Global News Podcast - Zelensky ready to join summit with Trump and Putin if invited

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is ready to join talks in Hungary with Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin if invited. It comes after a tense meeting with his US counterpart in the White House which, according to reports, descended into a 'shouting match'. Also: the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza after both sides accuse each other of breaches. We hear about the medical breakthrough that may help some blind people see again. 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.

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and at 17 hours GMT on Monday the 20th of October, these are our main stories. Donald Trump says the best way to end the war in Ukraine is to leave Russia with the territory it currently occupies. We assess the mood in Kiev. Myanmar's military regime has raided a notorious cyber scam centre. A group of blind patients in Britain can read again after being fitted with a life-changing, implant at the back of the eye. Also in this podcast, how people in India, one of the world's largest gold markets, are reacting

to the rise in the metals price. My budget this time was low. Earlier I was buying, you know, gold more than 10, 15 grams. This time I purchased for platinum, which is comparatively cheaper. But first, last week, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelens, appeared to come back from his third visit to the White House this year, empty-handed. No tomahawk missiles were forthcoming from Donald Trump. But there was no indication that Mr. Trump had suggested ways of ending the conflict

that were totally unacceptable to Keeve. Now, though, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Donald Trump has said the best way to resolve the war would be to cut up the country's Donbass region in the West, as things are now. That would leave most of it under Russian control. What they should do is just stop at the lines where they are the battle lines. You have a battle line right now. The rest is very tough to negotiate.

If you're going to say, you take this, we take that. You know, there's so many different permutation. So what I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines. Go home, stop killing people and be done. We're also learning that Mr. Trump said a similar thing directly to Mr. Zelensky at their meeting last week. John Sudworth is our correspondent in Kiev. Some of the reporting in some of the international coverage,

suggest that in fact that meeting was even more strained and testy than previously understood. Reports have raised voices, for example. We've now been given President Zelensky's first sort of full readout of how he felt it went since arriving back here in Kiev. He's a little more guarded. Obviously, he needs to be careful about being seen to be too critical of Washington. But there's no doubt that from his remarks, there were clear differences of opinion On the Donbass, a suggestion, I think, when you look into the words Mr Zelensky is using that he is concerned that the U.S. side were pushing some of Russia's talking points over their sort of claims of sovereignty over the Donbass.

A clear difference of opinion about the choice of Hungary for this upcoming summit that Donald Trump is now planning with Vladimir Putin. Mr. Zelensky believes Hungary is far too close to the Russian position. And on that question of Tomahawks, Nick, Mr Zelensky said that he felt that the US president had decided not to grant them because he was worried about escalation. You know, this idea of retaliation apparently being raised in that Trump Putin phone call that took place while the Ukrainian delegation was on its way to the US. Mr. Zelensky making very clear that he believes those threats from Russia should be read not as a sign of strength, but as a sign of weakness. But we also heard from Mr. Zelensky just a while. back that he is prepared to go to any meeting at which Donald Trump and President Putin may be in Hungary. He said that all along and he said it again. He'd go to Budapest if that's what it

takes. But you get a feeling that he is saying that through gritted teeth. He clearly does not think that's an appropriate venue. There are concerns in Europe that Ukraine's European allies may even be excluded from that meeting. So a lot still to be discussed ahead of it. You know, the real feeling is, I think, that Ukraine is having to recalibrate. They really did feel just a few days ago, you know, just a few hours before that White House meeting, that things were beginning to go their way. You know, what a difference a short transatlantic flight makes? John Sudworth.

Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Israel at the moment as the fragile seafiring Gaza faces its biggest challenge yet. On Sunday, Israel's military said it carried out a wave of strikes in southern Gaza. This is what the Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Budrosian said about those attacks. The IDF announced terrorists fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire towards our troops operating in the area of Rafa to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, all in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. Now, in response, the IDF began striking in the area to eliminate the threat.

In terms of any airstrikes inside of the Gaza Strip, we are currently in a ceasefire, like we continue to say. But if there is a threat to our soldiers inside of the Gaza Strip, they are allowed to, of course, protect themselves and do what is needed to do. Hamas denied knowledge of the incident in Rafa and accused Israel of fabricating pretexts to resume the war. Ahmed Kamal Janina is a professor at Al-Axa University in Gaza City in the north of the strip. Since the war began, 43 members of his extended family have been killed. He told the BBC how he's coping with the loss and the prospect of the ceasefire crumbling. It is difficult to process it, and honestly, I mean, it feels that death has become part of our daily routine and life, but we never accept it. I mean, we just continue living with the memories of those loved ones and for the hope that each tragedy will be the last.

But when you have up to last night, I was reading the news, more than 97 people have been killed since the ceasefire. I mean, what type of ceasefire is this? I mean, it is fragile. And what type of peace politicians are talking about when you have more than 97 people being killed and more than 290 people are injured? The last 24 hours were extremely stressful. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, told my colleague Nick Robinson what he makes of the current status. of the ceasefire. I've been looking and thinking a little bit about, you know, based on other wars that I may have seen in different times over the years, what makes a ceasefire work. And one thing that I think people, you know, if you look at what diplomats have said about that sort of thing, is that as well as actually saying, all right, now we stop shooting at each other, there has to be a political process going in parallel. so there's forward movement in all of this.

But, you know, it's been clear from the very outset that the Trump plan, far from being the best thing in three millennia in the region, which is what he said, because it lacks a great deal of detail about where it goes on after this first phase of the ceasefire itself, that is going to be a weakness because if you don't have that forward movement,

then things like this happen. And the thing, Nick, about ceasefires, is they never start smoothly. There are always violations, and to get through those violations and to stop the whole thing falling apart, you need that structure around it. A structure which would involve Arab nations

coming into police in inverted commas, which they may be a bit wary of doing now. Well, I don't think they want to send their troops into an active war zone. I mean, that's the whole thing. Peacekeeping isn't peace enforcement. And one thing that a ceasefire does require is an effective monitoring mechanism

and the Americans have sent over a headquarters group that set itself up, actually, in Israel. But in the absence of having any kind of boots on the ground there and there's meant to be this international stabilization force, but it's not even clear which nations are going to contribute troops and how many and when they might get there. So that, frankly, at best, is probably even months away. So what happens in the interim?

Well, what's happened is that Hamas have come out. they have shown that they are back. They never went away. They survived. And I think another thing about what makes a ceasefire work or not is whether or not the parties involved the belligerents think that they can get more from a ceasefire or from continuing the war. And it could be that after two years of Israel say they're going to wipe her mass off the face of the planet and now they're actually able to put their fighters on these streets again, while at the same time there is pressure, not least inside the Israeli cabinet, saying, wait a minute, what on earth are we doing? The war isn't finished. We need to finish the job here. That's one of the big conundra that the

Whitkoff-Kishner team are going to have to try and sort out when they arrive. Jeremy Bowen, Israel has now begun putting physical markers along the yellow line, which marks the new position Israeli forces agreed to withdraw to under this ceasefire agreement. This comes after the IDF opened fire on Garzans who crossed the line. In a medical breakthrough, doctors have been able to help some blind patients see again, thanks to a microchip implanted at the back of the eye. The results of an international trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine have been described as astounding by a surgeon at London Moorfield's Eye Hospital,

who gave the implant to five patients. Our medical editor, Fergus Walsh, has spoken, exclusively to one of the patients on the trial here in the UK. Is it left now? Sheila Irvin began losing her sight more than 30 years ago and now relies on a white cane to help her slowly make her way along a corridor at Moorfield's Eye Hospital.

She's 70 and registered blind due to a progressive condition called dry age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. That's okay, Sheila, so we're just going to be reading this text. But everything changes for Sheila when she puts on a special pair of glasses. Let's rock. Samantha looked across at her husband. She can read again for the first time in years.

Freshly showered. Amazing. When happy bunny, I could have cried. When I looked. because I haven't seen letters for so long and then I lit up the word and it was overwhelming. It's really made a tangible difference to your life. A big difference entirely.

I read the post, read books, do crosswords, Seduquio. Did you ever imagine that you'd be able to read a book again? Never. So how is it possible? A tiny microchip as thin as a human hair was inserted under the retina of her left eye. Okay, can you just come forward?

We're just going to have a look at your eye. Her glasses have a camera, which sends a video feed of the printed page to the microchip via an infrared beam. Have a look at the back of the eye, the retina. The image is relayed to a computer and fed back to the chip in a way that her brain can interpret,

so Sheila can read again. The chip's in an excellent position. Sheila was part of an international trial whose results have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Of 32 blind patients given the implant, 27 were able to read again using their central vision. This trial involves a whole... Results which have astounded Sheila's surgeon Mahi Mucket

from Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London. This is the first treatment that has been demonstrated to effectively give patients meaningful vision that they can use in their daily life, such as reading, writing. So I think this is a major advance and I think what you'll find with patience of it is life-changing.

Sheila's progress has stunned staff at Moorfields and it's easy to see why when she's in front of an eye chart. Let's see what you can read from the trial. Okay, what I'll try. Without her glasses, Sheila cannot read even the largest letters. With them, she manages line after line.

V. Very good. and is able to read even the smallest line of letters on the eye chart, to her delight and that of the clinical team. Very impressive, very good, very good. The technology is not yet licensed, but offers hope to thousands of patients with Sheila's form of dry AMD. That report by Fergus Walsh.

Coming up. So far, we have vaccinated over 35,000 people, and we have approved vaccine for this strain of the Ebola virus, the Ebola Zaire. A glimmer of hope in the DRC's latest Ebola outbreak. Next to Myanmar, where the military regime says it's taken over one of the most notorious scam centers near the Thai border. The compound called KK Park has been linked to human trafficking, online fraud and money laundering for the past five years. These sites are also known as internet sweatshops

where thousands of people are lured in with the promise of well-paid jobs and then forced to run elaborate fraud schemes online. I asked our correspondent Jonathan Haired in Bangkok what they'd done and why. This isn't quite what it seems. It's actually quite unusual for the military hunter to give details of its operations.

It very rarely does. And in this case, I think they want to zero, and the attention on having taken over this very notorious compound, but actually it's part of a much bigger operation. The military at the moment is much stronger than it used to be. It's done very well with conscription. It's got tens of thousands more soldiers. It's got a lot of new Chinese technology,

and it's adjusted its tactics. Remember, it's been losing ground to the insurgents across the country for the last year and a half, two years. That's changing. It's planning an election in December. It wants to gain as much ground as possible to make Trump give some kind of legitimacy. You remember it's large parts of the country, it still doesn't control.

So it's launched these military operations along key trade routes, up to the border to China and to the border with Thailand. That's the operation in which they happen to have taken over this scam center. Now, we don't know what they've done with it. The number of people they said they found there is quite small. KK Park is massive. There are five compounds, probably up to 20,000 people working there at any one time. They say they've found 2000.

Our sources tell us the only people they actually took out were actually mostly local Burmese and a small number of Chinese. And we think it's possible, you know, China's their biggest backer and China wants them to take action against these scam centers. It's possible they did target some Chinese individuals to get them and whisk them out so they can go back to China to face trial. And that may be what this is about. Remember, there are dozens more scam centers still operating right along that border run by militia groups, which are allied to the military. So this is not an operation to crush scam centres.

It's much more like a piece of an operation that the military wants us to focus on because they want to look good to China. Look good to China, possibly look good to the rest of the world. Will it make a difference briefly? I think the image of the Myanmar Hunter is probably a lost cause for much of the world. I don't think it will affect their image much.

But it does show there is this persistent Chinese pressure and that the military will need to be seen at least to be trying to clamp down on these scam centres. But they're the only viable economy there and there's so much money being made out of them. I suspect they will survive. Jonathan Head. Late last week, the price of gold hit a record high

of more than $4,300 an ounce. As investors look for safe places to put their money amid concerns about economic and political uncertainty all the way around the world. India is one of the world's largest gold markets and it traditionally sees high sales during the Hindi do festival of Diwali, which begins today. So how are people and businesses reacting to the high prices? Devina Gupta reports from Delhi. I'm at a jewelry store and around me there

are shelves with intricate pieces and it's packed with customers because it's a festive season and traditionally families buy gold for weddings and for good luck at this time. But the price jumped globally for gold is hard to miss. So our customers ready to pay more. or cutting back? We've come up for a shopping for the wedding of our daughter, you know, coming up next month. We have to think of the price ultimately, you know, but we have no option, you know. So, some things have to be compromised. So what are you compromising?

We may not go for that heavy, you know, because nowadays kids don't want to wear very heavy jewelry also. I'm looking for some discounts around making charges, which is typically over and above the gold value for today. I bought a ring for my wife. I can understand the price has changed. So my budget this time was low. Earlier I was buying, you know, gold more than 10, 15 grams. This time I purchased for platinum, which is comparatively cheaper.

So clearly many people here are trying to adjust their budget as the jewellery is definitely costing more this year. And just to give you an idea, I'm holding a gold necklace which has a beautiful traditional design. This would have cost around $5,000 last year, but now it's 50% more expensive. It's a similar story for many pieces here. And that's why big jewelry brands are now finding creative ways to draw customers in. The idea is not to increase prices, but to unlock the access for consumers.

Shalani Gupta is the regional head of Tanishk, a jewelry brand owned by the Tata Group in Delhi. So we are doing a gold exchange. The kind of gold exchange we've never done before. Anything above 9-carat consumers can come and exchange with no deduction. And the amount of sale that is coming on the back of gold exchange has also gone up for us from last year. But some shoppers are switching to alternatives like silver. So this is the coin that we are doing for the baby boy.

A neat jeweler, Shobit Varma, in Delhi, who's rolling out new gifting options like silver coins to tap into the shift. Silver will be a part of every jewelry store now. Earlier it wasn't like that. So we are seeing the changing trend. and silver is definitely increasing market share. Away from the showrooms, there are also investors who are betting big on digital gold

through exchange traded funds or ETFs. According to the World Gold Council, gold ETFs in India saw their biggest ever investments in September. These are essentially stocks backed by physical gold. One of them is Akshay Kathri in Delhi. Why did I choose to invest in digital gold? Specifically, it's because it's... easy to invest. You can invest at the push of a button. You can redeem at the push of a button.

I don't have to worry about security. I don't have to worry about storing things in lockers. I don't have to worry about purity or being potentially, you know, having to buy something, check the make and manufacture of certain point of gold. But here's the catch. India imports billions of dollars worth of gold every year. And experts warn, because of gold prices going up, India's import bill is set to rise as well. and this in turn could widen the trade deficit and push up inflation, potentially dimming the shine on the world's fastest-growing major economy. Davina Gupta in Delhi. On Sunday, the last patient was discharged from an Ebola treatment facility in rural Bulape

in the Democratic Republic of Congo. If no more cases are reported for six weeks, the most recent outbreak will be declared over. The first case was detected on the 4th of September, and since then 53 confirmed cases, as well as 11 suspected cases have been reported. Dr Patrick Oitim from the World Health Organization in Cananga in the DRC is travelling to Bulape. He's program area manager for the emergency response

in the WHO Regional Office for Africa. He told Catherine Biora Hanga how this outbreak is being brought under control. This outbreak, which was declared six weeks ago, has been contained quite fast, and there have been a number of factors that we can consider. I think the top of the list has been a very strong leadership from the Ministry of Health, which has been facilitative of the response interventions, both at the national and the provincial level.

And then we've had a very good level of collaboration from the community who have really facilitated interventions. They have welcomed vaccination. They proactively requested for teams to come to their area and carry out investigation. The third issue has been that we also had resources being mobilized by different partners. There has been a very good level of collaboration from the international community and even donors that have helped us to be able to move quickly. You remember we had challenges with accessing the area and the UN mission, Monusco,

was able to give us a helicopter to establish an air bridge. So this mobilization across all agencies and government institutions helped us to be able to access and overcome challenges. We have been able to implement a comprehensive range of public health interventions from contact tracing to safe and dignified burial, community engagement and risk communication and vaccination. So far, we have vaccinated over 35,000 people within Bulape and the neighboring health zones, and we've been able to follow over 3,000 contacts since this started. And then lastly, is the availability of countermeasures. As you know, we have approved vaccine for disease strain of the Ebola. virus, the Ebola Zaire, so we're able to deploy the vaccine quickly. We also have

therapeutics that we were using for managing the cases. And we were able to decentralise testing using the gene expert platform so that we could have results available within short time of six hours as opposed to taking samples to Kinshasa. So all this package of interventions really helped us to get to the point where we are now. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I understand that the death toll in this particular outbreak was 45. people, perhaps higher than you might expect, considering all those advances in terms of Ebola vaccines and treatments. The last Ebola outbreak in the DRC back in 2022 only saw one confirmed case. So what happened this time around? Yeah, thank you. So in the entire period we have

been responding, we have recorded 53 confirmed cases out of the 53, 34 died. We also recorded 11 and probable cases. Those are cases that died before samples were collected, but confirmed cases were linked to them. So that brings the number to 45, as you have said. Now, there have been three issues largely responsible for the high fatality that we have seen. The first one is that the outbreak was detected a little bit late. As you can see, that there were 11 people that already died before even samples could be taken. So the late detection meant that a number of the people were already sick by the time we got them, and they got to the facility late. And when the patient presents very late with Ebola, it's usually very difficult to save them.

The second issue was then that by the time of detection, we had very limited capacity in Bulape to manage these kinds of infection and the level of severity that some of the patients had. So we struggled at a generous time to be able to set up a comprehensive treatment facility to bring in the required expertise so that we can be able to effectively manage. And then lastly was also that there were some really fear among the population, some of the population, in presenting to the treatment facility. So some did come in very late, and it was very, very difficult to be able to reverse the cause of the disease. So unfortunately, despite all the efforts, we have had 64% case fatality in this response

compared to the others that we had before. That was Dr. Patrick Oatim from the WHO. The BBC World Service is launching a new podcast series about the Russian gang's dominating global cybercrime. It's called Cyberhack Evil Corps. And it looks at never-before-told stories about a hacking spree which has lasted for more than 15 years. It's co-hosted by our Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford and our cyber correspondent Joe Tidy. Joe told Catherine Biorahanger more about this gang. Well, Evil Corps have been around for a long time.

as you say, they are sort of like the OGs of Russian cybercrime. And it dates right back to sort of 2007 until the late time when they began doing some really innovative and interesting things in cybercrime. They were carrying out what we call banking Trojan attacks. So they were stealing money directly from tens of victims around the world, potentially even hundreds of victims around the world, stealing small amounts in some cases, but in some cases, obviously enough to really cause a lot of harm to the victims and organizations they were taking money from. And then we saw the sort of evolution of evil court as they went through and they changed their tactics. And in the end, they became what is now one of the largest ransomware gangs in the

world carrying out the type of attacks that we've seen this year really where they're stealing millions from companies and extorting them by putting in malware into their systems and scrambling their computer networks and also stealing data as well. And there's been various law enforcement activities against them, trying to track these guys down, trying to get them arrested. But of course, they are in Russia, we think. And that is potentially the reason why they are in some ways protected. And you're focusing on Evil Corp in this podcast. But Joe, you've reported a lot on hacking groups over the years, have even spoken to hackers. What makes Evil Corp stand out, would you say? For me, Evil Corp, they have been an obsession of law enforcement for a long time and also

an obsession of mine as well, because I think, as I say, they are one of the original Russian cybercrime gangs. And when in 2019, Maxim Jakobetz, who is the alleged leader of this suspected gang, he was sanctioned and indicted by the US. What was fascinating was that they didn't just say, this is the man behind the gang. They also released his Instagram and VK posts, and they showed a real kind of playboy lifestyle in Moscow with Lamborghinis and pet lions and all sorts of luxuries that you can only afford if you are at the top of a very large cybercrime syndicate. I actually went to Russia to try and find Maxim Yacobetz and some of the other alleged evil core members at the end of 2021. And I got as close as anyone has. I found

Maxim Yacobetz's father and interviewed him for a BBC World Service documentary. And little did I know, of course, at the time that this man who was claiming innocence for his son was also allegedly, according to the National Crime Agency, a part of the group as well. So it was in 2024 that he himself, Victor Yacobetz, was accused of being part of the syndicate. Not only that, but other members of the family of Yacobetz. So I think what you've got here is a kind of cybercrime gang that is also a family-run business. Joe tidy. 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, all 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 Johnny Baker and the producers were Peter Goffin and Oliver Burlow. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Mars and until next time. Goodbye.