Global News Podcast - As stock markets tumble again, Trump calls for a cut to interest rates

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

As stock markets tumble again, Trump calls for interest rate cut, but the head of the US central bank suggests otherwise. Also, fourteen Ukrainians die in a Russian missile attack, and the rat sniffing out landmines.

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Saturday, the 5th of April. President Trump calls for a cut in interest rates, but the head of the US central bank suggests that won't happen as trillions of dollars are wiped off global markets. Ukraine says a Russian missile strike has killed 16 civilians in President Zelensky's home city. And the best-selling video game Minecraft hits the cinema screens. Also in the podcast, the Tanzanian diet that can boost the immune system. In the morning for breakfast, we used to have millet porridge and sorghum porridge as well for lunch, banana with beans.

And does a whiff of power surround the French president? When he announced his new tariffs earlier this week, President Trump called it Liberation Day. Critics said Liquidation Day would have been a better name and investors continued to dump stocks on Friday. Some financial markets recorded their worst fall since Covid. During the day, China announced it would match the 34% additional tariffs imposed by the US, sparking fears of a global trade war. Donald Trump said China played it wrong, they panicked and he would never change his policies. But he did make a plea for the US central bank to cut interest rates. The response from Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested that would not happen.

Terrors are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation. It's also possible that the effects could be more persistent. Our obligation is to keep longer term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem. Jerome Powell talking to business journalists. I asked our business correspondent Mark Ashtown why the president was pushing for a cut in interest rates. Well interest rates. that would help businesses as well. It makes money cheaper to borrow as well. But the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has always been very circumspect on this. He's very careful with the language he uses. He won't want to stoke any inflationary issues. I think he also

reflected there he was a bit worried about the size of these tariffs, even took them by surprise. So I think, yeah, as ever, Donald Trump wants fast moving responses, but Jerome Powell, the sort of polar opposite, really, it's slow and steady but Jerome Powell, the sort of polar opposite really, it's slow and steady, they will take all the data, analyze it and work out the path from there. Now investors and traders also appear to have been surprised by the scale of the impact of this, just take us through what's been happening on the market.

I think so, well, pretty much as soon as Donald Trump got his massive card out with his tariff menu, there was a fall in US stocks. That continued. We had a massive drop off on all stocks on Wall Street yesterday. Overnight, Asian indexes lost ground. European indexes as well. I mean, the FTSE, for example,

the 100 biggest companies in London, now trading at lows not seen for over a year. So we're not in what you might call crash territory, but certainly in America, a massive sharp decline again on the opening bell this afternoon. The NASDAQ now trading at its lowest point since last May. It's 20% below its December peak, which technically now puts us in what we call bear territory.

Donald Trump's message though has been this is a short-term pain. He says it's not a crash, it's a correction. It's these big companies getting used to this new world order. And he's sending out that message loud and clear to Americans that yes, we could have some short-term pain here, even possibly the R-word being raised, recession. We could expect that even potentially. But that will lead to what he sees as a level trading playing field across the world,

creation of better jobs in America, better wages. But I think there's no doubt in the short term though consumers are bracing themselves like markets, like investors, like governments for what's to come over the next few days. Our business correspondent Mark Ashton. So how is all this going down in the US on what they call Main Street? Neda Taufik has been speaking to people in New Jersey. Stores like Jacobson Appliance here in Union County, New Jersey are urging customers to make any necessary purchases quickly before price shock kicks in. We don't know what the price is going to be at the end of this month. Be prepared for a huge price increase. It could be 30 to 40 percent.

And what impact will that have for you as a business owner? Well, it might have to close up door. You've been here for over 40 years. Yep. Fears that a recession could be on the horizon have rattled Wall Street and mainstream. I do look at our investments every day, and, you know, the way things went yesterday

and the way things are going this morning, not a good thing. It makes me upset that, like I said, I don't think that it's real, the whole process has really been thought through. That what is it really going to do for everyone's day-to-day ability to just support themselves? It's too soon to know the exact impact of tariffs on consumers, though some estimates warn it could cost U.S. households thousands more each year. And small businesses are bracing for steeper price increases. Randolph has worked in fabrication for 50 years.

He knows his business might be hurt, but he thinks the president's tariffs are needed. So they will come onshore in the United States and then hire American people and things, you know, slowly, hopefully will get better. Economists say that's unlikely to happen. Well, everybody has their own opinion. Donald Trump is taking his biggest gamble yet with the U.S. economy. Where he sees liberation, others see a misguided nostalgia for a long gone era.

That report from New Jersey by Neda Taufik. In recent days, there have been hints that the US may be willing to put more pressure on Russia to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine. At the weekend, President Trump said he was angry with Vladimir Putin. And on Friday, the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was not going to fall into the trap of endless talks with Russia. Peace means you stop shooting at each other. I mean, it's as simplistic as that. Now, obviously, look, there's all kinds of conditions for a final peace and you have to work with both sides. And I've said from the beginning, the only way a war ends in a negotiated settlement,

if it's not an unconditional surrender, then it is both sides make concessions. We're not going to prejudge what those concessions are because those concessions will depend on what Ukraine will accept and Russia will accept. But we have to make concrete steps towards peace. What we're not interested in, and I'm not accusing them of this, I'm just telling you what we're not interested in is negotiations about negotiations. However, for now, Russian aggression continues. Ukraine said 16 people, including six children, died from a Russian missile strike on a residential area of President Zelensky's home city, Kriviri. I heard more about the attack from our Ukraine correspondent, James Waterhouse.

Well, it's a bad one. And when you consider that there is a backdrop of daily Russian missile and drone attacks, they take place all the time. There is occasionally one that stands out and in Krivili we're talking about a gritty industrial vast city where President Zelensky coincidentally grew up and what we have seen from footage is a gaping, smoldering chasm in the side of a residential block, which suggests that this was, as the authorities say, a ballistic missile. Next to it, you can see bodies scattered on the pavement in a neighbouring playground, and there are shrapnel marks everywhere. All signs suggest that this was a civilian area. And President Zelensky has said that this is a clear demonstration that Russia is not

interested in peace. And I think when we consider the ceasefire efforts being led by America at the moment, where the question of just how up for peace Russia is, is increasingly being asked, this is something Ukraine is looking to highlight and something that leaves Ukraine in no doubt that Russia is only interested as of now in continuing to wage its full-scale invasion. Yeah, I mean, is there any sense in Ukraine that US patients might be starting to run out with Russia?

I think there's more of a hope than a sense. I think you've had European leaders try to impose some kind of timeline as they'd like it on Russia, saying that Vladimir Putin can't obfuscate forever, he can't be adding caveats or demands to America's calls for it to come to the table forever. Most tellingly today you've had Marco Rubio say that Russia will have to make a decision in weeks and not months. And I think that is a reflection finally of the impatience Washington has in wanting to get this war ended. I mean, you know, once upon a time, Donald Trump said he wanted it over in a day.

And I think what Ukraine will be hoping is that just maybe what we've seen in Krivivie and what we've seen with the growing frustration with Moscow, just maybe it might nudge Washington to act on its threats of further sanctions for Russia as it continues to mount this global trade war. But as of now, perhaps the tide is turning. But when you're Ukraine, when you're on the receiving end of these attacks, when you're continuing to defend yourself in this war, there is no happy ending. I don't think anyone's getting under any illusion about that. Yeah and is Ukraine able to respond to launch attacks against Russian forces? Well Ukraine continues to launch drone attacks inside Russian territory. It's certainly looking to frustrate Russia's supply lines in that respect

but what Ukraine is also trying to do, these are the spinning plates Ukraine is trying to juggle at the moment. It's also trying to demonstrate that it can adhere to a ceasefire agreed between America, Russia and Ukraine to pause striking infrastructure. So Ukraine is holding off on that for now. And it is claiming that Russia is continually breaking this ceasefire by doing the exact opposite. So Ukraine is actually having to show restraint with these kind of attacks but a like-for-like response is something you

rarely see because of the constant nature of these aerial bombardments waged by Russia. James Waterhouse in Kiev. Over the past two weeks Turkey has been rocked by its biggest anti-government protests in more than a decade. They were sparked by the jailing of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imam Orlu, main rival of the Turkish president. Since the demonstrations began, about 2,000 people have been detained. One of them, a photojournalist, has told the BBC that he was arrested with six other reporters to stop the media coverage. He spoke to our senior international correspondent, Ola Gheran. We've just arrived at the home of a Turkish journalist, Yasin Akgul.

He's a photojournalist with the AFP news agency. He's one of those who was arrested after covering the protests. His son Umut is here beside me. He's eight years old. He's playing on his computer. He's dressed as Harry Potter. And Umut was here at home with his mum and dad and his baby sister when the police came. There were a lot of police. They said they had an order to arrest me but gave me no details. My son was awake. I couldn't even tell him what was happening. I'm sitting with Yasin at his laptop and he's showing me some of the extraordinary images he captured during the protest. Just looking here at photographs of a whirling dervish in front of a line of police.

These images became incredibly famous. They were seen around the world. And these photos landed Yassin in prison for two nights. He's accused of being a protester, not a journalist, at the banned demonstrations. He says his arrest is a warning to others. Don't take pictures, don't speak, don't film. They are making other journalists afraid that if they go back into the field, they could face the same thing.

same thing. When the BBC's Mark Lowen came to Istanbul last week to report on the protests, he was deported. He was accused of being a threat to public order. My name is Ece Gunnar. I'm a politician, a lawyer. I'm an advisor to the mayor of Istanbul. It's not just journalists at risk. Ece Gunnar knows that only too well. She's part of the mayor's legal team. One of their lawyers was briefly detained himself. Is there now a feeling among those trying to defend the mayor that anybody could be

next, that anybody could be arrested? I cannot lie that of course, it's always, there is some fear of course, but we believe we have to act in accordance with our principles and we have to really preserve democracy and the rule of law and our basic freedoms in Turkey. Those freedoms are under threat, according to opposition supporters at this mass rally in Istanbul last weekend. Berkay, who's 26, says time's running out for Turkish democracy. This is the last station of salvation, so we have to do anything that we can do.

Do you know many people who have already been arrested? Yeah, I know too many people. Two days ago, five of my friends got arrested. I feel guilty because I wasn't getting arrested, but they were getting arrested. There could be many more arrests to come. While the opposition continues its protests, the government looks certain to continue its crackdown. Oleg Erin reporting from Istanbul. It is the best-selling video game of all time with more than 200 million monthly users.

And now Minecraft has hit the cinema screens. I am Steve. As a child I yearned for the mines. But something always got in the way. Well Marcus Parson created the game, earning billions by selling it to Microsoft. He's now the subject of an episode of the BBC World Service podcast Good Bad Billionaire, which explores the minds and motives of the world World Service podcast Good Bad Billionaire, which explores the minds and motives of the world's wealthiest people. Zing Zeng is the podcast's co-host. She told Rachel Wright more about Marcus Person. For people who haven't had the pleasure of playing Minecraft, it's what's called a

sandbox game, industry terms. It basically means that there's no levels, there's no quests. You can kind of use the resources around you to build whatever you want. And whether that's a private island or a flying jet or a castle or a lake, you know, where you really can let your creativity run free. And the inventor, your program is about Marcus Person. Did you get a sense of how he came across the idea? Yeah, Markus Persson is a really interesting, colourful figure. He actually grew up in a very rural Swedish town called Erdespan and his childhood was basically consisting of him wandering around the woods nearby. He was a big LEGO fan. And I think those two things actually play a really big part in Minecraft.

The main thing is this idea of just wandering through forests, wander through this world. But also the LEGO aspect of it, because one of the most compelling aesthetic features of Minecraft is that everything is made out of blocks. And he was a real kind of computer programming prodigy. He kind of taught himself to code by the age of eight. He's actually a high school dropout. He left school and ended up getting a job in video games. And that's when he really kind of started looking into creating his own game, one that, you know, fulfilled him artistically. And that eventually became Minecraft. But he did leave the company that he, the studio that he founded that built Minecraft.

Why did he leave and what has he done since? I think part of the reason why he ended up selling the company was because there was an enormous amount of pressure on him. The second album kind of pressure, would he be able to come up with a hit to feed Minecraft? And then there was also kind of stuff going on in his personal life. His father really tragically died by suicide. There was also a lot of fan criticism and the spotlight was really on him as the creator of this enormously successful game. So when things went wrong in the game, he would be blamed online. And I think really the pressure got to him. And eventually he ended up selling that company, which is called Mojang, to Microsoft

for two and a half billion. So in one kind of fell swoop, he became a billionaire. I think he's currently worth an estimated $1.3 billion. But he has said some a few things that's quite controversial that has upset a lot of people. Yes. Yeah. So he has become known for tweeting quite controversial things. You know, he's made racist, homophobic comments. At one point, he even endorsed QAnon, which is, of course, that baseless conspiracy theory that really took root a few years back. And because of this, Microsoft has actually kind of almost erased him from mention of the game.

So when they had their recent 10-year anniversary celebrations of the game, he wasn't included or mentioned at all. What I think is interesting is recently he said he's working on a spiritual successor to Minecraft. But I think really, I'm not sure we'll ever see a Minecraft successor. Ding Cheng from Good, Bad, Billionaire. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. Red, they are smart and clever. They have a good sense of smell. They move fast and they are light. They're not heavy enough to set off the mine. Yeah, they help us a lot.

The record breaking rodent detecting landmines in Cambodia. In a recent podcast, we looked at euthanasia in California, where it was made legal in 2016. Canada did something similar, but the rules there are more relaxed, and one in 20 deaths is now a result of assisted dying. Initially it was only allowed for the terminally ill, but now people who face what's called intolerable suffering can request assisted death. Critics often cite Canada as an example of the quote slippery slope, arguing that once assisted dying is introduced it inevitably leads to safeguards being lowered. Our medical

editor Fergus Walsh has this report. This theatre feels like the most special, unique place on earth for me, and it just feels fitting that I should take my final breath here. Within the next few months, April Hubbard plans to die on stage at her local theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she's performed many times. She's not terminally ill, but has been given approval to have an assisted death. I want to end my life because the balance of being able to live and enjoy life is no

longer outweighing the pain that I'm in. And there's many days where I can't lift my head off the pillow and I can't eat anymore. And it's not a way I want to live for another 10 or 20 or 30 years. April has been on strong opioid painkillers for more than 20 years, including fentanyl patches. She's been approved for medical assistance in dying, made, because her condition is incurable and she finds her suffering intolerable. But critics, like family doctor Ramona Coelho, say Maid is being used as an alternative to social or medical support. Canada has fallen off a cliff. I wouldn't even

call it a slippery slope. So I think that when people have suicidal ideations we used to meet them with counselling and care and actually for people with terminal illness and other diseases we could mitigate that suffering and help them have a better life and yet now we are seeing that as an appropriate request to die and ending their lives very quickly. More than 15,000 people a year have a medically assisted death in Canada. I think it's just robbing our people of hope. Vicki Whalen says her 81-year-old mother Sharon was bombarded with offers of maid when she was close to death in hospital, where approval can be given within 24 hours.

We had the nurse come in saying you should fill this paper out Sharon before you go so you can get on the list to see the maid doctor and my mum said no, no thanks. They really did not want us to leave until my mum had signed these papers. You brought your mum home to die. What was her death like? We had the palliative care team in the community came in and it gave all the family time to visit her. They came from far and wide and she had the best last day of her life so it was special. I take out my gloves and my tourniquet. Dr. Conya Troughton is president

of the Canadian Association of Maid Assessors and Providers. She's helped hundreds of people to die since the law was introduced, using a lethal injection of drugs. So I start an intravenous probably there. Put some tape to secure that part. It usually takes patients only a few minutes to die. That's where the drugs would go in? Yeah. This is not what's planned for

England and Wales, where patients would need to self-administer, usually drink the dose. Strangely these days I use my stethoscope more to determine if someone has no heartbeat. Dr Troughton says it's more effective for doctors to carry it out. I do think MADE is working well. For the patients I think it's been hopefully a relief of their suffering. At the last moment they're always looking in my eyes and giving me the heads up and ready to go. They are directing the process and I feel it's a very much patient-driven process. That gives me an honour and a duty and a privilege to be able to help them in those last moments

with their family around them, with those who love them around them, and to know that they've made that decision thoughtfully, carefully and thoroughly. Dr. Conya Troughton ending that report from Canada by Fergus Walsh. A new study has found that the traditional cuisine of northern Tanzania can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation. The diet of the Chaga people is rich in grains and fermented foods. Sam Dyer runs a safari business in Arusha in northern Tanzania. His mother and grandmother were both Chaga. He spoke to Tim Franks. They eat grain, a lot of grain. I remember I used to in the morning for breakfast, we used to have a millet porridge and sorghum porridge as well. We used to take for lunch banana with beans and all other types of grain like cowpea mixed with banana, taro root, we have a local name here we call maginbi,

and milk. And this milk is not necessary fresh milk, it's cultured milk, fermented milk. We call it in Swahili maziwa yamugando. A lot of vegetables in every meal are used to have vegetables. These are all always green vegetables, like the taro roots, and used to mix them in the food, in whatever food we eat, we use that one. Are there special types of fermented foods that you think are special to the Chaga? I grew up, I used to go every weekend, I used to go to my grandma for three days during weekends and during holidays. The fermented food that we used to take is taro roots. They put milk in the calabash, then they put something like smoky thing to make it sour and then after three days it is fermented and then we mix it with porridge.

I remember I told you in the breakfast you use to have porridge. They mix it with the cultured milk. Then the life goes on. That is how we used to have here. You talked about the sort of food that you ate growing up and this traditional food, which sounds delicious, it also sounds very healthy. Are you still managing to eat in that way or has the dread lure of processed Western food grabbed you? Not really. I wish you could see me. I'm going 60 now. Yeah, I still play my soccer.

I still play my soccer. I train the youth. And you can imagine I run with them in the pitch under 17. And I'm still strong. One secret is I've not been drained by Western type of food. I still eat the local food. If you come to my house, I don't eat a lot of Western kind of food. I still eat the taro root. I eat my banana. I'm trying to maintain the healthy food that I grew up with. Sam Deer in Tanzania talking to Tim Franks. Since 2002 April the 4th has been celebrated as World Rat Day and this year one particular rodent has been singled out for special attention. Ronin is a landmine detecting rat in Cambodia who set a new world record by sniffing out 100 mines and other war

remnants. Our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatten has the details. It's dangerous work uncovering landmines and unexploded weaponry in Cambodia. Two clearance experts were killed earlier this year. And that's why many in the northern Cambodian province of Priya Vihir are celebrating the accomplishments of a certain rodent. Ronan is a giant African pouched rat, and he's a world record holder after successfully sniffing out 109 landmines over the past three years. Van Keng, a Cambodian working with the landmine action charity Apopo, cuddles a giant rat as he explains why they're so helpful. We are using rats. You know rats, they are smart and clever. They have a good sense of

smell. You can see the long whiskers away moving, sniffing, searching for explosives. They move fast and they are light. They're not heavy enough to set off the mine. Yeah, they help us a lot. They ignore any scrap meat that will go and lead to the explosives. Might faster compared to a meta-detector that would take a long time because meta-detector detects all the scrap meat down. Each rat weighs just over a kilogram. So as Van Keng says, they don't trigger the hidden explosives, which often lie buried

just underneath the ground. After the mines are sniffed out by the rats, nearby human experts can then remove them safely. Cambodia is still littered with mines after three decades of civil war that ended in the late 90s. As for Ronan the Rat, it took a year for him to learn how to find explosives and his trainers believe he has another two years of work ahead before a happy rat retirement. Celia Hatton Finally, a new book about Emmanuel Macron's sometimes difficult reign as French president claims he uses so much cologne that his staff can smell him coming even before he enters the room.

The book, The Tragedy of the Elysee, before he enters the room. The book, The Tragedy of the Elysee, says he uses the Dior fragrance to project an image of power. As Richard Hamilton explains… Olivier Beaumont, who wrote the book, alleges that Emmanuel Macron uses industrial amounts of Eau Sauvage, keeps a bottle in one of the drawers of his desk and freshens up with it at all hours of the day. He compares the President with Louis XIV, who made his perfumes an attribute of power as he paraded through the corridors of Versailles. The book quotes former aides to the President – one says he uses scent almost to mark his territory and another says it means watch out here I come. Sarah

McCartney is the author of The Perfume Companion. She says Mr Macron is not alone in using scent as an instrument of power. I think it's marvellous. I don't think anyone could wear too much au sauvage. It projects 1970s power. It's a classic, but it came out in 1966, so it's quite an unusual choice. Napoleon used to wash every day with two litres of cologne. It is a lot. He didn't have a shower, he was out. But I think that his Macron seems to be carrying on the tradition. The Dior brand is owned by the multinational company LVMH. Its CEO is Bernard Arnaud, who's France's richest man and believed to be close to the president. The book goes on to say that Mr Macron's wife Brigitte wears Louis Vuitton, another of Arnaud's products, but it adds

that when her husband is abroad, she sometimes sprays herself lightly with his perfume to have the feeling that her man is not very far away. Richard Hamilton. And that's all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back at the same time tomorrow. This edition was mixed by Ricardo McCarthy and produced by Oliver Burlough. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.