Global News Podcast - Venezuelan opposition leader emerges from hiding to lead protests

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has emerged from hiding to lead anti-Maduro protests. Also: extracting what may be the world’s oldest Antarctic ice, and the etiquette of air kissing.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Tanya Beckett and on the inquiry, we're looking at how new vaccines might help in the treatment of cancer. It's estimated that around 20 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with some form of the disease in 2025. The inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world. Search for The Inquiry wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen and in the early hours of Friday the 10th of January these are our main stories. The Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Carina Machado, has been briefly detained

after emerging from hiding to lead a demonstration against President Nicolas Maduro's disputed inauguration. The two biggest wildfires in Los Angeles are continuing to burn uncontained, but firefighters have made progress against other blazes. Joe Biden has led the tributes at the state funeral of Jimmy Carter, a president he hailed as a head of his time. Also in this podcast. One, I find personally a bit unbalanced. Two, I find just right. Three, again, I find a bit the uneven number, not quite, you know, where do you stop? And four, for me, is

overkill. The etiquette of air kissing. We hear a French and a British perspective. We begin in Venezuela, where the main opposition leader, Maria Carina Machado, has briefly been detained while taking part in a nationwide protest against the upcoming inauguration of President Maduro for a third six-year term later today, Friday. Until Thursday, Ms. Machado had not been seen in public since going into hiding last August. Before being arrested, she had urged people to back Edmundo Gonzalez who says he was the real winner of July's election and declared that the government of Nicolas Maduro was over. I asked our correspondent Will Grant what more is known about what happened

to Maria Corina Machado. As is often the way with these events Alex, it's a little bit murky about exactly what went on. What we do know is that Maria Corina Macchiello appeared in public for the first time in several months. Obviously, she was greeted by huge cheers from her supporters in Caracas when she appeared at this protest ahead of President Nicolas Maduro's inauguration on Friday. As she left the event, members of her team are reporting that she was detained by state

forces on motorbikes, who they say had fired their weapons. They say that she was intercepted and that she was, as they put it, forcibly detained. About two hours later she released a video where she said that she was safe and sound and in a secure location. The government has subsequently accused her of sort of faking the whole thing, that it all political theatre. She in turn, or rather her party, say that she was forced to record that video message and as a result was subsequently released. Again very murky but what we do know is that Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez, who the opposition claims won the

Venezuelan presidential election very very comfortably last year, have often been threatened with arrest and detention by the government of Nicolás Maduro. She knew that by taking part in these demonstrations she was likely to be arrested. So what was her thinking? Well she has been in essence in hiding since August so I think there was a sense in which this is again reaching an important point in Venezuela of course on Friday. Nicolas Maduro will essentially be crowned the election victor of that very

controversial disputed and questioned election victory that he claims without having presented any real evidence of having achieved the 51 to 52 percent that he says he won. So I think it was important for her supporters to show that she's not backing down in the face of him taking power. She's an extremely important figure in the Venezuelan political landscape and the idea that she is simply going to let him walk into office without showing her face. I think that was part of her calculation and to an extent pushing the envelope a little bit saying look I am still here I am still in Venezuela you have not forced me into exile as so many

other opposition figures have been. So briefly where does this go next? Very hard to say I mean what we do know in terms of the very basics is that Mr Maduro is going to take power on Friday. There is almost nothing going to stop that. He continues to have the support of the military, which is the key element in Venezuelan politics. And while that remains the case, the opposition's efforts to mobilise in the streets are very, very difficult indeed.

Will Grant. Los Angeles is where disaster movies are made. But America's second largest city and the surrounding area have turned into nightmarish scenes of destruction out of a Hollywood blockbuster for real. One of the series of devastating wildfires currently engulfing LA was even approaching the Hollywood sign before firefighters dropped enough water from the air to stop it reaching the world-famous landmark for now. As we record this podcast, five people are confirmed to have died, with officials warning

they expect that figure to rise. The body of one man was found outside his levelled home, a garden hose in his hand. Residents have described the firestorm as apocalyptic. In a moment we'll get an update from our Los Angeles correspondent, but first Emma Vardy sent this report from the city. The scale of this disaster is becoming clear to see. In Pacific Palisades more than a thousand buildings burned to the ground. Overnight, the Hollywood Hills resembled a disaster movie. The streets became gridlocked as people tried to escape. A cross LA, more than 130,000 people have been told to flee their homes.

Kelly Lauren is among them. She's lost everything she owns, including a lifetime of journals. I lost all my writing, like all my books. Yeah, you're like tearing up. It's like, it's just hard to, I don't know, I just like remember that after. But everything I've like written for my whole life and like I journal and write a lot. So it's just the little things that you remember afterward. 16,000 acres and counting have been consumed by the inferno. Fueled by hurricane force winds, these fires have struck at a vulnerable time.

LA hasn't seen any significant rainfall for months and tinder dry vegetation combined with seasonal winds make for a deadly combination. The mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass described the firestorm as the big one. This is absolutely an unprecedented historic firestorm but we are all hands on deck. We need to continue to cooperate, we need to evacuate, we're asked to do so, we need to help others cooperate. We need to evacuate when asked to do so. We need to help others, help our neighbors. And first and foremost, we need to stay united. We need to stay strong.

No one is immune. The homes of Jennifer Aniston, Rihanna, Adam Sandler, and Paris Hilton among those evacuated. The scene here is one of widespread devastation and the city is braced for more. Emma Vardy. Well, as we heard there, strong winds, very low humidity, little rain over the last few months and higher than usual temperatures for this time of year

have fuelled the fires. However, the winds have dropped and there has been progress in the battle to contain some of the fires. So, of winds have dropped and there has been progress in the battle to contain some of the fires. So of the five or so fires, which ones are under control and which ones aren't? A question for our correspondent in Los Angeles, Peter Bowes, who's lived there for many years. The two very big ones are still totally out of control. They're 0% contained. These are the Palisades fire, which you've just been been hearing about which is now estimated to cover about 60 square kilometres. It is continuing to grow at a disturbing rate and the reason for that

is the winds, gusty winds are continuing. It's not the hurricane force winds that we've had over the last few days but there's still a lot of work by firefighters to do there. The Eden fire as it's called, that's a local landmark, it's covering areas of Pasadena and Altadena, much further inland than the Palisades fire. It is also zero percent contained and it is continuing to get larger in terms of the amount of ground that it's covering and we understand that terms of the amount of ground that it's covering and we understand that well over a hundred structures have been damaged or destroyed in that area. Better fortunes on the smaller fires, the Lydia fire as it was known, this is a fire in a place called Acton which is out in the wilderness really certainly on the

outskirts of greater Los Angeles, 40% contained and significant progress continues it seems to be made on that fire. The other fires, the Sunset Fire where there's some progress as well, this is the fire that engulfed Hollywood about 24 hours ago now and this is the most familiar I suspect to people looking on from around the world if you visited Los Angeles you'll be familiar with the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Sign, the theatre where the Oscars take place. This is the area that was engulfed last night but significant progress has been made there. The pictures of Malibu Beach

are just extraordinary aren't they? Yeah the pictures of Malibu Beach which is barely recognisable as a beach and especially if you look up to the skyline which look at murky coloured sky because of the amount of smoke in the area but there are so many images you've just got to watch local TV especially here but look at the internet and you see these eerie images of communities that have just been desolated, Pacific Palisades especially quite an upmarket community but street after street, home after home have just been completely flattened. It's like an entire town has

been destroyed and it's difficult for me to imagine how it could possibly be rebuilt to at least capture what it used to be. What about these reports of looting? There are tragically many reports of looting and the police are saying that they believe 20, maybe 30 individuals have been caught going into areas where they shouldn't be. A number of people have been arrested and sadly this is a familiar thing that we see after these natural disasters and especially when people are asked to evacuate their homes. They evacuate their homes, they move out, they register safety to a community centre or stay with friends and in the meantime these unscrupulous individuals move in to try to steal whatever they can from their homes and the authorities are saying that they will come down with the full weight of the law on anyone they find engaging in this kind of activity.

Peter Bows in Los Angeles. Three thousand guests including the last five former presidents of the United States gathered on Thursday in Washington DC for the funeral of the country's longest-living president Jimmy Carter. Paying tribute to the 39th US leader at the Washington National Cathedral, Joe Biden said Jimmy Carter had made a powerful difference to America during his lifetime. Here's our North America editor Sarah Smith. Full American pageantry was on display as Jimmy Carter's coffin, draped in the US flag, was carried with military precision into the Washington National Cathedral. Waiting inside were all five living and former presidents.

Donald Trump chatting amiably with Barack Obama, as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton took their seats alongside them, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in front of them. President Carter's achievements in office were lauded, like the peace deal between Israel and Egypt, as well as his humanitarian efforts afterwards that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. His grandson Jason is now chair of the International

Carter Center. To give one example, we've all heard a lot lately about guinea worm disease. It's an ancient and debilitating disease of poverty. And that disease will have existed from the dawn of humanity until Jimmy Carter. Now in the dying days of his own presidency, Joe Biden's eulogy praised above all Jimmy Carter's character. A white Southern Baptist who led on civil rights, a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace,

a brilliant nuclear engineer who led on nuclear non-proliferation, a hardworking farmer who championed conservation and clean energy, and a president who redefined the relationship with the vice president. Jimmy Carter, born one century ago in a house with neither electricity nor running water, who made it to the White House. Sarah Smith. Still to come. It's a complete new situation for me that I just have a normal conversation and I'm not interrupted or negatively framed.

The leader of Germany's hard right AFD goes live on Twitter with Elon Musk six weeks out from the election. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles.

It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts. A team of European scientists has extracted what may be the world's oldest Antarctic ice, parts of which were formed more than a million years ago. The team dug out a cylinder longer than eight Eiffel Towers end to end to study the ancient air bubbles and particles trapped inside.

More from our climate correspondent Georgina Ranard. This is the sound of scientists chopping up what is probably Earth's oldest ice. The last time it was out in the open was as many as 1.2 million years ago. A European team of scientists has spent four years extracting a cylinder of the ice from deep inside the East Antarctica ice sheet. Working at minus 35 Celsius,

they built perhaps the world's most remote pop-up lab, traveling by snowmobile. They won a race between seven nations to be the first to hit rock beneath Antarctica. Their prize, ancient bubbles of air frozen in time. Carlo Bavante from the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences saw the ice cores pulled from the Earth. There is a lot of our past in our future and so the reason why we look into the past is that because we want to understand better how the climate works and now we can project it into the future as well. And especially the role of the greenhouse gases, CO2 and methane and so on, is very, very important.

Those bubbles hold vital clues to the planet's history and its future. They are an archive of greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures. Analyzing them could help scientists understand a dramatic climatic shift around a million years ago, when the length of glacial cycles mysteriously changed. That may mean better insights into the climate change happening now. Georgina Ranard Lebanon has a new president after a two-year hiatus. He's the head of the army, General

Joseph Aoun, and in his first address to Parliament he promised to remove all arms from non-state actors. That's seen as an indication he wants to further reduce the influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, Lina Sinjab reports. His election comes at a pivotal time. Iran's influence in Lebanon has been weakened by Israel's campaign against its proxy in the country, Hezbollah. Its leadership is now in tatters. And the influence of Lebanon's much larger neighbour Syria

has also been diminished by the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's regime. It is thought these two factors will allow more regional and international support for Lebanon, a country whose economy has been devastated and which is still to emerge from months of Israeli airstrikes that left many parts destroyed. Lina Sinjab. It was only last month that the tech billionaire Elon Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Deutschland party labelled as right-wing extremists by the German security service. Now, around six weeks before Germany holds a snap election,

the world's richest person hosted a live interview with the leader of the AFD on X, the social media platform that he owns. Here's a clip of the leader Alice Weidel at the beginning of the discussion. It's a, Elin, it's a complete new situation for me, that I just can have a normal conversation and I'm not interrupted or negatively framed. How that has been in the media, the case in the last 10 years. Our Europe regional editor, Dani Eberhardt, listen to the interview. First of all, it was billed by Elon Musk as a conversation with the leading candidate to run Germany. Now, not quite sure why he's calling her the leading candidate to run Germany. Now, I'm not quite sure why

he's calling her the leading candidate. She certainly isn't in the polls, although her party is running in second place. It was an audio-only conversation. There's no video, seemingly quite unstructured, at times a bit rambling. The tone is fairly light throughout. And even if some of the subject matter isn't so, you know, they were looking at things like tax, energy policy, the education system, but then other things as well. So immigration, the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel who Alice Weidel called the first green chancellor in her book, although she considers her – Merkel herself and her party was center right. Donald Trump, she spoke of great herself or her party was centre-right,

Donald Trump, she spoke of great pain that Donald Trump was exposed to such a hostile environment from Germany and also things like free speech, the coronavirus pandemic, all sorts of things. And this discussion is really controversial isn't it? Well, it's controversial primarily because of the timing. So this is happening just before Germany's federal elections on the 23rd of February. And also, Elon Musk has very overtly supported the AFD,

the Alternative for Deutschland. So he said basically, he said it again, he said basically support he said it again, he said you know basically support the AFD that they represent common-sense policies and he's doubling down on that support and the controversy lies in the fact that does a person who is so wealthy with such a huge social media platform to operate off, is he in some way skewing the electoral debate by entering in such a partial manner? Danny Aberhart, as Donald Trump prepares to take office as President of the United States with a

promise of tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese goods, China has set its sights on South America. A new mega port on Peru's coastline, that's part of China's Belt and Road initiative, will increase the frequency of trips to Asia this month. With a direct route to China that cuts sailing times by 10 days, the port is aiming to become South America's gateway to Asia by passing North America entirely. North America business correspondent Ritika Gupta reports. Huge unmanned cranes loom over Peru's Chinese-funded Chiang Kai Port, a symbol of Beijing's growing influence in South America. Situated on the edge of Peru's coastal desert, some 50 miles

north of the capital, Chiang Kai, a small fishing town, looks set to become a major hub for trade in a region the US has long considered its own backyard. This giant new port is a game changer, not just for Peru, but for the wider Latin American region. And at a time when the newly elected President Donald Trump is looking to clap down on trade with China, China has set its eyes on Peru, making through a strategic peace on the global geopolitical chessboard. The man overseeing the port's operations, Mario de las Casas, says the port will dramatically

speed up trade that will bypass North America entirely. It's a huge opportunity for South America. So right now, all the materials that you export to Asia, you have to go to Mexico or a long beach, and then you cross the Pacific Ocean. But despite the promises of growth, some in the local community feel left behind. The fully automated port has so far offered few jobs. William Wallace, a local fisherman, is struggling to make a living. My work has been affected 100 percent. The area we used to fish has been cut off. We used to row out, fish in the morning, sell our catch, rest in the afternoon and return to fish again in the evening. That was our daily routine, not anymore."

The nearly one and a half billion dollar port, majority owned by China's Costco shipping is China's latest Belt and Road project. China has overtaken the US as Peru's main trading partner, a trend that could widen across Latin American countries as Donald Trump threatens tariffs under his America first policy. Critics warn of overreliance on China and jeopardising the existing relationship with the US, with some of Trump's aides already pushing for huge tariffs on all merchandise coming through the port. But for Peru's Minister for Foreign Trade, Ursula León, it's not a cause for concern. The products we export from Asia are not necessarily the same as those we send to the US or Canada.

Our agreements with China enhance our competitiveness without compromising other markets. Could Peru's partnership with China undermine its existing relationship with the US? Not at all. Our relationships with both China and the US are strong and mutually beneficial. Trade agreements are designed for the growth of all parties involved. Peru benefits from exporting its products while our partners gain access to high quality goods at competitive prices. Peru must navigate a delicate balancing act. For now, the Chunk Eye Port stands as both a beacon of opportunity and a source of uncertainty in a world bracing for heightened trade tensions. Ritika Gupta. Here in the UK, air kissing has been in the news. It's the custom of

greeting others with kisses on the cheek, but kisses that don't actually make skin contact. It's been in the news because an employment judge ruling in a sexual harassment case that had arisen at a bar found that what had probably occurred was air kissing and it cannot be regarded as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. That may mean then that you can air kiss your colleagues without them taking you to court. But does it mean air kissing is the right way of greeting someone? Evan Davis sought the views of Judy James, an English body language expert, and Benedict Paveo, France 24's UK correspondent.

First, here's Benedict outlining the etiquette of air kissing. You gently apply your cheek to the other person's cheek, you don't slam it on there. We make a kissing sound. It's not like smacking your lips without the other person's consent. You do it with family, you do it with friends, you probably wouldn't kiss your boss, but you might. And it's not French kissing, so it's what the French do. Just want to put that out there. Yeah, so it's almost like a brief skin contact of the cheek with a kind of a lip smack of some kind though, but very, very minor.

That's right. And it depends where you are in France, just to give you a bit of a map. For example, in Paris, we generally do two. In Provence, they often do three, and some people do four. One, I find personally a bit unbalanced. Two, I find just right. Three, again, I find a bit the uneven number, not quite, you know, where do you stop? And four, for me, is overkill.

Judy, what's the rule in the UK? There is no norm. I think the only norm in the UK is that we don't like any of it, to be honest, and we almost have to be forced to do a handshake. I actually was around when the Air kiss first came into mainstream UK business. I remember people quaking at the thought of it because there weren't new rules. We almost applied some rules. You're not a fan of the air kiss.

I love it because it scares people and I'm very much of that world originally. It's great to do in business. What you have to do though is you have to instigate it, you have to take control. So you extend both hands as you approach somebody, taps them lightly on the shoulders, that means you've got control of the whole thing. So there's no sort of how many and when and how. Right cheek to right cheek, left cheek to left cheek and then put them back where you found them. And it's very important that the person on the receiving end doesn't wince or, you know, like kids wipe the kiss off afterwards. And can I just say the sort of any contact between cheeks is making me shudder. The whole thing about introducing it in the fashion business was that you don't touch anything, so you don't wipe makeup off. So no touch, no bodily fluids to be exchanged

at all. Benedict, the one thing I'll say about the French is they do seem to know what the rules are with great clarity. So there's much less embarrassment, is my impression there, about what you're going to do to greet someone, or is there still uncertainty in front? There's very little uncertainty. I mean, there will be people who will, of course, not pay attention to what somebody else wants. But come on, that's just body language in general. People have a different relationship, I think, very much with their body, and it is not a big deal. When I hear Judy talking about touching somebody's shoulder to kiss them, no, we don't do that. If you overthink something, I think there was a book called The Inner Game of Tennis, if you overthink any kind of amorous gesture, you don't get out a manual and go, right, I'm going to go position one, position two,

position three Benedict Pavio and Judy James on air kissing and that's all from us for now but there'll be a new edition of the global news podcast later if you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it you can send us an email the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Holly Palmer and the producer was Alison Davis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz and until next time, goodbye. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures.

And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. field was Hollywood.