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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson at 13 Hours GMT on Tuesday the 16th of July. These are our main stories. In Ukraine, men aged between 18 and 60 are queuing at military enlistment offices to update their personal details or face fines and possible prosecution. It comes as the country tries to boost its forces to fight Russia's offensive.
Donald Trump receives a hero's welcome at the U.S. Republican Convention in Wisconsin. That was amazing. It was one of the best experiences. I had tears in my eyes and I haven't cried like that since I lost my mother. He loves us all and I love Trump and I'm not ashamed to say it.
Also in this podcast, four people are killed and others wounded in a shooting near a mosque in Oman, known as one of the most stable countries in the Middle East. And South Korea's spy agency says a former North Korean diplomat defected with his family last November.
We start in Ukraine, where men of fighting age only have today to update their contact details with military enlistment officers. The government will impose fines and possibly prosecute those who don't comply. The Ukrainian government is struggling to replace battlefield losses in its ongoing war against Russia, which is well into its third year. Our correspondent in Kiev is James Waterhouse.
A couple of months ago, Ukraine passed a controversial mobilization law which widened the age of conscription where men would be forced to fight. It was widened to between the ages of 25 and 60. So it's a pretty wide catchment area. But this is the controversial bit. There was no cap on the amount of time that men would have to serve for.
And the reason it was viewed in such a dim light is because those who volunteered did so long ago. And we are now at the stage of this war where men who are more reluctant, men or frightened, even when you speak to them, are being coerced to volunteer. And what people tell you is that they assume they will end up in a trench and either having to kill or be killed. And what the military is trying to say is, look, if you register your details correctly,
We will put you in the right place and only call on you if we need you. And so today is the deadline for all men between 18 and 60 to register their details with enlistment centres. And we've seen queues across Kiev,
And then, you know, the views of men in the queues range from, you know, I'm happy to do this. It's pretty cool to have to find weapons worth millions of pounds all the way to I have a disabled child. I can't leave them. I really fear for the worst if I am called upon. So it suggests, although, you know, it's not a broad bit of research, there is engagement in this process. And I think that's because of the punishments you face if you haven't registered yet.
They include fines of up to $600, the equivalent of a month's salary, and even having your bank accounts frozen. So there is an incentive for men to sign up. And there is a backdrop here, as you say, of Ukraine continuing to struggle to find enough
meant to fight, widening its search for soldiers as Russia continues to exercise its far superior strength and reserves at the moment. James Waterhouse. It was a political homecoming to a hero's welcome. At the Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee in Wisconsin, Donald Trump made his first public appearance two days after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt. He didn't speak but appeared emotional, soaking up the atmosphere and repeatedly mouthing thank you to his supporters.
At the convention, Mr Trump was formally nominated as the party's candidate for the presidential election in November, and he named his running mate for vice president. Our North America correspondent, Nomi Iqbal, is in Milwaukee and sent us this report. This convention will come to order. Welcome to the Donald Trump Show.
Hello, RNC. With a white bandage covering his ear, Mr. Trump walked down a red carpet. He looked tired and emotional as the audience greeted him rapturously. This basketball arena in Milwaukee has turned into a gathering of the Trump faithful,
Earlier in the day, his family, including son Eric Trump, arrived here. What happened a couple of days ago was completely unacceptable, as everybody knows. And my heart absolutely broke. It shouldn't have happened. The Secret Service agents on the ground did an unbelievable job. They watched nearly 2,500 delegates representing all 50 states of America declare for Mr Trump there was no other competitor. No, no!
After all the controversy, the indictments and the conviction, the Republican Party has officially nominated Donald Trump as their people of Trump. We'll be for Donald Trump's second nomination later this week.
That was amazing. It was one of the best experiences. I had tears in my eyes and I haven't cried like that since I lost my mother. He loves us all and I love Trump and I'm not ashamed to say it. Go Trump! Trump 2024! Are we ready to nominate a vice president? We now also know who Mr Trump's loyal vice president will be. Senator J.D. Vance!
It was a surprise to many who had predicted Donald Trump might go for a candidate to help him reach moderate voters or someone who would make inroads with Hispanic or black voters. This pic suggests Mr. Trump is confident he can win the election without any of that. Mr. Vance found fame when his memoir about growing up in poverty became a Netflix movie.
But talk about a U-turn. I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. Fundamentally, what's going on and what Donald Trump has done is change the focus of the white working class from a sort of engaged and constructive politics to a politics of pointing the finger. The J.D. Vance America first is not just a slogan. Now he has fallen in line with all of Mr. Trump's hardline policies. He has followed everyone.
and become a real attack dog for him. We ought to investigate the prior administration. There are obviously many instances of wrongdoing. And frankly, the Biden administration has done far worse.
Following the assassination attempt, he blamed President Biden and his campaign for what happened, but was accused of hypocrisy, given his own division and targeting of political enemies. Mr. President, thank you for sitting down with us. There's a lot to talk about. However, Mr. Biden was challenged in a new interview regarding a comment he made saying it was time to put Trump in the bullseye. It was a mistake to use the word. I didn't say crosshairs. I meant bullseye. Focus on it. Focus on what he's doing.
When Donald Trump lost the election four years ago, there were Republicans who said they would put him in the rearview mirror, especially after the violence of January the 6th. But nearly a decade after Mr Trump ascended to the top of the party, it is very much now his party, entirely remade in his image.
Nome Iqbal in Milwaukee. So why has Donald Trump chosen J.D. Vance as his vice president? Rob Young has been talking to Andrew Giuliani, who was special assistant to Donald Trump when he was in the White House.
Just over 48 hours from an assassination attempt that a millimeter to the right would have taken his life. I think he looks very good. I'm sure that there might have to be a little surgery on that ear. But from everything that I could tell, he's got his hearing. And thank goodness he's not in the hospital. And it's a situation where it obviously could have been so much, so much worse for the president and for the country. Why do you think J.D. Vance is the best candidate?
person out of all of the Republicans there are in the United States to potentially be the vice president? Well, I think it was a difficult decision for President Trump. And if you look at his statement, I think he does a good job of embodying that the best that he could. I know that
I've been in many conversations with him as well as senior staff there in talking about the pros and cons of over a dozen different potential candidates. But I think when you go and you look at the mathematics of the electoral map and you realize that they're
that this race will come down to about nine states. I think J.D. Vance helps him in three of those nine states, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. I think that was the determining factor. And by the way, J.D. Vance was able to, I think, speak to Americans in
in a way that Donald Trump was in terms of far before they ever got into the political realm, they were able to kind of capture the American imagination in very different ways, right? If you read Hillbilly Elegy, it's very different than The Apprentice, but they were able to capture the American attention outside of politics. And I think there's a respect from President Trump to J.D. Vance because of that.
Well, you say there was respect. I'm interested in Donald Trump's ability to forgive previous comments because J.D. Vance had at one point described Donald Trump as an idiot. He said he was reprehensible and apparently in private compared him to Adolf Hitler. Yet Donald Trump's forgiven all of that.
Yeah, I think that's one of the fallacies that many have told about Donald Trump in the media over the past 10 years or so is that Donald Trump is somebody who doesn't forgive. I've seen this time and time again where President Trump is willing to forgive, is willing to
actually do what's best for the country or for a policy or something like that. And I just go back to his meetings with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office. He hosted them numerous times. I remember one night them even having Chinese food, I think, in 2018 together after having –
vigorously called each other names and all that stuff. So, you know, Donald Trump has an ability to forgive. I know there's kind of this narrative out there that he doesn't. But I think if you look at the facts of it, he does. Andrew Giuliani, former special assistant to Donald Trump. And you can get more from inside the Republican convention from today's Global Story podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
In Oman, four people have been killed and several more wounded in a shooting near a mosque, an extremely rare incident of public disorder there. I've been hearing more about the attack and what it means for Oman from our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher.
We don't have a huge amount of information. The Omani police have confirmed, as you were saying, that four people were killed and quite a large number of others wounded. This is a shooting that happened near a Shia mosque in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Now, the Shia make up a very small part of the Omani population, about 5%. We also have heard from the Pakistani embassy that there were Pakistanis among the wounded. There's a very large expatriate community involved.
in Oman, and the Pakistanis obviously make up a part of that. What we don't know is who is responsible. We don't know what's happened to them. We don't know any motive. I think that may take a while to come out. I mean, Oman, as you said, this is a vanishingly rare occurrence of this nature, a shooting of this kind at a mosque.
And I think that the Omanis who do keep, you know, quite a tight control on any kind of information that comes out, I think that this will come out slowly as the Omani authorities want it to.
As far as motive goes, I mean, we don't know. But obviously, it's caused huge shock in Oman. Well, as you said, extremely rare incident, because Oman is seen, as you say, as a stable and secure country in the Middle East, isn't it? It is. I mean, it's sort of at one remove from all the main conflicts, the main kind of flashpoints. Even when you go to Oman, I mean, it's very different and it actually sells itself.
as a very different sort of country from other Gulf states. Everything is very kind of low-key. The way that people dress is different. The Abadi strain of Islam was the dominant form for a long time, and it gives a different look to the way that people dress in the streets there. When you go to Muscat, it doesn't have skyscrapers like you have in Dubai, like you have in Riyadh and all the other big cities.
Gulf capitals, everything is kept to four stories and no higher. And when the long-term leader, ruler, Sultan Qaboos died in 2020, there was speculation that it might be a slightly difficult transition, but in the end it was engineered very, very smoothly. And as you were saying, it's a stable country and that has allowed it to play a big mediation role in lots of the conflicts around the region with Iran, with Yemen and so on.
Sebastian Usher. Countries across the Western Balkans have issued extreme weather alerts as temperatures rise beyond 40 degrees Celsius. North Macedonia has declared a state of emergency as it struggles to tackle more than a dozen forest fires. Our Balkans correspondent Guy Delaney reports.
North Macedonia is asking its neighbours to help as forest fires burn across the country. Croatia is sending a firefighting plane, other countries are sending equipment and personnel. Serbia is ready to send a firefighting helicopter to Bosnia, following a request from the country's majority Serb region, but Bosnia's foreign ministry is withholding its approval. The extreme heat is triggering red alerts across the region. A higher 40 degrees is expected in Serbia's capital Belgrade.
In neighbouring Croatia, the sea temperature is the issue. The Adriatic off Dubrovnik is now the warmest it's ever been, at almost 30 degrees. Guy Delaney. Still to come on the Global News podcast, Gareth Southgate resigns as manager of the England football team. We look at his legacy.
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The Indian authorities have given more details of a clash that saw five soldiers killed in a gunfight with suspected militants in the Indian-administered area of Jammu and Kashmir. Militants reported to have ambushed troops carrying out a search operation amid thick forest in the Doda district of Jammu. I got more details from our South Asia correspondent, Yogita Lamai.
The Indian Army has just a short while ago released the names of its soldiers who died in that operation. One of them is an officer of the level of captain. What the army is saying is that a gun battle started between militants and Indian security forces after a search operation was launched by Indian forces in the Doda area. That search operation, they say, was based on specific information.
intelligence inputs. The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has put a post on social media platform X saying that operations are still underway and they will continue until the threat is eliminated. And tell us a bit about this area.
So this is, you know, most of Kashmir is actually a very mountainous region. Doda in particular, they're also very heavily wooded forests. So this is not an easy battleground, which is why I suspect it is taking so much time for the threat in that area to be eliminated. But we've also seen in this region an increasing number of attacks over the recent weeks.
And why is that happening? Military analysts who've been watching Kashmir for a long time say that there seems to be a tactical shift, as they call it, and also a territorial shift in terms of where militant operations are taking place in Kashmir region now. So in India, this is referred to as Jammu and Kashmir.
And earlier, most of the militant attacks would happen in the Kashmir division, which is still the case. But the Jammu division, you know, was largely, it didn't see that many security incidents for, you know, almost two decades. And now you're suddenly seeing a surge of them. You know, just over a week ago, five soldiers were killed in an attack there. What it does question is the claim made by the Indian government that the security situation in Kashmir has improved significantly.
since 2019, when they revoked the relative autonomy that the region enjoyed. But we are seeing an increasing number of attacks, not just on security forces, but also on tourists and pilgrims. It is a more nuanced picture on the ground. What you aren't seeing are street protests that used to happen in Kashmir, which often ended up in clashes between civilians and security forces in which people were killed. So, you know, it's a nuanced picture on the ground. Yogita Limai.
If there's one way you can raise lots of money for charity, it's by focusing on the plight of children. That's what Adam Whittington did. He's a British former policeman who founded Project Rescue Children. People from around the world contributed thousands of dollars to help its work. But the BBC has found that many of the stories Mr Whittington told of children being saved were fake and that the cash he was given never reached those it was meant for. Hayley Mortimer has this report.
People just want to see rescues, you know, and it's all glory and all this sort of, well, that's great, but we do so much more. Adam Whittington is a former London police officer. He now runs a charity, Project Rescue Children, and posts updates of his work rescuing children from around the world. I'll also confirm now, everything I state is factual.
He says PRC runs rescue centres in parts of Africa where donors can support children through a sponsorship programme. But the BBC has analysed his social media accounts, uncovering false and misleading posts, including the rescue of a newborn baby in The Gambia.
It was probably one of our highlights for the year and it was just really a needle in a haystack type of situation. It's here that Adam Whittington says that he carried out the most unbelievable rescue mission. He says that his team received a tip-off that a newborn baby was going to be handed over to traffickers at a busy marketplace in the Gambia. He said he adopted the baby and asked one of his volunteers, a UK social media influencer, to be the girl's mother...
and launched an international fundraising campaign. Alex Betts visited the baby, and the story went viral. The money came pouring in.
I just can't believe she's here. But the BBC has found this child and discovered that Adam's rescue story was completely made up. She wasn't rescued from traffickers at a busy marketplace. She was born right here and she's been living here with her mother ever since. She's never lived in a rescue centre owned by Project Rescue Children and none of the money that's been raised by sponsors has been received by her mother.
The mother tells us she's never received any money from PRC, but was given some groceries. Alex no longer works with PRC. She told us she's always acted with honest and pure intentions. PRC insists that it did rescue a baby in collaboration with the Gambian authorities.
Deep in the countryside of West Kenya, I meet a farmer called Joseph. PRC used a photograph of his dead son to raise money through its child sponsorship programme. PRC's website said he'd been...
been orphaned, trafficked or sexually exploited. None of this is true. It pains my heart that someone is using the photos of my child to source for money that I personally do not even eat or taste. Not long after his photograph was taken, Eugene died. But his picture remained online and according to PRC's website, people continued to send money every month. Mama Jane and the rescue centre said
is really important to us and especially myself. PRC has also made a series of false claims about rescue centres it funds in Kenya and The Gambia.
The BBC visited the properties and found no children. They're just family homes that Adam Whittington used footage of to raise money. Project Rescue Children has been a registered charity in Australia since 2017, but recently had its charity status revoked. PRC maintains that the properties are rescue centres that care for children. It described our allegations as completely without merit, misleading and defamatory.
Hayley Mortimer with that report. And you can listen to File on 4's The Child Rescue Con now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, has been re-elected with a staggering 99% of the vote. He faced no meaningful opposition, with leading figures banned. Rights groups accused Mr Kagame of curtailing freedoms since taking office in the year 2000. His supporters say he's presided over economic growth and helped end ethnic divisions after the Rwandan genocide. So, what can we expect this time? The BBC's Samba Chusuzu is in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
President Kagame is going to rule over an important new post-genocide generation. These include more than 2 million people who voted yesterday. And those we talked to yesterday, they told us they want jobs.
They appraise him for good things he has done, yes, but they say they want better from him. And in his recent speech, he has been trying to rally them behind him, and he recently told them that he wants the youth to be involved, to speak up. So we are talking about a Rwandan generation that has internet, that has information and skills.
but especially they are less traumatized or not by the Rwandan genocide events than their parents that he has led for more than two decades now. So the fourth term for Kagame might be different from the last three we have seen because he'll be dealing with a different generation. Samba Chizuzu.
A senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba has become the highest-ranking defector to flee to the South since 2019. The man, a counsellor responsible for political affairs, is reported to have fled with his family from Pyongyang's embassy in Havana. Our Asia-Pacific editor Celia Hatton told me more about the man and the background to his escape.
Ri Il-gyu was based, as you say, in North Korea's embassy in Cuba. And he had one job. He was meant to prevent Cuba from forming ties, diplomatic ties, with South Korea. That's North Korea's rival. Well, he failed in this task. Cuba and South Korea announced they had formed a new special relationship in France.
That was just a few months before Mr. Lee defected. He's now told a South Korean newspaper that he was unhappy with how his work was evaluated. He was also unhappy he felt that he'd been judged for having a relatively low
low social background, which is really important in North Korea. People are really ranked according to their family histories and their family backgrounds. And he didn't feel good about that. He said the final straw was when he'd asked to go to Mexico for medical treatment, and that request was denied. So he abruptly made a decision. He told his wife and daughter they were going to live overseas, and that's when he defected.
He's in South Korea now and has been for some time. I mean, this has only emerged now, hasn't it? Yeah, that's right. I mean, it seems that there's a lot of trepidation among South Korean officials when North Koreans defect, especially high-ranking North Korean officials.
Because South Koreans are a little wary. They don't know if these North Koreans are working as double agents. So normally, anyone who defects is subjected to a lot of questioning. But sometimes, quite often, especially if they're high-ranking officials, they have quite valuable information to offer as well. And so many other high-ranking officials have gone on to work for the intelligence services in South Korea. Celia Hatton.
Gareth Southgate has resigned as manager of the England football team just days after seeing his team lose the European Championship final against Spain. Nigel Adderley told us what Gareth Southgate said in his goodbye statement.
Really characteristic of the character of the man. He said, as a proud Englishman, it's been the honour of his life to play for England and also to manage them. It has meant everything to me and I've given it my all, but it's time for a change and time for a new chapter. Southgate have been in charge for eight years, also managed 102 games. He inherited a bit of a shambles, to be honest, back in 2016, but during his time in charge, England...
England have reached a World Cup semi-final and two European Championship finals. Of course, they lost both of those, including the game against Spain on Sunday. And now he will look for a fresh challenge. And the England national football team may be heading in a new direction. But he's moved beyond football, hasn't he? He's become part of English culture and actually detoxified it, hasn't he? He has. And I think in many ways, that's his biggest success because...
I was talking to Gareth Southgate during a previous role over many years, and every single press conference, every single interview he would do, he would be asked about a major issue, whether it was COVID-19 or what was going on in the government.
And he would be expected to give an opinion. And he would always give an opinion. He would always be interesting and helpful and often have a point of view which would maybe set the tone for the nation. And considering the difficult times that...
England and the United Kingdom as a wider area have had over the last eight years. Gareth Southgate has been a beacon of stability. And I think in terms of the football pitch, England have benefited from that. Do you think history will be kind to him?
I think it will be. I think a lot of people have said he had the best squad available to him for these European Championships. He didn't win it, losing to Spain in the final, and that may be regarded as something of a failure. But when you look at what previous England coaches have achieved...
since England won the World Cup, their only major honour in 1966. I think history will judge him very kindly. And in years to come, people may be looking to emulate Gareth Southgate rather than considering him someone who underachieved. Who's going to replace him then, Nigel?
It's an interesting question. Graham Potter and also the Newcastle coach, Eddie Howe, are being talked about as potential English successors, but it's understood the Football Association won't be looking at just English coaches. And there's even been talk of Jurgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager, or Thomas Tuchel, the German coach, taking over. But it's a very big job and it's a very hard act to follow. Nigel Adderley on the outgoing England manager, Gareth Southgate.
And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by James Piper. The producer was Tracy Gordon. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.
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