Global News Podcast: IOC recommends return of Russian and Belarusian athletes

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are

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I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 29th of March, these are our main

stories. The International Olympic Committee has recommended that athletes from Russia and Belarus

should be allowed to take part in international competitions, effectively lifting a ban imposed

after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated across

France again in protest at President Macron's plans to raise the state pension age.

Mexico's president has said a fire that killed 39 migrants at a facility close to the United

States border was started by the migrants themselves. Also in this podcast, mammoth meatballs

anyone? The wooly mammoth DNA is actually available on a public database and so we identified a key

gene that we were most interested in. The scientists on a mission to make meatballs from

the long extinct mammoth. There's been a backlash after the International Olympic Committee recommended

that athletes from Russia and Belarus be allowed to return to international competition, although

only as individuals under a neutral flag. The move essentially lifts the ban imposed in the

wake of the invasion of Ukraine. The German government has described it as a slap in the

face for Ukrainian athletes. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, speaking at a news conference,

explained the conditions attached to those taking part in the contest.

Athletes with a Russian or a Belarusian passport must compete only as individual

neutral athletes. Teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport cannot be considered.

Athletes who actively support the war cannot compete.

We've got more from our sports news reporter, Alex Kapsdik.

Well, the IOC said back in February, just after the war began the invasion of Ukraine,

that they would exclude Russians and Belarusians. They said for safety reasons and to protect the

integrity of the competition. And they said that what's changed since then is that despite

this recommendation, lots of sports have welcomed Russians and Belarusians. They've been competing

as neutrals in sports like tennis, in cycling, in handball, and it's all gone well. The other

reason they said they've changed their mind on this is because they've taken advice from the

United Nations experts who said that if they did ban people based on their passport, then they would

be breaching their human rights. So that's why they've come up with these new rules, these new

regulations that they're recommending. It's not an order, it's a recommendation. The final decision

will go to the Individual Sports Federations, but it's a list of rules which will allow Belarusians

and Russians to compete as independent neutral athletes. But some people are very unhappy about

this. Yes, it won't please everyone. Ukraine have threatened a boycott on this in the past,

if Russians and Belarusians are allowed to compete at the Olympic Games next year in Paris. There

was no decision on that today. Thomas Bach said that will be made at an appropriate time. He didn't

say exactly when that would be. They're going to see how this current system or the system they've

unveiled today works out over the next weeks and months. But yes, there has been some strong

reaction. A group of around 300 former and current international fencers wrote to Thomas Bach demanding

that their own federation row back on its decision to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete.

Germany's elite athletes group, a flet in Deutschland, it called for a complete ban

whilst the war continued in Ukraine. And recently in the world boxing championships,

the women's world boxing championships, a dozen countries did actually boycott that

because of Russian and Belarusian involvement in that event. As Polish minister in the government

there, he said it was a slap in the face to Ukraine from the IOC today in this decision.

Alex Kapstik, a fire that claimed dozens of lives at an immigration center in Mexico,

close to the US border, may have been started by the migrants themselves. The Mexican president,

Andres Manuel López Obrador, said the men being held there set their mattresses on fire in protest

as they feared they were about to be deported. They put mattresses in the door of the shelter

and set them on fire as a protest and did not imagine that it would cause this terrible tragedy.

What we know so far is that it was mainly migrants from Central America and some from

Venezuela who were in the shelter. Images show rows of bodies lying under shimmering silvery

sheets outside the burnt out building as frantic relatives bang on the windows of emergency

vehicles transporting the injured to hospital. 39 men died, another 29 were injured. This

Venezuelan woman told reporters she was desperate for information about her husband who was one

of those being detained at the center in Ciudad Juarez. I am human too but they treat you like

a dog. He was taken away in an ambulance. They haven't told me anything. A relative could have

died and they wouldn't tell you. Is he dead? Nothing. Our correspondent in Mexico City,

Marcos Gonzalez, gave us this update. We know the fire started around 10pm local time here in Mexico

at the center run by the Mexico's National Migration Institute which is located very close

to the bridge that links Ciudad Juarez with El Paso in the United States. According to Mexican

president, as we know, under Manuela Pesoprador, the fire started during a protest as they were

told that they would be deported to their countries. So they set a light to some mattresses and it seems

this is what spread the fire very quickly. Authorities are investigating now why they

couldn't leave the building on time, in which conditions they were in the center. Related

to the victims, we still don't know their identities but we know most of them were from

Central America, mainly from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and also from Venezuela. Also according

to some local media, some of them had been detained by authorities on Monday and taken

to the center after they found them in the city of Ciudad Juarez without the correct,

the right documentation to stay here in Mexico. And these were all men and clearly very desperate to

have resorted to such an extreme step in order to try to highlight their plight. Absolutely,

as we probably know, Ciudad Juarez, well, as many other Mexican cities in the northern border,

has seen an increase of migrants coming from other countries trying to cross to the U.S.

So all of them are waiting there close to the border, a possible lifting of restrictions,

which at the moment did not happen. So some of them stay here for days, for weeks or even for

months. So, yeah, what happened is, as you can see in the images, really awful. The images were

terrible. So, of course, relative of people of the victims are really angry, are asking for an

explanation about what happened and what is the explanation, the official explanation from the

government about why they couldn't escape from the building on time to save their lives.

Marcos Gonzalez. Hundreds of thousands of protesters have marched through Paris and

other French cities on a 10th day of strikes and rallies against the government's pension reforms.

Demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but there were some clashes with police with dozens arrested.

Protesters are angry after legislation to raise the retirement age in France from 62 to 64

was forced through by President Emmanuel Macron's government using a special constitutional power.

Lucy Williamson watched events unfold in Paris.

Numbers may be lower, but the tension around these protests has spiralled. Police and protesters

both came braced for violence today, each from the other. Almost 900 officers have been injured

during these demonstrations so far. The government has blamed extreme left groups and put 13,000

security forces on the streets to police today's marches. But Loïc Valder, spokesman for the

Unser Police Union, says some bystanders are also joining in attacks on the police.

I think after the COVID, after everything that happened to France, the inflation and everything,

people started to be really tense. And that doesn't help to reduce the violence against

the police because the police is representing the state. It can also explain why we have more and

more police officers like hurt. But public anger has also been inflamed over the past week by

several video and audio recordings, apparently showing officers from a rapid reaction unit,

threatening and attacking demonstrators who pose no threat. Among them, Salome Rio,

who is now suing the police. It's important to have policemen that are able to protect people.

But in that case, they were not protecting us. We must have been protected from them.

That is really worrying to me. The Paris police chief has described the rapid reaction force,

known as BRAV-M, as indispensable in policing the protests, despite a series of allegations of

violence and racist abuse now being investigated by the Paris prosecutor and the inspectorate of

police. Meanwhile, on the streets, anger at the government is merging with anger at the police.

Our Paris correspondent, Lucy Williamson. Myanmar's military rulers have announced that

Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy, has been dissolved.

Here's our Asia Pacific editor, Michael Bristo. The National League for Democracy won two landslide

election victories in Myanmar, before being ousted from power in a coup by the army two years ago.

It was automatically dissolved after declining to re-register as a political party before a

deadline on Tuesday. The NLD refuses to take part in a political process that it says is designed

to keep the military in power after any future election, and one that's led to its leader,

Aung San Suu Kyi, being jailed for more than 30 years. Michael Bristo. A court in Russia has

sentenced a man whose daughter drew an anti-war picture at school to two years in jail. They've

been separated for weeks as she was put into a children's home and he was placed under house

arrest. Now Alexei Muskelyov has been found guilty of discrediting the army. His trial began on Monday

and ended on Tuesday with an unexpected twist. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg explains.

The judge came into the courtroom to deliver the verdict. The prosecutor came into the courtroom,

but there was no defendant. The judge read out the verdict, guilty, and the sentence,

two years in prison, case over. Then the court spokesperson revealed that Alexei Muskelyov

had disappeared. He'd gone on the run, she said, during the night. So a bizarre end to this case.

It began last year, this whole story, when Alexei's daughter, she was 12 at the time,

Muskelyov, had drawn an anti-war picture at school, showing a Ukrainian flag and the words

Glory to Ukraine and a Russian flag and the words No to War. And she also drew Russian missiles

coming towards Ukraine and a Ukrainian mother and a child standing defiantly in their path.

Alexei at the time said that after that picture, the school called the police and then problems

began for him. He said that police began checking his social media and since that picture appeared,

he was charged twice in two separations with discrediting the Russian armed forces and for

criticizing the war in Ukraine. What's happened to his daughter, Masha? At the beginning of March,

when Alexei was arrested and put under house arrest before the trial, at the same time,

his daughter, Masha, was taken to a local children's home and the local social services in the town of

Yefremov, the juvenile affairs commission, began legal action to restrict his parental rights.

And there was supposed to be a case about that going on and another hearing in a few days time.

But now that Alexei has been found guilty and given this two year sentence, the judge also ruled

that local social services now will officially be charged with looking after Masha. Has Alexei had

much support? It's an interesting question. When I was in the town a few days ago, I met some local

activists who were very vocal in their support for Alexei, people who believed that this case

highlighted the cracking down on dissent, the cracking down on freedom of speech across Russia.

There have been many cases of this. People who went shopping for him, bought him food and water

and supplies because he was under house arrest. He was banned from communicating with most people,

only with his lawyer and the investigator. But when I spoke to his neighbors, when I spoke to

other people around town, I sensed a lot of people were kind of frightened to express their opinion.

In fact, some people came out and said, you know, we don't want to speak to you about this. We are

scared. So I think that reflects the sort of the level of fear now in Russian society, you know,

more than a year after the invasion of Ukraine, there is a feeling that speaking out and speaking

your opinion can land you in trouble. Steve Roseberg speaking to my colleague Julian Marshall.

Have you ever fancied trying a mammoth's burger? No, not a huge burger, but one made from the giant

woolly prehistoric creature that was hunted to extinction thousands of years ago. Well,

if you've ever wondered what mammoth and chips would taste like, you could be in luck, as scientists

have been working with a firm in Australia to make mammoth meatballs in their labs. James

Reil is a chief scientific officer of the cultivated meat company, Vow. The woolly mammoth DNA is

actually available on a public database. And so we identified a key gene that we were most interested

in. And that gene is called myoglobin. And myoglobin was of interest to us because it's

typically thought to be responsible for the aroma and the color of meat. With more, here's Beth Timmons.

On top of spaghetti, I'll cover with cheese. I lost my poor meatball.

Sadly, I'm yet to taste the woolly mammoth meatball, but I can tell you it's been made by

making the DNA sequence for a muscle protein from a long extinct mammoth, which scientists say

gives a synthetic substance its meaty flavor. The scientists, based at the Australian Institute

for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, then used elephant DNA to bolster the gaps left in

the mammoth sequence and grew the meat from a sheep's stem cells. If you're lost, just imagine

taking cuttings from a plant and growing them in a greenhouse. In the same way, cells are taken from

the animal, given the vitamins, nutrients and minerals they would get in the animal, and then

the cells are grown to make the meat. In just a couple of weeks, 20 billion cells were used by

the company to grow the mammoth meat, which hasn't been tasted in around 4,000 years.

The firm, Vow, said it chose the woolly mammoth because it's a symbol of environmental loss.

It's all part of a growing movement to make more sustainable meat. While plant-made alternatives

are now common, meat grown from stem cells in a lab, without animal slaughter, is creating many

kinds of replacements for the sheep, pig, chicken and cow meat, usually made in large-scale production

farms. If made at scale, lab-grown meat could cut the climate impact of farmed meat by up to 92%,

reduce air pollution by up to 94%, and use 90% less land, according to a recently peer-reviewed

journal article. Seren Kell at the Good Food Institute Europe told me what she thought of the

project. Scientifically, it's definitely a fascinating project, and we hope that it does

draw attention to what cultivated meat can do, and its extraordinary potential to produce protein

far more sustainably. But as the most common sources of meat are farm animals, most of the

sustainable protein sector is more focused on actually realistically replicating meat from

these species. That's where you can have the most impact in terms of reducing emissions from

conventional animal agriculture. Vow is not the first firm to try to make lab-grown meat from

an extinct animal. In 2018, another made gummy bear sweets out of gelatine created from the DNA

of a mastodon, a relative of the mammoth. Others are looking into cultured meat from buffalo,

peacock and crocodile, if that wets your appetite.

Beth Timmons.

Still to come? He said, oh, do you think there's $10,000 worth in it? And as soon as it hit my hand,

I looked at him and I said, try $100,000. He said, oh, but that's only half the rock. He said,

the other half's at home. The detectorists in Australia who struck gold.

At normal transactions. Some kind of cyber attack on a bank. Tens of millions of dollars. Something

I don't think anybody has seen before. The cyber criminal group. From the BBC World Service.

The Lazarus Heist is back for season two. It was really like in the movies.

Find out more at the end of this podcast.

As we deal with the challenges of hybrid working and talent wars in this new world of work,

the Financial Times helps you understand what might be next. I'm Isabelle Barrick,

the host of the FT's Working It podcast. Each week, we discuss the ideas and trends shaping

the future of work. The FT's broad coverage and unique insights can help you to make sense of it

all. Check out our podcasts and read selected articles free at ft.com slash insights.

To the US now and the aftermath of yet another school shooting which has left three adults

and three children dead. Police in Nashville say the suspect had legally purchased seven firearms.

They've released footage that shows how officers managed to kill the shooter minutes

after they arrived at the school. Police say the assailant Audrey Hale was a biological woman

who used male pronouns. The chief of police in Nashville, John Drake, said the parents of the

shooter felt the 28 year old should not own weapons. We know that they felt that she had one weapon

and that she sold it. She was under care, doctor's care for an emotional disorder. Law enforcement

knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving but her parents felt that she should not own weapons.

They were under the impression that when she sold the one weapon that she did not own anymore.

Our correspondent Nomia Iqbal spoke to us from the scene of the shooting. Footage shows the 28

year old arriving at the school in a car shooting through glass doors to get in and then roaming

the hallways with a rifle. Minutes later, two officers, Michael Colazzo and Rex Engelbert,

enter the building. After a room to room search of the ground floor,

the officers hear gunfire upstairs and head to intercept.

As he rounds the corner, one of the officers spots the attacker and takes the shot.

As the police piece together what happened, the focus is once again turned to the politics

of guns in America and who has the right to access them. President Biden has called once again for

Congress to ban assault rifles, the type used in this shooting. He and lawmakers from both sides

passed major gun safety legislation last year but many Republicans say a ban would be a step too far.

Nomia Iqbal. Now, the story of a remarkable woman. Emma Huisegway Mariam Gabriel was a

prominent Ethiopian musician and nun. She's died in Jerusalem at the age of 99. She'd been living

at the Ethiopian monastery there for the past four decades and had donated the proceeds raised

from her music to help people in need. As a child she was a prisoner of war. Then she went on to study

music in Cairo where her talent was discovered. She'd wanted to study in London but when she

couldn't go she turned to religion. Emma Huisegway herself told a BBC documentary that she would have

preferred to keep a low profile but that God had had other plans. I didn't want to be famous really.

I asked her also God that my name be written and I'll have a note on her that he wanted.

He wanted not to lose the music. He's only by the grace of God.

Hannah Kibbe is Emma Huisegway's niece and she's co-founder of the Emma Huisegway Mariam Music

Foundation. Speaking to my colleague Razia Iqbal from Jerusalem, she related her early memories

of her aunt. Becoming a nun meant that she was to kind of walk away from earthly desires

and she had such a strong passion for her music and I always kind of sympathized and empathized

with her on that. She was fluent in many languages, in seven languages and was a feminist and had

so many things about her. I wonder if you could help us try and understand the kind of music that she

then went on to make because she did return to music after spending time in this monastery

in northern Ethiopia, living barefoot but she changed the kind of music that she was

both composing and playing. I would say that her religious music is probably inspired by

Santiago's music and then there is her other compositions which you know talk about the wind

or the sea or some that she composed about different members of her family, some that she

composed after the Italian occupation or for the famine disaster and so on. I think she made a lot

of her own attempts to publish her music. She was published long before her Ethiopic 21 CD which

made her famous in the world was released. She had self-published in Germany in the 70s her albums

although of course in very small numbers but all that is a testament to the fact that she

wanted to make sure that her music got out to the world.

Hanna Caberé talking about the Ethiopian musician and nun Emoy Segway Mariam Gebru

who has died at the age of 99. The pandemic made working from home or WFH as it became known

very popular. Now we could be about to see WFC or working from a cruise ship. You can now book

to spend three years living on a cruise ship including office facilities to allow you to

get on with your professional life if you can afford it. The cruise ship will be departing

from Istanbul on November the 1st. My colleague Evan Davis found out more from Alec Star a digital

nomad who's worked around the world for years and Mike Pettison the managing director of the company

behind the vessel. It starts about a hundred thousand dollars per person for the three years.

We include Wi-Fi we include food we do serve alcohol with dinner but not unlimited drinks for

those prices. Mike say that I want to bring in Alec Star who is someone who can identify as a

digital nomad has been for seven years has traveled all around the world working. I don't know Alec

have you spent much time on cruise ships in your nomadry. Yeah I have indeed I mean I've lived on

a cruise ship I worked on a cruise ship but I have also run my business from a cruise ship.

It's an exciting prospect being able to do that for three years. Is there a tax implication for

you Alec if you're working from the ship because you're not resident in any in any country. Is

that part of the appeal. Certainly although I do pay full UK tax. What would be the issue for you

I mean if you if we've got Mike Pettison there selling his cruise to you what is it that he

has to provide that makes it work for you what facilities. The first thing is the Wi-Fi ultimately

my business fully runs through the internet so any issue with the internet is a huge problem for me

and cruise ships in the past have been renowned for their pretty lousy internet. Mike how good

is the Wi-Fi on your ship. We actually will have Starlink which is the most reliable internet

as you see Starlink is setting up a satellite every every couple weeks. This is the Elon Elon Musk

service in fact isn't it. Exactly exactly so Mike what facilities what office facilities you have.

We created a whole big office area with 14 offices a couple of conference rooms a business lounge and

a whole copy printing center where people can really just go in perform their work and I mean

Alex you still can't get a meeting with your clients can you if you're on a ship somewhere

in the. No no you can't and it's I mean my I'm lucky my entire business is remote so I can work

from anywhere in the world but one of my issues is the time zone because I have meetings and live

meetings and a lot of my work. It's a lifestyle of which I'm sure many will dream and a few can

make work. Mike Pedersen from Life at Sea Cruises and Alex Starr thank you both very much and they

were talking there to Evan Davis. An Australian man out metal detecting in the state of Victoria

has made a once in a lifetime discovery Rachel Wright picks up the story. The male detectorist

who wishes to remain anonymous was using the cheapest of metal detectors whilst out looking for

gold in the hills of Victoria. He found a rock put it in his backpack and headed off to the

town of Geelong about an hour's drive from the state capital Melbourne. The man handed the

rock to Darren Camp the owner of a metal detecting store called Lucky Strike Gold Prospecting.

At 4.6 kilograms Darren says the rock was the biggest he'd ever seen and he's been in the

business for 43 years. He said oh do you think there's $10,000 worth in it and as soon as it

hit my hand I looked at him and I said try $100,000. He said oh but that's only half the rock he said

the other halves at home. Darren bought the rock from the man for $240,000 Australian dollars which

is around $160,000 US dollars. He said the man told him his wife would be very happy. The rock was

discovered in what is known as Victoria's Golden Triangle area which had been at the heart of

Australia's gold rush in the 1800s. While discoveries like this large rock or rare,

Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves and many of the world's

biggest nuggets have been found there. Rachel Wright

And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or topics covered you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk. You can also find us on Twitter at Global NewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll, the producer was Alison Davies, the editor is Karen

Martin. I'm Jenna Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. A series of increasingly sophisticated cyber

crimes being carefully orchestrated around the world. The attraction to target ATMs is fairly

obvious. I mean, a full of cash. It was just like a block of crap. Put these cards, put any pin number

any good money. U.S. investigators say the heists are being carried out by the Lazarus Group,

a criminal hacking gang who are said to be working under the orders of the North Korean state.

Tens of millions of dollars for the North Koreans. These actors are not as anonymous as they think

they are. The group's goal? To steal money to help fund the country's growing ballistic missile and

nuclear program. But despite evidence suggesting otherwise, North Korea denies any involvement.

In season two of The Lazarus Heist from the BBC World Service, we're following the latest twists

and turns in the incredible story of the Lazarus Group hackers and piles and piles of stolen cash.

Over $2 billion. We're at $2.1 billion in stolen funds. Search for The Lazarus Heist wherever

you get your BBC podcasts.

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