Global News Podcast - Trump replaces National Security Adviser Mike Waltz

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

President Trump ousts Waltz and nominates him for UN post. Waltz had added a journalist to a group chat on military plans. Also: President Zelensky hails minerals deal as "truly equal partnership."

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You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Friday, the 2nd of May. President Trump replaces his national security adviser, Mike Walz. Ukraine hails the minerals deal with the US as a truly equal partnership. And we look ahead to the Australian election this weekend. Also in the podcast, a world first for Alzheimer's research. We sprint into a taxi into our lab and try and really get it from brain into the incubator in less than two hours.

We hear from a scientist using live brain tissue in the hunt for a cure for dementia. In the week he marked 100 days of his second presidency, Donald Trump has carried out his first cabinet-level sacking. The US President confirmed he was replacing Mike Walz as National Security Advisor. In theory Mr Walz is being moved to the post of UN Ambassador, but he'll need to be confirmed by the US Senate. And that may prove tricky given Mr Walz's key role in Signalgate when he mistakenly added a journalist to a White House group chat about an attack on the Houthis in Yemen.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now double up as National Security Advisor on an interim basis. News which surprised State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as she heard about it during a briefing. So that is the miracle of modern technology and the social media. So that is an exciting moment here. I think that as I know Secretary Rubio, this is a man who is, I think you all know, has worn several hats in managing the nature of what's happened here at the State Department, at USAID. He's someone who's well known by the President.

The departure of Mr. Walz could increase the pressure on US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared secret information on the group chat and another personal one. Richard Blumenthal is a Democratic Senator. The question is whether the right person's being held accountable. I think there has to be accountability for the mistakes and the errors that have been made but I think the Secretary of Defense ought to bear that responsibility. The Secretary of Defense should be fired and should have been fired before Mr. Walz. Our North America correspondent Anthony Zirka gave us his

thoughts on the day's events. It is significant and that is the first big senior leadership shake up in the second Trump term, something that we saw all the time in the first Trump presidential term. After all, Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's first national security adviser, only lasted a matter of weeks before he was replaced. So by that comparison, Walt's actually hung around for a while, 100 days plus. But it is, it's interesting to see him moved to a UN ambassador because that is a job that is going to require Senate confirmation. So it gives Donald Trump's political opponents, the Democrats in the Senate, a chance to rehash all of the controversies around Signalgate, all of the questions about Donald Trump's foreign policy in his first 100 days in this second term under oath and under the cameras and spotlights. So it's a soft landing for Waltz. I think it's

also an indication that Donald Trump, while he is acknowledging that that national security advisor is not going to work out for Waltz, that he doesn't feel betrayed by him. He doesn't feel like he is someone who needs to be punished necessarily, has just moved farther away from Washington. It's not a promotion certainly, but it is at least not an embarrassing dismissal, like some of the some of the fire wings we saw in that first Trump presidential term. Do you think he'll get through that nomination process? Because if he doesn't, it's quite a lot of political flak they'll take for nothing. It is a risk and that's why it was somewhat surprising that that was the landing spot that they chose for him and obviously there have been Donald Trump nominees who have been more

controversial than Mike Waltz. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense nominee, barely made it through a confirmation process that was incredibly acrimonious. And so I don't think Waltz comes in with that kind of baggage. And he is a former member of Congress, which should get him a little bit of consideration. What you have to do when you look at confirmation fights in this Senate is look and see if there are any Republicans who are going to turn on him. And it would take three Republicans, actually four Republicans to turn on him in order to sink his nomination.

And while you could think of maybe there could be a couple who might be wavering, it's hard to envision that many Republicans bailing on a Donald Trump pick, even though it could end up being embarrassing during these confirmation hearings for Trump and for Waltz. And what does his departure as national security advisor mean for the balance in terms of foreign

policy expertise in the Trump administration? I think that's interesting because the Signalgate controversy was not the only knock on Mike Waltz within the Trump administration. He had enemies and critics within the senior leadership team of Donald Trump's White House, even before that embarrassing episode unfolded. And the reason is he was viewed as more of a hardliner, more of a hawk when he was in Congress and even when he was in the White House than a lot of the people around Donald Trump who are less interested in an internationalist engaging foreign policy.

People like Vice President JD Vance who was more interested in ending the Ukraine War quickly whereas Walz was more of an anti-Russia hawk. There were people out to get him, people who were not thrilled that he was in that spot and his removal suggests that those people, the people who have a more domestically focused agenda perhaps, that they are gaining the upper hand in this White House. North America correspondent Anthony Zirka. The Ukraine minerals and fossil fuels deal being discussed at the time of the Oval Office bust-up was seen by some as weighted heavily in favour of the US but the

updated agreement signed in Washington on Wednesday has been hailed as quote truly equal by President Zelensky. He said it was the result of his meeting with President Trump on the sidelines of the Pope's funeral. The US has also welcomed the deal but Russia has so far kept silent. More from our diplomatic correspondent James Landau. At the heart of this deal is a simple idea. What has Ukraine got that America wants and can Ukraine use that to bind America close? Those were the questions President Zelensky posed last year in his so-called peace plan

and now finally we have some answers. A joint reconstruction fund with Ukraine and the United States as equal partners. Massive investment in the extraction of Ukraine's critical minerals, oil and gas and the infrastructure needed to do that. Yes, the US will ultimately get half the revenue, but the deal reaffirms the country's commitment to Ukraine's future. And in the small print, a big concession. Past American military aid worth billions of dollars will not count on the balance sheet as

the White House wanted. Instead, Ukraine will compensate the US only for future military support. Little wonder Yuri Sak, an advisor to the Minister of Strategic Industries, sounded so optimistic. It constitutes a part of the wider negotiating framework, which we hope will lead to establishment of lasting, enduring and just peace. It took longer than everybody expected to sign this deal because both teams, the Ukrainian team as well as the US team, they both worked very hard to ensure that it's a deal about partnership. This is a long term deal. It may take many years to find, mine and process Ukraine's

resources, let alone make any profits. But Andy Hunder, who is president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said there was profit to be had. It's risky to invest in Ukraine, but it's more risky not to invest in Ukraine. And there is a premium, a premium for bravery. So those companies that do come in first, they will reap the rewards. And they will get the premium of being first on the ground during this biggest recovery. This deal is not just about economics. Ukraine's allies hope it may now be harder for the US to pull out of peace talks, as

it has threatened to do if there's no progress. And after weeks of stop-start negotiations, Donald Trump finally has something he can claim as a win. But an economic deal is not a peace deal. And that still looks some distance off. James Landau. And as we record this podcast, the US Vice President JD Vance has told Fox News the war in Ukraine is not going to end anytime soon. He said it's going

to be up to the Russians and Ukrainians now that each side knows what the other terms for peace are. It's going to be up to them to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that the supreme goal of the war in Gaza is victory over Hamas rather than the return of the hostages. The main group representing the hostage families has reacted angrily. Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian chief has called on the Israeli government to lift what he called its brutal blockade on Gaza. Sebastian Asher reports from Jerusalem. Critics of Mr Netanyahu in Israel have time and again accused the Prime Minister

of prioritizing the continuation of the war in Gaza over the fate of the remaining hostages there. Speaking at an event in Jerusalem to mark Israel's Independence Day, Mr Netanyahu made clear that this was indeed his aim. This war has a supreme objective and that supreme objective is victory over our enemies and we will achieve it. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel immediately issued a statement expressing its alarm, insisting that returning the hostages must be the supreme

goal that should guide the Israeli government. Israel is a country divided by the resumption of the war in Gaza, but there appears to be a majority who believe that freeing the hostages should be the priority they take to the streets week after week to make their feelings known. In Gaza, Israel's blockade of aid supplies has now lasted for two months amid increasingly urgent warnings of the consequences from aid agencies. The UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has issued a statement saying that Israel has been blatantly honest about its aim to put pressure on Hamas, but he says that international

law is unequivocal in requiring Israel as the occupying power to allow humanitarian support in. Sebastian Ascher in Jerusalem. Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, affects millions of people around the world. But scientists here in Britain have made a breakthrough in efforts to find a cure. Doing research on live human brain tissue for the first time, they were able to observe how a protein linked to Alzheimer's destroys the connections or synapses between healthy brain cells. It's hoped the technique will make it easier to test new drugs. Dr Claire Durran from the UK Dementia Research Institute

told me how they did it. So when we say we work with living human brain, you and I are not going to be too happy about handing over a piece of our brain. So where do we get it from? And the sad reality is there are a lot of individuals who have brain tumors who have to have surgery to remove those tumors. And what the surgeons often have to do in order

to access that tumor safely is to take a little flap of normal brain out, and that would normally go in the bin. However, with the permission of the patient and that would normally go in the bin. However, with the permission of the patient, instead of it going into the bin, it comes into my lab where we can do some amazing science. And you had to basically race to get it to your lab so you could use it. Absolutely. So a member of my team or myself, we're scrubbed in into the surgery, we're there with a bottle of liquid to catch the piece of brain and we sprint into a taxi into our lab

and try and really get it from brain into the incubator in less than two hours from start to finish. And once you've got it, how do you use it in terms of studying Alzheimer's? So we have very, very thin slices of the brain tissue in a dish and what we do is we take brains from people who have died without Alzheimer's disease, who've donated them for research, we extract the toxic proteins that accumulate in that brain, so amyloid beta, and we apply it to the healthy living brain in a dish. And that means we can study how that toxic protein might kill the connections between nerve cells called synapses, which we know is really important for dementia. So, in effect, you actually infect the fragments of brain cell. And what did you see once you'd

done that? So, really excitingly, we saw that the A beta binds to and kills synapses in a dish, which is the first time it's been shown for sure in living human brain. So we're really excited by that because being able to kill synapses sounds like a bad thing. But from a scientist's point of view, it's a great thing because it means we can test things that might stop that from happening in real disease. Yeah. Have you managed to start doing that? Or is that something that will come in the months and years ahead? It's hopefully something that will come in the months and years and heads. We have lots of ideas we want to follow up. One thing is we want to try and harness the

brain's natural repair system. So interestingly, when we artificially make the brain produce its own normal A beta, so a non-toxic form of this protein, we see that that also damages synapses, but at the same time, we see these repair processes kicking in. So the brain knows how to respond to A beta in a way to repair it, but just seems to fail to do so in response to toxic A beta. So if we can work out why it's failing to do so, that's the target we're going to be heading for. So is this the first time that anyone's actually witnessed Alzheimer's operating in real time? I think certainly in a live human brain in this case, yes. So we've not seen, we've seen it in sort of mouse models, we've seen it in cells, but in terms of actually watching

what real Alzheimer's disease, A beta, extracted from real people who've died of the disease in living brain tissue, this is a world first. And so what's your overall feeling having achieved this milestone? I think us along with other scientists we're really entering a new age of dementia research. We're creating better research tools like we are in my lab, we're finding out new information and we're driving towards what we hope will be treatments for people living with this awful disease in the future. Dr Claire Durant of the University of Edinburgh. Still to come on the Global News podcast…

A sequestered group, a locked room, you have to come up with a solution, you have to elect one of your number. It's an absolute natural for drama, it almost evades all the classical rules of a drama. Why choosing the next pope makes for great literature and cinema. Good Bad Billionaire is the podcast that maps out how the world's billionaires made all their money. One of our newest billionaires is Mexican-American actress, singer and beauty entrepreneur Selena Gomez. made all their money. incredible story of Selena Gomez on Good, Bad, Billionaire. Listen on the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts. Australia's election campaign was expected to be defined by the cost of living. But events

elsewhere – Ukraine, the Middle East and Donald Trump's tariffs – have forced candidates to address international issues as well. So how will that play out in the vote? Katie Watson has this report. Hey, Black Town, are you ready to rodeo? Let's make some noise. You could be mistaken for thinking we're in America's Midwest here, watching a rodeo with an audience who've donned their cowboy boots,

their cowboy hats. They're all focusing right now on riders being thrown off balls in the dirt arena in front of us. But we are in Western Sydney and Australians are sat in their fold-up camping chairs and swinging a beer. It feels very Australian. Ladies and gentlemen, when that shoegate cracks, let's make some noise for all that beer! Politics has, of late, felt like a wild ride.

Every day, Australia's leading candidates trying to control their message on the campaign trail. Not always successfully. One thing's clear though. With Donald Trump threatening trade wars, criticising President Zelensky over Ukraine and the division from the war in the Middle East, shifting global politics has thrown their campaign somewhat off course. I think the terrorist protections are great for America. We should have had terrorist protections many years ago. It looks bad now because they used to assist them with selling assets overseas. Trump's the best thing of America.

It's going nuts. I don't know, I'm just sitting back and watching. It's a bit like a show. I'm just watching. It's quite interesting to watch. I mean it's entertaining. It probably affects me more than I realise but I just choose to ignore it. It's the halfway mark of the election campaign and tonight... Politicians though can't ignore it. This past month, Labour Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who wants a second term, and his rival Peter Dutton of the Liberal National Coalition have faced each other in a series of debates and Donald Trump has consistently featured.

What is that Mr Albanese and what exactly are you offering Donald Trump? Well we'll engage diplomatically not through a interview, but we have put forward a proposition to the United States. The trouble is that Anthony didn't think that Donald Trump was going to be elected and put nothing into the relationship. And unfortunately... Not everyone though satisfied with the answers. Which is why independent candidates and smaller parties are expected to do well out of voters

fed up with traditional politics. Kate Cheney is an independent candidate in Western Australia, hoping to retain her seat. Since Trump has come in, we've seen a huge shift in the global geopolitical border. And Australia's in this position where the US is a close ally and has been for 80 years but China is our major trading partner so we have to balance these interests very carefully. Here in Australia early voting has been underway for nearly two weeks now and there's a long list of things people want to see improvements on.

It's like overall like an economy and also defence. Energy policy and cost of living. I care a lot about climate change and also queer rights. A lot of the world is turning very conservative I guess. That's very scary to me. Back at the rodeo, cheerleaders are keeping the audience motivated ahead of some barrel racing. Australians pride themselves on mateship, staying on side with friends matters. Voters here will be keen to see how their next leader will ride out this unpredictability.

I got a three night run, we're gonna kick it off in Birmingham. Katie Watson reporting from Australia. Kneecap are no strangers to controversy. The Irish language rappers are famed for their righteous performances and provocative lyrics, attracting big crowds at music festivals and winning a BAFTA award. But they faced criticism after speaking out about the war in Gaza and over a video in which they appear to say, kill your local member of parliament. They're now being investigated by British counter-terrorism police, as I heard from our culture reporter Charlotte Gallagher.

Well, this has kind of been rumbling on for the last few days, Ollie, and videos had been passed to police in the UK of two incidents, alleged incidents, at kneecap concerts. So the first one involves one of the band members allegedly saying, the only good Tory is a dead Tory. Now, a Tory is a conservative MP. And then one of them apparently said, kill your local MP. The second video relates to another band member allegedly saying up Hamas, up Hezbollah, which are band groups in the UK. So it's an offence to express support for them. Now these videos were passed to them and then today the Metropolitan Police have said they are investigating these for possible offences that may have been committed. Then what does the band say about that? Well the band issued a statement when the families of two murdered MPs came forward and said they

were really upset by what had been said and they said we never intended to cause you hurt addressing the families and that they reject any suggestion they would seek to incite violence against upset by what had been said. And they said, we never intended to cause you hurt addressing the families and that they reject any suggestion they would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. So they were the statements they gave out. And they also said they didn't support Hamas or Hezbollah. And they are very vocal as well about Gaza and the Israeli military. They believe the Israeli military is carrying out war crimes in Gaza. They've been very vocal about that. That has been criticized by people like Sharon Osborne. And some people have actually called for them to have their US visas cancelled. They've

got a sellout US tour coming up. And some people are saying that shouldn't be allowed. They accuse them of being anti-Semitic. Niqab say we're not anti-Semitic. We are criticizing Israeli government policy, not Jewish people. There's also pressure on them from politicians here, but they've also had support from other artists. Yes, I mean, firstly, there is a lot of pressure from some politicians, particularly surrounding the Glastonbury Festival, which is the huge music festival that we have here in the summer. Some people have called for them to be removed from the lineup. But as you said, they've had support from other well-known musicians, so Massive Attack, Pulp, Paul Weller, who they've played a gig with before. They've said that they are essentially

being subjected to a campaign of intimidation. And they say the past week has seen a clear concerted attempt to censor and ultimately de-platform the band Kneecap, but currently where we stand is that they are being investigated by police and we just don't know what's going to happen to their gigs. Some have been cancelled already, so some in Germany have been cancelled. They were due to play the Eden Project in Cornwall in Britain. That's been cancelled as well. So the next few days we may see more of that. Charlotte Gallagher. Now, is it ethical to create a digital version of a famous dead person? The debate has resurfaced after an online tutoring course was launched providing writing tips from an AI version of Agatha Christie.

You must think of your stories as a puzzle or a game. It is not merely a case of who is the least likely culprit, but how you get there. One also needs to make sure that one is playing fair with clues and plots. That is where it is important to observe the rules of the game. I am Agatha Christie and this is my BBC Maestro course on writing. Well the so-called Queen of Crime is played by an actress whose face and voice have been altered to create a likeness based on images, audio and some video recordings of the author. The storytelling advice is drawn from her letters, interviews and notebooks.

Some say the digital deep fake is unnecessary and even creepy, but it has the approval of Agatha Christie's great-grandson James Pritchard who manages her literary and media rights. So what would she make of it? I have a policy of never really trying to second-guess my great-grandmother for two reasons really, one of which is I believe that way madness lies and secondly she was way more intelligent than I am. We as a family try and do as well as we can in her name and I hope people will see the respect and love we have put into this and take it in that spirit. An awful lot of authors are very worried about the role of AI. Does this actually encourage what is a sort of dangerous advance for a lot of people? I mean the important thing I think from our point of view about this is that the work

done in the background, the writing of the script, the research was all done by people. One of the issues obviously with AI is that people are using material that they have not taken permission for. We believe we have permission for everything we use. So I hope that we are using AI to enhance the ability to share stories, share lessons and therefore it's to the greater good. Agatha Christie's great-grandson James Pritchard talking to Sarah Montague. The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is the second most visited museum in the world, but it's now closed to the public as it's transformed into the place where the new Pope will be elected. The Papal Conclave begins next Wednesday and the Cardinals will remain cut off from the

outside world until they elect a successor to Pope Francis. Since his death there's been a surge in downloads of the award-winning film Conclave. It's based on the book of the same name by best-selling British author Robert Harris. My colleague Julian Marshall asked him what inspired him to write it. When the Conclave of Pope Francis took place, I was watching it on television and I thought this looks fascinating actually. When the faces of the cardinal electors appeared at the windows before the new Pope came out to address the crowd. Crafty, benign, cunning, indifferent. There must have been some politics going on behind the scenes. Can I find out

what it is? Because it had every ingredient for a perfect story, a kind of sequestered group, a locked room. You have to come up with a solution. You have to elect one of your number and a limited electorate. It's an absolute natural for drama. It almost evades all the classical rules of a drama. And when researching the book and you do all the research yourself, how difficult was it to uncover the secrecy that surrounds the conclave?

I mean the Vatican puts up a lot online quite frankly, all the procedures very strictly laid down hour by hour, so that gave me the kind of narrative drive of the book. There have been leaks from what is supposed to be a very secret operation, there was in particular a diary supposedly kept by a cardinal during the conclave that elected Cardinal Ratzinger to become Pope Benedict. And that described how Benedict was ahead in the first ballot, the great liberal hope ran a poor second or third, and it was necessary for the liberals to try and get behind a third candidate, and they chose the man who eventually became Pope Francis.

He lost that election, partly because he gave it up. But it gave me three characters immediately. The disappointed man who'd always expected he would get it, the conservative, the liberal outsider. It was a gift. So I mean, I had that very quickly. I read everything I could about past conclaves and I did actually talk to Cornel, Cornwall McMurphy O'Connor.

I don't think he'd mind now if I disclosed he held me. How much access were you given by the Vatican, particularly access to the physical locations? Well, that was all that I asked for. I knew that they were never going to splurge a load of secrets, but I did think they might show me just the physical locations. And they did agree very kindly. And so I went to the Casa Santa Marta, which is the hostel, which was built by Jean Paul II for all the cardinals to come,

you know, before they used to sleep on the floor. But he built a special place for them to stay. Pope Francis never moved out of it after he was elected. It was part of his whole humble persona to stay there. So I saw that, I saw his room, I saw the Sistine Chapel and the Pauline Chapel where there are prayers, which is the Pope's private chapel. I saw the Vatican Gardens, which were important to me, and I just generally wandered around and got the feel of the place and they were very, very helpful. Conclaves are often reduced by commentators to struggle between conservatives or traditionalists and progressive wings of the church, but as is shown in your book and indeed the film,

it's not as predictable as that. No, it's not at all predictable. It's an explosion really of a psychological drama. It takes place in one of the most beautiful jewels of the Renaissance, the Sistine Chapel, which was built for the purpose. Michelangelo's frescoes and the ceiling were designed to help concentrate their minds. And once the doors close and the balloting begins, anything can happen. I mean to begin with a lot of cardinals quite frankly secretly vote for themselves so they

all get one vote and then it really starts. And what we would call in secular politics momentum, perhaps the most important ingredient in an election, takes hold. They call it the movement of the Holy Spirit. And it's just when really people are looking around and they think, oh, that's the man. And that can be very unexpected and it doesn't really follow party lines particularly, although there are factions. I mean, there is a pattern, isn't there?

There are always factions representing different wings of the church. Yes. The only thing you can say for sure is that by and large the favorite never wins. The saying is, you go in a pope, you come out a cardinal, because it's really a system designed to produce a consensus. And quite often the front-runner is clawed down by people who just don't want that. But of course there are progressives. The late pope represented the progressive forces just as his predecessor represented

the conservative forces. The author Robert Harris. We're planning a special Q&A edition of the podcast ahead of the papal conclave, answering your questions about how the new pope is chosen. We'll look at the process, timetable, the likely candidates and what it could all mean for the Catholic Church. So send us your questions in a voicemail or email to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Nick Randall and produced by Richard Hamilton, our editors Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.

I'm Krassi Ivanova-Tvik from the Global Jigsaw Podcast from the BBC World Service, where we are asking what does the future hold for Kurds living in four countries? The Turkish government and the leader of the biggest militant Kurdish group, the PKK, might have struck a deal that's hoped to put an end to decades of bloody conflicts. But will it? The Global Jigsaw looks at the world through the lens of its media. Find us wherever you get your BBC podcasts.