Transcript of Ukraine marks 4th anniversary of Russian invasion

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankert Asai, and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 24th of February, these are our main stories. There have been more Russian attacks on Ukraine on the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion. Mexico deploys thousands of troops to maintain order after the country's most wanted cartel leader, known as El Mencho, was killed on Sunday. Britain's former ambassador in Washington, Peter Mandelson. He's been questioned by police after being arrested over his dealings with the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Also in this podcast, a major storm in the US causes travel disruption and power cuts.

I'm sick of it.

I don't want to see no more. Visibility is like zero.

I can't see in front of my face right now, and I'm frozen.

Could meditating twice a day reduce the risk of cancer spreading? Today marks the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Despite predictions that the war would be all over in days, fierce Ukrainian resistance has thwarted the Kremlin's expansionist calculations. Our diplomatic correspondent, Paul Adams, reflects on that dramatic day.

Four years ago today, in the hours before dawn, Ukrainians awoke to the sound of Russia's all-out invasion. Here in Kyiv, we could hear distant explosions. The attack, the subject of repeated American and British warnings over a number of weeks, was underway. That shocking day which plunged Europe into the worst armed conflict since the Second World War, will be commemorated today. Events to mark the invasion and its immediate aftermath are planned in places such as Bucha, where Russian soldiers murdered scores of Ukrainian civilians. Leaders and politicians are expected in the capital from all over Europe. As Ukrainians emerge from one of the toughest just winters so far, there's an overwhelming sense of weariness that this war drags on, but also a grim determination not to sue for peace at any cost. Another round of talks is due to take place, probably on Thursday in Geneva, but few here are optimistic about a quick breakthrough.

Well, the conflict in Ukraine has changed warfare and the world order over the past four years. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, sent this report from Donets, the most fiercely contested region in Eastern Ukraine.

You can tell you're getting closer to the Russians when the scene in front of me is unfolding. There's a squad of about a dozen men who are unfurling green plastic netting and attaching it to poles on either side of the road. So the poles are probably about 25 feet high. The netting is encasing both sides and the top of the road. And they're doing this because warfare has been transformed by drones. We're walking in across sheets of ice to the military headquarters, which is in a half-destroyed building in this, I've got to say, pretty miserable town, driving into this place, burnt-out buildings, feral dogs. It's a frontline town. Down into the basement.

Over there. This is a command center of sorts, like a center of operation of company and even battalions sometimes.

We're seeing here there are big screens which are relaying pictures from drones.

We are currently making some assault moves here and there. Try to close up some pockets of Russians.

.

Their men have got separated from the main group. They're directing him. They're saying someone's on the way to come and get you. If you see him, he's Ukrainian. So be aware of that. The controller has told the guys on the ground that there's a Russian drone approaching them, so be careful, take cover. The commander's call sign is Fysruk. His men are 40 kilometers away.

We can't get any closer.

The enemy would reach us with their weapons. Who's winning the war? Because I I think after so many years, some people have got a bit confused about that.

What a question.

I think at the moment, it's somewhere in the middle. A balance.

We've come to the relief coordination center in Lozovar. It's full of people that's busy every day who have been evacuated from points further east. Tamara was there with her granddaughters, Mila and Tina, nine-year-old identical twins.

The kids were left because of kids. We live near the forest. There are lots of tanks. Drones are flying everywhere.

In wars, not everyone gets killed by high explosives. Some die because they can't get medical treatment. Vita, a woman in her 60s, crumpled with grief as she told me how her husband died of a blood clot. He couldn't stand the explosions, Vita said. I buried him in the garden three days ago. We could have stuck it out, but the drones were too much. No The ones left in the village now. One of the first clear signs that the world was changing, becoming more turbulent, dangerous, unstable, was the full-scale invasion of this country by Russia four years ago. Other warning signs emerged from turmoil elsewhere, and not just in the Middle East and in Sudan. But the war in Ukraine still drives change that we all need to understand. Perhaps the biggest for the rest of Europe is the way that the war here has revealed Donald Trump's desire to make deals with Moscow and his disregard for old allies in NATO. And is the war here in Ukraine going to end this year? Not the way things look at this moment, this February, in this dark, cold, and icy landscape.

Jeremy Bowen reporting. For more on today's Big Stories, you can go on YouTube, just search for BBC News, and then click on the logo, and then choose podcast, and then global news podcast. There's a new story available every weekday. Thousands of troops and special police have been deployed across Mexico to try and maintain order after the country's most wanted cartel leader, known as El Mencho, was shot and killed by the army on Sunday. The authorities say at least 62 people were killed in the operation to capture him and the subsequent violence. Praising the security forces, the Mexican President, Claudia Scheinbaum, insisted that the situation, despite the current cartel violence, was under control. Today, there is more calm and there is government, there are armed forces, there is a security cabinet, and there is a lot of coordination, so you can rest assured that peace, security, and normality in the country are being safeguarded. Both the Mexican and the US authorities are claiming a great victory. I asked a Mexico correspondent, Will Grant, whether he thought they were right to do so.

I think it is one of those situations where it depends a little bit on one's take. Is it a victory to remove El Menchur from the pantheon of drug lords in the country? Take him out of the equation when it comes to the fight against drug trafficking? From the perspective of the Mexican military and the Mexican government, absolutely. That would be echoed in Washington, too. I think on the ground, and I'm in the city of Guadalajara, the state capital of Jalisco, things look a little different for ordinary people who are obviously frightened about a repeat of the rampage of violence that was seen on Sunday, and the fact that they haven't yet been able to return to the normalcy that President Sheinbaum was talking about in that clip there.

I guess the violence just goes to show the extent of the reach of the cartels and the power they hold.

Yeah, absolutely. That would be my take, too. I mean, it shows that they were in 20 of the 32 states of the country and that they could sow that intimation at the drop of a hat, really, was an extraordinary thing to witness. I mean, the scenes of apocalyptic scenes in the wake of some of the violence, burnt out businesses, rather, I should say, more than homes. They're definitely targeted businesses. Obviously, very, very intimidated and frightened residents picking through the debris. It really is a powerful show of force, and it is nationwide.

With immigration and drug control, What are the key themes in the midst of all of this, just how challenging is it to try and manage and control?

It's very difficult. I think we need to be careful to conflate the two things. Obviously, Donald Trump does that a lot and relates immigration to drug control. They are separate issues, but they are related in terms of some of the techniques used by the cartel, and of course, that the cartel is involved in the movement of people as much as it is also involved in the movement of Drugs North. What I would say is that this remains a military-led fight in Mexico, and I don't think the Shane Balm administration has any intention to change that for the time being.

Will Grant reporting. The United States says it has killed another three alleged narco traffickers in its latest strike on a vessel in the Caribbean. Since last September, the US military has launched more than 40 strikes in the region, killing more than 150 people. The Pentagon insists all these These attacks are justified but has not provided evidence for its claim that the boats or those on board are involved in drug trafficking. More from our US correspondent, Peter Bowes.

A lack of evidence is exactly why these attacks have been so widely criticized. What we know is based purely on what US Southern Command, which is the military command that oversees US operations in Latin America, what it's posted on X in this latest case, saying that, and I'm quoting here, a lethal kinetic strike had occurred on a vessel operated by, again, quoting, a designated terrorist organization. It says the boat was transitioning along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Claims that have not been independently verified or subjected to any legal investigation. The language of this post, very similar to others over recent weeks, this post, like some of the others, included a 20-second video, black and white footage of a strike being launched, an explosion, and the boat bursting into flames.

Peter, international law experts and rights groups have argued that strikes are amounting to extra judicial killings.

Yes, what they're alleging is that people are being killed without court proceedings, a trial, or any chance to defend themselves. In other words, that the government or military is acting as judge, jury, and executioner. So yes, the legality of these operations has been strongly questioned internationally. The US administration has provided no definitive evidence that the vessels it targets are involved in drug trafficking.

Peter Bowes in LA. This next story is something we can all learn and try to incorporate into our daily lives. It's the battle to beat stress. New research suggests that carrying out simple daily exercises to reduce stress levels could help keep cancer at bay. Scientists at Midwestern University in the US found that the stress hormone, cortisol, may increase tumor resilience, making cancer harder to treat and more likely to spread to other parts of the body. Incorporating stress relieving activities like meditation, especially at the start and end of the day, could help regulate cortisol. Professor Pat Price is a consultant oncologist and a visiting professor at Imperial College London, explain more about what research revealed?

We know that we need to have our stress levels down for our immune system to work well. And so there's been a lot recently about our immune system, immunotherapy and things fighting cancer. That's great. But this is completely new now. This is actually the scientists there have actually got the cancer cells, not our immune system, and actually put cortisol with them, the stress hormone. And they found that the stress hormone actually makes the cancer worse It makes it more able to spread and be able to be more resistant to treatment. So that's important. So it's a double whammy with stress, really. It stops us fighting it and actually makes it worse. We always have a different cortisol levels in our body. When we get up, we have higher cortisol, and in the evening, you have less. But this study also showed that cancer patients have high cortisol throughout the time. Of course, understandable, maybe for other reasons. But we do know this is actually not helping the cancer. So I think we don't want to put pressure cancer patients. It's enough pressure on them already. But it does mean that if there's anything we can do to try and reduce the stress, that might be helpful.

I think, gosh, we all know that in our everyday lives, don't we? Go for a walk, all these things. And it does fit in with other work. Walking after colorectal cancer reduced your risk of it coming back. It's all leading to the same things, which I think is encouraging, and it's some good news here.

Professor Pat Price. Still to come in this podcast, we dive into the world of weasel words.

The Korean War stands out. For example, some British soldiers reported things getting a bit sticky. Americans interpreted that as they were digging in and everything was okay.

It's highly probable that you use phrases that are deliberately ambiguous. We explain what they are and how we use them.

What happens when a man mandate becomes a breakthrough? I'm Nesita Henry, special host of Resilient Edge, a business vitality podcast paid and presented by Deloitte. I sat down with two leaders who are redefining what enterprise transformation looks like. Jerry Hogerman from Deloitte and Sarah Oligood from AWS took me behind the scenes on how manufacturing, government, and global enterprises are evolving through major systems change.

What excites me is when we have these breakthrough moments.

This stuff doesn't happen by accident.

The triad of AWS, of Deloitte, of SAP, being able to understand the value proposition that people seek, being able to architect that, and then actually to define a roadmap to progressively achieve the goal, really is what makes these successful.

Getting your humans to change the way they're interacting with their technology, the way that they're following the processes, or just that they're reinventing altogether and we're going to completely throw something out is very challenging. Here's what stood out. The 2027 SAP deadline isn't a compliance problem. It's a strategic reset, a chance to rethink how value is created. If your vision is across a 10-year horizon, your ROI is going to be different than if your vision is across a one or two-year horizon. How do you move decades of systems and data without slowing the business down? How do you simplify operations while preparing for what comes next? From legacy systems to AI-ready infrastructure, the full conversation reveals how Deloitte, AWS, and SAP help organizations reduce risk and unlock continuous innovation. All of that and more on this special episode of Resilient Edge. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts. We focus on the part of the Internet that most people don't know about. It's called the Dark Web.

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Here in Britain, a second high-profile figure has been arrested who had close connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. After the arrest of the former Prince, Andrew Mountbaton at Lanza last week. On Monday, Peter Mandelsohn was led away from his home by police in London. He's the former UK ambassador to the US and a one-time British Government Minister. The Metropolitan Police in London released a statement which is read here by one of our producers.

Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, the 23rd of February, and has been taken to a London police station for interview. This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas. Both Andrew Mountbaton, Windsor, and Peter Manderson are being investigated for alleged misconduct in public office. Lord Manderson has since been released on bail, and he's not publicly commented in recent weeks on the Epstein files. But the BBC understands his position has consistently been that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain. Andrew has not responded to the BBC's request for comment on specific allegations that have emerged after the US release of files. He has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. Our UK political correspondent is Rob Watson, and he spoke to my colleague, Silja Hatton.

This is a massive development in British politics. I cannot remember a senior political figure like Lord Peter Mandelson being arrested on the suspicion of criminal offense. I just can't remember anything like it. What has he been arrested for? What is he being questioned over? It's, as you say, it's misconduct in public office. What does that mean in plain English? It means that he was supposed to be doing a job on behalf of the public but did something seriously wrong. I mean, specifically, we think it's to do with the time when he was Trade Minister, so a senior government minister in 2009, after the big financial crash and that he was passing market-sensitive internal UK government information to his friend Jeffrey Epstein.

Give us a little bit more of that context. As we've said, Peter Mendelsohn has been a public figure here in the UK for Remind us how he came to prominence?

He's not some obscure politician that people in the streets of Britain would be saying, Peter who? Not at all. He has been a huge figure, really, in the last four decades of British politics, partly because he was one of the masterminds of what is known as New Labor. That is the idea of moving the Labor Party more to the right of politics under the leadership of Tony Blair to get it back into office after many years in the wilderness. He was the architect, one of the architects of the so called New Labor Project. Then he worked for Tony Blair. He was a Minister in Gordon Brown's Government. He was a Commissioner for the European Union. Of course, most recently, and most controversially, the British ambassador to Washington with the hope that somehow, given his past skills that he could establish a relationship with Donald Trump.

We've seen the arrest, as we said, of the former Prince Andrew Mountbaton-Winzer, and now Peter Mendelsohn. So we've seen arrests in the UK, but not in the US.

No. And of course, there is pressure now in the United States from congressmen and others to say, Hang on, look at what the Brits are doing. They've arrested a former prince. They've arrested a former senior government minister. We should be doing more of the same. But I guess it's partly a cultural reason. In the UK, we do scandal rather differently here. A passion and relish about seeing the rich and the powerful cut down to size.

Rob Watson reporting. A powerful storm is battering the northeastern United States. 600,000 homes and businesses have been left without power and thousands of flights canceled. More than 80 centimeters of snow has fallen in some areas, and several states, stretching from Delaware to Massachusetts, have issued a state of emergency. Our correspondent, Neda Tofik, is in New Jersey.

The snow has been falling at more than 2-3 inches an hour. Already, some places in the northeast are under nearly 2 feet of snow. Then there's the wind gusts ranging from 40-70 miles per hour across the Eastern Seaboard. Winter Storm warnings are in force for tens of millions of people who have been urge to stay home with power out in several areas. It's the first time in 10 years that New York City has been placed under a blizzard warning. The last time the entire State of New Jersey faced such an alert was in 1996. These people describe the conditions.

I'm sick of it.

I don't want to see it anymore.

Visibility is like zero.

I can't see in front of my face right now, and I'm frozen.

It's a very It was a dramatic experience to see everything in white. I remember the blizzard of '78, the blizzard of 1983, 1996. This is something I haven't seen in quite some time.

The dangerous conditions and low visibility means schools are closed and travel has been severely affected. More than 5,000 flights have been canceled, and most above-ground trains have been halted. But New York's subway trains are still running. This blizzard comes after a deadly two-week period of snow and below freezing temperatures. But warmer weather is expected It later this week.

Neda Tawfig reporting from New Jersey. A quick update on a story we brought you during the Winter Olympics. The American ski great Lindsay Vaughn has said she came close to having her left leg amputated after breaking it in a crash in the Olympic downhill race earlier this month. In a social media post, Von thanked the doctor who operated on her leg and said she's now out of hospital.

Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg.

He saved me.

And I always talk about everything happens for a reason. But if I hadn't torn my ACL, which I would have torn anyways with this crash, if I hadn't done that, Tom wouldn't have been there. He wouldn't have been able to save my leg. So I feel very lucky and grateful for him. So I want to say thank you to Tom and all the medical staff in Italy and Colorado that helped take care of me. It's been quite the journey, and it's going to be a long road. I'm in a wheelchair right now.

I'm very much immobile.

I'll be in a wheelchair for a while because I also broke my right ankle.

I hope I can be on crutches in a little bit, but we'll see, and probably at least be on crutsches for two months.

But I'm going to get right to work on rehab and see what I can do and take it one step at a time.

American skier Lindsay Vaughn speaking after her recent leg operation. I'm almost certain you'll like this last story. I mean, it's highly probable you'll find it interesting, and there's also a good chance you'll want to tell your friends all about it. An example there, not only of some terrible scriptwriting, but also a lot of so-called weasel words, where you say something deliberately ambiguous, and it's something mathematician Adam Kucharski has been looking into. In a new survey, he's found that if you describe something as being a realistic possibility, it can be interpreted as anything between 10% and almost 100% likely. Mr. Kucharski has been speaking to my colleague, James Kumrassami.

This is a problem that goes back decades where originally the CIA realized that amongst themselves, even writing reports, they meant very different things. Of course, if you put a phrase like realistic possibility, or one of the ones that struck them was a serious possibility of an invasion, and the person that goes to has a very different idea of actually what that means. You can get into trouble. There's been attempts, for example, in UK guidance, realistic possibility for it to mean 40 to 50%, but of course, as that gets communicated, that meaning can very quickly drift.

Yes, serious possibility of some serious consequences when it comes to talking about invasions.

But when you say UK guidance, guidance for whom?

Uk intelligence and within government. For example, a lot of the COVID reports, if you saw those when they went to the public domain, you had this little what's called a yardstick at the bottom. Nato has a similar one. Ipcc for climate has another where it says, If you use this phrase in this report, this is the range that you mean. It's very helpful for people who are actually working on those things. But actually, some of these phrases that although there's a hard number on it in a report, actually, when it gets out to the wider domain, can really mean a lot of different things.

What about different transatlantic interpretations?

You talked about the CIA.

Given the importance of intelligence sharing, do Brits and Americans understand these phrases differently?

What's interesting is, institutionally, there's quite a difference, actually, in terms of how different organizations define these. But in the data across this few thousand people, we did see a little bit more optimism with Americans, about 3% overall in terms of, if you ask a phrase, what that means. We also saw a bit of variation, for example, in older age groups, a little bit more pessimism, again, as people get through more university and degrees. But there have been some historical examples where this has actually caused quite a big issue. I mean, the Korean War stands out, for example, where some British soldiers reported things getting a bit sticky, and the Americans interpreted that as they were digging in and everything was okay.

Very briefly, no weasel words. Should we just avoid using them?

I think it's hard because you don't just want to hammer people with numbers, and it can be very helpful to communicate clearly in language. I think there's a lot of phrases where actually amongst a lot of people, it will be quite clear what you mean. But I think it's particularly important amongst those phrases like realistic possibility to be aware. Even if we're talking about could or might, perhaps be aware that we might be trying to avoid judgment if we're using those words in the first place.

Adam Kaczarsky. That's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast@bbc. Co. Uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service, you can use the hashtag #globalnewspod. Don't forget our sister podcast. It's called The Global Story, which goes in-depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. That's available wherever you get your podcast from. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Masoud Ibrahim Kehl, and the producer was Wilchalk. The editor is Karen Martin, and I'm uncriticized. Until next time. Goodbye.

We focus on the part of the Internet that most people don't know about. It's called the Dark Web.

Undercover in the furthest corners of the Dark Web. Us Special Agents are on a mission to locate and rescue children from abuse.

Moving in now. Police.

From the BBC World Service, World of Secrets, the Darkest Web follows their shocking investigations. Listen on BBC. Com or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.