Global News Podcast - Trump says ceasefire talks with Putin 'good and productive'

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

President Trump hails 'productive discussions' with Russia on Ukraine ceasefire. Russia says a call between Putin and Trump is expected soon. Also: stargazers in the western hemisphere witness a total lunar eclipse.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and at 14 Hours GMT on Friday the 14th of March, these are our main stories. A Russian spokesman says Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are expected to speak by phone following the visit to Moscow by US envoy Steve Witkoff. The president of Poland tells the BBC no matter the outcome of those talks, Russia is not to be trusted. Hamas has announced it will release the last living Israeli-American hostage it's known to be holding. And also in this podcast, hundreds of Olympic athletes call for climate change to be made a priority of the Games. And did you see the eclipse of the moon?

What you're seeing in that reflected light is all of the sunrises and all of the sunsets from around the globe all being reflected off the moon coming back to you. Now from Moscow to Washington via Kiev and Quebec, one subject is dominating the conversations of the world's leaders and foreign ministers. Can peace in Ukraine ever be achieved? Now the Kremlin has confirmed that US envoy Steve Witkoff met the Russian president in

Moscow to discuss a plan for a 30-day ceasefire. President Putin has said he agrees with the idea but set out tough conditions for peace. In a conference call with reporters, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a phone call between Mr. Trump and the Russian leader was expected. Mr. Witkoff was received by President Putin late last night. Additional information was provided to the Russian side. And also, through Mr. Witkoff, Putin provided information for President Trump. The exact time of the conversation between the two presidents has not yet been agreed.

But at the same time, after Mr. Witkoff has already brought all the information to his head of state, we will then determine the timing of the conversation. Well, in the last few minutes, President Trump has posted on his social media platform that timing of the conversation. Well in the last few minutes President Trump has posted on his social media platform that the talks were good and productive. Meanwhile, Ukrainians in Kyiv gave their reaction to what Mr Putin had to say. If he wanted he could have ended the war long ago. We have heard a lot of lies over the last 11 years from Putin.

Those lies were refuted many times. We have heard so often his different statements and appeals that were made up. Until the ceasefire happens, it's impossible to trust his words. To be honest, I don't believe this. There have been so many agreements and so many violations. I don't believe it. It's hard to say, but a ceasefire would be good in any case, because if there is one, people will stop dying. I think that would be a positive development. But what will the consequence of this ceasefire be? That's the question.

So what now? Valerie Sanderson asked our correspondent Sarah Rainsford, who spent many years in Russia, if the ball is now firmly in the US President's Court. Yeah, I think very clearly and very squarely in the American Court, which I think is always the way it was going to go. I think it's interesting because of course Donald Trump has made this great play all along of how Vladimir Putin will listen to him and will deal with him, about how he understands Vladimir Putin and how he can do this deal. But the whole time we've only ever heard of course about the pressure that the US is placing on Kiev

and not about what exactly it has to pressure Russia. And so I think, you know, this is going to be the test time for Donald Trump and for all his claims about understanding Russia, because Vladimir Putin has made his position really, really clear. You know, he has done his best to appear reasonable to say, yeah, this ceasefire deal sounds like a great idea, but there's quite a lot of buts. And those buts, I think, are really critical. This is really classic Putin. It is dragging things out. It is trying to look one thing whilst doing the other. And I think at this point in time,

doing an immediate ceasefire deal in Ukraine is not in Russia's interest. And so Vladimir Putin is not going to do that just yet. You say just yet. But do you think he's really playing a long game here? I do. I think a very long game, as long as he can possibly make it. I think there are there are several games, ones of power play with America. You know, one of one of the big aims, I think, for Vladimir Putin is to be the big man, is to be the person that the world needs to reckon with and I think this is all very much part of that. So, you know, not sort of rolling over and saying yes to everything.

He is standing up for what he sees as Russia's interest, but also for his own interests. And one of the key things in the immediate future is to have Russian troops force Ukrainian troops out of Russian territory because don't forget there are Ukrainian forces still in the Kursk region of southern Russia. That was humiliating for Vladimir Putin when they invaded and he is now trying to push them out and Russian forces are succeeding somewhat in that. So I think, you know, until those troops are out of Russia, there's no chance he's going to even start really properly engaging in a peace process. And he's also made clear he has much bigger aims still too, all of the aims that he had when he started this war, when he invaded Ukraine, which include ultimately the subjugation of Kiev. And I think that hasn't changed. That was Sarah Rainsford.

The president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has repeated his call for the US to base nuclear weapons on Polish territory. He says it would make Poland stronger and safer as it faces a greater threat from Russia. The US Vice President, JD Vance, has suggested that Donald Trump would not support calls from Poland to base American nuclear weapons in that country. Mr Duda has been speaking to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. We're here in Warsaw to interview the President, President Andrzej Duda, and in the very grand avenue that leads to the Presidential Palace there is an exhibition of actually really stunning, rather disturbing photographs

taken by Polish photographers during the war in Ukraine. And people are stopping, looking at them. Some very powerful images. Even after more than three years of war in Ukraine, Bozina, a middle-aged woman from Warsaw, was shot. I can't even find the word. This is dreadful. What can I say? This is... Putin is responsible for all these things that we can see on these pictures. Yeah, I am shocked with these pictures, really.

Do you think we can trust Putin? No. Trump seems to trust him. Yeah, but I don't think he's right, no. Poland is spending an awful lot of money on the army. Yeah. I mean, do you think it's necessary to spend that kind of money? You know, we have Russia right on the border, so maybe it is necessary. Maciek, a lecturer in Polish literature, walked past the photos on his way to teach at the

university. Do you think in Western Europe we care enough about the potential dangers? Well, there is a change, there is an evolution in thinking about the Russian danger, I think. I guess Trump's revolutionary ideas will make Europe, we should invest in the military, because it's the only way, I guess. Even if the states come and help us, in what numbers and in what capacity. Do you think in Europe and here in Poland,

do you think that we can trust Donald Trump? No, I don't think so. I think he's unreliable. So we can't trust Trump. Can we trust Putin? That's a funny one. I'll take that as a no. We crossed the road and went into the presidential palace to meet the country's president, Andrzej Duda. He had a remarkable request. He wants the Americans to position nuclear weapons on Polish soil. First of all, we believe this is a matter of security. This weapon is not an offensive weapon. It is a defensive one. I want to emphasize once again that this is a weapon designed primarily to defend against a nuclear attack. Secondly, it is Russia, without asking anyone's opinion, that has relocated its nuclear weapons

to Belarus. This is no secret. Even Putin openly talked about it in a televised interview. So far it is Russia that is employing an offensive strategy. And let me stress that Russia is the aggressor. Russia attacked Ukraine without any reason and without any provocation whatsoever. That's why I say this. NATO should implement a defensive strategy.

A defensive strategy means responding to Russia's actions and I believe such a response is necessary. The response should be the relocation of nuclear weapons to NATO member states. We as Poland are ready to host these nuclear weapons. There are American nuclear weapons in Germany. There's Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty to which you're a signatory, which is the mutual defense clause in that. Why does physically having American weapons here make you any safer? Because you're protected anyway, aren't you, by Article 5. Every piece of strategic US and NATO infrastructure on our soil strengthens the United States

and NATO's commitment to defending this territory. Poland's rapidly expanding army was on parade as President Duda welcomed the leader of Mongolia. I haven't met anyone in Poland who does not believe that it is vital to spend a lot of money to deter and, if necessary, fight Russia. But they're also not yet sure whether their allies in Western Europe are really prepared to make the hard financial choices to pay for the defense that Poles believe Europe needs as soon as possible. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowden in Poland. Now, next to the Middle East, where Hamas has agreed to release another hostage, the remains of four others could also be handed

over. Valerie Sanderson heard more from our Middle East correspondent Yolande Nel. We had just a short official statement put out by Hamas saying that it was ready to release this dual Israeli-American hostage. He's Eden Alexander, who was 19 when he was captured, someone who was born in Tel Aviv but grew up in New Jersey in the US, and he came back to Israel after high school to serve as a lone soldier and Ended up being stationed close to Gaza Hamas also saying it would give up the bodies of four dual nationals They're assumed to be the Americans that it's also known to be holding

Since the 7th of October 2023 attacks, this is certainly a sign of movement. It comes after the US envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boller, met Hamas officials as recently as last week for this unprecedented direct contact, but also at a time when there have been these indirect talks going on between Israel and Hamas brokered by the US and regional mediators through the week in Qatar. So remind us where we are on the ceasefire deal there. Well according to reports the US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Whitcoff handed over a new proposal that focused on the release of five living hostages and the

return of nine or ten dead hostages in exchange for extending the ceasefire through the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover. That's basically until about the 20th of April. Now, Israel has said that it accepted that plan. Its negotiators are due to come back from Qatar tonight to consult with the Israeli leadership. And there's been a short statement put out in the past hour by the Israeli prime minister's office saying that Hamas remains steadfast in its refusal, has not budged a millimeter during these talks.

It continues to engage the prime minister's officers in manipulation and psychological warfare. So they see that Hamas is trying to resurrect a proposal that was made by Adam Bowler during his direct talks with them rather than accepting a plan they say has been put forward by Steve Witkoff. Yalan Nel in Jerusalem. The UN World Food Programme says it will cut off one million people in Myanmar from life-saving food assistance because of a shortfall in funding. The agency said it urgently needed $60 million from international donors. Celia Hatten reports. The World Food Programme did not say if the shortfall was due to cuts in aid spending

by the Trump administration. But it was clear about the impact of that loss in funding. Unless it receives $60 million in emergency support from Myanmar, the WFP said it would have to withdraw from some parts of the war-torn country. 100,000 Rohingya people living in camps in Rakhine State who are completely dependent on WFP assistance would be among those impacted. Celia Hatton. Now more than 400 Olympic athletes have co-signed a letter to the next president of the International Olympic Committee calling on climate change to be made a priority. The athletes describe it as a current and growing harm to the sports we love. The move comes just under a week until IOC

members decide on the next leader. So Stephanie Prentiss told me about what the athletes have been saying. This is more than 400 athletes from 90 countries speaking in one voice. And the strongly worded message is that climate change is threatening the future of the summer and the winter Olympics. To quote a bit of it, the message to the next president is, We ask over the course of your presidency that one issue is above all others the care of our planet. And the group cites climate related issues like disrupting to schedules because of weather, that's for events and training, and of course the health of the athletes and of the fans.

Now it's not really hard to see what's motivated this. LA is hosting in 2028. We saw those wildfires there which were among the worst they've ever had. We saw athletes in Paris last summer lying on the ground in those 35 degree temperatures. There were sailors wearing ice vests, volleyball players being sprayed down with hoses. And the letter basically says this isn't sustainable. So they've said why they care. What exactly do they want? What have they asked for? Well they do have one very clear demand. What they want after that ballot on March 20th is an immediate meeting to discuss their concerns and it's addressing tangible action points

like carbon footprint commitments, sustainable practices and also a crackdown on sponsorship deals with anyone that has a poor record on climate action. And the race for the next president is well underway. Who's the frontrunner? We've got seven candidates in this race. Among the frontrunners, we've got England's Seb Coe. Now, he's already warned that climate change will reorder the sporting calendar. Kirsty Coventry, she's another frontrunner. She's discussed the need to be open to new regions and adjusting timings of the games. Another one is the Swedish-British billionaire John Elytus, and he calls himself

a climate campaigner. He's already posted this morning supporting that letter online. But in the past, he has said, there isn't a magic one to fix this, it's just lots of small actions. So going back quickly to that letter, the athlete's focus really is on trying to prevent climate change from worsening rather than adapting the games to work around it. Stephanie Prentice there. And coming up. There's food on the shelves.

There's still mugs hanging up underneath the shelves. The cookers are still lying out. There's some bedding still there. So it's really a kind of snapshot of what was happening at the time." The conservation carpenter restoring a historic hut on a remote Antarctic island. Sudan is banning imports from Kenya, accusing the country of hostility. That's after Kenya played host to Sudan's paramilitary RSF and its allies, who've been at war with the government of Sudan for almost two years. So what more do we know? I arched Richard Kagoi, who's

in Nairobi. Well, Sudan is saying that it's protecting its sovereignty and national interest. The reason why they're saying this is because they're saying that the Kenyan government has taken sides with its rival, that's the paramilitary rapid support forces, and its allies who are just in the country recently where they signed what they called a founding charter and a transitional constitution to create a parallel government in areas which are controlled by the rebels. And so that's why the government incident, the military government says that Kenya has violated the principles of good neighborliness. And that's

why they're retaliating with these measures. Right. Okay. So talk to us about this ban then. What exactly does it entail? Banning imports of goods. So these include food items because there's lots of food items exported from Kenya into Sudan, pharmaceutical products, tobacco. And the big one here is tea because Sudan is the biggest importer of Kenyan tea in Africa and the 10th globally. So looking at the impact this would have commercially between these two countries, this is going to be quite significant. So what does this mean for the conflict and what has the Kenyan government had to

say about this? Well the Kenyan government argues that it's really been supporting efforts to find a political and a diplomatic solution to the conflict now nearly two years into it. And so it downplays or dismisses the accusations that it has a sinister motive of backing the RSF and its allies. Well, Kenya has been accused, the Kenyan president, of working and pursuing the RSF because it's got interest, especially within the mining sector. But then, largely, it complicates diplomatic efforts of bringing this war to an end because Kenya has historically played a leadership role in finding diplomatic solutions,

like in the case of South Sudan, Somalia, and even what's attempted to do in a neighboring DRC. So this really complicates those regional efforts to find a solution to the war in Sudan. Richard Kigoy in Nairobi. Elon Musk's electric car company, Tesla, has written to the US government warning about what it called the disproportionate impact of Donald Trump's trade policies on American manufacturers and exporters. Some of President Trump's US import tariffs have been met by retaliatory measures from other countries. Tesla's comments, made

in a letter to the US Trade Representative Jameson Greer, is one of hundreds sent by companies raising concerns about the policies, our business correspondent Theo Leggett reports. Elon Musk currently heads the newly created and controversial Department of Government Efficiency, charged with cutting costs within the federal government. On Tuesday, the president said people protesting against Mr Musk's actions outside Tesla dealerships should be branded domestic terrorists, and he pledged to buy one of the company's cars. But his decision to impose new import taxes or tariffs on goods coming in from Canada,

Mexico and China has clearly raised concerns among Tesla's management. In its unsigned letter, the company warned that manufacturers and exporters were inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries chose to retaliate against US trade policies. It added that some car parts were difficult or impossible to source within the United States and suggested tariffs should be introduced in a phased manner to give firms more time to prepare. Fear-legged. Now, can you guess where this is? Well, if you happen to guess Antarctica and its penguins, then congratulations. This was

recorded at one of the most remote locations on Earth, a tiny rocky island called Blake Lock, which is accessible only by ship. On the island is a small hut built almost 70 years ago to provide scientists, explorers and their dogs with shelter during the extreme Antarctic conditions. That building is now in a state of disrepair and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is there with a team of conservation carpenters to preserve the site. One of them is Graham Gilley and he's been speaking to James Coughnell. We look after seven different buildings on the Antarctic Peninsula, this being the smallest. They've basically been left as they were in the 50s. So when you walk into this one particularly, there's food on the shelves, there's still mugs hanging up underneath the shelf, the cookers are still

lying out, there's some bedding still there. So it's really a kind of snapshot of what was happening at the time when these guys were there. Lots of old books, a couple of bottles of alcohol, that sort of thing? Yeah, old books. We didn't find any alcohol. I think there's a plastic bottle with some rum in it, so we're not quite sure when that appeared. But yes, I think they took all the booze away with them. How did you actually get there? I mean, I imagine the journey to this little hut must have been quite something.

Yes it was. The problem we have this year is because it's so inaccessible and the ice conditions down here are very unpredictable we needed to have a boat with us the whole time in case we have to leave at short notice. And it's very difficult for bigger ships to get here. So we this year are down on a sailboat called the Ocean Tramp, which is a 20 meter twin masted sailing boat, which means we live on the boat and then we're ferried onto shore in a rib, do our work, and then we can come back to the warm of the boat, which is quite nice. And actually working in those conditions once you get there, how challenging is that?

Yeah, it can be very challenging. Our biggest problem really is wind, particularly doing what we're doing at the moment, putting these sheets of felt onto the roof and the walls. As far as cold goes, it's not too bad. At the moment it's certainly not any colder than it gets in the UK in the winter. So that's not something that bothers us too much. Same with snow, because again it's quite dry, the snow stays dry so you can work in the snow. So it's obviously quite a tricky place to get to, not the easiest place to work in either. And I suppose a cynic might say, why bother? Why does it matter that this old hut is preserved? Yeah, it's a good question and it's one we ask ourselves as well. The logistics to get here are incredible.

We've been working on this for almost a year just to get down to do quite a small job. But a lot of these huts were taken away in the 90s and 2000s. There was a big clear up. So there were quite a lot of British bases down here. But a lot of them were falling to bits and they were just lying there not doing anything so they cleared all that stuff away but selected these seven buildings to be saved because they were in relatively good condition. And I think certainly for me the reason for saving them it a kind of snapshot, as I say, of time. And it really shows what they were going through and it preserves that sort of human history

of the scientific era in Antarctica. I mean, the guys that were using this hut, they were making the new maps of Antarctica. Nobody had mapped that area before. Although not many people will actually come and see this hut, they're aware that it's there. And we can take photographs of it. We've done quite a lot of photogrammetry work so you can do a 3D walkthrough of some of the huts. And I think it keeps the memory alive almost as long as we're looking after them.

I think if they were taken away, they would be in the history books and the details would all be there. But I think there's a danger that we just kind of forget about what was happening down here in those early, early days. Graham Gilley speaking to us from Blakelock Island, Antarctica through the wonders of a satellite connection. Finally, stargazers in the Western Hemisphere have been witnessing a total lunar eclipse with a rare blood moon bathing the sky in red light. The eclipse has been most visible in the Americas and parts of Western Europe and Africa. Terry Egan reports.

It's a celestial phenomenon that occurs when the moon appears red. As the lunar body moves into the Earth's shadow, it first darkens, then eventually turns scarlet, so earning its nickname a blood moon. So when our Earth blocks the moon from the Sun, a lunar eclipse, the only sunlight that can reach the moon must first pass through the Earth's atmosphere. As that sunlight enters the atmosphere, different wavelengths of light, meaning different colours, will be scattered and reflected. But because red light is mostly unaffected by the atmosphere's gases,

it travels all the way through them and out the other side, where it can shine on the Moon. Catherine Haymans is a professor of astrophysics. It's actually really quite beautiful. So normally when you see the Moon, what you're seeing is the light reflected off the Sun. Now because the Earth is passing between the Sun and the Moon, there's no light to be reflected but when there's a total lunar eclipse, when you've got a perfect match between the Earth's shadow and the Moon, a tiny bit of the Sun's light does get passed and what you're seeing in that reflected light is all of the sunrises and all of the sunsets from around the globe all

being reflected off the moon coming back to you. This is of course an optical illusion and so needs a clear sky to see it. There is though no accounting for the total eclipse of the clouds but if you didn't see it there should be another chance later in the year. While the next solar eclipse won't happen until 2090, the lunar variety is thankfully more frequent. And the next will be in September. Terri Egan there. And while we're talking about eclipses, we are hoping to do a Q&A special about space weather, things like solar flares and their impact on Earth. We'll also look at how best to see these eclipses and meteor showers.

So if you have a question, please do email us on globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at BBC World Service, use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Daniela Varela-Hernández and the producer was Tracy Gordon. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time, goodbye.