Zohran Mamdani wins New York mayoral race

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau. Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:47I'm Julia McFarlane and at six o 'clock GMT on Wednesday the 5th of November, these are our main stories. A Muslim and democratic socialist, Zivran Mamdani, has won the race to be New York City's next mayor. the youngest person to hold the job for more than a century. In a further blow to President Trump, the Democratic Party is on course for victories in other polls across the US, including governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey. A huge fire has broken out after a cargo plane crashed at Louisville Airport in Kentucky, killing at least seven people. Also in this podcast, the UN suspends operations on the Afghan border with Iran and...

1:35These are very beautiful places, you know, in a very, in the most dense city in Europe, these are places where you can have sort of pastoral walks. Although they're graveyards, they're very nice places to be. The Parisian neighbourhood with the quietest residents.

1:53Zoran Mamdani has won the race to be New York City's next mayor. With the victory, the 34-year-old will etch his place in history as the city's youngest mayor in a century and the first Muslim to hold the position. This is the moment the news was announced at his campaign's watch party.

2:19Well, Mamdani, who described himself as a democratic socialist, led a campaign focused on making life more affordable for ordinary Americans. Several politicians have congratulated him, with Barack Obama saying the future looked a little brighter. But President Trump suggested the results were down to the government shutdown, now the longest ever, and pointed out that he wasn't on the ballot himself. But even though his name isn't on there, the result is a reflection of the Trump administration's popularity, and the president will be watching closely, something Mr Mamdani made a point of in his victory speech.

3:00Together, we will usher in a generation of change. If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

3:31Our correspondent Peter Bowes has this assessment of Mr. Mandani's 30-minute speech. The powerful oratory skills of Zohan Mandani, There for all to see the skills that really became a hallmark of his hugely energetic campaign, laying it all out there. The dawn of a better day for humanity, he said, a mandate for change, a new kind of politics. and directly talking to Donald Trump, the sitting president who has been so critical of him, describing him as a communist, someone who isn't fit and experienced enough to run a huge city like New York. A democratic socialist, as he said just now, unapologetic for what he stands for.

4:19The challenge for him now is to live up to all of those promises. As he said several times, He will take power in just a few short weeks' time and he will have to come up with the goods. He's made a lot of promises as part of his democratic socialist agenda. And the people of New York, but I think Democrats and the nation as a whole, will be watching very closely to see what he can achieve, and especially the Democratic Party. Because I think clearly, as we've been talking about for the last few days, many in that party, senior officials in the party, have refused to back this new kind of candidate, suggesting that socialism wouldn't work in New York City.

5:05Well, they'll be watching very closely as well, and perhaps just wondering whether this is the kind of candidate that they need to embrace in other parts of the United States, especially major urban centres, to challenge Donald Trump's Republicans. The Democratic Party is also on course for victory in a series of other elections across the United States, including the contests for governor in two important states. Abigail Spanberger has declared victory in Virginia, and our partner station CBS projects Mickey Sherrill will win in New Jersey. It's also projected Californians have chosen to redraw the state's political boundaries to counter Republican advantage in the midterms.

5:48Here's Peter Bowes again. We're seeing these jubilant scenes, the Democrats celebrating as the governor-elect in Virginia said, this will send a message and it'll be a message that'll be sent directly to the White House. Now, clearly Donald Trump's name wasn't on the ballot this evening, but the message will go straight to him and it remains to be seen how the president responds to this. And of course, we are in the midst of this government shutdown, which is increasingly beginning to affect in very serious ways people around the country. And the question is, will Donald Trump be listening? Will he be receiving the message that we're hearing out of New Jersey and Virginia and perhaps modify his attitude towards this shutdown and perhaps encourage his Republican colleagues in Congress to negotiate with the Democrats and perhaps reach some sort of compromise.

6:43That is the immediate future. I think also on Donald Trump's mind will be what is still likely to happen in California on this measure to redistrict, which means it is very possible that there'll be more Democrats elected from the state of California. This could affect the House of Representatives at the midterm elections next year. And if it were to be taken by the Democrats, That would significantly impact Donald Trump in his ability to pursue his policies in the final two years of his presidency. Our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes. Staying in the US, and as we record this podcast, a huge fire is burning in the US state of Kentucky after a cargo plane crashed at Louisville Airport, killing at least seven people.

7:34The aircraft, which is owned by the delivery firm UPS, exploded during takeoff. It was carrying tens of thousands of litres of fuel. Huge plumes of smoke are billowing from the crash site, which is near a petroleum recycling business. The local governor, Andy Beshear, described the incident as catastrophic. Anybody who has seen the images and the video know how violent this crash is. and there are a lot of families that are going to be waiting and wondering for a period of time. We're going to try to get them that information as fast as we can, but if this is a family you know, please give them your support.

8:14Governor Andy Beshear. The United Nations says new restrictions by the Taliban have forced it to suspend operations at a crucial border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran. This means that UN aid is being withdrawn from thousands of Afghans, mainly women and children, who've been flooding the area on their way home from Iran. There has been no comment yet from the Taliban. Our global affairs reporter Anbaris Anetarajan has been following the story. I asked him, first of all, to explain what is going on at the border between the two countries. Tens of thousands of Afghans, more than 60 % of them women and children.

8:55Those who are forced to leave Iran in the past year, they have been coming. Now the UN says the Afghan national women's staff, they have been prevented from working by the Taliban authorities there. So this has caused a huge operational challenge to them. Women play a very key role in terms of talking to other Afghan women who are coming from Iran. Nutrition, health, documentation, and also giving vaccines. In the past one year or so, both Pakistan and Iran, they have been forcing undocumented Afghans to leave the country. This is because of their internal politics. For example, in Pakistan, there have been increasing attacks on security forces.

9:40And also Iran, they have millions of people staying there. This is causing them a lot of difficulty and burden. It is one of those undercover event, people, how they're struggling at the border because, you know, where they will go because they lived in Iran, for example, in Pakistan for years. So they have to find a place where they have the relatives, where they have the roots. So it is a big humanitarian challenge which has gone probably, you know, escaped the attention of the international media and the international community because of what else is going on around the world. So what's happening now with the restrictions on women?

10:18After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban, they have stopped girls from going to secondary schools, from attending universities. And the response from the Taliban has been that they are devising a curriculum suiting their culture and tradition. And that's why they have temporarily stopped. As far as women are concerned, there are a number of restrictions. They have to be accompanied by a male relative if they are traveling for a longer distance. They can't be going to gyms and public baths and they can't work in most of the government offices. In September, in fact, they even stopped women from going and working in UN compounds.

10:58It was quite a strong warning from Taliban that they should not be going and working in these compounds. And now is the more harsher restriction according to the UN, because this is like emergency services, the situation is really dire in the border area. Even there, they have been stopped. So the restrictions on women and making them what some of the activists would call that erasing them from public life continues in Afghanistan, whereas the Afghan Taliban say, you know, they are following whatever that Islamic traditions they follow and that is the rules they are imposing and they will come back with the reopening of educational institutions with their own curriculum and people are still waiting for that.

11:46Anbarasan Ettarajan. A BBC investigation has found evidence that a controversial Russian recruitment programme has been deceiving young African women into working in a military drone factory in the Tartistan Republic of Russia. The Alabuga Start programme recruits 18 to 22-year-old women from Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. It promises to give them professional skills and international experience, but a woman who took part in the programme last year told the BBC she was deceived into building drones. She suffered chemical burns and was paid less than she was promised. The programme denies the allegations.

12:27Our Africa correspondent Mayoni Jones sent this report. Alabuga Work and Travel is a program that will help you realize yourself and all your opportunities. Professional skills and international experience. That's what Russia's Alabuga Start program promises young African women. Life in Alabuga is not limited only to work. But we've spoken to Adal, a South Sudanese woman, who says she was lured to Alabuga with the promise of a full-time job. So I reached out to them on WhatsApp. That's where I first found out about it. She asked us not to use her surname as she didn't want to be associated with the programme.

13:04She first heard about it in early 2023. I wanted to work in tech and I also wanted to touch in fields that is not normally done by female workers. You say you were interested in industries that men traditionally do. Why was that? because this feels it's very hard for a female to come across, especially within my country. Adal went through a year-long application process and eventually travelled to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in March of last year. It was very cold. I hated it. I was so sure. We went during the end of winter. Second, we stepped out of the airport. It was freezing cold. After three months of language classes, she started work.

13:50We were making drones at the factory. So right from the beginning, they put you in a drone factory? Yeah. You start work, you get your uniforms, you don't even know what work you're going to do. Like, you step in and then you just see drones everywhere and people working. How did you feel about being part of Russia's war machine? It felt terrible. I felt so horrible. There was a time when I went back home and I cried, I can't believe this is what I'm doing now. It felt horrible. Having a hand in constructing something that is taking so many lives. The reality of the Al-Buga Special Economic Zone is that it's a war production facility.

14:38Spencer Faragassu works for the Institute for Science and International Security. Russia has openly admitted that they are producing and building shot head 1 through 6 drones. there and videos that they've released publicly. They boast about the site. On the surface, this is an amazing opportunity for many of these women to see the world, to gain work experience and to earn a living wage. When in reality, when they're brought to Al-Abooga, they have a harsh awakening that these promises are not kept and the reality of their work is far different from what they're promised. Adal says she knew straight away that she couldn't keep working at the factory.

15:11Like it all started clicking, like all the lies that we have been told to since the time of application. So that was, I felt like I couldn't work around people who are lying to me about those things. And you mentioned that there were chemicals in the factory. Did they affect you? When I reached home, like I checked my skin, my thighs were all peeling. My skin was peeling. Did you not have protective gear? What was your uniform? We did have this protective stuff, this white cloth, the overall, but the stuff, the chemical would still pass through it.

15:52And there were other dangers. In early April 2024, a Ukrainian drone struck Alibuga, hitting the staff hostel next to Adaus. It was the farthest Ukrainian drone strike into Russian territory at the time. As I'm walking, I see some people pointing up. So I look up to the sky and I see a drone coming. That's when I started running as well. I ran so fast, I left the people who ran before me. I left them behind. She handed in her notice and her family sent her ticket home. Although the programme advertised the salaries of up to$600 per month, she only got a sixth of that. We put a Dow's allegations to the Alabuga Start programme.

16:35They denied using deception to recruit employees, said they provide all necessary protective equipment and that salaries were tied to staff's performance and behaviour. They did not deny that recruits built drones at the site. That report by Mayeni Jones. Still to come. Like every bubble, it's hard to know when you're in one until it's popped. I think that's why there's so much trepidation. around Silicon Valley right now. It's been dubbed the fourth industrial revolution, but can America's AI bubble last?

17:31Who did it? It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

17:56Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said his government will seek an independent investigation into a police raid in Rio de Janeiro that left more than 120 people dead. Four officers and at least 117 other people were killed when police raided two of Rio's largest favelas last week in what they said was an operation against a notorious criminal gang, but which some families and human rights groups have condemned as a massacre. From Rio, here's our South America correspondent, Ioni Wells. The government of Rio de Janeiro, led by the right-wing governor, Claudio Castro, has described the operation as a success, despite it being the deadliest raid ever in the city.

18:41Brazil's national government previously said it was not made aware of the plans to execute 100 arrest warrants in this manner. The left-wing president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, did not hold back in his criticism of the raid on Tuesday. The judge's order was for arrest warrants to be served, not a mass killing. And yet there was a mass killing. I think it's important to verify the circumstances under which it took place. The hard fact is that in terms of the death toll, some may see the operation as a success. But from the standpoint of state action, I believe it was disastrous. He described it as a massacre and said an investigation was needed to verify the conditions under which it occurred.

19:23He was speaking in the Amazon city of Belem, where Brazil is about to gather world leaders for the COP30 climate summit. Ioni Wells. An American man who faked his own death and fled to Scotland after being accused of rape has been sentenced to at least seven years in prison in the US state of Utah. The The court heard that Nicholas Rossi was a serial sex offender who was a danger to others. More details from our Scotland correspondent, Alexandra McKenzie. Nicholas Rossi's past has finally caught up with him. The 38-year-old was convicted in two separate trials of raping two women in Utah in 2008.

20:04The two sentences, each of five years to life, will run consecutively. He will only serve two years of the second sentence handed down today before being eligible for parole. Judge Poulin addressed Rossi in the courtroom. The jury found you guilty of rape and today sentencing is imposed in light of that truth. For all these reasons, the court sentences Mr. Rossi to a term of not less than five years and which may be for his natural life in the Utah State Correctional Facility. Rossi attempted to evade justice after being arrested in the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital in 2021. He claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan who had never been to America.

20:49He made a number of court appearances in Scotland, seen in a wheelchair, wearing a three-piece suit and an oxygen mask. He always maintained his claim of mistaken identity. I'm Arthur Knight. I am Arthur Knight. Born Nicholas Brown. I am Arthur Knight. Rossi was extradited to America last year to stand trial. Today in court in Utah, one of his victims said he had left a trail of fear, destruction and pain. Rossi accused the woman of lying. A Utah parole board will decide when or if Nicholas Rossi is released from jail. Alexandra McKenzie reporting. America's tech giants, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, have collectively invested hundreds of billions of dollars this year into artificial intelligence, specifically into new data centres needed to power what they're calling a fourth industrial revolution.

21:51It's largely responsible for most of America's GDP growth this year. But can it last? In the last few weeks, a growing number of the world's leading figures in finance have suggested that AI stocks are unrealistically inflated in value. Could this be turning into a massive economic bubble, at risk of bursting, and threatening the global economy? Ed Butler's been hearing the arguments from some who are concerned. I am far more worried about that than others. I'm not saying next year. It could be six months, it could be two years. So I say the level of uncertainty should be higher. most people's minds and what I call normal.

22:30Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase, considered by many to be the most important banker in the world. History tells us this sentiment can turn on the dime. If a sharp correction were to occur, tighter financial conditions could drag down world growth, expose vulnerabilities and make life especially tough for developing countries. And that's Kristalina Georgieva, head of the IMF, one of the biggest figures in international finance. Even leading Silicon Valley investors like Jerry Kaplan are now weighing in. We're in the middle of an enormous economic bubble. What we're seeing is this process of this thing feeding on itself.

23:16And when it collapses, it's going to be very bad. Shares of the internet appliance provider got hammered today, losing over 10 points after Bear Stearns issued some cautious comments on the stock. Technology stocks got trounced on a day of... Some of the new economy dot coms are sinking as fast as the level of the tide on the Thames. As everyone in Silicon Valley remembers, we have been here before. This was March 2000, when many of the first generation of heavily backed internet firms were swamped in an avalanche of red as investors lost faith. Five trillion dollars were wiped off the US tech index over two years as shares crumbled.

23:55Professor of Finance John Danielson at the London School of Economics has made a career out of studying economic bubbles. He says that new technologies have a way of attracting too much hype and investment. What happens is we all get sort of swept up in the bubble. Prices go up, we buy and we get wealthier And that makes us feel smart and makes us feel rich. It validates our beliefs about ourselves. Every time when we have some fantastic new technology, we know that some companies will end up becoming fabulously rich. Some companies will end up owning this space, if you will. And of course, that means a lot of people want to be a part of that.

24:34So we are trying to spot the winner. But of course, most of us make a big mistake. With the AI bubble, somebody will end up dominating this in the years and decades down the road. Will it be the current companies? I sort of doubt that.

24:52While artificial intelligence technology offers world-changing promise, critics say the actual economic returns are still unproven. Already eye-watering sums, hundreds of billions of dollars, have been committed to new projects like this data center in Louisiana. Total AI investment could reach$5 trillion by 2030. But for now, it's estimated that 95 % of companies currently trying to deploy AI are not actually seeing any profit from it. Of course, not everyone's a pessimist. Look, I mean, I've covered tech stocks since the 90s, and this is not a bubble. This is a spending cycle unlike we've ever seen.

25:34The investor and AI enthusiast Dan Ives, who scorns the naysayers, the bears, as he calls them. And look, the bears, they're always going to yell fire in a crowded theater saying it's a bubble. They've missed every tech name the last 20 years saying the same thing. But I think this is actually the start of a fourth industrial revolution, not a bubble, which is why we believe this is a bull market for the next two to three years as these use cases play out and the AI revolution marches on. Whichever side you're on in this debate, the problem is partly the complex nature of the financing of some of the new investments.

26:13Tech giants are pumping billions into each other right now to support the sector's growth, and that makes it hard to identify what, if anything, is genuinely profitable. The confusion is neatly summarised by the BBC's North America technology correspondent, Lily Jamali. Like every bubble, it's hard to know when you're in one until it's popped. I think that's why there's so much trepidation around Silicon Valley right now. The BBC's Lily Jamali ending that report by Ed Butler. And you can hear more on that story on Business Daily, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And finally, they are some of the most celebrated areas of real estate in the French capital, Paris.

26:57and now the city's residents are being offered a chance to occupy their own part of them. I'm talking about three of the most famous and most overcrowded cemeteries, including Père Lachaise, the resting place for such artistic superstars as the singers Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, the playwright Oscar Wilde and the writer Marcel Proust. The city of Paris has launched a lottery which will give winners the chance to pay for repairs to existing graves and monuments in exchange for the chance to be buried alongside such starry company. Simon Cooper, a Paris-based journalist for the Financial Times, explained to my colleague Tim Franks why these cemeteries are so revered.