Global News Podcast: Trump could face Georgia trial next March

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I was working in a coffee shop in Boston to like help pay rent while I was training for

the trials and so people kept joking they're like oh yeah she just took a two hour coffee break

and went and ran the Olympic trials there at that.

On the podium is back with more Olympians and Paralympians sharing their journeys to the top.

On the podium from the BBC World Service listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello I'm Oliver Conway this edition is published in the early hours of Thursday the 17th of August.

The prosecutor in the US state of Georgia says Donald Trump's trial on election interference

should begin in March right in the middle of the Republican primary season.

Pakistan deploys troops in Punjab province to control Muslim crowds who attack Christian homes

and churches and more than 60 migrants are presumed dead after their vessels sank near Cape

Verde off the west coast of Africa. Also in the podcast the British Museum sacks a member of

staff after items from its collection disappeared and the Netherlands radical plan to put an end to

this in schools. Teachers end up having big fights with its students asking them to hand in

their phones and the kids will say no it's my property you can't just take it from me.

Donald Trump has a busy few months ahead of him not only is he campaigning for the US

presidential election next year he is also facing four separate trials. The latest charges were

brought against him this week in the state of Georgia following the infamous phone call

when he asked an official to quote find 11,780 votes so he could beat Joe Biden.

The district attorney has proposed the trial should start in early March right in the middle

of the Republican primary election season. Before his first appearance in court June next month

the former president must be booked in at the Fulton County Jail which is already under heavy

police guard. Here's what people in the area thought about Mr Trump being charged.

With more details of the legal process here's Wiradavis in Washington.

Donald Trump and the other 18 defendants accused of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020

election have already been told to surrender or present themselves at Georgia's Fulton County

Jail before Friday the 25th of August when it's reported they may have mugshots taken

and be fingerprinted. The district attorney or prosecutor bringing the case against the former

president has now asked the court that Mr Trump should also be arraigned have the charges against

him formally presented in the first four week of September. The prosecutor Fanny Willis who

Mr Trump has accused of leading a politically motivated witch hunt against him also requested

the court to approve a provisional trial date of March the 4th. Mr Trump has said he will present

his own investigation next week which he says will completely exonerate him of allegations of

racketeering and election meddling. The setting of a trial date in Georgia which still has to be

agreed by a judge is important given the many other criminal and civil cases being faced by Mr

Trump and his intention to stand as the Republican candidate in next year's presidential election.

We're at Davis in Washington next to an update on a story we reported on in the last edition of

the global news podcast from Pakistan where hundreds of Muslim men have gone on the rampage

in a town near Faisalabad. It came after two Christians were accused of desecrating pages

of a Quran. Well accusations of blasphemy like that are dealt with extremely harshly in Pakistan.

Punishments include the death penalty although there is no record of anyone actually being

put to death by the authorities. Dozens of alleged blasphemy suspects have been killed

by lynch mobs and vigilantes. In this latest instance government officials say troops were

called in after the crowds torched Christian churches and houses. The protesters had been

encouraged by local Muslim leaders. From Islamabad here's Caroline Davis.

Pakistan's social media is full of videos showing a cross being torn down from the roof of a church

in Jaranwala before the building is set alight. Others show angry protesters surging through

the narrow streets of the city's Christian areas chanting slogans while burning furniture taken

from nearby homes. One minister said over 7,000 angry protesters came out on the streets of

Jaranwala after they heard about an alleged incident of the desecration of the Quran.

Police told the BBC that they had registered a case under the blasphemy law

against two Christian brothers who were accused of tearing pages out of the Quran early this morning.

Caroline Davis will rights groups say blasphemy allegations in Pakistan can be misused to target

religious minorities or to settle scores. Umar Nangiana from the BBC Urdu service told me more

about the relations between Muslims and Christians in the affected area. Normally it's very court

11. There's never been a problem. The minority Christian community has been living there for

a very long time, maybe over 100 years there in Jaranwala. There's never been any serious

trouble other than the blasphemy accusations and allegations that we see occasionally in different

areas of Pakistan. There's been trouble in some parts of Faisalabad district, which is the same

district where Jaranwala also lies, but not specifically in this town and people have been

living very quarterly there. The relations have been really good, but whenever you know

there is this incident of alleged blasphemy then there are troubles, there are tensions and that

is exactly what is happening right now in Jaranwala. People are saying that the situation is very tense.

Some of them have left their houses. They're not returning home because they fear that the violence

may spill over. Umar Nangiana from the BBC Urdu service in Islamabad. Well speaking at a news

conference in Washington on Wednesday, Verdant Patel of the US State Department said the reports

from Pakistan were worrying and called for an end to the violence. We are deeply concerned that

churches and homes were targeted in response to reported Koran desecration in Pakistan. We support

peaceful freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion and belief for everybody.

And as we have previously said, we are always concerned of incidents of religiously motivated

violence and we urge Pakistani authorities to conduct a full investigation into these allegations

and call for calm for all those involved. US State Department spokesman Verdant Patel.

More than 60 migrants are thought to have drowned after their boat sank off the coast of Cape Verde

in West Africa. Most of them were from Senegal and Sierra Leone and a Pizarro reports. The vessel

was first spotted on Monday by a Spanish fishing boat 300 kilometers off the island of Sal in

Cape Verde. Local police estimate 100 people were initially on board, most of them from Senegal

and Sierra Leone. 38 people survived, some needed hospital treatment. Cape Verde is not on any

particular migrant route as the archipelago is about 600 kilometers off the West African coast.

Its waters are dangerous, with high waves and frequent wind changes. But the treacherous route

does lie on the way to Spain's Canary Islands, a gateway used by migrants trying to reach the

European Union. Anna Pizarro. When the head of Niger's presidential guard seized power three

weeks ago, he said he was acting because of a worsening security situation. Niger, like neighbors

Mali and Burkina Faso, has been struggling to deal with a jihadist insurgency, which has plagued

the Sahel region for more than a decade. Under President Mohammed Bazoum, violence in Niger

had actually been falling. But since his ousting, there have been seven jihadist attacks on the

armed forces. The latest on Wednesday left 17 soldiers dead. Our West Africa correspondent,

Chris Iwako, told me what the military authorities are saying about the incident.

They had a military convoy that was on patrol duty. They came under attack. It was an ambush

mounted by some armed groups. And in the attack, 17 soldiers were killed. 20 others were injured.

Is it the fact that the sort of instability following the coup seems to have led to an

increase in jihadist attacks? This is what it seems. There are indications that more troops have been

withdrawn from the front line to help secure, especially the capital, Nyami, after threats

by the Aqours regional bloc, choosing to intervene militarily if the junta in Niger failed to reinstate

President Bazoum. Security analysts actually suggest that pulling out troops from the front line

could affect the fight against insurgency in the Sahel country, especially at a time that

countries like the United States and France have stopped military cooperation with the junta

again. It looks like the jihadist groups are taking advantage of the political crisis.

They have succeeded in ambushing soldiers in the last seven attacks close to about 50 soldiers

have so far been killed. Is this increase in attacks on the military and others? Is that likely

to weaken support for the coup? Well, we've seen many people in Niger, especially in the capital,

Nyami, coming out in large numbers to demonstrate their solidarity in support of the coup chanting

or expressing anti-West, anti-France sentiment, believing that the insurgency could have been

cursed by Western countries. Unfortunately, what is happening now is bound to turn the tide in a

way because at a time President Bazoum was still in power. He was taking the fight to the insurgents

and there were a reduction in in activities of these armed groups. Now it's getting to escalate

if it continues. A lot of people begin to think differently and feel that perhaps the junta is

not really able to contain the insurgents if they continue in power. Chris, it will call their in

Nigeria monitoring events in neighboring Niger. The leaders of a wildlife trafficking gang have

been convicted after a four-year investigation. At their trial in Nigeria last month, they pleaded

guilty to smuggling the scales of African pangolins, which conservationists say are being hunted to

extinction. Described as top of the pyramid traffickers, they were responsible for half of all

illegal trade in pangolin scales. The BBC's Steve Swan talked to one of the people who went undercover

to bring down the network. A wildlife trafficker from Vietnam is in Africa to buy pangolin scales.

He's on the phone to a supplier. We changed his voice because he's really an undercover investigator.

The investigator speaks to the gang leader.

They don't realize their calls and movements are being monitored. A huge intelligence operation

run from the secret HQ of a charity in the Netherlands meant within days of the calls

the traffickers were arrested. Now they've pleaded guilty in Nigeria to smuggling pangolin scales.

I can't underestimate the value of this trial. To wildlife in Africa, these guys are at the

top of the pyramid. Steve Carmody is an ex-police officer who works for the Wildlife Justice Commission.

So we have Drini, Pixie, Jafar and a record eight tons of pangolin scales and more than 1,000

elephant tusks have been seized from a shipping container in Hong Kong. The investigation began

in 2018 after seizures of animal parts hidden in shipping containers en route from Africa to Asia.

Inside were scales stripped from the carcasses of thousands of pangolins.

They're a solitary animal. Their defense mechanism is to roll up in a ball.

They can't defend themselves from us and we're decimating them and these guys are profiting

from that and there's no empathy at all. Pangolins are believed to be the most traffic mammal in

the world. Their meats eat in Africa. Their scales used in traditional medicine in China.

It's estimated a million have been killed by traffickers in the last decade.

That changed during the Covid pandemic. Shipments slowed down so West African traffickers took

to social media to find new buyers. I'm looking at one of the posts now. I can see video of sacks

of pangolin scales piled up in a container and offered for sale. This was intelligence used by

investigators. Van not a real name is a young Vietnamese woman who went undercover. I love animals

and wildlife is my passion. The animals mean nothing to them. Here's another WhatsApp video.

It's mute but you can see Van talking to a trafficker over the phone. His code name is

Jeannie and he's wandering around his compound with about a dozen sacks of scales all stacked up

off the ground. He didn't realize it but he left vital clues which the team passed on to the

Nigerian authorities. And within 12 hours that raided the premises, arrested his brother and

two other people, seized the 7.1 tons of pangolin scales and 800 kilos of ivory because Jeannie gave

us his address and did a video call showing us the products. It's like Pablo Escobar telling

you where he lives in Colombia and showing the cocaine in his basement. Jeannie wasn't arrested

and is now on the run but after years of feeling untouchable he and other wildlife traffickers

are finally feeling the pressure. Steve Swan reporting. Nestled between Colombia and Peru,

two of the world's largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador was until recently known as an island of

peace in South America but a recent upsurge in violence exploded into full view last week.

A shocking murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, an investigative journalist

who often spoke about a link between government officials and organized crime. He'd received

numerous threats and wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest at the time. Polls had suggested that he

had a good chance of getting through to the second round in the election on Sunday. His running mate,

environmental campaigner Andrea Gonzalez, spoke to the BBC's James Menendez about the killing.

We found each other in this fight for freedom that we have for more than 15 years here in Ecuador.

Fernando and I shared a vision of this country of peace. This is a paradise that they've turned

into hell. Which I guess means it's been incredibly difficult dealing with what happened and the

aftermath. Yes, Fernando was my friend. I understand that I wouldn't wish any other of the mates of

the council of the presidential candidates to go through what I'm going but I've lost a friend

and to me it's incredibly personal and hard to not be able to say goodbye to my friend because

I'm wearing a bulletproof vest 24 hours. I think no one in Latin America should allow this in their

country to happen and it's personally a big, big loss. I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders

because he always told me that I was supposed to go on with this. So it's a legacy. I'm not

willing to let die with him. He was very outspoken and particularly about the issue of drugs,

gangs and violence but were you shocked when he was shot? Did you expect that it would come to that?

No, I never imagined that it would happen in Quito, in the capital of the country,

in the middle of a rally. We thought that we were in danger. Yes, but we went all through the country

and we were in very dangerous cities. I live in one of the most dangerous cities which is

Guayaquil and we had all the precautions. Fernando was not being irresponsible. His message was that

we should all be brave and that you should be brave even if you do not have a bulletproof vest

or if you don't have a lot of power or a lot of money or if you don't have political influence

and that's the message that he delivered. He wasn't playing with his life or putting us at risk.

The actual message was we have to all be brave because I do believe that the good people are the

majority in this country but we do not make ourselves present in the moments where this

country needs us to step forward. Do you think though he could have taken more precautions given

the threats against him? Do you think he should have taken more precautions? To be honest, it

wouldn't have been useful. He was shot in the head five times with heavy artillery. There was

20 people involved in this. This has been a shock not only for the democracy but for the violence

in this country which has reached an unimaginable point. He was shot from a long-distance rifle.

If it wasn't there in the rally, it would have been the next days and he was shot in the head so

the bulletproof vest would have been useless. Yes, it was not supposed to be in that car. It was

supposed to get in a car with all the securities and a bulletproof car but they had everything

studied and they were following us, the whole campaign. They would have done it anyway.

Andrea Gonzalez in Ecuador talking to James Menendez.

And still to come on the Global News Podcast. God willing, Lebanon will become an oil producing

country so there will be a glimmer of hope for the Lebanese people. Optimism in Lebanon

as an oil rig arrives to begin exploration. What in the world is the podcast exploring the stories

and the issues that you need to know about? 93% of fast fashion workers aren't getting paid a living

wage. The former president is accused of trying to overturn democracy. How do elite athletes train

in and around their menstrual cycle? Understand more. Feel better with what in the world from the

BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts and hit subscribe.

A BBC investigation in nine countries has found that women across Africa are struggling with

period poverty. Some spend up to 13% of their monthly income on sanitary products.

Gemma O'Reilly has been talking to activists in Zimbabwe trying to make basic hygiene more

affordable for women and girls. Singing and waving their precious gift bags. These girls in rural

Zimbabwe have just received a couple of boxes each of sanitary pads and they can't stop smiling.

For some of them, these pads are the only ones they'll get all year.

Nokozolan Nuanwe is a women's rights activist. She's distributing pads to a

classroom packed with teenagers and to those who really need them.

Ministry of Health has an impact on economic growth, particularly socioeconomic justice.

And so if we want to bring about women empowerment and the eradication of period poverty,

we need to pull in all our collective voices. In 2019, Nokozolan successfully got the government

in South Africa to scrap the 15% sales tax on sanitary pads. Activists across the continent

have launched initiatives to tackle period poverty and break down the stigma still attached to periods.

Ibrahim Fale is from Nigeria. He has made it his mission to raise awareness among boys

about menstrual hygiene. I feel I need to do something before we get out of hand. So I believe

with initiatives like this, all of Africa, we can counter and eradicate future poverty.

The World Bank says that at least 500 million women and girls lack the access they need to

facilities during their periods. Our Pan-African BBC investigation has found that women

on minimum income are spending between 3 to 13% of their monthly wage on sanitary products alone.

In many cases, girls are having to resort to using newspapers, cow dung and even

transactional sex to get the products that they need. Back at the school, girls are using

affirmations to build their confidence. But Nokozolan says there's still a long way to go

for women and girls in Africa. What's stopping us from fighting against eradicating

period poverty? What's stopping us from achieving gender equality? I mean, it doesn't have to take

more than 300 years. So if we work together, then we'll be able to bring in the need of

attention towards eradicating period poverty once and for all across the globe.

She's now working to get a menstrual health rights bill passed in South Africa

that would allow menstrual hygiene to be classed as a human rights issue.

Barriport by Jermo Rangli

Lebanon is in the grip of a deep economic and political crisis. But on Wednesday came a possible

lifeline with the arrival of a drilling rig. Operated by a consortium led by the French firm

Tuttal Energy, it will begin exploring for oil and gas in Lebanese waters later this month.

Here's the Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamia.

For the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people, this is a crucial matter.

God willing, before the end of this year, the results will come back positive,

and Lebanon will become an oil-producing country. So there will be a glimmer of hope

for the Lebanese people. The exploration of what is known as Block 9 has been made possible by a

US-brokered deal to set up a maritime border between Lebanese and Israeli waters.

I heard more from my Arab affairs editor, Sebastian Asher.

This was a long process, went through a lot of issues, as you can imagine, because, I mean,

Israel and Lebanon are technically at war with each other. So they couldn't deal with each other

directly. The main player, although not politically, but just in the sense of the control that it has

over Lebanon is Hezbollah, which of course is extraordinarily anti-Israel and has fought wars

with Israel, but there may even be one coming along in the next year or two. So their concerns

had to be dealt with. But I think, again, with Lebanon in such a dire economic circumstance,

it was felt that this was worth pursuing. So Hezbollah went along with it. In fact,

it's a Hezbollah minister who's been talking about it today in the government. So the US

brokered that deal last year. It took a lot of very nifty diplomatic footwork to do that.

Israel will receive royalties from this if it happens, because part of a field that's going

to be explored a little bit of it is in the maritime area, but it's been demarcated as belonging

to Israel. And after all they've been through are people in Lebanon excited by this?

I would think absolutely not, because they are people who have lived through all sorts of problems.

So cynicism is kind of a lifestyle there. So I don't think anybody's jumping up for joy. And

the fact that their ministers are saying this will give them even less of a sense of confidence.

I mean, they have been out on the streets against their government trying to remove it. Essentially,

there isn't a government as such in Lebanon. It's a caretaker government. There's no president.

There's no prime minister except an acting prime minister. And there's no governor of the central

bank either after he resigned essentially in disgrace. But I mean, as you know, even if they

do find gas or oil, the development of that will take years. So the actual economic benefits of

this won't be massive for a long time, although obviously if it is discovered soon, that will

be a boost to the local economy in terms of people coming and working on it. It will be a new industry

that will be very beneficial to Lebanon. Our Arab Affairs editor, Sebastian Asher.

One of the UK's largest tourist attractions, the British Museum has sacked a member of staff

after treasures disappeared. The items described as historically priceless include gold,

jewellery and semi-precious gemstones. Police are investigating. Robin Brent reports from the

Museum in central London. Somewhere inside this building, which has been in the heart of London

for 270 years, it's a globally renowned institution, but somewhere inside there is

essentially a crime scene tonight. We heard from the British Museum that there are various items

that are either missing, stolen or damaged. A member of their staff has been dismissed. So let's

look at what we know about what's missing. These are small pieces that were kept inside a storeroom

inside this building. They weren't being shown to members of the public and they include apparently

gold jewellery, gems of semi-precious stones and glass. Now they date back to the 15th century

BC and some of the items come all the way up to the 19th century AD. So that means that some of

these missing or stolen items could be as old as three and a half thousand years. Now we've heard

from George Osborne. He's formerly a prominent Conservative politician in this country. He's now

the chair of the British Museum and he said the priorities for them are to find the missing goods

and to make sure it doesn't happen again and he's described this as a sad day for all of

those who love the British Museum. But what's clear tonight is not much is clear. They don't have a

full inventory of what's gone missing. They don't know where this stuff is, they don't know how

long it's been going on for and they can't place a value on these missing items as well. Some of

them as I said, potentially thousands of years old. Robin Brandt at the British Museum not far from

us here in central London. Now to an issue which many a parent has struggled with, how to regulate

children's use of mobile phones. Last month the Dutch government announced that from the start

of next year all phones will be banned from classrooms to stop them disrupting learning.

From the Netherlands, his Anna Holligan. Students' phones have turned some classrooms

into battlegrounds. Teachers end up having big fights with its students asking them to hand in

their phones and the kids will say no it's my property you can just take it from me from January

2024. All devices from smartphones to tablets to watches will be banned in Dutch schools

with a few exceptions for example during lessons on digital skills or for students with a medical

need or learning disability. Come to the station to meet a friend who is a teacher in high school

here in The Hague. Her name is Asha. It's a challenge to get the kids off of their phones.

It's a challenge to monitor what they're doing on their phones. Have you ever had any direct

confrontation with the student because they just refuse to put that in their phones? Yes.

Yes. The student was 18 years old so he could basically do whatever he wants anyways but he

was not learning for his exams and parents are spending a lot of money on his schooling so

they expect me to take the phone from him and yes it was very challenging and eventually

the phone was locked in the locker for the rest of the day but the result is not what you want

because this boy was so mad at the fact that his phone was locked away that he was not learning

anyways. It's best to find a balance instead of choose a fight in this situation. I think it will

give calmer learning environments that's for sure but I think as soon as the bell rings the kids

will run to their locker and get their phones out. That's the thing that I am a little bit worried

about is that the full break time will be spent on their phones individually instead of together.

Like many teachers though Laurie's looking forward to losing the virtual competition.

It's hard enough to get teenagers to focus on their work if they then have other more

interesting things to look at it doesn't really work because you can't compete with that really.

Do you think this could have a positive impact on students? I'm hoping that it will give them a

lot more time to focus on what they're doing and I'm also hoping that it'll be easier for them to

connect to each other in the classroom rather than people elsewhere on a screen which is more

abstract. Their schools are still on holiday right now and interestingly all the teenagers in this

park are on their phones. My daughter Zina's been with me listening to these interviews so

what's this seven-year-old pupil's perspective? I think that it's probably a good idea to ban

phones but smartwatches are okay because smartwatches are smaller and easier to ignore

if there's an emergency you can check that on your smartwatch. The ban on all smart devices

is not legally enforceable but it may become so in the future. Anna Holligan reporting from

the Netherlands. Finally have you ever looked at your bank account and wished there was more money

in it? Well a technical glitch in Ireland meant that customers were able to withdraw large sums

of cash often bigger than their balances. Cues inevitably formed at cash points as Charlotte

Gallagher reports. Videos on social media show people lining up next to Bank of Ireland cash

machines. Some are still in their pajamas and dressing gowns having rushed out when they heard

you could withdraw huge sums of money no matter how much you had in your account. One man told the

Irish Times newspaper I don't know if I'll get away with it but it's worth a shot. The Bank of

Ireland admitted a technical fault and warned customers that any money withdrawn would be taken

It said people should not withdraw or transfer funds if they were likely to become overdrawn.

Police were seen guarding some cash machines to deter people from taking advantage of the problem.

The Irish police force known as the Gardashear Kona said officers would remind people of their

personal responsibility in carrying out their banking. Some Bank of Ireland customers were

also unable to access online banking and the app. The bank says the problem is now fixed and has

apologized for the disruption. Charlotte Gallagher

you

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