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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson. And at 14 hours GMT on Tuesday, the 2nd of March, these are our main stories. The Nigerian president has welcomed the release of 300 schoolgirls abducted by an armed gang. The prime minister of Singapore has condemned the violence in Myanmar.

Also in this podcast is coronavirus restrictions scaled down, global carbon emissions soar and is the first of all from his pack to come to California.

That means he brings genetic diversity with him, which is so important to the species survival in the future here.

The American Greywolf on the Oregon Trail. Four days after they were abducted by unidentified gunmen in northwestern Nigeria, nearly 300 schoolgirls have been released. Police say the girls were taken on Friday from their boarding school in Janabi in Zamfara state.

One of them, Umer Abu Bakr, spoke of their ordeal.

When did you Makaha and when did you. Most of us injured off to me could not carry on walking. They said they would shoot anybody who did not continue to walk. We walked across a river and they hit us and let us sleep under shrubs in a forest.

The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has welcomed the release and the governor of Zamfara state, Bailleau, Matala, said all those had been taken, had been freed with no ransom paid and the girls were in good health.

They are very, very aware. Very, very well. In fact, all of them have written to us now and we are now giving them accommodation so that they shall rest on their medical. Doctors are only outlaws so that they can go from undergoing some checks.

Parents have called for better protection for schools in the region. Our correspondent in Lagos, Maini Jones, told us more about the rescue, Zamfara and the surrounding region.

Actually, the wider northwest of the country has a huge problem with kidnapping for ransom. And you have these armed gangs that roam the region and usually target travellers. But we've noticed a worrying trend in the last couple of months where they seem to be targeting schools more. This may well be because we've seen how much publicity coup kidnappings get in the past, and they think that this might be a way to pressure the government.

The governor says no ransom was paid, but if that's the case, how did they convince the kidnappers to release the girls?

Well, exactly. That's what's unclear. The governor of the state has launched an initiative where he has promised repented what he calls repentant criminals. So criminals who promise not to carry out any more abductions, he's promised them some form of economic reward, be it's cars or houses or jobs. And in local media, it's been reported that some of these repentant criminals are the ones that brokered the deal with these most recent abductions. In any case, the governments the government hasn't made anything publicly yet.

So all we know it is kind of the speculation in local media. But President Buhari tweeted on Friday and said that state governments needed to stop paying ransoms if they wanted these kidnappings to stop. And this is the first admission by the government that Phantom had been paid in the past.

What is security in schools like? I mean, as a parent, people must really worry about allowing their children to go to school at the moment.

Yes. I mean, we've even heard from children who've been kidnapped in previous attacks that they won't be going back to school because they don't feel safe. Many of these schools we visited, some of them, particularly the one in Katsina, where in December 300 boys were taken. Many of them are just, you know, on the outskirts of rural towns, maybe one or two security guards at the gates, flimsy kind of walls surrounding them. Very easy for gunmen to scale up and and enter the compound.

And that's the real problem. How do you secure schools whilst keeping children safe without bringing more weapons into schools, without making the situation even more volatile? It's a real conundrum that the government has. But you're having this situation where economic desperation is fuelling this violence, is fuelling these kidnappers, encouraging them to carry out these attacks. And then poor security at the schools is making the situation, making them a prime target for these kidnappers. It's unclear how they're going to stop this from happening again.

Maini Jones in Lagos. There have been protests almost every day in Myanmar since the military coup last month. The authorities response, although initially peaceful, has become increasingly violent. And so far, more than 20 people have been killed. Now regional leaders have joined the international condemnation of the escalating violence. Foreign ministers from the 10 member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, have been meeting with Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, condemning the use of lethal force against protesters.

He's been speaking to the BBC's Karishma Vaswani.

It's an enormous, tragic step back for them because there's no future that we they knew that. That's why they move forward into elections and the civilian government and to use lethal force against civilian, unarmed demonstrators I think is just not acceptable. It's disastrous, not just internationally, but it is disastrous domestically because it means that to prevent everybody in Myanmar. No. You may try and squeeze down the Internet, but what news gets around in the Myanmar population knows who's on their side and if they decide that the government is not on their side, I think the government has a very big problem.

So you really have to get back, release Aung San Suu Kyi, negotiate with her and work out a peaceful way forward for Myanmar. Outsiders have very little influence on this. You can ostracize them, you can condemn them, you can pass resolutions or not. But it really has very little influence on what the Myanmar will do. So I think that we have to be realistic about this. You have to express disapproval for what is done, which is against the values of many other countries and in fact, a large part of humanity.

But to say that I will take action against them. Well, where does this lead now? The demonstrators are saying military intervention in Myanmar is. Eighty second airborne going to arrive.

So what you've outlined is more engagement, no sanctions. Do economic considerations come before these humanitarian concerns?

I don't think it's a matter of economic considerations for any benefit from trade with Myanmar. The volume of trade is very small for us and I think for many other countries. Question is what can make a difference to them? And if you do impose sanctions, who will hurt and it will not be the military or the generals who will hurt, it will be the Myanmar population who will hurt you or deprive them of foods of medicines or essentials of opportunities for education.

How does that make things better?

Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, our Asia editor Rebecca Henschke, gave us this assessment of ations latest response to the crisis in Myanmar.

We're hearing quite strong statements from the two neighboring countries around Myanmar, a real sense that Myanmar is a problem that now needs to be solved, that they want to get involved in solving, rather than a member whose problems must be tiptoed around, which we've seen very much in the past. We've seen strong statements, as we just heard there, from Singapore. Also, Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marzouki, coming out, giving a statement a short while ago after the meeting, saying that Indonesia expressed deep concern about the increasing violence in Myanmar, calling for the country to restore democracy, releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, releasing political prisoners and to end arrests of civilians.

And interestingly, she said that, yes, this non-interference pledge that they all take not to interfere in each other's affairs is important, but also what is important. And she repeated twice that ASEAN members have signed up to a code where they should respect human rights and they should respect the rule of law and good governance.

Yes, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi called on Myanmar to open its doors to ASEAN to try to resolve this crisis.

But what can they do differently in reality? Not a lot. It's going to have to be a very soft approach. ASEAN is always been the forum that you have a dialogue at least that the military junta is willing to participate in. And that's where their power lies, really. That communication channel, the junta has shown that they have very little regard for what the rest of the world thinks of them.

Political sanctions also haven't had much effect, but we may see that change. And I think it's interesting to point that, particularly with Singapore, Singapore is now the biggest investor in Myanmar. So they also have power there in terms of business and investment, which the military is very keen to make sure is growing. And they get a cut of more protests today. That's right. We're seeing protesters take to the streets in Yangon. We've also seen two funerals for two people who died on the weekend and those young protesters and the civil disobedience movement showing no signs of ending.

Our Asia editor, Rebecca Henschke. Meanwhile, as large protests continue in much of Myanmar over the military coup and the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, there's been a quieter response to events from the country's Muslim Rohingya people. Many put this down to the long persecuted groups fear of reprisals from the authorities, along with the belief that Mizuki's government had done little to help them. But behind the scenes, some rangers are voicing fears for their future now that the army that oppressed them is in total control.

Mike Thompson has this report.

Mobbed here in a pre-election rally back in 2005 on saying Suki's popularity remains undiminished in much of Myanmar, but it's a different story among the ranks of Rakhine state since her defense of the Burmese military against genocide charges in The Hague is not good for Rohingya people within five years.

She doing nothing?

Well, Muslim people, Ahmed, which is not his real name, lives in a Rohingya displacement camp near the state's capital, Sittwe, also lying across the island that is trying to make that democratic country in Burma.

But Ahmed worries more about the military and growing extremism among local Buddhist Rakhine people, some of whom joined the army in attacking Rohingya in the past.

People also worry, well, they are appointing the appointed government very rude people, very extremist people as a government member. So our own people are worrying about what happened next.

Nine bodies at a camp army has, until recent fragile ceasefire, been engaged in brutal battles with the Burmese military in pursuit of greater autonomy over the last two years. More than 200000 ethnic Rakhine civilians had to flee their homes and hundreds were killed. Since the coup, the African army has remained quiet while its political leaders have been edging closer to the Burmese military. Chris Lihua, who runs the program hunger campaign organization The Arakan Project, says this is an ominous development.

The political leadership of the working people like the camp, which which is a party which has the majority of votes in Rakhine there is align themselves with the military and they actually collaborated in the new military administration.

Around 900000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar, most of them leaving in desperate, pitiful waves in 2017. For them, returning home must now seem a more distant prospect than ever.

The military are the one who expelled the Rohingya who feared the ethnic cleansing. I mean, they are the ones who attacked and burned down the villages. So now that they are in power, most Rohingya, what can we hope now? You know nothing.

Meanwhile, Ahmed says the military have been warning people in the Rohingya displacement camp. He lives near Sittwe not to join any protests against the military. They didn't say what will happen if they do, but he's more worried about the long term consequences of the coup for his people, fearing things may go from bad to very much worse.

It's very the future is very dark for us.

Ahmed ending that report by Mike Thompson. France has changed its stance on the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, saying it can now be given to people aged between 65 and 74. The French health authorities had previously restricted its use to under 65. With more details, James read.

The rollout of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in France and other EU countries has been plagued by difficulties. First, there was a row with the manufacturer about the delay in supplies. Then public confidence in the job was undermined by negative media coverage and barbed comments from some politicians, including President Macron. Now, data from Britain has shown that the vaccine is highly effective in reducing death and serious illness, including in the elderly. France must now convince its sceptical public to accept what's proving to be a decisive weapon in the fight against the pandemic.

James Read.

Still to come in this podcast, you need to ramp that up to more than 340 beats per second. And then play it every second since the universe formed. Could the energy consumption of Bitcoin pose a threat to its future?

There's a warning that global greenhouse gas emissions, which plummeted for much of last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, are climbing above pre covid levels. The International Energy Agency says economic recovery is fueling the rise. Our environment correspondent Matt Megraw told me more.

20-20 saw the biggest drop in CO2 emissions since World War Two, far bigger even than the economic crisis of 2009. And it was down to the response to the pandemic economy. Shutting down planes are flying roads empty of cars. However, the world has responded to the pandemic in very different ways. You've had countries like the UK, Germany, Spain and France putting in place quite green policies and countries like China, India, the US and Brazil responding in much different ways.

And China is very much key in all of this. In the first half of last year, as the epicentre of the pandemic, emissions dropped quite considerably, down by three percent. The second half of the year, they went up by four percent as the country responded to the pandemic by spending more on coal, oil and gas. It was a similar story in India and in Brazil and also in the U.S., such as the extent that by December of last year, just a couple of months ago, emissions were two percent higher than they were the same month the year before.

So that's what's happened over the last year.

So the International Energy Agency has urged governments to take action. What action do they want? And the government's going to take any notice.

They say this is a historic opportunity. According to the IEA, they want the emerging economies particularly to put in place greener policies or else the world would slip back to the way it was before emissions going up almost year by year. We got a very strong indication if those words are being listened to later this week when the Chinese government will publish their next five year plan. And this will really show as if the world is listening in this particular pathway. The Chinese, as you remember, have already said they want to get to net zero emissions by 2060 and to peak their emissions sometime before 2030.

This plan will give us a good indication if actually they're on course to do that.

And is there any realistic way of this happening or hoping to replicate what happened in 2020?

You need probably a war, another pandemic or a global recession. Hopefully we're not going to get any of those. So it's very difficult to replicate that. There are some good straws in the window. Even though the demand for energy went up last year, emissions from the electricity sector were down because of renewables and demand for electric cars, and China went up by eight percent, exceeding all expectations about Macara.

Let's stay on an environmental theme. A group of teenagers from across Australia has begun a class action against plans to extend a coal mine. Phil Mercer reports from Sydney.

The teenage plaintiffs insist the Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, has a duty of care to protect them from global warming. They argue the expansion of a coal mine in the state of New South Wales will exacerbate climate change and harm their future. One of the claimants, 14 year old, is he right? Stampings, wants to inspire other young people around the world.

Hopefully, it empowers everyone to keep fighting for climate justice. If you fight hard enough, your voice can be heard and that this struggle for climate justice isn't over yet.

The class action could set a precedent that stops Australia approving new fossil fuel projects. The mining company involved says major investments that would boost the recovery from covid-19 shouldn't be delayed by legal claims that have no substance.

Phil Mercer in Sydney. We've all heard the stories of Bitcoin millionaires, but now critics of the cryptocurrency are suggesting bitcoins vast and growing energy consumption could burst its bubble.

Justin Rowlatt investigates Bitcoin hitting another milestone again today. We broke through the fifty thousand dollar level just a short time ago. And I think we're just seen the tip of the iceberg, to be honest.

Bitcoin has been in the headlines a lot in the last month. The cryptocurrency peaked at 58000 dollars. But it's not just its price that has hit an all time high. So has its energy footprint.

So we have a pretty comprehensive global estimate of how much energy is being used. And even that estimate ranges from 39 terawatts to four hundred and nineteen terawatts.

And our best guess within that range is about one hundred and twenty three terawatts today, which is about as much electricity as the whole of Argentina consumes in a year. Gina Peters is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. She's also a research fellow at Cambridge University's Centre of Alternative Finance, which studies the burgeoning business of crypto currencies. She says Bitcoin is energy intensive by design because it relies on a decentralized network of miners who all independently verify and record every transaction made in the currency.

So how do you get people to maintain this record accurately? You're essentially going to enlist people by paying them in Bitcoins if they are the first to compile and submit this record in a way that is acceptable to the system. So every 10 minutes you have to put together this compilation of transactions and submit it. But there's a special trick to this. They have to guess a random number. And then if you're the first to do so, you get at the moment six and a quarter bitcoins valued at 50000 dollars each.

As the price of Bitcoin rises, more miners want to get in on the game. But when that happens, the system is designed to make the number harder to guess.

So computing effort increases. Bitcoin miners are currently reckoned to be making 150 quintillion calculations. A second, that is a billion billion. So if you're wondering what that sound is. Well, you'd need to ramp that up to more than 340 feet per second. And then play it every second since the universe formed thirteen point eight billion years ago to reach one hundred and fifty quintillion. And that is how many calculations all those miners are doing in one second.

Unsurprisingly, that uses a lot of electricity and two thirds of the energy used is reckoned to be created from polluting fossil fuels.

So what does its energy consumption tell us about Bitcoin's future? Alex Devries is the founder of the Digital Economy website and has been studying the currency for the last few years.

If Bitcoin were to be adopted as a global reserve currency, those miners will have more money than the entire US federal budget to spend on electricity. We'd have to double our global energy production for Bitcoin.

Alex DeFreeze ending that report by Justin Redit a Greywolf, has set a new record on the West Coast of the US by travelling hundreds of kilometres from his home in Oregon to neighboring California.

He's fitted with a GPS collar and made the longest tracked journey for some years. Šamaš Rock, wife of the conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity, told Clare MacDonald more about his exploits.

He's called or 93 because he's the ninety third Wolf, to have been radio collared by State Wildlife Agency officials in Oregon ever since wolves started returning to that state about two decades ago. Oregon has about one hundred sixty wolves now, which might sound like a lot, but that's actually just a tiny fraction of how many once lived there. And most of Oregon's wolf packs live in the eastern part of the state, but over ninety three unique. His family, the White River Pack, lives in the western half of the state, and starting in about 2011, a few will started to make their way from Oregon and California.

Some stage, some left, some have been killed there. Some have raised pups there. But over 90 three's journey is exciting and important, really, for three reasons. First of all, he's the first wolf from his pack to come to California. So No. Two, that means he brings genetic diversity with him, which is so important to the species survival in the future. Here in the number three, he's traveled the furthest south of any wolf, that has come into California in the past 10 years.

He's gone all the way down to the central Nevada mountain range, which it's about eight hundred miles from his birthplace in Oregon.

Goodness me, how long did it take him to discover that distance? It didn't take much at all. He arrived at the California border on January 30th, and I don't think he had left his pack much more than a month before that, perhaps even if even even if that meant that much. And so he came to California January 30th, went back over the border into Oregon for a day or two, came back into California. And then he spent just traveling at about 18 miles a day.

And so by last week, he had made his way all the way down to the central Sierra Nevada mountain range. He's gone through about seven, eight, nine different counties. And it's quite a journey, not for a wolf, but for us to see that happening. It's pretty remarkable and exciting. He'll be about two years old come April. And when wolves are about one and a half to two and a half years old, that's pretty standard time for them to decide to leave their family, go off looking for mates and territory of their own.

And he's come to California to try to find a mate. Unfortunately, we have very few wolves here. We have including him, we have eight known wolves.

Sounds like he will have his work cut out then. That was his wife speaking from California.

And that's all from us for now. But there'll be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC, DOT CEO, Dot UK. I'm Alex Ritson. The producer was Shirley Gordon, the studio director, Wayne Mozes. And the editor is Karen Martin. Until next time. Goodbye.