Chapter 1: What are the latest developments in US-Ukrainian peace negotiations?
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Kun me oltiin menossa talvilomalle, niin siellä junassa me oltiin yötä makuvaunussa. Ja siellä oli myös sellainen ravintolovaunu, josta sai kaikkea ruokaa ja myös jälkkäriä. Sitten mä kävin seikkailemaan eri vaunuissa ja siellä oli toinenkin lapsi. Se oli myös menossa talvilomalle ja mä mietin, että meissä tulee varmaan kaveri, kun me molemmat tykätään lumilautailusta. Se oli tosi kiva matka. Vapaus matkustaa raiteilla. VR. Yhteisellä matkalla.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 4th of December, these are our main stories. The back and forth negotiations on the US-backed peace plan for Ukraine will continue on Thursday with talks between Washington and Kyiv. The doctor who sold the drug ketamine to the Friends star Matthew Perry weeks before his fatal overdose has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Also in this podcast, India prepares to welcome President Putin. On the agenda now is everything from new defense deals to a rethink of energy ties with Moscow. All while India tries to walk that diplomatic tightrope with the US. We look at the geopolitics behind the visit.
The last few weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity as the Trump administration tries to secure backing for its latest plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. On Thursday all eyes will be on Florida, where the U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Ukraine's top negotiator Rustam Umarov.
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Chapter 2: How is India navigating its relationship with Russia amidst the Ukraine conflict?
They'll discuss the outcome of Tuesday's meeting in Moscow between President Putin, Mr. Wyckoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Those talks failed to produce any breakthrough, although the Kremlin described them as productive. Speaking at the Oval Office, here was Donald Trump's assessment of those Moscow talks.
I don't know what the Kremlin is doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We're going to find out. It's a war that should have never been started. It's a war. If I were president, we had a rigged election. If I were president, that war would have never happened. It's a terrible thing. But I thought they had a very good meeting with President Putin. We'll see what happens.
David Petraeus is a retired U.S. Army general and former director of the CIA. He told the BBC's Evan Davis it's not surprising President Putin has so far not agreed to a deal.
It was predictable and predicted in fact widely that Putin would not accept anything less than his stated core objectives, which are to replace President Zelenskyy through an election, presumably with a pro-Russian figure, to be given land in Donetsk province that they haven't even approached, much less taken. And this includes the so-called fortified cities, which if given to Russia, basically open the field for further aggression.
down the road. None of those can be acceptable to Ukraine, but Putin is clearly not going to accept anything less. He seems to be still under the impression that victory is inevitable, even though it's very clear that the incremental gains at extraordinary cost at some point just are not going to be sustainable for Russia, especially given the more fragile state of its economy than I think many recognize.
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Chapter 3: What legal actions are being taken regarding the Colombian fisherman's death?
The best outcome from Ukraine's point of view at this point, given that they don't want to yield to Russia's demands, would be for European nations and the United States to make it much more costly for Russia to pursue this war. Is there any hope of that happening?
Luulen, että Euroopan kaupungin ja Brysselin kohdalla on kasvava nopeus. Olen käynyt niistä monia muutamia viikkoja, myös Kivun kohdalla. Olen tullut niistä saavuttamaan, että on todennäköistä, jos sopimus ei voida olla saavutettava. Se voisi vahvistaa Ukraina suurin piirtein ympäristöön ja ympäristöön. Se voisi myös auttaa heitä vahvistamaan russilaisen missiilin ja heidän itseään.
and then also to put much more pressure on the Russian economy with further sanctions, and that if more is done at a time when Russia is projected to run out of money in its national welfare fund next year, that's been funding their military-industrial complex. If you do that and also go after those who are enabling Russia,
Russia's war machine, buying its gas and oil and providing the components for its military industrial complex. I actually think there is a prospect that Putin himself might have to recognize that he needs a cessation of hostilities. There are already signs that recruiting is not as easy as it has been. If not, he wouldn't be quadrupling or quintupling the amount of advertising he's doing overseas.
for recruits and so forth as well. You mentioned European nations. You've been talking to them and you detect this urgency. Do you detect that in the United States? Well, first we should recognize that the US has done that. Far more prominent in the past week or two, of course, have been these negotiations.
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Chapter 4: What was the outcome of the sentencing for the doctor involved in Matthew Perry's drug case?
There are sanctions in Congress waiting to be sent to the White House when President Trump signals that. The Trump administration has tried hard to try to bring Russia to some agreement that would be reasonable, and it just does not appear that Putin wants to accept any compromise on his core objectives. Evan Davis speaking with General David Petraeus.
The war in Ukraine is also on the agenda in the Chinese capital Beijing, where the French president Emmanuel Macron has met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Officially Beijing maintains a neutral stance on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
but has been accused of supporting Moscow by buying large quantities of raw materials and selling dual-use technology to the Russians. Ukraine's allies want China to use its economic influence to pressure Russia to end the fighting. With more, here's our correspondent in Beijing, Stephen McDonnell.
Emmanuel Macron is up against it in terms of getting China to act in a decisive way, and there are several reasons. One, Beijing maintains it's impartial in all of this, and so they would say, well, why would we get involved, even though the Chinese government is accused of propping up the Russian economy and also supplying spare parts for Russian war machines. Now, a more bleak
possibility is that some in the government here actually don't mind the war in Ukraine, partly because Russia's taking it up to the west and also partly because it's locking in Russian dependence on Chinese goods. China's buying all these raw materials in vast amounts from Russia because of the sanctions on the Kremlin and at the same time selling all this stuff into Russia. Now I suppose if you were going to be very cynical about that and you're a
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Chapter 5: What mysterious creature washed up on a Scottish beach?
a Chinese company, you might hope that that continues into the future. If there was to be a change of heart from the Chinese government and they really were going to use their leverage to pressure Vladimir Putin into stepping back, it hasn't emerged in terms of what's being said publicly. We're just getting pretty much the same lines from the Chinese government in terms of its
but I suppose you have to try. That would be the view of the French president, and he might hope that even the smallest amount of nudging from Beijing, from a place that really does have influence in Moscow, could potentially help bring about an end to the invasion there. But as I say, I think most observers here, serious observers, think China's not likely to really act decisively on this.
Stephen McDonald. Well, it's not just Emmanuel Macron on the move. Vladimir Putin begins a two-day visit to India today. It comes as Moscow's been looking eastward for economic partners. New Delhi is trying to balance its longstanding ties with Russia amid growing pressure from the United States. Our correspondent Davina Gupta has been speaking to people in India to find out how they're viewing this visit.
I'm in central Delhi and if you spend a few minutes here through the traffic and the winter smog, you'll spot rows of Indian flags, orange, white, green and blue, flying alongside Russia's colors of red, blue and white. These flags are doting the street to welcome Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, who is visiting New Delhi for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine. So how are people here feeling about this visit? Let's find out.
Toivon Putinin viestintään, koska uskon, että he ovat olleet meidän ystävämme pitkän aikaa. He ovat olleet siellä, kun ei ollut muuta. Meillä oli yksilöitä kaikilla puolilla. He ovat auttaneet meidät kaikenlaisiin konfliktioihin. Myöhemmin he ovat auttaneet meidät vahvaan öljyyn. Putin on tullut aikaan, kun on jo loppu Ukrainassa. Luulen, että India pitäisi ottaa vahvasti russiaan ja saavuttaa tavoitteen loppua loppuun.
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Chapter 6: What insights do experts provide about the impact of these global events?
Hän uskaltaa olla globaalinen johtaja, ja tämän esityksen russalaisen presidentin kautta näyttää maailman suuremman tärkeänä. Se liittyy paremmin rahoitukseen ja hyödyntämiseen. Mutta indianille, jotka elävät Ruotsin ympäristöstä, tämän esityksen on vaikeampaa katsoa.
Se on 27-vuotias Deepak Kumar, joka seuraa kehityksiä Kazakstaan, jossa hän nyt elää. Deepak oli yli 1000 indian opiskelijaa, jotka opiskelevat Ukrainassa, kun konfliktit alkoivat. Hän meni kampussaan bussissa yhden opiskelijan kanssa, mutta jäi vähin puolivuotiaana. Hän oli vahvistunut kävelemään kaksi päivää ennen kuin pääsi rannasta turvallisuuteen.
It was such a traumatic experience. I've lost money and time to complete my studies and be a doctor. I just wish that Mr. Putin stops this war in Ukraine and sends a message for peace from India.
India has called for a peaceful resolution to the war. But it has also continued to buy large amounts of discounted Russian crude, which have drawn close scrutiny from Washington. Ajay Srivastava is with the New Delhi-based think tank GTRI.
We were not buying much of the oil from Russia till the start of the Ukraine war in 2021. But after that we started buying oil at a cheaper price and we saved plenty of dollars in India. So Russia has been a consistent energy supplier. We buy about 40% of oil from Russia.
US president Donald Trump argues that India's oil imports help fund Moscow's war, a claim New Delhi firmly denies. But he has now imposed steep tariffs on a wide range of Indian exports to America and also sanctioned two of Russia's largest oil refineries. India has said it will no longer import crude from those companies. If India doesn't buy oil...
It makes it much easier. And they're not going to buy. They assured me they will. Within a short period of time they will not be buying oil from Russia.
But analyst Ajay Shrivastava says the timing of Putin's visit indicates not much has changed. Putin's visit signifies that India was a non-aligned or multi-aligned nation and wants to stress and give a loud message to the world that while the relationship with other big nations like US or European Union, they have been changing based on trade or strategic needs of both the sides. With Russia, they were almost constant.
And so on the agenda now is everything from new defense deals to a rethink of energy ties with Moscow, all while India tries to walk that diplomatic tightrope with the US. Davina Gupta in India.
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