Trump deploys troops to Washington in 'crime crackdown'

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 12th of August, these are our main stories.

President Trump says he's sending National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.

and taking control of its police force after claiming America's capital had been taken over by violent criminals.

Mr.

Trump also said he'd tell Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine when he meets the Russian leader on Friday, but again indicated that Kyiv would have to cede territory to Moscow.

Iraq has been hit by a nationwide electricity outage amid a consumption surge caused by weather temperatures approaching 50 Celsius.

Also in this podcast, in the Gambia, the death of a victim of female genital mutilation, a one-month-old baby girl.

Cotters and families who still want to continue the practice are doing it among babies because they feel that when they caught babies, they can heal quicker.

We hear what the perpetrators are doing to avoid detection.

Donald Trump's presidency is controversial at home as much as it is abroad.

Two months ago, he launched a military operation in Los Angeles to deal with protests against immigration raids.

Now President Trump has announced announced that he will, as he did in LA, put National Guard soldiers onto the streets in Washington, D.C.,

800 of them.

He also said that he was temporarily taking control of the city's police force to try to end violent crime.

Speaking at the White House on Monday, President Trump said that massive enforcement operations would follow.

Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen anymore.

We're not going to take it.

It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness.

And we're getting rid of the slums too.

We have slums here.

We're getting rid of them.

I know it's not politically correct.

You'll say, oh, so terrible.

No, we're getting rid of the slums.

And we'll deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence.

You'll have more police, and you'll be so happy.

Because you'll be safe.

When you walk down the street, you're going to see police, or you're going to see FBI agents.

We're going to have a lot of agents on the street.

The Democratic Mayor of Washington, Muriel Baiser, described Mr.

Trump's actions as unsettling and unprecedented, but that given his previous rhetoric, they weren't surprising.

Our correspondent Nome Iqbell told me that official figures for the U.S.

Capitol are at odds with the President's portrayal of crime in the city.

In terms of total violent crime, it's at a 30-year low, but facts don't really matter here.

It's about feelings, and President Trump has very successfully tapped into that.

I've lived in DC for several years now, and sure, there is crime, but is a crime emergency.

And lawmakers here are pointing out to the stats and saying that that's just not the case.

It's not so terrible that you need to send in National Guard troops, that you need to federalize the police.

And so, there's a lot of criticism of what he is doing and whether or not it will solve anything if it's an escalation and what have you.

But he is acting on the back of a series of incidents of, you know, there is crime that happens here.

One of the most high-profile ones recently was an attack on a teenage software engineer.

He worked for Elon Musk in his former Doge department.

And Donald Trump has decided to take action, and it's made many, many residents here, I'd say, feel very uncomfortable.

As you say, he's taking control of the police, he's sending in the National Guard.

Has there been any official response to this?

Well, in terms of the official response, so you've got the Army statement that I can give you.

The DC Army National Guard, the Department of the Army, they've activated the DC National Guard.

They've done that.

You do have the police as well, the Metropolitan Police, who have said they welcome it, but they want it to be done responsibly and what have you.

But in terms of the political reaction, as I mentioned there, they've accused them of escalation.

Just to give you a quote from Brian Schwarbe, who's the elected Attorney General of the District of Columbia, he said that this was unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.

Just to let you know, also, at the moment, House Republicans have yet to pass legislation to fix this billion-dollar hole in the capital city's budget, which could lead to layoffs and service cuts.

And many of his critics also say if you look at the US in total, there are a lot of states where there are worse murder rates.

DC obviously isn't a state, but there are parts of America where it's worse, like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

But these are red states.

And so Donald Trump is accused by his critics of going on some sort of revenge tour and only targeting democratic leading places.

And just to clarify something, he said, President Trump, that he would send in the military.

What would that entail as the National Guard is the military?

Yes, so the National Guard troops would enter DC, but the way it would work is that they would assist with logistics, transportation, guarding facilities.

It's kind of what the National Guard were doing in California over the summer when Donald Trump deployed them, and that was obviously very controversial as well.

So we understand that the troops won't have arrest authority.

There'll be like a military police unit that would play some role in detaining suspects while waiting for local law enforcement to make an arrest.

But people are questioning the methods: like, how is that solving crime?

How is that solving homelessness?

Many people are homeless or victims of crime, not actual criminals.

So, there's a lot of questions, a lot of anger about what Mr.

Trump's doing.

Nomir Iqbal.

Donald Trump has described his summit with Vladimir Putin planned for Friday in Alaska as a feelout meeting on ideas for ending the war in Ukraine.

It'll be the first face-to-face meeting between the US and Russian presidents since the invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.

Foreign ministers from the EU, which has not been invited to the summit, met in Brussels on Monday and called for an unconditional ceasefire as a first step.

Our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse spoke to the Vice President of the European Commission, Kaya Kallis.

He put it to her that there's a danger of President Trump agreeing to Mr.

Putin's demands and a deal being imposed before Europe gets anywhere near the negotiating table.

For any deal to to be implemented, Ukraine needs to agree to that deal.

Europe needs to agree to that deal, because otherwise it's just not working.

So, therefore, in order to be part of any deal, Ukraine needs to be around the table.

And it is clear, and I agree with you, that Russia will present outrageous goals, and they haven't really changed their goals at all.

And now it is up to us to put the pressure on Russia so that they would also want peace and support Ukraine so that they are ready to defend themselves.

And what do you think Donald Trump meant by there'll be some land swapping, some good, some bad?

Well, of course we have to ask President Trump what exactly did he mean, but it is clear that Russia can't be awarded.

Aggressor can't be awarded for the aggression.

Otherwise we will just see more aggression all around the world happening because it pays off.

You attack another country, you violate all the international laws and norms, and then you are just awarded with what are your ultimate goals.

So it pays off and it's really a signal to everybody to go for the same trajectory.

And with Europe, Keith Kellogg, the US envoy to Ukraine, said early this year when Donald Trump returned to office that Europe would not be involved in any peace talks.

You have improved relations with the US, not least with your defence spending.

But is it a diplomatic failure that you still haven't been able to get involved on such an immediate at-the-table level?

Well, it's clear that Putin just wants to talk to President Trump and go for the old-fashioned way of, you know, let's divide the territories and spheres of influence.

But it's clear that it doesn't work that way because Ukraine has been very clear, Europe has been very clear, that we can't agree to anything that Ukraine doesn't agree to.

So if Ukraine is not part of the deal, any deal will just not be implemented.

And that is the reason why Ukraine needs to be around that table.

Kaya Kallas.

As many of you may know, snoring disrupts sleep, not just for the snorer, but also for the long-suffering partner who shares the same bed.

Some couples even choose to sleep in separate rooms to avoid the problem.

But a new study suggests there could be a remedy.

Well, that is the sound of someone blowing into a conch shell, which could alleviate snoring, according to research carried out by the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in India.

Do this for 15 minutes, five days a week, and if you're a regular snorer, you could be on the way to a seamless, stress-free night's sleep.

The VC's Johnny Diamond spoke to the sleep therapist Kat Ledeley.

When we snore, the tissue, the soft tissue in the upper airways, in the back of the mouth, they vibrate, and then, worst-case scenario is that they can collapse.

And that means it reduces the airflow that gets through, and that can create the sound.

Worst case scenario is that it stops altogether, and that, if it happens often enough for long enough, can wake us up at night and disrupt our sleep.

But also, often it's the bed partner whose sleep gets disrupted, so you know, there could be two people who are struggling.

And do you have any idea as to why a conch might be such a good thing to help snoring issues?

So, what that probably does is it strengthens the muscles in the face, in the sort of pharynx, in the thoracic area.

And it's really, it's the regular practice.

And there are other similar studies looking at other instruments and looking at other exercises that all involve basically the face and sort of the neck, the muscles there, to strengthen them and to then stop them from collapsing at night.

I mean I was wondering as we searched for a conch this morning whether a trumpet or a trombone or another.

Yeah, wind instruments, did you redo

you know that can help so yeah.

What do you make of the study itself?

So I think it's a very interesting study and it fits in with other data.

It is a small sample size.

So they had I think 30 people all together and they split them into two groups.

So I think it was like 14, 16 people in each group.

So that's a small number, but you know, still it is some data.

It's also a very small sample, as in the exclusion criteria.

And I think rightly so, they were quite exclusive.

So what I would like to see is, and I think they say that in their study, is to do a follow-up study with bigger sample size and more sort of varied people included in the study.

But as I said, it fits in with other data.

And what I really like is, you know, you can do this yourself at home, you know, strengthening the muscles in your face.

Kat Liddelli Liddelle speaking there to Johnny Diamond.

Should statues of famous public figures once viewed with national pride be taken down because their colonial pasts are an embarrassment in the present day?

Well the question has triggered a debate here in the UK about the bronze statue of Clive of India which stands grandly outside the Foreign Office in London.

He was accused of contributing to the starvation of 10 million people during the Bengal famine of 1770 and he was unpopular in Britain as well.

The historian William Dalrymple co-hosts the podcast Empire, and he told us more about Clive of India.

He has this remarkable sort of mafia ability to kind of range up his opponents and wins every battle he ever fights by using completely unconventional means.

He fights at night in thunderstorms at a time when in the 18th century battles were set pieces like a chess game where one side makes a move, then the other makes a move.

Clive attacks at four in the morning in fog from the rear, from a river, you know, that sort of thing.

And he's very successful, but he is responsible for the asset stripping and cleaning out of India.

He's working for the East India Company.

He's like a sort of 18th century tech bro, Elon Musk, in a tricorn hat, if you like.

When he dies, he dies of his own hand.

He is booed and hissed in the streets of London until he takes his own life.

He's not the man you'd want outside the Foreign Office.

As far as visiting Indian diplomats are concerned, you might as well put up a statue of Dracula or Frankenstein outside the Foreign Office.

Clive's statue is not put up on his own lifetime at all.

He was buried in an unmarked grave when he actually dies.

He was such a disgraced figure.

He was put up in the early 20th century, just when British rule in India was looking shaky.

And even at the time, it was an extremely controversial statue.

The viceroy himself said, you must not do this.

He should be taken down very carefully, put in a museum, and all the different arguments about his life ranged around him in a series of plaques.

There's this wonderful quote which we should put in there straight away.

Samuel Johnson says at the time that he's acquired his fortune by such crimes that his consciousness of them impelled him to cut his own throat.

William Dalrymple on Clive of India.

Coming up, the death of the tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Stephanie Shirley at the age of 91.

She called herself Steve.

Instead of writing as Stephanie Shirley, double feminine, I had Steve Shirley.

People actually answered my letters, so I began to get some work.

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Human rights campaigners in the Gambia have expressed outrage over the death of a one-month-old baby girl who was the victim of female genital mutilation, or FGM.

Police say the baby was rushed to hospital after she developed severe bleeding, but was dead on arrival.

Two women have been arrested.

The UN estimates that in the Gambia, three-quarters of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 are the victims of FGM.

Even though it was outlawed in 2015, there have only been two prosecutions and one conviction.

Vatubalde is a victim of FGM and campaigns against the practice.

She told Rhoda Odiambo how perpetrators, known as cutters, are changing their strategy to avoid being detected.

Cutters Cutters and families who still want to continue the practice are doing it among babies because they feel that when they caught babies, they can heal quicker or that those such cases will not be noticed because they are very young.

And also, the age at which FGM is performed on Gambian girls, we are seeing a change in that.

For example, I am a survivor of FGM and I was caught between the age of seven and eight.

But now we are seeing the trend is being moved to a lot, lot younger, younger girls.

Are there other trends in the country that are being camouflaged from what has been known in the past?

Yes, we are actually seeing reported cases around infibration, that is the stitching of girls, where in the Gambia FGM type 2 used to be more common, but now we are seeing even more aggressive types.

And since the law took effect, what are some of the challenges of enforcing it and implementing it to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book?

FGM is a deeply rooted practice where community members don't report each other.

There is still a big taboo and culture of silence around FGM, as well as victim blaming.

But also you will find that the professionals like healthcare providers or the police who are supposed to enforce the law, some of them, because they come from practicing communities, still believe that the practice should continue.

And we have seen cases where when FGM is reported, the police are not taking action.

Do you think it's also time to amend a section of the Women's Act that actually criminalized and set penalties for female genital mutilation in the country to make it more stiffer and also recognizing these other trends?

Absolutely, but not even just to make it stiffer, it's to implement.

One of our biggest challenges is that the law, we've only tested it once in 2023 where three women were held accountable for FGM, yet the penalties that they were given were so low and there was a public outcry to repeal the ban.

If the law has been reinforced effectively and people caught, found guilty of FGM are being prosecuted, I believe that in addition to community awareness and the activities that we are doing, we will see a change.

Fatu Balde.

Iraq has been hit by a nationwide electricity outage after a power plant shut down amid a consumption surge caused by extreme hot weather.

Restoration is expected to take several hours, as Yousaf Taha reports.

It is also implementing an ambitious plan to generate electricity through renewable sources.

As climbers crowd Mount Everest, leading to concerns about safety and the environmental degradation of the peak, Nepal has decided to open up nearly a hundred other mountain routes to intrepid international visitors.

Crucially, climbers won't have to buy access to these peaks, in contrast to Everest, where a permit for the normal route will cost $15,000 per person for for the peak spring season.

Our environment reporter Navin Singh Khatka told me more.

Identified, some of them are on the border with China.

But the thing is, only around 460 have been opened for climbing so far.

So people in the far west, where there are so many peaks, they were always complaining that they should also get a chance.

But the challenge is, can they with so much inadequate infrastructure?

Imagine Everest or the Annapurna region have been there for many, many years now.

They have established infrastructure, including, you know, all these lodges and hotels and all these emergency services,

even roads nowadays to some extent.

Whereas this far western part of Nepal,

what we are talking about now, all these new peaks are.

I mean, I've been there myself.

They are mesmerizing, but there's very, very nominal infrastructure.

I mean, almost negligent, almost none.

And that is the challenge.

It still remains a challenge.

How will they do it?

And what is really worth climbing there?

Because there's nothing quite as high as Everest, is there?

People go to Everest region because there are so many other peaks.

For example, Amadablam, that's the most climbed peak.

It's not Everest.

So, there are so many other peaks in the Everest in the far west region as well.

So, the idea is that there will be these other mountains, 6,000, 7,000 meters, and they will also attract people.

That's the whole idea.

And then, that's why these new peaks were opened earlier, but then the issue was people had to pay the same royalty as they would have to pay, let's say, in the Everest region or Anapuna region.

So, therefore, most climbers, mountaineers would choose Everest and Anapuna because they have the infrastructure.

They are well established.

They can just fly therein to the nearest airstrip and then carry on.

So having realized that, the government has decided to waive the royalty, thinking that there will be many people coming in now.

But when I speak to operators, they say that, yes, that's an incentive, true.

But the infrastructure question is still there and it will take time.

Navin Singh Khadka, The visionary tech pioneer and philanthropist Stephanie Shirley has died at the age of 91.

Adopting the name Steve to forge her way in a largely male-dominated field, she shook up the tech industry when she founded her own software company, Freelance Programmers, which almost exclusively hired women.

Harry Bly looks back at her life.

Born Ferre Stephanie Buchtal in 1933, Vienna, Dame Stephanie travelled to England aboard the Kinder Transport to London during the evacuation of Jewish child refugees fleeing the Second World War.

By the 1960s, Dame Stephanie was married to her husband, Derek Shirley, and decided to start her own software company, having developed a passion for mathematics and computing.

As a woman in charge of a company, she wasn't taken seriously.

When she sent letters out trying to grow her business, she often never got a reply, and this is where Dame Stephanie's other name comes from.

She was often better known as Steve.

My late husband suggested that I use the family nickname of Steve.

So instead of writing as Stephanie Shirley, double feminine, I had Steve Shirley.

And surprise, surprise, people actually answered my letters.

I began to get a few meetings and I'd got a good story to tell.

So I began to get some work.

The business Freelance Programmers was an enormous success.

Dame Stephanie retired in 1993.

By the year 2000, the firm was valued at almost $3 billion,

and when she sold the company, the shares that she'd handed them made more than 70 of her mostly women staff into millionaires.

Dame Stephanie and Derek's only son, Giles, was born with severe autism and had complex needs.

She said much of her time when not working on her business was spent caring for Giles at home, determined that he should not have to live live in a hospital.

She went on to establish a residential home for autistic people, Kingwood, at which Giles became the first resident.

She also founded the UK's national autism research charity, Autistica.

Over the years, Dame Stephanie gave the majority of her fortune, tens of millions of pounds, to various charities and projects.

Writing in her 2012 memoir, Dame Stephanie said, I do it because of my personal history.

I need to justify the fact that my life was saved.

Dame Stephanie will be remembered as a pioneer for women in business and a caring mother who turned her love into philanthropy, changing the lives of many living with autism and their families.

Harry Bly.

At the age of 96, Donald Elsom has become the oldest ever contestant on the British version of the game show Countdown.

In the programme, contestants race to solve word puzzles and mass problems against a ticking clock in order to build up points.

It's one of the longest-running game shows in the UK, with similar versions existing across the world in Australia, South Africa, and Spain.

Mr.

Elsom, a Royal Air Force veteran, has been avidly watching the show for decades.

And although he didn't win, he triumphed in the letters round.

All right, Helen.

Um, a seven.

A seven from you, and Donald?

Eight.

An eight, okay.

What have you got there, Helen?

Politer.

Politer and Donald, what have you spotted?

Pointers.

Excellent.

Well done.

Well done.

Pointers.

You don't need any of those after coming up with that.

Well, Donald Elsom spoke to the BBC's Adam Fleming about his appearance on the show, as well as the secret to keeping your mind sharp well into your 90s.

In 31 years, I doubt whether I've missed more than 30 episodes, apart from when I was absent or in hospital or that sort of thing.

When you had a good excuse.

Yeah, I doubt whether I missed one a year.

And had you tried before to become a contestant?

Because if you've been watching it for decades, I imagine you'd been thinking about being on it for a while.

I can't be sure, but

it was either my fourth or fifth attempt.

What do you think got them to book you in this time?

Well,

I suppose I was just lucky that my name came up

whenever it did.

I mean, age may have c come into it

with the countdown team.

I don't really know.

I mean, you you're either lucky or you're not lucky.

What would you say was your finest moment?

Was it in the numbers round?

Was it in the letters round?

Was it the conundrum?

I feel I did better on the letters than I did in numbers.

But when I'm s at home,

I'm usually pretty good on the numbers.

I mean, I obviously I watched it and I had my daughter at the side of me looking at it with my daughter.

I'm sure I would have had another 15 points.

Colin Murray, the presenter, when he introduced you, said that when you watch the programme at home, you're actually on your exercise bike a lot of the time.

Is that true?

Yes.

Yes.

Wow, that's

how'd you keep up with both, with the exercise and the program?

The thing is, when I'm on my exercise bike,

the pedals just go around automatically.

I'm watching the screen, watching countdown.

I'm not thinking about peddling.

You know, I'm quite comfortable sitting on my exercise bike, and I'm quite comfortable with my feet on the pedals.

Brain and body are separate.

Well,

have you got any tips for all of us keeping our brains fit as we get older?

I do Sudoku most days.

I probably spend an hour or more a day, which keeps the brain active.

I watch Countdown, which obviously keeps the brain active as well.

If you feel you can do it, apply and

see what your luck is.

And have you got your eye on any other shows?

No.

I mean, without any intention of it, I think that I've proved the point that age doesn't matter on Countdown.

Donald Elsom putting the rest of us to shame at 96 years young.

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 BBC World Service.

Use the hashtag Global Newspod.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll.

The producers were Alison Davis and Paul Day.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Valerie Sanderson.

Until next time, bye-bye.

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