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Global News Podcast
'Diddy' cleared of sex trafficking and racketeering; convicted on two other charges
00:28:14
A New York jury found Sean Combs guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution
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Julia McFarlane
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.
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Unknown
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You're at a lavish seaside estate. You're not walking the dog. You're hunting for clues in an Agatha Christie mystery. See it differently with BritBox. Stream an endlessly entertaining collection of British.
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TV, including new original series Ludwig starring David Mitchell.
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Julia McFarlane
I think I might just have solved a murder.
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Unknown
And outrageous. A scandalous true story.
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This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and in the early hours of Thursday 3rd July, these are our main stories. The American music mogul Sean Diddy Combs has been denied bail following his conviction for prostitution related offenses, even though he was cleared of more serious charges. President Trump says Vietnam has agreed a trade deal to reduce tariffs, making it one of only a handful of countries to do so ahead of a deadline next week. DNA testing of bones of a multi ethnic ancient man has offered clues about how Egypt became a great civilization. Also in this podcast.
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Julia McFarlane
One day it could be chicken with Malagasy wild pepper, tonka beans and a creamy polenta. The next day, pulled beef with black.
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Unknown
Garlic and smoked vanilla foie gras in orbit. Lobster bisque in space. France's new astronaut plans to blast off in culinary style. For nearly eight weeks now, the world has watched the trial of Sean Diddy Combs, one of the biggest names in rap and hip hop. On Wednesday, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering, the more serious charges against him. He was, however, found guilty on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. As the judge read out the full verdict, Combs dropped to his knees and prayed. He then rose and faced the courtroom gallery, saying, I'm going to be home soon. But that was not to be. The judge presiding over his case has denied Sean Combs bail. His family had put up a bond of $1 million. Outside the court, a large crowd of critics and supporters reacted to the verdict.
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I think it was overall a fair verdict. I think he definitely should do some time. In my opinion, just given the severity of victims, I'm kind of happy for him.
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I always felt like they had, you.
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Know, a lot of bogus charges against him. Maybe some were substantiated, others weren't. And I mean, you know, I feel like he got rightfully his just due today.
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I'm a little bit shocked. I get a little bit of goosebumps on my arm because I thought he was guilty.
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Ellie Wilson
That's.
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Unknown
But of course I'm not a juror.
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I didn't follow the whole case.
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Doug Victor is the lawyer for Cassie Ventura, a key witness and former girlfriend of Sean Combs who who gave harrowing evidence throughout the trial accusing him of violence, coercion, blackmail and rape.
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Julia McFarlane
We're pleased that he's finally been held.
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Unknown
Responsible for two federal crimes, something that he's never faced in his life. He still faces substantial jail time. Of course, we would have liked to have seen a conviction on the sex.
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Julia McFarlane
Crimes in rico, but we understand beyond a reasonable doubt is a high standard.
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Unknown
Well, in a moment, we'll hear from our correspondent from outside the court. But first, the BBC's Neda Taufik looks back at the trial.
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For seven weeks, this Manhattan courthouse has pulled back the curtain on the private life of one of hip hop's most iconic figures. Sean Diddy Combs, in appearance and dress was a far cry from his public mogul image. It was undisputed by his lawyers that he had a dark, violent past. But the question for the jury was whether it amounted to crimes of sex trafficking and racketeering. On the trial's first day, a video of Diddy beating and dragging Cassie was shown to the court. The security guard at the LA hotel testified that Diddy told Cassie, who had a black eye, that she couldn't leave and that Diddy tried to bribe him with cash to stay quiet. Later in the trial, a hotel security officer said Diddy and his chief of staff contacted him and then gave him $100,000 for the video. This incident was just one of many detailed by an eight months pregnant Cassie. Over four harrowing days, she accused Diddy of 11 years of physical sexual abuse, including rape and blackmail. She said freak offs or prolonged sex acts with male prostitutes that Diddy directed and sometimes filmed became a weekly job and left her feeling worthless. Rapper Kid Cudi briefly dated Cassie and backed up elements of her testimony. Cudi told the court that Diddy, angry about their relationship, broke into his Hollywood Hills home in December of 2011. And an LA Police officer testified about seeing a black SUV registered to Diddy's company leaving the scene. Cuddy also said he was sure Diddy was behind the firebombing of his Porsche 911 weeks later. Several of Diddy's former personal assistants detailed a brutal work environment. They also said they were tasked with picking up drugs and stalking Diddy's hotel rooms with specific items such as a copious amount of baby Oil prosecutors accused Diddy of sex trafficking another woman who was with him for three years. Fighting through tears and emotion, she testified under the pseudonym Jane and said reading Cassie's claims was like reading her own sexual trauma. The burden is on the government to prove its case. But the defense throughout tried to undermine the witnesses credibility. They showed dozens of loving and explicit messages between the women and Diddy. And Jane revealed under cross examination that she went to a hotel gathering with another iconic rapper and his girlfriend, where they all watched a male escort have sex with another woman. Diddy said the freakoffs were consensual and part of his swinger lifestyle. The defense did not call any witnesses and Diddy decided not to testify ahead of the trial. He rejected a plea deal, betting the jury would set him free.
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Naomi Iqbal
Nada.
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Unknown
Taufik reporting. Our correspondent Naomi Iqbal has been following the trial in New York and she spoke to us shortly before we recorded this podcast.
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Naomi Iqbal
This verdict was a resounding victory for Sean Diddy Combs. The jury coming back and clearing him of that most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, that if he had been convicted on that, he could have faced life in prison. He was convicted on two counts, and this was transportation with intent to commit prostitution. That related to Cassandra Ventura, his ex girlfriend of more than 10 years, who was one of the witnesses, and to another woman. She was in court. She gave evidence under the pseudonym Jane. He was cleared on sex trafficking charges too. So a big victory for him. But just now in court, we had the bail hearing. His defence team said that he should be released on bail. He's been in jail since last September when he was arrested. But that was denied by the judge. The judge said that at trial the defense conceded Sean Combs violence in his own personal relationship. And so the judge cited that in making the decision that it was best to keep Sean Combs in jail to await his sentencing, which will happen in October.
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Unknown
And Nomi, just looking at the live feeds from where you are outside the courthouse in New York, we're seeing a steady trickle of people leaving. Are we expecting to hear anything outside the courthouse?
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Naomi Iqbal
I don't think so. His family, they come and go. I'm not sure if they've left yet. There's usually a big black van that pulls up in which they enter and leave. And they don't talk, talk to the press. Of course, if Sean Combs had been released, and that was an expectation earlier today, the roads would have been closed off. I mean, there's a huge police presence here because it's not just the media, like the legacy media here, you also have lots of influencer types, people with their own Instagram, TikTok YouTube accounts with their phones and selfie sticks recording every single minute of this. And it's New York, New York is pretty hairy anyway. But Sean Diddy Combs is this huge, huge, iconic hip hop star and there's so many people invested in this trial and its outcome. But we're not expecting to hear from anybody today. And as I mentioned, he will now await his sentencing which is due to take place in October, which will take into account those two charges he's been convicted on. Both of those charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years each, but legal experts do not think he will. He is likely to serve that time. Also to mention he has multiple civil lawsuits against him regarding many women who have accused him of sexual assault.
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Unknown
Nomiyya Iqbal Mark Anthony Neal is Distinguished professor of African American Studies at Duke University in North Carolina. So what does this mean for the reputation of Sean Combs?
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There's no doubt that this tarnishes Mr. Combs reputation. You know, it's been a while since he's been at the center of energy in hip hop in the United States. He had become really successful as a kind of in recent years as a brand ambassador for really high end products and really in some ways was above the fray to what was happening in terms of the mainstream of hip hop music and hip hop culture. But there's no question that this is damaging to that reputation. It is damaging also, you know, to his legacy, you know, which in the 1990s was significant because, you know, he was hip hop's most effective hype man. In the early 1990s, as hip hop moved from the ghettos here in the United States to the mainstream of America to the global mainstream. That happened in large part because of the willingness of Sean Combs to sell the culture to the masses.
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What's his reputation now, leaving aside this case, both for the generation who grew up with him, men like me, now in our mid-50s, but also for the younger African American men who may still like the music but have watched the whole nature of that music evolve and move on to much, you know, it's.
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Difficult, I think, about the fact that when you look at some of the most successful rappers in recent years in the US The Drakes, the Kendrick Lamars, the J. Coles, you know, they weren't going out of their way to do collaborations with Diddy. You know, those kinds of artists 25 years ago that were in the industry would have been dying to be able to have that kind of opportunity. I also think there are younger audiences that were aware of Diddy, but not necessarily of his music. I think folks pointed out the fact that when the trial first happened, you know, there was suddenly this upstream streaming of Diddy's music. And a lot of that was because of young folks who just had never listened to his music before and were hoping to get some keys and understandings to who this person was via the music. But the reality is that however successful he was as a, as a commercial artist, as a producer, as a mogul, you know, this was not the music of Miles Davis. Right. And I make that comparison deliberately. Right. It's not art that we're going to be going back to 100 years from now.
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What about attitud to women? We have seen plenty of cases, obviously, most recently Harvey Weinstein cases. The whole Me Too movement, which grew out in many ways out of the entertainment industry. Hip hop has had a bit of a reputation for some accused of being a misogynistic art form. Do you think in any way that has changed?
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You know, the reality is that for whatever misogyny and patriarchy gets expressed within hip hop, hip hop is not an outlier. Yeah, you know, patriarchy and misogyny, at least in the US Context, is as American as US Context. You barely have to just look at the city American president for some example of that. You know, that being said, you know, there have often been the attempts and really, you know, pretty sustained over the last 25 years to hold hip hop accountable for its representation of women. Sexist, misogynist, all those kinds of things. The MeToo moment really was a different moment because it caused us to really think about how practices were occurring within the industry and relationships that were problematic. So in this case, R. Kelly, going back a few years ago and now Sean Combs, is kind of a reckoning that's occurring within hip hop culture.
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Mark Anthony Neal, speaking to my colleague Sean Lay now, two of the biggest stock market indices on Wall street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, ended trading at record highs on Wednesday after President Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam. The country is one of the few to reach an agreement with the US Three months after he introduced punitive tariffs on foreign goods sold to America, Viet Vietnam was threatened with levies of 46%. And while these have been lowered, the agreement appears to favor the United States. American goods sold to Vietnam, on the other hand, will have zero tariffs. I heard more from Arunde Mukherjee in.
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Julia McFarlane
Washington, Donald Trump talking about how it will be a great deal of cooperation between the U.S. as well as Vietnam. According to the U.S. president, Vietnam will be paying the United States a 20% tariff on any goods sent into the U.S. and this is critical, a 40% tariff on any trans shipping. In return, Vietnam gives the US Total access to their markets for trade, is what Donald Trump said. Now, Vietnam, well, we had a government statement where they confirmed that there was an agreement, but they did not provide any details of that. But Donald Trump's announcement comes a week before the threatened US Reimposition of tariffs on several countries, many of them still trying to stitch those deals just to come back on that 40% tariff on any trans shipping. This is significant because it is seen as the Trump administration trying to address some of those concerns that countries like Vietnam are used as transit points for Chinese manufacturers to try and bypass US Tariffs and send goods into the US The US has also been trying to push Vietnam to buy more from them and be less import dependent on China in an aim to try and reduce Beijing's influence. So all in all, a very significant development.
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Unknown
Interesting, Aruna Day. Vietnam is a huge player for American consumers. Lots of retailers have factories in Vietnam. But it doesn't appear that Vietnam itself has gained that much from this deal.
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Julia McFarlane
Well, it remains to be seen. You know, there will be two lines of thought. But having said that, you know, you know, let's just look at how Vietnam is structured in terms of its trade. It's a country that is largely dependent on exports. Its widely admired economic development over the past three decades has largely been driven by this success in selling products to various countries around the world, in particular to the U.S. because exports to the U.S. contribute around 30% of Vietnam's GDP, their exports consist primarily of electronics, footwear and apparel. In fact, interestingly, we're already seeing shares of Nike and other apparel companies rise after this announcement. But what's also going to be interesting is how Vietnam continues to tread a very fine line. It remains in that unique position. It's always tried to balance diplomacy and its economic ties between, on one hand, its proximity to China and also, on the other hand, trying to get closer to the U.S. now, this entire deal is likely to also impact countries like China.
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Unknown
Aruna Day, you mentioned earlier that there is a deadline looming. So will this spur on other countries to try and strike their own deal with President Trump?
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Julia McFarlane
Well, they're certainly feeling the pressure for sure. It's imperative that they reach some form of a deal beyond. China are struggling with the threat of very high tariffs which could significantly impact their economies and trade. Donald Trump, in his typical style has talked about being close to some of these deals with some countries, but we still haven't heard of any concrete deals. But the big one to watch out for will be what they can strike with a country like India, for instance, giving it's one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
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Unknown
Aruna Day Mukherjee New analysis of DNA from a four and a half thousand year old skeleton has provided fresh insight into how ancient Egypt transformed itself into one of the great civilizations on Earth. Samples taken from the inner ear and teeth of the remains show some of the DNA matched those of people from Mesopotamia, the other great society of that time, in a region known as the Fertile Crescent, located in what's now known as Iran, Syria and Iraq. The findings have been published in the journal Nature. As our science correspondent Palab Ghosh reports.
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Julia McFarlane
Archaeological evidence indicates that ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may have been in contact at least 10,000 years ago, when people in Mesopotamia began to farm and domesticate animals and so making the transition from hunter gatherers to an agricultural society. Many scholars believe that this social and technological revolution may have influenced similar developments in ancient Egypt. But there has been no irrefutable proof of direct contact between the populations until now. Adeline Morris Jacobs of Liverpool, John Moore's University, says that her findings provide clear cut evidence that there was significant migration of people and information between the two centres of civilization.
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Unknown
It points to very interesting moments in.
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Ellie Wilson
The history of humanity. Two regions got in contact at the.
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Unknown
Very least 10,000 years ago. We cannot really point to when the.
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Mixture between the two regions started, but.
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Ellie Wilson
It'S likely that it was there probably for a long time.
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Julia McFarlane
Scientists have been using ancient DNA analysis to track changes in human evolution over millions of years. But refinements of the technique mean the technology now has the potential to show more recent historical events in a new way.
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Unknown
Palab Ghosh still to come there were.
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Ellie Wilson
80 different species of moth that appeared that evening. So there was a lot of sound that I had to play with. If it wasn't for the moths, that piece would not happen.
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Unknown
We meet the composer who's using moths to make music and to highlight their dramatic decline. World of Secrets the Killing Call A BBC World Service investigation into the murder of Punjabi singer and rapper Sidhu Musayala.
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Julia McFarlane
The facts, they aren't out in the open.
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Unknown
Why Siddhu Musaywala?
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You know, uncovering a global criminal underworld that reaches far beyond India's borders.
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There are so many rumors.
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No one Wants to talk there might be repercussions. Listen now. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his aim to destroy Hamas in his first public comment since President Trump said Israel had agreed a 60 day ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas has said it will study what Mr. Trump described as a final proposal. Mr. Netanyahu is due to visit the White House next week from Jerusalem. Here's Ione Wells. The pressure from Donald Trump for Israel and Hamas to reach a deal is there. Whether there are proposals that both sides will accept is another matter. Israel will want the release of all hostages remaining in Gaza as part of a deal. About 20 of the 50 still there are thought to be alive. Hamas says it is ready and serious to reach a ceasefire agreement if Israel commits to an end to the war, something it has so far refused to sign up to. Israel's bombardment of Gaza has intensified this week, killing and injuring dozens of people. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking publicly for the first time since Donald Trump's post, did not suggest he had changed his position that he wants complete victory over Hamas before ending the conflict.
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Julia McFarlane
There will be no Hamas. There will be no Hamas stand. We're not going back to that.
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Unknown
It's over. We will release all our hostages.
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Julia McFarlane
We will eliminate them to the core.
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Unknown
Hamas senior figures have been killed, but Mr. Netanyahu is under pressure from the far right members of his coalition not to end the war. Polling suggests most Israelis want him to, as do the families of the remaining hostages. Charges And Donald Trump, who he may feel indebted to over the US's recent intervention in the Israel Iran conflict. Officials have told the BBC that Hamas representatives do not seem optimistic yet about the prospects of a truce, saying there are no new proposals that would meet its demands to end the war or for Israel to withdraw its troops. Irony wells In Jerusalem, the European Commission has proposed setting a new interim target of a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. That's measured against levels recorded back in 1990. The target is seen as crucial for the EU's legally binding objective of having no net emissions by 2050. Our Europe Regional editor Danny Eberhard has more details.
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Julia McFarlane
At a time when some nations, notably the us, are weakening or gutting climate commitments, the EU Commission is sending a very different political signal. Its head, Ursula von der Leyen, said it was standing firmly behind decarbonising the EU's economy. Currently, the EU has two self imposed, legally binding targets. The most immediate is that by 2030, it must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% when compared to 1990 levels. Then it must go carbon neutral by 2050. That's a flagship globally significant policy. This latest proposal would provide a further staging post for getting there. The 90% goal by 2040 would, the commission argues, give predictability to investors and businesses. The goal, it says, is realistic and will help the planet create more jobs and improve energy security. At a time of great geopolitical uncertainty. And when Europe is spending billions importing energy, that too will boost economic competitiveness. Opinion surveys indicate Europeans are strongly in favour of climate action. Heat waves such as the current one, which has seen Spain register its hottest ever June, underline the problem. Here's the European Commissioner for Climate, Wopka Hoekstra.
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Unknown
It is about protecting our people from extreme weather events and from global warming. And the Euro barometer was just cited, published on Monday, shows that 85%, 85% of Europeans are actually worried about climate change. I've said to you before, and I.
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Julia McFarlane
Think that we need to manage the paradox, that many of those same citizens also worry what climate action might mean for them and bringing them along.
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Unknown
Making this fair for them is therefore of the utmost importance.
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Julia McFarlane
As well as stressing the need for a socially fair transition, the Commission also wants to give nations more flexibility in how they'd hit the target. Some political groups, including on the populist right, oppose ambitious climate policies, arguing they can threaten jobs, especially in energy intensive industries, and increase the cost of living. Environmentalists disagree, pointing to the fact that renewables such as solar and wind can generally provide the cheapest electricity.
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Unknown
Danny Eberhard. Now, when France's newest astronaut blasts off to join the International Space Station next year, she'll feel face months of being fed freeze dried nutrients. But Sophie Adenot will also be able to look forward to the occasional special treat of lobster bisque, creme de foie gras veloute of curried parsnip and haddock, all prepared by her favourite Michelin starred chef. Presumably he's not also going with her from Paris. Hugh Schofield.
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Julia McFarlane
Most of the food on the space station is standard packaged fare, full of goodness no doubt, but lacking that culinary je ne sais quoi which any self respecting French astronaut so badly needs. But astronauts can bring with them a certain quantity of their own food. And so Sophie Adeneau has teamed up with the multi Michelin starred Anne Sophie Peake to draw up a list of items to help her through those long dawnless days in weight free orbit. One day over the Atlantic, it could be chicken with Malagasy, wild pepper, tonka beans and a creamy polenta. The next day over the Pacific, pulled beef with black garlic and smoked vanilla. And for dyser, how about a chocolate cream with crushed hazelnut? Sophie Adelineau says she will share the haute cuisine with her colleagues on board. It is, after all, an important moment. French gastronomic culture becoming, for the first time, extraterrestrial.
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Unknown
Hugh Schofield. Now, if you're annoyed by tiny holes appearing in the clothes stored in your wardrobe, as a knitter and someone with an extraordinary amount of wool, in my house, I certainly live in fear of them. Before you reach for the mothballs, a different perspective on the pesky little fabric munches. Now, what you're hearing there are the movements and behaviors of moths represented by musical sound. Put together by composer and moth enthusiast Ellie Wilson, she tracked the nighttime journeys of certain moth species in the southwest of England for her project. And she says it's left her more fascinated by the creatures than ever before. Moth Times Human is due to be performed in London this weekend. My colleague James Menendez asked Ellie how this unusual collaboration was hatched.
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Ellie Wilson
I was put in contact with scientists at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and they had created these new automated systems which they use to monitor moth activity across the uk. And so it's that data that I have then sonified to use their movement to create a piece. And the way I did that was they gave me spreadsheets and then I chose one day of activity from midnight through to 4am on a location called Parsonage Downs, which is in Salisbury in Wiltshire. And being able to bring that data into some software that I use called Ableton, I was able to assign different notes and sounds to the individual species of moths that were flying around in that evening. And so, because I was able to give them sounds, what the music then does for us is that the movement throughout that evening creates the music. So every time, for example, an elephant hawk moth appeared throughout that evening, I'd given that elephant hawk moth a sound. And therefore every time that moth appeared and landed on the moth monitoring system, that sound would appear. And so you're getting that kind of ebb and flow of the movement of that night.
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Julia McFarlane
But through music and the ending point of the piece, I think things go quite quiet.
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Ellie Wilson
They do. It was really important for me to use this piece as a way of exploring declining biodiversity and highlighting the fact that, just like bees and butterflies, moths are in significant decline due to all the usual Things like climate change, habitat loss. And I wanted to explore that, but in music form. So what I wanted at the beginning of the piece was to show a really good location that was, was full of biodiversity, lots and lots of moth activity, which is the bit that I've just been talking about. But at the very end of the piece I used data from a different location. A farmland that used pesticides and is a monoculture. And the contrast is audible. You know, you, you can hear that there's very, very little movement. It's very sparse. There was only 19 different species of moths that appeared during that same four hour period.
- [28:10]
Julia McFarlane
They get a bit of a bad rap, moths, don't they? I mean, compared to, I mean, bees and butterflies sort of get all the attention.
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Ellie Wilson
Yes, I think so. And I think it's because we don't see them because they come out at night when we're asleep.
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Julia McFarlane
Some people find them a bit creepy, don't they?
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Ellie Wilson
I think they do. And I think it's sort of the unknown or we think about the ones that maybe eat our jumpers, but that's only a couple of species that do that. Doing this project has made me even more fascinated with them because I didn't realize that there's 2,500 species of moth in the UK alone. And the fact that that butterflies actually evolved from moths. So moths came first. So I think we need to put them up high and celebrate them.
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Unknown
Absolutely fascinating. I think I'm going to keep my mothballs though. Ellie Wilson speaking to James Menendez. 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 any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on X@BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and the producers were Alison Davis and Steven Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time. Goodbye.