← Global News Podcast
Global News Podcast
Kim Jong Un travels to China for military parade
00:33:39
North Korean leader arrives in Beijing for his first international summit
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
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 at 13 hours GMT on Tuesday 2nd September, these are our main stories. On a rare trip outside North Korea, Kim Jong Un is in China to meet President Xi Jinping and other leaders, including Vladimir Putin. Brazil's Supreme Court is beginning the final stage of Jair Bolsonaro's trial on charges of plotting a coup after after losing the presidential election. And a simple new test that can detect Alzheimer's in its early stages. Also in this podcast, why an Australian state is banning mini fish shaped soy sauce containers. The lid and the body of the fish are not compatible. You can't simply throw them away and have them recycled. And it's also the case that they're so small that they tend to fall out of any recycling. And later we were at the very spot where all these lost souls had gone down and they were no longer lost. We hear from the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic 40 years ago this week. It was late afternoon in northeastern China when a dark green armored train called Sunshine rattled into the Beijing railway station. On board, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, sitting in a W paneled carriage, surrounded by AIDS and with a big North Korean flag behind him on the wall. Mr. Kim, who was then driven in a motorcade through the city, will attend a huge military parade in the Chinese capital on Wednesday. It will be the first time he's been at an international gathering alongside other heads of state. Ahead of that, it's been another busy day for President Xi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. They sat down for tea and cakes in the President's house. And some equally palatable rhetoric. China and Russia have remained true to their original aspirations and stayed the course, achieving fruitful cooperation across various fields. China is willing to work together with Russia to support each other's national development and revitalization, firmly upholding fairness and justice and promoting the building of a more just and equitable global governance order. President Putin said relations between Russia and China were at an unprecedentedly high level. The meeting came on the eve of events to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War. Our correspondent Stephen McDonnell is in Beijing. I asked him how important this visit is for China and for Kim Jong Un. This is only Kim Jong Un's second reported trip overseas in six years, so it is a big deal from him. And it's interesting when his train is spotted coming through the suburbs of Beijing, people know it's his train because the North Korean flags are flying on the top. It is kind of a strange and rare thing, and that's even for someone like this. Now, in theory, these are brother countries. China sent soldiers to North Korea in the Korean War and the like. And you would think there'd be much more constant contact with the North Korean and Chinese governments, but actually probably less than people would expect and actually more suspicion than people might expect. Another thing, it is quite fascinating, all the North Korea analysts looking at this day. Before Kim Jong Un left, he went and inspected his own ballistic missile program. So he wants pictures of him with his own ballistic missiles before he's seen back at home seeing China's new military gear. And you can imagine that might be the sort of thing that could anger Xi Jinping, because in the past, China has sanctioned North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Even for these supposed good friends, there have been tensions. So it's going to be fascinating to see how it all pans out over the coming days. I mean, he's turned up here now, his motorcade has been seen zooming through the city. He's going off to stay in what's called the Diaoyutai Guest House. And that could be where he meets Xi Jinping, could even be where he also meets Vladimir Putin. And at some point, the three of them could even sit down together, although we don't know if that is going to happen. However, what will be seen is them up on the podium together. And you can imagine those images. If they're captured, they'll go around the world of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un watching all this fantastic new military equipment, along with the leaders of Iran, Pakistan and what have you. It is going to be quite a big moment. And Stephen, a few hours ago, President Xi was making much of his relationship with Russia. Is it really quite as tight as that? You know, hear these two governments saying, our relations have reached new heights. But what long time Russia, China analysts would say is that it wouldn't be hard to reach new heights given how bad their relations have been in the past. Terrible during the Cold War, when China feared the Soviet Union much more than the United States. That's why they built the bunkers here, because they thought there could even be a nuclear war between the two. And really, although China is buying a lot of gas and oil from Russia, in fact, more than anyone else, you would expect there to be more economic activity between the two. And there really isn't. It's not like you go into shops here and you See lots and lots of Russian products. And so, yeah, the language on the one hand seems strong, but I mean, for example, Xi Jinping today, he's speaking about how both China and Russia have strong momentum for their respective development and revitalization. Oh, come on. Strong momentum for the Russian economy. Economists would look at that war economy there and say it's been in a terrible state. How can you seriously be suggesting that? Another thing from this official readout has been that both China and Russia are emphasising the international rule of law. Well, the Ukrainian government would say that is potently ridiculous. When Russia has invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation, and China says it supports the rule of law. So, you know, the rhetoric's one thing. The reality can be something very different. Stephen McDonnell in Beijing. In Afghanistan, rescue workers are still struggling with the scale of Sunday's earthquake. That's in part because the quake hit a remote and mountainous area, Kunar Province in the east of the country. Roads are blocked, so rescues have to be carried out by air. Meanwhile, many people are still searching with their bare hands in the rubble for survivors. At least 800 people are confirmed dead so far, but that figure is likely to be much, much higher because entire villages have been flattened. Our reporter Yama Bariz is driving to Diwakal Valley, one of the worst hit areas in eastern Afghanistan. We spoke to a man in his 60s. He described what happened that night. He told me that when the earthquake happened, he found himself and his son, daughter in law and the grandchildren all under the rubble. He was hurt himself. He managed to recreate to two of his grandsons and the rest his two sons. And then the families of his sons, they were all dead. He was crying. And then I had to give them time to console and to calm down. We tried to go to the area which is called Mazar Darah, that was at the center of the earthquake. We went to some extent, a few kilometers, but then the road was blocked. There were thousands of people there. They wanted to go to the earthquake striking area in order to. To support them, in order to provide help. But the roads are blocked due to landslides and also due to huge number of cars. Everybody want to go there to help, so we had to stop there. We went to some of the villages. We went to a village which was completely destroyed. The people there told me that There were around 30 families there, but now it was completely destroyed. They had spent the night in open air. I saw women and children in the open air. I stuff their household items all in the open air. The ones that they could Save. You mentioned the fact that roads are blocked to some of these villages. What evidence have you seen of help being able to get in from outside? People that I spoke to, they told me they had walked for three hours in order to get to those areas and give them cooked meal and also carry some items of need for them. But the main lifeline here at the helicopters, the authorities, they try to rescue the injured and bring them to the hospitals by helicopter. They also get aid, and also the aid workers there by helicopter. There are villages that the authorities also admit, and also the eyewitnesses told me that no help had reached those villages. So it means people are still under the rubble, only helicopters have been there and they have tried to rescue the ones that they have survived or they were injured. So those that they have died or lost their life, they are still under the rubble. Yama Baris, next to Brazil, where the coup trial of the former President, Jair Bolsonaro is entering its final stage. A panel of five Supreme Court judges is beginning its hearings. Mr. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election, but for three months he disputed the. And then on 8 January 2023, thousands of his supporters stormed and vandalized government buildings in the capital, Brasilia. Jair Bolsonaro and several military officers are accused of leading a coup plot. Our correspondent Ione Wells spoke to me from the Supreme Court in Brasilia. It's probably best to think of January 8th as almost a culmination of what police allege was a long plot spanning years before to keep Bolsonaro in power that included various different acts after he lost the last presidential election. He's accused of leading an armed criminal organization, of holding meetings, for example, with top military commanders to try and encourage them to join a coup. And according to police, while some of those commanders refused, the Navy commander had seemed supportive of the plan. There is also evidence that has been detailed by police that Bolsonaro had full knowledge of a plan to assassinate both the President elect, Luda da Silva, now President of Brazil, but also his running mate and one of the Supreme Court judges. So the allegations that this case is about are spanning far beyond, as you say, just those riots that took place on January 8, where thousands of his supporters attacked the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court buildings, trying, in the words of some of them, to seize back power and encourage the military to join them. And remind us what Mr. Bolsonaro and his lawyers say about the charges against him? Well, they have always denied the allegations from Bolsonaro's lawyers. Today, but certainly Bolsonaro himself has always denied that he was trying to plot a couple coup. He's cited for example, the fact that he had criticised those riots at the time, although he did continue to go on and claim that the election had been stolen from him. He has described these allegations as politically motivated and essentially a kind of witch hunt against him, which is a cause that has been adopted by President Trump in the US as well, who has also called this trial against Bolsonaro a witch hunt and used it even as justification for imposing 50% tariffs on some Brazilian goods. So that is the response from Bolsonaro. But today we are expecting that after hearing the full evidence laid out against him, and also his co defendants, some of his close aides and colleagues, we will hear further from his defence as well. As this case reaches its final stages. And whatever happens in this case, he remains a very divisive figure in a divided country, to a certain extent, a very divisive figure. Yet he still manages to attract big crowds of supporters, but also many, many who are furious at the fact that he is still trying to claim that he won that election. They see that as anti democratic. And of course, further anger has been sparked too by the tariffs that have been imposed by Donald Trump. Ione Wells it's estimated that there are more than 55 million people living with dementia around the world, with about 10 million new cases every year. Early diagnosis of the progressive brain disorder Alzheimer's, which is the most common type of dementia, can be problematic. There are lots of methods, from MRI scans to spinal taps, but nothing is definitive. Now, there's been an apparent breakthrough, using a simple three minute test, monitoring brain waves. Developed at Bath University in the west of England, this report from Alice Adderley. Dementia is currently diagnosed too late, typically up to 20 years after the disease has begun. Quicker, more accurate ways to diagnose dementia are greatly needed. That's part of a video made by scientists who've developed a test for Alzheimer's in the early stages of the disease. The study was led by Dr. George Stothart, a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. He describes how the test, using a headset and images, works. The test, called fastball, is a 3 minute passive test of recognition memory. So we flash images on a screen in front of people whilst they're wearing an EEG headset and we can tell from their brainwaves, without them responding in any way, whether they're able to recognise images. And that helps us identify people at risk of Alzheimer's disease. But what's the advantage of being able to diagnose Alzheimer's early on in its development? Dr. Stothart says it's more important than ever. And as there are now new breakthrough drugs which are clinically proven to be the most effective in the early stages of the disease, we're looking at a progressively more positive outlook for treatment options in Alzheimer's disease. If you'd asked me that question two or three years ago, there really wasn't any direct interventions that we can do. But drugs are emerging that have been shown to slow the progress of the disease. And there's also increasing evidence that lifestyle modifications can also help slow the disease. So while there are only two drugs on the market currently that are approved by regulators, there are hundreds in the drug development pipeline behind them. So we hope that the next five to ten years of Alzheimer's treatment will look very different from the previous 10. The research team says it's demonstrated for the first time that the test can be administered in people's homes outside of a clinical environment. They say this opens the door to wider screening and monitoring using accessible, low cost technology. It's currently undergoing validation studies on thousands of patients in the UK and in the US and the results will help determine at what point the test can be best used. Eventually, the scientists hope the test could be rolled out to anyone over the age of 50 or 55, giving hope that one day the there will be an effective treatment for those developing this devastating neurological disease. Alice Adderley, the boss of one of the world's biggest food companies, has been fired. The Swiss firm Nestle, which makes Kit Kat chocolate bars and Nespresso coffee capsules, among many other products, says he failed to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate. Laurent Fryx, who'd only been in the post for a year, was dismissed with immediate effect and will not receive an exit package. Several top executives have been fired from major companies in recent years over personal relationships with colleagues. John Revell, Reuters senior correspondent in Zurich, told Roger, hearing more about what has been happening at Nestle, Mr. Forex only came in exactly a year ago today. He replaced previous CEO Mark Schneider and took charge on 1st September 2024. Then earlier on this year, Chairman Paul Balker announced that he would be leaving early. He's going next year. And this is very much unusual for Nestle, which is actually famous, having sort of long standing and long serving CEOs and chairman. So it's kind of quite a big piece of flux for the company. And they're obviously pretty cross with him because he's left without any kind of financial settlement, hasn't he? They're very cross with him. It's not the fact he had an affair. I think it's the fact that he was questioned about it and he denied it originally. Yeah. And it was on an internal company hotline, apparently, which seems extraordinary. The possible relationship first came to light when there was a report in Springer to an internal company hotline and an investigation was opened into the matter, but there was no direct outcome of that. Concerns persisted. So there was a second probe that was launched by the chairman and the new incoming chairman and that confirmed the relationship. He's leaving. I mean, he's a long standing company veteran, so yeah, it's a very unusual turn of events really. And John, could it be related to other things as well? I mean, I know Nestle shares have fallen 17% over the past year. I mean, it doesn't say much for the man in charge, does it? It's not a good performance, no, but there's a lot of other factors going on out there. I mean, Nestle's a big ship and it takes a long time to turn it around. So, all right, his performance hasn't been that great, but he's only been in a year and for Nestle to fire somebody after a year. I've been following Nestle since 2010 and this hasn't happened before. So I think investors have been unhappy with the performance of the company. But I don't think he's been fired because of that. I think it's purely because of the breach of company rules. And his successor, Philip Navratil, I think at least the immediate successor, will he be able to pick things up? Because I suppose people will read into this that, you know, perhaps systems aren't working as well as they should if they only pick this thing up late. Navatil, he's also a company insider, which is the Nestle way. Mark Schneider, the previous CEO, was the first outsider in decades and that really didn't work out and now they've gone for Philip Navratil. Navratil, his background is that he was head of Nespresso, which is that Nestle's very successful business. But I mean it is a choppy environment out there with competition very fierce against private label supermarket owned brands and also with rising prices because of tariffs, etc. John Revell from Reuters. Still to come, what manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him? There's been huge acclaim for that the latest Frankenstein film, but there's a row over its use of computer generated images. CGI is for losers. Directors like Alfonso Cuaron, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, they're not losers and they all use CGI. If you know your party's extension, press or say 1 to leave a message in our company mailbox, press or say 2. Spoiler alert. It will be full representative Would you speak to your mother in that tone? Speak to a real human being. You shouldn't need to shout into the void to get your health insurance questions answered. Pacific Source Health Plans this is a real person. How can I help you? Human service not automated phone trees. Pacific Source Health Plans Next to a developing story from Sudan. Officials there say hundreds of people have been killed in a landslide with only one survivor. The village of Tarasin was home to families displaced by the ongoing civil war and is under the control of the Sudan Liberation army movement. Our senior Africa reporter Akisa Wandera gave Rajini Vaijanathan this update. Details remain very scanty on what really is happening at the mountainous region of the Mara, but we know that days of rain have buried entire villages with their local rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Movement or army, putting the death toll at over 1000. The army led Sovereignty Council has sent its condolence messages saying that they mourn with the hundreds of people who have been killed in this particular landslide. So we're still trying to follow up on information. The organizations that we've reached out to in parts of Sudan are still trying to verify the numbers and what really is going on. You would appreciate that it's a remote area, so getting information and even access for many of this organization has become very difficult indeed. Akisa who are the Sudan Liberation Army. This is a group that currently controls part of Darfur. It was formed almost 25 years ago in 2002 and was one of the key factions that rose up against the rule of Omar Al Bashir. But it has since disintegrated or split in various factions, one of which said this year that they will be supporting or fighting alongside the army as the conflict between the Sudanese army and the rapid support forces continues. So this is a region that has been led by rebel groups, so to speak, for more than 20 years now. A very remote area, very mountainous and very difficult to access. And we understand that recently the conflict between the army and the Sudanese RSF have led hundreds if not thousands of people to seek refuge in the Mara village. So then you would appreciate that this particular devastating landslide would then mean that a lot of people who are already displaced by the war have been affected as we speak. That was Akiza Wandera. Now, it was four decades ago this week that the wreck of the Titanic was discovered 73 years after it sank. Following that fateful collision with the iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, scientists from the United States and France succeeded where others had failed in locating the vessel 4km down on the ocean floor. The man who led the project was Robert Ballard, now a professor of oceanography and a retired Navy officer. It's since emerged that at the time the wreck was found, he was in fact on a top secret naval mission to determine why two nuclear submarines had sunk in the Atlantic in the 1960s and used the Titanic mission as a cover story. He's been telling Evan Davis about the moment he discovered the wreck. Naturally, your reaction is jubilant. You jump up and down and you're all excited. But then someone looked at the clock in the command center and said, she sinks in 20 minutes. It was 2 in the morning, September 1st, and that innocent comment grounded us. We were embarrassed, quite honestly. Our feeling was, why are we celebrating? It spoke to us. We were at the very spot where all these lost souls had gone down and they were no longer lost. And I had the captain raise our vehicle above the bottom so we wouldn't hit anything. And I said to my team, I don't know about you, but I'm going out on the fantail. It was pitch black, just like this night the Titanic sank. Just stars in the sky, no moon. And we stopped the ship and we had to raise the flag of Harlan and Wolf. And we had a quiet, reflective moment. I've been to a lot of places where terrible things have happened. But what was interesting about the Titanic was it was a morality play. It didn't sink right away like the Britannic went to the bottom rather rapidly or it wasn't a ship of war. This was during the Edwardian era, you know, this was the wealthy were the stars of the world. And this play acted itself out on the deck of the Titanic. When I was trained as a combat infantry officer during Vietnam, you were trained to not really know the true measure of a person until it gets really bad. And in my case, because I've been trained to be calm, everything goes into slow motion. And you look around and the person you thought would stand the ground runs, and the person you thought would run stands the ground. And I think that that's what fascinates people about the Titanic. And it'll never stop because they wonder what they would have done. That's gotta be a big, big part of it. I mean there's lots else in the story, isn't there? The hubris, the unsinkable description of this thing, the fact it was the maiden voyage. I mean, look, Robert, I just want to clarify some historic points here. You were researching these nuclear subs which were lying at the bottom of the ocean. That was what was paying for your time on this expedition. Yeah. And you weren't really able to tell your French collaborators. You weren't able to tell them this is what I'm really here for. I mean those nuclear subs, were they okay, because that sounds like quite an important mission. They both shut down their nuclear reactors, so they went into auto scram. One of the things we were doing was collecting animals that were living in the wreckage to determine if they'd been affected over generations. And it turns out the reactor compartment went into the bottom and sealed itself into the muds. It's not having any impact on the environment, but we didn't know that. I wonder whether this though is what you'll be most remembered for, Robert, because it is, it's interesting. Funny that you should ask. I just published my autobiography last year called into the Deep. My mother is in the prologue because when I came back from finding the Titanic and National Geographic had me doing the Today show, the Tonight show, the tomorrow show, the day after they put me on a media blitz for three days. And I finally came home and the phone rang and it was my mom. And I'm a 13th generation American, but first in our family to go to college. And my mother was a brilliant woman, but she was a mother raising children. Here's this Kansas woman saying, we saw you on all the shows and all the neighbors are calling, but it's too bad after all this fame and all of this glory, you found that rusty old boat. Because you are a great scientist. You discovered hydrothermal vents, the origin of life on the planet, proof plate tectonics with the French. You are a great, great scientist. But now they're only going to remember you for this rusty old. Whoa, A hard mother to please. That was the US oceanographer Robert Ballard. An Australian state is banning fish shaped soy sauce containers as part of a wider clampdown on single use plastics. The iconic packaging has become a staple in many Asian restaurants and takeaways around the world. And while the plastic used is in theory reusable, their small size means recycling machines. Struggle to process them and they end up being dumped. Susan Close is South Australia's Environment Minister, she spoke to Gary o'. Donoghue. It had started actually five years ago with plastic straws. There was a different government in. They started it and we continued it. But about three years ago, we worked out that the last of the things we needed to ban was these soy fish that are so wasteful and so destructive. We really think it's time to not only get rid of single use plastic, but to encourage people to reuse. My understanding is that this particular plastic is actually recyclable. Can't you focus on actually making people recycle it instead? Well, it's actually made of two different polymers. And so the problem is, because the lid and the body of the fish are not compatible, you can't simply throw them away and have them recycled. And it's also the case that they're so small that they tend to fall out of any kind of recycling capacity. They literally fall through the gaps and so they don't end up being recycled. What happens is that people take them when they're doing takeaway, use them for three seconds and they throw them in the bin. And all too often, they don't just go into the bin and into landfill, but they blow away and they get into our litter stream and out into our sea. What's going to replace them? In all these Asian restaurants and takeaways, what we're hoping is that people will increasingly use the receptacles. So whether it's a bottle that the soy sauces come in at the takeaway counter or a lovely container that holds the soy sauce at the restaurant, that is the much better way of doing this. What about takeaways, though, when people deliver? Indeed. So there are the lightweight foil containers. They're very cheap, very light. It's less than satisfactory because they're still made of plastic, but far less plastic, much lighter and not importantly, in the shape of a fish. One of the challenges we have is that if these soyfish containers get into the litter stream, get out into the ocean through our stormwater system, that they are mistaken for food by other fish. And because we're an island nation, there's one reputable source says that we throw away about 145,000 tonnes of plastic that makes its way into the litter stream generally, and a lot of it into the coastline and into the sea. And we've just got to stop treating our oceans like a rubbish bin. Now, you mentioned the bans that have already come in terms of plastic straws, stirrers, I think confetti as well. Is there any evidence that it's starting to have an impact in the extent to which waters around South Australia are contaminated with these microplastics. Absolutely stunning turnaround. So we have people who go along and collect waste along our beaches out of the goodness of their heart. We have regular cleanup days and so on. And the dramatic difference in what they're picking up now is just wonderful that suddenly you don't see plastic straws anymore. Where that was one of the highest, most frequently found items, we now find almost none. So people doing the right thing, businesses are doing the right thing and it's having the right effect. And that encour us to do more. South Australia's Environment Minister, Susan Close and finally, some of what I will tell you is fact, some is not. But it is all true. What manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him? Guillermo del Toro's big screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. When it had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last weekend, it received an incredible 15 minute standing ovation. It's due to be released globally on Netflix in November. But ahead of that, a debate around the use of CGI or computer generated images. It's kicked off, as Andrew Quither reports, a somewhat damning comment from one of the stars of the Frankenstein film. CGI is for losers. That was the response from the film's Christopher Walls after being asked about the practical effects in the latest Frankenstein movie. Many of Hollywood's major films have used computer generated imagery to enhance their appeal. The first major one to incorporate CGI was 1973's Westworld, Michael Crichton's focus on the world from a robot's point of view. Then fast forward to Pixar's Toy story in 1995, which made the history books for being the first fully computer animated feature length film. Now, Walls comments have prompted something of a debate between filmmakers falling on either side of the aisle. Isabel Stephens is the managing editor of the British Film Institute's film magazine Sight and Sound. She thinks it makes total sense for a film like Frankenstein to rely on practical effects. The creature is made by Frankenstein with his own hands. And so I think having a reliance on practical effects does make sense in that there's a link there to the subject matter. So where's the line? What's the threshold for the decision making filmmakers put into using CGI and how hard is it to make something stand out for its digital effects? CGI is a tool, so I think it's really to do with is it being used imaginatively? And originally Del Toro has used CGI in the past and I think that PCs a real connection, they're able to create a different connection with the audience and perhaps in the world where everything is digitized, practical effects stand out. Lucy Killick is the chief operating officer of Framestore, an Oscar winning visual effects company. What does she think of Walls? Words. Quite an unfortunate comment. I think bad CGI is for losers, I'll give him that. But is there a middle ground? To me, CGI is a tool to be used and Guillermo del Toro uses it properly. And even Guillermo says there's badly used resources. The more experience you have with the tools, the more you know how to do finer work with them. Guillermo knows how to use cgi and directors like Alfonso Cuaron, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, they're not losers and they all use cgi. So it seems practice makes perfect and a bit of skill when it comes to using computer generated imagery in films. And that's a sentiment echoed by Frankenstein's director, Guillermo de Toronto. That report by Andrew Quither. 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 in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk. this edition was mixed by Chris Hanson and the producer was Nicky Varique. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.