Global News Podcast - US plays down prospects of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Ukraine breakthrough not likely until President Trump meets Vladimir Putin. Also: power cuts in Sudan after drone strikes on power stations.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Chris Burrow and in the early hours of Friday, the 16th of May, these are our main stories. The United States has played down the chances of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul after the two sides failed to meet as scheduled on Thursday. More than 100 Palestinians have been reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and there have been widespread power cuts in Sudan's capital Khartoum after drone strikes on power stations.

Also in this podcast... They suspected that this gene was driving the production of lighter pigments. Instead of the darker pigment you'd get with, say, a black cat, they thought it was driving lighter pigment, but they couldn't understand why. Why some cats have orange fur and why those cats are usually male. Last week Vladimir Putin proposed the time and place for peace talks with Ukraine, May 15th in Turkey. Russia and Ukraine had been expected to meet on Thursday in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks for more than three years, but so far no meeting has taken place.

The Russian president kept everyone guessing as to whether he'd attend. Late on Wednesday it became clear that he wouldn't. A junior Russian delegation has been sent to Istanbul instead. The Russian Foreign Ministry says it's ready for serious work, but the Ukrainian president disagreed. Volodymyr Zelensky, who's been meeting the Turkish president in Ankara, says a ceasefire is his main objective. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, President of the United States of America As for the agenda, they will have a mandate, and a ceasefire is the priority. Although

I still believe that Russia continues not to treat these meetings seriously and does not want to end the war. Let us hope that they will demonstrate at least something during the meetings. The US President Donald Trump said that progress wouldn't be made until he and President Putin got together for a meeting. That was echoed by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's in Turkey. We came because we were told that there might be a direct engagement between the Russians and the Ukrainians.

That was originally the plan. You all heard the same thing. That was not to be the case, or if it is, it's not at the levels we were told that there might be a direct engagement between the Russians and the Ukrainians. That was originally the plan. You all heard the same thing. That was not to be the case or if it is, it's not at the levels we had hoped it would be at. I hope I'm wrong. I hope they have tremendous breakthrough tomorrow. I frankly do not believe that we're going to have a breakthrough here until President Trump sits face to face with President Putin and determines what his intentions are moving

forward. I heard more from our reporter in Istanbul, Emily Wither. Oh my, it has been a day of mixed messages. But it does look like there will be some talks taking place. I think the fact that we still don't know for sure when they're starting just really shows what a confusing 24 hours it has been. But Zelensky is sending a delegation headed by the Ukrainian defense minister

to meet this lower-level Russian delegation. They're currently meeting the Turkish foreign minister, Hakam Fadan. And then we also think they'll be joined by U.S. officials, including the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And, look, while this might not be the big meeting that was speculated at first here with Trump, Zelensky, and Putin,

even if these two sides sit down in a room together, it still will be very significant. These will be the first direct talks between the Ukrainians and the Russians since 2022. Who knows? Trump, in the last hour, said that he will probably return to Washington on Friday after his tour of three Gulf countries, though he also said

his destination is unknown as of yet. Okay and we had Volodymyr Zelensky saying that his defense team has a mandate for a ceasefire and to negotiate for that. What do we know about what Russians are hoping for and what perhaps their demands might be going into this? I mean we're not so sure. The Russians have said that they're ready to discuss possible compromises. We don't know what those are and also we heard from the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky earlier. He said that they are quote in a working mood And I think one of the strategies

will clearly be to show the Americans that the Russians are still serious about talks. The Ukrainians say by sending this lower level delegation, the Russians are simply stalling for time. It doesn't appear that either side is ready for any major concessions. Rubio has described the current state of the talks as a logjam

that only Trump can break. I think the US though will still be pushing for at least a 30-day ceasefire. Ukraine has already agreed to such a deal and I guess they may be hoping to get the Russians on side too. I know you just mentioned it there but how much should we really be making of the sort of junior-ness of the Russian delegation because it seems like they might still have some authority to make some decisions anyway. Yes, absolutely and we know that the delegation when they held a press conference here in Istanbul earlier they very much defended themselves. The head of that delegation said that we do have the credentials and that we are prepared

to sit down and have serious talks. So it may be that this lower-level delegation was sent as a kind of snub to the Ukrainians. I guess we're just going to have to wait and see when these talks actually start and what can be achieved. Emily Wither, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, says at least 114 Palestinians, including many children, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last 24 hours. Israel says it's targeting Hamas fighters and that it will continue with plans to expand its offensive in the coming days. Funerals have been held in Hanunis for

some of the dead. Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson reports. At Nasser Hospital in Hanunis, families were splintered again today into the living and the dead. The tiniest shrouds wrapped around the bodies of six-week-old Moaz and his big brother, Motaz, just over a year old. Two young brothers killed in airstrikes that Israel says were targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Three more of their siblings were injured. Their mother

Safa, unhurt but broken, wailed for her boys. I gave them dinner and they went to sleep, she said. It was a normal day. The little one had just woken up and I breastfed him. Then the world turned upside down. Gaza is bracing for a fresh military offensive by Israel's army. Ceasefire talks in Qatar this week have not changed those plans. But Israel is also being urged to end its 10-week blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza. It's counting on a new distribution system being built with private contractors that

Israel says will stop Hamas stealing aid. But the future distribution plan has been criticised by aid agencies as a way of reinforcing military control. And with warnings of approaching famine in Gaza, the BBC understands that a bridging solution involving international agencies is being discussed. David Mensah is a spokesman for the Israeli government. The UN needs to cooperate. Right now, they are refusing to cooperate. And the long and the short of it is they're effectively

helping Hamas stay in business. There's no famine in Gaza. There is a famine of truth. When Israel opened their gates for aid, Hamas stole it. Israel blames Hamas for Gaza's dead, but each day the dead are mounting. Medics say airstrikes killed at least 66 children over the past few days. Children are burying siblings, and adults are carrying the weight of being unable to protect. Lucy Williamson. My colleague Andrew Peach has been speaking to two doctors in Gaza

dealing with incredibly stressful situations. Dr Rami is an emergency doctor at Ul Alda Hospital in the north of Gaza. That's the hospital which took in some casualties from the latest strikes. He was joined by Dr Garda, who's doing her medical training in some of Gaza's other hospitals. And just a warning, there's some graphic detail in this conversation. Let's hear from Dr. Garda first. The medical staff, nurses, all of them are exhausted. It's very hard and difficult to see people and patients die slowly in front of your eyes. There are a lot of children, actually, cancer patients have to leave Gaza to take their treatment abroad, but actually they didn't do that because the crossings are closed.

And the most important thing we face is hunger. A lot of people didn't find food. It's very hard to say and speak. I'm sure. And just give me a visual description of what it looks like inside the hospital because I'm imagining a lot of people. Yes, I previously volunteered in Alexa Hospital in the emergency room. A lot of things terrible I see.

The pumping's everywhere and the people are crowded. And actually this staff and nurses and the medical treatments wasn't enough to give them the care so it's very hard as a doctor to see someone who needs your help but you didn't do that for him because the equipment's not available. When we spoke to medics earlier in the conflict a few months ago, it really stuck with me that we heard that doctors were working shifts of three or four days without much in the way of sleep because of course if you take a break, if you take a rest, then the queue of people needing your help gets longer. Yes, I see that in my eye. A lot of doctors didn't sleep, works 24 hours every day and they are far from their

families. So actually the situation is very terrible. I'd like to bring in Dr Rami now to our conversation. Dr Rami is an emergency doctor in northern Gaza. Give me a sense, Dr Rami, of the hospital that you're working in where you've just finished your shift. Today is actually, it was a horrible day. There is a high number of attacks happened today, especially at the north of Gaza. The hospital received a high number of people who was injured

and some people died. Today for the team, it was a hard day. And Dr. Garda has been telling us about her hospital and the overwhelming number of patients with a lack of staff, equipment, supplies. Is that the same kind of story? Today, our emergency department at the hospital north of Gaza, we received 27 patients injured from the attacks happened today until 2pm. Most of these injured people today was from the pediatric children and women.

There is not that much equipment and supplies. All Gaza, all Gaza Strip suffer from this problem. Our hospital at North Gaza have, maybe may have a special case because it's not that huge hospital. So we have a lot of supplies which will be zero on the next days. And I mentioned that you've just finished your shift. You sound exhausted, but I imagine

that's really hard to do. I mean, really hard to leave because there are still people who need your help. Yes, yes. When we left, there was maybe the ambulances went out to bring another injured people. There was a new attack. Even when I left the hospital, I am not sure that I will arrive to my home or to my family. I may be attacked or injured when just crossing the road. At this this moment may have been another attack. So me and all my friends and colleagues also left the hospital, maybe injured. So everyone of us don't know when he will be the next.

Dr Rami and Dr Gada speaking to Andrew Peach. In February, President Trump signed an executive order saying that Afrikaners, white South Africans, who are the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, were being persecuted and granted a group of them refugee status. But the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused those who have already left for the USA of being cowardly. It's our country and we must not run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems. When you run away you're a coward and that's a real cowardly act and I expect

every South African to stay here and we work together and we solve our problems. We've got the most beautiful country in the world and I can bet you they will be back soon because there's no country like South Africa. Thank you. The BBC's North America correspondent Nomya Iqbal has been speaking to one of those who's been resettled. Charles Kleinhaus arrived in Washington on Monday along with 58 other white South Africans. He's also come under scrutiny over anti-Semitic comments on social media that have since been deleted. If you're white you're wrong in South Africa.

You're a land thief, you are a racist. The whole time it's been told, and there is racist white people, plenty of them. You say you're not a racist white person? No, not at all. I've got many black friends. I think I've got more black, African black men as friends, as white friends. I'm tired of being told, just because I'm white, I'm a thief, just because I'm white, I'm wrong in this.

I had nothing to do with apartheid. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Is there anything specific that's happened, child, that made you think, I've got to get out of here? I've got to leave. After the death threats and stuff and my machinery being cut up and I'm still, after reporting everything to the police,

not getting any protection or anything like that, the only thing that's left on my farm is a sign that says mining area. All the fences has been taken off, room gates has been broken off. There are voices out there, including the South African president who has called you cowards. You've got other Afrikaners who are saying that you're not refugees, you're opportunists,

that you've abandoned the country. What would you say to those people? I had to leave a five bedroom house, which I will lose now because I'm not going to pay for it, behind my car, behind my dogs, behind my mother, behind... It is not... I didn't come here for fun, but my children are safe. What was it like when you got off the shuttle bus and came into that hangar and were greeted by the Trump administration? It was overwhelming. I didn't expect that because I thought we're going to be in a shuttle bus, taken somewhere, and we will start working.

All of us that is there, we know we're going to start here from the bottom because we are the new people here. We're going to start from the bottom, bottom, bottom, bottom. Do you ever worry that you might be caught up in some big political game here? That you're a pawn somehow. It's a scary, scary thing, but people mustn't think we're just taking advantage of this. We're coming here to make a contribution to the country.

Old tweets of yours have been dug up in which you appear to have made anti-Semitic comments, and so people are questioning, should you be here? What would you say to that? I would like them... What would that clarify? I've deleted the comment, but I was actually thinking I should have not deleted it.

If you can look where I commented on, it was passed over the Orthodox Jews, and I'm Christian, were spitting and screaming and bumping Christians walking with the cross. For me as a Christian Christian that is not acceptable. In Israel, and I went and I said something on Twitter which I copy and pasted from somebody else's page, because if you go read my post you'll see it's not the way I write.

So you had quoted someone else, I mean the quotes... I copied and pasted it. The quotes were anti-Semitic. They said Jews are dangerous people, they're untrustworthy, they're not God's chosen people. Yeah, because I was super angry. So you did it out of anger? Yeah. And I was in hospital at that point of time. I was on morphine, but that's not an excuse. Drugs are making an anti-Semite though, do they?

Even now, if I would see any person going against my religion, I will speak up against it. You have high hopes being here in America. Is there a part of you that is anxious that it might not work out? No, to be honest with you, because of my belief, I believe this is God's plan for me. Charles Kleinhaus speaking to the BBC's Nomiya Iqbal. Still to come on this podcast... I always try and rehearse worst case scenario. Maximum drag, maximum everything. The beating that he took on the wing of the plane, not just the airspeed and the particles in the air, it's like a resistance workout on steroids. It's really hard.

The Impossible Mission, how Tom Cruise walks on the wing of a plane in mid-air. There have been widespread power cuts in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and the surrounding region after drone strikes on three power stations. The Sudanese capital Khartoum and the surrounding region after drone strikes on three power stations. The Sudanese authorities accused the paramilitary rapid support forces of systematically attacking power infrastructure in the country's two-year civil war. Our correspondent Barbara Platasha is following developments from the Kenyan capital Nairobi. So this happened on Wednesday night. There were three power transformer stations located in Andaman, which is the city across the Nile from Khartoum and it's part of the capital Wednesday night there were three power transformer stations located in Omdurman

which is the city across the Nile from Khartoum and it's part of the capital region. Much of that capital region has been without electricity because of the strikes. There are some images on social media which show massive fires and the Sudanese electrical company said that they had been trying to put out the fires. They also said that the attacks or the drone strikes had affected other parts of Khartoum state as well, disrupting services quite widely. Do we know if the RSF have formally said that they're behind these attacks or is it still sort of up in the air as to who actually carried them out? Well the RSF

hasn't commented on the strikes but it is something that they have been widely blamed for and it does seem to be a shift in strategy from really focusing on gaining territory. And that is something they have been forced to do, experts say, because they have been pushed out of central Sudan in recent months, including Khartoum. So they've lost a lot of territory, but then they have come back now with these drone strikes on civilian infrastructure. I'm guessing this is being seen as an escalation. The difference with this I think is that it's affecting things like power, which

affects hospital services, it affects water supplies, treatment facilities. They can extend to quite a wide area. It was widely viewed as an escalation, the strikes on Port Sudan in particular. The drone attacks have been increasing, but this was quite another order because the RSF carried out attacks daily for a week. They hit all kinds of targets like a power station, fuel depots, a military air base, an international airport, quite strategic targets. And the fact that they were able to hit those strategic targets from positions that are hundreds of kilometers away really kind of shook people up and did sort of signal according to some experts a new phase

in the conflict and this is largely because it appears to be closing the gap between the army and the RSF when it comes to air power. Are there any signs that one side is asserting its dominance and potentially moving towards victory, or are we still very much in the central phase? There had been some suggestion after the army recaptured the capital city of Khartoum in March that this might be a turning point which would give it momentum, but the actual fact is there's been momentum on both sides going back and forth for two years and neither party has shown the ability to retake the whole of the country so I think this

latest phase if we can call it that doesn't necessarily signify that there will be a winner neither party is in a position at this point anyway to actually outright win this war. Barbara Pletasha, the head of the Ugandan army, has said that anyone who doesn't vote for his father, President Yoweri Museveni, in the next general election will be deported. It comes amid a mounting crackdown on members of the opposition ahead of the poll in January 2026. Our Africa regional editor Temezgin Debassai has the details. Our Africa regional editor Temezgin Debassai has the details. General Mujozi Kainurugaba, known for his controversial tweets, issued the warning on

X, although he didn't specify where his father's opponents might be deported to. In another post, the heir apparent to President Museveni, who has been in power for nearly four decades, said female soldiers should switch to wearing skirts, warning that anyone continuing to enforce trousers would have a very bad day. Earlier this month, the general claimed to have captured and tortured a bodyguard of opposition leader Bobby Wine. The bodyguard later appeared in court showing signs of mistreatment. A bustling Moscow metro station has unveiled a replica of a monument to Joseph Stalin, which had been removed decades ago. It's being seen as part of the Soviet dictator's rehabilitation

under President Putin, as Sasha Shlykta explains. Stalin was known for his short stature, but in this composition he is godlike, towering above adoring crowds. Taganskaya is a busy station, so the removal of the original bar relief 12 years after Stalin's death to make way for a tunnel made sense. The municipal authorities say the composition celebrates 90 years of the Moscow Metro, but as one architectural historian remarks, it's more of an ideological gesture than a genuine attempt to restore historical architectural appearance. Researchers have finally solved a mystery that's been puzzling scientists for decades

why some cats have orange fur and why those cats are usually male. Teams from Kyushu University in Japan and Stanford University in the US say it's all down to a genetic mutation that doesn't occur in any other species. I spoke to our science correspondent Esme Stallard. What they found was that in the cells that are responsible for producing pigment, there was a gene called ARHGAP36, very catchy, that was particularly active and they suspected that this gene was driving the production of lighter pigments. Instead of the darker pigment you'd get with say a black cat, they thought it was driving lighter pigment, but they couldn't understand why.

And what they found was there was a piece of DNA missing. Without this piece of genetic code, the gene was stronger and it was driving lighter pigment production. And you've got essentially the discovery that male cats have less of the suppression which means that they're more likely to be orangey ginger colour. So this gene is associated with the X chromosome so I'm sort of, everyone remembers learning about DNA back at school but effectively a male has an X and a Y chromosome so they're basic sections of DNA and this particular gene only occurs on the X chromosome so if you have that mutation so they're basic sections of DNA. And this particular gene only occurs on the X chromosome. So if you have that mutation, so you're missing that, it only needs to kind of occur once for you

to be completely ginger. Whereas female cats, like female humans, have an X X chromosome. So they almost need it to missing twice to be fully ginger. So yeah, it's also linked to sex, which is very interesting. So they have essentially a backup chance of overriding the mutation. So if one of the X's is faulty, the second X might come in and sort of get... Exactly. I see. And why do scientists think that this is an important discovery? Well, this gene is not just associated with pigment production. It's also found in the brain and and is also found in hormonal glands. So it could tell us a lot about not just temperament but also health conditions, which Daniel Warren Cummings, who is a clinical animal behaviourist with the charity Cats Protection, I was speaking

to and said he really welcomed the breakthrough because of this. Our understanding of them is really limited compared to what we should really know about them. So we don't even know if we necessarily get an inheritable diseases or issues being passed along. So yeah, any research in this area is much appreciated. The next stage of this research in cats is just to go beyond, okay, what causes it to be ginger, but also could it be affecting other things? And that's really important in terms of health care for cats and preventative care as well. We wondered if Hollywood was ahead of the game because we think most ginger cats in

films are male. Is that what you're seeing? I did some very diligent research as one should as a science correspondent and that's why I found as well. But I think it is quite, weirdly it was very well known that most ginger, I think it was an anecdotal observation maybe by society that it seemed that most fully ginger cats were male. So I guess just reflecting the reality in all of these cartoons. But I think that is why the scientists were looking at the X chromosome because they suspected that's where it was laying because so many fully ginger cats are male. So it turns out Hollywood was on the ball all along. And staying with Hollywood, the eighth and possibly last instalment of the Mission Impossible movie series

has had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and claims to include groundbreaking stunt work instead of CGI, with sequences that have never been attempted before. Director Christopher McQuarrie said the stress of shooting the stunt segments made him feel physically ill. We spoke to Wade Eastwood, the stunt coordinator for the films. This time round he was responsible for Tom Cruise walking along the wing of a plane in mid-air. I have to go through all the mechanics of the aircraft itself with a body in different positions, for example. Tom's going through all the mechanics of the aircraft as a pilot as well, because he flies it all up, you know, and does everything on his own. But I have to go through all the sort of, you know, limitations, the C of G, the, you know the center of gravity as you move out along the wing, et cetera, et cetera.

So I do all those tests with weights and dummies before we put a body on it and really see what we can do and how far we can push the envelope and still remain in control. And then we start introducing Tom and obviously a body moves differently. It opens itself to the wind more. So I always try and rehearse worst case scenario,

maximum drag, maximum everything. But the beating that he took on the wing of the plane, not just the airspeed and the particles in the air, it's like a resistance workout on steroids. It's really hard. There's always a risk. I do risk assessments and I have to weigh it up. I try and make it as safe as possible. I put the right training in place. I put the right people in place. But of course there's a massive risk, you know, the parachute doesn't open, a motorbike falls off the side of a ramp, anything happens and you're either badly broken or dead. Stunt coordinator and man with very cool name Wade Eastwood. And that's all from us now. There'll be a new edition of the Global News podcast later

on. If you'd like to comment on the podcast and the topics we're covering, do send us an email. Our address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. We're also on X at BBC World Service. You can use that hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Holly Palmer. The producers were Richard Hamilton and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Chris Barrow and until next time, goodbye.