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Hello, I am Oliver Conway and this edition is published in the early hours of Tuesday, the 9th of March. A judge in Brazil clears the way for the populist left wing former President Lula to return to politics. The shockwaves of Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview continue to reverberate and fear on the streets of Yangon.

Also in the podcast, giving a voice to women accused of witchcraft in Ghana.

And I felt like I could be a voice to all of the immigrants because I am also an immigrant.

The singer speaking out for migrants around the world.

Brazil could be in store for an explosive political battle next year with the popular former left wing president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now free to take on the nationalist incumbent gyroball scenario, the divisive match up has been made possible after Lula, who spent more than 18 months in jail for corruption, had his convictions overturned by a Supreme Court judge. President Bill says he hopes that decision will itself be reversed. I asked our South America correspondent, Katy Watson, if that was likely.

The ruling will be reviewed by the full Supreme Court. What Justice Hetson fucking said was that the court in the southern city of Karachi, where he was tried, didn't have the authority to try him because the charges, these charges relate to the much wider operation, car wash, which was a graft investigation that was absolutely massive here in Brazil. And a lot of it was connected to Petrobras, the state run oil company. But he ruled that the case is connected to Lula, were not directly connected to Petrobras, so therefore they didn't have the jurisdiction.

So he recommended that the cases will be scrapped, start or start from scratch, and they'll be done in Brasilia, in the capital. So that's been a surprise decision. But as I said, it does need to be reviewed by the full Supreme Court. But in the meantime, he has the right to potentially run for the presidential elections in 2022.

OK, assuming it stays that way. He's been out of power for more than a decade, but he's still popular. Could he beat President Bulsara?

Well, I think that's what everybody's wondering, whether this will be a rerun of 2018 where he did attempt to run until he was convicted and sent to prison. And then because of his convictions, he was unable to run. I think what it did in 2018 was deeply divide Brazil's. We could see that exact same division. Lula still remains very popular among his followers. He was a president who lifted millions of people out of poverty. But his detractors feel that he was the symbol of corruption at the very top and his Worker's Party is tainted.

And that, you know, helped propel Jacob Bosna to the tops of Jiblah. No. And Lula go head to head. It'll be very interesting, but it will also be very different because 2022, its post covid-19 Jiblah now has been heavily criticized for the way he's handled the pandemic. It's a very different Brazil now. Certainly, though, it'll be full of emotion, full of division and full of intrigue. Like a politics here in Brazil is often Katie Watson in Sao Paolo.

According to early data, 17 million people in America watched Oprah Winfrey's interview with Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. During that to our conversation, the couple made a series of allegations about life inside the royal family. Megan said that she had had suicidal thoughts but had been refused help. Harry claimed his father, Prince Charles, had at one point refused to take his calls.

But potentially the most damaging comment came when Megan spoke about their son Archie in those months when I was pregnant all around this same time. So we have in tandem the conversation of you won't be given security, it's not going to be given a title. And also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born. What, and you're not going to tell me who had the conversation? I think that would be very damaging to them. That clip courtesy of Harpo Productions and CBS, The Royal Family hasn't commented, but Oprah Winfrey later confirmed it was neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip who had made the alleged comment about skin color.

Our correspondent Dina Campbell takes a look at some of the reaction to the program.

Prince Harry and Meghan's allegations that there were concerns within the royal family about how dark their son's skin would be have caused some shock making headlines and prompting discussion on social media around the world. Commentator Dr. Shallow Mosharraf Bimbo was one of the many people outraged by what she heard.

Who does that? And people would say, well, families talk about who's going to look like no families don't discuss. Well, let's have a conversation about how dark his skin might be and what that might mean. What does that mean? It's actually going to be a lot less. Is it not going to be given the same rights birthweight as his cousins?

The tennis star, Serena Williams, one of Megan's closest friends, is one of a number of famous names who've shown their support for the duchess on Twitter. She writes, I know firsthand the sexism and racism institutions and the media used to vilify women of color to minimize us, to break us down and demonize us. That Prince Charles, his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, said people should not leap to conclusions. He said Harry's comments about his relationship with his father might lead some to wonder whether Charles was behind the alleged remarks.

I would find it quite astonishing. I know him. I've known him for a long time. I have seen him with all kinds of different people of all religions, all faiths or ethnic groups in this country and elsewhere in the world. I have never seen a hint of that.

On the contrary, there's no doubt that this interview has divided opinion about the couple. One thing is clear, though, the conversation about race in the U.K. has yet again raised uncomfortable and tough questions.

Adina Campbell, the International Criminal Court has issued its highest ever reparation order, awarding a total of 30 million dollars to victims of a convicted Congolese warlord. The court said the money would come from a tribunal trust fund and a holligan reports from The Hague.

Bosco Ntaganda, who was in court to hear the decision, was sentenced to 30 years in jail for murder, rape and other atrocities. Hundreds of civilians were killed and many thousands displaced by the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those eligible for the reparation programs include victims of attacks led by the man nicknamed the Terminator child soldiers under his command, women who were raped and children born out of those sexual assaults and a Holligan.

For centuries, allegations of witchcraft have been used to scapegoat and torment women in different communities around the world. Such accusations can lead to exclusion, violence and even death. The human rights activist Marilena Motza Delli has been studying the phenomenon in Ghana, giving victimized women, many of them elderly, the chance to tell their own stories in song. The result is an album called I Forgotten Now who I used to be in.

Come on, I invited my party for. And I are some people, because on some level, my name is Marielena Millhauser, I'm a photographer, a filmmaker and author and a right activist.

Which camp Pengana I've forgotten now who I used to be, was recorded across the three rural villages in northern Ghana housing, which is for their own protection. There's often people. But also, these women wish to remain anonymous for issues of their own safety and to let the song speak for themselves.

Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya. Song titles are really self-explanatory. There are songs like Hatred Drove Me from My Home.

Ja, ja, ja, ja. Everywhere I turn, there is pain, I have lost all that I love, I trust in my family. They betrayed me, left to live like an animal.

No longer I hear the song, A Hatred that drove me from my home was composed by a woman who, just like the others, was from the underclass, elderly and disabled that are targeted usually as a ruse to steal their land after their husbands pass out of love and family.

Living in my bottom. Yum yum yum. I don't know this song.

I am a Beggar for a home was composed by a woman that was forced out of her home, stripped of her dignity and all that her land, and so was forced to live like a beggar on the street.

Yeah, these women live in isolation.

They live in loneliness and the loss of and I've got a man I met when I was nine, so the songa check nine.

Everywhere I turn there is a page not very well describes this condition, the condition of women who are dehumanized, who are completely exploited when they are at their most vulnerable, ostracized from the community, got in Nigeria when I got to Nigeria.

The government have closed the four out of six camps and more than closing the camps are providing food or what is needed is education in the community regarding mental illness, senility, Alzheimer's and the physical disabilities. The hope for this album is to spread awareness. My own mother is a disabled widow from Rwanda and is the same age as almost all of these women. We grew up poor living in a factory. It is impossible for me to look at these women circumstance and not see my own mother and an inhumane fate that, but for a matter of geography, could as well be hers.

The Rwandan Italian human rights activist Marilena Omarosa Delli and still to come on the podcast, Vaccine Nationalism in the Raw as Israel starts inoculating some of its Palestinian workforce.

Late into Monday night, the streets of Myanmar's biggest city echo to the sound of violence as we record this podcast. Hundreds of young protesters remained penned into a small district of Yangon by the security forces. The UN Human Rights Office says it's deeply concerned for their well-being. And people have taken to the streets to show their support for the demonstrators in defiance of a curfew. This was the response of the military.

James Road Hiva is the head of the Myanmar team for the UN Human Rights Office.

People awoke today to many hospitals being occupied by the military and by police. Again, there were night raids on different homes throughout Yangon and throughout the country. And mass arrests we currently are are tracking over 7500 individuals that have been arbitrarily arrested and held in detention just in the past few weeks.

Even before the latest violence, a clear pattern had emerged of killings, beatings and mass arrests by the security forces. SA, appointed as envoy to the UN for Myanmar's now disbanded parliament, told us the military seemed determined to crush all dissent.

They are aiming to harm as much as possible to put the suffering and pain of the people of Myanmar into the maximum. They have declared the war on the people of Myanmar and try to harm as many as possible. All the people who are against them will be killed or arrested or destroy completely the people of Myanmar. One democracy, the people of Myanmar, one freedom. We don't want to live under oppressive military regime.

Again, Andrew Namsan is a freelance journalist based in Yangon. He says the mood on the streets has undergone a marked change.

There was a period of time where I felt relatively safe, going directly up to police and taking photographs. I no longer feel safe doing that. There's been little violence used in Yangon now, especially on February 28th and March 3rd.

Things really changed. And I think they were reluctant to use that type of force in Yangon. But I think that as the protests continued and we're really losing any steam on their own, like they had kind of hoped they would, I think they hadn't realized that they needed to use lethal force if they wanted to, to make the protests go away.

Andrew Jacobsson, a freelance journalist in Yangon.

It was a shocking crime that once again raised questions about freedom of speech and Islamic extremism in France. Samuel Pattee, a teacher at a school in a Paris suburb, was beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. The killer, an eight year old Muslim refugee, had travelled 100 kilometres to carry out the attack.

Now, a schoolgirl whose complaints led to an online campaign against the teacher prior to the killing has admitted lying. I had the details from our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield.

The girl went to her father and complained about some little party, and then the father took it further, went to the police about him, and then, above all, launched this online campaign in which he was named and then which all sorts of things were said which energised the killer, the Chechen man, to come and kill him. The girl is at the beginning of this long chain between. What's become apparent now is that it was all based on a lie and a terrible misunderstanding of the sort of thing that happens with children of 13 constantly.

I have to say, we know this. I mean, right at the time we were reporting that she was not actually present in the class. It was strongly suspect that she wasn't. But what we know now is that she's admitted that it is a final confirmation that she's come clean and admit that she was not there. I mean, she said she'd been in the class when he showed the pictures and that he told the Muslims to put up their hands and get out and the kind of appalling apartheid scenario and that he then shown the pictures and then she went to her father and he complained and the rest of it, in fact, she hadn't been there.

What had happened was that she was already in trouble in the school. She had discipline problems. She'd been excluded and didn't want to tell her father the reason why she'd been excluded from the school. So what she said was, oh, this teacher from the party did these terrible things. I complained. I said, you can't do this. And he excluded me and kicked me out of the class. And that went to a father who believed her tail and was obviously sort of wanted to believe it and so on.

So what will happen to her now?

Well, I mean, as I say, this is not new in the sense that, you know, that she told all this to prosecutors in November. We're learning this now. So already, you know what's going to happen to it, happen to her. She's facing a possible charge for slander that that's going to be following some slow process through the French courts. In the meanwhile, she's moved away from the area and she's at another school entirely. No one really knows where she is.

Her father, of course, though, is in prison. And while she's facing a lesser charge and as a minor one, which will probably not lead to any great kind of punishment, he's facing the much more severe charge of complicity to murder because he was the one who posted the stuff online.

Hugh Schofield in Paris. Israel has started vaccinating thousands of Palestinians who hold Israeli work permits. Israel says it's acting out of a sense of shared interest, but rights groups say the government should go further in helping people in the occupied territories, especially. Given the speed at which it's been inoculating Israeli citizens, our Middle East correspondent Tom Bowman reports.

As daylight breaks, they come to work.

Thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank park, a checkpoint heading to jobs inside Israel.

And with each click of the turnstile, they're a step closer to a life saving vaccine.

Ahmed, a builder, rolls his sleeve up as Israeli soldiers look on.

This crossing is now a makeshift clinic, some of them local Palestinians.

And I hope all Palestinians can get the injection. Ahmed tells me we need to provide a normal life for our kids.

But the workers are the lucky ones. I drive through one checkpoint towards Bethlehem. There's a tough new lockdown as covid rates surge. A few signs of life on one famous street.

Heads up towards the Church of the Nativity. And I mean, you can just see everything is shot and it's dead. But I haven't had any tourists here for a year. This place is just really suffered. We bump into Father EESA, the church orthodox priest.

And what about the vaccine?

The vaccine is still not yet known anything about it. So we're waiting to see what will happen next. Hopefully soon, I know that God is over there and I'm sure that someday we'll open our eyes and we'll see the light again on another road, a family quarantine's and talks from a terrace.

If I like not have I meet Johnny.

He's recovered from the virus, but now his wife and some of the kids are sick. They've been inside more than a month.

We need the vaccine urgently so we can go back to our normal lives. In Israel. They vaccinated millions here. We didn't get it. We are asking the P.A. our authority to get us the vaccine. Our lives depend on it.

Up to three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are still waiting for vaccines. Israel says previous peace agreements give the Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule, full responsibility.

But it's been able to give out only a few thousand doses so far. The music still plays at Fahd's restaurant, just he's had to lay off 14 staff with the closures.

We feel bad. Read about all the the we the government is giving you taking the vaccine here. We ask about the vaccine. We don't know where or when this is the problem. You'll feel like you be in the corner in the world. You feel like in the corner he's been forgotten.

Yeah. Back at the Israeli checkpoint, they vaccinated hundreds of workers, but human rights groups say Israel should be doing much more in the occupied territories. Lieutenant Leo Weizenbaum is from COGAT Israeli Defense Ministries Coordination Unit in the West Bank and is more of a political decision from a higher level.

Israel is open to talking with the Palestinian side when there's an official request given, we will work accordingly as well with other international organizations or donations the Kovács program in order to facilitate that initiative.

One worker said he hadn't told his family yet about his job as they're still unprotected. While Israel's vaccine rate has been world beating and he roll out for millions of Palestinians remains painfully slow.

Tom Bateman, the U.S. State Department is giving its annual International Women of Courage award to seven Afghan women who were killed by militants in 2020. Over the past few months, teachers, human rights activists and members of the media have been targeted in Afghanistan, Secunda Kamani reports.

Amongst those being honored today are Farishta, a female prison officer killed on her way to work in the southern city of Kandahar. And Fatima Khalil, a young employee at the independent Human Rights Commission whose vehicle had a magnetic bomb attached to it in Kabul. Also on the list is Malala Maiwand, a presenter from a TV station in the eastern city of Jalalabad who was shot dead in December last week. Three more female employees at the same channel were also killed in the attacks, targeting progressive figures.

In particular, women appear to be an attempt by extremists to silence a generation of young, talented Afghans. Today, a report by a media watchdog in the country said more than 300 women working in the industry left their jobs over the past six months.

Secunda Kamani. We end this edition with a story of a woman who's been through tough times, lived to tell the tale, and used the experience to inspire others through her art layer. Felicity Martin, originally from Ivory Coast, is known to her fans as fairly chacko. She now lives in San Francisco, where she founded the African Arts Academy to help black Americans reconnect with the skills and art of their African forebears. She's released a new album this week, and she's been telling Jenni Horrocks what inspired her.

We did, and I mean, you know, my dear.

I was inspired by the trip that I took in Greece where I was invited on a humanitarian trip to assist workers who were helping the refugees in Greece. The images I saw impacted me emotionally. I've always wanted to pay tribute to the migrants who have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean to, you know, those migrants who have died. Among them could have been great artists, great inventors, somebody very great. And it's very sad. This is the reason why I named the album Eatock Deep Water.

You yourself are a migrant of sorts now living in the United States.

OK, you didn't cross the Mediterranean in flimsy boat, but did your experience give you some difficulties of your own?

This is especially why I felt like I could be a voice to all of the immigrants. Yes, I did not cross the Mediterranean by boat, but I went through a lot. My daughter was taken away from me. My passport was taken away from me. I lived in a shelter. I went to jail. It was a lot of back that I have overcame. So it's just my modest way of paying tribute to them because I am also an immigrant and I know that it's not easy.

I'm glad things have improved. What other things do you explore with your songs on this album?

I also explore Culture Celebration, talking about the Zwally Mosque, which is a mosque that celebrates women and the woman's beauty, which is a traditional there's a music from my tribe called Google in Cote d'Ivoire. Women have contributed so much in art and culture, but then they have not been given proper credit.

So it was a way to pay tribute to the Zawi mosque that celebrates woman, I guess, in them. Oh, yeah, yeah, I. You know, he got the memo. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You know, if one of my songs that is in English, it's never too late. I'm saying no matter what you go through in life, there will always be a brighter day. So it's never too late to do.

Right to make peace is never too late. Never, never too late. It's never too late. It's never too late to be funny.

Chico was talking to Jenny Horrocks.

And that's all from us for now, but there'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later, this edition was produced by Mark Duff and mixed by Martin Baker editor Karen Martin. I am Oliver Conaway. Until next time. Goodbye.