Global News Podcast - Putin 'ready' to discuss Ukraine war with Trump

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Vladimir Putin has said he's ready to discuss an end to the Ukraine war with Donald Trump. Also: new sensations for a quadriplegic man with a robotic arm, and the strange sounds coming from Georgia's bus ticket machines.

You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Saturday, the 25th of January. Vladimir Putin says he's ready for talks on ending the war in Ukraine, but dismisses Donald Trump's threat to use economic pressure on Russia. UN peacekeepers in Congo say they're engaged in intense combat with M23 rebels threatening the eastern city of Goma. And Hamas has given Israel the names of four female hostages due

to be released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Also in the podcast... And I reach out with the robotic arm in hand and I grab Liza's hand. I felt this warmth of touch that was just unbelievable. The paralysed man who's discovered new sensations with a robotic arm. Donald Trump has had a complicated relationship with Vladimir Putin. But since his return to the White House, he's been urging the Russian leader to agree a peace deal with Ukraine, saying otherwise the US would increase sanctions, tariffs and taxes on Russia.

On Friday, Mr Putin gave his first public response, attempting to flatter the US President by repeating the lie that Mr Trump had actually won the 2020 election and suggesting that Russia's invasion of Ukraine might never have happened if, quote, that victory hadn't been stolen. On a visit to North Carolina, Mr Trump repeated his call for oil prices to be lowered to force Russia to end the war. It's crazy. It's a crazy war. Now, one way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money and to drop the price of oil because they have

it nice and high and if you have it high that war is not going to end so easily. So OPEC ought to get on the ball and they are to drop the price of oil and that war will stop right away. But President Putin rejected that logic saying both the US and Russia needed prices that were neither too high nor too low. Both for our and the American economies, prices that are too high are bad, because producers within the country, using energy resources, need to produce other goods within the country. And prices that are too low are also very bad because they undermine the investment opportunities of energy companies. That's a matter for us to discuss.

Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor at BBC Monitoring, gave me his assessment of President Putin's intervention. By saying that he is prepared to sit down and talk with Donald Trump that Russia is all for negotiations. That has been the Kremlin's line for years. We are being reasonable here. You, i.e. the West, do not want to listen to our concerns. We're ready to sit down and talk but you won't listen. Now does he mean it? Vladimir Putin, he was very positive about Donald Trump. He said he is a very smart person, pragmatic. Does he mean it?

Well, possibly, but we shouldn't forget that Vladimir Putin is a former Secret Service agent, and Secret Service agents, they're not necessarily known for telling the truth or speaking their minds. Well, you know, Putin said that the election was stolen from Donald Trump back in 2020. That is going to be music to Donald Trump's ears. And we know his ego is pretty big, even by most politicians' standards. Do you think the reason that President Putin has come out in this way is because he might be worried about economic pressure from the Americans?

Well, possibly. The question is though, what sort of pressure can America put on Russia that's not been exerted already? Donald Trump did suggest that oil output needs to be increased globally so that oil and energy prices go down. That will hurt a bit. I don't think it will completely undermine the Russian economy. A few years ago, half of the money in the Russian state coffers, it was from the sale of hydrocarbons, i.e. oil and gas. Now that share is decreasing.

So Russia is making energetic efforts to wean itself off oil and gas. It knows that it's dependent on that sort of revenue. So to completely stop this war by dropping energy prices, that will have to be done A, dramatically and B, very, very cleverly. And what is Ukraine's position on all this? Because Vladimir Putin was saying they were the ones refusing to talk. Well, the head of the Ukrainian presidential Donald Trump. And also importantly, he wants to talk to Donald Trump about other things, not just Ukraine. For Vladimir Putin, Ukraine

is a huge chapter, but it's only part of Russia's more global standoff with the West. So for him, this is a chance to discuss the new world order, I feel like, not just Ukraine. Toby O'Brien, BBC Radio 4 News, The New World Order Vitaly Shevchenko of BBC Monitoring. And a reminder that if there's anything you'd like to ask about Donald Trump's first week as a returning US president, then we'd like to hear from you. Whether it's about his moves on cryptocurrencies, pardons, climate change, immigration, tariffs or anything else. We're recording

a special Q&A edition next week, so please email us your question to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or find us on x at global news pod. And if you can record your question as a voice note, then so much the better. Thank you. Hamas has announced the names of four more hostages to be freed as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal. A spokesman for the group's military wing said Israeli soldiers Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Nama Levi and Liri Albag would be released on Saturday. Hamas has committed to freeing 33 captives in the initial phase, 12 women

and children and 21 men who are sick or over 50. The Palestinian group is expected to release living hostages first but could then hand over bodies. Hamas is also due to provide a status report on the condition of the remaining hostages on the list including two young children. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Nick Beek, has more details about the four including two young children. Our correspondent in Jerusalem Nick Beek has more details about the four due to be released. They're all young women who were working at the Nahal Oz military base on October 7th and that is a military facility just across the fence from Gaza and they were part of a team of young women who worked as military observers and they, it transpired,

had been warning that there were clear signs that this sort of attack was imminent and it seems that those warnings weren't acted upon. So among the women is Nama Levi. She was 19 at the time. She was just in the second day on the job and her mum spoke to the BBC last year and was saying how much she was hoping to have her back that all her family were desperate for her to return. She is said to be one of the four to be released with her colleagues Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Liri Albagh. So obviously a degree of relief being expressed but also trepidation

because for 15 months the families are saying that they've been going through this anguish and now the end is in sight just one more night before they're reunited. But we saw last weekend broadly the choreography went to plan there was an initial delay of a few hours but the families are saying that they're delighted that their loved ones will be back. At the same time though of course many other hostage families are waiting for their loved ones and actually waiting for news of their condition. Nick Beak in Jerusalem. Well, the four Israeli soldiers will be freed in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Last Sunday, 90 Palestinians were released in exchange for the first three Israeli hostages. One of those prisoners has now spoken to the BBC's Sean Lay.

She spent seven months in Israeli detention and asked to remain anonymous for her own safety. So, does she know why she was detained by Israel? No, they can put you in jail and tell you. There's a secret file against you. The Israeli documentation says that you were arrested for supporting terrorism. Do you know what that might refer to? I saw it when I got out of prison.

No one has ever asked me about anything. Have you supported terrorism or is there anything you think you could have said or written that might have been interpreted that way? I don't know what I did, they just took me. Let's talk a bit about the circumstances in which you were held. What was your detention like? We were banned from the basic human rights. The food portions were really small.

They used to detain us for 23 hours inside our cell rooms and then they would allow us to have one hour. During this hour you have to take a shower and then to go back to your room. The cell had six beds and we were ten in the cell. How would you describe more generally the conditions in which you were held? Brutal, inhuman, we were not feeling safe. They would attack us at any moment. They would do searches at the middle of the night at 3 a.m. and male guards would come where we were held while we were sleeping and you know Most of us are Muslims and they were hijab so they would see them without that hijab and this is forbidden in Islam

Can I put you what the Israeli Defense Forces have told us? In a statement not specific to your case because obviously we haven't identified you to them, but talking more generally about the conditions. They say mistreatment of detainees during their detention is against the law and the IDF's orders and is therefore strictly prohibited. The IDF rejects allegations of systemic abuse of detainees, including through violence or torture. Specific complaints regarding inappropriate behaviour by detention staff or inadequate conditions are referred to the relevant authorities for investigation, examination and are handled accordingly. In certain cases, members of the detention staff have been dismissed for not behaving as expected and in accordance with the facility's procedures.

Did you complain? Yes, we complained to the lawyers, we complained to the prison administration and we were not heard. They would handcuff us and drag us to the yard whenever they want. Have you changed your view in any way over the last, what, 15-16 months since October the 7th of the Hamas attacks? No, because the Palestinians are defending their right to live. Do you feel at all that maybe what Hamas did on October the 7th in its attacks, in the killings, in the sexual abuse, in the kidnappings and detention of Israelis, do you feel in any way that explains what happened in Gaza subsequently?

Don't you think that this is a bit biased? Do you feel in any way that explains what happened in Gaza subsequently? Don't you think that this is a bit biased because after all the investigations there were no sexual abuse, the killings were different, no kids were killed. Hang on, the killings were different. The real story is much different than what really happened. Right, can you just explain to me what do you mean the killings were different? Children, children. Right, so you're saying the killings as reported and the footage that was appeared on social

media, you're saying that isn't correct? I'm saying that there are many ways to tell the story and we have to be realistic and to tell the truth about what really happened. No kids were killed. I'm sorry, that is not correct. The United Nations has confirmed that children did die in the 7th of October attacks by Hamas, as did adults. That was not proven. Who's told you that no children died?

As Palestinians, we don't stand with killing the children. But what happened? Why did October 7 happen? And how do we view October 7? Yes. So two different things. What happened is that a lot of Palestinians, all the Palestinians in Gaza were living in a big prison, an open-air prison. And then look at what the Zionist side did. How many Palestinian kids were killed?

Large numbers and that has also been reported by the United Nations. Yes. You're still relatively young, been reported by the United Nations. Yes. You're still relatively young, one day having a family of your own. Could you see a situation in which you or your children were able to live in peace with Israel, with Israelis side by side? That's not possible. There will be no peace when the occupation is trying to evacuate our existence. One of the Palestinian prisoners who was released as part of the Gaza

ceasefire deal, she was talking to Sean Lay. Now to a potentially life-changing development. A Swedish study that's allowed two people with paralysis to temporarily regain their sense of touch. Researchers from Chalmersh University of Technology used MRI scans to identify regions of the brain linked to hand movements and sensations in order to mimic a sense of feeling using a robotic arm. Scott Imbray from Chicago was one of two patients with spinal injuries to take part in the study. He spoke to Gruupa Paddy. Back in 1985, I was in a car accident and my seatbelt didn't work. So the part that goes across your waist, that worked as

fine, but the shoulder strap didn't work. And my chest hit the steering wheel. My head snapped over the top of the steering wheel and I shattered C4, five and six. And not like five days later, when I woke up, I was unconscious. When I woke up, the doctor was leaning over me in the bed and he's like, Scott, you're never going to walk again. You're going to be a quadriplegic the rest of your life. What can you explain to us in layman's terms about how this all works? It sounds wondrous. Okay. So the amazing thing is they implanted four electrodes on my brain.

The biggest one is about the size of Lincoln's head on a penny here in the United States. And so these electrodes, two of them are placed in my motor cortex and two of them are placed on the sensory cortex. So what that does is the ones on the motor cortex, when I think about moving my fingers or my arm, the robotic arm through computer assistance in a decoder, I can actually operate an arm just like it was my own real arm and move the fingers on that robotic hand, just like they were my own fingers. Okay. And then on the sensory part, they have actually 64 channels that they could stimulate on my brain.

And so I feel those, that stimulation on different parts on my fingertips from the thumb through the ring finger. Okay. And some of them are on the fingertips on the Palm side, and some of them are on the backside of the fingers and some of them are on the fingertips on the palm side, and some of them are on the backside of the fingers. Some of them are right at the surface, and some of them are deep sensations. Through those channels that they stimulate, they can create different sensations. For instance, they could stimulate multiple channels, and it makes me feel like I'm dragging

my hand across the surface of the table. Or like this study that we just did, Giacomo, the scientist, he actually came in the one day he's like, okay, Scott, what do you feel? And it's like, oh my God, Giacomo, you just drew the letter O on my finger. It's amazing what science could do by stimulating these different neurons in my brain. I can hear the smile on your face, Scott. Now you are able to physically touch things, people, just what that means to you. Talk us through shaking hands with the scientist Lisa. When I had the real robotic arm, I was controlling that and Lisa walks into our lab here and

John the other scientist said, Scott, reach out and grab Lisa's hand and shake it. So Lisa comes walking up to the robotic arm that was like five feet away from me and I reach out with the robotic arm in hand and I grab Lisa's hand and I was like, oh my god, Lisa's hand is in my hand. And it was actually in the robotic hand that it was in. And I was just like, this is like an out-of-body experience. I felt this warmth of touch that was just unbelievable. Scott Embry. And still to come on the Global News Podcast...

The unusual sounds coming out of bus ticket machines in the capital of Georgia. Well, next to an update on the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the M23 rebel group backed by Rwandan troops have been making big gains in recent weeks. In our earlier podcast we reported that the rebels were nearing the city of Goma in the mineral rich east of the country. Since then we've heard that the Congolese general defending Goma, regional governor Peter Chirumwami, has died of wounds sustained in battle. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes since the start of this year. I was fleeing. I was hit by M23 bullets.

It was Wednesday and we were locked in the house with the whole family fearing gunfire. A bomb exploded behind the house and injured two of us inside." The UN peacekeeping force in the region says it's been engaged in intense combat with the rebels while it's been supporting the Congolese army with heavy artillery fire. The UN human rights spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, said she was deeply alarmed about the increased risk of attacks in Goma. First person, Ravina Shamdasani, said she was deeply alarmed about the increased risk of attacks in Goma.

Some 400,000 people have been displaced in north and south Kivu since the beginning of this year alone. Any such attack on Goma risks catastrophic impacts on hundreds of thousands of civilians, putting them at heightened exposure to human rights violations and abuses. The High Commissioner appeals to all states with influence on the parties to impress on them the urgent need for an immediate secession of hostilities. Well, Akil Imani Saleh Choma Choma is an independent journalist based in Goma. He told us what was known about the military governor's death.

So many sources, including some hospital sources in Kinshasa, saying that the governor finally died after being tried from yesterday in the fight between the M23 and the fatacy around the area of Kasingesi. But until now there is no more information. People are really afraid about the possibility for the M23 to take Goma. People are trying to go out of Goma, some of them using the border of Rwanda. And also there are other people which are trying to use the boat and to use the lake to reach the town of Bukavu in the South Kivu. So many people are trying to move because of their security, because you have some women

rights activists and defenders fly from the zone where the M23 controlled. And right now, when they understood that the M23 will control Goma, there is no way to move. People are really scared about what is going on. Journalist Akili Mani Selle Choma Choma in Goma. The Spanish authorities say they've dismantled an international drug smuggling and money laundering ring based in Barcelona. It follows a three-year multinational operation. Our Europe Regional Editor Danny Abarhard has the details. Danny Abarhard, European Regional Editor Spanish police say it's one of the most significant counter-narcotics operations of recent decades. They said the gang was headed by a man

using the alias Lucky. Not so much these days it would seem, although he was already in jail, allegedly running operations from there. In total, 25 people have been arrested in already in jail, allegedly running operations from there. In total, 25 people have been arrested in raids in Spain, mainly Spanish nationals, but also two Colombians, plus 15 others in Panama. Over the three years, the authorities have seized more than seven tons of cocaine, four tons of that in Panama. The syndicates tried to smuggle it through ports and airports, concealed in various ways, in shipments of tropical fruits like pineapples, even inside the rotor of an electric generator. The authorities have confiscated weapons and assets too, including more than six million dollars in cash, properties, jewelry and luxury cars and watches.

Europol said the complex investigation spanned three regions, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Colombian traffickers, it said, handled the cocaine shipments from there, while Spanish, Colombian and Bulgarian nationals oversaw the reception and distribution of the drug. Some gang members hid in containers to sneak into ports, getting the cocaine out at night with the help of corrupt workers. Meanwhile, according to Europol, Albanians in Dubai provided payments for those involved in the shipments. How much escaped the net is not known, but a lot clearly did in this lucrative trade. The agency believes

the syndicate could have received up to one tonne of cocaine every week. Danny Haberhard. Passengers getting on buses in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday morning heard rather unusual sounds coming out of the ticket machines. Well that is a burst of the Georgian national anthem, but there were also recordings of pro-European protests, sound bites from speeches and the European Union anthem. It comes after nearly two months of protests over the Georgian government's decision to suspend talks on joining the EU. I heard more from our correspondent in the Georgian capital,

Rehan Demitri. There was this rather extraordinary situation in most of the public buses in Tbilisi on Friday morning. There was this recording was continuously played and it was coming through tiny speakers that are part of the ticketing machine. And very soon that news was kind of distributed quite quickly on social media. People were sharing this information.

And then came the reaction from the municipal authorities. First they said that it was some kind of technical fault. They didn't immediately say that it was a cyber attack or hacking, and they disabled all of the machines, which meant that passengers could take public transport for free. Do we know how it was done? It seems quite extraordinary. The investigation has been launched by the Ministry of Interior, and later in the day it was stated that it was indeed a cyber attack. And these machines operated with the help of one of the biggest banks here in Georgia,

the Bank of Georgia. And we don't have the answers yet on who might have put these recordings on all of the public buses in the capital of Tbilisi. So obviously the authorities are unhappy about it. What about ordinary Georgians? How did they react? We are talking about the country that has been in a deep political crisis for nearly two months now. And there have been all sorts of protest actions taking place. And one of them, I remember several weeks ago, they were just activists who were getting on public buses and reading some kind of pro-European proclamations. On top of that, there have

been continuous protests. Today is the 58th day, and I'm standing now outside the Parliament. There are hundreds of people here, and they're protesting against the government's decision back in November that this government would put EU accession talks on hold for four years and that anger is not gone anywhere. People are frustrated but at the same time the Georgian Dream Government, it's the ruling party, they have refused to hear the voices of these people and they have been demanding all along to hold fresh elections. Rehan Demetri in Georgia. A Bulgarian woman charged with being part of a Russian spy cell

operating in the UK and Europe has denied knowing the information she gathered will be sent to Russia. 33-year-old Katrin Ivanova has been giving evidence in her defence in court here in London, from where our investigations correspondent Daniel de Simone reports. Katrin Ivanova has been giving evidence in her defence in court here in London, from where our investigations correspondent Daniel de Simone reports. Catherine Ivanova is accused of spying for Russia in a series of elaborate operations in the UK and Europe during which she allegedly targeted a US military base in Germany and followed two investigative journalists regarded as enemies of the Russian state, secretly filming them. Juras have heard there was a risk the journalists could have been kidnapped or assassinated. Giving evidence for the first time, Katrin Ivanova denied being a spy. She accepted following

people but said she didn't know the true purpose of the activity. She told jurors she believed one operation targeting a journalist was itself a form of journalism. She told jurors she believed one operation targeting a journalist was itself a form of journalism. She said her then partner, Beza Jambazov, had asked her to take part in surveillance operations and that they were helping his friend, Orlin Rusev, who assisted the couple financially after they first moved to the UK in 2012. Both Jambazov and Rusev have already admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia. Miss Ivanova wiped away tears as she described learning that her partner was arrested in bed with the other alleged female spy in this trial.

The court has heard he was in a relationship with both women. Miss Ivanova said Jambasov had told her he had a brain tumour, which she now believes was an excuse so he could live a parallel life with the other woman. The case continues. Daniel de Simone. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back at the same time tomorrow. This edition was mixed by Ricardo McCarthy and produced by Alison Davis. Our editors Karen Martin,

I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.