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Global News Podcast
Canada follows France and UK with plan to recognise Palestinian state
00:29:45
Canada plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September
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- [00:00]
Nick Miles
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Thursday 31st July, these are our main stories. Canada has become the latest major Western power to say it will recognize a Palestinian state in September if certain conditions are met by the Palestinian Authority. The Trump administration is stepping up pressure on Brazil, imposing 50% tariffs on its exports to the US and imposing financial sanctions sanctions on a senior Brazilian judge. Tsunami warnings have been scaled back across the northern Pacific after a huge earthquake off eastern Russia, but some alerts are still in place in southern parts of the ocean. Also in this podcast this is the home of metal. There's no other person that presented more than Ozzy Osbourne.
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Ione Wells
He changed music, that's what he's done.
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Nick Miles
Heavy metal music fans pay their final respects to their hero Ozzy Osbourne. We begin with the conflict in Gaza. Canada has become the latest country to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state. The Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said the dramatic shift in foreign policy would happen in September as long as the Palestinian Authority carried out democratic reforms and held elections without Hamas. Mr. Carney accused Israel of allowing a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza. In the past week, France has also said it will recognize Palestinian statehood, and Britain has threatened to do so unless it Israel agrees to a ceasefire. At a news conference, the Canadian Prime Minister had this to say regarding Gaza Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General assembly in September 2025. This intention is predicated on the Palestinian Authority's commitment to much needed reforms, including commitments by the Palestinian Authority's President Abbas to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold General elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state. Canada will increase its efforts in supporting strong democratic governance in Palestine and the contributions of its people to a more peaceful and hopeful future. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said plans by Britain to recognize Palestinian statehood unless Israel reaches a Gaza ceasefire before September would be a Reward for Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu said the announcement, which marks a major foreign policy change for Britain, would mean the appeasement of jihadists. Our international editor Jeremy Bowen reports now from the occupied west bank, where he considers how realistic it would be to establish a Palestinian state.
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Jeremy Bowen
Drive through the west bank and you see Israeli military checkpoints, Palestinians living under Israeli occupation since 1967 and above all the ever present fast expanding and illegal Jewish settlements, and you can get an idea of how hard it will be to reach the vision of the two state solution laid out by Keir Starmer. The Palestinian representative in London, Hossam Zomlot is home for the summer in Ramallah and he is delighted by Keir Starmer's plan to recognize Palestinian statehood.
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Nick Miles
It is a sign that the UK and with it the rest of the international community are really serious about the two state solution. We are no longer in the business of the lib service that has lasted three decades. If you really seek states, recognize the two states.
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Jeremy Bowen
Mr. Zumlob believes Britain has taken a big step to atone for favoring Zionist Jews over Palestinian Arabs during the three decades it controlled Palestine after 1917. At the UN, the foreign secretary, David Lamy said Britain could be proud of helping the Jewish people lay Israel's foundations, but its broken promises to respect Palestinian rights were, he said, a historical injustice which continues to unfold at Israel's parliament. In Jerusalem, the ultra nationalist MP Simcha Rotman echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemning Keir Starmer's decision as a reward for terrorism.
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Nick Miles
He is threatening the State of Israel with punishment and thinks that's the way to bring peace to the Middle East. He's not in a position to punish us and it definitely will not bring peace and it's against justice, history, religion, culture and he's giving a huge reward for Yikya Sinwar, former Hamas leader, Wherever he is in hell today he sees what Keith Starmer says and say good partner.
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Jeremy Bowen
Britain's decision, along with France, to recognize Palestinian independence increases the pressure on Israel and other countries might follow suit. Even though the land Palestinians want for a state is broken by war in Gaza and occupied by Israel. In the west bank, including East Jerusalem, the Israeli government at the moment backed by the United States, will do all it can to keep its iron grip on the land that Britain and many other countries say should be split into two states for two peoples.
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Nick Miles
Jeremy Bowen Next to the diplomatic tensions that are ratcheting up between US President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva, the American president has now slapped a total of 50% tariffs on many Brazilian exports, which he says is partly due to what he called a witch hunt against Brazil's former right wing president Jair Bolsonaro. He's on trial for allegedly seeking to seize power after losing the last election in 2022. The Trump administration has also put financial sanctions on the judge presiding over Mr. Bolsonaro's trial. Allies of President Lula are calling it an attack on Brazilian democracy. I spoke to our America correspondent Ione Wells, who's in South Paulo. So I asked her, why is Donald Trump prepared to go this far for Mr. Bolsonaro?
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Ione Wells
Well, this comes after quite a long, sustained lobbying campaign by Bolsonaro and his family. His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has been lobbying US Officials for months and months in the US over his father's legal proceedings. And I think through some of Trump's rhetoric, you can gauge that Trump sees a little bit of himself in Bolsonaro. He's talked about certain parallels between some of the allegations that Bolsonaro faces and some of the allegations that Donald Trump has himself faced in the past, including after he lost the election to Joe Biden and his supporters stormed government buildings in the same way that Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings after he lost the election in Brazil. I think it's interesting, too, because Bolsonaro himself, in interviews earlier this year, has called repeatedly on the US President to help to intervene in his case. Donald Trump has now, in a manner that is only really characteristic of Donald Trump, really, as you say, gone out on a limb for Bolsonaro. Not only has he introduced 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, which will hurt not just the Brazilian economy, but also consumers in the US Too. He's also sanctioned the Supreme Court Judge Alexander de Moraes, who is the lead investigator of Bolsonaro in his case. He's introduced visa bans for Moraes and his family members, too. So this is a real raft of measures ramping up this diplomatic spat that's now been going on for months and months between Brazil and the U.S. indeed.
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Nick Miles
Do you think, irony. There's any way that allies of President Luda and himself who are calling it an attack on Brazilian democracy, is there any way that they can defuse a situation and bring Donald Trump round, or is it beyond the possibility of doing that?
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Ione Wells
Well, that is the big question at the moment because Brazil's President Lula da Silva has urged the government in the US to negotiate. Brazil has submitted some proposals for possible trade negotiations, which it hasn't received a response to yet. And certainly at the moment, relations remain pretty icy. President Lula and President Trump haven't even ever had a phone call, let alone had sort of formal talks or negotiations. So at the moment, progress seems to be pretty slim. On the upside for President Lula, in a similar vein to the left in Canada earlier this year, he's enjoyed a bit of an opinion poll bounce as a result of Trump's tariff threats, he's even taken to wearing a blue cap. Not that dissimilar a font to Trump's Make America Great Again cap, but his says Brazil belongs to Brazilians. So he sort of made something of this defiance, really. He's saying that he won't back down, that he won't be intimidated by Donald Trump's threats. So at the moment it doesn't look like there's any sign of progress, because you have two big personalities on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum with their own respective bases that they need to impress and talk to, neither of whom seem particularly willing at the moment to back down on what the other is demanding.
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Nick Miles
Irony Wells in Brazil Staying with American Tariffs President Trump has announced that From Friday the US will impose a 25% tariff on imports from India. Writing on his Truth Social account, he described the country's trade policies as obnoxious. The president also hinted at an unspecified penalty for Delhi for buying oil and weapons from Russia. India says it's committed to fair and balanced trade with Washington. More from our deputy Economics Editor Darshini.
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Ione Wells
David It's a trade relationship worth over $100 billion. The 25% tariffs President Trump wants to impose on Indian goods reflects not just his frustration with America's deficit with India, but also the tariffs that Delhi applies on U S made products and its long held reluctance to grant more access to its markets. President Trump also announced that imports from India would face an additional unspecified penalty due to the country's purchase of Russian military equipment and energy. It's the first such action against those he sees as supporting President Putin's regime and leaves India in a worse position than trading partners like the EU and uk. The majority of what America imports from the rest of the world is now covered by agreements or tariff decisions. But the intervening uncertainty distorted American economic activity, with figures today revealing that growth in the second quarter was boosted by a flurry of American exports to beat higher tariffs. As the new trading regimes settle in, economists expect American growth to slow over the rest of this year.
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Nick Miles
Dashini David the US Central bank, the Federal Reserve says it's keeping interest rates unchanged in the range of four and a quarter to four and a half percent. The widely expected decision comes despite an unprecedented barrage of criticism from Donald Trump. Who wants to see them slashed? The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, spoke to journalists. We will continue to determine the appropriate stance of monetary policy based on the incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks. Changes to government policies continue to evolve and their effects on the economy remain uncertain.
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Ione Wells
Higher tariffs have begun to show through.
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Nick Miles
More clearly to prices of some goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen. Yeah, the US Fed typically lowers interest rates when the economy is struggling and raises them if inflation rises too quickly. Tsunami alerts have been scaled back across much of the northern Pacific Ocean after one of the world's strongest earthquakes struck Russia's Far East. The quake hit Kamchatka, injuring several people on the remote Russian Peninsula In Hawaii and California, people had to be told to avoid beaches, harbors and marinas. As we record this podcast, waves of up to 3 meters are still possible for coastal Chile, Costa Rica and other islands in the Pacific. Taiwan's tsunami alert remains in place Japan initially ordered the evacuation of nearly 2 million residents, Shama Khalil reports.
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Ione Wells
As the huge earthquake hit Kamchatka on Russia's Far east, millions of people across the Pacific were alerted of a tsunami and told to evacuate. Roman Kripakov, a chef at a restaurant in Paramushir, an island just off the coast of Russia, was already at work when the 8.8 magnitude quake struck.
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Nick Miles
Everything started shaking. The shelves in the kitchen started trembling. We turned everything off and ran outside.
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Ione Wells
Residents on Japan's Pacific coast were woken up by the sounds of sirens. Dozens of waves hit the Pacific coast here, some more than a meter high. Yu Koga, who lives in Fujisawa, recalled how his day started.
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Nick Miles
I saw an alert, my phone saying that there was a big earthquake in Russia and I heard an alert going on around my area. Then I realized I had to evacuate, so I took shelter at a nearby shopping center.
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Ione Wells
There were tsunami alerts in Hawaii as well. Residents were told to evacuate and get to higher ground. Rachel Burroughs, a British tourist on a cruise in Hawaii, was on a tour of an island when the warnings came through. Everyone was just running, trying to get on the ship because they were closing the ship off because we needed to get out to sea. So we were luckily one of the last ones that got back onto the cruise ship. And then we could see a lot of other people like getting dropped off and just lining up. But they didn't make it. They were then told to get up to higher ground on shore. So it was quite scary. Japan's meteorological agency has now downgraded the alert to advisory along the country's whole Pacific coast. Russia has done the same. While Hawaii's Pacific Tsunami Warning center has lifted its evacuation order, residents there have been told they can return home but remain vigilant.
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Nick Miles
Shaimika Leel in the Japanese city of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said the earthquake was at a depth of 19 km underground. And as our science correspondent Victoria Gill explains, it was hundreds of years in the making.
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Ione Wells
The epicentre of this earthquake is along a boundary where two of the Earth's tectonic plates, the shifting puzzle pieces of the ear crust, are moving towards each other. As they collide, one of those tectonic plates slides beneath the other, and it's not smooth. Those pieces of the Earth's crust get stuck with catastrophic consequences. As Professor Stephen Hicks, a seismologist from University College London, explained, if they're stuck.
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Nick Miles
For hundreds to thousands of years, all.
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Victoria Gill
Of that accumulated plate convergence can suddenly.
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Nick Miles
Get released in a magnitude 8 to 9 earthquake.
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Victoria Gill
And all that energy gets released in.
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Nick Miles
Just a matter of, of 100 or 200 seconds. You end up producing a very, very high magnitude of earthquake.
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Ione Wells
And this was very high, magnitude 8.8, the biggest since the 2011 earthquake in Japan that generated a deadly tsunami. That's the wider danger. Undersea megathrust earthquakes, as they're known, move huge volumes of seawater above, triggering waves that can inundate coastlines thousands of miles away. Networks of sensors linked to international tsunami warning systems appear to have worked very well in places like Japan and Hawaii. And this Tsunam seems to have been smaller than feared.
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Nick Miles
Victoria Gill, still to come, I wanted.
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Luciana da Costa Carvalho
To have an idea of the bulk chemical composition of the residue first. And I was comparing this with beeswax and with honey.
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Nick Miles
So what was the sticky substance found in metal jars in Italy? Find out later. Police in Kenya have been granted permission to exhume suspected grave sites as part of an investigation of possible new deaths linked to a notorious starvation cult. Barbara Pled Asha is in Kenya and she told me more about the group's activities.
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Barbara Pled Asha
Well, you know, it didn't start out as a starvation cult. Several Years ago, Paul McKenzie called his followers to join him in Shakahola Forest, which is this area in southeastern Kenya. And he said they were going to create a community to prepare for the end of days or the coming apocalypse, which he said was imminent. And then at the beginning of 2023, witnesses say, including those I spoke to, that he started telling them that this preparation meant that they needed to fast, in other words, that they would get to heaven more quickly if they stopped eating. And some did so willingly, some did not do so willingly, but a lot of people died. More than 400 bodies were recovered. And then this came to light with a couple of cases, and Mr. McKenzie was eventually arrested. In April 2023, he's currently on trial for manslaughter, but he has pleaded not guilty.
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Nick Miles
So Paul MacKenzie is in custody. So why the continued activity with the case beyond him?
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Barbara Pled Asha
Yes, well, one local report has suggested that Mr. McKenzie was in contact with some of the suspects by telephone from jail, but his lawyer has flatly denied he has anything to do with the case. And the court documents? They haven't said anything about that. What they have said is that police have confirmed is that at least three of the suspects were part of Mr. McKenzie's movement back in 2023. So that's the link they've made to the ongoing activity, presumably people who had never let go of that extreme ideology, which is what the police called it. And they've cited some evidence that continues, which is that two of the people they arrested at the property they now suspect to be the new base for this cult were emaciated and they had to be hospitalized. They found scattered body parts on the grounds and and what looked like grave markings. And they suspect that six children reported as disappeared are among those buried there. Their parents were among those arrested.
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Nick Miles
So what do we expect now in terms of the police in and around this forest?
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Barbara Pled Asha
Well, they have been granted this permission by the courts to exhume the suspected grave sites. And they have already, since the weekend, been at the property and have marked what they believe are graves. And so they are continuing to do preparation work. And our understanding is that they will start the exhumation next week. They did find among those scattered body parts on their initial visit, the body, a full body of a man who appeared to have died recently. He has been brought in and there's going to be an autopsy to find out what he died of. So those are the two main leads they're following right now.
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Nick Miles
Barbara Pled Usher, senior U.S. democrats, are using a little known law to try to force the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats on the Senate's Homeland Security Committee have asked the Justice Department to turn over documents on the disgraced financier. Here's our North America correspondent, Nomia Iqbal.
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Ione Wells
The Jeffrey Epstein case has become a key test for President Donald Trump and his ability to contain the demand for transparency by his usually loyal base. Democrats are trying to capitalize on the fallout. A group of senators announced their plans to use a rare law known as the rule of Five. It requires government agencies to provide information if at least five members of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee demands it. Democrats say it isn't a stunt, but about accountability. The ongoing pressure on Mr. Trump comes after the Justice Department said there was no evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent figures.
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Nick Miles
Nomia Iqbal. Here in the uk, a technical problem at the main air traffic control centre, which covers aircraft movements around London, has been solved after briefly causing disruption. The outage included Heathrow Airport, Britain's largest and Europe's busiest. On Wednesday evening, air traffic controllers said they were in the process of resuming normal services from London's airports. In a statement, the organisation said it was working with airlines and airports to try to minimize disruption. Ben Wright spoke to Doug McLean, an air traffic consultant and formerly a senior manager with the National Air Traffic Service, or nat. So what happened?
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Victoria Gill
The system itself is incredibly safe, like all aviation, but when you get a glitch like this, there are a few basics. Is it a communications problem, is it a radar problem, is it a data problem or a personnel problem? So they will have identified very quickly what the problem was and then how they can solve it. And it looks as if it may have taken about an hour, an hour and a half, somewhere like that.
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Nick Miles
I've seen some reports that suggest it's a radar issue, but you don't think we know that yet.
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Victoria Gill
This is part of the problem, which I don't think is really acceptable in this day and age, is that NATS is not saying. Now, I know the first priority is safety, the second priority is to talk to the customers and that will have been done. There will have been a conference call with the customers as quickly as they could arrange it to say what the problem was and what they were doing. But the knock on effects are going go on for hours. And we did have the situation about 18 months ago where we had a data failure because of some very unusual circumstances. And to be fair, there was a very good report and investigation and a very thorough report that looked into this and some very strong recommendations made.
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Nick Miles
I mean, the consequences, the knock on to flights across the UK are very big, aren't they? How many flights do we think could have been affected?
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Victoria Gill
Certainly we'll run into hundreds by the end of the day. So when you have a major failure, obviously you're looking for the safety of everything to be assured as quickly as possible. Once you've done that, you then look at how you're going to limit the traffic. The easiest way to do that is to stop departures because they're simply not in the system. And then airplanes which are airborne, you can take a little more time to get them landed and safely on the ground and out the way. Once everybody's on the ground, you don't have a problem as an air traffic control service, but you have a huge problem as far as the customers are concerned.
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Nick Miles
Doug McLean, an air traffic consultant, a quick foray into space now, because NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization launched on Wednesday a new satellite From Southern.
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Luciana da Costa Carvalho
India, 43210.
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Nick Miles
It is hoped that the new satellite will help predict and prepare for natural disasters. The device carries one of the most sophisticated radars ever developed. India's space minister has hailed the joint venture as a defining moment in Indian US Space cooperation. Next to Italy. Ever since their discovery, underground in an ancient Grecian shrine not far from Pompeii, a group of metal jars have held within them a secret. What is the sticky substance preserved for thousands of years in darkness, its residue still detectable inside? Well, some thought it was animal or vegetable fat or maybe honeycomb, but there were no sugars present at all. Now, though, after more than 70 years, there is an answer. Sean Lay spoke to Luciana da Costa Carvalho from Oxford University, who led the research.
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Luciana da Costa Carvalho
So I started my investigations using a technique which is not very classic in the museum world, but as well as in analytical chemistry, which is infrared spectroscopy. So I wanted to have an idea of the bulk chemical composition of the residue first. And I was comparing this with beeswax and with honey. And what I got as a response was something, okay, it looks very similar to beeswax. And this is what one of the labs had already mentioned, but it was very acidic. Now, beeswax does become acidic over time. So at that point I thought, okay, so it's degraded beeswax. But then I analyzed the residue with gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, but. But using a different technique than what they did in the 80s. I burned a little bit of the residue, and what that enabled me to do was to have an idea also of the chemical composition. And there were many acids in there. And then we analyzed a sample from the very kind of core of the residue, but also samples from the surface. And in one of those surface samples, there were some sugar degradation products. So this was like the first hint that there was sugar in there. And actually the vial that I used to burn the residue even smelled a little bit of burnt sugar at the end. Ah, so you know, that kind of caramelized color.
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Nick Miles
So in other words, that that scent, somehow, that was the first. Yeah, all that effort, not just your team, but previous teams over decades. Why is it worth it?
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Luciana da Costa Carvalho
Why is science worth it? Oh, I think there are things that we need to know to survive. There are things that we are curious to know because there's a little bit of about who we are and particularly what people did in the past. There is some sugar, but it's not that much what could have happened. And we think that, okay, there were no microbes who attacked this residue. Originally the jars were full and now that it's just a little bit. So something must have eaten most of it and no, honey is mostly sugar. No, we all know that now and maybe people did in the few in the past that honey is a superfood. Why is that? It's not because it's sweet. It's great that it is, but it's not because of that. No. There's some bacteria that lives in honey. The beauty of analytical chemistry and new techniques developing is that we can look back at these residues which represent chemical reactions that we cannot simulate in the lab. No, these are reactions that took 2,500 years to take place. These residues need to be studied and particularly the bacteria. We're looking at some bacterias which are ancient, how they mutated, what we can learn that we can use today. We always searching about new antibiotics. Learning how bacteria develops over time may help us with that. Know how food survives. Though in this case it's probably the major oil jelly proteins that are there. This is the essence of honey.
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Nick Miles
Luciana da Costa Caravalleo from Oxford University. Now thousands of fans line the streets of Birmingham in central England on Wednesday to pay their last respects to the rock legend Ozzy Oliver Osborne, who died last week at the age of 76. His family took part in a cortege procession of his coffin, which stopped at a bridge in the city named after his band Black Sabbath, where they lay flowers. The BBC's music correspondent, Mark Savage was there. Before he died. Ozzy Osbourne said he didn't mind what happened at his funeral, as long as it wasn't depressing fans and Birmingham took that to heart. They gathered in their thousands, blasting heavy metal and drinking from Viking horns as they said their last goodbyes. This is the home of metal and to see the support around the city is absolutely incredible. Because there's no other person that deserves it more than Ozzy Osbourne.
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Ione Wells
He changed music, that's what he's done. He's changed Black Sabbath and Aussie changed the whole of the music scene in the world.
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Nick Miles
When the cortege reached Black Sabbath Bridge on Birmingham's Broad Street, Osbourne's wife Sharon and their children stopped to greet fans and observe their tributes. We love you Ozzy. Thank you, Sharon. Ozzy forever. Sharon. We love you. They didn't speak to the crowds, but waved in recognition before leaving some tributes of their own. It was a send off that recognized Osborne's role as a heavy metal pioneer and one of the most charismatic front men of his generation. The family will hold a private funeral on Thursday. Mark Savage reporting. And that is all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later on. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on XBCWorldService. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Martin Baker. The producers were Liam McSheffrey and Peter Goffin. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles. And until next time, goodbye. Three, two, one.
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Jeremy Bowen
And a dream to revolutionize space flight.
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Ione Wells
The launch like a rocket and land like an airplane.
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Nick Miles
It was the first time anybody had ever seen any of that told by.
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Jeremy Bowen
The men and women who made it happen.
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Ione Wells
Countless hours developing the procedures we had trained together for so long.
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Nick Miles
From the beginning.
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Jeremy Bowen
BBC World Service 13 minutes presents the Space Shuttle.
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Nick Miles
It was like something being born. This vehicle was saying, I'm alive.
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Jeremy Bowen
Let me go search for 13 minutes.
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Nick Miles
Presents the Space Shuttle. Wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
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Luciana da Costa Carvalho
What a view.
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Barbara Pled Asha
What a view.