Global News Podcast - Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Streets were packed and revolutionary music blared out across Syria to mark the end of the Assad regime. Also: health misinformation on the Diary of a CEO podcast, and why pets are the big winners this Christmas.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this 14 hours GMT on Friday the 13th of December. Tens of thousands of Syrians take to the streets after Friday prayers to celebrate the end of 50 years of rule by the Assad family. Ukraine's energy infrastructure is hit by another huge Russian bombardment. And a BBC investigation finds that harmful claims about health have been made on the diary of a CEO podcast. Also in the Global News podcast, we find out what was the video game of the year. Muslims in Syria have been celebrating their first Friday prayers free of the dictator Bashar al-Assad who was overthrown at the weekend.

The authorities called on people to take to the streets to mark the victory of the revolution as they called it and many thousands did so. All the people who are interested, who are occupied or filled in the public sphere before, come back to Syria, come back to Damascus now. Now we need everybody to come back. We need all the energy, all the powers to fill the space, to fill the gap because the future is for us if we manage to build it. This is a morning of freedom.

This is finally Syria. Thank God. We have seen times of injustice. All our youth is gone. Our correspondent in Damascus, Lina Sinjab, was there. I'm just standing right at the corner of Umayyad Square, overlooking the crowd. You know, thousands gathered. This is the place where 13 years ago protesters

against President Bashar al-Assad hoped that they would use it like the Egypt-Tahrir Square, but instead they were faced with brutal crackdown against their protest, and they were killed and shot at while they were peacefully protesting. Today, thousands took to the streets, not not only in Damascus but across the country, hours down in the street among the demonstrators now and there were mixed people with families, with children, even the rebels were around them. They were

playing loud music, chanting that they have sang and celebrated. Thirteen years ago when they took to the streets peacefully. They were remembering city after city. They were remembering the ones who were killed and died. It was just an incredible joy out in the streets. And when I spoke to people and asked them about tomorrow and they said, leave us today, give us today to celebrate. Let us enjoy this moment today and tomorrow. We will work all together hand in hand and build our country. Yeah, building our country probably easier said than done.

Of course, the people now in charge were former jihadists. We've got Israel keeping its troops on Syrian territory over winter, it says. And then there's fighting going on in the north between Turkish back groups and the Kurds. What are the chances of a new future for Syria? Well, we've seen that the leadership of the Haia Tahrir al-Sham with the new government, that they are really rushing to take steps to stability, to get business back running.

They've taken over the ministries. They've asked employees to go back to their work. We've seen them deploying civil police, traffic police, getting things in order on the ground. And we've seen that there is like a momentum on the, you know, diplomatic level. The U.S. Secretary of State Blinken was in Jordan and then Turkey holding talks about coordinating regional efforts to help Syrians with their transition. It should be a Syrian-led transition, but also pointed out that this is should be a government that is inclusive, that protects minorities, protects women's rights.

So they're sending a message to also HTS that you need to be careful, you know, that you have to be inclusive. You can't carry on a hardline ideologies and impose it on Syria. We've seen the G7 members also going to hold a meeting today, virtual meeting, to discuss how they support Syria. And there's a meeting in Jordan tomorrow with foreign ministers to discuss how they support Syria in its transition. Nina Sinjab in Damascus. The Ukrainian energy company DTEK says its power plants have been severely damaged in the latest wave of missile strikes by Russia.

It is the 12th large-scale Russian bombardment this year. Abduljelil Abderasulov is following developments from Kiev. Well according to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched 94 missiles and about 200 drones. And they're saying that the air defense systems managed to intercept 81 missiles, which means that 13 of them did manage to pass through the air defense systems and hit their targets. We know that some of the energy facilities were hit and the authorities are saying that the thermal power plant in western part of Ukraine was damaged during the strikes and one of the areas that Russian missiles targeted allegedly that is the town where the country's biggest

gas reserve facility is located the underground facility and that place is crucial for maintaining heating systems across the country. And of course now it's really cold. The temperatures at night goes below zero. And Russia continues targeting these energy facilities. It will make the situation here even more difficult. And Russia claims that they are responding to Ukraine's attack on its air base in Taganrog. According to the Defense Ministry, they said that this was their response when Ukrainian military used, US provided

ATTACAMs missiles to hit that airbase. However, of course, this is not the first time when Russia launches such massive airstrikes and as you mentioned this is the 12th massive aerial attack that Russia has done this year. Yeah and it's been carrying out these kind of attacks for the past three winters. I mean, how good is Ukraine at restoring power and energy when these attacks happen? I must say that they're fairly good at it, at least judging from what I am seeing. When we see those destructions, usually the emergency workers and repair workers, they arrive at the site and already the authorities are saying that

those power plants that were damaged during the strike, the repair work is already going on. And of course there is a problem that the Russian military may use so-called strategy of double tap when they strike the same place twice in a short period of time. And that of course delays this whole process when the emergency workers and when the repair workers are vulnerable to another strike. And their work may be disrupted by such threats as well. At this stage now, the authorities in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine introduced emergency power cuts in order to provide the energy to other regions that were affected even worse

than Kiev. And we know that the power plants, the nuclear power plants, reduce their output as part of their emergency measures. Abdujalil Abderasulov in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Diary of a CEO is the fifth most listened to podcast around the world this year, according to Spotify. The host, British entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett, started it by focusing on business tips before moving on to the world of fame and celebrity. Today there are few people he can't persuade to sit opposite him at the microphone, with Simon

Cowell, Trevor Noah and Boris Johnson all appearing in recent episodes. Now a BBC investigation has found that the podcast is amplifying a number of harmful and misleading claims about health. I heard more from our Global Disinformation reporter, Jackie Wakefield. Some of the potentially harmful claims that we saw on the podcast were things like eating gluten can cause autism. We saw things like the ketogenic diet, so eating high-fat, high-, high protein, low carb could be a good treatment for cancer over chemotherapy. And then some anti-vaccine conspiracies like COVID was a bioweapon. And these are all false? These are all false and checked with by medical experts. And has the podcast or the makers said anything about the fact that they include these kind

of comments? Yes, Stephen Bartlett's production company Flight Studios said that the diary of a CEO is an open-minded long-form conversation with individuals identified for their distinguished and eminent career. They heard a range of voices, they said not just those that Stephen and the team agree with. I imagine it's not just diary of a CEO that has this kind of issue. How easy is it to regulate these kind of podcasts which are often independent brands and they have huge listenerships?

LW – Yeah, it's really tough because they're often not under legacy media companies like the BBC and run independently. Ofcom doesn't cover regulations for podcasts so they don't have any regulations they need to follow. And it's really difficult because you've also got massive podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience which is huge in America, but also massive here. So how do you regulate an international independent podcast? Giles McClendon Yeah, and I guess as a listener, it's up to you to decide whether this stuff is true or not, and that's pretty hard. Loretta Kiernan It's really tricky because how can you tell

who's the real expert? And what I found really tough in fact-checking the claims was a lot of them sound really scientific and it's really tricky to fact-check it. Jacky Wakefield of the BBC Disinformation Unit. Video games are big business with more money spent on them than on film and music combined. But recently the sector has suffered from strikes and layoffs. Overnight the industry held its version of the Oscars, the Game Awards in Los Angeles. So how important is the event for gaming? The BBC's Andrew Rogers was watching.

Very important for the industry. And it's worth saying that watching the stream, because it is all streamed live around the world, lots of cheers, lots of clapping, everyone was on good form because this is their one window to really celebrate games. So as well as the awards, which we'll talk about in a sec, you also have some of the biggest companies in the world showing off games that are coming up because they know that there are so many people watching. So last year, 118 million people watched it around the world.

And so we've got a whole bunch of new trailers for games coming up from some of the big companies you might have heard about from PlayStation, from games that are going to be on Xbox as well. Yeah, were there any big announcements? And I know they also have a lot of surprise guests. They do. So in terms of those announcements, if you've ever played The Last of Us games, the studio that makes that Naughty Dog released a new sci-fi epic with a very glossy trailer. A lot of these, you'll watch these trailers and they look like movie trailers in the way that they're put together, especially at this early stage before you can see the gameplay. We also got a reveal for The Witcher 4 as well, but in terms of those

celebrity guests in the past we've had Pedro Pascar, we've had Al Pacino, Timothy Chamolais was there last year, this time it was Harrison Ford who made a surprise appearance. Potentially not that surprising because there's a brand new Indiana Jones game out at the moment. But he was there to talk about that and even met the guy who's playing him in the new game. And tell us about some of the big winners and the other highlights. The big winner last night was Astrobar, which won Game of the Year. This game actually started life as a tech demo so everyone who bought the PlayStation 5 when that came out had a little version of this game to play. They then followed it up because it was so successful and so popular with a much longer game and that's the one

that won the award. Brings in all these kind of 30 years of PlayStation highlights and characters in it. It was really a very good night for studios from Japan. What hellbound soul could end a royal life? You had metaphor refazio winning three awards. One has to ask who shall take the throne? Till the day that we meet again. Final Fantasy VII, the remake of that one, best music. I wish I could say but believe, know that you'll find me

But it is also worth saying, Bellatro, which is a small independent game, it was actually made by one single developer who keeps very anonymous space in Canada. That won three awards for a sort of card poker style game that you can play, which a lot of people have been loving recently. But is a single night however glitzy enough to restore the optimism after all the recent troubles? Well, a lot of smiles and a lot of hopes that it will make a difference, but it's been a really tough year. There was a big boom in spending on games during the COVID pandemic.

That's really gone off a bit of a cliff and a lot of these companies have been making work as redundant. It was quite telling that this year they had a new award category, the Game Changer award, given to someone who did something useful or noteworthy. That went to Amir Satvat, who works for Tencent, but in his spare time has created a service where he links people who've been working in games, who've lost their jobs, up with new opportunities. So trying to bring an element of optimism into this. But if you work in games these last couple of years have been pretty tough. BBC gaming expert Andrew Rogers.

Still to come on the Global News podcast. I'm here with Fergie, my little dachshund. It's going to turn up for the papachinos. We're here with Sparkles. She does like to wear just little things. She doesn't like a whole coat or anything. Why pets are the big winners this Christmas? The military junta in Myanmar has been struggling to maintain its grip on power ever since the coup in 2021. Over the past year or so it's been steadily losing ground to ethnic armed groups. One of the most powerful of those militias, the Arakan Army, has now taken control of

Myanmar's border with Bangladesh after capturing the last military base in northern Rakhine state. Our South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head told us about the bloody two month battle. We know about it because the Arakan Army has put out a quite dramatic video showing the last stages of the siege of a base in which the remaining military units had retreated. The Arakan Army's had the military on the run for a year. This is the most sustained fighting in the entire civil war, this battle for Rakhine state, the westernmost state in Myanmar up against the Bangladesh border. The Arakhan army is probably the best armed and it's certainly a very dynamic ethnic, a relatively new one, well funded, well armed.

It seemed to have the military certain to drive them out, but this last base proved very tough indeed. I know the base well. It was built on top of a Rohingya village that I covered when I was there for seven years ago and I saw them build it. It's about 20 hectares. They built ditches with spikes.

There were minefields around it. And it seemed like those soldiers were told they couldn't surrender. And they just pounded it and pounded it with rockets with all the artillery they could get. All the time the Myanmar Air Force was bombing the insurgents, bombing the town. All the remaining civilians were driven out.

Finally, last weekend, they surrendered. And if you look at the video, it's extraordinary. These soldiers coming out look absolutely bedraggled. They're carrying terrible wounds. And then when the Arakan army goes inside, there are dozens and dozens of bodies. It was a really nasty battle. But as a result, this insurgent group now controls the entire Bangladesh border. The military

regime in Myanmar has lost control of its border with Bangladesh. You mentioned the Rohingya, that persecuted Muslim minority, many of whom fled across that border into Bangladesh. How significant a blow is the loss of that border to the military authorities? Look from a prestige point of view it's devastating for MenOnline, the coup leader. He's taken many embarrassing losses. His own side, the sort of hardline supporters of the military are out on social media absolutely condemning him saying what are you doing, how can you let this happen?

We've often wondered whether he would survive, as he's very unpopular even in his own military council now, but we do see China as a crucial player now, looking for a solution, and it doesn't want the military to collapse completely. So there's a lot we can't tell about what happens in the future, even though the military is much weakened, and this will weaken it a lot more. There are far more serious considerations though for Rakhine State itself, just one of multiple conflicts in Myanmar. It's completely cut off, we can't get access, humanitarian agencies can't get access, but we know that the devastating fighting of the last year has caused immense dislocation of people, hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, no aid going in, the UN warning of looming famine. This is a lot for the Arakan army to be taking on. And there will be real

problems for the Rohingya minority, those left behind, those who didn't flee in the ethnic cleansing seven years ago. The Arakan army is backed by the local Rakhine Buddhist population who don't like the Rohingyas and tension has really risen during this conflict because some Rohingya groups bizarrely have backed the military against the Arakhan army, even though it's the military that attacked the Rohingyas seven years ago. So it's a very messy situation and deeply alarming to the humanitarian agencies who are monitoring it. Our South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head.

The Prime Minister is not the most powerful job in France, but it's a role that's been causing the President Emmanuel Macron plenty of problems. The last one, Michel Barnier, was forced out in a no-confidence vote after a couple of months. Now President Macron has named François Bayrou as the next Prime Minister. But will he fare any better given the divisions in Parliament where no party has a majority? I had more from our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield. Mr. Bayrou is a very, very familiar person on the French political scene and has been for 40 years. He's a bit of a kind of never-was-a.

I mean, he always is a man close to power but never quite getting it, but he's there and he represents a strand in French politics which is a consistent going back to the post-war era Christian Democrat tradition, different from the Gaullists, who obviously stem from Charles de Gaulle, but close to them, an ally to them. He first became a minister in 1993, education minister, hasn't been a minister since, except very briefly under Macron at the very beginning of Macron's term. He's run for presidency three times himself. But above all, he is now an ally of President Macron and you know his latest sort of identification

has been as someone very much in the Macron camp, leading his small party, 35 MPs, support to President Macron throughout Macron's career. So very close to Macron now, but a very, you know, a man with his own temperament, his own ideas, a lot of experience and willing now, particularly given Macron's weakness, I think to push his own line. A bit of a power struggle now with Macron. Yeah, he's kind of, as you say, got the job he's always wanted, but can he survive the political headwinds that brought down Michel Barnier? Well, this is obviously the question that everyone's going to be asking.

The beginnings are OK. You know, the reactions from just about everyone have been, well, let's give him some time. But that was also the reaction with Michel Barnier, let us not forget. And no one except for the far left, the hard left, France and that bad party is saying outright, we want to bring this man down. They are saying that. They say they'll vote a vote of censure. But everyone else is saying, no, no, we're going to we'll see what happens. But of course, that's all very well now. The key moment is going to be when he produces the budget, which he has to very quickly, and that's when the divisions will come clear. Hugh Schofield talking to me from Paris.

Women in Iran who refuse to cover their hair with a hijab face arrest, beatings and prison. And things could be about to get worse. A new law imposing harsher penalties on women who break the strict Islamic dress code is now being sent to the president for his signature. Masoud Basish Kian, who took office in July, has five days to sign it, though he has expressed some reservations about the law. I heard more from Mina Joshiagani of the BBC Persian service. This law, under the official name of protecting the family through the promoting the culture of hijab and chastity is described by many human rights organizations as a draconian

law and it imposes huge penalties on offenders, those who violate this strict dress code and it involves men, women and children. So according to this law, those who refuse to comply with these strict dress codes have to pay exorbitant amount of fines and penalties that could go up to 12,000, 13,000 pounds. Nobody knows how people can afford this. It can lead to long prison sentences, flogging and restrictions on their movements, education and travel. For example, if the woman is not complying with this dress code, they cannot be admitted to their school or they can be refused service at a shop or the shop owner

has to pay these fines. So it puts kind of people against each other as well in that level. It leads to litigators, the human rights defenders, activists. They say that this is going to further erase women and girls from the society, making their lives more tolerable while they're struggling with other rights. They have to adhere to these rules. And at the very, very extreme end, it could these rules and at the very, very extreme end it could sum up to corruption on earth, which according to the Islamic penal code could lead to execution and death penalty. Now we know the new president, relative moderate, doesn't like the morality police, he doesn't want women to be forced to wear the hijab. Will he sign this law and if not, will it go ahead?

We will know in five days, you know, within the span of this new week if he's going to sign this but one of his main slogans, the main slogan for his government was national reconciliation. He wants to, you know, he's alluding to this big gap between the establishment and people who are really, really critical but we will see if he doesn't sign it, he's going to be, you know, standing arising against the establishment and the supreme leader who is the main supporter of this law. And if he does, he's going to lose public support. His reformist leniency is going to be completely overshadowed.

But in a word, even if he doesn't sign it, it can still go through? This can go through, yes. Mina Joshiakhani of the BBC Persian Service. The UK royal family have not had the best press in recent years, none more so than the King's brother Prince Andrew. He stepped back from royal duties in 2019 after public anger over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. But now another of his friends, a Chinese businessman he describes as a close confidant, has been banned from the UK on

national security grounds. Our reporter Graham Satchel spoke to Bernadette Kehoe. This is a man who came to the UK as a student from China, worked at university and then set up a couple of businesses and then started forming what is described as a close relationship with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. He was banned from the UK in March last year because the Home Secretary at the time was worried that he was a threat to national security. He appealed that ban. A series of judges considered that appeal and rejected it and what we've got now is the full judgement of why he has not been allowed back into the UK. And tell us some more of what the judges have said about the person in question. This man was stopped at a port and his laptop was taken, his electronic devices and material

was downloaded from that and one of the documents on there was a letter written by one of Prince Andrew's most senior advisors and it says outside of his closest internal confidence you sit at the very top of a tree that many many people would like to be on. So the judges say during this period of time Prince Andrew was vulnerable to influence. So perhaps we should explain why Prince Andrew used to be a working member of the royal family, but then he had a relationship, a friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He defended that relationship in a rather calamitous BBC interview and then was stopped

from being a working member of the royal family and suffered financially as a consequence. So the judges in this case are saying it's obvious that the pressures on the Duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence. They're talking about the influence of this Chinese businessman. Now this has all come to light because there was an appeal. What was the Chinese businessman's defense through all this? He says that he was just a legitimate Chinese businessman trying to foster relations between Chinese businesses and British businesses and that he claims that you can't sort of really do business

in China unless you have some sort of relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. The Home Office say that effectively that's rubbish and that he was being covert and deceptive about his full relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and they considered him to be a threat to national security. Prince Andrew was a roving UK trade ambassador for a while wasn't he? He was. He had a very significant role and a valued member I think as far as the government was concerned because he used to go on trade envoys all around the world and it was considered by his brother, the King in the end, that he could no longer play an active role. Graham Satchel talking to Bernadette Kehoe. Here in Britain as elsewhere

people are struggling with the high cost of living and Christmas can be a difficult time for many. Surveys suggest that people are tightening their belts and spending less on festivities and on presents for their families. But as Richard Hamilton found out, that's not the case when it comes to pets. The supermarket chain Waitrose said that compared to this time last year, Christmas pet sales are up 964%. Meanwhile at the department store John Lewis, purchases of Christmas dog toys increased by 98%. Another survey says almost half of the UK's cats and dogs are expected

to receive a present this year. Presumably the other half have just been naughty. And instead of the often embarrassing work Christmas party, many dog owners are resorting to bespoke Christmas events for their hounds, like this one in Manchester in the north of England, where sausage dogs or dashoons got to wag their tails, admire each other's wooly jumpers and sniff their Christmas baubles. I'm here with my wife and my two dashhounds, Sally and Dixie. Our dogs just love being with other dashhounds,

so it's nice to see them interact with other dogs, really. I'm here with Fergie, my little dashhound. I'm just going to turn her for the puppuccinos. We're here with Sparkles and my daughter and my husband. She does like to wear just little things. She doesn't like a whole coat or anything. This is Minnie. To be honest, there are only eight months so we're just trying to get them a bit more socialised and stuff but it is good because you get to meet other dashound orders. Again, good for the dogs, it's socialising, nice friendly event. And that event was organised by Marcus Ackford, whose company, Pup Up Cafe, arranges pet parties

across the UK. There's not too much you can do with your dog aside from a walk in the park to the much larger and more prestigious events. So the kind of event that I host, the Pup Up Cafe has been hosting for five, six years, is something quite unique and different. And we find a lot of people, you know, it's an hour and a half to just enjoy, take some time, have a bit of fun, which is often needed nowadays, I think. I mean, the kind of clients that we have, most of them have an Instagram account for

the dogs. It's something nice. You can come along, they can grab some photos, have a bit of social time, but also, you know, keep the dog's social media feed all updated. The economic statistics still paint a grim picture of life in the UK. One million people in the country now rely on food banks. And in 2022, as Britain emerged from the Covid pandemic, inflation peaked at 11 per cent. But lockdown also saw a rise in pet ownership. Now it seems Britain truly has gone to the dogs.

Richard Hamilton who will be doting on his rescue dog this Christmas. That is all from us for now but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Sydney Dundon and produced by Alfie Haberschen, our editors Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed. And in this new series, we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school, only to uncover a world she never expected.

I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this. Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise. World of Secrets, the bad guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed and in this new series we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school,

only to uncover a world she never expected. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this. Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realize. World of Secrets, the bad guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.