Global News Podcast: Wagner boss laid to rest in Russia

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I'm Gareth Barlow and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 30th of August, these are our

main stories. The Russian Mercery Boss, the Afghani Progogin, has been buried during a

private ceremony in St. Petersburg. The U.S. State of Florida braces for the arrival of

Harkin Idalia, which has been described as a potential once-in-a-lifetime event.

And the authorities in Nigeria arrest dozens of men under anti-LGBT laws.

Also in this podcast, why a watermark might help us determine between AI and authentic art and

could a bit of Mozart help reduce pain in babies.

We go first to St. Petersburg, where, a week after he and nine others died in a plane crash,

the Wagner Mercery Chief, Yevgeny Progogin, has been buried in a private funeral.

The man who was once a key ally of Vladimir Putin had also become a vocal critic

and dared to challenge the Kremlin. His demise after launching a brief mutiny was swift.

Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has been to the site where he was buried.

While I'm standing outside a cemetery on the edge of St. Petersburg, there is heavy

security here, police all along the perimeter and inside the cemetery itself, which means

we can't go in. Early today, Yevgeny Progogin was buried here. I can just about see his grave

from where I'm standing. There's a Russian trickler flying from it and the flag of Wagner.

There have been no warning, no official announcement about what time and where

Mr. Progogin's funeral would take place. Clearly the intention, either on the part of his family

or what is left of the Wagner Mercery Group or on the part of the authorities, was to keep

things very low key. All day St. Petersburg had been buzzing with rumors and speculation

about where the Mercery Chief would be laid to rest, with at least four different cemeteries

named. Two months ago, Yevgeny Progogin and his Wagner fighters launched an insurrection.

It was over in a day, but it had been a direct challenge to President Putin's authority.

Last week, Mr. Progogin was killed in a plane crash along with nine others on board. The Kremlin

denies any involvement, but there is widespread suspicion that the crash was an act of revenge

by the Russian authorities. Now as Steve Rosenberg reporting from St. Petersburg,

the Russia editor for BBC Monitoring is Vitaly Shevchenko and he taught me more about the service.

St. Petersburg is Yevgeny Progogin's home city and the cemetery in question called Borchovskaya.

It's where his father is also buried, we understand. According to reports coming from Russia,

he was buried in a private ceremony, which was the wish of his family. I think we can now

say with almost complete certainty that we know where Yevgeny Progogin's body is right now.

There have been in recent days numerous makeshift shrines for Yevgeny Progogin,

people who were in support of the Wagner Mercery Group and what they had done for Russia. What do

you think will happen to his grave and his body? Do you think this may well become a focal point?

And if so, how do the authorities, how does the Kremlin respond to that?

It's obvious that the Kremlin doesn't really want Yevgeny Progogin to become a martyr for people

who are supportive of the war but are just as critical of Russia's top brass as Yevgeny Progogin

was. And one example of how the Kremlin is trying to contain the sentiment is all Russian state TV

saying about the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Progogin is that his plane crashed and he died

without venturing into speculation about what might have caused that plane crash.

And it is worth remembering isn't it that people who are critical of Vladimir Putin and his authority

do die? It's unfortunately true that this scenario fits the logic of Russia as it is now

under President Vladimir Putin. If there was a message in this accident it is of course aimed

at people with easy access to money and weapons, people who might start to entertain any ideas

of challenging the Kremlin they will have to think twice.

That was Vitaly Shevchenko. A life-threatening hurricane is heading to Florida. With US media

warning it could be a once-in-a-lifetime event for residents as it makes landfall on Wednesday.

Schools have been closed and Tampa airport has been shut. Evacuation orders have been issued.

The authorities fear Hurricane Idalia could cause death and destruction. The Florida Governor

Ron DeSantis has urged people in low-lying coastal areas to move to higher ground before it's too

late. There have been evacuation orders issued for people on coastal areas, barrier islands,

low-lying areas. You still have time particularly if in the northern part of the state to evacuate.

You don't need to drive hundreds of miles, you don't need to try to outrun the storm,

just get to higher ground, get into a safe structure, be advised you've got time,

but time is running out. That was Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile at a White House

news briefing the Ann Criswell who is the administrator of the US Disaster Relief Agency,

FEMA gave this update on the hurricane. This storm is very strong and is expected to strengthen to

a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall due to high surface temperatures in the Gulf of

Mexico. This means heavy winds, high winds, heavy rain and a forecasted 12-foot storm surge

in some of the areas along the western coast. This is one of the highest risk parts of a hurricane

and is especially problematic along the west coast of Florida. While also speaking to reporters at

the White House was President Biden, he said federal help was being provided to the state.

We're in constant contact. I had the Director of FEMA in here today earlier talking about it

hour to hour watching this and I told the governor and the mayor that we're there as

long as it takes. We're going to make sure they have everything they need. The BBC's

Luis Fajardo is in Miami. In Florida there is a substantial amount of alarm. There are nearly

27 counties of Florida which have some kind of evacuation order. Authorities have for example

removed tolls from many major highways in the state and a lot of people are taking

preparations with this storm which has a very risky characteristic, the possibility of having

a storm surge early on Wednesday morning local time when it's expected to make landfall in Florida.

Basically the sea floods into land areas, coastal areas. This happens fairly quickly and it can

cause an enormous amount of damage both in physical terms and in loss of life.

Are people heeding the warnings in Florida? That is always a concern. Every year there's

thousands of people who decide not to evacuate even if they're told in very strong terms by the

authorities. In some cases it is recent arrivals who perhaps don't realize the danger they sometimes

face. That was certainly the case last year during Hurricane E.M. when many people didn't

actually evacuate and unfortunately the death toll was substantial and this particular part of Florida

where the hurricane is supposed to have a direct impact in the so-called big bend. It is a relatively

less densely populated area of the state but it is an area of the state that unusually has not had a

direct impact by this kind of hurricane in more than a hundred years and this also could potentially

make it more dangerous. Give us a sense of what's happening on an on a state and also federal level.

Certainly the governor of Florida, Ronda Santis, has called for a federal declaration of emergency

which expedites the delivery of emergency assets to the region. There's thousands of Florida state

troopers National Guard also being mobilized. They are moving fuel resources around. The local

power utilities are also moving hundreds in some cases thousands of people to prepare them to go

into action immediately after the hurricane and to make sure that the power goes back on which is

particularly crucial in this time of the year when Florida is facing extremely high temperatures.

And you can keep up to date with developments on our website at bbc.com slash news.

Police in Nigeria say they've detained at least 67 men who were arrested while they were celebrating

a wedding in one of the country's largest arrests targeting homosexuality. About 200 people were

initially detained at the event in a hotel in Delta State. Our reporter is Anduka Orinomo.

The police announced that they had arrested the man they said was dressed as a woman in the

late hours of Sunday and he said he was an actor who was in Delta State in southern Nigeria to

shoot a movie. But the arrested this person took him to the police station and the police said he

then told them that he belonged to a gay society that was holding an event and he led the police

to this event where the police then arrested 200 men and they said they found most of the men

dressed as women they found two men who were dressed as bride and groom and they saw a recording

of what apparently was a wedding that had taken place between both men. At the moment they are

getting ready to charge 67 of those men when they are done with the investigations that's what they

said so some of those men were then released we don't know how the police came to that decision

to hold just seven of them. Now for their part the people who have been detained say they were

models they were photographers they were actors that they this wasn't a gay wedding and perhaps

that response is not surprising considered that homosexuality is outlawed in Nigeria and there

are especially some of the northern states of the country potentially death penalties as a result

but but throughout Nigeria very harsh penalties for people to be found to be engaging in homosexual

activity. Yeah exactly Mikari is a 14 year jail term here to be involved in homosexual activities

even those who tagged as accomplices so in this case the hotel owner for instance or the manager

of the hotel where that event was held according to the police can be charged for being an accomplice

but it's not the first time that such an arrest would be made a couple of years back the police

also arrested men they said were at a gay event in Lagos and charged them to court and nothing came

out of it the men denied that they had been there for other purposes rather than what the police accused

them of. And Duke Aronimo there the security forces in the central African state of Gabon

have arrested an opposition leader who was part of a coalition that challenged President

Alibongo in elections on Saturday Rachel Wright reports. The vice president of the party for

the reappropriation of Gabon was taken to the military intelligence headquarters in the capital

Libreville according to his colleague no reason was given for the arrest there are also reports

that troops have been deployed near the homes of other opposition leaders Gabon held presidential

elections on the 26th of August that were widely marked by irregularities President Alibongo was

accused of electoral fraud by the opposition the government in turn shut down the internet and

imposed a curfew and a ban on French media outlets it remains unclear when the results of the ballot

will be released. The BBC's Rachel Wright as artificial intelligence evolves some images can

make us question if they're real or whether they've been digitally created or enhanced

you may have seen a photo of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer coat that was widely

shared a few months ago only to be revealed as an AI generated image now the Google company DeepMind

is trialling a digital watermark which it says will be able to detect images created by artificial

intelligence so how does it all work our technology reporter Chris Valance explains.

It's a bit different from those ones you used to get in banknotes you know you can hold them up

to the light and suddenly an image appears the watermark appears DeepMind's synth ID system makes

changes to an image that are imperceptible to the human eye but which an AI system can spot so

then that AI can say look this is an AI generated image now obviously that's an advantage for two

reasons firstly if the watermark was visible you might be able to try and remove it much more easily

or crop the image so that you didn't include the watermark and secondly if you could see the watermark

of course that would reduce the value of the image if you're using the AI generation for purposes

other than misinformation or maybe to generate a I don't know a corporate logo or a piece of art

to illustrate an article or something like that where you don't want the watermark visible.

I'm cognizant of just how much content is generated every second of the day on the internet

with that in mind just how effective could this tool be for countering disinformation.

DeepMind calls this an experimental launch and only some users of its imagined system are going

to get to try it out but there has been a commitment from the big AI firms to develop these watermarking

tools that was part because something that came out of a meeting at the White House where they

talked about the threats of that AI tools could present and of course this comes with a prospect

of elections in the US looming ever closer and it also these kind of technologies have uses beyond

misinformation just as a consumer of content. It's been quite important to know that perhaps the

piece of art you're looking at for example was generated by a computer not an artist in their

Garrett so there are other uses for this technology as well. Chris Fallon's there.

Still to come on The Globe Wingers podcast. We see a high level of violence at sea especially from

sub-Saharan African and Tunisian migrants. Some have threatened to throw babies in the sea others

have threatened to set themselves on fire. A special report on the desperate lengths some

people will go to to escape from Africa to Europe. Police in Canada say they've brought

an additional 12 charges against a man accused of supplying a poisonous chemical to people in

more than 40 countries. Kenneth Law who's 57 and from Ontario was charged in May this year

with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide. On Friday the UK's national crime agency revealed

he sold the substance to 88 people in the UK who later died. Angus Crawford reports.

11 separate police forces in the province of Ontario are now investigating deaths linked to

Kenneth Law in what today was described as a very active and a very complex investigation.

At a press conference it was revealed that Mr Law has now been charged with an additional

12 counts of counselling or aiding suicide bringing the total number of charges to 14.

The dead are thought to range in age from 16 to 36. On Friday of last week the national crime

agency here revealed that Mr Law had sent the substance to more than 270 people in the UK

88 of whom later died although it's not possible to link the chemical to the cause of death in

all cases. Inspector Simon James from Ontario's York Regional Police said they were talking to

investigators around the world. And we are cooperating and sharing information with law

enforcement on a global scale. Let us be clear that we will not tolerate criminal actions by

those who prey on vulnerable individuals in our communities and we will hold those responsible

accountable. He confirmed that Kenneth Law sent more than 1200 packages to more than 40 countries

and revealed that as well as selling the toxic chemical the 57 year old sent other equipment

to assist clients to end their lives and warn families to be vigilant about what loved ones

had been buying online. That was Angus Crawford. The Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a flash

point between India and Pakistan for decades. It's one of the world's most militarized zones.

In August 2019 with little warning India stripped the Indian administered part of Kashmir of its

special autonomous status and brought it under central government control. That followed years

of communal violence between Muslims and Hindus. It also split it into territories Jammu and Kashmir

and Ladakh. Four years later the Supreme Court has now asked the government to provide a time frame

to return it to its previous status. The newsroom's Lippa Capellum told me more. Prime Minister Anand

Ramoody and ruling a Hindu nationalist BJP party had long opposed article 370 which gave Kashmir

India's only Muslim majority state limited autonomy. Scrapping it was part of the BJP's 2019

election manifesto. It was aimed at tightening Delhi's grip over the disputed region in the name

of national security. Given that this was such a central pillar for the BJP's election manifesto

back in 2019 how has the government responded today? The position of the central government

that Jammu and Kashmir will get back its statehood is not a new one. In October 2021 during his visit

to Kashmir the Home Minister Amit Shah promised that the statehood would be restored soon without

specifying a time frame and Mr Mehta the solicitor general told the court the current status was not

a permanent feature in his words and that Kashmir would be reversed to a state once

normality has returned and the spokesperson for the BJP for Kashmir has recently claimed that

since the abrogation of 370 tourism is at an all-time high and for the first time an international

event such as G20 summit on tourism took place there earlier this year. Which brings us on to how

has the last four years changed the lives of the people living in the region? Human rights activists

in both India and abroad have accused Delhi of intimidation and indiscriminate arrests including

of journalists in the territory and residents and local politicians call the move as the BJP's

bid to impose what they call settler colonialism which is aimed at changing the demography of the

region and land ownership and now despite the supreme court's demand people in the valley say

they have little hope anything will change. That was Lipika Palam with only 200 kilometers of water

separating it from the Italian island of Lempadusa the Tunisian coastline has now become the busiest

route in the world for migrants looking for a way into Europe. In the first six months of this year

nearly 55,000 people were picked up by the Italian or Tunisian coast guards that's according to the

United Nations. That's almost double the number who attempted the crossing in all of 2022. BBC

Arabic's Basin Banu went on patrol with the Tunisian coast guard witnessing nine migrant boats

intercepted in just 24 hours. Within half an hour of us boarding the coast guard's patrol boat

the radar intercepts its first signal. At first two smora, more agile speed boats are deployed

to locate the migrant boat before towing it back. But as the boat's 46 passengers begin to disembark

the Tunisian coast guards are met with a wave of anger. Let us say to Italy one of them shouts

all from West Africa mostly Guinea and the Ivory Coast many of them tell us it's their third even

fourth attempt to cross the small stretch of sea. We are also humans we also want to be happy

our families at home have nothing we're trying to get Europe to send money home Tunisia is a

poor country we do not have jobs we do not know where we will sleep let us live although we are

allowed to follow the operation the six coast guards on board are not answering any of our

questions instead their spokesman Hussam Adinish Babli speaks to us back at the port we see a

high level of violence at sea especially from sub-Saharan African and Tunisian migrants some

have threatened to throw babies in the sea others have threatened to set themselves on fire

after releasing all the passengers back onto Tunisian soil the ship's radar soon

detects another boat it's a makeshift iron boat around 20 people on board begging us for food

and water they say they've been adrift for more than 12 hours hailing from Sudan Yemen

Libya and Syria they tell us they're fleeing from war

sailing back out into the channel we see many clothes and shoes floating on the water local

authorities say more than 700 unidentified people including infants have been buried in unmarked

graves on the outskirts of Svax since the beginning of this year another vessel but this time full

of Tunisians hailing from one of the poorest sub-urbs of Tunis Saber Hajji says this was his

fourth failed attempt I know longer care I have already lost everything so I will take a gamble

on my life because I feel as if I am already dead as we drive away from the port there are dozens

of migrants walking along the side of the road we will sleep here tonight and these olive groves

one man tells us and then we will try again says another despite the chance of being intercepted

again and the very risk of drowning these young men are resolute they will try to reach Europe again

world champion and a young American player he accused of cheating have resolved their year-long

dispute that's gripped the world of chess the Norwegian Magnus Carlson had made the claims

after he was unexpectedly beaten by Hans Nieman in a tournament last September the American had

denied any wrongdoing although he did admit to cheating in two online games when he was 12 and

16 with more details here's Sean Coughlin this was a scandal that rocked the chess world Magnus

Carlson the five times world champion had made accusations of cheating after losing to his

young rival the 20 year old prodigy Hans Nieman the acrimonious dispute had prompted elaborate

theories on social media about high tech methods for cheating such as hidden electronic devices

or vibrating anal beads mr. Nieman responded by saying he would play naked to show nothing was

being concealed and in his next move launched a hundred million dollar lawsuit to clear his name

but the online platform chess.com says an out of court agreement has now been reached with an

acceptance that there was no cheating everything was above board and the two men can play again

Sean Coughlin there now there may be a rather simple way to provide pay relief to babies it's to

play them something like this

it's A Lullaby by Mozart that's the suggestion from research just published by Thomas Jefferson

University Hospital in Philadelphia Rebekah Slater who is professor of pediatric neuroscience at

Oxford University told Ceremonic you about it they've conducted a really well designed study

where they've taken a hundred babies and half of them have listened to Mozart during a painful

procedure and the other half haven't and what they found is for the ones that listen to Mozart

during this procedure which was a blood test where the heel of the foot is pricked was that these

babies showed less pain according to a clinical pain score right so what do we think is going on

so the idea is that by providing comforting stimulation in this case listening to a piece

of music by Mozart it might be able to change the way a baby responds to a painful procedure

so what they're doing is they're looking at the way babies respond by looking at their facial

activity or how much they cry or whether their breathing rates go up or down and they're using

all of this information to get a pain score and what they're finding is that when the babies are

listening to the music they're having less of this type of response following the heel length

that used to be thought that babies didn't feel pain in the same way as adults but it was your

research that disproved that so it wasn't just my research there are lots of groups that have

really shown now that babies do show responses to painful procedures certainly we did some work

recently looking at changes in brain activity but prior to that it's been known for a long time now

that babies do respond to pain just like adults similar to adults so if you look at the change

in brain activity that you see in an adult when they tell you they're in pain it's really similar

to the that that you'll see in a baby when they can't tell you so we can make some assumptions

about the experience that the babies are having even though they can't talk I mean do we know if

it's music or do we know if it has to be Mozart well there's definitely no evidence from this study

that it has to be Mozart and it could be that all different types of music might be helpful

they chose Mozart because it's got lots of minor tones and it's also got a soothing effect which

is why it's been part of this album that they've used in order to help provide this stimulation

do we know if a mother's voice or a father's voice has any effect so that's another area of

research that other groups have done and yes it's also been shown that when parents talk to

their babies this can be helpful so perhaps parents singing lullabies might be another

way in which we can provide additional comfort for these babies during the procedures

I wonder if there's a longer term effect as well do we know that pain in babies has longer term

consequences so we do there's been lots of studies suggesting that pain in early life can alter the

way that you respond to pain when you're older so one of the questions would be that if you

provide these interventions in early life can you actually change the way that they respond later

but certainly this hasn't been done in this study but it's something that could be looked into

what about music for adults when they're having some painful procedure I mean certainly some

women really like to have music going through intense experiences such as childbirth so I

imagine there'd be lots of benefits for adults as well that was Rebecca Slater speaking to Sarah

Montague and that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the podcast a little later

if you want to comment on this one or any of the topics send us an email the address is global

podcast at bbc.co.uk you can also find us on x of course formally known as twitter at global news

pod this edition was mixed by Chris Guzaris the producer Emma Josie of the editor Cara Martin

I'm Gareth Barlow and until next time goodbye

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