Somewhere Right Now: 07:00 in Taichung 🇹🇼 — iCRT

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0:49 Speaker 4 seven o'clock you're listening to icrt's morning report i'm hope go in the news this hour the white house continues to confuse as the trump administration now says there are no talks with iran after claiming that there were and investors run for cover after surge in u.s government bond yields to multi-decade highs those stories right after news from and about taiwan

1:28 Speaker 6 top stories from around the island it's icrt's taiwan report

1:35 Speaker 4 good morning the chaotou district prosecutor's office detaining the head of a technology company on suspicion of using chinese-made components in drones supplied under a military procurement contract the company now faces possible charges of violating the national security act and the criminal code the eighth field army says it discovered the possible use of chinese components during a contract review and acceptance inspection of the drones these were reportedly assembled using Chinese packaged drone chips Chinese made flight control boards and other components prosecutors say product labels were falsified as were certificates of origin authorities searched the two companies earlier this month and seized evidence and questioned the suspects and witnesses the tech company had been awarded a 2.95 million NT tender by the army last year for training drone procurement project tai power warning the fuel costs for electricity generation are likely to rise over 120 billion in t this year due to tensions in the middle east power vice president's higher german says a higher fuel costs have increased the financial burden on the company he's now urging the lai administration to provide more support to the state generator to ease the financial pressure sai says if natural gas gas prices for the power sector remain at current levels type powers monthly fuel expenditure is expected to increase by 15 billion NT from now through December Tsai says the cabinet expected to propose a budget for subsidies but the final say will come from the legislative Yuan the type

3:03 bar president also says the subsidies will help the company's finances and maintain price stability for both households and industry type power said its fuel costs rise by 42 billion NT in the first half of this year leading to a loss of 25.7 billion nt in the six-month period and an accumulated loss of 376.4 billion nt and the kmt is calling on president elijah to double his planned 10 000 nt cash handout next year the call to raise the cash handout to 20 000 echoes a verbal proposal made earlier by taipei mayor zhang wanan kmt culture and communications committee director Director Chen Yixing says Lai's announcement about the cash handouts showed that the government has the fiscal capability to share the benefits of economic growth with the public. And if Lai wants to use next year's general government budget to share what he's calling the AI dividend, the government could increase the total payout as early as January. Those statements come after Taipei Mayor Zhang Wen'an criticized the original handouts, saying it would be gone after just buying groceries and that people would be better off with 20,000 NT. And the Centers for Disease Control said to expand eligibility for government-funded flu antiviral medications from August 24th through September 30th. That extended timeframe due to a gradual increase in flu activity.

4:23 Expanded coverage to include healthcare personnel involved in disease prevention, residents and staff at nursing and long-term care facilities, as well as other designated groups. cdc says data showing more than 95 000 people sought outpatient or emergency treatment from flu like it is from august 9 through 15 that was up by 1.2 percent from the previous week they're also reporting 80 new severe flu cases and 17 deaths from the 11th through the 17th government-funded antiviral fluid medications now available at 4 000 contracted medical facilities nationwide wide and the ministry of agriculture says a new taiwan peanut label and elemental analysis may help local peanut farmers compete against imports that move coming amid concerns over tariff free imports planned of u.s peanuts under the taiwan u.s agreement on reciprocal trade locally grown peanuts currently count for about 75 percent of taiwan's domestic market agriculture minister Chen Junzhi says locally grown peanuts have a distinctive flavor and the Taiwan peanut label is to allow consumers to identify a hundred percent locally grown products simply by looking at a packaging Chen says a label will initially apply mainly to peanuts where the origin of the peanuts can be directly identified such as shelled product and peanut candy the Agriculture Ministry says more heavily processed products will be considered in

5:49 a second phase ministry of agriculture says it plans to submit the necessary documents to have its testing methods publicly recognized by the food and drug administration by the end of the year and the ministry of foreign affairs has announced the appointment of wang liang yu as taiwan's new top envoy to australia wang is currently in charge of u.s and canadian affairs her appointment was approved by the cabinet earlier this week she served as the head of foreign ministry's department of north american affairs since august of 2023 now before taking up that post she was taiwan's deputy representative to the u.s from 2021 to 2023 and chief of taiwan's representative office in geneva from 2018 to 2021 wong takes a post in canberra which is in vacant since the departure of her predecessor douglas shu last month she now serves as the foreign ministry's institute of diplomacy and international affairs and the ministry of culture announcing that a foggy tale will represent taiwan and the best international feature film category of the 99th academy awards movie was directed by chen yushin it's set during the white terror era and follows a girl who travels to northern taiwan to retrieve the body of her executed brother the selection committee says it chose a film for its vivid characters compelling storytelling telling and portrayal of the lives of everyday people during one of taiwan's darkest chapters

7:15 the movie was released last november here in taiwan and it grossed more than 1.19 billion nts of july this year and attracted more than 4.4 million moviegoers the film also won several awards at the 62nd golden horse awards the 99th academy awards scheduled to take place in march of next year and looking to weather we can expect partly cloudy skies across the island today Occasional showers or thunderstorms in the north and south are high of 33 in Taipei, 34 in Kaohsiung, clouds with no rain in the east, and high of 32 in Hualien. Those same cloudy skies come with occasional afternoon thundershowers in the center and high of 34 in Taichung. Current temperatures 28 degrees in Taipei and Kaohsiung 29 and Taichung 25 in Hualien.

8:04 to international news as u.s leader don trump now denies talks are underway or scheduled with iran contradicting his own statement earlier this week when he said his administration had established a back channel with iran's revolutionary guard he's even threatened to bomb oman which is a u.s ally because he is unhappy reportedly with the way the country is close to a deal with iran to manage ship traffic through the street of hormuz that's what two regional officials in the trump the Trump administration has told Oman it's opposed to parts of the yet to be announced deal including the joint Iranian and Omani management of the exit route out of the package or the passage rather that reversal coming as a 60-day deadline for negotiations under the memorandum of understanding expired Nick Harper reports from Washington remember over recent weeks he has

8:51 Speaker 2 suggested that there are talks going on in the background but in a post in on social media this morning he said there are no talks or conversations going on or scheduled now that contradicts his own envoy Jared Kushner his son-in-law who was in the Middle East over the last few days and on Monday said that there were conversations he said they were more robust than they've ever been Donald Trump also this Tuesday saying that the US naval blockade remains in full force and that the Hormuz Strait is open and operating that wasn't a copper reporting

9:26 Speaker 4 now senator tim kaine who is a democrat from virginia has announced plans to introduce a resolution barring military action against oman if it interferes in a deal over control over the state of hormuz at the same time trump says concerns over the status of service members above aboard the uss abraham lincoln were a fake report recent reports from news outlets about the lincoln garnered attention as they described poor conditions including moldy showers rotten food with multiple sailors even attempting to jump off the airport the aircraft carrier rather julie walker pass more president trump is downplaying reports about conditions on the uss abraham lincoln to reporters in the oval office the aircraft carrier has been the subject of escalating concern over mental health and supply issues for american sailors enduring a

10:16 Speaker 6 a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Trump calls the reports fake news. Over the years, we've had him out there much longer.

10:27 Speaker 1 I was at a group meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend.

10:32 Speaker 6 And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral retired. He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln.

10:41 Speaker 1 They say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.

10:44 Speaker 3 and other people went out and they found out that because it was fake news

10:48 Speaker 4 reporting the Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting the u.s. war against Iran including the blockade on Iranian ports I'm Julie Walker Lincoln is now on its way back from deployment in Europe and Ukrainian forces have launched one of their biggest drone attacks on Russia since the invasion began the overnight attack involving almost 800 drones comes just two days after a similar assault meanwhile officials say a Russian missile strike on a village in ukraine's khaki region killed at least 10 people and wounding 17 others analysts say both countries are locked in an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes who gain aims to pressure vladimir putin into peace talks who shows no signs of stopping the invasion meanwhile britain's drone industry has found itself at the center of a diplomatic dispute with moscow over the use of uk-built unmanned aircraft in the war with ukraine russia's embassy in london has warned that britain will face consequences for its involvement while the mystery defense says moscow should be in no doubt about the government's resolve to support kiev ollie barrett reports from london that statement coming from the russian embassy to

11:56 Speaker 1 london saying that the uk is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody

12:03 Speaker 2 crimes and terrorist attacks the russian embassy going on to say that london's actions will

12:09 Speaker 3 will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer and saying that the

12:15 Speaker 5 more the UK becomes involved in the conflict inside Russia with strikes inside Russia, the higher the price it will pay, said the statement. The back and forth between Moscow and London comes after confirmation that two separate British company made drones have been used inside Russia now in ongoing targeting of military and industrial targets refineries and warehouses as well of

12:43 Speaker 1 retailers to military sources saying that UK built drones have been used in

12:50 Speaker 5 those attacks and they are thought to have caused tens of billions of dollars

12:54 Speaker 4 worth of economic damage inside Russia that was all the Barrett reporting and Russia's foreign ministry summoning the Japanese ambassador to protest Tokyo's condemnation of putin's trip to the korea islands last week putin visits iturup one of the four southernmost islands of the chain which japan calls a northern territories archipelago claimed by both countries karen chamas has more russia has summoned japan's ambassador following russian

13:21 Speaker 6 president vladimir putin's visit to the disputed kuril islands putin's trip last week to the moscow controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries led to criticism by Japan's government. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Taikaichi said Putin's trip, his first to the islands, was incompatible with the Japanese position on the Northern Territories and called

13:44 Speaker 3 it absolutely unacceptable.

13:47 Speaker 6 Moscow summoned Japan's ambassador to Russia to protest the criticism. Putin visited Iturup, one of the four southernmost islands of the chain which japan calls the northern territories the soviet union took them from japan in the final days of world war ii and the dispute kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities i'm karen chamath

14:10 Speaker 4 pakistan supreme court has ordered former prime minister imran khan transfer from prison to a hospital in islamabad for medical treatment it's the first time the court has intervened directly in Khan's case over the jailed leaders health this comes after medical reports submitted raised concerns about Khan's blood pressure mental health and other conditions he developed in detention cons been behind bars for more than three years serving sentences totally more than 30 on corruption and other charges right groups including Amnesty International have condemned what they call the systematic denial of his right to a fair trial and adequate medical care and the administration of US leader Donald Trump has added the head of the international criminal court as well as one of its senior lawyers to a list of sanctioned individuals that list includes icc president tomoka akane senior trial lawyer abdullahi sayyed and what it claims is the trump administration's unwavering mission to protect americans from this sham of a court akane is a japanese judge who has served as the icc's president since her election in march of 2024 while say who hails from senegal works as a senior trial lawyer the u.s is sanctioned more than a dozen judges and prosecutors from the ICC the ICC itself has denounced the administration's efforts as a means of eroding the rule of law and in the United States opening statements have been delivered in a landmark federal trial accusing Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and

15:38 Instagram in ways that harm children and teenagers 29 u.s. states filed the lawsuit in 2023 four of them are leading the case before a federal judge in

15:46 Speaker 3 california kevin chan reports social media company meta is going to court again in another big trial involving child safety in a u.s federal court in oakland california four states including california colorado kentucky and new jersey are seeking financial damages and want changes to how the company operates facebook and instagram the states accuse meta of harming youth mental health by deliberately designing features to get kids addicted to its platforms they also say meta breaks federal law by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent the trial is expected to last six to eight weeks and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify meta says it has a strong case

16:26 Speaker 1 of protecting teens but this is the latest case in a flood of lawsuits targeting meta and other social media companies over child protection earlier

16:35 Speaker 3 this month a New Mexico court ordered meta to pay five hundred sixty million dollars to address harms to young people as part of a trial there that was Kevin

16:44 Speaker 4 Chan reporting and that was a look at what's happening around the world stay tuned for business and sports both coming up after the break

17:00 Speaker 1 Let's join the culture of Hakka and discover the beauty of Hakka. The history of Hakka has been passed down for over 200 years. It was founded by the Hakka people. It was founded by the Hakka people. It was founded by the Hakka people. For more than 200 years,

17:21 Speaker 3 Hakka communities across northern Taiwan

17:24 Speaker 4 have celebrated the Yiming Festival

17:26 Speaker 1 to honor the volunteers who defended their homeland.

17:29 Speaker 4 land the festival takes place on the 20th day of the 7th lunar month and became the first haka

17:35 Speaker 6 cultural tradition designated a national folk custom by the ministry of culture chengchu county will host the 2026 national iming festival under the theme the eternal spirit of iming

17:47 Speaker 4 this year's celebration introduces new elements of cross-regional collaboration sports environmental

17:53 Speaker 1 sustainability and youth engagement hello what's up it's time to talk about haka here on icrt hello

19:18 There are a few things that are associated with this time's Yiming Festival including its

21:45 Speaker 5 back and beginning here in taiwan where the thai x lost ground on tuesday as investors opted to pocket gains from recent sessions amid concerns over volatility in the market on the settlement of august futures contracts the weighted index in the day down 548 points or 1.2 percent of 45 308 or turnover for the day's session at 958 billion nt analysts say foreign institutional investors held about 83 000 more short positions and long positions in august future contracts indicating indicating their growing caution about the possibility of a major pullback after the recent strong upturn. And that led to fears of volatility prompting investors to trim their holdings after the TAICs made initial gains with large-cap tech stocks in focus. And the Ministry of Economic Affairs says outbound investments approved by the government surged 200% from a year earlier in the January to July period. However, that rise was mainly due to Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing spending heavily overseas. data shows approved outbound investments for the first seven months of this year total 61.26 billion us dollars and over 395 applications that was an increase of 208.43 percent from a year earlier and the growth largely came after tsmc secured approval to raise capital investments by 20 billion us dollars in its u.s subsidiary tsmc arizona and to invest 30 billion us dollars in the Cayman Islands registered TSMC Global. TSMC Global is in charge of the chipmaker's financial investments worldwide.

23:12 Foreign direct investments into Taiwan during the January to July period rose by 78.13% from a year earlier to US$13.92 billion. That was largely due to Singapore registered Micron Semiconductor Asia obtaining the green light to invest US$7.45 billion here. In international business news now, the u.s and canada are holding last-minute talks to stop 50 u.s tariffs on 20 billion dollars worth of canadian goods and the abby's ben thomas has the story some 20 billion dollars worth of canadian

23:44 Speaker 4 products from hockey sticks to tongue depressors could be subject to 50 tariffs as of 1201 a.m

23:51 Speaker 1 wednesday the u.s and canada have wrangled for decades over trade but president trump's

23:57 Speaker 2 belligerent approach marks an extraordinary departure from the traditionally cooperative relationship between the two countries nevertheless Prime Minister Mark Carney

24:06 Speaker 4 says the US and Canada are negotiating to avoid the new round of tariffs he

24:11 Speaker 1 describes the talks as very intense and delicate Ben Thomas Washington and open

24:17 Speaker 5 AI is launching a new chat GPT and it claims has better control for teenagers after many children have been found to be using chat GPT inappropriately I mean

24:27 Speaker 6 his current channel explains what that means open ai is launching a version of chat gbt designed for teenagers as the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence kids are already using it for school work questions about daily life and even companionship last year research from a

24:46 Speaker 4 watchdog group found that chat gbt would tell 13 year olds how to get drunk and high and even

24:52 Speaker 6 instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders open ai doesn't verify users ages but if someone is identified or identifies themselves as a minor they are automatically placed into the teen version of the chatbot the san francisco-based company says chat gbt for teens which launches on tuesday is tailored for kids aged 13 to 17 with what they say are stronger protections i'm karen chamas and

25:19 Speaker 5 And looking at Tuesday's main world markets now, where Wall Street fell as AI stocks including NVIDIA and Micron Technology once again declined amid lingering investor concerns that their prices are becoming way too high. And the AB's Alex Vega has the latest.

25:33 Speaker 6 Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high Tuesday as AI stocks lost ground.

25:37 Speaker 2 The S&P 500 fell 0.7%, its third straight modest loss since setting its all-time high on Thursday. The Dow dropped 116 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 1.3%. Most stocks in the S&P 500 rose, but losses for several big AI stocks weighed on the market.

25:57 Speaker 3 Micron Technology fell 7%, while Nvidia lost 2.3%. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market.

26:05 Speaker 5 This is Alex Vega. Meanwhile in Europe, the FTSE rose less than 0.1%, while the DAX and the CAC 40 shed 0.8%. Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei fell 2.5%, the Kospi lost 1.6%, the Hang Seng gained 0.1%, and the Shanghai Composite ended the day up 0.2%.

26:26 in usual of sport now and beginning here in taiwan with last night's chinese professional baseball league games where the fubon guardians got a much-needed win to move off the bottom of the table after beating the raccoon monkeys five nothing and to the recruiting stadium in taoyuan while the tsg hawks have fallen to the bottom of the standings after being routed eight nothing by the union president lions at the tai dong county first baseball field in this evening's games the tsg hawks and the union president lines meet again in tai dong the raccoon monkeys and The Fubon Guardians play again in Taoyuan, while the Huichuan Dragons play the CTBC Brothers at the Taipei Dome. And all three of those games, weather permitting, begin at 6.30. Turning to European soccer now, and Real Madrid has officially presented coach Jose Mourinho an unusual ceremony closed to the media. The event took place at the club's headquarters in Madrid, with president Florentino Perez welcoming the coach. The only images of the presentation were provided by Real Madrid TV and the club's website and social media accounts. Madrid says Mourinho has signed for three seasons until June 30th at 2029. Madrid gave Mourinho a replica at the stadium, a watch and a jersey with his name on at the ceremony. Mourinho was hired in June and officially took over in July at the start of the pre-season and is back for a second stint with Real Madrid some 13 years after he left the club. He was in charge from 2010 to 2013, winning a Spanish La Liga title and a Copa del Rey. Venus Williams has been given a US Open Singles wildcard. Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, was also one of six other women to receive a wildcard,

27:56 and the US Tennis Association says the final wildcard is soon still to be announced. That card would almost certainly likely go to Serena Williams if she decides she wants to return to the tournament at the age of 44. Venus Williams received a wildcard last year, returning to the Grand Slam event that she won twice for the first time since 2023. And the 46-year-old has become the oldest entrant in singles at the US Open since Rennie Richards played at 47 in 1981. In Major League news now, the Cubs rallied to beat the White Sox, and the AB's Mike Hemmer has that story and more.

28:27 Speaker 2 Pete Crowe Armstrong hit a walk-off home run, a two-run shot in the 10th inning, and the Cubs rallied for a 7-5 win over the Crosstown White Sox.

28:37 Speaker 6 That was fun. That was my first career walk-off home run.

28:40 Speaker 5 the arizona diamondbacks have placed all-star second baseman cattell martay on the restricted list martay failed to show up for arizona's game against boston monday night manager tory

28:51 Speaker 2 livello says martay is dealing with a personal issue i'm mike hempen ap sports rugby titans

28:57 Speaker 5 south africa and new zealand have finally arrived at their long-awaited test series which is the accumulation of the first full-size tour between them in 30 years both teams just need an injury niggle or two to clear up before they run out on saturday at ellis park in johannesburg but in a grueling schedule of four tests on four successive saturdays in two countries the last test is across the atlantic in baltimore injuries are a certainty the odds favor the undisputed two-time world champion springboks in their first four-test series with the number two ranked all blacks since 1976. and finally pakistan's captain baba azam has been ruled out of the first cricket test against england starting later today in leeds because of a hand injury Barber was struck in the middle finger of his right hand while batting against the West Indies last month and again in a warm-up last week in Beckenham. Barber's finger is not broken and he hopes the pain will reduce so he can plan the second test at Lourdes which begins on August 27th. And that was a look at this morning's business and sports news here on ICRT with me Gavin Phipps and looking at the weather across Taiwan today. Well the Central Weather Administration says we can expect partly cloudy skies and occasional showers or thunderstorms in the north with a high of 33 degrees in Taipei, partly cloudy skies in the east with a high of 32 degrees in Hualien, partly cloudy skies and occasional afternoon thundershowers in the centre with a high of 34 degrees in Taichung, and mostly clear skies with occasional afternoon thundershowers in the south where you'll see a high of 34 degrees in Kaohsiung. Looking at the current temperatures, well it's 29 degrees at the moment in Taibang, Taichung, 28 degrees in Kaohsiung, 26 degrees in the Hualien area.

30:27 And it's now coming up to 7.30 here on ICRT, and stay tuned for more news and information.

30:36 Speaker 1 I discovered that music and sound can help relieve stress, anxiety, and improve the overall quality of sleep. The often-mentioned sound therapy is roughly divided into 432 Hz music and natural quietness. Compared to a quiet environment, natural quietness is more stable for heart rate, blood pressure, breathing frequency, and stress relief effects. From a traditional Chinese medicine point of view, five sounds correspond to five organs. Absolutely dry, only to the heart, hard to the skin, hurt to the lungs, and to the kidney are a way to help observe the rhythm of the body and mind.

33:28 Speaker 6 and welcome to more or less from the bbc world service we're the program that looks at the numbers in the news in life and in hypothetical big money prizes and i'm lizzie mcneil

33:43 another uk poll getting the twitter sphere all excitable but what was it about this time i don't hear you cry what piece of polling could possibly have riled the twits enough to warrant a podcast well it was about the rationality or alleged lack thereof of the british population's financial decision making compelling eh you see the yugo poll that riled everyone up so much

34:22 survey found that 73 of brits would take the 50 000 pounds while 21 opted for the 50 50 chance of winning one million pounds and six percent said they didn't know now as you may or may not have imagined this finding provoked outrage britain must be the most risk-averse society

34:43 Speaker 2 on planet earth this is what's wrong with britain tbh that last one by the way was from celebrity

34:50 Speaker 6 celebrity polling analyst and more or less interviewee Nate Silver. So what is going on? Is the UK irrationally risk averse?

35:03 One of those who joined the Fibid Online Twitter debate was the BBC's economics editor, Faisal Islam, who tweeted, what a poll! Now, this is the kind of polling passion we more or less admire. So we got him into the studio to talk about it all the way from the pounding keyboards of discontent. First up, the premise of the outrage.

35:24 Speaker 2 In some regards, there is some maths, basic maths behind it, and it's a kind of very simplistic probability, probability, which is 50,000 pounds, whilst higher than zero, is far less than a 50% chance of a million pounds. So the expected outcome over time of the coin flip for a million is half a million. So it's worth 10 times more. So on a very simple understanding of what is the better option, that is what has motivated people to think it's blazingly obvious from their perspective that you would go for the coin flip and you'd go for the expected value of half a million versus a guarantee of of 50,000 but this analysis says Faisal is a tiny bit limited there is a delicious irony here because in some way the people assuming you should go for the coin toss think they're being very sophisticated and that that to accept the certainty of 50,000 is basically stupid and idiotic. But the irony is that it's kind of basic, basic, what we call behavioural finance, behavioural economics, decision theory. In fact, it goes back nearly three centuries, 288 years to Bernoulli, who would not have thought that that was stupid. And that's because expected value,

36:50 so simply timesing the probability by the outcome, is actually not how our brains work, it's not how we make decisions.

37:04 Speaker 6 18th century swiss mathematician nicholas bernoulli is credited as the person who formalized the mathematics of marginal utility now this is the idea as he wrote in 1738 that any increase in

37:16 Speaker 5 wealth no matter how insignificant will always result in an increase in utility which is inversely proportionate to the quantity of goods already possessed or if you want that in simple

37:27 Speaker 6 terms fifty thousand pounds means a lot more to someone with no money than someone with lots of

37:33 Speaker 2 money if you've got zero net wealth which affects a lot of households right now so no savings right and then you stack up the 50 thousands like bricks that you might be able to earn they aren't all worth the same to you the first 50 000 is worth much more than the seventh or the eighth or ninth

37:52 Speaker 6 or the tenth that's the first basic thing you need to know the second is something called prospect

37:59 Speaker 2 theory and that was developed by Daniel Kahneman economist won a Nobel Prize essentially for this in 2002 it comes from the late 70s and the essential intuition here and it's there's a lot of maths behind it is that you judge risk and make choices based on the comparison of potential gains and losses in particular rather than your expected

38:30 Speaker 6 Prospect theory originates in a paper written by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Sversky in 1979. It is a classic in behavioural economics. By doing loads of controlled surveys, a little bit like the YouGov poll where people have to choose between different financial gains under different circumstances, they were able to draw out a lot of useful observations. One is that people tended to give more weight than they should to small probabilities and and less weight than they should to medium and large ones. People also make their money and risk decisions relative to a reference point. You're more likely to bet a second $10 after losing a bet with a friend, double or quits, than you would have been to bet $20 in the first place. You're $10 down, right? You're not thinking generally, you're thinking relative to the reference point. And then there's the most famous phrase in the paper.

39:23 Speaker 2 Losses loom larger than gains.

39:25 Speaker 5 the aggravation that one experiences in losing a sum of money appears to be greater than the pleasure associated with gaining the same amount people

39:34 Speaker 2 value very highly the possibility of losing things that they already have and so the critical part of this question is that you're told you you get the fifty thousand come what may and so people will bank that so it feels like if you

39:51 Speaker 6 don't get the million you've lost fifty thousand pounds and fundamentally faisal says that is a lot

39:58 Speaker 2 of money to a lot of people in the uk fifty thousand is i did a rough calculation so 50k is more than the 73rd percentile of uk financial wealth not counting property and pensions only

40:11 Speaker 6 about a quarter of brits have a wealth of fifty thousand pounds or more at the other end of the wealth spectrum a quarter have less than 300 pounds so what this basically says is 50 has a

40:23 Speaker 2 huge amount of money by the standards of the vast bulk of the uk household population it's transformative amount of money or rather it's transformative enough for people to be satisfied with it and delighted with the certainty that their life has changed by that amount of money and enough not to risk losing it for the possibility of earning 20 times that amount so that's the difference between expected value and the reality of our relationship with risk

40:59 Speaker 6 now there certainly are gender and age differences around the level of risk that people can tolerate and it's plausible that there are cultural differences too it might well be that the outraged Twitterers in the US thought that their country is more successful because Americans take more risks. So it was handy that a few days later, YouGov asked the same question in the US.

41:22 Speaker 2 And the numbers were pretty similar, but did show that Americans seemed to be slightly more willing to take the bet. But the margins were pretty small.

41:30 Speaker 6 65% of Americans said they'd take $50,000 compared to 73% of Brits and the 50,000 pounds. because of the currency conversion it's hard to know exactly how they compare but they're close

41:44 Speaker 2 enough the deep and hilarious irony here was that when someone as numerically sophisticated as nate silver said this is what is wrong with britain this is what is wrong you think oh right okay this is not just some random like jokey yougov poll this is in fact explains you know plenty that's wrong with the british economy whereas it turns out that it's pretty similar in america

42:37 Planting trees in cities can provide vital cooling shade and create job opportunities.

42:43 Speaker 3 Emma Vieira is Executive Director of Unlimited Potential, a non-profit in Phoenix. She says some low-income areas of the city get far hotter than others,

42:52 Speaker 4 with more concrete and asphalt that retain heat, and less shade and green space. Because of that, you have 10-15 degrees difference between some areas and others.

43:04 Speaker 1 And climate change is causing more extreme heat.

43:06 Speaker 5 so her group is partnering with Arizona State University the city of Phoenix and

43:11 Speaker 1 other organizations to plant trees in some of the most vulnerable neighborhoods but getting trees in the ground is just the first step to help

43:19 Speaker 4 those trees thrive her group helps run a paid workforce development program to

43:23 Speaker 3 train residents of low-income areas in tree care participants learn to plant

43:28 Speaker 4 and prune trees prevent disease and safely climb trees to cut branches so

43:34 Speaker 5 So far, about 30 people have graduated from the 10-week program,

43:37 Speaker 1 and almost all are now employed.

43:39 Speaker 3 Soviara says the program is helping build a healthy, thriving community.

43:43 Speaker 4 We are improving life at the personal level,

43:48 Speaker 6 but also in the neighborhood.

43:51 Speaker 5 Climate Connections is produced by the Yale Center for Environmental Communication. To learn more about climate change, visit climateconnections.org.

44:17 Speaker 6 you're listening to the bbc world service and this is witness history with me jen dale i'm taking you back to the 18th of march 1959 when hawaii is brought into the united states of america as the

44:30 Speaker 3 50th and final state we happen to be in what they used to call home room with the beginning class the first class of the day that was the history civics class and i remember the teacher saying You can now become President of the United States and Governor of Hawaii. And everybody went, wow! We're sitting there and all of a sudden you can be Governor, right? I said, yeah, I think I'll be Governor. But I don't know how credible that was to anybody, including myself. But it was something to think about.

45:06 Speaker 6 living with his parents and three sisters in Hawaii a chain of islands in the Pacific more than 2,000 miles away from the American mainland John lives in a rural area of what's known as the Big Island known for its lush rainforests waterfalls sandy beaches and sugar plantations John's family fish his dad enjoys raising cattle whilst working for a phone company but this exotic landscape isn't always paradise in the 1950s it's a US territory not a state which means Hawaiians don't have full U.S. citizenship. They face discrimination. The Hawaiian language is banned in schools. They are denied access to land. Sugar plantation owners dominate the economy.

45:47 Speaker 3 The labor laws, for example, the health care law, so many things were unfair to people. Government structure and the political structure of the territory of Hawaii was very skewed to the oligarchs essentially.

46:04 Speaker 6 As a boy, John sees labour disputes.

46:07 Speaker 3 My mom would cook some food and we'd all take it down to the gym at the school and feed the people, you know, create these potlucks every night for the people that were on strike from the sugar plantations. My dad, his union went on strike, not in the plantation, but he worked for the telephone company. So for the most part, the entire community were oriented to the idea that justice was not being done.

46:39 Speaker 6 Hawaiians believe statehood, which would make them full US citizens, will give them better rights. So what is Hawaii's history with America? Here's a quick rundown. In the 19th century, Hawaii is a kingdom with a sovereign. But in 1893, a group of US white sugar plantation owners overthrow the constitutional monarchy. Five years later, the US government decides it wants to formally incorporate Hawaii into the United States, known as annexation. Not only because of the sugar industry, but they see Pearl Harbor just west of the capital Honolulu as a strategic navy base. Many native Hawaiians are angry and sign petitions against annexation. nevertheless it becomes a u.s territory in 1900 hawaii has a diverse population and partly due to racial attitudes of american southern politicians the idea of giving statehood to hawaii doesn't

47:35 Speaker 3 gain any real momentum that is until after world war ii when people from hawaii actually served in the u.s military my dad for example served eight years he served in the pacific many of these individuals took advantage of one of the benefits of being in the US military which is have your college paid for so many of them went off to college came home and said look you know we don't like this second-class citizenship there were a lot of things that people were not happy about and so statehood was seen as an opportunity to correct a lot of that but nothing simple with party

48:14 Speaker 6 politics another US territory Alaska is seen as the frontline of defense in the Cold War as it's only 50 miles away from the Soviet Union. It's also vying to be the next state.

48:26 Speaker 3 We were probably pushing for statehood earlier than Alaska. Not probably, we were. But in order to strike the balance, Alaska was made the 49th state as a kind of a token to the Democratic Congress.

48:42 Speaker 6 Despite losing out to Alaska, there's good news for Hawaii two months later, on March 18th, 1959.

48:50 Speaker 5 Well, we're happy, thrilled, exhilarated, excited. We're just so delighted that after 59 years of very strenuous and arduous work to try to achieve this goal that the Congress of the United States has seen fit to grant statehood for Hawaii.

49:07 Speaker 3 You know, it was this little snowy little box sitting there and everybody that didn't have one came to their neighbor's house who had one and they were watching people making speeches and doing all of this stuff

49:22 Speaker 1 Bonfires light up the tropic night. Hawaiians are celebrating round the clock.

49:28 Speaker 5 The news that the islands have been voted statehood sets off a two-day spree

49:32 Speaker 1 and the aloha accent is unmistakable as hula dancers take over Honolulu Stadium.

49:37 Speaker 3 And the first thing that happened was class was dismissed. miss it became instant holiday i remember leaving the school and where i grew up was this you know small country town with a one road main street going through the center of shops along the way and all of us leaving the school walking down there and celebrating people getting off work and just driving their cars through this one street blowing their horns you know like And there wasn't only cars, they were dancing on the streets, they were dancing in the restaurants. The entire day was a party. It was like the best Christmas you ever had or the best New Year's that you ever went through. It's that kind of thing where everybody was just celebrating and walking around and this feeling that you were finally first class.

50:29 Speaker 6 And five months later, on August 21, 1959, Hawaii is officially proclaimed America's 50th state.

50:37 Speaker 2 President Eisenhower congratulates the new congressional representatives of Hawaii

50:42 Speaker 5 before the simple ceremonies that remake the geography of the United States. We will wish for her prosperity, security, happiness, and a growing, closer relationship with all of the other states. Statehood does not change Hawaii as much as it changes the United States.

51:03 Speaker 1 President Eisenhower unfurls the banner that will fly from the White House July 4th next with nine rows of stars.

51:10 Speaker 4 Another new look for old glory.

51:15 Speaker 6 Native Hawaiians become full U.S. citizens and can vote in national elections. But problems remain with poverty and land evictions. By the 1970s, some start to be more vocal about Hawaii's relationship with the United States. Statehood becomes a divisive issue, and not everyone wants to mark the anniversary.

51:35 Speaker 3 Because on one hand, if we are celebrating the change from second class to first class citizenship, which is what the motivation for statehood was, then it's something that is unanimously accepted. accepted. But if you are using that holiday as an opportunity to celebrate the annexation, then you have a problem. You don't have the same unanimity of celebration.

52:05 Speaker 6 But John still looks upon the day Hawaii was given statehood fondly.

52:09 Speaker 3 Because I grew up in a plantation town, and I knew what it was like to live under the bosses if you lived in the plantation and you saw how people were treated then the idea that that would no longer exist at least not to the same extent yeah it was worthy of celebration and

52:30 Speaker 6 there's something else worthy of celebration remember how john's teacher told him and his classmates they could be governor one day how did it feel when you were appointed governor and the first native hawaiian to become governor well it was a great day and the people of hawaii had

52:44 Speaker 3 definitely made a good choice but that's just my opinion john becomes the fourth governor of

52:50 Speaker 6 the state of hawaii in 1986. during his time in office u.s president bill clinton signs a resolution apologizing for the overthrow of the kingdom of hawaii and the deprivation of the rights of native hawaiians to self-determination john is now a business consultant in honolulu he was speaking to me jen dale for witness history this hour of news is sponsored by luby

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