Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Mm-hmm.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Chris Barrow, and at 4GMT, these are our main stories. A picture of violence and horror is emerging in Iran as anti-government protests continue across the country.
Chapter 2: What are the latest developments in the Iran protests?
The US military has carried out strikes in Syria against the Islamic State as revenge for the killing of two American soldiers. We hear from Venezuelans who fled to Colombia after the capture of the President Nicolas Maduro.
Also in this podcast... I get some very funny stories of owners telling me they were thinking of ordering a pizza and they were talking between them and then the dog ran into the room with their toy named pizza.
How dogs learn to understand words by eavesdropping.
And later... I actually got to hold it in my hands. It was an incredible thrill as a comics fan all my life to have this piece of history in my hands. They did take it off me again, mind.
Find out what makes a Superman comic worth $15 million. Large crowds have returned to the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran, as anti-government protests spread across the country, despite increasingly severe warnings from the authorities. Witnesses say families, including children, are taking part. In his latest comments, President Trump has said Washington, in his words, stood ready to help.
So what could a US intervention look like? David Petraeus is a former CIA director.
There are numerous options, all the way from diplomatic and informational. Even just getting Starlink dishes in on the ground would help them communicate with each other and with the outside world. There can be economic sanctions of various types against individuals, against Iran's ability to export oil. There's humanitarian options. And then, of course, there are many military options.
And I was also the former commander of U.S. Central Command, which is the greater Middle East. That would be the regional combatant command that undoubtedly has been developing the menus of options for the president and others to consider. There can certainly be strikes on the headquarters of the security force organizations that are violently putting down these protests.
these demonstrations that have been killing the people in very substantial numbers. He could go after the missile capability that they have, which, of course, was heavily damaged during the Israeli strikes against Iran, which concluded with a U.S. substantial bombing as well. They've been trying to reconstitute those missile arsenals that would be useful.
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Chapter 3: How is the US military responding to threats in Syria?
We've seen a lot of chants and a nostalgia about a regime before the current regime also plays a role. So there's definitely a base of support for him. And he's certainly now directing some of these protests. Of course, it becomes a lot harder when the internet is completely cut off so people can't really hear
messages that he says, except through satellite television, like BBC Persian and other satellite TVs where his messages are broadcast. But so the reality is there is a base for him.
Chapter 4: What challenges are Venezuelans facing after Maduro's capture?
And there's also other opposition figures and groups who are joining for what everybody now is calling for, which is the end of this dictatorship.
Bahman Kilbassy. And you can hear and see more on the protests in Iran on our YouTube page, where we ask our chief international correspondent Lise Doucette whether this could be the end of the religious regime. To search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose Podcasts and Global News Podcast. And there's a new story available every weekday.
The US military has carried out strikes in Syria against Islamic State as part of Operation Hawkeye. It's the latest action in a mission that was launched last December after a deadly IS attack on American and Syrian forces. Meanwhile, the US Special Envoy met the Syrian president in Damascus and offered Washington support in stabilising the country.
Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher told us more.
The US Central Command has issued a statement saying that it's carried out multiple strikes across Syria against Islamic State targets. This is the second major operation it's carried out since there was an attack which the US has accused an Islamic State fighter of carrying out in Palmyra last month on December 13th.
Just a few days after that, there was a similar range of strikes across the country in response to that attack. I mean, we don't know exactly how much impact that's had on what's left of IS. Some of the information I've seen is that it hasn't really had a huge effect. So I think it's more to give that statement of intent. And that's very much the way that it was phrased by the US Central Command.
I mean, they call this Operation Hawkeye Strike. As I say, this is in response to an ambush in which two American soldiers were killed and a US civilian interpreter were killed. So, you know, a major setback for the US in that. And the US Central Command ends its statement with this saying, our message remains strong. And this is very Trumpian.
If you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice. That is what the message they're trying to get across.
And they say they're trying to root out Islamic State and terrorism in its entirety.
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Chapter 5: What impact did the Greece train crash have on political sentiment?
Do we have a sense of when they'll be satisfied that that's happened?
In a sense, obviously, there is a military strategy to this, but it is also performative in a way. I don't think that the strategists can believe that they can stamp out what's left of IS in Syria on this. I mean, IS has essentially gone to ground there. It's in remote areas. It's in cells.
I think there's been a sense that since a toppling of Bashar al-Assad, what's left of IS there sniffed an opportunity perhaps to regroup, to carry out attacks again, trying to get close to the sort of scale that they once were capable of doing, but nothing like it. Sebastien Ascher
It's been more than a week since American forces flew into Venezuela to seize President Nicolas Maduro. And while he waits for his next appearance in court in March, his authoritarian regime still runs the country, and security forces have been given powers and permission to capture anyone who supports the US military operation.
The US State Department has told Americans in Venezuela to leave immediately after reports of armed militias setting up roadblocks and searching cars for US citizens. Some Venezuelans have also fled, uncertain about the future of the country. Our correspondent Sumi Somerskanda has been speaking to expats in Colombia.
The heart of Cúcuta, a town on the border with Venezuela, where many Venezuelans have come to find work and build a new life, including Laura Hernández. She'd moved back to Venezuela in December after many years in Colombia. But after Nicolás Maduro was captured, she says she put out a message on WhatsApp. Venezuela libre, free Venezuela. She says in minutes her SIM card was blocked.
She deleted all messages. But police arrived at her house asking for information. She denied any knowledge. When they left, she fled, leaving her three sons with family for now. I tell them to say they don't know anything about me, that I left the country and they don't know where I am because I'm scared something will happen to them and there will be reprisals against them.
Why did you write Venezuela Libre? Because it's what we all wanted, that they remove the president because we thought removing him meant Venezuela would change. But we're returning to the past, to the same.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Google employee's harassment claim?
We couldn't independently verify Laura's story, but there are reports of similar cases. For other Venezuelans, the winds of change are reason for hope. With President Trump, quote, running the country and the interim government announcing it's releasing some political prisoners, they're hoping for new economic opportunities back home, too.
Little by little, at least with food and medicine, now there's everything. Now it's possible to go back home. I'm going to return with the help of God. On a busy stretch of highway near the border, Marta Alarcón has built her life around helping the thousands of Venezuelans who have stopped by her stand, a haven providing food, water, medicine, and the kindness of a stranger.
Marta's guests have written countless messages of thanks. including this past week. Couples have been coming because they say things are difficult, because they've started closing everything. There's no money to buy anything, no food. I pray to God that Venezuela will get better so that everyone can return. Why? Because there are many people here who have suffered too much.
It's an uncertain time for Venezuelans here, as the future of their country remains in limbo.
Sumi Somerskando with that report.
And still to come in this podcast... If the Grateful Dead had an ethic, it would be serve the music, and Bobby certainly did. That was what he was put on earth for, and he did it to the last.
Founding member of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, has died.
Klaas Olsson's customer service.
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Chapter 7: How did a rare Superman comic sell for $15 million?
We have news that concerns all of our customers. Week 2 and 3 are not the best weeks of the year. On the contrary, we now offer a 30% discount on Northlight's roof and table lights. And in addition, a minus 20% discount on lamps. Life is better with a story.
This is the Global News Podcast. When a freight train travelling at high speeds collided with a passenger train in the Tempe Valley in Greece back in 2023, it sent shockwaves through the nation, sparking protests, strikes and anger at the government. A large part of the blame was put on a perceived lack of funding for rail maintenance.
That tragic incident could have a profound impact on the next election there as a new political party has sprung up in response to it. Stephanie Prentice told us more.
Chris, it's worth revisiting the severity of this crash to really understand that long-lasting significance. I was working here when it happened, and it felt like every time I went into the studio to give an update, even more horrifying details had emerged. It was a head-on collision. The front carriages of this passenger train just completely crushed on impact.
There was a fireball that moved through some of the carriages. Rescuers couldn't even get inside to reach people that were trapped because of the high temperatures. 57 people died and many were young students who'd been in that front carriage that took the brunt of the impact. It was the worst rail disaster Greece had seen in decades and the people there haven't forgotten.
On the second anniversary in 2025, we again saw mass demonstrations against the government in more than 100 cities. People still really angry and really frustrated of what happened and saying even now not enough has been done to modernise those railways and improve the safety stand
And so tell us about this new party then.
So not only 40 people are going on trial in March over that collision, but that hasn't stopped accusations of corruption around the general investigation. And amid that search for justice, one of the victim's mothers has become something of a national figure. San Maria Cristiano became known as the mother of Tempe. Tempe, of course, being where it happened.
She lost her 20-year-old daughter and she never stopped campaigning for answers. And now she's announced a new party she says will combat corruption. Polls are suggesting it could do well. It's been called the citizens movement. The polls say it could get between 10 and 30 percent of the vote. It's obviously far too early to be calling that. There isn't a general election in Greece until 2027.
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Chapter 8: What insights do dogs have by eavesdropping on humans?
And I've noticed how they're paying attention to their owners. And I'd also get some very funny stories of owners telling me they were thinking of ordering a pizza and they were talking between them. And then the dog ran into the room with their toy named pizza. Or they were talking on the phone and they mentioned something like a bag of rice. And then the dog ran with the toy named bag of rice.
And I was like, okay, so the dogs are doing something here. And I really wanted to understand the depth of what they were doing. So we know that almost all dogs can learn things like sit or down or stay, the labels of actions. What we found in our previous studies is that actually only very few dogs show evidence of learning object labels. So for example,
to get their ball versus to get their rope or a frisbee. And I have to say, it's not only our research group that found this. There are also a few other research groups that tried to train dogs to learn names of objects and found that there were only a small group of dogs that can do this. And particular breeds of dogs? The majority of these dogs are border collies.
It's important to note that they're not only border collies. We have also a few other quite surprising dogs. So in previous studies, we had a Pekingese, a Shih Tzu, Yorkshires, and it's still very rare even among border collies. Because these dogs are so rare, we work online. The dogs are located all around the world, speaking Norwegian, Portuguese, English, a lot of different languages.
And in our studies, they're learning only a name of an object, so it doesn't seem to matter to them in which language you say it. But there are other studies of neuroimaging, not from me, from my colleagues, that show the dogs actually do differentiate between languages and languages that they don't hear often.
In our study, you know, in the headline of the study, we say like one and a half year old children. The reason for this is because when we look at the surface level behavior, it looks the same. The dogs were listening to very brief interaction. And at the surface level, they managed to perform something like kids do it. But like is the key word here. It looks the same.
It doesn't mean that what goes on in their brain is the same. And actually, this is something we always need to keep in mind when we're looking at animals behaving, quote unquote, like humans. Then we need to keep in mind that even if the behavior looks the same, it's most likely that the thoughts that underlie this behavior are different.
Animal behavior researcher, Dr. Shani Drawer. A senior Google employee in Britain has claimed she was made redundant after reporting a manager for sharing inappropriate sexual stories with clients. Victoria Woodall told an employment tribunal in London she was subjected to a relentless campaign of retaliation after raising concerns about the man who was later dismissed for gross misconduct.
Google denies any wrongdoing. A judgment is expected later this month. More details from our investigations correspondent, Rhianna Croxford.
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