UK weighs up faster rise in defence budget

Summary

Global News Podcast (BBC World Service)

Episode: UK Weighs Up Faster Rise in Defence Budget

Air Date: February 16, 2026
Host: Ankar Desai

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Overview

This episode covers pressing international headlines, focusing primarily on a brewing debate in Europe over defense spending, with the UK considering an accelerated and substantial increase to its military budget amid Russian aggression. Alongside this, the episode delves into ongoing fallout over the deaths of Russian opposition figures, the latest on the Epstein files, political controversy in Brazil’s Rio Carnival, new Israeli land registration moves in the West Bank, and global anxieties about AI-generated content and intellectual property rights. A lighter segment touches on the recurring question of alien life following remarks by former US President Barack Obama.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. European Defence Spending: UK’s Military Budget Debate

• Backdrop: European leaders signal an end to dependency on US security. Russia’s aggression looms as the war in Ukraine reaches its four-year anniversary.
• UK’s Proposal: The British government considers accelerating its target of spending 3% of its national income on defense within the next three years, equating to an extra $17-19 billion per year. This moves up their original timeline.
• Peer Pressure: European counterparts Germany and Poland are already boosting defense budgets. Germany criticizes France’s efforts as insufficient; Poland’s spending exceeds 4% of GDP.
• Challenges: The UK faces difficult choices:
  • Higher taxes
  • Cuts to other public services
  • Unlikely borrowing due to existing debt and fiscal constraints
• Expert Analysis: James Landell explains Britain’s hesitation and the mounting costs due to “defence inflation” and large strategic commitments.

Notable Quote:
“We, the UK and Europe, need to step up when it comes to defence and security. We have a threat of Russian aggression... We want a just and lasting peace, but that will not extinguish the Russian threat.”
— Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Quoted by Ankar Desai), [02:42]

Timestamps:

• Introduction of topic: [01:08]
• UK budget discussion & context: [03:03 – 06:34]

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2. Two Years Since Navalny’s Death: Poisoning Allegations and Kremlin Denials

• Context: Anniversary of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death; new allegations claim Kremlin used a rare toxin linked to dart frogs.
• Reactions:
  • Navalny’s mother calls for justice.
  • European countries claim fresh evidence of poisoning; Russia denies all accusations.
  • Marina Litvinenko, widow of Alexander Litvinenko (another Kremlin poisoning victim), draws parallels between the two cases.
• Expert Commentary (Vitaly Shevchenko):
  • Denial is “modis operandi” for the Kremlin.
  • No one has filled Navalny’s role; organized opposition inside Russia is crushed, and exiled groups are divided.

Notable Quotes:
“Of course, we not doubt how Alexei Navalny died. We all knew he was killed... now we should not wait for so long to blame Russia again for this murder.”
— Marina Litvinenko, [07:20]

“There’s a whole list of transgressions, violations and outright crimes that Russia has been accused of and denied, sometimes despite overwhelming evidence...”
— Vitaly Shevchenko, [08:13]

Timestamps:

• Navalny segment introduction: [06:34]
• Litvinenko interview: [07:20 – 08:03]
• Shevchenko expert commentary: [08:13 – 09:53]

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3. Epstein Files and Victims’ Stories

• Disclosure: US DOJ claims release of all files required by the Epstein Transparency Act; lawmakers and victims disagree, seeking more transparency.
• Victims’ Voices: Interview with Dorothea Granaert, mother of Carolyn Andriano (key witness whose evidence convicted Ghislaine Maxwell).
• Personal Testimony: Granaert recounts her daughter’s recruitment into Epstein’s circle at 14, the subsequent trauma, and her role in Maxwell’s conviction.

Notable Quotes:
“She was my princess.”
— Dorothea Granaert, remembering her daughter, [11:02]

“Oh, I was extremely proud of my daughter for doing that. I mean, that took a lot of courage.”
— Granaert, about her daughter’s testimony, [12:43]

Timestamps:

• Epstein segment introduction: [09:53]
• Granaert interview: [11:02 – 13:24]

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4. Rio Carnival: Political Controversy Over Lula Tribute

• Situation: Samba parade features a giant Lula da Silva float amid Brazil’s pre-election period, sparking claims of unlawful early campaigning.

• Authorities’ Stance: Officials say the samba school’s thematic choices are outside their jurisdiction. Both Lula and the First Lady observed, but did not participate.

• Other floats: Tributes to musicians Rita Lee and Ney Matogrosso, Amazonian healers, and Black African culture.

• Unusual Policing: Police dressed as Ghostbusters, aliens, and Scooby Doo characters to catch phone thieves—a lighthearted tactic noticed on social media.

Notable Quotes:
“Brazil is having elections this year...a lot of people are saying that this configures an early campaign and that it could have all sorts of implications in the race.”
— Daniel Gallas, [13:56]

Timestamps:

• Carnival segment: [13:24 – 16:33]

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5. Israel’s West Bank Land Plans Condemned

• Move: Israeli cabinet votes to begin registering West Bank land as state property—seen as “de facto annexation.”
• Reactions: Widespread condemnation from Palestinian authorities, Arab states, the EU, and Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now.
• Mechanics: Palestinians face nearly insurmountable hurdles to prove ownership, risking automatic state seizure.

Notable Quotes:
“Land registration itself is a clear exercise of sovereignty and annexation. So it’s prohibited for Israel as an occupying power under international law.”
— Yolande Nell reporting, [19:07]

Timestamps:

• Israel-West Bank segment: [17:58 – 22:28]

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6. ByteDance AI Faces Legal Pushback

• Controversy: Disney and other studios threaten legal action against ByteDance (owners of TikTok) over its AI video model, CDance 2.0, for using copyrighted characters without authorization.
• Company Response: ByteDance pledges to strengthen safeguards and pauses user-uploaded images of real people but offers no specifics.
• Underlying Anxiety: Concerns over massive training datasets, potentially scraped from platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

Notable Quotes:
“It’s taken the Internet by storm...Disney, Paramount...have been sending ByteDance cease and desist letters, basically saying that ByteDance is stealing their intellectual property.”
— Nick Marsh, [23:59]

Timestamps:

• ByteDance AI news: [22:28 – 26:07]

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7. Barack Obama and the Search for Aliens

• Prompt: Obama affirms belief in the statistical likelihood of extraterrestrial life but says he never saw proof as president.
• Expert Analysis: Prof. Lewis Dartnell clarifies astrobiology’s broader search beyond Hollywood alien stereotypes—current evidence still lacking but ongoing missions planned.

Notable Quotes:
“Statistically, the universe is so vast, the odds are good there’s life out there, but...I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us.”
— Barack Obama (paraphrased from social media statement), [27:21]

Timestamps:

• Aliens/Area 51 segment: [26:07 – 28:32]

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “Tough choices, difficult trade-offs are going to have to be made, and that would test any government.”
  — James Landell, on UK defense spending, [05:45]

• “There’s no organized opposition movement within Russia because it’s so dangerous. And outside of Russia, it’s in disarray and torn apart by squabbles.”
  — Vitaly Shevchenko, [09:28]

• “Police officers are always around. But this time they were really creative. Some of them dressed up as Ghostbusters, as aliens, as, you know, the Scooby-Doo gang...”
  — Daniel Gallas, [16:05]

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Structure – Key Segments and Timestamps

• [01:08] Main stories and UK defense spending
• [06:34] Navalny death and Russia opposition
• [09:53] Epstein files and victim testimony
• [13:24] Rio Carnival and political controversy
• [17:58] Israeli land registration in West Bank
• [22:28] ByteDance AI legal controversy
• [26:07] Obama, aliens, and Area 51
• [28:32] Closing and credits

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This episode provides significant context and insight on security, political controversies, justice for victims, tech industry challenges, and even the perennial intrigue of alien life—distilling global complexity into accessible, lively reporting.

Transcript

[Ankar Desai]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

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[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Ankar Desai and at 16 hours GMT on Monday 16th February. These are our main stories. The debate hots up over European defense Speakers spending Britain is considering spending more and sooner. Germany says France isn't spending enough. Two years after Alexei Navalny was found dead in prison, the fallout continues from a new allegation that Russia poisoned the opposition leader with a rare toxin linked to dart frogs. And the Chinese tech company ByteDance says it will curb an artificial intelligence video tool after Disney threatened legal action. Also coming up in this podcast, Arab countries and the European Union have condemned plans to allow parts of the occupied west bank to be classified as Israeli state land. And over in Brazil, the Rio Carnival has triggered political controversy as a float pays tribute to the Brazilian president Lula, but also mocks his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. First, the message from many European leaders in recent days has been that the continent needs to stand on its own own two feet as it cannot rely anymore on the United States for its security. Over the weekend, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that Europe must be ready to fight to protect its people, values and way of life. He repeated that message today in London.

[Ankar Desai]

We, the UK and Europe need to step up when it comes to defence and security. We have a threat of Russian aggression which is obvious in a few days time. It's the Four year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Ukraine. We want a just and lasting peace but that will not extinguish the Russian threat.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Well now the BBC has learned that the UK is considering significant increases to its military spending to 3% of the public national income within the next three years, which would mean extra spending of 17 to 19 billion dollars a year. Other European countries, including Germany and Poland have already boosted their military budgets. Our diplomatic correspondent James Landell told me why Britain is thinking of bringing forward its planned increase.

[Ankar Desai]

The British government made some substantial commitments on defence last year. It had a big strategic defence review. It also made commitments along with other allies at the NATO summit in the Hague. But since then it yet to fully explain how it's going to fund all of those commitments. And I think they are realizing not just that future commitments are going to be very expensive to meet the threat from Russia and elsewhere, but also existing commitments. Defence inflation is rising as well. So there's a general sense that there's a lot of bills to be paid. And the British government, yes has made some commitments to, to increase defence spending but I think there's a realisation that that might not be enough and so they might have to speed it up and spend more, faster. To quote the Prime Minister at the moment, the plan that I've been reporting, one idea, it's not confirmed and no decision has been taken, is that what they might do is take a spending target which was to spend 3% of British national output on defence during the next Parliament. The idea would be let's bring that forward, let's meet that this Parliament, all of this is going to cost a huge amount of money and experts tell me that roughly because it's very hard to calculate that this would require about an extra $17 billion of spending every year by the British government and that would be very hard to find.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

And I guess a lot of people will be wondering where that money would come from as well and how much of a difference it would make.

[Ankar Desai]

Well, it's either from cutting existing spending, from taxing British citizens more or from borrowing. Borrowing unlikely, because the British government is already in a substantial, has a substantial amount of debt and deficit to deal with and it has very strict fiscal rules about not borrowing too much. So the British finance treasury would resist that taxes. All governments are loath to do that. So thirdly, cutting other, other pots of public spending.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

European leaders were gathered in Munich talking about security and defense. The likes of Germany and Poland for instance. Are they spending more despite this possible outlay from Britain in Munich, it was.

[Ankar Desai]

Very clear and it became very aware that Britain is falling back on defence spending in comparison to its European allies. And that's unusual because normally the UK has been one of the biggest per capita vendors on defence in Europe, but that's falling back. The Germans, you say, are committed to spending more and faster. The Poles now are well north of 4% of national output on defence. The Baltics obviously spend far more per capita because. Because the threat is so acute there. So the uk, I think, will be feeling a little bit of peer pressure from its European allies, who are beginning to notice that on big NATO projects and commitments, the UK are coming pretty late to the party. And tough choices, difficult trade offs are going to have to be made, and that would test any government.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

James Landell reporting. It's exactly two years since the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found dead in a remote prison in the Arctic at the age of 47. Supporters have laid flowers at his grave in Moscow, while his mother has called for justice. On Saturday, five European countries said they have evidence that Russia poisoned Mr. Navalny with a rare toxin linked to poisoned dart frogs. The Kremlin has rejected this, saying the accusations are biased and baseless. This news comes 20 years after the world witnessed the slow, painful and public death of Alexander Litvinenko after he was poisoned in London with the illegal chemical weapon polonium210. Marina Litvinenko is Alexander's widow.

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

Of course, we not doubt how Alexei Navalny died. We all knew he was killed. And news about of his poisoning brought me back to my days when we knew from beginning, of course, after Sasha's death of my husband, he was poisoned. He was killed by Russia state. But we couldn't say this immediately. I should wait for 10 years. Only in 2015, after public inquiry, we can say, yes, it was Russia state. It was highly likely Putin's order. But now we should not wait for so long to blame Russia again for this murder.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Vitaly Shevchenko is BBC Monitoring's Russia editor. I put it to him that it's no surprise the Kremlin has dismissed the finding that Mr. Navalny was poisoned.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

Not at all. It's what they do, really. It's their modus operandi. Deny, deny, deny. There's a whole list of transgressions, violations and outright crimes that Russia has been accused of and denied, sometimes despite overwhelming evidence of Kremlin involvement. And this list stretches from the use of doping substances, for example, at various sporting events, includes poisoning of some key opponents of the Kremlin. Including Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal, the former Russian security agent, and, yes, Alexei Navalny. And come to think of it, if you are a government that is behind all this, this is what you're going to do. Deny, deny, deny. What is undeniable, though, is that the Kremlin had a very clear motive to silence and possibly to get rid of Alexei Navalny because he was the most effective opponent of Vladimir Putin, as you.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Mentioned, a big opponent of the Kremlin and Mr. Putin. And I guess what is that legacy now? Two years on since he died, has there been a movement to sort of carry on his work?

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

He is remembered. That's one thing that's clear. However, I don't think anyone's been able to fill Alexei Navalny's pretty sizable shoes domestically. There's no organized opposition movement within Russia because it's so dangerous. And outside of Russia, it's in disarray and torn apart by squabbles.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Vitaly Shevchenko. And you can find out more about the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny on YouTube. Just search for BBC News, click on the logo, and then choose Podcasts and Global News Podcast, and there's a new story available every weekday. The U.S. department of justice says it has released all the files required by the Epstein Files Transparency act, but US Lawmakers say there are more crucial files that should still be published. Much of the media scrutiny surrounding the files has focused on the prominent politicians and businessmen who were associated with Jeffrey Epstein in some way, including Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and Bill Clinton, though all have denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes. But many victims of Epstein feel they have not been heard. Dorothea Granaert is the mother of the late Carolyn Andriano, the key witness who helped convict Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking. Caroline was just 14 when she was abused by them and died in 2023 at the age of 36 in what was ruled an accidental overdose. Dorothy told us more about her.

[Dorothea Granaert]

She was great. She was fabulous. Very honest, very loving, very caring, very on point. She liked school, very artistic. She used to help me with everything, my pride and joy. She was my princess.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

When did you first hear the name Epstein?

[Dorothea Granaert]

When the FBI knocked on my door. I did not have a clue. I was clueless to anything. She met Jeffrey Epstein through Virginia. Virginia said she had a house cleaning business and, you know, Carol was gonna help her, yada, yada, yada. So, okay, fine.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

How old was she at this point?

[Dorothea Granaert]

14.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

14. What do you now know from her and also from the, from the subsequent investigations about what was happening.

[Dorothea Granaert]

I know now that Virginia groomed my daughter along with Maxwell. And that explains a couple of times my daughter came home with bruises at bite marks and I couldn't understand why. And you know Carolyn, so she fell down the stairs. I mean, I figure, oh well, maybe she was carrying a vacuum or something. Okay, so she slept. I mean, I could go along with that. Doesn't sound too far fetched for me. And then I had to go to Manhattan with her to district Court and meet up with the FBI and so forth. I guess I found out in a hurry. I was really schooled.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

She gave evidence against Glenn Maxwell in her trial for assisting in the trafficking of people like her.

[Dorothea Granaert]

Yes, she did. Yes, she did.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

You must have been really proud of your daughter to have stood up in that court and to have explained what happened to her and been part of. I mean, not a lot of people have been held to account for what Jeffrey Epstein and those around him did. But Glenn Maxwell certainly was. And your daughter was part of it.

[Dorothea Granaert]

Oh, I was extremely proud of my daughter for doing that. I mean, that took a lot of courage. It also took me holding her hand and being there with her. When the first incident happened with Jeffrey Epstein and the first court thing, the reporters and all kinds of people started knocking on the door, calling her on the phone, calling my phone, following her. And just. It was just a mess. So she was naturally scared to come to Manhattan by herself. So nothing ever stopped. It was still the same going on and on. Then book people calling her to write books and it was just horrible. It was horrifying. When she turned Maxwell Lynde, I think she kind of thought that was going to be kind of the end. It never ceased.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Dorothy Granaert speaking to Luke Jones. The carnival in Rio de Janeiro is in full swing and millions of people are taking part in the week long colorful jamboree. The highlight is the carnival parade in which samba schools compete for the most impressive float and dancing. The this year one school has attracted controversy for choosing to display a 22 meter statue of President Lula da Silva. Daniel Gallas is from the BBC's Brazilian service.

[Daniel Gallas]

The big controversy is because Brazil is having elections this year and Brazilian candidates or pre candidates are not allowed to have a campaign before August when the official campaign starts. Lula is obviously going to run again and he's going to run against the son of Jair Bolsonaro, probably Flavio Bolsonaro, amongst other candidates. A lot of people are saying that this configures an early campaign and that it could have all sorts of implications in the race. He could be disqualified eventually, that he could face high fines. But on the other hand, what the authorities are saying is that they have no matter on what the Samba school wanted to do for its theme, and they decided to do Lula that year. So the parade happened last night. Lula was present. He wasn't in the parade itself. He just watched from the stands. There was talk that maybe his wife, the first lady, would be in the parade. She also watched from the stands. So the government is really trying to be very careful not to give any means for something to happen.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

So in terms of some of the other floats, can you give us a flavor of what else we can see or have seen?

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

Yes.

[Daniel Gallas]

Well, summer in Rio is just magnificent spectacle, very expensive floats. And it's kind of common for people like Lula to be actually one of the themes. Other themes, like Ritali, she's a rock and roll star in Brazil who died recently. She had one of the parades for her and then was also named Gross, a singer. There was a float parade, just about a healer from the Amazon tribes. So there's a lot of Brazilian culture. One of the floats was about black African culture in the south of Brazil. So they kind of use this 1 hour long period to tell a story about Brazil with lots of music. The lyrics are written specially for these themes. Then Lula is kind of an interesting one for them because he has a very interesting personal history. He was president of Brazil three times. But had this not been in an election year, would perhaps be seen as normal. But being an election year then, I think that's why the controversy is kind of big.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Now, just very, very briefly, can you tell us about the police disguising themselves in fancy dress to catch phone thieves?

[Daniel Gallas]

Yes, that's in the street carnival, which is kind of a fun story. Police officers are always around, but this time they were really creative. Some of them dressed up as Ghostbusters, as aliens, as, you know, the Scooby Doo gang, and so a lot of thieves. It's very common to have your cell or your mobile phone robbed time of year. And the police was just. Instead of, you know, being there as police officers, they were there with these very funny costumes. And the pictures are hilarious of them doing it.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Daniel Gallas, soon to come in this podcast, what was the first question you wanted answered when you became president? Where are the aliens?

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

Where are the aliens?

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Does former US President Barack Obama really believe there's extraterrestrial life.

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[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

If you can't keep up with all the Epstein news, you're not alone. This week the files have nearly but not quite brought down a British prime minister. There have been allegations that Epstein was a spy and surprising countries have been drawn in into the scandal. From Norway to Poland to Israel to France. It's a lot. So we're recapping all the main developments and making sense of them. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcast. Israel's cabinet has voted in favor of beginning a process of land registration in the West Bank, a move condemned by Palestinians as de facto annexation and by Arab states as a violation of international law. The European Union called on Israel to reverse its decision, warning it was a new escalation after recent measures aimed at tightening Israeli control over the occupied territory. There's also been condemnation of the move inside Israel by the anti settlement group peacenow. As our Middle east correspondent Yolande Nell told my colleague Laila Nathu what the.

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

Israeli anti occupation group piece now saying expects a major land grab to follow from this government announcement. It says that the process is going to require the Palestinian landowners to prove their ownership under conditions that are nearly impossible for them to meet. If they fail to do so, that land is going to be automatically registered in the Israeli state's name. And it says, you know, on top of that, land registration itself is a clear exercise of sovereignty and annexation. So it's prohibited for Israel as an occupying power under international law. Nevertheless, you know, Israel is going ahead with this. You have the Foreign Ministry just presenting it as something that's administrative, that needs to be done. Because since 1967, when Israel captured the west bank from Jordan in the Middle east war, land registration was frozen for Palestinians. There was this breakthrough peace deal in the 1990s when the Palestinian Authority was created. It began land registration for areas of the west bank where it had authority. But that still hasn't been possible in the majority of the West bank, the 60% which stayed under full Israeli control. But there are some ministers, Yolande, going further in explaining or justifying the move, aren't there? Definitely. They make no secret of the fact that the idea here is to deepen Israeli control over the West Bank. You have the far right Finance Minister Beslil Smoch, who has this responsibility within the Israeli cabinet over settlement policy. He's a settler himself. He has been moving forward with many aspects of planning administration for Israeli life in the west bank. And he has said that his idea is to kill or to bury. The idea of a Palestinian state ever being created, of course, for the Palestinians should be the west bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital, just.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Going back to the responsibility of Palestinians.

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

To then have to prove their ownership off the land. What sort of documentation would be involved in that? Palestinians will have Jordanian land deeds in many cases. But this is problematic because if you're talking about, you know, how that ended in 1967, new generations of Palestinians have not been able to update or lay claim through inheritance to the land. You have to show also in some cases, continuous cultivation of the land for Palestinians. This again is hard to prove. And we have seen how settlers, the Israeli military, different measures taken by Israel in the west bank are preventing access for Palestinians to many areas. And we've got this widespread condemnation around the region. Of course, you know, some countries in the region pointing out how this could jeopardize President Trump's 20 point peace plan for Gaza. You've got the Jordanian Foreign Ministry again calling on the international community, the Qatari Foreign Ministry saying this is it considers Israel's decision its extension of its illegal plans to deprive the Palestinian people of their rights. Those are its words. Of course, the Americans are key players here as well. Now, they have previously sort of made clear that they do not support any efforts at annexation of the West Bank. They've said that that cannot happen. But what they have not made clear is, you know, their approach when it comes to all these other steps that have been taken that many, the Palestinians, even an Israeli minister, are calling de facto annexation.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Yolande Nell in Jerusalem Speaking to Leila Nathu. Now, if, like me, you get sucked into recent videos on social media of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting, well, for a second you might have believed they were actually real. Such is the sophistication of AI. Now, these clips on platforms like TikTok have caught the attention of some of the most powerful entertainment studios in the world. It was the threat of legal action by entertainment giants such as Disney that persuaded the Chinese TEC company ByteDance to promise curbing an artificial intelligence video tool. The problem from Disney's point of view was that ByteDance generated videos based on real actors and copyrighted characters. Our business reporter, Nick Marsh is in Singapore where ByteDance has its headquarters.

[Nick Marsh]

ByteDance is one of the biggest players in Chinese technology. It's probably most famous for TikTok, which it owns, and the years long spats that it's had with the US government. Donald, Donald Trump trying to get ByteDance to sell TikTok off to a bunch of American investors. Concerns about privacy, links to the Chinese government, that sort of thing. Now, it is very much in the realm of artificial intelligence and it's developed CDance, its new artificial intelligence model. And the latest version, CDance 2.0, released only a few days ago, has been causing a fair amount of controversy, I think it's fair to say.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Yeah, it seems to have really alarmed the big studios like Disney.

[Nick Marsh]

It certainly has. It's taken the Internet by storm. There's one, there's this Brad Pitt Tom Cruise fight scene, which is. It's hard to believe it's AI if you know about these things online. There's also a video of Will Smith very convincingly eating a plate of spaghetti, which is a reference to one of the very early video AI where Will Smith did not very much look like Will Smith eating a plate of spaghetti. So, yeah, massive, massive progress. But you're quite right, the big Hollywood players, so Disney, Paramount, Skydance as well, the Motion Piece Picture association, they have been sending ByteDance cease and desist letters, basically saying that ByteDance is stealing their intellectual property. We have reached out to ByteDance, they're headquartered here in Singapore and they told us that the company respects intellectual property rights and it's taking steps to strengthen current safeguards to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property. But not really much more detail in terms of how they're going to do that.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Yeah, I wanted to just sort of finish on what sort of compromises or promises have been made, but it seems a bit vague at the moment. Early days.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

Yeah.

[Nick Marsh]

I think the big question really is. How is ByteDance training this model? So it owns TikTok? It's a fair assumption to make that the millions and millions of videos, millions of images which are uploaded to TikTok are potentially being mined for content. There's been suggestions that it's combing through YouTube as well. We don't know that that's completely unverified, but it's very important to know what these models are being trained on. And I think that's probably what's worrying the big Hollywood studios, that if they spend millions and millions of dollars creating all these, you know, instantly recognizable characters and big film franchises, that an artificial intelligence model can then just mine that for its own content. ByteDance says it's taking steps to do this. We already know that they've already paused the ability for users to upload images of real people. But the much bigger question is how is this product basically training itself? And at the moment, that's a question which is unanswered.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Nick Marsh in Singapore. Now it's a US Air base that has come under intense scrutiny and a frequent subject of conspiracy theories, especially when the subject of UFOs comes up. So what is really happening inside Area 51 in the Nevada desert? The former US President Barack Obama, who's one of the very few people given access to this top secret information, has said he does think aliens exist. Frankie McAvoly has more.

[Frankie McAvoly]

It's a question many of us ponder over. Are aliens real? And it seems so does the former U.S. president Barack Obama. He thinks they are, despite saying he's never seen one. Here he is speaking to podcast host and YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen over the weekend.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

A couple questions here. Are aliens real?

[Ankar Desai]

But they're real.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

But I haven't seen them. And they're not being kept in. What is it, Area 51. Area 51. There's no underground facility. Unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the President of the United States. What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president? Where are the aliens?

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

Where are the aliens?

[Frankie McAvoly]

It's not quite the cast iron guarantee some people would hope for, but we've heard it from the man who's been privy to secret information most of us would never get to hear. Mr. Obama has since clarified his comments he posted on Instagram. Statistically, the universe is so vast, the odds are good there's life out there, but the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we've been visited by aliens is low. And I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Professor Lewis Dartnell is from the University of Westminster in London. He's been speaking to my colleague Anna Foster.

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

I think aliens is a slightly woolly term and I think if you hear the word aliens, you might imagine the last Hollywood film you saw of bug eyed monsters or spaceships flying around. And astrobiology is much more about life in a more general context. So simple single celled bacteria, like life on the surface of Mars, for example. So that's, that's what I spend most of my time thinking about.

[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

And do we know that that sort of thing that you're talking about does exist now? Are we still searching for it?

[Vitaly Shevchenko / Expert Commentator]

We' searching for it. We've not yet found it. There's huge numbers of exciting space missions coming up to search for life, simple life elsewhere in our solar system.

[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

That report from Frankie McAmily. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email [e-mail] and you can also find us on X@BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global Newspod. And don't forget our sister podcast, the Global Story, which goes in depth, depth and beyond the headlines on one big story that's available wherever you get your podcast from. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Pat Sissons and the producers were Paul Day and Judy Frankel. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Ankar Desai. Until next time, Goodbye.

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[Interviewee / Expert / Guest]

In the span of just a few.

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[BBC Global News Host / Reporter]

Renewed obsession with skinniness?

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Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.