Global News Podcast - Trump signs executive order to close Department of Education

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

President Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education. Also: the Zimbabwean former swimmer, Kirsty Coventry, becomes first female president of the International Olympic Committee.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Zing Zing. And I'm Simon Jack. And together we host Good Bad Billionaire. The podcast exploring the lives of some of the world's richest people. In the new season, we're setting our sights on some big names. Yep. LeBron James and Martha Stewart, to name just a few. And as always, Simon and I are trying to decide whether we think they're good,

bad or just another billionaire. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Friday the 21st of March these are our main stories. President Trump signs an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education. The first woman, first African and youngest ever International Olympic Committee president

Kirsty Coventry wins at an election held in Greece. As these fine negotiations continue, President Zelensky tells EU leaders that Russia must stop making unnecessary demands that prolong the war in Ukraine. Also in this podcast, thousands of protesters have defied a government ban and rallied for a second day in Istanbul over the arrest of the city's mayor, a key rival to Turkey's President Erdogan.

If his candidacy is blocked, this will lead to much higher support for him because people in Turkey will not allow their ballot box rights to be denied. And why the script of the ground-breaking French film Breathless could fetch $650,000. It was one of Donald Trump's chief pledges in the run-up to the 2024 election, and in the last few hours the President has signed an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, the body which oversees public school funding, student loans and programmes for low-income students. Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump accused the Department of breathtaking failures, claiming that the US hadn't done well in education for a long time.

We're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs and this is a very popular thing to do but much more importantly it's a common-sense thing to do and it's going to work. Absolutely it's going to work and I can tell you from dealing with the governors and others in the state they want it so badly. They want to take their children back and really teach their children individually. Probably the cost will be half and the education will be maybe many, many times better. The Department of Education has a budget of $268 billion, 4,400 staff and affects 50 million

public school students. The Democrats have described the closure as reckless. Joanna Maska is a former White House advisor who served in the Obama administration. It may make people feel better that they feel like they have control because look, we all want our kids to have the best education. But if we don't have the best data and the best tools at every state level,

we have 50 different Department of Education's competing with all of the countries that are providing those resources to their students. Our North America correspondent Merlyn Thomas is following developments. On his own, President Trump cannot scrap the entire department. It was set up with congressional approval and so it will need congressional approval to dismantle it as well. And that is not something that is likely to happen because Republicans would need 60 votes in the Senate. It would need a supermajority.

And that's not something that is unlikely to happen. It's a political long shot. And even in the House of Representatives, President Trump would likely struggle to gain the necessary support as well. And just as a reminder, there was a vote last year to abolish the Education Department and that was attached to another amendment as well, but that failed to pass because 60 Republicans joined Democrats in the House to vote no. So like a lot of other President Trump's policy moves, this is likely to just go into court and legal battles.

But what impact is this executive order going to have now? So President Trump and his Republican supporters and other Republicans have been keen to emphasize that this will really help the test scores in schools and they blame the department for those test results. But actually, a lot of the funding, so individual states already control almost 90% of money that educates children. What does lie with the federal department is actually provision of support

for disabled and low income students. So a lot of critics of this move are saying that the people who are going to be losing out are those children who are more disadvantaged, those who are from low income backgrounds, those who receive particular grants like Pell grants and those are the ones that are federally funded and federally distributed as well. And what's the reaction among people say who have children at school? There's a mixed reaction from people who have children at school. I mean, some Republican supporters are very enthusiastic about this. This has been something that has been

a long-standing wish of the Republican Party, but otherwise the elected adviser Elon Musk celebrated with a picture of Donald Trump and a grave saying Department of Education with a thumbs up. So very mixed reactions. Merlin Thomas. In the history of the modern Olympics, the nine presidents of the International Olympic Committee have all been men, every one of them from Europe or the United States. So the news that a woman and an African has been chosen as the new head of the IOC is making waves, appropriately for a former swimmer who won two gold medals at the Games held in Athens in Beijing. Kirsty Coventry, currently serving as Zimbabwe's Sport Minister, won the secret ballot at a luxury resort not far from Mount Olympus in Greece. She had this to say after

it was announced she'll hold sports highest office for at least the next eight years. As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that I would be standing up here one day getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours. This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger movement. I know from all of the conversations that I've had with every single one of you how much stronger our movement is going to be when we now come back together and deliver on some of those ideas that we all shared. It was an emphatic win over six other candidates bidding for the job. But for a governing body

with a history of corruption and scandals, what will Kirsty Coventry hope to achieve in her presidency? BBC Sports' Alex Kapstik is in Costa Navarino in Greece. It's absolutely an historic day, one that not so long ago people thought wouldn't happen for decades. They felt that the safest bush would be another man. That hasn't happened. They've gone with Kirsty Coventry in the build-up. She didn't want the fact that she was a female to be the reason why she was chosen. She wanted to be picked because she's the right person for the job. But she did say she would bring a different set of skills to the role, some softer skills, and that would help the movement.

And in fact, all the other contenders, just before I spoke to you, they were saying that it's good that a former athlete is in charge of the movement. I think what was surprising is that she won in the first round. This was a race that was said to be very, very close, very fine margins. Nobody thought with seven candidates that one of them would get 50 plus 1% in the first round of voting and that Kirsty Coventry did that. So yeah, it was not a massive surprise she has won but a surprise she did it so quickly. And what are the main issues do you think she faces first? Are you thinking of Russia's involvement in future games, drugs and the whole transgender issue in sport?

Well, I think initially she probably has to convince the world that she's the right person. She's very young, only 41 years old, much younger than any other previous IOC president, by far the youngest of the candidates. She is the current sports minister of Zimbabwe and she has been asked about that and she says she's there because it is better to make change from within. As for the IOC role, this will be something that she has never experienced before in terms of a global and prestigious role like this. It's one with huge challenges ahead. She's certainly got enough support from within the IOC.

It was said that Thomas Back, the outgoing president, was lobbying on her behalf. No one has actually confirmed that and they won't. It isn't allowed. But the challenges that she faces are, well, there's lots of them. And they're mainly on the horizon because the IRC is in a financially stable position. It had a successful Games in Paris. But coming up, there are some dark clouds. The LA Games dealing with Donald Trump, who said that he's going to not allow transgender athletes who want to compete in the female category from entering the USA, athletes from

other countries may struggle to get visas as well. So that's something she's got to look at closely. And then there's Russia's reintegration if peace is made between Russia and Ukraine. That won't be welcomed by all sports and all national federations. And then climate change, a lot of athletes, hundreds of athletes, in fact I've written to the IOC demanding that the new president puts climate change and sustainability right at the top of their list of priorities. Alex Kapstik. A day after speaking to President Trump on ending the war in Ukraine, President Zelensky has been addressing European Union leaders on the need to not give in to Vladimir Putin.

Mr Zelensky told them that the Russian leader must stop making what he called unnecessary demands that prolong the war in Ukraine. As well as political support, the Ukrainian president also called for more military aid. We need funds for artillery shells and would really appreciate Europe's support with at least 5 billion euros as soon as possible. Investments in weapons production are needed both in Ukraine and in your countries. Everything necessary to defend the continent should be produced here in Europe. We must work toward this together.

EU leaders have been meeting in Brussels to discuss the economic and military challenges facing the continent. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard, is there and told me more about whether President Zelensky had got what he wanted. In terms of military aid, Val, probably not. He did get some commitment backing from the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaya Callas, on that request, therefore about $5 billion worth of artillery shells. She's proposed an initiative for EU members to get involved in delivering about 2 million large-caliber artillery shells this year to Ukraine. That hasn't actually been endorsed, though, by

EU leaders, so for the moment it's just a proposal. Obviously Ukraine can't get enough military aid as things stand. We obviously recently had a pause of US military aid that has since restarted but there are ongoing clashes on the both on the front line and also strikes obviously both from Russia against Ukraine and also Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian territory as well. So the combat despite ceasefire talk is still very much ongoing How united are European Union leaders in their attitude to President Zelensky and what's going on in Ukraine? There's very broad support for Ukraine. It's not unanimous. The big naysayer is Hungary. Viktor Orban, he's an ally of President Trump. He very much believes in

President Trump's push to get some sort of rapprochement with Russia. He believes that the time is to be speaking peace and he has never backed military aid for Ukraine. So as regards the summit's position on Ukraine, it was backed by all 26 countries, but not the 27th, which is Hungary. There is other nuances within that, so there are, for example, some countries in southern Europe are more interested in some of the challenges they face rather than the challenges that countries in the EU on the eastern front with Russia are facing. So countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, they're obviously much more concerned about the military threat from Russia than a country like Spain or Portugal, for example.

How far do you think is the EU willing to continue to support President Trump's efforts to end the war? This is a difficult one for the EU because it obviously has a lot of reservations about President Trump's moves and some of what seem like concessions he's made in advance of talks with Russia, but it's treading a very delicate diplomatic line. Europe still depends very much on the U.S. security umbrella, as does Ukraine for military support against Russia. So it's backing President Trump's push for a ceasefire, but it stresses this is not just about Ukraine's security, it's about Europe's security as well, and what's needed is a durable,

comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine so that Russia doesn't restart an aggression later on. Danny Eberhard. Well one issue worrying leaders of countries near Russia is where President Putin might attack next. Many are concerned he may set his sights on the city of Narva in Estonia where almost all the nearly 60,000 people living there speak Russian and which is situated just across the river Narva from Russia itself. From there our Europe editor Katja Adler sent us this report.

NATO, you are cleared for takeoff. This is no ordinary plane ride. I'm on a very loud NATO surveillance plane, a 707, with a huge mushroom-looking radar on top of the aircraft flying over the Baltic states. As I walk down the island, instead of rows of seats, I'm looking at rows of desks with NATO personnel scanning computer screens searching for suspicious activity below by Russia. My name is Aneta and I'm the surveillance controller. We can see two military fighters over there, we assume. It's a Russian activity over Kaliningrad.

So NATO's showing its presence and they're showing theirs? Exactly. I can see Estonia clearly below us. It's policing missions like this and NATO membership, full stop, that for a long time has made the Baltics feel safe. But Donald Trump is changing that with his far more open attitude towards Moscow and his very clear message for Europe. That US military backing can no longer be taken for granted. That sent a chill through NATO members in the Baltics. I'm in the northern town of

Narva by the river of the same name dividing Estonia from Russia. There's a medieval-looking fortress either side of the river, one flying the Russian, the other the Estonian flag, and in between the bridge, one of Europe's last pedestrian crossings still open to Russia. I've come to speak to Border Police Chief Egor Balichev. Estonia's security services say Moscow is constantly testing them. We have a border with the Russian Federation. It's 338 kilometers. There is constant provocations and constant tensions on the border.

We know all the tricks and there is a constant GPS signal jamming. It has huge consequences also how we are able to carry out our tasks on the border. I'm coming out of the customs area where the border police are, back into the driving snow and past a huge queue of shivering people, many of them with cases, waiting to cross over into Russia. Excuse me, how long are you going to Russia for? I'm going for two weeks. My son studied there.

I have a Russian passport and an Estonian ID card. A whopping 96% of people in this part of Estonia are mother-tongue Russian speakers part of Estonia are mother tongue Russian speakers and Estonia worries that a confident Vladimir Putin could use this big ethnic Russian community here as an excuse to invade. It's a playbook he's used before in Georgia and Ukraine. Would NATO allies risk war with nuclear power Russia to defend this tiny corner of tiny Estonia? It's corner of tiny Estonia.

It's a question for Estonia's defence minister, Hanno Pevko. We have to trust our allies, also Americans. President Trump has said lots of different things about NATO. I'm quite confident that attacking just even a piece of Estonia, this is an attack against NATO. And this is the question then to all the 32 members, are we together or not? Mixed messages from Washington and a fear the US could pull out or at least reduce troop presence in Europe means Estonia looks ever more to European allies like the UK, which promises to boost its permanent presence here. Major Alex Humphreys, I'm one of the squadron leaders here with the Royal Jaguars Battle Group and Estonia.

Is it Estonia asking you to do this? And is it saying we feel vulnerable, we feel exposed? I think NATO at large feels exposed, feels the quite prominent and clear threat that is coming from the Russian Federation. We don't want this to come to war, but if it does come to war, we're fully integrated, fully prepared to deliver lethal effect to protect Estonia. Major Alex Humphrey is ending that report by Katja Adler in Estonia. And as you may know, we broadcast a special Q&A podcast on Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, but we're still getting emails, so we're going to do it all over again at the beginning of April. If you'd like to get involved, please

do. Send us your questions on the war, peace negotiations, Donald Trump's intervention and anything else. Our email address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. And if possible, please record your question as a voice note. Still to come in this podcast... It's possible that in some galaxy, a long way away, life like us formed earlier than we thought. It's kind of mind-boggling that we're even able to learn things like this. Scientists have found further evidence that the universe expanded much faster than previously thought after the Big Bang. I'm Zing Zing.

And I'm Simon Jack. And together we host Good, Bad, Billionaire. The podcast exploring the lives of some of the world's richest people. In the new season, we're setting our sights on some big names. Yep, LeBron James and Martha Stewart to name just a few. And as always, Simon and I are trying to decide whether we think they're good, bad or just another billionaire. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service.

Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. casts. Thousands of demonstrators have defied a ban on public protests in Istanbul in support of the city's detained mayor Ekreb Emamoglu, the main rival to President Erdogan. He was arrested days before he was due to be named as presidential candidate. Police have reportedly fired rubber bullets and tear gas at his supporters. His party's leader, Özgür Ozil, accused the government of attempting a coup. He's also said President Erdogan is afraid of the election. We think we will win with Imamoglu as our presidential candidate and if his candidacy

is blocked this will lead to much higher support for him because people in Turkey will not allow their ballot box rights to be denied. Our correspondent Emily Wither is in Istanbul. It definitely feels very tense in Istanbul and we're seeing pressure build on the streets now for a second night, not only in Istanbul but also in the capital Ankara, with demonstrators going out onto the streets and protesting the detention of the very popular mayor here Ekrem Ememoglu. There have also been calls already from the opposition party, the CHP, which Ememoglu belongs to, calling for major rallies tomorrow in 14 cities and 21 provinces.

And this is despite a government ban on protests. We are seeing the protests, some of them being violently broken up by the police. We expect that to continue in the coming days. We've heard from Erdogan for the first time on all of this and the language that he used was a lot softer compared to when he usually wants to attack the opposition. So he said tonight that the opposition were just seeking to cover up internal mistakes. And this is much softer language compared to what we heard from Ekrem Imomolu earlier, the detained mayor who's in custody. He took to social media and he appeared to share a message aimed directly at President Erdogan. He accused him of corruption and he called on members of the ruling AK party and the judiciary to oppose any injustice. And despite

the fact that Imamolu at this point is very likely to be charged and imprisoned, the CHP have said that they are going to go ahead with their internal ballot, which will see around 1.5 million members voting for Ememoglu to be their next presidential candidate in any future elections. They've also called for something else which really could cause a lot of problems on the streets. They have said that they're going to place ballot boxes all over towns and cities across Turkey and they're calling on ordinary members of the public to go out and place a symbolic vote in support of Ekrem Ememoglu. And we also heard from the Turkish opposition leader today,

Özgür Ozil, and he's made an international plea asking for help. He asked Europe, what are you going to do about this injustice? And he said that the EU should not sacrifice Turkey's democracy. Emily Wither. Hamas said its attack on Tel Aviv on Thursday was in response to the massacre of hundreds of civilians. From Jerusalem, here's Don Donison. It was another day of mass casualties in Gaza. More than 80 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes, bringing the total number to almost 600 since Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health, which operates under Hamas.

Israel's military issued a fresh evacuation order across much of the strip as it expanded its offensive. It dropped leaflets in residential areas, telling people to move to so-called safe areas or even to leave Gaza. How or where to, nobody knows. Up until now, Hamas has not responded militarily to Israel breaking the ceasefire. That changed this afternoon when it sent three rockets into Israel. David Mentor is the spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Two hours ago, sirens sounded across central Israel as three rockets were fired. From southern Gaza. Our Air Force intercepted one and two landed in open areas. Israel is fighting to achieve its war goals,

returning all of our hostages, dismantling Hamas's military and governing capabilities and removing the terrorist threat from Gaza. To the people of Gaza, we say very clearly, stay away from Hamas, move to safer areas. Among those suffering the most are Gaza's children. Around 200 of those killed this week have been under the age of 18. Schools across the Strip, which had reopened briefly during the two-month-long ceasefire, are now closed again. 13-year-old Judy in Karnounis now has to teach her younger friends. I feel fear and sadness because there will be bloodshed again. There won't be security and safety anymore.

When we had the ceasefire, we felt a bit safe. I could go to school and we were happy. For Ghazan families, the struggle to survive goes on. The Israeli government blames Hamas. It says Gaza faces complete destruction if Hamas isn't eliminated and all hostages returned. John Donnison. Astronomers say they believe the universe may have developed much faster than previously thought. They have unexpectedly found evidence of oxygen in the most distant

known galaxy, something which is only usually seen after the death of a star. One of the scientists said it was like finding a teenager when you expected to find a baby. Nikki Cardwell reports. The cosmos, in its infinite complexity, has once again defied astronomers' expectations. Teams of scientists have been examining photos of the most distant galaxy ever detected that were taken by the European Southern Observatory and the ALMA telescope in Chile. Because of the length of time it takes for light to reach Earth, the images portray what happened in this star system 13.4

billion years ago at the beginning of the cosmic dawn, not long after the Big Bang. Scientists had thought that at just 300 million years old the galaxy was very early in its life. It should not have contained oxygen because this only usually appears after the collapse of stars within the system. Carol Haswell is a professor of astrophysics at the Open University. She says this discovery is important because oxygen is one of the building blocks of life. It does mean that it's possible that, you know, in some galaxy a long way away, life like us formed earlier than we thought. It's kind of mind-boggling that we're even able to learn things like this.

So I think it's exciting. The discovery challenges current theories about how chemicals evolve and how early galaxies are formed. It appears they develop much faster than had previously been thought. The photos themselves and this discovery are a rare glimpse into the infancy of the universe. Nikki Cardwell. A Beaux De Souffleur, breathless as it's known to many, is the French new wave film that critics revere as a masterpiece of cinema. Its director, Jean-Luc

Godard, never wrote a complete script, sometimes simply making it up as he went along or writing dialogue the night before he shot any scenes. It was a technique that matched the freewheeling camera style of the movie, which was filmed back in 1959. Godard's only known handwritten script for Breathless, which stretches to 70 pages, will be auctioned by Sotheby's in Paris in June and it'll possibly fetch as much as $650,000. As Hugh Schofield reports. From the opening sequence with cocky tough guy Jean-Paul Belmondo driving through rural France and nonchalantly shooting dead a traffic cop, you know you're watching a revolution

in cinema. As Jean-Luc Godard later said of his generation of New Wave directors, we walked into cinema like cavemen into Versailles. The love interest in Breathless was the American Gene Seberg. It was all made on the hoof in Paris, with a tiny budget, minimal lighting and a handheld camera. Oh, yes, and a script that kept changing. Jean-Luc Godard said his best inspirations came at the last minute, so often the actors

were more or less improvising. Jean-Luc Garra said his best inspirations came at the last minute, so often the actors were more or less improvising. It means that this document, put on sale now by the widow of the film's producer, is at best a partial script. Large parts of the film were simply never put down on paper. Not that it matters. All the classic bits are there, notably the ending, when the dying Belmondo, just shot by police on the street, looks up at Seberg and says,

you're disgusting. She's really disgusting. To which she replies... What is disgusting? What is disgusting? You, Schofield, in Paris. And that's our revoir from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it,

send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag at globalnewspot. This edition was mixed by Philip Bull. The producer was Stephanie Tillotson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye bye. Hello, I'm Robin Ince. And I'm Brian Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.

We're going to have a planet off. Jupiter versus Saturn! Well, it's very well done that because in the script it does say, wrestling voice. After all of that, it's going to kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice. And also in this series, we're discussing history of music, recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes. So listen wherever you get your podcasts.