BBCNEWS — Global Eye
20260920 153000 UTC
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[00:00:14] These are the latest headlines from BBC News in an exclusive interview to
[00:00:18] the BBC, El Spencer stands by his claims
[00:00:22] that the then Prince Charles sounded giddily
[00:00:25] elated on the night that Princess Diana
[00:00:27] died. At least two. people are killed in the Moscow region
[00:00:31] after a massive Ukrainian drone attack overnight. The mayor of
[00:00:34] Moscow claims 450 drones were directed at the city. Russia says it's
[00:00:38] an attempt to disrupt the country's parliamentary elections.
[00:00:42] German chancellor Fredrick Murz faces growing political pressure as local
[00:00:45] elections are taking place in two German states. opinion pole suggests the
[00:00:49] chancellors parties at risk of damaging defeats raising questions about his
[00:00:53] political future. And Sheeren apologizes to fans for what
[00:00:57] he calls mistakes as he performs for the first time. one of his opening
[00:01:00] acts was dropped from making pro-palestinian remarks on stage.
[00:01:16] once considered one of the world's most dangerous countries, el
[00:01:19] salvador has seen violent crime fall
[00:01:22] dramatically. now on bbc news, global eye
[00:01:25] asks what lies behind the headlines:
[00:01:50] Hello and welcome to global eye from the BBC World
[00:01:53] Service. Each week we bring you the best of the world
[00:01:57] services investigative journalism and
[00:02:00] missable reporting from BBC teams around the globe. I am Joan
[00:02:03] Felette and this week we're in
[00:02:05] Brazil.
[00:02:08] The country is deeply divided ahead of an election that pits President
[00:02:11] Lula against the son of his old rival Jair
[00:02:14] Bolsonaro who is now serving a 27-year sentence for plotting
[00:02:18] a coup after the last election. And she
[00:02:21] has hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of views
[00:02:24] and powerful voice in Brazil's election campaign,
[00:02:28] but the viral political pundit. as Dona Maria is not
[00:02:32] all that she seems. Also, on the program, as Bolsonaro
[00:02:35] Hails El Salvador as a model for how to be tough on gang
[00:02:39] violence will investigate the Crackdown's disputed
[00:02:43] silent, that's what legacy. The murder rate has plumited, but at what
[00:02:46] cost.
[00:02:49] This is the Liberdade Avenue right in the heart of São Paulo,
[00:02:53] and every two years it gets very colorful because of all the political
[00:02:57] ads that are put up here ahead of an election. "and
[00:03:00] the election we're having in October is very big
[00:03:03] one. Brazilians are basically choosing between very different
[00:03:07] views for the country, and this isn't important just for
[00:03:10] Brazilians. Brazil is the biggest economy in Latin
[00:03:14] America, it's one of the largest democracies in the
[00:03:18] world, and it's home to the largest portion of the
[00:03:21] Amazon rainforest. So what happens here can affect
[00:03:25] things well beyond the country, from climate and
[00:03:28] trade to the fight..."
[00:03:34] Brazil's left-wing president Lula, who is running for reelection is
[00:03:38] leading in several polls, among his main proposals are
[00:03:42] expanding social programs and investing in public education and
[00:03:46] healthcare.
[00:03:49] The other leading candidate is right-wing senator Flavio
[00:03:52] Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair
[00:03:55] Bolsonaro, he says he will stay true to his father's
[00:03:58] controversial legacy and take tough approach to crime,
[00:04:02] the outcome could have major consequences for the country and
[00:04:05] his father who is currently serving a 27 year sentence for
[00:04:09] plotting the failed coup that saw his supporters storm Brazil's government
[00:04:12] buildings in 2022, but one of
[00:04:15] the most talked about figures in this election campaign is not a
[00:04:19] candidate at all. for over year now, millions of
[00:04:22] brazilians have been sharing and discussing the views of Dona
[00:04:26] Maria, an elderly black woman who emerged on social
[00:04:29] media, and within weeks went viral, but Dona
[00:04:33] Maria doesn't actually exist, my colleague Luis
[00:04:36] Fernando Toledo has been exploring how an AI generated
[00:04:39] avatar became a prominent voice in Brazil's political debate
[00:04:43] and what that means for the
[00:04:44] election.
[00:04:51] ai generated Brazil's president Lula, aigenerated
[00:04:54] former president Jair Bolsonaro, aigenerated
[00:04:57] voter, deep fakes and
[00:05:04] Barrio 18, one of
[00:05:13] Some social media profiles used to promote AI content have millions
[00:05:16] of followers, these are voters who will be choosing the president of Brazil on
[00:05:20] October 4th. I spent four months investigating this market for
[00:05:24] AI generated videos to find out what is driving it and how it's
[00:05:27] influencing this year's general election. This is
[00:05:31] Dona Maria. On social media, she presents herself as an older
[00:05:34] woman outraged by the government of Brazilian President Lula and by
[00:05:38] ministers of Brazil's Supreme Court.
[00:06:42] The social algorithm delivers, you understand? If you make a video
[00:06:46] speaking a lot of truth, but without that
[00:06:49] spicy topping, it won't deliver, it's no use. Brazilians
[00:06:53] are used to seeing misfortune on the internet,
[00:06:57] you understand? Daniel said he created the AI character as
[00:07:01] a way to express his political views anonymously and earn extra income.
[00:07:05] I confirmed through court records that he did in fact work as a Uber
[00:07:09] driver. Didn't find any evidence that at the time of my report
[00:07:13] he was receiving money from politicians, the pages reach led Lula's Workers'
[00:07:17] Party and its allies to ask Brazil's electoral court to suspend the
[00:07:20] character's accounts. The main page was taken down a few weeks
[00:07:23] later. Danielle did not give up, he began using another
[00:07:27] account which already had more than 10,000 followers and
[00:07:30] started selling courses on how to produce videos with AI. He
[00:07:34] didn't tell me how much money, but his course costs 150
[00:07:37] BRL or 25 pounds and the last time I checked it
[00:07:41] had around 70 active students, this is 10,000
[00:07:44] BRL a month or 1,400 pounds, that is six times Brazil's
[00:07:48] minimum wage and three times the average earnings of a Uber driver in
[00:07:52] Rio, the electoral debate over the political use of AI
[00:07:55] during the campaign, Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio
[00:07:58] Bolsonaro, second in the opinion polls, used the avatar of
[00:08:02] his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro at the launch of his campaign. Brazil's
[00:08:06] future is Flavio
[00:08:09] Bolsonaro.
[00:08:42] but it can really hinder some campaigns,
[00:08:46] especially in the last few days, which is when these accusations,
[00:08:50] these last-minute attacks
[00:08:53] are likely to emerge.
[00:08:58] Brazil's election is taking place against the backdrop of a long-running battle
[00:09:02] with organized crime, gangs control territory in some of the
[00:09:06] country's biggest cities, and public safety remains a critical
[00:09:09] issue for voters here, many people are looking. beyond Brazil's
[00:09:13] borders to the country of El Salvador in Central America,
[00:09:17] where violent crime has fallen dramatically. For years,
[00:09:20] gangs terrorized the country and it was known as one of the most dangerous
[00:09:24] places on earth. Then a new president came and the numbers
[00:09:28] began to fall sharply. But what lies behind the
[00:09:31] headlines and what has this transformation really
[00:09:34] cost? For BBC Brazil, I travel to El Salvador to
[00:09:38] investigate.
[00:09:47] In this alley, five people were found dead,
[00:09:51] as if they were motorcyclists. We left for church with my
[00:09:55] children, and suddenly the commotion began, another
[00:09:58] dead person. So then we started to see that there were a lot
[00:10:02] of dead people in
[00:10:03] the neighborhood.
[00:10:13] live, it was a stronghold of
[00:10:16] the criminal gangs that terrorized people across
[00:10:20] the country. They would threaten them, they would
[00:10:23] skin the...
[00:10:55] After a mass deportation of these men, the groups made their way
[00:10:58] to El Salvador. Right and left-wing presidents took
[00:11:02] turns in power, trying different ways to deal with the gangs.
[00:11:05] Meanwhile, they grew stronger and tightened their
[00:11:09] grip on the neighborhoods.
[00:11:11] We stayed here, which was a gang,
[00:11:14] my relatives stayed in Apopa, which was the
[00:11:17] opposite. My mom spent almost 9 years only being able
[00:11:21] to see her in the market.
[00:11:25] November 16, 2009, was my graduation and
[00:11:29] that day we decided with my three friends to go
[00:11:32] bathe in the river, the river was already
[00:11:36] starting to be a boundary
[00:11:40] for another, let's say, gang, when suddenly
[00:11:44] three people with hoods
[00:11:47] arrived and without saying a word they started
[00:11:51] telling us to kneel and started shooting.
[00:11:56] I'm alive because at that moment I pretended
[00:11:59] to be dead, so when I didn't
[00:12:03] hear anything anymore, I tried to get up, but
[00:12:06] I couldn't walk anymore,
[00:12:09] and one of those bullets hit my spinal
[00:12:12] cord,
[00:12:15] leaving me, causing paraplegia,
[00:12:19] right?
[00:12:21] I mean, before I was a young man, a boy, right, who... loved
[00:12:25] soccer, who loved to run, and suddenly, because
[00:12:28] of an act of violence, right, I ended
[00:12:31] up using a wheelchair.
[00:12:35] in 2010, the war between the gangs reached a new level
[00:12:39] of brutality, gang members set fire
[00:12:43] to a microbus with its passengers
[00:12:46] inside.
[00:12:49] 17 people were burned alive, anyone who tried to escape was
[00:12:52] shot, by 2015, El
[00:12:55] Salvador had the highest homicide rate in the
[00:12:58] world, setting the stage for a major shift in the country's
[00:13:02] politics.
[00:13:10] Politics in 2012 as left-wing mayor and later led the capital San Salvador. In
[00:13:13] 2019, after moving to a right-wing party, he was
[00:13:17] elected president of El
[00:13:18] Salvador.
[00:13:25] In his presidency, Bukele clashed with the opposition
[00:13:28] after lawmakers refused to approve a loan for a plan to
[00:13:32] fight the gangs. He responded by entering Congress
[00:13:35] alongside the military. Months
[00:13:38] later, Bukele won the power struggle when his political party
[00:13:42] secured more than two-thirds of the seats in the election to renew
[00:13:46] Congress. Five justices were replaced by people
[00:13:49] aligned with Bukele. With control of
[00:13:52] Congress and the judiciary, he had a
[00:14:25] country with the highest incarceration rate in the
[00:14:28] world, 2.5% of Salvadoran adults are
[00:14:31] currently behind bars. four years
[00:14:34] later, the state of exception remains in
[00:14:36] effect. here in Soyapango, the support for the
[00:14:40] president stands is widespread, with many saying
[00:14:44] it has materially improved their
[00:14:46] lives.
[00:14:48] 24,
[00:14:51] the military is always watching.
[00:14:55] That gives us a guarantee, I feel safe,
[00:14:58] my business closes at 1 AM. In
[00:15:01] 2021, was re-elected president with
[00:15:05] 85% of the vote. In
[00:15:08] 2025, Congress changed the constitution to
[00:15:12] allow unlimited reelection. President Bukele
[00:15:15] became a globally prominent figure. So I knew him as a very
[00:15:19] young man, now he's just young man, he's done a
[00:15:22] fantastic job. Mr. President, it's an honor. have you, but how have
[00:15:26] these security policies affected the daily lives
[00:15:29] of other Salvadorans and at what
[00:15:32] cost were they implemented? we began
[00:15:36] looking for answers by: meeting with an evangelical pastor who
[00:15:39] was interviewed by the BBC seven years ago,
[00:15:43] freed from custody into the arms of the church. In
[00:15:47] 2019, the BBC visited Ebenezar Church on the
[00:15:51] outskirts of San Salvador to learn about this pastor's work
[00:15:55] with former gang members.
[00:15:58] The church is in Ladina, a neighborhood, many fear
[00:16:02] to even enter.
[00:16:05] Here former gangsters find.
[00:16:13] what happened to those people? all that ended,
[00:16:16] that is, everything that refers to social insertion
[00:16:20] for gang members,
[00:16:23] opportunity to integrate ended
[00:16:26] in 2022, when the state of exception
[00:16:29] began and the
[00:16:31] government's policy of no more
[00:16:35] gang members free, right, even
[00:16:39] though many had served sentences and had already
[00:16:42] completed, had completed their sentences and that was the requirement to enter here,
[00:16:46] including everyone, everyone, without
[00:16:49] exception, right, everyone,
[00:16:51] everyone.
[00:16:55] under the state of
[00:16:56] exception,
[00:17:01] as much as 45 years, since the courts
[00:17:04] consider gang membership and
[00:17:37] innocent people detained, we are
[00:17:40] demanding an answer to the petitions, if the state of exception
[00:17:44] was only for gang members who really
[00:17:47] investigated and then arrested them, we
[00:17:51] would be happy, grateful and this country would be
[00:17:54] different, but here they have gone to arrest the righteous and the sinner, as
[00:17:57] we say, right, and now my daughter is part of the famous and
[00:18:01] so-called margin of error,
[00:18:03] margin
[00:18:06] of error was the expression.
[00:18:23] according to the government, but these families say many innocent people are still behind bars. Here we don't have a Supreme Court, what we have here is a supreme president of the
[00:18:27] republic who gives the orders for
[00:18:30] everything. Bukele believes he is the one, he runs the country
[00:18:34] like his own company, he here does not allow...
[00:19:07] denies the allegations and says she is a political prisoner. the
[00:19:11] NGO Kristo, where she worked, closed its office
[00:19:15] in El Salvador, mentioning risks to its
[00:19:17] staff. other activists and journalists
[00:19:21] have also left the country fearing retaliation.
[00:19:24] we asked the government about the allegations of persecution, but
[00:19:28] received no response.
[00:19:32] Personally, they have called me a dictator, in all the media they wanted
[00:19:35] and could, from the pamphlets. up to the
[00:19:38] international, most prestigious pamphlets. You know what, I don't
[00:19:42] care if they call me a dictator,
[00:19:54] I prefer them to call me a dictator than to see Salvadorans being killed in the
[00:19:58] streets. Ana Mercedes García
[00:20:02] Grandes' son, police in
[00:20:04] 2022. The only crime that...
[00:20:37] has put us in a very difficult situation,
[00:20:40] my case like mine, because I have no resources, because in a few
[00:20:43] words, I feel that I will not see my son
[00:20:46] again,
[00:20:49] because he is well. He could be dead, I
[00:20:53] could die from
[00:20:54] an affliction.
[00:21:00] The words of the detainee's mother echo concerns denounced by
[00:21:04] human rights organizations.
[00:21:06] According to these groups, more than 500 people detained
[00:21:10] under the state of exception have died in state custody before
[00:21:14] standing trial. We asked the government about these cases,
[00:21:18] but received no response.
[00:22:20] After several follow-ups, we were told it wasn't possible due
[00:22:23] to scheduling conflicts. We also
[00:22:26] contacted Congress, but were referred back to the
[00:22:30] presidency. In 2025, El Salvador
[00:22:33] had the lowest homicide rate in the
[00:22:35] Americas, but some question why the state of
[00:22:39] exception has remained in place for more than four years
[00:22:43] even as the government says, it has already defeated the
[00:22:47] gangs.
[00:22:50] that people often cannot even
[00:22:54] raise their voice, their right to protest,
[00:22:57] to demand their rights
[00:23:01] because there is a regime.
[00:23:04] For me, it's not a dictatorship, for me
[00:23:07] it's freedom, a freedom where we
[00:23:11] Salvadorans can go from corner to corner in our country
[00:23:14] and nothing happens, however, before we couldn't
[00:23:18] even leave our neighborhoods,
[00:23:21] but now we live in a free
[00:23:24] country.
[00:23:29] The regime is in place so that we don't speak and remain
[00:23:33] I understand about the regime, and you're not afraid to
[00:23:37] speak, I'm not going to tell you no, it would be
[00:23:41] a lie to tell you I'm not afraid, but at the same
[00:23:44] time my situation gives me
[00:23:46] courage.
[00:23:49] And if... not for telling the truth, it's going to be that they will even take
[00:23:53] me away. I lost my son, what else can happen to my life
[00:23:56] after
[00:24:02] so many decades of turmoil, El Salvador hopes to finally
[00:24:06] leave its violent past
[00:24:08] behind,
[00:24:12] but like a dormant volcano, all
[00:24:15] tensions still lie beneath the surface, and
[00:24:18] no one knows if... or when they might erupt
[00:24:22] again,
[00:24:29] five months ago, BBC broadcast damning undercover
[00:24:33] footage from a government hospital in Pakistan, footage that showed
[00:24:36] blood contaminated syringes being reused
[00:24:39] on children, some who were just babies. The investigation
[00:24:43] revealed that more than 300 children had been diagnosed with
[00:24:47] HIV after receiving treatment at this hospital.
[00:24:50] reporter Gazal Abbasi has an update on this story
[00:24:54] and on the extraordinary impact that the BBC's journalism can have,
[00:25:10] syringes reused, unqualified volunteers on the
[00:25:13] children's ward and vials of blood contaminated medicine being
[00:25:17] injected into child after child. In April
[00:25:20] 2026, BBCI revealed that in less
[00:25:23] than a year at least 331 children in the
[00:25:27] city of Thonsa were diagnosed with HIV after receiving
[00:25:30] treatment at its government hospital.
[00:25:34] The investigation ran across the BBC World Service, in English,
[00:25:38] in Urdu and many other languages. It was streamed
[00:25:41] on YouTube, appeared on the BBC's website and was watched by more than
[00:25:45] 11 million people on TikTok and Instagram, but in
[00:25:49] Pakistan. Story was just beginning. The first to pick up on
[00:25:52] the BBC's findings were political commentators, but soon
[00:25:56] doctors, celebrities and sporting heroes were speaking out, and
[00:25:59] Pakistan's TV news was not far behind.
[00:26:32] focus on HIV, but that didn't stop the scrutiny.
[00:26:36] The global fund to financed most of Pakistan's HIV programs
[00:26:39] announced it would visit the country to examine its handling of
[00:26:42] HIV. The prime minister also intervened,
[00:26:46] ordering a new national screening program for HIV and
[00:26:49] hepatitis across all government hospitals and confirmed that
[00:26:53] 60 new specialist HIV treatment centers would be set up
[00:26:57] across the country.
[00:27:00] By July BBC investigation.
[00:27:06] from 2027, all syringes must auto-lock to prevent
[00:27:09] reuse, and conventional syringes must not be made or sold
[00:27:13] anywhere in Pakistan. Thanks to the reach and credibility of the
[00:27:16] BBC World Service, what began as a report on
[00:27:19] 331 children in rural Punjab ignited
[00:27:23] a national conversation in Pakistan, a
[00:27:25] conversation about public health and poor governance, a conversation which
[00:27:29] changed the law and which will surely save children's.
[00:28:08] what was going through my mind that Monday morning was
[00:28:12] of all of the places that could have been affected, why
[00:28:15] specifically some hoke town in the middle of
[00:28:18] nowhere?
[00:28:20] without bringing new people into the game and and inspiring the younger
[00:28:24] generations the game won't continue. we take
[00:28:27] in about 150,000 tons of waste per
[00:28:31] annum, there's a bit of... out of sight, out of mind. He'll
[00:28:35] join a 6 to 12 week program of rehabilitation designed to get
[00:28:39] people off drugs and into work.
[00:28:42] Documentaries from around the world on BBC
[00:28:45] News.
[00:28:49] I've always been fascinated by science since I was kid
[00:28:53] really. It's just such a broad subject. Sometimes the
[00:28:57] science story can seem quite abstract, and once I've got my head
[00:29:00] around the story, it's really my job. to try and guide the audience step
[00:29:04] by step through it, but it's not just
[00:29:07] about explaining or understanding the difficult
[00:29:10] concepts, it's also about explaining why it matters. what I
[00:29:14] want to do was to bring the audience with us,
[00:29:18] the Artemis 2 mission was such a visceral
[00:29:22] experience seeing the engines fire, it was almost
[00:29:26] blinding, wow oh
[00:29:28] my goodness, it does feel like we're enter
[00:29:32] bringing into a new era of space
[00:29:35] exploration, and the Artemis 2 mission is just the
[00:29:39] start. There's no limit to how far science can take
[00:29:43] us, there is always more to discover.
[00:30:06] live from London, this is BBC News. German
[00:30:09] chancellor Frierick Merz is facing growing political pressure
[00:30:13] as local elections have taken place in two German states. The
[00:30:17] polls have just closed. We'll bring you the first exit polls
[00:30:21] shortly. Our Spencer tells the BBC,
[00:30:24] writing his book about his sister, the late Princess Diana was his duty as an
[00:30:28] eyewitness to history. He's defended claims he's made about King Charles.
[00:30:33] "I'm reporting every word in this book, I report exactly as
[00:30:37] I saw it and felt it at the time, and I was
[00:30:41] surprised at the giddiness of his tone.
[00:30:44] That's what I'm recording there. At least two people are
[00:30:47] killed in the Moscow region after a massive Ukrainian drone attack
[00:30:50] overnight. Russia says it's an attempt to disrupt the country's parliamentary
[00:30:54] elections. Musician Ed Sheeran's apologized to fans for what
[00:30:58] he calls a mistake."