Global News Podcast: Israeli scientists grow human-like artificial embryo

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You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Thursday,

the 7th of September. Scientists in Israel have grown an almost exact replica of a human embryo

without using sperm or an egg. The US has promised more military aid for Ukraine on the day 17

people were killed in a Russian missile attack on a marketplace. And later.

The Rolling Stones are back with a new album.

Also in the podcast, a nationwide manhunt is underway in Britain as a terrorism suspect

makes a rare escape from prison. And four Roman swords believed to have been captured by Jewish

rebels are discovered in a remote cave in Israel. Now, what constitutes life? Will scientists have

managed to create a near exact replica of a 14-day-old human embryo without using sperm,

an egg or a womb? The so-called model embryo contained all the cell types needed to develop

and grow. The scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Israel say their research aims

to shed light on the mysterious but crucial early days after conception. It could lead to new

breakthroughs in preventing early miscarriage and in the development of new technologies for

growing organs for transplant. Lead scientist Professor Jacob Hanna explains how it could help.

We want to make cells for transplantation and we want to be the cells

identical to the patient who receives them. One of the dreams of this technology is say there is

a person who is really about to die because he or she cannot find a bone marrow transplant to take

a skin biopsy, make stem cells, and then differentiate them into this embryo-like model,

let's say for 40 days, and then we can transplant it back to the patient without looking for donor,

without having the risk of rejection because these cells cannot be rejected.

Professor Jacob Hanna of the Weizmann Institute. So, how exciting a moment is this for science?

Our health and science correspondent is James Gallagher.

I think really quite exciting, Oliver. We've had a lot of research, a lot of progress in terms of

trying to do this in the laboratory, but this is the first time that team of scientists has

actually been able to get to the point where they can say, this version of an embryo we have grown

in a laboratory looks pretty much the same as one that would develop naturally, and reaching that

level has caused quite a lot of excitement amongst other scientists and researchers today.

So, pretty much the same. Are there differences or could this grow into a human?

No, and there are many reasons for that. One of them is simply that it's illegal and you would

never be allowed to do this pretty much anywhere in the world that has laws around this area,

would not let you do this. There are also some scientific reasons why we don't think it would

work. So, the way that it is designed, you actually end up missing some of the earliest days of embryo

development, and by the time that it starts to look like something embryo-like, it's probably

missed the opportunity that you could put it into a womb and it would actually embed itself

into the walls of the womb and actually form a pregnancy. So, scientifically there are big

questions there as well. But they have created this amazing replica. How did they do it?

So, traditionally, one sperm meets one egg. They fuse and an embryo emerges, and there are no

sperm or eggs or wombs involved in any of this. So, they use something called stem cells, and

those are the ones that have the capacity to become any type of tissue in the human body,

and they coax those using like subtle chemicals into the four types of cell you would find in a

weak old embryo. And then you mix around about 120 of those together in the laboratory, and it

just looks like a jumbled up mess to start off with. But as they grow over a period of eight days,

they start to organise themselves with no input from scientists. They're doing it all themselves

into something that actually resembles a 14-day-old human embryo, and that's the first time that's

ever happened. Now, in many countries, 14 days is the legal cut-off embryonic research. Could they

get round that and grow these models into older replicas? You're onto a really interesting good

point here, because the legal limit for human embryo research is 14 days in many countries.

These aren't human embryos. There's a legal entity there known as an embryo model,

so they don't have to abide by those same rules. So, technically, if scientists decided they wanted

to, they could attempt to go beyond the 14-day rule and see later stages of embryo development.

Some people would welcome that as a way of studying that period of our development.

Others would be horrified, and I think we're very much in a point where the science has

leapt well ahead of where regulation is anywhere in the world for actually deciding what is right,

what's ethically acceptable, what's legally acceptable, because the closer scientists come

to replicating an embryo in a dish, it will lead many people to ask, well, shouldn't they be treated

in the same way as an embryo? It is a very live ethical debate right now.

A health and science correspondent, James Gallagher.

This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible. The words of the Ukrainian president,

as he condemned a Russian attack on a market in eastern Ukraine. The missile strike in the

Donetsk region killed at least 17 people. Ukraine said 32 others were injured while cars and small

shops were destroyed. The strike came as the U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Kiev

to offer more assistance, and given up, beat assessment of progress in Ukraine's counteroffensive

against the Russian invaders. In the years since I was last year, Ukraine has taken back more than

50% of the territory that Russia seized from it since February of 2022. In the current counteroffensive,

we are seeing real progress over the last few weeks. President Zelensky just returned from the

front line, so I was able to hear directly from him his assessment of the counteroffensive, and I

think it very much matches our own. We are doing everything we can to maximize our support to Ukraine

as it pursues the counteroffensive. The U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Ukraine.

Well, I heard more about Wednesday's attacks in the east of the country from our correspondent

in Kiev, Paul Adams. This was about two o'clock in the afternoon on a market street in a small town

in eastern Ukraine called Kostyantinivka, not far from Bakhmut, which obviously listeners

will be familiar with. It's a place that's been the target of attacks in the past, but never,

I think, on this scale. We don't know exactly what it was that caused the explosion, but there was a

huge flash of orange fire, an enormous explosion, shrapnel was sent in many directions, and the

scenes afterwards were really pretty horrendous, with buildings set on fire, cars mangled, and a

great many terribly injured bodies lying in the street. So a very graphic and disturbing attack,

which the Ukrainians obviously were very quick to blame on Russia.

Now at the same time as it was feeling the effects of the war, it has had something of a boost from

that visit by Anthony Blinken. Will the Ukrainians be encouraged by the fact that he says there has

been important progress in its counteroffensive? I think he perhaps was anxious to sound positive,

because this comes off the back of a period when a number of generally unnamed American officials

have been quoted in American newspapers suggesting that they were not happy with the progress of

the counteroffensive and that Ukraine wasn't perhaps fighting the way they expected or wanted

them to fight. But of course the other thing that he did, and Mr Blinken was he brought

yet another package of military assistance, this one includes the kind of full range that you would

expect from Ukraine's air defences, which are getting better all the time, through to vast

quantities of ammunition, missiles, shells for tanks, a lot more of the kind of thing that the

Ukrainians have been receiving all year. But despite that extra assistance, President Zelensky

speaking of a harsh winter ahead. I think people are already beginning to think ahead

to what this could be like. There will be vivid memories of last winter. It was actually a

remarkably mild winter, which was very much to Ukraine's advantage, but it was one in which we

saw the Russians of course mounting that sustained attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

I think there's a feeling that Ukraine could be in for more of that. I think there's an acknowledgement

that Ukraine's counteroffensive may not achieve quite as much by the end of the year as everyone

had hoped that it may be that Ukraine has to wait until next year for something more decisive.

And in the meantime, there could be very difficult days ahead, while at the same time feeling

relatively confident and encouraged by the recent signs of progress in the south.

Paul Adams, our correspondent in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

At the end of a three-day climate summit in Kenya, African leaders have called for new global

taxes to fund action against global warming. The heads of state say the Nairobi Declaration

will form the basis of their negotiating position at the Worldwide COP28 summit in Dubai later this

year. The Kenyan president, William Ruto, said Africa had to be given the support it needed to

cope with the challenges and harness the opportunities presented by climate change.

We demand a fair playing ground for our countries to access the investment needed to unlock the

potential and translate it into opportunities. Adjust multilateral development finance architecture

to liberate our economies from odious debt and onerous barriers to necessary financial resources.

We are clear in our minds that the international community must work with us in this journey

into a future of prosperity and security in an ecologically parlance thriving planet.

William Ruto, our Africa regional editor, Richard Hamilton has more details.

The declaration includes proposed taxes on shipping, aviation and the trade in fossil fuel,

as well as a global financial transaction tax. African countries have suffered from

heavy debt burdens for years and say they're forced to pay borrowing costs that are five to

eight times higher than those imposed on wealthy nations. However, while some countries in the

world have imposed their own carbon taxes, the idea of a global tax regime has not gained much

traction. Researchers say that despite suffering from some of the worst impacts of climate change,

Africa only receives about 12% of the financing it needs to combat it.

Richard Hamilton. The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has called for an international investigation

into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. After a documentary claim, they were orchestrated to

influence the country's presidential election. Islamists targeted three churches and high-end

hotels, killing more than 270 people. Here's our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasan Etirajan.

The investigative report by the British Channel 4 network featured a Sri Lankan political insider

who accused the current state intelligence chief, Suresh Salli, of complicity in the attacks.

The whistleblower left Sri Lanka last year and has now sought asylum in Europe.

Mr. Salli has denied the accusation and says he was not in the country at the time of the bombings.

He is closely linked to the powerful Rajapaksha clan, two members of which have served as

president of the country. After the documentary was aired, the current Sri Lankan government said

it would appoint a parliamentary committee to look into the latest allegations. Initial

investigations show that local jihadists, inspired by the Islamic State militant group,

carried out the suicide attacks. Gotha Baya Rajapaksha became president in the elections

held in late 2019 after promising to restore security. He was forced to leave office last year

following protests over an unprecedented economic crisis.

Anbarasan Etirajan. Now, rock and roll's great survivors were back center stage in East London on Wednesday.

The Rolling Stones with angry from their first album of original material in 18 years.

Entitled Hackney Diamonds, it will be released next month.

Don't want to be big-headed, but we wouldn't have put this out of our mouth if we hadn't really liked it.

I mean, we didn't want to make just any record and put it out. So we wanted to make records.

Before we went in, we all said we've got to make a record that we really love ourselves.

Other people may like it. Other people may not. But we must say that we are quite pleased with

it. I'm not saying we're big-headed about it, but we're pleased with it. We hope you all like it.

80-year-old lead singer Mick Jagger. Well, the release of the album comes two years after the

death of drummer Charlie Watts. He was replaced by Steve Jordan. And guitarist Keith Richards

spoke about what that meant. Ever since Charlie's gone, it's different. He's number four. He's missing.

He's up there. Thanks to Charlie Watts. Also, we have Steve Jordan, who was Charlie's recommendation

for if anything should happen to him. Steve Jordan's a man. It would have been a lot harder

without Charlie's blessing. Well, our music correspondent Mark Savage was at the album's

launch. I mean, they were playing concerts, festival-sized concerts just last summer.

And then they went straight into the studio, made this album in the space of a month, December

last year. And here they are releasing it, their 24th album, 61 years into their career.

Now, Charlie Watts played on two of the tracks before his death. And they also brought back

former member Bill Wyman, going back to the start almost. Yeah, pretty much. It's 30 years

since Bill Wyman played with the band. And he's there on a song that also features Charlie Watts,

called Live by the Sword. So they said at the press conference today, it's their original rhythm

section back together again. Now Lady Gaga is going to appear on the album, I guess,

following that trend of bringing in modern stars to keeping the sound alive?

Yeah, I mean, it's not like I think Lady Gaga is going to come in and do a guest verse. It's not

going to be the Rolling Stones featuring Lady Gaga. She has that kind of rock voice she can really

belt. So I suspect she'll be holding her own like in a kind of tango with Mick Jagger. And we've also

heard a couple of other guests on there. Paul McCartney is going to play bass on one of the

songs. Stevie Wonder is playing Hammond Organ on the same song that Lady Gaga's on. And Elton

John's on the record as well. So it's an all star cast for this reunion of the Rolling Stones.

Now we all know about when we go to concerts and bands play their old stuff and then they wheel out

some newer tracks and it's never quite as good. Can the Rolling Stones do it? Have other bands

managed to keep relevant? Some people do, don't they? If you think Johnny Cash, his last recording

before he died, they were an incredible revelation and an exploration of his older voice and that

kind of rugged wisdom. David Bowie's final albums, when he was, you know, staring down death after

contracting cancer, they were classic albums. Can the Stones do that? That's what's up for debate

here. The first song that they put out today, Angry, is a real kind of barnstorming radio hit. You

can hear it on the air, but they haven't really had a great album since Some Girls in 1981. So

the jury's out until we hear it next month. A music correspondent, Mark Savage.

Still to come on the Global News Podcast.

As big budget video games make a comeback post COVID, is this the latest hit?

The World Cup winning footballer Jenny Hermoso has filed a legal complaint against the head of

Spanish football over his kiss at the final, as Hermoso alleges that Luis Rubiales' kiss on her

lips was unsolicited, something he contests. I spoke to our correspondent in Madrid, Guy Hedgeko.

Last week, prosecutors in Spain said that they were opening a preliminary investigation to

decide whether there was enough evidence to bring a case against Luis Rubiales for sexual assault

for that kiss that he gave Jenny Hermoso. As part of that investigation, they invited Jenny

Hermoso to make her own accusations and to make a statement against Mr. Rubiales, because without

the alleged victim's statement, they felt the case wouldn't go much further. Now she has done that

before the prosecutor. The National Court can proceed with this case and can investigate with it

further. I think it's significant in the sense that it means that that investigation that was

announced a few days ago, which was sort of probing to see whether things could go any further,

that now is going to proceed. So this is a sort of formalization of that process, and it looks as if

a legal investigation into Mr. Rubiales for sexual assault is going to take place. So it really

confirms that. And of course, the ramifications of that potentially could be very serious for Mr.

Rubiales if it does go to trial. What could he face? He could face charges of sexual assault,

which according to Spanish law, could in theory lead to a jail sentence. Now that's looking

ahead a bit, and it could be some time before it comes to that. But of course, that just adds

to the pressure on Mr. Rubiales, which is already pretty intense and has been for a couple of weeks

now seems extraordinary that he is still clinging on to his job, even though the coach of the women's

World Cup team, Jorge Vilda, has now been sacked. The Federation took that decision in the absence

of Mr. Rubiales, who of course has been suspended provisionally by FIFA football's world governing

body. When the Rubiales affair or blew up and Vilda was seen clapping Mr. Rubiales when he made a

very defiant speech before the Federation, there was a feeling that it was going to be very difficult

for Jorge Vilda to remain in his post because he was seen as such a close ally of Mr. Rubiales,

and yet someone who really didn't have a lot of support within the football team itself.

Guy Hedgeko in Madrid. A manhunt is underway here in Britain after a former soldier charged with

terror offences escaped from a prison in southwest London. Daniel Abed Khalif broke out of Wandsworth

jail where he was awaiting trial on accusations he left fake bombs at a military base. Security

checks have been stepped up at ports and airports. Our correspondent Dominic Casciani has the details.

Daniel Khalifa was due to stand trial in November, accused of the alleged bomb hoax and

eliciting information that could be used for preparing an act of terrorism. He's also accused

of breaching the Official Secrets Act by gathering information that could be useful to an enemy.

At his last court appearance in July, he denied all the charges. Disguised as a chef and clinging

on to the underside of a van, he evaded multiple opportunities to detect his escape from the

Category B prison, the second highest level of security. Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the

Met's counter-terrorism command, said he was confident that Khalifa posed a low risk to the

public but shouldn't be approached. He could be anywhere in the country at the moment, and yes,

of course, we're mindful of the risk of him potentially leaving the country. We're focusing

our efforts in London, so we have cancer terrorism officers now deployed across London,

working with colleagues from across the Metropolitan Police and our partner agencies to try and find

him here. We are also working with colleagues all around the country. The escape immediately

triggered a full lockdown of HMP Wonsworth and a nationwide alert to the border force,

leading to delays for passengers at Heathrow and Manchester airports. Even if the 21-year-old is

found, the incident is incredibly embarrassing. Escapes are very rare. There have only been

five since 2017, and Khalifa is the first terror detainee to evade security since a mass IRA breakout

in 1994. Dominic Casciani reporting. Hollywood has had a close relationship with the Pentagon

for decades. Some films are even given access to real weapons, fighter jets and ships. But now a

congressman wants the law changed to prohibit the Pentagon from helping Hollywood studios,

which edit content to avoid antagonizing the Chinese government. It follows controversies over

the Taiwanese flag in Top Gun and a map of the South China Sea in Barbie. Martha Casciani spoke

to Caj Larson, a military technical advisor who served for 13 years in the US Navy Seals.

There is a long history of cooperation between the Pentagon or the Department of Defense and

Hollywood dating back to World War II to collaborate together to make cinema in order to inform the

American public of things that were happening around the war. That productive relationship

continues to this day, and I've had the privilege to be part of many projects as a producer, actor,

as a stuntman with the Department of Defense to tell accurate and authentic military stories.

You even ended up appearing in Top Gun Maverick, didn't you?

I have to say, for myself, my life came full circle. At 17 years old, I went to the US Naval

Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, largely inspired by watching the original Top Gun. And then a couple

years ago, I had the opportunity, along with several of my other friends who became naval

aviators who were also in the movie because they used real-life naval aviators, we were all able to

appear in Top Gun Maverick. But interesting in that Top Gun Maverick is one of the films

they're always often talked about in the current controversy, isn't it? Because the patches on

Tom Cruise's jacket, which originally had flags representing Taiwan and Japan, appeared to have

been swapped out and replaced by ambiguous symbols. I'm so glad you brought it up because I think

it's really an example of this debate that we're having within the national security community.

There are some people who believe that that kind of censorship represents capitulating to China.

And I've taken the position that if we don't allow some compromise in American movies, especially

ones that are integrally related to US DoD and US military activities, are completely banned from

China, that will not serve our strategic goals. What you saw in Top Gun Maverick was you saw

an adjustment to appease Chinese censorship or Chinese pressure. But the overall impact was

that you got to see an American film about the world's most powerful military in Chinese theaters.

So for me, that kind of compromise is worth it. Mark Green, the politician who's pushing for this

change, has said it's censorship of American culture to edit these films for a Chinese audience.

I have absolute respect for Representative Green and for the mission that he's trying to accomplish.

We both have concerns about Chinese censorship of American culture. That being said,

what the Green Amendment does that he's proposed severely restricts American influence within

China. And frankly, it's doubling up. The Pentagon and the Department of Defense already has rules

that limit Chinese censorship for American movies. So this current bill, from my perspective, is

redundant and doesn't give the freedom and flexibility to what's actually a really important

tool in the information battle space for the Pentagon to use. The truth is, there's no

substitute for real life cooperation between Hollywood and the Department of Defense. The

more accurate and the more authentic we can make portrayals of the US military, the more powerful

the medium of filmmaking will be. Caj Larson, a military technical advisor talking to Martha

Kai. Archaeologists in Israel have discovered four ancient Roman swords in a cave in the desert.

They think the weapons were captured by Jewish rebels nearly 2000 years ago.

Here's our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher. The swords were found in a remote cave overlooking

the Dead Sea. At the entrance, a coin was also found from the time of a famous revolt by Jewish

fighters against Roman rule in what was then Judea. That's led the archaeologists who made the

discovery to herald it as a rare find that casts new light on the era. They believe that the ancient

swords may have been taken as booty from Roman soldiers on or off the battlefield. The Bar Kokba

revolt saw Jewish fighters take control of much of Judea for several years until the Roman Emperor

Hadrian brought the full force of the Imperial army down on the rebels, crushing them decisively.

Sebastian Usher. As with many sectors, the development of video games was hobbled by the

Covid pandemic, but the $300 billion industry has come roaring back with blockbuster releases like

Hogwarts Legacy, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy XVI, with details of the latest title

hoping to get in on the action. Here's our gaming correspondent, Stefan Powell.

Starfield. A sprawling space epic. It's the big hope for Xbox in 2023.

Exclusive to that console, bosses hope it will be popular enough to help them claw back the gap

on the Sony PlayStation 5 which is outselling the competition. It's the brainchild of Todd Howard,

game director of some of the most critically acclaimed titles of recent history. Skyrim

and Fallout. Was the game in your head as ambitious as the game has ended up becoming?

I always start with a tone. Okay, we're going to go out in space, you have a ship, you can land on

planets and it has this kind of science fiction vibe. You know, it wasn't until later after we

finished Fallout 4, we really start designing where you realize how much you have to design. How

much space is big? How much space is in space? It ended up just, you know, so much larger than

anything we had ever done and there were periods where you're, are we in over our heads? What do

you say to those people that might argue that games have got too big? We found two things. One,

they do play it for a really, really long time, but even if they play it say for 10 hours or 20

hours and they finish the main quest and they save the world, whatever, that they see all the other

choices, that that experience, those 20 hours were different because they had so much choice.

Some critics have been impressed by this score and grandeur,

others have found it a little underwhelming and disjointed.

As an exclusive release, it's only available to Xbox and PC players.

Talking about audiences and who plays your game, do you think there is still

place in the industry for exclusive games like this? When you're making something,

the more you can focus, the more you know this is the hardware or the thing people are going to

play on, you know, your ability to focus on that always yields a better product.

Having spent five and a half billion pounds in 2020 on buying the studio that made the game,

Microsoft is waiting to see if Starfield can blast away the PlayStation's lead.

And that's all from us for now, but the global news podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and produced by Emma Joseph.

Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.

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how they made their money. And then we decide if they are actually good, bad, or just plain wealthy.

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And me, Xingxing, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.