Global News Podcast - Crisis vote in German parliament

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Is Friedrich Merz the new German chancellor after he unexpectedly lost an initial vote in parliament? Also: Russian fears for victory parade after Ukrainian attack, and what kind of Pope do Catholics want?

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and we're recording this at 13 Hours GMT on Tuesday 6th May. A big setback for the man expected to become Germany's next leader, Friedrich Merz fails to win enough support in parliament and now faces a crucial second vote. Drone attacks close Moscow's airport days before a huge victory parade in the Russian capital. And the UK-based food delivery app Deliveroo is taken over by the American firm DoorDash. Also in the podcast, as Cardinals prepare for the conclave tomorrow, what kind of Pope

do Catholics want? And... We've changed the ocean so profoundly that the next hundred years could either witness kind of Pope do Catholics want, and, days before his 99th birthday, David Attenborough talks about the threat to our seas. Now, it was supposed to be a formality, but the man, due to be sworn in as the next leader of Germany, suffered a shock defeat in parliament on Tuesday morning. Friedrich Merz fell six votes short in his bid to become Chancellor, meaning some in his carefully constructed coalition had failed to back him. The result is unprecedented in post-war German political history and could damage the Conservative leader as he tries to rebuild the floundering economy and see off the challenge over immigration from the far-right AFD. As we record this podcast, a second vote is due to be held, as we heard from our correspondent Jessica Parker at the parliament in Berlin.

Well, we've just been hearing from party figures from the SPD and the CDU, the two main parties in what was supposed to be this governing coalition, you know, stood here in the Bundestag around this time today. Friedrich Merz was supposed to have been voted in, gone to meet the president, come back, taken the oath of office. None of that has happened. But what we have heard is there is now going to be a second vote this afternoon. I think it is fair to say that this is make or break for Friedrich Merz. You were saying about this damaging him potentially. I think it really has damaged him. As you say, this is unprecedented for this to happen.

And his whole spiel, his whole play for power, partly was based on saying that he could bring strength of purpose to the German government after increasing drift over recent years with the divided coalition government under Olaf Scholz. But of course, who looks divided right now? Friedrich Merz's own coalition. Yeah, I mean, how did he lose that vote given that he should have had the numbers? I mean, his majority here theoretically is pretty narrow, about a dozen votes, exactly a dozen votes in fact. So it was never a super comfortable majority,

but yes, he should have won there. That was what was expected. When I was here earlier and the vote was happening and the news broke that he had lost by six votes, four and six votes short, jaws dropped to the floor. I don't think anyone in international media, certainly not German media, expected this. Everyone thought it was a foregone conclusion

that the party managers would have managed to get everyone on board. This is a secret ballot so we do not know exactly who has failed to vote for Friedrich Merz, whether from his own party, the SPD, there's lots of speculation that people aren't very happy with Friedrich Merz, that it's a shot across the bowels for the way he's been managing the party. interestingly Angela Merkel who's really seen as not an ideological bedfellow despite coming from the CDU the former Chancellor was in the gallery watching Friedrich Mertz and this whole saga unfold earlier they are long-time political rivals he once lost out in a power struggle to her in the early noughties but she was

watching on as he struggled to gain power this time around. Yeah and very briefly the AFD is now calling for new elections so could his bid to become Chancellor actually fail? We'll have to see. I've been speaking to various figures within the CDU, the SPD, they seem to be hoping that whoever decided not to vote for Mertz this time is really doing it as something of a warning shot and that second time around they'll actually get the result that they expected the first time around. So the process

is that you get this first round of voting, then a second round and the Bundestag has 14 days in total to elect another candidate to be Chancellor but I was speaking to an SPD MP earlier. He was saying that if Friedrich Merz can't win the second time around that this would be a political crisis for Germany and you can only imagine the calls for new elections would grow louder. Jessica Parker in Berlin and we'll bring you an update in the next edition of the Global News podcast. The Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 is a key part

of Vladimir Putin's vision of Russia as a powerful nation. This year's 80th anniversary has taken on even greater importance as the Russian President tries to maintain support for his invasion of Ukraine. Today in Moscow, hundreds of students dressed in 1940s clothing performed a so-called victory waltz as the commemorations got underway. However, those taking part in events over the next few days may be feeling less safe today after a Ukrainian drone attack overnight which shut all four of Moscow's airports. The Russian capital is due to host what officials are calling the grandest ever

Victory Day parade on Friday, due to be attended by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, among other dignitaries. But an anniversary event in Crimea, occupied Crimea of course, has already been cancelled and Ukraine has today warned foreign countries not to send any troops to the Moscow event. I heard more about the overnight attack from our security correspondent Frank Gardner in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Ukraine hasn't actually claimed responsibility for them but I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's minds here or in Russia that they were behind this. Russia says that it shot down 105 drones altogether

that targeted several cities all over Russia, not just Moscow, but including Volgograd, which used to be Stalingrad, and various other cities. 19 of those drones were shot down, they say, over Moscow. And that, I think, is quite embarrassing for President Putin because, as you mentioned there, Friday is May the 9th. It's Dien Pobedy, as they call it in Russian, a victory day, where they've got this big parade.

It's particularly symbolic because it's the 80th anniversary and Russia never mentions the Allies who won the Second World War. It's all about Russia defeating Nazi Germany. And to be fair, Moscow lost more lives than any other country, 27 million altogether in what they call the Great Patriotic War. But clearly they are going to be rattled by the fact that these drones, despite the fact they didn't kill anybody or injure anybody, nevertheless the fact that they were able to penetrate Moscow air defence is making them really worried that the May the 9th parade

is going to get disrupted. There's also the risk of fifth columnists possibly operating in conjunction with Ukrainian intelligence or special forces could be at loose in Moscow and planning other attacks. Of course, the Russian President Vladimir Putin called a ceasefire specifically to cover the days of the parade. So will it still go ahead as planned? Ukraine has said look we don't really rate this ceasefire because we've offered a third well America backed by Ukraine offered a 30-day ceasefire. They agreed this on March the 11th. Russia never accepted that so this is clearly a ceasefire of Russia's design to suit Russia, whether it's to try and clear the air and ensure

tranquility in Moscow around May the 9th, and it's due to kick in in about 36 hours time, whether it's to give Russian troops on the front line a bit of a breathing space or whether it's to convince Donald Trump that Russia really wants peace. It could be all three of those reasons, but Ukraine is saying, look, he offered an Easter truce and that got broken very quickly. To be fair, both sides broke that truce. There were up to 3,000 infractions of that Easter truce. So I don't think there's a lot of optimism here in Ukraine that this truce is going to

hold. Certainly the people in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, which is coming under constant bombardment and taking a lot of casualties, they were desperately like a relief from the glide bombs and the artillery and the drone attacks that are hitting that city. We've occasionally had them here since I've been here in Kyiv, but there's a lot of skepticism that it will hold. Frank Arnaut in Ukraine. China has angrily condemned job adverts released by the CIA aimed at recruiting disillusioned Chinese officials.

More from our Asia Pacific editor Celia Hatton. Videos released by the US intelligence agency last week are aimed at disgruntled Chinese officials, those stuck in jobs below corrupt senior figures, or those scared of being targeted by increasingly frequent Communist Party purges. The adverts end with links to encrypted methods to contact US intelligence. They've infuriated the government in Beijing. China's foreign ministry said they were evidence of despicable methods used by the CIA to steal secrets from other countries and interfere in their internal affairs.

Celia Hatton Despite having free primary schools, children in Malawi are struggling. According to the UN agency UNESCO, almost 90% of them can't read a simple sentence at the age of 10. There is a lack of teachers and basic resources, but the government has gone for a high-tech solution, introducing digital tablets, which is how children in Malawi's state primary school are now learning maths and reading. Mayra Anubi from the People Fixing the World programme visited a rural school just south

of the capital, Lilongwe. Seated in front of me are 56 students, each receiving a cable, a headset and a tablet. Now I have to say these kids are organised, they're all sat down in rows, very quiet. This room has no tables, it has no chairs, but it has tablets and headphones and children eagerly waiting to use them. Shamim Hassan, the class teacher, is telling the children to put on their headphones and switch on the tablets. But the actual lesson? Well, that's been carried out by a virtual figure on their screen, a digital teacher. Shamim shows me how it works. So a virtual teacher appeared. Her name is?

Alisi. So every time you get an answer correct, a tick appears on the screen. Yes. Now you have to put all the balls inside the box. Yes. on the screen. Now you have to put all the balls inside the box. Okay. So some of these lessons are direct lessons like adding, but some of them are games. We should read words, letters, even syllables. Other lessons, they tell them to add, divide, even multiplication. For half an hour every day, these children learn maths and reading at their own pace and in their own language.

Eleven-year-old Matthews told me why he likes studying on the tablet. What he loves most is mathematics, especially the division one. If, for example, he said if there are ten mangoes and there are five children, how many did each one get? So that's what he loves to do on a tablet. Tablets are common enough in many parts of the world. But in rural areas like this, they are completely new. And they've created a lot of interest. Lloyd Gutsu is the head teacher.

After the tablet sessions being introduced here, the enrollment rise up to 100 percent and even the absenteeism of learners has been reduced. Most of the learners are now coming to school daily. They want to touch the tablet. They want to do activities from the tablet. Now because Takumana School isn't on the electricity grid, solar panels have been installed to charge the tablets.

Amos Zayendi is from Imagine Worldwide, the NGO that supports the project. For us to drive learning using the tablet, we need to have power. We are going to schools that are off grid, so we are providing solar. We provide the facilities for storage of the tablets. We train the teachers and other education officers that are involved in delivering education at the primary school level. The tablets cost around $7 per child, and critics say that the money should be spent on more teachers in a country where there's an average of 70 children in a class. The man behind the projects at the Ministry of Education is Dr. Joshua Valetta.

What we are doing actually is bringing an extra teaching and learning material that allows us to do what every educator wants to do and that is to achieve independent learning. Using one teacher in a classroom that has 106 kids, it's close to, oh wow, I don't like using the word impossible, but very difficult. Let's create an opportunity for every learner at least 30 minutes in a day when they can learn at their own pace. In trials, they've found that children with tablets made significant gains in literacy and numeracy

compared to standard teaching. The plan is to have tablet teachers in every primary school by the end of the decade. That report by Myra Anubi in Malawi. And still to come on the Global News podcast... The role of the dandy is always to play with, to assert, to insist on fashion, but also to push the boundaries of taste. The Met Gala in New York celebrates Black dandyism. The British-based food delivery app Deliveroo is being taken over by the American giant

DoorDash in a $3.8 billion dollar deal. Sean Farrington has been taking a closer look and told Leanna Byrne first about Deliveroo. It's a food delivery app so it will be very similar to the DoorDash service that people in the United States will be used to. Probably doesn't have quite as many services on it as DoorDash does. Primarily, it has been restaurants and takeaways. And then in more recent times, it's moved into the grocery delivery market a little bit.

Myself and yourself were actually on the day that it was listed on the London Stock Exchange. I was your producer. I was hyped up as this really big deal, but it was a bit of a flop on the end, wasn't it? Yeah, there was a lot of hype behind it because there haven't been so many big businesses that have been choosing the London Stock Exchange as the place to list and gain investment in recent years, and particularly tech businesses as well, where we know a lot of that is focused on listings in New York. So Deliveroo being on the stock

markets in London was a big deal and yes the share price did take a bit of a tumble once it listed and actually the value of this deal is only around half of where it was at the peak of those the heyday of the hype behind the business but they will still see it as a good deal. You know almost four billion dollars this deal is worth. So a lot smaller compared to the whole value of DoorDash which is worth I think upwards of 80 billion dollars. What is DoorDash getting from taking over Deliveroo? The UK for a start, the market in the UK. So Deliveroo is one of the biggest players here and DoorDash doesn't have a footprint in the UK so there isn't really an overlap between the businesses

so that's clearly one thing and it sees the UK, we like our takeaways here, as a place where it can implement some of its successes and maybe grow the business in a bit of a different way to how delivery would have done. Now some people have categorised this as this is just another US company taking over a UK listed company or is this more about consolidation after the pandemic in this market? There's definitely been consolidation across the delivery of takeout market. We've seen that with Just Eat Takeaway dot com as it's now called. Just Eat is the brand we'd often

see on the bikes around the UK and the rest of the world. But that has been bought out by another business lately that are part of a multinational delivery business and so we're seeing something similar here where there is that tying up with businesses across the world but there will still be that feeling amongst the tech industry in the UK and those that want British businesses to grow and expand and be the ones doing the takeovers that will mean there was a little bit of a feeling of disappointment that there is a US rival, a

bigger player with more weight to invest coming in and taking this business so it will be a controversial one on that front. Sean Farrington. Tomorrow 135 Cardinals are due to begin the process of electing a new leader for the world's 1 billion plus Roman Catholics. Pope Francis, who died two weeks ago, chose to be buried in downtown Rome rather than the Vatican, underlining his image as a man of the people. So as the so-called princes of the church gather for their secretive conclave, our correspondent Sarah Rainsford has been out on the streets around Francis' tomb to ask what kind of church and pope do people want.

The sounds of Rome can sometimes stop you in your tracks, as much as the beauty of any building here. These are the Filipino nuns of Santa Pudenziana. They're in downtown Rome, far from the Vatican, but they're keeping a close eye on events there. Because their Cardinal, Tagle, is one of the men who's being called Papa Bale, a possible successor to Pope Francis. In a courtyard of the church, there's a group of young people playing a pretty energetic game of volleyball after mass.

I'm Jessica. Are you kind of following what's happening with the conclave? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were talking about like if we're going to Vatican just to see if the news is out and wait for the smoke to come out. What do you think Cardinal Tagle? Interesting poke for you? Yeah, of course. He seems like a genuine person and someone you could call a friend. Having Tagle as the next poke would be first of all an honour but as well as an opportunity to us young people to feel heard.

Termini Station is just up the road, with its crowds and its sounds from all over the world drowning out any church bells. Francis believed even a pope should remain connected to places like this, listening to the people, not only the men of power. There are hundreds of men in white capes. They're the Knights of Malta, the Catholic Order. What's your message to the Cardinals as they're deciding the future of the Church? As a Knight, he talks first about service and sacrifice. Then he tells me the biggest problem he sees is the lack of faith in the world.

People live in nothingness, he says. But I noticed his procession had just passed a church that was unusually full. It wasn't a modern, accessible mass, but one in Latin, and the women were in lace veils. Pope Francis restricted the Latin mass. He really disapproved. But Valeria, Tomi's demand for such traditional Catholicism, as she calls it, is on the rise. I want a new pope that speaks about spirituality, not a Pope that speaks about migrants, climate change or other important things, it's a spirit. Francis was concerned a lot about migrants, you didn't like that?

No, the real Pope is conservative. Just around the corner from Termini Station, and this is a soup kitchen run by Caritas, the Catholic charity. That's where lots of people from all over the world come every day for dinner. What's your name? Raimondo is an Italian who needs help, and he gets that from the church.

He's also very aware that Francis' grave is just down the street. He uses the Pope's real name, Bergoglio. I agree with Bergoglio. You like the fact he's in Santa Maria Maggiore? I like because a Pope must be everywhere, not only in Vatican. I feel the presence of the Pope around. Choosing to be buried here was a last big statement from Pope Francis. It's one that

underlines his vision of the church, its focus and its priorities. But the decision on his successor will be made in the old style, up in the Vatican, behind its high walls and sealed off from the noise of the street. Sarah Rainsford in Rome and we have a special edition of the Global News podcast all about the conclave with our religion editor Alim McBool. The British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough turns 99 this week and the occasion's being marked by the world premiere of his latest nature documentary Ocean, Earth's Last Wilderness. Richard Hamilton has this report. I've been fortunate to live for nearly a hundred years. During this time we have

discovered more about our ocean than in any other span of human history. And we've changed the ocean so profoundly that the next hundred years could either witness a mass extinction of ocean life or a spectacular recovery. David Attenborough has made many films but he says this is one of the most important he has ever made. The documentary describes how the ocean has changed during his lifetime and it contains dramatic footage of the destruction of sea life by industrial fishing.

Among Sir David's greatest admirers is the British TV presenter and comedian Michael Palin. He's worked alongside the natural historian over the years and even presented a documentary about his long and varied career. David is the perfect communicator. I don't think anybody does the job better than he does. David's key things are he knows his material, he's consistent in the way he presents it, he doesn't suddenly become a totally new star or anything like that, he's always done what he's done extremely well,

he has a sense of humour and he's a great storyteller. And he has this enthusiasm. Still the curiosity which carries him through in my lifetime. I don't think anybody's taught me more about the world than David Attenborough. This was a big passion project I think for everyone involved and being able to tell that story of a hundred years of the ocean across a massive screen and also be able to tell it in a book is a huge privilege. It's a great story to be able to tell. Colin Buttfield is the director of this new film and the co-author of an accompanying book. He says despite the despair at what mankind has done to the oceans, it's not too late.

The most incredible thing is over the last 20-25 years some areas that have been protected, including vast areas, I mean 1.5 million square kilometres type scale, have recovered incredibly fast. And life in the ocean can actually bounce back much faster than it can on land. So you get this incredible mutual beneficial relationship where the ocean bounces back to life, we get more fish and we can sustain ourselves better. So we've actually been able to film some of that for the first time. In December 2022, more than 190 nations promised to preserve a third of our oceans by the year 2030. The filmmakers hope this documentary will encourage world leaders to take more concrete action towards that goal and a UN Ocean Conference to be hosted in France next month.

Richard Hamilton It is possibly the biggest event in fashion. Madonna, Rihanna and Kim Kardashian all turned heads at this year's Met Gala in New York. But the usual outlandish outfits had a sharper and more traditional look for a theme celebrating Black dandyism. It was the first time in more than 20 years the focus had been on menswear. The writer and curator, Echo Eshan, has been speaking to the BBC's Emma Barnett. Typically a dandy by definition is a man who's overly concerned with dress, who understands dress and understands dressing and fashion. 18th century, Beau Brummmel, the first dandy,

he said, don't talk about clothes, let your clothes do the talking. But when it comes to black dandies, this question, clothes becomes more than just an expression of fashion. It becomes a way to assert the self. – Is that got European roots, British roots? Where are the roots traced to? – I mean, it's completely international. I would say it's diasporic. The Black Dandy has existed for as long as Black people have existed in the West. So we're talking about 400 years.

We're talking about a history that goes back, in fact, to slavery. Or we can go, in fact, to the post-war period in Britain. You can look back at photos of people arriving from the Caribbean on the Empire Windrush immediately after the Second World War. And you see men and women dressed in suits, dressed with hats, cocked at an angle, accessorised with rings, bracelets,

gold watches. These are people without necessarily vast amounts of money, but with an understanding that if they have nothing else, they have themselves and how they can carry themselves. And yet it's interesting, some of the reactions of some fans who follow things like the Met Gala has been this year, yes, okay, the tailoring may be sharp, but some have said it looks funeral, looks a bit drab in certain cases. What do you make of some of the looks? I would say this, the role of the dandy is always to play with, to assert, to insist on fashion, but also to push the boundaries of taste. The clothes are an expression of a history of a people who have had no choice but to make themselves through their appearance, because they are conscious of how they, how we have been judged by our appearance.

Echo Eschen. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Rebecca Miller and produced by Oliver Burlough. Our editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.