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Hello, this is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news, seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
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I'm Nick Miles. And in the early hours of Saturday, the 16th of January, these are our main stories. President elect Joe Biden has set out plans to boost the coronavirus vaccination campaign in the United States. The number of people worldwide who've died with covid-19 since the outbreak began a year ago has passed two million.
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Mexico has accused the US of fabricating evidence against a former defense minister in a row over his prosecution for alleged drug trafficking. Also in this podcast, what's in a name?
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We add the word first. It wasn't the others.
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So I'm a bit cross really how this battle re-enactment group were removed by Facebook for calling themselves a militia. It was an unavoidable landmark, more than two million people have now died with covid-19 since the pandemic began.
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More on the details of that in a moment. But first, the man about to take over at the helm of the country with the highest number of deaths, 380 9000 has been outlining his coronavirus plans. That man is Joe Biden.
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The vaccines offer so much hope. We're grateful for the scientists and researchers and everyone who participated in the clinical trials. We're grateful for the integrity of the process, the rigorous review and testing that's led to millions of people around the world already been vaccinated safely. With the vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure this far more from our Washington correspondent Barbara Starr on Joe Biden's strategy to combat covid.
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He's got a plan for mass vaccination. You know, his goal is to get 100 million people vaccinated in his first 100 days. So he talked about setting up thousands of community vaccination centers, hiring extra public health workers to staff them, sending mobile units to areas that are hard to reach, and also increasing supply by directing private companies to manufacture the vaccine. And he promised to to coordinate better with the states because at the moment, the Trump administration has done quite a good job of getting the vaccine organized and produced and then shipping it out.
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But they leave it up to the states to administer it. And that's been one of the difficulties. So he will coordinate better with them.
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And also he said make sure that there are federal resources to get to get this done.
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And Barbara, he mentioned several times during his brief speech that it is not a political issue getting vaccinated, but to a certain extent it is in America at the moment, isn't it?
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It is in the sense that there are a number of people who are hesitant to get the vaccine, partly because they're suspicious that there could be effective. But also you have communities of color who don't too don't trust the health services because of bad experiences with them historically. And actually, the Mr. Biden talked about this a fair bit.
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He talked he said that equity was at the heart of his plan, that they would launch a massive public education campaign to rebuild that trust and that they would make sure that these mobile mobile clinics and the centers that they set up are in a place that can reach people of color in particular, but also native communities and so on, because it's people of color who have been dying at three times.
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The rate of white Americans are becoming infected at four times the rate. So he made that a big part of his of his statement.
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And Barbara, briefly, if you will, he said that he's going to work with the states to open up vaccination stations.
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Is there going to be much pushback from individual states?
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Well, I mean, I can't say at the moment that that's the biggest problem. I think the biggest issue is going to be whether he can get Congress, which is divided as you as you know, to support the money for all of this, which is a 20 billion dollar price tag. And he made a clear statement that that unity was necessary.
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It was a practical step needed in order to beat the pandemic.
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Barbara Starr show. Well, let's look more closely at that figure I mentioned earlier. Two million people across the world have now died with covid-19, who Charlotte Galaga has been looking more closely at the figures.
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Well, Nick, the disease first emerged around this time last year, didn't it, in China? And it took until the end of September last year to reach a million deaths from covid. However, it's only taken just over three months to reach two million, just 108 days. Now, the UN has previously said that the death toll has been made worse by the absence of a global coordinated effort. Countries doing their own thing, some doing the right thing, some doing the wrong thing.
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As the Joe sees it, the UN said science has succeeded, but solidarity has failed. The worst affected country remains the United States, Brazil and India as well. They have an incredible amount of cases. The UK is the worst in Europe. Here in London, not far from where sitting, some hospitals are overwhelmed. Now, the vaccine, we're hoping, will be the way out of this. And, you know, some countries have really started kicking off vaccine programs.
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Israel, there's some interesting results that they're seeing less hospital admissions from the over 60s that have been vaccinated. Of course, it's very early stages, though, isn't it? And we know that in the developing world, there's real concerns about when they're going to get their vaccines. There's confusion across Europe when people are going to get their vaccines. And I spoke to officials in Ramallah in the West Bank last week, and they said they're not expecting to start vaccinating people until August.
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So it just it's so different right across the world. And we just don't know when everyone who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated. And that is hopefully the way out of this covid nightmare.
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Charlotte Galaga. Security forces in Uganda have surrounded the house of the opposition presidential candidate, Bobby Wide, after he said that yesterday's election was marred by widespread fraud.
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Official preliminary results show that the incumbent, Ueli Museveni, who's been in power for 35 years, has a clear lead with more than 60 percent of the votes counted so far.
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But Bobby Weiner, who is a popular musician and an MP, says that he'll release video evidence of fraud as soon as the Internet services there were blocked ahead of the vote have been restored. Our correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga has been to his house on the outskirts of Kampala. Bobby Wains usual.
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Vido seems to have faded somewhat. He appears tired after weeks of what has been a brutal campaign, his two German Shepherd dogs hover around him. Sensing their owners anxiety. Soldiers and police officers have surrounded the compound. There is a roadblock where every vehicle entering and leaving is searched. Bobby Wayne tells me the election has been a complete sham.
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I'm not calling myself a president elect yet. I am saying the results that are being communicated by the electoral commission are fake. They are fraudulent. They are not a representation of what happened, of what the people said. Therefore, we reject them.
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Election officials say the onus is now on him to show how the results are being rigged. What he says in the next few hours and days is crucial. Bobby Wine has a large following among young Ugandans who hang on to his every word. His arrest in November for flouting covid-19 rules during campaigning triggered two days of violent protests, which saw dozens killed by security forces around the country.
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He has stopped short of calling his supporters out onto the streets. So far, President Museveni has a tight grip on power here, and he has warned the opposition not to cause instability.
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Catherine Byaruhanga. The number of American soldiers in Afghanistan has fallen to 2500 following the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Friday.
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That's the lowest figure since 2001. A full military pullout by spring of this year is part of the Trump administration's agreement with the Taliban. But questions are being asked about what lasting gains have been made in 20 years of war as violence is surging, resulting in acute poverty and hunger. This report from the malnutrition ward in Afghanistan's only children's hospital is by Yohji to limit.
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The baby's name is Suban. He's two years old, his stomach is protruding and the shape of his ribs visible as his chest heaves up and down when he's used to be able to walk. Now he can't. This year, half of all Afghan children under the age of five are facing malnutrition. More and more children who could be saved are dying due to a lack of resources. Humanitarian disaster is unfolding in this country as American troops are living in another bed.
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In the malnutrition ward is three year old girl. She looks gravely ill. Her mother Gumlu doesn't know if she'll survive.
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If I had money to buy food, my child would not have been in this condition, she told the Sundays. We eat breakfast, we can't eat dinner.
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Six times more people in Afghanistan need life saving support now than just four years ago. The director of the hospital, Dr. Mohammad Kureshi, tells me that if it wasn't for the war, Afghans would have pulled themselves out of poverty.
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Over the past few months, violence has surged significantly in this country. Every day, dozens of Afghans are killed. I'm standing on a hill overlooking the main base of international troops in Kabul, a place that houses fewer people now than ever before. Many here fear that if all foreign troops are to leave this country before a sustainable peace deal is agreed, the Taliban could be back in power in Afghanistan. Is this the right time for U.S. troops to be pulling out?
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I asked Afghanistan's vice president, Amrullah Saleh.
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We believe the mission is not accomplished. But if they decide to leave, we respect their decision.
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Those troops are leaving this week. What would you like to say to the U.S.? They have been generous with us both in terms of financial assistance, security assistance, should they decide to leave anyway. The realistic question is, can we do anything beyond asking now? The question is not the fate of Afghanistan. The question is the fate, reputation and standing of the Western civilization. They came to us as a small country to prevail against terrorism, against radicalism and al-Qaida.
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They should ask themselves the question, what was the mission? Is that accomplished when U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001?
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A key aim, they said, was to fight for women's rights. Under the Taliban, women weren't allowed to work or study. As foreign troops are leaving. It is the women of Afghanistan who stand to lose. I'm on my way now to meet Savasana, who is Afghanistan's first female movie director. She's been an actress and she's a police officer. A few months ago, there was an attack on her life. She was shot multiple times. She had a narrow escape.
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So why don't you tell me who was behind the attack on you hope that the boxer, Mohammed al Qaeda.
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I work in two important positions. The Taliban would never want me to do these jobs. That's why they attacked me. I'm also a women's rights activist. If they come back to power, my children will have no future here.
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The gains made by people like Saba were hard fought. What tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign soldiers gave their lives for is under threat of being lost. This has been America's longest war, but perhaps an unfinished one.
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Yoji to Lemmy my reporting.
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A group of men who are keen on reenacting centuries old battles have been kicked off Facebook for a second time.
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That's because the platform thinks that they're a right wing militia group. The BBC's Duncan Kennedy went to Dorset in southern England to meet the Wimborne militia.
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Stand by your guns. When it comes to the Wimborne militia militia, think red coats and britches think cannons and muskets are.
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Think 17th century and fun. That's because this small band of plucky players re-enact history, not create it. So imagine their surprise when they learned that Facebook had suspended their account. Chris Brown, the commanding officer, says he thinks the social media giant banned all accounts with the name Melissia in their title following the storming of the Capitol building in Washington last week.
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Not happy with that at all. We take great pains to be completely non-political. We have the word first. You know, it wasn't the others. So I'm a bit cross, really.
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Chris says this is the second time Facebook have got them mixed up with real radicals and that it's probably a mistake in the way their algorithms work. He says the owner sold his militia are interested in is the one on people's eardrums and that this afternoon Facebook finally reinstated their account, bringing peace if not to D.C..
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Well, then at least to Dorsets.
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Duncan Kennedy reportedly still to come. We're asking them now again to adjust their behaviors on the pitch and goal celebrations and end around beginning end of matches, but ask them to adjust their behavior. And I think I understand why you've got to follow the rules and you've got to set a good example.
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Is it an end to hugs and high fives for English football players?
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Six EU countries have complained to the European Commission that Fizer Biotech is drastically reducing deliveries of its vaccine. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden have all said that the situation will lead to unacceptable delays in vaccinating the most vulnerable. The commission says that it has been assured by Pfizer that all orders guaranteed for delivery in the first three months of this year would arrive on time.
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Our Europe correspondent Nick Beke reports from Brussels.
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Pfizer has committed to delivering two billion doses of its vaccine across the world this year. That's an increase from the one point three billion initially promised. But supply is to slow down before it speeds up as the company modifies its main Belgian production site in purs Lithuania, which claims it will now receive only half its expected doses in the coming weeks, is among six EU countries to accuse Pfizer of undermining the credibility of the vaccination process. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen said she'd been assured personally by Pfizer's chief executive that all orders guaranteed for delivery before April would still arrive.
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The company said there would be a significant increase in doses available for patients from the end of February next week here in Britain.
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There's growing concern that some people of South Asian heritage are reluctant to take covid vaccines. Asima Kotetsu reports. Myths about vaccines have been going around social media in hell.
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From the nostrils exhale from the mouth. A video of the doctor in India telling viewers inhaling in and out can protect them from getting coronavirus. His claims are baseless and false.
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The most efficient tool. This is just one example of vaccine disinformation seen by the BBC. Much of it is religiously based and targets ethnic minorities. False claims such as the vaccine containing animal produce are rife. Dr Samarrah Afsal has been vaccinating patients at her GP surgery.
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We've been calling all of the patients and booking them in for their jobs, the elderly of 80. So we found that actually when the admin staff call a lot of the South Asian patients, they actually declined and refused to have the vaccination.
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Rina Porgera is a beauty therapist. She's a practising Hindu and says she's been bombarded with similar false messages.
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Yeah, you know, for a layman, it is very confusing. And also, when you read that the ingredients in the vaccine come in are derived from a cavernous Hindus, Asaka is very sacred to us. It is disturbing.
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There is none of that. So there's no meat or any future material in the vaccine so that that message needs to get across.
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Dr Harpreet Sue is the clinical lead for NHS England on debunking myths targeting those communities. He says the myths about the virus are false but could have devastating consequences.
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We're seeing this to be quite a big problem in terms of what we face moving forward. They're risking their lives, but also risking lives of people around them, right.
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A recent poll commissioned by the Royal Society for Public Health suggests only over half of the South Asian population in the UK would agree to being vaccinated. Doctors believe language and cultural barriers are playing a big part in the spread of misinformation and architecture.
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The Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration of fabricating evidence against the former defense minister, Salvador Cienfuegos.
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He's been accused of collaborating with a cocaine smuggling cartel.
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Leonardo Rossia reports.
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General Cienfuegos was arrested in Los Angeles in October and allowed to return home a month later to face prosecution at home. On Thursday, the Mexican attorney general's office said there was no evidence against him and decided not to pursue charges. Mr. Lopez Obrador said his support of their decision. He went further and accused the United States anti-drug department of fabricating evidence against him. U.S. investigators accuse General Cienfuegos of facilitating the work of the drug cartels.
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A German court has sentenced a sports doctor to almost five years in prison for the blood doping of athletes in skiing and cycling competitions. Mark Schmidt was found guilty of masterminding an international blood doping ring between 2012 and 2019. He's been in custody since Austrian and German police swooped during coordinated raids as part of Operation Adela's or bloodletting in Germany. My colleague Julian Marshall spoke to the investigative journalist Ijaw separate about the case.
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According to our research and according to the investigation of the German and Austrian police, this was a broader. Including several countries in Europe, for example, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Estonia, Slovenia, Italy, for example, there have been many athletes involved. The problem is that he was frankly very open in admitting his faults in the court. But what he didn't do, he didn't name any other athletes. So I can I'm very good to mention that there have been more cases and his name was well known.
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Was it in athletic circles as somebody who could do this, who could possibly enhance the performances of athletes?
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I would say yes. In cross-country skiing, I would say maybe also in cycling and professional cycling. So people, at least some people said that is this offer that doping is also available for them. But as you can imagine, it was not widely known. It was just known by some people who have been very cooperative.
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And, of course, blood doping in cycling has been well documented. But were people quite surprised to hear that this was going on in skiing as well?
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I would say that people have been surprised and this happens in Germany compared to some other countries which have a relatively strong National Anti-Doping Agency. So some people thought that maybe the anti-doping fight in Germany is very effective. But then to hear that someone, a doctor in Germany, is still able to do these treatments, this was surprising for the people. I don't believe that people have been very surprised about a cross-country skiing because it is a typical sports where doping helps a lot to have any athletes been convicted as a result of Operation Andalus.
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Yes, there have been convictions. For example, in Italy and Austria, for example, there are current investigations and also, so far as I remember, convictions Estonia. But it's still not over because there's a trial in Munich is now leading to many more investigations. So we are currently investigating in for German television. Where are these cases? And if, for example, the authorities might succeed in getting more names of doped athletes, I mean, you were instrumental in exposing extensive doping in Russian sport.
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But this case shows once again that doping is a problem throughout sport all around the world.
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That's correct. We know that Russia had a state run doping system in place. We know some sanctions have been very, very weak against Russia. Just a member of the International Court of Arbitration Sports just a couple of weeks ago reduced to ban against the Russian sports from four years to two years. That gives a message to the whole world. You can even run the state run doping system for years. You can manipulate, you can cheat. But at the very end, you got just as sanctioned for two years.
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But you are allowed to compete with your athletes at major championships. On the other hand, we have to say that not only Russia is affected by doping, we can say that this happened in a lot of countries. Now, we know that even in Germany, where we have an anti-doping agency, we have state prosecutors, but it doesn't mean that we have no doping agency.
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Seppelt, the head of the English Premier League, has said the players must set a good example and minimize contact on the pitch after some are labelled brainless for hugging in goal celebrations during the pandemic. Richard Masters will speak at the end of a week when football has repeatedly ignored reinforced guidelines. Our sports editor Dan Ronan reports.
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Professional football's continuation during this lockdown has been a welcome distraction for many, but the game is now gripped by a growing row over the flouting of controversial new covid protocols over unnecessary close contact between players such as hugs and high fives during goal celebrations and in dressing rooms. And today, the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, told me that teams had to respect the rules.
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We're asking them now again to adjust their behaviours on the pitch and goal celebrations. And in and around beginning the end of matches, we ask them to adjust their behaviour. And I think I understand why you've got to follow the rules and you've got to set a good example.
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Government ministers have made it clear they expect players to respect the so-called no hug rule at a time of national crisis or risk having the season suspended. But in Premier League matches this week, the protocols have again been repeatedly ignored. Richard Masters told me patience is needed.
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Well, say it's a very recent adjustment and we're making these requests and trying to get this message across in pretty quick order. And I think it's going to take time to adjust the situation. So we need a bit of time to get it right. We have sanctions available to us. The jurisdictions on the pitch for the clubs are breaching protocols that then we can take action. So sanctions are available, but I hope that won't be needed.
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Some managers have complained it's unfair and unrealistic to expect players to suppress instinctive expressions of joy. But with every. Goal celebration now under scrutiny, the pressure on football's authorities to enforce the rules is intensifying dambrot it and that's all from us for now.
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But there will be an updated version of the Global News podcast later on if you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics we've covered in it. You can send us an email. The address, as usual, is global podcast at BBC dot com. Don't you think today's studio manager was Chris Hansen?
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The producer was Alison Davies and the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Monde's. And until next time, goodbye. This is not normal because flood than I've ever seen big hurricanes. It is a life or death question here.
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The climate question is a brand new podcast about the climate crisis from the BBC World Service, that they are going to get thicker and some people are going to die every week will be asking questions like, why is it happening? What can we do about it? And what's holding us back from taking action? Now, you're telling me it's because of climate change. OK, and this being the BBC World Service, we've got an amazing ability to get a truly global take on things.
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I'm BBC correspondent in Jakarta, Beijing, California. Look at what's happening in Africa and what are we going to do?
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The climate question from the BBC World Service. This is something we're doing for survival. Such for BBC climate question for if you get your podcasts.