--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: On the hunt for designer steals that'll turn heads and leave a trail of envy? Uncover Gucci, Valentino, Versace, Stuart Weitzman and more. With new arrivals dropping weekly at prices too good to stay confidential.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise?
--:-- [Sound effects: Music plays]
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- [Sound effects: Music ends]
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Tuesday the 29th of July, these are our main stories.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: For the first time, two leading Israeli human rights organizations say Israel's actions amount to genocide. It comes as President Trump says Israel bears some responsibility for starvation in Gaza, but hostages are still being held there by Hamas.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: There are 20 living people. I told Israel, I told Bibi that you're going to have to now maybe do it a different way. A ceasefire is possible, but you have to get it, you have to end it. You're talking about with Israel.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The authorities in Ecuador are investigating the killing of 17 people in a coastal bar. Also in this podcast, Catholics discuss how to spread the gospel online in an unusual gathering at the Vatican.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And because we only use recycled materials, we want to motivate people to give them confidence themselves to do this. The musicians drawing attention to the impact of waste in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: They are B'Tselem, which for years has been documenting alleged human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, and a group known as the Physicians for Human Rights.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: This is the first time that human rights groups based in Israel say Israel's actions in Gaza amount to genocide, a view that has already been shared by some international organizations, including Amnesty International, and a growing number of experts.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: Now, they documented in great detail what they see as evidence of genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza. They mentioned the killing of tens of thousands of people by bombings and also by the catastrophic situation in Gaza, forced displacement of people, the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, including the health care system, starvation and denial of humanitarian aid.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: And they also mentioned statements by senior Israeli officials promoting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. So the conclusion they had is that Israel is carrying out a coordinated policy, in their words, to intentionally destroy Palestinian life and society in Gaza, which they say amounts to genocide.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: Now, Israel has always strongly rejected claims of genocide, saying that its war is against Hamas and this is a legitimate response to the October the 7th attacks on Israel.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: And they've also criticised, haven't they, Israel's Western allies? Yeah, they say that most of these crimes have been extensively documented during the war, and they have accused international leaders, particularly European and American leaders, for not doing enough to stop Israel.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: And they actually say that these leaders have, if not encouraged, have given the tools and the weapons for Israel to continue with this war in Gaza. So they are now urging the international community to take immediate action to stop this war using all legal tools available under international law.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: As you said, this is the first time this has happened. What's been the reaction in Israel itself to this?
--:-- Hugo Bechega: Well, there have been protests in Israel urging the government to strike a deal with Hamas. You know, Israel's international isolation is growing. The criticism is also on the rise.
--:-- Hugo Bechega: A number of Israeli reservists, a growing number of reservists are refusing to serve in the war. So I think there is growing pressure on the government and this may even translating more people voicing their opposition to the war.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: For the past few days, Israel has permitted more aid to enter Gaza. Some supplies have been parachuted in, but humanitarian agencies have criticized this method as insufficient, ineffective and dangerous.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: Two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft were loaded up at the King Abdullah airbase just outside Amman. One was Jordanian, the other from the United Arab Emirates.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: Servicemen in desert camouflage uniforms pushed pallets of humanitarian aid into the aircraft. Each of the neatly stacked, wrapped consignments was topped with a parachute.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: Among other contents, infant formula, basic medical items and food. Two aircraft carrying approximately eight tonnes each. Lorries are going into carrying much more but for now this is a limited aid operation depending on permission from the Israelis who control what goes in and out of Gaza.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: We took off for Gaza airspace on the Jordanian Hercules. Israel denies it restricts aid coming into Gaza. It has blamed the UN and Hamas for the humanitarian catastrophe there. Its biggest European allies, Britain, France and Germany, disagree.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: They've added their weight to international pressure and the Israelis were forced into concessions on aid convoys on land as well as the airdrops. But only a ceasefire and a sustained supply of aid by road will end starvation in Gaza and neither is certain.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: The Jordanians passed on a message from the Israelis telling us not to film the devastation in Gaza, just the parachutes. Otherwise, they might delay or stop the airdrops.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: But I could see the destruction below as we flew across the northern Gaza Strip at around 2,000 feet. Towns that were packed where the human spirit was strong, even for those who had very hard lives, have been wiped off the map by Israel. Only rubble remains.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So what are the chances of a ceasefire and an eventual end to the conflict in Gaza?
--:-- President Trump: I told Israel, I told Bibi that you're going to have to now maybe do it a different way.
--:-- President Trump: A ceasefire is possible, but you have to get it, you have to end it. You're talking about with Israel.
--:-- President Trump: I think it means that he's beginning to lose a degree of patience with the Israeli government at the moment. I think he also recognizes that the humanitarian situation is quite dire.
--:-- President Trump: He actually used the phrase, you know, that there is starvation going on, and he said you can't fake it.
--:-- President Trump: But the interesting point is that he repeatedly said that there was always going to be a lower number of hostages where Hamas would cease to negotiate because those hostages are, in his words, a shield.
--:-- President Trump: And that's when he's saying, maybe you have to do something. And he used these phrases, very energetic, ruthless or violent.
--:-- James Landale: I think it means that he's beginning to lose a degree of patience with the Israeli government at the moment. I think he also recognizes that the humanitarian situation is quite dire.
--:-- James Landale: He actually used the phrase, you know, that there is starvation going on, and he said you can't fake it.
--:-- James Landale: But the interesting point is that he repeatedly said that there was always going to be a lower number of hostages where Hamas would cease to negotiate because those hostages are, in his words, a shield.
--:-- James Landale: And that's when he's saying, maybe you have to do something. And he used these phrases, very energetic, ruthless or violent.
--:-- James Landale: It's not explicit that he's recommending or even contemplating some kind of military action to change the status quo, but he's certainly seeming to hint that.
--:-- James Landale: And what about the role of the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, in all this?
--:-- James Landale: He's expected, isn't he, to push for a resumption of peace talks?
--:-- James Landale: The British Prime Minister is under huge pressure politically at the moment. Over half of his MPs in the Labour Party have signed a letter calling for the UK to recognize a Palestinian statehood, something it hasn't done thus far.
--:-- James Landale: The French have done this or said they're going to do this. So Kirstama is under pressure to act on this.
--:-- James Landale: At the moment, he's resisting. But what he needs to do is he needs to show his political base that he is putting huge pressure on the man who really matters, the one man who actually can influence Benjamin Netanyahu, namely the US president, to do two things.
--:-- James Landale: One is to do more to get access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and secondly, to push harder for a ceasefire and ultimately some kind of a peace process.
--:-- James Landale: Because only then, once there's a ceasefire and at least some kind of conversation about a political process, can Keir Starmer begin to get into a place where he might be willing to recognize the state of Palestine.
--:-- James Landale: Because the British position has always been, you don't play that card unless you're using it to drive forward a diplomatic process.
--:-- James Landale: At the moment, there is no process to push forward. But in the short term, is it really all about President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu to make anything change?
--:-- James Landale: Yes, absolutely. The US president is the one man who has, in the progress of this war, has had the capacity at some times, not all the time, to influence what is going on in Israel and the thinking of the Israeli prime minister.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: According to the latest reports, on the Sunday evening, a group of armed men entered a bar in a rural area in Guayas, in the western part of Ecuador, and they started shooting assault rifles, apparently in an indiscriminate way against the people there.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: And they killed 17 people. According to authorities, there's at least 14 others injured. Also, local media are making the point that none of the people who have been identified as dead apparently had any kind of criminal record.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: So one of the suggestions is that it was a completely indiscriminate shooting against the people in this bar. Of course, authorities are just beginning the investigation.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: Do you have any idea who might have carried it out?
--:-- Luis Fajardo: The immediate suspicion is going to be focused on the criminal gangs the drug trafficking criminal gangs that are operating in the western region of Ecuador in the coastal region of Ecuador.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: Ecuador does not produce a lot of cocaine in itself but it has become a key trans-shipment point for cocaine being brought in from Colombia and other neighboring countries to be shipped to other parts to Europe to North America and other parts.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: So in that sense, it has become a very very active area for drug trafficking organizations. And this is believed to be the immediate cause of all this increasing violence that Ecuador is suffering right now.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: And is it spread across the country or concentrated in certain parts?
--:-- Luis Fajardo: The violence has been focused a lot on the western region and the coastal region. In the Guayas province, for example, only a few days ago, there were nine dead people in another incident in a pool hall in another town of the area.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: But the whole of Ecuador is facing the consequences. Ecuador used to be a relatively peaceful country in the South American region, but now it is facing one of the highest homicide rates in the region.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: There have been around 4,000 homicides in the first five months of the year, again, because of this extreme activity, this intense activity by drug trafficking, by criminal gangs operating in these regions in the country.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: And what's been a reaction to this latest incident, which, as you said, left 17 people dead, including, we understand, a 12-year-old boy?
--:-- Luis Fajardo: There has been, of course, indignation of the case of the 12-year-old boy having been caught, apparently, in this act of violence.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: And the government, led by President Daniel Novoa, has been promising tough action against drug trafficking gangs for some time now, since he took over.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: Since last year, Ecuador has been under a state of emergency, which gives some legal instruments to the authorities to clamp down on criminal gangs.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: But the impression is that it has not been very effective. Again, Ecuador is facing a continuous series of very violent incidents.
--:-- Luis Fajardo: And people are, of course, demanding more action from the government, which at this point has not been completely effective to stop this increase in violence affecting Ecuador.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Still to come in the Global News Podcast...
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Hi everybody and welcome to a Catholic chill day in my life.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So you're thinking about becoming Catholic. Catholic influencers descend on the Vatican to discuss digital missionary work. We'll be right back.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: America's Social Casino. Download the Moto Casino app today.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise?
--:-- [Sound effects: Music continues]
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Now I like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skincare simple, and it's loved by millions of women.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types, and it's designed to work as a complete skincare system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth, and nourished.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I recommend starting with Cindy's Full Regiment, which contains all five of her best-selling products, including the amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This next-generation serum has the power of Melon Leaf Stem Cell technology. It's melon leaf stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: With thousands of glowing five-star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the amazing Meaningful Beauty System for just $49.95.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: That includes our introductory five-piece system, free gifts, free shipping, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. All of that available at MeaningfulBeauty.com.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 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.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Dr. Brown explains. 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.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: To learn more, visit genesight.com.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: That's genesight.com.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Gunmen in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state have killed at least 35 people who were kidnapped from a village after their families failed to meet the ransom demands.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The gunmen had abducted more than 50 people from the village of Banga four months ago, demanding more than $650 per captive.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Kidnapping for ransom has become a multi-million dollar racket in Nigeria and the government has been criticized for not doing enough to stop it.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The BBC's Chris Iwakor reports from the capital Abuja.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: It is the highest number of hostages killed in a single incident over a ransom payment.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: Residents told local media that 18 people who paid the ransom were freed. The remaining hostages who could not pay were killed.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: The survivors were reportedly made to witness the rest of the hostages being hacked to death.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: Although the Nigerian government outlaws ransom payments, families say they are often forced to pay to save their loved ones, citing the government's inability to ensure their safety.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: A local government official, however, said that ransom was paid for all the victims, but the gunmen only freed 18 of them and went ahead to kill the remaining hostages.
--:-- Chris Iwakor: Kidnapping for ransom has assumed a new dimension in Nigeria. Where victims can be killed for delayed payments.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Nearly eight months after the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, the country remains unstable, beset by outbreaks of deadly violence.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Yet many Syrians who sought refuge in Turkey during their country's long civil war are now returning home.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So what impact is this exodus having on the Turkish economy?
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Emily Wither reports.
--:-- Emily Wither: We've come to an area in Istanbul that is known as Little Syria. It's in the Fatih district of the city.
--:-- Emily Wither: And during the war in Syria, this neighbourhood really became a home away from home for Syrians.
--:-- Emily Wither: The streets here are lined with Arabic shop signs, bakeries.
--:-- Emily Wither: But these days, this area is noticeably quieter.
--:-- Emily Wither: Turkey officially hosted 3.8 million Syrian refugees and their presence transformed parts of the country, especially in border towns and big cities where they boosted local economies.
--:-- Emily Wither: Now these areas are changing once again.
--:-- Emily Wither: The owner of a once popular falafel shop, Mohamed Issam, tells us he's closing down this month.
--:-- Emily Wither: He first opened in 2014 after escaping the war.
--:-- Emily Wither: Our shop and the other shops in this street, we can talk about a 50% drop.
--:-- Emily Wither: Mohamed Issam was one of many Syrians we spoke to that said Turkey's faltering economy was also driving their decision to return.
--:-- Emily Wither: Persistent inflation at around 35%, currency devaluation and high interest rates has left food and housing unaffordable for many.
--:-- Emily Wither: So some would rather take their chance in a war-torn country.
--:-- Emily Wither: It's obvious to everyone that the situation in Turkey is worsening in terms of economy.
--:-- Emily Wither: Not only our sector, but also the tourism industry is getting worse.
--:-- Emily Wither: Many people are preferring to go to other countries.
--:-- Emily Wither: Turkey's vice president, Sevdet Yilmaz, said that more than 273,000 Syrian refugees had voluntarily returned.
--:-- Emily Wither: And that figure is expected to increase significantly this summer.
--:-- Emily Wither: Some industries are already feeling the impact.
--:-- Emily Wither: Some companies lost 50% of their workforce.
--:-- Emily Wither: Turkish entrepreneur Hakan Butchak is a former board director on the Turkish-Syrian Business Council.
--:-- Emily Wither: Those sectors will have challenges to find workforce.
--:-- Emily Wither: They need to turn back to Turkish workforce, especially textile, agricultural and construction.
--:-- Emily Wither: They need to reorganize their workforce strategy.
--:-- Emily Wither: Tens of thousands of Syrian businesses relocated to Turkey during the conflict.
--:-- Emily Wither: A study carried out by TEPAV, an economic policy think tank in the capital, Ankara, found that many are choosing to reopen in Syria while still maintaining a presence in Turkey.
--:-- Emily Wither: Economist Guven Sak is Tepav's founding director.
--:-- Emily Wither: There are around 30,000 Syrian-owned companies in Turkey.
--:-- Emily Wither: And around 54% of the Syrian-owned Turkish companies are making these trends now.
--:-- Emily Wither: And among these, 7,500 of them are making plans to close down their activities in Turkey.
--:-- Emily Wither: There is one impact, though, that will be hard to quantify.
--:-- Emily Wither: The loss of unregistered Syrian workers.
--:-- Emily Wither: It's estimated up to one million Syrian refugees worked informally.
--:-- Emily Wither: Turkey introduced work permits for Syrians in 2016, but they were hard to get.
--:-- Emily Wither: There is a minimum wage in this country, but if you don't buy insurance, if you don't register your workers, then you can also pay lower than minimum wage.
--:-- Emily Wither: The UN's international labour organisation says the situation is still evolving, so it's too early to tell what impact Syrians going home will have on the Turkish labour market.
--:-- Emily Wither: What is clear is that the hundreds of thousands of Syrians returning home will once again have a transformative effect on streets, neighbourhoods like Little Syria in Istanbul and local economies across Turkey.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: For the first time in its history, the Catholic Church is holding a conference about the role of social media as a platform for faith.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Hundreds of priests, friars and Catholic influencers from all over the world are meeting in Rome to talk about digital missionary work.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: It's part of the Church's jubilee, a year-long period of special events focusing on reflection and penance.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The new Pope Leo XIV stressed that he wants the Church to be forward and to respond to a new industrial revolution and to the development of artificial intelligence.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Let's get a flavour of the sort of content Catholic influencers are posting on social media.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Hi everybody and welcome to a Catholic chill day in my life.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So you're thinking about becoming Catholic. You've thought about it for a while now, maybe a bit longer than you'd like to admit.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: You've read some books, watched some YouTube videos.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is The Century Presents.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Where do we get the rosary? Let's get on with this video.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Some people say that Catholics aren't Christian because we follow the Pope or we have traditions.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So can platforms like TikTok and Instagram help revive Catholicism among young people in the West, where interest in the church is dwindling?
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The BBC's Mark Lowen spoke to Brendan Gotta and Eliza Mons, two Catholic influencers who are in Rome for the conference.
--:-- Mark Lowen: I started by asking Eliza, what is a Catholic influencer?
--:-- Eliza Mons: I definitely feel that the term influencer can be often seen as a dirty word, especially, again, women in their mid-late 20s or early 30s, such as myself.
--:-- Eliza Mons: But I feel that the term Catholic influencer really takes that word to its original root, even before social media existed, of someone who influences others or attempts to influence others to see the joy and the beauty in the Catholic Church.
--:-- Eliza Mons: That is absolutely my goal as one myself. And I'm really proud to adopt that term because I love the Catholic Church dearly.
--:-- Mark Lowen: So what sort of things do you do or say on social media?
--:-- Eliza Mons: My mission is to show the joy of the Lord as expressed in the Catholic Church through my regular and ordinary life with my husband in South Carolina.
--:-- Eliza Mons: We're so delighted to be in our vocation of marriage, and I really enjoy showing all the delight that there is to be had in a relationship with Jesus.
--:-- Mark Lowen: Brendan, what do you post?
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I really focus on the lives of the saints. I look at the last 2,000 years of church history, and I think that when we share their lives and talk about their lives, we learn that it's obtainable.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: We can be holy.
--:-- Mark Lowen: Are you kind of worried that the younger generation are not as faithful churchgoers as, say, your parents' or grandparents' generations?
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I am saddened by that, but I'm not worried.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I notice more that though there are fewer people sitting in church pews, the ones that are are deeply, deeply in love with the Lord.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I feel anecdotally that they are less likely to be more passive churchgoers and a lot more likely to be more active churchgoers.
--:-- Mark Lowen: Do you think your work can help up those numbers?
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I hope so. I've received DMs from really, really kind people saying that a video that I created, for example, inspired them to go back to mass for the first time in a long time or go to mass at all or talk to a priest and eventually convert.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: I have negative comments. There are people who don't like what I post.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: In the end, I have to find myself resigned to say that's OK, because for each person that's touched by it, it makes it all worth it.
--:-- Brendan Gotta: But this page, if I can use it to give God glory, amen.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: We've often covered the impact of landfills and rubbish on the environment here on the Global News podcast.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: But one group from the Democratic Republic of Congo are drawing attention to the issue in a rather different way through music.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The band, Fulumiziki, make their own instruments and their clothes out of discarded items found in rubbish tips.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: In fact, the name Fulomiziki means music from garbage, and the band repurpose everything from jerry cans to car parts to construct their instruments, which, as you'll hear, sound pretty good.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Alice Zavadsky spoke to the group while they were in Portugal, where they were performing at Festival Met.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Yes, hello. I'm called Seke Lembele, a member of Fulomiziki. I'm an artist and musician, and I play all the instruments.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Bonjour, moi c'est Debule Bokungako. Hello, I'm Debule Bokungako. I'm an artist of Fuluh Miziki, and I play nearly all the instruments. And I'm also a designer and composer.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Some countries send their refuse to countries in Africa to landfill to be burned.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Is your message also to the wider world?
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: We need things from Europe, but they are often things that are already damaged.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: We don't have the machines to transform this stuff. Lots of sticks and metals. These end up in the slums, even in the center of towns.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: There's so much rubbish on several levels. You see, you are living in a complete mess.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Above all, it's important that we offer measures they can take in our music and also with workshops we do with kids because for us the most important thing is to pass that message on to the children.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Because we only use recycled materials, we want to motivate people to give them confidence themselves to do this, to make them see that there are some things that we shouldn't let go of.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: To make sure that there are things that we really shouldn't let go of.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: When you're doing these workshops with children, do you follow the same process with them?
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Well, with the children, when we were in Congo, in Kinshasa, we made instruments for ourselves and we also made instruments for them.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: And even if they don't learn to play well, they understand the sound.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Here in Europe, we organize workshops on how to build instruments, costumes and masks.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: We once did such a workshop with children in Marseille, with about 15 children, and worked with them for five days, building the instruments but also finding the materials.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: It was fun. Looking through the rubbish bins, it was great.
--:-- Alice Zavadsky: Can I join your band?
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And that's it from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This edition was mixed by Johnny Hall.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The producers were Isabella Jewell and Peter Goffin.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The editor is Karen Martin.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time. Bye bye.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is The Global Story.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
