--:-- Chris Barrow: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Chris Barrow and at 5GMT on Monday the 22nd of September, these are our main stories.
--:-- Chris Barrow: President Trump calls the murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk a modern-day martyr at his memorial service. Israel says there'll never be a Palestinian state, despite its recognition on Sunday by four Western countries. South Korea's president says that the North could temporarily keep its existing nuclear weapons as part of a deal. Also in this podcast...
--:-- Chris Barrow: We fled on foot with our children. The shelling was random. There are even children who fled and we still haven't found them. They fled into the wilderness. The BBC gains rare access to war-torn Sudan.
--:-- Chris Barrow: We begin in the United States, where the murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has been hailed as a MAGA, or Make America Great Again, warrior at his memorial service in Arizona. President Trump was at the event in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, which was packed to capacity with 63,000 of his supporters for what's been described as part memorial, part political rally, part what they call a prayer breakfast.
--:-- Chris Barrow: There were a succession of tributes to the 31-year-old who was shot dead at a university in Utah nearly two weeks ago. After the vice president, J.D. Vance, spoke, Mr. Kirk's widow, Erica, took to the stage.
--:-- Erica Kirk: After Charlie's assassination, we didn't see violence. We didn't see rioting. We didn't see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival.
--:-- Erica Kirk: And she said this about her husband's assassin. On the cross, our Savior said, Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do. That man, that young man. I forgive him.
--:-- Chris Barrow: During President Trump's tribute to Charlie Kirk, he credited him for helping him win last year's election.
--:-- Donald Trump: Charlie didn't just bring young people into the movement. All of a sudden it started to grow by leaps and bounds by 2024. We want more young people than any Republican candidate in the history of our country, including for the first time, a majority of males under 30.
--:-- Donald Trump: Can you believe it? We had a country that was dead one year ago, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And Charlie helped us make it that.
--:-- Chris Barrow: Our correspondent Arunaday Mukherjee was in Glendale, and he told us what was significant for him.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: Well, I think the biggest moment came when Erica Kirk was speaking, and you played out a bit of that as well. It was a mixture of her attempts at ensuring that Charlie Kirk's message continues to ring loud even after his death. But I think the biggest moment for the crowd was the time when she spoke about forgiving Charlie Kirk's killer. Quoting from the scriptures, she made that comment.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And I think that's what drew a very loud, thunderous applause for quite a long time. And that's what we saw in glimpses from a lot of the people who spoke today. There was a mixture of political statements, statements which were referencing the Bible, and just talking about celebrating Charlie Kirk's life and legacy, really, of what he stood for, and most importantly, how he furthered conservative ideals.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And I think the other aspect, which was very important, something that we've been mentioning, is just the sheer presence of the number of people who had gathered, tens of thousands, something that I can vouch for as I was standing here looking at the line trying to get into that stadium.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And also the presence of the senior most members of Donald Trump's administration who had gathered here spoke one by one, heaping praise on Charlie Kirk and also very clearly, as you also just played out, Donald Trump's statement crediting him for their political fortunes last year.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: Yeah, Donald Trump came on to speak after Erica Kirk and I think he spoke for roughly an hour. It was quite a long speech. It did seem to touch on a lot of different topics. He definitely brought his policies into play.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: It's interesting that she mentioned forgiveness, but that when he was talking about Charlie Kirk's killer, he said, I hope he gets the death penalty. So there is a kind of, I don't know, he's very much pushing for that, isn't he?
--:-- Chris Barrow: Absolutely. And I think he was the first person soon after his death when he made that address on social media, he said and blamed the radical left. He said the radical left is responsible. We've heard other leaders of the administration also do the same.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And I think he's been very clear about this. And in that same address, which you were referring to, it was interesting because he said, Erica, you might be able to do this, but he hates his detractors is what his message was really.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And he made that very clear that while we're talking about forgiveness and compassion, I think his message was very clear that those who are responsible for his killing, those who defer from their views are people who politically they need to watch out for and in a sense politically crack down upon.
--:-- Arunaday Mukherjee: And I think that is also a very significant political message that he is delivering. Like I said, this was a mixture of a lot of aspects, a lot of themes that really came together in what was, yes, a memorial service, but equally in many ways a political pitch, which is why you saw all these leaders very vehemently and aggressively talk about the need to carry this forward, saying that he was a martyr, he died doing God's work, he died doing what he loved, talking about the need for his ideals to stay in American political discourse and why it's important to keep that alive, even though Charlie Kirk is no more.
--:-- Chris Barrow: Arunade Mukherjee.
--:-- Chris Barrow: The UK has joined Canada, Australia and now Portugal in formally recognising a Palestinian state. The declaration is aimed at reviving hopes of what's known as the two-state solution to end the long-running conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
--:-- Chris Barrow: It comes just ahead of the second anniversary of the 7th of October attacks by Hamas, which led to the war in Gaza. The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer made the announcement in a recorded statement which was broadcast on Sunday.
--:-- Keir Starmer: With the actions of Hamas, the Israeli government escalating the conflict and settlement building being accelerated in the West Bank, the hope of a two-state solution is fading. But we cannot let that light go out.
--:-- Keir Starmer: We recognised the state of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people. Today, we join over 150 countries who recognise a Palestinian state also, that there can be a better future.
--:-- Mustafa Barghouti: These recognitions coming too late from some countries like Britain and Australia and Canada are happening because these countries finally saw that Israel is destroying the very last opportunity of two-state solution.
--:-- Mustafa Barghouti: These countries are responding to what Israel is doing and not the other way around. Now, if Israel proceeds, it has to be subjected to sanctions, it has to be isolated, as it is now becoming isolated with the United States if it continues to support Israel.
--:-- Mustafa Barghouti: But eventually we will win. Eventually we will get our freedom.
--:-- Rob Watson: It does look massively unlikely at the moment for at least three fairly obvious reasons. Number one, the current Israeli government is against a two-state solution.
--:-- Rob Watson: Hamas was founded in the late 1980s because it opposes the whole idea of land for peace and recognising Israel and a two-state solution. Second, there's actually very little popular support among Israelis and Palestinians for a two-state solution.
--:-- Rob Watson: And then thirdly, and this I guess is the big one, all the polling and surveys suggest more generally that both Palestinians and Israelis, Oliver, see themselves as victims of the other side's inhumanity and have virtually zero trust in the other side.
--:-- Rob Watson: And so if you consider all of those things, it is an uphill struggle, to put it mildly. So does this recognition by the UK, Canada and Australia, does it make any practical difference?
--:-- Rob Watson: It doesn't make much practical difference. Let's take the UK, for example, and some of the others, it would mean upgrading Palestinian missions in their countries to being embassies.
--:-- Rob Watson: It would, for example, mean recognising Palestinian passports, although it wouldn't necessarily make it any easier for Palestinians to travel, they would still need visas.
--:-- Rob Watson: But I guess what they're hoping for is a symbolic gesture and that is to let the world know, to let those in the region know that Israel's allies in the West are fed up with the fighting and want it to end in no small part of course Oliver because this conflict is stirring up terrible tensions in communities and the streets of the UK and other Western countries so it's very much driven by domestic concerns too.
--:-- Rob Watson: Now this move has been signalled for some time and supporters of Israel have criticised it but Keir Starmer confirmed plans to increase sanctions on Hamas.
--:-- Rob Watson: What more do we know about that? We don't know yet. He said that that's a work in progress, but I think one has to see that as an attempt to assuage the critics who think this move, even if it's not meant that way, is something of a reward for terrorism, as they would see it, for the October 7th attack.
--:-- Rob Watson: So I think it's partly to placate the United States, which is not happy about this move, but also to continue to insist that, look, the UK and others don't see that somehow calling for a Palestinian state means that they support any role for Hamas, although exactly how they would prevent that, they haven't made clear.
--:-- Benjamin Netanyahu: I have a clear message for those leaders who recognise a Palestinian state after the horrific massacre on October 7th. You are giving a huge reward to terrorism.
--:-- Benjamin Netanyahu: And I have another message for you. It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.
--:-- Benjamin Netanyahu: For years, I have prevented the establishment of this terrorist state despite tremendous pressure both domestically and internationally.
--:-- John Sudworth: These announcements from the UK more will follow have been trailed in advance and Israel has been making it very clear that it doesn't just think that this is an unhelpful move. It thinks, as you've been saying, that this is a reward for terrorism and an organisation with which it is still engaged in a bitter war.
--:-- John Sudworth: Interesting to hear the Israeli prime minister celebrating the fact that he himself personally has done more than many to prevent the possibility of a Palestinian state from being enacted.
--:-- John Sudworth: In that same video statement, pretty short statement. He said that he was proud to have doubled Jewish settlement in the West Bank during his time in office.
--:-- John Sudworth: And I suppose that tells us something kind of important here in terms of what the consequences of the recognition might be. You know, we heard Keir Starmer saying that his hope is that it would breathe some life back into that already very dim hope of the possibility.
--:-- John Sudworth: Of course, some people will fear that in fact it could do the opposite. It could act as a pretext for Israel to double down, possibly even to formally announce sovereignty over large swathes of the West Bank, formal annexation, if you like, and actually snuff those hopes out once and for all.
--:-- John Sudworth: Yeah, and we've already heard calls for that to happen imminently. What is the Israeli view in the population to that kind of call?
--:-- John Sudworth: Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, there's a temptation, I think, for critics of Israel to see in these statements of defiance an ultra nationalist government railing against international opinion.
--:-- John Sudworth: But on this issue, Benjamin Netanyahu is not an outlier. His comments have been echoed by the leader of the opposition in Israel, Yair Lapid, who has said that he thinks this is a mistake.
--:-- John Sudworth: And this is a man who, in principle, has in the past spoken in favor of the idea, at least, of a two state solution. He called it today a one sided recognition of a Palestinian state as a diplomatic disaster.
--:-- Yair Lapid: It's a bad step. And he repeated those words. It's a reward for terror.
--:-- John Sudworth: But these are views that are shared across large swathes of the population. The families of the hostages still being held in Gaza say that this move will complicate their efforts to get their loved ones released.
--:-- John Sudworth: And if you look at the polling, opinion has only hardened since the beginning of the war, even on sort of fairly broad questions about the possibility of peaceful coexistence.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: Ideally, we want North Korea to denuclearize. But realistically, it won't be easy.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: Even now, it's adding 15 to 20 nuclear weapons a year. So the question is whether we persist with fruitless attempts to achieve our ultimate goal of denuclearization or we set more realistic goals.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: So would you therefore accept a deal between Trump and Kim that saw North Korea freeze its nuclear weapons program for now with no future promises of denuclearization at this point?
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: If this were presented as the final deal, it would be difficult to agree to. But as an emergency, interim measure, yes, I can agree to that.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: We saw China's military parade earlier this month. Xi Jinping welcoming Kim Jong-un alongside Vladimir Putin. No mention, no criticism of North Korea's nuclear weapons.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: What did you make of this? Seeing China, Russia and North Korea becoming so close is clearly not desirable for us.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: The world is increasingly dividing into two camps, and South Korea is positioned right on the border. But these camps cannot completely shut their doors.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: So we can position ourselves in the middle, Do you think China is enabling North Korea's nuclear weapons program?
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: It's impossible to know. But no, that's not our understanding.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: You've stopped radio broadcasts into North Korea. These were one of the very few ways that North Koreans could get information from outside the country.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: How do you justify turning these off at a time when the UN has just found that North Koreans are more isolated than they've ever been?
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: We don't think these broadcasts are very effective, and the cost is high because they tend to increase North Korea's hostility towards us.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: But actually the last time the North and South spoke in 2018 these broadcasts were ongoing so we know that they not an obstacle to diplomacy
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: What happened in the past isn relevant now What matters is restoring trust between the North and South especially since the last government stance toward North Korea was so hostile
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: We think these measures will help North Korea return to talks.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: When you saw the Korean workers handcuffed and chained up in the US, just weeks after you had agreed to invest billions of dollars there.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: Did you feel betrayed, like so many people in this country now do?
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: As president, I feel a profound sense of responsibility for the harsh treatment of our people, who were detained without committing any serious crimes.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: It was a shocking incident, but there's a Korean proverb that says, after the rain, the ground hardens.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: So I think this could be a good opportunity to strengthen our relationship.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: Has it changed anything for you? What happened?
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: It's likely our companies will be more hesitant to invest in the US, so it's difficult to say there's been no impact.
--:-- Lee Jae-myung: It's my responsibility to manage this so it doesn't damage our relationship.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Hospitals in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan's South Kordofan state, are struggling.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Medical supplies are scarce, disease outbreaks are frequent and malnutrition levels are high.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: In July and August alone, more than 40 people died from malnutrition in the state, according to an independent doctors' association.
--:-- Nafisa: I have three children, one at home and twins here in the hospital. They are sick and we have no money for food.
--:-- Nafisa: I went to a village looking for food, but I found nothing. I came back and found them hungry and sick.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Kordofan became a major battleground after the army recaptured Khartoum in May.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: It wants to advance in the region and then push towards Darfur, a stronghold for the rival Rapid Support Forces, RSF.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Movement within and out of South Cordofan is highly dangerous.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: And according to residents and aid agencies, the roads are blocked by RSF fighters and another rebel faction based in the nearby Nuba Mountains.
--:-- Mahajoub Siraj Ali: We have a complete cut-off, a scarcity and absence of some medicines, medicines for chronic diseases, hypertension and diabetes, medicines for tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: In late August, the UN's Children's Agency delivered the first humanitarian aid in 10 months to the state.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: It was desperately needed, but barely sufficient.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: The state is home to tens of thousands of people facing hunger.
--:-- Karja Abdurrahim: We fled on foot with our children. The shelling was random. There are even children who fled and we still haven't found them.
--:-- Karja Abdurrahim: They fled to other areas. They fled into the wilderness.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: The UN said this war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the 21st century.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: And there are no signs of that coming to an end.
--:-- Chris Barrow: In the last few days, the lower house of parliament passed a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to arrest or launch criminal proceedings against politicians.
--:-- Chris Barrow: That's heading to the Senate. Then a bill was fast-tracked that could grant the former president and his allies amnesty.
--:-- Chris Barrow: On Sunday, demonstrations took place across the country against the bills. No to amnesty, cried the protesters.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: nationwide protests we had people filling the streets in all 26 states in the country and the federal district it's huge massive like imagine brazil is a continental country you know we don't have estimates for all the cities but in sao paulo where i am researchers from the university of sao paulo estimated 42 000 people here and another 41 000 in rio de janeiro over 80,000 people in both cities.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Why is the sense of feeling so strong amongst the protesters to get out in such large numbers?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: I think that the organizations that called the protests, they could unite people that were indignated for this bill proposal that generated like a lot of anger in Brazil and another project that was also fast-tracked in Congress.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: I believe that the way that it moved so fast and so easily in Congress, make people want to react, like stand against it.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: One of the bills has the potential to grant the former president amnesty along with some of his allies over this coup.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Why do you think it is that it got past this early stage, the kind of the early stage of the bill getting through?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Does that mean that the current president, Lula da Silva, has quite a weak grip on power for it to even get as far as this?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: That's right, Chris. He has problems building a solid coalition in Congress.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: And because the Congress, it has a right wing or centre right majority. The opposition has largest numbers in Congress than Lula's coalition, right?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: So they are more aligned with the right. And Lula doesn't have a grip on that.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Donald Trump announced a little while ago 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports, and he said that this was a witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Has his intervention played a part in getting these bills past these first hurdles as well? Or do people not really mind about the Donald Trump factor?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Of course, those who are Bolsonaro supporters, his allies in Congress and in the Senate, they are really happy about Trump's support.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: But the thing is it very very unlikely that this will go forward first because the president of the Senate said he against it Senior senators also said they against it
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: And it highly unpopular here I saw this on the streets today People were carrying signs saying, Brazil is a sovereign country, Trump, stay out of Brazil.
--:-- Matt Lines: The world's most indebted property developer Evergrande has been given a winding up order by a court in Hong Kong.
--:-- Matt Lines: Let's talk a little bit more about Evergrande. The liquiders are preparing to focus now on the company's founder, Hui Kai-yan.
--:-- Matt Lines: The last few years have seen headlines like these coming out of China regularly. News of some of the country's biggest property companies defaulting, putting out profit warnings and delisting from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: The property market, first of all, was such an important part of the economy. It accounted for 30% of GDP at the peak.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: It was also the one place where everybody put their money.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: When Xi Jinping came into power six, seven years into his presidency, he started talking about this idea that homes were not for speculating, they were for living in.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And then in August of 2021, Evergrande, which was one of the biggest property developers in China, issues this profit warning.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: You know, everybody starts thinking, oh my God, this is China's Lehman moment.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And then in December of 2021, Evergrande defaults.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: Country Garden was another giant in the property market. In 2023, Country Garden had its own problems.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: And so another moment in the property sort of bust, where there was another realisation that we hadn't reached the bottom and that there was more to come.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: In 2022, the BBC's China correspondent Stephen McDonnell met some of those who'd stopped paying their mortgages on their unfinished apartments.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: He asked one of them how many people were living in the building he visited.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: One or two hundred. We used up all our savings to buy our apartments. It's been five years and we can't live in them.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: We can't bear it any longer. We're out of options. It's hard to make money, but there are still house and car repayments.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: At its height in 2017, Evergrande was worth 50 billion dollars. and now eight years later has been removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and put into liquidation.
--:-- Alexandra Stevenson: It had been valued at just over $260 million with shares worth two cents when a trading freeze was imposed on the country in January of last year.
--:-- Desmond Shum: One of the vice ministers of land development and he made a statement two years ago and he said we have built enough housing for three billion people to live in and china has you know as we know has 1.4 billion so why is this bubble played out differently seemingly to other bubbles say in the us and other countries around the world where you see kumbis collapse why is it playing out over such a long period of time
--:-- Desmond Shum: The government have a tremendous control on every aspect of the society and the economy.
--:-- Desmond Shum: That means the insolvent developers in, you know, any other country, those companies will have bankrupt and buried up years ago, right?
--:-- Desmond Shum: The debt owners or the creditors of the bank will have go after the assets of the company and try to incorporate their investment.
--:-- Desmond Shum: But in China, you're not allowed to do it. So they only will bury up at the timing of government's choosing.
--:-- Desmond Shum: And the creditors can't even go after the assets of the companies.
--:-- Alicia Garcia-Herrero: What it means for all of us outside of China is that China will do its utmost, more than ever, to conquer markets, whether it's through exports to us, us consuming Chinese goods more than ever.
--:-- Alicia Garcia-Herrero: So the presence of China will not be reduced because of the real estate sector crisis.
--:-- Alicia Garcia-Herrero: The other way around, it will be larger than ever in the manufacturing sector.
--:-- David Lewis: I'm standing here in the middle of Oxford Street and I have to say, recording this piece is one of the most bizarre experiences.
--:-- David Lewis: Normally, this stretch of tarmac that cuts through the West End is chock-a-block with red double-decker buses, black taxis, cars honking, loads of noise, and today that's been replaced with pop-up food stalls.
--:-- David Lewis: I can see a basketball court. There's a wellness area. There's two art exhibitions, apparently. And it's all part of the London Mayor's Office to try and pedestrianise this street, Europe's busiest shopping street.
--:-- David Lewis: It's not just cars and buses that have been banned, bikes are not allowed, and e-scooters too, but in true London fashion, some people are ignoring it.
--:-- David Lewis: There's a bike whizzing past me now, actually.
--:-- David Lewis: So what's it like for these people who are visiting?
--:-- David Lewis: I think it's a good idea. Why? I'm not sure. Get more people out talking, um, seeing each other, viewing the shops, the area. Gets people out and about, feeling relaxed and comfortable. Don't have to worry about getting run over by a car. It's lovely.
--:-- David Lewis: But wouldn't really be London if everyone agreed with each other, would it?
--:-- David Lewis: Some people are quite critical of the idea of pedestrianizing Oxford Street, especially black taxi drivers will say this will be very tricky to reroute them around this very very busy artery.
--:-- David Lewis: Not everyone is on board. You still need transport for buses and stuff. So where are you going to put the buses and taxis now?
--:-- David Lewis: Shove them somewhere else. So just going to block up another road somewhere else.
--:-- David Lewis: So what next? Well, if it all goes to plan, London's mayor office is saying they're hoping to start the pedestrianizing process from as early as January next year.
--:-- Chris Barrow: David Lewis there and that's all from us for now but there'll be a new edition of the global news podcast later on If you'd like to comment on the podcast and the topics we're covering, do send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
--:-- Chris Barrow: You can also find us on X at BBC World Service and you can use the hashtag Global News Pod.
--:-- Chris Barrow: This edition was mixed by Zavehullah Karush. The producers were Daniel Mann and Anna Aslam. The editor is Karen Martin.
--:-- Chris Barrow: I'm Chris Barrow and until next time, thanks for listening. Goodbye.
--:-- Asma Khalid: 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.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is The Global Story.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Fighting has been raging between the Sudanese army and RSF paramilitaries for more than two years.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Now an area called the Kordofan States, sandwiched between Sudan's capital Khartoum and the region of Darfur in the west, has become the new front line in the civil war.
--:-- Asma Khalid: The BBC has managed to get rare access to South Kordofan, where civilians are paying a heavy price in the war.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Hospitals in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan's South Kordofan state, are struggling.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Medical supplies are scarce, disease outbreaks are frequent and malnutrition levels are high.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: In July and August alone, more than 40 people died from malnutrition in the state, according to an independent doctors' association.
--:-- Nafisa: I have three children, one at home and twins here in the hospital. They are sick and we have no money for food.
--:-- Nafisa: I went to a village looking for food, but I found nothing. I came back and found them hungry and sick.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Kordofan became a major battleground after the army recaptured Khartoum in May.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: It wants to advance in the region and then push towards Darfur, a stronghold for the rival Rapid Support Forces, RSF.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: Movement within and out of South Cordofan is highly dangerous.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: And according to residents and aid agencies, the roads are blocked by RSF fighters and another rebel faction based in the nearby Nuba Mountains.
--:-- Mahajoub Siraj Ali: We have a complete cut-off, a scarcity and absence of some medicines, medicines for chronic diseases, hypertension and diabetes, medicines for tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: In late August, the UN's Children's Agency delivered the first humanitarian aid in 10 months to the state.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: It was desperately needed, but barely sufficient.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: The state is home to tens of thousands of people facing hunger.
--:-- Karja Abdurrahim: We fled on foot with our children. The shelling was random. There are even children who fled and we still haven't found them.
--:-- Karja Abdurrahim: They fled to other areas. They fled into the wilderness.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: The UN said this war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the 21st century.
--:-- Kalkidan Yveltal: And there are no signs of that coming to an end.
--:-- Chris Barrow: In the last few days, the lower house of parliament passed a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to arrest or launch criminal proceedings against politicians.
--:-- Chris Barrow: That's heading to the Senate. Then a bill was fast-tracked that could grant the former president and his allies amnesty.
--:-- Chris Barrow: On Sunday, demonstrations took place across the country against the bills. No to amnesty, cried the protesters.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: nationwide protests we had people filling the streets in all 26 states in the country and the federal district it's huge massive like imagine brazil is a continental country you know we don't have estimates for all the cities but in sao paulo where i am researchers from the university of sao paulo estimated 42 000 people here and another 41 000 in rio de janeiro over 80,000 people in both cities.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Why is the sense of feeling so strong amongst the protesters to get out in such large numbers?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: I think that the organizations that called the protests, they could unite people that were indignated for this bill proposal that generated like a lot of anger in Brazil and another project that was also fast-tracked in Congress.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: I believe that the way that it moved so fast and so easily in Congress, make people want to react, like stand against it.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: One of the bills has the potential to grant the former president amnesty along with some of his allies over this coup.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Why do you think it is that it got past this early stage, the kind of the early stage of the bill getting through?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Does that mean that the current president, Lula da Silva, has quite a weak grip on power for it to even get as far as this?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: That's right, Chris. He has problems building a solid coalition in Congress.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: And because the Congress, it has a right wing or centre right majority. The opposition has largest numbers in Congress than Lula's coalition, right?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: So they are more aligned with the right. And Lula doesn't have a grip on that.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Donald Trump announced a little while ago 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports, and he said that this was a witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Has his intervention played a part in getting these bills past these first hurdles as well? Or do people not really mind about the Donald Trump factor?
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: Of course, those who are Bolsonaro supporters, his allies in Congress and in the Senate, they are really happy about Trump's support.
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: But the thing is it very very unlikely that this will go forward first because the president of the Senate said he against it Senior senators also said they against it
--:-- Gabriela Saposoa: And it highly unpopular here I saw this on the streets today People were carrying signs saying, Brazil is a sovereign country, Trump, stay out of Brazil.
--:-- Asma Khalid: 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.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is The Global Story.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
