World Tour: Pakistan swears in new prime minister

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Niger coup update — Today’s World Tour starts off in Niger.

SOUND: [Protest]

Junta leaders late Sunday said they now have enough evidence to try the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum for high treason.

ABDRAMANE: [Speaking French]

Col. Major Amadou Abdramane says Bazoum undermined Niger’s internal and external security by speaking with foreign leaders and international organizations.

Junta leaders detained him last month and dissolved the country’s democratically elected government.

The coup has received some support in Niger.

SOUND: [Singing and dancing]

Thousands of people crowded a sports stadium in the capital city of Niamey on Sunday. They sang and waved flags at the concert set up to support the army.

Meanwhile, the regional West African bloc has activated a standby force ready to stem the latest military takeover.

LAWALI: [Speaking French]

Salif Lawali, a Niamey resident, says he believes regional leaders will be forced to negotiate with the junta.

On Saturday, a Niger military delegation visited military leaders in Guinea to thank them for their support as they seek to tighten alliances against rising international pressure.

SOUND: [Pakistan's National anthem]

Pakistan’s new PM — In Pakistan, authorities have sworn in a new caretaker prime minister after much political instability.

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, a former senator, took his oath of office on Monday.

ANWAAR-UN-HAQ KAKAR: [Speaking Urdu]

He is now tasked with choosing a new cabinet ahead of elections slated for November.

Pakistan has battled political unrest after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote last year. He received a three-year prison sentence this month and is disqualified from running for office for the next five years.

Russian pastors detained — Next to Russia where secret police arrested evangelical pastor Albert Ratkin last week while investigating charges of discrediting the Russian army. Ratkin pastors an evangelical church in the Russian city of Kaluga. He has been a longtime voice against government overreach and has been outspoken against the war on his YouTube channel. In 2021, he spoke with WORLD about his concerns about Russian believers’ rights.

RATKIN: If you invite someone to the church, the law says you must have a special document to invite people. We said, “No no no, it’s in our constitution we confess our faith!” They said: “No no no! You must have special documents from your religious organization to preach or to invite people.”

Police kicked down doors in Ratkin’s church before confiscating computers and other electronic equipment. They also arrested his wife and searched his home.

AUDIO: [Russian news report]

This report on Russia’s main television channel accused Ratkin and Moscow pastor Yuri Sipko of connections to an “extremist pro-American religious group.”

The charge of discrediting the Russian army carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Yemen hostages freed — We head over to Yemen, where five U.N. security staffers have regained their freedom after 18 months of captivity.

Insurgents from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula abducted the group in February 2022 from Yemen’s southern region of Abyan.

David Gressly is the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

GRESSLY: They’re in good health, good spirits, despite everything that they went through, but they went through a very difficult, very difficult period of 18 months of isolation.

Gressly added the terror group poses an increasing threat in the country.

SOUND: [Piano]

South Africa piano tech — We close today in South Africa with the first black African to get certified as a Steinway piano technician.

SOUND: [Music]

Tshepiso Ledwaba tunes concert pianos to prepare them for professional performances. It’s a dying art since not many people can afford the expensive instruments.

Yet Ledwaba says it’s an important skill.

LEDBAWA: We need to teach it, it's artisanry, it's like every field of artisanry. Everyone needs to know how to use their hands.

SOUND: [Music]

His work has inspired some music students.

STUDENT: Seeing him on the field actually makes me, it made me glad and more passionate actually, yeah, to encourage other people also to went into music not only to play but there's also other fields around music or maybe around the industry I could put it, they can actually work on, yeah, master their crafts.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere.

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