Over 100 dead in earthquake in Tibet

Summary

Global News Podcast Summary BBC World Service | Release Date: January 7, 2025

The latest episode of the BBC World Service’s Global News Podcast delves into a series of significant global events, ranging from a devastating earthquake in Tibet to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This detailed summary captures the essential discussions, insights, and conclusions presented in the episode, enriched with notable quotes and clear attributions.

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1. Devastating Earthquake in Tibet

Overview: On January 7, 2025, a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck near Mount Everest in Tibet, resulting in over 100 fatalities. The epicenter was located in Shigazi, a region known for its challenging terrain and significance in Tibetan Buddhism.

Impact and Rescue Efforts: Christian Teleki opens the discussion with a note of optimism, emphasizing the importance of every species in conservation efforts, albeit segueing into the earthquake report.

Oliver Conway introduces the earthquake’s immediate consequences:

• Death Toll: "A powerful earthquake in the Chinese region of Tibet has killed at least 106 people" ([02:00]).
• Geographical Challenges: The earthquake's epicenter, being 80 km north of Mount Everest, posed significant logistical challenges for rescue operations due to the high altitude and winter conditions.

Reports from the Field: Laura Bicker, the BBC’s China correspondent, provides a ground-level view:

• Rescue Operations: "We've seen rescuers combing through the rubble brick by brick, searching for survivors" ([02:36]).
• Environmental Conditions: "The temperature in the region is going to dip down to minus 18 degrees Celsius overnight" ([02:42]).
• Infrastructure Damage: "The roads have been split in half, many of them by the shifting ground. So many of them are impassable" ([02:50]).

Navin Sinhadka, the global environment correspondent, discusses the geological aspects:

• Tectonic Activity: "The Indian plate tends to go down below the Eurasian plate. And hence the Himalayas are going up" ([05:36]).
• Aftershocks Concerns: "Authorities have also warned that there have been aftershocks, which might have some impacts on the mountains" ([05:25]).

Challenges for Rescue Teams: Sinhadka highlights both the advantages and obstacles faced by rescuers:

• Infrastructure Use: "The good news with Tibet is they have got a solid highway there," facilitating rescue operations to some extent ([06:21]).
• Remote Accessibility: "Accessing the mountains is quite a challenge," due to the rugged terrain despite the highway ([06:27]).
• Technological Assistance: "Authorities are using drones to locate and see how they could help people" ([06:32]).

2. Passing of Jean Marie Le Pen

Overview: The episode reports on the death of Jean Marie Le Pen, the long-standing leader of France’s far-right Front National (now National Rally), at the age of 96.

Political Legacy: Hugh Schofield provides a comprehensive look into Le Pen’s career:

• Political Influence: "He made the idea he represented, populist, nationalist, far right, racist, whatever the French chose to call them, could no longer be ignored" ([07:33]).
• Controversial Statements: Notably, Le Pen’s provocative remark in a 1987 radio interview about gas chambers showcases his ability to incite and polarize public opinion ([08:05]).

Impact on French Politics: Schofield reflects on Le Pen’s enduring influence:

• Party Dynamics: "By then, though, Jean Marie Le Pen had become Persona non grata—even in his own party" ([08:15]).
• Succession: His daughter, Marine Le Pen, has continued to steer the party, building on the foundation he established ([07:48]).

3. 10th Anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo Attack

Overview: Paris commemorates a decade since the tragic Islamist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which claimed 12 lives.

Anniversary Events: Hugh Schofield describes the solemn ceremonies:

• Official Delegation: "A delegation led by the President and with the former President Francois Hollande... were there to lay the wreath and have a moment of reflection" ([10:59]).
• Additional Sites: The delegation also visited the Jewish supermarket site of a separate attack and the location where the Kawashi brothers were killed ([11:45]).

Reflections on Change Over a Decade: Schofield shares personal insights:

• Emotional Toll: "It felt as horrific as everyone said, and it still does in a way" ([12:09]).
• Evolution of Public Sentiment: The initial surge of solidarity under "Je suis Charlie" has waned, with lingering fears about freedom of speech and publication safety ([12:45]).

4. Anti-Feminist Backlash in South Korea

Overview: South Korea faces a growing backlash against feminism, predominantly from young men who perceive the movement as harmful to societal structures.

Personal Narratives: The report features distressing accounts from women facing harassment:

• Online Abuse: "Can you show me some of the abusive messages that you received? Some say goodbye..." ([19:29]).
• Physical Violence: Chigu, a convenience store worker, recounts a severe violent attack by a man targeting her feminist stance ([20:25]).

Underlying Motivations: Oliver Berkman explores the reasons behind the backlash:

• Perceived Threat: Men believe feminists aim to "take away men's rights" ([20:10]).
• Social Media Influence: Online platforms are rife with misogynistic abuse, complicating workplaces and personal lives for women ([19:35]).

Support and Resistance: Despite the hostility, some allies emerge:

• Advocacy: Minsung Kim, a former online gamer, now an ardent feminist, helps protect women from online and offline attacks ([20:21]).
• Company Defense: Efforts to convince employers not to terminate feminist employees showcase grassroots resistance ([19:38]).

5. Conservation Efforts by Fauna and Flora

Overview: Fauna and Flora, a renowned English conservation charity, has identified 10 unique species worldwide that require urgent protection.

Conservation Strategies: Christian Teleki elaborates on the organization’s mission:

• Species Selection: "These species are arranged that don't get enough attention... equally important plants and animals that require urgent need of conservation attention" ([21:47]).
• Habitat Preservation: Focus on protecting the ecosystems and communities dependent on these species ([21:55]).

Hope and Optimism: Teleki emphasizes a positive outlook:

• "We want to start the year off with hope and optimism... change the story around nature and climate" ([22:31]).
• Collaborative Efforts: Working with local communities, partners, and governments across 45 countries to achieve impactful results by 2025 ([23:08]).

6. TikTok's "75 Hard" Challenge

Overview: The "75 Hard" challenge, a rigorous regimen combining fitness, diet, and mental toughness, has surged in popularity on TikTok, often leading to extreme behaviors.

Challenge Requirements: David Lewis outlines the stringent rules:

• Daily Workouts: Two 45-minute sessions, one indoors and one outdoors ([23:52]).
• Dietary Restrictions: Strict adherence to a healthy diet with no deviations like fast food or alcohol ([24:07]).
• Additional Tasks: Drinking over three liters of water, reading 10 pages of non-fiction, and daily selfies for social media documentation ([23:52]).

Participant Experiences: Participants share their motivations and struggles:

• Personal Discipline: Divamsha Gunpat discusses her struggle with consistency and how the challenge helped her prove her resilience ([24:59]).
• Medical Concerns: Dr. Nikki Kaye warns about the potential physical and psychological risks, highlighting that "the nutrition could lead people down a track of being very rigid, very restrictive and potentially backfiring" ([25:50]).

Variations and Adaptations: In response to the challenge’s intensity, more manageable versions like "75 Medium" and "75 Soft" have emerged, allowing slight flexibility in diet and exercise routines ([26:07]).

7. Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

Overview: The United Nations accuses Israel of attacking aid convoys in Gaza, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

UN's Position: Tom Fletcher, the UN’s Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, details the severe disruptions:

• Attacks on Aid: "Delivery is affecting us as humanitarian workers and as people as well" ([14:31]).
• Convoy Incidents: Multiple incidents where aid vehicles were targeted, severely limiting the UN’s capacity to deliver essential supplies ([15:00]).

On-the-Ground Perspectives: Yusra Abu Sharak, an aid worker in Gaza, and other locals express the dire situation:

• Food Insecurity: "70% of buildings there in Gaza are damaged. And there is a dire need for more aid to get in" ([16:15]).
• Displacement: Nearly 2 million people are displaced, with hundreds of thousands living in tents amidst bitter cold ([16:30]).

Israeli Response: While Israel has not officially commented on the UN’s accusations, it maintains that it continues to facilitate aid deliveries, albeit at reduced capacities compared to pre-war levels ([16:45]).

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This episode of the Global News Podcast provides a comprehensive overview of pressing global issues, combining on-the-ground reporting with in-depth analysis. From natural disasters and political shifts to social movements and humanitarian crises, the podcast delivers nuanced perspectives on events shaping our world.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

[Oliver Berkman]

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 busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature.

[Oliver Conway]

Versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever.

[Oliver Berkman]

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.

[Oliver Conway]

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 Tuesday 7th January, an earthquake has struck near Mount Everest in the Chinese region of Tibet, killing more than 100 people. The the French far right leader Jean Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96 and Paris marks 10 years since the deadly Islamist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Also in the podcast, we wanted to.

[Christian Teleki]

Start the year off with hope and optimism. Every species matters. Whether it is a chameleon the size of a paperclip, all the way to.

[Oliver Conway]

A whale shark, we hear about new efforts to protect 10 weird and wonderful species. A powerful earthquake in the Chinese region of Tibet has killed at least 106 people as we record this podcast. The center of the 7.1 magnitude quake was Shigazi, one of the world's highest regions and traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, the second highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism. The epicenter was about 80 km north of Mount Everest, but tremors were also felt in Nepal and parts of India. Ektev Adhikari leads the National Emergency Operations center in Nepal.

[Oliver Berkman]

Immediately after the earthquake we activated our emergency response protocol and coordination was established with the local authorities. But we have the difficulty of the rogue terrain's highest Himalayan terrain, including some of the world's highest peaks. And this time is winter season, so the temperature is also freezing.

[Oliver Conway]

Since China annexed Tibet in the 1950s, it's kept a tight control on the autonomous region. Our correspondent Laura Bicker is monitoring developments from Beijing.

[Laura Bicker]

What we have seen are a number of new pictures that come from us from the worst hit areas. We've seen rescuers combing through the rubble brick by brick, searching for survivors. We've seen a number of injured people who are out on the street, many of them elderly, many of them young People, we've also seen that the army has arrived now. They seem to be constructing a number of tents just on the back of what you've just heard about the weather. We are told that the temperature in the region is going to dip down to minus 18 degrees Celsius overnight. So that is a real challenge for rescuers. We've also seen the infrastructure, the roads have been split in half, many of them by the shifting ground. So many of them are impassable. And the Air Force launched this unmanned drone and it's given us footage of the whole region. And from there you get an idea of both the region itself, which sits at the base of Mount Everest, but also the challenges ahead because not only is it remote, these are scattered communities and their homes really have been shattered by this powerful quake.

[Oliver Conway]

And how have the authorities been reporting on all this? Obviously they control the media there.

[Laura Bicker]

Yes. The reason we're reporting from Beijing, I'm the China correspondent, but I cannot visit Tibet without permission and a permit from the government. Therefore it is not easy for me to report on this. I'm totally relying on what we're hearing and seeing from Chinese state media. What they are saying is that the rescue effort has been swift, that 1,500 trained search and rescue personnel have been sent along with the army, and that President Xi himself has called for an all out efforts to rescue people, minimize casualties and resettle those whose homes have been damaged.

[Oliver Conway]

Laura Becker in Beijing Tingri county in Tibet, near the epicenter of the earthquake, is a popular base for climbers preparing for Everest expeditions. But few attempt the ascent at this time of year and the sole mountaineer with a permit had already left base camp after failing to reach the summit. I heard more about the possible impact of the quake on Mount Everest from our global environment correspondent, Navin Sinkhadka.

[Navin Sinhadka]

Given the past history of what's happened in the region, if you remember 2014 avalanche, you know, and even the 2015 major earthquake, there was this rock falls, avalanches on Everest itself and similar story in other parts of the Himalayas. So that's where some people are worried that there might be aftermath. And also not to forget, authorities have also warned that there have been aftershocks. Aftershocks means the shaking continues and that might have some impacts on the mountains.

[Oliver Conway]

And tell us more about the area that's been affected. It's just north of Nepal, isn't it?

[Navin Sinhadka]

Yes. The tectonic story is basically there are two plates, Indian plate and Eurasian plate collision. The Indian plate tends to go down below the Eurasian plate. And hence the Himalayas are going up, as we know. That's the story. But what happens is the fall. What's been described by the U.S. geological Survey is a slip of a large fault in the area to the north of this major fault and in the Eurasian Plate. And that's why the impacts will be on the mountains as well. But how much and what will be the aftermath? That is what we are now looking at.

[Oliver Conway]

And just describe the difficulties that will be facing rescuers trying to get into Tingree county, where the earthquake was felt the most.

[Navin Sinhadka]

Well, you see, the thing is, the good news with Tibet is they have got a solid highway there, so that is a major artery in that authorities can do all this rescue and relief operation comparatively better than what happens in the Nepalese side. But again, the highway reaches only so much, isn't it? The mountains are there and accessing them is quite a challenge. But here's the good news. The Chinese government or the authorities are using drones. So many drones there now. And that is where they are trying to locate and see how they could help people. That's a bit of a good news.

[Oliver Conway]

Our global environment correspondent, Navin Sinhadka. The French far right politician Jean Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96. An avowed opponent of immigration, the former paratrooper brought his populist brand of ideology into mainstream French politics and he made it all the way to the second round of the presidential election in 2002. He ran the Front national for nearly 40 years before handing over to his daughter Marine, in 2011. Hugh Schofield sent this report from Paris.

[Hugh Schofield]

Et convitant de la liberte d'almond.

CHANTS OF Le Pen, president at a rally in 2002. This was the high point of his career, when he gave the shock of their lives to France's ruling elites by qualifying for round two of the presidentials. He lost then, of course, heavily to Jacques Chirac. But what he'd done with his 1 in 5 of the vote was show that the ideas he represented, populist, nationalist, far right, racist, whatever the French chose to call them, could no longer be ignored. What followed, the further success of the Front national in recent years under his daughter Marine, was only the confirmation. By then, though, Jean Marie Le Pen had become Persona non grata. Even in his own party. He was a figure of the past, respected, to be sure, for keeping the nationalist flame alive all those years, but whose roots in French, Algeria, militarism, Catholicism, now seemed out of date and above all, whose verbal provocations were an Embarrassment. Prime among these provocations was a radio interview, originally made in 1987, in which Jean Marie Le Pen said that the gas chambers were a detail of the Second World War. He never, of course, actually denied the gas chambers, but it was a provocation. He was baiting the establishment, as he so enjoyed doing. And that, indeed, was Jean Marie Le Pen's trademark throughout his long life, from his Brittany peasant childhood heading the Law Students Union, becoming the youngest MP in 1956 under the populist Pierre Pujad, fighting in Indochina and Algeria, and then in 1972, helping set up the party with which he was so long identified. He was an outsider, a man who hated and fought the Gaullist settlement in France post 1958, and found in that cause a channel for his considerable ego. A bully, certainly, but also charming and humorous and a great speaker. He was the bogey of the establishment, especially of the Left. But both sides knew what was going on. They needed a pariah, someone to throw into outer political darkness. He loved being that pariah.

[Oliver Conway]

Hugh Schofield on Jean Marie Le Pen, who has died at the age of 96, staying with France. And exactly 10 years ago, we were reporting on a major shooting in Paris, an office in Paris under attack by suspected Muslim extremists.

[Navin Sinhadka]

When we arrived at the scene, the.

[Oliver Berkman]

View was quite disturbing, as you imagine. We saw that the number of casualties was very high.

[Oliver Conway]

Well, in the end, it turned out that Islamist gunmen had killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, including several of its best known cartoonists. In the following days, the phrase Je suis Charlie echoed around the world as a slogan for free speech. A decade on. The French President Emmanuel Macron has laid a wreath at the scene of the attack, the French national anthem. Well, our correspondent Hugh Schofield, who you heard a moment ago, is in Paris and told us more about the anniversary events.

[Hugh Schofield]

There's been a delegation led by the President and with the former President Francois Hollande, who was of course, present at the time of the attack. The Prime Minister, Francois Beirut, the mayor of Paris. They were there, family members of the dead. They were there outside the offices, not far from where I am now, to lay the wreath and to have a moment of reflection before they moved on to a couple of other sites related to the attacks. Just down the road there was a place where the Koasi brothers murdered a Muslim policeman who was on patrol on that day, and they shot him dead. And right now the delegation has moved across town a short distance away to the Jewish supermarket, which if you remember, in a separate but synchronized attack, was the scene of another atrocity where another jihadist gunman, Ahmadi Koulibaly, shot dead four Jewish people who he'd taken hostage before he was shot dead. And indeed at almost exactly the same time, two days later, after the original attacks, the Kawashi brothers were also corners and shot dead as well. So it's been a solemn moment with this added fact that it's the 10th anniversary now and the time to reflect more perhaps on what happened then and on changes since now, of course, you.

[Oliver Conway]

Were on the scene a decade ago. How did it feel at the time and how have things changed since then?

[Hugh Schofield]

It felt as horrific as everyone said, and it still does in a way. And one has to pinch oneself. It seemed at the time quite extraordinary that the mere fact of drawing pictures, cartoons would be enough to provoke this kind of violent reaction, that they should die for that. I think what's happened since is that we've kind of got used to it and it doesn't seem quite so. I won't say it's less shocking, but it's certainly an idea we've had to accustom ourselves to. The other thing that's happened is, I suppose, that this spirit of Je suis Charlie, the idea that the country would come together and reject all of this and be united by the cause of freedom of speech and the right to offend, as long as it's done in a way that is not insightful or into violence. That is an issue which people espouse on one level, but on another level, of course, it's completely disappeared. The fact is that people are afraid publications will not publish things that they published before. And to that extent, you know, we are not shy anymore.

[Oliver Conway]

Hugh Schofield in Paris. Still to come on the global news.

[Oliver Berkman]

Podcast, some say goodbye, another says your mum is a cripple. And there are swear words I'd never heard before.

[Oliver Conway]

We report on the anti feminist backlash in South Korea.

[Oliver Berkman]

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.

[Oliver Conway]

Versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking.

[Oliver Berkman]

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.

[Oliver Conway]

The UN has accused Israel of attacking a clearly marked aid convoy in Gaza, saying its efforts to save lives in the Palestinian territory are at breaking point. Tom Fletcher, the UN's Under Secretary for Humanitarian affairs, says deliberate acts from Israeli forces and Palestinian gangs are making an already difficult situation much worse. Yusra Abu Sharak is an aid worker in Gaza.

[Laura Bicker]

To be honest, the interruption of aid.

[Oliver Berkman]

Delivery is affecting us as humanitarian workers and as people as well. Living in this catastrophic conditions. It's hard when you just woke up.

[Hugh Schofield]

To think of how to secure bread.

[Oliver Berkman]

And flour for the family. Everyone here in southern part of Gaza are suffering from food insecurity. Same to north Gaza as well. So we are not able to secure the basic needs of our family.

[Hugh Schofield]

Your kids ask you about like when.

[Oliver Berkman]

This war gonna end and this is really, really hard.

[Oliver Conway]

Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Emir Nada, told us more about the challenges facing relief workers.

[Hugh Schofield]

We've had the statement from Tom Fletcher, who is the UN's humanitarian chief, identifying those incidents in the past days. This World Food Program convoy, three vehicles which they said had all the necessary clearances from the Israeli military and were clearly marks, they said came under fire from Israeli troops. They said the incident was a horrifying incident which left the staff shook. But thankfully no one was injured in the attack. Another attack on a food distribution point which led to three people being seriously injured in a strike by the Israeli military. And also on the weekend we did see a separate incident where the civil defense in Gaza said that a vehicle carrying five Palestinians who were protecting aid deliveries were struck in what they said was an Israeli attack. The statement by the UN has also noted that Palestinian gangs have been looting aid deliveries into Gaza. This incident where six fuel tankers were hijacked, leaving their aid operations with very little or pushing the ability of the UN to conduct their aid deliveries to breaking point. The Israeli military hasn't yet commented on the UN statement, but it has previously said that it continues to facilitate aid deliveries into Gaza. It's talked about on Sunday it coordinated 182 aid trucks to get into Gaza. One fuel and one medical truck into northern Gaza. But it's worth bearing in mind that the pre war number of trucks that were getting into Gaza was 500 a day. And that's why many, many aid agencies are saying that the amount that's getting in is not enough. It's very insufficient. UNICEF has said that 96% of women and children in Gaza are unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. Living on A very restricted diet that's affecting the health of women and children. And it's worth bearing in mind nearly 2 million people in Gaza are displaced. Hundreds of thousands are living in tents through bitter cold. In this winter period, 70% of buildings there in Gaza are damaged. And there is a dire need for more aid to get in.

[Oliver Conway]

Yemenada in Jerusalem. For some years, South Korea has seen a backlash against feminism, largely from young men who blame the movement for societal issues. Women who advocate gender equality are accused of being man haters online. Young men try to get them fired from their jobs, and these online attacks have even spilled into real life. It's left women too scared to admit they are feminists, as our sole correspondent Jean Mackenzie has been finding out.

[Oliver Berkman]

Can you show me some of the abusive messages that you received? Some say goodbye. Another says, you must be pretty comfortable with your life because you've sabotaged your job. You're drinking poison, and if you keep drinking it, you will die. We're calling this woman Dorim. She draws animations for video games. And one night, after completing a big project for one of Korea's most popular games, Maplestory, she was flooded with these abusive messages. Others say, your mum is a cripple. And there are swear words I'd never heard before. I was so shocked. Darim had become the target of a vicious online witch hunt where young men try to get feminists fired from their jobs. They often target women who work in the gaming industry, trawling their social media to find any trace of feminism, then pressuring their companies to sack them. And way back on Doreem's timeline, they'd found a supportive post. People started filing complaints to the Maple Story team. This person is a feminist, they said. My company and the CEO, we were all in a panic. There were so many complaints by people wanting me to be fired. This backlash to feminism has been slowly escalating. Women here suffer from severe discrimination, misogyny, and sexual violence. And as feminists have fought to improve women's rights, young men have pushed back. It's so bad, it's worse than I remember.

[Hugh Schofield]

Good God.

[Oliver Berkman]

Can you read me some of the messages?

[Hugh Schofield]

Okay.

[Oliver Conway]

Korean women are spreading poison in the well.

[Hugh Schofield]

It's all just general misogyny.

[Oliver Berkman]

I'm sitting with Minsung Kim. He's a big online gamer, and we're looking through some popular online message boards, and they're just full of misogynistic abuse. Minsoon used to belong to these forums, but now he calls himself an ardent feminist, and he's working to support women who are being attacked. He even managed to convince Darim's company not to fire her. Why do these men have such a problem with feminists? By their alternate reality, men are actually being systematically repressed, being systematically discriminated against. Feminists just want to take away men's rights. They're confident now that when you accuse.

[Hugh Schofield]

Someone of feminism, you can ruin their.

[Oliver Berkman]

Career, because these witch hunts do work. There are cases where women have lost their jobs, and for one woman, the violence spilled offline and into real life. We're calling her Chigu. He exploded and started banging on the counter with his hand and throwing things at me. He said, hey, you're a feminist, right? You look like a feminist with your short hair. Chigu was working alone in a convenience store late at night when the man came in and started attacking her. He grabbed my arm and pushed me very hard against the shelves. Then he pushed me down to the ground and started punching my face and kicking my body so I wouldn't be able to get up. He said, I never hit women. I've never even hit my mum. But feminists need to get beaten. I kept going in and out of consciousness and at some point he picked me up and threw me. I thought I could die.

[Oliver Conway]

And that report from Soul by Jean MacKenzie. You can hear more on assignment wherever you get your BBC podcasts. An English conservation charity, Fauna and Flora, has drawn up a watch list of 10 weird and wonderful species around the world that it's working to save in 2020. They range from a tiny chameleon to the mighty whale shark. Each is in danger from changes to its habitat. The charity's boss, Christian Teleki, told Nikki Schiller why they were taking action.

[Christian Teleki]

These species are arranged that don't get enough attention. I think we typically focus on those charismatic animals like I'm sure you've all read about, whether lions, tigers and gorillas. And while we work on these species, we recognize that there are many more that are less familiar to many people and equally important plants and animals that require urgent need of conservation attention. And this is about the habitats and ecosystems where these fauna and flora live and the people who rely on them. And what we're saying is really that every species matters. In the case of these species, we've got plans in place to address some of these and many of the threats these animals are facing and aiming to have a big impact in 2025. And whether it is a chameleon the size of a paperclip, all the way to a whale shark.

[Podcast Announcer]

So this list, not extensive, of all.

[Oliver Berkman]

The ones that need protecting.

[Podcast Announcer]

It's more about inspiring us to try.

[Oliver Berkman]

And protect as many of these species as possible.

[Christian Teleki]

Absolutely. It's really easy that they get caught up in the doom and gloom of the news cycles at the moment. And really the not so spectacular ending of 2024 when we saw more setbacks than progress when it comes to nature and climate. And what we wanted to do is we really want to start the year off with hope and optimism, you know, change the story around nature and climate and Fauna and Flora is an organization. I mean, we're the world's oldest conservation organization. We've been doing this for 120 years of working, protecting, restoring nature and we want to continue that and inspire others.

[Oliver Berkman]

To do so as.

[Oliver Conway]

And are you optimistic about the future?

[Christian Teleki]

Absolutely. Look, we wouldn't be in this business if we weren't optimistic. We are working globally with local communities and partners and governments around the world in over 45 countries to protect and restore these species and habitats. And so it's about taking this off in bite sized pieces, not trying to address it all in the hole at once. But if we can inspire others to do the same, then we'll really make great progress in the coming year.

[Oliver Conway]

Christiane Telecki of Fauna and Flora the beginning of January is full of good intentions as people who feel they may have overdone it in December try to get back on track. But one TikTok craze is taking it to the extreme. The 75 hard is a mixture of wellness, dieting and exercise. Lots of exercise. David Lewis has been finding out more.

[Podcast Announcer]

After weeks feasting on mince pies, pigs in blankets and wolfing down more piled high turkey sandwiches than seemed humanly possible. Get ready for the cleanse. The 75 hard is a 75 straight day workout. Yes, 75 days. And it's taken TikTok by storm. And fitness fanatics will have to be strict. Sticking to a healthy diet throughout. No pigging out on chocolates and fast food. Some booze to take the edge off. Absolutely not. All alcohol is banned for the duration and that's the easy bit. On each day of the two and a half month journey, users must do two 45 minute workouts. One indoors, one out. You'll have to drink more than three liters of water a day, plus your mind get to work out. You'll have to read 10 pages daily of a non fiction book. Them's the rules. Oh, and as it's a social media craze, keepfitters must take selfies to document their journey and post it up on their socials. It would be rude not to. So why would anyone do it? Well, Divamsha Gunpat did and she told us why.

[Oliver Berkman]

For my entire life, up until I actually took the challenge on, I'd really struggled with self discipline and self accountability. I'd always kind of stay consistent for a week or two and then fall off track. So my entire reason for doing it was to try and just do something difficult and prove to myself that I had the capacity to actually do something quite quote unquote extreme.

[Podcast Announcer]

So just where does the viral craze come from? Well, it was actually invented back in 2019 by author Andy Frisella. He said on his podcast that he'd spent 20 years figuring out how to master mental toughness. It was that knowled that went into creating the plan. It's worth adding that he is not a qualified personal trainer or a doctor. So that begs the question, what does a medical professional think about the trend? Clinical lecturer and doctor Nikki Kaye has got some opinions of her own.

[Oliver Berkman]

45 minutes twice a day. If you're not already doing exercise and.

[Podcast Announcer]

Active, actually, that's quite a big ask.

[Oliver Berkman]

And quite difficult from a practical point of view to do. And the nutrition, it could lead people down a track of being very rigid, very restrictive and potentially backfiring.

[Podcast Announcer]

This is why of course, crash darts don't work, so it hasn't won over that particular doctor. However, if you're after a challenge but concern the 75 hard might be too hard, fret not. More relaxed versions have also popped up on social media of late. There's a 75 medium and even a 75 soft. Slightly less hardcore athletes on that will still have to read and exercise, but can enjoy the occasional burger or pizza or even a cheeky glass of wine. Chin Chin.

[Oliver Conway]

David Lewis reporting. After this week's severe winter storm in the US and the deadly flooding in Spain last year, we're planning a special edition of the Global News Podcast to look at the extent to which extreme weather events are directly related to climate change. So if there's anything you want to know, email us at the usual address globalpodcastbc.co.uk and if you can please put your question in a voice note. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Daniela Varela and produced by Tracy Gordon. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time. Goodbye.

[Oliver Berkman]

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.

[Oliver Conway]

Versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking.

[Oliver Berkman]

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.