Secret Service shoot armed man at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Hello and welcome to News Hour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. We're going to bring you some voices of defiance today. The sound of those who refuse to be cowed in the face of violence from another country's military, from their own country's security forces and from a network of abusive men. And we'll also head to Northern Italy for the close of the Winter Games in an interview with the Winter Olympics greatest ever athlete. First, though, we're heading to Florida and the shooting dead of a man who had attempted to breach the secure perimeter at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. President Trump wasn't there. He was in Washington at the time. Rick Bradshaw is the sheriff of Palm Beach County and gave this update. They confronted a white male that was carried a gas can and a shotgun. He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him. at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position. At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat. He is deceased at the scene. Richard Luscombe is a reporter for The Guardian US, based in Miami, Florida. Richard, thanks for your time here on NewsHour. Have any further details emerged? We now have a name for the suspect. from US media in North Carolina. I've identified him as 21-year-old Austin Martin. It's still early in the investigation, and detectives now will be working to compile a profile of who Mr. Martin was and what compelled him to drive from North Carolina to Florida. We don't know if the suspect was aware that President Trump was in residence or not in residence. As you've noted, he was in Washington, D.C. at the time. So the investigation is still in its early days. They want a better idea of who the suspect was. Are we clearer as to just how big a security breach this was? I mean, how far he managed to penetrate inside the estate? Yeah, he didn't get very far in at all. It appears that he was waiting in his vehicle outside. So President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence is an oceanfront resort in Palm Beach. There's a road, the coastal road that runs along it. The gate opens and closes as cars come and go. And from what we've learned, the gate opened to let our vehicle out and the suspect drove straight in. And he was confronted just inside the gate. So he was a way away from the building, just got inside the perimeter when the secret agents, secret service agents and sheriff's deputy confronted and shot him. Security around a president and the president's properties is always tight. Is the consensus in the US that things have become even tighter, given that Donald Trump, I mean, he survived two assassination attempts now? Yeah, correct. The security at Mar-a-Lago is usually pretty tight, even when he's not there. Most weekends during the winter, the president does come down to Florida and spends weekends here. It's unusual this weekend that he didn't. He was in the White House. But there's always secret service agents and local sheriff's deputies on scene. You referred to the other assassination attempt. If this is indeed what it was, it will be three times inside two years that somebody who was armed has attempted to get to the president. The one in 2024 during the election campaign during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the president was shot in the ear. and that would-be assassin was killed by Secret Service agents there. Another incident followed later that year in September of 2024, quite close to Mar-a-Lago, when an armed suspect was found with a rifle at President Trump's golf course near Mar-a-Lago and he was apprehended before he fired any shots and he was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month. So, yep, security pretty tight around here. Richard Luscombe, a reporter for The Guardian US, based in Miami, Florida. Thank you very much for bringing us the latest. To Ukraine now and that continuing assault by Russia almost four years to the day since Vladimir Putin ordered a full scale invasion. The Ukrainian Air Force says that in the latest nationwide bombardment, Russia launched dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones. One man was killed and four children injured in the Kiev region, energy and rail infrastructure, were also damaged. We'll hear from our correspondent in Kiev in a moment, but there's also been an intervention from abroad, from the man who was British Prime Minister four years ago when Russian troops poured across the border. Speaking to the BBC, Boris Johnson said that a proposed future deployment of British and other European NATO troops to Ukraine should not now wait until there might be a ceasefire. There's no logical reason that I can see why we shouldn't send some peaceful ground forces there to show our support, our constitutional support for a free independent Ukraine. This is a political thing. It's about whether Ukraine is a free country or not. If it's a vassal state of Russia, which is what Putin wants, then obviously it's up to Putin to decide who comes to his country. If it's not, then it's up to the Ukrainians. Paul Adams is our diplomatic correspondent who's currently in Kiev. We'll get on to Mr Johnson's suggestion in a moment, but first, Paul told me more about that overnight assault from Russia and reports of a lethal explosion in the western city of Lviv. Two sort of separate developments there, Tim. One, as you say, ongoing attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, energy facilities, as always. but also, interestingly, railway and municipal water supply infrastructure. And people are a bit worried that as the winter comes to an end, the Russians might turn their attention away from power to water with the similar desire to try and disrupt lives for ordinary Ukrainians. So that's been one aspect of it. But the incident in Lviv overnight was very interesting. Around half past 12, there was a report of a break-in at a store in Lviv. The police arrived and then there was at least two explosions, which killed one 23 year old policewoman and injured about 25 more people, some of them quite seriously. Now, the Ukrainians say that within 10 hours of the explosion, they had detained a 33 year old woman near the Polish border. And they say that there are grounds to believe, and I'm quoting here from the police, that the crime was committed on the orders of Russia. Now, this would not be the first case of its kind involving an episode of sabotage conducted by a Ukrainian civilian on the alleged instructions of the Russian special services. That seems to be the the line of inquiry that is being pursued by the authorities. And yeah, as I say, there's there's quite a long history of this. Hundreds of people in the last two or three years have been arrested for similar types of offences. May I ask you about that comment that we heard from Boris Johnson about trying to shake up the picture inside Ukraine by deploying British troops and I presume possibly also other European troops from NATO countries inside Ukraine before any putative ceasefire. I mean, what do you make of he's certainly been sort of one of the more gung ho leaders when it's when it comes to talking about Ukraine and supporting Ukraine? What do you make of the of this this plan from him or this proposal? Well, I mean, he is certainly one of the more gung ho and his name is held still in high regard here in Ukraine. I think it was quite telling in that clip that you played that he was a little bit vague and hesitant when he described exactly what this pre-ceasefire deployment might be. He said, you know, peaceful forces. He seemed to be struggling for exactly the right term. And I think that is quite telling. He's not the first person, by the way, to suggest that it would be a good idea not to wait for a ceasefire. The former NATO Secretary General Anders Föhr-Rasmussen said much the same in September. And there was an interesting moment at the recent Munich security conference when a frustrated Ukrainian MP asked President Emmanuel Macron why this wasn't happening beforehand. The argument, of course, is that as long as there is no ceasefire, then there are no foreign troops arriving in the country. And that is clearly suits Vladimir Putin very well. So there is an argument. Get those troops in and force him to the table. A correspondent in Kiev, Paul Adams. The cost of this war, this war in Europe, is beyond most of our imagining. One way we can, perhaps, gain an insight is through the individual stories, such as that of Sergei Stachowski, a former professional tennis player, who in 2013 knocked the great Roger Federer out of Wimbledon. Four years ago, Sergei was on holiday in Dubai with his family, celebrating his recent retirement from professional tennis after his final appearance at the Australian Open. When we first spoke to him here on the BBC World Service, Serhi told us that he had left them behind and returned to Ukraine to fight. He's been serving with one of Ukraine's elite units ever since. And Julian Warica from our sister programme Weekend has just caught up with him. I've changed, I guess, a lot in these four years. Really a lot. How specifically? I guess it's not only me. I think it's all Ukrainians. We just got used to the circumstances we live in. We got used to losing friends. I mean, you never get used to go to the funerals, though. That's kind of tough still. You got used to aerial alarms. You got used to shakets coming into the buildings next to you. Ballistic missiles blasting all over your city. I mean, it's a bad adaptation, but I guess that what all of us endeavor and that we live in these circumstances. And I'm definitely much more confident in my actions than I was four years ago. And they don't scare me anymore as they used to. Which is what? Sort of being hardened, almost because you have to be hardened by what's been happening? I would say so, yeah, most likely. You become numb to certain things. Well, you do feel stressed, but it's a different way. You feel fear, but it's also in a different way. So everything is like fading away. But again, it's in my case, I guess. And I would say the only thing that's really left pretty stable is the eagerness to fight. It's not even the eagerness to fight, it's eagerness to bring some justice to this. And that's what drives you and others, is it? Yeah, for me it's the same motivation. It's just the fairness and the justice of what's been done to us and what we have to do to repay it. When you've been closest to the front line and you have been on a number of occasions... A couple of years I've been there, yeah. Yeah I mean when that at its worst what are you seeing What happening each day around you Destruction death explosions noise no electricity, no water, no internet, no heat. And what's the camaraderie like around you as you all fight together? It's not a camaraderie, it's a brotherhood, I would say. It has more senses than a family member than a friend. I've been particularly lucky with the group of people or any unit I serve because you can really come up with everything that bothers you, whether it's family or something else, and there'll be brothers who are willing to help and know how to help and they actually care to help you so they know that if you're mentally in a good place, then you'll get the job done, which is very crucial, I would say, in this long-lasting war. And that was Sergei Stachowski, a former professional tennis player turned a soldier in the Ukrainian army. He was speaking to Julian Warica. You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. and coming up on the program there's been a second day of protests at iranian universities with crowds chanting death to the dictator we'll hear from the bbc persian services senior reporter who's been one of our team verifying videos of protesting students on social media one of the striking videos that we saw from today was a video of students at Sharif University, which is one of the best universities in Tehran, raising the flag of Lion and Son, which is a nod to pre-1979 monarchy. And that has a risk for them as well, because they're opposing the establishment while they're showing their support for the monarchy. That's coming up in 15 minutes. A couple of headlines in the BBC newsroom as we've been hearing the US Secret Service agents have shot dead a man who broke into President Trump's Florida estate carrying a shotgun and a fuel can. And we'll be hearing from the Winter Olympics in about 25 minutes. This is NewsHour, live from the BBC with me, Tim Franks. One of the biggest news stories of the week has been the arrest in England of the King's brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, over his links to the sex offender and financier, Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied all wrongdoing. Epstein had been found guilty of soliciting prostitution with a child back in 2008. He continued to traffic women and children for a decade after that. After finally being indicted again, he was found dead in his cell in August 2019. Now, as reporters, as well as investigators, trawl through the cache of documents relating to Epstein and released by the US Department of Justice. Emails have surfaced suggesting that two Royal Protection Officers from London's Metropolitan Police were instructed to provide security for a dinner party at Epstein's New York home. The BBC's Tom Simons is covering this story for us and is here in the NewsHour studio. Tom, what more do we know? Well, this is an email chain starting, I think, with Andrew's private secretary. asking for information about where protection officers would stay during a visit in December 2010 to New York, where former Prince Andrew was due to stay with Jeffrey Epstein in his house. And in these internal emails, it appears that Epstein staff are confirming there is room for, this is a quote, room for both Andrew's bodyguards, one on the fourth floor and one on the fifth floor. and the emails also suggest that these two officers were given a temporary security code so they could get in and out of presumably what was a digitally controlled door on this New York property which I think does raise some questions about the knowledge that officers had when they were with Andrew on these perhaps less official visits and the Metropolitan Police have said this week that they are asking protection officers to go back and remember what they know of some of these visits. Right. So the point here is not that they should not have been there because at the time he was a senior royal, he would have needed protection. But the question is, could these members of the police force have seen things which could be germane in an investigation? Exactly. I don't think there's a suggestion here that this was a misuse of public funds by providing two police officers to travel with him. I think our understanding is that when he travelled privately, there was still some protection. It was the official visits where a committee called the Royal Visits Committee reviewed plans for the working royals. And that's a committee made up of various government departments, the Royal Household No. 10 and the Cabinet Office. But as you say, I think the police are concerned to know that there may or may not be information out there which protection officers had, perhaps, you know, didn't talk about because of their relationships with their principals, that now is germane to what is going on in these investigations. And just to be clear, I know you've spent some of the day at Windsor, at the site of Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor's previous residence. Police are still searching that. They are. As far as we're aware, they're still searching. It's obviously taking place behind closed gates. And it's taken four days so far, which may surprise people. How long does it take to search, you know, one house? Well, it's quite a sizable house. But I think more importantly, this is an investigation that is likely to be looking back some decades in the past. And so what they're looking for is records of what happened in whatever form those records might take. So they might be documents and they might be data. So on devices and, of course, finding that and being sure that you've searched a property, property thoroughly. These are specialist search officers. I have no doubt employed by Thames Valley Police to do this work is absolutely crucial if you're doing this sort of an investigation. Tom Seidmans, thank you very much indeed for being in the NewsHour studio and giving us the latest on that story. Sometimes in these cases and the questions about who knew what when, who was part of Epstein's network of abuse, the voices of the victims and the survivors can be drowned out. We wanted to try and redress that balance a little. And so my colleague Julia Morica has been speaking to Marina Lacerda. She met Epstein in New York in 2002, having emigrated from Brazil and when she was just 14 years old. It's a story which, by its nature, includes some distressing details. What led me up to Jeffrey Epstein is I think what, you know, a lot of the girls have some similar stories to mine. I was very vulnerable. I became the head of household at the age of 13 because my stepfather abused me from the ages of eight till 12 and he went to jail and my mother never you know went to work and never took care of the house and our relationship fell apart and a friend of mine had told me about Jeffrey Epstein and he was very rich and powerful and he you know had connections and I would go there for a massage and I would get $300. But when I got there, it was something completely different than what she had told me. He was very nice in the beginning. He had asked for my name and asking about what my life was and all these things and me being vulnerable, coming from Brazil, being 14, taking care of a house. I poured my heart out to him thinking he was going to help me. And he had asked me to take off my bra and I told him that I wasn't going to and I shook my head no and he went to go touch me and I was like I froze and I just pushed his hand away and the girl had said something that I was being a prude and not having fun and she came around and he was he was okay with it he wasn't mean he was like it's okay it's gonna take some time for her to get comfortable with me and she came around next you know, where I was and they aggressively did all sorts of things. And, you know, he, when he was done, he paid her and she gave me the money and she was upset with me that I didn't, you know, follow his orders. And really, that's how I got into Epstein's world. And once you're in Epstein's world in those circumstances, it's clearly very, very difficult to get out of it again. It's very difficult to get out. And it's not only because, you know, Epstein made sure for the girls to know the survivors, the victims at the time that he had power over the government, he had power over the bank, he had power with prominent people. And he made sure that you knew that. And that alone is very, very scary. You don't know what this person is really capable of, especially being 14. And I think it put everybody, all the girls in a position where they didn't know what to do except to follow his orders. Once you got into that world and once you knew who Jeffrey Epstein was and who was around him, it was very hard to just leave and being vulnerable, being 14 and making that money that you don't make. I think it's very hard to just pick up and leave. I read that when you were reached the age of 16 or 17 he told you you were too old for him is that right? so when I reached the age of 17 I started to work in a coffee shop in Astoria and I had lied to that coffee shop and told them that I was 18 because in New York you have to be 18 to serve alcohol and that coffee shop also served alcohol and I was making a good amount of money but I also started to wear makeup to look a little bit older and I really started to just really be you know, mature myself because I was around people who were much older than me. And Jeffrey Epstein really told me, hey, listen, you know, like, you're no fun. You don't bring me any more girls that are, you know, young because I was meeting girls that were over the age of 18. And he didn't like that. He said it jokingly, like, you know, you're just old and no fun. But obviously, there was a lot of truth to it. Because right after that, it was like, He broke up with me, you know, when you just break up with somebody. And he didn't break up with me by telling me, hey, I don't want to see you anymore. He just stopped calling and stopped reaching out to me. And that was Marina Laceda, an Epstein survivor, speaking to my colleague Julia Morica. You're listening to News Air. Start a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles. Designer, marketer, logistics manager. All while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Uhm, I understand that you want to listen to your podcast, so I'll keep it short. Because if you think it's important to make a lot of choices, maybe ASR can help. 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Now, one of the more touching stories from the Winter Games came on Valentine's Day, eight days ago, when Kim Mailamans of Belgium and Nicole Silveira of Brazil both competed in the skeleton, that event where you hurtle down the ice headfirst. The thing is, Kim and Nicole are married, which made us wonder whether it's a bit awkward competing so publicly against your spouse. But let's start with a gentler question. How have the Games been? Nicole first. For me, my only other experience was Beijing 2022, and obviously that was during a pandemic, so it was quite a contrast experience for me. We were able to have our family and friends out here with us after the race, which was super special, and to be able to have them during the race as well, and just to have the crowd there, and just to be able to do more things and explore the town and actually enjoy the village, that was quite special comparatively to Beijing 2022. And Kim, how was it for you? I mean, you came sixth, which is a very creditable performance. Were you happy? Thank you. Were you happy with the way the race went? Yeah, I mean, we're small nations in this sport. We don't have millions in budget. So I think we did the maximum that was possible. I'm really happy with my performance. I think this was the maximum possible. And yeah, I'm happy with it. So I'm now going to ask you the completely obvious question, which is what it is like to compete against each other. I mean, in order to be an elite sports person, you do have to have a competitive streak. You do have to want to beat the others, especially in individual events. Kim, let me start with you and we'll see if Nicole answers any differently. I think we've come a long way. I think it was very difficult in the beginning, especially when we had difficult performances. performances one had a good day one had a not so good day then it's obviously really hard to find the balance and celebrate but also be respectful of the others experience but I think the good thing is and that's what we try to do is look at skeleton a bit differently like we race against the clock we don't really fight against each other directly like we're not in a boxing match against each other so what the other does doesn't really impact our performance so we try to separate it and just really do what we both can do individually and try and keep our relationship separate at the end of the day. But Nicole, I guess, yes, in the moment you're racing the clock, but in all the preparation, I mean, you're talking about tips and techniques. Are those things that you share with each other completely? Absolutely. I think that's the beautiful part of our marriage and teamwork is that we can fully trust each other. I know when it comes to bigger nations, there tends to be a lot of secrets between athletes because they are competing against each other. But for us, I mean, I felt 100% that I could trust her and I could tell her everything I knew and she could do the same the other way around. And I think that was also the beauty of having the two of us is being able to teach each other and help each other out. whereas in that way we were able to develop and perform faster and better compared to just having one brain and one person figuring it out alone, you know. Nicole Silvera and her wife Kim Mailamans of Belgium speaking to me from the Winter Games in Northern Italy. This is NewsHour. It's live from the BBC in London. I'm Tim Franks. We've yet to learn the full numbers of those killed in Iran's repression of the anti-government protests last month. One leading Iranian human rights group has just updated its tally to more than 7,000, but it's thought the final figure could be many more. And yet, despite the brutality of that crackdown, demonstrators in locations across the country have taken to the streets for a second day. The sounds coming from students at the prestigious Sharif University in Tehran chanting Long Live the King, a reference to the pre-Iranian revolution monarchy. There were also people chanting No to theocracy, No to the monarchy. Kronche Habibi Azad is monitoring events for us. She's a reporter with the BBC's Persian service. What's she been seeing? I've seen videos of protests happening in some prominent universities in Tehran. Today, there were more universities involved compared to yesterday when the protests have ignited again. And from the chants that I'm hearing, many of them are in support of the pre-1979 monarchy and they're chanting in favour of Shah. So Iran before the Islamic revolution had a monarch and the exiled son of that monarch Reza Pahlavi is a prominent opposition figure as well outside Iran and they were chanting in favour of him. At the same time they were chanting against establishment, against the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And the protest also happened in Mashhad in at least one of the universities there which is the birthplace of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Right, so a rather pointed protest there. You mentioned that there's, along with the chance against the government, there have been chance in support of the monarchy. Have we seen the flags that previously had been raised, which were the old flag of Iran? One of the striking videos that we saw from today was a video of students at Sharif University, which is one of the best universities in Tehran, raising the flag of Lion and Son, which is a nod to pre-1979 monarchy. And that has a risk for them as well, because they're opposing the establishment while they're showing their support for the monarchy. And I have to mention that Iran recently had a widespread protest that started in late December. And while it started over the issue of economy in Iran, it morphed into an anti-establishment protest. And thousands were killed during that protest. And it's very interesting that the protests have ignited again. And one of the reasons for that, I presume you're assuming, is, well, obviously, that discontent continues against the Iranian government. But also that we're at this significant point in the Shia period of mourning, these 40 days. Do you think that is what has prompted people to go out onto the streets again? It's very significant around the period of 40 days after someone has died. They go and revisit the graves. And some of the videos that we have been seeing recently is of families going to the graves of their loved ones. But against what the establishment has tried to do of playing Koran and other religious songs, we are seeing people dancing during the mourning period. And that is very significant because it shows that they're also protesting to the establishment. I guess also there's this background of tension about whether the country is about to be plunged into war. There are these indirect negotiations that have been between the US and Iran. And the next round, we're told, is scheduled for Thursday. But how far do you think people inside Iran are thinking, actually, you know, with this enormous US military buildup in the region, we could be plunged back into conflict anytime soon? From the people that I'm hearing, especially young people inside, some of them have told me that maybe the strikes by the US will lead to a change in the establishment. And there were pro strikes, which might surprise some who are listening. But at the same time, I know that some people have packed emergency backpacks inside the country. They have prepared themselves for an imminent war if it happens. But at the same time, if the negotiations go through and if the sanctions are lifted, it's not clear if Iran's economy is going to recover. The current state of Iran's economy is worse than what it was before the protests happened in late December. And we don't know if it's going to change or improve. And that was Khanshé Habib-Yazad from the BBC's Persian service. the closing ceremony at the winter games is still in full swing these things do tend to go on for a fair amount of time we're approaching um well they haven't quite got the end of hour three but not far off um anyway uh 16 days of sport in 16 disciplines uh are what the winter games have comprised um and many of those disciplines to be honest for most of us um especially those of us who don't live in very cold countries, probably we don't spend a huge amount of time thinking about in between these Winter Olympics, from bobsleigh to biathlon, from skeleton to ski mountaineering. In a moment, we'll bring you an interview with a man who's walked away with more golds than anyone else has ever at a Games. Before that, let's get some final thoughts on, well, not just the events of today, but also the events of the last couple of weeks with James Toney, who's managing editor at the news agency Sportsbeat and is in Northern Italy. James, thanks for joining us. First of all, I mean, the marquee moment of today, not the closing ceremony, dare I say it, but the final in the men's hockey between Canada and the USA. Tell us what happened. It was a marquee moment depending on whether you're Canadian or American or not. Well, it was a big moment. I wasn't passing emotional judgment. Absolutely. In the eighth time that those two neighbours, and it was a very un-neighbourly spat, I would say today, have clashed in the Olympic final and America winning it in overtime, a goal from Jack Hughes. And the faces of the Canadians told the story. They were absolutely bereft. These guys might be multi-millionaires from the NHL, but this one really meant something for them. Because ice hockey, I mean, it's a big sport in the States, but it is absolutely huge in Canada, isn't it? It is. And add it to which, as you say, there's sort of the extra political edge in all this. It's a religion in Canada. It's a civic institution, really. People in Canada learn to skate before they can walk. And expectations of that team was really high. And the Americans hadn't won for 46 years. So nearly half a century of being the wrong side of results against Canada. So this one felt special for them today. And I mean, it is unfair to ask you to sum up the last 16 days in just over a minute. but how would you sum up the last 16 days in just over a minute? Well, look, I mean, I think we came to Italy a little bit unaware of what the Games were going to be. First time that they've been staged over this massive geographical area for Milan through to Cortina. The opening ceremony tonight in Verona, bang in the middle, hasn't staged any sport. But I think the thing that I will remember from the Games is actually not the medalist, but the athlete who didn't compete, the Ukrainian skeleton slider, who made the decision that he wasn't going to race because they outlawed the helmet he wanted to wear in tribute to those who died in the war in Ukraine. There are lots of stories from these games, but that would be the one that really stands out for me. Yeah. And, I mean, it was just one of those moments. I mean, again, a bit like the ice hockey game today between Canada and the US. You know, it's always the sports administrators who say, we don't want politics to be part of it, but politics absolutely are part of topical sports. Look, I mean, you can't stage events like this without politics. It's been interesting. It's been the first Olympics for the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry. I don't think she's particularly covered herself in glory. She's had a few shaky moments, including in a news conference a couple of days ago when she admitted she didn't know any of the answers to any of the questions that were being posed to her by reporters and actually blamed her comm staff for it, which wasn't a very good look. Hopefully, by Los Angeles, she'll have had a bit of media training and she might have found her feet. James Toney, very good to speak to you. Thank you very much for joining us from the news agency Sportsbeat Now the man who did receive the title albeit unofficial title but still pretty undisputed of the greatest athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics, and that is 29-year-old Johannes Hörsflöte Klabu from Norway. He won six golds at these games. His total haul is 11. And at these Olympics, he swept the board in all the cross-country skiing events, each one of which is gruelling, but winning them all is the running equivalent of winning everything from the sprint events through middle distance to the marathon. Has he managed to draw breath yet? No, I think it's going to take some time to really let this sink in, actually. But we were able to have a nice celebration yesterday. I was able to eat a nice dinner with my friends and family, which was nice. And now it's a busy day today as well. And then luckily we are going to head back home tomorrow. So it's going to be nice to finally sleep in my own bed for the second time in 2026. So I'm looking forward for that. Yeah. For those who maybe can't quite wrap their heads around what you have done, you compete in one of the most aerobically, physically demanding sports there is, whether it be on dry ground or in your case on snow and ice. So it's not just that you're winning gold medals in a range of sports, but you're also doing it just one after the other after the other. It is a superhuman effort. Can you explain to me where it comes from? Because it can't just be that you've got gifted genes, which I'm sure you do have. So when I started, my goal was to do the sprint first. I thought that was an easier entrance to the whole World Cup and to be on the highest level. And then year by year, we haven't just been building the endurance. And I think for sure, I've been lucky with my genes and everything, like in terms of like being fast enough. But on the other hand, it's like, there's a lot of hard work over the years. And we are training like a thousand hours every single year. And it's a lot of races, especially now in the Olympics. But I feel like I've been so privileged that I did the same in Trondheim last year in the world championship and kind of knew a little bit in terms of what the challenge is so for me to kind of do the same now it was just try to take race by race I felt like I just kept my calmness and I was just always on to the next one so I think when I crossed the finish line yesterday I was really tired and exhausted for sure but it's just also a lot of emotions that are just finally being relieved after kind of holding them back a little bit for the first five races because you know that you always have the next one. I know that you said that you're looking forward to just sort of relaxing, blowing off steam, getting back home, sleeping in your bed. I'm sure, though, that you are the most dedicated athlete. And my question, and it's slightly unfair because you've already achieved so much, but have you any thought as to how long you might be willing to go on? Oh, it's hard to say. I mean, I think my philosophy has always been that I will continue to do this as long as I think it's fun and that I enjoy it. So I think for me, that's the most important thing. And as long as I do that, I guess it could be a couple of years, but the goal is the next Olympics, first of all. And in between now and then, and I don't want to spoil your time off at all, but I mean, you've got, it is the most astonishing amount of work, isn't it, to get yourself in the sort of shape where you can compete for a goal in this most demanding of events. I mean, it's a crazy amount of work and a lot of people think it is a lot of sacrifices, you know, and for me, I think the day I will start thinking about this as a sacrifice, I think then I will also find something else to do. The Norwegian cross-country skier, 29 years old, and the greatest Winter Games athlete of all time, Johannes Hussfeld Klabu. You're with NewsHour. From the BBC, I'm Tim Franks. For the first time, the mortal remains of the Roman Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi have today gone on full public display in Italy. Previously, the bones have only been allowed to be inspected by specialists, and on one occasion, almost 50 years ago, they were shown to a very select audience, and only then for just one day. Now, as the church marks the 800th anniversary of the death of perhaps its most celebrated saint, the skeleton has gone on display in a bulletproof case in the basilica dedicated to him in the medieval city of Assisi. Friar Giulio Cesareo is the director of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis. We're expecting around 400,000 people to visit in the coming days, and this, from an organisational point of view, is really a big challenge. The majority, around 80%, are expected from Italy, but the rest will be from all over the world. One of our main challenges is, of course, security, the people's security, and keeping St Francis' display case secure. Among the initial throng queuing to pay their respects was this visitor, grateful for a glimpse of the saint's bones. It was very emotional because even by simply entering this basilica you can feel your heart open to something new, almost unprecedented, and it was a really touching moment of prayer. For me it was very emotional indeed. So why, eight centuries after his death, does St Francis continue to exert such a hold on the Catholic imagination. Vanessa Corcoran is an assistant professor at Georgetown University, specializing in church history. St. Francis of Assisi has a global enduring appeal, particularly because he preached for the moral responsibility for caring for all creatures. So this can be thought of in two ways. One, in his vow of poverty and preaching and renouncing his worldly goods. He grew up in a wealthy merchant family and renounced all of that. very publicly. And there's a wonderful fresco in Assisi showing him casting off his worldly goods. His father is standing on one side in embarrassment, and his religious brothers are standing on the other side, showing the new life that he's going to embrace. And you actually see, if you look at the top of the image, the hand of God reaching down as if to bless him. But so he chooses this life of poverty and then preaches about this moral responsibility for caring for all creatures. His most famous work is called The Canticle of the Sun or The Canticle of the Creatures. This is often considered to be the first major work in Italian vernacular literature. And I can understand that sort of theological appeal, especially these days. But what was it about him that you think sees the imagination in the way that it did eight centuries ago and in a sense hasn't really left the grip of the church ever since. Well, the two 13th century accounts of St. Francis's life, which then Renaissance artists used to depict Francis visually, focus on a lot of these lively stories. So one narrative is the story of Francis preaching to the birds and they grew quiet and began to reportedly listen in rapt attention. There is another narrative in which a wolf was terrorizing a small town, and Francis spoke to the wolf, and the wolf never bothered the townspeople again. And so you have this sort of engagement that transcends humankind and speaking to animals as well. You have narratives that show Francis as Christ-like. He is the first saint to receive the stigmata. So these are the wounds of Christ in the hands and in the feet. And this was seen as him being marked by God in living a life very similar to Christ. So these are quite fantastical narratives. And within a century of Francis's death, over 20,000 images of Francis is made. And he's a very memorable tonsured hair, the brown frock, the knotted rope around his waist with three different knots signaling his three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. So it's very visual, very memorable. And you can obviously still see Franciscan friars these days in their long brown tunics. And there are hundreds of thousands of them worldwide. You might think, listening to this, that actually his sort of his vow of poverty and his appreciation for all God's creatures in their wonderful variety might be a sort of universally popular thing for people to get a handle on. Was he and his order, though, always well received by the Vatican? Because there were popes who actually became notorious for their corruption and their licentiousness and their love of riches. So was St. Francis always revered? I think that's one of the things that makes Francis' message still so endearing. in that he offered a radical message against some of the concerns of opulence in the church, of corruption, and focusing on the simplicity, encouraging people to focus simply on their devotion to God, and brought that message to Rome. And so within some of these frescoes, we have images. There's one of the dream of Innocent III, in which he imagines hearing St. Francis speak to him, and it's ultimately what leads to him to give Francis permission to preach in a wider manner. And you do see different popes embedded in Franciscan imagery. But I think that's very important that there is a contrasting message that Francis offered with some of the opulence that was in Rome at the time. Professor Vanessa Corcoran, the man widely seen as Mexico's most powerful drug trafficker, Nemesio Oseguera, known as El Mencho of the New Generation Jalisco cartel, has been killed in a Mexican military operation from Mexico City. Will Grant has this report. Nemesio Oseguera, alias El Mencho, was considered the most wanted and one of the most feared drug cartel leaders in Mexico. Head of the powerful New Generation Jalisco cartel, it appears that he was initially injured in a Mexican military operation in the town of Tapalpa in Jalisco State and then died while being taken to Mexico City. The Mexican embassy in the US has said the operation was carried out with US intelligence. However, the response from El Mencho's cartel has been swift and violent. In as many as eight different Mexican states, the group has set cars alight, set up roadblocks and attacked security forces. Eyewitnesses have filmed plumes of smoke rising over several cities, including Guadalajara, one of the host cities of this summer's FIFA World Cup. In the tourist hotspot of Puerto Vallarta on the Jalisco coast, potentially thousands of tourists are trapped in the resort around the fighting. The US has warned its citizens to shelter in place as the violence unfolds. El Menchel ran a vast criminal organisation responsible for trafficking huge quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States. With a $15 million award on his head, he had evaded the authorities for years. His killing will be portrayed by both the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the Trump administration as a victory. And that report from Will Grant on that news that broke shortly before we came on air. From all of us on NewsHour, thanks for joining us. your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl that's shopify.nl it's time to see what you can accomplish with shopify by your side