Woman at the centre of Spain's housing crisis dies

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to pair deeper into the universe than ever before. Unlocking some of its greatest secrets, but after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. The significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. A national disaster, Hubble launched with flawed mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 30 minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Thursday, October 8th, these are our main stories. The evicted 87-year-old, whose plight became the symbol of Spain's housing crisis and prompted a snap election, has died. The US judge has ordered officials in Tennessee to preserve evidence from last week's botched attempt to execute the death row inmate Christopher Pike. Also, in this podcast, this is one of the most rapid warning areas on the planet. That's causing krill stocks to contract southwards, so the chin straps have less to eat. Scientists say climate change has led to the population of what was the world's largest penguin colony plummeting by nearly two-thirds. An elderly woman in Spain, whose eviction sparked protests over the country's housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections, has died. Maricaman Abba Scal, who was 87, was forcibly removed from her apartment last month after she was unable to afford rent increases, she'd lived there for more than 70 years. The news of her death on Wednesday sparked renewed protests over affordable housing, with hundreds gathering near the Parliament building in central Madrid, chanting slogans and lighting candles in her memory. Well, I'm crying right now on the subway, and my first reaction is that Maricaman hasn't died. She was killed by this capitalist system, and I find it shameful that everyone isn't out on the streets protesting to ensure this never happens again. A lot of sorrow. I think that's what we all share, a great deal of sorrow, and above all the thought that she is the cause, the head of this whole revolution, and that she can't see it. It makes me so sad that she won't see if anything comes of it, if there's any result from all that she's fought for. Our reporter Albert Morgarde was at the protest, and she began by telling me about what is known surrounding the circumstances of Maricaman Abba Scal's death. She was admitted to hospital just the day of their eviction. You might remember that she was taken on a stretcher. Her health condition was really weak. She had a 50% disability recognised, due to mobility, and what media reports and her lawyers had said that all the circumstances around the attempted evictions that were several over the last few years had really caused her a lot of stress and a lot of exhaustion. Regarding the circumstances of her death, not yet known, but we know that she died in a hospital in Madrid and has caused an absolute outcry in the city and across the country. As we can hear behind you, I think. Exactly. There is a small protest, I would say, there is a few hundred people, 300, 400, that were in the square in the centre of Madrid, where people have come to demand for better solutions on the housing crisis and where initiated after the eviction of Maricaman Abba Scal, and they have taken today to the doors of the congress, which is just 500 metres away from this square. Just to say, well, they are chanting several things, but one of the things is that she didn't die, she was killed. Again, people here demand solutions to the housing crisis that's been really affecting people, especially the youth in this country. There's been improvised vigil as well with people lighting candles, and you can see a lot of banners and little messages in different places of the street, just remembering Maricaman Abba Scal. The eviction was arguably a big factor in the calling of the SNAP election by the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. How is this pensioner's death going to play into that upcoming poll? Well, I think these will make people go to the polls. The people here want to release solutions. If that will benefit Pedro Sanchez, who's the one who has called these early election thinking that these movements will benefit him, we don't know yet. But I think the death of Maricaman Abba Scal today, and that out quite we're seeing, just in Madrid, where I am, across the country, and all the tributes that I've been seeing online, I think they're going to make people really go into the streets and ask for the vote and ask for solutions, the different alternatives to the situation that we've been living in Spain for the last few years, where people can't know afford to leave in the cities where they were born, like was the case of Maricaman Abba Scal. Alba Morgare, a judge in the US state of Tennessee has ordered officials to preserve all evidence from the botched execution of Christopher Pike last week. Lawyers for the convicted murderer, who survived two doses of what was supposed to be a lethal injection, has said she's angry and confused after waking up in hospital. After a hearing, the lawyers said the retention of evidence was the first step of a potentially long legal battle. Mr. Pike has spent three decades on death row for killing Colleen Slemer, an ortho-america correspondent. Netotrophic told me more about the emergency court proceedings in Tennessee. The judge ordered the state to retain not just physical evidence, like the IVs and syringes and gurneys, but any surveillance video, any and all communications between officials. And, you know, her lawyers also wanted to get access to her more readily, you know, as she starts to regain full consciousness and even requested that her shackles be removed. And I think some of the most moving, astonishing details actually came when the lawyers spoke to the press after the court hearing and gave an update on just how she's doing. On Monday night, it was our understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be removed the next day. But on Tuesday, to the shock of everyone, including me, including her team and including the medical team, Christa woke up and began talking. I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Christa Piac is currently confused, angry. They say that, you know, she wants to understand better what happened to her, but the physical and mental health toll of this is extreme. You know, they talked about how her arms and hands are severely swollen from where she got those two rounds of the lethal, what was supposed to be the lethal injection. They say she is suffering pneumonia. She can't swallow. She can't eat. And so they describe it as a long road to recovery. No, there's a suggestion. This case is going to reopen debate across the United States on the death penalty. Is it? I mean, she was convicted of the most awful, awful crime, even though what happened to her in the death chamber was clearly horrible too. Yeah, we can't forget the family of Colleen Slemer, the victim of Christa Piac's and all of this. You know, her mother said that she very much supported the death penalty for Christa Piac that she wanted justice for her daughter, but she feels let down by the state. And I think, look, those who always felt against capital punishment, point to the fact that the United States is an outlier that 75% of the world's countries have either gotten rid of the death penalty in law or in practice. And they see this as further evidence of the kind of cruel and unusual nature of continuing this practice. But even those who support the death penalty are debating the methods used in this country after what we saw happen with Christa Piac. You know, these lethal injections, pharmaceutical companies, you know, don't want them used in this way. So sourcing these drugs has become increasingly more difficult finding people trained and administering them has become increasingly more difficult. And so, for example, you have one top Republican, the governor in Tennessee, who suggested electric chair should be the method used going forward. And I think the thing to remember here is her lawyers believe it would just be unimaginable after what she went through to then choose to execute her once again. And the state hasn't said yet, whether they will seek to do that. The United Nations has condemned continued Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia and is warned of a worsening humanitarian situation in Yemen. It follows a flurry of attacks on Saudi targets on Wednesday, including firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh Airport, as the Houthis backed by a run battle for territory in Yemen against government forces supported by the Kingdom. The international organization for migration says more than 180,000 people have been displaced by the fighting inside Yemen since the 1st of August. UN spokesperson Stefan Dejaric urged all parties to exercise restraint and protect civilians. We reiterate once again our condemnation of the continued Houthi cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia, including the recent attacks in Jazan, Nasran, as well as the attacks reported earlier today near Riyadh and the airport there. We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing military escalation in and around Yemen, including the intense fighting across multiple front lines. We call again on all parties to exercise restraint, urge them to uphold their obligation under international humanitarian law and to refrain direct attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructure. The Houthi movement, which controls much of Northwest Yemen, captured swathes of coastal land from Yemen's pro-government forces last month after the country's civil war reignited in July. We got more details from Greg Holig, Middle East specialist with BBC Monitoring. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Yemen's Houthi rebels announced a fresh wave of drone and missile strikes, both within Yemen and against neighboring Saudi Arabia. To the south, the Iran-backed group said it had targeted the main airport in the Saudi-backed government's temporary capital of Aidan. To the north, they said they had hit a civilian airport and a military airbase near the Saudi city of Abha, under 100 kilometres from the Yemeni border. They also targeted at least three other military bases to the kingdom's south. Perhaps more significant is their claim just a few minutes later of firing a series of drones and a ballistic missile at King Khaled International Airport in the capital, Riyadh. Saudi media we have been monitoring were keen to focus on claimed advances of their Allied forces on the ground in Yemen, but some have cited official comments confirming that a ballistic missile had been downed to the north of Riyadh where the airport is located. Just a few days ago, a new military alliance, including Saudi Arabia, announced it would implement collective defence measures over previous Houthi attacks. It remains to be seen if these latest strikes will draw more international players into the war. Greg Hollyoke from BBC Monitoring. Native to the southern Pacific and Antarctic oceans, the chin strap is considered to be the most aggressive and ill-tempered of the penguin species as you're out to here. From fierce squabbles over nesting sites to loud, head-tossing territorial displays, chin straps are feisty and aren't afraid to defend their turf. But when it comes to survival in the wild, it appears their numbers are in serious decline. A new study by the British Antarctic Survey reveals that over half a million chin strap penguins have disappeared from their largest colony in the South Sandwich Islands. We heard more from lead research at Norman Ratcliffe. The chin strap penguin is pretty plain black and white, they have this white chin and this quite distinctive narrow black strap that runs underneath their chin, hence the name. So the objective of the study was to look at numbers on Zavodosky Island, which is a very remote location about 4,000 kilometres southeast of the Falklands, and it's well known for holding the largest penguin colony in the world. This was back in 2011 at least. And it says volcanic island that just rises up out of the ocean and is completely fringed almost by penguins. So I liken it to a penguin mord or you've got this volcanic cone that's continuously emitting sulfurous gases and then this is covered in penguins. And our objective was to go and see what the population status of the penguin colony was in December 23, because no one had been there to count it previously. And what we found was they've been this precipitous decline in the chin strap penguin population. So we've lost 2/3 of the numbers there, which equates to about half a million reading birds. That's a colossal loss. There's a rate of decline of about 7 per annum, which is very steep. What's happened to them? Why are they in such decline? Chin straps are what we call a maritime Antarctic species. They like quite cool temperatures in the seas around the colony. And they feed mostly on krill, which they find in this sort of habitat. And what we think has happened is that as regional warming has occurred. So this is one of the most rapid warming areas on the planet. You know, the whole scotiously Antarctic peninsula area. That's causing krill stocks to contract southwards. So the chin straps have less to eat. And this is causing these population decline. And we know that because we put start-to-like tags on these birds as well as counting them using drones. So how are we going to try and preserve their species and help them grow again? I mean, at the moment, they're just declining in a sort of straight line. That's quite concerning. And numbers also in the rest of the scotiously declining. And if we put those trends together, the overall projected rate of decline does meet the IUCN endangered category. Whereas at the moment they're regarded as least concern. Because everyone thought these massive populations in the south sandwich islands were stable. But we think that we need to revise their conservation status. As I would ask, it used to be the largest penguin colony in the world. It no longer is. So it's lost that title to the Cape Adair, a daily penguin colony, which is on the other side of the continent, on the edge of the rock sea. That now holds half a million total pairs of penguins. So in terms of world records, that's a big change as well as the quite alarming population declines at a more global level for Chinstrap penguins. British Antarctic Survey Researcher Norman Ratcliffe, speaking to Anchor Desai. Still to come in this podcast. She's lost seven and a half stone. She was dual liver transplant. That's completely reversed today, beaties. Without any of that, she wouldn't be here. We look at why childhood obesity numbers are growing globally. This podcast invites you to browse the shelves and find stories that will linger long after you've left this place. From gothic masterpieces to pulpy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find the haunted library wherever you get your podcasts. It felt like everything I believed in was suddenly collapsing. This is the story of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia with a dark secret. Of the school's head teacher. This was someone I respected above anyone else. And the investigation led by students he's trying to silence. I'll be destroyed. This is World of Secrets, catching my teacher. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. So, quick summer recap. Heat waves, data leaks, AI hacks, folding phones, and a viral spinally challenge record. Yeah, I think that that covers it, right? I'm Thomas Germain. I'm Jess Maddox, and the interface is back from its summer break. New season, new co-host, same deep dives into the tech that's shaping our world in our life. So, before AI wipes out all of humanity. Allegedly. Join us for the interface. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. The significant spherical operation appears to be present in the optics. National disaster, Hubble launch with flawed mirror. The BBC Space Podcast, 13 minutes, is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. This is the Global News Podcast. It was back in January that the former Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro, and his wife, Celia Flores, were captured by US forces in Caracas. They're currently in prison in New York awaiting trial on drugs and weapons charges. Now, US prosecutors are expected to bring new charges against the Hubble over the alleged torture of American citizens. Our Latin America correspondent, Will Grant, told me more about these charges. They relate, as we understand, to the detention of 12 American citizens in Venezuelan jails. They include a group of oil executives from Sickle. They were known as the Sickle 6. From 2017, what's called the General Directorate of Military Country Intelligence, obviously part of the Maduro government held that group for five years. Their lawyers say they were subjected to torture during that time and they were eventually released under Biden administration prisoner swab. They were released in part for Celia Flores, that's Nicholas Madagal's wife, her children, her adopted children. But another of those who was also expected to be part of this case were two other former prisoners, one called Matthew Heath. He was a former Marine who was traveling through Venezuela in 2020 and Osman Khan, who was visiting his girlfriend, both men say they received extreme torture methods, including waterboarding, threats of sexual assault and the use of mind-altering drugs. Mr Maduro and his wife have been in jail in New York for some time. At what point can we expect a trial? Well it's scheduled for the middle of next year and that is when the prosecutors hope that their case will be in place. Now the idea of introducing new charges at this stage is interesting because as you said in your introduction they are already facing trial on narcoterrorism, cocaine smuggling and weapons charges. It makes one wonder if the prosecutors think they have enough on a charge like narcoterrorism or cocaine smuggling. Of course Mr Maduro and his wife have both pleaded not guilty to those charges. The idea for the Trump administration that he could somehow get off from those charges, he could somehow be acquitted and go free would be a huge political defeat for the Trump administration. Perhaps introducing fresh charges will see later this week, which are related to the treatment of US citizens feels like it might be a stronger case from the US Justice Department's point of view. We'll grant five former financial traders who were sentenced to prison in one of the biggest scandals of the global financial crisis have had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal in London. The men who all worked for the British bank barclays were jailed for up to eight years for manipulating li-bore and euro-bore, which you use to set the interest rates on millions of mortgages and commercial loans. The decision to quash their convictions on the grounds their trials were unfair has amplified calls for an inquiry into the wider rigging scandal. The UK's serious fall office maintains the two remaining convictions are safe. Our financial investigations correspondent Andy Verity has followed their cases closely and he was at the Court of Appeal for Wednesday's judgment. For former traders, their families and lawyers, justice at last, after they were falsely tried and wrongly sentenced to jail, following a cover-up at the top of the financial establishment dating back 18 years. No senior banker was prosecuted for the 2008 financial crisis in the recession that followed. In July 2012, when barclays was fined for rigging interest rates, MPs demanded arrests. The chief executive Bob Diamond had to resign, but it was junior bankers who were prosecuted. Between 2015 and 2019, 19 traders across the UK and US were convicted. 9 went to jail. For the former barclays cash trader Colin Birmingham, who was sentenced to four years in 2019, it's been a devastating experience. This barclays colleague Jonathan Matthew was accused by the serious fraud office of supposedly conspiring in a fraud when he was 23. He was jailed in 2016 and has taken 10 years to be exonerated, he's now 45. At the time, my first child had just been born, so I missed her first birthday because I was locked in a prison cell. I didn't even make a phone call. I saw them every couple of weeks for the first six months to a year. It's just catastrophic. Someone's just taking a grenade and thrown it into life. Prison is so different from any world that I'd ever been to or any world I'd even imagined. Last year, a Supreme Court ruling in the UK quashed two convictions. Today's Court of Appeal decision overturned another five. That all might never have happened, but for a cover-up, right at the top of the financial establishment of evidence since discovered by the BBC. It indicates that central banks across the world, including the Bank of England, were involved during the financial crisis in rigging benchmark interest rates, liable and durable, on a much greater scale than anything the traders were accused of. Now, 17 of the 19 convictions of traders have been overturned. It's clear that the blame for the interest rate rigging scandal shouldn't have been put on the traders. The Bank of England has said the interest rate benchmark liable wasn't regulated in the financial crisis. It promised in 2017 to release its records about so-called interest rate rigging, nine years later. They're still to be released. Andy Verity. The World Health Organization has warned against using surgery and weight loss drugs to tackle rising obesity rates in children. It said that youngsters should focus on healthy eating and physical activity, as well as change their behaviour. Most anti-abesity drugs are only licensed for children over the age of 10, but some doctors prescribed them anyway and drug companies are already testing them on younger patients. Ibi struggled with her weight and mental health from the age of eight during COVID and almost took her own life after being bullied at school. She was treated successfully with weight loss drugs, as some other Andrea explains. She was due a liver transplant that's completely reversed to diabetes. Borderline has completely reversed her mental health because they put strategies in with the weight clinic to support us through that. It has been amazing. Without any of that to cut it into a nutshell, she wouldn't be here. Professor Aaron Kelly is a pediatrician at the University of Minnesota Medical School and he gave his reaction to the World Health Organization report. They did a good job of summarising what child obesity is and what it isn't. They talk about it as being a chronic and relapsing and serious disease, which is supported by the evidence. They talk about how children and adolescents are often stigmatised, bullied and ostracised for their obesity and they also talk about, importantly, that kids are at higher risk if they have obesity for mental health problems like depression and anxiety. There are many healthcare providers that I think underestimate the severity of the disease of obesity and they overestimate the ability of people to be able to have control over their body weight. A lot of this is controlled biologically. And what about the warning not to use surgery and new weight loss drugs to tackle obesity in children? Does that make sense to you? Well, in their report, they talked about how kids up to nine years old should probably not be going to medications right away except in extreme circumstances. To be honest, there are very few medications that are approved for that age range for less than 12 years old. The only medication that is approved that I know of is approved in the EMA in Europe, and that is leregletide, which is a GLP1 receptor agonist for kids six to 12. But if we talk about the recommendation for 12 to 18-year-olds or 12 to 19-year-olds, my understanding of the report is that they are recommending that there be a requirement of health behavior and lifestyle treatment, lifestyle counseling, essentially, to have produced unsatisfactory results before a team could be considered for treatment with pharmacotherapy or medications or even bariatric surgery. If we look at the evidence of how the outcomes of health behavior and lifestyle treatment, lifestyle counseling on average, and there's a lot of variability, this doesn't apply to everyone, but for most children and adolescents who engage in lifestyle treatment alone, the reductions in body fat, in body weight, in body mass index are clinically insignificant. So it's not really that the patients themselves fail the treatments. It's that the treatment fails them. This speaks to the strong biological forces that are at play in combination with us living in an obesity promoting or obesity-genic environment. And that's where advanced therapies like medicines can be very, very helpful. Professor Aaron Kelly speaking to Paul Henley. Before we go. Hi, I'm Celia Hatten, one of the presenters of the Global News podcast. Did you know there are nearly 1,300 terms and phrases used by election officials in the United States? So with midterms fast approaching, the Global News podcast is joining forces with America. Together we'll be offering you a one-off jargon-busting special. And we want your suggestions, please, for words and phrases that could do with an explanation. Nothing is too simple. In our sites already are Senate, caucus, and gerrymander. Please let us know what else to add. It's the usual address globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Celia Hatten. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at Global podcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global news pod. And don't forget our sibling podcast, the Global Story, which goes in-depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Stephen Bailey, And the producer was Muzafa Shakir, the editor, is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritzon and until next time, goodbye. Welcome to the Haunted Library. Have you come in search of a tale? From gothic masterpieces to poppy penny dreadfuls, join me, Colin Morgan, with new episodes twice a week. Find the Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts.