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Syrian government says operation against Assad loyalists over
00:27:52
Hundreds of civilians are reported have been killed in clashes in two coastal provinces
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- [00:00]
Rachel Wright
This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel wright and at 14 hours GMT on Monday 10th March, these are our main stories. Syria's Defense Ministry says it's ended a military operation in its coastal provinces where hundreds of people have been killed in recent days. The trade war between the US and China ramps up. The US will take part in the first negotiations over Gaza since President Trump was elected. Also in this podcast, we hear about the cyber hackers working in North Korea.
- [00:36]
Leena Sinjab
They have been around for at least.
- [00:39]
Rachel Wright
15 years doing this. They have been very involved in a variety of large attacks over the years. We begin this podcast in Syria, where the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus have been witnessing the worst outbreak of violence since December of last year, when insurgents overthrew the former president, Bashar Al Assad. Since Thursday, clashes between Assad loyalists and the security forces have brought havoc to several cities and towns, reportedly killing more than a thousand people. Most of the dead are members of the former president's Alawite minority. Now, the Syrian Defense Ministry says that calm has been restored in the region. But members of the Alawite community say they still fear for their lives. The BBC spoke to someone in Latakia who, for their own safety, asked us to withhold their identity. So one of my colleagues has voiced their answers.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
How am I feeling?
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I am totally terrified.
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I have my family.
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I'm sitting all day and all night with them.
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I don't know when the jihadis will.
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Arrive outside our house and start killing us. That's the truth.
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No one can help. There's no police we can call, no security, no nothing.
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Just because I am an Alawite, I have no rights at all.
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Rachel Wright
Our correspondent Leena Sinjab gave us this update.
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Leena Sinjab
There has been lots of efforts by the official authorities that to contain the situation, to stop the violations. But also the interim president announced a committee to investigate the killing, whether it's conducted by remnants of the Assad regime or by members of the fighters or factions that are affiliated to the new authority. Right now, they say that it seems that the situation is, you know, under control or calming down, especially around Tortoise and Latakia. But we're not quite sure if this whole operation is over yet.
- [02:41]
Rachel Wright
And even if it is over, the situation is very complicated and factional. It's going to be very hard for the new government to maintain order, isn't it?
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Leena Sinjab
It is very challenging time indeed, especially with remnants of the Assad regime is still out and about. And of Course, we have the challenge of all the foreign fighters who are, you know, inside Syria and are reported to have been along with some of the factions who entered Jabli and Banyas and conducted the mass killing. And that's why the interim president said that there would be an organ like a Committee to Protect Civil Peace, dedicated to work with the families on the coastal side. But I have to say it's going to be a very big challenge because, you know, these groups, both sides, the Alawites, who are remnants of the Assad regime, who have vested interest in destabilizing the situation, are armed. The radical groups or the foreign fighters who have conducted also crimes over the past two days are armed. How he's going to strike this balance, how they're going to, like, stop them, take them to courts. That's going to be the big challenge coming ahead to reassure not only the Alawite community, but the whole Syria and the international community that is watching the situation, developing, how this is a country that's going to protect all rights, equal rights for all Syrians, regardless of their religion or their belief.
- [04:09]
Rachel Wright
Lena Sinjab When President Trump imposed new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, the leaders of both countries immediately got on the phone to the president and negotiated a temporary pause. But China is not going down the same route. It's been involved in a trade war with the US for many years and has now responded to President Trump putting a 20% hike on Chinese goods by imposing further taxes on US products. This was the reaction from some people in Beijing.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
Tariffs only raise prices. Regular people pay more to consume.
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Roya Mahboob
If they add all these tariffs, from.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
The country's perspective, maybe they can import less. But for regular people, if we can tell something is imported from the US we can try to buy less of it or not at all.
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Rachel Wright
So what exactly is China taxing? I asked our China correspondent, Stephen McDonnell.
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Stephen McDonnell
Beijing, interestingly, hasn't gone for all US goods, but targeted products, which really hit rural communities, actually. So it's for example, 10 or 15% tariffs on everything from chicken, seafood, soybeans, cotton. Now, the reason, of course, you'd be going after these areas of the US Community is because they're backing Donald Trump. These are people who voted for Donald Trump. And the US President said, oh, no worries, you can all just sell more things inside the U.S. well, I'm sure those sections of the U.S. farming community would also like to be able to have the opportunity to sell their produce into the massive Chinese market and having tariffs placed on them. Well, depending on the industry that could be really terrible for them. And also, over the last 24 hours, China has announced tariffs on similar goods from Canada. Now, this is in response to Canada putting tariffs on electric cars from China. And to give you an idea of what a big deal that might be for Canada, like, 40% of China's beans come from Canada. So that's huge.
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Rachel Wright
So, in effect, all these tariffs are ramping up this world trade war. Who does this affect the most? Is it consumers? Is it consumers in China? Consumers around the world?
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Stephen McDonnell
Yeah, you're right. Consumers are the ones who are going to pay for it. I mean, it's funny. Donald Trump seems to be making out when he speaks to people in the US that somehow or other countries are going to be paying these tariffs. No, it's the US Consumers that pay those tariffs if they want those goods available to them. I'll tell you who else it hurts. Imagine you're a company in the US and you have some components, for example, that come from China. Well, then you've got to pay the tariffs as well. That makes your equipment, even though it's built in the US More expensive because some parts of that machinery have potentially come from China. So, you know, it just keeps spreading and spreading as far as you like, because as people know, the global economy, it's just so interlocked these days. And so once you start hitting tariffs on one portion of it, well, it just flows from one to the other. And of course, the other thing is that, I mean, it's funny, Donald Trump has said that he's going to whack tariffs on anyone who responds to his tariffs with their own tariffs. Well, then it just keeps escalating because what does he think other countries are going to do to sit back and cop it? Of course they're not. And so especially a country like this, the might of China, well, really, they've been relatively modest at the moment in what they've opposed on US Goods, and they're keeping their powder dry. So there's plenty more China could do in terms of hurting US Exports if Beijing decided that it wanted to go down that road.
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Rachel Wright
Our China correspondent, Stephen McDonnell. Israeli negotiators are due in Qatar for fresh talks on extending the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. President Trump's Middle east envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to join regional mediators in Doha as they seek to narrow the gap between Israel and hamas. This comes 10 days after the first phase of a truce deal between Israel and Hamas expired without an agreement on advancing to a second stage. Since then isra Israel has halted the entry of all humanitarian aid to Gaza and cut off any remaining electricity supplies. I asked our Middle east correspondent Yolande Nell, what to expect from the talks in Doha.
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Leena Sinjab
Certainly these talks are going to be very difficult. Things have been really stuck. Hamas wants to move to the next phase of the ceasefire that would see potentially a full end to the war, a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. But what Israel is pushing for Israel, really just an extension of the truce that would see the release of more hostages because it's believed that Hamas still holds 24 hostages who are alive, as well as the bodies of 35 others.
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Rachel Wright
Israel has cut off the electricity supply to Gaza. Is that going to have an impact on these talks, do you think?
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Leena Sinjab
Certainly this adds to the pressure on Hamas where Israel already a week ago cut off all humanitarian supplies and food and fuel as well from entering into Gaza. And that is big, beginning to have a real impact there. Now what it's done is to cut the limited power supply that was going in. This was just being used. One lined to run a desalination plant in the center of the Strip. But of course that has been providing essential drinking water. Hamas has said this is part of Israel's what it calls starvation policy. It is likely to add to accusations of war crimes by Israel, something which it strongly denies.
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Rachel Wright
I understand that the American diplomat who actually spoke to Hamas directly last week has been talking. What's he been saying?
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Leena Sinjab
So this is Adam Boehler. He's the US envoy responsible for hostages. And we had that surprise confirmation from the White House last week that the US had been in these direct talks with Hamas breaking a long time sort of diplomatic taboo. Adam Boehler has said that these talks were very helpful. He said there was a real chance of seeing some movement and seeing more hostages coming home in the next few weeks. And he also talked about the bigger picture. He said that Hamas had suggested a five to ten year truce that would basically see it disarm and disengage from politics as well. He said there are ways in which the US and other countries could help to oversee this process and that it was not, in his words, a bad first offer.
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Rachel Wright
Yolande Nell reports from Russia say its forces are trying to surround thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. Ukraine has trying to hold on to territory it captured seven months ago in a cross border incursion in the hope it could be used as leverage in future peace talks. Our Kyiv correspondent James Waterhouse told us more.
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James Waterhouse
It's not looking good for Ukrainian forces. This is a patch of Russian, western Russian territory which was seized in a surprise attack last summer, which Ukraine had hoped at the time would be, would force Russia to divert soldiers from other parts of the front line and potentially be used as a bargaining chip in any kind of peace negotiation. But Russian forces, with the help of South Korean troops as well as South Korean ammunition, seemingly have almost encircled Ukrainian forces across the border inside Russia. They've even destroyed bridges along the border, making it next to impossible for them to get out. There is a main strip of road in Ukraine's Sumy region as well, which is used as a major supply route. You know, I was there when the attack was first, the offensive was first launched. We understand now that is coming under heavy fire as the Russians now gain air superiority. And it is likely, I would not be surprised if we did see a withdrawal of some kind if troops are able to get out. But this is a place where Ukraine had concentrated some of its best personnel and military equipment, and it may yet amount to nothing.
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Rachel Wright
Meanwhile, US Officials are due to meet Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia later, but not President Zelensky. What are we hearing about the US Attitude to Ukraine after last week's explosive meeting in the Oval Office?
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James Waterhouse
Well, we've just had Donald Trump suggest that the pausing of military aid has just about been restored. We're not sure just how true that is at the moment, but America is suggesting that Ukraine has come back to the table after quite a tumultuous fortnight, after Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had quite a public falling out in the Oval Office. And as far as Kyiv is concerned, it's Operation Patch Up. You know, they are trying to mend relations with America because it needs America, along with Europe, to be the military safety net if a ceasefire was to fail. And so he's going to go in there. President Zelensky propose an initial ceasefire by air and sea. But Russia has said thus far that it would reject that idea. But I think this is what it could become for Ukraine in terms of trying to work out what the path to peace could be.
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Rachel Wright
James Waterhouse and the Global News podcast is taking your questions on the future of Ukraine and any peace deal. So please ask anything and everything. Email us on globalpodcastbc.co UK UK Russia has expelled one British diplomat at the embassy in Moscow and the spouse of another on suspicion of spying. Russia's Federal Security Service says the two were stripped of their accreditation. The British Foreign Office has called the accusations malicious and baseless. Our diplomatic correspondent, James Landell is following developments.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
What the Russians have done is they have identified two mid ranking diplomats at the embassy and they have given these two, they basically suspended these people's credentials. They've been given a couple of weeks to leave the country. And as you say, the Russians accused them a of providing false information on their visas and application forms when they arrived in Russia and secondly showing quote, signs of intelligence and subversive activity which can, you know, mean a number of things at the same time. The Russian authorities have summoned what they call a British representative from the embassy to express their concerns. And as you say, the Foreign Office in response has said very explicitly this is not the first time that Russia has made what they call malicious and baseless accusations against their staff. So that's what's happened. This comes after, you know, in February the UK expelled a Russian diplomat. In November, Russia expelled a British diplomat. So this is part of a cycle of tit for tat. The question of course is whether any wider significance, significance to this.
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Rachel Wright
James Landau. Still to come in this podcast we hear from the founder of an Afghan all girl robotics team as a film about them is released in cinemas.
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Roya Mahboob
Whenever we watching the film, it's like a sitting back into your, you know, most challenging and inspiring moment of your life.
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Rachel Wright
150,000 tonnes of Japanese rice are to be auctioned off in the coming days in an attempt to drive down the price of the commodity which has doubled in the past year. The Japanese government is asking for bids for some of its emergency stockpile. I asked our East Asia regional editor Mickey Bristow, how the prices had got so high.
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Mickey Bristow
It's a good question and we've not a simple answer considering it's just one product in one country. But essentially in 2023 there was a heat wave in Japan which led to a bad harvest. So prices last year were very high. They don't seem to have recovered even though last year's harvest was quite good for a number of reasons. One of them being blamed is that there are a massive amount of tourists now going to Japan, so they're eating more rice. Also there were structural government problems. For example, the government last year warned of a massive earthquake and that led to a lot of panic buying in Japan of rice, people stocking up. That led to a price rise as well. And so you have a situation now where as you've mention there price of rice is essentially double what it was about a year ago. It's about US$26 for a five kilogram bag. So really very high prices that's what's led the Japanese government to release some of its stockpile.
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Rachel Wright
And so how will that help, do you think? And will it help?
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Mickey Bristow
Well, 150,000 tonnes will help. That'll be on the shops at the end of March. Probably later on, the Japanese government could release other stockpiles. It's got about a million ton. But I think the main problem that we're looking at is structural. If you look across East Asia, big rice growing countries and exporters like India and Thailand have recorded record harvests last year. So why is Japan suffering like this? And that's partly because the Japanese government seeks to protect Japanese rice growers, partly because of food security, to ensure they've got enough rice for themselves, and partly to support rural areas and farmers. Japanese people eat mostly Japanese rice and so whilst they could import a lot of rice because they buy their own, it's very susceptible for structural problems like the ones we've seen.
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Rachel Wright
Mickey Bristow as we record this podcast, a major search and rescue operation is underway off the coast of England in the North Sea. An American registered tanker and a container ship sailing under a Portuguese flag have collided and the tanker is reported to be on fire. A number of people are believed to have abandoned ship. The Coast Guard and sea rescue services are involved in an ongoing operation. Our reporter Phil McCain told us what the Coast Guard is saying about the incident.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
The vessels that were involved in this, of course, an oil tanker and a cargo ship, both very large vessels, one being the Stena Immaculate, an oil or chemical tanker sailing under an American flag. Now, we understand that that was traveling from from a port in Greece, but was at anchor when the collision happened. The Salong, which is the cargo ship, had been sailing from Grainsmouth in Scotland over to Rotterdam, so had been tracking a course to the south and then to the east. This is part of the North Sea where there are lots of wind farms and there are lots of boats that service those wind farms. And we understand that those vessels and others were caught, called to immediately go to assist and that some of those had firefighting capabilities as well. In terms of the incident, we have just been told by both the Coast Guard, but also the rnli, which runs lifeboats, that they are working together and that the incident is continuing.
- [19:15]
Rachel Wright
And we've just heard that the chief executive of Steno Bulk, which co owns the oil tanker, has confirmed that all its crew are accounted for and safe. Two weeks ago, cyber hackers working for North Korea carried out the largest theft in history when they stole $1.5 billion worth of digital currency from the crypto company Bybit. Since then, the hackers known as the Lazarus Group has successfully cashed out at least $300 million of their stolen gains. The group is accused of a litany of huge hacks allegedly to make money for North Korea's weapons program. Our cyber correspondent, Joe Tidey reports on how the hacker managed to pull off the heist. Sound check, technical check. Are we live?
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
This is Ben Zhao, CEO and founder of the Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange. He's about to make an announcement that every CEO dreads.
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About two hours ago, Bybit experienced a hack.
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Rachel Wright
As far as we know, this could.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
Be the largest hack in the history of our industry.
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In fact, it's probably the biggest single theft in any industry ever. $1.5 billion gone in seconds. And even in the early hours after the hack, fingers began immediately pointing in one direction. North Korea. The impoverished country has one of the most advanced cyber teams in the world and is blamed for a growing list of massive, lucrative cyber attacks. Cybersecurity experts like Dr. Dorit Dorr from Checkpoint have been tracking them for years.
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Leena Sinjab
They don't have a successful industry for.
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Rachel Wright
Anything, so they they created a successful industry for hacking. And they don't care about the negative impression of cybercrime.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
Dr. Beverly McCann from Darktrace says North Korea has made billions from hacks.
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Leena Sinjab
They have been around for at least.
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Rachel Wright
15 years doing this. They have been very involved in a variety of large attacks over the years, and what they'll do with that money.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
Is they use it to fund their military missile programs.
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But the Bybit heist dwarfs all previous financial hacks. So how was it pulled off? Like all crypto exchanges, Bybit has a float of crypto coins ready to be sold and swapped in so called hot wallets. When the hot wallets are running low, more crypto coins are taken out of huge reserve pots called cold wallets that are kept super secure and offline, therefore safe from hackers. But the cybercriminals targeted a company called SafeWallet that Bybit uses to transfer coins from its reserve cold wallets to its hot wallets. Everything looked normal for Bybit as they set up the mega transfer of Ethereum coins to the usual place. But the hackers had secretly changed the address that the coins were being sent to. By the time they realized the coins had been sent to the criminals, it was too late. Bybit insisted that no customers would lose money. They've now replenished their reserves. But the company is, in its words, waging war on the hackers. They're offering bounties to anyone who can help track the stolen money as the hackers try and cash it out through crypto exchanges. So far, 20 volunteers have been awarded a share of $4 million in rewards. But they're up against a skilled adversary.
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So here we have bybit the exchange and this represents the theft of funds.
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Crypto investigators elliptic are experts at charting the movements of criminal crypto funds. Every transaction is published on a public blockchain. Dr. Tom Robinson and his team have enormous ever changing graphs showing the web of transactions made by the hackers.
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And so we're seeing the funds split up and sent out and layered. So explosion of crypto in different directions it is, yes. What they're really trying to do here is confuse the money trail, make it more difficult, or to slow down the tracing of these funds, because every minute really matters here. Out of all the illicit actors involved in cryptocurrency, North Korea really are the best at laundering crypto.
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For years now, the US and allies have accused the country of orchestrating cybercrime. Names and photos of alleged North Korean hackers have been added to a cyber most wanted list. But unless they leave the country, the chances of them being arrested are very slim.
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Rachel Wright
Joe Tidy reporting. A new study into drone warfare in Africa has found that nearly a thousand civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured in drone attacks in the past three years. Richard Howells reports Using drones to watch.
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Unnamed Alawite Voice
Or attack targets has changed warfare significantly in the past few years. But this report, titled Death by Delivery, turns its attention to the machine's use in conflicts in Africa. It's revealed what the authors call a striking pattern of civilian harm. Drones, largely supplied by Turkey, China and Iran, are being used in military campaigns against insurgents in Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. The report reveals that drone attacks have frequently targeted densely populated areas with few precautions in place to avoid killing or injuring civilians.
- [24:27]
Rachel Wright
Richard Howells. A film based on an all girl robotics team from Afghanistan has hit the big screen. Rule breakers follows Roya Mahboob's journey as she sets up the group which designs and creates robots. In a country where educating girls is seen as rebellion, the computers come today for the boys girls outside. The first time I touched the computer, it's like a light in the darkness. We are looking for four girls who would like to learn about robotics and compete with teams from other countries. It'll show Afghan girls in a new light. It's dangerous to talk about girls doing this. It's dangerous not to Roya Mahboob is both the subject and executive producer of Rule Breakers. Production of the film started in 2019, two years before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan and dismantled hard fought gains in equality. Roya helped evacuate the girls robotics team in 2021 and now they're studying at university. She said the message of the film was more important than ever.
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Roya Mahboob
It feels like surreal to see that our stories is selling to to the world whenever we watching the film. It's like a sitting back into your, you know, most challenging and inspiring moment of your life. So we are very overwhelming and humbling that our experience, you know, to see that in the biggest screen. But I think that the story was important. It's not because the story is about the Afghan girls or robotics teams. It's a story of the global stories of the women that around the world that they are facing with the challenges and obstacles in Islam, in leadership in education. And we wanted to tell these stories to show that the Afghan women are a group of the resilience and they have talented, they have potential and it's all about to giving the people that equal access to opportunities. Unfortunately, since the Taliban took over the country they have been trying to erase like every progress that was made in the past. We see that the future of the girls are stolen, their voices are silenced and the girls cannot go to the school, nor have access to jobs, nor have access to justice, even the health sectors. I think it's devastating and sad to see that. And despite of all of this, I think that these young women in Afghanistan they continue to dream, they continue to have hope and they continue to fight for their future. And this film is a call to support them and to stand up for the rights to education and to never forget about the potential of millions of these young girls in Afghanistan and beyond who deserve a chance to change their lives.
- [27:08]
Rachel Wright
Filmmaker Roya Mahboob and that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the global newspaper podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. And remember, we are looking for questions on the future of Ukraine. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on X@BBC World Service use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Louis Griffin and the producer was Stephanie Tillotson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Rachel Wright. Until next time. Goodbye.