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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories.
I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs.
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Will Chalk, and in the early hours of Saturday, January 24th, these are our main stories. The White House has made its first comments since President Trump started a row by saying NATO troops had stayed a little off the front lines during the war in Afghanistan. The issue of territory takes centre stage at trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi.
The UN urges Tehran to end brutal repression after thousands were killed during anti-government protests.
Also in this podcast... I'm going to be freestyling Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. No ropes, no gear, just me and the building.
Rock climber Alex Honnold is about to go sky high, but not everyone's impressed. Well, the angry reaction to Donald Trump's comments that NATO allies didn't pull their weight and stayed a little off the front line during the war in Afghanistan doesn't seem to be dying down.
The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, normally treads carefully around the US president, but he called it insulting and frankly appalling. Around a third of coalition soldiers who were killed during the Afghan conflict were non-American.
Mick Mulroy is a former US Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence during Donald Trump's first presidential term. He thinks the US should be grateful for the input of NATO allies during these conflicts.
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Chapter 2: What did President Trump say about NATO troops in Afghanistan?
There are many, I think, who would argue that Russia's invasion of Ukraine did as much, if not more, to focus mines than did the chiding of President Donald Trump. But there's a feeling, I think, that the President's latest comments have crossed a line, prompting the very strong suggestion that he apologise.
And that, of course, could always have completely the opposite effect, giving what we know about this president, prompting Mr Trump effectively to double down and giving rise to a new war of words with allies such as the UK. David Willis speaking to me from Los Angeles. Russia, Ukraine and the US have held their first trilateral talks to try and bring an end to the war.
Negotiations in Abu Dhabi will resume on Saturday and the issue of territory is very much at the top of the agenda. Our correspondent Sarah Rainsford has been following developments from Kiev. The format for these talks is new. The delegates are senior. But the starting positions haven't changed and they don't bode well for any breakthrough to peace.
Because Russia is still demanding Kiev surrender the rest of the eastern Donbass, land Ukraine's troops have been defending for years. And for Kiev, that's impossible. It is still too early to draw conclusions. We will see how the conversation goes tomorrow and what the results will be. But it needs not only Ukraine to want to end this war. It needs Russia to show a similar desire.
Instead, Russia is destroying power plants across Ukraine that should supply homes, hospitals and schools. Round-the-clock repairs can't keep up. And this week, it's minus 11 in Kiev. There's talk of a humanitarian catastrophe here.
The attacks on the power supply in Ukraine have been so extensive that when night falls now, there are really big areas of Kiev where the lights don't come on anymore. There's no heat either in people's homes. It is really debilitating. And that's why so few Ukrainians really believe Vladimir Putin can want peace when he's doing things like this. So families now huddle in heated tents.
in the yards of their flats. Lydia hasn't had electricity for five days. This place is a lifeline. But I ask her about doing a deal with Vladimir Putin. And she tells me Ukrainians curse him in their hearts. People here do want peace. They're exhausted. But not peace at any cost. even if they're being frozen in their own homes as punishment. That report by Sarah Rainsford.
Next, reconsider, pull back and end the brutal repression. That's the message from the United Nations' human rights chief to the Iranian government. Volker Turk said thousands of people have been killed during the crackdown on anti-government protests, including children and bystanders. Iran has blamed the unrest and deaths on terrorists and rioters.
The UN Human Rights Council has voted in favour of opening an inquiry into the crackdown. Our diplomatic correspondent, Caroline Hawley, is in Geneva.
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Chapter 3: Why are Afghanistan war veterans demanding an apology from the US?
We can only hope that the current crisis leads to a reversal of the policies that have not worked and will never work because we know that this type of repression never yields the results that they think it will, it won't.
The regime continues to blame the unrest and deaths on terrorists and rioters. Iran's representative at the meeting in Geneva said his government didn't recognise the legitimacy of the session and then, once his short speech was over, he promptly walked out. But a former UN prosecutor said what had happened at the hands of the regime was the worst mass murder in the contemporary history of Iran.
and he gave an account of one family who searched for three days for their son, finally finding him in a body bag, peppered with bullets but alive. He'd apparently played dead to survive.
That report was by Caroline Hawley. If you follow rock climbing at all, you'll have heard of Alex Honnold. His speciality is the frankly terrifying art of free soloing. It's climbing rock faces alone, without ropes, harnesses or protective equipment.
When he became the first person to free solo the 900 metre face of El Capitan in California in 2017, the New York Times called it one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind ever.
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Chapter 4: What was the response from UK officials regarding Trump's comments?
And then the documentary about his achievement, Free Solo, that went and won an Oscar. What he's attempting this weekend, though, is slightly more controversial.
It's been a lifelong dream of mine to climb the skyscraper. So I'm going to be free soloing Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. No ropes, no gear, just me in the building.
This skyscraper climb of one of the world's tallest buildings is being streamed live on Netflix, albeit with a 10-second delay. Still, if he falls, millions of people will know about it near instantly. He was due to be doing this climb as we recorded this podcast. But with minutes to go, Netflix announced it was rescheduling by 24 hours, saying due to the weather, we are unable to proceed.
The streamer added that safety remains its top priority. To get a sense of how this is being viewed within the sport, I spoke to Hannah Smith. She's now a retired climber, but she used to represent Great Britain at youth and senior level.
free solo was pre-recorded so all of us that were watching it knew what we were getting into and we knew they obviously weren't going to show us anything um that was potentially going to go really badly wrong whereas yeah live streaming i think there have been a lot of conversations around our community but also elsewhere about the sort of ethical questions around this and whether it's responsible even for him to be taking on this feat um
If it were to go wrong, it's being broadcast worldwide. And not only would that be a really traumatic thing for some people to witness if it were to go terribly wrong, but the damage it could potentially do to our sport long term in terms of people getting involved with it or trying it themselves could be quite detrimental to us as a community.
But even just the commercialisation of such an event and offering someone something a contract or some sort of money to go and put themselves in a really life-threatening situation live on TV in front of people. It's not without its questions as well.
Dare I say it, to me there's a little bit of the, if you take a boxing analogy, the Jake Paul, Anthony Joshua type of spectacle over purity of sport going on here.
Yeah, exactly. So most rock climbers never even consider doing anything that isn't a natural structure outside. So a piece of rock or a sort of cliff face. But buildings are seen as a separate entity. Things like parkour and things are closed. closely linked to climbing but we wouldn't call them the sort of raw climbing that most of us think of.
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