Global News Podcast: Trump told 'nobody is above the law'

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

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Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Tuesday,

the 3rd of October. The former US President Donald Trump appears in court in New York,

accused of making a billion dollars by lying about his assets. The UN approves an

international security force for Haiti to try to end the gang violence which has ravaged the Caribbean

nation. And we didn't imagine that all this would happen. I'm only 34, but this is my fourth war.

No one has offered us anything. We feel abandoned. The Armenian refugees still in shock and desperate

for stability after fleeing the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Also in the podcast, the World Health Organization recommends a new vaccine against malaria and

we're still commercially harvesting the fish, but you're also dangling a very big parent in the form

of a check. The competition targeting an invasive species off the coast of Florida.

The former US President Donald Trump has made an angry appearance in court at the start of a trial

which could land him with a quarter of a billion dollar fine and a ban from doing business in New

York. He is accused of generating more than a billion dollars by lying about the value of his

assets. His lawyer told the court there was no illegality and no victims. The case which is

being heard without a jury was brought by the New York Attorney General, Leticia James.

My message is simple. No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may

have, no one is above the law and it is my responsibility and my duty and my job to enforce

it. Even before the case started, the judge has already found Donald Trump and two of his

sons liable for fraud, including by valuing his New York apartment as if it were three times its

actual size. The former president has claimed the case is a sham to try to damage his chances

of reelection. He also lashed out at the judge and the New York Attorney General.

We're wasting our time with this trial. With the Democrat judge from the clubhouses, it's a

disgrace. They ought to look for the murderers and the killers that are all over New York and the

violent crime that's being committed in our city and our state is disgraceful and we're going to

be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It's ridiculous. Our correspondent

in Washington, Gary O'Donohue, has been following what's been said inside and outside court.

You're seeing a side of Donald Trump that you don't often see and that's him actually being

really rattled. Actually what's at stake here is Donald Trump's money, his property, everything

which creates and has reinforced his identity over the last 50 years or so and I think that

is coming through in his reaction here because bear in mind not only has the judge already ruled

that they did fabricate and overinflate values, that's already decided in some ways the central

question but already some of the business licenses have been suspended, some of the properties are

being handled by receivers. He has no idea at the end of this process whether he's going to own

anything in New York anymore. He's often appeared bullish outside of court and then a bit quieter

and more respectful inside. What actually happened during the hearing? The lawyers went at it pretty

hard as we understand it. We weren't actually inside the court. Donald Trump sat there through

the morning session pretty much ignoring the sort of presentation that the Attorney General's lawyers

were giving on screen looking straight ahead but you could see that from his reaction answer is he

must have been seething inside. He may not give evidence in this. I think both sides will perhaps

want him to take the stand but we will see and there's a really curious strategy ongoing here

with him because his team opted for what's called a bench trial. That's a judge rather than a jury

which you know in some ways makes sense in New York to put a democratic place and you know he

may not get too many friends on a jury there but then to go and lambast and attack the judge

he's called him deranged before. I think he knows by that he's already in trouble in this case and

that in some ways there's nothing to lose but to try and ring as much kind of political capital out

of it by attacking the judge and politicizing the process and of course off the back of that

he has not surprisingly as he's done with every other legal case he's faced sent out fundraising

emails because in a lot of cases it's the small dollar donors rather than the super rich Donald

Trump who's paying his legal bills. Our Washington correspondent Gary O'Donohue.

Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people every year mostly children below the age of five.

Now the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Serenom Gebreyesus has announced a new

front in the battle against the disease. Today it gives me great pleasure to announce that WHO is

recommending a second vaccine called R21 matrix M to prevent malaria in children at risk of the

disease. Well the vaccine which is around 75 percent effective was created by scientists at

Oxford University. It will be rolled out in Africa from the middle of next year. Here's our medical

editor Fergus Walsh. I was in Ghana I think in 2008 in trials there and they just weren't getting

the vaccine to stop the malaria parasite from expanding in the human body but now they seem

to have done it. What's different about this vaccine is largely the scale. The Oxford Gena

Institute the same institute that gave us the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has got a deal with

the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world the Serum Institute in India to produce 100 million

doses a year because there's no point in having an effective vaccine if it's not used. So we're

going to see this vaccine rolled out and turbo charging the immunization of young children

two to four dollars is the cost of the vaccine. I think the cost of the vaccine won't be a problem

more than two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa want these vaccines. The health care

workers need to administer not one dose but four doses to protect children under five and we could

see within the next 10 20 years a dramatic reduction in deaths in Africa in young children.

Fergus Walsh. The trials for the vaccine took place in four African countries Bikina Faso,

Mali, Kenya and Tanzania from where our senior Africa correspondent Ansoi sent this report.

Tears and more tears. The price these children in Bagamoya Tanzania paid in order to save millions

of lives. This is a malaria research center and they are here for the third dose of one of the

most promising vaccines yet. One of the mothers Mozane Safe has brought her sixth born a preschool

who follows her mum everywhere at this center. I lost my nephew we buried him he was only four

when he died from malaria that's why when I heard that there was a malaria vaccine trial I said I

wanted to participate it will help many children not just mine. She defied naysayers in her village

and enrolled in the study more than 600 children here took part in the research there is a lot of

excitement among researchers says the principal investigator Dr Ali Olotu. I am proud and I'm

very hopeful for my community if it is deployed to those who need it the most then we are talking

about saving millions of cases of malaria and this is really exciting with us. Malaria remains one

of the biggest killer diseases especially in Africa one more vaccine only means an extra weapon

in the fight against it. The report from Tanzania by Ansoy. Over the past two years the Caribbean

nation of Haiti has been dogged by spiralling violence the capital Porto France is now largely

controlled by gangs a year after the country appealed for help the UN Security Council has

finally voted to send an international force to try to restore security it will be led by Kenya

so how is this force likely to be greeted by people in Haiti? Alex Ritzen has been speaking

to the Haitian journalist Woodlaw Marancor who is in the capital. The last international intervention

in Haiti in 2004 was from the UN and this force left Haiti with multiple problems the first one

is the cholera epidemic that killed about 10,000 people and close to 800,000 people were infected

and this disease we surfaced in Haiti in October last year and it killed hundreds of Haitian citizens

the UN left also in Haiti a trail of human rights abuses many women were sexually abused but they

also left hundreds of kids without father in the country and without people to take care of them

and right after the UN left Haiti this force left Haiti in 2017 the insecurity resurfaced the

mission that was there to stabilize Haitian did not bring the solution and institutions of the

country are not solid enough they are not reinforced they are not capable of dealing with the issues

that Haitians are facing and many people are saying like the solution to the Haitian problem

is a Haitian one. Gangs reportedly control between 30 and 60 percent of Haiti Haitians are struggling

to do this on their own aren't they? Absolutely and this is the second part of the population and

including folks in the business sector will tell you that about 80 percent of the Haitian capital

prints right now are under the control of gang members a couple of weeks ago gangs attacked

a car for free and thousands of people were had to flee the violence these gangs they rape

they kill babies they rape you know young women and they burn people alive inside their own houses

so the Haitian national police is outmatched and it's widely believed a lot of these gangs have

got links to political parties or to politicians of note. Absolutely that is why many people think

that the problem of Haiti is a structural problem because these gangs they have access to asset

rifles and they are extremely rich and a large swath of the political and economic class in Haiti

is in bed with these gangs the problem is more of a gang problem than a structural problem that

needs to be addressed not just in the street by you know tackling the gangs but also by attacking

the root causes of gang violence in Haiti. With law Merancourt in Haiti talking to Alex Ritzen.

The Armenian authority say nearly the entire 120,000 ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh

has now left the enclave which came under full control of Azerbaijan last week after a lightning

offensive. Tens of thousands of refugees are in temporary accommodation having fled to Armenia

but there are still many in need of a roof over their heads the BBC's Caucasus correspondent

Rehan Dimitri visited a shelter in the town of Goriz which has been housing refugees from Karabakh.

Just two weeks ago these children were hiding in bomb shelters in Nagorno-Karabakh

now they're playing volleyball under a peaceful sky. When on September the 19th Azerbaijan

launched a military offensive to establish full control over its breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh

15-year-old Masis Avanishan was still at school in his hometown of Martuni.

At around 2 p.m. we finished lessons at school I was on my way home with a friend

we heard loud banging at first I thought it was a military exercise then the explosion

started to happen one after another we ran to the nearby police station to hide in the basement

to save our lives. Masis, his parents, siblings and his aunt Lucine are now huddled into one room

inside a temporary shelter set up on the grounds of a local non-governmental organization in Goriz.

Lucine has four children of her own we didn't imagine that all this would happen

I'm only 34 but this is my fourth war no one has offered us anything we feel abandoned she says

everyone here is traumatized by the violence and the sudden uprooting from their homes

they still cannot come to terms with what was left behind and the prospects of starting life

anew Anna Alexanian is from the Women in Network Foundation in Goriz which set up this shelter

at its premises here we have a handicraft workshop which we temporarily adopted as a shelter

two people arriving to Goriz and staying here for some time to understand where they should go

the Armenian authorities have provided temporary accommodation to 35,000 refugees

out of the 100,000 that made it here many chose to stay with their relatives but all of these people

will need a long-term solution with housing and jobs as they don't see any prospects of returning

back to Karabakh. Rehan Dmitri reporting from Goriz in southern Armenia. Five years ago Jamal

Khashoggi the US-based journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia's government walked into the

Saudi consulate in Istanbul he never came out it transpired he'd been murdered by a Saudi

hit squad dismembered and his remains disposed of never to be found the gruesome killing prompted

intense global criticism of the Saudi authorities including the country's de facto leader crown

prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday Amnesty International said there was still no justice

for Mr Khashoggi's family Jason Rezion is the global opinions columnist at the Washington Post

where Jamal Khashoggi worked he was also the papers Tehran correspondent from 2012 to 2016

where he was jailed for espionage and held by the Iranian authorities for 544 days he's been talking

to Rob Young I was just getting to know Jamal when he was murdered he and I wrote for the same

global opinion section there was only a couple of us writing for the section at the time so we

had the opportunity to meet a few times and we did an interview together where we talked about

the ways that we had been treated by these two countries that we really loved in my case Iran

and his Saudi Arabia I can't say that we were close friends but I do think that we were on the way

geopolitically what was the impact that it had on relations between the US and Saudi Arabia

it was an opportunity to use this as a moment to recalibrate relationship Trump administration

shows not to do that Biden administration again had the opportunity to hold Mohammed bin Salman

accountable for this vile act but ultimately they let him get away with it for me personally

as I watched I can remember thinking to myself on the day that we heard that Jamal had gone missing

in Istanbul that we were unlikely to ever hear his voice again if you don't hold accountable

assassins and that's really what we're talking about here it green lights that sort of behavior

for others Mohammed bin Salman is a young man the world could be stuck with him for another

half century he has been incredibly brutal with his own populace we hear a lot about

reforms going on in the country but ultimately at what price those people that are pushing for

those reforms invariably end up in prison or dead the truth is adversaries whether it's Iran Russia

other countries see that if we let our friends get away with anything they can get away with

things as well journalists are being arrested and imprisoned in record numbers they're also

being kicked out of the countries where they work and landing on western shores and unable to

continue their work so authoritarian states they're winning there is not independent media

operating in these countries the United States government was the sort of leader of press freedom

a letter from a secretary of state or even a member of congress to a foreign leader that

was imprisoning a journalist usually worked to get that person free we're no longer the

leader in the space the leaders in the space are the authoritarians who are suppressing press freedom

and so i think we have to really work together to figure out how we bring this basic value of

democracy back into play and i don't see that in the offering anytime soon jason resyan talking to

rob young still to come on the global news podcast some told me that they didn't dare sit down on

the subway others that they think about it every night on the way home paranoia and fear as france

is hit by a bed bug infestation european union foreign ministers have met in ukraine in their

first ever gathering outside the e you it was a sign of continued european support for kiv

even as new cracks appear in western resolve over the weekend u.s lawmakers left funding for ukraine

out of a last-minute budget bill while in europe a pro-russian candidate won the election in slavakia

adding to growing ukraine skepticism seen in places like hungary and poland but the EU's foreign

policy chief joseph barrell said europe was united in its backing for kiv this joint meeting of the

european union foreign ministers should be understood as a clear commitment of the european union

to ukraine and it's also sending a strong signal to russia we are not intimidated by your drones

or missiles our resolve to support the fight of freedom and independence of ukraine is firm and

will continue the kremlin said the vote in the u.s at the weekend highlighted growing ukraine fatigue

though it expected american funding to continue our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has

more on the EU meeting in kiv above all this summit was about presenting a united front and was

fueled by the growing political skepticism in the u.s over whether ukraine should continue receiving

the backing it does six billion dollars of new military funding being left out of a short-term

budget is a first concrete consequence of that for kiv but this gathering saw material outcomes in

support of ukraine including a 12th package of sanctions on russia and training for 40 000 ukrainian

personnel recent eu pledges totaling 50 billion euros and not to be sniffed at either demitro kuleba

is ukraine's foreign minister the biggest expectation is that the west and the world will

get tired of standing with ukraine we should not play along with that anyone who knows what it is

like to gather 27 eu foreign ministers in one place will understand that today's visit is not

about symbolic support it's about refuting narratives regarding lack of unity everyone has

shown the political will to be here today it was hoped all 27 eu member foreign ministers would turn

up three didn't including poland and hungries the kremlin says it predicted this fracturing in western

support in the past president zelencki's best remedy for political fatigue was military progress

with a slower than desired counteroffensive grinding on he's having to rely on his diplomatic

skills more than ever since the full-scale invasion of last year james waterhouse in kiv

indigenous women from greenland who say they were fitted with contraceptive devices without their

consent or knowledge are seeking compensation from the danish state the former colonial power

the practice was allegedly carried out in the 1960s and is still the subject of an official

investigation this report from danie aberhardt and a warning it contains some disturbing and

graphic details the program was designed to limit birth rates among greenland's indigenous

inuit population at the time denmark the former colonial power still controlled greenland's health

system girls as young as 12 were sometimes without being informed fitted with interuterine devices or

coils the doctors did not seek the consent of the girls or their parents and to make matters worse

many of the devices were too big for the girls bodies one survivor naya luba is the spokeswoman

for the group of 67 women lodging the claim she told the bbc that when her coil was fitted at the

age of 13 or 14 it was torture causing her to blank out the experience due to the trauma it

hurts like knives inside me and when he came up to my uterus it was also a huge torture like

pain it felt like the coil was bigger than my uterus many girls experienced serious medical

complications some girls couldn't even sit down without pain they went to the doctor but they were

sent back again they did not allow to have the coil out one girl miss luba said had to receive

blood transfusions every three weeks before eventually losing her uterus many others too

were so damaged they were unable to have children in later life it's the same that you sterilize

the 12 years old girl for all the women i know who were 12 years they can't get pregnant miss

luba accused the danish government of the time of wanting to save money on welfare by controlling

the size of greenland's population an investigation into the scandal is underway it won't report till

may 2025 this group of women don't want to wait that long some are in their late 70s they're

demanding 42 000 each in compensation we can never be healed physically but it will help as a

compensation and it will be like the government's way to apologize to us so we can move on if the

danish government doesn't pay up the women say they'll go to court denier barred a wave of disgust

has spread across france as people post images of an apparent invasion of bedbugs there are

reports of the bloodsucking insects being found not just in beds but on trains the paris metro

and even the cinema now it seems they've been detected in france's second largest city marseille

the french government has said it will act to reassure and protect the public from the reported

surge anna foster asked clara idelgo a journalist from le figaro what's behind this infestation

experts have noted an upsurge in cases in recent years and there is a lot of causes like migration

it has nothing to do with each gene or dirtiness so it's almost that because people are noticing

it more and posting to social media that's the crucial thing isn't it of course from my article

i interviewed several parisians and i can say that this situation has created a kind of psychosis

some told me that they didn't dare sit down on the subway others that they think about it every

night on the way home but the hardest thing to hear in the testimony was those who are fighting to

get rid of these bedbugs so it's a problem i'm not sure how i would even begin to deal with an

infestation of bedbugs have the authorities got any plans about how they can tackle it

when the videos were released paris called on the government to take actions against these

invasive insects the minister of transport announced last friday that a meeting will be held

with the transport operators targeted by the accusations they are supposed to meet this week

i think the government is taking this health issue seriously even more so with the olympics

less than a year away yes because of course that's going to bring so many tourists to paris well

it's supposed to do you think people will be put off by this paris is not the only tourist city in

the world to be affected by these insects new europe for example had to appoint a bedbug star in

2010 to deal with this problem to return to the paris in case the presence of bedbugs is not new

they have always been there so in my opinion it's not something that's going to put tourists off

journalist clara hidalgo talking to anna foster the authorities in florida say a record 30 000

lionfish have been removed from the state's waters thanks to a competition lionfish are native to

the indio pacific but have spread to the u.s east coast the caribbean and the gulf of mexico

where they decimate native fish populations hooks and traps are ineffective against them

while trawling with net damages the coral reefs the only way to get rid of the lionfish

is by individual divers going spear fishing as nikki cardwell reports

with a distinct thud the diver spears a lionfish and stuffs it into a collection tube

they're spectacular looking fish striped with rows of sail-like fins that ripple in the water

but these fish of voracious eaters have no predators and lay thousands of eggs every

few days scientists believe they're a severe threat to native sea life the florida authorities

believe the problem can only be tackled with the public's help emily robishow is from the florida

wildlife commission we have this entire state that is very excited and willing to jump at the

opportunity to help us in these management efforts we're gonna wake up probably about

3 30 in the morning the first dive is allowed to begin at sunrise and boom and it's stick stuff

stick stuff stick stuff rachel bowman won this competition in 2021 she says the opportunity

to make a bit of money selling her catch was a real incentive for a tournament we're gonna go

harder and in a lionfish tournament you are allowed to sell your fish at the end so we're

still commercially harvesting the fish but you're also dangling a very big carrot in the form of a

check so the incentive is greater thus the effort is great under the rules of the competition all

the lionfish court must be sold to fishmongers or restaurants parka destin owns several seafood

restaurants in florida the fish tastes wonderful it's a white mild flaky fish it's not too oily

and you can do anything with it from a culinary preparation style standpoint it's just the best

i mean it flies off the shelves marine biologist alex fog has been tracking the lionfish invasion

since the first ones emerged around 15 years ago he says competitions like this are making a

difference what we see is the native species tend to rebound but it doesn't take long for lionfish

to start to invade that reef again so you actually have to keep the pressure on them to make sure

that you keep that population suppressed to a point that the native species can recover to

pre-invasion levels when flying a lionfish the florida wildlife commission posts instructional

videos on its website about how to safely remove and prepare lionfish to encourage recreational

divers to catch them outside of competition there are no venomous spines here those venomous

spines are one of the reasons why the only safe way to catch lionfish is with a spear

animal welfare groups like peter are opposed to the use of spear fishing they say that as humans

were probably responsible for releasing lionfish into florida waters we have a duty to find a more

humane solution to the problem marine biologist alex fog doesn't agree you need to let the

entrepreneurs the divers go out there harvest lionfish and restaurants to recognize that this is

a very tasty species that can be plated and greater price can be charged for that the native species

they're going to keep the lionfish population in check alex fog ending that report by nikki

cardwell the mahabarita is one of the great epics of hindu culture dating back more than two and a

half thousand years at its heart is a complex struggle for power between two sides of a warring

family the story can take days to perform on stage a new two-part version with an all-asian

cast has just arrived in london from canada with a running time of just six hours vincent dowd went

to see it in rehearsal in a rehearsal room deep under the 1970s concrete of london's barbican

art center actors and musicians are recreating the magic of the ancient mahabarita this two-part

version in english with some sanskrit was seen earlier this year in canada at the shore festival

theater in ontario my name is ravi jane i'm the director and co-writer of mahabarita my name is

miriam finandez i am the co-writer and i play the storyteller in mahabarita mahabarita is an ancient

indian story and within it is moral lessons about how to live in the world and it contains

all the spirituality and philosophies of hindu culture and religion the original composer of the

story was viasa and he told it to the elephant-headed god ganesha and ganesha was the first one to

describe the story for some it is absolutely history and for others it is myth and it's a

world of gods and humans that interact it's pretty fantastical and amazing but the characters are in

the everyday lives of everyone you know you'll be in a crowded busy streetway in india and on the

corner is a temple to ganesha there are countless versions of the mahabarita so how has ravi jane

ensured this version works both the people who know the story well or who know almost nothing

about it if you know it really well you see the shortcuts we're taking you see the playfulness

of how we're depicting characters you recognize them and you have one experience and for those

who it's totally new you get to be introduced to these people for the first time and we've taken

a lot of care to manage the expectations of those different audiences among those rehearsing

jay immanuel born in india but raised in australia i really believe that this production is a good melt

of the eastern and the western movement languages especially my training for example is in physical

theater training from paris but i've also trained in kathakalif from kalamandlam in kerala so quite a

lot of different trainings and experiences yeah the cast is completely from the south asian diaspora

but an international cast so folks who grew up in malaysia australia in india in canada in the

states all over the uk so everybody has roots in the south asian diaspora but have experienced kind

of an intersection of cultures where east and west all together on stage the chance to watch the

mahabarita outside south asia is rare this versions of the barbican center in london for a week and

it's hoped other international touring dates will be announced next year the report by vincent doubt

and that's all from us for now but the global news podcast will be back very soon this edition

was mixed by johnny hall and produced by emma joseph our editors caron martin i'm oliver conway until

next time goodbye

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Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.