Global News Podcast - Trump halts military aid to Ukraine

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

The United States has suspended all military aid to Ukraine until Zelensky commits to negotiating peace. Also: Canada, Mexico and China face new US tariffs, and can scientists use mice resurrect the woolly mammoth?

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keough and at 14Hours GMT on Tuesday 4th March these are our main stories. The US is pausing military aid to Ukraine. The White House decision immediately blocks American supplies going into the country. New US tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China have come into effect, prompting immediate retaliation. Also in this podcast, a report claims half of adults worldwide are predicted to be obese or overweight by 2050. And can mice give first aid?

We captured detailed behaviours of the cage mate, biting the mouth and the tongue and pulling out the tongue of the unresponsive peer. Researchers in California say yes. You don't have the cards. That's what Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during that diplomatic blowout at the White House on Friday. Now, Ukraine finds itself under huge pressure. The United States has suspended all military aid and says it will continue to do so until the Ukrainian leader demonstrates a commitment to negotiating peace with Russia. The suspension includes all American weapons and equipment that were in transit.

Ukrainian officials are in shock. Oleksandr Merezhko is a member of parliament from President Zelensky's party. You know when you take away a weaponry from a person from a country which is fighting for its survival, you're helping the enemy. Casualties and human lives lost because of this. I think Mr Trump should seriously think about how he's going to enter in history. To me, it's a date that will go down in infamy. Since the invasion in 2022, almost half of military aid going into Ukraine has come from

the United States. Our correspondent in Kyiv, James Waterhouse, told me that the US announcement is already being felt on the front line. It's a devastating blow to Ukraine's ability to defend itself. America is its single biggest military donor. It provides the scale and speed of military support that Ukraine needs to sustain its fight. We're talking about sophisticated missile launcher systems, armored vehicles, ammunition. When you're near the western border, it's not uncommon to see military convoys under police escort coming in. It's like an artery.

It's much needed armor and ammunition for exhausted troops on the front line. And other western allies to this point have been unable to plug the gap when American aid has slowed in the past, when it's happened in the past through political disagreements in the US Congress. President Zelensky says Ukraine has lost land and lives as a direct result.

And I remember the eastern once fortress town of Avdivka falling early last year because you had troops there that were dug in but they just ran out of kids and this as a political lever puts enormous pressure on President Zelensky to play ball with Washington and it challenges that existential belief that if Ukraine stops fighting then it'll succumb to Russia because without American help things could probably go south very quickly. Is there a real risk then that Russian forces could make big gains further into Ukraine? Very much so.

There are a string of towns and cities in the eastern Donetsk region which come under increasing artillery fire that are sitting very uncomfortably as Russian forces target major supply lines. Now Ukraine had been launching counter-offensives in some areas, pushing back, but the Russian forces are advancing slowly, albeit in several other areas. And how that is perceived, if you look at America warming its relationship with Russia, exploring the relaxation of sanctions whilst putting Ukraine under this kind of pressure in the eyes of some amounts to a switching of sides, they're equally, they're MPs saying, look to President Zelensky, go to Washington, sign this minerals deal, say you're sorry, say thank you repeatedly because

that's clearly what they want if it's for the sake of the future of Ukraine. James Waterhouse. The pressure is now firmly on Western European leaders to bolster Ukraine's defence. In the last few hours, the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced plans to relax EU fiscal rules on borrowing for defence procurement, a measure she says could raise hundreds of billions of dollars. We are in an era of rearmament and Europe is ready to massively boost its defense spending both to respond to the short term urgency to act and to support Ukraine but also to address the long-term need to take on more responsibility for our own European security. For more on what this means for the war

and the state of Western diplomacy, here's our international editor, Jeremy Bowen. What is actually going on right now is the worst crisis in transatlantic relations since the alliance between the US and Europe was created after and during the Second World War. It is absolutely that serious because essentially this suspension of aid has put the US on the other side to its major NATO allies. All the American pressure has been on Zelensky. Putin's position has not

changed because what he has been demanding consistently since the full scale invasion and before is effectively for Ukraine a capitulation. If you look at what Trump and his people say, it's America first. America first is emerging as an idea which essentially treats the rest of the world as raw material for American business deals, for American supremacy, for America trying to extract as much money, including from their allies. And the implications of that, while Trump is in the White House, the rest of us really are, I think in his mind, an adjunct to try to make America as rich and powerful as possible, which is one reason why. And this, I think even, you know, for the British as well, they would say that it leaves

a sour taste. They are saying to Zelensky, you have to go back and talk to Trump and sign that deal. Jeremy Bowen, if you've got questions about the fast moving situation with Ukraine, Russia and the involvement of President Trump and European leaders, we'd love to hear from you and get some answers from our correspondents. Send us an email to globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. US tariffs are up and markets are down. Late on Monday, President Trump went ahead and slapped 25% import taxes on Canadian and Mexican goods entering the US.

The Canadians are hitting back by imposing their own levies on US exports. Mexico is likely to also reply in kind too. And trade barriers are extending beyond the Americas. Washington's tariffs on China are set to double to 20%. But stock markets are jittery. Asian markets have fallen and European exchanges have opened lower. Andrew Wilson is the Global Policy Director at the world's largest business organisation, the International Chamber of Commerce.

The President has chosen to use Oscar's week to serve a cliffhanger of a drama on the tariffs, followed by a very dramatic ending, but one that I think will have severe negative ramifications for business, including in the United States. This is a deeply interconnected economic area in North America backed by 40 plus years of policy integration. I think what we see very clearly from the modelling, economists tend to disagree on many things, but everyone agrees that this is a lose, lose, lose scenario. Our business reporter, Mariko Ooi, gave me this assessment of the US move. The impact on the Canadian economy, the Mexican economy, the Chinese economy, it will be really, really significant. But at the same time, the impact on the US economy is also something

that economists have been warning about as well. But let's start off with Canada and Mexico because the three countries, they have deeply integrated economies with an estimate of $1.2 billion worth of manufactured goods crossing the borders every day. So you can see the sheer volume, the amount of products that get exported imported between those countries. So for example, if you look at Mexico, for example, it accounts for nearly 80% of delivery trucks being imported into the United States. As for Canada, it accounts for, of course, about 60% of crude oil. So for Canada, they do actually have a nuclear option of restricting access to energy, but that would be really contentious.

So they haven't gone down that road. And Canada has so far announced retaliatory tariffs on certain products that are worth about 100 billion US dollars. China has also announced the retaliatory measures, but for China, of course, this is they already had the 10% tariff earlier last month, and that has basically been doubled. So it's now 20% tariffs on everything that gets imported from China into the United States. But this is, of course, in addition to all the tariffs that have been in place since the first term of Mr. Trump's presidency. So the impact on the Chinese economy has been quite significant.

And of course, not to mention they have their domestic challenges facing the economy. So the impact on them would be quite significant. But let's also not forget about the US economy because these tariffs would likely push up prices of products being sold in the United States and that would feed into that cost of living crisis that we've been talking about. And inflation has calmed down a bit, but this could actually feed back into inflation, though Mr. Trump has so far shrugged off the potential damages to the US economy.

Is there a real worry that this actually could end up in a global trade slowdown, Mariko? I think that is what investors are worried about. And that's why even before these latest tariffs kicked in at about five o'clock GMT, which was midnight the US time, when Mr. Trump said that these tariffs would go ahead because, of course, remember those tariffs on Mexico and Canada, they were kind of put on hold while they negotiated all these deals. But when Mr. Trump said that these tariffs would kick in, we saw US shares falling. And then when those tariffs kicked in, we saw an impact on the Asian markets, which

were trading at the time. And of course, we're going to start seeing some impact on the Asian markets, which were trading at the time. And of course, we're going to start seeing some impact on the European market as well. And that is all because investors are worried, as you said, about the global trade war, which would impact, of course, the US economy, and that would, of course, impact the rest of the world. And it's just not something that investors wanted to hear about because China has repeatedly said that they didn't want a trade war because in their words, nobody wins a trade war. But of course, Mr Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool and that's what he's going

ahead with. Marie Kooy, the leader of the rebel group that swept through eastern Congo, has told the BBC his fighters will go all the way to the capital, Kinshasa, some 1500 kilometres away if confronted by government forces. Kone Nanga heads an alliance including the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels. They currently control the two largest cities in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This report from our senior international correspondent, Ola Gehrin. The M23 rebels portray themselves as liberators who have come to clean up corruption.

But they have been advancing at the point of a gun and have forced almost half a million people to flee from camps around Goma. In a BBC interview, Corne Nanga said the rebels would take their fight all the way to the capital if, as he claimed, the government keeps attacking them. If the threat is in Kinshasa, he said, we will go there. He denied the M23 are backed by Rwanda, though this has been documented extensively by UN experts. I don't know anything about Rwanda.

If they say that there are 4,000 fighters from Rwanda, I don't know. I didn't see them. So you don't receive any assistance from Rwanda? I don't see the military assistance from Rwanda. He said he had never read reports about human rights abuses by the M23, so couldn't comment, adding that he wasn't worried by the allegations. Human rights groups have accused the rebels of systematic shelling of civilian areas, mass rape and summary executions.

The M23 leader denied there was a plan to join the east of the country to Rwanda and said he did not want to be the next president of the DRC, which he called a failed state. The lightning advance by the rebels has stoked fears that the country could once again be at the centre of a regional war. All are geared in reporting. Coming up, modified mice that mimic mammoths? It's got bright orange hair, about five centimetres long. This mouse is supposed to be a first step towards recreating the mammoth.

Our science correspondent explains. This is the Global News Podcast. For years now, the World Health Organisation has warned that obesity is a global epidemic, but a new study covering more than 200 countries predicts obesity levels will accelerate rapidly over the rest of this decade. The report in the Lancet Journal found that by 2050, more than half of adults around the world are predicted to be overweight or obese. So what's driving this worsening problem? I spoke to our health correspondent Dominic Hughes. Bernard, it's really complex. It's partly to do with big changes in society that we've seen in recent decades.

So, for example, people moving from rural areas to the cities, but it's partly also to do with changing diets. Basically, more calories are being consumed, but not necessarily better quality food. So in some countries like China, we've seen a big shift towards dairy products that perhaps weren't so common in the diet 30 years ago, but also experts have pointed to the spread of things like ultra-processed foods around the globe, and they seem to be having a real impact on people's diets as well. And it's mainly developing countries that are affected, Dominic? Yeah, we've known for many years that developed countries have had a big problem with people who are overweight and obese. The USA, many European countries, not least the UK where

we're talking today. Among the high-income countries, the USA has got like the highest rates of obesity. Around 42% of males and 46% of females were affected by obesity in 2021. But now we're seeing developed countries as well, especially high levels already in areas like Oceania, North Africa and the Middle East. 62% of adult males in Nauru, the Cook Islands and American Samoa and over 71% of adult women in Tonga and Nauru live with obesity. In terms of raw numbers, China, India and the USA have the countries with the biggest populations, but weight gain varies wildly across the globe. More than half of the world's adults with overweight or obese in 2021, they live in just eight countries.

So as well as China, India and the USA, also Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Egypt. And there are really significant numbers of people living with these conditions. But population growth means that forecasters are predicting the number in sub-Saharan Africa will rise by more than 250% to 522 million people who are living with overweight or obesity. And Nigeria in particular really stands out. The predicted number there is projected to more than triple to 141 million people in 2050 and that would make it the country with the fourth largest population of adults who are overweight or

obese. Dominic Hughes. Russians who sign up to fight in Ukraine earn big money in salaries and bonuses and the money paid out by the Kremlin to the families of those killed in battle is even higher. Average compensation packages are worth about $130,000. Arseny Sokolov went to meet family members of men Russia has lost in the war and finds out how they spent their money. Andrey Nazarenko was 21 when he was killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine. At his old school in small town in the foothills of the Kokazus mountains of southern Russia, they solemnly unveiled a desk in his memory.

He was a qualified chef and when he called his mother Oksana from the front, he talked of using those skills when he got back. He used to say, Mom, let's open a cafe together. It'll be great. Now, though she's still grieving bitterly, Oksana's fulfilled his dream. Without him, she's opened a cosy little restaurant in his memory. We do lots of different cuisines, European, Caucasian, a bit of Japanese like sushi. And my signature dish? Well, I do like man.

A rich noodle dish with meat, vegetables and spices. The business employs several people. Aksana couldn't have started it without the compensation money from the state. The average payout is about 14 million rubles. That's nearly 160 thousand US dollars. All of Russia's families of the fallen are using the money to buy property and raise up the social ladder. Economist Vladislav Anazemtsev calls it deathonomics. If someone signs up to the army at the age of 35 from not the most wealthy Russian regions, gets the regional payment for the signature of the contract, serves there six to eight months and is killed, and all the compensations are paid to his family, it would be definitely bigger sum of money than he could earn till

the end of his active life at the age of 65. You could buy a whole village on the proceeds from one man's death. That's lawyer and human rights defender Nadezhda Nizovkina speaking from Buryatia on the Mongolian border. It's a poor remote region that's provided a disproportionately high number of men to fight and die in Ukraine. But she says the newly acquired compensation money isn't always very visible. Many people now are scared to flaunt their wealth, because showing you got rich on spilled blood, it means you or your relative didn't sign up out of high moral principles. The big recruiting posters don't mention money. They just say, stand

up and defend the motherland as a selfless gesture. The Kremlin is determined that those who return alive from the frontline will be treated as heroes. Vladimir Putin has even launched a scheme to fast-track selected veterans into leadership positions in local administration and businesses. The real elite, he says, are those who serve Russia, loyal workers and warriors. It's still unclear whether that project will work. Existing local elites often resist admitting newcomers, but compensation payments have certainly catapulted a huge number of Russian families into a higher social class.

If according to rough but informed estimates, 150,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, and if each of their families has actually received what they're due, that would mean the state has spent the equivalent of more than 2% of federal expenditure on such payouts over the past three years. Andrey's mother, Oksana, hasn't received her full payout yet. Like many other bereaved single mothers, she's battling her ex-husband in court over who gets what share. But her new business, paid for with the Kremlin's compensation,

has given her some comfort over the loss of her son. And every night when I go to bed, I talk to Andrei. I say, I opened the restaurant just like you wanted and if you were still here, I know you'd be helping me. That report from Arseny Sokolov. Could a modern day version of the woolly mammoth soon be walking the earth? That's what the US company Colossal Biosciences claim. They're experimenting on genetically modified mice that they claim have mammoth-like traits and that will pave the way, they say, for hairy elephants

with increased body fat to survive in cold environments. The aim is to repopulate the arctic tundra with these creatures. Ben Lam, founder and CEO of the firm, spoke to the BBC. So this is a very long plan, right? Like, tomorrow we're not going to have mammoths and the next day we're not going to have a thousand of them. But over time, you know, we're going to have this entire lineage of cold-adapted elephants that we put back into the wild that can interbreed and thrive. So what's going on and how will it all work? I asked our science correspondent, Pallabh Ghosh, to tell me more.

It does sound like an incredible story. So the story is about a company called Colossal Biosciences who have the stated aim of bringing back the woolly mammoth from extinction to roam the Arctic tundra in time. They hope to have the first woolly mammoth in 2028. They're not going to be exactly woolly mammoth, they're going to be genetically modified elephants that are able to withstand the cold and the reason they want to bring them back is to fill what they say is a vacant ecological niche. There's been an alarming loss of biodiversity all across the planet and what colossal want to do is to start bringing it back. So in the case of the mammoth they believe that

having mammoths stomping across the tundra will restore it and slow down the melting of the permafrost and slow down the release of carbon dioxide, which would be good for the environment. They're also trying to bring back the dodo and the Tasmanian tiger. But in this instance, to bring back the mammoth, their first step has been to try it on mice. They've altered seven genes to do with hair growth and they've unsurprisingly, you might think, got a mouse that looks quite like a mammoth apart from the fact that it's the size of a mouse. Tell us what it looks like, Pallab. It's got bright orange hair, about five centimeters long. If you're a Star Trek fan, you might be familiar with tribbles.

So it looks like a little tribble and they just run around. Apparently they're healthy. They did also insert a mammoth-like gene because they know what mammoth genes are like from studying frozen mammoths. That gene is supposed to increase fat levels. They don't know if that's worked or not. But this mouse is supposed to be a first step towards recreating the mammoth. But there is a lot of skepticism, a lot of concern about their work. Tell me more about the concern because there have been critics of this project. There's huge amounts of criticism. First of all, going from a hairy mouse to an extinct woolly mammoth is a huge step. And even if you do try

it out on elephants, what kind of suffering will be caused if something that works is seen to work on mice? Will it work on elephants? Could there be malformed creatures forming? And even if the creatures are fully formed, then how are they going to be treated by their mothers, their surrogate mothers? How are they going to be treated by the rest of the herd? And if you go through all of that, how on earth are you going to get hundreds, if not thousands of them, roaming across the tundra. So it does seem quite fantastic what they're trying to do.

Pallabgosh. We're going to stay on the topic of those small rodents now. A study has found that mice will perform first aid on other mice if they're unconscious. Researchers at the University of Southern California say they've seen it happen and have released a video to prove it. As Wendy Urquhart reports. Putting mice back in their cages is something that researchers do every day. But when they put an unconscious mouse back in its cage

after an operation, something very different happened. Its companion immediately started sniffing and biting the unresponsive mouse. Dr. Huizhong Wittele, who's the lead author of the study, says they had to act fast to record what was happening. We found that the cage mate intensively interacted with an advertised one. With careful set-up of cameras,

we captured detailed behaviors of the cage mate, biting the mouth and the tongue, and pulling out the tongue of the unresponsive peer. We do know that mouth and tongue biting induces pain, which expedites recovery from unconsciousness. Researchers at several laboratories have since carried out a series of tests, and they found that after licking the eyes and biting the mouth of an unconscious mouse, in more than 50% of cases the mice appeared to pull out the tongue of their companion to try to clear its airways. They also tried other tests,

such as placing a non-toxic plastic ball in the mouth of the unconscious mouse and found that 80% of the time the companion mouse removed it. Experts say the reason it's taken so long to discover the caring side of mice is because they're not usually returned to their cages until they're awake. Wendy Urquhart reporting. And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us

an email. The address is globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. And remember to send any questions you have about what's going on with Ukraine, Russia and the involvement of President Trump and European leaders. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was produced by Harry Bly. It was mixed by Derek Clark.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Bernadette Keough. Until next time, goodbye.