World Tour - Colombians welcome a leftist leader

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s time now for WORLD Tour on The World and Everything in It. Here’s our reporter Onize Ohikere in Nigeria.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Colombia’s historic election—This week’s global recap begins in Colombia, where jubilant crowds welcomed the country’s first leftist leader.

AUDIO: [Crowds celebrating]

Gustavo Petro, a former rebel leader, narrowly defeated a real estate millionaire in the Sunday vote. It was his third bid for the presidency.

His running mate, Francia Márquez, is also the country’s first elected black vice president.

AUDIO: [Petro speaking Spanish]

In his victory speech, Petro called for unity and better relations with the United States. He also proposed reforms in pension, healthcare and agriculture, and how the country fights armed groups.

Colombia is battling high violence, poverty, and unemployment—struggles that have sparked anger at the traditional political establishment.

Protest in the U.K.—We head over to the United Kingdom, where protesters decried the rising cost of living.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Trade unions led marches through London on Saturday. Thousands of people held up banners and chanted for better wages and government support to buffer rising bills and other expenses.

Frances O'Grady is the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

O’GRADY: This cost of living crisis in Tory made. The Tories chose to cut universal benefit, 4 million children in poverty, shame on them

The Ukraine war has fueled inflation in Britain and across Europe. Protesters blamed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for failing to respond quickly to the crisis.

Flooding in China—Next, to southern China, where the heaviest rainfall in decades is triggering floods and landslides.

AUDIO: [Rainfall]

Authorities said the average rainfall between early May and mid-June in three of the region’s provinces reached 24 inches, the highest recorded since 1961.

Response crews have evacuated hundreds of thousands of people. The swelling waterways are endangering manufacturing and logistics operations in the area.

India and Bangladesh are also facing significant flooding.

Nigerian Christian funeral—We end today here in Nigeria.

AUDIO: [Church funeral]

Mourners gathered for a state funeral for 22 of the 40 worshippers recently killed in southwestern Ondo state. The Christians were inside St. Francis Catholic Church earlier this month when gunmen opened fire.

Abel Olatunji was one of the survivors who turned up at the funeral mass.

OLATUNJI: My family came to the church on that day. When the mass ended, we were just waiting for the father to get down from the pulpit and walk out of the church before we follow as a member.

Nigeria’s security crisis is getting worse. This Sunday, gunmen attacked a Baptist and a Catholic Church in northern Kaduna state—a region with a history of clashes between farmers and herders. The attackers killed three people and abducted at least 36 others.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour.

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