Global News Podcast - Britain announces biggest increase in defence spending in decades

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Britain has announced it will increase defence spending, funded partly by cutting foreign aid. Also: The dispute over fish at a traditional Belgian festival, and stargazers anticipate a rare planetary spectacle.

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14h GMT on Tuesday 25th February. Britain says it will increase defence spending by slashing funding on aid. The scramble for rare earth metals. The EU makes its own offer to Ukraine even as the US demands a deal. And Syrians meet to discuss their post-Assad future, but the Kurds say they've been excluded. Also in the podcast. We only see this kind of alignment once a decade or so.

But to actually see them in the specific order there in the night sky is more like something that would happen every 100 years or so. A rare spectacle in the night sky. When the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer goes to Washington on Thursday, what can he do to win over Donald Trump? The US President has long complained about Europe freeloading on defence by relying on America.

The French President visited the White House on Monday and now France is reportedly willing to use its nuclear deterrent to help protect Europe. Now the British government has signaled that it too is willing to step up by boosting defense spending. It will be partly funded by cutting the UK's overseas aid budget. Kirstmer spoke to Parliament. We must find courage in our history, courage in who we are as a nation, because courage is what our own era now demands of us. So starting today, I can announce this government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. We will deliver our commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, but we will bring it forward so that we reach that level in 2027.

So how much of a difference will it make? Our UK political correspondent is Rob Watson. It will certainly make some difference, Oliver, but I mean clearly ever since the end of the Cold War at the end of the 1980s the UK has been spending less and less and its armed forces getting more and more hollowed out so will it make a difference? Yes. Will it transform them? That's unlikely. And what about cutting the aid? How much difference will that make? Again that'll be profoundly regretted by the British government, but also those on the receiving end. And as Sikir Starmer made clear, it's just not something in an ideal

world that Britain would do. But given that it doesn't want to increase taxes, given that economic growth here is utterly sclerotic, and because of pressure on other spending areas, he sort of takes the view that he didn't have much choice. And that, coupled with the increase in defence spending, is likely to go down well in Washington. Well, and I don't think it's any great secret, Oliver, is it that there is timing in all of this. I mean, this is a big statement from Keir Starmer and I think it has a couple of purposes. The first is, before he gets to the White House to say to Donald Trump Hey, look, we are serious. We get that you want the Europeans to spend more on defense

I think the second element is that it was interesting that he's clearly not looking for a row with Donald Trump despite all the Provocations all the divisions over Ukraine some of the truly sort of shocking statements as the as Western Europe would see it over Ukraine and Putin. Keir Starmer still takes the view that the relationship with the US is key. That's the second part. But the third thing is he's sort of hedging his bets saying, yeah, we don't want to choose between your US and Europe, but we are going to be spending more on defense. We are going to be deepening our security ties with Europe. So a big moment, this is the UK kind of clinging on, somehow hoping that that post 1945 order with the US-UK relationship and NATO at the heart of it can somehow

still be salvaged. And how is all this likely to go down with British voters? British voters seem relatively onside. I mean, it's helped by the fact that there are no great political divisions in the UK over defence spending and over support for Ukraine. Will British voters like the idea of more spending on defence and maybe squeezes on budgets for domestic spending? No doubt that will be difficult, but the case that Sir Keir Starmer is sort of beginning to make is to say to the British people, hey look, you know, we thought when the Berlin Wall came down, we were going to be living in different times. I thought that, he said, as a young man, the shackles of history coming off.

But look, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. We are not living in those times. We need to act differently. Our political correspondent Rob Watson. Just over a year ago Vladimir Putin accused the US of trying to dismember Russia in order to plunder its natural resources. But now with Donald Trump in the White House Russia seems happy to allow the Americans in. It has the fifth largest reserves of rare earth minerals in the world and the Kremlin said today there were broad prospects for cooperation with the U.S. This was President Putin himself on Monday.

Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in reserves of these rare earth metals. We have them in the north, in the Caucasus and in the Far East. These are quite capital intensive investments, capital intensive projects. We would be happy to work together with any foreign partners including American ones. Mr Putin also mentioned deposits in what he called the new territories, occupied Ukraine. President Trump has been pressuring Ukraine to sign an agreement with the US on its minerals and talks are ongoing. But now the EU is offering the Ukrainians a separate deal as I heard from our Europe regional editor Danny Eberhardt. Stefan Sejourney, he's the EU's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, went to Kyiv on

Monday as part of the commemorations of the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion and he proposed that to the Ukrainian government. He's talking about a win-win scenario and he describes the EU's approach as giving added value because the bloc, he said, would never demand a deal that was not mutually beneficial. He says that Ukraine has 21 out of 30 minerals that the EU sees as critical minerals. It seems the whole approach is very different to that of Washington. And President Trump's approach has been very aggressive, very strident, talking about Ukraine having to repay money that was given in aid.

There's big disparity in the estimates for the value of that between what President Trump is saying and what Ukraine calculates that. And Ukraine says that was given as grants anyway. So there's a very different tenor to this. Now the EU has an association agreement with Ukraine so this hasn't completely come out of the blue but the timing is interesting and a source I spoke to in Brussels said that it's not in competition with the US but I think there'll be a lot of other people who won't necessarily see it that way. And the EU is obviously trying to source critical minerals from lots of other parts of the world as well. Argentina, Democratic Republic of Congo, these sort of places.

Yes, and now the Russians are saying, hey, we've got lots of minerals too, and people are welcome to come and help us develop them, especially the Americans. Yes. Now, obviously, this is tied in with the wider issue of bilateral talks that the US is conducting with Russia about bringing an end to Ukraine. That's unnerved Ukraine very deeply, it's unnerved European leaders. But it seems that President Trump is approaching the whole war in Ukraine

with a very much more transactional approach. And right from the beginning of the talks, he made concessions to Russia on a number of issues, or his officials did, and he raised the prospect of great economic cooperation in the future. So what Russia is doing is saying, yes, we have these minerals, let's solve the Ukraine crisis, as they call it. They don't refer to it as a war. Let's do that first. And obviously, what we're seeing in the broader picture, it seems, is that there's a shift away from issues of international rules-based order, some of the moral positions about why people have to oppose Russian aggression in

Ukraine. And there seems to be developing some sort of scramble for resources in a post-conflict environment. Europe regional editor Danny Eberhardt. Eleven weeks after the Assad regime was overthrown, the new authorities in Syria have opened a conference in Damascus to discuss how the country will be run. On Monday, the European Union suspended some selected sanctions, such as restrictions on oil and gas, to try to encourage support for a transition to democratic rule. Murtasem Sioufi is head of the civic group the day after association. At the end of the day, we need to have dialogue with all Syrian groups, with all Syrian powers,

especially those who have great influence on the ground. Without that, Syria will face a very hard time maintaining itself together. And I hope that what we are doing today is a beginning of a track rather than an end of a process. But parties in Syria's autonomous Kurdish region have complained that there is only token representation for minority groups at the conference. An official from one Kurdish party, Salih Islam, told the BBC his group had been excluded. Because we are different voice, we are calling for the democracy and democracy is pretty

happy that in their words, I mean, they don't like the democracy, they want to establish their regime, I mean Muslim regimes or whatever they are after. One of the first issues being discussed is how to deal with the crimes of the previous regime, what's been called transitional justice. Our Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab told us more. This is really a critical issue and so far the authorities haven't been dealing with transparency about the war criminals who are still living in Syria. The past decade there has been so many bloodshed, so many people who have disappeared in prison,

tortured to death, bombardments, chemical weapons used against Syrians. And the community, they want to have justice for this. They want to see the perpetrators prosecuted. And so far, this is not clear. What's the procedure? How they're going to work on it? What's the legal framework? There has been some revenge killing in various parts of Syria, especially in the coastal sites where Alawites are living and some of the Alawites are accused of committing war crimes. So this is something really key to have peace and to have the country moving forward without falling into revenge killing. The key issue for the outcomes of this conference is how the CareTech

government is going to take the recommendations. The EU and the West and even locals have been calling for an inclusive government, a government that represents the whole society and protects women's rights and that's the way forward to ease sanctions. People are worried that this Kertek government has an Islamist background. In fact, they are on the terror list with their jihadi past. So if they don't make real efforts to be inclusive, there will be concerns over the sanctions and the economy.

Leena Sinjabah. A so-called planetary parade which started last month is heading towards its grand finale. Later this week, stargazers will be able to see several planets together without the need for powerful telescopes. Scientists say it's the closest we'll come to a full planetary alignment in a lifetime. Here's astronomer Rebecca Allen. This year we've already been treated to several of the major planets in the night sky at the same time and at the end of this week we'll have an even rarer treat when Mercury joins

the planet parade, meaning all seven of the great planets will be visible in the night sky at the same time, most of them actually even visible with the naked eye. So you will wanna go out shortly after sunset because Saturn, Mercury and Venus are all very close to the sun right now, while Jupiter and Mars are further to the east. And so to capture all of them in the short window,

I really recommend going out just after sunset. and Mars are further to the east. And so to capture all of them in the short window, I really recommend going out just after sunset. We only see this kind of alignment once a decade or so, but to actually see them in the specific order there in the night sky is more like something that would happen every hundred years or so. Furthermore, we actually don't have the full moon, including our view of any of the planets at the end of the week. So we actually have a dark sky as well. And most of the world will be able to see this unless you're at the very, very furthest north latitudes, you'll be able to be treated to the show.

Astronomer Rebecca Allen. And still to come on the Global News Podcast. The wig was found which contains more than 220 grams of cocaine. Colombian police thwart an unusual attempt at drug smuggling. Taiwan's Coast Guard has detained a cargo ship and eight members of its Chinese crew after an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait was damaged. Five cases of sea cable malfunctions have been reported by Taiwan since the start of this year and it says it can't rule out the possibility of interference by the authorities in Beijing. I heard more from our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatton. All of these incidents follow a similar pattern.

So it's a cargo ship in this instance that has kind of strange behavior. It goes far off course from what you would expect. It then waits in waters near undersea cables. This particular ship, which was registered to Togo, had all Chinese crew on board. They ignored calls by the Taiwanese Coast Guard and wondering what they were doing. The cable was then damaged and the crew and the ship were then detained while the authorities tried to determine whether this was a marine accident, which is possible, or whether it's actually sabotage. Now, the reason the authorities think it could be related to sabotage is that, of course, this is the fifth time just since the start of the year and we've been seeing these incidents increasing over the past few years since 2023.

Yeah now Taiwan hasn't blamed the communist authorities in Beijing directly but certainly there is a history of intimidation from mainland China towards the island. That's right we have to remember that Beijing believes that Taiwan is part of its territory, even though Taiwan is self-ruled. And Beijing has been increasing military pressure for the past few years on Taiwan and the outlining islands that Taiwan has. They're called gray zone tactics. So we've seen increased military flights, increased war games in the Taiwan Strait and the cable cutting we believe kind of falls into that. It's all designed to exhaust Taiwanese resources, to quote unquote practice for warfare around Taiwan, a possible blockade of Taiwan, we believe, and also just to increase pressure on Taiwan and make it clear what China is capable of.

Now the Taiwanese authorities have not actually said what this incident, they're investigating this particular incident, and they've been reticent since the start of the year to really blame Beijing directly. I think they're trying to keep waters calm, so to speak. But, you know, underwater sea cables have been linked around the world to acts by Russia and or China in the Baltic Sea. We've seen some in the Red Sea linked to the Houthis in Yemen and so this is becoming an increasing concern for many countries around the world. Our Asia-Pacific editor Celia Hatton. One of the oldest towns in Belgium, Gerhardsbergen, is also home to two of its oldest festivals. They take place each year on the same

Sunday in February to celebrate the end of winter. They include Christian and pagan elements such as fire, live fish and bread. But one of the festivals, the Kraklingen, has run into controversy with animal rights activists as Alice Adderley explains. Every year for around the last six centuries the Kraklingen Festival has seen costumed locals and dignitaries parade through the town towards a 100 metre high hill called Oudenberg. At the top of the hill the mayor, the priest and town administrators dressed as druids throw thousands of ring-shaped bread crackers known as crackling onto the crowd below. The round-shaped roll is said to symbolise the seasons or the cycle of life, but before they embark on this tradition, the dignitaries have to drink a small living

fish from a 400-year-old silver cup of wine. It's thought to symbolise the transition from winter to spring, as the Gudgeon, a small freshwater fish, rise to the surface of ponds after winter as spring begins, but it's now been banned because of new animal welfare legislation. Costumed locals protested against the change at this year's event held on Sunday, holding up banners saying, I want fish. But Ben Weitz, the Vice Minister President of Flanders in the Flemish Parliament, says it's time to respect the law and move on. The page has now been turned.

It has been shown that one can perfectly well organise a fantastic party without animal suffering and without eating animals alive. Let us now continue on that track and simply turn the page and look to the future. However, this Sunday the town's mayor joined the protesters and said Flanders must take into account cultural historical arguments and that he hoped the law would be overturned. But animal rights campaigners are adamant that the ban should be upheld and say traditions are no excuse for cruelty to animals. Alice Adderley. Now few might recognise his name but Clint Hill was a central figure in

one of the most infamous episodes of American history. The Secret Service agent tried and failed to shield President John F Kennedy when he was assassinated. Mr Hill has died at the age of 93. Here he is speaking to the BBC in 2017 about what happened in Dallas on the 22nd of November 1963. Well my responsibility that day was to protect Mrs Kennedy and so I was in the motorcade in Dallas. I was riding in the car immediately behind the presidential vehicle. I was on the running board on the left hand side in the forward position, making me very close to Mrs. Kennedy. I had been scanning an area that we were going through called Dealey Plaza and at that moment

a explosive noise came and I heard it and it was over my right shoulder from the rear. So I turned toward that noise and in doing so my eyes had to cross the back of the presidential vehicle and I saw the president react to what was a gunshot. Initially I didn't realize it was a gunshot until I saw his reaction. When I saw that reaction, I jumped from my position on that car and ran toward the presidential vehicle in an attempt to get up on top of the back of it to form a shield there to protect both President and Mrs. Kennedy. I got there just shortly after the President was hit with a shot in the head which was a fatal wound. I was just a few steps short of getting there in time. Clint Hill who has died at the age of 93. Paris has been undergoing a major transformation as it tries to become a greener less polluted city

by reducing car use in favor of bikes. And it seems to have been working. Cycling rates have soared. But as Anna Hologun now reports the death last year of a 27 year old cyclist revealed a dark side to Paris's cycling revolution. Paul was leaving work one evening he was going down the bike lane here. Carinthin Chredot shows me the place where in October last year Paul Varie was killed. Corentin knew Paul because they both volunteered on campaigns to make cycling safer in Paris. What happened to Paul made headlines. Paul was on the bike lane. A car took that shortcut on the bike lane, ran over his foot.

Paul of course got angry. He slapped the front of the car. The car backed up and then ran over him and killed him. The driver ran over Paul's foot, he banged on the bonnet. The driver backed up and then ran over Paul. This was not an accident. The driver has been charged with murder. He says it was an accident. Paul's death in a bike lane resonated with many here. In the last few years, Paris has witnessed a cycling revolution. It's put in more than a thousand kilometres of bike lanes. The number of cyclists has soared. More than 11% of trips in Paris are made by

bicycle, compared to just 4% by car. But bike lanes come in all shapes and sizes, and it's not always clear who has the right of way. Arguments are frequent. So here we can keep going because it's green, this green bike, but this car is about to turn as well. Yeah. Ah! This is... It's super confusing. I'm just going to go ahead of you to let the delivery driver. Ah, it's just chaos.

I mean, nobody follows the rules, like the cars, the pedestrians, the bikes, nobody does. So at times it can be, yeah. Yeah, driving in Paris is like going to the war. Going to war? You have to be the main character, you know. There are no rules. Shammi is a 24-year-old midwife who still drives in Paris. But it's hard. Parking spots have been slashed by half. There's a low emission zone. Speed limits have been reduced. Streets have been closed to cars. It can be stressful.

Car drivers stop when there is a red light, but some bikes, they ignore it. What do you do when there's a cyclist who's annoyed at you because you're in a bike lane and they hit the bonnet? I say sorry and I try to move but sometimes it's not possible. You can see where we're sitting, waiting at these lights, there are cyclists going all the direction. If you want mobility to be more agreeable in Paris then the car drivers cannot be the only bad guys.

Alexandra Lejeunge, who works for a motorist lobby group, feels as though the authorities have bent over backwards to accommodate cyclists at the expense of everyone else and not just drivers. This aggressivity that you feel in the streets of Paris did not exist before that. Now as a pedestrian you're not safe anymore because you have scooters, you have bicycles and they don't give a damn about road safety." The Paris authorities acknowledge the need to improve cycling infrastructure and make sure everyone follows the rules.

Rémi Ferreau is a socialist member of the French Senate. Rémi Ferreau, French President, Parisian Parliament The vision, no, it's not to eradicate the car, because there are Parisians who have cars. But by reducing the space for them, we reserve it for those who really need to use their cars. We want a city that is 100% cycleable. That means that bikes can pass safely and comfortably on every street."

Back on the streets, Corentin believes Paris will stick with its new direction of travel. Cycling in Paris is freedom. It's not perfect but it's a lot safer than it was before. There are so many bikes in Paris that I do think there's no way back. Our report from Paris by Anna Holligan. Finally, a man in the Colombian city of Cartagena has been arrested after seemingly trying to smuggle cocaine under a wig. Law enforcement have released images on social media showing off their hall and the man's shaved head. David Lewis has the story. As a drug smuggling strategy, it's both bold and bald. The man in his hapless hairpiece was intercepted after a security scan last week

at Rafael Nunes International Airport in Cartagena. While attempting to board the Amsterdam-bound plane, police pounced and the 40-year-old was taken for a makeover he did not want. In a new video released by local law enforcement, an officer is filmed patiently snipping away at the travellers' toupee, peeling off the piece to reveal a number of white packets lurking underneath. These wraps are cocaine, police say, and plenty of it. The police allege there were 19 cocaine capsules in all rammed under his rug, with a Dutch street value of more than $10,000.

Speaking to reporters, Jalve Yassid-Penya Arake from the Cartagena police explained how they got their man. Through profiling they found an individual who intended to board a flight from Cartagena to Amsterdam. This individual was profiled by one of our experts and subjected to the procedure. There, through the scanner and a body search, the wig was found which contained more than 220 grams of cocaine that

he intended to take to the Netherlands. And with this, criminal profits took a hit. So if only he'd kept his hair on. The man has now been arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, drug manufacturing and carrying narcotics. David Lewis reporting. That is all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast very soon. This one was mixed by Kai Perry and produced by Chantal Hartle, our editors Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway, until next time, goodbye.