Global News Podcast - Ukraine and US negotiators to meet following Moscow talks

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is set to meet Ukrainian negotiators in Florida following talks with President Putin in Moscow. Mr Putin - who's visiting India - has already said some of the proposals for peace in Ukraine are unacceptable. The war is also on the agenda in Beijing, where the French President, Emmanuel Macron, is meeting the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Also: the family of Colombian fisherman killed in a US "drug boat" strike files a legal complaint, alleging he was murdered. An LA doctor who supplied ketamine to Matthew Perry, the late star of the TV show Friends, is sent to jail for 30 months. And in Scotland, the remains of a deep-water creature have washed up on a beach -- and, no, it's not the Loch Ness monster.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]

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 4th of December, these are our main stories. The back-and-forth negotiations on the U.S.-backed peace plan for Ukraine will continue on Thursday with talks between Washington and Kiev. The doctor who sold the drug ketamine to the friend star Matthew Perry weeks before his fatal overdose has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Also in this podcast, India prepares to welcome President Putin. On the agenda now is everything from new defense deals to do a rethink of energy ties with Moscow, all while India tries to walk their diplomatic tightrope with the U.S. We look at the geopolitics behind the visit.

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity as the Trump administration tries to secure backing for its latest plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. On Thursday, all eyes will be on Florida, where the U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Whitkoff, will meet Ukraine's top negotiator, Rustam Umarov. They'll discuss the outcome of Tuesday's meeting in Moscow between President Putin, Mr. Whitkoff,

and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Those talks failed to produce any breakthrough, although the Kremlin described them as productive. Speaking at the Oval Office, here was Donald Trump's assessment of those Moscow talks. I don't know what the Kremlin's doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We're going to find out. It's a war that should have never been started.

It's in war. If I were president, we had a rigged election. If I were president, that war would have never happened. It's a terrible thing. But I thought they had a very good meeting with President Putin. We'll see what happens. David Petraeus is a retired U.S. Army General and former director of the CIA. He told the BBC's Evan Davis, it's not surprising President Putin has so far not agreed to a deal.

It was predictable and predicted, in fact, widely, that Putin would not accept anything less than his stated core objectives, which are to replace President Zelensky through an election, presumably, with a pro-Russian figure to be given land in Donovsk province that they haven't even. even approached, much less taken, and this includes the so-called fortified cities, which have given to Russia basically opened the field for further aggression down the road. None of those can be acceptable to Ukraine, but Putin is clearly not going to accept anything less. He seems to be still under the impression that victory is inevitable, even though it's very clear that the incremental gains at extraordinary costs at some point just are not going to be

sustainable for Russia, especially given the more fragile state of its economy than I think many recognize. The best outcome from Ukraine's point of view at this point, given that they don't want to yield to Russia's demands, would be for European nations and the United States to make it much more costly for Russia to pursue this war. Is there any hope of that happening? Well, I think that there is an increased urgency in European capitals and in Brussels. In fact, I visited many of them over the last several months, including also a visit to Kyiv. And I came out of those having a sense that there really is a way forward if an agreement could not be reached that could enable Ukraine substantially on the battlefield on the front lines

and then also to help them defend against these Russian missile and drone attacks. And then also to put much more pressure on the Russian economy with further sanctions and that if more is done at a time when Russia is projected to run out of money in its National Welfare Fund next year, that's been funding their military industrial complex. If you do that and also go after those who are enabling Russia's war machine, buying its gas and oil and providing the components for its military industrial complex, I actually think there is a prospect that Putin himself might have to recognize that he needs a cessation of hostilities. There are already signs that recruiting is not as easy as it has been. If not, he would

be quadrupling or quintupling the amount of advertising he's doing overseas for recruits and so forth as well. You mentioned European nations. You've been talking to them and you detect this urgency. Do you detect that in the United States? Well, first, we should recognize that the U.S. has done that. Far more prominent in the past week or two, of course, of many of his negotiations. There are sanctions in Congress waiting to be sent to the White House when President Trump signals that. The Trump administration has tried hard to try to bring Russia to some agreement that would be reasonable, and it just does not appear that Putin wants to accept any compromise on his core objectives. Evan Davis speaking with General David Petraeus. The war in Ukraine is also

on the agenda in the Chinese capital, Beijing, where the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Officially, Beijing maintains a new stance on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. But it's been accused of supporting Moscow by buying large quantities of raw materials and selling dual-use technology to the Russians. Ukraine's allies want China to use its economic influence to pressure Russia to end the fighting.

With more, here's our correspondent in Beijing, Stephen McDonald. Emmanuel Macron is up against it in terms of getting China to act in a decisive way. And there are several reasons. One, Beijing maintains it's impartial in all of this and so they would say, well, why would we get involved? Even though the Chinese government is accused of propping up the Russian economy and also supplying spare parts for Russian war machines.

Now, a more bleak possibility is that some in the government here actually don't mind the war in Ukraine, partly because Russia's taking it up to the west and also partly because it's locking in Russian dependence on Chinese goods. China's buying all these raw materials in vast amounts from Russia because of the sanctions on the Kremlin and at the same time selling all this stuff into Russia. Now, I suppose if you were going to be very cynical about that and you're a Chinese company, you might hope that that continues into the future.

If there was to be a change of heart from the Chinese government and they really were going to use their leverage to pressure Vladimir Putin into stepping back, it hasn't emerged. in terms of what's being said publicly. We're just getting pretty much the same lines from the Chinese government in terms of its view towards the war, but I suppose you have to try. That would be the view of the French president

and he might hope that even the smallest amount of nudging from Beijing from a place that really does have influence in Moscow could potentially help bring about an end to the invasion there. But as I say, I think most observers here, serious observers think China's not likely to really act decisively on this. Stephen McDonald. Well, it's not just Emmanuel Macron on the move. Vladimir Putin begins a two-day visit to India today.

It comes as Moscow's been looking eastward for economic partners. New Delhi is trying to balance its long-standing ties with Russia amid growing pressure from the United States. Our correspondent, Davina Gupta, has been speaking. to people in India to find out how they're viewing this visit. I'm in Central Delhi and if you spend a few minutes here through the traffic and the winter smog

you'll spot rows of Indian flags orange, white, green and blue flying alongside Russia's colours of red, blue and white. These flags are dotting the street to welcome Russia's president Vladimir Putin who is visiting New Delhi for the first time since

the invasion of Ukraine. So how are people here feeling about this visit? Let's find out. I support Putin's visit to India because I believe that they've been a friend of ours for a very long time. And they've been there even when nobody else was around. When we had enemies on all sides, they supported us through all sorts of conflicts. And even most recently, they've helped us with cheap oil. So Putin's coming at a time when there's already a war going on in Ukraine.

I feel that India should take a stronger stand with Russia and carve out a week. to stop the world. India wants to be a global leader, and this visit by the Russian president shows our growing importance on the world. It will lead to better trade with Russia and benefit us. But for Indians who live through Russia's invasion of Ukraine, this visit is harder to watch.

That's 27-year-old, Deepak Kumar, who's following developments from Kazakhstan, where he now lives. Deepak was among thousands of Indian students studying in Ukraine when the conflict started. He fled his campus on a bus with fellow students, but was left behind halfway, forced to walk for two days before reaching the border to safety.

It was such a traumatic experience. I've lost money and time to complete my studies and be a doctor. I just wish that Mr. Putin stops this war in Ukraine and sends a message for peace from India. India has called for a peaceful resolution to the war, but it has also continued to buy large amounts of discounted Russian crude, which have drawn close scrutiny from Washington. Ajay Sri Vastewa is with the New Delhi-based think tank Gtri.

We were not buying much of the oil from Russia until the start of the Ukraine war in 2021. But after that, we started buying oil at a cheaper price, and we saved plenty of dollars in India. So Russia has been consistent energy supplier. We buy about 40% of oil from Russia. US President Donald Trump argues that India's oil imports help fund Moscow's war. A claim New Delhi firmly denies.

But he has now imposed steep tariffs on a wide range of Indian exports to America and also sanctioned two of Russia's largest oil refineries. India has said it will no longer import crude from those companies. If India doesn't buy oil, it makes it much easier. And they're not going to buy. They assured me they will, within a short period of time, they will not be buying oil from Russia. But analyst, Adjash Rastava, says the timing of Putin's visit indicates

not much has changed. Putin's visit signifies that India was a non-aligned or multi-aligned nation and wants to stress and give a loud message to the world that while the relationship with other big nations like U.S. or European Union, They have been changing based on trade or strategic needs of both the sides. With Russia, they were almost constant. And so on the agenda now is everything, from new defense deals to a rethink of energy ties with Moscow, all while India tries to walk their diplomatic tightrope with the U.S.

Devena Gupta in India. The former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez has made his first statement since being released from a high-security prison in the U.S. He thanked President Trump for changing his life by issuing him a pardon. Mr. Hernandez was serving a 45-year sentence in an American prison. He'd been found guilty for operating at the center of a ring which smuggled more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. However, Mr. Trump pardoned him last week,

saying he'd been the victim of what he called a Biden administration setup. From Honduras, here's our service. Central America correspondent Will Grant. From an undisclosed location in the United States, Juan Orlando Hernandez returned to his social media accounts to make his first statement since his controversial pardon and release from prison. Giving thanks first to God and then to President Trump, the ex-Honduran president reiterated his argument that he was wrongfully convicted and was, he claimed, innocent. To President Trump, who gave him a pardon on his 45-year jail sentence for drug,

smuggling and weapons charges, Mr. Hernandez wrote, You change my life, sir, and I will never forget it. He continued to repeat his claims that he was the victim of a rigged trial based on the accusations of criminals who sought revenge. There was no indication on whether he will return to Honduras, although officials say he would theoretically still face charges in his home nation if he were to come back now. Mr. Hernandez simply said he would have more to share soon.

Meanwhile, the vote count in the Honduran election continues to creep forward. The former vice president, Salvador Nasralla, has a fractional lead over the conservative candidate Nasriyasfura. However, there are still thousands of ballots left to tally, and the process has been painfully slow. Will Grant. Later in the podcast, the remains of a mysterious creature appear on a beach in Scotland. The kind of habitat where you'd normally find it, is. several days distance away, even by boat from our coastline. So in terms of how it really got here and how it washed up, it's a bit of a mystery.

It's not the Loch Ness Monster. Stay with us to find out what scientists think. Starting in early September, the United States has carried out more than 20 airstrikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. killing more than 80 people. Now, a family of a Colombian man who died in one of those military strikes has filed the first legal complaint against the Trump administration over the attacks. The petition alleges that the Colombian fisherman, Alejandro Carranza, was illegally killed in September. It's been lodged with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,

part of the Regional Forum, the Organization of American States. The U.S. says the strikes will continue, justifying the attacks as necessary to stop what it describes as narco-terrorists smuggling drugs to the U.S. Our Latin America expert Luis Farhado joined us from Miami. The family of Alejandro Carranza has accused the U.S. government of having killed Mr. Carranza, and they specifically say that the Secretary of Defense had given the order. This has, of course, created a lot of media interest in Colombia and across Latin America at a moment where a lot of people are paying attention to what is happening in the Caribbean

with the U.S. military buildup. What can you tell us about the fisherman who was killed, Alejandro Carranza, and his family? There's been a lot of controversy in Colombian media about Mr. Carranza. He was a 42-year-old fisherman living near Santa Marta, which is a port city of the Colombian Caribbean, relatively near to the border with Venezuela. And the family says that he had nothing. to do with drug trafficking. And also the Colombian government, Colombian president, Gustavo Petro,

who has had a very antagonistic relation in recent months with the U.S. government, and particularly with Donald Trump. Mr. Petro, the president of Colombia, has said that, or initially said, that Carranza was an innocent fisherman who had been killed. However, reports on confirmed reports in Colombian media have suggested that there had been a criminal investigation into Mr. Carranza a few years ago. He was alleged to have been suspected of being involved in a weapons trafficking deal. And later on, President Petro, a few weeks after his initial statement, he had said that now he thought, or the government thought, that Mr. Carranza had been forced to engage into some part of drug trafficking because of being a poor fisherman and needing

to help his family. So there's a lot of controversy. What is true is that the Colombian government has been making a very big deal out of this. They have been using even state media to highlight what they say was an injustice committed. And the lawyer, the U.S. lawyer, who is actually presenting the case to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, is the same lawyer who is helping President Petro, Colombian President Petro, defend himself of allegations of ties to illegal groups, which led to economic sanctions being imposed on him by the U.S. Treasury. How much legal weight does this case? Does this petition carry?

It has more political weight than actual legal force. This is not something that would be binding if eventually this commission's findings were against the U.S. government. Colombian media have commented that it would be part of a political strategy to highlight the case of Mr. Carranza and that eventually, and this is hypothetical, family could also try to bring his case to U.S. courts. But the actual Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, which is a multilateral organization, it does not have power to impose binding ruling. So whatever decision they make, it would not have very strong legal, rather political effects. Luis Farhado in Miami. Eighty-one-year-old Uweri Musevni is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders.

He's ruled Uganda since 1986. And he's hoping to extend his. his rule in elections next month. Now, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has accused his government of repression ahead of the vote. Volker Turk said the crackdown on the opposition and the media in Uganda included arrests, disappearances, and torture. President Musevni's main rival is the singer-turned politician Bobby Wine, who's had a massive following among young Ugandans, as Richard Hamilton explains. Hundreds of Bobby Wine's supporters line the route as his motorcade travels to a campaign rally in the north of the country.

But it's noticeable that Bobby Wine is wearing a bulletproof flack jacket and helmet. On Tuesday, he told supporters he felt he was in a war zone. He accused the governing National Resistance Movement of spending thousands of dollars disrupting his campaign with roadblocks, detentions, tear gas and even live ammunition. At least one person has died and many have been injured

in clashes with the armed forces. Intimidating opponents is not a new tactic in Uganda. For years, the veteran opposition leader Kisa Bessigay was subjected to multiple arbitrary arrests. And now the 43-year-old Bobby Wine is fighting a similar battle. As for the octogenarian president, he's taken to modern technology

to try to appeal to the youth. What you call to Gen Z, I am a former Gen Z myself. Earlier this week, young Ugandans hosted the president for a pre-election podcast called Unstoppable Uganda, but the event looked highly staged and slightly awkward. Am I allowed to ask a question also? Yes. Do I take it that Gen Z want to be softies

because for us were not softies? We are tough. That was our generation, we're emphasizing toughness. But your generation, are you going to be softies? Despite this gentle, evuncular image, Jaweri Maseveni is still showing that toughness and stamina that he acquired in the 1980s when his fighters seized power, following a grueling bush war. After the terrible years of bloodshed and depression under Idiarmine and Milton Abote, Yaweri Maseveni brought stability and prosperity to Uganda. But nearly 40 years on, the increasingly autocratic president is showing no signs of giving up or letting his rivals win.

Richard Hamilton. A California doctor who admitted supplying the Hollywood actor Matthew Perry with drugs in the weeks before he died has been sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison. Dr. Salvador Placencia is the first person to be sentenced in connection with the 54-year-old's death in 2023. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes told us about the sentencing. Dr. Placencia pleaded guilty to four counts of supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry. Technically, he could have faced 10 years for each count, but he reached a plea deal and expressed remorse for what he did. The judge opted for a sentence of 30 months, two and a half years.

after listening to relatives of Perry and the former doctor himself. He'd illegally supplied Perry with ketamine despite knowing that the actor was especially vulnerable due to a long history of addiction. Now, the medical examiner had ruled that ketamine, which is typically used as a surgical anaesthetic, that it was the primary cause of death,

although the doctor wasn't treating Perry at the time of his death. Prosecutors say he repeatedly push the actor in the weeks before to pay thousands of dollars for additional supplies. In a text message to another physician who has also pleaded guilty for his involvement, he wrote, I wonder how much this moron will pay. Peter, there were emotional scenes in court, weren't there? Matthew Perry's mother addressed the court and Salvador Placencia directly.

Yes, very emotional scenes. his mother, Suzanne Morrison, as you say, addressed the court. She told Placencia that he should have protected her son instead of profiting from his addiction. She responded to that text message saying that there was nothing moronic about her son. And she pointed out that as a doctor, someone sworn to help to heal people that Placencia had portrayed the medical oath

and had exploited her son's struggle and contributed to his death. Now, he agreed. He said he was sorry. He said he should have protected Matthew Perry. He told the family he'd failed him, that he'd failed the family, that he'd failed the community. He said, and he admitted, there was no excuse for what he did, and that his decisions had violated his responsibility as a physician. Peter Bowes in Los Angeles.

For more on one of today's big stories, you can go on YouTube. Search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose pop. and Global News Podcasts. There's a new story available every weekday. To the north of Scotland now, where the remains of a very rare deep-sea creature have washed up on a remote beach. And no, it's not the Loch Ness Monster. It's been discovered that sections of huge purple tentacles covered in rows of suckers belong to one of the largest species of octopus, which normally live hundreds of meters below the surface of the surface of the sea. Sea. Marine biologist Lauren Smith helped solve this mystery. She spoke to my colleague, James Kmarisami. So I first heard on Sunday evening, they were photographs of the arms of what turned

out to be this octopus washed up on my local beach. How many arms? It was a little hard to say, actually, because the arms were sort of, although they were large, they were clearly broken off in places. So it could have been one massive arm that was broken up, or it could have been at least two or three arms that were just in different sections. Then there was a process of trying to identify what this arm or these arms had come from, and well, that has been done, hasn't it? So I got in touch with some specialists in the field, and they were able to identify it for me, just from the photographs, actually.

Very rare, deep water species that is hardly ever seen. And you referred to it as an octopus, but it's also known as a septipus, isn't it? The common name for it is seven-armed octopus. However, I hate to disappoint, but it does actually have eight arms. Where that name comes from is the male has got a modified appendage of one of the arms, and he curls that underneath his body. It's an appendage used for mating, so he likes to keep it nice and safe, so it appears that there's only seven arms.

I don't know how much graphic detail we want to go into, but it's not just the same as the other arms then clearly. No, it's a special shaped arm that he uses with mating with the females. And rare, as you say, I mean, where do they live? They live in really deep water. The large animals of this size, you're talking about four metres. Once they're kind of adults at that size, they're usually in really deep water. So we're talking 500 metres plus depth water and in and around our North Sea.

Actually, there's only kind of one place, and it's known as the Norwegian trench. and it's all right up the way hugging the coast of Norway where in parts it gets down to around 700 metres. But generally, we don't have that depth water in our coastal waters. So how unusual is it for a creature like this to find itself washed up on the beach in Aberdeenshire?

Very, very unusual. And as far as I can tell, there's no records of it washing ashore on the mainland before. So the mystery of what this tentacle was or what it belonged to has been solved, but there seems to be another bigger mystery out there still. As to how it ended up where it did.

I mean, from other photos, we would definitely think that the entire thing, it's not just lost an arm, you know, it will be dead, unfortunately. But the truth is that the kind of habitat where you'd normally find it is several days distance away, even by boat from our coastline. So in terms of how it really got here and how it washed up, it's a bit of a mystery. And will it ever be solved? Who knows? We've salvaged the remains, and they're actually in my first.

freezer, but they're actually going to go for further testing. We've solved another mystery. What's in a marine biologist's freezer? I mean, yeah, not exactly something that you might expect. Lots of mysteries surfacing there. Marine biologist Lauren Smith speaking with James Kamarassani. 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 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 Daniel Fox, and the producer was Ed Horton. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye.