Global News Podcast - Dozens killed in clashes in Syria

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Forces linked to Syria's new rulers engaged in heavy fighting with others loyal to the former President Assad. Also: latest trade figures from China indicate world's second largest economy is struggling.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel Wright and at 14h GMT on Friday 7th March these are our main stories. Syrian government forces are reported to have executed more than 50 people in Latakia province where troops have been fighting Assad loyalists. More than 180 people are missing after four boats capsized off the coast of East Africa. A South Korean court has ordered the release of the impeached president, Yung Sung-nyeol, after ruling that the warrant for his arrest in January was invalid. Also in this podcast, an international conference to discuss the Geneva Conventions

in relation to Gaza has been cancelled at the last minute. One international lawyer says it's needed now more than ever. That is maybe where we do have a duty to educate people. It is completely illegal under international law after the Second World War to gain territory through the use of force. And the strange story of the webcam doorbell to help fish stuck in Dutch canals. The government of Bashar al-Assad ran Syria with rare brutality. Now, reports say their Alawite supporters may be suffering some of the same treatment. It's been reported that

Syrian security forces have carried out a mass execution of about 50 members of the Alawite minority in the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad support. There's unverified video showing dozens of bodies in the yard of a house. Another video is circulating showing a body being dragged by a speeding car in Latakia on Thursday night. Syrian government forces are carrying out a big security operation after clashes with Alawite gunmen which left more than 70 people dead. It all adds up to the worst violence in Syria since the fall of the Assad government in December. Our correspondent in Beirut, Hugo Bishagher,

gave us this update. So this is coming from the monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which for years has been documenting incidents across Syria. They have a network of sources and activists working with them. And they say that they have verified videos and also gathered testimonies from relatives of the dead saying that 52 Alawite men were executed by Syrian security forces. Now we haven't been able to independently verify those claims. We've seen one footage that has been released by activists. Dozens of bodies of men and boys in civilian clothing are piled in the yard of a house. Again, we haven't been able to independently

verify the authenticity of the footage, but this follows those clashes in Latakia between government forces and supporters of the deposed president Bashar al-Assad. Yeah, tell us about those clashes. Seventy people were reported to have been killed? Exactly, and this started yesterday. What we're hearing is that there was a significant military operation targeting an official from the Assad government in Latakia. This is a region on the Mediterranean coast in Syria and government forces were then ambushed by fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad. This led to some violent clashes, confrontations then spread to other parts of the region.

And what we're seeing today is this massive response by the authorities. Reinforcements with possibly hundreds of security forces have been sent from other parts of the country to coastal areas of Syria. Now there is a curfew until tomorrow in both Latakia and Tartus, two major cities on the coast. And again, this is a stronghold of the Assad family, so a snapshot of the tensions in Syria, a country that remains deeply divided. In fact, how serious is this for Syria and its new Islamic government? Yeah, I don't think it's a surprise that we're seeing these clashes.

I was in Damascus earlier this year and I met several high-level security officials in the new administration and what they told me is that this was one of their main security challenges in the country, the resistance of Assad loyalists and the possibility that they could try to mount some kind of insurgency against the new leaders of the country. So I think it was almost inevitable that we would see some kind of violence, especially in that part of the country. I think this is a very serious challenge for the interim president, Ahmed al-Sharah. He's trying to consolidate his authority across the country.

There are many parts of Syria that are not controlled by his forces, by the government in Damascus. So I think a lot of people will be paying attention to this reaction from the security forces that's happening now in those parts of Syria. Hugo Bichega. Almost 200 people are missing after four boats carrying migrants from Djibouti to Yemen capsized. It's considered to be one of the most dangerous migrant routes in the world, with hundreds of deaths recorded each year. Nkechi Ubono is one of our Africa correspondents and told us more about the incident. Currently, we do know that more than 180 people have

been missing and the boats actually capsized Thursday night according to the IOM which is the UN's migration body. The UN did not give any information on the identity of the people on the boats but we do know that the route is often used by Ethiopians and Eritreans and Kenyans as well who are looking for work in countries in the Gulf. And so it's a very common migrant route in East Africa. And have there been incidents like this before that where migrants have died? It's one of the world's most dangerous migrants routes actually according to the IOM. In 2024 just last year more than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen and we also saw the IOM

reporting that 20 Ethiopians were killed when they are both capsized off Yemen just this year in January. The IOM also says about 558 people died along the route in 2024 alone. So it's a very common migrant route, but it's very dangerous as well. Are the numbers increasing or have they reduced? At this point, it's difficult to to say but the IOM has always pointed that because of the many issues of unemployment and people's political instability in many parts of Africa a lot of young people including women are looking for ways to escape to Europe and the Gulf, looking for opportunities, looking for employment and a better quality of life. And so, yes, over time we have seen the numbers

increase, but it's difficult to peg it at this time. Nkechi Ombono. Switzerland has, at the last minute, cancelled an international conference. The subject? The Geneva Conventions and how they relate to the conflict in Gaza. The conference had been mandated by the United Nations General Assembly and it was due to take place on Friday with a key focus on forced displacement. Israel had said it would not attend, describing the event as legal warfare. But the international lawyer Andrew Clapham argues that the issue needed to be discussed as he explained to our Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes.

Well, it's not the only time that Switzerland finds itself in this quite complicated position of wanting to be a neutral space and maybe even a mediator and at the same time being seen by the outside world as the guardians of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions in particular. It's important that states can come together and as I say reaffirm these things. Whether they need to do it at this point in time with a very loud voice so that it disrupts negotiations over the release of prisoners or the release of hostages or a peace deal. That's obviously a complicated diplomatic dance.

As an international lawyer, what would you like to see? I think it's very important to stress again that in international humanitarian law and in times of war, civilians have to be protected, civilian property has to be protected, hospitals have to be protected, and that if you violate those norms in a willful way, you can be prosecuted for grave breaches. And that's an international crime in every country in the world and this sense of impunity and this lack of accountability, I think it's very concerning because it gives the impression that international law is a lot of talk and that it's not like real law.

But from my perspective, if you're asking me, it is real law and you can be prosecuted and you can go to prison. And I think an emphasis on that, not just on demanding that Israel prosecutes, but reminding everybody in the world that they have the obligation to search for people and prosecute them, I think that could be very helpful.

Of course, you are an expert on the laws of war. Your suggestion is that these laws of war, actually, there's an awful lot of stuff which is genuinely forbidden. I mean, do you think the people fighting now don't know? Or are they stretching the law to breaking point? I mean, not just the Middle East, we could also look at Russia, Ukraine, for example. I think the idea that it's about ignorance is misplaced. I think the idea that you don't kill, you don't rape, you don't destroy someone's house is pretty obvious to everyone. There are interpretations, as you're suggesting, which are being developed, which are stretching

the law beyond what it really means. And I think it would be important for such a meeting as the one here and other meetings to re-emphasize this. There's one other aspect which is maybe important in both the Russian context and the Israeli-Gaza context. And that is the rule, as you've mentioned, in times of war you can't gain territory through the use of force. That's an international law rule. And so all the talk of annexation and gaining territory is a bit misleading. And I think that is maybe where we do have a duty to educate people, that it is completely illegal under international law after the Second World War

to gain territory through the use of force. Andrew Clapham speaking to Imogen Folks. French Mirage fighter jets only arrived in Ukraine last month. Now they've been put to work for the first time, helping to defend against a Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The use of the French aircraft highlights the new geopolitical realities, where Ukraine is looking much more to Europe for its defense. It was one of the heaviest Russian attacks since President Trump announced that he was pausing US military aid and intelligence sharing with

Ukraine. My colleague, Jackie Leonard, asked Vitaly Shevchenko, the Russia editor of BBC Monitoring, how serious the attack was. It was pretty serious. It lasted almost all through the night, targeting energy infrastructure and gas extraction facilities across Ukraine, from Kharkiv in the northeast all the way to Transcarpathian region in the west. It involved almost 70 missiles, crews, ballistic missiles, almost 200 drones. Roughly half of those missiles and drones were shot down. In terms of damage, Ukrainian authorities don't go into much detail, but

they say that 18 civilians, we understand, were injured, including four children as young as three years old. President Zelensky says that this attack targeted infrastructure that, in his words, ensures normal life. And yet again, he called for a ceasefire in the air and on the sea. How significant was the use of the French Mirage jets? It's the latest sophisticated weapon supplied by the West and used by Ukraine to defend itself. It's significant that it comes from France. It only took Ukraine one month to deploy the Mirage jets against Russian missiles after they were delivered to Ukraine and those Mirage jets were used alongside F-16s which were again supplied by European

nations. And there have been reports that private companies are being urged to restrict or are restricting intelligence to Ukraine. What can you tell us? Well, I have to say that those reports are not confirmed but are worrying for Ukraine. There's an American company called Vaxa that supplies satellite imagery and now a fairly authoritative Ukrainian website called Militarne is quoting sources that they are not able to receive those imagery from America. Rudali Shevchenko. Still to come in this podcast, scientists have found a genetic link between overeating humans

and overeating dogs. It turns out that the top five genes which are influencing whether labradors gain weight are also important in humans. China's latest trade figures have highlighted the difficulties facing the world's second largest economy. Imports in January and February fell by more than 8% compared to last year, while exports grew less than expected. China faces problems at home, a property crisis, weak consumer spending, high youth unemployment

and abroad, Donald Trump and his tariffs. Jackie Leonard has been speaking to our Asia business correspondent Mariko Ooi and began by asking her how serious the position was for China's economy. These latest data are from the first two months of this year, so January and February. So one can argue that it could just be a blip, but still, imports falling by almost 8.5%, that is a lot worse than many economists had expected. They were actually expecting a growth of one percent.

So I was looking at what they were buying less of and it's things like crude oil, natural gas, other commodities like copper and iron ore. While interestingly, they're still importing more coal and soybeans. So it might be that demand in the world's second biggest economy is really slowing down. Also, it's interesting to note that exports grew by a lot less than what economists had anticipated. Now, one can argue that economists just got it all wrong, but still, it is quite worrying

because as you said, the economy, the Chinese economy is facing many other challenges, not to mention this intensifying trade war with the United States. And as you say, it's not just tariffs. There are other issues that are problematic for the Chinese economy. Yes, absolutely. We've been talking about that ongoing property sector crisis for many years now. Basically, the sector has a huge debt and as a result, they have been, you know, a lot of the developers have defaulted. The Chinese government has been trying to restructure the sector, but that hasn't really worked out just yet.

And that's kind of spread into how people feel about it. So consumers haven't been spending a lot of money because they don't feel too confident about the economy. And also the very high, especially youth unemployment rate has been noticed as well by many economists. So there have been many, many issues that are facing the Chinese economy. And then here comes a tariff. So it's really interesting that just yesterday,

the Chinese leaders have unveiled that they're going to aim to grow the economy at around 5% this year. And that's practically the same goal that they had for last year. And they just managed to hit that last year after pumping in billions of dollars into the economy to stimulate the economy. So with all these additional challenges, it will be quite a huge task for Beijing to actually achieve that target. So how do you think that they will try to approach that? How do you think they're going to try and counter the problems that they're facing right now?

Well, I think it's fair to assume that they will probably announce even more stimulus measures. You know, they have been announcing quite a lot of them, but many economists and especially investors haven't been too happy with them. They've been saying that Beijing needs to do something more radical to try and boost the economy. Mariko Ooi. It's been described as having a sweet and zingy taste with a fluffy texture. Attiki is a popular dish in Côte d'Ivoire made from fermented cassava. But Attiki is a popular dish in Cote d'Ivoire made from fermented cassava. But atiki is also a key part of the West African nation's economy, one which supports a multi-million dollar industry and empowers thousands of women in the process.

But as today, a paeami reports, their livelihood is now under threat. As the sun peaks over the horizon, Nadine Akka is breathing hard and sweating profusely. She has just climbed the last slope of the five-kilometre road that separates her Kasava field from her village of Grand Molié. This morning she came to clean her two hectare cassava field. Aged 45, she has been producing atiike for 22 years. After getting into the atiike business, I used the money I realized to settle two of my children. Currently, one of them has graduated from high school. The authorities estimate that Atike Production employs between 100 and 200,000 women in Cote d'Ivoire, an activity that is not without its difficulties. There are a lot of difficulties,

but we don't know who to complain to, so we have no choice but to accept them. For example, if I come to harvest, I have to hire a tricycle from the village that is just close by, and the tricycle rider will charge 10,000 sefa. Now a widow, she heads an association of around a hundred women.

Grand Mourie, their village in the south eastern part of the country, has benefited from a modern ITK processing plant inaugurated in December 2023. But the local women producers have almost all deserted it due to the distance from the village. CUV Coadio, who coordinates several women's associations in the region, believes this is also a communication problem. believes this is also a communication problem. The choice of where to build the factory came from us. Cassava itself is a very delicate product and nattike is produced from it.

At a certain time of the day, the local residents can't breathe because of the smell. That's why this production unit was built at the entrance of the village. Communication wasn't good and we should have explained to these women which hasn't always been the case. It also raises the issue of the product marketing, with retailers often disappearing with merchandise without paying back. The Ivarian government claims to be implementing strategies to solve this problem but also to counter competition such as that from China, the world's leading producer of ATIK. Cote d'Ivoire produces 8.25 million tons of cassava, half of which becomes ATIK,

a vital part of the nation's economy. But behind the statistics lies the struggle. While the government dismisses concerns about Chinese competition, the women who are at the heart of the industry face a daily grind. So while Hatseke holds a place of honour in Ivarian culture and the national economy, its future and the future of the women who make it hang in the balance. Today, a South Korean court has ordered impeached President Jung Seung-yul to be released from jail, more than a month after he was arrested and indicted on charges of insurrection for

declaring martial law. Earlier, crowds started gathering outside the detention centre where he's being held. Our Asia Pacific editor, Mickey Bristo, is following the story and he gave Jackie Leonard this update. The court has ruled that he should be released but the prosecution have a period of time, seven days to appeal against this and whilst that appeal takes place, the president or the impeached president remains in jail. But as you say, his supporters who are gathering not just outside the detention centre but also

outside his residence in Seoul, they believe it's some kind of victory or vindication for Mr. Yoon. And why did the court rule that he should be released from custody? Well interestingly, two points. Firstly, they questioned the legality or the scope of the criminal investigation against Mr. Yoon, whether the organisation which investigated him had the power to do so, but essentially he was released on a technicality. He was detained in January and prosecutors were given 10 days to charge him. They thought they'd done it on the final day of that detention, but the judge counting

back said, actually no, you've miscounted. You did it after the deadline and so therefore you didn't do it in time. He should be released. So it's really a technicality. So nothing about the insurrection charges against Mr. Yoon changed, just this technicality which they say means he should be released. So it is all very complicated, Mickey. Just explain what happens next. Well as I said, in this particular case the criminal investigation against Mr. Yoon for

declaring martial law still continues. There is also a separate case, a constitutional court case, deciding whether to endorse the impeachment of Mr. Yoon which was authorized by the National Assembly. That's due to rule in the middle of this month, so in the next couple of weeks. So really no great change in Mr. Yoon's condition and the very very serious charges that he's facing. And if he's and the very, very serious charges that he's facing. And if he's convicted on the very, very serious charges that he's facing, what might be the implications? Well, if he's convicted of the, if the Constitutional Court decides to endorse

his impeachment, he'll be removed from office permanently and there'll be a fresh election within 60 days in South Korea, there'll be a new president. The criminal case is perhaps more serious. In the insurrection case, he faces a lifetime in prison or even the death penalty, although that's probably unlikely. So that's the more serious case. Our Asia Pacific editor, Miki Bristo, speaking to Jackie Leonard. Now, if you have a Labrador dog, you might have noticed that they have a ferocious appetite and often a tendency to overeat. And scientists at the University of Cambridge have now discovered that this is down to a

particular gene which is also present in humans. The lead researcher of the study, Eleanor Raffan, spoke to Nick Robinson about their findings. We've kind of mapped the genes responsible now. We've been working on this for quite a while and our latest study has pinpointed some of the genes which make some Labradors even greedier than others. It turns out that the top five genes which are influencing whether Labradors gain weight are also important in humans and that's valuable because it kind

of allowed us to pinpoint down on some new biology by focusing on our top genes. And you've looked at what you can do if you've got a tubby lab to start with, you're a vet by training, aren't you? What can you, as it were, just exercise the more, restrain what's put in front of them? Yeah, absolutely. We were able with this kind of our new genetic signals to be able to kind of put a score on how greedy dogs were or how obesity prone our dogs were. And then what we showed was that that score is related to how greedy they are, what they're

like in the home. And the good news is that even for our most obesity prone, high genetic risk dogs, owners who were completely on it with the management could keep these guys in a really healthy body shape. The thing we showed though is that it just takes an awful lot more effort to do that. Is that what we should be doing then? Not stocking the fridge for someone who's got the gene? DEN-D1B was the top hit in our genetic study and we pursued that with molecular investigations and we've revealed a new role

for it in controlling how the brain responds to body weight and therefore turns hunger up and down. Honestly, that's a bit of a niche biology for the aficionados of the brain control of energy balance in the body. But I think the more general picture is that we could put this kind of score and say that, yeah, if you're a high risk dog, your owner needs to work harder to keep you slim. And if the same is true of people, if you're genetically at high risk,

we know that people are just that little bit more interested in food and find it a little bit harder to resist temptation. So yeah, all of those sensible behavioral things about keeping your home environment full of healthy food rather than unhealthy ones. And I think the important message is that having a high genetic risk doesn't make you weak willed

or anything, it just means that you have to work a lot harder to resist the temptations that we come across in our daily lives. And somehow by knowing that and knowing that it is trickier for some people to stay slim means that we can take some of the social stigma of obesity away and give people the support they need to resist temptation. Dr Eleanor Raffan. Now I want to take you to the canals of the Dutch city of Utrecht, where thousands of fish each spring swim looking for somewhere to lay their eggs. However, the locks are often closed at this time of year, so the fish are trapped where they are,

in danger of being eaten by predators while they wait for the lock to open. But now the fish cam doorbell has been turned on to help and has captured the imagination of millions. Nisha Patel takes up the story. Just imagine walking up to a front door, banging on it, but no one answers. This is what happens to fish swimming through the Weerdlaus every spring whilst they're looking for the perfect place to lay their eggs. Slight snag, they often have to wait at the lock, which is rarely open at this time of the year. If only someone could alert the lock keeper so they could continue their journey.

Cue the fish cam, brainchild of two ecologists. They set up a live underwater camera stream near the lock. Now here's the genius bit. If a member of the watching public sees a fish, they ring a digital doorbell, which alerts the lockkeeper that fish are waiting. The live feed has gone viral on TikTok. I just wanted to let everyone know that it's finally fish doorbell season. There's an online fish doorbell that you can use to help fish in the Netherlands. There's even a fish doorbell fun club on Facebook and a video journal on YouTube. Welcome back. It

feels amazing that it is this time of the year again. It is fish doorbell time. Around 2,000 fish pass through the lock every week and last year more than 2.7 million people were hooked by the website from Canada to Taiwan, ready to lend a hand or at least a finger. The feed is oddly soothing, ideal for anyone suffering a stressful day. Nisha Patel and I've been watching the webcam throughout this podcast recording. I've only seen two fish but I'm going to bear with it. And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast fish, but I'm going to bear with it. Also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Daniela Varela Hernandez and the producer was Stephanie Tillotson.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Rachel Wright. Until next time, goodbye.