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Hello, I'm Robin Inks.
And I'm Brain Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.
We're going to have a planet of Jupiter versus Saturn!
It's very well done that because in the script.
It does say wrestling voice after all of that.
It's going to kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice.
And also in this series, we're discussing history of music.
recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes.
So listen wherever you get your podcasts.
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and this edition is published in the early hours of Thursday, the 13th of March.
President Trump says a US team is on its way to Russia to outline his Ukraine ceasefire plan.
Even as President Putin is reported to have gone to the front line.
Will American tariffs stop the fentanyl coming in from Mexico?
Our correspondent has been to meet one of the drug smugglers there.
And the Pakistani army says it's rescued hundreds of hostages from a high -jacked train, but more than 20 passengers and 30 militants are dead.
Also in the podcast...
This new technology, I think this is a very, very well designed car, it's got this maglev technology, So, the disk is rotating, freely floating and rotating by this magnetic levitation.
A patient survives for 100 days with a heart made of titanium.
The Russian President tends to steer well clear of the fighting, even as he throws hundreds of thousands of his troops into the so -called meat grinder in Ukraine.
But in the past few hours, footage has been released of Vladimir Putin apparently visiting a command post in Korsk, the Russian region partly captured by Ukrainian forces last year.
I very much expect that all combat tasks will be fulfilled and that the territory of the Korsk will soon be completely liberated from the enemy," said Mr Putin.
He was dressed in camouflage gear.
The Russian Chief of Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, told him Russian forces had now recaptured 86 % of the occupied land.
Ukraine has acknowledged some setbacks there, but said fighting was continuing.
Russia's gains come as the US waits for the Kremlin's response to the American ceasefire proposal agreed by Ukraine.
So what is the likely thinking in Moscow?
I asked Liza Fox from the BBC Russian Service.
Previously Vladimir Putin had said on many occasions that Russia is just not interested interested in a simple ceasefire and would like to hear more concrete and solace proposals for a peace settlement, of course that would meet most Russia's terms.
But right now, Russia is in a more difficult position than I think it was before this US -Ukraine talks in Erudyat because for weeks now we've seen America making demands of Ukraine and of Vladimir Zelensky.
And now the US is actually asking something from Vladimir Putin from Russia for the first time in weeks and it's going to be interesting to see how Russia is going to respond to that.
Because it comes at a time when Russia appears to be making advances on the battlefield.
So I guess they may not want to pause.
Yes, of course, and most importantly they've just advanced their position in Kursk region.
Now they're slowly getting ground, losing a lot of soldiers in the process.
but I think this is the price that Russia is ready to pay us, Vladimir Putin has indicated over those months and years of fighting.
But indeed for Russia right now, just stopping where they are potentially meaning getting no ground in Ukraine, which was one of the main objectives.
Russia indicated many times that it wants Ukraine to make many more concessions.
It wants other countries to recognize Russian sovereignty over the lands that it captured in Ukraine.
It wants Ukraine to give up any hope of joining NATO, wants to see sanctions relief.
And I think for Russia, it's just not clear at the moment whether the ceasefire is just going to be connected to this discussion about bigger goals that Russia wants to achieve in Ukraine.
Now, you said that Russia is in a more difficult position than it's faced for some time.
I mean, in terms of what's happened with Donald Trump now apparently moving towards the Ukrainians, what's been the reaction to that in Russia?
I think generally any reaction, just the assessment of this new track in the relationship with Washington DC has been somewhat restrained and Putin himself has been very, very cautious.
Because he praised Trump for taking this new line in his relationship with Moscow, Vladimir Putin said that it gives hope.
But always very cautious in any assessment of whether this new relationship, this dialogue, can actually lead to peace.
Because I think at the end of the day, even though this relationship is obviously very different from what it was a year ago, I think Russia still sees U .S.
as its main rival level and the only matching power at the same time.
So, this dynamic is obviously very important and it fell for weeks that the situation was playing into Vladimir Putin's hands because all this rhetoric about how Zelensky is a dictator and Ukraine should hold presidential elections and Ukrainians are the ones who didn't want peace.
We all heard that from President Trump.
That was music to Vladimir Putin's ears.
But right now, the conversation is different, right now Americans actually praise the Ukrainians unions for their readiness for peace, they announced that they're going to restore this military aid and intelligence cooperation.
So now the situation is different again.
And I think Russia just doesn't want to make nor Ukrainians nor Americans any wiser about their intentions.
So we're definitely going to see how this situation is going to develop.
Lisa Fox from the BBC Russian Service.
The tensions between the US and its long -time trading partners look set to intensify after President Trump said he would, of course, respond to the tariffs announced by Canada and the EU on Wednesday.
They came in retaliation for the new American taxes on all steel and aluminium imports.
One of the president's main justifications for tariffs is to tackle the US opioid crisis.
Fentanyl has killed a record number of Americans, and almost all of it is smuggled across the border from Mexico.
The Mexican authorities have arrested hundreds of cartel members and handed some over to the US, but despite the increased pressure on them, the gangs say it is business as usual, as Quentin Somerville reports from the Mexican They're wearing body armour and they're opening balaclava zone at the moment and that's to protect their identity because being a cop in this town is extremely dangerous Ready for the action That's a report that's just come in of gunfire over the police radio It's a Saturday night here so they're expecting a lot of drunkenness a lot of drugs By far the biggest, most dangerous
drug here is fentanyl so they're looking for anyone who's dealing So it's another drug stop and the police have got the man against the vehicle.
He's emptied his pockets.
Fentanyl use is a growing problem here in Mexico.
Still, most of it goes across the border to the United States.
But the ground is shifting along the border.
Mexico has deployed 10 ,000 troops.
Some 29 cartel leaders held by Mexico have been handed over to American law enforcement and for the first time a number of cartels have been designated terrorist organizations by the US.
What we're trying to find out is just how so much of this drug is still making it into America and up here we might find some answers we're just approaching a safe house.
Inside is one of the foot soldiers of the cartels and a the final preparations for a fentanyl shipment to the United States, tonight.
I watch as they place tightly -wrapped packets of pills of synthetic opioid, 5 ,000 in total inside the fuel tank of the car.
It will be driven across a legal border crossing, right under the noses of US Customs.
The Drugs Gang asked us to alter their voices.
do you ever feel guilty about all the people that it's killing yeah but if I don't do it anybody is going to do it I don't feel guilty for all the people you know I feel guilty because we have family too but if I stop it's going to continue the cartels know that American traffickers are less likely to be stopped so they use us citizens mostly to make the drive across the border watching the proceedings to one side a a dealer from LA.
Again, we have changed his voice.
How many pills do you shift a week in LA?
I try to get 100 ,000 pills a week.
Every week I try to spread it in different cars.
That way, I minimize my risk of losing all my pills.
I never expected something so deadly to hit the market.
People know it's deadly, and they are still willing to use that product.
Mr. Trump, he's determined to stop the drug trade.
Last time he was in office he tried to do the same thing and never happened.
There's always good to be a demand.
Where's the biggest demand?
The United States. The cartels claim to be unfazed by the latest US threat to destroy them, but the Trump administration says this time is different.
But the cartels didn't create America's opioid crisis.
One that's been killing as many as 100 ,000 people a year.
Those numbers are now falling.
But this crisis started with doctors and American pharmaceutical companies over prescribing painkillers.
Neighbourhoods like Philadelphia's Kensington have been left ravaged.
Hey, Mum. You got to put your pants up.
Here, Rosalind Pichardo of Operation Save Our City starts her day by checking on the locals.
Oh, she was laid out.
It's a drug. Once you take it, you're going to fall out wherever.
Many here are in wheelchairs and are in the grip of addiction.
They have good drugs here.
And it's cheap. So people from all over the country come to get this stuff But they don't know that if you're new and you're trying out this stuff for the first time it might be the last time She prepares a pot of soup and shares it with 56 year old John He was revived from a near fatal fentanyl overdose by an ambulance crew It'll take more than just targeting the cartels to solve America's opioid crisis he says.
Trump is a businessman, drugs is like prostitution.
The oldest profession in the world.
You can't stop it there.
It's too far. That report from the US and Mexico by Quentin Somerville.
The brutal hijacking of a train by separatist fighters in Pakistan which began on Tuesday is now over according to the military.
The army said 33 militants were killed and the remaining hostages freed.
The train, carrying four hundred and forty passengers, was halted by an explosion on the approach to a tunnel in a remote area of Balochistan province.
The army said twenty one civilians and four soldiers were killed by the Baloch Liberation Army.
Many people are still waiting for news of their loved ones as freed passengers arrive at different railway stations along the train's route.
Survivors shared harrowing accounts of the attack.
The whole train was filled with smoke.
It looked like the doomsday.
We found out that the train was stopped and firing followed after that and then everyone just ducked to avoid the bullets.
There was a sudden blast followed by firing that injured a lot of people.
Then slowly the armed militants asked the passengers to get off from the train otherwise you would get killed.
world. Then they separated the women and the elderly.
Then we walked for around three, three and a half hours.
We reached the nearest train station with great difficulty.
Survivors from that train attack.
There have been some questions about the account from the authorities, as I heard from our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasan Etyarajan.
If you look at the figures given by the Pakistani military, the numbers do not add up.
You know, We're talking about 440 passengers.
The suspicion is that many of the militants could have escaped, taking some hostages with them, and that's why the military spokesperson was saying they're also doing another operation or searching for any of the militants or people who had just simply jumped out of the train and escaped from the militants hiding in the mountains without knowing what to do.
So there is some confusion about the numbers, but it has come as a big relief for the Pakistani military as well as for the government because it was an very embarrassing situation for the military despite having one of the largest military force.
Now a group of militants had managed to hijack an entire train this was an unprecedented move by the Baloch rebels taking hundreds of people hostages so there will be questions asked how this was allowed to happen but this also shows how the Baloch rebels are increasingly targeting higher -value targets in the past few months.
Now, I read that this location was 14 kilometres from the nearest road, lots of mountains around there.
What's happened to all the survivors?
How have they been able to be taken to safety?
This strategic location itself is a big advantage for the rebels because they knew, this was a mountainous area and there were lots of tunnels.
even to send reinforcements, would have taken a long time for the military.
It would have taken hours.
If the nearest road is 14 kilometers, either they should have walked or they should have been a dropped.
That's why they used to special forces and helicopters and drones targeting these militants.
Now what this means for the Pakistani military is, it's just already facing another insurgency in the northwest of the country, bordering Afghanistan.
Now if the military goes against the rebels, if they launch any strong high -ended military operation, that could further alienate the Balochitnay community in the province and that is the danger.
And Barasan Etivrajan, it's been called a medical milestone.
A man in Australia has lived for one hundred days with an artificial titanium heart while awaiting a transplant, the longest ever.
Shaan Harding is a Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at Imperial College.
This new technology, I think this is a very, very well designed heart.
It's got this maglev technology.
So the disc is rotating sort of freely floating and rotating by this magnetic levitation like you use for those trains, you know, the floating trains in Japan doesn't have valves.
It's got really clever systems because your heart has to pump through your body.
It has a very strong left ventricle to do that, and a lighter ventricle to go through to your lungs and that has to happen together with every beat and they've managed to do it.
Asia Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton spoke about it to Andrew Peach.
It's been described as a complete game changer.
It's the holy grail of modern medicine really, a long -term artificial replacement for a failing human heart.
Now the heart itself, this titanium heart, it looks like a shiny silver pump.
You can hold it in your hand.
It's about twice as heavy as a human heart.
But patients who've received them say that they can't feel them once they're in.
The heart has to be charged by wires protruding from the chest.
It has to be charged every four hours.
But its developer says, eventually, that can be wireless.
And it works by whooshing blood around the body into the lungs.
And it's remarkable because is as just a single moving, it has one single moving part, a levitated rotor that floats in place by magnets.
So it doesn't have any parts that can kind of rub against each other and cause wear and tear, and that's why doctors are so excited about it.
That's the key here, isn't it, because although this sort of idea has been around for decades, the technology wears out over time, and often that causes real problems for the patient's health later in life.
In this specific case we're talking about someone who's lived for a very long time now with one of these things.
Yeah, this is a man who had severe heart failure and was waiting a heart transplant that just wasn't coming, and he couldn't even stand or walk by the time that he opted to get this titanium heart.
He existed in hospital for a few months with it and that he was discharged from hospital and that's crucial.
He's the first patient to ever exist outside of hospital without this heart.
He lived for a month outside of hospital until a human heart transplant became available.
He's now successfully had a human heart transplant.
Five others in the United States have also existed with this titanium heart, but they had to live in hospital until they then, too, went on to have human heart transplants.
But doctors say these titanium heart is working so well that it might one day replace the need for human heart transplants, and that could change lives for thousands of people.
Well because waiting for a human transplant is often a, you know, months or years may never happen.
That's right. I mean, just in the United States alone, there's more than 4 ,000 people on the heart transplant donor list and some people will never be able to get that heart donation.
And so the idea of being able to get this titanium heart that could go in your body and you could have it for the rest of your life, it would never have to be replaced.
That really is a medical first.
and that's why doctors are saying this could be a total game changer.
Celia Hatton. And still to come on the Global News Podcast...
If a city can see that they're in a climate change pattern that produces these whiplash effects, then it provides enough insight and information to try and begin to adapt to these things.
...how a climate research project could help cities prepare for extreme temperature swings.
This is Jennie Garth from I Do Part 2.
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Hello, I'm Robin Nates and I'm Brain Cox and we would like to tell you about the new series of the Infinite Monkey Coach.
We're gonna have a planet of Jupiter versus Septum.
It was very well done that because in the script it does say wrestling voice after all of that.
It's gonna kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice.
And also in this series we're discussing history of music, recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature shapes.
So listen wherever you get your podcasts.
The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte is in the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
He was detained on an ICC arrest warrant in connection with his war on drugs and flown from Manila to the Netherlands.
More than 6 ,000 drug dealers and others were killed during Mr Duterte's tenure between 2016 and 2022.
Anna Hologens spoke to us from the detention facility.
So he's being checked into the detention facilities here in The Hague.
I'm standing outside now.
He will spend his nights in a private cell during the day.
He'll have access to a common room, a library, leisure facilities and of course lawyers and doctors.
So we expect to see Rodrigo Duterte in public again in court for an initial appearance that could happen within a matter of days.
I've been covering these courts for more than a decade now and international justice moves notoriously slowly.
I have never seen it move this fast.
An arrest warrant from the ICC has been executed, the suspect extradited all within a matter of days but things will start to slow down now so the prosecution put together a portfolio of evidence that was enough to convince the judges at the ICC that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the former Philippines president had committed crimes including murder as part of the war on drugs but that evidentiary bar is lower than that required to secure a conviction so now Now the prosecution will be continuing to gather evidence from witnesses and various other sources in order to put together
what they hope will be a comprehensive body of evidence to convince the judges that he is indeed guilty as charged.
But that will take some time, and bearing in mind a lot of this will have to be translated.
So an initial appearance probably within days, but then it could be months or even a year before any trial actually gets underway.
Anna Holligan in The Hague.
It's seen as a major setback for Europe's push for green energy and electric vehicles.
The Swedish battery pioneer Northvolt has filed for bankruptcy.
After being plagued by financial problems, Stephanie Zachrasyn has this report.
Here's what we offer.
The opportunity to grow as a person.
Taking pride in making the world's greenest batteries.
It began with a vision to develop sustainable Europe -based battery production and help cut the continent's dependence on oil and reliance on imported batteries.
That big dream and promises to revolutionise the automotive and energy industries inspired investors to line up offering billions of dollars to get the project off the ground.
The construction of a large -scale factory began in northern Sweden's Krelaftjor, where The rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea provided an abundance of hydropower electricity to run the plants.
The flagship production site opened its stores in 2022.
At the same time, the company was already scaling up fast.
It began planning and construction of more megafactories in Sweden, Germany and Canada.
But it wasn't keeping up with demand.
Struggling to produce the vast amounts of battery cells it had promised its customers and investors, and while China, the market leader in electric batteries, was able to undercut Northvald's prices, the company kept racking up debt.
After starting a restructuring process in the US last year and laying off staff in Sweden, Northvald's interim chairman Tom Johnstone today announced it had failed for bankruptcy.
Clearly, this is not an outcome we'd hoped for.
It's one which runs counter to prevailing industrial sentiments in Europe, sentiments which have been with North Pole since it was founded.
These sentiments include the drive for European battery sovereignty and aspirations to deliver sustainable solutions to support the energy transition.
Just 3 per cent of global battery cell production currently takes place in Europe, according to the consultancy firm McKinsey, with Asian firms leading the market.
So, what does Northworld's downfall mean for those dreams of home -grown and sustainable alternatives?
Here's Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristasan.
The green transition will continue, I'm absolutely convinced of that.
It would of course be great to have battery production capacity in Europe as well not to be completely dependent, especially on Chinese production, but it also has to be viable and it has to be profitable.
I think there are good opportunities, but it is hard.
And that report by Stephanie Zacharison.
New research has found that the world's 100 most populated cities are becoming increasingly exposed to extreme weather swings, with disasters up by 400 % over the past half -century.
Commissioned by the charity Water Aid, the study indicates that southern Asian cities are shifting towards a more extreme, wet climate, while European and Middle Eastern cities are more prone to droughts.
It said cities across Africa and Asia emerged as the most at risk.
Katarina Michalidis, professor of dry land hydrology at the University of Bristol, co -authored the report and spoke to Tim Franks about its findings.
Basically, our research shows how the climate has been changing over the last four decades in the 100 most populated cities in the world.
That amounts to just under 20 % of the global population and it considers the implications for water security.
We analyzed this through a monthly index of wetting and drying and from that we derived specific metrics that tell us important information about how climate hazards such as flooding and drought are changing over time.
And when we look at that over these 100 cities, we find that climate is changing dramatically around the world but in different ways.
So some of the ways are this whiplash effect which is basically an intensification of both extreme dry and extreme wet periods around 15 percent of our cities are in this pattern of climate whiplash.
So, places like East Africa, Southern United States, China, Australia, Middle East.
And this is quite an important phenomenon because in a sense the way that people are battered between two extremes, you either have too much water or not enough water, and that whiplash between these two extremes presents huge challenges for people, for cities, and And the context of the city here is particularly important because these urban centers are constrained by their existing infrastructure.
How far is this phenomenon being fuelled by the very fact that you're seeing greater heat and then greater amounts of wet?
So global atmospheric warming is definitely a key factor in this.
As global temperatures are rising, the atmosphere can hold more moisture in it.
So on the one hand, what that means is that it has capacity to remove more moisture from the surface of the earth.
So in cases where that's happening a lot, that's causing extreme drying.
That moisture then in the atmosphere is being moved around the world through global patterns of winds and the place which receives all that moisture, is then experiencing that intense wetting.
Is it also the case that the poorer the city, the more exposed it is because it's just less likely to have the infrastructure that can cope?
Absolutely. So there's two factors underlying the ability of a city to be resilient to these extreme climatic episodes.
One is the underlying socioeconomic status and the infrastructure capability.
So when we combine these extreme climatic changes with the underlying infrastructure and social vulnerability, we see some hot spots emerging around the world and these are cities in South and Southeast Asia, specifically Pakistan and India, as well as countries in East Africa and the Middle East.
Caitarina Michaelides of the University of Bristol.
Spotify has revealed it broke a record last year for the highest annual payout to the music industry.
According to a new report, the streaming platform paid $10 billion in royalties in 2024 – that's 10 times greater than a decade before.
Our media and arts correspondent that David Silito has the details.
This is David Oh. Born in America, raised in Nigeria, an Afro beat artist with nearly eight million monthly listeners on Spotify.
The streamer's latest report suggests he will be one of more than 1 ,500 artists, performing in 17 languages, whose music made more than a million dollars last year on the platform.
Streaming, it says, is making success in the array of stars.
And that 10 billion dollars of revenue for the global music industry it's hugely important up around a billion on the previous year as the service continues to grow.
Spotify says it's now about a quarter of global income for recorded music.
But there are many buts.
A recent report into streaming concluded only around 16 % of that money actually made it to the artists the rest going to labels, distributors and other intermediaries.
But Spotify says it pays rights holders and they can't control how much money those rights holders then give to the artists they represent.
And while Spotify boasts that a hundred thousand artists made more than $6 ,000 last year, it's worth remembering there are 12 million artists on Spotify so that's less than 1 % of the total.
David Cillito. Now, apologies if you've heard this already, but a a reminder that we're hoping to record a Q &A podcast about space weather.
But to do so, we need your questions.
And in case you're wondering exactly what space weather is, here's a reminder from our weather presenter, Simon King.
In its very simple definition, it refers to the changing environmental conditions on earth created by solar activity.
Now the beautiful side of space weather is one that we'll all be familiar with, and that's the northern lights, or the aurora borealis.
Yes, but space weather is actually also really important for security because we can get these geomagnetic storms that can impact spacecraft.
It can interrupt with our satellites and how much do we rely on now on our smartphones.
And a big geomagnetic storm can actually wipe all that out.
So if there's anything you'd like to know about space weather please email globalpodcast at bbc .co .uk or find us on x at bbcworldservice using the hashtag global news pod.
And it would be great if you could record your question as a voice note.
Thanks. And that is all from us for now but there'll be a new edition of the global news podcast very soon.
This one was mixed by Pat Sisson and produced by Stephanie Tillenson, our editors Karen Martin.
I'm Oliver Conway, until next time, goodbye.
Hello. I'm Robin Inks.
And I'm Brian Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new series of The Infinite Monkey Coach.
We're gonna have a planet of Jupiter vs. Secton!
It's very well done that because in the script it does say, wrestling voice, after all of that it's gonna kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice.
And also in the series we're discussing history music recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes.
So listen wherever you get your podcasts.
