Global News Podcast - Multiple wildfires raging in Los Angeles

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

A crescent of flames looms over Los Angeles as wildfires burn. Firefighters manage to bring under control the blaze that had been threatening Hollywood. Also: the dangerous journey across the Darien Gap jungle.

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. cast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We are recording this at 14h GMT on Thursday 9th January. The fires around Los Angeles are visible from space as they continue to burn, but firefighters have managed to control the blaze threatening Hollywood. Ukrainian President says a new chapter in the war with Russia will open when Donald

Trump returns to the White House. And what happens when Swedish women earn more than their husbands? Also in the podcast, crossing the Darien Gap jungle. The Darien is a completely horrible experience. There are dead people everywhere. Women who have been separated from their children too. It is horrible. Multiple wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles with at least three completely uncontained. The two largest, Eaton and Palisades, now cover more than 110 square kilometres.

Five people have died and more than a thousand structures have been destroyed, including the homes of celebrities like Billy Crystal, James Woods and Paris Hilton. We got an update from David Acuna, Battalion Chief at the California Fire Service. Unfortunately the progress is literally zero because the wind has been blowing consistently at 60 to 100 miles an hour since yesterday morning. It actually blew harder last night. It's still consistent right now. It's in its 20s and 30s. So it is going down slightly, but it's still significant. And because there's a lot of open areas, a lot of open line, it's extremely dangerous. Some reports now say firefighters have made progress against

one blaze, the Sunset Fire that was threatening to engulf the Hollywood Hills, though some buildings along Sunset Boulevard are in ruins. In the Pacific Palisades to the west, fire crews are facing a shortage of water and have only been able to watch as one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods burns. Our reporter John Sodworth is there. Late into the night, in one of LA's wealthiest areas, the eerie sound of home after home burning and collapsing, the sky filled with orange smoke and embers.

the sky filled with orange smoke and embers. A short way away fire crews watch on helplessly they're short of water they tell us and in many cases they're just having to watch properties burn using their hosepipe sparingly on the houses across the street here in the hope that they can stop the fire spreading but it seems like a losing battle. That was part of the fire right there right there those bushes will catch on fire and it'll be the end of this house. In this house we've met Tony who's here helping a neighbour try to protect his property. It's one of the only ones left standing here. Houses on both sides still burning.

A real threat to this home and they're doing all they can to save it. Tell us what you're trying to do here now with the buckets of water. Well we had some fire started in there that we put out because that would have cut all these bushes on fire and that probably would have put this house on fire. So we're trying to get rid of all the embers. There were a bunch of embers in the back as well

that we just put out. So you're picking up, scooping up buckets of water and from the swimming pool there There's a swimming pool there? There's no water here. They shut off the water. You're lucky you've got the swimming pool. Yeah. And you're hopeful you're going to be able to save the property?

We think so. We think at this point there's a good chance to save it. Although there are fires that, as you can see from the other side are approaching. I wanted to stay but I never thought I never thought I would come through here. We've just met David Berend. He's a resident here initially from South Africa and he's been able to get through the police barricades to come back and see what's left of his home. He doesn't know at the moment whether it's burned down but we're going to walk with him to see what he finds.

Yeah I mean there it is and there it was. Nothing left. Nothing left. Wow. Tell me what kind of a house it was before this happened. Ah it it was around 5,000 square feet. You can see that far end of it. Um, this was the garage entrance over here. You can see the chimney still standing there. Yeah, that was the chimney and that's, uh, those, those are pepper trees burning. Well, rebuild it and, um, in the the meantime we'll be fine.

Questions of course will be asked about how this happened, how it was that the emergency crews were left so overwhelmed and whether or not there is a wider cause. Meteorologists pointing to a very dry autumn and winter which has clearly increased the risk and as those dry winds pour off the inland parts of California they've brought devastation with them. For now the priority is on this still unfolding crisis and the needs of the many, many people who've lost their homes. John Sudworth in the Pacific Palisades.

The dry vegetation that's fuelled the fires has been linked to a phenomenon known as hydroclimate whiplash, a rapid swing between extremely wet and extremely dry conditions. Vegetation around Los Angeles grew rapidly during two extremely wet years, dry conditions. Vegetation around Los Angeles grew rapidly during two extremely wet years but it's dried out over recent dry months. New research from the University of California says climate change has boosted these types of whiplash conditions by 31 to 66 percent globally since the middle of the 20th century. For more on the growing danger from wildfires we heard from John Valiant, author of Fire Weather, a true story from a hotter world. He spoke to Emma Barnett. Well it's tragically

familiar when you look at the global sweep of these things, the steady heating of the planet and the intensification of fire in all kinds of places from southern Europe to Northern Canada to California, you know, you can see the pattern. And yet for the people who are being driven out of their homes with nothing to come back to in Pasadena and Hollywood and Santa Monica, it's new and shocking.

And you're seeing these quotes of people saying, I've never seen anything like this. I can't believe this. this has never happened here before. Even though they're really from the capital of disastrous fire, which is California, I'm surprised that they're surprised. It's life-changing for one thing. If you saw these regions that burned over the past 24 hours, it's earthquake prone, it's fire prone,

and yet it draws charismatic, creative people. But this reckoning with the destruction and seeing that it really can go, that it really can be taken from you is profound. And the people I've interviewed, especially up in Canada and Northern California California where I did most of my interviewing a few years ago, it's really like a death in the family. And it comes so suddenly, it's very psychically disorienting

because your home, especially if you've lived there for a while, especially if you've raised children there, that's where all your memories are. That's your memory palace. And when that is gone, when it's a pile of ash, you realise then how much our psyches and memories are attached to objects and place. Do people leave? Yes, they do. Absolutely. There are climate refugees all over the US now. And some of them, in fact, moved to the mountains of North Carolina because they thought that

would be a climate stable place. Then Hurricane Helen came along a couple of months ago and wiped it out. When people ask me, I'm touring around talking about fire weather, they say, where should we go? I say, there should we go? And I say there's nowhere to go. You need to stay in the place that means the most to you and figure out how to harden it against the plausible threats to it. And is that the only answer, do you think, in a hotter world?

Well, there's a multi-pronged approach and the larger societal cultural move is to decarbonize as rapidly as possible. In the meantime, this is a stern invitation to reacquaint ourselves with nature and to be reminded that whatever business we're in, whatever venture we're engaged with, nature owns 51% of it, at least. And if we're going to get anywhere, if we're going to find any peace or stability, we have to renegotiate our relationship to nature. John Valiant talking to Emma Barnett. And a reminder that with so many extreme weather events around the world hitting the headlines recently, we're making a special edition of the Global News podcast to look at where this trend is going and what we should be

doing as societies and individuals to try to reduce the risk. If you have a question, please email us or better still send a voice note. The address globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. A new chapter is starting for the whole world in 11 days time. The words of President Vladimir Zelensky referring to the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump. He was speaking at a meeting of Ukraine's allies at the Rammstein US Air Base in Germany, the 25th such gathering since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and likely the last involving the current US administration. In the past few hours the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced a new 500 million dollar aid package for Ukraine. I heard more about it from our

Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford. Well it's not cash it's some aid in kind so this is military support so it's additional missiles for air defense here in Ukraine it's more ammunition for air defense here in Ukraine. It's more ammunition, more air-to-surface missiles and it's other equipment that will support the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine now has. So it's military aid and of course it's the latest chunk of the aid that the US has agreed to send to Ukraine. But it's come, this announcement and this meeting at Ramstein, at a moment, of course, when there are questions about how sustainable

and how committed America will be in the future under Donald Trump in supporting Ukraine and sending more aid in the future. And as you mentioned, President Zelensky opened this meeting, describing a new chapter starting in 11 days time, of course when Mr. Trump becomes the new US president. So there are questions about whether these Ramstein meetings will continue. They were set up to try to coordinate aid for Ukraine and to make sure that it could get what it needs in terms of military support as quickly and as efficiently as possible and I think it

was interesting to hear President Zelensky saying quite starkly, we've come such a long way, he said, that it would be crazy, as he put it, to drop the ball now and not to keep building on these kind of coalitions, these groups, these mechanisms that are already in place to help his country. Yeah, do we get any idea from what he was saying, what he thinks the new world will look like once Donald Trump takes office? I think he's been quite careful to try to put a positive spin on it. He did say he was hopeful, he was optimistic, he hoped that the coordination would be better

in the future. But I think there are big, big question marks right now in Ukraine. People are in a kind of limbo waiting to see what exactly is going to happen after the 20th of January. Of course the big concerns are about, you know, this continuing support. We just saw yesterday an attack in Zaporizhzhia, a city in the southeast of Ukraine, in which 13 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in the middle of the street in a busy afternoon there in a major city. So I think it was, you know, important, I suppose, for President Zelensky to drive home the message that air defences are still

important and to use his words he was saying that Vladimir Putin's aggression hasn't stopped. So he was really urging the US in particular to continue providing support because he said Vladimir Putin was still intent on destroying Ukraine. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford. Now in a liberal and egalitarian country like Sweden you might think men wouldn't mind their wives earning more than them. But according to a new study of 20,000 Swedish couples, when a wife receives a higher wage

than her husband, he is more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health problem. Richard Hamilton reports. The study found that on average the Swedish husbands were 11% more likely to suffer from mental health issues when their wives started to earn more than them. It was conducted by Demid Getik, an economist at the University of Durham in the north of England. His rather unusual research was possible because he used to work in Sweden, which, alongside other Scandinavian countries, keeps records of both health diagnoses and tax returns. This allowed him to track the collective mental health and earnings of couples over the course of a decade. I was a PhD student in Sweden at the time and we had access to all this nice data,

so data on income and health data that I'd worked with before. And I thought it could be curious to try to link the two and see if in a egalitarian country like that there might be an expectation or a preference for a husband to earn more in a couple. It seems like I find some, at least tangential evidence that an expectation like that might be there." Because the data was so detailed, he was able to see that if a man was usurped financially by his wife, his wellbeing seemed to decline, often accompanied by substance abuse. But if the husband for some reason regained the top spot, his mental health would often improve. Dr.

Getick is wary of drawing any far-reaching conclusions, but the findings do seem to suggest that even in modern European societies, older ideas of gender roles and who should be the main breadwinner can still persist. The research also appears to tally with some other studies which have, for instance, linked increased female earning power to higher rates of divorce and lower marital satisfaction. Richard Hamilton. Still to come on the Global News Podcast, a baby born on a crowded migrant dinghy. 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. Frelimo has been the governing party of Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975. It won the most recent election in October, although this was heavily disputed and led to

widespread protests. Now the opposition leader, Venancio Mondelane, has returned to Mozambique from exile. Human rights activists say more than 300 people were killed during the government's crackdown on protests. We heard more from Fernando Lima, a journalist in the capital Maputo. The most spectacular statement made by Venancio Mondelane at his arrival at the airport, he proclaimed himself as the president elected by the people with the Bible in his left hand. He said that he is in Maputo to contradict the narrative that it's to pursue dialogue and that the narrative was saying that he was against dialogue because it was abroad, is in Maputo to follow the silent

genocide, his words and mass graves that his supporters are facing with the authorities. He said that he is not accepting positions in the government because this government or the majority proclaimed by the elections commission have been fraudulent. So he's here to help, to dialogue, but not to be part of government while recognising that members of his party Podemus, and he said he continues to be a member of Podemus, could participate in a future government. So when he says he's prepared for talks, for negotiations, but not to form part of a government, what exactly does he mean, do you think?

And is there any sign that the governing party would be prepared for some sort of negotiations? Yes, there are signs from Frelimo and candidate Daniel Chapo that he is willing to consider including his future government members of other parties. I think there are ongoing negotiations. The return of Mr. Venancy Mondan in Maputo is part of that negotiation, but he himself do not want to be part of that inclusive government. There had been plenty of speculation that he would be arrested if he did return to Mozambique. What has been the attitude of the authorities so far?

Well, very good question. He was escorted by police from the airport, so he's not being under under arrest and I'm sure that this was negotiated prior to his arrival but 500 meters away it's like hell it's like war tear gas is all over the place and the people that wanted to welcome Venancius at the airport have been prevented to march to the airport. So this is the scenario now because the whole issue is unfolding and Vanansi Mondan is supposed to meet all these people at Arrow Square, which is one kilometre away, and then march with the people to the surroundings of Maputo.

Fernando Lima in Mozambique talking to the BBC's James Copnell. The Darien Gap, an expanse of jungle linking South and Central America, has become a popular route for migrants trying to enter the US. But it's also one of the most deadly, with armed gangs, steep mountains, turbulent rivers and dangerous wildlife. Despite the risks, more than 300,000 migrants made the journey last year. The Panamanian government is trying to clamp down on illegal crossings and the US president-elect Donald Trump is likely to support such a crackdown.

Our reporter Mimi Swaby has been following one young woman who made the journey and some listeners may find parts of the following report distressing. If I recorded, I recorded secretly because otherwise the smugglers would steal my phone. They wouldn't let us record anything. The smugglers left us at Banderas, the border of Colombia and Panama. We entered Banderas, went down and started what would be the jungle of Darien. Mare Argel is 19 years old from Venezuela. Along with her mother and stepfather, she

is travelling through the Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. The dense jungle region on Colombia's border with Panama is a minefield of forest, slippery rocks, dangerous animals and erratic riverbeds. On top of the natural elements, migrants also face armed groups who control the area, exposing them to theft, violence, sexual abuse and human trafficking. When we entered the jungle, what we began to see were dead bodies. When we entered the jungle, we were alone. All we did was see wrapped corpses, loose corpses, corpses inside little tents. On their second day in the jungle, Mare Egel and the group she's now travelling with have their first encounter with armed gangs. We had been walking for a day and a half. In the middle of the day, we were robbed.

They put a gun to my chest and put their hands in my private parts. They did it to my mother too. They need my stepfather and wanted to kill him because he didn't have any money. He was able to get out as one of the robbers helped him because he was also Colombian. After we got downhill, I couldn't do it anymore. I felt like I was going to faint. We didn't have any more food or water. Yet Maria Angel considers herself lucky compared to what many others experience. After the misfortune that had happened to us, in the group that was behind us, they raped a girl. And the girl's husband got in and tried to stop it, but he got skinned. The girl was raped and killed, and her daughter was also raped and killed.

After days of walking, wading through river beds, carrying their now sodden possessions, the three get to the final part of their journey through this dangerous jungle. After all the abuse we had to endure, we arrived in Abajo Chiquitos, an indigenous land here in Panama. They looked after us very well, but they charged for everything. After that we came by canoe, or piraguas as they call them. That was a four hour trip huddled sitting down. If migrants make it out of the Derrian, the first point of call for thousands is the Lagas Blancas Reception Centre, a government managed camp in Panama on the edge of the jungle.

After the piragua, we arrived here in Lajas Blancas. We are here sleeping in little shelters, tents. There are many children here, many, many, many, many, many, many children, and there is little help for them. The number of children undertaking this journey has spiked over the last few years, with the majority under five according to the UN. In 2024, one out of every five migrants who crossed the Darian Gap were children. Reynaldo Bedoya is the vice president of the Panamanian Red Cross, who helped run the Lagos Blancas camp.

Our volunteers and staff encounter physical wounds, but also mental and emotional situations. The presence of children and non-accompanied children represents a major concern. But Maria Argel saw this hellish journey as her only choice after her economic situation in Venezuela worsened. We decided to emigrate from our country because we no longer had work, we no longer had food, and the money is not enough. We had to leave. Maria Angel is one of more than 300,000 migrants who made it through the Darian Gap in 2024, but this was only the first part of her journey.

The family of three left for Costa Rica after spending sleepless nights in the Lagas Blancas camp. Days after taking the bus, Maria Angel gets in touch. I am in Nicaragua. They robbed us again. They won't let us record and we're out of money. After a week of silence, I get a WhatsApp message. They kidnapped me. I am in Mexico. Three days later, Maria Angel adds, Getting out of Guatemala. We were caught by the cartel here in Mexico. Three days later, Maria Angel adds, Getting out of Guatemala. We were caught by the cartel here in Mexico. We were held for four days without food and

we had to pay $110 each to be freed. They threw us onto the streets. Kidnapping migrants for ransom is not uncommon. Número Romero Vázquez is one of the coordinators and founders of the NGO Las Patronas in Mexico. She told me kidnapping for ransom of migrants is increasing rapidly. Sadly, migrants today are paying a lot of money. Many have to pay kidnapped ransoms, which are more than $3,000 per person. So their family members back home have to pay the fee. Maria Angel's journey to a dream, the US, is now in limbo. She's stuck in southern Mexico.

Awaiting their next move, Mariah Carell is desperately hoping to make it to the US-Mexico border before Donald Trump comes into office. And it becomes clearer how he will crack down on illegal migration. That report by Mimi Swaby. A former security guard at Harrods, one of the most famous shops in Britain, has told the BBC about the quote, clear racism and bullying he witnessed during Mohammed Al Fayed's ownership of the luxury department store. His account follows a BBC documentary in September that included more than 20 women's claims that the late Egyptian businessman had sexually assaulted or raped them. Claire

MacDonald told us more. Well just a reminder, Mohammed Al Fayed was accused of racism and sexual misconduct by Vanity Fair back in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. He subsequently sued the magazine for libel and the case was eventually settled out of court. Now I've been speaking to a former security guard who we're calling Henry and over the course of two interviews he told me that many black members of staff at Harrods would leave the shop floor before Mohammed Al Fayed's daily tours of the store. Along with those members of staff Henry also described others who didn't fit a certain look leaving the building via an underground passageway

which connected the main store to an office across the road. He said they were then filed back in once Mohammed Al Fayed had gone. I asked him how it would work when Al Fayed was about to arrive on the shop floor and Henry's words are spoken by an actor. When he came on the shop floor you would see a lot of movement. For example, I don't know how to say this and be nice, you would see the women, the women who the society and world sees as attractive would stay on the floor and those who the world did not consider to be attractive, all of a sudden you will see a beeline of them leaving for example. Beauty,

apothecary, the white hall, the Black Hall and all around the store. You'll see these people making a beeline to exit at door number three. Who would stay? What you say the world finds attractive? What kind of woman would be allowed to stay behind? We're talking young, thin, blonde, this type. And it was like nobody had to tell them to leave. It was like robotic. And the way they would know something was happening was that the security guards would be moving around like ants, the command staff of the security and uniform would be maneuvering through very quickly

and people knew then that something was going to happen. Well Henry told us he never he was never close enough to Al Fayed when he was walking around the shop floor to see how he interacted with the women who were allowed to stay. I asked him for further clarification about why he thought some people left the shop floor before Mohammed Al Fayed toured the store. The level of racism was very clear, okay. I don't know if they were instructed to do that, but it seemed very much like the protocol that the black people would disappear.

Every now and then you would see one black person, you know, at a particular beauty station or luxury retail or something like this. Someone had to have been given instruction. Why would they all leave? Henry also clarified that some non-white door guards did stay on the door. Well, we've actually spoken to three women

who worked at Harrods in various roles who've helped corroborate Henry's claims. One of the women, Anna, said that whilst she was hiring for jobs she was told not to hire anyone who was black because the customers wouldn't like it. Another said those hidden would also include people who were overweight. Claire MacDonald. The BBC sent Harrods a detailed list of the allegations made by Henry as well as the previous accusations. The firm referred us back to its original statement following September's documentary. Harrods said it was utterly appalled by the abuse allegations and that it is now a quote, very different organisation to the one owned and controlled

by Al-Fayed. It also said it's looking to settle allegations of abuse as quickly as possible without lengthy legal proceedings. Many newspapers and websites carry a striking photograph today. A newborn baby on board a migrant dinghy. It was captured just minutes after the birth by a photographer on a Spanish rescue boat. The mother was making the crossing between West Africa and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands alongside 63 other migrants. We heard more from Reuters journalist Aislinn Lang in Madrid. We don't know much about the woman or her baby. You know, the rescue authorities do try to maintain the confidentiality of the migrants. But we know this was a baby boy. He was born sort of 10, 15 minutes before the rescue boat got to this inflatable dinghy off the coast of Lanzarote.

It was a five hour journey to get to them. The woman and the baby were taken on board the rescue boat and then winched up to a helicopter and transferred to hospital. We don't know any more. We're trying to find out what their condition is, but we presume it was a happy ending given that we know this case and it was a good couple of days ago now. Unfortunately images of these really packed rescue boats making this precarious crossing are sort of normalised. We're used to seeing them but the image of an incredibly vulnerable newborn among them is absolutely jarring. We know that more women and children are making these crossings that previously would have been mainly dominated by the young men seeking a better life in Europe. On this particular boat, there were 14 women

and four children. The rescue authorities were notified that this woman was heavily pregnant and likely to give birth. But this is a pretty unique situation that you would have a birth on board. Aisling Lang in Madrid. And that's all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Daniela Varela and produced by Tracy Gordon, our editors 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? 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.