Global News Podcast - Thailand and Cambodia agree ceasefire

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, ending weeks of deadly border clashes. It paves the way for prisoner exchanges and for a million displaced civilians to return to their homes. Also: President Trump claims US strikes "decimated" IS targets in Nigeria; the latest on Russia-Ukraine peace talks; Myanmar lifts a curfew after four years; China's high-speed railway races to a new milestone; the Iranian actress, Taraneh Alidoosti, speaks out against women's oppression; how TV adverts fight - and reinforce - stereotypes; an elusive wild cat is rediscovered in Thailand; and we meet the Slovenian ski jumpers heading to the Winter Olympics.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

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I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Saturday the 27th of December, these are our main stories. Thailand and Cambodia agree to an immediate ceasefire in their deadly border dispute. President Trump has claimed that the Christmas Day strikes he ordered on Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria, decimated their camps. Meanwhile, the US leader also says he believes his upcoming meeting with Ukraine's President Zelensky could be productive, but warned that Kiev would get nothing until he approved it. Also in this podcast, I'm against her job, have always been, especially compulsory her job, but I never saw myself as an activist. How could you remain silent after Masa Amini's death? Top Iranian actress Tarana Ali Dostri tells us,

the BBC, she won't wear a hijab on screen ever again. Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to an immediate ceasefire three weeks after their long-running cross-border dispute fled up again. More than 40 people have died and around a million civilians have been displaced. The fatalities on the Thai side were mainly soldiers, while in Cambodia they were mostly civilians. Phnom Penh hasn't officially said that any of its soldiers were killed. A joint statement has been signed by the country's defense ministers.

The ceasefire is meant to have taken effect around now. Shortly before we recorded this podcast, I spoke to the BBC Thai services Panisa Imoka in Bangkok. So at the moment, after 20 days of the news rounds of confrontation between Thailand and Cambodia, both sides agree to stay exactly where they are. There will be no moving forward, no reinforcement and no new patrols toward each other's line, and also this will allow almost a million people from both sides of the border area to go back to their home. It is important to note that both of the country also agree that after three days of the peace, the 18th Cambodian soldiers who are currently held in custody in Thailand will be sent home.

We've kind of been here before, though, haven't we? There were clashes earlier this year and there was a first ceasefire. Can this one actually hold? We can't tell that for certain we have seen it. We already mentioned that the ceasefire in July was broken and also with the Kuala Lumpur joint decorations where the US President Donald Trump was there along with the Malaysian Prime Minister,

Anwar Abraham, was also there, and it was also broken as well. But what we've seen, the Thai side this time, they're very assertive, and it's seen that at the moment they can agree. And we also have the conditions of the 18 Cambodian soldiers to be returned. So at the moment, it's promising with the term and the condition. Panisa, how deep is the enmity between Thailand and Cambodia now?

With this new route of disputes, it actually affects a lot of people in the border. We have actually interviews a lot of people in the borders, and we have to understand that these borders area in the past before the dispute, or even back in 10 years ago when there were disputes as well, people were still living together as villagers. Some of them are families, their family, but they have to be separated at the moment in the past. but they don't really have hatred toward each other

that severely compared to presence where you can see that the sentiment, the nationalistic sentiment, has spilled over, not only in the border area, and we're talking about nation-wide as well. If you go online, we can see comment that crashing at each other, attacking each other,

so we can still see that even though we have to ceasefire at the moment and we already have ceased-fied before, but the dislike and the nationalistic sentiment is still there lingering toward each other. Panisa Imoka of the BBC's Thai service in Bangkok. President Trump has been making some bold claims following the Christmas Day strikes he ordered against the Islamic State Group in northwest Nigeria. Like the attacks on Iran's nuclear sites earlier this year, Mr Trump has declared that the U.S. military has decimated its targets, in this case, IS camps. It's not yet clear how many people were killed, but U.S. and Nigerian officials said that fighters were among the day. The Nigerians said that there were no civilian casualties.

The BBC's Makochi Okafo has reached the town of Sokoto, close to the strikes, and has spoken to locals. The authorities in Tangasal local government area confirmed to me that strikes were carried out, and it did impact on Lackaroa militant camps. Now, Lackaroa is a growing Islamic militant group that has been seen to carry out at facts in parts of Sokoto, Kibi, and even Nijé. Now, Sokoto, which is where I am at the moment, shears bothers with Nizier, and this is in the north-west part of Nigeria. Now, the local community, which is the chairman of the local government, did tell me that the strikes did impact on these fighters. He also confirmed that police and military at the time couldn't access the area because after the huge blast,

they were raging fire that followed the strike. And he did say that even, the border patrol police in the Nishia side confirmed that they saw some Lackeroa fighters running off and trying to escape the scene that followed this blast. A couple of people said they feel like they welcome this because this part of the country, which is the northern part of the country, even the north-west and even the north-east, which is a little bit farther away from here, for many years have seen different armed groups and jihadist groups, terrorizing communities. So especially people in Tangassah, while they were shocked by this, some of them said they feel a bit relieved that perhaps this could bring some calm

to the attacks that they face here. Mr. Trump told the Politico News website that the operation, which was agreed with the Nigerian military, was planned for Wednesday, but he chose to delay by a day so he could give the IS fighters a Christmas present, as he put it. The US president had previously warned that he was ready to attack. attack Islamists in Nigeria, accusing them of persecuting Christians, though the government in Abuja insists that innocent Muslims are also victims of IS. Reverend Father Paul Ebu Bediquet is from the Catholic Diocese of Nui in southeastern Nigeria.

He said that U.S. intervention was long overdue. It was welcomed by Christians with open arms. This will send a very straight message to the terrorists that Trump was, serious with what he said, because over there in the North, they are passing through a lot and lots of persecution because I grew up in the North. That was where I was born and raised. So I saw it firsthand. Every riot that happens there, you will see burning of churches. Even if it's tribal riots, they target churches. So the reaction goes this way. The easterners are reacting and say, yeah, Trump, you can come, please. So what more do we know about the

Islamic State fighters who were targeted? Barry Marston is BBC. Monitoring's Jihadism Analyst? The Nigeria branch of the Islamic State is actually probably the most active of any of its worldwide branches. It's been stepping up attacks over the last year. It's claimed well over 300 attacks, including some very ambitious assaults on military bases across parts of the country. But you could make the case that if the US was wanting to strike the Islamic State in

Nigeria, it hit the wrong side of the country. because all of that activity has been right up in the north-eastern corner. The latest attacks were right on the other side of the country, about 1,000 kilometres away, in Sokoto State. Now, the target seems to have been what is known as the Lackarra Group, which there have been unconfirmed reports that it may have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, but there really is nothing sort of out there in the public domain confirming that allegiance or connections between the two entities.

So we have been monitoring Islamic State affiliated channels that have actually been monitoring U.S. military flights over the country over the past month. And we had noticed the prevalence of flights over the Sokoto region, as well as Borno areas where Islamic State has very well-known camps. So it's entirely possible that the US could be planning to follow up with attacks on these better established, better known Islamic State centres across Borno states. based on this reconnaissance and movement of U.S. planes. Barry Marston from BBC monitoring. In an interview with U.S. media, President Trump appeared lukewarm compared to the Ukrainian president's optimistic appraisal of peace efforts to end the war with Russia. Mr Zelensky said the peace agreement being brokered by President Trump was 90% ready.

The Ukrainian president is expected to hold talks with Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday in the latest push to secure a deal before the new year. Our correspondent, Samira Hussain, sent this report from Keeve. In speaking with U.S. media, President Trump is certainly striking a different tone to that of President Zelensky. We've heard from President Zelensky that, in fact, he believes that the peace plan is about 90% there, that only the thornyest issues remain. He said that he will be speaking with President Trump on. Sunday in Florida. And the issues that are left to discuss are issues with regard to security

guarantees and, of course, territorial concessions. Now, even though President Zelensky appeared quite upbeat, Mr. Trump was making it very clear that any kind of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would depend on the United States. And of course, the question is, what does Russia say about all of this. Now, we know that Russia has been speaking with their American counterparts, and President Trump in that same interview said that he expects to be speaking with President Putin sometime soon. Samira Hussein. You may remember the protests which erupted in Iran after the death in custody of Masa Amin three years ago, a young Iranian woman arrested by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. Among those who posted in support of the

Women Life Freedom Movement against Women's Oppression was Tarana Ali Dosti. She's one of Iran's best-known actresses. Now, in an exclusive interview with BBC Persian TV for a documentary, she says she will not take any role where she's required to wear the hijab. Here's the translation of part of the interview. I'm against hijab have always been, especially compulsory hijab. But I never saw myself as an activist. I'm an actress and I thought Silema was my destiny. But Iran has changed a lot in recent years,

as if there has been this explosion at national level. And all the changes that you see right now are changes that all my life I wish for them to happen. And I know that you can't change Iran with a couple of social media posts. And as an Iranian woman, I feel that burden of responsibility on my shoulders. How could you remain silent after Masa Amini's death, after witnessing women being beaten to death for taking off their scarves? There have been many big moments in my life, in my professional life. But nothing compares to this moment.

Look at what I'm wearing right now, sitting in front of you, my hair not covered. And this is how I went out last night. This is how now I go out every day. Some have argued that the movement in Iran after Mahas Amin's death has been the first feminist revolution in the world. Actress Tarana Ali Dosti. Farnas Fasihi is a correspondent for the New York Times. She's reported on Iran inside and outside the country for 30 years.

What did she make of the interview? Her interview was extremely courageous. She was very articulate and came across as someone who is willing to stand up for the principles that she believes in and stand on the side of the people against rules that a lot of women have risen up against and are defying every day. And as we see from the way that this interview has broken records, I think last I checked, it's been seen 27 million times on BBC Persian. So it's resonated very widely and very deeply with Iranians inside the country and outside. What professional

cost, has Tarana paid for her stand? She was arrested and jailed after posting her photo during the protests without her job. And then she was sick for a long time and sort of we hadn't seen her publicly. And the government had announced that she's banned from working. Tarana is the equivalent of a mayoral street in Iran. She's Iran's most acclaimed actress with leading roles in all the major movies that have come out of Iran over the past 20 years. Again, it's incredibly courageous and it's a very heavy personal cost that she has sort of announced that she's going to take the stand at the cost of her career. Anecdotally, I've been told that the number of women not wearing the hijab, not wearing

traditional dress in Iran is growing and that there seems to be even in a city like Tehran less intervention by the morality police against women for doing that. Is that correct? Is that your understanding? That's correct. That's what our reporting and the interview views that I do and all the videos and imagery that's coming out of Iran on social media and everywhere shows and also the government's own sort of dilemma where they, you know, say publicly that we don't know what to do about the growing trend of women not observing the hijab. You know, the mass, I mean, any protests really changed Iran. And I think, Tarone is a symbol of that, of that sort of civil disobedience and the discourse

that we see, the defiance we see steeled by women and young people in Iran. Banaz Fasihi from the New York Times speaking to Sean Lay. People in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, have spent their first night without a curfew in nearly five years. The military government has hailed what it claims is the city's return to normality. The lifting of the curfew comes just a day ahead of elections. Anna Aslam reports. When the Burmese army staged a coup back in 2021, there were massive pro-democracy protests across the country. As security forces clamped down on the protesters, the junta enforced a strict nighttime curfew in Yangon, home to about 7 million people.

The lockdown was from dusk to dawn, but in the years since, it's gradually shrunk to between 1 and 3 a.m. Now, with elections scheduled to begin in phases on Sunday, the junta has lifted the curfew completely. A spokesman said it showed regional stability in Yangon is improving. But even when there was only a 2-hour curfew, most people didn't go outside. late at night due to heightened security concerns, and this looks unlikely to change. Many people left Yangon and other cities after the coup to take up arms in rebel groups fighting against the army. According to the UN, the civil war has killed thousands, displaced millions and left half the nation in poverty. The junta has promised the upcoming

elections will return democracy, but watchdogs have labeled it an exercise to rebrand military rule. Anna Aslam. Still to come in this podcast. It's like number one sports. I have this fire in me that brings out the best of me. We meet the world champion ski jumpers of Slovenia heading to the upcoming Winter Olympics. This new year swap someday with today.

got the idea, so make it real in 26 with a pro-level website. GoDaddy makes it easy with the lowest-priced website builder, guaranteed. Ready to build a confetti-ready site in minutes? New customers start for free at go-dadi.com. That's go-dadi.com to get the lowest-priced website builder, guaranteed. rail system has just passed a major landmark. It now has a network spanning more than 50,000 kilometres. It actually claims to have more high-speed track than every other country put together. The milestone was reached with a new line between Cheyenne, home to the Terracotta

Warriors, and Yan'an, where Chairman Mao had his revolutionary base. Our reporter Mickey Bristow told me the country's entire high-speed rail track has been laid in less than 20 years. I think it was 2008 when the first high-speed railway between Beijing and Tianjin opened up. So 50,000 kilometres of track in that short span of time is amazing. And to a certain extent, it symbolises China's economic and development over the last three decades, really. It showcases the best of what they have to offer. Technology, a lot of the trains are developed in China, engineering. China is a really mountainous place, many places.

And so you get some tracks, which are all tunnels and bridges. I think one stretch between Wuhan, the city of Wuhan and Grand Jor in the south. Two-thirds of it is either tunnel or bridges. So I can remember when I was reported in China, I would go to places all over the country. Everywhere you went, you would see a bridge being built, track laid, or a new terminal or station being open. So really is phenomenal.

And great vision on the part of the Chinese guys. government as well because the political leaders decided that they had to have better transport system to kind of drive the economy going forward and so they decided to build it if you compare it to our own country here in Britain we've trying to build a high speed rail between London and the north of England that's been delayed it takes them 20 years to build nothing delayed cancelled it still hasn't been built so they could claim that some of the best of Chinese leadership there has a bad point as well though a lot of people in China because it's a one-party state, they can do what they're like.

So to build these tracks, they've cleared away villages, towns, and people haven't had much of a saying whether or not they're going to get out of, you know, whether they want to stay or whether they go. So that's a bad aspect of it. But really, it really showcases the best of Chinese engineering and economic development. Yeah, you say the best.

You've travelled on some of these trains. Just tell us what it's like. I mean, amazing. I mean, you go through these kind of massive halls, very, all modern, very efficient. You get on trains which are clean, modern, punctual. They travel at around 350 kilometres an hour, this new one that's opened between Sien and Yenan.

It's cut the travelling time from two hours to one hour. Really amazing. I mean, some people who are nostalgic about wheel travel would like to go back to the old time when train travel in China, you take maybe many days, you travel overnight in little compartments, These are new trains, are kind of airline style where everybody's sitting in the same direction, three or four abreast, something like that.

But certainly if you want to travel anywhere in China now, you can do it quickly, efficiently and relatively cheaply. Mickey Bristow. You may think that TV adverts putting women in the kitchen are a thing of the past. But new industry research suggests stereotypes in marketing are remarkably resilient. The British Agency Cantor examined the... top 1,400 global ads in 2025 and found they're increasingly portraying women in regressive roles, although there are some adverts that show people in more progressive situations,

including one in India, about a washing powder. Here's Lynne Dyson from Canter. We're seeing a drop in the proportion of adverts that feature women in non-traditional roles this year versus last year. So it was 8% in 2024, and that's, now halved down to 4% of ads this year. You know, to an extent culture does vary a lot across the globe and there are specific places where you have to make sure you're getting that right. But I think progressive marketing, when you portray people positively, it works everywhere

in the world. When you show stereotypes, they do alienate audiences and they reduce relatability and that meaningful connection. You're seeing yourself or people like you or people who you'd aspire to be like in advertising is really key from an effectiveness point of view. What you're doing is you're positively shaping what people think about your brand and predisposing them to choose you. I think people might be surprised to hear that in India, there's a campaign that's really shifted things from the brand aerial. This campaign started a few years back. It showed a dad and his daughter, who's grown up now, and he hadn't realised the load that she was bearing. She had an demanding job,

but she was also trying to look after the family and the home. And it was a wake-up call for him. So he realised that actually he needed to start sharing the load and so did the rest of the family and it shouldn't all be on her. Ads like that, that more directly challenged stereotypes can be really good. The other ad that I think is really positive is Amazon's, what we call Joyride Ads, three older ladies watching young children sledging down the slope.

They're reflecting back on their own childhood. And one of the friends buys the insert, Amazon, so they can enjoy doing that. And we don't often see older generations portrayed in advertising, but that resonates with everybody. Lynne Deeson. One of Europe's smallest countries is hoping to fly higher than the rest at the upcoming Winter Olympics. Ski jumping is Slovenia's national sport, and they go into next year's games at Cortina in Italy, holding both the men's and women's world records. They won the women's individual gold at the last Olympics, and they're hoping this will be the year.

They can finally claim an individual men's gold medal. At Balkan's correspondent, Guy Delaney, went to meet the athletes. If you want to know how much ski jumping means to Slovenians, you have to come to Planitza. Ski jumping is awesome enough as it is, with competitors hurtling into thin air at more than 100 kilometers an hour. But back in the 1930s, Slovenia decided to ramp up the drama even further by creating the giant hill at Planitza. The result was an even more extreme version of the sport, which they christened ski flying, and tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to Planitsa every year to watch the climactic event of the season. The first jumps over 100 meters and 200 meters

were in Planets, I think that this tradition continued and people got in love with ski jumping. Robert Hargota is the head coach for the Slovenian men's elite ski jumping squad. To be an elite, elite level, it takes more than just training. It takes more than just physical training. You have to have also mental training. And you have to have something extra, but nobody else can provide. So which parts of the body are you using most?

I would say the head. That was the sound of one of the world's best ski jumpers taking off at more than 87 kilometres an hour on a practice jump at this ski jumping centre in Kran. I have eight years old when I start and you go step by step. You just use to this feeling that you're not scared. Nika Vodan was the...

overall Women's World Cup champion in 2021. It's really special feeling in the air because you feel this feeling of flying a little bit, special on the big heels. And also, of course, you need to be prepared physical and mental, yeah, mental is more important that you are mental prepared. There's even more of a buzz

about Slovenian ski jumping this year because of the Winter Olympics. Slovenia boasts both the men's and women's world record holders. Even more remarkably, their brother and sister. Nika Prejuts is only just out of her teens, but she's already won the overall World Cup title for the past two seasons. And Big Brother Domain won two gold medals at the most recent world championships. That's actually the first year for me to do the Olympics,

but I have the focus to manage a gold medal there. It's clearly a huge thing for Slovenia, isn't it, the ski jumping? Actually, it's like number one sports. I have this fire in me that brings out the best of me because I know there is lots and lots of people that are cheering for me to do my best. Angei Laneshik has won team goals in the last two world championships and he's aiming for an Olympic title.

He says knowing how to crash is just as important as knowing how to fly. I have crashed so many times, so I was really glad that I did it when I was young kids. This is the part of every sport, of everything in what happens in life, actually, because you have to fall sometimes to get back up. It's a philosophy which has served Slovenian ski jumpers extremely well over decades of competition.

Don't be surprised if you hear their national anthem multiple times at the Winter Olympics. Our Balkans correspondent Guy Delaney. And we finish in Thailand, where an elusive wildcat, long-feared extinct, has been rediscovered three decades after the last recorded sighting. And Kourdesai was joined in the studio by Anbarasan Etirajan. It looks like a domestic cat, but smaller than a domestic one, but it has got a very round protruding eyes. And then the skull is like flat, so that is where it is caught flat-headed cat. and it lives mostly on PT swamps and in mangrove forests in Southeast Asia. Now, the researchers in Thailand have been monitoring for the past two years

by using camera traps, basically placing digital cameras in key locations that can be triggered, take a photograph as when an animal crosses the path or any movement in front of it. So now they have recorded at least 29 of the sightings, and what is exciting was one of the most even having a baby, a kitten was there. So that shows that it was the result of the thriving. They last saw this particular cat in the mid-90s. A long time ago then? Long time. Why was it thought to have disappeared there? It's basically habitat laws. You know, Thailand, like many other countries,

expanding. And these are very ecologically sensitive areas where these cats live. So plantations and agricultural lands coming up. So their habitat loss was forcing them to disappear. but it is still there in Indonesia and also in Malaysia, in some parts of Malaysia. So they are very excited and they're very happy to have this finding. And do we know whether it can be saved from extinction now? Well, they're very happy about they've rediscovered this in Thailand, but they're also worried about because of the pace of development in different places. And that's why they say they know we need to protect this habitat.

And what is interesting is, you know, cats do not not. normally like water. But this one, it lives very close to water. And then it kind of catches. I was watching some of the videos and how it was hunting fish and, you know, going into the water without fear. And it is just like the Labradors, like, you know, you have a kind of web on the feet. So it can, so that it can negotiate water. It is one of those few cats which can negotiate water. It's smaller. It looks like a cat. But then it's nocturnal and also very elusive. That's why it is very special. Before you go, tell us how special it is by describing what it sounds like.

Do you know what sort of a noise it makes? Or can you demonstrate that? Well, I would assume that it will make the usual meow sound, but then we don't know a wildcat, what kind of sound it makes. Yeah, good guess. Anbarasan Etter Rashin speaking to Ankur Desai. And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Holly Smith, the editor, is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. Thank you.