UN cuts aid to 500,000 Gazans over funding shortfall and other 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. >> The World Food Program cuts aid to Gaza. because of a lack of funding. >> As we are entering the winter, we are. being forced to cut that assistance. almost by half a million people. It's. not due to the needs going down. It's. not due to the challenges of bringing. food in. It's. really only because we don't have the. funding anymore. >> Australian MP Helen Haines is hit by a.

car in what the Prime Minister calls an. attack. >> All of our thoughts are with Helen, her family, her friends, her team, and. her community. at this extremely difficult time. We are praying for her full recovery. >> The BBC reports on the battle against. the synthetic drugs flooding Chicago. >> I asked one of the officers, I said, "Where are the dealers here?" He said, "You could throw a rock and hit one. There are so many in this neighborhood.". >> And the mission to bring back samples.

from a Martian moon and what it could. reveal. >> Either a space rock crashed into early. Mars and the moons were created out of. the debris or they're two asteroids from. the outer solar system and they were. grabbed by Mars's gravity. This mission. should reveal the answer. >> The war in Gaza has left nearly 2. million people in need of shelter with. 2/3 of them relying on food aid to. survive. But now the World Food Program.

says it's being forced to drastically. cut support because of funding. shortages. The UN agency says it will. have to stop helping half a million. people with community kitchens supplying. 100,000 fewer meals a day. Carl Skau from the World Food Program. has recently been in Gaza. >> We are trying to make sure that we. continue to target the most vulnerable. What will happen is that there will be. less smaller rations and there will be. longer in between that people receive.

our our support. We're not going to. leave anyone in desperate need behind, but yes, this is going to impact on the. food security situation because it is. people are already not eating enough, you know. Most people I met today they. eat maybe once a day. They don't have. you know, any fresh foods or any fresh. vegetables. Many don't have the cooking. gas they need. That's why we have. continued to provide hot meals and so. this will have an impact. You know, we. managed to push back on that famine. because of that massive support, but. these gains are fragile. These can.

easily be reversed and we are frightened. that that's what can happen now. >> I asked our Middle East correspondent. Yolande Knell in Jerusalem what life is. like for people in Gaza even before the. aid cuts. >> Life in Gaza remains extremely tough. You still have nearly the entire. population of 2.1 million people. displaced from their homes. 2/3 of. people. are reliant on food aid for their. survival. You've had.

you know, no real reconstruction taking. place and very little recovery. There. are still near daily Israeli strikes in. Gaza. So, these World Food Program cuts, you know, the World Food Program has. been such a lifeline for people in Gaza. They're coming on top of already all. that hardship. You've also got things. like the poor access to water, poor. sanitation, and now you have the. approach of winter and the wet weather. which makes everything worse especially. because a lot of people are still living.

in very flimsy shelters in tents. >> And what is the issue with funding at. this UN agency and can anyone else step. in to help the people of Gaza? >> I think there's very much a hope that. with this alert they will be able to get. more attention to their funding crisis. and get others to step in. But what the. World Food Program is saying that they. received half as much funding this year. for their Gaza operations as they got. last year or the year before. And.

they're saying that they need urgently. about $450 million to. continue with their Palestinian. operations because they also have some. work that they do in the occupied West. Bank as well over the coming 6 months. Now, when it comes to why funding has. dropped off, I asked this to the country. director here, Shawn Hughes, and he was saying that, you know, really it's a combination of. things. There are, of course, global. economic pressures that make it harder. for countries to give the same level of.

aid as they have been giving. They're. very conscious that this crisis in Gaza. has been going on now for 3 years. That. leads to a level of donor fatigue. There's a lot of other competition. from even other crises in this region, let alone in the world, for attention. And then, on top of that, he's saying. that, you know, there is this perception. that, you know, because the cease-fire. that was agreed between Israel and Hamas. a year ago, that things have improved in. Gaza. Although, you know, in reality,

the situation there remains extremely. difficult. And, you know, Gaza has to. some extent dropped out of the news. headlines. >> Australian anti-terror police are. investigating after independent MP Helen. Haines was hit by a car outside her. office. She's in hospital with critical. injuries. Police arrested a man at the. scene of the incident in the. southeastern city of Wangaratta. The. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said. the motive was not yet known, but.

described it as a deliberate attack. Our. correspondent, Katie Watson in Sydney, has been following the story. >> The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said it appears to be a deliberate. act. He has called it an attack. The Vic- police, though, they've talked. about this being an isolated incident. that uh the rest of the community does. not look like uh there's any threat to. the community. Um, they are they have arrested the. suspect, a 43-year-old man, um and they.

are investigating. Now, the Prime. Minister, despite calling it an attack, has said that it's too early to. understand the motivation, but he has. said and he's done a a couple of. interviews already. Um, he has said that. the uh the has been a rise in. temperature when it comes to politics. here in Australia, but so far it's the. Prime Minister who is calling this an. attack, a deliberate act. Um, the police. say that they are investigating it. Helen Haines has been an independent MP.

in uh the seat of Indi since 2019, the. federal election back in 2019. Um, the Prime Minister, Anthony. Albanese, has called her a beacon of. light for that community um in northern. Victoria. It's about 3 hours drive from. uh Melbourne, and he has uh you know, he. has he's made very clear that she uh. there's a reason why she's so loved, she's so admired, she's somebody with uh. integrity. In fact, her family have also.

issued a statement. Uh they have uh. talked about uh the fact that she has. she's up seeing in critical um she's in. critical conditions. They have thanked. all the responders and the people that. have helped her. Um, but so far the. Prime Minister has has made very clear. that she's a very much a a loved um and. important uh member of the community in. Wangaratta. >> Still to come in this podcast, the. French Prime Minister calls for local. curfews to curb violent protests.

President Trump issued a proclamation in. March promising to demolish the power of. drug cartels who export illegal. narcotics and violence into the US. He. began his second term by prescribing. many drug gangs as terrorist. organizations. But drug supplies on. American streets are as plentiful as. ever, cheaper, and increasingly deadly. as new synthetics are added. For some, the answer to the crisis lies in. reducing demand, giving users support,

and helping them end their addiction. Our international correspondent Quentin. Somerville traveled to Chicago and. Columbus, Ohio for this report, which. contains distressing details. >> The front line in America's war on drugs. starts on home turf. A car is pulled over and things escalate. quickly. >> Good evening. Hey, hey, hey, put your hands on the.

steering wheel. Put your hands on the. steering wheel right now. >> The men inside are armed. >> Dino, Dino. >> We are told to stay put as the suspect's. car is surrounded. >> Neither of you move, you understand? Don't even move. All right. Got any weapons on you, my. friend? >> And these officers, all veterans of the. fight, are battling against a new. scourge, a fresh breed of synthetic. drugs. This is one of the most violent. neighborhoods in all of Chicago. There. was a shooting just over an hour ago not.

far from here. But when we speak to the officers and. say, "What are the biggest threats. to the community here?" They say, "Synthetic opioids, the influx of. fentanyl, crack cocaine, it's a wash in. this neighborhood." I asked one of the. officers, I said, "Where are the dealers. here?" He said, "You could throw a rock. and hit one. There are so many in this. neighborhood.". >> Fentanyl has cast a great darkness. across America. And this man is one of Chicago's most.

established fentanyl dealers. Dove has intimate first-hand knowledge. of the drugs market, but would only. speak to us about his criminal. activities if we masked his identity. Mexican cartels are still pushing their. drugs here, and Dove sells their deadly product on. Chicago's West Side. And there is a new, homegrown threat. here on American soil.

The worst, he says, is still to come. >> Half a million dead Americans because of. the opioid crisis. Um 50,000 dying every year. What part do you play in that? >> What I'm doing, I know it's wrong. I know it's illicit. I know it's killing. people. >> So, why keep doing it? >> Ends to justify the means, I guess. >> Well, that doesn't mean your hands are. clean, though. >> No, of course not. >> What about the fentanyl flowing across.

the border? Has that changed? >> I mean, if it doesn't go over the wall, it goes under the wall. If it doesn't go. through the border, it comes through the. top border. This game is about adaptability. Where. there is a will, there is a way. >> You've been in this business for a long. time. What's changed? >> We're dealing with synthetics. I would. say the biggest thing that's changed is. the synthetic game. We haven't seen what.

synthetics can do yet. It's not even the tip of the iceberg, I. think. >> When inmates started collapsing in 2023, Chicago's Cook County Jail knew. synthetics had arrived. The drugs are cannabinoids, entirely. synthetic and extremely powerful. They. can lead to seizures, which prove fatal. >> Not saying a word until we hit those uh. running doors. Don't talk in the. stairwell. Don't let them hear you. >> This is one of the largest jails in all.

of America. >> Silence. Silence. >> And synthetic drug use is rampant. They go in hard trying to catch the. drugs before they're flushed down cell. toilets. Inmate deaths from overdoses were low. here until a few years ago when they. climbed dramatically. >> These correction officers find. contraband every time they do a search.

>> It's a meticulous hunt because these new. drugs are getting into the jail soaked. in the pages of books. and in the letters the inmates receive. All the mail coming into Cook County, as. many as 300 letters and packages a day, is checked by the sniffer dog.

And the jail has deployed more high-tech. methods, too. Intelligence investigator. Billy Pellegrini takes us through the. process. >> Let's try this one. Now, this one is severely saturated. As you can see, there is so much red. And no matter what. I do, that is going to come right back. up here. in a form exactly where it was before. They probably sprayed it and it just.

kind of all formed in there. So, if I. went shh shh shh. Those are the heavy saturated parts. >> So, there's a chance that it could be. some kind of drug. >> Absolutely. Oh, yeah, that's what they. do. They They spray it on. So, that's. what causes. this redness. >> Is there a scenario. where. the stuff coming over the border doesn't. matter as much because you can make. these new synthetics. in labs American soil. >> Yeah. Yeah. Therein lies the new.

problem. The The tradition has always. been that law enforcement had a even. more vital role because everything that. was potent was coming across the border, whether it was coming from Colombia, Mexico, China, poppy fields of Afghanistan. Now, with the explosion of synthetic. drugs, people can do this in their house, in. their sink, in their bathtub, you name.

it. >> James, not his real name, is a former. inmate of Cook County. As a dealer, he didn't want his face. shown while in this Chicago basement. He. demonstrates part of the process in. soaking paper with drugs. The supplies are all on hand with no. Mexican cartels required. >> The PCP, that's really That's like a. fentanyl with this right now.

So, you just try and get as much residue. as you want on here. Get it as wet as. you can. Try to get it as potent as you. want it to be. Where we at right now, we literally like. in Chicago right now, in the. neighborhood, in the house and. everything, and I just put something. together like our own drug. >> And that's the big difference with. synthetic. >> Exactly. The border might not even be a. problem anymore. >> Fentanyl is bad enough. 50 to 100 times more powerful than.

heroin. On the streets, Narcan or naloxone, an. opioid reversal drug, has saved tens of. thousands of lives, but it doesn't work. when their fentanyl is mixed with new. synthetic tranquilizers. Here in Chicago and across America, the opioid crisis and their drugs are. mutating. New formulations that are more. powerful and riskier. And as President Trump's administration. is targeting the cartels far from.

America's border, here on the streets, the drugs are as powerful. as ever. And for those already lost in the. torment of addiction, synthetics mean that the next hit is a. life or death gamble. >> The French government has ordered a. series of local curfews to try to stop. protests spiraling out of control after. more than 2 and 1/2 thousand people were. arrested over the weekend.

The yellow vest movement has called for. new demonstrations next weekend, while. student protesters blocked access to the. Louvre Museum this morning. The southern. city of Marseille has already banned all. gatherings today. Around 1,000 police and gendarme were. injured during the weekend unrest, and a. cleanup is underway after an estimated. 2,000 businesses were damaged. Sébastien Lecornu is the French Prime. Minister. >> It's impossible that we let this. violence and this chaos.

keep going as it is now. And then it's. the the measures then the the the the. guidance that I've given. to to all our local authorities is that. there can be partial curfew that will be. localized, targeted if need be, and. I am giving I am giving the the power to. the local authorities to establish the. partial curfews where they need. So yes, we'll put money on the table. We will. put public money on the table to help. recover, but we also need to be strong.

and stern in our response because the. damage cannot go on forever. >> The Prime Minister also said he would. declare a national state of emergency if. necessary. Nevertheless, President. Macron has gone ahead with a planned. trip to four Gulf states. Our correspondent in Paris, Hugh. Schofield, gave us this update. >> Today, you know, the stories coming in are are. very very troubling ones. As you say, hundreds and hundreds of shops wrecked, people who've lost everything.

Images we're seeing again and again of. of the. scenes from Marseille when tens of. thousands, I mean up to 30,000, this is. if that's an official figure, of of. looters came down to to take part in in. the pillaging of of shops in the in the. city center. The the historic building. that was the town hall of of of Limoges. burned down with its spire falling over. just like the Notre Dame Cathedral. These are things which will stay with. people for their lives and they will. remember this weekend. And the the the.

worrying thing is that it may not be. over cuz as you say, there are. you know, the the people behind the. protests and I'm not talking about the. violence, I'm talking about the. protests, want want to want to keep up. the pressure. And as you say, next. weekend has been announced as another. day and. there's no saying what will happen and I. suspect there'll have to be some kind of. ramped up security reaction in. preparation for that in order to to ward. off what might happen again. >> Why do you think the disorder was so. much worse this time than 8 years ago?

>> The country is in a in a worse state, you could you could say. The electoral. moment is approaching next year. There's a backdrop of uncertainty across. the world but. across Europe. The extremes are in more. confident. The the far left and the far. right are both feeling very buoyed up by. their electoral chances. Social media. has become universal. All all this is.

why the moment feels. far more insurrectional and dangerous. than it did a few years ago. >> A spacecraft is set to take off from. Japan later on the world's first mission. to bring back samples from Phobos, one. of the two small moons orbiting Mars. The samples are due to return to Earth. in 2031. Our science editor, Rebecca Morelle, reports from the Natural History Museum. in London. >> Real footage of Mars's moon Phobos taken.

from a rover on the surface of the red. planet as it crosses the face of the sun. in a Martian solar eclipse. Phobos is the destination for the Mars. Moons Exploration Spacecraft. Its. mission to grab a tiny piece of this. moon and bring it back to Earth. It's. the first time anyone's ever attempted. this. There are only three moons in the inner. solar system, our own moon and two more. around Mars and they're tiny. There's. Phobos which is about 20 km across,

that's 12 mi, and Deimos which is even. smaller. How they formed though is a. mystery. Either a space rock crashed into early. Mars and the moons were created out of. the debris or they're two asteroids from. the outer solar system and they were. grabbed by Mars's gravity. This mission. should reveal the answer. >> This is an area we call the vault where. we keep our special super special stuff. >> Until now, the only pieces of Mars. scientists can study, like the one at.

the Natural History Museum, fell to. Earth as meteorites. >> So, this is a actual fragment of Mars. Things like this are incredibly rare. >> But these Martian meteorites become. contaminated as they pass through our. planet's atmosphere. The sample grabbed by the spacecraft. though will be pristine. >> Having the sample return mission enables. us to get this really uncontaminated. sample. It should be pretty much. immediately obvious when we get it up to. Earth whether it's the product of this.

dramatic impact or whether it's a. captured asteroid. We might find out. other amazing things as well. So, we. might find that it has little fragments. of Mars have been implanted in it after. it formed. >> The spacecraft will arrive at Mars next. year and study the smaller moon Deimos. as it flies past. Then it will head to. Phobos and land a rover to explore the. terrain. No one's ever tried this on. something so small. The spacecraft itself will later land.

and collect a sample which will return. to Earth in 2031. And the amount of moon rock it's going. to all this trouble for, just 10 g. >> It's very small, actually. We can do. several studies even on individual. grains. So, you don't need to have kilos. back from the surface in order to do. science. So, it's worth every gram. It's. worth all. all the cost, let's say, and the effort. of of this. mission because it will solve We hope it.

will solve a very. big puzzle. >> Mars got its moons around 4 and 1/2. billion years ago. Having a piece of. Phobos will turn us into time travelers, winding back the clock to reveal the. story of the early solar system and our. nearest celestial neighbor. >> 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 next. time, goodbye.