--:-- Paul Moss: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Saks Off 5th is your secret to fashion's most wanted deals at up to 70% off.
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--:-- Paul Moss: Lux layers, statement boots and tailored essentials from Saks Off 5th will put your wardrobe on the most wanted list. Head to SaksOff5th.com or SaksOff5th store near you for a style lineup you won't want to miss.
--:-- Paul Moss: Go on, get a little out there, into the big heart of Nevada, where you can go off-road and off the map, on two lakes or on horseback. Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts. Climb a mountain or make your best effort.
--:-- Paul Moss: See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see, because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- Paul Moss: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Monday, the 18th of August, these are our main stories.
--:-- Paul Moss: A group of European leaders is preparing to join the Ukrainian president in Washington today, where he's due to hold talks with Donald Trump. A national strike's been held in Israel, with protesters demanding a peace deal that would secure the release of hostages in Gaza.
--:-- Paul Moss: And human rights groups have condemned the apparent execution of a civilian by Sudan's paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Also in this podcast, we look back at the life and career of Terence Stamp, actor, idol and nemesis of Superman.
--:-- Paul Moss: Rise before Zod. No, kneel. It's often said that one of the Russian president Vladimir Putin's aims is to divide Ukraine and its allies in NATO. Well, he's certainly failed to break Ukraine's bond with the major European countries which give it support.
--:-- Paul Moss: It's been announced that when the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky goes to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday, several European leaders will accompany him. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, the French President Emmanuel Macron and also the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
--:-- Paul Moss: All of them will be in Washington to provide diplomatic backup, as our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse reports. For the first time in America's ongoing peace efforts, Europe has suddenly found itself at the table.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Donald Trump's decision to bypass a ceasefire after his meeting with Vladimir Putin was a blow for the bloc. But the speed at which Ukraine and its neighbours have been invited to the White House for a face-to-face of their own will be a source of optimism.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Before setting off for Washington together, Volodymyr Zelensky and the EU Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, met in Brussels. She said future security for Ukraine was crucial.
--:-- Ursula von der Leyen: As I've often said, Ukraine must become a steel porcupine, undigestible for potential invaders. We welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine.
--:-- Ursula von der Leyen: And the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share. That option would potentially mean Western allies taking direct action if Russia tried to take more territory.
--:-- James Waterhouse: And is a proposal Vladimir Putin has agreed to, according to the White House. What is less known, as Mr Zelensky admits, is what the Kremlin has asked for in return.
--:-- James Waterhouse: We have to stop the killings. Putin has many demands, but we do not know all of them. And if there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all.
--:-- James Waterhouse: It's impossible to do this under the pressure of weapons. So it's necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal. President Zelensky's return to the White House can only go better than his last when he had that row with Donald Trump.
--:-- James Waterhouse: This time, he has his European friends in the room. The question is whether they can collectively convince the US president to resist the growing calls for Ukraine to simply hand over more territory for peace, a move that would be political suicide for Mr Zelensky, as well as illegal, as Ukraine's constitution would have to be changed.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Also Sunday saw Mr Zelensky hailed as historic a proposal by the US to offer Ukraine security guarantees as part of a peace deal with Russia. President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, told US broadcasters the security offer would be similar to that of NATO membership, which guarantees a collective response to any external attack.
--:-- Steve Witkoff: Of course, such a guarantee does require a peace deal to be reached. And when my colleague Rachel Wright spoke to the BBC's Washington correspondent, Runadei Mukherjee, he emphasised the serious gaps which remain.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: Both sides have made it very clear in terms of sort of concessions on land. You know, Steve Witkoff had appeared on an interview earlier on today in CNN, where he'd mentioned that Russia has agreed to some concessions when it comes to territory.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: But Ukraine has been very clear that you cannot question or challenge its sovereignty. There was some sort of an answer from Steve Witkoff on that as well, where he said that Vladimir Putin had agreed to provide some security guarantees, which he said would be robust and game changing.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: We still need to understand what shape that will actually take, because I think these are some of the aspects that when the leaders meet, we'll be wanting clearer answers from Donald Trump on.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: The personal dynamics will be very interesting because Donald Trump is used to, or prefers, we could say, one-on-one relationship. This is going to be a different dynamic.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: Do you think there might be some sense that he might feel ganged up on? Well, I mean, that's one way of perhaps viewing it would be one line of thought.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: And you know what's interesting, if I can take you back to that Truth Social post that Donald Trump had put up on Saturday after the summit in Alaska, he essentially talked about just Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky visiting on Monday.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: There was no mention of European leaders. We only started seeing those developments when we got those confirmations from the European leaders coming in over the last 24 hours.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: And then by way of these interviews that have come in from Marco Rubio to U.S. networks, from Steve Witkoff to U.S. networks, they've talked about the presence of European leaders who are coming in.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: And so, you know, it's interesting because there's still not been any kind of official communication which is detailing how exactly it's going to be structured, whether we're going to have one-on-one talks first, whether we're going to have sort of a conversation with other leaders later on.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: But what it looks like, and this seems to be sort of the larger line of thought, is that it is likely to be a bilateral first and then there will be larger conversations where it will be opened up is how we're looking at it.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: But again, having said that, we still haven't received any kind of official structure, which again goes to suggest how unprecedented this is and how hurriedly this has kind of been put together as they try and race against time to reach this.
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: Remember, Donald Trump has now said that he's looking at a full sort of peace agreement rather than a ceasefire because he feels it may not hold, which is why it begs the question, how long is it going to take to actually negotiate all these contentious points to get to that full peace agreement?
--:-- Runadei Mukherjee: It could take weeks. It could take months, given that both sides are adamant on their stance.
--:-- Paul Moss: Sunday is a normal working day in Israel. At least it would be usually, but not this one, because the country has seen a national strike and demonstrations to go with it.
--:-- Paul Moss: It was organised by some of the families of hostages still being held in Gaza. They want the Israeli government to secure a peace deal which will lead to the hostages being released, rather than attempting to occupy more Gaza territory.
--:-- Paul Moss: Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Emeonada, sent this report. Across Israel workplaces shut down and highways were blocked.
--:-- Emeonada: Protesters have burned tires in the street clashed with police and been dispersed by water cannon.
--:-- Emeonada: This campaign, led by hostage families, has escalated its tactics in response to the Israeli government's intention to escalate the war by invading Gaza City.
--:-- Emeonada: This woman was among the crowds in Jerusalem. This is our last chance to stop the insanity, stop the war, stop the government from sacrificing our hostages, sacrificing many more soldiers, sacrificing basically us and the Palestinian people for its own political gain.
--:-- Emeonada: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the protesters of jeopardizing the lives of the hostages.
--:-- Emeonada: He said calling for an end to the war without the defeat of Hamas only hardened the group's position.
--:-- Emeonada: Those comments prompted a furious response, with the mother of one hostage accusing him of a toxic and detached statement that showed the protests scared him.
--:-- Emeonada: Meanwhile, the devastation in Gaza continues. Thousands of residents in Gaza City's southern Zaytu neighborhood have had to flee their homes after six days of relentless Israeli airstrikes.
--:-- Emeonada: The city's Hamas-run municipality described the conditions there as catastrophic.
--:-- Emeonada: And over the last weekend nearly 60 people were killed by Israeli attacks across the territory.
--:-- Emeonada: That's according to the Gaza's Civil Defence Agency.
--:-- Paul Moss: Someone who's witnessed the suffering in Gaza close up is Ahmad Youssef. He's an American doctor who's just left the strip after volunteering with a charity Heroic Hearts.
--:-- Paul Moss: He described to my colleague Martin Croxell his work at the Al-Shifa and Al-Aqsa hospitals.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: What I saw was pure devastation. This is the second time I visited Gaza, I visited about a year ago.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: I'm exasperated by continuing to have to speak on behalf of the Gazan people because nobody listens to them.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: They currently are under 22 months of absolute devastating military bombardment, displacement, and now starvation.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And I don't know how many physicians and aid workers have to scream on their behalf before the world begins to Listen, for anybody to be talking about anything except for starving children in Gaza is a travesty.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: Nobody's children deserve to starve. And there's two million people sitting in a death trap called Gaza.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And every day that I was there, I saw children die on the floor in that ER.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: I saw mothers and fathers worry about the sounds of their children's stomachs as they searched for where food was going to come from.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And just the desperation and hopelessness was immense to experience as a health care worker.
--:-- Paul Moss: How did the conditions then this time, which you've just described, compared with a year ago, how has things shifted?
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: What I would say is that when you take people and destroy their homes, treat them like animals, displace them over and over again, then speak about the displacement as if it's no big deal.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: It's just a strategy, a political strategy or a negotiation tactic. I met those people. I met human beings who deserve every bit of dignity and humanity.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And the entire world, media included, international governments, my own government has treated them with a level of inhumanity that I never would have imagined was possible.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And I think what breaks my heart is that I have to do this, that I and every other health care worker, because we're the only ones allowed in, and you aren't allowed in, right, the BBC and other news media agencies are allowed in, is that we're trying to verify that what's happening is an ethnic cleansing and genocide.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: And all we would hope is somebody would go verify what we're saying, because we're not politicians and we're not media people.
--:-- Ahmad Youssef: We're just doctors and aid workers. And so the situation is worse than you can imagine.
--:-- Paul Moss: Every video and every story I tell you will not do justice to how severe the humanitarian aid crisis is there and how brutal the military strategy of starvation and destabilization of healthcare infrastructure and stability of residential homes.
--:-- Paul Moss: I could never do it justice with the words in a short interview with you here.
--:-- Paul Moss: Human rights groups have condemned the apparent execution of a civilian by Sudan's paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces.
--:-- Paul Moss: A video appears to show the killing, although the BBC hasn't been able to verify it independently.
--:-- Paul Moss: But the RSF has repeatedly been accused of ethnic killings throughout Sudan's two-year civil war.
--:-- Paul Moss: This report from our Africa regional editor, Will Ross.
--:-- Will Ross: The Darfur Network for Human Rights says the video was filmed close to the city of El Fasha.
--:-- Will Ross: An RSF fighter is seen interrogating a man who's sitting on the ground.
--:-- Will Ross: He's then shot dead at close range.
--:-- Will Ross: The rights group condemns it as an ethnic killing because the man had said he was from the non-Arab Bertie tribe.
--:-- Will Ross: Whilst the Sudanese army has also carried out many atrocities, the sheer volume of war crimes committed by the RSF is staggering.
--:-- Will Ross: Despite plenty of evidence confirming a link, the United Arab Emirates continues to deny backing this brutal paramilitary force.
--:-- Paul Moss: Even by the standards of film stars, Terence Stamp came a long way.
--:-- Paul Moss: The actor, who's just died at the age of 87, was born in one of the poorest parts of London, yet would go on to take leading roles in films like Superman and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, not to mention being linked to some of the world's most glamorous actresses.
--:-- Paul Moss: But his was not a straight career trajectory, rather one characterised by setbacks, sidesteps, and some very interesting digressions along the way, as Charlotte Gallagher reports.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: You're the enemy, right? No! You're not scared, are you? No.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Terence Stamp as the dangerously attractive Sergeant Troy, opposite his former girlfriend Judy Christie in Far From the Madding Crowd in 1967.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Is it very sharp? No, I've got no edge at all.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: He would become known for playing rogues, but his first starring role had been as the naive sailor Billy Budd.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: It's his camp tonight, isn't it? It won him an Oscar nomination.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: But as suddenly a stamp star had blazed, it died.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: And when the 1960 supermodel Jean Shrimpton ended their relationship, he moved to India.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: I'd lost this young love of my life. I had no work to distract me. I was thrown back on myself.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: I am General Zod. Your ruler.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Stamp returned to mainstream movies as the Kryptonian supervillain General Zod in Superman 1 and 2.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: These humans are beginning to bore me.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: In the 1990s, he was a transgender drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: They never spoke to me again after I'd had the job.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: He dusted off his portrayal of a cockney hard man in The Limey.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Tell me about Jenny. Tell me about Jenny.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Then he broke hearts again as a grieving husband in song for Marion.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Good night, my angel, time to close your eyes.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: Terence Stamp was a charismatic character actor who commanded the screen.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: He refused to be typecast by Hollywood and leaves a fascinating film legacy.
--:-- Paul Moss: Still to come, the botched Virgin Mary statue that has Seville up in arms.
--:-- Paul Moss: Look, because it's not her, it's very painful to see her like this. She's not the same as before.
--:-- Paul Moss: Go on, get a little out there into the big heart of Nevada, where you can go off road and off the map on two lakes or on horseback.
--:-- Paul Moss: Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts, climb a mountain or make your best effort.
--:-- Paul Moss: See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels.
--:-- Paul Moss: Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be.
--:-- Paul Moss: Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- Paul Moss: Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty.com.
--:-- Paul Moss: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective.
--:-- Paul Moss: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Paul Moss: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: As part of my treatment plan, I offer the GeneSightTest, which analyzes how a patient's genes may influence how they metabolize or respond to certain mental health medications.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
--:-- Paul Moss: To learn more, visit genesight.com.
--:-- Paul Moss: That's genesight.com.
--:-- Paul Moss: This message comes from Greenlight.
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--:-- Paul Moss: They were the Afghans who had a lucky escape. Four years ago, when the Taliban seized control of the country, some of the local people who'd helped American troops managed to get away, and many ended up emigrating to the US.
--:-- Paul Moss: Now, though, they fear being deported as part of President Trump's crackdown on immigration.
--:-- Paul Moss: And US military veterans are among those trying to prevent that happening.
--:-- Paul Moss: From San Diego, California, Regan Morris has this report.
--:-- Regan Morris: I work with the U.S. military. Just tell them. You can come with us, sir. Provide the warrant.
--:-- Regan Morris: Syed Nasser is handcuffed by federal agents outside a courtroom where he just attended a routine immigration hearing.
--:-- Regan Morris: I work with the U.S. military back in my home country. I have all the documents.
--:-- Regan Morris: He's telling them they've made a mistake.
--:-- Regan Morris: He worked as a translator with the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
--:-- Regan Morris: He's here in the U.S. legally, but now he's been locked in detention for two months.
--:-- Regan Morris: Massed agents of the federal government are snatching up our friends, people who took life in our name and have done nothing wrong.
--:-- Regan Morris: Navy veteran Sean Van Diver started Battle Buddies, a volunteer network of veterans to come and stand alongside wartime allies during court hearings and appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
--:-- Regan Morris: You're not here armed. You're not going to fight.
--:-- Regan Morris: What are you going to do? We're not here to do anything other than stand there, be seen by many of the ICE folks.
--:-- Regan Morris: Many of them are veterans. Pretty hard to go through and see your fellow veteran and be like, all right, I'm going to penetrate this wall of people around these folks and go and snatch this guy up who enabled our mission.
--:-- Regan Morris: We have 900 volunteers across the country, about 100 here in California.
--:-- Regan Morris: You know, it's really been inspiring to see, even after all these years, All these veterans stand up and say that this is wrong, that what we're seeing right now is what happens in Banana Republics.
--:-- Regan Morris: It's what happens in places where rule of law doesn't matter.
--:-- Regan Morris: And rule of law still, at least for now, matters here.
--:-- Regan Morris: We're going to courtroom number four.
--:-- Regan Morris: I joined the veterans as they escorted Abdul, a journalist who fled Afghanistan.
--:-- Regan Morris: I'm whispering because we're not supposed to be allowed in court.
--:-- Regan Morris: We're allowed to be in here in the hallway.
--:-- Regan Morris: So the battle buddies are here as a show of force, they say, to protect those who stood with them during a wartime in Afghanistan.
--:-- Regan Morris: It was fairly tense and quiet as the 10 volunteer veterans waited outside in the hallway with about half a dozen masked federal agents.
--:-- Regan Morris: It was the same hallway where Syed was detained two months ago.
--:-- Regan Morris: U.S. Army veteran Monique Labar was one of the volunteers.
--:-- Regan Morris: I came here because I think it's just unconscionable.
--:-- Regan Morris: And I think that it's short-sighted to think that we can do this type of stuff and not lose our credibility.
--:-- Regan Morris: And that ultimately is going to affect our national security going forward.
--:-- Regan Morris: President Trump would say, you know, so many Americans support this mass roundup of immigrants.
--:-- Regan Morris: I don't think that's actually true.
--:-- Regan Morris: And I think what people voted for was border security, people crossing the border illegally.
--:-- Regan Morris: And this is not in any way what we are supporting.
--:-- Regan Morris: What we are supporting is the legal process.
--:-- Regan Morris: These people are vetted. they put themselves at substantial risk by supporting the United States government.
--:-- Regan Morris: About 200,000 Afghans have come to the U.S. since 2021 on a variety of different visas.
--:-- Regan Morris: But now many of them are living here in fear since the Trump administration terminated programs which had shielded them from deportation.
--:-- Regan Morris: When asked about Afghan allies earlier this month, President Trump said those who helped the United States would be allowed to stay.
--:-- Regan Morris: We know the good ones and we know the ones that maybe aren't so good.
--:-- Regan Morris: You know, some came over that aren't so good. And we're going to take care of those people, the ones that did a job.
--:-- Regan Morris: But the president did not elaborate.
--:-- Regan Morris: And Afghan refugees say they're living in limbo, afraid of being swept up in immigration raids or outside their own asylum hearings.
--:-- Paul Moss: Hong Kong's government has criticized foreign countries which give refuge to pro-democracy activists who fled the territory.
--:-- Paul Moss: Two of them have just announced that they've been granted asylum abroad.
--:-- Paul Moss: Mickey Bristow reports.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: Over the weekend, the activist Ted Hui revealed that he and his family had been granted asylum in Australia.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: Another pro-democracy campaigner, Tony Chung, then said he'd been allowed to stay in Britain, whose government said he risked persecution back home.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: A Hong Kong government spokesman dismissed this viewpoint.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: He said some of those who'd fled were simply criminals who'd committed serious offences that had endangered national security.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: But in Hong Kong now, those kind of offences ensnare anyone who criticises the Chinese authorities.
--:-- Paul Moss: Now to the sounds of the rainforest.
--:-- Paul Moss: That was a howler monkey, one of thousands of the species living in the Great Maya Forest of Central America.
--:-- Paul Moss: It's the second largest rainforest in the Americas, covering almost 60,000 square kilometres across Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.
--:-- Paul Moss: And now those three countries have signed what they're calling a historic decree to preserve the forest, a decree which has implications not only for the wildlife there, but also for the forest's two million inhabitants, as my colleague Julian Warwicker heard from James Deutsch.
--:-- James Deutsch: These are extraordinary places. It's a huge jungle rainforest, very, very, very tall trees, with extraordinary animals everywhere, howler monkeys and scarlet macaws.
--:-- James Deutsch: But the other thing about it is that you've got these extraordinary Mayan ruins. that have been completely taken over by the jungle.
--:-- James Deutsch: It looks like something out of a movie.
--:-- James Deutsch: I had a chance to fly north over this vast, vast forest, and you're flying and suddenly looming up out of the forest is the ruins of this civilization that was there a thousand years ago.
--:-- James Deutsch: It's a truly extraordinary place.
--:-- James Deutsch: Give us a roll call of what we might bump into if we were walking through this forest I mean the first thing if you there at dawn or dusk the first thing you notice is the howler monkeys screaming through the forest
--:-- James Deutsch: Then probably you'll catch a glimpse of an incredible, brightly coloured bird like a scarlet macaw, which often fly over in pairs at sunset.
--:-- James Deutsch: It looks like something out of Walt Disney or a keel-billed toucan.
--:-- James Deutsch: And then, of course, the animals you don't see, there are five species of large cats, most famously jaguars, the king of the forest.
--:-- James Deutsch: You probably won't see them, but they're there lurking outside of your sight.
--:-- James Deutsch: I'm imagining a few spiders and snakes might be in there as well.
--:-- James Deutsch: Absolutely. They have their share of spiders and snakes.
--:-- James Deutsch: Many people worry a bit about fer de lance, which is the most famous poisonous snake.
--:-- James Deutsch: Some people would say you better wander around in gumboots and not sandals.
--:-- James Deutsch: Now, what about the people living there? Because, I mean, one of the things that's emerged about this pact that the three countries concerned are clearly very happy about is they're saying that this will benefit more than two million inhabitants because of various projects that will go on as a result of this decree.
--:-- James Deutsch: So tell us about the people living there. The Maya people, after whom this forest are named, the Maya civilization, some of your listeners may remember, was one of the great civilizations on Earth around 500, 1000 AD.
--:-- James Deutsch: And it disappeared almost without a trace around 12, 13, 1400 before the Spanish arrived.
--:-- James Deutsch: But the descendants of the Maya people are still there, and they live mostly relatively traditional lives.
--:-- James Deutsch: There are many people who farm or keep small-scale cows.
--:-- James Deutsch: Of course, some of them are now involved in tourism.
--:-- James Deutsch: In general, the Maya people in Mexico and Guatemala and Belize are not the most advantaged people in the country.
--:-- James Deutsch: They've been left behind by many aspects of development.
--:-- James Deutsch: And so certainly one vision one might have for protecting this land is to protect the extraordinary cultural heritage of the people and provide opportunities for them while also saving the rainforest.
--:-- Paul Moss: You may have heard of the so-called superbug MRSA that's been a major concern in hospitals for years.
--:-- Paul Moss: It's widespread, and it means some people go into hospitals with one problem, but end up suffering something far worse, a potentially fatal MRSA infection.
--:-- Paul Moss: Well, here in Britain, there's a new development.
--:-- Paul Moss: MRSA is also apparently spreading in gyms.
--:-- Paul Moss: My colleague Owen Bennett-Jones spoke about this to Dr Simon Clark, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the UK's University of Reading in England, and asked him first what exactly MRSA is and why it's so dangerous.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: It's long been known as a pathogen, a bug that causes disease in hospitals, in hospital environments and classically it's been regarded as something which kills older, unwell, sick people in those environments and of course you can go in for a minor procedure and come out with an infection that you may not have had when you went in.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: I say may because a quarter to a third of the population in the developed world carry it round in their noses and that is often usually what goes on to cause the infection in somebody but around 20-25 years ago it changed or started to change so that we still started to see new strains which were much more likely to infect younger healthier people who'd never been near hospitals.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: Right so what is going on with that then? Where are they getting it? They're getting it from one another.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: It is spreading in the community. We call it C-A-M-R-S-A, Community Acquired M-R-S-A.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: So they're passing it round from one to another.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: And that's why places like gyms are thought to, and I just stress, it's not a done thing we know for certain, but places where younger people congregate, like college dorms, gymnasiums, military barracks, you're more likely to get infections we believe in those environments amongst young people.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: How can people protect themselves? By good hygiene but like I say this is a normal part of the bugs we carry around with us at any given time.
--:-- Dr. Simon Clark: You know a quarter to a third of the population right now have this stuff in the developed world that is have this bug living up their nose.
--:-- Paul Moss: Now do you remember the Spanish painting which earned itself the unfortunate nickname the Monkey Christ.
--:-- Paul Moss: This was a 17th century fresco which an elderly amateur painter tried to restore in her local church in the town of Borja in Spain back in 2012, but which ended up looking more like an ape than a messiah.
--:-- Paul Moss: Well, it seems Spain's restoration curse may have struck again.
--:-- Paul Moss: This time it's a statue of the Virgin Mary, which was supposed to be given just some minor treatment to get it back in shape, but has come out looking very different.
--:-- Paul Moss: Carla Conti reports.
--:-- Carla Conti: The Virgin of Macarena, or simply La Macarena, is the patron saint of bullfighters, but to the people of Seville, she's a symbol of local identity and religious devotion.
--:-- Carla Conti: The 17th century wooden statue has an embroidered mantle and heavy golden crown.
--:-- Carla Conti: On her sorrowful face are five crystal teardrops.
--:-- Carla Conti: Sevilleans are fiercely protective of her looks, So when back in June, she was sent out for a small touch-up, only to emerge a month later with long, dark eyelashes and a new, smokier look, people were up in arms.
--:-- Carla Conti: Devotees were left distraught by what they saw as a botched restoration, not least because the man responsible was Francisco Arquillo Torres, who had regularly worked on the image over the years to earn the nickname Doctor of the Virgin.
--:-- Carla Conti: This was the reaction of some of the worshippers.
--:-- Carla Conti: Look, because it's not her. It's very painful to see her like this. She's not the same as before.
--:-- Carla Conti: It's true that her look has changed quite a bit compared to how it's always been.
--:-- Carla Conti: They've rejuvenated her. They've given her a facelift.
--:-- Carla Conti: The Brotherhood of the Macarena, entrusted for centuries with protecting the Virgin and the group behind the restoration, knew they had to quell the outrage.
--:-- Carla Conti: When the restored statue was first revealed in July, they issued an apology and closed the basilica for an hour, after which the Virgin emerged with shorter eyelashes.
--:-- Carla Conti: But devotees were still unhappy.
--:-- Carla Conti: Another attempt was made soon afterwards, but that only altered their expression more.
--:-- Carla Conti: Now, the fate of La Macarena rests in the hands of a single restorer, Pedro Manzano, who will attract the close scrutiny of all civilians, devout or not.
--:-- Carla Conti: Speaking to the newspaper El País, Mr. Manzano said this would be one of the most complex and delicate projects he's ever undertaken.
--:-- Paul Moss: And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.
--:-- Paul Moss: If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.
--:-- Paul Moss: The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
--:-- Paul Moss: This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producers William McSheffrey and Judy Frankel.
--:-- Paul Moss: The editor is Karen Martin.
--:-- Paul Moss: I'm Paul Moss. Until next time, goodbye.
--:-- Paul Moss: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Paul Moss: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
