Global News Podcast: Trump says he'll run for President even if convicted

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 Alex Ritzen and in the early hours of Saturday the 29th of July, these are our main stories.

A serious legal case is mount against Donald Trump. He says not even a criminal conviction

will stop his run for the presidency. Niger's new military leader after Wednesday's coup

warns other countries against intervening. I call on the partners of Niger in the areas of

technology and finance to understand our country's specific situation and emergency

services on high alert in southern Europe despite devastating wildfires being brought under control.

Also in this podcast, a Hong Kong court strikes down a government request to ban the

unofficial anthem of the pro-democracy movement and the new research that suggests our imagination

does not deteriorate with age. Donald Trump is so determined to return to the White House,

he says he's even prepared to carry on campaigning from jail if he's convicted and sentenced next

year. His remarks come as he and his chief rival, the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,

prepare to appear on the same platform before Republican supporters at the party's annual

Lincoln Dinner fundraiser. The former president is still way ahead of his rivals despite federal

prosecutors on Thursday adding three more charges linked to his handling of classified

documents after leaving office. Mr Trump gave his reaction to the US website Breitbart News.

This is harassment, this is election interference. I'm protected by the Presidential Records Act,

totally, it shouldn't even be a case, it's not a criminal case. Where's Biden with all the documents?

He's got 20 times, 30 times the documents I have and he has not made it easy for them either,

they're hiding boxes. No, this is a two-tier system of injustice and that's what we have,

we have a sick country, our country is very sick right now, we have a failing nation and it's a

very sad thing to watch. In the space of six months next year Mr Trump could be dealing with

several legal cases when campaigning is well underway. In all of them he denies any wrongdoing.

I asked that North America editor Sarah Smith if there's anything that could prevent him from

running again. Constitutionally and legally no, there's nothing that can stop him and politically,

it doesn't seem like there is either. I mean he says himself he'll keep going no matter what and

the polls seem to suggest he's right to do so because every time he has been charged with a

criminal offense his poll ratings have gone up. It defies political gravity but it's true.

He tells his supporters that he's the victim of a political witch hunt, that the

Biden administration has weaponized the justice system in order to attack him because they're

frightened he could beat President Biden in the presidential election and large numbers of his

supporters appear to believe this and it appears to have solidified their support for him as they

believe that he is the man they need to get back into the White House in order as many of them

say to counter the deep state. Even if he was convicted and of course he denies any wrongdoing

the way the legal process works though it'll be way after the presidential election by the time

all appeals are finished wouldn't it be? Almost certainly and by that time he will of course be

in charge of the Justice Department so if he were to be re-elected and became President of the

United States once more he could instruct his own Attorney General to stop pursuing these cases.

He could pardon himself for any federal offenses that he had been convicted of. Not that any

president has done that that's constitutional gray area but he's certainly convinced he could pardon

himself and many legal scholars are as well so I mean almost everything that happens with

Donald Trump is unprecedented isn't it? We use that word almost daily in regards to his political

career but we're moving into uncharted territory here once we go through these

criminal cases next year where we really never have seen the like. You're in the state of Iowa

for a Republican fundraiser where all the presidential hopefuls are Mr Trump included

are they is he going to speak? Yes he'll be speaking last as befits his status as the

clear frontrunner in this Republican race and there will be a dozen other candidates talking

before him they get 10 minutes each and they're speaking to Iowa and Republicans who of course

are the people in this state who first choose who they want to be their Republican nominee so it's

a very important state and it'll be really interesting to listen to all the other candidates

who've got to speak before him tonight and see do they criticize him for these possibly criminal

actions for which he's being charged and risk alienating his large numbers of supporters

or do they support the man whom they're running against the candidate whom they're

trying to defeat do they give him their backing when it comes to these legal actions?

Sarah Smith in Iowa don't interfere that's the warning the army in Niger is sending to foreign

powers three days after it deposed the elected president in a coup a spokesman for the army

said foreign intervention could lead to chaos and death on Friday the leader of the coup general

Abdu Ruman Chiani declared himself the new ruler while president Mohammed Bazoom is still being

detained Mr Chiani read out a statement on behalf of the people now in charge the national council

for the safeguarding of the homeland he also called for mutual cooperation between Niger and its

international partners for the good of the country I call on the partners of Niger in the areas of

technology and finance to understand our country's specific situation and to provide all the necessary

support to enable it to meet the challenges there's been international condemnation of the coup

including from the US which said it could stop security cooperation with Niger because of the

military takeover the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby had this to say we have

watched this with deep concern we certainly condemn any effort to detain or to subvert the

functioning of Niger's democratically elected government we're still gathering facts here

advise all Americans in Niger to to be careful about where they are and what they're doing

our correspondent Chris Iwaka is monitoring developments from neighboring Nigeria we don't

know where about of president Bazoom who's been asked that there are indications he's still been

detained in the presidential palace and the people are suggesting that he would be forced to

sign a resignation letter that would effectively hand over the country to the hands of the military

what do we know about general to Chiani can we make any guesses to what direction he's likely to

want to take the country in general Drachman Chiani was appointed 2015 by former president Yusufu and

when president Mohammed Bazoom won an election and was about to be sworn in two years ago there

was an attempted coup and it was general Adrahman who came to the rescue now that he has taken over

one inkling that many people are getting from his address was that he felt that president Bazoom was

not really collaborating with neighbors that were fighting jihadist extremism they are Mali and of

course Burkina Faso and these are two countries that are under military rule and they have also

severe ties with the west and have created links with Russia on thursday hundreds of people came

out to demonstrate show their support for the military takeover of government and some of them

chanting anti-france anti-western slogans and calling for intervention of Russia that would

leave the west with very few friends in that part of Africa clearly yes and many people are wondering

why especially former french colonies are tilting towards Russia rather than the west what role do

uranium deposits play? Niger is a landlocked country and rich in uranium but it's one of the

poorest in the world many people see that country as a very big opportunity where they can might this

uranium and that's why countries like Russia would be interested and there are also indications that

illegal mining of these mineral is ongoing which is the reason that has led the fight against insurgency

to fester for so long. Chris Iwaka in Nigeria Samark Lowcock was permanent secretary at the

department for international development in the UK and served as undersecretary general for

humanitarian affairs at the united nations Ed Sturton asked him why the coup happened

and what the plotters want? The government has struggled to do enough to provide good quality

services and to grow the economy and improve people's lives in Niger partly because it hasn't

enough help especially from the west but what needs to happen is a combination of much more

effective military development humanitarian support from western countries enabling fragile

better intention governments in the region to survive deal with conflict cope with climate

change better and find a better way forward for all their populations. But what you describe

is a double whammy isn't it two things that we don't like happening one being risk of the spread

of Islamic extremism and the other being Wagner the Russian group penetrating Africa more deeply

than ever. The origin is multiple problems that haven't been gripped effectively the climate is

changing rapidly in this part of Africa traditional livelihoods are decreasingly viable either

nomadic livestock or agriculture because the rainfall is too variable that means there's

increasing competition for resources that creates grievances which create conflict into which come

the Islamic extremists. Governments struggle to cope with that they look for military help from

elsewhere Europe through the French provided it for a while but got disenchanted with doing so

failed to stay the cause and incomes Russia and Wagner. Do you hold the French in particular who

after all were the colonial masters of the place once upon a time do you hold them particularly

responsible for the failures that you describe? I think the basic problem is that the west

collectively hasn't put enough in combination of effort in it I think it was probably unrealistic

to expect the French on their own to do it a crucial thing that's been a big mistake is not

providing enough economic developmental support so that the lives of ordinary people in this

this region has improved and have a bit more confidence in their local government that's

been a big big mistake. So Mark Lowcock countries around the Mediterranean accounting the cost of

a week of fires fueled by high temperatures in Greece emergency services have tried to prevent

new flare-ups in the central area of Magnesia a security zone has been set up around an air

force base near the town of Nia and Chilos after wildfires triggered powerful explosions

at an ammunition depot on Thursday our correspondent Bethany Bell is in the island of roads and sent

this update. Temperatures have dropped somewhat here in Greece and many of the fires that have

ravaged this country over the past couple of weeks have abated but firefighters here

are still on high alert because much of the ground where some of these fires were burning

is still smouldering and their fears that small embers could be blown up in the wind

and cause more flare-ups. We've heard from Greece's prime minister saying that the country

must do more to try to improve Greece's firefighting and fire prevention measures

and also to pay tribute as well to all of the firefighters who've been out there in extremely

difficult conditions fighting these fires. We also had today the funeral of one of the two

firefighting pilots who died earlier this week and also the funeral of a colleague of his

took place yesterday. Bethany Bell in roads. In Tunisia civil defence forces have said that

wildfires which spread across five provinces in the past few days have now been brought under

control. A thousand hectares of forest in the northwestern province of Jenduba have been destroyed

mainly in the village of Tabarka from where our reporter Bassan Buneni sent this report.

Adil Selmi observes the damage as wildfires rage near Tabarka.

The fire was a little far but quickly we felt that the flames were getting closer. Selmi owned

an eco-friendly restaurant. He could barely recognise it when he returned the following morning.

The traditional oven burned out. This kitchen was used for breakfast and all the equipment was burned.

Munya was less lucky. Her farm has been cruelly damaged. It was a nightmare, she says.

Could you take a look at this? We've lost everything. We went bankrupt.

The flames were too close. She miraculously escaped the fire. Now she fears more blazes to come.

Now even if the house burns out I will stay. I have no option.

Residents in Tabarka and its outskirts are in shock. Their losses are incommensurable to any other time.

This is a sad landscape. It's just a tiny part of Tabarka's forests.

It has been razed to the ground. Nothing here has survived to the wildfires.

I can still see the smoke and smell it and that's the worst scenario for Tunisian firefighters.

The Tunisian civil defence forces work on opening forest routes since the rough terrain

has made access to some fires almost impossible. Meanwhile, Tunisian helicopters and aircraft

dispatched from Spain struggle to put out the flames. It is a test for the Tunisian authorities

to assess their readiness to address such disasters.

In the last three years, fires have multiplied, especially in the summer.

We have operational plans and pre-emptive preparations and this of course requires immense

potential. That report by Bassambunani in Tunisia. A British built weather monitoring

spacecraft has been deliberately crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in a first of its kind mission.

AOHUS, a satellite, has provided valuable data to weather centres across Europe since 2018.

Simonetta Kelly is director of Earth Observation Programs at the European Space Agency, which

has overseen the project. She began by explaining to Martha Carney why AOHUS was nicknamed the

impossible satellite. The AOLUS, which is the science mission of the European Space Agency,

was called the impossible mission because it had quite a few challenges in terms of technology

development in terms of first. In fact, it's the first ever lighter in space that has flown

and it's a mission that basically has been extremely challenging in the building but also

extremely successful in the results because it's provided profiles of us. We in the global scale,

it was launched in 18, was supposed to live three years and we're now in 2023 and it's

gone well beyond its initial lifetime. So it's a real success story. What exactly was it able to do

and what was it able to add to weather forecasting? Certainly AOLUS was able to improve weather

forecasting. In fact, it's been used worldwide by meteorological services, including European

Centre for Medium Weather Forecast to improve the weather forecast. It looks also at plumes,

for example, in the case of volcano eruption and it was extremely essential to support weather

forecast when planes were grounded, for example, during the COVID period. And also it was able to

help, wasn't it, when volcanic ash was traveling in the high atmosphere? Exactly. It was recently

used during the Hongatonga eruption where we had through AOLUS the possibility to track the plumes.

So beyond its, I would say, science value, this mission, it's been extremely relevant for the

economic benefits because, of course, these are measurements which are used widely to support,

for example, the transport sector in these cases of eruptions of volcanoes.

Simonette Kelly speaking to Martha Carney. A body found on a glacier close to the Matterhorn in

Switzerland has been identified as that of a German climber who went missing more than three

decades ago. The discovery is the latest in a number of long-held secrets that the Alpine

glaciers now rapidly shrinking due to climate change have revealed. Image and folks reports

from Bern in Switzerland. The body of the German climber missing since 1986 was found by hikers

who saw a boot emerging from the ice. DNA analysis confirmed his identity. The Alps are

especially sensitive to climate change. Switzerland's glaciers have lost more than half their volume

in less than a century. Last year the wreck of a plane which crashed in the 1960s emerged.

In 2013 a Frenchman hiking on Mont Blanc found a box of rubies, sapphires and emeralds

missing from an Air India flight that crashed in 1966. But the melting ice reveals not just

the past, it will affect our future. Alpine glaciers are key to Europe's environment.

The winter snow they store provides fresh water in summer. Climate scientists say the

glaciers are melting faster than their worst predictions. By the end of this century they

could be gone. Image and folks in Switzerland.

There were two explosions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donipro on Friday. Two buildings including

a residential tower block were hit. From Donipro here's our defence correspondent Jonathan Beal.

Two loud explosions were heard right across the city of Donipro at around 8.30 local time this

evening. Air raid sirens wailed but only after the impact. The strikes occurred in the centre of the

city, close to busy restaurants and bars. The Russian missiles hit a government security service

building, likely the intended target, but also a large residential tower block nearby. A section

of the apartment block was damaged. Glass, steel and concrete were strewn across the streets below.

Smoke was still billowing from the area as the emergency services arrived.

They've been searching both buildings. While several people have been injured,

so far there are no reports of any fatalities. Jonathan Beal. We turn to Cambodia now which

is seeing the emergence of a ruling dynasty. On Thursday Prime Minister Hoon Sen, one of the

world's longest-serving leaders, announced he'll resign and hand over to his son. The move comes

shortly after he won all seats in an election that saw no political opponents represented.

For reaction, Andrew Peach spoke to the prominent Cambodian opposition leader,

Sam Renzi. Last Sunday's election was a fake election with no opposition party taking part.

Mr Hoon Sen wants to use this fake election as a base to transfer power to his son.

But since the election is legitimate, the transfer of power is also illegitimate.

So the Cambodian people will not accept and the international community also has

reject this illegitimate election. So with no opposition, Cambodia now can be considered

as a dictatorship with no support from the international community.

Hoon Sen has been in charge for nearly four decades. He's retaining the leadership of the party

actually. So does that make his son just some kind of puppet? Is it basically still Hoon Sen in charge?

Yes, as long as Hoon Sen is alive, he will continue to pull the strings behind the curtain.

His son has no authority, no experience, no charisma to lead the country. Hoon Sen is still

manipulating everything. You talked about people in Cambodia not accepting the outcome. What might

they do? We are waiting for any opportunity to protest against and we are encouraged by the

fact that within the ruling party, there are dignitaries who are not happened because they

have to step down when Hoon Sen's son takes up his position. So we expect instability because

the popular resistance on the one hand and the internal division within the ruling party on

the other hand. Do you think there's any possibility of some measure of reform with the country being

run by someone in his 40s rather than someone in his 70s? We have in mind the experience of

Syria about 20 years ago when dictator Al-Assad was replaced by his more educated son. Some people

expected an improvement, but in fact the son is worth it. It is not a matter of persons,

it is a matter of a system. As long as the system remains the same, there will be no improvement

whatsoever. A court in Hong Kong has rejected a request from the government to ban a popular pro-

democracy song that's become the movement's unofficial anthem. The government applied for

the injunction after the song Glory to Hong Kong was mistakenly played at several international

sporting events, more from Elettra Naismith. Glory to Hong Kong was widely played during the

territory's months-long pro-democracy protest in 2019, but since the imposition of China's

national security law, the song's been deemed unlawful. But that hasn't managed to suppress it

even at international sporting events. The authorities have been trying to get rid of the

song online for months. The court case was a continuation of that process, but they failed.

The judge ruled that granting the ban can have a chilling effect on freedom of speech,

a decision welcomed by rights groups. Elettra Naismith.

New research suggests that the human imagination does not deteriorate with age in the way that we

might have assumed. It was carried out on behalf of English heritage, an organisation that runs

tourist sites like castles and monuments in the UK. Angela Nehaut is Professor of Psychology at

the University of Kent and led the study. She told Rebecca Kesby more about the findings.

This research is kind of contributing to understanding really what happens between

early childhood, so reception year and later adulthood in terms of the possibilities

individuals imagine. There's this popular conception that children are imaginative and

adults aren't. So what we wanted to do is take a step back and look at a wide lens across the

age span to see when individuals are in a historical context like Dover Castle,

what kind of possibilities they imagine when they're presented with historical objects.

So we gave them a series of different Roman replica objects and simply asked them,

how do you imagine people could have used this a long time ago? Older adults came up with more

creative or original possibilities than younger adults and children. And they also came up with

more detailed answers, whereas one person might just say, oh, I could see this being

a paperweight. A more detailed answer might give a more colorful description around

how an individual might have used that. So the imagination may even improve with age?

Yes, so that experience that individuals acquire over the years can be used to be like recombined

in new ways to come up with imaginary possibilities. Does this show us that actually

adults need to play more and do we need to be supported and encouraged to play?

Yeah, I think you're right. We don't get a lot of time to escape into imaginary worlds,

whereas in childhood, the job is really just to play. So I think the opportunities like English

Heritage are presenting for us as adults to dress up and escape into these other worlds is really

a great opportunity to let our imaginations run wild. We do use our imaginations a lot on a day

to day basis, but really in more mundane ways. So thinking about, okay, what am I going to do

tomorrow? What's the best way for me to get home? Maybe replaying an event that happened

yesterday that kind of bothered you and you could think about how it could have happened

differently. That's an ability called counterfactual thinking. So these are all imaginative processes,

but they deal with more mundane day to day things. Professor Angela Nehaut.

One of the first and biggest world music festivals, Womad, is taking place at the

moment at Charlton Park in southwest England. The BBC's Martin Venard is there and has been

trying to find out exactly what world music is and whether the term is still relevant.

This is Womad, the world of music, arts and dance festival in the south of England,

and thousands of people are here watching the American Hip-Hop group, the Jungle Brothers,

performing in a circus big top. Let's ask some of those people what they think world music is.

It's stuff that they don't play on their mainstream radio.

World music is that feeling of the different cultures. It takes me to different places the whole time.

This is Africa Baby Bam from a hip-hop group called Jungle Brothers.

What is world music in your view? On a technical level, lots of percussion, brass, celebratory.

It brings not just the music, but it brings the culture and the message of the people who

that I'm playing. Is there anything that couldn't be world music? Nothing against pop music,

but there is a structure there for making things catchy, mass market. I don't think of world music

as that. Hello, I'm Kate Rosby and I'm a folk singer from England. And how would you take to

being described as a world musician? Oh, I would very much like that. I go around the world,

I mainly sing old traditional songs from the British Isles. I write my own songs as well,

but my first love is those really old ballads and old songs, and those songs in themselves

travelled. It might have been written in Ireland and then it went to England and then over to Canada

and back again. Would sort of Western pop and rock music, could that be world music?

I think there's always little elements that have come from around the world in there,

so I would say so and pop travels, doesn't it? So those were the views of two of the artists

performing at Walmart, but what do those people who work behind the scenes in the music industry think?

We're backstage now at the Walmart festival and with Paula Henderson. I'm the head programmer

for the festival, not only here, but also the other events that we do around the world.

I see world music just being from the world. However, you would say an artist from Chile

coming here would be world music. When we do a festival in Chile, music coming from the UK

to then might be seen as world music. So is there any artist that wouldn't qualify as a world musician?

I probably would avoid Thrash Metal, but that's my own personal choice.

There are, of course, many artists from around the world performing during the four-day festival.

While wandering around listening to some of them, I by chance came across Amanda Jones

from Real World Records, who tells me she was in a meeting with a dozen or so record company

representatives in a London pub in the mid-1980s, which came up with the term world music to

describe the non-mainstream international artists whose records they were trying to get into the shops.

It could encompass the global beats guy over there and it could encompass my beautiful Indian

classical music record and I was there with a team of people I worked with at the time,

so I ran Walmart records at the time and we had quite a strong influence on the idea of world music.

Do you feel proud or guilty now having come up with the term world music?

Both! Yeah, I mean it's kind of redundant, isn't it? And maybe that's a great thing, we don't need it anymore.

And that was Amanda Jones of Real World Records, ending that report by Martin Venard.

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

at this time tomorrow. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it,

you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on Twitter

at Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Chris Hansen and the producer was Emma Joseph.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritzen. Until next time, goodbye.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.