reasons

to do just that at the Great North Run. Joe Wilson. Now, have a listen to this.

That's the sound of the rare European bison grazing. It lives in Europe's last primeval

forest, the Alavica, which lies on the border between Poland and Belarus. It's a world heritage

site and it's an immersive experience rich with all kinds of birdsong and animal sounds.

One woman has made it her mission to record as many of them as possible.

She's the blind Polish field sound recordist Isabella Durszyk.

Julian Warwicka spoke to Isabella, who's in Gdansk and asked her about her recordings.

When I, for instance, choose some soundscapes to record, what is most important for me

is simply enjoyment of the sound. So this is why I choose soundscapes that are poetic or lyrical.

There is one recording of field crickets and nightingales, fresh nightingales.

And this is something extraordinary because I did not focus on the birds themselves,

but I chose the opposite side to capture the echo.

Well, here's some of the sounds that you've particularly selected as we talk.

Various different breeds of bird, I think, feature quite heavily.

How much of an important part are they all as you walk through this woodland?

How much are you hearing them? How much do they change your experience when you're there?

Sometimes it is so extraordinary. For instance, the soundscape of the cuckoo,

the golden orioles and the great spot of woodpecker.

Each of these species has a very special sound, a very beautiful sound,

really fortunate to hear them all at once. So I think that when we talk about the experience

of listening, all depends on very subtle moments that I have while walking.

Tell me about the recording process. Is it literally just you and a tape recorder?

How does it work?

I need a person to guide me because I am blind, so I cannot visit such places myself.

And usually the people who assist me is my family, especially my mother.

But when it comes to the process of recording itself, yes, I would say that this is me and the

microphone. I have two types of microphones. One is intended for soundscape recording.

And I have also a second microphone that is intended more for recording with a parabolic dish.

So when I want to record some soundscapes in which I cannot be present, for instance,

because birds or other animals, because I do not record birds only,

will be disturbed or might be frightened, I leave the microphone, the stereophonic

microphone on the tripod and it records by itself. This is how I recorded the great night.

Tell me about the current situation because you've got a radio programmed.

You have an album that you have made out of your recordings. What's been the reaction to all of that?

I once had a presentation of my recordings from Peru.

In the Amazon jungle in Peru or whereabouts in the country?

Yes, in the Amazon jungle. And one person went up to me and said that she lived there for some time.

And for her, it is recollection of her childhood. And this is something that is most important to

me because I think that listening is something that may open us to our inner way of experiencing the

world. The music of nature, the sounds of nature are perhaps the most gentle sounds we can ever hear

regardless of our opinions, political preferences. Nature is accepting for all of us.

And this is something that we need, I think.

That was the Field Sound Recordist Isabella Duszek in Poland.

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, you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X,

formerly known as Twitter, at Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll,

the producer was Liam McCheffrey, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil, until next time,

goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.