Global News Podcast - US sends diplomats to Syria

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

US diplomats are visiting Syria to hold talks with the new de facto leader. Also: a new attempt to find the wreckage of missing flight MH370, and a controversial new TV game show, Beast Games.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Are we not fighting for us? Just for the people back home? Purple Heart Warriors. Listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and at 14 Hours GMT on Friday the 20th of December, these are our main stories. In the first such visit in more than a decade, U.S. diplomats are in Syria for talks with its new Islamist rulers. Malaysia authorises a fresh attempt to find the wreckage of MH370,

the plane that mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago. A BBC investigation reveals that nearly four years after Myanmar's military sparked a civil war with a coup, it now controls less than a quarter of the country. Also in this podcast... Welcome to VSCARS. We've got the most players. Also in this podcast, a new game show with a five million dollar prize. But what's the catch? We begin in Syria. The Islamist rebels who toppled Syria's dictator this month are designated a terrorist group by the United States. But that hasn't stopped President Biden sending top U.S. diplomats to Damascus to hold talks

with Syria's new rulers, the first such visit in more than a decade. This comes as the leader of the Islamist rebels, Abu Mohammed al-Jilani, who now uses his birth name, Ahmad al-Sharah, has urged Western countries to lift their sanctions on Syria. Turkey, which backs the Syrian rebels, has also called for the lifting of the sanctions. And its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says his country will help Syria draft a new constitution. Our Middle East regional editor, Mike Thompson, says the Americans are expected to ask the HTS leaders for commitments on inclusivity and protection for Syria's many ethnic and religious groups.

I think basically it's going to be that Ahmed al-Sara is going to do what he says because he's talked about having an inclusive government and protecting the rights of minorities, ethnic and religious groups. But is he going to do that? Particularly will he do that when he gets what he wants in terms of the government and recognition from the outside world? I suppose a clue to what he will do, whether his actions will match his words, would be to see his record in Idlib where HTS have governed since 2016. Well that's right, yes I mean

it's not a bad record in many ways because HTS set up various ministries there and they govern the place reasonably well I think in the eyes of many, but it was quite an authoritarian regime. Many opponents, critics were imprisoned, there were demonstrations, some earlier this year against HTS and running an area like Idlib is very different from running an entire country like Syria which is much, much, much more complicated and difficult of course. Our international editor Jeremy Burns spoke to the leader of HTS, Ahmed Al-Sharain. He was keen to point out that under his role in Idlib, 60% of university graduates were women. So that's a positive sign.

Yes, yes it is. And he's pushed that quite strongly that women's rights will be respected. But we had on Thursday a demonstration in Damascus because a senior official from HTS has said that women's biological and psychological nature makes them unfit for certain jobs and that caused a lot of anger and a big demonstration on Thursday and that wasn't the only issue there were other civil rights issues as well. Mike Thompson well as he was referring to there many in Syria are nervous about whether the country's new rulers will deliver on their promises of inclusivity and protection

for Syria's diverse array of ethnic and religious groups and its women. One person who has raised these concerns directly with HTS is Amash Nalbandian, head of the Christian Armenian Diocese of Damascus. He spoke to Luke Jones. A week ago the bishops here in Damascus, we met a representative from this new government who is in charge of religious denominations and communities. And we asked about our rights, our demands. And it was a huge and beautiful promises that everything will be good and we can have a freedom of practicing our faith and rights. Do you trust them to follow through with those promises? Actually, it is very early to say that. Honestly, I don't have trust yet.

who say that, honestly, I don't have trust yet. You know, we heard from our people and faithful that in many places, some people from this new government or from this group demand that the woman should cover their head or the alcohol would be prohibited. So it is actually something that makes huge concerns among the people. But we as bishops, leaders of the churches, we say this is of course important, but we will not stay on these small things, we are more concerned how would be written the new constitution. And in this high level negotiations, we want to be included and our voice be heard. There have been some reports of some minorities already leaving the country. Is that happening? As they took over in Aleppo, many families, Syrians,

Christians, and Armenians too, they left their homes to other cities. And some of them took the way to Lebanon. But after we saw that is nothing dangerous, many of them, they return to their homes and houses. I will say for the credit of this HDS group or new government that we are living a kind of normalization that everyone is going to his job, to his store, and we opened the schools. Just we are waiting how the international community will accept this. And if yes, we are going to try to have our position

in this new society, in this new government. Danielle Pletka Syrian Bishop Amash Nalbandian. A BBC investigation has revealed that the Burmese military now only has full control of less than a quarter of the territory in Myanmar, nearly four years after seizing power in a coup. A patchwork of resistance groups and ethnic armies now have full control over more than 40% of the country, and the rest is mostly contested. For over a year, BBCI has been

following one of the rebel units and has found that spies in the military are helping them. Rebecca Henschke reports. In a jungle camp near the Thai-Myanmar border, pro-democracy rebel commander Dewa watches over his troops training. We rallied peacefully on the streets. They cracked down on us. So we tried to protect ourselves. Later, we thought armed struggle was the only way

to counter those who were wielding weapons. That's why we fought back. He's got a thin physique and wears studious glasses. Definitely doesn't look like the image of a rebel fighter. Later, Dewey lies in a hammock under some trees at the side of their makeshift camp, and picks up his phone, one of his key weapons in the war. He's talking to a spy, a soldier in the Yangon region. They're known as watermelons, green on the outside,

appearing to be loyal to the regime, but inside red, working for the pro-democracy uprising. Watermelons are vital. Through them we know the enemy's positions, movements, strengths and plans. And we prepare our military operations using that. As well as ordinary troops, Dewo also controls underground cells in Yangon that are carrying out targeted attacks against the regime. He makes another call. This time it's to one

of his cells in Yangon. We're not given the details but it's clear they're planning an assassination. We will do it inside the enemy's security parameters. The target is a colonel. While the underground cell makes plans, Dewa is moving his ground unit. He's received a While the underground cell makes plans, Dehua is moving his ground unit. He's received a tip-off from a watermelon about a security post near a strategically located bridge. We have been told about their capabilities, where their reinforcements will come from and which route they will use to withdraw.

Dehua deploys his men on the opposite side of the bridge over a fast-flowing river. Sandbags are put in place and snipers position themselves. Come quickly and join the people. You have no way to escape their yell. At night on the 10th day they make a final push using a drone to target the security post. It goes up in flames. They claim to have killed more than 30 soldiers. The regime are aggressively trying to reclaim lost territory and are carrying out sweeps looking for watermelons.

If caught, they would likely be killed. But this frontline watermelon says it's worth the risk. For security reasons, his words are being voiced by an actor. We are meant to protect civilians, but now we are killing our people. It's no longer an army. It's a force that is terrorising our people. I'm angry. My anger is bigger than my fear. A spy for the rebels, ending that report by Rebecca Henschke. The Burmese military did not respond to our request for an

interview. Ten years ago this announcement by Malaysia Airlines made headlines around the world. Malaysia Airlines confirmed that this flight MH370 lost contact with with Subang air traffic control at 2.40am this morning." It was the start of one of the great mysteries in aviation, the disappearance of flight MH370 in March 2014. The plane, with more than 230 people on board, was on its way from Malaysia to China when it simply vanished from radar screens. While some debris from the aircraft did eventually wash up on islands in the Indian Ocean, the plane itself has never been found.

And the search was abandoned in 2018. But now the Malaysian authorities have authorised a fresh attempt to find out what happened. The Transport Minister Anthony Lok confirmed that a private company would carry out the search. The cabinet has agreed in principle to accept the proposal from Ocean Infinity United Kingdom to proceed with sea-based search operations to locate the wreckage of Flight MH370 in a new area estimated at 15,000 square kilometers in the southern Indian

Ocean. This endeavor will be based on the no-fine, no-fee principle. Our Asia-Pacific regional editor, Mickey Bristo, told us more. It was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing overnight, regular five and a half hour flight, but shortly after takeoff the plane veered, instead of going northeast, it veered westwards over the Malay Peninsula and then contact was lost with it. Initially the search focused around the area where it had been lost but then it became clear that the plane had actually continued to fly thousands of kilometers off the route which it was intended to fly and

it ended up in the Indian Ocean where investigators believe it had crashed. Initially there was a search there firstly by the governments of Malaysia, China and Australia that was over a vast area, 120,000 kilometers that ended. There was then a second search by the company Ocean Infinity. That didn't find anything and so that stopped and the investigation appeared to have died down and as you suggested there a great aviation mystery because so many people on board, so little knowledge about what could have happened to the plane. Why was it over the Indian Ocean? Why did it get there? So those questions remained. That's perhaps why the investigation has been reopened.

Well, I was going to ask you that because given that there's been such vast, extensive searches in the past that have gone on for years, why are they trying again to find this wreckage in this vast expanse of water? I think a couple of reasons. I think since the last search there's been a lot of work done on actually trying to take the information we do know about the plane to try and pinpoint more accurately where indeed investigators think that it crashed. And if you listen there to the Transport

Minister from Malaysia, he suggested that this new area was 15,000 square kilometres. It sounds a big area, but it's far smaller than the initial search area. So I think they feel now they've pinpointed the area where the plane crashed. Also, there's, as you can imagine, real pressure from the families to try and find out what went on. So the Malaysian government knows that and now it's got this fresh information. I think it's keen to try and look once again to try and find this plane. Mickey Bristow. Still to come in the podcast, diamonds, a girl's best friend?

It just looks like a tiny piece of glass. So if you would see it on the street, you wouldn't even bother picking it up because it really does look unspectacular. These ones may not sparkle, but they could revolutionise battery technology. Hello, Jackie Leonard here from the Global News Podcast. Did you know there is an easy way to get new episodes automatically? Whether it's the Global News podcast or indeed any of your other favourite BBC World Service podcasts, just find the show on your podcast app and then just click follow or subscribe. And if you switch on notifications, you'll get a reminder too. It's that easy. Follow or subscribe subscribe and never miss an episode. billion dollars in the years ahead of the fall while top managers were paid performance bonuses of more than 44 billion dollars. In the end the Swiss

government forced a takeover by the country's other big bank UBS. Our Geneva correspondent Imogen Fowkes told us more about the collapse and the inquiry into it. Regarding the collapse Credit Suisse before the takeover had been in trouble it was known it was in trouble or not doing well anyway, making losses for quite some time. But it appears that nobody outside of the bank itself really, really understood how serious it was, except the rest of the world, except the world's financial markets, which were going into freefall, if you remember, in the days before this

forced takeover so much so the Swiss government had to meet over the weekend while the markets were closed and announced this forced takeover late on a Sunday night. So the report today as you said in your introduction, mismanagement, very risky financial strategies, overexposed to some dodgy financial deals and complacent management and it appears very greedy management with those big bonuses. Where the report does offer some support is it says that the government itself was not particularly at fault and that Switzerland's financial regulator, though it tried, was simply not strong enough

to avert this crisis. But this seems to be something that happens over and over again. We had the big global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 when the banks were heavily criticized for risky behavior and greed and now it seems the same thing has happened again. I mean how damaging could this potentially have been if the government hadn't intervened and forced this takeover? I think we were talking, if you remember, of another financial meltdown like 2008. Let's not forget Credit Suisse is a huge bank, not just in Switzerland, but globally,

has had its finger in many, many, many financial pies. And a big bank failing like that, as we saw with Lehman Brothers in 2008, affects the entire global financial system, which is why the government forced this takeover. I think I wouldn't underestimate the disillusionment of Swiss citizens about this because they had to stump up in 2008 for a bailout of the other big Swiss bank, UBS. They thought Credit Suisse was the more staid and reliable one until, you know, spring of 2023 when again a massive, massive spotlight on Switzerland for all the

wrong reasons, you know, they have a reputation for reliability, gone. And now two huge banks they were proud of, now just one. A lot of responsibility resting on UBS's shoulders, I think. Imogen folks in Geneva. Russia's meat grinder tactics in its war in Ukraine are estimated to have lost it tens of thousands of soldiers. To try to boost its numbers and to end an embarrassing Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region, the Kremlin has since October brought in troops from the most isolated country in the world, North Korea. And it seems that they too are dying in large numbers. At least a hundred North Korean soldiers have been killed and another

thousand wounded fighting Ukrainian troops, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service. Our sole correspondent, Gene McKenzie, has spoken to three North Korean army defectors to get their insight into the soldiers forced to fight in Russia and what conditions are like for them. In propaganda videos, soldiers from North Korea's elite special forces are seen wading through frozen rivers topless, smashing blocks of ice with their bare hands. smashing blocks of ice with their bare hands. The regime showcases them as the toughest of the tough. But according to Han-oh, who served as a front-line soldier in the demilitarized zone, that's

not the reality. Han-oh, Han-oh, Han-oh After our training, nearly everyone ended up suffering from severe malnutrition, and we had to be sent to recovery center to regain weight. Even the special forces soldiers looked weak and frail. How much military training did you get? We spent most of our time practicing aiming our weapons. We only had one live shooting practice. I've come to meet another defector, Song Hyun, who escaped fairly recently, in 2019. He says that although the special forces do get some more advanced training, they're not

front-line soldiers. The mission of these special forces is to infiltrate enemy lines and create chaos within enemy territory. They're trained to carry out very specialized tasks like assassinations. How well do you think they're going to be able to adapt to fighting a war in Russia and Ukraine? They might lack fighting skills, but I think they'll be more willing to fight than the Russian troops. A lot of these soldiers will have wanted to go to Russia. Serving in the North Korean military is practically like being in a war zone. This gives them a chance to experience life abroad."

While it's unlikely these troops will turn the tide of this war, they give Vladimir Putin much-needed manpower, and all the North Koreans I've spoken to say it would be a mistake to dismiss them as just cannon fodder. Their loyalty to Kim Jong-un will count for a lot. I asked Han-el what this means for Ukrainian and South Korean hopes that many of them will simply defect. I think the chances are close to zero. And if a soldier shows any sign of defection, it's likely they'll be shot immediately." Because of this strict discipline, Sun-hyung thinks it's unlikely many soldiers will even

be captured. SON HYEONG, Sniper, North Korea In North Korea, becoming a prisoner is considered worse than death. There is even a military song which says, save the last bullet, to shoot yourself with. But despite the risk, a group of former North Korean soldiers is hoping to persuade some to surrender. This is a message recorded by the defector Lee Hyun-seung, who used to train special forces. Comrades, we've been deceived, he says. There is a new path ahead. Lee hopes this message can be played to the men on the front line.

I thought that the familiar voices, like my voice and other voices from North Korea, can impact their mindset. If they convince 10,000 North Korean soldiers, they can create a division between North Korea and North Russia. So talking about 10,000 soldiers defecting, that's very optimistic. It is unlikely, but we have to keep trying. That report by Jean Mackenzie. British scientists and engineers have successfully created the world's first battery made from diamonds grown in a laboratory. These, they believe, could each be a source of power for thousands of years and in extreme

environments such as deep under the ocean surface or even outer space. Janek Verbaland from the University of Bristol helped to develop the battery and in case you think it's all sparkly he says its remarkable potential is belied by its very ordinary appearance. It just looks like a tiny piece of glass that's a few millimetres in size and only 200 micrometres thick. So if you would see it on the street you wouldn't even bother picking it up because it really does look unspectacular. And the key is in this very unique radioisotope carbon-14 which is actually a naturally occurring radioisotope. It's formed in the atmosphere, it's absorbed by plants which

we then eat, so we also contain some carbon-14 of course in very small concentrations. What becomes interesting is that carbon can take many forms, but if you compress it under very high temperature, you can actually turn it into diamond. But if you start with radioactive carbon, such as carbon-14, then you can indeed create a radioactive diamond. So a diamond beta-voltaic is essentially a type of solar cell that consists of a radioactive diamond that uses its own radioactivity to generate a tiny amount of electricity. It is absolutely safe because diamond is one of the hardest naturally occurring materials on the

planet. So once the carbon-14 is locked in its diamond structure, it doesn't leak out. There is no chemicals inside of it. There is no electrolyte. It is actually a piece of diamond. Currently, we're just growing them very, very slowly with chemical vapor deposition. And it takes a long time, hours or days, depending on how large and how thick we want them to be. So one of the challenges now is to continue the journey and see how we can upscale the technology to make it available to more applications to improve the power output and also to tackle some challenges such as for example collection recycling and so on. Dr. Yannick Verbellen, a new television game show in the US is causing a stir,

partly because of its likeness to the fictional South Korean game show depicted in the Netflix series Squid Game and partly because of the prize on offer. Five million dollars in cash. We've got the most players, millions of dollars of cash prizes on top of the five million dollars. As you heard there, it's called Beast Games and the man you're hearing is one of YouTube's biggest stars Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr Beast. This is Mr Beast's mainstream TV debut with a show now streaming on Amazon Prime. It involves physical and mental tests but also a certain amount of social conflict. Contestants, for example, are offered bribes to betray their teammates. Perhaps not surprisingly, it's been described as brutal and humiliating. And the company behind it is already facing a variety of lawsuits, as a Hollywood entertainment reporter KJ Matthews

explained to Paul Moss. A lot of people have been alleging that they've been sleep deprived, that they've been deprived of food, all sorts of crazy things. One of the challenges I watched is pretty easy, but it was basically stacking a lot of cubes on top of one another and the cubes get bigger and bigger. And your job is to make sure you stack them and keep them up there for a certain set period of time. And if it should fall over, you're out of the game. So it kind of reminds you of even the way that they're dressed, they're all wearing uniforms.

Some of them have a number on it. It could remind you of Netflix squid games. There's a lot of similarity to that. This is a little bit different. Obviously nobody's getting shot. You know, this is a serious game, but you know, the games are meant to really challenge them physically and mentally. Long hours that was shot out in Las Vegas, out in the desert.

So as you can imagine, you are going to have to perform tremendous physical tasks and mental tasks to even get close to winning $5 million when you're competing with a thousand other people. One of the themes of Squid Game was the way in which contestants are forced to work against each other at times leading to the other contestants dying. And in this series as well, I think contestants are being forced to betray each other to make sure other people don't win. Oh yes, I call it that real housewives moment. You know the bickering and the bantering that

you see on these real housewives series, you're seeing a little bit of that in these beast game series episodes. You see so many of the contestants going against one another, arguing with each other, saying no this is the best way to do it. You shouldn't do it this way. All of that makes it even more tentilating and interesting. Now MrBeast who's hosting this program, he's only 26 years old, but I gather he's already made a vast amount of money out of his appearances on YouTube. Oh yes, he's got more than 300 million subscribers on YouTube and Forbes magazine has already ranked him as the highest paid YouTuber and he has an estimated net worth of $500 million.

So when you think about it, the fact that he may be getting somewhere around a hundred million to be the host of this game series, it's not that much considering the fact that he's worth 500 million. So having described to us just how tough these contestants have to be to get through the series, are you thinking of applying? Yes. When I saw the five million, I thought to myself, hmm, what's the age requirement? What's the age limit for that?

I'm sure I can do a couple crazy things on television for the five million. Why not? Entertainment reporter KJ Matthews. 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, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at BBC.co.uk. This edition was produced by Harry Bly. It was mixed by Nora Hull. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Janet Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. The 442nd Infantry Battalion. The most decorated unit in US military history for its size and length of service. We gotta make every bullet count. No surrender! Brave men who fought the Germans in the fields of France and Italy during the Second World War. But we're not fighting for us, just for the people back home. Purple Heart Warriors, an original drama series from the BBC World Service, tells their story. Germans surrounding all sites.

Listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts.