--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. 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? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Friday the 22nd of August, these are our main stories.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will begin negotiations to free all hostages and bring about an end to the war in Gaza. I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: 27 countries signed a statement calling on Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: In the US...
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Now there's the TikTok movement to free the Menendai. There's a new generation that's worked through. People are looking at the case with fresh eyes. Brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez, jailed for murdering their parents in 1989, are about to start parole hearings.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Also in this podcast, new research finds the mind doesn't adjust to losing a limb. It feels like I'm being cattle prodded on a very specific part of my foot. And it's bizarre because it's like it's actually happening, but I look down and there's no foot that could be getting electric shock.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's ordered immediate negotiations for the conclusion of the war in Gaza. He delivered the statement in a pre-recorded message filmed outside the Israel Defence Force's Gaza Division headquarters.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I have come to the Gaza Division today to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me and to the Minister of Defence for taking over Gaza City and defeating Hamas.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I greatly appreciate the presence of the reserve soldiers and, of course, the regular army for this vital goal. At the same time, I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The Israeli Prime Minister also said he'd approved the military's plan for taking control of Gaza City. The IDF have already entered the outskirts of the city, which is home to more than a million Palestinians. Hundreds have been fleeing.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Michael Kleiner is a senior figure in Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud party. He said Palestinians would be allowed back once Israel has finished its operation.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The goal of this operation is to end the war as soon as possible and end the suffering of the population of Gaza and of the Israeli army. Israeli soldiers who are recruited hundreds of days and want this war finished.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And if we are going to fight in Gaza, inevitably also civilians are being hurt. So we want to prevent this by warning them and asking them to go out temporarily to the Mawasi.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And the moment Hamas is out, the moment Hamas is disarmed, the rehabilitation of Gaza will start and they will be able to come back to their homes if they want to.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: To many Palestinians, Gaza City was at one point a place of relative safety after Israeli strikes forced them out of their homes in other parts of the territory.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Here's the view of one woman. I am in Gaza now. It was my 10th displacement under fire. I left with nothing, nothing at all, except holding the hands of my two daughters.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Displacement means starting from zero, from less than zero even. No money, no shelter, no basic means of life. There is no permanent home, no safe place, no certainty about the future.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Even here, beside the sea, where water should mean horizon and freedom. I feel the sky closing in UNAS more and more.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So what does all this mean for the ceasefire proposal agreed by Hamas earlier this week? We asked our correspondent in Jerusalem, Joe Floto.
--:-- Joe Floto: Since Monday night in Hamas, we'd been told I'd agreed a proposal by mediators, the Qataris and the Egyptians, for a temporary ceasefire, 60 days.
--:-- Joe Floto: Half the hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. And we were waiting for the Israeli Prime Minister to come and say what he said to that proposal.
--:-- Joe Floto: Now, what we've got tonight is Netanyahu saying, I've approved the plans for a massive military assault on Gaza City, but at the same time I've instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and the end of the war on terms acceptable to Israel.
--:-- Joe Floto: So what he's effectively saying is I'm not picking up the deal that is agreed by Hamas and is ready on the table for a ceasefire.
--:-- Joe Floto: I am rejecting that essentially, but I'm willing to negotiate. And he appears to be saying I'm going to negotiate while preparing for this major military assault.
--:-- Joe Floto: So he goes on, he ends. He says these two things, defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages, go hand in hand.
--:-- Joe Floto: So he's having two tracks here, the military track and a negotiating track. But what he's not doing is picking up that ceasefire deal that was ready on Monday night.
--:-- Joe Floto: That's going to have to wait. And it's on Israel's terms.
--:-- Joe Floto: I mean, what's the latest on the military operation?
--:-- Joe Floto: Well, Israel has been signalling very, very loudly and very methodically its preparations for this military assault on Gaza City.
--:-- Joe Floto: Its plans, as you've been hearing, are to push out the civilian population and then fight Hamas to defeat in Gaza City, dealing it what they call a fatal blow.
--:-- Joe Floto: The problem with that is that that requires tens of thousands of troops. Israel yesterday issued a call-up notice to 60,000 reservists and extended the reserve duty of another 10,000.
--:-- Joe Floto: So there are lots and lots of preparations being made. So they're not ready yet for that major assault, but over the next few weeks that will be ramping up.
--:-- Joe Floto: And as part of that, the existing troops inside Gaza have been inching closer and closer around the outskirts of Gaza City, pushing into the suburbs.
--:-- Joe Floto: And that's caused death and it's caused a lot of fear and worry for those people inside Gaza City.
--:-- Joe Floto: And as we've been hearing today there's been a little protest inside Gaza City, quite a rare thing with people just saying that we've had enough now we've been moved north and south, we've got nowhere left to go.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Since the start of the war in Gaza Israel has banned foreign journalists from entering the territory except for tightly controlled press tours led by the IDF.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Now 27 countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Japan, have signed a joint statement calling on Israel to allow immediate independent foreign media access to what they call the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Signatories also urged Israel to protect journalists already operating in Gaza.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Our correspondent Tom Bichtman is in Washington.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: Many governments have over those months acknowledged the fact that Israel has blocked foreign journalists from getting into Gaza and have at various points called for them not to do that.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: Although what we haven't had is this kind of orchestrated joint call and it's now 27 governments that have signed this letter by an organisation called the Media Freedom Coalition, but it is basically an intergovernmental body that supports journalist rights and protections throughout the world.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: My sense is that this had grown and was being pressed specifically by a few of the Western European governments to try and get this joint communique published.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: And really the trigger for that was, as they put this in the statement, basically the unfolding and growing catastrophe in terms of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which I think has led to an acknowledgement and understanding increasingly among some governments that without media access without the ability to continue to show the realities of what happening in Gaza that will sort of hamstring the pressure that those governments can also put on the Israeli authorities as they try to get more food and support inside Gaza.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: You were the BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem for many years, Tom.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: Well, I mean, getting access to Gaza for a foreign journalist was not particularly straightforward.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: But I mean, compared to this relatively easy, you would tend to go through the Erez crossing, as it was known, a military checkpoint, almost sort of dystopian checkpoint along the perimeter barrier between Israel and Gaza.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: And you would have to have Israeli government accreditation to do that. So that created sort of another layer.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: And there were some restrictions around the hours that that was open.
--:-- Tom Bichtman: But, you know, getting to and from Gaza for international journalists involved a process, but it could be done.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Ever since the October the 7th attacks by Hamas and the war that's followed, Israel has completely blocked foreign journalists from getting into Gaza.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And as we know, and this statement refers to this, more than 190 Palestinian journalists in Gaza have been killed, according to a media group that helps protect journalists.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And so that's why it's increased this pressure to allow access both from news organisations and now this coordinated attempt by governments.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Tom Bateman in Washington.
--:-- Tom Bateman: Donald Trump is celebrating a legal victory over a penalty that had been imposed on him for fraud in a civil fraud trial last year.
--:-- Tom Bateman: While the case wasn't thrown out, that penalty for overstating his wealth in order to secure favorable loans was described as excessive.
--:-- Tom Bateman: But the legal battle could continue.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Our North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury has this report.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: This is a big legal development for Donald Trump, one that he's been quick to celebrate.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: A New York appeals court has ruled that the former president did commit business forward, but said the financial penalty he was facing, more than half a billion dollars with interest, was simply too high.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: The divided court found the punishment clashed with constitutional protections against excessive fines.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: That massive figure was originally imposed by Judge Arthur Engeren here in New York after finding that Trump, his eldest two sons and the Trump organization had inflated his net worth to get better deals from banks and insurers.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: The ruling also came with sweeping business restrictions, including a court-appointed monitor to keep a close watch on the Trump organisation.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: Now, one of the five judges on the panel, Peter Moulton, wrote, while harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm to justify such a large fine, noting that the other penalties still remain in place.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: In typical fashion, Donald Trump took to social media, calling the ruling a total victory.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: And his son Eric also declared it a win for the Trump organization.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: But it's not a complete exoneration. New York's Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case, says the ruling still confirms that Donald Trump broke the law and she now plans to appeal to the state's highest court.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: So this legal battle doesn't appear to be over just yet.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Michelle Fleury.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Ukraine's President Zelensky has called on allies to put greater pressure on Russia following the massive air attack overnight on Wednesday on his country.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Drones and missiles struck 11 locations. At least one person was killed and more than a dozen were injured in the city of Lviv, near the country's western border.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kremlin was behaving as if there were no global efforts to stop the war.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Our correspondent Katie Watson reports from Kiev.
--:-- Katie Watson: The haunting wail of sirens echoed across the country last night. A show of strength from Russia as it launched over 600 drones and missiles.
--:-- Katie Watson: The attacks reached deep into the west of Ukraine, close to the Polish border.
--:-- Katie Watson: Residential buildings and a nursery were hit in one of Ukraine's safest cities, Lviv.
--:-- Katie Watson: One person died and several more were injured.
--:-- Katie Watson: These attacks come amid a flurry of diplomatic talks, with promises from the US and Europe on security guarantees appearing to gain momentum.
--:-- Katie Watson: President Zelensky says he's hopeful there'll be more detail on what those guarantees might look like in the next week or so.
--:-- Katie Watson: And he said he's ready to meet President Putin in what he calls neutral Europe, Switzerland, Austria or even Turkey.
--:-- Katie Watson: While Donald Trump has ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine, some European countries, including the UK, a move that today Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, rejected.
--:-- Katie Watson: I really hope that they understand what this would be. Absolutely unacceptable.
--:-- Katie Watson: With the two sides still very far apart, few here in Kyiv think these talks will deliver anything.
--:-- Katie Watson: I believe in peace, but Russia, with Russia, I don't know how it may be. Putin is crazy.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Firefighters have only just put out last night's blazes, but they're bracing themselves for more attacks tonight.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Katie Watson.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Now to the fate of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by force and taken to Russia.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The US First Lady Melania Trump wrote a letter to President Putin about the children, but their situation hasn't been at the forefront of negotiations.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Katerina Rashevska is a legal expert at the Regional Centre for Human Rights in Kyiv, who helped put together the evidence for the ICC on what the rights group terms the illegal deportation of children.
--:-- Katerina Rashevska: According to official Ukrainian statistics, they are talking about at least 19,546 children who were identified as deported or forcibly transferred.
--:-- Katerina Rashevska: But of course, it is not a final number because the process of identification of abducted children is ongoing and the russians themselves they were talking about more than 700 000 ukrainian children who crossed the border since the beginning of the full-scale invasion but the number of children who were actually appropriated by the Russian Federation is much more higher.
--:-- Katerina Rashevska: They are talking about more than 1 million and 600,000 young Ukrainians, kids who are now in occupation under Russian jurisdiction.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Baroness Helena Kennedy is a human rights lawyer. She's working for the president of Ukraine on war crimes and on the recovery of abducted Ukrainian children.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: Some of them were taken, for example, from hospitals in Mariupol, where there was a huge bombardment, you'll remember, at an early stage of this war.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But other children were taken, taken from the streets after places had been bombed.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: Adolescent boys, particularly, kids of eight, nine, ten, wandered the places, fascinated by what's happened.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: And they were picked up and they were bussed into Russia.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: And they've now been dispersed across the whole of Russia, which is, of course, a huge expanse.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: I've been working with different teams about trying to get a return and exchanges and trying to get some of these children back.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: And some 600 children have been returned.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: And they give very alarming accounts of being told that there's no such place as Ukraine, that they're really Russian children, that they should speak Russian and given a rather distorted story as to their nation.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: And the issue of that in terms of the development of children and their sense of identity and so on and the disparagement of their families and of their people has long-term impacts.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But separation in itself can have devastating effects.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But these kids now, many of them we know, have been fostered or put into children's homes across Russia.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: I mean, in terms of the sort of scale of what has happened in this war, how does it compare to this kind of child abduction issue in other wars?
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: Listen, nailing down the actual numbers is very, very difficult.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: Ukraine would put it at something like 19,000 to 20,000 children.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But this is huge.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: I mean, this sort of business of children being displaced, I mean, that happened in the Second World War as well.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: So those things have happened in other wars.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But this determined thing of taking children is partly to undermine the morale of Ukraine.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: But it's also, I mean, many Ukrainians will tell you, it's because there is a desire to have more children and to populate Russia with more children.
--:-- Baroness Helena Kennedy: Families do want to foster because there are issues about the small number of Slavic children being born.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Still to come on the Global News podcast...
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The cage was very important for me. Childhood of joy and excitement. It made me the player I am today.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The British-Nigerian footballer hoping to protect football cages in London.
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--:-- Valerie Sanderson: See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Plan your trip at TravelNevada.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: 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.
--:-- 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: More than three decades after their murder trial, two of the United States' most notorious convicted murderers are starting two days of parole hearings in California that could result in their release.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The brothers, Lyle and Eric Menendez, were jailed for the murder of their parents back in 1989, and their crime has been the subject of documentaries, dramas, and plenty of discussion on social media.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Peter Bowes reports from Los Angeles.
--:-- Peter Bowes: The Menendez case is one of the most infamous criminal trials in America.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Their murder trial was one of the first to be televised, and it gripped America.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Two brothers from a wealthy family in Beverly Hills accused of killing their parents at close range with shotguns.
--:-- Peter Bowes: In court, Eric Menendez admitted what he'd done.
--:-- Eric Menendez: I was just firing as I went into the room. I just started firing.
--:-- Peter Bowes: In what direction?
--:-- Eric Menendez: In front of me.
--:-- Peter Bowes: What was in front of you?
--:-- Eric Menendez: My parents.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Prosecutors said they were motivated by money, with the young men standing to inherit their parents' multi-million dollar fortune.
--:-- Peter Bowes: But the brothers insisted they acted out of self-defence and a fear for their lives after years of sexual abuse by their father.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Lyle Menendez told the court his mother knew what was going on.
--:-- Lyle Menendez: What did you say to your mom?
--:-- Peter Bowes: I told her to tell dad to leave me alone and he keeps touching me.
--:-- Peter Bowes: What did your mum say?
--:-- Lyle Menendez: She told me to stop it and that I was exaggerating and that my dad has to punish me when I do things wrong.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Initially the brothers claimed they discovered their parents bodies after returning home from the cinema.
--:-- Peter Bowes: For months they concealed the truth until Eric confessed to their therapist, Jerome Ozeal, who became a key witness at their trial.
--:-- Peter Bowes: He said we killed our parents, but I asked him, you mean you killed your parents?
--:-- Peter Bowes: He said yes.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Eric and Lyle Menendez were eventually found guilty and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
--:-- Peter Bowes: But now, after serving more than 35 years behind bars, they could be set free.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Earlier this year, a judge reduced their sentence to 50 years to life, which means they can be considered for parole.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Now there's the TikTok movement to free the Menendai.
--:-- Peter Bowes: There's a new generation that's worked through. People are looking at the case with fresh eyes.
--:-- Peter Bowes: The Menendez brothers' story is woven into L.A. pop culture, a true crime epic that continues to captivate and divide audiences.
--:-- Peter Bowes: A recent Netflix documentary shed new light on the case, while the drama series Monsters drew a huge global audience, particularly among a streaming generation not yet born when the murders occurred.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Eric and I killed our parents together, so I'd say that makes us pretty close.
--:-- Peter Bowes: Over the next two days the brothers will appear before California's parole board which will decide whether they're suitable for release whether they no longer pose a danger to the community
--:-- Peter Bowes: The state's governor Gavin Newsom will make a final decision but it could be months before the outcome is known.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Peter Bowes.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Peter Bowes fans of the Japanese trading card game Pokémon will often go to great lengths to add to their collection.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: In Japan this month, it caused a public outcry after a promotion led to many people buying fast food they didn't want.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Will Leonardo told me what had happened.
--:-- Will Leonardo: Well, it's a bit of an unfortunate tale, isn't it?
--:-- Will Leonardo: McDonald's Japan had no doubt envisaged boosting footfall through scenes of children excited to see which Pokémon cards they were going to get.
--:-- Will Leonardo: They put them into Happy Meals, you know, the famous Happy Meals that McDonald's has all around the world.
--:-- Will Leonardo: But instead, it caused something of a frenzy.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You had these long queues forming in multiple branches.
--:-- Will Leonardo: People were buying multiple meals, we're talking many, and leaving the food on the side or just throwing it away in the bins outside just to get the cards.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And then these cards started appearing online to be resold on e-commerce sites.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And this caused a lot of anger among social media users.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You can imagine they're uploading images of overflowing bins.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You know, there were the regular customers who want to go in and just get their normal fillet of fish or whatever it may be.
--:-- Will Leonardo: They were struggling to get their burgers because of these queues.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And, you know, this Happy Meal promotion was meant to last from the 9th to the 11th of August, but it ended up selling out within the day.
--:-- Will Leonardo: So I suppose in some senses you could say, despite the negative publicity for McDonald's, it was maybe a bit of a success.
--:-- Will Leonardo: It's amazing, though.
--:-- Will Leonardo: I mean, Pokémon's been going for years, hasn't it?
--:-- Will Leonardo: So it's obviously still very popular.
--:-- Will Leonardo: Well, it is.
--:-- Will Leonardo: I mean, it's popular around the world, as we know.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And, you know, it's got various franchises, it's got games, it's got anime series.
--:-- Will Leonardo: But I think there is one thing here as well, is the irresistible sense of not knowing which card you're going to get.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You know, you queue up and you get a series of cards you don't know beforehand what they're going to be.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And the issue with these cards is that they're also a thriving industry of collectibles.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You know, some are sold online for huge sums and they're obviously something that people want to get their hands on.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And, you know, in hindsight, it seems predictable that this Happy Meal campaign might have ended this way.
--:-- Will Leonardo: But, of course, the serious side of this is this is about wasted food, isn't it?
--:-- Will Leonardo: It is, yes.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And especially in Japan, where people are often held to a higher standard of cleanliness than elsewhere.
--:-- Will Leonardo: You know, these scenes of rubbish piling up in the streets were very good.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And it also tapped into a cultural aversion to waste in general as the Japanese call it motainai where even young children are told not to waste even a grain of rice.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And the anger is caused as you mentioned you know the Japanese government specifically the Customer Affairs Agency, to intervene.
--:-- Will Leonardo: They say they've held talks with McDonald's Japan to urge them to prevent food waste in future.
--:-- Will Leonardo: And this ministry has even said it's holding talks with other ministries to counter waste in general.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: McDonald's, by the way, apologised for this whole affair.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And it's also pulled the next campaign based on the wildly popular manga series One Piece.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Will Leonardo.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Can you imagine an intense feeling of pain or itching or heat in a part of your body that no longer exists?
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: That's the reality for many sufferers of phantom limb syndrome.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Neuroscientists thought the brain rewired itself after a limb is removed.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: But new research from the universities of Cambridge in England and Pittsburgh in the United States suggests the brain's internal map of the body remains unchanged, even after a part like an arm or leg is cut off.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Luke Tarrant had his leg amputated last year after crashing his motorcycle in Colombia.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: He now suffers from phantom limb pain.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: For me, it feels like I'm being cattle prodded on a very specific part of my foot.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: And it's bizarre because it's like it's actually happening, but I look down and there's no foot that could be getting electric shock.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: For everyone, it's different.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: Some people I spoke to, they feel like their limbs being crushed.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: Some people feel like they're being tickled or their limbs kind of wet and something's dripping down it.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: It really just depends on the amputee.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: But for me, it's like being electric shock to my foot.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: And I don't want to sound like too much of a hippie, but my opinion on pain has changed quite a lot since this injury.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: I used to think that pain was your body telling you something was wrong.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: Like, oh, you've cut your leg, it hurts.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: You've put your hand in hot water, it hurts.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: Whereas now, I feel like pain is very associated with my mood and how I'm feeling.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: For me, it's just not real pain.
--:-- Luke Tarrant: My foot's somewhere in Colombia. It's not attached to my body.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: This new research has significant implications for the treatment of phantom limb syndrome.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Professor Tamar Makin is the lead author of the study.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: The background to the study is foundational knowledge we have from the textbooks in neuroscience that tell us that if the brain loses input from one part of the body, for example, this is going to trigger what we call reorganization where the cortical area responsible to one part of the body, let's say the hand, gets taken over by another body part.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And traditionally in the literature, the hand area gets taken over by the face.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And what we've done is we've recruited three patients that were about to undergo a life-saving surgery to amputate their arm.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And before the hand was amputated, We ask them to move fingers of that hand to see how the brain relates to these fingers.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And after they have undergone their amputation, they came back to the study three and six months later.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And one of them also came again a year and a half and another one five years later.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And we've asked them to repeat the same movements they've done before.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: But this time, the hand itself is physically missing.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: So we're asking them to engage their phantom fingers, the hand that they don't have, but they can still sense and feel.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And what we've done is compared the brain activity, the brain patterns in the part of the brain that normally receives inputs from the fingers before and after amputation.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: And what we found was that nothing really changed, even several years after the amputation.
--:-- Professor Tamar Makin: So in total, our results directly contradict this foundational understanding that the brain can change or reorganise following amputation.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And finally, millions of youngsters around the world hone their football skills on the pitch, in the park or even on the street.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: These days, some even learn it in the fast-paced environment of a cage where control is essential and flicks and tricks are prized assets.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Well, that was the case for Nigeria and Southampton midfielder Joe Aribo, who grew up in London.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The Premier League star has been telling BBC Sport Africa's Ian Williams how his local cage helped unlock his potential.
--:-- Joe Aribo: The cage was very important for me.
--:-- Joe Aribo: Fun, carnage, relentless. A childhood of joy and excitement.
--:-- Joe Aribo: It made me the player I am today.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Lavender Park in South London is an unimposing space.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: But on one side is a tatty astroturf pitch surrounded by a green metal cage about three metres high.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: It's where Joe Aribo learned his football and where he's taking me now.
--:-- Joe Aribo: So Joe when you come in here now what sort of memories come flooding back to you?
--:-- Joe Aribo: So many funny ones being there when I was 10, 11 years old to 25, yeah, last week, yeah.
--:-- Joe Aribo: Honestly, there was so much going on, um, 30, 40 people, it was carnage, like too many people running around in tight spaces.
--:-- Joe Aribo: So I guess you had to learn to look after yourself.
--:-- Joe Aribo: What else did you learn?
--:-- Joe Aribo: Ball control, so important.
--:-- Joe Aribo: Weave your way in and out of men and you have to try and keep the balls as best as you can because if you lose it you don't know when you're going to get it back.
--:-- Joe Aribo: Right, I'm going to see if you can hit the crossbar, Joe.
--:-- Joe Aribo: Okay, bing, gone, just over.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Joe is now 29 so the memories coming back to him as we play crossbar challenge are getting on for 20 years old.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: That's all on you, this is my chance for glory.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: And time has very clearly left its mark.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: There are big holes in this pitch while the carpet of turf has become rucked up in places.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Yes, there's litter, but Joe says he's also seen broken glass and even dog mess.
--:-- Joe Aribo: It's just so dangerous.
--:-- Joe Aribo: You can see like lots of patches and just wanted to fix it just to give the kids a better opportunity.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Joe is talking about fixing the cage because that's the first project he's tackling with his new Ariba Foundation.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Working with the local council, a new pitch will be laid, along with new goals, better security, and possibly even changing rooms.
--:-- Joe Aribo: You want to make it a lot more comfortable for people where they can get change, they can shower, etc.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: The skills Joe learned here have seen him go on to play in the Premier League, in European club competition, and in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations, something to make his parents, who are from Nigeria's Yoruba ethnic group, proud.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: But when enjoying the rough and tumble of the cage back in the day, did he ever really believe he could make it as a pro?
--:-- Joe Aribo: I wouldn't say that being down here made me think I'd be one, but in my heart I wanted to be one.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: What do you think you had to show then?
--:-- Joe Aribo: Resilience.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: I think if you ask my siblings, my parents, I didn't really give myself another option.
--:-- Valerie Sanderson: Playing for Nigeria, what kind of pride has that given you and your family?
--:-- Joe Aribo: It's an honour for my parents.
--:-- Joe Aribo: I'm 100% sure it's deeper for them.
--:-- Joe Aribo: I used to sometimes just kick the ball as high as
