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Los Angeles wildfires force thousands from their homes
00:29:49
The mayor of Los Angeles says windstorms that are driving the fires are likely to worsen
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Oliver Berkman
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity, busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking, looking. It's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Epidemics of Modern Life available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT. On Wednesday 8th January, reinforcements are being brought into Los Angeles to fight fires that have forced thousands to flee. European nations warn that borders must not be altered by force after Donald Trump refuses to rule out military action to take Greenland. And China steps up relief efforts in the earthquake zone in Tibet. Also in the podcast, this interaction is very new and very healthy and very positive. It's peaceful interaction, even with people we don't agree with. It's amazing and it's never been experienced before. Civil society activists in Damascus discuss the future of Syria. The wildfires currently burning in at least three parts of Los Angeles are so fierce that extra firefighters have been brought in from Northern California and Arizona. The worst of the fires is in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood between Santa Monica and Malibu. At least 30,000 people have been forced to evacuate. Resident Lyn Levin Guzman told a local TV station she went to her pet parents neighborhood to hose down their house. They're 90 years old. They've lived in this house for 75 years. There's no words to even describe how heartbreaking, how heartbreaking. That's your entire life. You don't get that back. The memories are gone. I hope they're alive. Mimi Teller from the American Red Cross is at an evacuation center in the city where people have been arriving with very few belongings. We have approximately 65 people in this shelter right now. We have another shelter which has about a dozen people. Everyone's pretty shaken up. You know, we've tried to embrace a few people as they've come in, find out how they're doing and they're like, just let me be. I just need to sleep. A lot of people, unfortunately weren't even able to get back to their homes to get their pets. So there's also a lot of grief and trauma right now associated with the people. A few people had a few possessions. Some people literally just had the clothes on their backs. The fires are being fueled by gusts of up to 100 miles an hour, 160 kilometers an hour, caused by a seasonal weather pattern known as the Santa Ana winds and by the recent months of dry weather. Just before we recorded this podcast, I got an update from our correspondent in Los Angeles, Peter Bose. The latest is that there are now three major fires that seem to be burning out of control. And the problem for the firefighters is that overnight they haven't had the assistance of the fixed wing aircraft and the helicopters that can douse the flames with fire retardants and water. That hasn't been possible in large part because of its nighttime and the winds. And also actually President Biden has been in town and there have been flight restrictions over Los Angeles because of that visit. It always happens when a president visits. But there's been multiple problems hindering firefighters during the night, making any sort of progress really difficult. Just firefighters, more than a thousand firefighters on the ground trying to battle these flames. Things hopefully will improve. If the winds die down, they might die down a little bit in a couple of hours, and we'll see the situation when the sun rises. But really, at the moment, it's a very scary scenario with 30,000 people evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, businesses, homes, medical facilities, at least one school that I'm aware of. And really this city just holding its breath to see what happens next. But it's a frightening situation for everyone concerned. Of course, wildfires are not uncommon in California, but you've lived in Los Angeles for many years. How does this compare? Well, this is really the worst scenario that I can remember because of the scale. Yes, I've been through fires. The position I'm standing in right now in 2019 burned completely, and there were three homes right behind me that were completely destroyed. That was a terrifying situation. But what we have now are these three big fires that are 30 to 50 miles apart. And that gives you the scale of the situation that we're dealing with. And in between those big fires, there are some smaller fires that are burning as well. And it really is because of this perfect storm scenario of extremely dry brush, very strong winds, and very difficult situation for the firefighters. So it's about as bad as it could be. If you live in Los Angeles, you're not surprised. And we heard the governor, Gavin Newsom, saying a few hours ago that he now considers wildfires to be a year round threat. Really? I think we've known that for the last few years that these fires can happen at any time. Right now, January to March should be the wet season, it should be the rainy season. It isn't. It's very dry. And it is a little unusual that we've got such serious fires just into January. Peter Bowes in Los Angeles and just a reminder that we're planning a special edition of the Global News podcast to look at the extent to which extreme weather events are directly linked to climate change. So if there's anything you want to ask our experts, email us at the usual address, globalpodcastbc. And if you can please put your question in a voice. Note the U.S. president elect Donald Trump has doubled down on his desire to make America bigger, posting a picture of a map depicting Canada as part of the United States. In a wide ranging news conference at Mar a Lago on Tuesday, the former reality TV star also spoke about acquiring Greenland from Denmark, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and taking back the Panama Canal. The Panamanian Foreign Minister, Javier Martinez Acha said the sovereignty of the waterway was non negotiable. Our canal has the mission to serve humanity and its trade. That's one of the values that Panamanians offer to the world, giving guarantee to the international community not to take part nor be an active part of any conflict. The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian and it will continue to be so. France has warned Mr. Trump against threatening the sovereign borders of Europe, while Germany said borders must not be moved by force after the President elect refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland. The vast mineral rich island is an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark. But what is the view there? Malik Hanssen is head of Greenland's Foreign Policy Society. Greenland wants independence, it wants sovereignty, it wants recognition. The ordinary people do see the power of this intention and the interest interest from abroad. In a future where we see the US Maybe becoming more an exclusive club, it's always nice to be invited. But of course there are more ordinary issues. For example, we have concerns regarding the political and socioeconomic changes and the challenges we could see if Greenland was actually to be included in the US but independence is the main concern of Greenland and how it's going to come about. And if Trump will have a positive or negative effect on this development, we will just have to see Mike Hanson in Greenland. So how likely is it that the US Would use the military to expand its territory James Jeffrey is a former US Deputy National Security Advisor. For starters, none of this is going to actually happen. We're a constitutional democracy. Trump isn't a dictator. And even if he were, these are totally off the wall things. There's two questions here. To what extent is he trying to send a signal to our partners and allies around the world and to his own bas? And to what extent is he becoming more irrational? I mean, we just had, you know, an unpleasant experience with Joe Biden, and Trump is pretty old. I mean, I can say that because I'm the same age. So every time he does something like this, we have to suck in our breath a bit and see what happens. But again, we're not going to march into Greenland, we're not going to march into Canada, we're not going to seize the Panama Canal. The basic question is, how will this be assessed? Not by our partners. They will be shocked, outraged, and probably shrug it off. I'm looking at Berlin, I'm looking at Paris, I'm looking at London. I'm worried a little bit about how the Putin's and the G's of the world will assess this, because this seems to be a bit more than his usual irrational self, which they're used to. But I mean, in defense of him, the charm of Trump is they're really afraid of him. I mean, that picture of him taking a bullet and pumping his fist in the air, this didn't impress, you know, the cocktail circuit in Brussels. But believe me, I've spent a lot of time with thuggish leaders, including, including Putin, and it makes a big impression on them. So that's a good thing that you have a leader that others, that bad people fear. What I don't want is a leader that bad people don't take seriously. James Jeffrey, a former US Deputy national security adviser, this afternoon in China, Ching Hai Province was hit by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake. Although such tremors can damage buildings, it was much less powerful than the 7.1 magnitude quake that struck the neighboring region of Tibet on Tuesday morning. Rescuers there are racing against time to get people to safety. Survivors trapped in the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings risk dying of hypothermia in the harsh winter conditions. At least 126 people are confirmed dead. Hundreds more are injured. Professor Bishal Nath Upreti is head of the center for Disaster Management in neighboring Nepal. It's so cold now, it's the mid winter, people are suffering. And this is a very critical time now because of the cold as well as in terms of whenever we have an earthquake, these 24, 48 hours are the golden hours, we call it, as far as possible, as early as possible. We have to get them rescued and get them back from the rubble. The problem with the Tibet rural as well as anywhere in the Himalaya, all the way from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Nepal and Bhutan and Sikkim, all these Indian parts are, you know, our houses in the rural houses are very, very weak. They're all stone buildings, you know, one or two story buildings. So whenever we have an earthquake, even a small earthquake of 5.5 or 6 magnitude can destroy a lot of houses and can kill people. This is what happening in Tibet. And of course, it was 7.1 fairly large earthquake. Professor Bishal Nath Upretti in Nepal. Reporters can't travel to Tibet without permission from the Chinese government. So our correspondent Laura Bicker is monitoring the relief operation from Beijing. Chinese authorities have flooded the area with many rescuers, 14,000 rescuers. They come from the army, they come from the police, they come from the fire brigade. And there are also very many trained search and rescue teams who have experienced earthquakes in the past. They have all made their way to this remote mountainous region of Tibet to try to search for survivors. When you see the picture from the drones that they have put up, which show the extent of the damage, you see these low level, kind of one level houses that have simply just crumbled, many of them to dust after that quake. We've also heard that there have been more than 500 aftershocks in the last 24 hours alone. So you can imagine the kind of challenges for rescuers and also those survivors who are now trying to find shelter in tents. The Chinese government says that they have relocated 40,000 people. So that gives you an extent of how many people need to find shelter over the next few months as either the rebuilding starts or they try to find somewhere else to go. Laura Bicker in Beijing. As the new government in Syria begins trying to rebuild international ties with countries like Germany and the uae, there are calls for Syrians at home to take an active role in shaping the new constitution. After five decades of repression under the Assad family, the streets are now bustling with activists and young professionals openly discussing the future of the nation. As Leena Sinjab reports from Damascus. We are at Umayyad Square and this is the first day where civil society have gathered. It is the civil youth gathering. It's full of artists, painters, musicians and ordinary peoples. And the cause are mainly for a civil democratic state to participate in the formation of the constitution. They're welcoming the new government, but they're also saying, we are here. You need to take us as part of any decision making. The Umayyad Square has become a place of exchanging views among different people, something like the Hyde Park Speaker's Corner that never happened under Assad's power. Men and women are arguing about the country's priorities. The men think it is not time to talk about women's rights. The women insist now is the time for every right to be discussed. Savannah Buckley is a musician and civil society activist. This interaction is very new and very healthy and very positive. It's peaceful interaction, even with people we don't agree with. It's amazing and it's never been experienced before. And we need to know each other because in 50 years, the solitude between the Syrian groups, the different Syrian groups, was very, very sharp. And it was fortified by the Syrian regime's agendas and narratives. So we need to overcome that and reach out to each other and know what we want together to build a better future. People here want to be proactive and be part of any political process and want to make sure that they are included, especially women. They don't want to be deprived of their rights. They want to be assertive that they are here and part of the future. Syria. Away from the bustling Square, I visit 73 year old Yusuf Abdelki, who is a renowned Syrian artist. His studio is tucked off the main street, a traditional Damascene house with a water fountain centered in its courtyard. Once a prisoner of Assad's the father, he was also detained during Bashar's brutal crackdown in 2011. His work reflected the bleak reality of Syria under the regime, and a painting could get him thrown in jail, or worse, executed. He is showing me a large portrait of Bashar Al Assad that he drew in 2012 at the height of the peaceful protests. All these years he kept it hidden, but now that Assad is gone, he's finally able to show it to the world. This is an image that's unforgettable for me, and it summarizes the peaceful protests in 2011 and the unjustified brutality of the regime. For Youssef, now it's the time for everyone in the society to contribute so the country doesn't fall into another form of dictatorship. Lina Sinjab reporting from Damascus. And still to come on the global news podcast, you know, the wind blowing, tarp tearing, the wind's knocking stuff down. We just saw a sign there saying they're going to come and clear all of this. Yeah. And that's ridiculous because it's in the middle of winter and we don't really got nowhere to go. We look at the impact of the huge winter storm on the east coast of America, on the thousands battling homelessness. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman. Containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity. Busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of modern life. Available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. A study into the use of artificial intelligence to help identify cases of breast cancer has found that technology can improve detection rates with no increase in false positives. The German study also suggested AI could help reduce the workload of medical staff. Stefan Bunke is one of the authors of the study and founder of AI software firm VARA. Over 100 radiologists assess roughly half a million women, kind of 1/2 with 1/2 without AI. And when AI was used, cancer detection rate was 18% higher. So we find more cancers without doing more harm to women and we can also cover roughly 60% of the workload with AI. The study was set up in a way to combine the strengths of radiologists and AI. So the I only gave recommendations when it was very confident and cases where radiologists are better are diagnosed by the human. I think especially in screening it's important that that kind of. Luckily most women are healthy. Right. So only 6 out of 1000 women actually have cancer, but doctors still have to diagnose the other 994. Right. So I think AI can really expand screening to more women and also that doctors focus more on the critical, difficult cases that actually, actually have cancer and treat those. The study shows really good results and I think we have to really start a discussion on this now on how to how to integrate AI into healthcare systems. I think there was lots of hype in the past, but now there's actually evidence and there are many legal, ethical and also patient acceptance challenges to discuss here. Right. There always has to be a human element in something as personal as healthcare, but we're also seeing it right now that AI is getting so good that we are close to a time where it will be unethical to not use AI support just because AI is so much better already. Stefan Bunch. As we heard earlier in the podcast, a devastating wildfire has been spreading through parts of Los Angeles. But on the east coast of America, a huge winter storm has brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Shelters have been opening their doors to rough sleepers after a surge in homelessness over the past year. From Washington, here's Tom Bateman. Along the roadside are America's left behind. Tens of thousands of homeless people are facing a brutal winter on the US east coast. My tent here that got crashed by the snow yesterday, but that's fine. I'm just going to clear the snow later on. John Sebastian, living in a tiny one man tent, scrapes by spending the freezing nights at the shelter and comes back to guard his spot here during the day. Can you show us your place? Sure. And so you got inside just a bit to eat and a bit of food, Something to drink? Food, yeah. You always put some food. I try to place as many blankets as I can so it stays warm. One of the tents, there's a gas canister outside and one of the burners you get outside restaurants where someone's been obviously using that to try and keep warm. But what there is also here is a sign telling them that they have just around a week left here before these tents are going to be removed and cleared by the city authorities and they'll all be moved on once again. Do you need a hat? Yes. Here you are. Sareh Knight, an aid worker comes to help homelessness in the US hit record levels last year with hundreds of thousands rough sleeping in American cities. At the complex intersection of factors driving it, soaring rents and the post pandemic economy. Come out. What? Come and talk to me. Can we chat to you quickly? G lost his job as a mason's apprentice and has been sleeping rough for two years. What's it like with this snow and cold? You know, the wind blowing, tarp tearing, the wind's knocking stuff down. We just saw a sign there saying they're going to come and clear all of this. Yeah. And that's ridiculous because it's in the middle of winter and we don't really got nowhere to go. And then just breaking it all down and having to redo it again is ridiculous. So where are you going to go next? Not even sure. Well, I'm standing now next to an expressway, but next to this road as cars zoom past here are around another 20 or so tents. One of them looks virtually buried in snow. And you get the sense here that because of the way people are constantly being moved on, that this is a last refuge, a last place that rough sleepers can come. Where they won't get moved on again is on the embankment next to the highway. As people are shifted around this city, the soup kitchens mean warmth and continuity and some sanctuary in this one. Hunkering over an empty cup, I meet Angie. She's fled her home state, a survivor of domestic violence, and come to Washington now facing her first winter on the streets. It's terrible. It is just bone chilling. And it's. You're out there at night and in early mornings, shelters tell you to get out about 6am, waiting for buses till 7, 7:30 to get here and get a hot meal. It's like a race to get a hot meal. Basically, when you're in a shelter, there's nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a hot meal when you have no money and nowhere to go. And how long have you been without summer to live in dc? Two months. Yeah, some people have been here a long time. It's terrible. There seems to be so many people. It seems to be a problem that's growing. Yeah, yeah. Especially when you see handicapped people out on the street. No case managers. Nobody is helping them. Back out in the ice, we say goodbye to Angie. Her wheelie case and bags are packed and are being dragged along in the slush and snow. She's on the move again. In the shadow of the U.S. capitol building, fighting the cold is still a daily struggle for many in the world's wealthiest country. That report by Tom Bateman. Sam Altman, Boss of the ChatGPT owner OpenAI, has been named in a lawsuit accusing him of childhood sexual abuse. He has denied the claims. Our business presenter Suranjana Tiwari has the details. OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman's sister, Ann Altman, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he regularly sexually abused between the years of 1997 and 2006. Now, the lawsuit was filed on 6 January in a US district court in the Eastern District of Missouri. That's where they grew up. And alleges that the abuse started when she was three and Mr. Altman was 12. In the filing, which has been seen by the BBC, Ms. Altman alleged that the abuse, which took place over many years, included rape. It added that the last instance of the alleged abuse took place when Mr. Altman was an adult, but she was still a minor. Sam Altman has put out a joint statement on the social media platform X with his mother and two brothers. He denied the allegations, saying all of these claims are utterly untrue. And he added that caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult. The situation causes immense, immense pain to our Entire family. Now, Ms. Altman has previously made similar allegations against her brother on X. But of course Mr. Altman is one of the technology world's most high profile figures. So there will be a lot of attention on where this potential trial goes and where this case ends up. Our business reporter Saranjana Tiwari. As the new year dawned, businesses in Norway faced a key deadline requiring them to ensure more women are sitting on their executive boards. Back in 2018, it was the first nation to introduce a 40% gender quota on boards of listed companies firms on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The Norwegian parliament extended that to all large and medium sized private companies, around 8,000 businesses in total. So have they all met the deadline? Nuala McGovern was joined by Heger Ruhrdland, founder of a recruitment company. And first up, Linda Litlakalso Orsa, CEO of a salmon producer and winner of Norway's Woman board Award in 2022. I think just to start on the good note, it has been a door opener and I think there has been the company has been forced to think out of the box. So even though there was some resistance, they had to do it. So I think that's the good thing with having this introduced as a law. And of course it's always good to test it out on the stock note at first. And maybe the smaller or the limited company didn't realize that the law will hit them as soon as it did. But when it it happened I think it has been more welcoming because it has been already gained good experience from the stock noted on how it is impacting in a positive way to bring in more diversity in the boards. But they are the diversity on the boards that you talk about there, Linda. But some people criticize that actual internal leadership positions in businesses which hold greater power that the aren't there yet. I mean is that where a quota could be introduced? I believe that the tone has to be set on the top meaning the board. So we need to give again the opportunities to those really good qualified women out there because they are there. I think that's not the challenge. It is that we don't, we haven't seen them before in the way that we do now. So there are plenty of good qualified women out there and they should really been seen and been included at the board. But it is not enough to invite them in. They have also to be invited to dance in a way. So you cannot bring them into the board and then have them in a corner. So don't put, you know, don't put the new woman on the board in the corner. I totally get it. Let me turn to you though, Hege. There was. I was seeing how some businesses are trying to get around it to have this 40% is they're making their boards smaller, so then you get the quota easier. Have you seen that? Yeah, I've seen that. But I kind of excused them for making a temporary arrangement. Okay. Because the most ambitious boards will, of course, look at this as an advantage and see that. Okay, now we can have new questions, new perspectives into the board, because female candidates or members, they bring in some new perspectives into the boards. That's the feedback that we have got. Linda Littler, Kalsa Orser, and Heger Radland talking to Nuala McGovern. Now there's some good news for those who start the day with a cup of coffee. A European Heart Journal study has found that morning coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death than those who don't touch the stuff and are 31% less likely to be killed by cardiovascular disease. But the researchers at Tulane University in Louisiana found no health benefits for people who drank coffee all day. The report looked at the health, nutrition and lifestyle of more than 40,000 adults in the U.S. Dr. Liu Chi is the lead author. There are a lot of previous studies analyzing the relationship between coffee drinking and the hair's outcomes, various diseases and mortality. But all the previous studies focus on the amounts of coffee drinking. This is the first study focused on the timing of coffee Drinking coffee is very special because coffee can motivate the changes of various different biomarkers, as I mentioned, including hormones, blood pressure, heart rate and sleeping quality. Related to a scientific term, we call that circadian. There are many biological functions changed over the time during the day, 24 hours, for example, blood pressure, heart rates and hormones such as melatonin, cortisone. Some inflammation markers all showed daily fluctuations. But we assume that, for example, drinking coffee late at night, for example, may change the sleeping behaviors. So that may cause the adverse effects on human bodies. Dr. Liu Qi. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Martin Williams and produced by Richard Hamilton. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, Goodbye. Discover how to lead a better life in our age. Of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity, busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking. It's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Epidemics of Modern Life. Available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks.