Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 16 Hours GMT on Thursday 18th December, these are our main stories. EU leaders are told to choose between money today and blood tomorrow as they debate giving frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. We visit one of Ukraine's secret weapons factories, now said to be making half of the arms used on the front line.
Australia marks the funeral of the youngest Bondi beach attack victim, 10-year-old Matilda. also in this podcast. Hello and welcome to the FIFA 23 reveal trailer. Football's world governing body, FIFA, partners with Netflix for a return to the world of video gaming. Belgium, where most of Moscow's $245 billion worth of assets, opposes the move. And Belgium isn't alone.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine?
Does any other company produce missiles that quickly?
The V-1. The V-1.
So German rockets in the Second World War. And that's what war does. You just have to speed up that process, correct?
Yeah. We are fueled by anger.
Dennis says their weapons, which also include long-range drones, are already hurting Russia. So it's making a difference what you're doing with the weapons here in the battle. But can it win the war? There's no game changer. The only game changer we have is our will. If we have the will to win, we'll have to tire a day later than Russia. Before the war, Irina was an architecture student.
Now she's trying to dismantle the Russian war machine. So your security guarantee is you producing your own weapons?
Yes.
And do you think that can make a difference in this war?
I think that's the only way to really provide security guarantees.
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Chapter 3: How does Belgium's stance affect EU negotiations on Russian assets?
Taiwan does too. The Trump administration has just announced a huge arms sale worth around $11 billion to the island, which includes advanced rocket launchers, self-propelled howitzers and a variety of missiles. China sees self-governed Taiwan as part of its own territory and has steadily ramped up pressure over the island with military drills and regular incursions into its waters and airspace.
To tell us more, here's Mickey Bristow.
I think the first thing to say about it is the price. $11 billion worth of arms, that's a big deal. And I think you have to go back 20-odd years since the United States sold Taiwan as many weapons as this, included rocket systems, anti-tank missiles, drones, medium-range missiles, all kinds of things, software, spare parts, a lot of kit, $11 billion worth.
And it solidifies the idea that President Trump, who had seemed ambivalent about whether or not to defend Taiwan against China, China believes Taiwan is part of its own territory. President Trump had been quite ambivalent about whether he was going to support Taiwan. So it seems to suggest that he's decided that he does have to show his support.
As you say, this is in the end all about Taiwan. Are these weapons defensive or offensive?
Well, they're defensive, essentially. I mean, Taiwan is in no way going to threaten China. It's its biggest neighbour, China, over the last few decades, as we've been hearing. year after year has been building up its weapons systems. Also, over recent years, it's been targeting Taiwan with gray zone tactics, sort of like buzzing the island with aircraft and ships surrounding it.
There have been dozens just near Taiwanese airspace over the last 24 hours or so. So essentially, Taiwan is looking for weapons to defend itself against China because China, as I said, believe the island is part of its territory. It's not renounced the use of force. People believe President Xi Jinping of China is preparing the Chinese military to take Taiwan by force.
So these weapons are to help Taiwan defend itself against China.
It's publicly anyway, though China is not going to see it that way, is it?
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Chapter 4: What challenges does Ukraine face in financing its war efforts?
But the court believed that he was responsible in all these cases, 30 overall, 12 of them resulting in deaths. And they've given him this very stiff punishment of imprisonment for life, basically.
Hugh Schofield. Major cities in Sudan, including the capital Khartoum and its main seaport, Port Sudan, are without power after drone strikes hit a key power plant in the east of the country. Government forces have been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, for the last two and a half years, which has plunged Sudan into a massive humanitarian crisis.
I heard more from our global affairs reporter Richard Kegoy in Nairobi. A military source has just told the French news agency that the paramilitary rapid support forces, the RSF, carried out large-scale attacks in the east of the country targeting three cities.
So the accusation has been coming from the army that this is the RSF because if you look traditionally, the RSF has been carrying out drone attacks targeting civilian infrastructure. It's quite a thing to take out power to the capital and to other major cities.
Yeah, that's really quite devastating because if you look at Khartoum, that's the capital city, and Port Sudan, which is the seat of the military government. This is quite disruptive and very devastating because residents in parts of Sudan say that they've been without power since 2 a.m. on Thursday morning.
And this particular drone attack did target a particular key power station in the city of Atbara, which is really responsible for redistribution of power across many parts of Sudan. So this is really quite disruptive to the populations there. This rather suggests that the rapid support forces in this civil war, which has been going on for a long time, they are moving forward, aren't they?
Yeah, they have. And if you look at the trends for the past nearly one year since they lost control of the capital, Khartoum, they've been using drone attacks, you know, just targeting areas around the capital. and much even as they have been directing their focus towards the southwest part of the country.
So they've really been intensifying attacks and stepping up pressure on the military, that's the Sudanese army, and particularly in areas which are controlled by the Sudanese army. Are we any closer to knowing exactly where the RSF are getting their weapons from? The UN has accused the RSF really of getting support from the United Arab Emirates, which Abu Dhabi has really denied the accusations.
But it's just indicating that possibly based on open source investigations that they have been receiving equipment or logistical support from the UAE. And that's really helped them to be able to advance and, you know, counter the army and even push forward in the territories where they've been operating in. Richard Kigoy.
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Chapter 5: Why is there opposition to unfreezing Russian assets in Europe?
Or on your phone. I think they're saying it's going to be a mobile game. So, yes. And that means the gameplay, I think, is going to be quite different because obviously... With the EA Sports game, you've got a controller and, you know, you are the little man kicking the little ball. And this, we don't really know what this one's going to look like yet.
It could be that it's, again, you're the little man with the ball, but on your phone, or it could be more of a sort of management sort of thing, sim, like a sort of player's journey type thing. But it's a big...
Yeah, it's a big bet for Netflix, isn't it? The streaming company that we always say is doing so well, but, you know, sometimes the financial figures don't really suggest that, is trying to get into this very, very big market.
Yes, and lots of other sort of big companies, including companies as big as Google, have tried and failed to get into gaming. You know, their Stadia console lasted about three years because gaming is a really unpredictable, difficult, expensive market to get into. And I think often companies sort of think, people who don't know about gaming think, oh, it's just another pillar of media.
And actually, games are really complicated, big things. And huge business.
Yes.
Yes, absolutely huge business. And indeed, again, the football market is a huge business. Even without the FIFA branding, the EA game sold like 11 million copies in the first couple of weeks. So you can see why FIFA are like, oh, we need to get back into this. But I think they've correctly realised it's not simply a case of slapping the FIFA name on a game that someone else makes.
I think hopefully they've realised that the FIFA, they are the fluffy dice in the window of the Porsche. They're not the actual car. EA still own that.
Games journalist Ellie Gibson. And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod.
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