How wars impact the most vulnerable people

0:00Get informed no matter where you are or what you're doing. Subscribe to Bloomberg News now and get news when you want it on your schedule. They tech dominating our headlines. Another win for Donald Trump, a key inflation report. These are short audio reports five minutes or less that bring you the latest headlines with context 24 hours a day. Stay on top of the latest news from around the world. Get it on your smartphone. Subscribe to Bloomberg News now on Apple podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else you listen. If your eyes are the windows to your soul and your glasses are the windows to your eyes, then it's pretty important to find your perfect frames. That's why at Warby Parker, we've made shopping for eyewear as easy and fun as can be. Peru's endless styles in our stores or use our app to virtually try on frames and get personalized recommendations. To find your next favorite pair of glasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses, or to locate your nearest Warby Parker store, head over to WarbyParker.com. I don't know if you have this feeling, but I constantly find myself daydreaming about finding

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2:09They're bombing every day. It's the Ministry. It's not changing. I'm Marco Wormen today, the way forward for Myanmar after an election that's seen as a sham. Also the most vulnerable populations in Tehran navigate life and wartime. And at the Paralympics, the wet snow has been extra challenging. The slash may be added an extra element for those of us skiing with one hole. Plus lots of international films are up for Oscars, like a Brazilian thriller, about to scent with the government that feels eerily relevant. They are just living their lives and suddenly they become the center focus of the government going after them. That sounds like ripped out of the headlines right now. That's all ahead today, here on the world. This is the world, I'm Marco Wormen. Thank you for being with us this Friday. Ramping up and only up, that's how U.S. Secretary Defense Pete Hegseth described the plan for U.S. military operations going forward in the Middle East. Today will be, yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the

3:13skies of Iran and Tehran, the number of sorries, the number of bomber pulses, the highest yet. Ramping up and only up. U.S. and Israeli forces have been bombing Iran for nearly two weeks now, with bombs falling mostly on the densely populated city of Tehran. According to Iran's Red Crescent Society, the strikes have already killed more than a thousand people. The world's Sharan Jafar has been in touch with people on the ground in Tehran and we begin today with Sharan to get a sense of what she's been hearing. So what kind of things are people there sharing with you Sharan? Well, Marco, they are telling me that the intensity of the bombings has dramatically increased. This is in line with what the Secretary of Defense said today. So far, the majority of the targets have been military or governmental buildings, but we've also seen some infrastructure being hit, like the fuel depots near Tehran. Some cultural sites have also been damaged. We saw some reports of that this week, and of course, a girl school was hit on the first day of the war, and the evidence so far

4:18points to the U.S. being responsible for that bombing. Something that I've noticed in the past 24 hours is that the targets now include checkpoints. These are checkpoints that are set up by the Iranian government forces, and these are popping up across Tehran, the security forces, search cars, and they ask questions. It's basically a way for the government to keep track of people's movements, and it's a way for them to show that they're still in charge. But of course, these checkpoints are targets now, and U.S. and Israeli forces are bombing them. And that's concerning, Marco, because regular people, civilians also go through these checkpoints. Yeah, and as you talk about checkpoints, I wonder if people are staying in Tehran, or are you seeing significant movement of people leaving the city? I've been monitoring that since day one, two observations that I have. One is that anyone in the war, some people left the city, thinking that this war would only last a couple of days.

5:22Many went to the north of the country. That's where a lot of people go for vacation. It's near the Caspian Sea, there are villas, and it's actually really beautiful. But then as this war went on, people started to realize that they can't pay for a place to stay in the north, keeping in mind that this war could go on for a while. So some of those people returned to Tehran. And of course, some people didn't leave at all. That's the thing with war. People experienced it differently depending on their socio-economic status. People who can afford to pay for lodging, for example, can leave town. Those who have a car and can pay for fuel, they leave. But for many, that's not possible. And they stayed behind in Tehran under the bombardments. We should remember, too, that just before this war started, thousands of Iranians were out protesting the dire state of the country's economy. Iranians have also borne the brunt of U.S. sanctions. What are people telling you about how that's impacting them?

6:23Yes. So Marco, this war is a disaster for the working class. Those who live paycheck to paycheck, day laborers, for example, have been in touch with one woman who cleans houses for a living. She's been out of work for nearly two months because, again, you know, before this war started, the reprotests and the subsequent crackdown. So she has been out of work for that whole time since the beginning of January. And she said that her two kids can only get one meal a day now. The price of everything has gone up, you know, whereas before she might have been able to afford a bag of fries, now she can't even afford that. And these families typically have no savings to fall on during crises like these. And these are the most vulnerable people who bear the brunt of this war. So as I mentioned, people in Iran have been killed. There have been many injuries. So what are you hearing about hospitals and whether they're functioning? Can people

7:23get medical care if they need it? So far, the majority of the hospitals across the country are functioning. 18 health facilities were hit according to the World Health Organization. But the others are operating. I saw a post on social media from a young man who is disabled. I've been following him for a long time. And he said that this is a really difficult time for people with health conditions or disabilities. Many can't get any medical help that they need because they can't leave their homes. Movement has become challenging for some of them. And their care takers aren't showing up because of the bombings. So again, that's having an impact on their lives and their well-being. Yeah, and we have to mention another vulnerable group, children. Of course, one woman that I know who takes care of children with autism has been posting regularly on Instagram. It really depends on when she can get access to the internet. You know, the

8:24Iranian government has cut off the internet since the beginning of the war. But some people do manage to get online if they can buy really expensive digital tools, VPNs that help them circumvent the ban. Again, another disparity that we see in this war. But this woman's last message really struck me. She said that one kid that she's been taking care of is struggling because schools are and she said the house feels like solitary confinement for him. And the loud sound of the jets and the bombings make him really agitated. Here's how she ends the post. She ends it with this sentence. She says we need to take extra care with children in this difficult time because the shoulders of children are too small to carry the weight of wars. It is a heartbreaking thought with which to end this conversation, but what she says cannot be debated. The world's syringeafari, thank you very much for bringing us these views from inside Iran. You're welcome Marco.

9:37Earlier this week, we told you about a new report from Human Rights Watch, finding that more than 1,000 people have been killed in recent months in Haiti by drone strikes. The attacks by Haitian security forces with support from the U.S. private military firm, Vectis Global are targeting gangs, but many of the victims are reportedly civilians. Vectis Global is headed by Blackwater Founder Eric Prince, a close associate of President Donald Trump. Many wonder if the United States will step up its involvement. It's in this context that a film about past U.S. intervention in Haiti has been released for streaming. Reporter Amy Bracken saw the documentary at a screening in New York. At the start of the 20th century, Haiti was an upheaval, a bit like today. There was a string of coups, and the one in 1915 was particularly bloody, ending with a murdered president being dragged through the streets. That's when the U.S. went in and took over for 19 years. Alan Marton's grandfather was born and raised during that occupation, but never spoke about it with

10:38his grandson. After Marton went to college in New Jersey and learned about the U.S. occupation of Haiti, he decided to make a documentary about it. I'm writing to let you know that I spent the last 10 years of my life making a movie about the United States occupation of Haiti. Marton called it the forgotten occupation Jim Crow goes to Haiti and framed it as a letter to his grandfather, Bruno. Marton described his puppy as being part of a better off class in Haiti, with a certain disdain for the poor majority. And as an adult, Brunell wasn't alone in thinking Haiti would be better off if it came under U.S. control again. This is a movie that's going to be critical of the ideas you had about Haiti, about Haitians, about ways, about class. It's going to be critical of the love affair you had with the United States. Marta spent more than a decade interviewing historians, writers, and activists, reading their books and pouring over papers and film and archives. He learned about how after

11:43the 1915 coup, the U.S. moved into Haiti and stayed until 1934. It was ostensibly to stabilize the country, but Patrick Sovette Simmons University says there was more to it. The Manuel doctrine claimed that the United States can intervene anywhere to maintain its own interests. That was how Teddy Roosevelt and his successors interpreted it in the early 1900s to justify military intervention in Haiti and other neighboring countries. Some Haitians, especially the better off, welcomed the Americans at first, thinking they would bring stability and protect Haitian business interests. But Marta says there was a history behind the unrest that the Americans couldn't solve, and in fact took advantage of. After Haiti slaves defeated Napoleon's army in 1804, for France to acknowledge Haiti as a nation, it demanded that the Haitians pay the slave masters it had defeated, reparations. We fight, I kick your ass, I gotta give you money for

12:51to pay France, Haiti had to take out loans. And by 1915, some 80% of the Haitian government's budget was still going to foreign banks. So there was very little money to develop the country, uplift the country, to invest in social programs to invest in infrastructure. So people were always upset, so they were always rising up against the government. The U.S. brought a form of stability, but in some ways it also picked up where the French had left off. The U.S. took over Haiti's finances. National City Bank of New York, city groups predecessor, profited from its debt. Marta spoke with Hans Schmidt, a historian who wrote a book on the U.S. occupation of Haiti. The U.S. took over the customs receivership. They would collect all the revenues, and then hand them over not to the government, but pay off the debts first of the foreign investors. And if there was anything left over, then the government could have that. The Marines even restored a form of slavery, in which poor Haitians were forced to work for free on infrastructure projects.

13:54Laurent Dubois is a professor at the University of Virginia. The other background to the occupation is that you do have more and more American companies who are interested in Haiti to invest in, especially in agriculture. From these guys' perspective, Haiti was essentially a place that was just waiting to be kind of taken over and turned to profit. The U.S. even changed Haiti's constitution to allow foreign ownership of land. Americans took over large swaths of the country, setting up plantations served by cheap local labor, and displacing thousands. Marta wanted to know, given the U.S.'s history in Haiti, whether Haitians today would welcome the American military's return to stop the gangs. So he calls his friends, and asks, with the violence gripping the country today, should the U.S. occupy Haiti again. Do you think it's a good idea for the Americans to go clean this up? Simmons University Professor Patrick Sovan explains that desperation erases memories of past wrongs.

14:56We have an expression, your prone to vent, they've gotten you by the belly. You are so desperate. History is irrelevant. To be clear, the Trump administration has not announced any plans to occupy Haiti. It has stationed warships in the Bay of Port of Prince. The recent New York screening was hosted by the Haiti Cultural Exchange at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. The film's executive producer, Roxanne Gay, the best-selling author, couldn't make it to the screening, but we talked about the film. It feels prescient, and it feels in many ways like history, code, and might repeat itself, and that's always unfortunate when we recognize that not much has been learned. Given the cycle of the U.S. repeatedly intervening and Haiti repeatedly plunging into chaos. I don't know how we stop this pattern because the United States retains its position as a very

16:00powerful country. I asked Marta if he has any idea of how the current crisis in Haiti could be resolved. He said he didn't, but there's one thing he does know. The United States will have to be involved in some way. The forgotten occupation Jim Crow goes to Haiti will continue to be screened around North America, and it's also streaming. For the world, I'm Amy Brackett in New York. You're listening to the world. This is the world I'm Marco Warman. Of the thousands of immigrants swept up in the Trump administration's deportation campaign, there's one group you may not have heard much about.

17:00Asians, that's in part because many Asians have not volunteered their stories of being targeted by federal agents. In Chicago, WBZ's Esther Yun Ji Kang has been hearing why the community has been so hesitant, and what might be changing. On a rainy night in January, Rabia Amin and her family are packing some essentials to send to her dad. These are his eye drops that he has like homine cataracts, and it's pretty hard to get in Pakistan. 63-year-old Asif Amin Chima had been deported to his native Pakistan about a week before. Now, Rabia's sister was getting ready to fly there to help him get situated in a country he had not lived in for 30 years. The family packed diabetes test strips, shaving gel, a blood pressure monitor, and new clothes for her dad. He'd lost so much weight while he was in detention that his old clothes no longer fit him. Amin says her dad lost over 30 pounds in three months and weighed only 140 pounds. And I know he lost more weight after

18:07that. Like, he's very bony, face is very chiseled and very like saggy as well. Amin's dad was arrested by federal immigration agents minutes from his house in West suburban Addison in September. In the early days of the Trump administration's operation midway blitz, he'd begun the process to get legal status decades ago and thought he'd done everything the government requires. So, like many immigrants in the U.S., the Amin family never imagined Chima would be picked up by federal immigration agents. I came from a perspective that we're hardworking, that we weren't criminals. Nothing was ever going to happen to us. But then something did happen. Amin says while her dad was on his way to work, his car was blocked in by border patrol agents. Maybe they just saw him, saw that he was a brown man. They asked people and then asked questions later. The months that followed were harrowing. The family learned Chima had a removal order for a missed court date. Something they say their former immigration lawyer never told them about.

19:09And then, just as he was about to get deported, he collapsed at the airport and ended up in the hospital. Once he recovered, he was sent back to Pakistan. When Chima was first arrested, the family lied about where he was. They told friends and relatives that he was sick, which was true because he had a host of health issues. But the Amin's hardly told anyone what had really happened. They thought Chima would be released soon. But there was also another reason. It's a phrase in our community, log gyal gange, which literally translates to what will people say. She was worried people would spread gossip about her family. You know, when you're dealing with so much, the last thing we need to worry about is having to defend our family name. So for three months, the family suffered in silence, trying to keep their hopes up and their dad's sandwich shop afloat. But after Chima collapsed, fearing he might die in detention, the family started talking to news reporters and held a press conference calling for

20:11his release. He was still deported on New Year's Day. So we tried to play nice. We tried to play fair. We tried to keep it quiet, but you don't win. I think it hurts you more. Amin's father is one of more than 140 Asian immigrants in Illinois arrested during the second Trump administration. Nationally, that number is close to 8,000. That's according to a WBZ analysis of data obtained by the deportation data project. Those numbers only go through the middle of October and don't include all the people rounded up during the peak of operation midway blitz. Now, the Asian community includes dozens of ethnicities. But in their experience of the past year or so with immigration enforcement in the Chicago area, some common themes have emerged. There's the stigma, but there's also something else. Take a listen to some leaders at organizations that serve Asian populations, Indian Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean. Early on, there was, there was a lot of skepticism

21:12right. People were like, no, no, no, we're not worried about it. I think there was this belief that, oh, it won't happen to me. I'm fine. When we were starting to launch all these know your rights trainings, we didn't see enthusiasm from the Asian American community because people thought that's not going to impact me. But it did. Over the past year in the Chicago area, Asians have been picked up at routine immigration check-ins, at airports returning from a trip abroad, in front of their homes and schools, in rideshare lots by O'Hare. But there wasn't much media coverage about any of that. And that's in part because not many Asian families, given the stigma and the fear, have come forward with their experiences. But Lisa Wright, with a Chinese American service league, says that has consequences. You risk losing somebody you love, you risk access to information, you lose access to resources that could really save your life for somebody's life. Wright, whose Taiwanese American and now carries a copy of her passport around, says she has seen

22:18a shift over the past few months as videos and social media posts have spread through Asian communities. Groups tell me residents and business owners are asking for more know your rights trainings and legal workshops. People are worried about the potential return of a thousand federal immigration agents in the spring. Wright says the key to preparing for that next wave is for the whole Asian community to come together. Each ethnicity has an organization that represents them and sometimes they can operate in their silos. It's important that we coalesce because we're stronger together. Rabia Amin, who is now fighting to get her dad back to the US, reminds fellow Asians and Asian Americans it's never too late to speak up. She says it's only been a year since the Trump administration came back into office. And if this is the amount of damage they've done in one year, I can't even imagine what they're going to do for the next three. She says she and her family will

23:18keep being loud, keep bringing awareness and keep standing with Asians and other immigrants. For the world, I'm Esther Yun Ji Kang, Chicago. In her hometown of Prince Albert Saskatchewan, Canadian skier Brittany Houdak is a big deal. She's a three-time Paralympics medalist and currently competing in this year's Paralympics in Milano, Cortina. To come from Prince Albert Saskatchewan, you know, and in her story is pretty incredible. Houdak was born with a left arm that ended just below the elbow, no forearm or hand. This year after an impressive race that landed her abroad, she acknowledged to the CBC that the course was not ideal. Today, I saw the conditions. Neil was going to be a grime, but I think I know I sometimes thrive in that and you know it's the same conditions for everybody, but I did think the

24:20slush may be added an extra element for those of us skiing with one pool and those slushy conditions are part of a bigger problem for winter sports, one that's been especially pronounced at this week's Paralympics, where temperatures have gotten up into the 50s. warmer conditions change the snow and ways that introduce new injury risks for these athletes in particular. Dr. Sarah Eby, head team physician for the U.S. Para Alpine ski team, explain the problem to the associated press in a video. One of our Olympic athletes skiing on variable conditions is going to be riskier certainly, but they've got two knees. They've got all of their muscles working right when they need them to work. Thinking about our pair athletes, maybe they only have one leg. They're relying more on equipment that they can't adjust. The athletes themselves say the slush also keeps them from performing their best because they're competing more cautiously. Calls to change the March timing of the Paralympics are growing louder, Olympic officials are reportedly considering it.

25:23Coming up, Canada has plans for military expansion in the Arctic. We'll find out why. You're with the world. This is the world I'm Marco Warman. People in Myanmar living under military rule have long clamored for a government run by civilians, not army generals. Don't expect much jubilation though when a new parliament meets for the first time on Monday. Its key lawmakers will be civilians, but they all hail from a party created by the military. There are serious doubts whether they can deliver a brighter future for one of the most troubled countries in Asia. Patrick Wynn reports from the border of Myanmar and Thailand. The military generals in Myanmar and the millions of citizens who can't stand them, they do agree on one thing. The status quo is unbearable. A man who runs a snack shop in a mid-sized city in Myanmar says robberies are out of control

26:25because so few people have jobs. Fearing retribution from the military, he asked the world not to reveal his name. He says people struggle to eat. The food has gone down in quality, but way up in price. Myanmar has never been a rich country, but after the army seized power five years ago from an elected government, the economy imploded. The solution to this disorder says the military is a new government. Run by a political party it set up. The theme song of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the Army's proxy party, filled with former army officers. It recently won elections that are widely seen as rigged, including by the United Nations. The new government promises peace and prosperity. It has not articulated how its approach differs from the military junta that drove the economy into the

27:28ground. But is there any opportunity here for a better Myanmar? I have no illusions about the nature of the regime in Myanmar, or how terrible the situation is right now, but the question is how do you want to move on from here? Bill Hayton is an Asia analyst with Chatham House in the United Kingdom. He's lived in Myanmar. He sees the incoming government as undemocratic, but Hayton argues that foreign powers should try engaging carefully to nudge the government away from the all-out oppression of the recent past in exchange for recognition and perhaps sanctions relief. There are no easy answers here, but if you're thinking about how do we improve the well-being of the people over the next 10 years, I think engagement is the only way. Myanmar is in the midst of a grinding civil war. Armed revolutionary groups control roughly half the country. The new military backed government will preside over the heartland, but Myanmar is a big country, bigger than France

28:28or Japan. It's hills belong to guerrilla commanders with mortars and rifles. Ganba Sadan is a revolutionary with a group called the Kachin National Organization. He says people in the countryside still being bombarded by airstrikes have zero hope in the so-called new government. The incoming civilian leadership will wear starched button-up shirts and silk sarongs, not uniforms and medals. But Ganba Sadan says revolutionaries will consider them legit targets. To avenge fighter jets, bombing civilians in the hills, often hitting schools and churches and temples, resistance fighters have gone into towns to assassinate politicians aligned with the military, as recently as last year. Other than Russia and China, long-time backers of Myanmar's military,

29:36most countries are still keeping their distance from the new government. Western countries deride it almost universally. Only the US has hailed its, quote, progress. In the same breath, telling Myanmar citizens seeking refuge in America that it's time to go home. Bill Hayton of Chatham House says now is the time for foreign powers to reach out to those oppressed by the military. We'll have to create a wishlist from the exile and opposition groups themselves. I mean, they're all going to have their own demands. He says pushing that wishlist on the military-backed parliament might not work, but it's better than nothing. The first order of business from Myanmar's parliament, convening Monday, is to choose a new president. One of the top contenders is Min Ong Lang, the military's leader. He's the one who staged the coup that sent Myanmar spiraling downward. Speaking to Myanmar reporters recently, the top general said,

30:38I'm just a servant of the people, so I can't say what I want. But safe to say, if you really wants the presidency, that's what he'll get. For the world, I'm Patrick Wynne, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Canada is preparing a massive military expansion in the Arctic. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the plan in the country's northern territories yesterday. It will include expanded military bases and airports with a cost of around 23 billion U.S. dollars. David Perry is a president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He's in Ottawa. Can you tell us more about what exactly is in this plan, David? So the Canadian government has directed our department of defense and our armed forces for about four years now to make some significant investments in Canadian Arctic defense capability. The announcement yesterday was really focused on making the specific details public about some

31:43of those efforts. So the bulk of the money is going to go into a modernization and facilities upgrade of what we call forward operating locations. So that's basically the three northern most air installations that the Royal Canadian Air Force operates out of. And then the other thing that's tied into this announcement is investments in increasing our operational logistics footprint across the wider Canadian Arctic, which for listeners, if you look at a map, it's enormous, and there's not a ton of people up there. So what that's looking to do is be able to have more logistics, support, prepositioned assets and access to things like fuel, logistics tours to support any kind of operation we might need to do across the wider Arctic territory without having to fly everything in in the first instance is to have more capacity up there to be able to respond to any kind of military threat. So how does all this compare to Canada's current military presence in the Arctic? It will really significantly enhance

32:43our ability to deploy modern military capability to our own north. So a lot of the first part of those initiatives I was talking about the ones for the forward operating locations is tied specifically to a really significant modernization that the Canadian Air Force is doing to acquire the F-35, acquire the P8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircrafts, acquire the Skygardian drones for surveillance purposes. All three of those platforms have a requirement for a lot more connectivity than the legacy technology they're replacing. And they also have a lot different security requirements because of the nature of the programs and how advanced they are. So the existing facilities we have existing facilities in all those places, they are just older facilities, they're literally not wired the right way we need to have them wired and they don't have enough security requirements. But the real driving impetus is the fact that we're going through a really significant Air Force modernization, really the most consequential one that we've done since the

33:45early 1950s. So what are Mark Carney's specific concerns about what Canada needs to protect or defend against? Why expand the military presence to this degree now? I think two driving factors supported by a political one. The political one is that Mr. Carney actually has made a real point of differentiation from his predecessor and being personally involved in a lot of this and prioritizing these defense investments that we're talking about today. And say there's two broad reasons that he is taking this position, he's concerned about it. One which seems really concerning developments in technology, that the Russians have put the use in Ukraine. So Canadian national security defense officials are worried that some of what the Russians have deployed and field tested in Ukraine, that the Russians could use those against North America. And that's a key concern that the NORAD command, the U.S. Northguns had about the ability to defend against conventional long range precise weaponry that both Russia and China

34:48have and Russia has actually demonstrated an inclination to use. So there's that kind of threat dynamic. And I think the other reason that the Prime Minister is seized on in a way that his predecessors haven't been is that he recognizes that Canada is under invested in this and there's a real need for us to step up right now because we have not been make, we hadn't historically made the kind of investments and put the kind of priority on delivering on the investment commitments that is necessary given the threat environment and it was it was hurting Canada's reputation with our allies and then you of course reelected a president that's a lot more blunt about these things. Mark Carney is not the first Prime Minister in Canada to plan for military expansion in the Arctic and as he said at the outset this plan has been looked at for years. What makes this plan different though? That the Prime Minister is personally flying to a very remote community to actually make the investment himself. Yeah what does that tell you? Well it tells me that it's actually a priority for him. So I think that's a really important signal and a really important message both to

35:50anybody looking abroad that he's not just delegating it down. He thinks it's important enough to commit his time too. So we actually have a totally different level of political engagement in this which it has been missing in the past and I think that that's really important not to overlook how significant that can be. So how realistic is this? Because Canada's Arctic territory I don't need to tell you is huge and cold and harsh can it really be patrolled to this degree? Well I mean I think it's it's not given all of those factors it's going to be really difficult to have like consistent patrol over that whole territory but I think planners here would argue you don't really need to do that. What you need to be able to do is pay attention to the key parts of that to have that be localized and focused on the areas that are most likely going to be sources of threats like there's not an equal opportunity that our Russian sub is going to pop up everywhere across the whole geography. There's more focused and localized areas where you can concentrate

36:50some of that effort and I think the government's approaches to basically focus on the most likely problem areas but to develop the ability to have to be able to pivot and go to other places if circumstances change and so this is about building I think both focused capacity as well as an ability to operate more broadly across the whole territory as needed. One last thing it's interesting prime minister Karni is at a Nordic nation summit meeting this weekend with the prime ministers of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland. What is the agenda and larger goal there and are there dots you can connect from that summit to this announcement Karni made about military expansion in the Arctic? I think there are and I think that that part of his trip going to engaging with some key European allies I think he's appropriately said taking the position of look we want to do as much of this as we can collaboratively with our best and longest standing ally of the United States but given some of the political dynamics in the U.S. right now we want to actually broaden out the portfolio of strong links that we have so he's been spending a lot of time both in the Pacific

37:54as well as in Europe with some of those key allied partners not to try and strengthen those relationships so you have a better kind of overall balance in our defense linkages and our portfolio of alliance commitments and obligations. David Perry is a president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute he joined us from Ottawa. If opinion polls are correct then France is poised to swing to the right over the course of two rounds of local elections starting this Sunday their speculation that Paris which has been run by a socialist for a quarter of a century could buck the polls the results there are predicted to be tight. Inside your correspondent John Lawrencein has been taking the polls of the French capital. The campaign film for Emmanuel Grigois the man Paul Say should scrape home to become next

38:56mayor of Paris a film full of bicycles planting of urban vegetation and swimming in the river sane ethnic diversity and sexual orientation inclusivity. Grigois like incumbent mayor and Idalgo is a socialist allied with the ecologists and the communists though not the more hard left France unbound he promises to continue the progressive and green politics of his predecessor who turned the cross-town expressway into a pedestrian zone put a 50 kilometer an hour speed limit on the ring road around the city and made the same swimmable again the project nous proposons pour Paris c'est un projet de gauche Grigois says his program is a left-wing one with housing as its priority he intends to put an end to the tent cities occupied by homeless people many of the migrants that have sprung up in some parts of Paris he says he will do this by creating 4,000 new places in emergency accommodation he's also promising to create new social

39:58housing for 30,000 people and affordable housing for another 30,000 he also intends to intensify his fight against Airbnb which has put a lot of flats out of reach of Parisian renters Paris et la ville lumière elle est cette capitale mondiale Grigois's main rival conservative republican Rashida dati says that the city of light has been brought low by decades of socialist which has made the streets of the city dirty and unsafe if elected she will she says clean up the city kill the rats and double the municipal police force she also intends to bring down the city's large debt by reducing the budget for official receptions and the expenses of municipal employees and cutting funding for many associations in some she intends to bring an end to a period when she says left-wing ideology has taken precedence over the interests of ordinary Parisians the ideology comme seul projet politique in many other towns and cities

41:01in France Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardela's national rally looks set to make gains that's not the case in Paris the national rally and before that the national front have never been popular in the capital however for these elections a far right candidate is making waves Sarah Knafel she's the life partner of and was the chief advisor to Eric Zamour the founder of the nationalist reconquest party which is more right wing than national rally she's proposing radical solutions for Paris she wants a massively expanded and armed municipal police and the so-called reconquest of neighborhoods she describes as lawless zones she would also roll back the anti-car measures taken by Anne Idelgoul she's tipped to come third in the first round on Sunday with about 13 percent of the vote out in the streets of Paris I meet supporters of all three of these candidates

42:05in no time at all who am I voting for Sarah Knafel no hesitation why I like her program bringing the speed limit on the ring road back up for example at 50 kilometers an hour there are more traffic jams and more accidents I'll go for someone in the center like the deputy mayor and manual Gregois it's quite good what Anne Idelgoul did as mayor we breathe better in Paris she improved air quality here so I'd like us to continue in that direction we'd like to continue in this direction now we don't have a lot of chance but the best Knafel has a little chance of winning but she's good great even I agree with everything she says but I'll probably vote for Dati because she's a better bet for beating the left we've had enough of Idelgoul in Gregois the debt the trash in the streets the endless road works and we pay very high local taxes for

43:07that it's a scandal and we pay a little bit very significant it will say the polls be close Parisians will be glued to their screens on Sunday night to see how this is going to play out although local these elections are widely regarded as a political test ahead of the presidential elections in 2027 that was inside Europe's John Lawrence and with our partners dw you're listening to the world this is the world I'm Marco Wormen foreign films are getting a lot of oscar attention this year in fact out of all the categories nearly half are international productions two are in the coveted best picture category from brazil the secret agent a suspenseful political thriller set

44:15during the country's military dictatorship then there's a family drama sentimental value from Norway fraught family history a very different vibe those two films though point to the range of foreign films being recognized this year here to talk with us about the nominees is film critic Sarah Vincent she's basing Cambridge messages it's so Sarah I think back to 2019 and the excitement around parasite from Bong Joon Ho in South Korea becoming the first non-English language film to get best picture this seems an even busier year for foreign films what's your hot take I actually wish it was more foreign films because the foreign films that are front and center almost feel like American films or mostly English language speaking films and so I am a little disappointed that other films didn't get center stage that weren't English speaking like can you name just a couple absolutely no other choice comes to mind first of all it was a great

45:20movie it's with the master Chan Wook Park and he is just one of the best directors to ever live and that's from South Korea correct correct yes every year he's besting what he did before and considering he was already at the top of this game that seems like an impossible thing to be able to do but he does it every single time and with no other choice what he did with sound design and with an adaptation of a book is just amazing and the acting was phenomenal and it seemed to get no buzz whatsoever no one seemed to care still though how significant is it to see almost half the nominees this weekend regardless of category coming from outside the US isn't that important it is important in the sense that it elevates the visual style and that is less important it'll hopefully teach people to expect more from movies to learn the language of visual richness as opposed to just someone putting a camera somewhere an action unfolding in front of it so I'm hoping

46:20that's what elevates the game so I mentioned the secret agent and sentimental value both in the best picture category what is it about these two films that make them contenders in this particular category in your opinion so sentimental value was really adored here people really loved it I think they related to the fact that it was just a straightforward story no real big issues and there was a theme in movies this year about well 2025 about fathers who were flawed and at the 11th hour they're trying to make it work we had that Jay Kelly Hamnet is one of them you know a father who they prioritize their work but they also still want to be considered a good father there were a lot of those movies this year and I think sentimental value was at the front end because of the quality of the acting and the quality of the movie the secret agent and sentimental value both nominated in the best picture category with two very busy films from Hollywood centers and one battle after another also in the best picture category when you look at those two

47:24pairs of films what strikes you so for me my favorite is centers hands down I'm putting on if I could control the world centers is winning everything but I don't and so one battle after another is the one that is probably going to take everything and run away with it however I think for me the secret agent resonates more even though it's about the past it feels very present day because you have the revolutionaries they don't intend to be revolutionaries they're just ordinary people dentists scientists just normal doctors who are just living their lives and suddenly they become the center focus of the government going after them that sounds like ripped out of the headlines right now and Wagner Mora is an amazing actor he's really phenomenal in it and again if sinners couldn't win I would want him and all of secret agent to take it all because it's such a phenomenal movie very surreal in some aspects that it's almost off putting but if you can hang in there it's an amazing and rewarding film and quite moving yeah more nuanced storytelling isn't it

48:27it is I mean the Academy Awards are the Academy Awards at the end of the day it's Hollywood elites who are making the selection so is something changing in Hollywood I don't know I think people are expecting more artistic rigor because these are very like rigorous not approach some of the some of these are very rigorous and artistically interesting films like train dreams was a bit of a surprise train dreams yeah yeah it was predominantly on streaming and I thought it wouldn't be successful on streaming and it really needed a theatrical success to really appreciate the way that it was shot and the you know the counterintuitive narrative style that was very lyrical and not exactly traditional and conventional and so I think we're seeing that film these are films that are made with that artistic focus in mind but are still approachable in storylines like the storylines are still pretty recognizable and conventional overall but except for Pagonia but for the most part they're artistically visually more complex and something that might have

49:32been nominated 10 years ago well to that point I saw it was just an accident and then we interviewed filmmaker Jafar Panahi from Iran totally original and it points to something that you were kind of bringing up that international films tend to be original it's kind of become this running joke that Hollywood is either pumping out sequels prequels or remakes so if you want pure originality you look for the output of a boutique studio like a 24 or a farm film is that an unfair assessment no I think that's absolutely fair I think foreign films the reason they're doing so well is people are really interested in films when they're interesting they'll come to the movie theater if they think it's interesting it they'll even come if it's a sequel or remake or something if it's something they want to see but if it feels like up in there done that situation they'll wait until they're at home and there's like more bang for your buck you can have everybody over and watch Netflix and watch it on your streaming your streaming service of choice but yeah I mean Jafar Panahi I'm actually really sad that he hasn't gotten more attention and I don't understand

50:36why like I understand he got nominated but I'm actually surprised that he didn't make best picture and there's really not a lot of buzz about it was just an accident and that was actually my favorite going in before I saw secret agent it's always a struggle to seek out foreign films on streaming services I watch the secret agent by renting it on YouTube so is there one foreign film or Oscar snub that you would definitely recommend oh my goodness so number one no other choice if you haven't seen it you have to see it it's amazing no other choice from park chanwook oh my goodness my favorite one of my favorite directors one at a master a master Sarah Vincent we're going to have to leave it there thank you so much have a great one enjoy the show Sarah Vincent is a film critic basing Cambridge Massachusetts the world is produced by GBH and PRX broadcasting weekdays from the Nan and Bill Harris studio in Boston and from the Department of Communication at UC San Diego find us online anytime at theworld.org and check out more of our original reporting on YouTube we are at the world

51:40news GBH I'm Marco Wurman have a great weekend we'll see you right back here on Monday the world is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education democracy and peace more information at carnagy.org by the Lumina Foundation committed to a fair universal system for learning beyond high school that offers every American the chance for a better life Lumina Foundation.org by the PRX Ambassador Council whose members include Judy Piggett the Gruber Family Foundation the Schmidt Family Foundation and Gavin Salmanese LLC the world's theme music is composed by net porter the world is a co-production of GBH Boston and PRX this show is supported by ODO when you buy business software from lots of vendors the costs add up

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