Global News Podcast - Stock markets plunge over Trump recession fears

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

US stocks plunge after Donald Trump refuses to rule out recession amid confusion over his policy on tariffs. Also: Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia, and the return of the 90s classic Clueless.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Katya Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Each weekday, we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing our societies apart, from the movements of money and markets to the human stories that touch our lives, we bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is The Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Tuesday the 11th of March these are our main stories. Stock markets have closed down sharply in the United States amid concern over President

Trump's tariffs and refusal to rule out recession. President Zelensky is in Saudi Arabia, which is hosting the first significant peace talks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And we hear from our correspondent in Lebanon about Syrians who fled across the border after a wave of sectarian killings. Also in this podcast. One, I was gobsmacked, but two, I was fuming. The British couple given a hefty fine after reporting a migrant who secretly hitched a lift on top of their car.

Let's start this podcast in the United States. President Trump ran his election campaign on promises to fix the economy, but early into his presidency, two things have been having a huge impact on the markets, uncertainty and tariffs. Both have been in abundance since he took office less than two months ago. And it was his refusal to rule out a recession in the United States that seems to have been the last straw with the stock markets falling particularly heavily. Michelle Fleury is our New York business correspondent and I asked her which stocks were down. I think the question should be what isn't down.

It's been such an ugly day here on Wall Street. The tech heavy Nasdaq led the declines down 4 percent. In terms of individual stocks you had Tesla the electric car maker of which Elon Musk is obviously closely associated with that was down 15 percent. of individual stocks you had Tesla the electric carmaker of which Elon Musk is obviously closely associated with that was down 15% and if you go back to its high in December it's now down more than 50% since then. There were also sharp falls on the S&P 500 down nearly 3% that's the sort of broad-based major index of companies here in America and then there were sharp falls on the Dow. I mean it was an ugly day and all of this sparked by doubts about Donald

Trump's trade policies and what it means for the prospect of recession here in America. So Michelle what did these falls mean for the wider economy for a layperson? I mean I think what it is showing is that there is an increasing recognition that Donald Trump and his cabinet are serious about bringing back US jobs and manufacturing to the US and using tariffs to do so and that they will tolerate a degree of economic pain. This is something that I think financial markets, but also that the broader public is not necessarily used to And so you're seeing the reaction to that through the mechanism of share prices that that essentially is is what's happening is people are internalizing that message the problem you have is that if

consumers start to hold back spending because they're feeling nervous and if to hold back spending because they're feeling nervous. And if businesses start to wait and see and hold back hiring people or sort of increasing production, that then can lower growth and that sort of fuels the kind of fears we've seen this week on Wall Street. And briefly, Michelle, in terms of the Trump administration, what does it need to do now to help the markets recover? Well, I mean, currently, not just Donald Trump, but whether it's Howard Lucknett, the Commerce Secretary, or the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson,

they're saying they're willing to tolerate some pain. So the question is how much before they feel they have to act. All of this against the backdrop of a potential looming government shutdown, because of course those negotiations are happening right now in Washington as well. Michelle Fleury. Well, the US is still locked in battles over tariffs with its neighbour Canada and the next Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has vowed he will win the trade war. Ontario, Canada's richest and most populous province, has addressed the tariffs directly

and announced a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the US. Here's Ontario's premier Doug Ford. We will apply maximum pressure to maximise our leverage. That's why today we're moving forward with a 25% surcharge on electricity exports. For the 1.5 million American homes and businesses that Ontario powers, homes and businesses in Minnesota,

Michigan and New York. This surcharge will cost families and businesses in these states up to $400,000 each and every single day. On an average, this will add around $100 per month to the bills of hardworking Americans.

Let me be clear. I will not hesitate to increase this charge. This will add around $100 per month to the bills of hardworking Americans. Let me be clear, I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If necessary, if the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely. That was Ontario's Premier Doug Ford. Now to the latest from the ground in the Ukraine conflict and from the conference rooms where peace talks are due to take place in Saudi Arabia. First to Ukraine itself where dozens of people were killed as hundreds of Russian air strikes hit across the country again at the weekend. This after the Americans cut military aid to Ukraine and stopped sharing intelligence information. On Monday, loud

sirens were heard in many parts of Ukraine. Our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale is in Kyiv and has spent time with members of the 96th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. Ukraine is still getting some intelligence, enough to raise the alarm before another Russian attack. But defending its towns and cities will be more difficult without American support. This mobile air defence unit still managed to down a Russian drone over the weekend. We met near Kyiv as they once again prepared to protect their skies. This team relies on old Soviet and Ukrainian-made equipment. Hidden away elsewhere are the more sophisticated US air defense systems.

Yurislav, the battery commander, tells me President Trump's decision will hurt. We haven't felt it yet, he says, but I think we will feel it. It will be more difficult. His comrade, Oleksandr, says, obviously I'm upset. We were counting on continued U.S. support. It's not just quality but quantity too. US-made armour helped spearhead Ukraine's surprise Kursk offensive last year. Seizing Russian territory was meant to be a bargaining chip. But Kursk is fast becoming a burden. Ukraine's losing territory and without US support and

supplies it'll only get worse. Yekho Chernyev is the deputy chairman of Ukraine's Defense and Intelligence Parliamentary Committee. The cost of this is the lives of our soldiers. And when we will face this situation, when we will not be able to repair it, it will mean that we will lose more and more soldiers without the equipment on the waterfield. Ukraine is still hoping that President Trump will reverse his decision, but it also now knows it can no longer rely on US support. Jonathan Beale, let's move on to the diplomacy now with our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman, who's flown to Jeddah with the

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. What can we expect from the talks there? What's clear from Marco Rubio, and as you say, I spoke to him just before we landed here in Jeddah on the plane, was that this is about the Americans trying to sit down with the Ukrainians and see basically if they will say yes to what Mr Trump wants. And remember the context because this comes just 10 days after Mr Zelensky, President Zelensky was ejected from the White House after his humiliation by Mr Trump and the Vice President, JD Vance, he was told he was ungrateful and disrespectful. He had tried to argue his corner and basically say that a ceasefire with President Putin

without American backed security guarantee would amount effectively to a capitulation and that they'd been hit there before that Mr. Putin had broken such promises. The Americans though have put the pressure on intensely since then. Remember, they've withdrawn US military assistance, they've withdrawn some intelligence sharing and now the sense I got from Mr. Rubio is that they're coming here to, in their words, see if the Ukrainians are ready to move forward with what President Trump wants, which is a process towards a quick truce with Moscow. So I think they're going to sort of scope out where the Ukrainians' red lines are,

the concessions that they are prepared to make. And they would then, he said, at some point in the future, go to the Russians with those, see what the Russian demands and red lines are, see how big the gap is, and in his words, see if that gap can be bridged. And what about the scope for a US pause in the aid being reversed?

He was asked about that repeatedly. I mean, I asked him first of all if, and reflecting some of the comments from Poland over the weekend that saw the withdrawal of military support as, in the words of Poland's prime minister, appeasing a barbarian. Now Mr Rubio said that what was happening here was President Trump was, in his words, using all the tools at his disposal to make both sides, i.e. the Ukrainians, come to the table and move forward with this process. In terms of whether or not they will reinstate that military assistance, I think it will

very much depend on the outcome of the talks on Tuesday. I mean, Mr. Rubio said that that but he sounded quite positive and said he was hopeful for a good meeting and that he hoped he would have something to announce at the end of it. Tom Bateman in Jeddah. And if you've got some questions about the situation with Ukraine, Russia and the involvement of President Trump and European leaders, we would love to hear from you and get some answers from our correspondents. No question is too big or too small. Send us an email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk and if you'd like to record your question as a voice note, we'd love to hear it. At least 6,000 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon following mass violence against the Alawite community over the weekend. The

Syrian interim president and former rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharah, has announced an investigation into the reported death of more than 1,000 people, most of them Alawites. And that is the community that the post president, Bashar al-Assad, comes from. Ita Helen Hansen is a project coordinator for the medical charity MSF, or Doctors Without Borders.

She was in the town of Gisselshogur and sent us a voice note on the situation there. Yesterday, I was in the MSF-supported hospital Gisselshogur. They've been working around the clock for the last few days, receiving 107 patients due to bullet wounds, shrapnel, and other violent trauma, including 13 who did not survive. Personally, I saw patients who were recovering from surgeries due to injuries in their abdomen and chest, arms and legs, and some were hit several places. The BBC's Karine Tawbay has been at the border between Lebanon and Syria where

thousands of Alawites have sought refuge. She visited a shelter full of refugees. People here are among thousands of Syrians who had to flee their houses and their towns in the coastal areas of Syria and come into Lebanon. They told us they came without any belongings, in fear for their safety, for their security. They heard about what was happening around them. A lot of stories were circulating. Some of them experienced firsthand some of the events that were happening in Syria. Others heard about them and were very afraid so they had to flee. They told us they think that they are at the moment being targeted because of their religious identity, because they are Alawites and the new people in power in Syria consider them

as pro-Assad while they completely dismiss this and they consider that they are being targeted just because they are Alawites. People I spoke to told me they can't see themselves going back to Syria anytime soon. Currently they live in big fear and they told me they need real guarantees in order to think about going back home. Karine Torbay. A British couple are appealing against a fine of almost $2,000 after reporting a migrant's stowaway to police. Joanne and Adrian Fenton drove home to England from France

and then discovered a man hidden in a storage rack on their car. They called the police but received the fine anyway. Charlotte Gallagher has more. The moment Adrian and Joanne Fenton's stowaway emerged from the back of their motorhome last October. The couple had no idea the man had climbed inside a nylon bike rack cover before they crossed the channel. It was only when they arrived home and began unpacking that they saw a pair of trainers poking out. After offering him a bottle of water, the young man told them he was 16 years old and

from Sudan. Police were called and the Fentons assumed the surprises were over, but then an email arrived from the home office telling them they'd been fined for failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed in the motorhome. Joanne Fenton says she was astonished. One I was gobsmacked but two I was fuming you know to receive a fine on something that we had phoned the police up we had informed and done everything possible to be safe and to get fined £1,500? No, too angry. Zoe Jacob is an immigration lawyer and says it's an unusual case. The way that the legislation is drafted in relation to ships coming into the UK is that

there is a statutory excuse, a defence for individuals who are the captains of those ships if somebody is a stowaway. a statutory excuse, a defence for individuals who are the captains of those ships. If somebody is a stowaway, arguably if discretion was being applied in this case, there's a strong argument to say that the situation is akin to a stowaway, therefore discretion would have been applied in the couple's favour. The Fentons are now planning to appeal against the fine, saying the penalty only encourages people in a similar situation not to call the police and let stowaways abscond.

Charlotte Gallagher. Still to come in this podcast. It's kind of her power as well to try and get things done. Optimism is a superpower. A classic movie character inspired by a classic book takes to the stage as Clueless the Musical lands. Hello, I'm Katya Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Each weekday, we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing

our societies apart. From the movements of money and markets to the human stories that touch our lives, we bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to the global story wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The Trump administration has confirmed its slashing funding of its overseas aid agency, USAID, by 83 per cent, closing the vast majority of its programmes. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, wrote on his personal account on X that it was an overdue and historic reform. Elon Musk, who's in charge of cutting back government spending, described it as a tough but necessary decision. Former USAID officials have warned that it could

lead to destabilisation overseas and threats to US national security. We've been speaking to some of those people impacted by the cuts like those living with HIV. Mike Elvis Tosubira in Kampala, Uganda is one of them. He takes antiretroviral drugs. When you are HIV positive, you are affected psychologically, economically and when it comes to me myself, I'm living in a sterile discontented couple where my wife is HIV negative and I'm positive.

So my partner is also having HIV preventive drugs like PEP. My family is also affected seriously because from the Trump announcement, all the directives which just came abruptly without warning, we had no enough drugs at home and right now my family is actually in a crisis. Well Celia Hatton has been speaking to Andrea Tracy, a former USAID official and advisor to the US Special Envoy for Sudan under the Biden administration. She's created the Sudan Mutual Aid Coalition, a fund for private donations to emergency response rooms in Sudan, a grassroots network of activists who stayed on the front lines

to respond to the crises in their neighbourhoods. The way that they're going about this is so destructive and so dangerous on so many levels. We're nervous, we're scared, we're worried about people dying because of this stoppage, because there's no sort of system to pick it up. There's not enough money that any other donor has that can pick up what was generally speaking from one country to the next, around 40 to 45% of the budgets were being held by USAID. So we're looking at just massive, massive stoppages of life-saving activities. There's a famine happening in parts of northern Darfur and parts of the Nuba Mountains that

is not being addressed. And in Khartoum, there's a growing cholera outbreak in White Nile, spreading to River Nile, southern Kordofan, Khartoum. The situation is incredibly disconcerting. LESLIE KENDRICK You were just in Darfur last month, I understand. Can you paint a picture for us? Explain what you saw when you were there and how these potential aid cuts might affect that situation. I saw desperation. It was bleak people. They don't have any opportunities for sustaining their own living. There were children with weapons and I kept thinking to myself, are they being forced into, are they child soldiers?

And I genuinely feel like it was, people were trying to band together and make it work, but with the complete lack of resources coming in, it's just incredibly difficult for them to do so. It's a desperate situation for them. It's not at all a concert response. In terms of humanitarian assistance, we're talking about life-saving aid, keeping people going that the US government has been supporting and just cutting that off.

Sort of punishing people who are vulnerable and in a terrible position because there's a system that needs to be altered or reformed is not a commensurate response. Andrea Tracy. Now to a situation that unfolded off the coast of England as a tanker, the US registered Stenner Immaculate, which was carrying jet fuel for the US government, appears to have been hit by a container ship whilst at anchor. So long has collided with tanker Stenner Immaculate in the outer anchorage. Both vessels are abandoning. That was a message from the Coast Guard. There were reports of multiple explosions and a huge fireball. 37 people were brought ashore.

The Coast Guard has now ended the search for one person missing from the container ship. Jet fuel is now leaking into the water and a leading bird conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says it's extremely concerned about the impact on bird life. Esme Stallard is our climate and science reporter. What's very important here is the type of fuel that's on board and that's because they behave in different ways. So sometimes when we think of oil spills,

potentially images of birds covered in sort of this black oil or the sea covered in it spring to mind, that is crude oil, that's not what we're dealing with here. And that's important because they dissipate differently as we've just heard. So jet oil kerosene can evaporate very quickly, which means it doesn't hang around in the environment for as long. But that's not to say that it doesn't potentially pose harm to the natural environment. And that's because the fumes can be quite toxic.

So on a small scale, we're not expecting it to potentially kill fish, but obviously this could be quite a significant spill. And as that enters the water column, it can be toxic to aquatic organisms. There's also concern obviously for nearby nature reserves if it was to wash up. And actually we've had a statement from the RSPB, I'm just going to read you elements of it here. Dave O'Hara, who's a senior site manager at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, which is a nearby nature

reserve said, as details continue to emerge, our first thoughts are for the safety of everyone on board. But this incident is close to Bempton Cliffs, home to the biggest Gannet colony in England. Naturally, we are extremely concerned about the potential of a leak from the tanker. Now, there's obviously been a very quick response from the UK Coast Guard.

And they said to us, as part of that response, they're also looking at a counter-pollution activity to try and prevent that oil dissipating too far into the sea. But one thing to point out about jet A1 fuel or kerosene is that it is very very difficult to see. It will be a sheen like look on the surface it won't be as I mentioned like crude oil it won't be thick and black which could potentially make the cleanup operation fairly difficult. Esme Stallart. Just over two months ago, a series of wildfires engulfed parts of Los Angeles.

More than 16,000 homes and businesses were destroyed and 29 people died. The BBC has spoken to survivors and experts to find out what went wrong and what may happen next. Emma Vardy sent this report from Los Angeles. All your memory is gone. It's all burned. It's all ash. This was not a typical fire. As Dr. Sarah Trapania found out, it was rapid and fast moving. You literally can see the flames getting huge and burning down the hill. My neighbour's next door grew up in the Palisades and he kept saying to us, you need to calm down because this type of fire happens in this area

and in order for it to hit our houses, it would have to burn down the town. But the fire did destroy most of the town. Dr. Chapania lost her home and so did thousands of others. Wildfires happen regularly in California, but rarely in winter and not like this. To destroy most of the town, Dr. Chapania lost her home and so did thousands of others. Wildfires happen regularly in California, but rarely in winter and not like this. Eight months of drought meant the ground was tinder dry. High winds fanned the flames. I'm a climate scientist. I work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Scientists, like Dr. Ben Hamlington, say global warming made the fires worse. I didn't think we were on the front line of climate change, otherwise I wouldn't have bought a house here. I feel kind of like a terrible climate scientist buying a house, putting my family in a place that was so at risk. But in reflection, when it happened, it kind of makes sense, right? This is how we expect climate change to play out. The way that it's going to express and affect people is through events like this that are going to increase in how severe they are, how often they happen, and then where they happen.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said there are not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address separate fires of this magnitude. Here's Freddie Escobar, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles. Nobody wanted this. It's unfortunate that it's taken this disaster to address the issues that we've been saying for decades, that the Los Angeles Fire Department is a woefully understaffed fire department,

and we're asking our leaders to make it a priority. The mayor's office says it has increased the fire department's budget to record amounts and delivered the first raise that firefighters have seen in years. LA County and many fire victims are suing the local power company Southern California Edison for allegedly starting one of the fires. Lawyer Gerald Singleton represents more than 1,600 people who lost homes and loved ones in the fire that began in Altadena. There's actually several videos, but one in particular shows the fire starting. You see a couple of instances where there are flashes and then you see the arcing going down to

the ground and the fire starting. We also have witnesses who saw the exact same thing. Power lines have started wildfires in the past. So in high winds, electricity companies cut off the supply. Edison told the LA Times it didn't turn off power to the transmission lines because the wind speed did not exceed a threshold of between 60 and 80 miles an hour. Over the last decade, wildfires are estimated to have cost Edison around $10 billion in settlements, fines and damages. Southern California Edison says its heart goes out to everyone affected by the wildfires and that safety is its top priority.

It says that the cause of the Eton wildfire remains under investigation and it's exploring every possibility, including the possibility that SCE's equipment was involved. The insurance industry's total bill could reach $40 billion and many fear the disaster will make it much harder to get home insurance in the future. For those who remain, learning how to live alongside the dangers posed by climate change will be key to avoiding similar tragedy in the years ahead. Emma Vardy. It is 250 years this year since the birth of the literary giant Jane Austen and two centuries later her legacy continues to inspire other artists, writers and readers. The hit film Clueless, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, was inspired by Jane Austen's book

Emma and now it has been transported to the London stage in the form of a musical. The writer and director of Clueless, the film and the book, Amy Heckerling, spoke to Nula McGovern along with the songwriter Katie Tunstall who's written the musical's score. Nula started by asking Amy how Jane Austen's Emma inspired her to write the lead character of Clueless, Cher Horowitz. There's a quote by Jane Austen which I love, she said she's making a character which she thinks nobody would herself like much.

And it just blows my mind that she would think that, but she just went ahead with it because she was obviously enjoying it. And that's how I felt with making this character who was just... you couldn't burst her bubble because that's just such a fun idea. So that's Cher Horowitz who's in the center of it. What else would you say about her apart from her eternal optimism? Well, in the first line of Emma, she says there's very little to distress or vex her. Things don't get to her. And so it's kind of her power as well to try and get things done. Optimism is a superpower.

Also, I noticed on your guitar, as if, Katie, which is just one of the lines of course that we have with this. Amy comes to you saying write some music for me. How does that work? Well actually I had been working with Glenn Slater who wrote the lyrics and he's brilliant. And so we were looking for somebody to write original music and he told me he had worked with KT on something that didn't happen,

but he thought that she was amazing. And he gave me some tapes to listen to and I just thought, yeah, yeah, totally. And I truly, totally had faith that she would pull this off amazingly. I didn't know how amazing though. I totally had faith that she would pull this off amazingly. I didn't know how amazing though. I really thought I knew it all as if.

I thought I'd help a friend in need. Yeah, right. I was reading, Amy, you've probably seen this about yourself at some point, that you create, there was like proto feminist films and I suppose musicals now as well, that the female character has the power or the female relationships are very much a focal point. Would you agree with that? Oh, I don't know, because I was always feeling like any like female power or whatever in any of my films

sort of had to be like hidden when you're telling it to the studio. Oh really? Because they figure that's a limited audience, that the male audience was the box that you want to take check as far as younger men, older men, younger women, older women. And that was the like golden box. I've been surprised by how many men have told me that this is one of their favorite films. They love the film. Oh, that's so cool.

Yeah. There was a lot of men in the audience when I was there. Some of them finishing the lines, beginning to laugh before the lines were finished. Yeah, yeah. Because they know them. That's New Girl performed by Emma Flynn from Clueless the musical. You also heard KT Tunstall performing the song Clueless which she wrote for the show. The musical is on in London's West End until the 27th of September.

And that's about it from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. But before we go, an apology and a correction. Thanks to those of you who've been in touch to point out an error in our previous edition. Our correspondent in Kyiv, James Waterhouse, mistakenly said Russia was being held by South Korean troops and ammunition. He of course meant North Korea. It happens to the best of us and we are very

grateful to all our correspondents in the field working so hard and in such difficult circumstances to bring us all the latest. Now if you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was mixed by Zabihullah Qarush and the producer was Stephanie Prentice. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. Hello, I'm Katja Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Each weekday, we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing our societies apart. From the movements of money and markets to

the human stories that touch our lives, we bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts.