Nicaragua is accused of crimes against humanity and other top news stories | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver. Conway and this is what we have coming. up. Nicaragua is accused of. systematically attacking its civilians. There are new warnings about this year's. record-breaking El Nino. And we'll. report from Ukraine where the military. is racing to shoot down Russia's jet. powered drones. Ukraine has made a new. type of missile that can be launched by. this wasp and they are fast enough to. shoot down Russian jet powered drones. Also in this podcast, why researchers.

believe baby girls are more people. focused than boys from the very start. [music]. Nicaragua had a troubled history in the. 20th century with decades of. dictatorship followed by the US backed. contra ended in 1990. But UN experts say. crimes are being committed once again. against civilians in Nicaragua. The UN. report accuses the authorities of. disappearances, torture, and arbitrary. detention. In July, Nicaragua's.

long-term ruler, Daniel Ortega, the. former revolutionary leader, banned. elections. I heard more from our global. affairs reporter, Mimi Swaybe. This new. report by UN experts, accuses. Nicaraguan, the state institution, the. authorities, of committing crimes. against humanity to crush any disscent. in the country and essentially control. the population. They say authorities. have coordinated enforced. disappearances, torture, and arbitrary. detentions of any political opponents,

all being part of this widespread and. very systemic crackdown on civilians. It. went on to say that actually since 2023, the authorities have shifted towards a. long-term use of these enforcers, impures, and nationwide police raids. aimed at basically eliminating any. remaining pockets of disscent in the. country and solidifying the absolute. power that President Daniel Ortega has. shared with his co-president, his wife. Rosario Morio. So they have expanded. these raids to new targets to include.

church members, indigenous leaders and. former state as well as military. officials. And this is on top of on top. of the verified disappearances UN. experts have confirmed since 2018 being. more than 160. And that is the date, a. very significant date in Nicaragua is. when a wave of anti-government protests. rippled across the country, the largest. in years that left more than 300 people. dead and led to a mass exodus in the. country as well. Nicaraguans. >> Now, are we seeing a return of the the.

dirty war, at least the tactics seen. then, because Daniel Ortega was in. power, left-wing leader, when his. government was destabilized by the US. backs. We're definitely seeing a iron fist get. even stronger. Daniel Ortega in July. came out and said there will no longer. be elections in the country, as he put. it, to stop the opposition from seizing. the government again. In September, we. then saw the Congress pass a. constitutional reform which essentially. would ban the opposition parties from.

taking part in that election. So again, solidifying the fact that he is going to. maintain himself in power as long as he. can. This unsurprisingly has received a. lot of criticism from the wider region. as well as global leaders. The. authoritarian leader though is also. being accused by this report as well as. other organizations of essentially. exercising centralized control over the. very institutions, the police, the. courts, the prisons that are meant to. protect people from abuse. So he not.

only has concrete control over the. government but over the whole country. according to reports and is being blamed. for the deaths of custody of at least. eight people since 2018 who were. detained on political grounds and we've. heard again in this report how dire the. situation is in prisons with the lack of. health care and gender b gender based. violence being rife among women too. >> And why now he's been in power for for a. long time. Is there any opposition to. his rule? >> There's very little opposition. He has. cut off ties with the US. US is a.

longtime foe. Not cut off ties, but he's. got distanced himself even further again. with this uh move in September, this. congressional reform. Again, distancing. himself from that uh backing. He's. leaning towards China as a stronger. ally. But on the ground, he's been in. power for nearly 20 years. There's very. little opposition in the country. Majority have been exiled. any. Nicaraguan leaders or politicians, lawmakers, uh figures in public life who.

I speak to are routinely outside the. country due to fear of oppression and. depression for their families in the. country if they have any left set there. >> The El Nino weather pattern in the. Pacific Ocean is still a few weeks from. its peak, but it's already breaking. records according to the British Met. Office. However, that conclusion hasn't. yet been confirmed by all climate. scientists. As our environment. correspondent Matt McGra explained, >> scientists use a number of different. measures to actually record how warm. this El Nino is versus the rest of the.

ocean and versus the historic uh. temperatures that pertained a few. decades ago. So on some of these. measures, it's close to or breaking a. record. On others, it's quite a bit. away. Uh I think the direction of travel. is very clear here. Uh scientists have. signaled for a long time they believe. this to be the strongest they'll see. um. at this particular time in the record. and it hasn't reached the peak of the. event just yet. So I think it's likely. to break records across the board. Um we.

may or may not be there just yet. >> What sort of temperatures are we talking. about and and what does it all mean? >> So the way that you measure an El Nino. is it once it's once once the. temperatures of the waters in the center. of the Pacific go about a half a degree. above the long-term average, that's the. start of an El Nino. Once they get above. one degree, you're starting to get into. more serious territory. Above two. degrees, then it's called a very strong. Elino. Now, we had the twoderee mark go. past a few months ago. It's it's been a. strong El Nino for the last couple of.

months. The latest data show that it's. around 3 degrees warmer than the. long-term average, but how much. precisely it is above the long-term. average, we're not quite sure as yet. the the fear I guess from scientists is. that this will continue and that. projections would show that it's. somewhere between 3 and four degrees. above average. Now that is a phenomenal. amount of heat and a phenomenal impact. on the world. We've never really seen. anything like that before. And what the. impacts will be across the world, we're. still not sure. We're obviously seeing. some of those signals just yet, but.

it'll be later this year and definitely. in the middle of next year when we'll. see the impact of all that heat much. more clearly. >> Yeah. What kind of thing could it be? more rain, more heat, >> all of the above. We're already seeing. in some places in the monsoon areas. perhaps less rain than normal. In other. places, in parts of California, they're. preparing for greater delugages. We're. likely to see greater um floods and and. downpours. We're seeing the Panama Canal. not at its peak or restricting traffic. because of lower water levels. So, all.

around the world, there'll be different. impacts, impacts on food production, impacts on droughts, on heat, and on. floods. But by middle of next year, we'll see probably the bigger impact, which is on overall global temperatures, which will be expected to be break. records by some distance. >> Ukraine's President Vladimir Zilinski is. due to meet President Trump on the. sidelines of the UN General Assembly. amid fears that Russia is planning to. intensify its attacks on Ukraine's. heating and power facilities ahead of. the winter. To make matters worse, Russia has stepped up the use of jet.

powered drones in recent months, and. these are proving much harder to shoot. down. The BBC's Abdul Jalil Abdul. Rasulov joined Ukrainian air defense. units trying to combat this new threat. This is how Ukraine shoots down Russian. jet powered drones with the help of. missiles and fighter jets. They're very. effective but too costly to use against. a much cheaper threat. Last month alone, Russia launched nearly 3,000 jet powered.

drones. That's why Ukraine is trying to. develop a lowcost solution to stop them. What about already existing Ukrainian. drone interceptors that were regarded to. be a breakthrough technology just a year. ago? Well, they're too slow now. The speed of jet powered drones is 300. to 500 km per hour, which is twice as. fast as our interceptors.

Both Ukraine and Russia constantly. develop new weapons to stay ahead in the. race for military innovation. Ke says it. is getting closer to finding a solution. against new jet powered drones. Right. now more than 20 companies are building. very fast drone interceptors on. different levels of readiness and out of. them six companies members of BAN. already deployed to the combat and this. video shows how one of them successfully.

intercepts a Russian jet powered drone. to deal with new threats. Ukraine is. also trying to convert old weapons they. no longer make. This is a Soviet. anti-aircraft missile system called OSA, which means a Wasp. It was made in the. 1970s and there are massive shortages of. ammunition for this machine. But Ukraine. has made a new type of missile that can. be launched by this Wasp and they are. fast enough to shoot down Russian jet. power drones and they're relatively.

cheap. The new missiles performed well. The. first launches were not very successful, but then they were improved and now they. work even better than Soviet missiles. [snorts]. Ukrainian engineers believe that it's. only a matter of time before they can. effectively shoot down jet powered. drones on a regular basis. But the. challenge of this war is to predict and.

prepare for future threats that do not. exist yet. And still to come, we meet. one of the researchers trying [music] to. make driverless taxis less enticing to. amorous couples. [music]. Baby girls tend to be more people. focused than boys from the very first. hours of their lives. That's according. to research from Cambridge University, which also found that newborn boys. generally show more interest in objects. The study was led by Yumna Khn from the.

autism research center in Cambridge. So. in the experiment, we recruited newborn. infants as soon after they were born as. possible from the hospital. Um we. recruited them into the study and we. showed them a video clip as soon as they. were awake and alert. Uh we showed them. a video clip, a video clip of on one. side of the screen a face, a moving. face, and on the other side of the. screen a moving object. Um and we.

basically found that uh newborn uh. regardless of their sex uh newborn. infants preferred to look at the face. which um we believe is due to an innate. social interest in humans and faces from. birth. Uh but what was really. interesting um was that we found that. girls I mean on average looked. proportionately longer at the human. face. um compared to boys, whereas boys.

on average looked proportionately longer. at the object compared to girls. >> And why do you think that is? >> Um so there's been quite a lot of uh. discussion uh about this in the. scientific community. Um we know that. sex differences are shaped by numerous. numerous different factors such as. upbringing, uh gender socialization, environmental factors. But there have. also been theories that some early.

biological factors might play a role. So. for example during pregnancy uh males. are exposed to higher levels of. testosterone compared to females. This. is what creates um sex differences in. the body but it's also hypothesized to. create sex differences in the brain and. behavior. So when we looked at these. newborn babies, because it was so soon. after birth, um our findings suggest. that potentially these early prenatal.

biological factors might be playing some. sort of a role in shaping sex. differences. >> And does this say anything about the the. greater incidence of autism that tends. to be found among boys rather than. girls? >> Um yes, that is possible. And again. that's something that we will better be. able to understand through future. research. Um but one theory uh is that. if males on average let's say show um. reduced social interest compared to.

females from early life um then they. might be at a higher likelihood of. developing autism compared to females. So that's one possible hypothesis that. we will need to better understand in. future research. Now, you may have heard. of the Mile High Club, but it seems. amorous couples are getting together in. groundbased forms of transport as well, specifically robo taxis. Researchers are. meeting in the Swedish city of. Goththingberg to work out ways of making. driverless cabs less enticing venues for.

backseat romance. Our reporter Helena. Burke has been investigating. >> There's still only a handful of cities. that have approved the use of driverless. cars on their roads in the US, China, and the UAE. But in those cities, apparently, this is a bit of a problem. The researchers say that the issue is. that being alone makes passengers feel. like they're in a private space, even. though they're not. And people wanting. to have sex in self-driving cars has. apparently become a bit of a bucket list. item, like joining the Mile High Club.

The researchers say that the problem. with this is that it makes the. driverless car seem like a space where. inappropriate behavior is okay. So, not. only does it normalize sex inside these. taxis, but also things like drug use or. crime. Dr. Pablo Basilinsky from Idaho. University of Technology says this will. only become a bigger issue as driverless. taxis become a part of the public. transport infrastructure. >> In the future, cars and shuttles will. likely be used by multiple people just.

like buses today. But a bus today will. have a driver which can save can serve. as a safeguard from misbehavior which. will be gone in the future. Uh research. shows that that is likely to happen. So. the current idea of our endeavor is to. see how we can prevent bystanders from. being hurt. >> And what can be done to prevent this. kind of thing? Well, that's exactly what. this group of engineers, tech experts, and psychologists are trying to figure.

out at this workshop in Goththingberg. Drs. Basilinsky does already have a few. ideas, though. >> Some obvious things which come up if you. ask my colleagues and people around in. this conference is like cameras, some physical barriers perhaps u coming. here and there in a shared vehicle, but. it's quite unclear yet. So, we're still. quite early in the process of trying to. figure out what it means. maybe for some. years down the line. >> Some of the other suggestions made by. researchers include making the cars.

transparent or even installing a light. that starts to flash if it senses. inappropriate behavior inside the car. For now though, Whimo, which is the. largest manufacturer of driverless. taxis, has said that anyone caught. having sex inside their vehicles will be. immediately removed and permanently. banned. They are the only native cats. still found in the wild in Britain, though wild cats have long been. considered functionally extinct with. surviving populations too small and. heavily interbred with domestic cats to.

recover on their own. But a small. population has now been successfully. reintroduced to the Canong mountains in. Scotland. As Laorna Gordon reports, this might look like a tabby, but it is. in fact a critically endangered Scottish. wild cat. And here in the Highlands, they've been breeding them for release. into the wild. The cats are closely. monitored, have minimal contact with. humans. >> Luckily, the cats are not aware that. we're watching them all the time. Um,

but yet it is a bit like big brother for. cats. >> 72 cameras keeping an eye on them day. and night. >> We want to know what are the cats. actually doing? What are they actually. like without us there? Are they able to. climb? Are they able to pounce? Can. they, you know, navigate complex. structures? um are they active at, you. know, natural times? What we want to do. is ensure that we're releasing cats to. the wild that are healthy and that have. got the behavioral potential to go and. survive in the wild. Wild cats can be.

found in places like this grassy. shrubland with a forest edge. The cats. that have been released have established. new territories here in the Kang Gorms. and the plan now is to go further. 46. have now been released to fend for. themselves and there have been wildorn. kittens. The population is small but. growing. >> We've had an enormous amount of success. here. It's only the first step in order. to restore the wild cats to the whole of. Scotland. We need to plan uh long-term. and we need to plan at a big scale.

>> How soon would you like to see other. populations start to be introduced in. other parts of Scotland? I it would be. great I think maybe within the next five. years to start at least one new project. You never know maybe two. Road traffic, disease and interbreeding all have the. potential to impact numbers. As does. climate change, including the recent. wildfire in the Ken Gorms. Experts say. for the best chance of success, the risk. needs to be spread.

>> You know, we've had some really big. climate incidents here in the Strath. over the last couple of years. We've had. some major storms and flooding. incidents. We've also had a. unfortunately a very significant forest. fire in the north of the release area. And all of these things have the. potential to impact the population. Once. released, a close eye is kept on the. wild cats now roaming the Ken Gorms. A. tracker on a collar which will. eventually drop off sending back. information. When we're driving around, um, the receiver is emitting like white. noise and then within that white noise,

what we're looking for is a very. distinctive ping every two seconds. >> Is this it peeping up? >> Yeah, that is the signal coming from the. collar to tell me that the cat is in the. vicinity. to be able to get this amount. of information is vitally important to. what we're doing, but also the bigger. picture of like long-term success of. wild cats in the wild. Just like we have fingerprints, they. have markings which are individual to.

them which help us build up a catalog um. of all the individuals that are out in. the landscape. >> So, you know, you have a catalog of the. wild cats in the area. >> We do indeed. Yeah. The hope is that this precious and. elusive species of cat will with a. little help make its home not just here. in the Kang Gorms but throughout. Scotland once again. And that's all from this edition of the. Global News podcast. If you'd like to. get in touch, our contact details are.

below. I'm Oliver Conway. Until [music]. next time, goodbye.