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Global News Podcast
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai testifies for first time
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Apple Daily founder denies foreign collusion in landmark trial
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Alex Ritson
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. The podcast exploring the minds, the motives and the money of some of the world's richest individuals. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and in the early hours of Thursday 21st November, however, these are our main stories. The Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has appeared in court for the first time on charges of endangering China's national security. Ukraine uses British made long range missiles to strike targets inside Russia. US car maker Ford cuts 4,000 jobs in Europe as sales of electric vehicles stall. Also in this podcast, at least 40 people are reported dead in a single attack. In Sudan, the paramilitary Rapid Support forces have been being blamed. And what's in a word? I have manifested my entire business. I've manifested two book deals. The concept of manifestation absolutely changed the trajectory of my life. The Cambridge Dictionary names manifest as its word of the year. A day after 45 pro democracy campaigners were jailed in Hong Kong, one of the territory's most high profile political detainees, Jimmy Lai, has appeared in court. The media tycoon has been behind bars for nearly four years after his Apple Daily newspaper fell foul of the communist authorities. Now the British dual national is facing trial under the controversial National Security law imposed by China. In 2020. The 76 year old took to the stand for the first time saying democracy, freedom and the rule of law are Hong Kong's core values and denying charges of colluding with foreign forces. James Menendez spoke. Mark Simon, a former executive at Apple Daily and longtime friend of Jimmy Lai, what were his feelings as the trial got underway? Honestly, I'm immensely proud of him. I've known Jimmy for 22 years and he's been waiting for this day for really about four years. And it's gonna, he's gonna be on the stand for three weeks. And he went up there and he just told the truth. He didn't say anything or talk to anybody about things that were, he didn't try to deflect. He just said this is the way it is. And that's exactly the way I know it to be. And I thought he did a very, very admirable job on his first day. Is he going to get a fair trial? No, no, he's convicted. He's convicted. They may sit up there in wigs, but there's a guy in a mouth cap who's already made that decision. The real thing that's going to happen here is Beijing has probably looked at this case because it's a Hong Kong operation and said, you know what? This really is not what we thought it was. And Jimmy Lai was not the person of, let's just say, bringing down the streets and the conspirator that they thought he was. He's a press freedom guy. I mean, everything Jimmy did was really about defending Apple Daily all the way through. And I hope that comes out, and I think it will, yes. I mean, as we've been hearing, he was a tireless campaigner for media freedom. But I just wonder, has that essentially been closed down now in Hong Kong? It is. You know, he said today I was right. In other words, you know, I was worried the National Security Law would crush press freedom. And he basically said it on the stand. He said, and I was right. So he knows. He knows enough, even though he's in prison, that it's over for press freedom. Do you think the authorities in Beijing are also looking to make an example of Jimmy Lai? And I just wonder whether that feeds into the idea that actually, if people are afraid to speak out, well, they won't. Absolutely. The idea is to make an example of Jimmy, just like it was to make an example of the 45 people they sentenced yesterday, and even a young man who was arrested for showing disrespect to the national flag and the national anthem at a football match the other day. So, in other words, it's constantly with these regimes, the idea is to instill fear. You said at the beginning he will be convicted. I mean, is there any hope for his case? And I just wonder, you know, with Donald Trump starting his second term in January, he's promised to get Jimmy Lai out. I mean, can he? Will that make any difference? A new president in the White House? I think the main thing is going to rely with the UK in other words, he's a British citizen. He's proud of his British citizenship, and he's hoping this pm, who frankly was very, very grateful to see him raise this with Xi Jinping the other day, Donald Trump can provide the impetus to show the Chinese it's just easier if you let him go. He's basically said, I was here to defend media freedom. It's gone. I'm perfectly content to go walk the streets of London. The other thing that's happening, too, is Jimmy is becoming very popular on the mainland. There's no doubt about that. We're hearing that left, right and center. Why keep making him popular? It's the easiest thing to do is what we would call a layup in America to let Jimmy Lai go, convict him and then kick him out. So do you and his family, who I know you obviously know and are in touch with, I mean, do you still hope that you will see him again and he won't die in prison? My hope is he will not die in prison. But look, Stanley, prison, I've been there many times. It's an old prison. That's a rough summer. That's a rough, rough summer. There's no air conditioning. You're in a stone cell. He's in solitary confinement. It's not going well. The solitary confinement maybe that maybe was fine during COVID because it maybe protected him, but nobody asked for solitary confinement for four years. And I do worry, I do worry about him. He's 77, he's diabetic and I'm not worried about his spirit, I'm worried about his body. And so I would like to see him out. I hope I'll see him out. And I'm actually fairly positive it's not something that's impossible. It's very possible to get him out. Mark Simon the BBC has learned that Ukraine has fired UK supplied long range Storm shadow missiles into Russia for the first time. The launch suggests that the British government has lifted some previous restrictions on Kyiv's use of the weapons. The strike comes a day after the Ukrainian military struck the Russian region of Bryansk with U S made missiles. Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams reports from Dnipro in central Ukraine. Not for the first time, a degree of deliberate ambiguity surrounds the use of powerful weapons supplied by the west. Ukraine's Defense minister Rustam Umerov said simply that his country was using all means to defend itself. And in London, the Defence Secretary John Healey was quizzed about it in parliament saying this we've seen over recent weeks significant change in the action and in the rhetoric on Ukraine. And Ukraine's action on the battlefield speaks for itself. We as a nation and as a government are doubling down on our support for Ukraine and determined to do more. Britain pushed Washington to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS longer range missiles against targets inside Russia. Once permission was given by President Biden, it was almost inevitable that Britain would follow suit and allow Kyiv to use its Storm Shadow weapons in the same way. We don't know what Ukraine has hit, although it seems to have been a target in the Russian region of Kursk where Ukrainian troops continue to hold ground seized in a lightning offensive in August. Given that Ukraine is not thought to possess many Storm Shadow missiles, it's likely that it will have chosen its target very carefully. The missile has a powerful warhead capable of penetrating well defended bunkers. And while this appears to be the first time Storm Shadow has been fired into Russia, it's not the first time it's been used to devastating effect against Russian forces in occupied territory. In September last year, it was used to wreck a Russian submarine in dry dock in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Shortly afterwards, another Storm Shadow missile hit the fleet's headquarters, killing 34 people. The entire fleet has subsequently been forced to leave Crimea. Today, the Ministry of Defence in London said that Ukraine had damaged or destroyed more than a quarter of the major Russian warships operating in the Black Sea. The fleet, it said, was now limited to operating from Russian ports. Paul Adams. There's been a torrent of sexual abuse allegations against the late billionaire Mohammed Al Fayed since a BBC documentary in September broadcast the claims of 20 women. 290 women are currently engaged in a compensation process offered by the new owners of Harrods in London. The luxury department store Al fayed owned for 26 years. And yet the scale of his abuse is still not clear. Jasvinda Sangara has been appointed by Harrods as an advocate for the survivors. She said that Al Fayed didn't act alone. What we do know is that there are many people and survivors have said this to me already that were complicit. They looked the other way. You know, this could not have happened without people knowing about it and he used his position of power and influence. So, you know, this could be on the scale of Jimmy Savile. Sir. Jimmy Savile was a BBC television and radio presenter who was popular with the British public. But after Savile died in 2011, it was found that he used his prominent status and philanthropic work as a cover for his sexual abuse. Most of his victims were children. Our correspondent Ellie Price is following the Al Fayed case. We're two months on now from the publication, from the release of that BBC documentary. And it just seems that every week there seems to be another twist and turn and another awful revelation. More and more people coming through. So last week, for example, we heard that Mohammed Al Fayed's brother Salah had been involved in some of the allegations. And as you say, I mean, I've spoken to numerous victims over the last few weeks coming forward and to go through some of the numbers, if you like. We know, for example, that Harrods themselves have got 290 women who are engaged in their compensation process. Separate to that, there are several legal firms involved who are looking to take a case against Harrods. Now, we know that one of them, an organization called justice for harrod survivors, has 420 women working with it. Another firm called Lee Day, has more than 100. And these are spanning not just here in the UK, but in other countries as well, as far as the United States, in Canada, Dubai. I mean, as I say, the list goes on and on and the numbers just keep growing. And as you say, it's not just women who maybe Mohamed Al Fayed met at Harrods, but also his other businesses and other properties around the world as well. As you say that the numbers of women just involved in the Harrods case are enormous. What sort of compensation could they be getting? Well, the honest truth is, we don't know. Harrods obviously been very vocal about how there is this compensation process. They say there are. As I say, there's 290 women currently involved in it, and they say they have already settled some claims, claims by some women, but they haven't been very open as to exactly what the compensation could be or indeed what the process might be. We might expect that there could be some terms of reference published in the next couple of weeks. Harrods themselves also say they are engaged in an internal review to look at whether there is anyone currently working at Harrods who may have been involved in the allegations at the time. Don't forget, Harrods, of course, is under new ownership and has been since 2010. But again, it hasn't given us any details as to what that internal review may have found, if it's found anything at all, whether any action has been taken and indeed how long that review itself might take. The process has been criticised by some as being akin to marking your own homework. Jasmine Tsangara is being paid by Harrods. How independent is she? Again, that's one of the concerns, which is why I think we see so many women who have not gone to Harrods and who are indeed instructing solicitors and going through other legal firms. To that, Dame Jasvinder says, and I spoke to her the other day, she says, look, I am independent. That's the whole point of the role. And she points to a previous appointment. She was given a very similar role by the Church of England to look into its own abuse claims, and a role which she says she was sacked from, which she says very much highlights how she can be independent and tell her paymasters maybe sometimes exactly what it is they don't want to hear and indeed not go too public on it. But as I say, that's her kind of her claim, if you like, is to demonstrate just how independent she is in speaking to her. She says very much her priorities is giving victims and survivors the avenue to discuss what is open to them and to make sure that they feel heard. I mean, obviously the proof will be in the pudding in terms of exactly how victims do end up feeling, how many people go through this Harrods compensation scheme and indeed how many women may end up going through other legal means. Ellie Price Here in England, the funeral has been held for Liam Payne, the former One Direction star who died last month in Argentina at the age of 31. Among the mourners were the other four members of the group, which became one of the world's most successful boy bands. The funeral was held just outside London. Our entertainment correspondent Colin Patterson was there. Liam Payne's coffin arrived at the church in a white horse drawn carriage with floral wreaths spelling out Son and Daddy on its roof. All four of his One Direction bandmates were there, Harry Styles sharing a car with the actor and presenter James Corden and Zayn Malik postponing tonight's scheduled start of his UK tour so he could attend. Other mourners included Liam Payne's girlfriend Kate Cassidy, as well as the Olympian Denise Lewis. After the 45 minute service, a clearly distraught Simon Cowell came outside with the former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl, who is the mother of Liam Payne's seven year old son. Simon Cowell then gave a huge hug to Liam Payne's parents and could be seen offering them his condolences. It was on his show the X factor back in 2010 where One Direction were formed, turning Liam Payne into a star. There was a small crowd of interested passersby, but almost no fans. They had obeyed the family's wishes for this to be a private event of which those nearest to Liam Payne could grieve. Colin Patterson the British Council has celebrated its 90th birthday by unveiling a collection of 90 of the most influential words of the past nine decades. The council says the list highlights the influence of things like science, technology and equality on the English language. Matthew Carter has more Virus Cloud Cool all words that have been around for centuries, but they've been chosen by the British Council because of how their usage has evolved over time. Take cool for example. Originally just referring to temperature, it changed meaning in the 1940s because of its adoption by jazz musicians to mean excellent or deli, short for the German word delicatessem, an example of how immigration shapes language. More recent words include ghosting, now, meaning the act of abruptly ending a conversation with someone, reflecting anew digital etiquettes. Among the entirely new words is karaoke, meaning empty orchestra in Japanese, marking the 1970s when the activity became popular. And then there's Riz, first used in this decade referring to charm or attractiveness derived from charisma. Matthew Carter and later in this podcast, we'll hear what the Cambridge Dictionary has picked as its Word of the Year. Still to come, discoveries from the Atlas team include a new new type of cell in the digestive system that seems to exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease and could be the target for new therapies. Our plan to map all 37 trillion human cells is transforming our understanding of how our bodies hello, I'm Simon Jack and I'm Zing Singh and together we host Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, the motives and the money of some of the world's richest individuals. Every episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money and then we judge them. Are they good, bad, or just another billionaire? Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. In April last year, Sudan was thrown into disarray when its army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, began a vicious struggle for power. So far, the civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. The latest suspected attack by the RSF, in which at least 40 people are reported to have been killed, took place in the Central Gazeera state. Our correspondent Kalkidan Eboltal told me more. This is the latest in a string of similar attacks in that state of Sudan which found in the central part of the country. The current attacks happened in a village called Wad O Sahib. It seems that the attacks began on Tuesday and continued well into Wednesday morning, according to reports from local residents, eyewitnesses and health workers. It seems that fighters belonging to the Rapid Support Forces attacked civilians, looted properties, and around 40 people are believed to have been killed. What stage is the fighting at and why is there no ceasefire? Well, the fighting began in April 2023 and since then there had been several attempts to bring a ceasefire or to try to resolve the issues through dialogue. But all these attempts have failed and the fighting is collecting in several areas. In the western part of the country. In the Darfur region, there had been reports of intense clashes, particularly around the city of Al Fashar There had been fighting reported in the capital, Khartoum as well. But it seems that the regular army, the Sudanese armed forces, might have gotten the upper hand there and controlled a significant portion of positions that were held by the Rapid Support forces. In the central parts of Sudan, in Jazira State and in Sanar State, there seems to be intense fighting. Now, in October, there was a defection by a senior commander of the RSF who joined the army. And it seems that in the weeks since then, the RSF had been carrying out retaliatory attacks against civilians, or at least that's what local advocacy groups and rights organizations are alleging. Yeah, you keep mentioning civilians and human rights organizations are particularly concerned about these attacks on civilians and they say they are getting worse. Yes, and that is the concern. As the fighting continues and as it shows signs of escalation, the fear is these attacks on civilians might continue. There had been accusations of war crimes against boz warring parties. There had been accusations of ethnic cleansing, particularly in Darfur, labeled against the Rapid Support forces. And there is this massive humanitarian crisis in which around 45% of the entire Sudanese population is currently in need of emergency assistance. So the civilians, particularly the most vulnerable members of the community, like the elderly, women and children and pregnant women particularly, seem to be on the receiving end of some of the worst attacks. Kalkidan Ybutal in Ethiopia. The American car giant Ford has said that it's cutting 4,000 jobs in Europe. Almost 3,000 will be in Germany and 800 in the UK. Ford said that it had incurred significant losses in recent years. High manufacturing costs and increased competition from China have damaged Europe's car industry. With more, here's our business correspondent, Theo Legget. Ford, like other manufacturers, is trying to reinvent itself. At the moment, the world is moving towards electric cars and many countries are going to be phasing out petrol and diesel over the next decade or so. And Ford at the same time, is trying to change the kind of offering it has. It no longer wants to be the supplier of mass market runabouts that are reasonably cost effective. It wants to produce more luxury cars, which should be more profitable, focused around electric and hybrid. But at the moment, the buyers simply aren't out there. And that's the problem that Ford's had. It was expecting more people to be buying upmarket electric cars than is actually the case at the moment. And on top of that, we've got the Chinese manufacturers coming in. They're producing electric cars very quickly, very good ones, and they're doing it cheaply. So all of this is coming together and Ford has decided if it's to cope with all of these challenges, it needs to streamline. And that does mean cutting back the workforce. Theo Leggart. Now you might remember the story that shook Hollywood and indeed prompted changes to rules on gun use in films. Three years ago, the actor Alec Baldwin fired a weapon on the set of a film called Rust, which he did not realise contained a live round. It killed the cinematographer, Helena Hutchins, and wounded the director, Joel Souza. A case accusing Mr. Baldwin of involuntary manslaughter was subsequently thrown out. The filming eventually resumed and now its world premiere has taken place in Poland. The organizers said that the screening was a tribute to Helena Hutchins, but her mother didn't attend, accusing Alec Baldwin of not apologising and seeking to unjustly profit from her daughter's death. And Mr. Baldwin himself was not invited. Mark Loewen spoke to Lucas Jacina, a Polish film historian and critic who was at the premiere. What did he think of the film? It's good. It's one of those new wave westerns when the great west is dirty, ugly and the politics are bad. It's very similar to the world of Kevin Costner from Horizon, the movie which was screened a few months ago, or from the present day Yellowstone. Let's say there are no more good heroes and good characters in the West. There is only dirt, fight and blood. To paraphrase a little bit Winston Churchill. Maybe it's not a masterpiece and there was a lot of western masterpieces, but still good movie with a good roles among them. Alec Baldwin, who became controversial with this movie, plays one of the best of his serious roles in last 15, 20 years. How did they manage to create the continuity between the scenes that had been shot and worked on by Halina Hutchins before her tragic death and the ones after. The last and ultimate decision of the director was to cut one scene, I mean the one during which filming of which Halena Hutchins died. For those who didn't see the movie, the scene where there is a shooting in the church, the director decided to cut off the scene because, you know, there was a big danger that people in the theaters will not watch the movie, but just wait for the scene which was a part of the history of the film. History. The scene was cut. Some scenes, 5, 6 were a little bit rewritten and the rest of the remaining scene made by Halina Hutchins were left in the movie. She's still officially mentioned as a cinematographer, of that I presume, that that scene was cut, of course, out of sensitivity for her family in how the film works. I mean, did it work without that scene? Yeah, of course we will never compare this with the possibility original version, but still there was no visible and sensible scarves. The story was told very well and let's say the typical viewer who will not be orientated in the situation with the movie and Kalina Hutchins will not see that at all. So I understand that Juan Souza was there, the director who was wounded. There was no Alec Baldwin. No. But did Mr. Souza make any reference to what happened? Yeah, he made a lot of references during the panels after the movie, during the speech before that, and during almost all interviews with the Polish film journalists and critics. And he talked a lot about how deeply they were affected by this tragedy, how deeply they were affected by this trial, which was later. And of course he spoke a little bit on behalf of Oleg Baldwin and his personal tragedy. There were also a few friends of Halina Hutchins and her cousins from Ukraine. For me, as a critic, and I'm very good as a critic in differentiating in such situations, it was very tough during watching the movie. Tough in what way? In a way I had still all those materials and Halyna Hutchins and her death into my eyes. And you know, some parts of the movie are very similar. There is an accident, accidentally shot 14 years old boy. He is one of the main characters of that movie. You know, when story is very similar to the real life, it's not very easy for you to conceive the story. Lucas Jacina Scientists have reported that a plan to map all 37 trillion cells in the human body is transforming the long held understanding of how our bodies work. The Human Cell Atlas project has revealed that there are thousands of cell types with more is our health and science correspondent James Gall. Your body is made up of more than 37 trillion cells. Mapping all of them is one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biology. This feat of human cartography requires a combination of cutting edge biology and computer science. The journal Nature has now published a series of 40 scientific discoveries made as researchers work towards creating the first draft of the whole atlas. One of the project's founders, Dr. Aviv Regev, said the new level of insight was the equivalent of moving from the maps of the 15th century to what you can load on your phone today. Where you have on the one hand a very high resolution view of the real topography and then on top of that you have the street view. That really explains to you what is going on there. And on top of that, you can even see, like, the driving patterns, like the dynamic changes that happen during the day when more cars are flowing and less cars are flowing. Discoveries from the Atlas team include a new type of cell in the digestive system that seems to exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease and could be the target for new therapies. It has shown how the immune system starts to form much sooner than previously thought, suggesting early pregnancy may be important for our lifelong immune health. And it has shown how the skeleton forms inside the womb. It starts as a scaffold of cartilage that bone then grows over. The researchers argue that when something goes wrong in the body, it means something has gone wrong with its cells. So a complete cellular atlas could transform the way we diagnose, monitor and treat disease. James Gallaher Are you driving your dream car or planning the perfect holiday? There might be a chance you manifested it into reality. The word manifest, made popular by celebrities and social media, has been named Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year for 2024. It means imagining success will bring success. As Ella Bicknell explains, for a term that's gained ground with millennials and Gen Z, the word manifest actually dates back to the 1300s. Back then it was an adjective meaning clear or obvious. You can spot it in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, even in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer. Nowadays, manifest has a totally new meaning, the idea that through the power of belief, we can effectively think a goal into becoming reality. I have manifested my entire business. I've manifested two book deals, travel opportunities. I've manifested my dream house friendships. The concept of manifestation absolutely changed the trajectory of my life. Victoria Jackson started what she calls her manifesting journey in 2017. Since then, she's become a lifestyle coach and authored books on the subject. I am quite a woo woo kind of, you know, spiritual person. I believe that I am magnetizing things to me energetically. However, there's real science. I believe in manifestation as well, because a shift in my mindset when I started to focus on the things that I wanted instead of focusing on the things I didn't have and what I was lacking. The word has also been popularized by celebrities. British pop star Dua Lipa says manifestation enabled her to headline 2024's Glastonbury Festival. Yeah, but you Manifest. Yeah, I think putting things into writing is powerful. You gotta ask for what you want. American gymnast Simone Biles said she manifested her gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics. And fans of Spider man actor Tom Holland have noticed how he visualizes his goals into reality. What kind of superhero would I want to play? Maybe, maybe Spider man in like 10 years time. Although positive thinking, self affirmation and goal setting all have beneficial effects, some psychologists have argued manifestation could lead to unrealistic expectations, even obsessive behavior. Nevertheless, the term has gained traction on social media. And this year on the Cambridge Dictionary website, it was looked up almost 100. Ella Bicknell and that's all from us for now. But there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on X globalnewspod. This edition was produced by Judy Frankel and mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz. And until next time, goodbye. A search for the truth behind an international drug smuggling plot. There's something on this boat. The 10 of cocaine. There was a lot of adrenaline. I couldn't believe what was happening. And the man Brazilian police believed to be at its center. Fox, Fox. Fox. Called the shots from the BBC World Service. This is World of Secrets season five. Finding Mr. Fox. Search for World of Secrets. Wherever you get your BBC podcasts.