Global News Podcast - Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Trump-backed Mike Johnson has been re-elected as US House Speaker in the first round of voting, after overcoming a Republican revolt. Also: Apple to pay $95m to settle Siri "listening" lawsuit.

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World of Secrets, the bad guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jaleel and in the early hours of Saturday the 4th of January these are our main stories. In a nail biting vote the speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson, who's been backed by Donald Trump, narrowly holds on to his job. President Joe Biden blocks the takeover of America's third biggest steelmaker by a Japanese company. Hamas says that indirect negotiations with Israel have resumed in Qatar for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages.

Also in this podcast, Hey Siri, Uh huh. Have you been recording my private conversations? Sorry, I don't understand. The tech giant Apple agrees to pay a settlement of 95 million dollars after users accused its virtual assistant Siri of spying on them. We begin in Washington at the US Capitol. The Honourable Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 119th Congress.

Where the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives managed to snatch the narrowest of victories from the jaws of defeat. There was confusion on Friday as it seemed that Mike Johnson, who's been backed by US President-elect Donald Trump, had lost the vote to remain in his role with a handful of Republicans in the lower chamber voting against him or abstaining. But then after huddled discussions, nearly all of them changed their minds, giving Mr Johnson 218 votes, the lowest possible number for him to be re-elected to his post. After the vote, he took to the House floor. What we're proposing now is just simply, as President Trump likes to say, a return to

common sense. And he's exactly right. That message resonated across the country. I am very thankful personally that this body is filled with men and women who are committed to that change, to return to common sense. We can do this together. We should. It is our responsibility to common sense. We can do this together. We should. It is our responsibility to do so. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffreys called on both Republicans and Democrats to come together and promised that his party would work to find common ground with Republicans. The American people need us as their elected representatives in this season to put down our partisan swords and pick up bipartisan plowshares. It's time for us to come together, not as

Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. Our correspondent in the Capitol building, Rowan Bridge, told me more about the vote. I think if there was confusion around it, it was because there had been a vote, but the vote hadn't officially been announced. And so what you had is people were totting up the numbers as the voting was going through and going, Mike Johnson, that can't win here. But then before the vote was officially announced, there was clearly some arm twisting and back scratching going on on the floor of Congress. And that was enough to win over two holdouts.

And those two holdouts then voted in favour of Mike Johnson. And that, then when the vote came to be announced, meant he had enough votes to carry the gavel and to hold onto the speakership. And do we know how those dissenting Republicans were persuaded to change their minds? Yeah, I mean we've heard from one of them and they said that they were given commitments around spending which is a big thing for some of those conservative Republicans who are concerned about the levels of public spending in the United States and also about making sure that they can pass Trump's sort of America First agenda. But also worth noting, like in the drama of that vote at the beginning, there were some Johnson critics who effectively sat on their hands.

They didn't vote at all. And then as it came towards the end of the vote, they did end up voting for him. But I think that was them telegraphing, hey, listen, don't take us for granted going forward. You're going to need us for some of these votes. And what does this tell us about how Donald Trump's second term will be like? Because we're already seeing, even before he comes back to the White House, how divided the Republicans are. Yeah, I mean, I think Mike Johnson is going to be key for Donald Trump going forward

because the reason that speakership role is so significant is that it controls the passage of legislation through the House of Representatives and for Donald Trump having an ally in that position will be significant and Donald Trump went out publicly sort of supporting Mike Johnson and so he's also shown the level of influence that he can and it also I think shows that Republicans are serious about governing that this didn't descend into a sort of circus of 15 votes over four days to get a Speaker as we've had previously. At the same time, so those are all the sort of positives if you like. On the other side, you know, Mike Johnson's got a very small majority to work with here and there is a very conservative

wing of the party who are not very happy with Mike Johnson even if they voted for him and they could cause trouble going forward, certainly. Rowan Bridge. In an extraordinary move from a US president who's just weeks away from leaving office, Joe Biden has blocked the takeover of America's third biggest steelmaker, US Steel, by a Japanese company, Nippon Steel. The White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Mr. Biden wanted

to protect the US from foreign competitors who use unfair trade practices. It is critical that we have a strong domestic steel industry that protects our national security and our supply chains. Today, the president demonstrated once again that he will always act to protect the security of this nation as well as the resilience of our supply. The deal would have been worth nearly 15 billion dollars. Mr Biden's intervention follows fierce opposition from the United Steelworkers Union. Both companies have responded by saying it's truly shocking that the US government would treat a major ally like Japan in this way. Our North America business correspondent, Michelle Flurry, told me more about why President Biden had blocked the deal. You're talking about a sort of once iconic American business, US Steel. It was once the

biggest company in America, but it has fallen on hard times and this deal to buy it by Nippon Steel was meant to be kind of a lifeline that was going to inject much needed money into the company site just outside of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania to revive its fortunes and kind of future proof it if you like. But right from the beginning it was controversial both in economic terms. Critics were concerned that because Nippon Steel was Japanese that maybe jobs in the US would be lost. There was some support from politicians locally on that front. There was also concern that this was happening in a swing state during an election year. And so you saw both President Biden, but also President-elect Donald Trump coming out against this deal.

And now we've got confirmation of that in one of his last acts as President, Joe Biden now blocking this deal, saying that it was bad on national security grounds and that it was critical to preserve not just US jobs but also US supply chains. And is this the end of the matter because both Nippon Steel and US Steel have responded angrily with it seems some threat of legal action. Yeah I mean look Nippon Steel had sort of bent over backwards to try and kind of accommodate the concerns from American politicians. I mean they'd even gone so far as to say they were going to give veto power to the company over future decisions to

kind of downsize US operations. But that wasn't enough to win approval. Now, Nippon Steel and US Steel have said they are going to take all appropriate action to protect their legal rights. In other words, they plan to challenge Biden's move in court. Part of this has to do with kind of how the process played out. There is a regulatory body whose job is to kind of review foreign investment and decide whether or not there's a national security concern. And that committee actually was unable to reach a decision. And so it was sort of punted to the administration, to the White House to make the final call. And they're saying that the whole process kind of wasn't fair. So I suspect that will

be the legal argument that they will kind of try and push the government to provide evidence of what this national security concern is exactly, especially when you're talking about a Japanese buyer of an American firm. Remember, Japan is a big US ally. Michelle Flurry, Hamas says indirect ceasefire talks with Israel have resumed in the Qatari capital Doha. The long runningrunning stop-start negotiations had recently ground to a halt with both sides blaming each other. Here's our Middle East regional editor Mike Thompson. The good news is they're talking again but sticking points remain. Amass has said discussions will

focus on a complete end to hostilities and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Yet so far Israel has rejected any deal that guarantees a permanent end to the conflict before its war aims are achieved. There are also differences over which hostages would be released by Hamas and the names of prisoners to be freed in exchange by Israel. As pressure for a ceasefire grows Israel has stepped up its bombardment of the territory with more than a hundred people reported killed over the last two days. Mike Thompson, Syria has tightened restrictions on its border with Lebanon for the first time since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last month. Both countries have been keen to express

their desire for a new relationship after decades in which Damascus has dominated its smaller neighbour. Sebastian Asha reports from Beirut. Just a week ago anyone taking the Mazna border crossing from Lebanon into Syria only needed their passport to be waved through with a smile by border guards who'd taken over from officials appointed under Bashar al-Assad's rule. That's just changed to some degree, with Lebanese nationals now needing a Syrian residency permit or official permission to enter. It could be in response to recent border incidents, including a clash between armed Syrians and Lebanese troops.

But it may also be a tit-for-tat measure for Lebanon, already only allowing Syrians with Lebanese residency into the country. Either way, it means that taxis are no longer able to drive the whole route between Beirut and Damascus. Sebastian Asha, the tech giant Apple has agreed to pay a $95 million settlement to users who accuse its digital assistant, Siri,

of listening in on their private conversations. The BBC's Isabella Bull decided to ask Siri itself about the allegations. Hey, Siri. Uh-huh? Have you been recording my private conversations? Sorry, I don't understand. Have you been listening to me?

I respect your privacy and only listen when you're talking to me. You can learn about Apple's approach to privacy at apple.com. So Siri, why is Apple settling a lawsuit over you? I found this on the web. Okay, I can see you've brought up the BBC News article about this lawsuit. Can you explain it to me? Apple means the round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin green or red skin and crisp flesh. Do you want to hear the remaining one? No thanks, Siri. That's okay.

Isabella Bull there talking to a rather evasive Siri. Well, BBC technology reporter Imran Rahman-Jones told me more about the case. This is to do with Siri, the voice-activated smart assistant that is on lots of Apple devices, their watches, iPhones, iPads, etc. Most people with smart speakers or other devices know you have to give it an activation word in order for it to start listening and then you can give it your commands. In this case, it's, hey Siri. What the claimants say is that they hadn't said those words and it started listening into their conversations without their permission. The way these class action lawsuits work is there's a small number of

plaintiffs who bring the case to the court. So among those in the court documents, one of the lead plaintiffs, a woman called Fumiko Lopez in California, who says she and her daughter were both recorded. And the evidence they give is they were talking about specific products. So something like Air Jordans, which they give in the court documents, the Nike trainers, they were talking about that. They then alleged that they were recorded by Apple and then they were served targeted ads to do with those specific shoes. Another example given in the court papers is of a man who had a conversation with his

doctor about a specific type of surgery which they were considering. He said he'd never searched this on his devices before, but once he'd had that conversation with the doctor, then adverts to do with this specific type of surgery, then started coming up on his devices. And he says that's evidence that he was being listened to, in this case by his Apple Watch. And now after this five-year legal case, there's been this settlement. Tell us about it and its significance. So Apple has offered to pay 95 million US dollars to settle the case. It still needs a judge in the court in Northern California to accept it and for it to go through. But

if it does in February, then it would mean that Apple payout seems a huge amount of money, but it's over a few million people who would be eligible to claim. That's how these class action lawsuits work. So it would end up being probably about $20 per person per device. But as part of that settlement, Apple would deny any wrongdoing at all and say that any claims that it recorded, disclosed to third parties or failed to delete conversations without consent would be denied. And it seems like a huge amount of money to you and me. But for Apple, it's just a drop

in the ocean. What's the significance of this for Apple given that it's made user privacy a big part of its brand? Is the case itself more damaging than the actual financial settlement? Like you say, Apple put user privacy front and centre of lots of its marketing and it's the way that it tries to distinguish itself against its rivals. So if anything was to come out and it hasn't yet that they were listening into people without their consent, then that would be a big blow to them. Like you also say, $95 million is a lot of money, but they made $95 billion in just three months up to the end of September last year. So we're talking about a tiny amount.

BBC technology reporter Imran Rahman-Jones. Still to come... We don't really understand why she's carrying this deceased calf for so long. But of course, as humans, we can relate, of course, because we understand grief. The story of the killer whale who made headlines around the world when she was filmed carrying the dead body of her calf. 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. You're listening to the Global News Podcast.

South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world but now for the first time in nearly a decade it's seen a rise in the number of births but as Steve Jackson reports its population is still in steady decline. South Korea's low birth rate has been described as a national emergency and the government has poured billions of dollars into encouraging people to have more children. Among other measures are cheaper mortgages for parents, tax breaks for family-friendly businesses, and more parental leave. The figures just released for 2024 show a 3% rise in the number of births, a small step in the right direction, but nowhere near enough to prevent long-term population decline.

A fifth of South Koreans are over 65 and with the number of deaths far surpassing births, the population is projected to halve in size by the end of the century. Steve Jackson, and did you know that babies born in 2025 will be the first to belong to Generation Beta? But what does that actually mean? Andrew Peach heard more from Sinead Butler, a Trends reporter at the Indy 100 news site. Generation Beta are people born between 2025 and 2039. So babies born from the 1st of January this year are the first of the Gen Bs. And by 2035 they will make up 16% of the global population.

And most of the members of this generation are actually expected to live well into the 22nd century as well. I was going to say that the first generation that will belong to the next century, I guess they're going to have a life pretty much dominated by AI. We would from our vantage point now, you would think anyway. Yeah, especially now. Yeah, with like kind of technology such as artificial intelligence is quickly developing right now. So in the next few decades it's only going to further

advance and they'll be growing up with that technology as well. It will be similar to kind of how Gen Alpha would dub the iPad kids due to how that technology had an impact on their childhoods and it will be interesting to see that relationship develop in the decades to come. So we've got Jen Beta now taking over from Jen Alpha. I'm Jen X myself, I was born in 1973. I suspect you're a millennial, you sound, I'm guessing I'm going to put money on you being a millennial. I'll take that as a compliment, I'm Jen Z. Okay, and what is the sort of, you know, does it mean anything I suppose is what I'm going to say, that people are born, you know, in similar periods, going to have different experiences of life, I suppose. What else do we take from these labels?

I guess with kind of like technology nowadays, especially like Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and obviously with Gen Beta, social media plays such a huge aspect in connecting with people. So I think in terms of the generations, when you look at the differences in like growing up, that's had a huge impact on how we communicate with people and their kind of experiences in society. Yeah, and I guess in the end it's a useful label, isn't it? The cutoff date is a bit arbitrary, but it's a useful label to describe who we're talking about without needing to give the date of birth out. Yeah, exactly. So if you don't want to give your age away, it's always a good indicator. What's been the reaction online to the name Jen Beta? Do people like that?

So overall there's been a lot of reaction on social media. I think with this new generation it makes us all reflect on where we are in life, like coming to terms with the fact that we're all getting older and there's like a new generation of youngsters. And I think Gen Z have taken it particularly hard with some of them saying they're officially like the new millennials. And then there's kind of like references to like the 2024 horror film, The Substance, which kind of tackles the topic of aging. And then you have like people making fun of the name kind of Gen Beta

due to like the negative connotations of the word beta, which is a slang term for someone who's kind of perceived to be weak, mild-mannered, passive, kind of the opposite of alpha. So people have been joking that like Gen Beta are going to have these characteristics. Some people were joking about how people were rushing to have babies before 2025. So the were Gen Alfa and not Gen Visa. That was Sinead Butler from the Indy 100 news site talking to Andrew Peach. Passport holders from any African country can now travel to Ghana without needing a visa. The move is part of a wider shift towards freedom of movement across the continent. Ghana joins Rwanda, the Seychelles, the Gambia and Benin

in offering visa-free entry for African travellers. Our Africa regional editor, Will Ross, reports. Before this policy was introduced, nationals of more than 20 African countries needed to get visas on arrival in Ghana. Just days before stepping down, President Nana Akufo-Addo said he was proud to have brought in the new policy. He said scrapping the visas

was a logical step towards building the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is expected to be the world's largest trading bloc. Ghana clearly seized the value of making it easier to visit. 2019 was dubbed the year of return and attracted a large number of mostly African Americans. A move which helped give a much needed boost to a struggling economy. Will Ross, you may recall back in 2018 the story of a killer whale who swam more than 1600 kilometres pushing the body of her dead newborn calf. Well, the same whale known as Talaquah has had a healthy calf since then, but she's now been spotted again with another dead baby, which she is

again carrying in the Puget Sound off the coast of the US state of Washington and British Columbia in Canada. Anise Ramilly is editor-in-chief of the Whale Scientist blog. Julian Marshall asked her how common Tahle Kwa's behavior is among killer whales. It's happened a couple of times before, but never this long. And of course this is baffling for all of us scientists. We don't really understand why she's carrying this diseased calf for so long.

But of course, as humans, we can relate, of course, because we understand grief. And it's very difficult to explain grief for a species that we cannot properly communicate with and that we don't fully understand. But your guess would be that Tahlequah is experiencing grief. Absolutely. These killer whales are social creatures. We know they form important bonds with their family members, members of their pods. And so the fact that she's carrying this calf for so long shows that she has

some emotions because of course it costs her a lot of energy to push this calf around. Last time it was for over a thousand miles and over two weeks. So it is not something that's easy for her to do because while she's pushing the calf she cannot feed properly. So it's not overreaching to say that she's grieving. More troubling though perhaps is why she has lost a calf for the second time. I think it's just worth noting that in between the two events, she did have a healthy calf. Its name is Phoenix or J57 and it was born in the fall of 2020. This calf did make it past its first year. It's still healthy.

It's still alive. But of course, this is extremely troubling. In this case, a female, and we know that this population is lacking females. There's only 23 reproductive females left in this population and 73 individuals and we know that we need all the females that we can get to bring this population back to healthy numbers. Why has this particular killer whale population dwindled though? So there's a bunch of different factors. It is a population that lives in close proximity to a very populated human area. And so, of course, that introduces a lot of issues. And we know that it's a population that loves to feed on Chinook salmon. And we know that

there's competition with humans. There's also a lack of salmon due to a lot of dams being built on the rivers where the salmons reproduce. And so there is a lack of food for southern resident killer whales and we know it because they have generally poor body condition. Anis Ramili, editor-in-chief of the Whale Scientists blog. Now, when you've had too much of the news, there's nothing like a bit of entertainment to lift the spirits. So what releases can we look forward to in 2025? The senior awards editor of Variety magazine Clayton Davis spoke to James Kumarasami. You're going to see a lot of franchises. Marvel has a good slate, including Thunderbolt,

but also we're going to get Fantastic Four, which I think is one of the biggest excitements for superhero fans, not only because it's Pedro Pascal who is stepping into the lead role of Mr. Fantastic along with a great cast. We're also going to be seeing some remakes aren't we? One that struck us here the Kiss of the Spider-Woman. A story of love creates a passion, a danger. So Kiss of the Spider-Woman is getting a reimagining based off of the Broadway musical. This stars Jennifer Lopez in many ways, the role that she's probably waited for her entire

career. This is the Sonya Broga role that was made famous in the 80s, and essentially three different roles. And this is something that I think could surprise us in a significant way. It's a bit like hairspray, isn't it? Coming a film then becomes a musical and then becomes a film again. I mean, that's where people tend to find comfort.

You find comfort in the things that you know. For a marketing department at any type of major studio, that's easier to sell. You know, I mean, that's why we have Wicked part two coming now titled Wicked for Good next year. Part two, and if anyone's familiar with the Broadway show, does run adjacent to the timeline of Wizard of Oz. Snow White is pretty familiar, isn't it? And that's getting an interesting remake. Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? Famed is thy beauty, majesty.

Endless in Disney has spent a lot of money on this. Some of those early murmurs don't seem to bring a lot of confidence into what it can actually deliver in terms of box office. The trailer wasn't very well received. It was good to remind everyone that 2020 was the time that accelerated the conversation that we all were trying to avoid. How can streamers and movie theaters coexist?

So I think what we're seeing now is the great reduction, I believe is still occurring. And when I say great reduction, everyone tried to get into the streaming game because everyone was chasing Netflix. I will say that there will be certain movies that have a harder time getting made than live event space is the next natural go-to for them. Variety's senior awards editor Clayton Davis.

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, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Tom Bartlett, the producer was Liam McShepard, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jonathan Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. 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. And the battlefield was Hollywood.