Caroline Hawley
Appearances
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
Honestly, there is still confusion. I think why it's being done is easier than the what of it, if you know what I mean. So essentially, this has been paused so the new administration can check that government spending aligns with its conservative policies. And they've also promised to make the government more efficient.
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
They've made clear that there's going to be no more funding for diversity and inclusion for many environmental programmes. What the White House press secretary called transgenderism and wokeness. I had another White House official saying there would be no more funding for left-wing NGOs. But there is confusion and uncertainty.
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
For example, Meals on Wheels, which you can work out from the title what it does. They don't know what this means for them. So many, many people work trying to work out what exactly this means as it goes into effect. Although, Jeanette, we are just hearing now that a judge has temporarily paused part of the freeze. So watch this space for what happens next.
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
That's right. But I think you heard Caroline Levitt say there that Medicare was not affected. So there's been this is kind of added to the chaos. And you heard from the Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said that this was causing cruel, nasty and illegal chaos. Chaos it certainly is.
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
What about foreign aid? Good question. Well, all foreign aid has been paused. And that is an absolutely huge deal because the US is the biggest foreign aid donor in the world. I spoke to somebody. He didn't want to be identified, but he's a longtime aid worker. And he said this had caused an earthquake in the sector. And a couple of things that Caroline Levitt mentioned in her press conference.
Global News Podcast
US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal funding
She said that there was money about to go out for the World Health Organization, $37 million. She said that had been halted. And then she spoke about $50 million, bizarrely, that she said was going to go out of the budget for condoms for Gaza. That's also been halted. So those were the two things she specifically mentioned at that press conference today on foreign aid.
Global News Podcast
Netanyahu issues warning ahead of Gaza ceasefire
Eight years ago, just after President Trump was inaugurated for his first presidency, over half a million people came to Washington to protest in one of the largest ever one-day protests in the country. This time the organizers, and they're from a coalition of groups, they were hoping for 50,000, but I would say there are less than that.
Global News Podcast
Netanyahu issues warning ahead of Gaza ceasefire
But many, many people, several thousand, have braved the cold. to come to Washington with signs saying things like, control guns, not our bodies. No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I'm here. Immigrants make America great. So banners that reflect their opposition to Donald Trump and the policies they fear he will bring in.
Global News Podcast
Netanyahu issues warning ahead of Gaza ceasefire
And with me now are two people who've come in to Washington from Baltimore. And Zora, you're 17 years old. Have you been to a protest before? I have. I was back at a protest just like this in 2017, right before Trump's first inauguration. You must have been very young. Yeah, I was nine years old.
Global News Podcast
Netanyahu issues warning ahead of Gaza ceasefire
Thank you both so much. And obviously they've come here to stand up for what they believe in. I don't think the demonstration, the rally is quite as big as the organisers may have hoped, but people really wanting to have their voices heard as Donald Trump flies in today to begin celebrations ahead of his inauguration on Monday.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
The Arctic's at its lowest ever as we go into winter. The Antarctic's at its second lowest ever as we go into summer. And in some ways, that's not surprising. But the specifics, I guess, are quite surprising in terms of those happening together and just how large the differences are from usual.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
And yes, while the Arctic started to really look very different about 15 years ago in 2007, the Antarctic, it's only the last five years that we've started to see these quite big changes in Antarctic sea ice. Prior to that, it wasn't really declining. It was increasing a little bit.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
I guess the key thing to remember is that Antarctic and Arctic sea ice, they vary each year anyway, right? So they're freezing up and melting each year. So anything that changes that freezing and melting process each year will change how much sea ice you end up with in the winter or the summer.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
And so things like winds that push the sea ice into regions of warmer or colder water or warmer or colder winds themselves, and also how much kind of ocean heat is sitting near the
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
surface to stop the ice forming or to melt the ice so it's it's to do with kind of i guess where the warm temperatures are in the system and and how the ice is being moved around sea ice is obviously very bright particularly if it's got snow on top so it's completely white and reflects lots of energy back to space lots of sunlight and if you melt that and get rid of that and replace it with a very dark ocean surface then you absorb all that sunlight into the ocean
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
And so when we've lost this sea ice, particularly in the last kind of 10 years ago, that's had a sizable kind of negative effect on how much the sea ice can cool down the earth. So normally the sea ice would cool down the earth. But then if we lose that, it then pushes back and we end up in kind of a reinforcing loop where we warm up even more than we are already doing due to carbon emissions.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
We've already changed the world beyond recognition, particularly the Arctic, and that's going to continue no matter what we do. But there are actually positive things happening in terms of, you know, the energy mix and things. And you look sometimes around the world and, you know, a country will have all of its energy coming from renewables.
Global News Podcast
Ukraine talks could see Europeans excluded
And so we are making progress in some places and we can continue to make progress. And every bit of carbon we save safeguards our future a little bit and minimises the effects that we have.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
He's after a deal, a deal on the nuclear deal that he pulled the US out of in 2018. And it's a really crunch moment for that deal. It's essentially moribund because the US pulled out of it. But there have been attempts to revive it. And it expires this year. It was negotiated over 20 months, I believe, under the presidency of Barack Obama. But it is due to expire in October.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
And at that point, any sanctions that the signatories could put on Iran for not abiding by the terms of the deal will no longer be possible to use. So it's a key moment. And there has been a flurry of recent diplomatic activity, three tracks. Iran and the IAEA, then Iran and European countries and Britain, actually four tracks.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
Then there were talks last week, last Friday in China with Iran and Russia. And then finally, you have this letter from Donald Trump delivered last Wednesday. We don't know the contents, but there have been some interesting comments today from a foreign ministry spokesman in Iran saying, saying that they're not going to release the contents. They will respond to it after proper scrutiny.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
But the messages coming from the US are contradictory and inconsistent because the Americans are expressing readiness for dialogue while also imposing new sanctions. But the message from Donald Trump that we know of because he's spoken about it in a television interview is negotiate or else. If you don't do a deal, there's the threat of military strikes. So Iran has got a lot to think about.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
It certainly is in a weakened position because of those Israeli airstrikes last year, which targeted air defences around the nuclear facilities. And you know that the Israelis have lobbied for a long time for military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
Now, they insist they are peaceful, but there is a huge amount of international concern, alarm even, at what the Iranians have been doing over the past few years to Experts say it would now take less than a week for the Iranians to enrich enough material for a single nuclear weapon. So that's a very short time frame.
Global News Podcast
Trump and Putin to hold Ukraine peace talks on Tuesday
It would take them longer to actually weaponize it, but they are enriching uranium at a very, very fast pace. to 60%, you need 90% to build a bomb. But there is a huge amount of concern. So you've got a flurry of diplomatic activity. I mean, Donald Trump wants deals wherever he goes, doesn't he? But the Iranians do not like negotiating with a gun to their head. So let's see what happens.