Global News Podcast
Canadian PM Mark Carney says he wants to reduce security reliance on the US
Tue, 18 Mar 2025
Canada's new PM, Mark Carney, has said his country must reduce its reliance on the US and would instead turn towards what he described as its reliable European allies. Also: Antarctic base rocked by alleged assault.
Chapter 1: What is Canada's new strategy on international relations?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil, and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 18th of March, these are our main stories. The new Canadian Prime Minister has said he wants to reduce security reliance on the United States. The wave of trade tariffs initiated by Donald Trump has prompted the OECD to downgrade its global economic growth forecast.
Rwanda has expelled all Belgian diplomats in a dramatic worsening of relations linked to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Also in this podcast... You get to know everything about the other person. You know exactly how they put their coffee cup down and what direction the handle points in. You know that they scratch their nose three times before they sit down.
An isolated team of scientists in Antarctica appeals for help after one member is accused of physical assault. Tradition has it that a new Prime Minister of Canada goes to the United States for their first visit abroad. But with tensions fraught between the two neighbours, in particular over Donald Trump's trade tariffs, Mark Carney chose to come to Europe instead.
Chapter 2: How is Canada responding to US trade tariffs?
His first stop was Paris to meet President Emmanuel Macron, followed by London for talks with King Charles and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. At a news conference after the meeting, Mr Carney said he had achieved a great deal during his meetings.
This 36 hours away from Canada, the focus is on security, deepening security partnerships with France, with the United Kingdom. I'm encouraged by the progress that's been made. Secondly, advancing the support for Ukraine is very necessary. We are taking back a lot, but we're also taking back a deepening of our core partnerships, which is the objective.
Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, was at Mr Carney's news conference, and I asked her if the Canadian prime minister had achieved a great deal, as he claims, with his meetings.
He certainly went into great detail about, without he said there were certain things that were, in his words, very sensitive. But he wanted to convey a very strong impression that, first of all, these alliances were very, very strong and getting stronger, that they had very detailed discussions on strengthening security, including when it came to Ukraine.
and on issues like critical minerals, artificial intelligence. He said that a free trade deal with Britain wasn't the priority on this visit. So you got a sense that it was the broader sort of economic and strategic partnerships between
But, Jonathan, he was asked repeatedly by almost all the Canadian journalists about – there's a concern in Canada that Canada's allies are not really standing up for it when President Trump keeps saying things like, I'm going to make Canada the 51st state, Canada will be better off in that way.
And when Mark Carney was asked about that, he basically said, well, he was very diplomatic about it, let me say, saying we don't need anyone to stand up for us. What he did get from Sir Keir Starmer was the word sovereignty. And of course, King Charles also emphasized the sovereignty. And he felt that that was good enough combined with what he got behind closed doors.
And this all comes as he's expected to call a general election with Canadians really alarmed by Donald Trump's rhetoric.
It has completely transformed the Canadian political landscape. Before President Trump returned to the White House, the Liberal Party that now headed by Mark Carney was way behind in the polls. They were not going to lose the next general election. They were going to lose badly. First, there was what they call a Trudeau bump.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's foreign policy shift?
Donald Trump is bent on keeping the diplomatic ball moving. He wants an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin says yes, maybe, but first let's discuss Russia's terms and conditions. In the face of what some see as stalling tactics, President Trump will call his Russian counterpart to maintain momentum in the negotiations.
Speaking on a rather noisy Air Force One, he claimed there was a very good chance of peace.
I think we'll be talking about land. It's a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. We'll be talking about power plants. That's a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.
So what might that mean? It's not entirely clear, but it's thought there are discussions about how best to draw up a ceasefire line in areas where the frontline bisects towns and villages. The President was also referring to the future of the massive nuclear power plant at Zaporizhia and a neighbouring town, all currently under Russian control.
But President Putin says any ceasefire must not only address questions of detail such as this, but also what he sees as the root causes of the war, namely an expanding NATO and a sovereign Ukraine. All this is making European leaders cautious, including the EU Foreign Affairs Chief, Kaya Callas.
Those conditions that they have presented, it shows that they don't really want peace, actually, because they are presenting as conditions all their ultimate goals that they want to achieve from the war.
As for Ukraine, they too have red lines, as set out by Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian parliament, in an interview with the BBC.
We will never agree to any territorial concessions. Second, it's about our membership in international organizations, in particular in NATO. Putin shouldn't decide that. And finally, we cannot agree to Putin's suggesting some kind of limits on our defense capabilities.
So much now depends on the call between the two leaders. Will Mr Putin dig in or give ground? Will Mr Trump threaten consequences or offer concessions? For the people here in Ukraine, much will be at stake.
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Chapter 4: Why was a Brown University professor deported?
Chapter 5: What is the impact of Trump's trade war on the global economy?
In yet another example of how the Trump administration is escalating its controversial immigration policies, a medical professor was deported to Lebanon this weekend despite having a valid work visa. The Brown University professor, Rasha Alawir, a kidney transplant specialist, had flown back to the US after a trip to Lebanon. But she was deported despite a judge's order blocking the move.
The Department of Homeland Security says this was because she had attended the funeral of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Her deportation came as the U.S. also deported more than 250 mainly Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, despite a judge also ordering a halt to those flights. Our North America correspondent Nomia Iqbal has the latest.
Rasha Alouia is 34. She's a transplant doctor and assistant professor at Brown University based in Rhode Island. And she'd been in the U.S. since 2018 on an H-1B visa. So these are visas typically issued to foreigners who've got special skills for a job that an employer would say they can't get an American to do.
But court documents show that in February, she went to Lebanon for what she thought would be a short visit, but was delayed in returning while trying to get paperwork from the U.S. consulate in in Beirut and her cousin filed a petition on her behalf.
You had a US district court judge on Friday saying that the federal government must give 48 hours notice to the court before her removal from the country. But she was already put on a flight back to Lebanon by US Customs and Border Protection.
Do we have any indications why she's been deported given that she has this visa and her skills are in short supply apparently in the US?
Well, Homeland Security has sent us a statement alleging that she told agents during her detainment that she had traveled to Beirut last month to attend the funeral of the dead Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Now, tens of thousands of people attended the funeral. It was held at a 48,000 seat stadium in Beirut. But, of course, Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by the U.S.
They also claim she had pictures of the Iran's Ayatollah on her phone. But she reportedly said that this was not a political reason why she went to the funeral or why she had the pictures, but it was more of a religious one. As a Shia Muslim, she said that they were important religious figures and it wasn't anything political.
Nonetheless, the university has sent an email advising international students and faculty members to avoid international travel due to potential changes in travel restrictions and travel bans. This all comes at a time when the Trump administration is really ramping up its efforts to deport people.
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Chapter 6: Who was behind the arson attacks in Lithuania and Poland?
In other cases, as in this case, what the prosecutors are saying is these are people who are acting for cash. They're saying that the pair are involved in the attack on Ikea were given a BMW afterwards and they were promised €10,000 payment for the attack. So there is this very curious trend of using Ukrainians in particular.
And I would suggest that probably from the Russian side, that's also about making people across Europe suspicious of Ukrainian nationals and undermining support for helping Ukraine in its war against Russia. It's all, I think, part of what Russia is up to.
Sarah Rainsford speaking to Sarah Montague.
Still to come... Emotions are overflowing in Kochani. Young people took out their anger on a town centre cafe bar.
We hear how protests are escalating in North Macedonia as people demand justice and an end to corruption after a nightclub fire that killed 59 people.
On our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire, we explain how the world's billionaires made all their money.
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Yep, we're talking about Marcus Persson, the Swedish coding king who programmed the world's most successful game, Minecraft, all by himself.
He made a billion, but is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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