Global News Podcast - Trump and Zelensky agree to future talks

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Could the Trump-Zelensky relationship be back on track? France’s President says the future of Europe will not be decided in Moscow or Washington. Also: A Superbowl-style half-time show for the 2026 World Cup.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Robin Ince. And I'm Brian Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage. We're going to have a planet off. Jupiter versus Saturn. It's very well done that because in the script it does say wrestling voice. After all of that, it's going to kind of chill out a bit and talk

about ice. And also in this series, we're discussing history of music, recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes. So listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 6th of March, these are our main stories. President Trump suspends intelligence

sharing with Ukraine, but the US National Security Adviser Mike Walz strikes an upbeat note for future relations with Kiev. We are having good talks on a location for the next round of negotiations on delegations, on substance. I think we're going to see movement in very short order. President Macron tells the French

The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow and yes the threat is returning to the East. And warns France will have to spend more on defence. The White House confirms direct talks with Hamas over the hostages in Gaza. Also in this podcast, how aspirin helps stop the spread of cancer and FIFA's decision to have a Super Bowl-style halftime show at the World Cup. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says there's been positive movement in his engagement with the United States and he expects to see results next week. The head of his office, Andriy Yermak, said both sides had agreed to hold

further talks about ending the war that began with Russia's invasion. US officials have also confirmed that intelligence sharing with Ukraine has been suspended as part of moves by President Trump to force the country to negotiate with Russia. Here's our diplomatic correspondent, Joams Landale. After last week's rupture in the Oval Office, the diplomatic dust has begun to settle. President Trump told Congress he appreciated the letter he received from President Zelensky, which praised his leadership and welcomed a proposed minerals deal. In his nightly address, Mr Zelensky said there had been positive movement and his chief of staff said both sides had agreed to hold talks soon.

The US National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, said he'd had good talks with his Ukrainian counterpart about the location, delegations and substance of any discussions. And he suggested that if there were progress, the US might end the pause on military aid to Ukraine it announced earlier this week. I think if we can nail down these negotiations and move towards these negotiations

and, in fact, put some confidence-building measures on the table, then the president will take a hard look at lifting this pause. We have to know that both sides are sincerely negotiating towards a partial, then permanent, peace. But for now, that military aid remains suspended, and it was confirmed today that it includes a ban on the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine. That will have an immediate impact on the battlefield, with Ukraine finding it harder

to track incoming missiles and glide bombs or attack Russian targets behind its front lines. The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, said this was making President Zelensky think again. On the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think, will go away and I think we'll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that's there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward.

So for all the conciliatory noises and reduction intentions, the essentials remain. Donald Trump is still putting huge pressure on a supposed ally to agree a surrender ceasefire on his terms, one that cedes territory to Russia and mineral resources to the US without guarantees to ensure Ukraine's future security. And all the while it remains unclear whether President Putin is ready to talk as Mr Trump insists he is. The Kremlin said today merely it would react positively to the latest developments. So what impact will the suspension of intelligence sharing have on Ukraine?

Here's our Ukraine correspondent, James Waterhouse. It's central to Ukraine's survival really. I mean in the early battle of Kiev it was shared intelligence from America which allowed Ukraine to repel Russian forces in a way that many didn't expect. It is shared American intelligence that alerts your mobile phone if there is a airstrike which happens most nights. They allow Ukrainian troops to identify the locations of invading Russian soldiers and to launch long-range missile strikes. The scope of this pause is not yet clear as you'd expect but this is an American approach which is less a unpopular measure to force Ukraine to negotiate and more a reckless gamble with Ukraine's future.

And you wonder how far Donald Trump is willing to go because Vladimir Putin, he sees Ukraine, he doesn't see it as a sovereign state. He sees Ukrainians and Russians as being the same and there's no evidence suggesting that he sees he has a different view. President Zelensky is saying he's going to have a meeting, he expects to deliver results with Washington next week after an improvement in relations and you know what he needs those results fast the way aid is being withdrawn from America right now. James Waterhouse. The French President Emmanuel Macron has addressed the nation at a time of abrupt changes in the transatlantic alliance since US

President Donald Trump came into power. In a televised speech just a few hours ago, Mr Macron emphasized the need for continued support for Ukraine and stronger European military defense. Whatever happens we must equip ourselves more, raise our and stronger European military defence. Whatever happens, we must equip ourselves more, raise our defence position. We need to do this for peace and as a deterrent. We remain committed to NATO and our partnership with the US, but we also need to further strengthen our independence in terms of defence and security. The future of Europe does not

have to be decided in Washington or Moscow. And yes, the threat is returning to the East and the innocence of the last 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall is now over. Here's our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield. It was a French president doing what French presidents do, which is kind of leading the nation at a time when, this being France, people do tend to look to their lisee and look to their leader for some kind of guidance as to what is happening. There were no great revelations, there were no announcements of promises or commitments, but it was an address of preparation, if you like, to the people to make sure that they are on side and understand what is happening

and understand that there are decisions that will be taken in the coming days and weeks which will have a huge impact on them and maybe on their ordinary lives. Part of all of this of course is the huge commitment to boosting defense spending, some of which may come through raised borrowing at a European level but some of which will have to come through budgetary changes in France and people have to know that that's coming. So it was that, I mean it was you know it was a presidential address to impress on people that this really is a big change. It's not just since the fall of the Berlin Wall but since the liberation. I mean that this is the biggest change to the configuration of power in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

So this was for a domestic audience, but do you also think that President Macron was sending messages to other European leaders that they have to, everybody has to pull together ahead of the summit in Brussels? I think the response is generally positive to that. I mean, you know, after the German announcement yesterday of this, you know, this radical shift announcement yesterday of this, you know, this radical shift and the injection of, you know, billions and billions of euros into defence spending with the van der Leyen plan as outlined a couple of days previously on ways of raising money at the European level, quite clearly, you know, the wind is with Macron. I mean, Macron isn't one to crow,

but he is crowing a little bit when he says, as he did today, that this is something which we in France have been pushing for for a long time, this idea of European strategic autonomy. Well, now it's happening. It's not in a way which we wanted it to happen. We'd rather it happened in a coordinated way with America. But what has happened in America means that this willy-nilly is how we have to proceed. And of course, there are going to be differences in Europe still about how the money is raised,

about where the arms industries are to be based, and more specifically on when it comes to Ukraine now about the deployment of potential peacekeepers there and money that might still go to Ukraine and so on. But I think the big picture, the kind of epoch-making change which is about Europe moving towards self-sufficiency in security is something which is broadly shared. Hugh Schofield. The White House has confirmed that a US envoy spoke directly to Hamas in recent weeks about securing the release of American hostages held in Gaza. A little later, in

a post on his Truth social platform, President Donald Trump issued a warning to Hamas, release the hostages now or they'll be held to pay later. Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams told the BBC's James Menendez what we know about the meetings. The White House has confirmed that its special envoy Adam Bola has indeed had negotiations with Hamas. According to the White House spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt, the special envoy who's engaged in those negotiations, in her words, does have the authority to talk to Hamas. Obviously, this is a group considered to be a terrorist organization with whom the American

administration, successive American administrations, has not had any contact, although it's believed the Biden administration may have had one meeting in April last year. A senior Hamas official has told the BBC that two direct meetings took place between Hamas and a US official, presumably Adam Bola, in Qatar, preceded by several communications. This is all about trying to secure the release of one living American hostage, a 20-year-old soldier, Edan Alexander, and four others who are believed to be dead. The negotiations do not appear to have resulted in anything so far, though one or

two Israeli networks are saying that what the Americans are doing is offering to pressure Israel into negotiations on phase two of the ceasefire deal as some kind of incentive to Hamas. And as you know, those negotiations are deadlocked right now. Did Israel know about these contacts between the US and Hamas and as you know those negotiations are deadlocked right now. Did Israel know about these contacts between the US and Hamas? It's not quite clear whether Israel was told after the fact or before. Israeli officials are saying that they are aware of these contacts. The Prime Minister's office released a statement. It is

pretty terse, I have to say. It says simply the following. Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas. I think you can take it from the brevity of that statement that Israel is not best pleased about this. The idea that anyone would be going behind Israel's back to secure the release of individual hostages might be seen as undermining Israel's overall position when it comes to trying to move forward. Paul Adams. Police say they fear that a Chinese PhD student who's been convicted of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China could potentially be

one of the most prolific sexual predators the UK has ever seen. 28-year-old Jen Ha Zou secretly filmed the attacks and kept the videos as souvenirs. Officers say the material they uncovered suggests Zou could have raped many other people. Our UK correspondent, Daniel Sanford, filed this report. Hello, you're Mr Zou by any chance? One of the most prolific rapists ever seen in the UK. Jen Haozhou's callous campaign of drug-raping young women came to an end when police officers knocked at the door of his expensive London flat. I'm arresting you on suspicion of rape, okay, because it is alleged that on the 14th of November last year...

He lured women back to his apartment, gave them alcoholic drinks spiked with drugs like GHB, then raped them while they were unconscious or drifting in and out of consciousness. How many victims are there? No comments. How long is this for. No comments. When detectives searched Zou's flat, they found that he had everything he needed in his bedroom to drug and rape women again and again. Among the evidence, two large bottles of an industrial chemical which converts in the

human body into the date rape drug GHB. Police also found a pipette for measuring out the dangerous liquid carefully to put the women to sleep. And there was a collection of spy cameras on which Zhou recorded himself raping the unconscious women. Police found seven videos of Zhou raping unconscious women in China on his devices. Detectives couldn't establish who they were but the video evidence was still strong enough to convict him.

He was also found guilty of raping three women in London. Two gave evidence at his trial. Detectives think he may have raped dozens more women during his time in the UK. Commander Kevin Southworth of the Metropolitan Police says this is one of the worst cases of its kind. We certainly have video evidence of as many as potentially 50 further victim survivors who were desperate to trace so that we can actually establish what has happened to them. This man may well turn out to be one of the most prolific sexual predators that we've

ever seen in this country and it's vital that we bring him to justice for all of his offending. When Zoe was shown the footage that he'd filmed of himself raping the women, he barely reacted. I'll have to see him up. Is there anything you want to tell me? Detectives are appealing for any women who've spent time alone with Zoe to get in touch, however little they remember of the encounter. Daniel Sanford. The United Nations has warned it will have to halve monthly food rations to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh as a result of dwindling international donations. About a million Rohingya are currently living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing

years of violence in neighbouring Myanmar. And Barisan Ehterajan is our South Asia regional editor. I spoke to one of the representatives of the World Food Program in Cox's Bazaar in southeastern Bangladesh where these sprawling camps are there. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees are housed there. And now this official said basically they were not getting enough donors to meet their shortfall. What they need is about 80 million

dollars to address the shortage. And then they are now trying to find these donors so that they can meet the shortfall before the 1st of April. And in case if they get the money before April 1st of April, then they might keep it at twelve and a half dollars per person per month. Now the issue is whether they can find the money. Now, what this means for average, a person in a refugee camp is like, if they reduce it to $6,

that means about 24 taka, local currency per day, but one egg will cost you 10 to 12 taka at the moment. So you can as well imagine the difference in prices, the difference in the cut, how this will affect the food ration. But broadly speaking, there seems to be a donor fatigue. You know, you see so many crises around the world, like in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan. So there is a small part of money for which many of these agencies are now trying to access,

and that's why the World Food Program is now warning that if they are not going to get enough money, then they might be forced to cut the food ration for the Rohingya refugees. And how much are the recent USAID cuts to blame for this? Now, they say that it is not directly linked to the USAID cuts, but there is a general donor fatigue with not getting enough money. But the US also made it very clear, the State Department as well, that emergency humanitarian aid will not be stopped because they continue to give this money even to the Rohingya camps. So I spoke to one UNICEF official a couple of weeks ago when the decision was announced. They said, no, the emergency food aid that is being continued by the Americans.

But what is happening according to the Bangladesh official is that there are five or six hospitals, they get a good amount of money under the USAID program. So there, the services have been reduced and also waste management. So the US money is coming in different areas apart from food. So those are the side activities. There are allied activities like in hospital, the waste management, they were being affected. But they are waiting, you know, for the USAID to come out with a clear plan what they are going to do. And Barisan, Ethirajan.

Still to come in the Global News podcast, new work by the late author Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, is being published. Every single piece in the collection just rings with Harper Lee's voice. I mean, it is inimitable. It is, they are wry, they're funny, they have a touch of darkness to them as well. They have to find their way to millions of readers around the world. Hello, I'm Robin Ince. And I'm Brian Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.

We're going to have a planet on Jupiter versus Saturn. It's very well done that because in the script it does say wrestling voice after all of that. It's going to kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice. And also in this series we're discussing history of music, recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes. So listen wherever you get your podcasts. costs.

The foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany have urged Israel to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza. In a joint statement they described the situation there as catastrophic and expressed deep concern at Israel's decision to halt the entry of goods and supplies to the Strip. Israel has been asked to comment. Nick Erdlich from BBC Verify has more. Getting more aid into Gaza was a key component of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. But on Sunday Israel said it was stopping aid crossings, calling on Hamas to agree to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. Aid agencies are now warning the blocking of relief is having a significant impact. The World Food Programme told the BBC it had enough stock to provide assistance

to Gazans for less than two weeks. It warned if crossings into Gaza remain closed it may have to further reduce rations. Christian Aid, which operates in the Strip, said market prices had increased by as much as a quarter, with some goods like meat, fish and imported vegetables starting to disappear altogether. Christian Aid also said the lack of relief risks what they called an even greater humanitarian catastrophe if aid deliveries don't resume soon. Nick Hurley. In Romania, two Russian diplomats, military attaché Viktor Markovsky and his deputy have been declared persona non grata. The move comes amid tension with Russia after security services accused Moscow of interference in a presidential election last year.

The result, a surprise first round win to the far-right populist and Russian sympathiser Kalin Jargescu, was subsequently annulled. The election has been rescheduled for early May but will Mr. Gheorghescu be allowed to take part? From Bucharest, Nick Thorpe sent this report from a rally of his supporters. A sea of Romanian flags in central Bucharest. Last Saturday tens of thousands of Romanians marched through their capital in support of Călin Gărgescu, a 62-year-old agricultural engineer who says

he wants to put Romania first. I asked Dragos, a Romanian living in Canada, what he's protesting against. They want to keep Romania under the globalist. They want the war. They want to kill the people. We are nothing for them. We are just meat. We can die. They are going to be richer and richer. Many in the crowd blame the war in Ukraine not on Russia, but on what they see as a global elite. They accuse the current Romanian government of being a puppet of that elite, while their critics portray their hero, Kalin Gheorghescu, as a puppet of the Russians.

We want freedom of choosing and a democracy. So you want Mr Gheorghescu to win the election? Yes, yes, and he will. Lavinia is marching with her husband Cervan and their three-year-old daughter, watching it all wide-eyed from her pushchair, astonished by the commotion all around her. I can see who you are for, but who or what are you against? The government. All, all people in the government.

Back in December, Romania came under US pressure from the outgoing Biden administration as well as its NATO allies in Europe to prevent Calin Gheorghescu's victory. Now the Trump administration is pressuring Romania to let him run. Their response was dramatic. In a series of raids across the country, police discovered gold bullion, cash and an arsenal of weapons. They belonged to Horatiu Potra, a former soldier in the French Foreign Legion

who backs Calin Gheorghescu in the May election. They're quite serious allegations conspiring against the constitutional order, membership of a neo-fascist organisation, anti-Semitism. You don't believe this? No, no. Is that thing true? Gheorgheescu has been photographed with Potra, who also ran militias in Africa. And Potra made no secret of his support for George Esku though it's

not clear what prosecutors will be able to prove in court but the charges against him may be cited to disqualify him from standing in the May election. Nick Thorpe scientists in England say they've had a eureka moment in understanding why the everyday painkiller aspirin can help stop the spread of some cancers. New research in mice suggests the drug helps to boost the immune system to fight off disease. Our health and science correspondent, James Gallagher, told me more. So we've had this really interesting and tantalising data for well over a decade suggesting that people who were on a daily dose of aspirin seemed to do better when they were

diagnosed with cancer, but nobody really understood why that might be happening. And this is a series of animal experiments that have got to the bottom of it. They think they now know the answer, and it's basically dialing up the immune system, making it easier to attack the cancer. And it happens at this really vulnerable stage from the cancer's perspective. So when you have your initial tumour, it reaches a point after it's grown where bits of it start to break off and spread around the body a bit like seeds in the wind, and it tries to take root in other parts of the body. But while it's there, these lone cancerous cells are vulnerable to attack and part of the immune system, part of a white blood cell called

a T cell, should in theory be able to spot that that cell looks different to healthy tissue and go destroy it. That's what should happen. That probably does happen a bit. But another part of the blood, and we didn't really know this, actually suppresses those T cells, makes it harder for it to do its job. So you've got these platelets in your body. They're normally the bit of your body that clots your blood to stop bleeding and they've got this effect on your immune system. Aspirin, however, interferes with those platelets and it effectively says stop doing that and it unleashes those white blood cells to then go attack. So what's the advice on this? Because

lots of people listening will think, oh, well, I need to go and take an aspirin every day. The medical advice hasn't changed that you shouldn't do it. And you certainly shouldn't just go to a pharmacy or a supermarket, buy some aspirin and do this yourself. At least have a conversation with your doctor about it. The reason why is that taking aspirin isn't without risks in and of itself. So it causes bleeding inside the body, particularly in older people who are the people who are more likely to have cancer in the first place. So there's a delicate balancing act in terms of figuring out who's going to benefit the

most, who is at most risk from taking aspirin itself. And also, we don't really understand, does this apply to all cancers or just specific types of cancer? And I suppose the great thing is it's cheap and easily available for doctors to prescribe if necessary. I mean, that would be the dream, wouldn't it? I mean, like you've got this really cheap drug. So if you get to a world where it's proven to be effective in people, you know who is going to benefit the most, who it's safe to give to, then you can have a really cheap drug that you could give alongside other therapies. The potential is there. This study strengthens the argument but it's still going to take those big trials to get that answer about who should take it and when and for which cancers.

James Galloway. Less than a month ago the American rapper Kendrick Lamar headlined at this year's Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans. Here's a flavour. It's your uncle Sam and this is the great American gay. His performance drew record audience figures of 133.5 million across the United States. That might be the reason why World Cup organisers have decided that the 2026 final will stage a Super Bowl style halftime show for the first time, with Coldplay helping to pick a list of artists to perform. BBC's Rahul Tandon spoke to the music journalist Sophie Williams about the decision.

For Kendrick, it was a huge, huge moment. His Super Bowl show has already become the most watched in history, surpassing 150 million views on YouTube alone. In the past couple of weeks, he scored a number one hit in the UK and the US with Not Like Us, which originally came out last May, has now skyrocketed to the top of the charts. It was good for Kendrick Lamar. He was obviously a big star already. Is it good for the sporting event? Is it good for the Super Bowl? I presume that before he comes on to perform, those ad rates could get a little bit more expensive. We've seen in reports over the years that the viewership skyrockets just before the

show starts and then a lot of them end up staying on to watch the rest of the show. I think having a superstar performer, someone like Kendrick Lamar, can really drum up a lot of anticipation before the event, maybe encourage people who are not sporting fans to tune in just for the fact of seeing their favourite artists and getting an idea of how this whole show plays out. No surprise then that the World Cup, which is probably the biggest sporting event on this planet, the World Cup final, has decided to go down the path of the Super Bowl. I think it's really interesting and the fact that they've brought the biggest band in the world, Coldplay

on board shows just how big they want this to become. I think it's interesting that they stated that Coldplay are going to be producing the show at the World Cup next year rather than performing themselves. There's very little details out there at the moment, but it's super exciting already. Yeah, and that was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it? That Coldplay will be producing it. Surely Chris might get a bit tempted to say, oh, maybe I'll just pop myself on stage as well, because they are such a huge band. It would be a good way to get this underway, wouldn't it? Absolutely. And they've toured so extensively in recent years as well. They're going to be doing

10 nights at Wembley this summer. Obviously, we saw them headline Glastonbury last year. They've been playing stadiums all across the world. They even played India last month. They just have a huge impact on global music. They're really beloved in so many countries, so I think it's the right choice in order to reach out to people across the world and hopefully really celebrate what the World Cup's about, you know, that sense of unity and togetherness. We're seeing music and sport, they're two huge businesses, aren't they? Getting closer and closer together, aren't we? Do you think we're going to see more collaborations like this? I think so potentially. You know, we've seen the NFL has come to the UK for games

in recent years. Those have included halftime shows, Youngblood played one of those a couple of years ago. I think it's a really great way just to give artists a bigger platform on the global stage at a time where it's harder than ever to shift records, at a time where it's harder to sell tickets due to the cost of living crisis and the cost of touring. I think Coldplay can set a really good example here as well. Obviously, they're really proud of what they do in terms of making their touring sustainable and eco-friendly. It'll be interesting to see as producers whether they sort of bring that same ethos to the World Cup and how that will impact the show that they're putting together behind the scenes. Sophie Williams speaking to

Rahul Tandon. To Kill a Mockingbird written by the late American author Harper Lee and published in 1960 is one of the most famous books in the world. The novel, which dealt with racial inequality in America, was made into a film starring Gregory Peck as a lawyer Atticus Finch, representing a black man falsely accused of rape. Now gentlemen, in this country our courts are the great levelers. In our courts all men are created equal.

Harper Lee only wrote one other novel which is why there's excitement at the news that her estate is publishing a collection of short stories found in her apartment after her death. Michael Dean is a literary agent who helps represent the Harper Lee estate and told us about the new work called The Land of Sweet Forever. So half of the collection is completely unpublished, never before seen short stories. And these date to the 1950s when Harper Lee was, before To Kill a Mockingbird was published, she was an aspiring writer in New York City

and she was sending pieces to magazines and journals and also to literary agents. And it's those pieces which we have now to bring to publication in addition to eight further pieces of nonfiction which were published during her lifetime. I may be biased but I think it's it's fair to say that that every single piece in the collection just rings with Harper Lee's voice. I mean it is inimitable, it is they are wry, they're funny, they have a touch of darkness to them as well. I

think readers will immediately recognize that they can only have been written by Harper Lee, and I think they will love them. The pieces themselves really merit publication. I mean, they were quite stunning when I read them for the first time. And I think everyone who's seen them since in their publishing journey has felt the same way,

that they have to find their way to millions of readers around the world. Literary agent Michael Dean. And that's it 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, send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag at globalnewspot. This edition was mixed by Abby Wiltshire. The producer was Isabella Jewell. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. And I'm Brian Cox. And we would like to tell you about the new

series of The Infinite Monkey Cage. We're going to have a planet of... Jupiter vs. Saturn! Well, it's very well done that because in the script it does say, wrestling voice. After all of that, it's going to kind of chill out a bit and talk about ice. And also in this series we're discussing history of music, recording with Brian Eno and looking at nature's shapes. So listen wherever you get your podcasts.