"BBC News at Six at 12/03/2025"

BBC News at Six at 12/03/2025

00:00 - 00:00: At Six - President Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium
00:00 - 00:01: prompt anger around the world.
00:01 - 00:09: Canada and the EU retaliate but the UK is keeping all options open.
00:12 - 00:18: Cracking down on illegal drugs, one reason Donald Trump says he has
00:18 - 00:23: brought in trade tariffs. We report from Mexico where most of the drug
00:23 - 00:27: fentanyl is made. Will the trade wars stop the drug war? Also denied,
00:27 - 00:31: President Trump says US negotiators are on their way to Russia, he hopes
00:31 - 00:35: President Putin will agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
00:35 - 00:37: The moment a container ship collided with a fuel
00:37 - 00:40: tanker in the North Sea - a Russian captain is being
00:40 - 00:41: questioned by police.
00:41 - 00:42: Why scientists are warning children under eight
00:42 - 00:43: shouldn’t drink slushies.
00:43 - 00:46: This boy ended up in hospital.
00:46 - 00:49: Looking back, it was the worst moment of mine and his dad’s life.
00:54 - 01:00: And the Harris hawk in Hertfordshire that has tall men in its sights.
01:00 - 01:05: Family and friends, a 14-year-old fatally stabbed on a bus in Woolwich
01:05 - 01:17: gather for his funeral service in South London.
01:19 - 01:21: Good evening and welcome to the BBC News At Six.
01:21 - 01:24: President Trump’s trade war has escalated again
01:24 - 01:28: with the introduction of 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports
01:28 - 01:32: into the United States.
01:32 - 01:34: No country is exempt.
01:34 - 01:40: Tariffs are at the heart of the President’s economic plans
01:40 - 01:42: to make America richer.
01:42 - 01:45: But he’s also using them as a way of forcing China,
01:45 - 01:48: Mexico and Canada to do more to stop the flow of both migrants
01:48 - 01:50: and illegal drugs into the United States.
01:50 - 01:55: Fentanyl has killed a record number of Americans.
01:55 - 01:58: More than 70,000 died in 2023 alone.
01:58 - 02:01: Most of it is made in Mexico and smuggled across the border.
02:01 - 02:03: Our correspondent Quentin Sommerville and camera journalist
02:03 - 02:05: Darren Conway have been looking at where it’s made and
02:05 - 02:09: the impact it is having.
02:09 - 02:14: Their report contains images of people using the drug.
02:14 - 02:20: Where Mexico and the United States meet, the ground is shifting.
02:20 - 02:23: It’s Saturday night, and every drug, every vice is served
02:23 - 02:28: on the streets of Tijuana.
02:28 - 02:32: Here, it’s dangerous being a cop.
02:32 - 02:34: So for their own safety, they keep their faces covered
02:34 - 02:36: when they’re on patrol.
02:36 - 02:38: This small time dealer is caught with a dozen wraps
02:38 - 02:42: of coke and some meth.
02:42 - 02:45: These are still good business for the cartels,
02:45 - 02:48: but nothing makes them money like fentanyl.
02:48 - 02:51: But this deadly business and the cartels are now attracting
02:51 - 02:55: attention like never before.
02:55 - 02:58: If Mexico can’t get a grip on its criminals, America says it
02:58 - 03:05: will do it for them.
03:05 - 03:08: This is cartel country, the heart of the fentanyl trade.
03:08 - 03:11: The drug is 50 times more potent than heroin, 100 times more
03:11 - 03:15: powerful than morphine.
03:15 - 03:18: And tonight, we’re going to meet the men behind the trade
03:18 - 03:20: which is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.
03:20 - 03:22: We’re just coming up to their neighbourhood,
03:22 - 03:28: and we can’t be seen filming around here.
03:28 - 03:35: Obviously, they don’t want us to give away their location.
03:35 - 03:37: The US has these men in its sights.
03:37 - 03:42: Their cartel has just been declared a terrorist organisation.
03:42 - 03:44: But despite the threats, they say it’s business as usual.
03:44 - 03:50: This one batch could possibly kill thousands.
03:50 - 03:58: At their request, their voices have been altered.
03:58 - 04:01: Yeah.
04:01 - 04:02: It’s a very dangerous drug.
04:02 - 04:03: It’s very deadly.
04:03 - 04:06: More than that, if you don’t know how to use it, yeah,
04:06 - 04:08: you’re going to be in big trouble.
04:08 - 04:09: Why do you sell fentanyl?
04:09 - 04:12: It’s not that I want to do it.
04:12 - 04:15: People ask for that, you know.
04:15 - 04:17: And I know it’s bad, but that’s what they’re asking.
04:17 - 04:21: That’s what they want.
04:21 - 04:25: Do you ever feel guilty about all the people that it’s killing?
04:25 - 04:29: Yeah, yeah.
04:29 - 04:32: But if I don’t do it, anybody’s going to do it.
04:32 - 04:35: I don’t feel guilty for all the people, you know?
04:35 - 04:37: That’s the truth.
04:37 - 04:39: Yeah.
04:39 - 04:42: I feel guilty because we have family, too.
04:42 - 04:45: Like you.
04:45 - 04:46: Like everybody, you know.
04:46 - 04:47: Of course we feel guilty.
04:47 - 04:49: But if I stop, it’s going to continue.
04:49 - 04:50: It’s not my problem, you know?
04:50 - 04:54: This shipment will go through a legal border crossing
04:54 - 04:59: in the fuel tank of this car.
04:59 - 05:07: Right under the noses of US customs officers.
05:07 - 05:08: This is just one car.
05:08 - 05:09: One driver.
05:09 - 05:10: 5000 pills.
05:10 - 05:13: But the same thing is happening in hundreds of safe houses
05:13 - 05:17: all across this border.
05:17 - 05:21: Ready to flood America with more fentanyl.
05:21 - 05:25: And the men here tell us that this trade is unstoppable.
05:25 - 05:30: Mr Trump, he’s determined to stop the drugs trade.
05:30 - 05:33: Yeah, well, last time he was in office, he tried
05:33 - 05:37: to do the same thing and it never happened.
05:37 - 05:39: So I think it’s never going to end.
05:39 - 05:41: There’s always going to be a demand.
05:41 - 05:42: Where’s the biggest demand?
05:42 - 05:45: The United States.
05:45 - 05:47: And there is no greater demand in the United States
05:47 - 05:55: than in Philadelphia’s Kensington Avenue.
05:56 - 05:58: Here Rose Pichardo refuses to be a bystander in
05:58 - 05:59: America’s opioid crisis.
05:59 - 06:00: You good?
06:00 - 06:01: You got to pull your pants up.
06:01 - 06:03: She was laid out.
06:03 - 06:07: Well, it’s a drug.
06:07 - 06:11: Like, once you take it, you’re going to fall out wherever.
06:11 - 06:15: And that’s kind of where she ended up, on the sidewalk like that.
06:15 - 06:17: That shouldn’t be normal.
06:17 - 06:21: That shouldn’t be normal at all.
06:21 - 06:22: We can keep walking.
06:22 - 06:24: I want to get off this block right here.
06:24 - 06:27: She runs a drop-in centre for addicts.
06:27 - 06:29: She’s literally part of the fabric of the neighbourhood.
06:29 - 06:31: She says she’ll never leave.
06:31 - 06:33: I still got my bun on.
06:33 - 06:37: It’s kind of cool, right?
06:37 - 06:40: The war on drugs is being lost on America’s streets.
06:40 - 06:44: There are casualties on every corner.
06:44 - 06:49: Fentanyl and the tranquilliser xylazine are used openly.
06:49 - 06:52: Sir, you’ve got to get up.
06:52 - 06:55: You’re at the turnstile.
06:55 - 06:57: Yo.
06:57 - 07:00: He’s OK.
07:00 - 07:01: Like, this stuff is so deadly.
07:01 - 07:04: And if you’re not used to this supply, it can be
07:04 - 07:09: very, very addictive, like dangerous and stuff.
07:09 - 07:12: So here at Sunshine House, our users are at their most
07:12 - 07:20: desperate, most vulnerable.
07:20 - 07:23: Rose dispenses hugs.
07:23 - 07:24: I give you a hug.
07:24 - 07:25: Thank you.
07:25 - 07:26: That was so much.
07:26 - 07:28: This is so much helpful for us.
07:28 - 07:29: I really appreciate this place being here.
07:29 - 07:34: I do.
07:34 - 07:36: It’s somewhere safe for those trapped in addiction.
07:36 - 07:40: Treat us like we’re human beings.
07:40 - 07:42: For John, it’s been a lifeline.
07:42 - 07:44: I’ve been in the city all my life.
07:44 - 07:49: The fentanyl, the opioid epidemic is the worst I’ve ever seen.
07:49 - 07:53: And this fentanyl will get you so hooked on it that
07:53 - 07:55: you have to get more.
07:55 - 07:58: So they’re putting it in everything.
07:58 - 08:02: Fentanyl has cost them so much.
08:02 - 08:07: I get really emotional when I talk about some stuff.
08:07 - 08:08: But here, when they collapse…
08:08 - 08:13: We all right?
08:13 - 08:15: ..there’s someone around to pick them back up again.
08:15 - 08:16: It’s just a chair.
08:16 - 08:17: Everyone’s good.
08:17 - 08:18: She didn’t bump her head.
08:18 - 08:19: We’re good.
08:19 - 08:22: This disease is going to be the death of me
08:22 - 08:23: if I don’t get it together.
08:23 - 08:27: Because I sink deeper and deeper into a pit.
08:27 - 08:31: John’s whole life is in the suitcase he drags through the streets.
08:31 - 08:34: He survived one fentanyl overdose already, but at 56, he doesn’t think
08:34 - 08:38: he’ll survive another.
08:38 - 08:41: The problem that we have with the war on drugs
08:41 - 08:43: is it didn’t work then, I don’t believe it’s
08:43 - 08:51: going to work now.
08:51 - 08:54: Rose battles on the streets every day against fentanyl overdoses.
08:54 - 08:56: And despite America’s pressure on Mexico, she doesn’t expect that
08:56 - 08:59: to change anytime soon.
08:59 - 09:01: When there’s one substance taken away, there’s another