Global News Podcast - Trump says Zelensky can end Russia war 'if he wants to'

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Three days after President Trump's meeting in Alaska with President Putin, he's due to see President Zelensky in Washington. But this time, the Ukrainian leader will be getting back-up from his heavyweight European allies, who'll also be seeing Mr Trump. We gauge the mood in Russia and Ukraine ahead of these potentially vital talks. Also in this podcast: top Arab ministers meet at the Rafah crossing point into Gaza, as shortages continue; we report on the settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank; why Bolivia won't be getting a left-wing president for the first time in two decades; the watch advert that's caused outrage in China; the man who designed the famous James Bond logo dies; and are you delulu? You won't believe the latest words to make it into the dictionary... 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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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and at 13 hours GMT on Monday the 18th of August. These are our main stories. Donald Trump says Ukraine's President Zelensky could end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wanted. The two men will hold talks at the White House later today. The Palestinian Prime Minister visits the Rafa border crossing alongside Egypt's foreign minister to highlight the difficulties of getting aid into Gaza. Also in this podcast, we hear from the West Bank,

where Palestinian villagers and farmers are coming under attack from Israeli settlers. Fear is natural, but there is something stronger than fear that drives me to stay here, the scent of my ancestors and an attachment dating back hundreds of years. In a few hours, European leaders will join the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who's in Washington for a high-stakes meeting at the White House over the future of the war in Ukraine. It comes just three days after President Trump warmly greeted Russia's Vladimir Putin on the red carpet in Alaska.

In remarks on social media, Mr. Trump insisted that Mr. Zelensky could end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wanted to. He also appeared to rule out NATO membership. But his special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, says Russia has made concessions over Western security guarantees. Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission. And so what we were discussing was assuming the Ukrainians could agree to that and could live with that. We were able to win the following concession that the United States could offer Article 5 like protection. Well, in a moment, we'll be getting the view from Russia, Ukraine and Ukraine's European allies. But first,

Here's Tom Bateman in Washington. President Trump will talk first with Mr Zelensky, before leaders from at least five European countries, plus the heads of the EU and NATO, meet him. An extraordinary show of unity at the White House from Ukraine's key backers in Europe. The risks for Mr Zelensky are significant. After the Alaska summit, Mr. Trump has pivoted towards Vladimir Putin's position

that seeks to haggle over territory before Moscow commits to any stop in the fighting. A move the Europeans had been desperately trying to prevent. The Russian leader wants to seize control of the whole of the Donbass region in the east, which Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said he will not concede. The Ukrainian leader must walk the finest of lines today, attempting to hold on to as much of his country as he can without invoking the presidential ire and blame that was meted out to him in the Oval Office in February.

But at least one of the cards may have flipped in his favour, The administration now appears willing to give US support to European security guarantees meant to deter further Russian aggression. Mr Trump's negotiator, Steve Wickhoff, likened this to NATO's Article 5 All for One defence guarantee, although officials have made clear Mr Trump has yet to make up his mind over the extent of it. The NATO leaders will press hard for a strong assurance, while Mr Zelensky will be the focus of considerable pressure from President Trump in a hurry to get his prized peace agreement.

Tom Bateman. As we mentioned, Ukraine's allies among European leaders, including the UK Prime Minister Kirstama, are also in Washington, where they'll be seeing President Trump. Our correspondent James Waterhouse has been covering Ukraine since the start of the invasion. He's now in Brussels, where President Zelensky spent the weekend working on a strategy with other European leaders.

He gave us this update on what their aims were. They are, I think, privately acknowledge, that there are going to be some difficult compromises over land, but what they want to do is remove the word swap from the flurry of proposals that are circling around right now. We're hearing certainly from the Kremlin side, repeated by the US, that a land swap would be central to some kind of lasting peace.

And the point Ukraine and its European friends is trying to make is that Russia can't just ask for more land, and the land it does occupy, is illegal. It's come in and conquered it and kept hold of it brutally. So I think what Ukraine is trying to do is both assert itself and say, look, the current front lines are the starting point for a negotiation. But I think we're going to see this very difficult balance between if Ukraine has to settle for Russia keeping hold of what it's taken for now, it would have to be counterbalanced by weighty security commitments that include America to ensure the Kremlin

doesn't go further. And I think that is the balance. They will seek to strike, but it won't be easy. And have we got any more details of what those guarantees might include on the ground? It's difficult in a practical sense. I mean, yesterday, well, you've just heard Steve Wittkoff there, talk about Vladimir Putin accepting a NATO-style deterrent. Today we have Donald Trump saying, you know, NATO membership will not happen for Ukraine. So what does that mean?

You've seen European leaders again repeat their plans to, provide what's called a reassurance force, boots on the ground in Ukraine once the war ends. But how many? For how long? There are big question marks over Europe's collective capacity to provide enough troops to police what will be a frozen front line, hundreds of kilometres long. Could they really prevent Russia concentrating troops once more and having another go at Ukrainian territory? So what we mean by security guarantees and what Europe wants is America's involvement in that they will say, look, we'll put the boots on the ground, but if it really kicks off, we need you to be there in terms of your air power,

your long-range missiles, presumably, to back us up in that event. Because the consensus remains that it's America's military might and military might alone that is necessary to underwrite any kind of agreement or peace agreement that Donald Trump so craves. James Waterhouse. So what do you create? The Ukrainians back home make of all of this. Is peace worth the price of surrendering part of their land, or should the fight to drive Russia out of its occupied territories continue? Our correspondent Katie Watson has been speaking to people on the streets of the capital Kyiv. It's Sunday morning in Tataka, Central Kiev. People here are perusing the market stalls, picking out juicy watermelons and local cheeses. It's a long way from the front line here in Ukraine's capital.

but the war is never far from people's minds. And few have any faith that anything will come out of today's meeting at the White House. This is just the show. President Trump will tell President Zelensky that, listen, take it to leave it. The offer is off the table if you don't take it. And that's it. All the signs during the meeting, they do not look much to expect. Thank you so much, dear Ursula.

On Sunday, President Zelensky already in Brussels. with European leaders made clear his position. The constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible, impossible to give up territory or trade land. And earlier in the day, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there would be pressure on Russia if there was no peace deal. Then there are going to be consequences. Not only the consequences of the war continuing, but the consequences of all those sanctions continuing and potentially new sanctions on top of it as well.

But while the world is watching what comes out of these diplomatic meetings, It's easy to forget the daily reality of life on the front line. Nord is a soldier fighting in Kharkiv region in the country's northeast. These international events hardly affect us at all, and we tweet them like natural phenomena. They exist and that's it. We have to live and work regardless. I've come down to Maidan, which is the square in the heart of Kiev,

that's become synonymous with pro-democracy demonstrations over the years. and in a corner there's a sea of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags and pictures of soldiers who've lost their lives since the full invasion of 2022. And Ukrainians are wandering through it, stopping to look at those who've died. Staring at two photos side by side, 65-year-old Natalia explains that her daughter and boyfriend were killed last year on the front line.

Of last week's Alaska summit between President, Trump and Putin, Natalia, was frank. They laid out a red carpet, she told me. It's a mockery of Ukraine over boys and girls like my children. And of today's meeting at the White House, she has little hope. I'm afraid they might expose him again, like last time. You see, it was a mess for the president. He didn't deserve it the way he was treated.

The meeting later today in Washington will be a chance for President Zelensky to have Donald Trump's ear and put to him Ukraine's perspective. The view from Kiev is clear. There's no way Ukrainians would want to cede any land that Russia has taken. That's not a concession for people here. It's giving President Putin something he shouldn't have taken in the first place. Ukrainians want support from its allies in ending this war, but few think that handing over territory is the answer.

Katie Watson. That's the view from Ukraine. Now, what do people in Russia think about the current state of negotiation and the aftermath of last week's talks in Alaska. BBC Monitoring's Russia editor, Vitali Shevchenko, has been looking at the media coverage there. They are triumphant. I was looking at reporting over the weekend.

And the mood is that it's up to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to decide the face of the world and nations such as Ukraine. The Russian economy is not in an ideal shape, but it's still afloat. it's still able to keep on churning out those missiles and drones that has been sending to attack Ukraine. It's been put on a wall footing, really, and it's exports of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, that's helping Vladimir Putin do that. And that's what Donald Trump seemed to try and stop by imposing tariffs on India and other buyers of Russian fossil fuels. But so

So far, despite all the changes in his rhetoric, in Donald Trump's rhetoric, we've not really seen much action that would seriously make Vladimir Putin reconsider his actions in Ukraine. Vitaly Shavchenko. Still to come in this podcast, we'll be hearing about some of the new words added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year. Skibli is one of those words. Its context will make sense of what it is. It means cool or it means bad.

or suggesting it's used as an intensifier and infiller. So you're saying, what are you skippity doing? The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamed Mustafa, has accompanied Egypt's foreign minister in a visit to the Rafa crossing, where Gaza shares a border with Egypt. It's part of efforts to put pressure on Israel to allow in desperately needed aid that's waiting on the Egyptian side of the border.

It's the only entry point Gaza shares with a state other than Israel, but the Gaza side of the crossing is now under Israeli military control. At a news conference, the Egyptian foreign minister said his country was committed to supporting its neighbors in Gaza. As we are here, a few meters from our brothers and sisters on the Palestinian Rafah, of course, a message of solidarity, a message of unity, a message of full support. We will provide everything in our hand in order to keep you attached to your homeland and not to accept any plans for displacement. As you see, thousands of trucks are waiting here. But the main problem, again, it's the full responsibility of Israel at the occupying

power to open up its crossings, connecting Israel with Gaza, five crossings. And, No single person is talking about opening those crossings. So we have to push, we have to apply maximum pressure to allow all kind of assistance, humanitarian, medical assistance to flow to Gaza. Our chief international correspondent Liz DeSette accompanied the ministers to the Rafa crossing. Egypt says 5,000 trucks are now waiting here at the crossing with Gaza, waiting to clear Israeli inspection with this. desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Eight agencies tell us that more food is getting in, but they say there has to be much more, and it has to get in much more quickly. Israel is denying accusations from more than 100 aid agencies that it's deliberately blocking their assistance. It blames any shortages on the agencies themselves, as well as Hamas. Now, when they clear inspection, they're going to have to drive a short distance away

to go into Gaza through another Israeli crossing. Because beyond the people you see here, members of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society waiting to welcome the ministerial delegation, the border is shut. It's now controlled by Israeli forces. And the city of Rafa in Gaza lies in utter ruin, flattened in the last year of Israeli bombardment.

This Rafa crossing used to be one of Gaza's main lifelines. Now it's a symbol. of the terrible human cost of this war. Lee's Dissette. BBC News has witnessed an attack by dozens of Israeli settlers on a group of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The violence comes as Israel's government

prepares to sign off the building of thousands of new homes elsewhere in the territory. Lucy Williamson was in the West Bank near the illegal outpost of Ornhaman, where Palestinian villagers came under attack. And a warning, there are some descriptions in her report, which you may find distressing. To bury the idea of a Palestinian state, extremist settlers kill Palestinian trees.

Brahim's family have farmed olives here for generations. This week, he said, his trees were hacked to pieces by settlers who've set up camp on a nearby hill, ties to his past, cut down by the politics of today. Fear is natural, but there is something stronger than fear that drives me to stay here, the scent of my ancestors and an attachment dating back hundreds of years. As we stood there, masked settlers carrying sticks charged down the hill and across the field towards us.

A completely unprovoked attack. As we pull back along the road, some of Brahim's neighbours turn up with good. catapults and stones as settlers on a quad bike chase away a white truck carrying local volunteer emergency workers this is now escalated into open confrontation between settlers and local Palestinians with more people coming to join the fight on either side locals say this is happening almost every day now and these are the tactics settlers are using to take the land field by field The speed and spread of this attack was breathtaking. Dozens of settlers fanning out across the hills.

We watched them break into buildings, methodically setting fire to vehicles and homes. Shepherds rushing their flocks away as the hillside breaks into flames. In just a couple of hours, this conflict has spiraled from one olive green. all across these hills. Settlers have been chasing Palestinians off their land. Several houses have been set on fire, and the arrival of the army has done little to stop it.

Palestinians from across the area arrive to help, but the army has sealed off the main road. The army later told us that Palestinians had burnt tires and that four Israelis were treated at the scene. Rifa was trying to reach her husband. trapped in their farmhouse. But the army pointed their weapons and sent me back, she said. Every other day, the settlers do this to us.

They attack us, cut down the olive trees, and burn the farms. This is not alive. No one can't stop them. We have nothing to resist them with. They have weapons. We have nothing. We weren't able to speak to any of the settlers involved. The local settlers' council told us there were elements.

on both sides seeking provocation, which it's strongly condemned. Later that night, 18-year-old Hamdan Abu Eliya was shot by Israeli troops in a Maraya village nearby. He later died in hospital. Today at his funeral, his mother told us he'd gone to see the fires lit by settlers nearby. I raised him for 18 years, and he was gone. gone in a minute, she told us. The Israeli army told us they'd shot at terrorists, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at them. His father said he refused to show the Israelis his tears. They thought if they killed our son, we'd leave, he said. I will not shout and scream and say

why is he gone. I'm not sad that he passed. I encourage young men to do anything they can against the criminal occupier. At the local mosque, a hero's welcome. In the language of this conflict, each birth and each burial only strengthens their ties to the land. Lucy Williamson. Projected results from Bolivia's general election suggests there's no clear winner. For the first time in nearly two decades, the victor will not be from the political left wing. The two leading candidates are now expected to contest a runoff vote in two months.

Our South America correspondent Ione Wells has been speaking to my colleague Rachel Wright. It looks from these projections that have come through, and these are just projections at the moment. We haven't had an official result that Bolivia is set to elect a non-left-wing president after about two decades of near-continuous rule by the incumbent socialist party. The projections suggest that the senator Rodrigo Paz and former President Jorge Coroga came in first and second place, respectively in Sunday's elections, although the polls suggesting that neither have received

high enough a share of the vote to secure an outright win, which means this vote could go to a runoff between these two candidates due in October. Now, Rodrigo Paz Pereira of the Christian Democratic Party was a pretty surprised vote leader. Opinions polls had suggested that a totally different candidate, the businessman Samuel Doria Medina, was the frontrunner in this race. So this has taken everybody by surprise. His campaign focused a lot on redistributing funds away from central government, fighting corruption, his slogan, capitalism for all, not just for a few. The right-wing Mr. Kuroga had briefly served as interim president before, and his campaign focused heavily on drastically shrinking the state. But it does seem from these early polls, like this might

spell an end to a long-running rule by the incumbent socialist party in Bolivia. And do you think this is a reflection of the country's deep economic woes? Yeah, I think there are a couple of factors behind this. One is the economy, the countries experiencing one of its worst economic crises in years. There have been severe fuel shortages, shortages of some food items, of foreign reserves. There's high debt in the country, high inflation. So a lot of people had expressed on the campaign trail that they were voting for change. They wanted something different, even if they weren't particularly.

enthused by perhaps some of the alternatives. Then there is also the fact that the left was very, very splintered going into this election. The current president, Luis R.C., was very unpopular due to the economic crisis. He decided not to run again. The candidate for the ruling socialist party, Eduardo del Castillo, was associated with the ruling party, was polling very badly going into this election. Then there was obviously the omission on the ballot paper of perhaps the most prominent political figure in Bolivia over the last two decades. Evo Morales, the former president who served as president from 2006 to 2019 and he was barred from running again for a fourth time despite his attempts to challenge legal and constitutional rulings on that. So the left has been

very, very fractured, which I think has also played a role in this. Ione Wells. The Swiss watchmaker, Swatch has apologized and withdrawn an advert, featuring a model pulling up the corners of his eyes, after the image prompted calls for a boycott of the firm's products among Chinese social media users. Critics say the pose resembled the racist slanted eye trope, which has historically been used to mock Asians. Our Asia-Pacific editor is Jason Lee. Well, in this picture of this ad, which has now been removed, as you say, you see a male Asian model who has single eyelids, which are quite common in that part of the world, using his fingers to pull the corners of his eyes. Now, he's basically accentuating his facial features to put emphasis

on his small, thin eyes. Now, you may ask, why would someone, you know, do that in a watch ad, right? Well, that's the question literally many are asking in China, too, because what's really prompted this widespread anger in Chinese social media is that we don't know why the model made that pose, but it's clearly offended many people in China and the wider region. And that's because as you mentioned earlier, the so-called slanted eye pose is considered racially offensive as it was historically used in Western cultures to mimic and mock Asian people of their appearance, of their small eyes, basically. So Swatch has apologized and it said that it has taken note of the recent concerns regarding

the portrayal of its model. But with some angry social media users in China, are even calling for a boycott of Swatch products. So it's not looking great for the company, especially. when almost one third of its revenue are generated from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. And Jay, this isn't the first time we've seen a company do something similar and get into hot water. That's right. So there have been numerous cases of where Western companies have come under fire for their ads in China. The most notable one was in 2023 when the French beauty brand, the beauty giant Dior, had this similar ad about its makeup campaign where a female Asian model basically did the same thing, you know, pulled her eyes up

and to show the makeup on her eyes. And this really prompted widespread anger as well, again, the same issue saying, you know, these Western companies have no regard for Asian culture and making fun of their Asian stereotypes. And Jay, it just seems a little depressing to be talking about this in 2025, given that this sort of gesture is something that causes people a lot of hurt. It really is. I mean, we live in a multicultural global world where there are multiple cultures, you know, and, you know, being an Asian person myself who grew up in the Netherlands, you know, I've been subject to these racial slurs and racial and your mockeries. And it really hurts when you're subjected to such acts. So seeing a global

brand do something like this is also, you know, it's quite depressing actually. So I think they really need to be more careful with their ads next time. Jason Lee. Joe Karoff, the graphic designer who created the 007 logo used in all the James Bond Films has died. He was 103. Tom Tuesbury reports. Even if you don't know his name, you'll know his designs. Starting in the 1960s, Joe Karoff worked on 300 film campaigns. Most notably, he created the 007 logo, combining the seven with the barrel and trigger of Bond's pistol, the Walter PPK. The logo was originally meant as a letterhead for promotion of the first Bond film, Doctor No, but it's appeared in every entry in the franchise and on millions of people.

of merchandise. Karoff said adding the gun to the number seven was an instant piece of creativity. It was paid $300 and received no royalties for the logo's continued use. Though, he did say it brought him a lot of business. And for his 100th birthday, the owners of the Bond franchise sent him an Omega Watch engraved with that famous logo. Tom Dewsbury. And finally, are you a mouse jiggler? If you work from home, you might be, Along with tradwife and broligarchy, it's one of 6,000 new words added to the Cambridge Dictionary. Many of them come from social media. Here's Rebecca Drought.

If you've been feeling a little skibbiddy about recent changes in language and wondering if those behind the internet culture that's driving it are a bit delulu, then help is at hand. Cambridge Dictionary defines skibbiddy is both cool and bad and says it can also be used with no meaning at all. DeLulu is a play on the word delusional. with a similar definition. The use of both has been driven by social media. The same was true of broligarchy, used to describe a small group of extremely rich and powerful men

working in tech who have or want political influence. Separately, concerns about climate change see the phrase forever chemical added to the dictionary. While continued remote working has introduced terms such as mouse jiggler, a device or software used to make it seem as if you're working, even when you're not. No mouse jigglers here at Broadcasting House, I can assure you. Well, Terry Victor is the editor of New Partridge Dictionaries

of Slang and Unconventional English, and he spoke to Anna Foster about the speed with which the meaning of some words can change. It's part of the history, it's part of the world, and it shows the creative and democratic use of English. And that is such a great thing, and we've been doing it all our lives, and the kids are doing it now.

And now there are words that aren't in a dictionary, because dictionaries by definition are always out of date. Skibbidi is an interesting one because as you say there, it means different things to different people, which somewhat negates its use as a language, you would think. We can't communicate because it doesn't mean the same thing to us. But expression does an awful lot. You can be hateful or loving with us any word you care to choose.

Skibody is one of those words. Its context will make sense of what it is. According to the dictionary, Cambridge, they're saying it means cool or it means bad, or the suggestion it's used as an intensifier, an infiller. So you're saying, what are you skibbiddy doing? It means nothing, but at the same time it means everything. And it's their word.

And that's a joy. And I think you would be delulu not to agree. Terry Victor. 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 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, and the producers were Peter Hyatt and Stephanie Tillotson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time, goodbye.