Thai court removes prime minister over leaked call

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Speaker 6 This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

Speaker 6 I'm Valerie Sanderson, and at 13 hours GMT on Friday, the 29th of August, these are our main stories.

Speaker 6 In Thailand, the Prime Minister, Petong Tan Shenawat, has been removed from office by the country's top court. This was her reaction.

Speaker 8 I accept the Constitutional Court's verdict. As a Thai citizen, I would like to reiterate that my intentions were for the benefit of the country, not for personal gain.

Speaker 6 So, what happens next? Israel says it's ended humanitarian pauses in its fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Speaker 6 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgio Maloney demands action against whoever posted fake images of her and other prominent women on a porn website.

Speaker 6 Also, in this podcast, how studying an 800-year-old tree could help save tomorrow's forests and South Korea's unusual approach to tackling crime.

Speaker 6 But first, what now for Thailand after the Prime Minister has been removed from office by the country's top court?

Speaker 6 She was dismissed over a leaked phone call with Cambodia's veteran leader Hun Sen during recent border tensions between the two countries.

Speaker 6 The conversation was seen by critics as being too cozy, and she was subsequently suspended. Ms Petong Tern insisted she'd done her best to act in the national interests.

Speaker 8 I accept the Constitutional Court's verdict.

Speaker 8 As a Thai citizen, I would like to reiterate that my intentions were for the benefit of the country, not for personal gain, but for the lives of the people, including civilians and soldiers.

Speaker 6 The court's decision plunges the country's politics into turmoil and has dealt a blow to its most powerful political dynasty, the Shinawat family.

Speaker 6 A A Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head explained the court's decision.

Speaker 1 Well, the court said that it accepted the complaint that she had violated ethics.

Speaker 1 Now, that's a very broad definition in the constitution, but specifically, it was a very embarrassing phone conversation. It was clearly never meant to go public.

Speaker 1 The Cambodian strongman Hun Sen leaked it very deliberately to cause a crisis, which is what happened, and it's probably had a big impact on the border war.

Speaker 1 But in it, she appealed to him because Kun Sen and her father, Taksen, who's the real power behind her party and her government, have been long-standing friends and business partners.

Speaker 1 So she appealed to him in the name of that friendship to put aside their tension on the border and the spats between their troops and try to find a way through.

Speaker 1 And she was very conciliatory to him, very respectful.

Speaker 1 And she also criticized one of her army commanders, the man who actually commands Thai troops on the Thai-Cambodian border, saying he's actually in the opposition. He opposes my government.

Speaker 1 He's difficult. I'm having a problem with him.
So once Hun Sen leaked that, which is pretty shocking, it's quite rare for heads of state or heads of government to do that in this part of the world.

Speaker 1 It really caused an enormous uproar. It painted Petong Thanh as inexperienced.

Speaker 1 I mean, she's young, she had no political experience before she became prime minister last year, and has having poor judgment and being outplayed by this wily old veteran and of being disloyal to her own troops.

Speaker 1 So, this court has ruled many times on very, very trivial matters and dismissed prime ministers, it's dismissed governments, it's dissolved parties.

Speaker 1 But I think in this case, many Thais felt this was a bit more serious, and the judges clearly found it was serious enough to make her unsuitable for high office.

Speaker 6 So what happens in Thailand now?

Speaker 1 It's pretty chaotic to be honest.

Speaker 1 I mean nothing's really been settled in this country since the election of two years ago which was won, or most seats were won by the most youthful and reformist party. Most Thais wanted that.

Speaker 1 But the unelected Senate stepped in and blocked that. So Ms.

Speaker 1 Petontan's party, Pertoch, came second, cobbled together a coalition with many of her former Conservative opponents with a promise to revive the economy. It's a difficult global environment.

Speaker 1 Thailand's economy is in a long-term sort of structural stagnation as well. So they failed to do that too.
Now this border war has blown up.

Speaker 1 It's given a lot of weight behind nationalist conservative opinion and old accusations that Ms.

Speaker 1 Petong Than's family, the Shinawat family, put their business interests with Cambodia before those of the nation have surfaced and really weakened her party.

Speaker 1 And I don't think it's going to be easy for Thailand to cobble together a stable government. They've got a very limited number of candidates that are allowed by the constitution.

Speaker 1 The current coalition has a very slim majority. It's very likely that within a few months they will be forced to call another election.
But this is a polarised country.

Speaker 1 It's fragmented between different political views. It's not clear that even an election would deliver stability.

Speaker 6 Jonathan Head. Israel says its attack on Gaza city is in its initial stages and it's ended humanitarian pauses in fighting in the area.

Speaker 6 It also says its forces have found the body of an Israeli who was killed in the October the 7th attacks by Hamas. He died trying to defend his kibbutz and his body was taken into Gaza.

Speaker 6 Here's our Middle East correspondent, Yolan Nell.

Speaker 10 First of all, I mean the discovery of the body of Ilan Weiss, he was 56 years old, the head of the security squad in his kibbutz when he was killed in those Hamas-led attacks on the 7th of October 2023.

Speaker 10 The Israeli military is also saying that it has findings related to the remains of another hostage retrieved from Gaza and that an identification process is going on.

Speaker 10 Prior to this, there were 50 hostages believed held in Gaza, 20 of whom thought still to be alive.

Speaker 10 The hostages and missing families forum did come out with a statement about the remains of Elaine Weiss being brought back, saying that this brought some comfort to his family after 692 days of waiting in the nightmare of uncertainty.

Speaker 10 And they also repeated their call for a ceasefire deal for Gaza that would bring back all of the remaining hostages.

Speaker 10 Meanwhile in Gaza City what we've been hearing from witnesses actually is that in the past hours there have been more intense airstrikes just initial reports coming through of that.

Speaker 10 Meanwhile the Israeli military making this declaration that Gaza City was now a dangerous combat zone and that it was suspending these tactical pauses in fighting that were introduced about a month ago to get more aid in just for Gaza City.

Speaker 10 This all seen as being part of the preparations for a bigger operation to conquer Gaza City.

Speaker 10 The UN's humanitarian office has put out some new figures saying that since this new operation was announced, about 60,000 people have been newly displaced in the Gaza City area.

Speaker 6 Yolan Nell.

Speaker 6 Yet more stark warnings are emerging about the city of El-Fasha in Sudan, which has been under siege by the paramilitary group, the RSF, for more than a year.

Speaker 6 Amid reports of squalid conditions and starvation, we're now hearing that civilians are increasingly being targeted in attacks. Dr.

Speaker 6 Mohamed Faisal Hassan from the Sudan Doctors Network gave us just one example.

Speaker 11 Three days ago, they targeted the Sao's Fashion Hospital, which is one of the big hospitals that serves a big Kashmir.

Speaker 11 And this resulted in a massive massacre as well for patients and the medical medical staff.

Speaker 6 James Copnell presents Newsday here on the BBC World Service and is a former Sudan correspondent.

Speaker 12 So, the Rapid Support Forces have been besieging El Fasha for 500 days, but more than 500 days now, and the accusation has always been not just disregard for whether civilians are killed, so you see shelling of civilian areas, but increasingly and often targeted attacks on people they consider a threat, including civilians from ethnic groups they feel they're in conflict against.

Speaker 12 So we've had the deaths this week of dozens of civilians from Schelling, but also of people trying to flee al-Fasha, civilians, including children who have been killed by the RSF.

Speaker 12 And both major participants in Sudan's war have been accused of atrocities and abuses, but overwhelmingly the RSF has been accused of more of those, including what the UN believes are credible accusations of genocide elsewhere in Darfur.

Speaker 6 And who who are they targeting specifically?

Speaker 12 They're targeting what are considered Africans in Darfur. So you have Arabs and Africans.

Speaker 12 The RSF forces come mainly from an Arab-Sudanese group, but have often been in conflict with the Zagawa, the Fur and the Masalit, which are considered African ethnic groups.

Speaker 6 And you have been speaking to a former Sudanese politician about this, haven't you?

Speaker 12 Yeah, this is Adid Abdurman Youssef. He's former governor of central Darfur state.

Speaker 12 He works now with the People to People NGO, which has people inside El Fasha, and he's extremely concerned about the situation there.

Speaker 13 Over the last few days, there is

Speaker 13 assassination of civilians, those who try to escape, and they

Speaker 13 catch them and then they kill them. Everybody has seen this

Speaker 13 killing, calling people by the name of their ethnic group, and then they shoot them

Speaker 11 to kill.

Speaker 13 So, the civilian population and in Al Fashia they are paying the heaviest price of all of this.

Speaker 6 So this city, El Fash, has been under siege for more than a year. The situation there must be pretty desperate.

Speaker 12 Yes, because it's incredibly hard to get food and other supplies in. So we've talked to people who are eating

Speaker 12 animal fodder, products intended to feed animals. That's the only way they can survive.
I talked to one guy, Taha, a few weeks ago. He said, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to the next week.

Speaker 12 I've tried to speak to him in recent days. I simply haven't been able to get hold of him.
Members of his family have died of starvation. So civilians face this incredibly hard choice.

Speaker 12 They are starving to death within the city. Food is running out.
The UN can't get aid convoys in. But if they leave, they run the risk of being killed too.
It's an awful, dire situation.

Speaker 12 And Sudanese from El Fasha and elsewhere are saying desperately that there needs to be some sort of action. The international community needs to get involved.
So far, that's not happening.

Speaker 6 And why is El Fasha strategically important to both sides?

Speaker 12 It's the last major city in Darfur that is still under the control of the Sudanese military, which has been fighting against the rapid support forces, the RSF, this paramilitary group, for the last two plus years.

Speaker 12 The RSF has most of the rest of Darfur. It's originally its fighters are originally from Darfur and it wants to control that whole region.

Speaker 12 And the Sudanese army wants to say, no, we can maintain a foothold in this major place. It would also open open up to the RSF new supply routes, new economic possibilities, too.

Speaker 12 But I think it's mainly the symbol of this major city still in the control of the army and which the RSF is desperate to take.

Speaker 6 James Copnell. EU foreign and defence ministers are meeting in Copenhagen where they're discussing Ukraine.

Speaker 6 It comes soon after the heavy Russian strikes on Kyiv that left 23 people dead, most of them in an apartment building that collapsed. Here's the lead EU spokesperson, Anita Hibber.

Speaker 14 Putin understands only one word, and this is strength. So we will do anything in our power to increase our pressure on Russia.
Until now, we had 18 sanction packages.

Speaker 14 We're now working on the 19 sanction packages. So we will do everything in our power to ensure Ukraine remains strong and Putin comes at the negotiation table.

Speaker 14 And also, the most importantly, the killing stops.

Speaker 6 The rescue work at the block is now finished, but the mourning goes on. Here's Katie Watson, who's in Kyiv.

Speaker 15 The recovery operation at that block of flats that saw 22 people die of the 23 who died in that massive airstrike on Thursday morning has now finished. There are still eight people missing.

Speaker 15 But, you know, people here are still reeling from what happened in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Speaker 15 President Zelensky has once again called for strength, not just words, from allies to try and bring an end to this war. There's been diplomatic outcry.

Speaker 15 Of course, the EU delegation building here in Kyiv was damaged, as was the British Council building. So a resounding criticism of what happened at these Russian attacks.

Speaker 15 But on the ground, speaking to those residents and neighbours watching the recovery operation yesterday after a missile hit a low-rise residential building, there was a lot of disbelief, a lot of shock.

Speaker 15 People telling me that they see this and they never think it would happen happen to them, but it does.

Speaker 15 One lady told me of just the cruelty of it, that these drones and these missiles, there was a barrage of them coming in simultaneously from different directions and it was just incomprehensible, very difficult to try and get their head around what had happened.

Speaker 15 So I think people were

Speaker 15 very much in shock trying to get an understanding of exactly, of course, what this means for potential peace.

Speaker 15 Because of course Ukrainians here were wary of whether any peace could come from these this flurry of diplomatic talks.

Speaker 15 There was optimism but now that's been undermined by what we saw with those attacks early yesterday morning.

Speaker 6 That's the view in Ukraine. Let's hear from Moscow.
Here's our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg on whether there are any prospects for peace.

Speaker 16 If you look at the last six weeks or so, you know, there's been so much talk, so much diplomatic activity and so little progress.

Speaker 16 You know, we've gone from Donald Trump's 50-day ultimatum to Russia to stop the war or face new sanctions to a 12-day ultimatum, then a 10-day ultimatum, which turned out to be no ultimatum, no deadline at all, really.

Speaker 16 Instead, we got this US-Russia summit in Alaska, which did not bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin again rejected the idea of a ceasefire from Alaska.

Speaker 16 Then we went to Washington and that meeting of Presidents Trump, Zelensky and European leaders, talk of a possible, even probable, Putin-Zelensky summit until the Kremlin poured cold water on that.

Speaker 16 And then yesterday, yes, that massive Russian attack on Kiev. I imagine Russian officials will be satisfied by the initial and rather subdued response from the Trump administration to that attack.

Speaker 16 The White House press secretary saying that President Trump was not happy by the strikes, but also not surprised by them. So it appears right now that we are no closer to peace.

Speaker 6 Steve Rosenberg.

Speaker 6 The government of Punjab says it's launched one of its largest rescue operations in years as more than a million people have been affected by floods in Pakistan's most populous province.

Speaker 6 Hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated so far in Punjab and more than 800 people have been killed across the country since monsoon rains started in June.

Speaker 6 The BBC's Pakistan correspondent Azadeh Mashiri reports from Lahore.

Speaker 17 I'm in a luxury residential neighbourhood in Lahore, and when people moved here, they were promised beautiful parks, a scenic view of the Ravi River, and new build modern homes.

Speaker 17 But looking at it now, the river has completely swollen and submerged several homes. Thousands of rescuers have been deployed to areas like these.

Speaker 17 And across Punjab, there are 1700 villages that have been flooded.

Speaker 17 So rescuers today are still traveling back and forth across the Ravi River to help anyone who is still stranded, anyone who refused to evacuate before.

Speaker 17 When families do come back, many will find their homes wrecked, just like the ones I'm looking at now.

Speaker 17 The government has pledged financial support for people who've been affected by the floods, but this isn't the first time families in Pakistan are seeing their lives upended, having to start all over again.

Speaker 17 And scientists are warning it won't be the last time either, that climate change is intensifying the monsoon rains that the country has to go through every single year.

Speaker 17 In the immediate future, officials are warning that more rains are coming, and with it, more damage, more lives at risk.

Speaker 6 Azadeh Mashiri.

Speaker 6 Still to come in the Global News podcast.

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Speaker 6 From today, any packages entering the U.S. that are worth more than $100 will be subject to tariffs.
So, bad news if you're a small business owner who sells to the states.

Speaker 6 Great news, Donald Trump would argue, if you're an American business. It's because a rule which used to exempt goods valued at $800 or less from border tax has been removed.

Speaker 6 This was already in force on packages from China and Hong Kong, but now will apply to the rest of the world. Our Asia business correspondent is Suranjana Tiwari.

Speaker 22 And in recent years, it was largely used to foster small business growth on e-commerce marketplaces. If you can imagine businesses around the region, especially here in

Speaker 22 Australia and in Asia,

Speaker 22 selling to American customers on things like Etsy and eBay. But earlier this summer, President Donald Trump said he would eliminate the waiver that allowed those goods

Speaker 22 worth less than $800 to enter the US duty-free. And now the exemption has gone away completely as of today.

Speaker 6 So what effect, Suranjana, will this have, do you think, on global trade?

Speaker 22 Well, we spoke to a lot of small business owners, you know, one maternity company that was based in, maternity clothes company that was based in Australia. And he said

Speaker 22 because there's been so much chaos, there's been so much uncertainty about who will pay the duties, the Australia Postal Service has actually stopped these parcels going into the US at all.

Speaker 22 So that means that he's having to look for new markets and he's having to redirect a lot of his deliveries.

Speaker 22 And essentially he was saying that he's not going to be able to market his goods to American customers as a result.

Speaker 22 But more broadly, I think there is still a lot of confusion around Donald Trump's tariffs policy and this is just another example of it. And you mentioned the Chinese and Hong Kong exemptions.

Speaker 22 They were removed earlier this year and that really affected e-commerce sites, big Chinese retailers like Timu and Shane from being able to deliver their packages to US customers.

Speaker 22 So this is likely to have a big impact for many types of businesses around the world.

Speaker 6 And crucially, what effect is this going to have on consumers, particularly in America?

Speaker 22 Yeah, well, we're already hearing that one South Korean Korean skincare brand is actually just across the board adding 15% surcharges to its deliveries.

Speaker 22 So essentially, it's going to become, things are going to become more expensive because while the receivers generally pay these tariffs and these extra taxes, at some point these businesses are going to have to pass the customer, the money

Speaker 22 costs onto the customers. So

Speaker 22 we've heard from a lot of really big companies, Adidas, Nike, all saying they're going to have to increase prices in order to be able to navigate these new tariff policies.

Speaker 22 And it seems that the only person that can really pay in the end will be the customer.

Speaker 6 Surangana Tiwari.

Speaker 6 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney says those responsible for publishing doctored images of herself and other prominent women on a pornographic website must be punished with the utmost firmness.

Speaker 6 Giorgia Maloney has spoken of her disgust, telling an Italian newspaper that women should immediately report images posted online without their consent.

Speaker 6 A correspondent in Rome, Sarah Rainsford, told me more about the website.

Speaker 23 There was very recently, in the last few days, an explosion of outrage when it was discovered that

Speaker 23 the site, an adult website, a pornographic website, was displaying doctored images of very well-known female figures here in Italy, including the Prime Minister, including a number of opposition politicians, celebrities, influencers, using images that have been stolen in many cases from their personal social media accounts or taken from public images posted online at public events.

Speaker 23 And then those images were altered before being posted online alongside some obscene captions, very vulgar commentary, and sometimes violent commentary.

Speaker 23 In some cases, I've been told, incitement to rape. So extremely serious allegations about this website.
It has now taken itself offline.

Speaker 23 There is a police investigation, but the website says, with regret, that some users had been abusing the platform. They said it was set up with the best possible intent,

Speaker 23 and it was for the sharing of content, supposed to be a safe space. But they are claiming that that space was misused.

Speaker 23 But certainly, those who were targeted, the women who were featured on the website, are outraged. There's been a huge amount of coverage of what's happened here in Italy.

Speaker 23 And as we mentioned, the Prime Minister herself has expressed her disgust disgust and said that those responsible need to be dealt with.

Speaker 6 And are they going to be held accountable, those responsible?

Speaker 23 Well, there is an investigation. As I say, the website has been closed, but it's not an isolated case.

Speaker 23 There was, in fact, just a few days ago another big noise about a Facebook group known as My Wife when it was revealed that men who were using that site were posting pictures of their partners, very explicit, obscene pictures in many cases of their partners, again possibly altered, and certainly shared without the consent in many cases of the women who were featured.

Speaker 23 And the outrage, again, over that, led by celebrity figures here in Italy, cultural figures and politicians, forced Meta to close down that Facebook group.

Speaker 23 But I think there is a real focus now on those kinds of platforms, the kinds of images that are being shared, and the fact that that's being done in many cases without the consent of the women involved.

Speaker 23 So a real focus on trying to identify who's responsible and trying to stop it and also calling for women who find their images being shared to report that to police.

Speaker 6 Sarah Redsford.

Speaker 6 The BBC has spoken exclusively to some of the Rohingya refugees who were deported by the Indian government and dumped in the sea just off the coast of Myanmar, a country in the midst of a brutal civil war.

Speaker 6 The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, face violent persecution and genocide at the hands of Myanmar's military government.

Speaker 6 More than a million Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries, including India.

Speaker 6 In an exclusive interview, the refugees recounted how they were taken and left at sea at the hands of Indian authorities. BBC's South Asia correspondent Samir Hussain reports from Delhi.

Speaker 6 Hello, hello.

Speaker 21 A group of seven men appear on my screen.

Speaker 21 They're all sharing a mobile phone.

Speaker 24 We were so helpless

Speaker 24 and we were waiting for someone to come.

Speaker 21 And they're desperate to tell their story how they were thrown in the sea and ended up stranded in Myanmar a country they fled in fear of violent persecution we don't feel secure in Myanmar and this place is completely a war zone that's Sayyid Nur and he's one of 40 card-carrying UN recognized refugees living in Delhi who were put on planes to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands then put on a naval vessel in the Bay of Bengal headed towards Myanmar.

Speaker 21 Fourteen hours later, they were told to board smaller boats.

Speaker 24 They brought four lightboards, and we were boarded to two lightboards, 20 people in each boat. Our hands were bound in that lightboard

Speaker 24 for more than seven hours. They asked us to jump off the lightboard one by one, and we swim around 100 plus meters to get the seashore.

Speaker 6 When you got on the bus to go to the boat,

Speaker 22 who took you on the bus?

Speaker 11 Yeah,

Speaker 19 the same Navy.

Speaker 21 How do you know they were Navy?

Speaker 24 We know that because of the bus inscription, like Bart Iran was

Speaker 21 the Hindi word for Indian Navy. Then, he says, one by one, they were pulled aside on the boat and questioned by Indian authorities.

Speaker 24 They would call someone and talk in Hindi, and they will even say something like, Why didn't you become Hindu?

Speaker 24 They questioned to Christian, Rohingya Christians, why did you convert Muslim to Christianity? Why didn't you become a Hindu?

Speaker 24 And even they threatened us to uncover our parents or to confirm whether we are circumcised or not. And they said, Why did you come to India? And why didn't you

Speaker 24 choose another country instead of India?

Speaker 21 Despite being registered as UN refugees, refugees, the Indian government says the more than 20,000 Rohingya refugees living in India are illegal immigrants.

Speaker 25 This is a matter of life or death for these people.

Speaker 21 Tom Andrews is the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

Speaker 25 I've been receiving reports of refugees being detained, interrogated, mistreated. These are people who are not in India because they want to be.

Speaker 25 They're there because of of the horrific violence that is occurring in Myanmar. They literally have been running for their lives.

Speaker 21 We put these allegations to the Indian government, who did not respond to our requests for comment.

Speaker 21 I'm walking up the stairs of a four-story building in the Vikaspodi neighborhood in Delhi. I'm going to meet with Nooral Amin.
He's 24 years old.

Speaker 21 Noor Lamin's parents, two brothers and sister-in-law, are among the 40 deported refugees now in Myanmar.

Speaker 12 We are humans, not animals. How can you just throw people into the sea? In my heart, there is only this fear that the Indian government will also take us and throw us in the sea at any point.

Speaker 21 India's Rohingya community, already existing on the margins, are now living in fear, not welcome in their home country and not wanted in the country where they sought refuge.

Speaker 6 Samira Hussain.

Speaker 6 Scientists are decoding the DNA of some of the UK's most ancient oaks in order to understand the genetic secrets of the tree's success.

Speaker 6 Oaks can live for centuries, withstanding climate change and disease. Conservationists say gleaning that knowledge will help restore Britain's woodlands.

Speaker 6 Our environment correspondent, Helen Briggs, went to see the first sample being taken from the Druid's Oak in southeast England.

Speaker 27 Hang on, Adams, caught there.

Speaker 23 Very good.

Speaker 28 This picturesque woodland in Buckinghamshire is home to a very impressive tree.

Speaker 17 Over nine metres in gun.

Speaker 28 For hundreds of years, the so-called Druid's Oak has withstood droughts, storms, heat waves, and more.

Speaker 26 Sort of top 100?

Speaker 6 Yeah, one of the biggest trees in the UK.

Speaker 28 And today, the mighty oak is being measured up and getting a DNA test that could unlock the secrets of its superpowers.

Speaker 29 Its extreme resilience, its ability to withstand.

Speaker 28 This is Dr. Ed Pine, a conservation scientist for the Woodland Trust.

Speaker 29 So we know trees like this are survivors.

Speaker 29 This tree's been standing in the same place for 800 years, maybe a thousand years, but we don't know what enables it to be so successful compared to other trees. Is it just that it's got lucky?

Speaker 29 Has it led a stress-free life? Or is there something special about the genes of this tree? Is there a secret to longevity within its genome? And we're hoping to really dig into that and find that out.

Speaker 17 If you get very close, you can see it's all hollow inside, and that's a great place for wildlife.

Speaker 28 A single oak can support hundreds of different species of plants and animals.

Speaker 28 And that's why there are growing concerns for these majestic living giants, many of which have no legal protection. If you lose an ancient oak tree, you lose the wildlife too.

Speaker 27 My name is Emma Gilmartin, and I work for the Albora Cultural Association.

Speaker 27 Ancient trees like this, they're historical and cultural monuments, I would call them monuments of nature. And they inspire a sense of wonder in all of us, I think.

Speaker 27 But this project will allow us to tease out what's so special about ancient trees and help us to make the case for them to be better protected.

Speaker 28 Meanwhile, in Moccus Park Nature Reserve in Herefordshire, unwanted conifers are being removed and oaks put back into the ground to encourage a diversity of wildlife.

Speaker 26 Acorns are really easy to grow, anybody can do it.

Speaker 28 Tom Simpson is Senior Reserve Manager for Natural England.

Speaker 26 So this tree is about 16 years old and it was one of the trees which was grown on from acorns collected from the 800 year old trees in the park.

Speaker 26 We're seeing a really sort of a boom in sort of the bird population here. So we've got meadow pipets, tree pipets, wood warblers coming up here, we've got spotted flycatchers as well.

Speaker 26 So in the short period of time, that's 16 years of restoration, we are really seeing the sort of nature recovery up on this site.

Speaker 6 That report from Helen Briggs. A new police officer in South Korea has managed to cut crime on his beat by more than a fifth.

Speaker 6 It would be impressive for a real police officer, it's even more impressive for a hologram. Will Chalk has the story.

Speaker 30 Nighttime in Seoul, and like every night, South Korea's first holographic police officer is on duty.

Speaker 30 His beat is a local park, and projected from behind onto a life-size acrylic panel, from a distance, he does look eerily real. Choi Injung lives nearby.

Speaker 9 It looks just like a regular person, and when I see it at night, it really feels like there's a police officer standing next to me, and that makes me feel safer personally.

Speaker 30 The hologram is the brainchild of police officer Kim Soo-hyang.

Speaker 31 My family and friends often told me that they would avoid passing through the park because it felt too scary.

Speaker 31 But as you know, it's impossible for CCTVs or police officers to be stationed everywhere 24/7.

Speaker 31 That's when I thought if we could create a visible police presence, it might help. So, we decided to introduce the holographic signboard police officer.

Speaker 30 Every two minutes between 7 and 10pm, the hologram will pop up. He's in a busy area with lots of bars, and with bars often come late-night crime.
But the hologram's been surprisingly effective.

Speaker 30 Kim Hyun-don is another police officer from the team.

Speaker 32 After introducing this holographic officer, crime rates dropped by approximately 22%.

Speaker 32 The biggest impact was on impulsive crimes, such as drunken violence or disputes.

Speaker 32 Since these crimes are triggered by sudden bursts of emotion, it's usually very difficult for officers to intervene beforehand, which makes prevention challenging.

Speaker 32 In that sense, the visual message that the police are always watching helped raise awareness and acted as an effective deterrent.

Speaker 30 Pre-intervention, or the idea that someone is always watching, might be an unnerving concept for some, but it seems in this case, just reminding people on their way home from a night out that actions have consequences has nudged their behaviour in a more acceptable direction.

Speaker 6 We'll talk.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service.
Use the hashtag Global Newspod.

Speaker 6 This edition was mixed by James Piper and was produced by Charles Sanctuary and Isabella Jewell. The editor is Karen Martin.
I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.

Speaker 4 We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

Speaker 22 There are many times I thought, I can't do this. I mean, what parent is it worried about?

Speaker 33 What am I not doing right? What am I not doing enough?

Speaker 33 And then I realized, wait, that's being a parent.

Speaker 1 Don't worry about being perfect. I've had around three other mother figures in my life, but only one of them has taught me how a mother loves.

Speaker 22 The greatest reward for me is he makes me better every day.

Speaker 1 I would tell a family considering adopting a teenager that that teenager, whoever it is, needs you and they need what you have to offer.

Speaker 22 Tayer's giving me hope. He's our son and that is what he will always be.

Speaker 4 Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. You can't imagine the reward.
Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. A message brought to you by Adopt U.S.
Kids, the U.S.

Speaker 4 Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.