Global News Podcast - Joe Biden commutes dozens of death sentences

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

The president switched 37 capital punishment convictions to life in prison without parole. Also: motoring giants Nissan and Honda take their first steps to merge, and tactics taken in South Korea to increase the country’s birth rate.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. You are bound to devote yourself to the long conflict between the light and the dark. The Dark is Rising, an immersive audio adventure, adapting Susan Cooper's classic fantasy novel into a gripping 12-part family drama. Everything had changed. The dark is rising. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen and at 14 Hours GMT on Monday the 23rd of December these are our main stories. Joe Biden commutes dozens of death sentences in the United States.

Motoring giants Honda and Nissan take their first steps to merge. And a former fighter pilot in Australia accused of training Chinese soldiers faces extradition to the US. Also in this podcast. I am also gay, Syrian gay. Yes, it exists. I am here. What will happen with the millions of diaspora Syrians who escaped President Assad's tyranny now that the leader has left. We start in the US where in the last weeks of his presidency, Joe Biden has commuted the death sentences of all but three federal prisoners on death row. 37 inmates will have their sentences converted to life in prison without parole. The other three include the Boston

Marathon bomber and two other notorious killers and their execution is likely to go ahead. The decision to commute the other sentences is likely to anger Donald Trump who will start his second presidential term next month. So what's going on? Our correspondent in Washington, Tom Bateman, told me more. Well on those sentences that have been commuted to Life Without Parole, Joe Biden said that he was driven by his conscience and also he said his experience and his belief in abolishing the federal death penalty. So that's why 37 men convicted of murder have been removed from death row at the federal level, but three remain facing the death penalty. That is because Joe Biden said he would keep an exemption for terrorism

offences and hate crimes, which had resulted in large numbers of people being killed. So as you say, that's Jayhart Sanayev, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Dylan Roof, who was the white supremacist who killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015, and Robert Bowers who killed 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. And Donald Trump not expected to like this at all? He won't like it. I mean, he campaigned on a pledge to expand the use of the death penalty to drug traffickers

and also migrants who kill Americans. He during his first term actually oversaw the reinstatement or the de facto reinstatement of the death penalty at the federal level, which had been used very, very rarely. And in the last six months of his presidency, 13 people were put to death. So it's clear where he stands on the use of the death penalty. And as I say, campaigned to expand its use. He won't be able to reverse the decision,

or this decision, by Joe Biden to spare the lives of these 37 men. Where will the American public be on this decision because in recent years they've largely been turning away from the death penalty. That is true I mean there are still around 2,200 people on death row in the US and it's around a dozen states that still actively use the death penalty overwhelmingly Texas and then some other southern states. I mean around half of Americans in a lot of the polling still say they support the death

penalty although there is a big disparity between younger and older Americans on this issue. So it also depends on what question is asked in the opinion polling. You get quite different answers depending on how it's framed. But the reality is the use of the death penalty has declined significantly over the last 30 years. Since the mid 90s when you were getting around 300 people per year sentenced to death, that number has reduced significantly to around 25 to 30 sentences per year now.

Tom Bateman in Washington. Big news from the motor industry today as two Japanese giants announced they're taking the first steps towards creating the world's third biggest carmaker. Honda and Nissan announced that they've signed a basic agreement to consider a merger. Our business reporter, James Wickham, has more on the two firms' proposal. They've been saying that the reason for this potential merger is around the need to maintain global competitiveness in the face of a drastically changing business environment. That's the Honda chief executive.

The chief executive of Nissan says, well, economy of scale is increasingly important as new players make inroads in our markets. And what they're really talking about there is the word on everyone's lips which is China. I mean this is all really because the Japanese car industry is pretty scared about the influx of cars from China, about what China is doing with electric vehicles in particular and about the pace of change that the Japanese car industry has been undergoing at this point which isn't really quick enough to take advantage of what is a very rapid change from petrol and combustion engines into electric vehicles. Because this isn't in any way a merger of equals, is it?

Not really, no. I mean, Honda is much, much bigger than Nissan. Nissan have been having very major problems over the last few years in particular because they've been struggling with their electric car unit especially and finding it very difficult to make inroads in the US market. They do make similar types of cars so they're going to have to try at least to work out exactly where this new company sits and how they plan their models effectively. But no, it's definitely not a merger of equals and Nissan's mounting troubles as a business, well those have been going on for a few years. You may know the name of Carlos Ghosn. He is a man now in exile, was the former chief executive of Nissan. He says the merger plans

don't make sense because of too much duplication and no complementaries between the two companies but we'll see whether that's actually the case or not. And it is interesting James in the way that we're measuring these car makers because yeah they would be the world's third biggest by number of vehicles but in terms of the world's most valuable car maker well it as you indicated it's an electric car, it's Tesla. Well yes that's absolutely true but Tesla isn't in the top 10 for the biggest carmakers by volume which shows you something absolutely fascinating at the moment about the way that the car industry is changing. There's no doubt that certainly in the West that we are going to go electric at some point. It's going to happen over the course of the next couple of decades probably. And there's various manufacturers that are desperately trying to get

on that train as it were as quickly as they can. But a lot of the competition now is coming from China. So companies like BYD for example, Build Your Dreams they're called. And the idea about China is that they are able to make these cars at a much cheaper rate than people like Tesla. So you've got lots of these kind of bits of competition going on in the car industry at the moment. The Japanese are trying to make inroads in that market. It'll be interesting to see whether they manage it. James Wickham. Bangladesh has begun the process of seeking the return of its former Prime Minister,

Sheikh Hasina, from India. She's been there since August after fleeing the mass protests, which brought a bloody end to her rule after 15 years in power. Now, Bangladesh has sent an official request for Sheikh Hasina to return home to face possible trial. Our South Asia regional editor, Anbarisan Etirajan, gave me the latest. Even though the interim government leaders in Bangladesh have been urging the Indian government to send Ms Hasina back, this is a formal request sent via the foreign ministry to the Indian government telling them send Hasina back because she's facing allegations of crimes against humanity, corruption and

various other charges which are denied by Ms. Haseena and her supporters. So this sets the ball rolling for a formal extradition from India. That's why it assumed significance even though for the last four months since her house the Bangladesh authorities have been demanding a return. Remind us of how she came to end up in India and of those events which led to her fleeing Bangladesh. In July it started as a student protests against quotas in government jobs and educational institutions especially for the families of the war veterans and then it became a widespread anti-government movement. There have been allegations of enforced disappearances

across human rights violations. So there was a pent up anger among the public over the last 15 years of Ms. Haseena's rule. That led to her ouster. She fled the country on the 5th of August after thousands of people are marching towards her residence. That was a very dramatic moment. And she went to Delhi and where she has been staying there. We don't know

her official status there but she had a very good relationship with Delhi over the last 15 years in terms of both in terms of trade and also addressing India as a security concerns. Is anything likely to stand in the way of her extradition? That's going to be a very difficult choice for India, even though the two countries have an extradition treaty. It was signed in 2013 and amended in 2016. But there are clauses which in case if the Indian government feels the charges were of political in nature or were not in good faith, then they can deny.

But what will happen, likely to happen, is it can further deteriorate the relationship between the two countries. You know, there deteriorate the relationship between the two countries. You know, there are already the tensions between the two countries and if they say no, that's going to anger Dhaka. Shekhar Sinha was praised in her early years in power for the stability, the economic stability she brought to Bangladesh. How's the country faring after her departure? The interim government is still trying to get to

grips with the situation because you know after the massive protest there was a lot of instability even the political parties are now asking for elections sooner in 2025 so that is going to have an impact on the interim government but what they need is stability and the interim government says they are working hard to bring the economic stability to the country and Barasan Etirajan Syria and Syrians continue to forge ahead with plans of rebuilding a future after the downfall of the Assad dynasty In the last two weeks since former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled here on the podcast

We've heard about many Syrians seeking to return back to their homes. According to the United Nations, since 2011 when the civil war broke out more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety and many of those sought refuge outside Syria, including in countries in the European Union. However, now several EU countries have paused asylum applications from Syrians following the overthrow of the Assad regime. Our special correspondent, Fergal Keane, has gone back to some of those he met fleeing the war in its early days.

And a warning, his report contains some distressing testimony. So this is a music box. It's handmade. It is very, very old one and special one because it belonged to my grandma. And this is the only thing that I still have from my home. He's a survivor of hell in a Syrian prison and now living in exile in Holland. My name is Rene, you can call me also Siobhan. I am Syria. I am Aleppo. I am Kamishlo. I am Homs. I am Damascus. Rene was a pro-democracy and LGBT activist in Syria. And I am also gay. Syrian gay, yes, it exists. I am here.

Slender and short in stature, Rene was brutally gang-raped by Assad's police, as he told me when we first met in Lebanon 12 years ago. They're raping me one by one. I started saying, please don't do this. Please don't do that. Nobody listen to me. René has had many years of therapy, but watching the release of Assad's prisoners triggered terrible memories.

I witnessed this and I saw people are free. I was so happy for them, but I saw myself there. I saw when they raped me, when they tortured me. I saw everything. It's a flashback. I have a dream that the terrible war in Syria will over and we'll be human again. But in exile, René has rediscovered his activist voice, here addressing the Pride parade in Utrecht. And with Assad gone, he feels a new confidence.

Because the Republic is fear is gone. Because I'm not scared of them anymore. Because Assad is a refugee in Moscow. The country with the largest population of Syrian refugees in Europe is Germany, over a million people. I'm in the market square, the Neue Markt, in the centre of Cologne, and I've come to meet a young woman who was just 15 when I first encountered her as a refugee on the Greek island of Lesbos.

She'd fled from Syria in her wheelchair. Lujim Mustafa was a Kurd from the town of Kobani. Back then, she was a child with big dreams. I have to be an astronaut to go out and see... ..and find an alien. Yes. I want to meet the Queen. That was 2015. Today, Nujin knows the dangers facing her own people and the country.

She never did become an astronaut, but she's studying business administration in Germany and wants someday to go home. I knew that I would never come back to Syria as Assad as the president and that we would never have the chance to be better. With that chapter over, I think the real challenge begins. We can and will be a better nation, be a nation of love, acceptance and peace, not one of chaos, fear and destruction. Here in Germany, in Utrecht, in René's house and more than anywhere in Syria, there are many good hearts hoping Nujín is right.

Our special correspondent Fergal Keane. Still to come in this podcast. When you see it, you're overwhelmed with awe, and you can't really think of anything. It's pure beauty. And it's a responsibility to be the keeper of such world heritage. There's joy at the restoration of ancient mosaics in Italy. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind

the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts. To Australia and the family of a fighter pilot say they are heartbroken by the Attorney

General's decision to allow the extradition of a former American Marine to the United States. Daniel Duggan is accused of training Chinese military pilots in breach of American law. He denies the charges and his lawyers say that he previously gave up his US citizenship. Our correspondent in Sydney, Phil Mercer, told me more about Mr Duggan. Born in the United States, a former US marine pilot, he became an Australian citizen 13 years ago. He was arrested here in Australia in 2022 at the behest of US authorities. They're accusing him of working with the Chinese military at a flying school in South Africa over a decade ago. Now those US prosecutors are alleging that

Daniel Duggan was part of a conspiracy to illegally instruct Chinese pilots how to land and take off on an aircraft carrier. Back in May, a magistrate here in Sydney said that Mr Duggan could be sent back to face charges in the US of arms trafficking. In the last day or so, we've had confirmation from the Attorney General. He is the Australian government's chief law officer saying that the extradition has been approved and that it now can be the case that Mr. Duggan can be handed over to US authorities. So does that mean it could happen quite quickly and what else has

his family said? Well Mr. Duggan's family has released a statement saying that the decision by Australia's government to approve the extradition was both callous and inhumane. And that family statement went on to say that the decision came with no explanation or justification from the authorities in Canberra. His lawyers have said previously that there's no evidence that the pilots he trained in South Africa were military and they also say that he wasn't an American citizen when these alleged offences took place. Of course none of this has been tested in court and it could well be that Mr Duggan is extradited pretty soon. Under Australian law, the Australian authorities have to hand over a detainee for extradition within two months of an attorney general's decision. So his family fear that it could happen sooner rather than later.

As you say, the allegations haven't been tested in court, but if he were convicted, what kind of sentence could he face? Well, we're not sure. There are reports here, Alex, that if convicted, Daniel Duggan, who, as we say, denies breaking any law, could potentially face a 60-year jail term. But of course, there's a long way to go before that happens. There could well be an application by Mr Duggan's lawyers for a judicial review that could delay his extradition but US authorities are determined to bring him back to the United States to face those charges of breaching arms control legislation. Phil Mercer in Sydney.

Forget dating apps, when it comes to efforts to boost marriage in South Korea, matchmaking is back. Young people there have been signing up in large numbers in the hope of meeting their significant others. Agencies are reporting record interest, even as birth and marriage rates are stuck at record lows. The low fertility rates remains a huge issue for the government, which is now playing cupid by organising speed dating events across South Korea. Our reporter in Seoul, Rachel Lee, has been investigating. My name is Anna. I am 31 years old. I have spent so much time focusing on my work. Now I feel like I want to get married and find someone special.

I don't have much time to actually look for someone. I met Anna at a marriage matching agency. She, like many young South Koreans, is trying matchmaking to find love. I think that has a lot to do with COVID. People weren't able to meet people. People who are a little bit older than me were starting to come into marriage matching agencies.

And then the people who had good results, like got married, started to promote their experiences to each other. Several marriage matchers told me the industry has grown by nearly 40%. They say this is driven largely by shifting perceptions. There's this little wine shop called 술도란. Basically means nice conversation over alcohol owned by a newlywed couple.

They're in their early 30s then they met through marriage matching agency. Inside we find Taehyung and Minjung unpacking some of their Christmas stock. This is my favorite wine, which is Italy Prosecco with very light bubbles. I gave this to our guest wedding and also we brought this to our Maldives honeymoon. As they sorted through the wine and beer, Minjeong told me about her marriage matchmaking experience. I signed up because I wanted to meet someone who also wanted to get married. Using a marriage matching agency isn't always viewed very positively. It can seem like people are being judged by their profiles and are getting married without

love. It felt a bit embarrassing to tell friends and family that I signed up with an agency." Despite marriage matchmaking's rise in popularity, fertility rates and marriage rates in South Korea remain at record lows. But the government is committed to tackling the issue of low fertility and low marriage rates. And they're doing so in a rather unusual way. Every single policy attempt to raise the birth rate over the last 20 years has failed. So we are trying speed dating to help young people meet.

That was Shin Sang-jin. He's the mayor of Seongnam city. I met him at one of the government-organized speed dating events. But some feel the government should instead focus on bigger issues, like high living costs and improving conditions for working moms. Back at the marriage matching agency, Anna hasn't found the one, but is hopeful for her future. I want to get married. I want to have children. My friends around me don't feel pressure about the social numbers but most of them just want

to get married because they want to find their partner for the rest of their lives. Marriage and children is something many young people in South Korea want. But for the country, it's essential as it battles its demographic crisis. Rachel Lee reporting. Let's head now to the place known as the toe of Italy's boot, Sicily. The Cathedral of Montreale on the island boasts one of the world's largest series of medieval mosaics. Now, for the first time in half a century, they've undergone an extensive restoration. Our reporter Sara Monetta has more. Walking down the central navel, Sicily's Moreale Cathedral has always been a humbling affair.

You can't help but look up at the shimmering gold mosaics covering its walls, roof and apse. The image of Christ with his arms wide open dominates the dome above the altar. These are Italy's largest Byzantine-style mosaics, spanning over 6,400 square metres and containing more than 2 kilos of solid gold. They are second in size only to those of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and now they are shining in a new light, thanks to a thorough restoration led by a team of experts from the Italian Ministry of Culture. Using cherry pickers and a maze of scaffolds, they started by removing the dust that had

accumulated over the years. There was a 2 to 3 millimetre layer of dust depending on the shape of the walls. Father Nicola Gaio has been a priest here for 17 years. He's followed the works closely, not unlike an apprehensive dad. As they were cleaning the surfaces, they were also repairing some of the tiles that had lost their enamel and gold leaf. Then they tapped on the surface to find points that sounded hollow, which signalled the tiles were peeling off, and they injected a substance

to make the mosaics stick back to the wall. It's been almost 50 years since the mosaics were last partly restored, but this time the operation had much wider scope as you can't really appreciate the beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage Site without proper lighting. It was a very old system. The light was low, the energy costs were through the roof, and it in no way did justice to the beauty of the mosaics. This is Matteo Kundari, Country Manager of Zumtobel. His firm was tasked with installing new lights in the cathedral.

The main challenge was to make sure we'd highlight the mosaics and we'd create something that answers to the various needs of the cathedral. We also wanted to create a completely reversible system, something that could be replaced in ten or fifteen years without damaging the building. This first range of works has lasted over a year and cost more than 1 million euros. A second restoration focusing on the central nave is being planned next. When I ask Father Nicola if it is all worth it, he laughs. When you see it, you're overwhelmed with awe, and you can't really think of anything.

It's pure beauty, and it's a responsibility to be the keeper of such world heritage. This world needs beauty, because it is beauty that reminds us of what's good in humanity, of what it means to be men and women. what's good in humanity, of what it means to be men and women. Sarah Monetta with that report. The BBC holds a long and proud tradition for its natural history output, its wildlife documentaries captivating audiences for more than 70 years.

Amid tough competition, one of the most celebrated sequences comes from Frozen Planet 2, where a pod of killer whales synchronise perfectly to isolate their prey on a block of ice before launching a swift attack. They produce a sub-surface wave. It breaks the ice into smaller pieces. But the seal still has a raft. The pod push the seal's ice platform into clearer water. And the whales move in for the kill. So powerful was that sequence narrated by David Attenborough that it has inspired a

new BBC programme called Expedition Killer Whale. Amal Rajan has been speaking with that series executive producer, Orla Doherty, and Lee Hickmott, one of the programme's lead scientists. He's been studying these killer whales for more than a decade, one mother orca in particular that he's called Gertie. Gertie for me, she was in the first Frozen Planet series and was an inspiration for why I wanted to get down to Antarctica and try and study these pack-eyed killer whales. She was just an inspirational female to me as this core matriarch in that area, a fantastic mother and incredible hunter.

She's named after my grandmother, Gertie, who was a mother of 10 and grandmother to many children. So two core matriarchs in my life. Wonderful. And all of that first sequence from Frozen Planet 2, it really was one of those sequences, a bit like the plastic in the oceans or those lizards escaping snakes, that just really cut through to a global audience. Completely, these particular killer whales, they have captured the global imagination and humans are terrified of them

because their behavior is impeccable, indefensible. And at the same time in this film, what we really wanted to do was show the tender side, the maternal side, the caring of these mothers in particular to their families and how they take care of them. I say all of it must be very challenging films and expensive films to make because you don't know for certain that you're going to come across the pods, do you? No, but you know, we work so hard on our research. We team up with the best of the best, like

scientists like Lee, to stack the odds in our favor. You know, we never do these things willy nilly. We plan and plan and plan and give ourselves the best fighting chance. And you know, usually it comes off. Lee, what's the main threat? I mean, Orla says there's only a hundred of these particular kinds of orca.

If it is an endangered species, what's the threat to them? These are what we call B1 or pack ice killer whales. And around the Antarctic Peninsula, the population is about 100 animals and they've been declining at around 5% per year. So we're deeply concerned about their well being. And the clue is in the name, they live in and around what's called pack ice, which is when the Antarctic Sea freezes during the winter and then starts to break up when the Antarctic sea freezes during the winter and then starts to

break up when the thaw happens. That's their habitat, that broken pack ice where seals lay out on the ice floes that they can then wash the seals off into the water to eat. And because of climate change, that habitat is severely threatened. In the year that we were filming, which is in 2023. That was the lowest ice record since satellite measurements began. And so we're deeply concerned about the loss of habitat and so the loss of these killer whales. Whale scientist Lee Hickmott and Ola Doherty on the podcast. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Nora Hall and the producer was David Lewis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz and until next time, goodbye. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour.

Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.