--:-- Nick Miles: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles.
--:-- Nick Miles: Britain and Germany warn Israel not to annex Palestinian territory in retaliation for the recognition of Palestinian statehood.
--:-- Nick Miles: The former vice president of South Sudan goes on trial for murder, treason and crimes against humanity.
--:-- Nick Miles: One of the two favorites to become Japan's next prime minister promises to improve gender balance in her cabinet.
--:-- Nick Miles: Also in this podcast, promises made, promises broken, how we're falling way short of climate change commitments.
--:-- Nick Miles: Many countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia recognize Palestinian statehood decades ago. But the latest flurry of diplomatic green lights has been contentious.
--:-- Nick Miles: That is because it's come from some of Israel's traditionally strongest allies. Britain, Australia and Canada all recognized Palestine on Sunday.
--:-- Nick Miles: And as nations gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, France and a number of other countries will follow suit.
--:-- Nick Miles: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out strongly, saying Palestinians will never have a state and adding that Israel will respond further.
--:-- Nick Miles: Many believe that could mean annexing the West Bank, a course of action Britain and others have warned Israel against taking.
--:-- Hamish Faulkner: We are very clear on the West Bank. The West Bank has seen a huge expansion of violent settlements.
--:-- Hamish Faulkner: We've done three waves of sanctions focused on that question. It is vital that the Israeli government heeds those calls.
--:-- Hamish Faulkner: There will be efforts at the UN this week. I understand that President Trump will also be hosting meetings about what needs to come next in the region.
--:-- Hamish Faulkner: It is absolutely vital that there is no further escalation.
--:-- Nick Miles: Germany has also said there must be no further steps towards the annexation of Palestinian territories.
--:-- Nick Miles: So what has the international response been to the spate of recognition announcements?
--:-- Nick Miles: Our diplomatic correspondent James Landale is in New York.
--:-- James Landale: For those people who support what the British and Canadian and Australian governments have done, there's been a welcome.
--:-- James Landale: We know that later on today the French and various other European nations are going to be following suit here at the United Nations, making similar declarations.
--:-- James Landale: There's a clear attempt to sort of get a bandwagon rolling on this for these nations to act in concert together.
--:-- James Landale: But not surprisingly, the State Department has been very dismissive, saying it's performative diplomacy.
--:-- James Landale: And Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has denounced what's been announced very, very vociferously, very angrily indeed, saying that not only do these declarations of Palestinian statehood reward Hamas terrorism.
--:-- James Landale: He's also said that this will never happen, saying that a Palestinian state would be a terror state.
--:-- James Landale: What's interesting is if you talk to Western diplomats, they say, look, some people are dismissing what they're doing as insignificant and symbolic.
--:-- James Landale: But they say if you measure what they've done against the scale of the Israeli response and the anger that it has caused, they say that shows that this is something that has landed.
--:-- James Landale: I think the aim of these nations that have decided now is the moment to recognize the Palestinian state.
--:-- James Landale: In the past, they've all thought this is something that should happen as part of the end game, when eventually there may be some kind of political settlement in the Middle East.
--:-- James Landale: And you use the gift, the prize of recognition, as a tool of diplomatic leverage to get a deal over the line.
--:-- James Landale: That's all gone. They're simply now in the business of trying to save the idea of a two-state solution simply because they believe it is under such great threat as a result of the policies of the current Israeli government.
--:-- James Landale: So I think what they're trying to do is to say, look, we have to start talking about a two-state solution again in a way that hasn't been for many, many years.
--:-- James Landale: Simply because for a long time it's been seen as a sort of an empty slogan, something that sort of diplomats say, well, we talked about that once, we tried that once, it's not going to work.
--:-- James Landale: I think these countries are saying, look, it is the only solution, because the only alternative to that is some kind of singular state, potentially locked in perpetual conflict, potentially with Palestinians as second-class citizens.
--:-- James Landale: And so I think they just want to get back to that kind of discussion.
--:-- Nick Miles: That was James Landale in New York.
--:-- Nick Miles: Well, as we've been hearing, Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the very idea of a Palestinian state.
--:-- Nick Miles: Our Middle East correspondent Yolan Nell in Bethlehem in the West Bank told me more.
--:-- Yolan Nell: There was a stark warning from him, saying there will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.
--:-- Yolan Nell: He was basically pledging as well to continue to expand Israeli settlements on land that Palestinians want for a state of their own.
--:-- Yolan Nell: Already in recent weeks, Israel's announced plans for more than 20 new settlements and they're planning settlement building in E1, this very sensitive area that will really sever the north and the south of the West Bank.
--:-- Yolan Nell: And just coming towards Bethlehem from our office in Jerusalem, there are more of these settler outposts clearly visible on land around this city.
--:-- Yolan Nell: When I went up to the north of the West Bank a week or so ago, it's just really shocking having not made that journey in the last few weeks, how much settlement growth, how many outposts there are that have just come recently.
--:-- Yolan Nell: Now far-right Israeli ministers have been using this occasion to push now for immediate annexation.
--:-- Yolan Nell: They say that should be Israel's natural response.
--:-- Yolan Nell: The far-right minister, Etmar Ben-Gavir, is talking about the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Terror Authority, as he called it as well.
--:-- Yolan Nell: Of course, it's the Palestinian Authority that governs parts of the West Bank cities like Bethlehem.
--:-- Yolan Nell: It's already in a state of real economic distress because of different financial steps that Israel has taken and the general sort of downturn in the economy.
--:-- Yolan Nell: So it's really difficult to see where exactly things go from here.
--:-- Yolan Nell: What Mr Netanyahu is saying is that he's going to consult President Trump when he meets him at the White House in a week's time, and that he will announce when he comes back what Israel's full response will be.
--:-- Yolan Nell: There are other things being talked about in the Israeli media, perhaps a more limited annexation of the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, for example, and that would do a blow to Palestinians, but might be less problematic for Israel with the White House and with other countries in the region as well.
--:-- Nick Miles: Broadly, it's important to say that Palestinians do welcome this.
--:-- Nick Miles: They see this as amounting to an historic shift, particularly by countries such as the UK, which previously had the mandate for Palestine.
--:-- Nick Miles: The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, called this an important and necessary step towards achieving a just and lasting peace in the region.
--:-- Nick Miles: But, you know, as more countries take this step, we've also had Hamas calling for more practical measures to end the war.
--:-- Nick Miles: This is actually, many Palestinians are saying this is what needs to happen now.
--:-- Nick Miles: If there is recognition of a Palestinian state, then concrete actions need to be taken towards fully achieving that so that the Palestinians could ultimately have control of their own borders.
--:-- Nick Miles: The war in Gaza needs to be ended as well.
--:-- Yolan Nell: Yolande Nel.
--:-- Nick Miles: A precarious peace in South Sudan appears to be in the balance, with the country's suspended vice president, Riek Machar, appearing in court accused of murder, treason and crimes against humanity.
--:-- Nick Miles: The charges relate to a militia attack by fighters allegedly loyal to him, which killed 250 South Sudanese soldiers in the town of Nasir back in March.
--:-- Nick Miles: Mr Machar was then placed under house arrest.
--:-- Nick Miles: The presence of Ugandan soldiers in the country is further exacerbating tensions with fears that South Sudan could see a return to a disastrous five-year civil war which killed 400 people.
--:-- Nick Miles: In the capital Juba, these residents told the BBC they were afraid of what might happen.
--:-- Nick Miles: I'm one of the people who are already afraid of the results should it not come out as expected.
--:-- Nick Miles: Of course, these forces and supporters have already issued a warning that should anything happen to him, they will fight.
--:-- Nick Miles: The current development in the country is a little bit worrying and causing a lot of fear and panic among people.
--:-- Nick Miles: Violence is not the solution. Our leaders need to go back and sit down on the table because this whole fighting here, the repercussion is not on them.
--:-- Nick Miles: The repercussion goes back to us, the citizen.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: I got more from our correspondent in Nairobi, Akisa Wanderer, who's been watching the trial.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: Dr. Riek Machar and his co-accused were behind these huge metal bars where they sat as they listened to the proceedings.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: And then, of course, there are other members of the public, including family members of those who are accused, who are in court today.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: I should also mention that the only members of the media that were allowed in were from the state's broadcaster.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: Every other member of the media was denied access to the venue on the first day of this trial.
--:-- Nick Miles: Now, his supporters say this trial is a witch hunt.
--:-- Nick Miles: It does seem inevitable that it's going to deepen divisions among South Sudan's leaders, though, doesn't it?
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: Of course. And it has already done that since he was placed under house arrest and the allegations that have stemmed from that Nasir attack.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: Many of his supporters, including those in the SPLM in opposition, have said that this is an attempt by the president, Salva Kiir to consolidate power and dismantle the 2018 peace agreement where they agreed to rule the country together or share responsibilities in the government.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: And his supporters have also argued that Salva Kiir is trying to completely eliminate Dr. Riek Machar from the politics of the country by bringing into the government his allies and some would say some of his cronies and taking out of government those who are in support of Dr. Riek Machar, in essence, weakening him within government and also within his party.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: And of course, the perception for many is that this will worsen the already existing divisions between Dr. Riek Machar and the president, and hence a threat in the peace that has been hanging on a very fragile thread for a while now.
--:-- Nick Miles: Can you tell me what's the possible outcome for him if he's found guilty?
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: Well, because he is charged with very serious crimes like treason and murder, I think those hold life sentences.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: But from some of the analysts we've spoken to, they think that this is one of those trials that won't really go to their logical conclusion, that President Salva Kiir just wants to tie him in court and keep him in legal limbo as he works around his own succession ahead of the elections next year.
--:-- Akisa Wanderer: But it holds the highest penalties because of the kind of charges that he is being accused of.
--:-- Nick Miles: Akisa Wanderer and the trial has now been adjourned until Tuesday following a dispute over the court's jurisdiction.
--:-- Nick Miles: Since the United Nations was established after the Second World War five nations have held disproportionate power there.
--:-- Nick Miles: They are the permanent members of the US Security Council, Russia, America, China, Britain and France.
--:-- Nick Miles: They all have the power to veto UN draft resolutions.
--:-- Nick Miles: So why just those nations and why are none of them from Latin America, for example, or Africa?
--:-- Nick Miles: BBC Africa's Wahiga Mora is at the UN General Assembly to find out and see if it's likely to change.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: The US, China and Russia don't see eye to eye on many issues, but there's one thing they all agree on.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: They're all in favour of the African continent getting, one way or another, a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: So why has that not happened yet?
--:-- Wahiga Mora: Despite the continent accounting for over a quarter of UN states, they do not have a seat at the big table.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: And yet the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres himself says it is long overdue.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: We cannot accept that the world's preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: But although most UN members agree that the African continent deserves better representation, UN diplomacy expert Richard Gowan says the P5 members aren't really ready to share that privilege.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: Russia and China have made positive noises about greater African representation.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: By contrast, the Biden administration did, one year ago, publicly commit to supporting Africa to gain two seats without vetoes.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: But the messaging from the Trump administration since it took office is that it does not feel bound by what Biden said.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: And actually, the Trump administration quite likes the Security Council as it is.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: They also fear that reopening the UN Charter would create opportunities for other countries to pledge for their own seat, which would dilute their influence even more.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: You have a number of major powers in other regions, most notably India and Brazil, which say they should have permanent seats because of their size and regional importance, and they should have vetoes.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: African countries need to come together and decide who would be getting these seats.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: Some names are sometimes mentioned, like Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, or Ethiopia, but no clear contender so far.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: The African Union has also been mentioned as a possible representative, but at times it has struggled to show efficient diplomacy.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: Where diplomacy is tricky is when it comes to parallel decision making between the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: There, there is often a disconnect over when the two councils are discussing specific issues.
--:-- Wahiga Mora: Momentum for the African continent to get a seat at the table is undeniable, but change will not come easily.
--:-- Nick Miles: Two years ago, countries made commitments at the UN Climate Summit to transition away from fossil fuels.
--:-- Nick Miles: But new data indicates many governments are in fact doing the complete opposite, ramping up coal, gas and oil extraction.
--:-- Nick Miles: The report, compiled by more than 50 international researchers, compared fossil fuel expansion plans against the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit rises in global temperatures.
--:-- Nick Miles: It identified what researchers described as a disconnect between climate ambitions and what countries are actually planning to do.
--:-- Derek Brokhoff: I was a bit surprised that it looks worse this time round.
--:-- Derek Brokhoff: But yeah, it is so brilliant that there is this divergence.
--:-- Derek Brokhoff: And again, a complex mix of factors, but I think it's indicative of the global energy security challenges that the world is facing now, uncertainties about the future and turning to an old fossil fuel dependent playbook, if I can put it that way.
--:-- Nick Miles: I asked our environment correspondent, Matt McGrath, how stark this disconnect was between ambitions and actions.
--:-- Matt McGrath: I think a disconnect is a very polite word for actually a chasm between what countries have promised to do on climate change and what they're also planning to do in extracting the materials that are making climate change even worse.
--:-- Matt McGrath: That's coal, oil and gas.
--:-- Matt McGrath: This report finds that by 2030, when countries should be reducing their production of those materials, in fact, they're producing almost twice as much, in fact, more than twice as much as would be needed to keep the world to a 1.5 degree level of warming.
--:-- Matt McGrath: It's about 77% more than would be needed to keep the world to two degrees.
--:-- Nick Miles: What's going on?
--:-- Matt McGrath: Well, there's a number of factors.
--:-- Matt McGrath: Essentially, China has slowed down its move away from coal, and they've done that because they've had problems in the past with not being able to supply enough power to their country.
--:-- Matt McGrath: And another factor is that countries are hedging their bets.
--:-- Matt McGrath: They're making sure that they're signing up to improve the number of renewables, but they're also very worried about energy security and the cost of living, and they're looking to develop more of their own energy sources, such as coal, oil and gas.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's the number of big countries that are not meeting their commitments, which is particularly worrying, isn't it?
--:-- Matt McGrath: Yeah, exactly.
--:-- Nick Miles: This report looked at 20 of the major producers, the United States, China, India, Saudi Arabia, all the big players.
--:-- Matt McGrath: And they found that most of them, 17 of the 20, were in fact going to increase one of their fossil fuels by 2030.
--:-- Nick Miles: And this very week in New York at the UN General Assembly, lots of leaders will be going there, about 40 of them.
--:-- Matt McGrath: And they be putting on the table new plans to cut their levels of carbon to cut their levels of dependency and production of fossil fuels while at the same time their other ministries are preparing to ramp it up.
--:-- Nick Miles: And it's this contradiction, I suppose, that's long been at the heart of the climate issue, but it's laid very stark in this report.
--:-- Nick Miles: And so how does this leave the COP30, the next big UN climate meeting in Brazil?
--:-- Matt McGrath: A lot of people are going to be pessimistic.
--:-- Matt McGrath: I think there's a lot of headwinds, as you acknowledge there, Nick.
--:-- Matt McGrath: I mean, obviously, President Trump's impact, the ongoing war and this gap between what people are saying and what they're doing.
--:-- Matt McGrath: I think one silver, slightly silver lining is there may be developments this week.
--:-- Matt McGrath: And we may hear from China promising for the first time to remove or reduce their absolute emissions.
--:-- Matt McGrath: And also remember that when people, countries are talking about fossil fuel increases, they're talking about promises, projections, not absolute commitments.
--:-- Matt McGrath: Whereas when they're talking about renewables, they're actually making promises that they have to hold up internationally.
--:-- Nick Miles: Still to come on this podcast.
--:-- Nick Miles: Bringing it up to spec involves three things. Removing asbestos.
--:-- Nick Miles: Secondly, there is an environmental agenda.
--:-- Nick Miles: And finally, there's a general overhaul of its cultural mission.
--:-- Nick Miles: Why one of the world's most recognizable art museums will be shut for five years.
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--:-- Nick Miles: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective.
--:-- Nick Miles: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Nick Miles: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: As part of my treatment plan, I offer the GeneSightTest, which analyzes how a patient's genes may influence how they metabolize or respond to certain mental health medications.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Nick Miles: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
--:-- Nick Miles: To learn more, visit genesight.com.
--:-- Nick Miles: That's genesight.com.
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--:-- Nick Miles: Now to the question what causes autism and can it be treated well?
--:-- Nick Miles: President Trump thinks he may have an answer.
--:-- Nick Miles: This is him addressing the gathering at Charlie Kirk's memorial on Sunday.
--:-- President Trump: I think we found an answer to autism. How about that?
--:-- President Trump: Autism tomorrow we're going to be talking in the Oval Office and the White House about autism, how it happens so we won't let it happen anymore, and how to get at least somewhat better when you have it.
--:-- Nick Miles: Well, later on Monday, at an Oval Office event, the president is expected to advise pregnant women in the US to take Tylenol, known elsewhere as paracetamol, only to relieve high fevers and to link taking the drug early in pregnancy to a rise in autism in children.
--:-- Nick Miles: The White House will also reportedly promote a drug called lucovarin as a potential treatment for autism.
--:-- Nick Miles: Speaking to my colleague Sarah Montague, our health reporter Jim Reid looked at the research behind the move.
--:-- Jim Reid: The vast, vast majority of scientists and researchers believe there's no single cause of autism in children.
--:-- Jim Reid: It's likely to be the result of a complex mix of factors.
--:-- Jim Reid: So last month there was a big review paper and an analysis of previous research and compiled by the team at Harvard and the school of medicine at Mount Sinai in the United States.
--:-- Jim Reid: And they looked at 46 previous studies.
--:-- Jim Reid: 27 of those did report a possible link between the use of paracetamol and disorders including autism.
--:-- Jim Reid: Another nine showed no significant link and four indicated opposite protective effect.
--:-- Jim Reid: And then in 2024, so just last year, a big major study in Sweden looked at two and a half million babies comparing autistic children, importantly, with their siblings to control for those genetic factors to take them into account.
--:-- Jim Reid: And they found no evidence to support a causal link.
--:-- Jim Reid: So the best we can say at the moment on this is the evidence is inconclusive.
--:-- Jim Reid: The Autism Science Foundation, a big US charity, said that based on the existing data, there is not enough evidence to support a link between paracetamol use and autism.
--:-- Nick Miles: What about the second huge claim here, which is that there's a possible treatment for autism, this drug called lucovorin?
--:-- Jim Reid: There have been studies into the levels of folate, that's vitamin B9, in the blood.
--:-- Jim Reid: And some studies have linked a low rate of folate levels to an increased risk, again, of autism in some children.
--:-- Jim Reid: Again, like I say, the findings are not consistent.
--:-- Jim Reid: Some studies point one way, some point the other.
--:-- Jim Reid: This drug lucavorin is widely used in some chemotherapy treatments and it boosts a vitamin called folinic acid which is linked to folic acid but is thought to maybe cross the blood brain barrier more easily and therefore you can address the deficiency of this vitamin more easily.
--:-- Jim Reid: There have been four small randomized trials all using different doses, different measurements of success.
--:-- Jim Reid: One did study just 48 autistic children in the US and did find some improvements in verbal communication compared with the placebo.
--:-- Jim Reid: But again, even the authors of the study said more work was needed.
--:-- Nick Miles: That was our health reporter, Jim Reid.
--:-- Nick Miles: In Japanese politics and boardrooms, the presence of women is rare, but there is a chance that could change.
--:-- Nick Miles: One of the two favorites to become Japan's next prime minister has promised to improve her cabinet's gender balance to Nordic levels.
--:-- Nick Miles: A nod there to the fact that Iceland, Finland and Norway are the most gender equal countries in the world.
--:-- Will Leonardo: Launching her campaign after praying for victory at a Shinto shrine, Sanae Takaiichi said people would be very surprised by her appointments.
--:-- Will Leonardo: Japanese politics in boardrooms is still heavily male-dominated, and Ms. Takai-chi would, by a surprising vote in Parliament, become the country's first female prime minister if she beats her four male rivals to replace the incumbent liberal democratic leader.
--:-- Nick Miles: On other matters, she's stuck closer to her hawkish conservative image, saying growing numbers of foreigners were rattling nerves and promising to protect Japan's borders.
--:-- Nick Miles: Her main rival is the youthful, more centrist agriculture minister Shinjido Koizumi, who's promised to bring prices down for families.
--:-- Nick Miles: The current prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is stepping down after losing the LDP's majority in both houses of parliament, making the candidate's path to office slightly trickier.
--:-- Will Leonardo: Who will own TikTok if it's not the Chinese?
--:-- Will Leonardo: That has been the question ever since Donald Trump insisted it should be US because of Washington worries over how Beijing might use the platform to spy on Americans.
--:-- Will Leonardo: The president says the answer may now involve the Murdochs, Rupert and his eldest son Lachlan, who control a large swathe of the English-speaking media market.
--:-- Ben Smith: We spoke to Ben Smith, editor of the news organisation Semaphore, and a host of the media-focused Mixed Signals podcast.
--:-- Ben Smith: So how much of a surprise was it to hear the Murdoch's name attached to the possible ownership of TikTok?
--:-- Ben Smith: This process has been full of surprises because the US Congress has essentially ordered that TikTok be shut down and Donald Trump is ignoring that and instead trying to sell it to his friends.
--:-- Ben Smith: Those include Larry Ellison, one of the richest men in the world who owns Oracle, and now apparently also Rupert Murdoch, Ares San Lachlan, who is not exactly a friend or an enemy, but kind of an ally of convenience here.
--:-- Ben Smith: But not always an ally, is he, of course, because the president is currently suing the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for a vast sum.
--:-- Ben Smith: The Murdoch's relationships with Trump is very complicated.
--:-- Ben Smith: Fox News right now, which is their most important outlet in the U.S., is an incredibly kind of obsequiously pro-Trump television channel.
--:-- Ben Smith: But The Wall Street Journal is probably tougher on Trump than maybe any other American publication, which is particularly galling to Trump because it's a conservative newspaper, has a conservative editorial page.
--:-- Ben Smith: Murdoch according to emails that came out in court in 2020 told his deputies after January 6th that they should make Donald Trump basically a non-person which failed but they have a they have a long complicated relationship.
--:-- Ben Smith: Do you think if TikTok is partly sold to Rupert and his son Lachlan that would have any implications for that court case?
--:-- Ben Smith: No, I mean the court case is it's nonsense litigation.
--:-- Ben Smith: It's not, I think that it's not a case that the Wall Street Journal is concerned about on the law.
--:-- Ben Smith: It's more a question of, are you willing to go to court against the White House?
--:-- Ben Smith: I think the Murdochs actually are.
--:-- Ben Smith: A number of American media companies have been intimidated out of going to court at all.
--:-- Nick Miles: What does it mean for the future of TikTok, which is after all, probably the most powerful medium for political communication on the planet?
--:-- Ben Smith: I think it means that its owners will probably be inclined to use it to help Donald Trump's party get restate in power.
--:-- Ben Smith: By changing the algorithm?
--:-- Ben Smith: I mean, it's not quite that simple, right?
--:-- Ben Smith: It's not a single algorithm.
--:-- Ben Smith: And it's mostly a platform for non-political speech on which all sorts of people see all sorts of things, including lots of BBC programming.
--:-- Ben Smith: But they could certainly put their thumb on the scale and decide that certain trends or certain kinds of speech were too offensive to be permitted and that other kinds should be amplified.
--:-- Nick Miles: Now for a reflection on nature.
--:-- Nick Miles: We've heard a lot of that last bit here in Britain recently after a very warm summer temperatures have begun to drop and in recent days there have been torrential rainstorms.
--:-- Nick Miles: Monday marks the equinox with autumn on its way in the northern hemisphere and spring beginning south of the equator.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Tristan Gooley, author of The Hidden Seasons, a calendar of nature's clues and signs, explained what an equinox actually means.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Yeah, it's a fantastic time, a magical time.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: The sun spends half the year over the northern hemisphere and half the year over the southern hemisphere.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And as it crosses over the equator, we call that the equinox.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: But the words aren't as fun as actually experiencing the change.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So the length of a day changes more in one week at this time of year than in the whole of the months of June or December.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Extraordinary.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And we feel that change, don't we?
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And this weekend, many of us did feel it.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Yes, the sun is moving south.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: It's getting lower.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And we feel that in the temperature changes, but also knock on effects in all the nature around us.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So it's not a steady change.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: That's a key thing.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: We find that the plants and animals are picking up on this.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And we start to see colours changing and all sorts of things all around us every day.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Well, the colour of the leaves is the obvious things we all look for in autumn and that we tend to notice.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: What else are you as somebody who's sort of expert in this looking at?
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Well, I think the colour of the leaves is a good place to start because I think a lot of us sort of go, oh, the leaves have changed.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: But actually, if you know where to look, high on the southern side of tall trees is where you see autumn weeks before other places.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So if you know where to look.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So on the way here, I was looking at some tall plain trees and up on the high southern part, you can see the leaves turning.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: But low down, it will take weeks more.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So when people say the leaves are turning, if you if you've known where to look, you can be weeks ahead.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And that's that's just one of many colour compasses, as I call them.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Well, give us some others then.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: Yeah.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So so berries, for example, are not random and they're they're responding.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: They follow the flowers and those are responding to light to attract the pollinating insects.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So, again, in natural navigation, we think of that as as as a compass.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: We find more more flowers and fruits on the south side.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: But staying with the leaves, when the leaves start to fall, they're being plucked off by the prevailing southwesterly winds, typically.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: We get more gales as we move on.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: And the trees will lose their leaves high on the south-western side.
--:-- Tristan Gooley: So again, you see these patterns, and our ancestors would have been tuned to this.
--:-- Nick Miles: With its vents and pipes making it look like some kind of urban monster, the Pompidou Centre in Paris is one of the world's most recognizable modern art museums.
--:-- Nick Miles: But for the next five years, it will be closed to the public as it undergoes renovations that will cost half a billion dollars.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: More details from the newsroom's Richard Hamilton.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: When it first opened in 1977, the Pompidou Centre caused a massive stir, mainly because its escalators, plumbing, ventilation ducts and electrical wiring were all on the outside of the building to allow more space inside for art.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: Nicknamed Notre-Dame des Tuillots or Our Lady of the Pipes, it was designed by the architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: They themselves were inspired by the cultural and political protests of 1968.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: The Pompidou Centre has housed the largest collection of modern art in Europe and the second largest in the world after MoMA in New York.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: But today is the last day to visit, before a long period of closure.
--:-- Xavier Rey: Xavier Rey is the centre's director.
--:-- Xavier Rey: Five years is too long, but at the same time it's what's required for a project of this magnitude, on a building which spans 70,000 square metres.
--:-- Xavier Rey: Bringing it up to spec involves three things.
--:-- Xavier Rey: Firstly, removing asbestos.
--:-- Xavier Rey: It's a 1970s building, in which asbestos was used liberally.
--:-- Xavier Rey: Secondly, there is an environmental agenda, and we expect to improve energy efficiency by 60% after the renovations are done.
--:-- Xavier Rey: And finally, there's a general overhaul of its cultural mission.
--:-- Nick Miles: The poor state of Paris' often crowded cultural attractions has caused great concern.
--:-- Nick Miles: Notre Dame itself was closed for five years after a fire in 2019.
--:-- Nick Miles: And the head of the Louvre has warned that the world's most visited museum is suffering from water damage and poor maintenance.
--:-- Nick Miles: President Emmanuel Macron has promised that it will be redesigned, restored and enlarged at a cost of nearly a billion dollars.
--:-- Richard Hamilton: The total bill for the renovation of the Pompidou Centre has been estimated at about 500 million dollars, about half of which will be financed by the French government.
--:-- Nick Miles: And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later on.
--:-- Nick Miles: If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.
--:-- Nick Miles: The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
--:-- Nick Miles: You can also find us on X at BBC World Service.
--:-- Nick Miles: Use the hashtag Global News Pod.
--:-- Nick Miles: This edition was mixed by Vladimir Muzetska and the producer was Richard Hamilton.
--:-- Nick Miles: The editor is Karen Martin.
--:-- Nick Miles: I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.
--:-- Nick Miles: America is changing and so is the world.
--:-- Nick Miles: But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Nick Miles: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Nick Miles: I'm Tristan Redman in London.
--:-- Nick Miles: And this is The Global Story.
--:-- Nick Miles: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Nick Miles: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
