Global News Podcast - Trump rebrands Department of Defence Department of War

Episode Date: September 6, 2025

President Trump has signed an executive order renaming the Defence Department, the Department of War; Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the change was to restore a warrior ethos. It must be approved by Congress although it is likely to pass. Also: Darth Vader's light sabre is sold for more than three million dollars, and the power of the washing machine to transform lives.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

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It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Moss and in the early hours of Saturday, the 6th of September,

these are our main stories. President Trump has signed an order changing the name of the US Department of Defense to the Department of War, calling the rebranding appropriate for the state of the world. And U.S. officials say hundreds of South Koreans have been arrested in a raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Also in this podcast, The Force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet. Darth Vader's lightsaber is sold for more than $3 million.

What's in a name? A famous question posed by Shakespeare. But it might well be asked of the White House, because Donald Trump has a faithful. officially ordered that the Department of Defense should be renamed the Department of War. It's been called the Department of Defense since 1949, but signing the order in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest it being given that name as a concession to liberal sensibilities. We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between, and then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense.

So we're going to Department of War. We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world. Every element of the military we make the best by far. Standing at the president's side was Pete Hegeseth, who of course, until now has been known as America's Defense Secretary. But Mr. Trump introduced him as the Secretary of War, and he certainly spelled out what he thought the name change meant.

The War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It's going to fight to win, not to lose. We're going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. In fact, the U.S. President isn't actually allowed to change the name of the Department of Defense. He needs Congress's approval. And when I spoke about this with our North America correspondent, Aruna J. Mukagi,

he suggested this was a case where appearance was what might be. mattered. Well, loaded with optics, isn't it? President Trump is doing this by way of an executive order, but will need congressional approval. That is very clear. The department will initially use the new name as a secondary title while the administration seeks congressional approval to make the change permanent. Now, the order says the Secretary of Defense beat Hexeth, who, as you pointed out, will now be known as Secretary for War. It instructs him to recommend and include legislative and executive actions to move towards the permanent renaming of this department. But this would lie, the responsibility would solely rest with the US Congress. But last month, in an

indication, the President, while speaking to reporters, had said that he was confident that the Congress would support the idea if it did come down to that where their support was needed. So it really remains to be seen how this actually plays out. Well, so much for the labels. We heard Pete Hexeth there rising to his new title. Now, bear in mind that Donald Trump rose to power, promising not to get involved in foreign wars. When you have that sort of very militant talk, lethal use, does you think it marks a change in stance? Well, you know, it's also interesting and important to bear in mind that this has been pushed by a precedent who has tried to portray himself as a leader who is trying to stop wars, right? He doesn't lose any opportunity to remind people of the role

that he believes he's played in resolving global conflicts around the world. So some will be critical of this decision and perhaps see it as contradictory that he'll, a precedent who on the one hand wants to be seen as a peacemaker, but then also wants to replace the word defense with war. They're reverting to a name used for over 150 years until just after World War II. And the message is clear. It's a muscular sort of message. It's not just about defense, but by using the name war, it's also about going on the offense. In fact, in a statement now from the Department of War, it says, while we hope for peace, we will prepare for war. Defense isn't enough. We've got to be ready to strike and dominate us.

our enemies. So it's a more aggressive stance when it comes to talking about conflict and the armed forces. So I think this will be seen in that light. And Donald Trump has repeatedly flirted with this idea. But the timing, some also point out is very interesting. You know, coming days after what we saw was that massive military parade in China where Beijing showcased their firepower, which was also seen as a clear message to the US and its allies. Arunaday Mukerji. And we're staying with Matt as American because since coming to power, Donald Trump has had a simple message for foreign manufacturers. If you want to sell your goods in the US, build them in the US.

Well, one company doing that is the Korean car firm, Hyundai, which has a factory in the state of Georgia, a factory which on Thursday was targeted by immigration officials. They arrested hundreds of people in a raid on the complex. My colleague James Menendez got more details from our North America correspondent, Nomia Iqbal, who explained that this is fast becoming an international incident. South Korea itself has said that it's concerned and regretful. It expressed that to the U.S. Embassy. So at the moment, the details are a little bit vague, but this is all part of Donald Trump's

big mass deportation plan. And agents from immigration and customs enforcement, known as ICE, basically said that this was over unlawful employment practices and other serious federal crimes, but they've not gone into exact details of what the crimes are. And as you mentioned, I mean, President Trump's made a big thing of deporting people who may have be working in the US illegal. At the same time, though, he's also talked about foreign companies investing more in factories in the US. And I guess this is a prime example of that, isn't it? It's really awkward, isn't it? Because, yes, on the one hand, he wants foreign countries, he wants trade.

And the South Korea president was only here a week ago where they were talking about doing more trade. South Korea is the world's 10th largest economy. It's a major car in electronics manufacturer. They've got companies have multiple plants in the US. And back in July, Seoul pledged about $350 billion in US investment. That was to try and lower President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on its products, which he ended up setting at 15%.

And so this particular, a plant that was raided in Georgia, the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, Republican, who, by the way, has a very difficult relationship with Donald Trump, had said last year when the plant was unveiled, this is the largest economic development in the history of the state. And so, yes, so you have it, that on one hand, they want investment in the US, but on the other hand, Donald Trump really wants to carry out this mass deportation plan. He, that was his big campaign promise. and this is what he's doing. But it's putting him in quite a bind, I would say.

So South Korea is not happy about it. I mean, has Hyundai given any more details about who the people might be and their relationship to the company? They've not given any details. All they said was that, just looking at the statement, that they are across it, but they understand that no one that they employed was arrested. So that's the only details that they've given so far. I mean, on a slightly related note, I guess, I mean, this comes against a sort of economic picture related to unemployment that it seems to be darkening for President Trump, doesn't it?

Yeah. I mean, look, Donald Trump is, there's a lot of goals that he has certainly set. If you look at the first job reports, and that's since Donald Trump fired the data chief, it's the US has added about 22,000 jobs in August. And that's actually. much shorter than what was expected. So I think the expectation by economists was that the US would gain 75,000 jobs last month, but that's not actually happened. Donald Trump, as I mentioned, fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Donald Trump is trying to seek a major change in terms of who heads up the Bureau. Nomya Iqbal. It's been a pretty tumultuous day here in Britain on the political front. The leader of the right-wing party Reform outlined what it would do in government, which included a crackdown on immigration and cuts to welfare. Nigel Farage and reform were once

dismissed as cranks on the fringes of the political scene, but the parties now way ahead in the polls. It's built up support in part by scathing criticism of Britain's current political leadership. And just as Mr Farage was getting ready to speak at his party's annual conference, the UK Deputy Prime Minister resigned in the wake of a financial scandal, which had been dogging her for days. Mr Farage told the conference that once again, the old guard of British politics was on its way out. There is a new, strong, unified party that speaks with one voice that knows it's determined to put the interests of Britain and the British people above that of outdated international treaties or dubious courts. are the patriotic party. We are the party that stands up for decent working people, and we are

the party on the rise. Reform won just five seats at the last general election, so how have they ended up being tipped to win the next one? A question for our political correspondent, Rob Watson. I think the answer to that, Paul, is that there is just a large chunk of the electorate in Britain that thinks that the two parties, first of all, the Conservatives for 14 years, but now one year of labor, just haven't tackled the three issues that matter the most of them, and that is stagnating living standards, the sense of public services, the state crumbling, and levels of immigration, which many people consider too high. In addition to that, of course, the Reform Party, particularly its leader, Nigel Farage,

has been extremely effective communication. I mean, I think it's worth pointing out, Paul, that, of course, they haven't won the election yet. They're ahead in the polls, but there is at least. four years to go to the next general election, but I would say this, and I think this is the real significance, what Britain is seeing now is what has happened in other European countries, and that is Britain now has, like France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and others, it has a significant party on the populist right, and that is something we haven't had in Britain before, we have it now. Rob Watson, type 2 diabetes is a serious medical condition, one that's become increasingly common

across the world. So it's obviously a blow for people when they told they have diabetes. It requires not just medical intervention, but also a change of diet and sometimes it's a change of one's overall lifestyle. But for 55,000 people in the UK, there was a twist to the diagnosis. They were told they had diabetes and then months later it emerged. They didn't and that this was all down to a fault in the testing machines. Among those given false information was Vicki Davis. I was fuming. I was really annoyed and I've been annoyed since because it was a real stress. Having the diagnosis when I first got it, I just thought, I can't believe, I can't believe it. I was, I was really upset about it. So it's been a long time being stressed and then all of a sudden

I'm told I don't have it. Britain's Health Service, known as the NHS, is still trying to work out exactly how many people were affected by this mistake. But we know that some had already begun taking prescribed drugs to deal with the condition, which they didn't actually have. Our health editor, Hugh Pim, has been hearing more. One patient said she suffered with stomach pain and dizziness after being given medicine to reduce blood glucose. The Royal College of GPs said this would be of huge concern because of unnecessary distress and anxiety for patients

and there would be a significant impact on workload ensuring the correct tests were now carried out and records updated. The manufacturer said it, was working closely with the medicines regulator and had contacted hospitals using the machines. NHS England said the clinical risk was low and the problem affected about 10% of hospital labs. But a spokesperson said work to establish whether other patients were affected was ongoing. Hugh Pim. Now, in an auction house far, far away, though not a long time ago, a piece of cinema history has been sold for a record sum. This was none other than the lightsaber

wielded by Darth Vader in two of the original Star Wars films. And it went under the hammer for, believe it or not, $3.65 million. That makes it the most expensive piece of Star Wars memorabilia ever sold. Thursday's auction in Los Angeles also saw a Spider-Man costume from the 2002 film sold for more than $200,000. And someone picked up Harry Potter's wand for a mere $80,000. But it was Darth Vader's weapon of choice,

which got all the attention, as Claire Run Aker's reports. If you're a Star Wars fan, this is one of the pieces of merch to own. Darth Vader's fighting lightsaber used in one of the most famous scenes in the saga. And Darth Vader, portrayed by David Prowse, battles Luke Skywalker in Cloud City. The force is with you, young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet. The special effects expert Adam Savage was given a preview of the piece by Brandon Allinger from the auctioneer's prop store for his tested show.

Let's get it. Let's crack it open. All right. Tadda. Dude. They couldn't contain their excitement. Nobody has really ever seen this. You know, it's been locked away for decades. This has been in a private collection this whole time.

Yeah. Coming to light for the very first time, there's never been any decent pictures of it. You know, you get. Some looks at it in the movie. We've been able to screen match and photo match a couple small details. But most of the time, it's either Dave Prouse or Bob Anderson, the stunt double, and they've got those big Darth Vader gloves wrapped around it. So you get no details.

You just don't see it. Adapted from the handle of a vintage camera, it originally had a wooden blade attached, which was coloured in glowing red by animators in post-production. Now the bladeless, battered, and scribed. Cratched Hilt holds the title of the highest-priced Star Wars item ever to go under the hammer. All too easy. That report by Claire Run Acres.

Still to come. I had the realisation that I want to make a washing machine that works for you, Vivya, and I will bring this washing machine to you. The power of the humble washing machine to transform lives. America is changing, and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.

I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Israel has a new target in Gaza, it says, high-rise buildings. The country's military said on Friday that multi-story structures were being used by Hamas and would be attacked in the coming days. And as if to prove the point, one was destroyed just an hour later. Our Middle East Bureau chief Joe Floto explained more to my colleague,

James Kumarasami. Gaza's a relatively flat area of land and the taller buildings give some kind of military advantage the army, say, to Hamas. So what they're doing is systematically destroying those buildings and we've had a very spectacular detonation

of one of the few remaining high rises left in Gaza City, the Mushtar Tower in the Ramal area of the city. That was a sort of upmarket part of town incidentally where the BBC used to have its offices in that area. That tower block was disdemeaned. destroyed thoroughly, but on the outskirts of Gaza City, this has been a relentless progression

of the Israeli military and satellite pictures and mobile phone footage from the ground reveal that they haven't been going house to house to clear those buildings. They've just been destroying them. The level of destruction is extraordinary. And as you'd expect, there are casualties alongside that, the Ministry of Health in Gaza that is run by Hamas. But they say that in the last 24 around 69 people have been killed and more than 400 have been injured in that assault. And video footage of a different sort released today by Hamas showing two of the hostages. Yeah, absolutely. It's a very calculated video. Two hostages who were abducted from the Nova Dance Party on October the 7th,

Gai Gilboa Dalal and Alon O'Hel. And they are shown in this video and the video essentially tracks Gai Gilboa through Gaza City. It's very obvious that the car windows show what's going on behind and they stop outside the ICRC offices inside Gaza, just to let everyone know that they are in Gaza City, and he meets up with Alon O'Hal, both of them look pitifully thin and very, very pale, suggesting that they haven't seen any daylight at all in the last 700 days, which is how long this conflict has been going on.

And the point of the video, I think, and one of the hostages mentions that there are eight comrades. I think the message is that there are eight hostages in Gaza, city and they're not going to move them. And this is some kind of signal from Hamas to the Israeli government to stop the assault. But that doesn't look like it's going to happen. Joe Floto in Jerusalem, speaking to James Kumarasami. In Israel itself, the failure to recover the remaining hostages and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reluctance to bring the warts to an end have led to continued protests. Among those most critical of the government is the

historian Fania Oz Salberger, daughter of perhaps the most well-known, Israeli writer, the late Amos Oz. Many of her fellow citizens, she says, have suspended their sense of empathy. Well, there have been polls that show that many Israelis are indifferent to Gaza or worse. This kind of poll is what I call a deeply post-traumatic poll. People haven't had time to breathe or to register their fear and their grief and their shock by the 7th of October. It's not going to last forever this kind of emotional inability and a lot of Israeli citizens and within the big demonstrations for the hostages and for ceasefire, you see a lot of signs

saying, stop the suffering in Gaza, do not cause hunger to innocence in Gaza. You see this in almost every demonstration. So we are coming up, you know, we are coming up and beginning to be. able to emphasize with the civilians and innocence of our fearful enemy. It does not help and people tell me, as a peace and democracy activist, you should hurry up and ask Netanyahu while these people are sitting comfortably in their armchairs elsewhere and haven't been through the 7th of October. And are not surrounded by people who were through the 7th of October and do not have friends

who were horrifically bereaved on the 7th of October. Fortunately, I belong to this group, and so do many thousands of Israelis. So we are trying to pick up pace in our anti-netanyahu, anti-constitutional coup d'etat policy, and of course, against the war and against racism. It takes time. We are hoping to get there, and we need the help. and not the criticism of moderate people around the world. Fania Oz Salzberger.

The various wars which have broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo are known for having many different factions fighting each other, with different conflicts sometimes overlapping, ethnic clashes, battles over land, and with surrounding countries sometimes getting involved. Now, investigators from the United Nations have said that crimes against humanity have been committed in the east of the country.

That's where a Rwandan-back rebel group M23 has been battling government troops. A global affairs reporter in Nairobi, Richard Kugoy, told me what exactly the UN had found. The UN is referring to, say, like, the use of intimidation, torture against a civilians population. So in this case, the M23 rebel group that has been seizing territory in eastern Congo, attacking people who are sheltering in hospitals, those that were sheltering in schools during the the takeover of the city of Goma towards the end of last year. There have been incidences and cases of girls and women have been taken captive and used even for sexual purposes or perhaps as sex slaves.

And there have also been incidences where young people, you know, children, boys under the age of 15, have been forcedly conscripted to fight along the M23 rebels. There have been long-standing complaints of quite horrific atrocities. is being committed in that conflict in the DRC. Does it actually add anything to have added to this the category of crimes against humanity? I mean, it just shows the severity of the kind of human rights violations that have been committed just as the conflict has been raging on for the past three years.

So just helping people understand the kind of suffering that people have been subjected to in eastern part of Congo, whether this is really going to yield results in terms of bringing those who are responsible behind this to accountability is something else. Richard Kugoy, let's end this podcast with an invention that began as a way to help a friend and has gone on to help thousands. Around the world, an estimated 5 billion people still wash their clothes by hand, often spending hours a day and suffering aching joints and skin irritation. It was something that struck a Sikh engineer from Britain, Navjot Soony,

when he spent a year as a volunteer in southern India. And what he came up with was a hand-cranked machine, named after his neighbour in the village where he stayed, as he explained to Nkim Iphajika. The most beautiful friendship I have on the street is with a lady called Divya. She has two kids. She feels like the thing that's keeping her back is the household chores. She washes clothes every single day, sometimes for two to three hours a day. and I have conversations all the time about why does she wash clothes like this? I'll buy you an electric washing machine.

And she says to me, Nav, I wouldn't be able to power this electric wash machine. I don't have running water all the time. Your electric washing machine wouldn't have any effect on my life. I had the realization that I want to make a washing machine that works for you, Divya, and I'm going to promise you that I will come back here and I will bring this washing machine to you. Nav signed up for a master's degree in humanitarianism, conflict and development.

And in 2018, less than two years after his revelation in India, he joined forces with his fellow students to get the washing machine project started. We're eating our samosas in my mum's kitchen. Thanks, ma'am. And we see the salad spinner. we're like, why don't we just create a salad spinner, but with clothes, didn't it? And we literally start washing our socks in this salad spinner.

And it's funny because the salis spinner has never been used for food ever again. The machine is a big steel drum standing about 1 metre 20 off the ground. Mounted on wheels, it's really light. You put the clothes, water and detergent into a door on the top. And there's a handle on the front which you turn to do the wash. and a tap where you empty out the water once you've finished. They are made from very thin sheets of steel, easy to transport and fold into shape,

and easy to dismantle. They have now distributed nearly 1,000 machines to 11 countries around the world. That includes Tamil Nadu in India, the place where the idea was born. Sarasu Murugan is 42 and has three jobs as well as doing all the household chores. When I used to wash clothes, sitting or squatting, I would get severe pain in the bones around my hip and shoulder. I spent my free time now with my children. Spending such time with the children gives me happiness.

For her daughter Ishwarya, it means more time to pursue her dream of becoming a diplomat. She's at school at the moment, but also has to help her mother with the chores. It helps us in many ways, like time-consuming, and even, my sister can do that work, my father can do, he can't wash clothes by his hands, but he can do it in the washing machine. So if I became an officer, I'll get schemes like this to introduce in my country to help those children. It has changed my life. It can also change girls' life like me. Seven years after his promise to his neighbour, Divya, now returned to the village where it all started.

And there Divya is waiting outside her house and everyone is so emotional and she turns to the washing machine for the first time and everyone starts clapping and crying. And she says, Nav, there are millions of people like me around the world. Go find them and that's what we're doing.

Navjot Soaney, ending that report by Nkemiphajika. 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, all the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag, hash global newspod. This edition was mixed by Daniel Fox and the producers were Alison Davies and Guy Pitt. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Paul Moss. Until next time, goodbye.