Global News Podcast - Los Angeles wildfires force thousands from their homes

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Los Angeles' mayor says windstorms will worsen. Also: European nations warn borders must not be altered by force - after Trump threatens Greenland. And China steps up relief efforts for the earthquake in Tibet.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Tanya Beckett and on the inquiry, we're looking at how new vaccines might help in the treatment of cancer. It's estimated that around 20 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with some form of the disease in 2025. The inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world. Search for The Inquiry wherever you get your BBC podcasts. from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 8th of January. Reinforcements are being brought into Los Angeles to fight fires that have forced thousands to flee.

European nations warn that borders must not be altered by force after Donald Trump refuses to rule out military action to take Greenland. And China steps up relief efforts in the earthquake zone in Tibet. Also in the podcast. This interaction is very new and very healthy and very positive. It's peaceful interaction. Even with people we don't agree with, it's amazing.

And it's never been experienced before. Civil society activists in Damascus discuss the future of Syria. The wildfires currently burning in at least three parts of Los Angeles are so fierce that extra firefighters have been brought in from Northern California and Arizona. The worst of the fires is in the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood between Santa Monica and Malibu. At least 30,000 people have been forced to evacuate. Resident Lynn Levin-Guzman told a local TV station she went to her parents' neighborhood to hose down their house. They're 90 years old. They've lived in this house for 75 years. There's no words to even describe how heartbreaking, how heartbreaking. That's your entire life. You don't get that back. The memories are gone. I hope they're

alive. Mimi Teller from the American Red Cross is at an evacuation centre in the city where people have been arriving with very few belongings. We have approximately 65 people in this shelter right now. We have another shelter which has about a dozen people. Everyone's pretty shaken up. We've tried to embrace a few people as they've come in and find out how they're doing and they're like, let me be I just need to sleep. A lot of people unfortunately weren't even able to get back to their homes to get their pets so there's also a lot of grief and trauma right now associated with the people here. A few people had a few possessions, some people literally just had the clothes on their backs. The fires are being fueled by gusts of up to 100 miles an hour, 160 kilometers an hour, caused by a seasonal weather pattern

known as the Santa Ana winds and by the recent months of dry weather. Just before we recorded this podcast I got an update from our correspondent in Los Angeles, Peter Bowes. The latest is that there are now three major fires that seem to be burning out of control and the problem for the firefighters is that overnight, they haven't had the assistance of the fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopters that can douse the flames with fire retardants and water. That hasn't been possible in large part

because of its nighttime and the winds. And also, actually, President Biden has been in town and there've been flight restrictions over Los Angeles because of that visit. It always happens on a President visit. But there have been multiple problems hindering firefighters during the night, making any sort of progress really difficult. Just firefighters, more than a thousand firefighters on the ground trying to battle these flames. Things hopefully will improve if the winds die down. They might die down a little bit in a couple of hours and we'll see the situation when the sun rises. But really at

the moment it's a very scary scenario with 30,000 people evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, businesses, homes, medical facilities, at least one school that I'm aware of, and really this city just holding its breath to see what happens next, but it's a frightening situation for everyone concerned. Of course wildfires are not uncommon in California, but you've lived in Los Angeles for many years. How does this compare? Well this is really the worst scenario that I can remember because of the scale. Yes I've been through fires that the position I'm standing in right now in 2019

burned completely and there were three homes right behind me that were completely destroyed. That was a terrifying situation but what we have now are these three big fires that are 30 to 50 miles apart and that gives you the scale of the situation that we're dealing with and in between those big fires there are some smaller fires that are burning as well and it really is because of this perfect storm scenario of extremely dry brush, very strong winds and very difficult situation for the firefighters. So it's about as bad as it could be. If you live in Los Angeles you're not surprised and we heard the governor Gavin Newsom saying a few hours ago that he now considers wildfires to be a year-round threat. Really I think we've

known that for the last few years that these fires can happen at any time. Right now January to March should be the wet season, it should be the rainy season, it I think we've known that for the last few years that these fires can happen at any time right now January to March should be the wet season. It should be the rainy season It isn't it's very dry and it is a little unusual that we've got such serious fires just in the into January Peter Bose in Los Angeles and just a reminder that we're planning a special edition of the global news Podcast to look at the extent to which extreme weather events are directly linked to climate change. So if there's anything you want to ask our experts email us at the usual address globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk and if you can please put your question in a voice note. The US

president-elect Donald Trump has doubled down on his desire to make America bigger, posting a picture of a map depicting Canada as part of the United States. In a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, the former reality TV star also spoke about acquiring Greenland from Denmark, renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and taking back the Panama Canal. The Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez Atcha said the sovereignty of the waterway was non-negotiable.

Our canal has the mission to serve humanity and its trade. That's one of the values that Panamanians offer to the world, giving guarantee to the international community not to take part, nor be an active part of any conflict. The only hands that control the canal are Pennimanian and it will continue to be so." France has warned Mr Trump against threatening the sovereign borders of Europe, while Germany said borders must not be moved by force after the President-elect refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland.

The vast, mineral-rich island is an autonomous territory of EU member Denmark. But what is the view there? Malik Hansen is head of Greenland's foreign policy society. Greenland wants independence, it wants sovereignty, it wants recognition. The ordinary people do see the power of this intention and the interest from abroad. In the future where we see the US maybe becoming more an exclusive club, it's always nice to be invited. But of course there are more ordinary issues. For example, we have concerns regarding the political and socioeconomic changes and the challenges. We could see if Greenland was actually to be included in the US.

But independence is the main concern of the Greenland and how it's going to come about and if Trump will have a positive or negative effect on this development, we will just have to see. Mike Hansen in Greenland. So how likely is it that the US would use the military to expand its territory? James Jeffrey is a former US deputy national security adviser. For starters, none of this is going to actually happen. We're a constitutional democracy. Trump isn't a dictator. And even if he were, these are totally off the wall things. There's two questions here. To what extent is he trying to send a signal to our partners and allies around the world

and to his own base? And to what extent is he becoming more irrational? I mean, we just had, you know, an unpleasant experience with Joe Biden and Trump is pretty old. I mean, I can say that because I'm the same age. So every time he does something like this, we have to suck in our breath a bit and see what happens. But again, we're to suck in our breath a bit and see what happens. But again, we're not going to march into Greenland, we're not going to march into Canada, we're not going to seize the Panama Canal. The basic question is, how will this be assessed, not by our partners?

They will be shocked, outraged, and probably shrug it off. I'm looking at Berlin, I'm looking at Paris, I'm looking at London. I'm worried a little bit about how the Putin's and the Xi's of the world will assess this, because this seems to be a bit more than his usual irrational self, which they're used to. But I mean, in defense of him, the charm of Trump is they're really afraid of him. I mean, that picture of him taking a bullet and pumping his fist in the ear, this didn't impress the cocktail circuit in Brussels.

But believe me, I've spent a lot of time with thuggish leaders, including Putin, and it makes a big impression on them. So that's a good thing that you have a leader that others, that bad people fear. What I don't want is a leader that bad people don't take seriously. James Jeffrey, a former US Deputy National Security Advisor. This afternoon in China, Qinghai province was hit by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake. Although such tremors can damage buildings, it was much less powerful than the 7.1 magnitude quake that struck the neighbouring region of Tibet on Tuesday morning. Rescuers there are racing against time to

get people to safety. Survivors trapped in the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings risk dying of hypothermia in the harsh winter conditions. At least 126 people are confirmed dead, hundreds more are injured. Professor Bishal Nath Upreti is head of the Centre for Disaster Management in neighbouring Nepal. It's so cold now, it's the midwinter, people are suffering and this is a very critical time now because of the cold as well as in terms of whenever we have an earthquake, these 24, 48 hours are the golden hours we call it as far as possible, as early as possible we have to get them rescued and get them back from the rubble.

The problem with the Tibet rural, as well as anywhere in the Himalayas, all the way from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Nepal and Bhutan and Sikkim, all these Indian parts are, you know, our houses in the rural houses are very, very weak. They're all stone buildings, you know, one or two story buildings. So whenever we have an earthquake, even a small earthquake of 5.5 or 6 magnitude can destroy a lot of houses and can kill people. This is what's happening in Tibet. And of course it was 7.1 fairly large earthquake. Professor Bishal Nath Upreti in Nepal. Reporters can't travel to Tibet without permission from the Chinese

government so our correspondent Laura Bicca is monitoring the relief operation from Beijing. Chinese authorities have flooded the area with many rescuers, 14,000 rescuers. They come from the army, they come from the police, they come from the fire brigade and there are also very many trained search and rescue teams who have experienced earthquakes in the past. They have all made their way to this remote mountainous region of Tibet to try to search for survivors. When you see the picture from the drones that they have put up, which show the extent of the damage, you see these low level, kind of one level houses that have simply just crumbled, many of them to dust after that quake.

We've also heard that there have been more than 500 aftershocks in the last 24 hours alone. So you can imagine the kind of challenges for rescuers and also those survivors who are now trying to find shelter in tents. The Chinese government says that they have relocated 40,000 people. So that gives you an extent of how many people need to find shelter over the next few months as either the rebuilding starts or they try to find somewhere else to go. Laura Becker in Beijing.

As the new government in Syria begins trying to rebuild international ties with countries like Germany and the UAE, there are calls for Syrians at home to take an active role in shaping the new constitution. After five decades of repression under the Assad family, the streets are now bustling with activists and young professionals openly discussing the future of the nation, as Lina Sinjab reports from Damascus. We are at Umayyad Square and this is the first day where civil society have gathered. It is the civil youth gathering. It's full of artists, painters, musicians and ordinary people.

And the calls are mainly for a civil democratic state to participate in the formation of the constitution. They're welcoming the new government, but they're also saying we are here, you need to take us as part of any decision making. The Umayyad Square has become a place of exchanging views among different people, something like the Hyde Park's peakest corner that never happened under Assad's power. Men and women are arguing about the country's priorities. The men think it is not time to talk about women's rights.

The women insist now is the time for every right to be discussed. Savannah Bakle is a musician and civil society activist. This interaction is very new and very healthy and very positive. It's peaceful interaction, even with people we don't agree with. It's amazing and it's never been experienced before. And we need to know each other because in 50 years, the solitude between the Syrian groups, the different Syrian groups was very, very sharp and it was fortified by the Syrian regime's agendas and narrative so we need to overcome that and reach out to each

other and know what we want together to build a better future. People here want to be proactive and be part of any political process and want to make sure that they are included, especially women. They don't want to be deprived of their rights. They want to be assertive that they are here and part of the future Syria. Away from the bustling square, I visit 73-year-old Yousef Abdelki, who is a renowned Syrian artist. His studio is tucked off the main street, a traditional Damascene house with a water fountain

centered in its courtyard. Once a prisoner of Assad's father, he was also detained during Bashar's brutal crackdown in 2011. His work reflected the bleak reality of Syria under the regime, and a painting could get him thrown in jail jail or worse, executed. He is showing me a large portrait of Bashar al-Assad that he drew in 2012 at the height

of the peaceful protests. All these years he kept it hidden but now that Assad is gone he is finally able to show it to the world. This is an image that's unforgettable for me, and it summarises the peaceful protests in 2011 and the unjustified brutality of the regime. For Youssef, now it's the time for everyone in the society to contribute, so the country doesn't fall into another form of dictatorship. Lina Sinjab reporting from Damascus. And still to come on the Global News Podcast.

You know, the wind blowing, tarp tearing, the wind's knocking stuff down. We just saw a sign there saying they're going to come and clear all of this. Yeah, and that's ridiculous because it's in the middle of winter and we don't really got nowhere to go. We look at the impact of the huge winter storm on the east coast of America on the thousands battling homelessness. 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. A study into the use of artificial intelligence to help identify cases of breast cancer has found that technology can improve detection rates with no increase in false positives. The German study also suggested AI could help reduce the workload of medical staff. Stefan Bunk is one of the authors of the study and founder of AI software firm Vara. Over 100 radiologists assess roughly half a million women, kind of one half

without AI. And when AI was used cancer detection rate was 18% higher so we find more cancers without doing more harm to women and we can also cover roughly 60% of the workload with AI. The study was set up in a way to combine the strengths of radiologists and AI. The study was set up in a way to combine the strengths of regalogists and AI. So the AI only gave recommendations when it was very confident and when cases where regalogists are better are diagnosed by the human. I think especially in screening it's important that luckily most women are healthy, right? So only six out of 1,000 women actually have cancer, but doctors still have to diagnose

the other 994. So I think AI can really expand screening to more women and also let doctors focus more on the critical, the difficult cases that actually have cancer and treat those. The study shows really good results and I think we have to really start a discussion on this now on how to integrate AI into healthcare systems. I think there was lots of hype in the past, but now there's actually evidence and there are many legal, ethical, and also patient acceptance challenges to discuss here.

There always has to be a human element in something as personal as healthcare. But we're also seeing it right now that AI is getting so good that we are close to a time where it will be unethical to not use AI support just because AI is so much better already. Stefan Bunk. As we heard earlier in the podcast a devastating wildfire has been spreading through parts of Los Angeles. But on the East Coast of America a huge winter storm has brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Shelters have been opening their doors to rough sleepers after a surge in homelessness over the past year. From Washington, here's Tom Bateman. Along the roadside are America's left behind.

Tens of thousands of homeless people are facing a brutal winter on the US East Coast. My tent here got crushed by the snow yesterday, but that's fine, I'm just going to clear the snow later on. John Sebastian, living in a tiny one-man tent, scrapes by, spending the freezing nights at the shelter and comes back to guard his spot here during the day. Can you show us your place? Sure. And so you've got inside just a bit to eat and a bit of food, something to drink.

Food, yeah, you always put some food. I try to place as many blankets as I can so it stays warm. One of the tents, there's a gas canister outside and one of the burners you get outside restaurants where someone's been obviously using that to try and keep warm. But what there is also here is a sign telling them that they have just around a week left here before these tents are going to be removed and cleared by the city authorities and they'll all be moved on once again. Do you need a hat? Yes. Here you are. Surya Knight, an aid worker, comes to help.

Homelessness in the US hit record levels last year, with hundreds of thousands rough sleeping in American cities. At the complex intersection of factors driving it, soaring rents and the post-pandemic economy. Come on. What? Come and talk to me. Can we chat to you quickly? Gee lost his job as a masons apprentice and has been sleeping rough for two years. What's it like with the snow and cold? You know the wind blowing, the tarp tearing, the winds knocking stuff down.

We just saw a sign there saying they're going to come and clear all of this. Yeah and that's ridiculous because it's in the middle of winter and we don't really got nowhere to go and then just breaking it all down and having to redo it again is ridiculous. So where are you going to go next? Not even sure. Well I'm standing now next to an expressway but next to this road as cars zoom past here are around another 20 or so tents. One of them looks virtually buried in snow and you get the sense here that because of the way people are constantly being moved on that this is a last refuge, a last place that rough sleepers can come but they won't get moved on again,

is on the embankment next to the highway. Can I get a large, right? It's one scoop for everybody. As people are shifted around this city, the soup kitchens mean warmth and continuity and some sanctuary. In this one, hunkering over an empty empty cup I meet Angie. She's fled her home state, a survivor of domestic violence and come to Washington now

facing her first winter on the streets. It's terrible. It's just bone-chilling. You're out there at night and early mornings. Shelters tell you to get out 6 a.m. and waiting for buses until 7, 7.30 to get here and get a hot meal. It's like a race to get a hot meal basically when you're in the shelter. There's nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a hot meal. You have no money and nowhere to go. And how long have you been without someone to live in DC? Two months. Yeah.

Some people have been here a long time now. It's terrible. There seem to be so many people, it seems to be a problem that's growing. Yeah, yeah. Especially when you see handicapped people out on the street, no case managers. Nobody is helping them.

Back out in the ice, we say goodbye to Angie. Her wheelie case and bags are packed and are being dragged along in the slush and snow. She's on the move again in the shadow of the US Capitol building. Fighting the cold is still a daily struggle for many in the world's wealthiest country. That report by Tom Bateman. Sam Altman, boss of the chat GPT owner OpenAI has been named in a lawsuit accusing him of childhood sexual abuse. He has denied the claims. Our business presenter Surinjana Tewari has the details. OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman's sister Anne Altman has filed a lawsuit

alleging that he regularly sexually abused her between the years of 1997 and 2006. Now the lawsuit was filed on the 6th of January in a US district court in the Eastern District of Missouri. That's where they grew up and alleges that the abuse started when she was three and Mr. Altman was 12. In the filing which has been seen by the BBC, Ms. Altman alleged that the abuse which took place over many years included rape. It added that the last instance of the alleged abuse took place when Mr. Altman was an adult but she was still a minor. Sam Altman has put out a joint statement on the social media platform

X with his mother and two brothers. He denied the allegations saying all of these claims are utterly untrue and he added that caring for a family member who faces mental health challenges is incredibly difficult. The situation causes immense pain to our entire family. Now Ms Altman has previously made similar allegations against her brother on X but of course Mr Altman is one of the Technology World's most high profile figures so there will be a lot of attention on where this potential trial goes and where this case ends up. Our business reporter Srinjana Tiwari. As the new year dawned, businesses in Norway faced a key deadline requiring them to ensure more women are sitting on their executive boards. Back in 2008, it was the first nation to introduce a 40% gender quota on boards of listed companies,

firms on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The Norwegian parliament extended that to all large and medium sized private companies, around 8000 businesses in total. So have they all met the deadline? Nula McGovern was joined by Hege Rurdland, founder of a recruitment company. And first up, Linda Litla Kalsar Orsa, CEO of the Salmon producer and winner of Norway's Woman Board Award in 2022. winner of Norway's Women Board Award in 2022. I think just to start on the good note it has been a door opener and I think there has been the company has been forced to think out of the box so even though there was some resistance they had to do it so I think that's the good thing with having this introduced as a law and of course it's always good to test it out on the stock noted first and

maybe the smaller or the limited company didn't realize that the law will hit them as soon as it did. But when it happened I think it has been more welcoming because it has been already gained good experience from the stock noted on how it is impacting in a positive way to bring in more diversity in the boards. But they are the diversity on the boards that you talk about there Linda, but some people criticise that actual internal leadership positions in businesses which hold greater power that the women aren't there yet. I mean, is that where a quota could be introduced? I believe that the tone has to be set on the top, meaning the board. So we need to give

again the opportunities to those really good qualified women out there because they are there. I think that's not the challenge. It is that we don't, we haven't seen them before in the way that we do now. So there are plenty of good qualified women out there. And they should really been seen and been included at the board, but it is not enough to invite them in. They have also to be invited to dance in a way. So you cannot bring them into the board and then have them in a corner. So don't put the new woman on the board in the corner. I totally get it. Let me turn to you though, Higa. There was, I was seeing how some businesses are trying to get around it to have this 40%.

Is there making their boards smaller so then you get the quota easier? Have you seen that? Yeah, I've seen that, but I kind of excuse them for making a temporary arrangement. Because the most ambitious boards will, of course, look at this as an advantage and see that, okay, now we can have new questions, new perspectives into the board, because female candidates and members, they bring in some new perspectives into the board because female candidates and members, they bring in some new perspectives into the boards. That's the feedback that we have got. Linda Littler, Kelsa Åsa and Hege Rödlund talking to Nula McGovern.

Now there's some good news for those who start the day with a cup of coffee. A European Heart Journal study has found that morning coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death than those who don't touch the stuff and are 31% less likely to be killed by cardiovascular disease. But the researchers at Tulane University in Louisiana found no health benefit for people who drank coffee all day. The report looked at the health, nutrition and lifestyle of more than 40,000 adults in the US.

Dr. Lu Chi is the lead author. There are a lot of previous studies analysing the relation between coffee drinking and the health outcomes, various diseases and mortality. But all the previous studies focused on the amounts of coffee drinking. This is the first study focused on the timing of coffee drinking. Coffee is very special because coffee motivates the changes of various different biomarkers as mentioned, including hormones, blood pressure, heart rate, and sleeping quality. Related to the scientific term we call that circadian rhythm. There are many biological functions changed over the time during the day, 24 hours.

For example, blood pressure, heart rates, and hormones such as melatonin, cortisol, and some inflammation markers all showed daily fluctuations. But we assume that, for example, drinking coffee late at night, for example, may change the sleeping behaviors. So that may cause the adverse effects on human bodies. Dr. Lu Chi. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Martin Williams and produced by Richard Hamilton. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. 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.