Global News Podcast - Ukraine's Prosecutor-General resigns amid draft-dodging scandal

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Andriy Kostin said he took responsibility for a scandal in which thousands of disability certificates were issued on the basis of fake documents. Also: a hoard of British silver coins raises millions of dollars.

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Wednesday the 23rd of October these are our main stories. Ukraine's prosecutor general has resigned after the security services uncovered a massive corruption scheme involving thousands of fake documents that allowed men to avoid conscription. America's top diplomat has told Israel's leaders that the killing of the Hamas leader Yair Yassinwar presents an important opportunity to end the war in Gaza. The former boss of the fashion chain, Abba Krumbein Fivic and his partner have been arrested in the US on sex trafficking charges. Also in this podcast. Oh, my God.

We hear from a detectorist who uncovered Britain's most valuable ever treasure find, a hoard of coins nearly a thousand years old which have sold for millions. After Russia's full-scale invasion more than two and a half years ago, Ukrainians signed up in droves to fight for their country. But in recent months, as the war has dragged on, Ukrainians have been deserting in greater numbers or trying to avoid being drafted in the first place. Now a new scandal is likely to disillusion them even further, after it emerged that thousands of disability certificates had been issued based on fake documents issued

to men trying to avoid conscription. Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostyn has announced his resignation after the security services uncovered the scheme. President Zelensky addressed the situation on Tuesday in his evening message. There are numerous violations of the State Medical Assessment Commission and false disabilities for officials. It's not only prosecutors, by the way. There are hundreds of such cases of obviously unjustified disabilities among customs and tax officials, in the pension fund system and in local administrations.

All this must be dealt with carefully and promptly. With more details, here's our correspondent in Kyiv, James Waterhouse. Ukraine's mobilisation law is seen as controversial and deeply unpopular. These revelations will further erode public trust as Ukraine tries to find enough men to fight in a war with Russia which isn't going its way. After a security service investigation, it's claimed more than 4,000 disability certificates have had to be annulled after men paid to avoid conscription. Eight crime gangs have reportedly been broken up, which included 64 medical workers who allegedly colluded in the scheme. These revelations follow the seizure of $6 million from a health official

in the western Khmelnymernitsky region which angered the Ukrainian public. James Waterhouse. This comes as Ukrainian military intelligence says it's assassinated a Russian Air Force commander accused of ordering attacks that have killed dozens of civilians in Ukraine. Sasha Schlikter reports. Pictures on Ukraine's military intelligence telegram channel show the body of a middle-aged man with a head wound lying on his stomach in the dark.

The text reads, the war criminal Dmitry Gryonkov has been liquidated on Russian territory near a village bordering northern Ukraine. It adds, the body was discovered on Sunday with multiple head wounds. Then comes the warning each war crime will entail a just retribution. Kiev blamed Golinkov for ordering a series of attacks including the destruction of the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk four months into the war and for a missile strike on Dnipro last year which killed 46 civilians.

Sasha Shlykda. Well last, France became the first country in the European Union known to have granted temporary entry to six deserters from the Russian army. The BBC has since spoken to one of them. Alexander served in Ukraine as a volunteer contract soldier before leaving Russia and escaping to neighbouring Kazakhstan, where as you'll hear, he managed to make contact with the French authorities through a network of NGOs helping Russians avoid the draft, or if already serving to desert. Alexander hopes that France will grant him political asylum, as he's aware that he's a likely target of the Russian security service, the FSB. His replies to our questions were simultaneously translated by a BBC

colleague, but we've removed his voice from the recording for his own safety. James Kumrasami asked him first how he came to serve in Ukraine. I was headed for military training. I ended up in Crimea in February 2022. ended up in Crimea in February 2022, towards the 20th or 21st of February, this started to move us closer to the Ukrainian border. Nobody told us that we were going to Ukraine. When did it become obvious to you that you were taking part in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine? As soon as we crossed the Ukrainian border, which was a shock to all the military personnel,

I ran up to my command asking what I was doing here and he said just wait 10 days and it'll all be over. I was there against my will. I could not have just dropped my weapons and run towards the Russian border. I would have been shot. Did you realise that this could be a possibility when you were in Crimea? In 2022, I was in the process of resigning from the army. I wanted to change my field of work.

I didn't want to connect my future life with the military. But I have to understand the defence minister has to relieve me of my duties. All the time that I was in Ukraine, I was looking for a legal way of crossing back into Russia. But then on the 21st of September, they declared partial mobilisation. And when that happened, our contracts became open-ended and it was impossible to sever them. So you fled Russia and you arrived in Kazakhstan. How easy was it to escape? I could travel there using what's known in Russia as an internal passport. I didn't have a passport that allowed me to travel outside of Russia. I knew that I would be

a wanted man in Kazakhstan because there's a treaty between Russia and Kazakhstan on the extradition of criminals. A working group was set up comprising several NGOs such as Roussi Liberté take a hike in the forest, the Kazakh rights movement, and together they managed to get in touch with the French government telling them that we needed help. At that time, Western countries were very afraid that FSB agents would be sent to them posing as Russian deserters. So these NGOs, they established a protocol for verifying us. How did it feel when you were accepted to come to France on this temporary basis? I could breathe again. I felt I was a free man again after all that time. I felt that I was a free person not limited in anything.

But you are a deserter from the Russian army and you know how the Kremlin views you. Do you really feel safe even in France? Currently, I feel safer here than I did in Kazakhstan, but I understand that I will not be able to achieve full security. But I have decided to promote the cause of deserters because I think attitudes to these people, they need to change. They've made their choices. They've decided against shedding Ukrainian blood. They know they're facing risks. They know that criminal cases will be launched against them, that their houses will be searched, that their parents will be questioned. They know that they will not be able to come home anytime soon. So these people need help.

A Russian deserter, Alexander, speaking to the BBC. Well, Vladimir Putin is hosting a summit of more than a dozen world leaders to try to show the West that far from being isolated after his invasion of Ukraine, an emerging coalition of countries stands behind him and Russia. The BRICS annual summit is being held in the Russian city of Kazan. Steve Rosenberg reports. There's nothing quite like hosting a summit to show you have plenty of friends. In Kazan

today Vladimir Putin greeted one world leader after another. More than 20 heads of state and delegations from 36 countries have flown in for the BRICS summit of emerging economies. Not all these countries are BRICS members, but for Putin, the more guests, the more handshakes, the merrier, as he tries to show that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war on Ukraine have failed. China's Xi Jinping is here. So are Prime Minister Modi of India and President Ramaphosa of South Africa, who have chosen to be in Kazan rather than at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa. The Kremlin sees BRICS very much as a tool to help reshape

the global order and reduce the dominance of Western economies. Keen to ease the pressure from sanctions, it wants BRICS to agree a new cross-border payment system that doesn't depend on the US dollar. But like-minded souls, the BRICS nations are not. There are divisions, disagreements between India and China, Egypt and Ethiopia. And up till now, forging a common approach has proved difficult. Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg. Thousands have died and millions have been displaced

since the civil war erupted in Sudan 18 months ago between the army and a rival paramilitary force, the RSF, with no end in sight to this under-reported conflict. In latest violence, local activists say more than 50 people have been killed since Sunday. One particularly horrific attack on a mosque in the central city of Wad Madani killed more than 30 worshippers. The activists say the army used barrel bombs and rescuers were unable to identify many of the dead, so badly charred were their bodies. Our reporter, Kalkiidani Beltel, whose monitoring events from Ethiopia, told us more about the mosque attack.

It's very difficult to get clear information from Sudan, so we're relying on information coming out from local activists. Some of the details that we provided came from a local activist group in Wodmadani. This is a city located in central Sudan, which is a capital of Al Jazeera state. And it seems that there had been an attack, which these activists are accusing the army of carrying out. And it happened on Sunday when people attended a mosque and then they were finishing their prayers. And they said that barrel bombs were used.

And because of that several people were killed. They're providing the number 31. There are fears that that number could grow. Several people still are unidentified and this is coming in the backdrop of particularly intensifying attacks in that state and around that state in the past few days. There seems to be a lot of outside involvement, which we don't often report on because we are hearing about outside powers, particularly in the Middle East, backing the rival sides. Yes, that's right. For quite some time now, the Sudanese army and other rights groups have been accusing particularly the United Arab Emirates of somehow being involved on

the side of the rapid support forces. There have been a number of reports saying that the UAE had been arming the rapid support forces, which is one of the fighting groups in Sudan. But the Emirati authorities often deny these accusations. And there have been calls particularly on the US, which is also one of the allies of the UAE to put pressure on the Emirati authorities so that they can refrain, restrain from supplying particularly weapons for the RSF. And Kalkan, we're hearing about Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia, other countries backing the

army or other sides. Why are these outside powers involved in Sudan? Yes, I mean, you know, particularly the army feeling that their rivals have been backed by the UAE. They were going to several places to find support. There were reports that they were seeking support from the Iranian authorities. There are also reports that the Russians might have been involved, particularly considering that there is this lucrative gold reserves in Sudan. So it seems that quite a number of regional forces are involved in this clash, which could

explain its intensification rather than the de-escalation that we're seeing. Khakidan Yabeltal. The former head of the fashion giant Abercrombie and Fitch and his partner have been arrested on sex trafficking charges, along with a third man in the United States. The FBI opened an investigation last year after the BBC revealed claims that Mike Jeffreys and his British partner Matthew Smith sexually exploited and abused men at events they hosted in their New York residences and hotels around the world. Lawyers for both men have previously denied any wrongdoing. Here's the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace.

The message from today's prosecution is clear. Sexually exploiting vulnerable human beings is a crime and doing so by dangling dreams of a future in fashion or modelling or any other business is no different. Also at the news conference was James Dennehy from the FBI field office in New York. In short these individuals are charged with running a prostitution, an international sex trafficking business using a combination of force, fraud and coercion to induce victims into participating in their illegal operations. The alleged behaviour occurred here in New York City and in multiple countries worldwide.

Mike Jeffries has been released from custody on a $10 million bond while his partner Matthew Smith was ordered to be detained. James Jacobson, who was accused of acting as a middleman, was released on a bond of half a million dollars. Their arrests followed an investigative report by the BBC's Rihanna Croxford. So last year, a BBC podcast and documentary revealed allegations that Mike Jeffries had exploited young men for sex at events he hosted around the world. Several men came forward speaking out for the first time to say that they had been abused. Now we found these events were held in major cities, here in London, in Marrakech, in Paris, in Venice, over several years. And we also found that Mike Jeffries and his partner,

Matthew Smith, were at the centre of a highly organised operation involving a middleman. And now, a year on since we published, today they're facing criminal charges accused of running an international sex trafficking business. A lawyer for Mike Jefferies has basically said they're not going to respond to these allegations to the media, they'll do so in the courthouse. But all day I have been hearing from sources who I've been speaking with for the past three years,

many of the men affected, many of whom have also spoken to the authorities, have said that they feel shocked, humbled that these allegations have been treated seriously. For years they felt silenced by shame, they felt silenced by non-disclosure agreements. And now they feel empowered that their voices have led to real accountability. And all they hope is that more men come forward. Rhianna Croxford, and you can listen to the podcast World of Secrets, the Abercrombie Guys in full on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Still to come? Basically, we are going from being a remote area to being an Arctic hub where you have access from anywhere in the world.

Greenland, could this be an up and coming holiday destination? If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. America's top diplomat has urged Israel to use the killing of the Hamas leader Yair Yassin Wah to push for peace in Gaza. Anthony Blinken met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on what was his 11th visit to Israel since the start of its war with Hamas last year. Our correspondent, Vera Davis, reports from Jerusalem. Vera Davis In a summary of his two and a half hour meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the American Secretary of State's spokesman said he underscored the need to capitalise on Israel's success in bringing the former leader of Hamas to

justice. It was a point that Secretary Blinken repeated before his subsequent talks with Israel's President Isaac Herzog. I believe very much that the death of Sinwar does create an important opportunity to bring the hostages home, to bring the war to an end and to ensure Israel's security. And that's exactly what our conversations today focused on with our Israeli colleagues. Mr. Blinken, who's known to be concerned about the humanitarian impact of Israel's military offensive in northern Gaza, also emphasized the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. But from the Israeli side of the meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, a different summary of

the meeting's priorities. It highlighted the threat from Iran and the need for both countries to join forces against it. While Mr. Netanyahu's office thanked the United States for its support against Iran, perhaps referencing the recent delivery of American anti-missile systems, no mention was made of a ceasefire or the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We're a Davis. Meanwhile harrowing accounts are emerging from Gaza itself as civilians flee repeated attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.

Israel doesn't allow international journalists independent access into Gaza. But civilians there have told the BBC that the Israeli bombardments have left bodies strewn on the streets, and some of those trying to escape have left children behind in the panic and confusion. Hossam Abu Safir, who's director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia, said the situation there was desperate. The health situation has completely collapsed.

The world must act immediately to secure a safe humanitarian corridor to provide blood, supplies, medicine, equipment and medical staff. Or the wounded will die in the coming few hours. The world must understand what is happening now in the Northern Gaza Strip. It's clear that we are witnessing a real massacre against those present. Christopher Lockyer is the General Secretary of the charity Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF and spoke to Eben Davis about the conditions that doctors and patients are facing in Gaza. It's horrific what we're hearing from northern Gaza at the moment.

We have five colleagues who are trapped in the Jabalia refugee camp with their families and they're witnessing this inhumanity at first hand. They're terrified and they're fearing for their lives as they have every right and reason to be. We lost a colleague from Shatner rooms just a couple of days ago. So what we're seeing is a horrific airtight siege in northern Gaza, which can amount to nothing less really than a collective punishment of the Palestinians stuck in that part of the Gaza Strip. And you're using the word siege. Israel denies it's preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. What is getting in? Is it meaningful to talk of aid getting into northern Gaza in particular? It's absolutely not meaningful to talk about aid getting into northern Gaza in particular,

but looking at Gaza as a whole, it's really a trickle of humanitarian assistance that is getting in. And this is not true is not true that there is aid getting in, there is not enough aid getting in. In fact, this narrative of aid coming into Gaza is being used as a way of instrumentalizing humanitarian assistance and ensuring that the war can or does continue. Let me give you a couple of examples

in some of our field hospitals. We've had to reduce the frequency of changing dressings from once a day to once every three days. A field hospital, which after a cyclone we could set up in three days, has taken us over three months to set up and is still lacking in supplies. But it's also a question which is much greater than simply bringing supplies in because once you've got supplies into the Gaza Strip, it's also about moving them around, about having staff who are able to treat patients,

who are mentally well enough to treat patients, are fed, are able to be sure that their families are okay in Gaza, which is not something that anybody can guarantee at the moment. So suppliers not getting in, it's been systematically stepped down since October the 7th and then again after the Rafah crossing was closed a few months ago. And it's simply entirely inadequate to be able to run a humanitarian response in somewhere like Gaza at the moment. Christopher Lockyear from Medecins Sans Frontières. Turning now to the situation in Lebanon, the

Israeli army says it's confirmed the death of a senior Hezbollah leader who was seen as a likely successor to Hassan Nasrallah when he was assassinated last month. It had been previously thought that Hashim Sufidine was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Dahir neighborhood of Beirut earlier this month. But this announcement is the first official word from the Israeli army. Emre Nader reports from Beirut earlier this month. But this announcement is the first official word from the Israeli army. Emre Nader reports from Beirut. As chairman of Hezbollah's executive council, a religious cleric and cousin to the late Hassan Nasrallah, it was widely seen that Heshem Safi'a Deen was a natural heir to

lead the organisation following Israel's assassination of Nasrallah in late September. But within a week of Nasrallah's death, numerous sources began reporting that Hezbollah had lost contact with Heshem Safi-Edin during a round of Israeli airstrikes on the Dahya neighborhood in Beirut in early October. Hezbollah didn't publicly comment on the speculation, but days later Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel knew it had killed Safi-Edin, only to be contradicted by the Israeli army a few hours later who said they couldn't confirm. The Israeli army is now confirming that it has killed Safi Adin alongside a number of other commanders

including Ali Hassan Hazima, head of Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters. Ameer Nader in Lebanon. Sweden is renowned for the high quality of its health care, but it's now reeling from a scandal that has shocked the country. A hospital has admitted that dozens of female patients have had their uteruses removed unnecessarily in the past two years. Stephanie Zachrisson reports. The 33 women aged between 38 to 85 underwent hysterectomies during 2023 and 2024. They were all recommended the procedure after being told they had pre-cancerous cells, a precursor to uterine cancer. But the hospital has found that the women should

never have had the surgeries. After seeing an unusual increase in cases and a higher rate than the national average, it launched a review earlier this year and found that there had been a systemic overdiagnosis of patients. Johan Lundgård, the chief medical officer at the Akademiska hospital in Uppsala County, told Swedish radio that he was deeply sorry. This is obviously really awful. Something like this should never happen. But it has and now we have to try to rectify those mistakes. A hysterectomy is a major surgery that takes on average up to six to eight weeks to recover from and patients are advised not to carry anything heavy or engage in strenuous physical

activity several months after. If the ovaries have been removed, the patient also experiences an artificial menopause, which may result in symptoms such as hot flushes and anxiety. So how could all of these women have been misdiagnosed? The hospital says that the assessments of the tissue samples from the patients have been mis- or over-interpreted, that the pathologists have had a better safe than sorry approach when diagnosing the women. But when external specialists were called in to review the cases, they were unable to recreate the diagnoses. The Swedish Health Minister, Akko Ankeberg Johansson, calls it a horrible revelation from the hospital.

I'm glad the review found these mistakes, but the consequences for these women are long standing. There have obviously been failures and it's a stark reminder of the importance of never cutting corners when it comes to patient safety. The hospital says the affected women have been contacted and will be given a chance to apply for compensation for wrongful treatment. Stephanie Zakrason. Now, how about this is a new holiday destination. Greenland, an international airport, will soon open in the capital, Nuuk, allowing larger aircraft to land there and paving the way for direct flights from the US from the first time. Officials hope this

will boost the local economy by making the Arctic territory more accessible than ever before. Andrew Peach spoke to Michael Binzer, chair of the board at Polar Seafoods, the largest privately owned fishing company operating in Greenland. So what will this airport mean first of all for business? I think it opens up a ton of opportunities for Greenland. Basically we are are going from being a remote area to being an Arctic hub, where you have access from anywhere in the world. And we just see the impact of the routes going into Nuuk.

Like United Airlines just announced that they were actually gonna open route next summer. So it's gonna open up a ton of opportunities for Greenland. And your company, Polar Seafoods, you catch prawns, you steam and shell them, and there's also shrimp and crab and halibut, and it presumably opens up new markets for those products. What we primarily do right now with the logistics we have in place is frozen products, primarily shipped to Asia. Of course, we also have UK as a pretty big market But less after you you left the EU

But it opens up a new market for the first kind of seafood and it strikes me It's actually gonna have quite an impact on Greenland as a place because not only would it mean more international business Opportunities for companies like yours, but also it'll mean many more people coming to Greenland, which is in a way good for the economy But also will totally change the nature of it. Yeah, it's a two-edged sword. On one hand, you have a ton of opportunities also, as you say, in tourism growth and interconnectivity and being closer to the world and also have a different outlook to the world for the people living in Greenland, going from a remote place to a more kind of like interconnected world. But at the same time also represents a lot of challenges in terms that the development might go a little bit too fast. We've seen that, especially in the Faroe Islands,

where we've seen tourism almost took over in at least the last five years and also gives some different impact on the nature. And we have very delicate nature in the Arctic. Michael Binzer from the Polar Seafoods Fishing Company in Greenland. The next Commonwealth Games is going to be a slimmed down affair. The Scottish city of Glasgow stepped in to host the 2026 Games after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out because of rising costs. A reduced programme has now been announced. There'll be 10 sports, including athletics, cycling, boxing, judo and bowls.

But no diving, badminton, squash or shooting. Lisa Atkin plays squash for Scotland and says the sports omission is a huge disappointment. Generally just being able to show the young Scottish juniors how great our sport is and what they can achieve as athletes if that's what they choose to do, it's disappointing that we're not going to get that opportunity but we're included in the LA Olympics for a reason and that's because our sport is a tremendous one and it proves to be quite the spectacle so it's disappointing that they haven't been able to necessarily see that themselves.

The chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Katie Sadlier, said the organisers wanted to create a more sustainable model rather than trying to be a mini-Olympics. I recognise that it is disappointing for international federations and athletes. All our sports are really important to us. Every time you run a different game, you have a different make-up of sports that are on the programme. This is a compact programme and it's been necessitated in terms of the time frame that we have to develop a world-class event. This is definitely not a precedent in terms of which sports will be on the programme in the future. Well, the organisers of the Commonwealth Games have struggled to find willing hosts for years.

Our sports editor, Dan Roane, considers the competition's future. The biggest multi-sports event Scotland's ever hosted, Glasgow 2014, was regarded by many as a successful Commonwealth Games, with memorable moments and leaving a legacy of new venues. But the streamlined version that will return here in 2026 will look and feel very different. After the withdrawal last year of the original hosts, the Australian state of Victoria, a scaled back Games was always likely. Glasgow came to the rescue, but only after the Scottish government was assured that no public funding would be required.

Organisers claim the event will still generate £150 million for the local economy, with half a million tickets made available. But that will be of little consolation to the sports excluded from the slimmed down programme and there are fears that the next Games will be a shadow of its former self. Birmingham staged a popular edition two years ago but only after it had to step in when Durban pulled out as hosts. The event's links with Empire, scrutiny about the relevance of the Commonwealth and concerns about how much of a priority it is for some top athletes mean debate about the game's

viability will continue. But supporters believe Glasgow's smaller format can still be special and provide a sustainable blueprint that helps attract future hosts beyond the event's centenary in 2030. Dan Rowan, staying in Britain, a huge hoard of silver coins dating back nearly a thousand years and uncovered in a soggy field five years ago by a group of metal detectorists has been sold for more than five and a half million dollars. More than 2,500 coins were unearthed and they've now become the highest value treasure find ever in England. Harry Bly reports on what's become known as the

Chew Valley Hoard. In 2019, Adam Staples and his friends were testing a new metal detector in the Choo Valley in the county of Somerset. It was actually my friend who dug the first coin up. He said, I found a silver coin and I went over, had a look at it and I was able to identify it as a penny of William the Conqueror, a very rare coin. And this silver coin was just the first of many. And after a few minutes of looking at the coin and taking photos, we started to walk away and got signals immediately under our feet. Oh, my God. There's pennies everywhere. Yeah, still getting 16, 17 in there.

Next to where the first coin was found. And, yeah, just led to more and more coins. next to where the first coin was found and yet just led to more and more coins. 2,583 more coins, most of which were pennies, depicting both William the Conqueror and King Harold the Second. Knowing the coins would be valuable, Adam says after digging them up, he was nervous to leave them in his car. After the field, we went immediately to the pub where we all sat in the pub nursing a pint, looking out the window at the car that was full of coins worth millions of pounds. So it was a relief to finally drop them off at the British Museum and get them into their

custody. The coins will be displayed next month at the British Museum in London, where experts and curators have been examining the hall and learning more about their history. One of those experts is the head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure, Michael Lewis. They're very rare coins in themselves but they're also very very important because they're adding new knowledge to the monetary system of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England. The hoard is thought to have been buried in the aftermath of the Norman conquest in around 1068 or 9, a time where there were

many rebellions against William the Conqueror's rule. As for why they were left in the ground. They didn't have banks, so people had to store money somewhere and it seems that they never really came back for it. Maybe they got killed or something like that. Perhaps even they just forgot where they buried it, which obviously would have been a nightmare, a bit of a disaster for them. Back then, these coins would have had the purchasing power to buy around a hundred sheep. Now, almost a thousand years later, they're worth a lot more. The Hall of Coins has been bought by the South West Heritage Trust for 5.5 million dollars. The money has been split between the

owner of the land where the coins were found and the other half between the seven detectorists who made the discovery. And you can see images of those coins on the BBC News website. That report was by Harry Bly. And that's all from us for now. But before we go, here's my colleague, Nick Miles, with a request. Hello. I am hosting a special edition of the Global News podcast ahead of the UN's climate change conference, which starts next month.

We want you to send in your questions for our experts to answer, anything climate related and what the world is doing to try to address the problem. We've already had lots of questions in, some from Brazil about how much pressure companies are under to meet their emissions targets. And several of you want to know three simple things we can do to reduce our own carbon footprint. Just send us a voice note with your question to globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. Thanks very much.

And you can also email this address if you want to comment on this podcast. That's globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producer was Liam McShepard, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from

History to Comedy to True Crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads All ad free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.