Global News Podcast: UN chief warns a 'climate time bomb' is ticking

BBC BBC 3/21/23 - Episode Page - 33m - PDF Transcript

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And the IMF pledges nearly $3 billion to help Sri Lanka out of its economic crisis.

Also in this podcast,

in China, there are 722 million men, 690 million women. And that means that there's a surplus of 32 million men to women.

A Chinese city launches a mandatory dating app to help boost the marriage rate.

The United Nations has given one of the starkest ever warnings about climate change,

a final warning it's being called. The massive report concludes that the developed countries

of the world have all the tools they need to limit rising global temperatures,

but the window of opportunity for using those tools is closing. The UN Secretary-General Antonio

Guterres called the report a how-to guide for diffusing the ticking time bomb of climate change.

It is a survival guide for humanity. As it shows, the 1.5 degree limit is achievable,

but it will take a quantum leap in climate action. This report is a clarion call to massively fast

track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every time frame.

We've heard these urgent calls to action on climate change before, but our environment

correspondent Matt McGraw told us what makes this report stand out.

I think what makes this particular report different is it's comprehensive. It's six reports

boiled down into a less than 40 page document. So thousands of pages of scientific knowledge

gleaned over the last five or six years, compressed into one fairly clear, fairly cogent document.

I think it's well balanced, very clear in this language. Perhaps the biggest difference though,

I think is the timing. I mean, five years ago, people hadn't seen the floods in Pakistan. They

hadn't seen perhaps the level of impact from climate change that people are much more familiar

with now. And I think the impacts that people are seeing, the reality that many people are living,

means that the clarity of the messages has a better chance of hitting home, perhaps.

So in terms of actual results, I mean, scientists here are saying developed countries have the

tools they need to fight climate change. What are these tools?

They say they don't have to reinvent the wheel here. Most of the things that we need to fight

climate change are already well known. A greater move to solar and wind and other renewable energy,

they have come down massively in price. The rise of electric cars, they've gone up a hundred

fold over the last decade in terms of popularity. So lots of things like that. And not just things

like that money as well. Money is obviously a big thing in climate change, but the report points out

that there's plenty of money to make the transition on climate change. It's just been

spent on the wrong things. They point to the subsidies being given to fossil fuel companies

and the fossil fuel industries and saying if that money was redirected towards a greener transition,

it would speed up that process immeasurably. Now we heard Antonio Guterres say it's not too late to

stop global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

We've also heard scientists say we will almost certainly miss that goal. How do you reconcile

those statements? No one can be sure exactly when 1.5 or the world will go past 1.5. And I think

Mr. Guterres is speaking perhaps in more general terms about the idea that we should stay below

1.5 or the ideal of it. Whereas the scientists I think in the report are looking carefully and

clearly and saying this is not going to work beyond the mid-30s. We're going to go past that

and we're going to need to take carbon out of the atmosphere to stay below that temperature in the

long term. Matt McGraw. In Paris, protesters have taken to the streets after the French

government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in parliament. This challenge was called after

President Macron used his constitutional powers to force through divisive reforms to the French

system of retirement pensions. I spoke to our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Scofield.

There were two motions of censure tabled by the opposition. One had no chance because it was

tabled just by the far right and the far left would have nothing to do with it. But there was

a motion also tabled by a centrist group which drew the votes both of the centrist group and the

far right and the left and the far left and crucially some conservatives. There's a block of

60 Gaulists, Republican party they call them, who are kind of the linchpin, the hinge of this

parliament because don't forget the Macronism minority government, he doesn't have a majority.

And this group of 60 MPs though nominally for the reform of the pension system is in fact

hopelessly divided and 20 of them went ahead and voted for this motion of censure which meant that

the number came tantalizingly close to the halfway mark at which point the government would have

fallen but it didn't reach it. It was a 278 votes when it 287 were needed. So the government has

survived but what's been revealed is this extremely weak government now in a country which is

wouldn't say insurrectional but certainly talking that kind of language. Yeah this all stems from

President Macron raising the age at which you can retire with a full pension, this incredibly

unpopular move. Why has he been so committed to that plan? What President Macron says is that

it's necessary and that it's his duty as someone who has the future of the country at heart

to see it through. It may be unpopular for him personally and for the government but it's for

the good of the country. That's what he says. The opposition of course says no you're just a

dogmatic lonely rich man's president stuck in the Elise who's totally cut off from ordinary people's

concerns and they have on their side the fact that polls certainly show that most people do not want

this reform. Why other countries have adopted it without much of a problem? Why France can't

is I think a question for historians and cultural theorists about why France finds it very difficult

to carry out any kind of reform. It's something to do with the revolutionary past and the sense that

history can only move in one direction as soon as there's a social change because the other way

they can't stop it. Huskofield in Paris. France is also grappling with the problem of unvaccinated

doctors and nurses. Thousands of health care staff were suspended without pay in 2021 after

they refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and most of them eventually got the jab and returned

to work but some of those who didn't are still treating patients. John Lawrence in reports

from a village west of Paris. A cardiologist examining a patient who's been suffering from

acute heart pain and vomiting. This is a clandestine consultation at the cardiologist's home.

Officially she's not allowed to exercise her profession. She was suspended in September 2021

for refusing to get the COVID jabs. The government made compulsory for all health sector,

retirement home and fire brigade personnel. She spoke on condition we didn't give her name.

I was summoned to the director's office in the health center where I worked

and informed that I was not allowed to work there anymore and that this was my last day.

My career was over. Looking after people, healing people is my whole life. I decided to become a

doctor when I was five years old and now I am forbidden from living out to my vocation with

no salary, no revenue, no unemployment benefits. Well not entirely without revenue as although

she doesn't ask for payment most of the patients who still come to see her usually insist on giving

her something. I asked patient Yael Dubois why she had come to see this doctor rather than a

cardiologist who wasn't suspended. Because it's really difficult to get an emergency

appointment you have to wait months. There is such a need for doctors and nurses in every part of

the health system. For me it is absolutely scandalous that these ones are suspended. Not only are they

being denied the right to work we are being denied treatments. The government says that

out of the 15,000 health sector personnel who initially refused to get vaccinated only 500

remain. But disbelief about this figure is widespread. The French hospitals federation

for example puts the number of suspended staff at 4,000. The health ministry didn't respond to

our request for an interview but the health minister François Brun recently told French radio

listeners that the ban was still justified. Should we accept that people who are inadequately

protected come into close contact with people who are the most fragile, people are still dying of

Covid every day in France and it's the most fragile who are dying. So this is both a health issue

and one of professional ethics. The French health minister François Brun ending that report from

John Lawrence. Last week we reported that the international criminal court had charged Vladimir

Putin with war crimes over his invasion of Ukraine and it seemed like the final nail in the coffin

for Mr. Putin standing on the world stage that is at least in the West. Now he's got the chance to

firm up a valuable alliance in the East as the Chinese president Xi Jinping makes a three-day

visit to Moscow. He claims to have a plan to end the war and Mr. Putin says he's reviewed it in

detail but the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Mr. Xi's proposal could merely

be a stalling tactic to help the Russian military. The world should not be fooled by any tactical

move by Russia supported by China or any other country to freeze the war on its own terms.

Such a move would violate the UN Charter and defy the will of 141 countries

who have condemned Russia's war in the United Nations General Assembly.

President Xi said he hoped the Moscow summit would give new momentum to Chinese Russian

relations. As our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg reports it couldn't come soon enough for Vladimir

Putin in the wake of those war crime allegations. The Chinese leader was welcomed with military

honors, pomp with a purpose. The Kremlin knows it needs China support more than ever now.

Later Xi and Putin met one-on-one for talks.

Xi Jinping called Vladimir Putin his dear friend and a strong leader.

The Kremlin leader praised China's economy and promised to discuss Xi's peace initiative

for ending the war in Ukraine. There the public remarks ended. We may never find out what was

said in private but we know Russia would welcome military assistance from Beijing to help it win

on the battlefield. So far though China has been reluctant to provide lethal aid fearing

secondary sanctions against Chinese companies. We know there is no detailed Chinese peace plan

so progress there seems unlikely. More likely is that in Moscow this week President Putin and Xi

will boost economic cooperation and deepen their strategic partnership with Beijing playing the

role of senior partner. That's because recent events have accelerated Russia's dependency on

China. Having burnt bridges with the West Vladimir Putin has little choice but to look east.

Well as Steve Rosenberg just mentioned there China has yet to make public this peace plan

it's promised for Ukraine. But officials in Kiev have urged Xi Jinping to use his influence

over Russia and make sure that restoring Ukrainian territory is at the center of his diplomatic

efforts. Our correspondent James Landale sent this report from the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine is

playing a cautious game. There's been no criticism of President Xi's visit to Moscow no anger at

the diplomatic boost it's given to Kiev's sworn enemy. Instead political leaders here have simply

restated the common ground they have with China namely the importance of sovereignty and territorial

integrity. The foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Ukraine expected Beijing to use

its influence on Moscow to put an end to what he called Russia's aggressive war.

Privately Kiev is lobbying hard for a phone call between President Zelensky and Mr.

Xi something that's yet to happen. Ukraine's fear is that China might give Russia weapons

but it's being patient. Ministers know that however and whenever this war ends China may

be a key player in helping to guarantee the peace and reconstruct Ukraine. So Kiev is watching and

waiting and keeping its diplomatic cards close to its chest. While Russia hopes to strike a deal

for Chinese arms the European Union has made a new commitment to buy ammunition for Ukraine.

The European Defense Agency says one million artillery shells will be supplied over the next

year. A move that Ukraine has said will be game changing. Our Europe correspondent Nick Beek reports.

The deal was agreed by defence and foreign ministers from 17 EU countries as well as

Norway. It means they will have to share details of their individual ammunition stockpiles

something that's normally kept secret. But they hope to secure lower prices by placing new joint

orders of up to one billion euros. This is new territory for the EU which emerged after the

Second World War as a project to preserve peace but continues to evolve in light of contemporary

Russian aggression. It's unclear whether manufacturers from non-EU countries such as the UK will be

able to bid for new contracts. Current ammunition production in Europe is said to be lagging behind

the levels Ukraine insists it needs particularly of one five five millimeter artillery shells.

Analysts warn it may be many months before the political agreement reached today translates

to extra firepower for Kiev on the front line. Nick Beek. In the US six people connected to

the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers have been convicted of charges relating to the January

Sixth Capitol riots of 2021. They were among thousands of supporters of Donald Trump who tried

to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory. Nomia Iqbal reports.

The Oath Keepers is a militia group founded in 2009 whose members include current and

retired US military personnel as well as law enforcement officers. There have already been

trials involving people connected to the group. In this one three women and one man have been

found guilty of entering the capital that day and obstructing an official proceeding. It carries

a punishment of 20 years in prison. Two others were found guilty of lesser charges. More than two

years on the FBI continues to make arrests and so far prosecutors have brought criminal charges

against more than a thousand people. Nomia Iqbal. Still to come. This nepotism, a hiring of family

members is something that's deeply ingrained in Afghan society. It didn't start with the Taliban

and certainly won't end with the Taliban. The Taliban issues a ban on appointing relatives to

the Afghan government. The International Monetary Fund has approved a $2.9 billion rescue package

to help Sri Lanka out of its worst ever economic crisis. And Barassan at the Rajan has the details.

The loan by the IMF offers a lifeline for Sri Lanka that defaulted on its foreign debt almost

a year ago as the country plunged into its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain

in 1948. Colombo had to take unpopular decisions like sharply raising taxes and fuel prices

as part of the conditions to secure the loan. The austerity measures led to strikes in recent

weeks. The office of President Ronald Vikramasinger said the IMF decision would help Sri Lanka to

access up to $7 billion in additional funding from other agencies. Now in return for that aid

package, Colombo has agreed to privatize its national airline and restructure state-owned

businesses. Our correspondent Archana Shukla spoke to Sri Lanka's foreign minister Ali Sabri

who led negotiations with the IMF. But we are looking at, primarily, is investment and probably

on renewable energy, energy security as a regional hub, hospitality trade, which we have not fully

realized. Some of the tougher measures and reforms you've taken, like the tax hikes or the cut in

subsidies for fuel and electricity. More such measures are in store going forward to achieve

your tough targets? I think the worst is over. The most of the tough decisions we have already taken,

tax hikes. We cannot hike the tax anything more than that, but we can probably expand the tax net.

The electricity and the fuel formula is there, so we'll continue with that formula. If the

dollar of rupee is strengthened, if the world price goes down, that benefit should be passed down

to the ultimate customer and the consumer. So bad times are relatively over, but tough reforms are

still there and public sector reforms and digitalization of some of our priorities in order to attract investment.

Sri Lanka's foreign minister Ali Sabri. A French journalist and an American aid worker have been

released years after they were taken hostage by Islamist militants in West Africa's Sahel region.

Our Africa regional editor Will Ross reports. Photos show a smiling Olivier Dubois looking

mightily relieved to be free. The French journalist was kidnapped almost two years ago whilst reporting

near the city of Gao in northern Mali. He was last seen in a hostage video that was released

about a year ago by a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It's not clear

how he was freed, but he thanked Niger for what he described as a delicate mission. Also out of

captivity is the 61-year-old American aid worker Jeffrey Woodka. He was seized at gunpoint from his

home in southwest Niger more than six years ago. An American official said no ransom was paid.

Will Ross. The Taliban took back control of Afghanistan 19 months ago, and all of a sudden

this hardline Islamist group had to form a government and a bureaucracy and start thinking

about services like water and sanitation and taxes. And it's alleged that many government

positions were filled through nepotism, with senior Taliban officials appointing their relatives to

key jobs. Now the Taliban leadership has announced a ban on that practice. Our chief international

correspondent, Lee's Doucet, has been covering Afghanistan for more than 30 years, and I asked

her what the Taliban is trying to achieve with this decree. These edicts come often randomly,

out of nowhere. So this is a new one by the man who really is in charge of the Taliban, always signed

in the name of the Emir, a very reclusive octogenarian leader who has rarely ever been seen

since the Taliban came to power. This is very much part of what the Taliban say they want to

approach a pure Islamic state, and one of its pillars has to be a drive against corruption.

But of course they're all so worried about the fact that there are so few people who are qualified

to hold jobs. There was an exodus, much of the educated middle class from Kabul. There is a

ban on women working in many of the ministries, including very educated women. So the Taliban

found themselves having to fill positions very quickly, and it must be said, a senior Taliban

have often said that a degree or some kind of learning in an Islamic school or mosque

matters more than the education they derived as being an imposition from the West. But it's also

true that this nepotism, a hiring of family members, is something that's deeply ingrained in

Afghan society. It didn't start with the Taliban and certainly won't end with the Taliban.

What with that in mind, the big question is, will this work? As always with these edicts,

no one can overturn them. We've seen them, for example, with edicts like not allowing girls to

go to high school or young women to go to university. Senior Talibs speak against those

edicts. They speak about it privately. I heard many of them expressing that to me when I was

last there in January. They even very boldly speak about it publicly, but they cannot overturn

the will of the emir. They can try to find ways around it. But what we've seen with all the edicts

that they are implemented in a very irregular fashion, that the sway of the Taliban in some of

the most remote areas is not complete. Some people undermine it in different areas. And the fact of

the matter is that Afghanistan is deeply mired in crisis. The Taliban are not excluded from this.

Their own families are desperate for money to survive. In fact, I've spoken to many young

Talibs who, before they came to power, never had any money. They were fighting for God. Now,

suddenly, they find themselves in Kabul. They're sitting at a desk. They want to get married. They

want to have a family. They need money. I think it would be very difficult to implement this latest

edict.

Lee's dissent. Last month, the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced that at the age

of 98, he was entering hospice care and refusing any further medical treatment. It prompted an

outpouring of tributes to his record of public service in and out of the White House. But for

one former politician, it was also a chance to set the record straight on an act of sabotage

that helped end Mr. Carter's presidency and prolong the Iran hostage crisis.

Rachel Wright picks up the story.

On November the 4th, 1979, at the height of the Iranian Revolution, 52 American diplomats and

citizens were taken hostage and held in the American embassy in Tehran. Every evening,

the American CBS host, Walter Cronkite, ended the news, marking the number of days they'd been

held in captivity.

And that's the way it is. Tuesday, February 19th, 1980, the 108th day of captivity,

the 222nd day of captivity, the 377th day of captivity for American hostages

in Iran.

The crisis totally consumed the last year of Jimmy Carter's presidency.

His best hope for reelection was to free the 52 captive Americans before Election Day in November

1980. But that didn't happen. The hostages were in fact released minutes after the new

Republican president, Ronald Reagan, delivered his inaugural address.

Rumors abounded that this was somehow caused by a secretive deal between the Republicans

and the Iranians. Jimmy Carter was interviewed about it in 1989.

There was a flurry of activity in the Iranian parliament, that they were going to vote on

whether or not to release the hostages. Just before the votes were cast in this country,

the parliament decided under Romania's pressure that they would not release the hostages and

this devastating negative news about hostages swept the country by the Election Day. I've always

been convinced that this was a major factor.

And now it seems President Carter was right.

Former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes has decided to reveal his part in what he

claims was a secret operation to sabotage Jimmy Carter's reelection campaign.

Mr Barnes told the New York Times that he was taken by former Texas Governor John Connolly

around the Middle East to deliver a blunt message to Iran.

Don't release the hostages before the election. Mr Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Gary Sick, who was President Carter's advisor on Iran, told the American PBS network that

Mr Barnes' revelation was the first concrete evidence that it had happened.

The amazing thing is that Mr Barnes waited for 43 years to tell his story and it's really too bad

because I think the American people would really have deserved to know if an election is being fixed.

Ben Barnes told the Times that he wanted to set the record straight after President Carter

was admitted to hospice care. The hostages ended up being held captive for 444 days.

It's of course possible that had Reagan's campaign not got involved,

they could have been released two months earlier.

Rachel Wright. Now, some of you listening at home may have used a dating app before,

like Tinder or Grindr or Hinge, but how about a matchmaking service run by your local government?

The city in China has just launched its own app and state media says everyone who's single in

town will be signed up for it, whether they want to or not. We asked our China media analyst,

Carrie Allen, why Guishi is getting into the dating game. There are many, many more men than women

in this particular city. This is actually a problem in China as a whole actually.

In China there are 722 million men, 690 million women, and that means that there's a surplus

of 32 million men to women. And the country has been making a lot of noise about trying to get

couples married because it's got a stalling birth rate. So this is one way that one local

government is trying to bring couples together. It's trying to offer a blind date service so

that people on this app can connect with others around the city and potentially get married

and have children. So we're used to local governments paving our roads, picking up our

rubbish. I'm not sure I'd want them taking care of my love life. How have people reacted to the

idea of this dating app? Very negatively. A lot of people have been saying, hang on a minute,

is my information on there? I wasn't even aware of this. And there are questions from people about

what information is on there. To give you some examples on seeing a Weibo, which is China's

equivalent of Facebook or Twitter, I'm seeing comments like, this is wrong. It should be voluntary.

And is this an invasion of privacy? That there are people who feel that this is quite questionable

and they really want to know what information is on there. At the same time, though, there are

some people who are saying this is a government platform and an official platform might be more

trustworthy than others. And they're saying, for example, if they're dating someone, they can

presumably find out by this app if they're already married.

But it's not the only city in China that's getting involved in matchmaking?

It's not at all. This has been a big discussion, a big talking point at China's two sessions,

which happened early this month, a big government meeting where there's an advisory committee who

discuss some of the changes that might be made in the country. And trying to get couples married

and having children was very much discussed on this because China's marriage rate has been falling

more and more each year. And in January, it fell below 12 million for the first time since 1985.

There are a few reasons for this. One of them is the one child policy, which has now been abolished.

But it means that there are simply fewer people to get married. But there are also other reasons

that people are actually now reluctant to get married because of the cost of living in China.

They're saying they simply can't afford to get married. And yeah, because of the surplus of

men to women, there are a lot of men in the country who simply accept that they might never get

married. They might never meet a partner. Well, there's a lid for every pot and a squirrel for

every nut, as they used to say. Carrie Allen with that story.

And that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered within it, you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on Twitter at Global News Pod.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Liam McCheffrey. The editor is

Karen Martin. And I'm Peter Goffin. Until next time, goodbye.

When you hear from experts in the media, have you ever considered their gender? Her voice,

a podcast from ESCP Business School's media, The Choice, aims to contribute to women's visibility

in their domains of expertise. We're talking business and science, willpower to change the

world and ambition to have a decisive impact on the future. Join in our conversation and learn

from the journeys of these inspiring women.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres says that all countries should bring forward their net zero carbon plans by a decade. Also: France's government survives a no-confidence vote, and the Chinese city of Guixi launches its own dating app for residents.