Teenager shoots 7 dead in Thailand

0:00This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 Hours GMT on Friday 7th August. A teenager in Thailand has shot dead seven people, including teachers at his school, before killing himself. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign a NATO-style defence agreement. And as the Ebola outbreak in Congo hits 4 ,000 cases, health experts say local communities must play a greater role. Also in this podcast, a row in London over plans to encourage drinkers not to stand in pubs. Sometimes there's like a bit of a buzz about it, isn't there? Like pub culture, I suppose, of mingling and enjoying it and having fun.

0:45If you come to a pub and all the tables are full, you'd probably be like, no, we're not going to bother. And the giant lizard of Lombardy.

0:58A school shooting in Thailand has left seven people dead and 13 people in hospital. It comes after a string of high-profile attacks there in recent years, but has shocked the nation nonetheless. The gunman was a 14-year-old pupil, and the school is part of a prestigious network which has educated royalty and prime ministers alike. Police say the boy killed his grandparents before opening fire at the school and then killing himself. This footage was recorded on a mobile phone by a student in one of the classrooms.

1:37Pupils in their blue uniforms crouched on the floor underneath their desks, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Later, these students spoke about what they saw.

1:49I was working in the room when I heard a gunshot, followed by several more continuously. At first I thought somebody was playing with a gun, so I called my friends to hide inside the room. He first opened fire underneath building five, then went up the building shooting students as he went. After that he went up to another building, building four, and shot at every room. I don't know why. One of my friends got shot. He walked up to the door and just fired. I don't know the shooter, but he seemed to be a student with special needs. The Thai Prime Minister, Anu Tin Chan-Wirukun, said a friend of the gunman had told police the boy had been under great stress.

2:32This is violence, but it is not caused by criminals. It is caused by an individual who carried pressures and tensions. This really has nothing to do with security measures in the school. The gun is a registered one. It is kept in the house. We don't know how this child got access to the gun. He intentionally came to school today to commit this unfortunate case. Our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Haid, gave me this update from the school north of Bangkok. Well, it's the end of the day here, Oliver, but it's pretty quiet now. All the ambulances, the police officers, paramedics, and of course family members who came down during the day after the shooting, which started at 10 o 'clock in the morning, have now gone.

3:23But of course there are a number of the victims, well over 20 people who were injured, we think between 20 and 30, but some of those victims are in critical condition in hospital, so there's a lot of concern about them. And it's now down to the police to investigate a number of angles as to what actually happened here. This is a 14-year-old pupil at the school who teachers say had shown no behavioral issues before, was a good student. The prime minister here has referred to the fact that he might have been under some stress or some pressure from his grandparents. And of course, we know he shot his grandparents before he came down to the school.

4:02Very vivid accounts from some of the students here describing, you know, hunkering down under their desks as he went systematically from classroom to classroom, firing multiple shots into each of them. And the police have said they're quite surprised at how lethal he was, how accurate he appears to be, have been with the gun. So they think he may have had some kind of firearms training. So that there's obviously there has to be an investigation as to how he got hold of a gun and quite a significant amount of ammunition. He had around 30 rounds still on him at the time that he shot himself. It appears it may have been his grandfather's gun and, of course, investigations into his state of mind and what went wrong.

4:42And the fact that he was able to get hold of a gun despite strict laws there underlines the issue with gun control in Thailand. The strict laws apply to getting a license and they've become stricter in recent years. In fact, the prime minister has pointed out that he tightened the gun permit rules three years ago when he was interior minister. This was, by all accounts, a licensed gun. The problem in Thailand is not the rules, it's enforcement. This country is awash with guns. Corruption is rife in the armed forces and police as well. Anybody who wants to get a gun here can get one and an awful lot of people have them with or without licenses.

5:18Jonathan Head at the scene of that shooting in Thailand. The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the fastest spreading on record. Latest figures show there have been more than 4 ,000 cases and nearly 2 ,000 deaths, with infections confirmed in five provinces, including the epicentre Ituri. However, the head of Africa's Disease Control and Prevention Centre, Dr Jean Kassea, remains optimistic, as he told the BBC about a new action plan. The new strategy that we discussed with President Isikedi on the 5th of August, when Dr Tedros, Dr Janabi and myself, coming together with a number of partners, came to suggest the new approach.

6:00What is this new approach? It's to have what we call the village-centred response plan. Everything now would be at village level. And that one is a great revolution because we know that we can stop this outbreak when the community is involved. Our global affairs reporter Richard Kogoi told us more about this new village-level approach. The new response plan does involve community leaders. So you'd have leaders from various villages. The thing is that the Africa Centres for Disease Control and the WHO are saying there's a need to change strategy because the response, especially from the local population, has really made the whole management of the outbreak a bit complex because there has been hesitancy from local residents to report people who have symptoms of Ebola.

6:50There has been scepticism just about the disease itself and also the health workers. So this has really proved sort of like a barrier. The containment efforts have been really quite complicated because the local population seems not to quite coordinate with health workers. And then, of course, these are the cultural practices element. So like in terms of burial, how are those bodies being handled? And these have been also classified as super spreader events. And so what they're saying is that it's important to involve community elders who understand the cultural nuances and people who can be used to disseminate information who are believable.

7:27And also part of it is to decentralize testing capacity, especially at the village level, and also making health services accessible by making them sure that it is free. So that's perhaps just the highlights of this new response plan that is going to be rolled out next week, as I mentioned, by the Africa CDC Ball. Yeah, can this approach realistically bring down the number of cases? If you look at the numbers, the outbreak is spreading rapidly. But I think the involvement of this would help perhaps slow down the spread of the disease itself. Because what is happening is that, especially rural communities, a lot of them seem to be quite disengaged exactly with what's happening, especially from the regional capitals in places like in Borneo and in North Kivu province, where the disease is quite prevalent.

8:15So really changing the opinions and perspectives of the local population, getting their buy-in for them to believe and even to support the health response, I think that would really be critical in terms of slowing down the response. Because if you look at it, experts say that it took just about 10 months for cases to hit 2 ,000 in the West African Ebola outbreak. But this has just been barely two months for the numbers to hit more than 2 ,000, now exceeding 4 ,000 cases. Richard Gugoy in Nairobi. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a joint defence agreement against the backdrop of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

8:52The NATO-style pact was announced at a meeting in Mecca between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Pakistani Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif. So what does it involve? Anmarasan Eti Rajan is our global affairs reporter. This is significant both in terms of symbolism and substance. The three countries are talking about collective deterrence against any possible aggression in the future. Now, you have three different countries with three different capacity and capability coming together. Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest oil producers in the world.

9:28It provides the financial muscle and one of the biggest weapons purchaser. And its strategic location is very key. Turkey is the second biggest military force in NATO, and Pakistan is a nuclear weapon state and also has a very strong military. Now, one of the key things is that an attack on any one country will be treated as an attack against all. So that is a very key wording here. They have not given out any specifics and details of this agreement. the fact that the three Sunni Muslim countries coming together and signing this agreement in the holy city of Mecca, calling this as Mecca Joint Declaration, Joint Defence Agreement, is quite an important message sending out to the regional powers there.

10:11Yeah, and Saudi Arabia is at the moment the country most likely to become embroiled in war. Will we realistically see Pakistan and Turkey coming to its aid, perhaps in the fight against the Houthi rebels in Yemen? Now, they do have some sort of military cooperation. For example, on the ongoing Saudi's conflict with the Houthi rebels, Pakistan had sent thousands of troops and fighter jets, and also an air defense and advisory group is already there. And they have been a military cooperation for several years. And Saudi Arabia agreed to buy drones from Turkey in a military cooperation. Now, if it comes to, for example, Iran, Pakistan is a neighbor of Iran.

10:55And whether they're going to come in the aid of Saudi Arabia if Iran attacks Saudi, that is a big question, because they didn't come in the last round of conflict, even though they had a mutual defense pact signed last year that is between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, because Pakistan has its own security compulsions. But in the long run, what Iran will do, you know, these are the two things the three countries are looking at. Now, some will describe this as an Islamic NATO, where it can involve other Gulf states as well. What has changed in the Gulf in the past few months is that US used to be the net security provider.

11:28Now, all these Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE have seen their installations being attacked. They're running out of weapons and missiles. They're not able to protect any of those strategic places. Now they're looking at other options, see if the US is not going to step in and protect them, who's going to be the net security provider. And that is why they're having this bigger, larger combined effort. And very briefly, what will India make of this? India has already looked at it and then they've responded and what they are saying is that they are looking at this agreement. A brief statement was made but they will probably respond at a later stage.

12:03Anbarasan Ativrajan. When treating brain cancer the traditional approach has been to wait four to six weeks after surgery before chemotherapy can begin. Now though research on mice has suggested that an alternative time scale would be to carry it out either straight after the operation or between two to four days later. Dr Tom Kisby from the University of Manchester is co-lead on the study. He explained the results to Johnny Diamond. One of the main problems of brain tumours, both due to their location in quite a critical organ, obviously the brain, but also many of these are highly invasive, meaning that surgery itself can never be curative.

12:41The surgeons will always have to leave some cancer cells behind, which is exactly what we try to treat with chemotherapy. I see so the chemo is then sort of sent in to flush out what is left you normally wait for a few weeks but now have discovered these two windows can you explain how they've been discovered so one of the major challenges for brain tumors is that the brain is protected from the blood by a special barrier known as the blood brain barrier so when we administer chemotherapies these struggle actually to get into the brain and the site where we need them what we've identified which is exactly what these windows are is certain time periods after surgery this barrier becomes more disrupted which means this allows certain types of chemotherapies in our case nanomedicines to be able to enter the brain at much higher levels than they would if we were to administer them four to six weeks after surgery.

13:31Okay so the surgery itself disrupts the blood-brain barrier and sort of what opens it up for further therapy? Exactly yes so this is the two windows the first one we think is a physical disruption of this barrier and then there's kind of a response of the patient in the brain that seems to reopen this window a few days later. The research was done on mice and again daft question alert are you sure it transfers from mice to humans? So there is some indirect evidence in humans from some imaging work that's been done that these same kind of disruption of the blood-brain barrier exists but of course absolutely the next step that we need to do is confirm these same windows exist in humans and can be utilised in the same way.

14:07So you now Now, I mean, if you get that next step and you adopt this as a new procedure, you would jump in and, forgive the phrase, flood the zone whilst the blood-brain barrier is disrupted. Is there a trade-off of some shape or form in terms of safety if you ignore what was previously the recovery period? It's a good question. So, again, this is something that I think really needs to be tested in clinical studies. We haven't seen any issues in our mice, but it could mean that what we do administer we have to be very careful that it doesn't disrupt some of those recovery and healing responses that occur in the brain.

14:45Tom Gisby talking to Johnny Diamond. Residents in the rural Italian town of Montichiari are used to sharing their neighbourhood with the likes of foxes, hedgehogs and badgers but they have been warned to look out for a more fearsome visitor a giant lizard with razor sharp teeth and claws. As Chantal Hartle explains. This tree-climbing lizard is just over one and a half metres long, dark green in colour with yellow spots and big curved teeth. The Papuan monitor lizard, also known as a crocodile monitor, looks similar to its relative, the Komodo dragon, and as its name suggests, it is native to Papua New Guinea.

15:24So how it ended up in the countryside in northern Italy is a mystery. It was first spotted in July, prompting a major search operation. The mayor of Montechiari, Marco Tonni, said initially he didn't believe it was true. Two more sightings have since been confirmed. The authorities are attempting to track the lizard using drones with thermal cameras and night vision. They've also set up cage traps filled with chicken to lure the reptile. The Papuan lizard typically feeds on animals such as pigs and deer. It's not known to prey on humans, but is capable of inflicting a powerful venomous bite when threatened, so the town is taking no chances.

16:05It has banned residents from walking and cycling in the areas where the lizard was seen. While this all might sound very alarming, some have seized the opportunity to get creative on social media. AI-generated videos show the town's mayor as a lizard ranger chasing the creature by a pool, flying a light aircraft and performing a song called Beware of the Lizards. The mayor has posted these memes to his own social media page, even suggesting the town adopts the reptile as a cultural mascot. But he also stressed that residents shouldn't overlook the seriousness of the situation and has urged people to be vigilant.

16:43Chantal Hartle. And still to come on this podcast. President Trump says that hundreds of thousands of people come to the United States every year claiming that they're coming on holiday, but really with the express purpose of giving birth to children who would then be able to obtain American citizenship. Donald Trump signed two new executive orders in his latest attempt to end birthright citizenship.

17:15This is the Global News Podcast. A BBC investigation has found that Russia is seizing tens of thousands of homes across areas of Ukraine it's captured during its invasion. The Russian government says the scheme is designed to, quote, integrate the regions into the Russian system. Olga Robinson led the investigation. I asked her what exactly are the occupiers doing? I think what's very important to understand here is that the Russian forces haven't just captured physically some flats and houses. What they are doing there right now is they've created a whole legal framework that allows the occupation authorities to seize properties en masse.

17:54We found more than 34 ,000 homes which are currently in the process of being seized. And many of them belong to Ukrainians who have fled the fighting. And it works like this. Properties are declared ownerless, even though they do have legal owners in Ukraine. And then they are transferred to local authorities. And from there, they could be allocated to Russian passport holders only into ownership. And the practice is not just some local scheme in the occupied territories. It's been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who signed a law late last year formalising this scheme. Now, of course, Russia claims this land that it's invaded as its own.

18:33What's it said about this particular case? Well, in this particular case, the Russian government told us that the scheme is part of its legal framework to reintegrate this, as they call it, reunited regions into the Russian system. And they also told us that the scheme manages properties whose owners cannot be identified or contacted while providing for compensation should lawful owners come forward. But then experts we spoke to say it seems to be part of a much wider effort to rucify the areas of occupied Ukraine and to make it much harder for Ukrainians to reintegrate these areas in future should they retake the territories at some point.

19:14Yeah, realistically, what can the homeowners do, if anything? Well, Ukrainians we spoke to say once their property appears on any of the ownerless lists, it feels it's almost pretty much done deal. It's gone. That's because to try and get their properties back, Ukrainians are required to obtain a Russian passport and the return to occupied Ukrainian person. That means also going through grueling security checks at the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, which are known as filtration. And they have to do all of that within just 30 days. So Ukrainians we spoke to say, they feel it's neither safe nor possible for them to return to their homes.

19:54So a few of them did come across as almost resigned to the idea that their homes are all but lost. Olga Robinson. And we have more from Olga, including her own personal insight into being half Ukrainian and half Russian on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find the Global News podcast in the podcast section. Staying with the war in Ukraine and the highest court in Sweden has ruled that a cargo ship seized in the Baltic Sea earlier this year can be handed over to Kiev. The CAFO was sailing under a false flag of Guinea but it's believed to have belonged to Russia's Shadow Fleet which Moscow uses to avoid Western sanctions.

20:34Ukraine suspected it was illegally transporting grain stolen from territory occupied by Russia. Ben Wright heard more from Stephanie Baker at Bloomberg News, who's written extensively about Russia's Shadow Fleet. It is significant because I believe this is the first time a foreign court has approved transferring a vessel to Ukraine at the request of Ukrainian prosecutors who say that it is part of a war crimes investigation and to the alleged theft of grain from occupied Crimea. So there have been probably a dozen instances of European authorities either boarding or detaining a ship. But Sweden has been particularly active this year and has detained five ships.

21:24And this one they have decided to hand over to the Ukrainians as part of this war crimes investigation. And the Ukrainians are saying this is a precedent-setting case, implying that perhaps more of these actions could come in the near future. Because this was carrying grain, but most of the Shadow Fleet vessels that are boarded tend to carry oil, don't they? That's right. And that's another reason why this is significant and different. Most of the Shadow Fleet, about 600 vessels that have been sanctioned by the UK and Europe, are carrying oil on behalf of Russia. And so this is a first in terms of seizing a cargo ship that was allegedly transporting grain from occupied Crimea to Syria and was sailing from Morocco to St.

22:12Petersburg. So this is a very different case, but the ship was operating in similar ways to Shadow Fleet ships. They initially detained it because Swedish authorities believed it had a false flag, and that gave it grounds to board the ship and investigate. But this is a huge problem because there are hundreds of vessels, many of them carrying sanctioned Russian oil, Iranian oil, and very few have been stopped. And many are carrying false flags or registering in jurisdictions that don't do checks on the underlying documentation or insurance. And European authorities have allowed these ships to transit European waters without checks and have not been aggressively checking them.

22:58Now, Sweden changed its rules last year to give its Coast Guard more authority to do checks, stop vessels and check for documentation, potential forge documentation and the like. And that has led to Sweden really stepping up and being one of the most active countries in Europe to try to police the shadow fleet. But other countries, the UK, France, have boarded ships in the past, but they could be much more aggressive in terms of policing their waters. Stephanie Baker from Bloomberg News. Weeks after the US Supreme Court overruled his last attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship, President Trump is trying again.

23:37On Thursday, he signed two executive orders aimed at curbing the right for anyone born in the USA to automatically become an American citizen. One man came in with a family head, said he had 56 children. Another one came in, they said they had 98 children. This was not what it was for. This was meant for the babies of slaves. It was right after one week or two weeks after the Civil War ended. This wasn't for wealthy, multi-millionaires, billionaires coming in and bringing 15, 20, 30 children along with them. it's become a big business and we're ending that business. Our North America editor, Sarah Smith, looks at the president's new tactics.

24:19He's trying to use a different method to achieve some of the same result here because the initial executive order that he signed on his very first day in office was aimed at getting rid of automatic birthright citizenship for children who were born of parents who were either undocumented migrants in America or were only in the country temporarily. But that's what the Supreme Court justices ruled was unconstitutional. Now, this new order is a different route to try and get some of the same result. This order outlaws what he's calling birthright tourism. President Trump says that hundreds of thousands of people come to the United States every year claiming that they're coming on holiday, but really with the express purpose of giving birth to children who would then be able to obtain American citizenship.

25:02Well, he says that that is fraud and they would have fraudulently filled in visa forms. and therefore they could be denied the citizenship for their children under immigration law. Now, it's a different way to try and work around the Supreme Court's initial ruling, but this is bound to be challenged in court itself, possibly all the way up to the Supreme Court. So it's not clear Donald Trump will get this time what it is that he wants. Sarah Smith in Washington. Now, if you've ever passed a pub in London during the summertime, you'll probably have noticed crowds of people milling around outside drinking.

25:36Inside, there may well be crowds of people standing at the bar. But one local authority in the city is considering guidance that could see less of this so-called vertical drinking. Westminster City Council says having more seating in pubs could discourage excessive drunkenness. The government has now weighed in, saying pubs full of people is not a public nuisance, it is British life. Here's what some pubgoers here in London think. I mean, it depends on the place. Sometimes you go to some bars and you're stood up there for ages and you don't get served and it gets annoying i guess when you're at a table you can do like table service you know or scan a qr code and things like that so i guess there's an argument for sitting down is better but i don't know sometimes there's like a bit of a buzz about it isn't there like pub culture i suppose of mingling and yeah enjoying it and having fun the businesses will struggle because if you come to a pub and all the tables are full whereas before or now you were sort of like squidging and sort of get a little pint with your mate and sort of have a little chat and then go to the train or whatever and be on your merry way, you'd probably just be like, no, not going to bother.