Ghana passes bill criminalising promotion of LGBTQ rights

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1:26This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankur Desai and in the early hours of Saturday the 30th of May, these are our main stories. Ghana's parliament passes one of the most repressive anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa. A US judge blocks the rebranding of the famed Kennedy Center and orders that President Trump's name be taken down. And there's another shock at the French Open tennis, with Novak Djokovic, the latest big name, to exit the tournament. Also in this podcast, why the former head monk of China's Kung Fu Temple has been sentenced to 24 years in prison. And...

2:18Call of Duty is under fire for the game's controversial storyline.

2:25We start in Ghana, where Parliament has approved a new bill that criminalises the so-called promotion of LGBTQ rights and activities. Same-sex relationships have been banned in Ghana for more than 130 years. Under the new legislation, anyone found to be funding, sponsoring or promoting LGBTQ acts could face up to five years in prison. The ban has been criticised by international organisations, including Human Rights Watch, which said it placed LGBTQ people's lives at risk. The bill has long been pushed for by religious groups in the West African country. Angana's president is now under pressure to sign it into law.

3:09James Inou is one of the politicians who supported the legislation. As far as the law is concerned, the law, no LGBTQ, infants, gay, any lesbians, any bisexuals, any homosexuals or transgender. The law criminalises all those things. I spoke to our correspondent in Ghana, Thomas Nadi, about the new bill awaiting ratification. There was already an existing law which banned gay sex, but it did not include promotion of LGBT activities. So a cross-party group of MPs decided to introduce this particular legislation to cover that particular lacuna. And Parliament has passed the law. It prescribes a three-year jail term for gay sex and then a five-year imprisonment for promoting LGBT activities.

4:02It also prescribes a stiffer punishment, up to 10 years imprisonment for publishing materials that target children. And how much has religion driven this as a reason for why the parliament has approved this and why they decided to criminalise homosexuality? Well, Ghana is a religiously conservative society. The majority of people in this country are Christians. And so most of them are happy with this particular legislation. Barai's groups have criticised it. They feel that it infringes on the rights of sexual minorities in the country. Economists have also raised some concerns. They feel that Ghana could be sanctioned when Uganda passed the anti-LGBT law, U.S.

4:51sanctioned Uganda. And we know that institutions like the World Bank also have non-discrimination as a key conditionality for providing funding to countries. And so some people have raised some concerns about this. But the MPs decided that the interest of the country comes first. And so they decided to pass it. But not everyone supports it anyway. And there seems to be a trend which is growing across different African countries who are doing similar things. Certainly. Countries like Senegal recently passed a similar legislation prescribing a stiffer punishment of up to 10 years imprisonment for people engaging in gay sex.

5:33And it created a lot of concern in that country. The rights groups also condemn it. And it's becoming a trend in this part of the world because West Africa is made up of deeply religious people. We have a lot of Muslims and Christians in this part of the world and they are against homosexuality. And so that is why you see that a number of countries are legislating. And it's also because politicians who are against these legislations sometimes fear that they could lose their seats. because if they open up or criticise the legislation and it's election time, their constituents will not vote for them again.

6:13Those who are against it will rather remain silent and then give voice to those who are in support of it. Thomas Nadi in Accra. Now there are a few days that go by when we do not report on Donald Trump. After all, he is usually all over the news. But increasingly he is all over Washington DC and in more ways than one. The president is keen to leave a mark on the US Capitol with his name and face set to feature on everything from passports and currency to government buildings. But a federal judge has blocked the rebranding of the famous Kennedy Center. A correspondent in Washington, Tom Simons, told me more.

6:53The history to this is that Trump got the board of the Kennedy Center to rename it. And now the whole decision has been challenged by Joyce Beattie, who's a Democrat congresswoman for Ohio, who was on that board and said she was actually blocked from speaking out against the changing of the name when the decision was made. And she successfully convinced a US district judge to say that only Congress can change the name of the Kennedy Center. Congress created the Kennedy Center in 1971 as a living memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy. And it's down to Congress. Now, Trump has responded and he seems to have given in.

7:34He seems to be saying that effectively, unless I can do what I want to the Kennedy Center, then I've got no interest in continuing what would only be a hopeless journey into Never Never Land. This is what he wrote on his Truth Social account. And he's passed control of the Center to Congress. Now, of course, currently Congress is Republican, but that might change. But at the moment, it does seem that the name will be taken down. Yeah, OK. So when it comes to some of his other ambitious plans, like the White House ballroom renovation and the Arc de Trump, as he likes to call it, do we know if he's facing pushback on some of those?

8:10He is. I mean, I'm quite new to D.C. I did a walk around the other day on the National Mall. It's quite incredible how much of this stuff is going on. The images of Trump on two government departments, for example, the ballroom being constructed at the east wing of the White House, plans for the Arc de Trump, the arch which will herald entry to the memorial area, and a reflecting pool which has been painted blue on the orders of Donald Trump. There is pushback on the ballroom. A judge has said that the construction project should be temporarily halted. Now that's been overturned so the work is continuing, but the case is not resolved.

8:47He's also been challenged on the arch. And in general, there is a feeling that these things can be challenged. And that in some cases, I think the decision about the Kennedy Center shows that does push back the decisions that are being made about these very famous places. This is very reminiscent, according to critics, of something authoritarian leaders often do using their image as a symbol of power and control. I don't think there's any doubt that's what he's trying to do. I mean, having your image put up massive photo of yourself, saying American workers first on the Department of Labor, for example, is quite clearly an attempt by the administration to make clear who's in charge here.

9:26And that this is a sort of personality they want to sell to the American public. So no doubt about that, I think. Tom Simons reporting from Washington. Now, there is plenty of fiction that's set in worlds that closely mirror reality. And the question of when it becomes insensitive is one that has no easy answer. But the announcement of the new Call of Duty video game has definitely raised a few eyebrows. Will Chalk has this report. The Korean War was the first example of the Cold War turning hot. Hethi News cameramen record the last vital moments of the Korean War. 60 years of truce marked in North Korea with tanks and guns.

10:07That's the reality, and this is the fiction. Who's that, a K-pop star? The new supreme leader of North Korea. The first look trailer for the upcoming Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 4, where you play as South Korean soldiers fighting off an invasion from their North Korean neighbours. There are two ways to look at it. On the one hand, a war that's currently affecting people's lives, that's technically been going since 1950, is a controversial choice. On the other hand, if you want to play a game where you mimic realistic warfare, reality isn't a bad place to ground it. In a video on the official Call of Duty X account, developers at the studio behind the game Infinity Ward explained the conflict seemed like a perfect fit.

10:57We dug into pretty hard the history of North and South Korea, the reason that there's a divide in the first place. And now we're getting to go back to that actual huge forces in direct conflict to actual modern militaries. Call of Duty is no stranger to controversial reality-tinged missions. Way back in 2009, players were given the option to shoot screaming civilians in a Moscow airport. And as with any controversy, there are those who care and those who don't. Several Korean journalists have pointed out that as a game made primarily by an American studio, the tone will be extremely hard to get right.

11:42Many gamers, though, have different worries. Scroll through the comments on YouTube and X and the concerns are much more practical. When it's released, will it be any good? Will Chalk reporting. Next, let's go to the Shaolin Temple in Henan in central China. It's famous for being the birthplace of the martial art of Kung Fu, dating back to 495 AD.

12:14A group of young monks there taking part in a demonstration which millions of tourists come to see every year. The Shaolin monks are famous for their discipline and dedication. So a bit of a shock then. Its abbot, Xi Yongxin, has shown a lot less discipline than his disciples. He's been found guilty of embezzling$19 million worth of temple funds to bankroll a luxurious lifestyle that included fast cars and golden monk's robes. Our Beijing correspondent, Stephen MacDonald, told Celia Hatton more. The thing about Shi Yong-xin is that he took over the Shaolin Temple. This is a revered cultural and religious institution here and turned it into this massive money-making exercise.

13:02He earns the nickname the CEO Monk and this is all great while it's going well. People all over the world would have seen the shows being put on by these Shaolin Monks, they would have seen the movies and it all seemed to be okay until word comes through that why does he have so many cars and why is he hanging around with all those women and these allegations that he actually might have children out of wedlock and he actually managed to fend off several attempts to take him down because he became very powerful you can imagine why because this is china's soft power he's exporting chinese culture around the world it's the best aspect of what chinese history and culture has to offer.

13:46But after a while, it just became too much, it seems, for investigators to resist because he was receiving and taking bribes, allegedly. This is pretty high level embezzlement. And last year, he was finally arrested. And the Chinese state media is going really big with news of his sentencing. Do you think that they're trying to make an example of Shi Yong-xin? Well, I think that those who criticised him are feeling totally vindicated now. I mean, for them, you know, he has debased a sacred Chinese religious and cultural icon. This is supposedly the cradle of Kung Fu and a Buddhist temple. And that they've been pushing to bring an end to this just shows that the forces in favour of that kind of China are also winning out.

14:40I mean, you have to think of the type of China it was before when he came along and took over in 1999. It's still off the back of the reform and opening up where getting greedy and expanding businesses is all good. And the Communist Party was turning a blind eye to all manner of, frankly, dodgy deals going down if it meant the economy was kicking along. But in the Xi era, it just doesn't cut it anymore. You can't be seen to be that much more wealthier than everyone around you. Also, he's supposed to be the abbot of the Shaolin Temple. He's just not an ordinary business person. And so it's seen as unbecoming for someone such as this to have all of this money, to have all these children out of wedlock and all these sort of dodgy deals associated with the way he was running the Shaolin Temple.

15:31and the hope is that it will be able to get back to what it was. That is a normal actual temple whereby these young monks are coming along and studying kung fu and sort of a return to the basics of what it's all about and much less about making money. Stephen Macdonald reporting. Still to come in this podcast, a rare chance to see a blue moon this weekend. So what should we expect? Comparing it to the size of your thumb at arm's length, You may notice that it's a few percent smaller and it is 15 percent fainter than normal.

16:15This is the Global News Podcast. Rescuers in Laos have successfully brought out to safety the first member of a group of villagers who've been trapped in an underground cave for more than a week. Jonathan Head is following the mission from the Thai capital, Bangkok. After a gruelling search success, two divers record the moment they found five men who'd been trapped underground for a week. Exhausted and very distressed, but alive. They'd gone into Pan for gold, but found their exit blocked by rising floodwaters. Their rescuers, one Thai and one from Finland are veterans of the famous cave rescue in Thailand eight years ago With their experience of extracting the young Thai footballers they were part of a team which came from Thailand to help They found themselves facing extreme conditions moving through waterlogged spaces barely wide enough for a human body For days they were within just a few metres of the trapped men but had to battle torrential rain, which brought huge volumes of mud into the cave.

17:30So a real sense of achievement for this rescuer, announcing that they'd been found and promising he would keep searching for the two who are still missing. They've left food and drink with the gold miners. Now they must plan how to get them out once they've recovered their strength. Jonathan Head reporting. Tennis next, because after the favourite Yannick Sinner crashed out of the men's French Open in the second round on Thursday, all eyes were on the only other player left in the draw who'd ever won a Grand Slam title. And he does have quite a few of those. I'm talking about Novak Djokovic. Surely now it was his tournament to lose.

18:10Well, lose he did to teenager João Fonseca. So who is this rising Brazilian star and could he now go all the way? Questions for our tennis correspondent at Roland Garros, Russell Fuller. He is the teenager with the fearsome forehand. He has plenty of charisma as well. He's a former junior world number one, born in 2006, which puts things into perspective for older listeners, world number 30, and now his breakthrough victory against such a great champion as Novak Djokovic in one of the most memorable matches that Roland Garros has seen in recent years. I love the fact that he had time to wish his mother a happy birthday at the end of the match.

18:51It just goes to show you he's quite a cool, calm, collected character at such a young age. And there seems to be something about him where a lot of people are tipping him for the very top. There has been debate for a while about who might join a rivalry that at the moment is a duopoly in the men's game between Yannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. And he is regularly a name that is put forward. Now, there are a lot of other very talented teenagers, but Joao Fonseca has certainly shown that he needs to be taken very seriously in that regard. It doesn't mean there's still not quite a gulf between him and Alcaraz and Sinner.

19:24You'd expect that. He's three or four years younger, but he does seem to have the temperament. He seems to really, really enjoy the big stage. And also some of his replies to the questions. The first one was, did you believe you could win the match? And his answer was, I actually didn't. I love the honesty. Novak Djokovic, what an incredible champion. I mean, some are suggesting it could be a farewell to Roland Garros. He's approaching 40 years of age, and maybe his chance of winning a Grand Slam again could be on a faster court like Wimbledon, perhaps. It's still quite hard, in my opinion, to see him winning a Grand Slam at the age of 39 when it's the best of five sets.

20:01Wimbledon is the one place where he could possibly do it because of his grass-court expertise. The fact that it's quite an alien surface to many players in the world means that we should not discount him there. Nobody has won a Grand Slam at his age in the open era, which dates back to 1968. And to see him duel with one of the rising stars of the sport like that for nearly five hours, when there's 20 years between them, is just another gift he's given back to the sport, really. For the men's draw, it really opens it up, doesn't it? Because we will have a first-time Grand Slam winner, it looks like.

20:32There will definitely be a first-time Grand Slam winner in the men's draw. and it's very, very difficult to say who is going to come out on top. As we speak, there are only five members of the world's top 16 still in the draw and we're only halfway through the third round. There are favourites like Alex Zverev, who is the second seed here from Germany, but he's never won a Grand Slam title before and at times the occasion has got a little bit much for him. Maybe this is the chance he realises his potential. Maybe it is a teenager like Joel Fonseca or Rafael Hoda of Spain. Or maybe it's one of the players who doesn't get a great deal of attention, but just seizes the opportunity to do something quite extraordinary.

21:18Russell Fuller reporting from Paris. Here in Britain, the annual Hay Festival has brought a wide assortment of international writers to our shores. One of them is the Lebanese-American author, Ravi Alameddine. He's been writing for many years, but has found particular acclaim for his latest darkly comic novel, The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible. Speaking to the BBC's Julian Warwicker, he started by explaining why he thought our society was too earnest. I'm not crazy about earnestness. And I do understand the function of earnestness in the world and in literature. To me, it can be deadly.

21:59But that comes from a man who has written books that take us to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, that takes us to Lebanon where you were born, which has had so many reasons to be earnest, one might argue, in recent times. How do you navigate that? You know, earnestness is needed to fight against that. But if you are earnest, it can kill you. I just came back from Lebanon. It's almost hopeless. So if you are earnest and want to change the world, which I really appreciate it, it is really difficult. For me, the only way you can survive Lebanon is with a sense of humour. Because you were born there, but left there as child, didn't you?

22:40But it still clearly has a huge hold on you. Of course it does. And as much as I try to deny it, I come crawling back. What are the overriding emotions that you've come back with, having visited it at such a traumatic time for people there? It's been really difficult since the Gaza genocide, because some of the same things are happening in Lebanon. You know, the south has been raised completely, like there is not a single building left within like 20 to 30 kilometers from the border. All these villages have disappeared and stuff. What is truly though sad is that for a lot of Lebanese, it's as if nothing is happening because Lebanon is so divided in some ways.

23:20And that's what I mean by it's not very hopeful. You write in English. And am I right in saying that your books aren't translated into Arabic in Lebanon? They have trouble translating them for two things. One is sexuality. And the other is politics. The politics they can get over the gay sexuality. They can't. So I have two books that have been translated into Arabic, An Unnecessary Woman and I, the Divine. And in both, the main protagonist is a woman and that to them is more acceptable. You mentioned homosexuality and I wanted to ask you about your book, The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible, because Raja is a 63-year-old teacher who lives with his elderly mother and he is, to quote you, the neighborhood homosexual.

24:03What drove you to try and tell that story. I know it comes as a surprise to a lot of people, but I am a homosexual. There's that kind of affinity. I'm astonished by that revelation. Every time I come out, everybody's astonished. But I'm also interested in the character. I tend to write about characters who are outside of the dominant culture. They live in the margins. I'm just interested in how we look at the other. Rabbi Alameddin. Once in a blue moon is an idiom used to describe something that happens very rarely. Well, this weekend there will be an actual blue moon. The lunar event comes around once every two to three years.

24:46Helena Burke has the details. If you look up into the sky on Saturday and Sunday night, you'll see a full moon. But will it be coloured blue? No, it won't. Despite the name, a blue moon simply refers to the presence of a second full moon in a calendar month. This is rare because usually we only see one per month. As Dr. Pamela Gay from the Planetary Science Institute explains. Our moon goes around the Earth relative to the sun about every 29 days. There's typically 30 or 31 days in a month. And so we very rarely have that alignment of full moon at the very beginning of the month and then full moon at the very end of the month.

25:27And when we do get that statistical anomaly, we call it a blue moon because the author of the Maine Farmer's Almanac back in the early part of the last century thought that was a good name for it. The moon will also look smaller than usual. While the Earth is round, the moon's orbit is more of an oval shape. This means that sometimes it moves closer or farther away from us. This upcoming blue moon will be the father's moon from Earth for all of 2026. comparing it to the size of your thumb at arm's length you may notice that it's a few percent smaller and it is actually several percent about 15 percent fainter than normal but we're mostly seeing it against a blue sky in the early morning or the late evening so you probably won't notice that difference in brightness dr gay says the moon being slightly dimmer than usual will be great for astrophotographers.

26:24This is the best moment that you can try and take a photo of the moon. Normally the full moon is so bright against the nighttime sky that it's very hard to get a good exposure. But against this summertime sky for folks in the northern hemisphere, it is easy to get that beautiful shot. So go out and celebrate this moon that we all share for the entire world. Dr Pamela Gay ending that report from Helena Burke.

27:22Russell Newlove, and the producer was Emma Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin, and I'm Anka Desai. Until next time, goodbye.