cover of episode Euphoria in Bangladesh after PM Sheikh Hasina flees country

Euphoria in Bangladesh after PM Sheikh Hasina flees country

Publish Date: 2024/8/6
logo of podcast Global News Podcast

Global News Podcast

Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. Selling a little or a lot.

Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real-life store stage, all the way to the did-we-just-hit-a-million-orders stage, Shopify's there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers, make your business a better place to start,

With the Internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash broadcast. Shopify.com slash broadcast. Even when we're on a budget, we still deserve nice things. Quince is a place to scoop up stunning high-end goods for 50% to 80% less than similar brands.

They have buttery soft cashmere sweater starting at $50. Luxurious Italian leather bags and so much more. Plus, Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing. Get the high-end goods you'll love without the high price tag with Quince. Go to quince.com slash style for free shipping and 365-day returns.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and in the early hours of Tuesday the 6th of August, these are our main stories. There have been celebrations in Bangladesh following the resignation of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after weeks of violent unrest. The United Nations says nine of its staff in Gaza may have taken part in the Hamas attacks against Israel on October the 7th last year.

US stock markets have closed sharply lower as fears about the state of the world's biggest economy cause jitters around the globe. Also in this podcast... I think it's even more fitting that actually I played the record holder in this tournament. I actually managed to beat him. A 15-year-old British teenager has become the country's youngest chess grandmaster.

We start in Bangladesh, which remains in a state of chaos after the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country.

As she escaped to India via helicopter, the violence and protests on the streets continued. Doctors say more than 50 people were killed on Monday alone and many had bullet wounds. More than 300 may have died since the unrest began. The country's president has ordered the release of the jailed former prime minister and the opposition leader, Khaled Aziz. The Bangladeshi army chief, General Waka Uzaman, has said he's forming an interim government and is talking to political leaders.

Regarding Sheikh Hasina's departure, these people in Dhaka described it as a moment of celebration. This is not just the end of the tyrant Sheikh Hasina. With this, we put an end to the mafia state that she has created. We put an end to the corporate kleptocracy that she has started. We don't want a military... It's a civilian charter.

government and we are going to ensure it. We are getting what we deserve, what 16 crore or 18 crore people of this country deserves. Everyone is happy, everyone is cheerful, everyone is celebrating. This has to be a historical day.

Reports say looting and vandalism continues across the country, with the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhaka set ablaze. The unrest began a month ago in response to a quota system for civil service jobs that snowboard into an anti-government movement clashing with the police. It has been at the most violent period in Bangladesh since its fight for independence in 1971. But what will happen next? I've been talking to our South Asia regional editor and Barrison Ethirajan.

First of all, let's describe how historic and dramatic it has been. 24 hours ago, when we spoke about the situation, I did say that when people forget the fear of bullets, then it doesn't augur well for the government. And now you've seen how people's power has really won.

Now, what's happening now at the moment is people are still celebrating in some parts of Dhaka. And at the same time, a bit of lawlessness, looting is happening. People are also attacking police stations. Police headquarters was attacked. Even today, more than 50 people were killed in various violent incidents, many of them

had bullet wounds, so we don't know who shot them. Some of the footage I've seen, people are attacking each other. This is all about, you know, in the last few weeks, there were also supporters of the Awami League, which was the governing party in Bangladesh. They joined with the police and attacking protesters. So there is a lot of anger and people now, the recrimination has started.

But it is also percolating down to different cities and towns where the minorities, like the Hindu minorities, being attacked because they were always seen supporting Sheikh Hasina. So they were also being targeted. Now, the military chief, he says that from tomorrow, the banks and other offices will open so that normalcy will return. But the student leaders are insisting

that they want to see what kind of government is being announced and they want to have a say because they say they triggered this revolution, what they call, and that is why they want to have a say so that this kind of what they describe as dictatorship doesn't come back. I was going to say, I don't suppose they were protesting for weeks to get a military government? No, they were initially protesting for quotas in civil service jobs. They wanted to abolish the system, saying that it was discriminatory.

And because, you know, this was like when you reach a level where you don't realize what is happening on the ground. This is exactly what happened to Shekhar Sinha. She lost touch with the reality. And instead of solving the problem easily by changing the quota system, she made some comments which angered the students.

And then she also sent in her youth wing, which really attacked. And then that triggered the whole violence. So they have now become a nationwide movement. People from various walks of life joined. And it is also a lesson, of course, many of them have not learned. For many people who style of autocratic style, that power is not eternal.

Our South Asia regional editor and Barrison Etherajan with me. As the news was breaking on Monday that Sheik Hasina had resigned, my colleague Rebecca Kesby managed to get through to her son, Sajid Wazir Joy, who's been an official advisor to the Prime Minister on information and communication technology. He was speaking from Washington DC, so what did he know of his mother's situation as those developments took place?

I spoke with her last night, but I've been in touch with my aunt. The situation is, I'm sure you're aware, my mother was considering resigning since yesterday, and today she did. And for her safety, we urged her to leave the country, because given the history of my family of 1975, when my entire family was slaughtered in a coup, we really urged her to leave. She didn't want to, but...

The rest of his family insisted. And when you spoke to her, what sort of mood did she seem to be in? I mean, she was in a fine mood. She was very disappointed. She has turned Bangladesh around in the last 15 years. When she took over power, it was considered a failing state. It was a poor country. It was considered the most corrupt country in the world. Until today, it was considered one of the rising tigers of Asia.

It's a middle-income country. And she's very disappointed that a minority of the people, which we had elections seven months ago, our government, we had predicted all our polls. I run the polling for our country. It predicted a landslide, which it was. It was going to be such a landslide that our opposition boycotted.

Sorry to jump in, but the opposition said that these were not free and fair elections. They said it was dangerous to speak out, criticize the government, number of political prisoners in jail. And then we see how the government has dealt with these protests over the past year.

couple of weeks, you know, live rounds being shot on protesters. I mean, that's not... You've had, I'll have to jump in too, you've had policemen beaten to death, 13 policemen beaten to death just yesterday. You've had a journalist killed. You've had civilians killed. Those weren't shot by the police. Those were beaten to death.

What do you expect the police to do when mobs are beating people to death? Should the police just let them kill people? Nonetheless, though, there has been a curfew over the past couple of days across certainly Dhaka. And in spite of that, tens of thousands came out in spite of that, though, to join these protests today.

Bangladesh is a country of 180 million people. 10,000 people on the streets is not really a massive number. This was a vocal minority, and that's fine. You'll see the result in Bangladesh in the next couple of days, in the next couple of years. All development will cease. The Islamist militants that we had kept at bay will resurge. Bangladesh will become like another Pakistan.

And that was Sajid Wazir Joy, the son of Sheikh Hasina, who's resigned as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The United Nations says nine of its staff members in Gaza may have been involved in the October 7 attack on Israel last year. The UN's announcement follows an internal investigation into 19 employees of its UNRWA aid agency in Gaza. Israel said in January that UNRWA staff had either taken part in the attack itself or they'd provided assistance.

The UN says they'll terminate the contracts of the nine employees but gave no further details. Farhan Haq is the United Nations deputy spokesman. For nine people, the evidence was sufficient to conclude that they may have been involved in the 7th of October attacks.

And the UN has the ability, in its authority, to impose disciplinary sanctions in response to wrongdoing or take other administrative measures to ensure the smooth functioning of the organisation. The claim led several countries to pause funding to the UN agency. UNRWA carries out humanitarian work in Gaza, employing more than 13,000 people there.

Iran says it doesn't want to escalate tensions in the Middle East, but believes it needs to punish Israel to prevent further instability in the region. The statement from the foreign ministry in Tehran comes ahead of what Israel expects to be a prolonged missile attack from Iran. Reporters say it's not a good idea to escalate tensions in the Middle East.

Reports in the Israeli media say Iran has given notice to commercial flights to avoid flying over its central and western airspace. Tehran has denied that, though. Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams is in Jerusalem. A heavy sense of foreboding hangs over the entire Middle East. No one seems to want all-out war, but recent events have resulted in another moment of maximum danger.

In Tehran, the government says it's determined to exact revenge for last week's assassinations of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior commander from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman is Nasser Kanani. No one has the right to doubt the legal right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to punish the aggressor and create deterrence against a usurping aggressor regime.

Diplomats here in Israel are convinced that Iran's retaliation is inevitable. The only questions being what form it will take and when it will come. It could see another massive wave of missiles and drones, like the one Iran launched back in April, with Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militias joining in.

Israel says it won't hesitate to respond. David Mensah is a spokesman for the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. We are preparing for any scenario, both offensively and defensively. The Prime Minister reiterates...

And we say to our enemies, we will respond and we will exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us from whatever quarter. With the head of US Central Command here in Israel and Russia's former defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, in Tehran, it's not clear if Israel and Iran's allies are trying to defuse the crisis or merely manage it when it finally erupts.

France is the latest Western country to urge its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately amid fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. On Saturday, the US and the UK asked their nationals to take any available exit route.

Kameva Seb is a US citizen living in San Diego. He was visiting family in Lebanon when he was advised to leave. He spoke to the BBC while he was in the German city of Frankfurt on his way home to the US. So how was his trip to Lebanon? You have a family, you know, like...

Three sisters and one brother, a lot of cousins. And I was there, you know, usually I go visit them. I was supposed to stay there for a month, but I only stayed like seven days. And I got that message from the assembly to leave immediately. I wanted to stay a little bit with my family there. But at the same time, my family in San Diego were very, very worried about me.

And after I got a message from the U.S. embassy to leave immediately, so I did. And my flight was by Lufthansa and was canceled. I had to go on Google flight. All the Middle East airlines, they were booked. So I was lucky to get one ticket on Turkish airline. It was expensive, but I bought it, you know, and it was a good choice. At least I was lucky to find one seat in

to leave Lebanon to Istanbul. I had to wait like two days to get to fly out of Beirut. And I was, during those two days, I was panicking. Sunday, Sunday morning, I left. So I went to airport, Beirut airport. Not too much traffic either, you know, on the way.

Everybody is panicking, you know, something would happen. And the plane was full and a lot of people leaving Lebanon. So I got to Istanbul. So I had to sleep at the airport. And now I am in Frankfurt going tomorrow. I have to stay another night in Frankfurt.

I have a flight tomorrow from Frankfurt to Chicago and back to San Diego. So it's going to take me like two and a half days, you know, to get back. I am so happy now, you know, especially now I got to Frankfurt and I have a guaranteed flight. I'm so anxious, you know, to go and see my family again, you know, to reunite. Kami Busser, a U.S. citizen who lives in San Diego.

U.S. stock markets have closed sharply lower after concern about the American economy prompted a global share sell-off. At one point, the Nasdaq fell by more than 6% before recovering two-thirds of those losses. Here's our chief economics correspondent, Darshini David. Official jobs figures from the U.S. prompted some investors to fear that economy might be in for a sharp slowdown and that the lack of a rate cut there yet may jeopardize the outlook for growth and profits.

With American consumers accounting for one in every seven pounds spent globally, any slowdown may hit demand for goods worldwide.

But economists say other American data is more robust, but there's only a one in four chance of recession. The tech company Google has been found to have acted illegally to have prevented competition and maintain a monopoly on internet searches. Here's Michelle Flurry. A federal judge ruled that payments by alphabet to the likes of Apple and Samsung to make Google search the default option on their smartphones and web browsers violated US antitrust law. He

He said Google was a monopolist and the money it had spent in effect blocked rivals from succeeding in the market. The ruling represents a major setback for Alphabet, which plans to appeal. The Justice Department, which filed the case nearly four years ago when Donald Trump was president, hailed the outcome as an historic win and said it would continue to vigorously enforce antitrust laws.

It's not yet clear what this will mean for the future of Google's search business. The fines or other remedies that Alphabet may face for acting as a monopolist will be decided at a future hearing. Michelle Flurry in New York.

Still to come... Jap wounded left to die by their comrades are brought in by Australians out on patrol. Wartime news reports describe how Japanese soldiers captured in Papua New Guinea were sent to internment camps in Australia. Events have taken place in the country to mark the 80th anniversary of a mass escape by Japanese prisoners of war from an internment camp.

This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid.

So first, call your parents to say I'm sorry, and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee with your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 in order, additional terms apply. It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, and feel the breeze.

relax and think about work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow wherever you are. Tap the banner to go to monday.com.

The British government has announced that special measures will help courts speed up prosecutions in connection with continuing anti-immigrant violence. More than 370 arrests have been made after unrest in recent days in towns and cities, including attacks on mosques and hotels which house asylum seekers. The protests were triggered by false rumours spread online that an immigrant was to blame for the stabbing to death last Monday of three young girls in northern England.

A week later, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, held an emergency meeting with ministers and senior members of the police force. He talked about the new measures. We will have a standing army of specialist officers, public duty officers, so that we'll have enough to deal with this where we need them.

There have already been hundreds of arrests. Some have appeared in court this morning. I have asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.

I heard more from our political correspondent Rob Watson as there were concerns of unrest in the city of Plymouth in southern England. It's a reminder that it's Plymouth, Andrew, that this is not some localised problem, that it's all over England and in Northern Ireland as well. So I think it's something like 15 cities now. As you mentioned it, it's been attacks on mosques, it's been attacks on members of ethnic minority, it's been attacks

on the police has been looting. I mean, you name it, it's violent disorder of the most violent...

What has sparked it? Well, it's hard to say really, but the trigger appears to have been the killing of these three young girls at a dance class last Monday and the misinformation, the disinformation that the suspect was a Muslim, was someone who was a failed asylum seeker and had been on a terrorism watch list. So essentially, you've got people on the streets saying, well, we're here because the state can't protect white children from non-white attackers.

And do you think the new Prime Minister, who's been in office for one month today, is in control of events here or just trying to sound like he's in control of events? It's a very good question, Andrew. I mean, I think the answer is that any government would struggle with the kind of disorder that we've seen. And it's worth trying to get this into some perspective. I mean, we've seen nothing like this since the summer riots of 2011. And I've been reporting on Britain on and off for years.

I don't know, four decades, Andrew, and I can't really remember anything on this sort of scale. And the government are struggling because these riots, they're not being organised centrally by a particular party or an individual. They're coming up organically at stuff being organised.

put out on social media that's getting people to come out locally. So I guess the government would say, look, we have a robust police operation. They talked about a standing army. Basically, that means they've got something like 6,000 police enforcers across the UK who have this specialist training in public order. They're on standby. The justice system is on standby because essentially the government is treating this not as political protests,

but as an issue of criminality, that it's a minority, that it's violent and that it will be cracked down on. Our political correspondent, Rob Watson.

Events have taken place in Australia to mark the 80th anniversary of a mass escape by Japanese prisoners of war from their internment camp in the remote town of Cowra in New South Wales. Hundreds of them died. Mickey Bristow has the story. Jap wounded, left to die by their comrades, are brought in by Australians out on patrol. Wartime news reports describe how Japanese soldiers captured in Papua New Guinea were sent to internment camps in Australia, including Cowra.

Many were ashamed of being taken prisoner, so they planned a mass escape in the early hours of August 5th, 1944. Armed with sharpened cutlery and other improvised weapons, more than a thousand Japanese prisoners took part in the Kauru breakout. 230 of them were gunned down. A handful of Australian soldiers also died in what turned out to be the only land battle fought in Australia in the Second World War.

Despite the odds, 300 prisoners did manage to scale barbed wire fences and flee, but all were soon recaptured. Some killed themselves. The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, attended a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary. At a time when there is so much turmoil and conflict in the world, it is important to remember that out of those very dark days of World War II...

has grown a friendship between our two nations. The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, ending that report by Mickey Bristow.

The independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has admitted to being behind a bizarre prank that baffled New York City residents a decade ago. In a video on social media, Mr. Kennedy claimed he dumped the body of a dead bear in Central Park, adding he made it look like the animal had been killed in a bicycle accident. I said, let's go put the bear in Central Park and we'll make it look like he got hit by a bike. It's fun and funny for people.

So everybody thought that's a great idea. So we went and did that, and we thought it would be amusing for whoever found it or something. The next day, it was on every television station. It was the front page of every paper.

Ryan King from the New York Post told my colleague Sean Lay why Mr. Kennedy had revealed the incident now. About 10 years ago, there was a woman walking her dog in Central Park and she stumbled upon this dead bear. It was on top of a bike. People in New York kind of started freaking out about it and it was a big local controversy. Investigators showed up. They were trying to examine the bike, trying to see what was happening. Ultimately, the story kind of went away. We never really learned to investigate

Did it. And then, as you say, just in the last few days, we have this apparent confession, and not just a confession from any old person, but from a Kennedy and the Kennedy who is running for president.

That's right. It came out of the blue just in the middle of the day. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went on social media with this video fessing up to this. And he basically was trying to preempt this story that was going to come out by The New Yorker. And that story just had like a little bit of an anecdote of this bear situation. He was just talking about how, you know, he has a little bit of redneck in him and he's

was kind of joking about it. And some of the people in the video, including actress Roseanne Barr, they kind of looked a little bit puzzled. Like they were a little bit baffled by it in the video when he was explaining it. But it kind of seemed like he was almost a little bit proud of the situation, amused by it personally. And when the New Yorker published a story, they had a photo of R.F.

Kay Jr. posing with the bear and he had his fingers in the dead bear's mouth. It was definitely quite an unexpected development. The story seems to involve around him going on a game hunting trip in New York State, finding the bear, fancying some bear meat. Apparently it's quite legal in New York State, but provided you've reported finding the bear in the first place. And part of the controversy, he apparently hasn't. He never reported it.

Supposedly, he said at one point that he was initially thinking he would put the bear in his car and then try to get a bear tag. So like he was saying that he initially intended to go to the authorities and get permission to skin the bear and then get meat from the bear and put it in his fridge. But then basically he got

delayed on that falconing trip and then got sidetracked into another dinner afterwards and then he had to fly out of New York City so he realized he wasn't going to be able to make it back home with the bear and he didn't want to leave it sitting in his car so he just decided to take the bear and just dump it in Central Park. Does it in any way change people's perceptions of him do you think?

I don't think it changes people's perceptions too much. I mean, one of the big things is the Kennedy name is a huge name in the United States. And we've seen in the polling, you know, there was once a few months ago, he was starting to get to like 15% almost in the polls. But we've seen lately his polling numbers have kind of started to tumble a bit. And especially with President Biden dropping out of the race, he's lost about a third of his support in like the aggregates.

So from his point of view, there may be an upside if it keeps him in the headlines and keeps him in people's minds.

What did he say to the New Yorker about the photograph? He told the New Yorker, he's like, maybe this is where I got my brain worm from. A couple weeks back, it had been revealed that there had been this dispute he was involved in. And he had said in court that he was delayed because he had a brain worm that was giving him issues. So he was just kind of making a joke about that. Ryan King from the New York Post.

Now sport, on Monday it was day 10 of the Olympics in Paris. I spoke to our reporter Paul Serres, who began by summing up events on the track and in the field. We've witnessed incredible drama in the athletics. Mondo Duplantis, of course, won his second successive men's pole vault Olympic gold medal, beating the USA's Sam Kendricks into second place with a new world and Olympic record height of six metres and

and 25 centimetres. By the way, that's the ninth time that Duplantis has broken the world-leading height. Elsewhere, Kenya's world cross-country champion Beatrice Chibet took Olympic gold in the 5,000 metres in Paris, ahead of the great Faith Kip Yegon, who was later disqualified for a lane infringement that boosted Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands up to silver and the bronze went to Italy's Nadia Battocletti.

And Great Britain's Keeley Hodgkinson took gold in the women's 800 metres ahead of Ethiopia's Siga Duguma and Mary Mora of Kenya. It's been an amazing Olympic Games for the American gymnast Simone Biles. And I don't take anything away from what she's achieved by saying that actually today might have been a bit disappointing for her.

Well, yes, that's right. Biles says she's achieved more than her wildest dreams in Paris. That's despite two errors earlier on Monday that cost her the opportunity to add to further goals to the three that she won earlier in the Games. Biles won silver in the floor final behind the Brazilian Hebeka Andrade after twice landing outside the area. And she finished fifth in the beam final after falling off during her routine.

And Paul, the great thing about the Olympics is you don't know where to look. There's so much action going on at the same time. Just round up the rest of today for us. Well, the track cycling got underway. We've already enjoyed the road races on the bicycles. But the British team of Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katie Marchand took the very first gold in the velodrome in the women's team pursuit ahead.

ahead of New Zealand. They broke the world record there, and it's the first time that Great Britain have ever won a medal in that event. Germany won the gold in the women's 3x3 basketball, beating Spain in the gold medal match. And the hosts, France, will face Spain in the men's football final on Friday. France came from behind to beat Egypt 3-1 after extra time, and Spain needed extra time too. They came from a goal down to beat Morocco 2-1.

Paul Saris. The sport of chess may not feature in the Paris Olympics. It does have its own Olympiad, though, and a new star. He's the 15-year-old Shreyas Royal from London, who's become Britain's youngest ever chess grandmaster. On Sunday, he achieved the third high-level performance needed to reach that benchmark at the British Chess Championships in Hull in northern England.

Last year, he was invited to Downing Street to take on the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, when the previous government invested about $1.2 million into chess. James Kumarasamy spoke to Shreyas and his father Jitendra, and first asked the 15-year-old how it felt to become Britain's youngest chess grandmaster. It means a lot to me. I've held a lot of records in the past, but I feel like this is probably my biggest one so far. To be the youngest British grandmaster, this record's been unbroken for about 17 years, and

I think it's even more fitting that actually I played the record holder in this tournament. I actually managed to beat him. And yeah, I was also fortunate enough that he was present when my final round game had finished. He came up to me very quickly, congratulated me. Of course, achieving such records are huge, but I think it's also like a good sign for the future.

She's like, I'm on the right trajectory for a promising future in chess. You know, maybe I'll be one of the best chess players in the world. Well, you've already made this amazing stage in your career. And there is an irony, of course, is that you possibly weren't going to be able to be the first British player

or the youngest British Grandmaster, because there was a chance a few years ago you wouldn't be able to stay in the country. Perhaps, Jitendra, you can explain what happened. Yeah, I think in 2018, my visa was about to expire. And then after that, I have to leave this country. So thank God to English Chess Federation, they fought for our visa. During that time, it was covered by Radio 4 only. That was listened by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

And also a lot of MPs supported us, like Rachel Reeves, who is the current Chancellor. And a big chess player herself. Yeah, yeah. And based on exceptional talent, Saj is finally given to stay in this country. So I'm thankful to the government as well and the whole of the media. So, exceptional talent. Your dad talked about some of the politicians who helped you.

You both stay in the country, including, as you mentioned, the current Chancellor. But the previous Prime Minister is someone you played against. You actually went to Downing Street, didn't you? Yes, last year I was invited along with one other junior to attend Downing Street. This was because the government had decided to give us a very generous grant to help fund some chess in the country. And I met the Prime Minister there, Rishi Sunak.

How long did the match last?

He was asking me a lot of questions. What about the Olympics? Do you think chess should be part of it? Yes. I believe any traction that chess is getting is certainly very positive and certainly on such a big stage like the Olympics. I feel like chess does have a lot of the qualities to be classified as a sport. So, yeah, to see it at the Olympics would be really good. The 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, Britain's youngest chess grandmaster.

And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this podcast, the email address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. On X, we are at globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Liam McSheffery. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening. And until next time, goodbye. Selling a little or a lot.

We'll be right back.

With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash broadcast. shopify.com slash broadcast.

I'm Katrina Perry from the Global Story podcast. Kamala Harris announces her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. But do the vice presidential candidates really influence the election? And how will Tim Walz and J.D. Vance impact the final months of the race? The Global Story brings you unique perspectives from BBC journalists around the world. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.