Global News Podcast - Trump's envoy meets Putin for ceasefire talks

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is in St Petersburg for talks with Vladimir Putin as the US pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Meanwhile, China raises tariffs on American goods to 125%.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach and at 13 Hours GMT on Friday 11 April these are our main stories. Donald Trump's envoy arrives in Russia for talks with the Kremlin as the US pushes for a ceasefire with Ukraine. Germany and the UK take the lead at a meeting of Ukraine's allies in Brussels. China increases tariffs on US goods to 125% deepening the trade war with Washington. Also in this podcast... The impeached South Korean President Yoon Sun-yol is greeted by supporters as he moves

out of the official residence. And we'll hear from a couple putting African stories at the forefront of nature documentaries. Donald Trump famously said he'd end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. It didn't happen that way. In fact, nearly three months on, Russia still hasn't given a clear response to President Trump's proposal for an unconditional temporary ceasefire. Fast forward to today and the US envoy Steve Whitcoff is back in Russia for talks with President Putin.

I asked our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg, who's in Moscow, what we know about the visit. This would be the third Whitcoff-Putin face-to-face meeting I think since February. So the question why now? The short answer is we don't know for sure but what we do know is that in the last couple of weeks it's been pretty clear that Donald Trump has been growing frustrated with the lack of a ceasefire in Ukraine. As you mentioned he had promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. That hasn't worked out.

And I think there is a growing suspicion in some circles in the White House that Russia is dragging things out here. And we've heard Donald Trump threatening more sanctions against Russia. How serious a threat that is, we can argue. I mean, after all, Russia was one of the few countries that Donald Trump did not slap tariffs on recently. However, I think, you know, there's a good chance that this meeting could be aimed at trying to overcome various obstacles on the way to a ceasefire. But also, keep in mind that tomorrow in Oman there are going to be US talks on Iran and Steve Whitcoff is going to be there.

So I think that the question of Iran will also come up at a Whitcoff Putin meeting. It's interesting, it's not so long ago that Donald Trump was giving Ukraine a hard time or recently giving Russia a hard time. Do we know what deal might be on the table from the US and what Russia's response might be? Donald Trump, clearly, we saw this, exerted pressure on Ukraine, and Ukraine was very quick to agree, in principle, to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire. Russia has not done that. Instead, over the last few weeks, Russia has been setting on the table a whole string of conditions.

And it's clear that one of the last proposals that Russia made the president Putin made which was for so-called external governance in Ukraine In other words his idea was to get rid of the Zelensky government and in its place have a temporary interim Administration under the auspices of the United Nations that that did not go down well, I think, with Donald Trump. He spoke publicly about that. He couldn't understand why Vladimir Putin was coming up with this kind of idea when all Donald Trump wants is for Russia to sit at the table

and sort of come to an agreement about a ceasefire with the Ukrainians. And after that, we heard more sort of public criticism of Russia. So whether this meeting today between Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin can address some of these issues, whether the Americans can persuade the Russians to actually sign up to a comprehensive ceasefire, that remains to be seen.

Steve Rosenberg with me from Moscow. Meanwhile, another meeting has been taking place in Brussels of Ukraine's allies. There for us our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale. This is the contact group, so-called 50 nations, who've been backing Ukraine in terms of military support. And it was, of course, convened by the US originally more than three years ago. But the US, since President Trump took over, has relinquished its chairmanship, its lead in this group. It was led by the UK and Germany this time. And it shows, I think, essentially that European countries are now taking the lead in keeping the flow of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine

as the US focuses its efforts on peace. So there have been pledges of more weapons, like hundreds of thousands of drones, more air defences for Ukraine, totaling, we are told, 21 billion euros. Now Boris Pistorius, who's the German defence minister, I asked him whether the fact that the US defence secretary, who was not here in person, joined the meeting virtually, whether that was a sign that the US now is more focused on its peace talks than back in Ukraine as it had in the past. This is what he said. In terms of the participation of Pete Hexett virtually or physically here in Brussels, it's not a matter of priorities. I think it's a matter of schedules. As far as I'm informed, he just came back

from several days lasting a trip around the world, more or less. And we had some other ministers not taking part today too, because they had other schedule obligations too. So the most important fact was that he took part. He addressed the auditorium with some, I would say, interesting and correct assessments, considering what Europeans have been doing since the beginning of the year and have done before. So one of the things that I've been told Pete Excev did say when he virtually joined that meeting online was that he said, we appreciate all the work you guys are doing. I think it gives you an indication that it is Europe

having to take this lead now. And the other thing to mention, of course, is that we had a very clear message both from John Healy, who was also co-chairing the UK defence secretary, alongside Boris Pastoris, both of them making clear that Russia, as far as they can see, is showing no signs of wanting to end this war, whatever the US is doing in diplomatic terms to try to reach a ceasefire. Well, as Jonathan mentioned there, Ukraine's European allies have blamed Russia for the lack of progress on a ceasefire. The German defence chief Boris Pistorius said Moscow's

continued aggression was putting peace out of reach. So what's the situation on the ground? progress on a ceasefire. The German defence chief Boris Pistorius said Moscow's continued aggression was putting peace out of reach. So what's the situation on the ground? Our correspondent in Kyiv is James Waterhouse. This war has a habit of forming patterns and with the clear blue spring sky you know exactly what that means for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines a few hundred kilometres away from where I am. The improved conditions, that presents a battlefield opportunity. As far as Kiev is concerned, where you're hearing it from defense chiefs or President

Zelensky himself, Russia is gathering tens of thousands of troops, they say, across the border in its western Kursk region as they prepare for some kind of meaningful spring offensive. There are reports that there's been a third increase over the past week of assaults right along the front line, these kind of probing attacks with smaller units, notably in Ukraine's northeast. So in a sense, the story of the last two and a half years is carrying on and it's not changing that Russia is once again resorting to its mass to try and achieve its enduring objective of taking as much Ukraine as possible.

While the US pursues an end to the war in Ukraine, its trade war with China is ramping up. Beijing has now raised tariffs on US goods further to 125 per cent. This comes a day after President Trump announced another hike in the levies on Chinese imports to 145 per cent. The price of gold, meanwhile, has reached new record highs as investors seek safety during continued volatility on the financial markets. Even as Mr Trump says, investors are happy.

Our business correspondent, Andy Verity, told me more about how global markets have been reacting. They're looking very wobbly, very nervous, not as comprehensively down as they were yesterday. But essentially the problem is uncertainty. The French President Emmanuel Macron summed it up. He said the 90-day pause means 90 days of uncertainty and that's triggered something of a dollar confidence crisis. We've seen a three-year low in the dollar against the euro. A euro will now buy you $1.14. That's up by about 2% and generally the dollar is down by about 2% against a basket of currencies. Even

the pound, which has been weak against the dollar for a long time, is stronger than it's been for a while, up at $1.30.9. And also, the equity markets, the shares, they're volatile too. The all-share index in London, for example, is up just about by about 14 points, but it only gained about 3% or 4% yesterday. And then gold is the real beneficiary. That's up 1.7% this morning, 3,227 a troy ounce and up 6% on the week. And gold, of course, is always a bit of a barometer of fear indicating just how worried markets remain this week. Does it do anything to reassure anyone that China said well we won't be putting tariffs of any more or 125% is it? Well I think so although in a way rather than reassuring it just underlines the severity of the situation. I thought the

quotes that we got from the Chinese finance ministry about that were very interesting, saying that there's no point if Trump raises tariffs further in them reciprocating again, because right now, there's no market acceptance for US goods. And if there were further tariff rises, it would be, quote, a joke in the history of economics, because effectively, according to some analysts, they've completely severed trade ties between China and the US. Although you can't do that completely, that's the net effect. If you raise tariffs any further, it wouldn't make any difference. And I've just seen comments from the French Prime Minister Francois Beirut, who says it's

very dangerous to think that you can replace the US as a trading partner. So of course, I believe there are some talks going on in Washington this weekend between the European Union and the Trump administration. But the implication of all that is you've got to make this work somehow. Yes. I mean, I think part of what Washington's trying to achieve here is a weaker dollar. So in a way that plays to its strengths, because that has the same effect as tariffs, in theory, at least, that it makes US goods comparatively more competitive. But as well as not being able to trade with the US is quite dangerous in today's economy to try to cut off China as a trading partner, not least because it's the biggest exporter in the world. So it's potentially a huge

benefit to other countries' neighbors of China, like Vietnam, who may step into their shoes up to a point. But with China producing, for example, three and four lithium batteries globally, you can't replace it entirely. President Trump has always been clear he considers China to be America's number one trade rival. On the other hand, his tariffs on friends and allies of the US have left many in those countries feeling betrayed. Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been speaking out against the levies, accusing Mr Trump of acting like a Roman emperor. He's also opposed an agreement for Costa Rica to accept foreign migrants deported by the

US. And now he says he's paid the price. Last week he had his American visa revoked by Washington without any explanation, meaning he can no longer travel to the US. He told my colleague Mimi Swaby he was shocked. I was surprised. I never imagined it. Costa Rica has been a very friendly country with the United States. But friends sometimes agree, sometimes disagree. I have been critical of US governments in the past, especially in my first government in the 80s with Ronald Reagan as president. He wanted a military solution to the conflicts

in Central America. I chose a negotiated diplomatic solution and presented a peace plan and it was a huge struggle with very conflicting opinions and sometimes we disagreed. But in general terms, Costa Rica is very friendly with the United States and for me it was a surprise. But I am not the only one in Costa Rica who has had their visa revoked. There are many deputies in opposition to the government and public officials who have also had their visas revoked. And what did the United States say? Did they give any explanation? Well, I don't think they have given an explanation to anyone whose visa has been revoked. I would imagine that there are two important reasons.

One is that I was the one who established diplomatic relations with China in my second government in 2007. And the other reason is that I have also been critical of President Trump, especially now that he is imposing tariffs on all countries. We have 10% on exports from our country. And the main reason why I came back to politics in 2006 and the Costa Ricans honoured me by making me President was to push the free trade agreement with the US, Central America and the Dominican Republic. And I feel very frustrated after pushing for free trade between Central America and the United States that now they are imposing tariffs on us. A small country like Costa Rica

needs free trade to export without paying tariffs and I feel very frustrated with what is happening today." Another issue that Mr. Trump has focused a lot on during his campaign and his presidency is clamping down on illegal migration. What do you think about this issue of migrants and sending people back? Now even Costa Rica has said it will accept migrants. I do not disagree with that, but it seems to me that the Costa Rican government was forced to accept migrants.

I don't think it was of their own free will that they accepted to receive 200 migrants, especially from countries that are not even from Latin America, but are Chinese, Afghans, Russians, etc. And I hope they do not make us receive more because we have nowhere to put them. Costa Rica is not like El Salvador, which has a mega prison to put everyone. Our jails are completely full and we can't receive any more. The former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias with Mimi Swaby. And still to come on the Global to Use podcast. We need to know when different skills develop and we need to understand how individual children develop over time.

How and when do babies start to make sense of the world? Unless you've been hiding under a very large pixelated rock, you've probably heard of Minecraft. It's the best-selling video game of all time, and the franchise's first feature film is in cinemas now. But how much do you know about the game's creator, software developer Marcus Persson? Find out about the man behind Minecraft on Good, Bad, Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, motives, and money of some of the world's richest individuals. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. It took him a week to leave the presidential complex in Seoul, but now the impeached South

Korean President Yoon Sun-yol has moved out. Here he is hugging some of his cheering supporters who are waiting for him as he made his way to his private residence in Seoul. Yoon Sun-yol! Yoon Sun-yol! Mr Yoon was removed from office because of his short-lived declaration of martial law in December. I asked our Asia Pacific regional editor, Mickey Bristow, what happened today? Well, the main event today is, as you described, it was Mr. Yoon leaving the residence, which he's lived in ever since he was elected president in 2022.

There was some crowds, several hundred people outside, some of them got quite visibly emotional when Mr. Yoon went out to greet them, hugged a few, shook hands with others. There was even a baby there he managed to give a kiss to. He also issued a statement reminiscing a little bit about the world leaders he'd met at the complex at his home in the years since he became the president. He also reflected on particularly the young people who'd stood outside his residence and supported him earlier this year after he'd been impeached by the National Assembly to give their support standing outside in freezing temperatures and he thanked them and he also looked forward to a new role in South Korean life and

political life although he didn't say what that would be. We've had months of political turmoil that started with the declaration of martial law lasted a few hours and South Korea has been in chaos politically since then. Does this end it or not? Well for the time being I think it does. I think what you saw at the end of the last year was Mr Yoon declaring martial law. At one point when the police wanted to arrest him he barricaded himself inside his residence. There was the possibility of different sections of South Korea's security apparatus actually fighting each other.

That was a possibility at one point. So what you see today is Mr. Yoon quietly leaving office after he'd been told to go. It's kind of a return to normalcy. Also the protests which we saw, the massive protests for and against Mr. Yoon over the recent months, those have ended somewhat. So for the time being, politics has returned to normal, but South Korea has to have a new election for a new president on June the 3rd.

So as that gets closer, there'll probably be more and more debate and argument and some of the political problems that Mr. Yoon's impeachment revealed will reveal themselves. And also Mr. Yoon himself still faces a criminal charge for insurrection. That begins on Monday. So that could also bring up some of the political problems that we've seen in South Korea over the last few months. Mickey Bristow reporting. Elon Musk has become embroiled in a legal battle with his former business partner and fellow tech mogul,

Sam Altman. The pair co-founded one of the world's top artificial intelligence companies, OpenAI, but have since become bitter rivals. Mr. Musk sued Mr. Altman last year. Now OpenAI is suing Mr. Musk. North America technology correspondent Lily Jamali gave us the background.

Musk started OpenAI back in 2015, a long time ago now, with Altman as a non-profit and back then they used the phrase AI for the benefit of humanity. But then in Musk's telling anyway, Altman switched up the mission and has been converting it to a for-profit entity. So after he tricked Musk into donating millions upon millions of dollars to fund it, that's what he did, according to Musk. Altman's camp says that's not how things went down. They say Musk is just bitter because he wanted to control open AI that he didn't get to,

and so he leaves in a huff. And he is now competing in AI with XAI which is growing but is still a laggard in the AI space. So what's the latest legal dispute between them? Elon Musk filed his lawsuit last year. OpenAI in this counter suit which was filed this week in Oakland, California said Wednesday Musk is trying to slow them down, slow down the work that's happening at OpenAI for his own benefit, saying he's using bad faith tactics

so that he can achieve dominance in AI. They seem to think that going on the offensive is the right approach right now, but you got to remember they're dealing with a guy who has very deep pockets. Elon Musk, of course, is the richest man in the world. Of course, these two Silicon Valley heavyweights were once partners, as you've explained. They've clearly become very bitter rivals now. Extremely bitter rivals. These two men do not like each other, to put it mildly. And I think back to when this partnership started off in 2015, Sam Altman at that time,

he was a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, but not really beyond tech. He was a rising star, but I think he was very deferential to Musk, who at that time was already Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, the boss of SpaceX, and some other companies. Sam Altman has achieved a whole new level of status because of OpenAI's success. So I think there's a lot of ego at play here. You can see this rivalry popping up in their social media posts pretty often, but it's a whole different ballgame when you take these kinds of rivalries to the courtroom because there you get documents, there you get emails and discovery material that you wouldn't see otherwise.

Lily Jamali with Bernadette Kehoe. Nature documentaries about wildlife in Africa have traditionally been made by non-African filmmakers from the presenters to the camera teams to the scientific experts. African wildlife stories have mainly been told by Western documentary teams from big international broadcasters like the BBC or Netflix. This is starting to change though as African filmmakers make nature documentaries from their perspective. One South African couple, Noel and Pragna Kok are at the forefront of all of this

and they've been talking to my colleague, Alan Kusujja. I guess it was a little bit of an exploration. And it actually started with Noel about to board a flight to Johannesburg. And he saw a rhino at the airport and was wondering, OK, what's going on with the rhino at the moment? And coming back from that flight, Noel returned and said, why don't we

try making a conservation and wildlife TV series? From there, we produced a TV series that was broadcast on national television in South Africa. And it did exceptionally well at that point. And I think that was the turning point for our journeys. Whilst it did particularly well in terms of ratings, it completely bankrupted us. We found ourselves being, at that point, the only black African nature and wildlife filmmakers in the industry, yeah, in South Africa. We were making a TV series, which was 70% Zulu,

and I know it's almost strange for an African to say access to wildlife was a problem, but that is the reality, not just yeah, but for so many of us all across Africa. Access to wildlife, what do you mean by that? What was the problem with that? So many of the parks were proclaimed for the protection of wildlife, where people were removed from where they were living, the places were fenced off, and people were relocated. In most cases, there was a significant charge put in place. And if you fast forward to when we were producing our conservation and wildlife TV series, you must remember a lot of these parks and their fees are structured towards

international production companies who come in with pounds and dollars, whereas we are producing in the local currency, and we cannot afford and cannot compete with those kind of permits and rates and that kind of stuff. So we started Newth Allen in 2017. And the purpose of that at the very beginning was to bring together local storytellers who wanted to explore nature and wildlife

and conservation storytelling as an option. What specifically are you trying to address? What is the question you're answering? It's that if talented diverse African storytellers are provided the training, mentorship, connections, and access to advance their skills and careers, then they will become leaders in this field. And this will add to a diversity of perspectives and experiences within wildlife and natural history storytelling. So let me push you a bit on that. So what is wrong with the way the stories

are being told at the moment? For one, most of the natural history stories have no people in them. It's only animals. And we know that in Africa, that animals do not live on their own. That we as Africans, we as people are part of the ecosystem.

And then more importantly, and one of the main reasons why we were established as an organization is to change the narrative so that we as Africans can stop being portrayed only as the poacher, the pirate, the ranger, the guide, or our people who sing for you when you jump off your safari vehicle. We are so much more than that. Noel and Bragna Kok with Alan Kusujer. A study using special games and brain scanning technology is setting out to measure exactly when babies and toddlers develop the key skills they need to focus,

learn and make sense of their world. The project is unique because hundreds of the children taking part are the sons and daughters of parents who have also been studied their entire lives. More from our science correspondent, Victoria Gill. We need to know when different skills develop and we need to understand how individual children develop over time. Lead researcher Dr Carla Holmbo is working with children from the age of just six months. Her aim is to measure precisely how and when very young children develop fundamental skills

that allow them to focus, concentrate, remember and learn. We're going to follow them from six months up to five years, every six to 12 months. We're going to use a set of tasks every time they come and visit, little games to measure particular skills. So these are kind of skills we use to kind of control our behavior in everyday life. I can cover my pots and I can give them a big spin.

In a game specially designed to test working memory, researcher Mohini Howlader has a tray of 10 different pots. She's put stickers in all but two of them. Two-year-old Jackson just has to remember which pots contain the prize. Just like that. Now can you help me find a sticker? Working memory is when we need to keep a little bit

of information in our head to solve a problem, do a task. Really importantly, when we're talking about children, you can imagine we need to keep a little bit of information in our head to solve a problem or do a task. Really importantly, when we're talking about children, you can imagine we need these skills when we learn maths and reading. So they're really building blocks of really important skills. So for this game, little Henry, who is two years old, is going to wear this rather extraordinary

brain scanning cap. We can basically look at which areas of the brain do we see an increase in red blood. That's blood that has a lot of oxygen in it. So that means that that area is really active. While the sensor-laden cap picks up blood flow in his brain, Henry plays a game with an iPad. Every time he taps the image of a happy face that appears on the screen, it turns into a short cartoon. Babble. But just as he gets used to the face always appearing on the right side of the screen,

it starts randomly appearing on either side. Woo! We're looking at that inhibitory control or inhibition. That's research assistant Carmel Brough. To see if Henry can resist the urge to just tap straight on the right and to look where the happy face is. So one of the things we do know is that this kind of skill is important when children start school.

In order to learn new things, we need to be able to stop old habits. I have a daddy. This is now a multi-generation study. It started 30 years ago when Bristol University began tracking the health and development of more than 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992 in a project called the Children of the 90s. 300 of the babies and toddlers that are part of this new study are the children of the children of the 90s. Well, my mum signed me up, so it wasn't a choice at the start, but it is now, of course. Emily is Henry's mum.

I just love it. I just think why wouldn't you want to like find out more and there's been so many amazing studies and things have come of it and why wouldn't you want to help and make things better for like generations to come as well. And that's the aim. By pinpointing when babies and toddlers develop these key skills and by monitoring their young growing brains, the researchers hope to find out how and when to provide support for children who might struggle academically before they start school. We tend to find that children who struggle at that point will continue to struggle. So that tells us we need to go younger, we need to look earlier, and there's this whole

period of development and whole potential for being able to support children at a younger age. Victoria Gill reporting. And that's all from us for now. There will be a new edition of Global News to download later. If you'd like to comment on this edition, drop us an email globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or you'll find us on x at BBC World Service, just use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was produced by Peter Goffin. It was mixed by Rebecca Miller. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening and until next time, goodbye. In the fall of 2001, while Americans were still grappling with the horror of September 11th, envelopes started showing up at media outlets and government buildings filled with

a white lethal powder, anthrax. But what's strange is if you ask people now what happened with that story, almost no one knows. It's like the whole thing just disappeared. Who mailed those letters? Do you know? From Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, and CBC podcasts, this is Aftermath, the hunt for the anthrax killer.

Available now.