Global News Podcast - US signs historic natural resources deal with Ukraine

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Kyiv and Washington agree an economic partnership giving US access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals. Also: US economy shrinks for the first time since 2022, and hope for the Mexican amphibian on the brink of extinction.

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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 Thursday the 1st of May. Two months after the Oval Office, RAU, the US and Ukraine have finally signed their minerals deal. As the American economy shrinks for the first time in three years, we hear how President Trump's tariffs are going down in China. And Argentina opens up the archives on the Nazis who fled there after the Second World War. Also in the podcast...

It never grows up, it can regrow any of its limbs. It is also a cultural icon. It's thought to be the brother of an Aztec god. New hope for the survival of one of the world's most endangered amphibians, and... There is not a single country in the world which has banned cigarettes but there are several markets in the world which has banned alternative to cigarettes. Explain me the logic of that. The head of Marlborough on efforts to reduce smoking. The last time Ukraine was about to sign a minerals deal with the US, it was derailed

by a row in the Oval Office. Two months on, relations are slightly warmer. And just before we recorded this podcast, they finally reached an agreement. The deal creates an investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine in exchange for access to the country's minerals, oil and gas. It will still need to be approved by parliament in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian MP Maria Metzenseva welcomed what she said were the improved terms of the agreement. It's quite a good investment opportunity and a fair deal in the end where no sort of

debts on military aid are mentioned. Everything is done in a manner due to Ukrainian constitution and doesn't breach any oversight of our EU aspirations. So what should we make of the fact that the deal has finally been signed? A question for our North America correspondent Tom Bateman. Given that the fanfare a couple of months ago, all of this was supposed to be done with a ceremony at the White House with President Zelensky and President Trump which of course never happened because of that Oval Office spat. We now have the deal done but much less fanfare this was just emailed out via a press release

from the US Treasury. But it's very significant that this document has finally been signed. I'm quite struck by the language in the press release from the US Treasury. It's extremely warm towards the Ukrainians. It mentions, which is a very rare thing from this administration, Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. It says that no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine. So it very clearly creates a sort of sense of alignment between the Trump administration and the Ukrainians in language we haven't really seen from them.

In terms of what is in this deal, it basically gives the Americans access to future Ukrainian mineral deposits. That is in return for any future military assistance that the US gives the Ukrainians. But crucially, this doesn't involve any sort of back pay for weapons supplies, military assistance that the US gives the Ukrainians but crucially this doesn't involve any sort of back pay for weapons supplies military assistance that the US has already given to the Ukrainians that was something President Trump wanted in this deal he didn't get it President Zelensky managed to get a concession out of the White House on that so a win for the Ukrainians I think probably still not the deal they would have wanted to have done in this form they probably still

believe privately perhaps takes more than they would have wanted to have done in this form. They probably still believe privately. Perhaps takes more than they would have wanted this time last year or under the previous administration. But it does mean investment in Ukraine. Fundamentally, it keeps the Americans backing the Ukrainians. It keeps a relationship of alliance between the two countries. And that is the thing that Ukraine couldn't have afforded to go forward without. Yeah. I mean, Ukraine did want security security guarantees which they were never going to get. But what does this mean for efforts to end the war amid reports that the Trump administration is quite keen to walk away if it doesn't make progress? Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting seeing the Russian reaction to the fact this

deal has finally been signed. They won't like it at all. But this is still basically a sort of economic and financial arrangement between the two countries. And I think that is in many ways how Mr. Trump sees the future of his relationships with both Russia and Ukraine. He wants financial opportunities and increased trade and investment with both countries. That's how he has transactionally tended to

see the outcome of an end to the war as he sees it. So that takes you to the bigger picture around this, which is Donald Trump wants a comprehensive ceasefire between the two countries moving towards a final end to the war and a peace agreement. Now they're nowhere nearer to that. And what we had yesterday from Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, was the strongest signal of the president's frustration that he couldn't get the progress he wanted, with Mr. Rubio saying, you know, if the two sides didn't make progress with the wider deal, that the U.S. would walk away as a mediator, as they put it. So clearly, there's still a large amount of frustration. I think at the moment, the pendulum is sort of swinging,

as far as Washington is concerned, back into into the Ukrainians corner. This may be another way in which they will sort of want to drive Vladimir Putin closer to doing a deal. But the problem is they haven't named any significant and major concessions they want from the Russians. So Mr. Putin might think he can keep going trying to get a maximalist deal. Tom Bateman in Washington. While the finer details of the Ukrainian deal were being thrashed out, President Trump's main focus was on the faltering US economy, which shrank for the first time in three years. Analysts blamed the slow growth in the first three months of the year on companies bringing in extra

goods from overseas ahead of tariffs. But President Trump insisted the fall was nothing to do with him and instead blamed his predecessor Joe Biden. We took over his mess in so many different ways. Core GDP, removing distortions from imports, inventories and government spending, was up plus three percent when you added. We had numbers that despite what we were handed, we turned them around and we were getting them really turned around.

He also appealed for more time to get things moving. But what should we make of this data? Our deputy economics editor is Darshini David. Not only do these figures contradict the White House's claims of a booming economy, they were worse than analysts expected. But experts caution that these figures may not necessarily mark the start of a recession. For the fall in GDP largely reflected a surge in imports as companies looked to pre-empt the introduction of tariffs. That depresses growth

as it means money leaving America. And federal spending fell as the new Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, ordered sweeping cuts. However, there was weakness elsewhere that may not be short-lived, most notably in household spending. And while a jump in investment was hailed by some in the Trump administration as a sign of confidence, that was driven by purchases of IT equipment, perhaps brought forward to avoid tariffs. Some economists are saying that America may be more likely than not to go into recession later this year, especially if the President imposes his threatened tariffs. The next 100 days will reveal not only whether he is triggering a realignment of the global economy

but will also show how much of a price his own people might have to pay for tariffs. Darshini David Well, although China continues to stand firm in the face of America's trade war, Chinese factories do appear to be suffering with activity slowing sharply this month. In the US itself, retailers have warned that shoppers could soon face empty shelves if the 145% import taxes remain in place. Trade between the two world's leading economies has virtually come to a halt since President Trump announced his new tariff policy.

Our China correspondent Laura Bicker has this report from the world's biggest wholesale market in the city of Yiu. This is the sound of Chinese traders trying to stay ahead of their local competition. In the cavernous lobby of the world's largest shopping mall, even before the shutters are open, they are reciting key phrases they can use with their customers. Ten years ago, they mostly traded in English. These days they need Spanish, Arabic and a little French. Things have changed here since Donald Trump was last in power. The US president's first trade war taught Yiwu a lesson.

There are buyers elsewhere. As trader Hu Qianqiang explains. What do you think of Trump? Trump? He's a joke. He tells jokes every day. Imposing tariffs is like a joke to him. We used to have buyers from the US. Now we don't care. We have rich buyers from elsewhere. Doing business with them is good.

The 75,000 stallholders in Yiuwu are no longer as reliant on the US as they once were. Eight years ago, 20% of Chinese exports were sold to the US. That figure is now 14%. Instead, the halls are filled with buyers from the Middle East, Russia and South America. Oscar is from Colombia. China is a big country, a big people. The most important country of the world. USA go down, China is up. Around 80% of all US toys come from China. And seller Lin Xupen believes this trade war will hurt Americans more than the Chinese.

I hear there are lots of protests in the US. Most of their products come from here. Do you think they need us? Of course they do. Talks between the two sides are still not underway according to China's foreign ministry, despite Donald Trump's assertion that he has spoken to President Xi. Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel from the People's Liberation Army, says Beijing will not blink first. In China we say we have to let the bullet fly for a moment. That means right now in the Falklands War we do not know what would come next and I

believe this kind of tit for tat would last for maybe one or two months. I believe China might have some short-term pains, but so will the United States." The belief here is that even though there will be short-term pain, in the long term, China, not America, will grow stronger. Laura Becker reporting from the Chinese city of Yihou. In a world of more than one billion smokers, Philip Morris is the biggest supplier. Its best-selling brand Marlborough is available in 180 countries. But as people try to shake off the habit, which is the leading cause of preventable

deaths, the American tobacco giant is looking to diversify into smoke-free products. However, the company's boss, Jacek Olczak, says their mission to create a quote smoke-free products. However, the company's boss, Jacek Olczak, says their mission to create a, quote, smoke-free world is being hindered by campaign groups and regulators. There is not a single country in the world which has banned cigarettes, but there are several markets in the world which has banned alternative to cigarettes. Can WHO finally explain me the logic of that?

Well, he was speaking to our business reporter David Waddell who explained to Alex Ritzen why Philip Morris' push towards creating smoke-free products is so controversial. Well it doesn't help that the company behind it remains the world's biggest tobacco company, part of what people call big tobacco and still still draws something like 23 billion dollars in revenue from combustible cigarettes, what we normally understand as cigarettes. So although they're trying to promote this a pathway to smoke free, they're still drawing a lot of revenue from smoke as well. In fact, that's a growing market. They predict that the market for cigarettes and similar products will grow by 1% this year and their market share in recent times has been a little bigger than before. But of

course even in the transition to smoke-free products Ash, the UK campaign group against smoking, says that PMI, that's Philip Morris, doesn't get a gold star and different treatment from other tobacco companies because it's managed to make a profit from a non-combusted product. And accusing governments of science denial, what of science denial. What is science denial in their view? In this particular case he was talking about the difference in results from those countries where alternatives to smoking

or the ability to promote alternatives to smoking were more freely available than elsewhere. The effects that could be seen on the collapse in smoking rates was most pronounced. UK and Sweden for example, UK smoking has fallen to around 12%. In Sweden it's around 5%. Products that are available in Sweden that are smoke-free are not available broadly elsewhere in Europe. He also mentioned Turkey and India. Indonesia is a country where smoking is at 39% and the availability of smokeless alternatives there is limited. David, are these new smoke-free products, things like vapes, are they actually safe? Unclear. They acknowledge there are risks, both health risks and the addictive qualities of nicotine are widely understood.

Indeed, Ash, that campaign group, argues that the company's signature heated tobacco product, Icos, is likely to be more harmful than other nicotine alternatives such as vapes and nicotine pouches. On the other hand, they're likely also to be much less harmful than cigarettes. BBC Business reporter David Waddell. It is an icon of Mexican culture, thanks to its inclusion in the game Minecraft and appearance on the 50 peso banknote. But the axolotl, a type of salamander which looks like it's always smiling, is listed as critically endangered. Now there are hopes it can be protected thanks to the creation of an artificial wetland near Mexico City. I heard more about the animal and efforts

to save it from our science correspondent Victoria Gill. It is the most remarkable creature. It is a salamander that never grows up. It stays in this perpetually juvenile state. Other amphibians move onto land from their larval form. It stays in its larval form and maintains these feathery gills and lives in the water. For some reason, perhaps to do with this perpetual Peter Pan state of juvenility. It can regrow any of its limbs. If it loses a limb, if it damages any part of its body, it has some kind of genetic tweakery that means that it can just reprogram its body to regrow that limb. It is also a cultural icon in Mexico. It's thought to be the brother of an Aztec god. As legend

has it, the god Zolotl disguised himself as a salamander to avoid being executed. So it's this monstrous form of an Aztec god. And how at risk is it? Critically, it's quite ironic really. There are thousands of axolotls around the world in laboratories and aquariums. They're quite popular pets, apparently, particularly in Japan. But in the wild, where it lives in just one area of wetland in a place called Xochimilco just to the south of Mexico City, urbanisation, pollution, invasive species have all sort of piled up in this area

to really decimate the number. So there used to be thousands per square kilometre of this wetland but now researchers say there are probably just dozens. I made a radio program about them in 2018 and I spoke to some researchers who estimated that by 2025 they could have disappeared altogether. And tell us more about this new effort to try to keep them going. This is actually the same researchers that I met with in 2018, Luis Zambrano and Alejandro Ramos, who have worked together to do a lot of habitat restoration work in Xochimilco. They've created these little refuges around these traditional farms called chinampas where they're surrounded by this

wetland area and canals. So these refuges have water filtration systems and they've controlled invasive species and cleaned the place up for all wildlife. But it seems to really help the axolotls too. In this latest piece of research, they've got an ark population of wild axolotls in captivity and they wanted to find out if in these areas that had been restored they could survive. So they've released just 18 of the animals with little radio trackers in some of these refuges in Xochimilco, but also in what they call an artificial wetland.

It's a disused mine that has filled with water and wildlife and become a new wetland. And it's in the same sort of area with the same temperature and the same type of water. And they've tracked all of these animals with radio trackers. And the good news is that not only have they survived, but when they recaptured some of them, they gained weight. So they're obviously hunting, even though they're fed in tanks rather than growing up in the wild. So that's a real concern that they wouldn't be able to hunt.

It's also a concern that they'd be eaten by predators, but they've done really well. So it's a small start, but really important proof that these captive bred animals can be brought back to the wild. Alejandro Ramos described it as amazingly good news. The hope is that they'll be brought back to such a milko and could make a comeback. Our science correspondent, Victoria Gill. And still to come on the Global News podcast. She's a pioneer in the writing of a kind of ethnography that is very close to her own community. No other Maori scholar has produced a work of that kind.

The indigenous woman awarded a degree almost 100 years on. 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. She's also a mental health advocate and the most followed woman on Instagram in the world. Listen in to find out a whole lot more about her rise, her breakdown and her billion dollar comebacks than the tabloids ever told you. events marking Israel's Independence Day have had to be cancelled as a result of the worst wildfires there for many years. High temperatures and strong winds have fanned the flames, prompting evacuations from some areas. A national emergency has been declared. I got an update from our correspondent Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem.

The wind is still blowing very strongly. The temperatures have gone down, but there's no sign at the moment that the wildfires around Jerusalem which are in the forest have died down. Israel's asked for help internationally planes from Italy and Croatia but there'd been appeals to other countries now as well saying that they don't think that the fires can be brought under control for at least the next day. Thousands of people have been evacuated from areas near where the fires are. The main highway was closed. There were some very shocking images of flames licking up beside the cars which were going down that highway.

Trains have been cancelled in various parts of the country. I mean, it really is quite intense. I've just been watching on Israeli TV the Independence Day main event, which is a very, very big thing here, as you can imagine. But it's the pre-recorded event. It was recorded on Monday as a dress rehearsal. That is being shown instead of the actual live event, which couldn't be shown partly because of the winds, but also another fear of fires and the possibility that people might

get injured if they attended. And even that is being interrupted by updates on the fire. Already there are investigations, the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet is looking into whether arsonists have been involved. And there's been an excoriating tweet by the foreign minister against those who've been celebrating it online.

There have been perhaps some pro-Palestinian sites which have been saying that this is a good thing. So it's all mixed up with all the other events that are going on in and around Israel and Gaza, of course, but it is turning out to be, as you say, one of the worst fires of this nature that there's been for many, many years. Sebastian Asher in Jerusalem. A US official, meanwhile, has told the International Court of Justice there are serious concerns

about the impartiality of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA. The court is considering Israel's obligations to UN agencies who deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Israel objects to the case and has refused to defend itself in court. But Josh Simmons from the US State Department did appear on Wednesday. Some have argued that the evidence is insufficient or that the UN's investigation and the Kelowna report have resolved concerns about UNRWA, but the Kelowna report itself recognises that, quote, neutrality related issues persist for UNRWA and that there continue to be serious challenges with respect to UNRWA's

oversight and accountability. Our correspondent Anna Hologun is in The Hague. So far this week at the ICJ, many speakers have been expressing concern about the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israel ending its cooperation with UNRWA, which perhaps isn't surprising given that this is the issue at the heart of these proceedings. The ICJ judges have been asked to answer a question posed by the UN General Assembly, did Israel act unlawfully in overriding the immunities and privileges granted to UN bodies? So he told the judges it was essential to consider the wider context here.

For example, information pointing to Hamas misusing UNRWA's facilities, Israel's security needs after the October 7th attacks, because specifically with regards to the law of occupation, military and humanitarian interests converge. And this, according to the U.S. interpretation, is key, because as an occupying power in Gaza, Israel has a responsibility for maintaining public order and safety and allowing facilitating relief for the civilian

population but it also has the right to use its discretion, the US said, and when necessary curtail activities of organizations that are contrary to its security. So according to the US, given the serious concerns about UNRWA's impartiality, Israel is not obliged to allow it to operate in Gaza. And it's worth mentioning as well, although Israel's foreign minister on Monday, Gideon Zar, he described these hearings as a circus. So it's not surprising Israel's not among the 39 countries speaking at the ICJ, but Israel has provided an extensive 37-page written explanation of its position to the court, which does essentially align with the US.

And in terms of the advisory opinions, it's worth remembering they aren't legally binding, but they do give institutions and countries a definitive legal guidance from the world's top court. So in this case especially especially it will inevitably intensify scrutiny of the situation in Gaza, how Israel and of course its international allies respond. Anna Hologun. And for its part, UNRWA has always denied Israel's allegation that it knowingly has Hamas members in its ranks or that it cooperated with the armed group. Argentina has released hundreds of documents about German Nazis who sought refuge in the South American nation after the Second World War. The files cover

notorious figures like Adolf Eichmann and Joseph Mengele. John Silverman has written a book about British investigations into Nazi collaborators. He's been explaining how some of Hitler's most notorious henchmen, managed to flee to Latin America. In the early 1950s, under the regime of Perron, it was quite safe for even the most infamous figure, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz, to live openly. Germany made an extradition request, which was refused on so-called technical grounds, but he felt quite safe there. And what emerges from these documents is that many of these people felt entirely safe and protected for many, many years in these countries, especially under right-wing, almost semi-fascist military regimes.

It was only in Argentina's case, for example, Perón left power in 1955. There was a new government. And at that time, it became a little bit more risky for them to remain there. How did they get between Germany and there without being picked up or detected? Is this before the end of the war when they concede the writing on the wall or is it after the war? At the end of the war, in one or or two cases even before Germany had actually surrendered, the Rat Line enabled and partly helped by the Vatican, it has to be said, under Pius XII and a notorious bishop called Hudal, enabled some of these high-ranking Nazis to get through Italy into Spain.

Spain at that time was led by General Franco, therefore sympathetic to the fascists, and enabled to get into South America, principally Argentina. After all, Argentina had a fairly big German, Italian, Spanish population at that time. And therefore, there would be a lot of welcome for people fleeing Europe. Professor John Silverman talking to Evan Davis. During the Covid pandemic, when many people were stuck inside, sales of toys rocketed. But it was adults rather than children splashing out, buying up collectibles, trading cards and board games.

And the trend remains strong even today, Sam Gruay reports. For decades, toys were for children. But that's changing. One in five toys and games is now bought by adults for themselves. It's reflected in toy stores like this one in Western Canada. We're definitely known for things like having a really large selection of Lego, which is kind of more targeted towards adults nowadays. Laura is the manager here and says around 40% of their sales are bought by adults for themselves. Right now targeting the adults who have the money who can spend $500 on a collector set, it saves them. Last year, kid alts, an industry term for those aged over 12, spent $1.5 billion on toys.

And like a lot of business success in 2025, the buzz is reflected online. Ever since I was a little kid, I have dreamed of owning a real life size replica of a Ghostbusters proton. Jay Glatfelter is a toy collector and content creator. Easily thousands of dollars a year. It's not a cheap hobby, but there's far more expensive hobbies out there.

That's what I tell myself and my wife. I just wonder if there's a correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns and the rise in toy collecting. That is a hundred percent accurate assumption. What were we gonna do? We couldn't go out. We couldn't do the normal activities

that we had become accustomed to. You're locked in a house. You want to do something to bring joy. And so you go on eBay and then you buy it. And then what happened was a whole bunch of new collectors jumped into toy collecting. And for those of us that were into it before, we saw the prices, the secondary market prices explode once the pandemic happened because you had people that had time on their hands maybe they had extra money because they're not spending it by going out and

now they're putting it into collecting toys and not only was that true for older stuff but even the new stuff jumbo snuggle dragons have arrived for pre-order i have finally bought the breathing otter plushie which i've been seeing all over my TikTok. I have so many soft toys, all kinds of different brands. I have ones that you can find in stores. I have ones that are made in limited numbers by individual artists. I just absolutely love them. For Raven, a 25-year-old YouTube creator known as Froggy Crossing to her over a million YouTube subscribers, in an era of economic stress, political upheaval and digital overload, toys offer comfort. I definitely think there's aspects, whether it's conscious or unconscious, where we just

want something tactile. We want something away from a screen and even something as simple as a plushie, a soft toy, can offer that. From plushies to Lego, it's estimated a third of global toy sales are by kiddults buying for themselves, with over 18s driving the growth. Sam Gruay reporting. In the 1920s, Macareti Papakura became the first indigenous woman to study at the prestigious Oxford University. She carried out pioneering work but died weeks before she was due to present her thesis. A century on she's being awarded a posthumous degree as Isabella Jewel explains. Makareti Papakura, born Margaret Patterson, was a pioneering figure in the field of ethnographic

studies for her research into the customs and habits of the Te Aroha people of New Zealand. Unlike many academics studying indigenous cultures at the time, Papakura grew up immersed in it. Professor Claire Harris is the head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. She was born in 1873, a Maori mother and an English father, but she's very much brought up by her iwi, that is her kind of tribal group. And so she's very embedded in the culture and the community of the Māori in New Zealand, but she also starts learning English at the

age of 10. So she's a bicultural figure, a kind of intermediary between different communities. The book The Old Time Māori was published after her unexpected death in 1930, just weeks before she was due to present it to academics. But it made waves at the time and is still seen as ground-breaking. The fact that she's a woman and an Indigenous woman, that is an extraordinary combination. And the kind of work that she does is also extraordinary and very important now because she's a pioneer in the writing of a kind of ethnography

that is very close to her own community based on her own experience. She writes about what she remembers from her childhood. No other Māori scholar has produced a work of that kind." And the fact she wrote it from a female perspective covering subjects from menstruation to children also set her apart. "'To be honest, you know, the emerging ethnographies of that period, 1920s, 1930s, the presence of women is often not acknowledged. Most of these ethnographies are being written by outsiders to a community, often white men who come to visit communities all around the world

and then write them up. The University of Oxford launched a memorial lecture in 2022 to honour her work but later this year she will finally be given the degree she spent years working towards in a ceremony which living relatives and members of the Maori community will attend. And that was Isabella Jewell. Now a reminder that we're planning a special Q&A edition ahead of the papal conclave answering your questions about how the new pope is chosen. We'll look at the process, the timetable, the likely candidates and what it could 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 Chris Guzaras and produced by Nikki Varrico, our editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.