--:-- Jannat Jalil: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jannat Jalil, and at 16 Hours GMT on Wednesday 1st October, these are our main stories.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Two days on from the collapse of a school, rescuers in Indonesia continue to search for dozens of boys buried in the rubble.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: The radical South African politician Julius Malema is found guilty of firing a gun in a public place.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: The International Red Cross is forced to cease operations in Gaza City because of the intensity of the Israeli offensive there.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Also in this podcast... We've reached 72 million more children this year. We've saved 1.7 million children from future deaths. A record-breaking year for immunizations across the globe.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Rescuers in Indonesia are racing to try to reach dozens of people believed to be trapped under the rubble of a school building, two days after it suddenly collapsed, killing several people.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Officials say the two-storey building fell down because its foundations were not stable enough to support the weight of two more floors that were being added to it.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Seven of those stuck in the rubble are responding to the rescuers and are receiving food and water as the delicate work of extricating them continues.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: This man, Shola Houdin, is waiting for news of his 15-year-old son.
--:-- Shola Houdin: The parents have offered to help in the search. to clear the rubble as soon as possible.
--:-- Shola Houdin: There are so many of us, parents and guardians, who want to help, but we haven't had approval yet from the search and rescue team.
--:-- Shola Houdin: Their managers haven't decided yet.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Complicating the operation, a day after the collapse, an earthquake struck offshore, briefly halting the search.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: It's getting quite late here in Situarjo and the families are still waiting and anxious about the update of the evacuation process.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: Earlier today, the search team said that they have freed two more students, but one student is pronounced dead, so making the death toll into four in total.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: The other one is still in a critical condition and has been handed to the hospital.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: The rescue team also mentioned that they have nearly 400 personnel taking shift on rotation and they're planning to do the rescue 24 hours nonstop.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: This is to get the golden hour of rescue, which is within the 72 hours.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: And this is already the third day and time is running out.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: So they are still trying to be very careful in evacuating, but also racing with time.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: And the operation has been complicated by an earthquake that struck after the building collapsed.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: Yesterday, an earthquake, even though it's quite shallow and not really a huge earthquake, but it did help the operation because every little shake can make a hazardous situation to the already very messy rescue operation.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: So the search team mentioned that all of the rubbles now is like a pancake layered, but also like a spider web.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: So if you're trying to pull out one rubble, it will affect other parts of the construction.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: And they are feared if they having a lot of heavy machineries, then it will risk further collapse.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: So until now, they are still doing the manual search.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: They're trying to create a tunnel, for example, to reach one of the students.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: They're creating 60 centimeters, only fit for one person to actually come in and try to drag that student out.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: So we are still waiting the result of all this evacuation.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: This probably will still going on until tomorrow or the next day.
--:-- Astudestra Ajeng Rastri: And we don't know at what point they will start to do having machinery.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: In a country riven by racial tensions, South African opposition politician Julius Malema has long been a controversial figure.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: And he recently came to global attention when President Trump showed a video of him while hosting his South African counterpart at the White House as part of his widely discredited claim that a genocide is being committed against white Afrikaners.
--:-- Myni Jones: Now, a court in South Africa has found Mr Malema guilty of firing a gun in a public place seven years ago, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
--:-- Myni Jones: Our correspondent in Johannesburg, Myni Jones, told us more about the case.
--:-- Myni Jones: It centers around this 2018 incident.
--:-- Myni Jones: A viral video from this rally for the economic freedom fighters was spread on social media showing Mr Malema firing a gun in the air whilst on stage singing and dancing during this rally.
--:-- Myni Jones: A case was lodged by AfriForum, which is an Afrikaner's rights group against him, accusing him of a number of things, including endangering the public.
--:-- Myni Jones: And the magistrate found him guilty of five counts, including firing an arm in a public place and reckless endangerment of a person or property.
--:-- Myni Jones: The sentencing is not going to be made until next year, early next year in January.
--:-- Myni Jones: And what's his response been?
--:-- Myni Jones: He spoke to his supporters outside the court straight after the conviction was made.
--:-- Myni Jones: He was very defiant.
--:-- Myni Jones: He called the ruling racist.
--:-- Myni Jones: He said that his white Afrikaner bodyguard, who was also on trial, had been acquitted because of his race.
--:-- Myni Jones: And he reiterated allegations he's made that this case against him is politically motivated.
--:-- Myni Jones: He says that it's been brought forward as a way of trying to placate the Trump administration, which has used Mr Malema as an example of somebody who uses inflammatory rhetoric towards the country's minority Afrikaner population and said that his comments are leading to a genocide of white people in South Africa, which the government has denied and most people believe not to be true.
--:-- Myni Jones: But how is he seen in South Africa?
--:-- Myni Jones: Does he have much popular support?
--:-- Myni Jones: Well, his support's definitely dropped.
--:-- Myni Jones: In last year's general elections, his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, came in fourth.
--:-- Myni Jones: With only just under 10% of the vote.
--:-- Myni Jones: His support's been diluted by other parties that have come forward.
--:-- Myni Jones: Former President Jacob Zuma has formed his MK party that took a share of the ESVF's vote.
--:-- Myni Jones: And so he's been seen as unnecessarily controversial, a bit of a liability, and he's definitely not as popular as he was when he first came on the political scene
--:-- Bethany Bell: Oktoberfest is the world largest beer festival and usually attracts millions of visitors to the German city of Munich.
--:-- Bethany Bell: It's been going on for nearly two weeks this year so far, but police closed the festival venue temporarily on Wednesday while they investigated an explosion and a fire at a house rigged with explosives which killed one person.
--:-- Bethany Bell: Early this morning in Munich, there was a fire and also reportedly explosions at a house in the city in the north of Munich.
--:-- Bethany Bell: Police say the fire, they believe, was set off deliberately and there's a big emergency operation happening around that house.
--:-- Bethany Bell: But they believe there could be possible connections to the Oktoberfest.
--:-- Bethany Bell: They say they've reason to believe there was a bomb threat on the Oktoberfest site, the Theresienwiese.
--:-- Bethany Bell: And because of that, while they investigate those possible links, they have delayed the opening of the festival grounds today until five o'clock local time.
--:-- Bethany Bell: Normally, the grounds would be open in the morning and people would be already going there to drink beer.
--:-- Bethany Bell: It's a hugely important event, isn't it, for Munich?
--:-- Bethany Bell: An enormously important event.
--:-- Bethany Bell: Last year, I think almost 7 million visitors came to the event, which has been described as the world's biggest folk and beer festival.
--:-- Bethany Bell: And a lot of people are currently in Munich, of course, to take part in that.
--:-- Bethany Bell: And, you know, this would have been a decision that would have been a big deal for the authorities to make to decide to close it today temporarily.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: As we record this podcast, tens of thousands of US federal employees have begun the first of what may be many days of enforced idleness after a standoff between Democrats and Republicans triggered a government shutdown.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Entire departments have been shuttered, with thousands of federal workers now on unpaid leave.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: But essential workers like air traffic controllers and members of the military have to continue working, some without pay.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: President Trump has threatened to use the shutdown to introduce mass layoffs as both sides blame each other.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: With more, here's Naomi Ruckham from our partner station in the U.S. CBS.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Democrats are calling for a deal on health care provisions, which they say cannot wait.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: But top Republicans say they won't negotiate until the government reopens.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: So it's the usual blame game we often see in Washington this morning, while hundreds of thousands of jobs hang in the balance.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: All night long, lawmakers on both sides have been posting on social media saying the other side is responsible.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: The White House, for example, was quick to point the finger at the Democrats, posting an image on X shortly after midnight, calling it a Democrat shutdown.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Meantime, former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris pinned the blame directly on the GOP, saying, Republicans are in charge of the White House, the House and the Senate.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: This is their shutdown.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: The longer the shutdown goes on, the bigger the impact on the broader economy.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Here's some good news.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: The 74 million Americans who collect Social Security will keep getting their monthly checks.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: So that's good for consumer spending.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: But some services could be disrupted.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: And that means Wall Street is watching closely.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Dow Futures already dropped 200 points this morning.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: The shutdown could force the U.S. Labor Department to stop releasing crucial economic data like Friday's anticipated monthly jobs report.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: And without that kind of data, investors will have to rely on other, less reliable information.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: That means they might take more conservative positions because of the anticipated volatility.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: And that kind of delay for such an important report could also cause confusion and more questions about what the Federal Reserve might announce regarding interest rates.
--:-- Naomi Ruckham: Worth noting, though, members of Congress and the president will continue to receive their paychecks during the shutdown.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Still to come on this podcast, a special report from the Sudanese city of El Fasha, which has been under siege for more than 500 days.
--:-- Asma Khalid: It's about all the people that I know. I see everyday people who I know die.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Places that I used to go destroyed.
--:-- Asma Khalid: My memories died, not just the people that I know.
--:-- Asma Khalid: It's like a nightmare.
--:-- Asma Khalid: America is changing, and so is the world.
--:-- Asma Khalid: But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
--:-- Asma Khalid: It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is The Global Story.
--:-- Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Yolande Nell: The International Red Cross says it's had to suspend its work in Gaza City because of intensified Israeli military operations there.
--:-- Yolande Nell: It says tens of thousands of Palestinians are facing harrowing humanitarian conditions as bombing continues.
--:-- Yolande Nell: As we record this podcast, at least 41 people in Gaza have been killed today, Wednesday.
--:-- Yolande Nell: Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, says residents have a final opportunity to flee to the south.
--:-- Yolande Nell: He's described the offensive as aimed at tightening the encirclement of Hamas fighters.
--:-- James Elder: I'm in Gaza City now.
--:-- James Elder: Constant drones. It's the Air Force.
--:-- James Elder: I've heard multiple airstrikes, I've seen multiple airstrikes just within an hour.
--:-- James Elder: I looking out to devastation and comparing even when I was here in June and seeing from photos just high rise buildings that are completely now gone replaced only by a crater
--:-- James Elder: A lot of children still here a lot of children on the street and buildings that are just a shell now of what was a large apartment block.
--:-- James Elder: It looks like a doll's house, if you will, with all the walls gone out, people putting up some blankets and sheets to try, I guess, and give them some level of protection from the elements.
--:-- James Elder: UNICEF, we've still got nutrition centres going here.
--:-- James Elder: We've got water.
--:-- James Elder: I've just seen a water truck come hundreds of people trying to access that absolutely critical element of sustenance right now in what is a very active conflict setting.
--:-- James Elder: I've got a water delivery now, but of course it's chaos.
--:-- James Elder: I've got next to me a dozen, 15 children.
--:-- James Elder: That must be little girls aged around the age of five and 11.
--:-- James Elder: And they can't possibly compete in the panic of people to try and get access to some water.
--:-- James Elder: I'm talking to a woman in perfect English and somehow amid all this chaos she's kept herself immaculate but she has no water she has no home her husband's been killed she has no means to move anywhere else she says she will just stay and and I've watched her for 15 minutes just trying to get water and she says she's just afraid and in the end once the children have got water I what else could I do I take took her bucket and and entered the melee
--:-- James Elder: This is not a logistical problem this is a political problem but it's solved very quickly if there's political will just a huge amount of stress and a population on the streets mums just coming up to me and showing me babies with terrible terrible rashes that have got to the point that the skin on their little babies is so raw that it's bleeding again again so many children doing that universal hand and mouth just showing how hungry they are all there although their emaciated bodies tell me about the lack of food here.
--:-- James Elder: I'm now in a UNICEF nutrition point in Gaza City.
--:-- James Elder: It's just a tent, but a lot of malnourished babies.
--:-- James Elder: We've got in this magic, ready to use therapeutic food, but there's a huge need.
--:-- James Elder: Anyone I speak to on the street, the mums, the dads are terrified about where things are headed, desperate to know is this war ending.
--:-- James Elder: Everyone is explaining to me that even if they want to get out of Gaza City, they can't.
--:-- James Elder: They haven't got the money to go south and they know when they go south without money.
--:-- James Elder: No tent, no land, no sanitation, as they say.
--:-- James Elder: No choice.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: For nearly a year and a half, the Sudanese city of El Fasha has endured a horrific medieval-style siege as paramilitaries try to seize the army's last stronghold in the western province of Darfur.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: 300,000 civilians are trapped inside, around half of them believed to be children.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Many of them are having to eat animal feed to survive as the civil war rages on.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: And an upsurge in drone attacks has killed dozens of people in recent days.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: It's extremely difficult to report from inside El Fasha, but the BBC has worked with local journalists in the city to capture what life is like for those trapped there.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: RSA fighters have besieged Al-Khashr for more than 500 days and now they're closing in on key military sites Army-held territory has shrunk to a pocket around the airport
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: 13-year-old Ahmed Abdurrahman was injured in a recent shelling attack
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: He can hear the sounds of battle from where he lies on the ground in a makeshift cluster of tents
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Ahmed's mother, Islam Abdallah, says he needs treatment but there's barely any medical care
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: She lifts his shirt to show the wounds, his bony back a reminder of the hunger stalking this city.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Nearby, Hamida Adam Ali is unable to move, her leg torn apart by shrapnel.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: She was carried to this camp after lying for five days on the road.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I don't know if my husband is dead or alive.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: My children have been crying for days because there is no food.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: My leg is rotting.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I have nothing.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: In propaganda videos, the rapid support forces celebrate what they portray as imminent victory.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: They are determined to oust the army's last foothold in the western region of Darfur.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: This would give them a strategic advantage in the civil war, says Sudanese analyst Khaloud Kher.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Taking Al-Fashid and by extension the rest of North Darfur state allows them to control the borders with Libya, with Chad, with Central African Republic and with South Sudan and parts of Egypt.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: That whole area would basically give them the means to control weapons coming into the country, but also that would allow them then to launch renewed attacks on Khartoum and further east.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Local armed groups known as the Joint Forces fighting along with the military also have a lot at stake, she says.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: For the Joint Forces, if they lose Darfur, the RSF will have taken over the entire five states.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: This is a fight for their lives, but for the armed groups, also a fight for their political survival.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: The advance of the rapid support forces is powered by deadly drones.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: This footage shows them hitting military sites, but also markets.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Last month, more than 75 people were killed in a strike on a mosque.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Samah Abdullah Hussein says her young son Samir was buried in that mass grave.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: He'd been killed the day before, his brother injured.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: The shells hit the schoolyard where they'd taken refuge.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: He was heat in the head.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: His brain came out.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Hundreds of thousands have fled Al-Fashr.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Those who make it to safety say people were attacked, robbed and killed as they left.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: The UN warns of more atrocities if RSF fighters overrun the city.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: The paramilitaries deny war crimes, trying to send a different message with these new videos, showing them stopping and greeting those who flee.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Watching the footage is a refugee driven out of Al-Fashr and the country by the war.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: It's like a deja vu.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I know all those people.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: You know all those people?
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Yeah, I know them.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: The last guy we used to play soccer with, the one that's in the middle, he's a musician.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I know him from Al-Fashr.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: He also sees some relatives in the group and doesn't want to be named to protect them.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: It must have been quite a shock.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Yeah, it is really devastating.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I will be worried until I hear from them or they send me a message that they are OK and they are in a safe place.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Later that day, he sent me word that his relatives were safe.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: A tremendous relief, but a temporary one.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: It's about all the people that I know.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: I see every day people whom I know die.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: Places that I used to go destroyed.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: My memories die, not just the people that I know.
--:-- Barbara Plett Asher: It's like a nightmare, you know.
--:-- Jonathan Head: As we record this podcast, the number of dead from a powerful earthquake in the central Philippines has risen to nearly 70, with many more injured being treated in local hospitals, sometimes outside because of the fear of aftershocks.
--:-- Jonathan Head: The quake struck about 10pm local time on Tuesday.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Causing panic and cracking bridges and roads as well as destroying buildings.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Rescuers are continuing to search for survivors as aid teams have rushed to the area to help the overwhelmed hospitals.
--:-- Jonathan Head: There are many patients already.
--:-- Jonathan Head: We're already overwhelmed so we have to bring them to the city
--:-- Jonathan Head: It a slow process of getting the kind of equipment you need into the affected areas because roads have been very badly damaged there are bridges down power and water have been cut and there a shortage
--:-- Jonathan Head: There an appeal still going out for heavy lifting machinery to search for people who are trapped under collapsed buildings.
--:-- Jonathan Head: The most affected place is a town called Bogor, right on the very northern tip of the island of Cebu.
--:-- Jonathan Head: That's only about 20 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake, and we've seen from all the images that have been released just how powerful the shaking was.
--:-- Jonathan Head: I mean, people were literally being thrown from side to side.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They described seeing their homes when they rushed out dancing.
--:-- Jonathan Head: So it must have been pretty awful being so close to the epicentre.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It's a low-rise town.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It's called a city, but it's a population of about 90,000.
--:-- Jonathan Head: So there aren't any high buildings that we know of that have come down, but there are an awful lot of regular houses, concrete houses that have collapsed.
--:-- Jonathan Head: and they need heavy lifting equipment.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They need medical volunteers too.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It's just logistically difficult getting people up to this area when you have transport logistics so badly damaged.
--:-- Jonathan Head: The state is mobilizing its own resources.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They've sent a Coast Guard ship with medics on board.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They have quite large Coast Guard vessels in the Philippines and also the Air Force is deploying helicopters.
--:-- Jonathan Head: I know from experience, you know, the Philippines authorities are pretty good at responding to disasters.
--:-- Jonathan Head: but you know this has caused an awful lot of damage and a great deal of help is needed.
--:-- Jonathan Head: As you say they are pretty good at responding to disasters partly because they have to deal with so many because this comes week after back-to-back typhoons which have killed more than a dozen people and unusually wet monsoon season.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Yeah I mean the typhoons seem to be the impression we get is they're getting more severe which may be a result of climate change.
--:-- Jonathan Head: There hasn't been one as severe as Typhoon Haiyan, which hit this same area 12 years ago.
--:-- Jonathan Head: And in fact, sadly, seven of the people who died in Bogo were in a village built specially for survivors of that typhoon.
--:-- Jonathan Head: This is the nature of the Philippines.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It is really vulnerable to natural disasters, and it doesn't matter how good they are at responding to them.
--:-- Jonathan Head: There are always casualties and damage when they're as severe as this earthquake was.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: Now, at a time of rising vaccine scepticism, here is some good news.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: It's been a record year for immunisations across the globe.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, says it's helped to deliver vaccines that have saved 1.7 million lives, 400,000 more than the year before.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: They've seen big improvements in reaching children in places like Syria, Mali and Haiti.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: And the world's first malaria vaccine has also become the fastest routine rollout in Gavi's history.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: Dr. Sanya Nishtar is its CEO.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: She's been speaking to Anna Foster.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: I think it's the strength of the Gavi model that has allowed us this very humbling success this year.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: We've reached 72 million more children this year.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: We've saved 1.7 million children from future deaths.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: This year has also helped us build stability and accrue $20 billion worth of economic benefits over and above what we had already achieved in the last 25 years.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: This year, we are also on track to introduce the malaria vaccine in 25 countries.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: You know, Britain should be very proud.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: The malaria vaccine is a product of British science.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: Also this year, more girls will be reached with the HPV vaccine than in the past 10 years combined.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: So it has indeed been a very successful and a record year for Gavi and for immunisation more broadly and for public health.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: What are the challenges that you're still facing and particularly the areas that you're still struggling to get to that you would want to be active in?
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: I mean, in terms of the broader challenges, of course, you know that official development assistance has been significantly cut down.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: So this is broadly one of the challenges.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: Gavi has been very successful and it's very humbling, you know, to share with you that at our recent replenishment event, we were able to secure nine billion towards the target of 12 billion.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: But that notwithstanding, it is a very challenging environment for resource mobilization.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: And of course, we have to grapple with a number of different fragile contexts.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: There is, of course, Ukraine and Syria and Gaza, and there are dreadful humanitarian situations in Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
--:-- Dr Sanya Nishtar: So we are pivoting and we are making our policies and procedures more agile to be able to navigate these very difficult environments.
--:-- David Lewis: Now, does it matter in this age of keyboards if you have terrible handwriting?
--:-- David Lewis: Well, an Indian court has ruled that it does.
--:-- David Lewis: It's ordered doctors to write their prescriptions legibly after finding one medic's report incomprehensible.
--:-- David Lewis: David Lewis reports.
--:-- David Lewis: It's a story often retold, a quipped joke about the doctor with the handwriting so bad the patient doesn't have a clue what they wrote.
--:-- David Lewis: But now, in India at least, it's become a legal issue.
--:-- David Lewis: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that legible medical prescription is a fundamental right, as it can clearly make a difference between life and death.
--:-- David Lewis: The catalyst for the move is a serious one.
--:-- David Lewis: In a recent case, a woman alleged abuse and forgery against a man only for the judge to find the medico-legal report written by a government doctor who'd examined her, simply impossible to read.
--:-- David Lewis: Not even a single word or letter was legible, Justice Jazka Preet Singh Puri wrote.
--:-- David Lewis: It is shocking that government doctors are still writing prescriptions by hand which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some chemists, the judge insisted.
--:-- David Lewis: And the court went further, asking authorities to include handwriting lessons in the medical school curriculum.
--:-- David Lewis: Doctors have now been set a two-year timeline for rolling out digitised prescriptions.
--:-- David Lewis: Until that happens, all prescriptions must be clearly written in capital letters.
--:-- David Lewis: No more scrawl.
--:-- David Lewis: That's the message.
--:-- David Lewis: But such malpractice happens elsewhere too.
--:-- David Lewis: Here in the UK, a woman in Scotland suffered chemical injuries after she was mistakenly given erectile dysfunction cream for a dry eye condition.
--:-- David Lewis: Her handwriting slip-up meant she was given Vitaros cream instead of the eye lubricant Vitarpos.
--:-- David Lewis: Fortunately, after a trip to hospital, her swollen eyelid went down after a few days.
--:-- David Lewis: And you might like to know that despite the jokes about doctors' terrible handwriting, studies have failed to back up the conventional wisdom that their handwriting is so much worse than everyone else's.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: And you might like to know that despite the jokes about doctors' terrible handwriting, studies have failed to back up the conventional wisdom that their handwriting is so much worse than everyone else's.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later
--:-- Jannat Jalil: If you want to comment on this podcast you can send us an email
--:-- Jannat Jalil: The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk
--:-- Jannat Jalil: This edition was mixed by Zabi Hula-Korosh
--:-- Jannat Jalil: The producers were Alice Adley and Stephanie Tillotson
--:-- Jannat Jalil: The editor is Karen Martin
--:-- Jannat Jalil: I'm Janet Jaleel, until next time, goodbye
--:-- Jannat Jalil: America is changing. And so is the world.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: I'm Tristan Redman in London.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: And this is The Global Story.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Jannat Jalil: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
