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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. To finish up today, in our last 15 minutes, we're going to open up the phones for a perennial Brian Lehrer Show call-in. Immigrants from anywhere, tell us a news story from your country of origin that you think other people should know. What's important, what's interesting from your country of origin? Immigrants from anywhere, call or text 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Obviously, we know the New York area is home to people from literally all over the world and this station tries to reflect that.

We aired the BBC News Hour before this show, and there's still so much news from around the world that never makes it into the mainstream American press even here. Tell us those stories at 212-433-WNYC. It's a perennial Brian Lehrer Show call-in. Perennial because we come back to it periodically throughout the year. Immigrants from anywhere, tell us a new story from your country of origin that you think other people would be interested to know about or should know about. What's important? What's interesting? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

One reason we're doing this today is that we thought people with ties to India might want to call in on the story that Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off the public portion of his US visit by doing yoga on the United Nations’ front lawn. This evening he'll address a joint session of Congress and have dinner at the White House as part of his trip that political analysts are saying is intended to strengthen ties between the two countries, particularly uniting the US and India against threats from China. According to The Guardian, the event drew actor Richard Gere, New York Mayor Eric Adams and the UN General Assembly President. They're not often in the same room.

Listeners with ties to India, what more do you want to add to that story? Give some context from the perspective of you as an individual or your community. How is the press in India reporting this trip, and given the authoritarian and Hindu nationalist band of Modi and the criticism that he gets for that from some quarters though he seems to have a lot of support in India as a majoritarian nationalist. Let everybody know what you think about him. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. That's one story.

Another one, for months now, countries in Europe have tightened their regulations on gender-affirming care. Relating to our last segment, on Friday, the National Health Service in England, which is publicly funded, announced it will not routinely prescribe so-called puberty blockers for people under 18, those hormone blockers typically given to young people experiencing gender dysphoria in order to delay the onset of puberty. According to BBC, puberty blockers will only be prescribed to children attending gender identity services as part of clinical research.

A lot of media has focused on the missing Titanic area submarine obviously that was headed to see the wreckage of the Titanic. Some of the American press might have missed this. A small fishing boat of migrants from many countries capsized off the coast of Greece last week. The number of people recovered dead is mounting by now, Al Jazeera reports at least 181 people from Pakistan and 28 from Pakistan-administered Kashmir are among the deceased victims of one of the worst sea disasters in the Mediterranean. So little focus on that, so much on this tourist submarine. Not to say the tourist submarine is not a crisis and that we don't feel for those people, but how about those 181 People from Pakistan and 28 from Pakistan-administered Kashmir?

Anyone else who's home countries have interesting stories that you would like to relate to a broader US audience, we invite your calls, our occasional call-in for immigrants from anywhere for a new story from your country of origin that you think everyone else would be interested to know or should know. What's important? What's interesting? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Namina in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Namina?

Namina: Oh, good morning. Brian, I love to talk to you. You make me so happy and you make me feel extra smart. I walk around, I go to the Brooklyn Food Corp and I go, "Well, what are you listening to?" I say, “I'm listening to Brian Lehrer." I seem very intelligent right now. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Well, I'm sure you're very intelligent, anyway. What do you got for us?

Namina: Well, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa, the election is going to happen on Saturday the 24th, and right now, Brian, it's so bad in that country now. The President, he's arresting retired military officers, children are being killed that are protesting. You have the SLPP, the Sierra Leone People's Party, and then you have APC, All People's Congress. The SLPP is in power and it's just killing. You can't buy rice. When I was growing up in Sierra Leone, we have everything that you grow, everything grow on the soil. Now you can't even buy anything.

The guy is just bad, bad, bad, bad news. It's so terrible, Brian, and I don't hear nobody's talking about it. All I hear it's about this submarine, who's a human, I'm a mother, I feel for the people and then Ukraine. I don't want to see anybody going through that, but Sierra Leone has gone through so much, and we do not need this.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think there are certain policies of this leader that have caused the problems with, I guess you're saying even being able to afford buying rice?

Namina: When the blood diamond happened, this was one of the guys. How did they put him in power, I do not know. I talk to my sister every day and I go, "You guys voted for him." This was one of the bad guys when the blood diamond was happening in Sierra Leone. How does he get the seat in the parliament, I do not know. I blame the British, Brian. I blame the British. They put him there so they could get whatever they want, and the resources, the diamond, the gold. This is just a child of Freetown, Sierra Leone talking.

Brian Lehrer: Namina, thank you very much. Do call us again. Victoria in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Victoria?

Victoria: Hi, Brian. Thanks so much for having me. I actually called you two years ago when my oldest was a baby. I came from Russia from St. Petersburg in 1990 by myself to take a look, and 33 years, years, here I am. I wanted to throw a few ideas your way because I love how you discuss things. First of all, when I first came in 1990, I left the Soviet Union, and America was the land of the free. Then when we had Trump elected, I'm like, "Oh, my God, my new country, my home is turning into basically, the Soviet Union." That was very disturbing, and now we have this war, which obviously I do not support.

What I wanted to say is that for me, St. Petersburg is the city that should probably be its own country, because it is not Russia, just like New York is not America. For me, a special pain is that Putin was born and raised in that city. The elections are coming up and there is a resistance. People always try to talk about, "Why aren't people not revolting?" They are, but you know how many political prisoners there are, and it's really there's no forum anymore because everything is state-controlled, the media, the internet. They have no access to any outside online resources.

I just want people who listen to your show to just let them know that there is a struggle. People are still fighting. It's like new circle of history. We have a new dictator, and now we have people who are dissidents, who are leaving the country, and then we have some in doubt when books are banned. My book was supposed to be translated into Russian and it was. It's a novel about-- Well, actually, it's three women in love with a whatever, triage and holy gay pride, and it's now banned in Russia. It was supposed to be published, now I’d say they call it a gay witch hunt.

Brian Lehrer: I know. Your point is don't think that everybody from Russia is Vladimir Putin, or holds his views, it's more complicated than that.

Victoria: Yes. I have a ton of friends who are helping Ukraine every way they can, the people who went there to fight, people who raise money, myself included. We are fighting, I just want you to know from within Russia, and outside of it, so you know [unintelligible 00:09:18]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Thank you so much. Looks like we have callers on different sides of the Modi question. Sunita in DC, you're on WNYC. Hello, Sunita?

Sunita Viswanath: Hi, Brian. It's wonderful that you took my call. It's great to be back. I've been on your show before. I'm Sunita Viswanath. I'm the Co-Founder of Hindus for Human Rights. I was part of the protests that happened yesterday morning, early morning outside the UN, where Narendra Modi was celebrating yoga inside the UN along with Mayor Eric Adams, I'll add. Today, I'm in Washington, DC- -also protesting right outside the White House at BLM Plaza.

The message that I have is that this ideology, Hindu nationalism, that is fueling India, the country that I'm from and that I love, it shifts drastically to the right from a democracy to theocracy is happening, not just in India far away, but it's got its footprint right here in America. As Americans and New Yorkers, we have to wake up and be alert. The fact that our mayor was inside the UN yesterday, the fact that we have certain elected officials that are very supportive of the Indian government, the fact that our government is laying out the red carpet for Narendra Modi, all of these things should be of great concern to us.

Brian Lehrer: Sunita, I'm going to leave it there. Your point is very clear. Do keep calling us but just for time, I want to get the caller with the other point of view on and then go beyond that if we can squeeze in at least one more call after that. Virendra in Middlesex, you're on WNYC. Hello, Virendra?

Virendra: Hello, Brian. Thank you very much for taking my call. Actually, I was listening to the other callers as well. Unfortunately, in the world, people have little idea about certain things, and they come out with great comments. I have served in the Indian military for 22 years, commanded an infantry battalion for 12 years in insurgency against the Afghani terrorists in Kashmir, so I know the ground value and [unintelligible 00:11:35] what happens. I also participated in the country’s the operations against the writings, how the writing took place.

Brian Lehrer: You're a Modi supporter?

Virendra: I'm not a Modi supporter. I'm a US supporter, I'm a nationalist and there's nothing wrong being a nationalist. I am in the United States. My loyalty lies to the flag of the United States. Similarly, if somebody is having the loyalty to the flag of India, we should respect that and support them, because nobody talks about as to how the Godhra took place. Initially, there are two bogeys of Hindu people were burnt alive, people, two people. 150 people are burnt alive in broad daylight by the Islamic people. Nobody talks about that, because that doesn't get them to 18% ballot vote. Everybody's talking about that.

Even today, Mr. Modi has done so much of development in last nine years that governments have not done last 60 years. I felt this is not for Hindus or for Muslims, it's for everybody. Thousands of housings were allotted in which majority of houses are given to the people from Islamic faith.

Brian Lehrer: Well, obviously, we're not going to settle all those debates today. I know people would disagree with your take or the slant on the take that you gave us just there, but Virendra registered in this short segment. A little taste of debate among Indians from the two callers. Let's get one more in here from a whole other part of the world. Pathe in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. We've got about 30 seconds for you so hi.

Pathe: Hi. I want to talk about the situation in Senegal. A president will want to run for a third term.

Brian Lehrer: Are you for this President?

Pathe: No, because the Constitution doesn't allow him to run for three times. The people are protesting and he has a militia shooting the people who are protesting.

Brian Lehrer: Not only running for a third term, but threatening to turn it into an authoritarian state, I think I hear you're saying.

Pathe: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Pathe, thank you very much. Callers, thank you, immigrants from everywhere calling in with news from your countries of origin. We'll keep doing these call-ins from time to time in addition to obviously doing dedicated segments on some of the stories from around the world.

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