Global News Podcast - UN warns world could warm by a massive 3.1C this century

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

The UN says the world is on track to miss global warming limits by a "catastrophic" margin, leading to dramatic increases in extreme weather events. Also: how did the act of kissing evolve?

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Friday the 25th of October these are our main stories. The UN says the world is on track to miss global warming limits by a catastrophic margin unless there's a huge push to cut carbon emissions. A US prosecutor recommends the re-sentencing of two brothers, Eric and Lyle Menendez, who were jailed for life over the killing of their parents in 1989. The Canadian government says it will sharply cut immigration targets as public support for new arrivals wanes.

Also in this podcast... Would you kiss for the BBC? Please? But seriously, why did we humans start kissing in the first place? we humans start kissing in the first place. We've had climate summit after summit, warning after warning. But the UN is now saying that the chances of limiting global warming to the 1.5°C limit pledged in 2015 are virtually zero unless huge cuts in carbon emissions are made now. The UN says without this world temperatures are now on course to rise to as much as three degrees Celsius. That's double the limit agreed at the

COP Summit in Paris nearly a decade ago. The warning from the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres comes ahead of the next COP Summit, which is due to be held in a major fossil fuel producer, Azerbaijan, next month. The message of today's emissions gap report is clear. We are tittering on a planetary tightrope. Either leaders bridge the emissions gap or we plunge headlong into climate disaster with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most.

Valetitio is the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, a series of low-lying atolls in the Pacific that are particularly at risk. He's currently attending the Commonwealth summit in Samoa. To put it plainly, it is a deaf sentence, not phrases that I use lightly. For us, Tuvalu, if larger nations continue to increase their emission levels, we must confront this crisis collectively as a Commonwealth family. We have a moral responsibility to uphold the commitments we made under the Paris Agreement. Our climate correspondent Matt McGrath told us more. The UN emissions gap report comes out every year and looks at the difference between where countries are in terms of the carbon they're producing and where we need to be to stay under safe levels of warming, which is under the Paris Agreement, under 2 degrees

and trying very hard to stay under 1.5 degrees celsius. What this report shows is that essentially a lot of things aren't working and that emissions in 2023 rose again, they rose by 1.3 percent, which may not sound like a lot but over the past decade that is considerably more than most annual averages and that's because we've had things like increased numbers of people flying because of the rebound from COVID, industry's been using more carbon and in fact also climate change has been making things warmer so people have been using more air conditioning and that's been using more carbon as well. So taking all that together it means we're off track for where we need to be and we're facing pretty consequential temperature rises unless action is taken rapidly over the next number of years. And we've got another climate summit coming up shortly in Azerbaijan,

but how likely is it that countries will heed these warnings given that we've had so many in the past? I think that's an important point. I think seeing this report in the context of the political landscape is very important here. Azerbaijan COP29 is an opportunity for countries to come up with a new financial figure to help countries that are dealing with the impacts of climate change. What we understand from various diplomats is that a new financial figure will help countries unlock their

promises and that will mean bigger carbon cuts. So everything is a kind of an intricate dance going on here. This report shows what would happen if people don't make those cuts. It's putting pressure on those people to agree a financial figure to allow other countries to make those cuts. So that's the kind of context around this report. Obviously it's a scary report. We've had lots of big numbers here, lots of high temperature worries in this report as we've had over a number of years. But I guess what worries the scientists more than anything is that since the last big COP in 2021

at COP26 in Glasgow, nothing much has changed. There's been lots of fine words but very few actions have taken and today's report really shows how that's playing out in the real world. And why is this summit being held in Azerbaijan which is a significant producer of fossil fuels? That's a good question that many people are asking themselves. It's part of the political apparatus of the UN. Last year there was hopes that Bulgaria might be able to host the summit. It's the Eastern European Caucasian nation's turn. Russia objected to that and it was only when the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis came together, the Russians sanctioned the Azerbaijan hosting of the cops.

So it's in Azerbaijan this year, next year it will be in Brazil. I think there's a great deal more expectation about Brazil than there is about Azerbaijan at this moment in time. Matt McGraw, now let's go to the US. Federal Hill Emergency? Yes, police. What's the problem? Sounds... That was the 911 call from 1989 that was the beginning of one of the most infamous murder cases in America's history. It led to the two brothers, Eric and Lyle Menendez, who made the call, being sentenced to life for shooting their parents dead at their Beverly Hills mansion. Now, in a dramatic twist, a California prosecutor has recommended that

they be given a lighter sentence after new evidence emerged which backed up their claims of sexual and physical abuse by their father. This comes after a Netflix drama about the case. The Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gaskin made this announcement. I have to tell you that after a very careful review of all the arguments that were made for people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow. Our correspondent in Los Angeles Peter Bose told us more about why this case became so notorious. It really was a sensational case. There were

two trials. It was a story that captivated America. These two young men, 18 years old and 21 at the time, killing their very wealthy parents. Their father was an executive in Hollywood and the allegation, at least from the prosecution at the time, was that they did it for the money that they'd been hoping to inherit some 14 million dollars from the prosecution at the time was that they did it for the money that they'd been hoping to inherit some 14 million dollars from the estate of their parents but the defense was and this was explained at great length in this first trial, a televised trial, one of the first to be televised, their defense was that they, the two men, young men had feared for their lives after years of sexual

abuse by their father. However, the jurors couldn't agree on a verdict. There was a second trial when much of that evidence pointing to abuse, physical and sexual, was left out and they were convicted. The jurors were unanimous and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now fast forward, this is what 35 years ago to the present day, some new evidence has come to light that seems to support the defence argument that sexual abuse was an issue. There's been this Netflix docudrama and documentary, there's also been a new generation of people who have followed the story on TikTok, many of whom simply weren't born at the time of these murders, and they have been campaigning in the background for a

resentencing, which is what is going to happen. So it does seem that this Netflix drama could have perhaps helped to bring about this new evidence. What's likely to happen next do we think? So, the process from here is that the district attorney is going to recommend to the court, to a judge, that there should be a re-sentencing and it'll be up to the judge to decide and there may well be hearings and the district attorney pointed out, he acknowledged that not everyone in his prosecutor's office agrees with this decision and may well come forward to oppose it at a hearing in the future so it will be up to a judge to decide there will then be a

parole board who will decide on on the details but essentially if the judge agrees it means that they may well be released because they'll still be found guilty of murder but that's caveat of without the possibility of parole will be dropped so that they could in fact be released immediately and that could happen in the next few weeks or months. Peter Bows, Canada has announced plans to significantly reduce the number of immigrants entering the country over the next two years amid waning public support for immigration. Jacob Evans reports. In 2025 and 2026, Canada had planned to bring in about a million new residents, but under the plans announced today, this target has dropped to around 770,000, about a quarter

less. It's a surprising shift for a country with a history of welcoming new arrivals, but follows rising public concern over their impact on jobs and public housing. In a post on X, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the plan was to pause population growth and to let the economy catch up. Jacob Evans, now to Mozambique. The sound there of protesters clashing with the police after the ruling party was declared the winner of the general election earlier this month. Daniel Chappot won more than 70% of the vote with the main opposition leader, Venancio Mondlani, winning just over 20%.

There have been allegations of widespread vote rigging and two aides to the opposition leader have recently been killed. Well, I've got more on this with our correspondent Shingai Nyoka who's been monitoring developments from Zimbabwe. The landslide victory was announced for the governing Frelimo party. He won over 70% of the votes. His Frelimo party won 195 of the 250 parliamentary seats, which is an absolute majority or more than 80%.

But it's the results that left the country deeply divided and at risk of further violence and unrest. We've heard reports that there have been clashes in several towns, including in the northern part of Mozambique, between opposition protesters as well as the police. Earlier today, there had been an almost total shutdown in the capital Maputo after there were calls by the opposition leader, the independent candidate,

Vannesio Mondlani, to stay home and protest over what he claims are widespread irregularities in this election result. And how much credibility do these allegations have? They have the credibility in the sense that they're supported by credible institutions like the European Union Observer Mission as well as the Catholic Bishops Conference which have all released statements in which they claim that they believe that there was widespread vote irregularities. The European Commission spoke about what they say was an election that was not free or fair. They say that the results were doctored, that there were irregularities during counting and

unjustified alteration of election results. The Catholic bishops alluded to ballot box stuffing and so many human rights organizations within Mozambique are saying that this is just a pattern of fraudulent elections in the country. Shingai in Yokohama. Health officials in Gaza say an Israeli airstrike on a school building that was being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians has killed at least 17 people. Israel is not allowing international media organisations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza. Our correspondent,ira Davis sent this report from Jerusalem. There have been some very distressing videos and images emerging today from the Gaza Strip showing

clearly civilian victims including children of the latest Israeli airstrike. Israel said it had attacked the place in the Nusrat refugee camp because it said it was going after Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives who were using this area which used to be a school as a command and control center. Israel also saying it did everything it could to mitigate the risk to civilian casualties but clearly looking at those images many many civilians appear to have been killed in that latest Israeli airstrike. Further to the north Israel is intensifying its blockade around parts of northern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of civilians are said to be trapped.

Aid agencies and the UN saying the humanitarian crisis there is dire. There's talk and images of people as they're being evacuated from the area, being stopped and searched and in some cases taken away by the Israeli forces for questioning. So the humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza is particularly acute, not enough aid getting in say the UN. We're a Davis. Meanwhile, Israel says the head of the country's intelligence agency Mossad will travel to

Qatar's capital Doha to try to restart discussions on the release of Israel's hostages in Gaza. The announcement by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office follows a visit to Qatar by the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He says he expects negotiations on a hostage release and ceasefire deal to resume soon. Here's our international editor, Jeremy Bowen. I think this has come out of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to the area. He was in Israel and then he went down to the Gulf. He spoke to the Saudis, he spoke to the Qataris, and I think he headed for London. He's pushing for that.

The Americans believe that the killing by Israel of Yahya Simoah, the head of Hamas, opens a window for diplomacy. I don't think many other people do believe that, least of all the Israelis, but all sides seem to be prepared to go along with it at the moment. It isn't clear what Hamas wants, what their conditions are, are they different to the ones that Hamas under Sinwa would have gone for? Maybe that will become clearer. But you know what, I think at the moment, as far as the Israelis are concerned, they

have this idea right now, especially with US elections coming up any minute and a lame duck Biden presidency, that they can pretty much push as hard as they want, do what they want, escalate hard as they want, do what they want, escalate the way they want, and that actually is, from their point of view, bringing dividends. Jeremy Bowen. Still to come. I said to him, I've got to go to A&E. I've hurt my neck. And I went to the desk. Sorry. I said, my husband's got dementia and he's attacked me and I don't know what to do.

Families of footballers who have dementia are calling for more medical checks for those who play contact sports. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on You're listening to the Global News Podcast. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has been answering questions from international journalists on the last day of a summit that he's hosting of the world's major emerging economies in what he hopes will become an anti-Western alliance. Among the 20 or so leaders at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan were those of Brazil, India, China, Turkey and Iran. The Russian leader is keen to show he's not isolated internationally despite the war in

Ukraine. He also dismissed a warning from the head of the UK security service, MI5, that Moscow wants to cause chaos on the streets of British and European cities. Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, was at the summit. This is the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that I've had the opportunity to ask President Putin about his decision to launch this war. I pointed out it had made Russia less secure, with Russian towns now being hit by drones and shelling. His response was to blame the West for enlarging NATO to Russia's borders.

We told them this NATO expansion don't do it, Mr Putin said, it violates our security. But they still did it. He claimed that if Russia hadn't acted as it did, it would have become a second-class state. And then I asked, what about claims by MI5 that Russia is bent on causing chaos on the streets of Britain and Europe through arson and acts of sabotage? Total rubbish, replied the Kremlin leader. Steve Rosenberg in the Russian city of Kazan. Here in the UK, families of footballers who died from the medical condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy have written an open letter to the government.

They insist that it should become mandatory for anyone who's played contact sport to be checked for the disease when they die. CTE, which is a form of dementia, is linked to repetitive head trauma and can cause mood changes and aggression. These families believe heading footballs killed their loved ones. The condition is also being researched in other countries. Last year a study from Boston University in the US discovered more than 60 cases of CTE in athletes who are under the age of 30 at the time of their death. Meanwhile some of

the widows of British ex-footballers diagnosed with CTE have spoken to our sports correspondent Natalie Perks. Here's some of what they told her. I said to him, I've got to go to A&E. I've hurt my neck. He says, have you? How have you done that? I said, I don't know darling, I don't know I've done it, but I've got to go to A&E, you'll have to come with me. I sat him on a chair and I went to the desk. Sorry. I said, my husband's got dementia and he's attacked me and I don't know what to do.

It was all systems go. They moved so fast. And they sectioned him. And I thought they'd give him something to calm him down and he'd come home but he never came home after that. Sue Bird there talking about what happened to her husband, Kevin. Rob Young spoke to Natalie Perks who told him more about the symptoms of the footballers affected by the medical condition. Well this has been described to me as the long goodbye for Sue and so many others watching their husbands and father deteriorate to such a state that in Kevin's case by the end he

was entirely non-verbal, he was wearing a nappy and able to function when he died last year aged 70. Now CTE starts initially in the frontal lobes of the brain, which control personality, emotions and impulsivity. And then it spreads to the rest of the brain where memories live. So it's those little behavioral changes that families notice at first. Sue described, for example, how Kevin would put things on his head and then it progresses. So previously really easy going people become withdrawn or snappy. And in a lot of the cases we're talking about very physically fit and strong former athletes. So when they do become aggressive, it's terrifying for their families. And so do we know what age this damage was done? When things become apparent?

So in most cases, experts think it's all done in their late teens and early 20s, but they only start to see the problems of course decades later. And because CTE can actually only conclusively be diagnosed after death from opening up the brain, it's perceived currently as something that happens to older people. But actually the damage looks likely to have happened much earlier in life. And so what evidence is there that heading a ball, that impact can cause brain injuries? This is still an area that is being looked at, but experts tell us they're seeing CTE show up time and time again in the brains of those who've played contact sports. It's a huge problem in American football, for example.

And last week, I was looking at slides of brains with CTE and the best way I can describe it is it's a very distinctive form of pathology where certain proteins deposit in the brain as brown splotches, often clustered around small blood vessels, which sets it apart from what we see in other dementia. And in many cases, people will get a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's, but often the doctors don't explore whether they've played contact sports and they're reluctant to diagnose potential CTE while the patient is still alive. Here's the expert who examines former athletes brains, Professor Willie Stewart. We try to prove ourselves wrong so we keep trying to find other reasons why this might happen and despite our best

efforts all our attempts to try and find other reasons fail. We keep coming back to it is something to do with the sport, it is repetitive head impact. Now in the case of Bill Gates, a former player for Middlesbrough, he actually never headed a ball again after his 29th birthday, yet he died with CTE last year, aged 79. His wife Judith set up the Head Safe Football charity to protect future players and for her now it's really key that future generations understand the risks and don't just think it's an old man problem or an old leather ball problem. Modern balls actually weigh the same when dry as the old balls, but they travel at faster speeds. She described it to me as a ticking time bomb that she's desperate to change for youngsters. CTE is brutal. I would like to have a national slogan that says, think head safe, reduce heading in training.

I hope that Bill's legacy from our journey will be saving every kid who plays football in a cobbled back street. Judith Gates, what have the football authorities said to you then about what they make of this growing body of evidence? Well, they're actually doing a fair amount in this area and for the last couple of years they've been trialling a heading ban for kids, which now means that from this season on there'll be no deliberate heading in under nines football, leading up to a total ban in under 11s by the start of the 2026 season. The FA also

says it's investing in multiple projects to gain a greater understanding of CTE through objective, robust and thorough research. But in fact its own studies from last year back up previous research which showed that footballers are three and a half times more likely to suffer neurodegenerative diseases than the average person. Natalie Perks, next to Italy and the city of Venice has announced it will extend the tax it charges day trippers who come during peak periods. The tax was introduced to deal with the problem of excess visitor numbers or so-called over-tourism. Our Europe regional editor Paul Moss told Rob Young more about the announcement by the Venetian authorities. Venice has a real love-hate relationship with tourists. On the one hand they

obviously bring in huge amounts of money and there's not many other ways in which the city earns cash but as far as many locals are concerned they've made the city unbearable. I mean it has a particular problem Venice that the actual tourist area the place people want to see is very small. About 40,000 people are coming in and out every single day. Imagine if you lived there and every time you wanted to pop out for a pint of milk, you were having to find your way through those crowds. In fact, you probably wouldn't find a shop selling milk because they're all now selling I Love Venice t-shirts and selfie sticks, things like that.

A particular problem though, as far as the Venetians are concerned, are the day trippers because they say they don't really bring in any money. Maybe they have one meal, a lot of them bring sandwiches because the city is so expensive. So they are being hit, or have been hit, with this 5 euro tax. That's about 5 and a half dollars. Been one of those tourists of Venice, stayed overnight, not a day tripper. It's obvious to see as soon as you get there why people go, it is such a beautiful place. So what have they announced today then? Well they're going to extend the scheme into 2025 and they're also going to

increase the number of days it applies. This year it was 29, next year it'll be 54 and you better get that five euro tax paid in advance because if you turn up without having paid it it's double ten euros but more than anything this is Venice facing off the critics of the scheme and saying not only are we going to continue with it we are going to expand it. Is the decision popular? Well I guess that depends who you talk to I mean certainly plenty of tourists have been grumbling about it there were locals who objected they feared it would kill off the goose that was laying the golden egg. And critics have argued that it actually hasn't worked, that it hasn't reduced numbers at peak times the way it was supposed to. But the Venice Council says it's just too soon to tell. It will take time for word to spread and for the effects to be manifest.

And the mayor says, the mayor of Venice said, look, what we are doing here is very important. We are now a world leader in dealing with a world problem of over-tourism. We have come up with a proactive solution to dealing with this. We've seen a number of places, particularly in Europe, where locals have said, there are too many tourists here. We just can't live in these places, yet they are. The tourists are economically important, are they? So is this something that other cities are going to perhaps copy?

Well, as you suggest, plenty of residents of plenty of cities would certainly like to. I mean, just this week in the city of Valencia they had people occupying the centre of the town in protest at the number of tourists. It's not just overcrowding, of course. The problem is that people are now Airbnb-ing their flats, renting them out to tourists, so there's very little accommodation for the locals. Now Venice I should say is unique isn't it, because it's this effectively an island, there's only a certain number of ways in or out, either across the causeway or you arrive at a port. So it's easy to charge people, you couldn't really block roads with a toll everyone coming into Paris or somewhere like that. Paul Moss. Now from a romantic city to a romantic act, we've long celebrated kissing in songs,

films and literature. BBC reporters get many unusual assignments, including Lola Schrer. I'm in central London asking couples if they can kiss, smooch or snog for the BBC. Would you kiss? Thank you, thank you so much. Bye. We got a kiss. I didn't think we'd get a kiss. Come on. Oh. Would you kiss for the BBC?

Please? Yeah. Yay! Oh. Thank you so much. So why do we kiss? Well, new research has found that the reason we kiss may be, and I apologise in advance if this makes you feel squeamish, because our ancestors used their mouths to get rid of ticks and lice as they groomed each other's fur. I spoke to Dr Adriana

Lemera, an evolutionary psychologist at Warwick University who's the author of the study. So not very romantic men. I don't see it as less romantic. I think it's important to realise that the romantic kiss, the mouse to mouse kiss, is but a very special case of a much broader behavior. It's the kissing between friends, family, acquaintances, people that we trust. Trying to go back to our ape-like ancestors, we bump into probably the only behavior that great apes do that fulfills this form and function and context of kissing. Grooming is really important for apes. It's an hygienic behavior but it's also when individuals really strengthen their

social ties with friends and family. The crucial step is once the groomer finds a parasite or debris in the coat of the groomie, it will hold the fur with the hands and then with protruded lips and a slight suction movement, latch on whatever the parasite or debris that the groomer found. Here we find the exact form of our own kissing. So in that case, why are we still kissing? Because we don't have to do it anymore for grooming. So what's the reason now? Yes, yes. So if we think of the transition from one stage to the other, we can

imagine this intermediate stage where in between less fur we could more easily find the parasite or the debris. However short the grooming session was, we would still close it with the protrusion of lips with a slight suction movement while touching the skin of the other. And so as we lost more and more fur, it got to the point where the grooming itself was so short and obsolete that one would only need to do the final kiss stage as if to signal I have just groomed you. So just kept that behaviour. But it's interesting, isn't it, how in many different civilisations around the world we have different ways of kissing. Inuits rub noses, the French kiss each other on the cheek. In some cultures, people frown on kissing in public at least.

Absolutely. So I think that speaks to the evolutionary history in the sense that what was once a very labor-intensive gesture of affection that we did for millions of years got compressed in a very short burst. Hence, I believe, why all sorts of civilizations came with conventions to keep a tap on that symbolism of that show of affection. That was Dr Adriano Lamira from Warwick University. And that's all from us for now, but before go here's my colleague Nick Miles with a request. Hello, I am hosting a special edition of the Global News podcast ahead of the UN's climate

change conference which starts next month. We want you to send in your questions for our experts to answer anything climate related and what the world is doing to try to address the problem. We've already had lots of questions in, some from Brazil about how much pressure companies answer anything climate related and what the world is doing to try to address the problem. We've already had lots of questions in some from Brazil about how much pressure companies are under to meet their emissions targets and several of you want to know three simple things we can do to reduce our own carbon footprint. Just send us a voice note with your question to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. Thanks very much. This edition was mixed by Sarlotta Hadroyd-Tumzynska.

The producer was Liam McShephy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad- free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.