European leaders at Paris summit discuss continued support for Ukraine and agree to keep sanctions against Russia. Also: King Charles cancels a day of engagements after suffering side effects from his cancer treatment.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Friday the 28th of March, these are our main stories. European leaders in Paris reaffirmed their support for Ukraine and agree to keep sanctions against Russia. Meanwhile, President Putin is in the Arctic to highlight the region's strategic importance for his country.
A BBC journalist is deported from Turkey as the government cracks down on the media following ongoing protests there. Also in this podcast, King Charles cancels a day of engagements after suffering side effects from his cancer treatment.
And... The AI is getting so good that it's become really hard to distinguish between an AI-generated image and a real photo.
How a fashion company is using AI to make artificial twins of real-life models. We start in Paris, where European leaders have been meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine alongside President Zelensky. The summit sought to set out what security guarantees Europe can offer Ukraine once a ceasefire deal is agreed with Russia, including the possible deployment of military forces.
Chapter 2: What did European leaders decide at the Paris summit?
France and Britain are the driving force behind the initiative, and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was obvious that Russia was dragging its feet in its response to US-led proposals for a ceasefire.
There was absolute clarity that Russia is trying to delay, is playing games, and we have to be absolutely clear about that. And that has meant more support for Ukraine to make sure Ukraine is in the strongest possible position, both now and in further negotiations. Second, complete clarity that now is not the time for lifting of sanctions.
Chapter 3: What is President Macron's proposal for a European reassurance force?
And, of course, we discussed further the plans for reassuring the peace, the coalition of the willing and the military and operational plans, whether they're on the land, the air or the sea.
The French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Britain would forge ahead with plans for a reassurance force involving several countries. But he also admitted there was currently no unanimity on sending such a force. The history of Europe, he said, would be at a tipping point if the US stopped supporting the continent. We must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
My hope is that the Americans will be committed alongside us and that they will provide support or even active participation in all of this, because it's good for their European allies, good for NATO and good for all of us. But we must prepare for a situation where perhaps they will not join us.
So how far along are the proposals for what President Macron is describing as a European reassurance force? I asked our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard.
It's a work in progress, Val, very much so at this stage. What we have there today, for example, among the leaders, there were some that back it. So people like Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer of Britain. But there were others who, although they want to show willing in terms of supporting Ukraine, They were not prepared to send troops on the ground in any kind of eventual future ceasefire scenario.
So, for example, Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgio Maloney, or Poland's Prime Minister. Poland is obviously a very strong supporter of Ukraine, but Poland does not want to send troops to Ukraine. So there's a lot of division still, although the broad message is still one of solidarity towards Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine.
And how does this so-called coalition of the willing fit in with the Trump administration's view on defence spending and Ukraine? Because President Trump and his White House, they don't think European nations are spending nearly enough, do they, of their GDP on defence?
Well, this is one way that Europe can show it is willing to take responsibility for its wider security on the European continent. So from that perspective, I think the U.S. welcomes that sort of initiative. It's by no means clear, though, how much support really in the U.S. there is for this proposal, for example, to send troops to Ukraine on the ground.
And the backdrop of all this, of course, is that Russia is deeply opposed to any deployment of European or NATO troops to Ukraine. It says it would see that effectively as an act of war and a direct military intervention. So there are still lots of questions about the force itself and also whether in reality it will ever be deployed.
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Chapter 4: How is Russia responding to European plans and the Arctic strategy?
Danny Eberhard. And we have another question and answer podcast with our colleagues from Ukrainecast coming up soon. So if you've got any questions, please send us an email to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And if possible, please record your question as a voice note. Meanwhile, President Putin has been turning his attention to another zone of Russian strategic interest, the Arctic.
He was speaking at the International Arctic Forum in the Russian city of Murmansk. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg is there and sent us this report.
The Arctic feels like a world away from the war in Ukraine, but this is a region with its own geopolitical undercurrents and Russian ambitions. At Russia's Arctic Forum, Vladimir Putin warned that geopolitical battles were intensifying. He referenced Donald Trump's plan to annex Greenland. But President Putin claimed that idea was not extravagant and had historical roots.
He said Russia would stay out of it. What's more, the Russians have an offer for America. In a region packed with natural resources, there are deals to be done. Kirill Dmitriev is President Putin's foreign investment envoy. He's already had meetings with US officials.
We are open for investment cooperation in the Arctic, and that could be in logistics, that could be in other areas, where again it's beneficial to Russia and also beneficial to the US.
Before deals can be done, the war in Ukraine needs to end, and many people in the West accuse Russia of dragging its feet, of making no concessions or compromises, laying down conditions.
Well, first of all, I'm focused on economics and investment, so I don't comment on political issues. But I think the only thing I can say is that we have a very good dialogue. And I think it's very important US is trying to understand Russian position.
Moscow is confident it can woo Washington with promises of lucrative deals in the Arctic and across Russia. And that confidence is understandable, considering how senior US officials have been repeating Kremlin talking points about the war in Ukraine and about Europe. In the words of one Russian newspaper headline I saw recently, American and Russian officials are now speaking the same language.
Steve Rosenberg. Turkey has continued a media crackdown over protests at the arrest of President Erdogan's main political rival. Opposition television stations have been ordered to suspend some broadcasts and the BBC journalist Mark Lowen, who was detained on Wednesday, has now been deported. The authorities said he was a threat to public order.
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Chapter 5: Why was a BBC journalist deported from Turkey?
I think it's different. It's make or break time for Turkey.
It is galvanising the side of Turkey that feels stifled by President Erdogan's authoritarian rule. And they say they are not going to leave these streets until Imamoglu is out of jail and Erdogan is out of power.
Mark Lowen. Well, Jo Inwood spoke to Selin Geret, a Turkish BBC journalist who worked with Mark Lowen.
We're all very distraught about what's happened to Mark. He's a very dear friend of mine, not only a colleague, but a very good friend of mine as well. He was in detention for 17 hours, but he was treated well, he said. He wasn't particularly mistreated by the police force. They were having tea at times even.
But of course, being under detention is distressing itself, no matter how you are treated. And the grounds that he was deported was just a shock, actually, being a threat to public order, the statement said apparently. I hadn't come across this before as a charge for journalists.
But I mean, given the circumstances on the ground in Turkey and how the authorities are trying to suppress the coverage, of the protest for the last week or so. I think we will be seeing more of these, more of international journalists being, not maybe deported, but coming under pressure so that the protests on the ground and the public disorder
in Istanbul and elsewhere, does not get coverage across international media and does not resonate with the audiences across the world.
And I think it is important to point out to our audiences that although it's Mark's story, the one that we highlight, this is not unique. This is happening to other journalists.
No, it is not unique. Absolutely, you're very right in that. Actually, this week there were seven journalists who were remanded in custody. They were later released. but pending trial, of course. So there were other reports of journalists being mistreated, even being beaten, being pepper-gassed on the face by the police forces.
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Chapter 6: How is AI being used in the fashion industry?
Yeah, and I'm looking at some of them now. And I mean, you know, it's not a very good photocopy that I have. But on first look, you can't really tell the difference. I mean, why do you think the company's doing it? I mean, the first thought that springs to mind that this is just a way to save money, isn't it?
Yeah. I mean, if you look at history, when companies have a chance to save money through automation and technology, typically they will do it. We've seen that over and over. H&M says that this is not the main priority. So according to the company, they keep an eye on technology. They see that AI is coming.
And they were trying to think about how they can use AI while protecting the rights of the models. Because in In theory, you know, we've seen other examples of this, like you could just generate images of models without having to involve them. Not necessarily like an exact replica of a human model, but just something that looks like a regular human model, not based on any actual person.
They decided that the best approach, according to them, would be to actually involve the models and to give them rights over their digital twins. So they actually own their digital twin and can decide when they want to use it.
And so according to them, it's a way to try to find sort of a path forward in this new age of AI that allows you to use AI while respecting the rights and jobs of the models.
Just one final thought. I wonder what consumers will make of it, because there is something strange. If you suspect or you know you're looking at an image, an AI image of a person, I mean, it does create this sort of weird distance sometimes, doesn't it?
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Chapter 7: What is the impact of AI on model rights and fashion marketing?
It does. And even the models themselves. I spoke to the first model who H&M created a digital twin for, and she described it as a little bit bizarre. scary, actually, to look at a picture of herself that wasn't really her. I think the thing that's worth noting is that the AI is getting so good that it's become really hard to distinguish between an AI-generated image and a real photo.
And so in some cases, consumers might look at these things and not even realize they're looking at an AI image. In fact, H&M has said it plans to watermark the images for now to be transparent, to make clear when you're looking at AI.
Technology journalist Mark Bain. Still to come, why man-made change is threatening fungi or fungi, the lifeblood of most plants.
The fungi bring in nutrients and water that the plants need. So without these fungi, we're not going to have our plants, we're not going to have our forest, our grasslands or even our crop plants.
On our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire, we explain how the world's billionaires made all their money.
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Yep, we're talking about Marcus Persson, the Swedish coding king who programmed the world's most successful game, Minecraft, all by himself.
He made a billion, but is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Buckingham Palace has provided an update on the health of King Charles following his diagnosis of cancer last year. The statement said the King had spent a short time in hospital on Thursday after he experienced temporary side effects from his ongoing medical treatment. His appointments for Friday have been cancelled. The BBC's Ben Schofield has the details.
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Chapter 8: Why is the health of fungi crucial for plant life?
The government says it'll start conducting evacuation drills next year. I asked our Asia-Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton what's prompted the government in Tokyo to act now.
I think that Tokyo is becoming increasingly worried by the rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait. It can see for itself, as all of us can see, really, that China is putting increasing pressure on Taiwan, that open talk of a possible invasion of Taiwan is really on the table now. I said itself, it's preparing its own military drills with the idea that China could invade in 2027.
So that date is being bandied around by the US and now Taiwan. And so I think Japan is very well aware of this, that it wants to protect itself. It has some islands that are quite close to Taiwan, the Sakishima Islands. The closest one of those particular islands is called Yonaguni. It's only 100 kilometers away from Taiwan itself. And so Japan's just thinking ahead.
So tell us about Japanese plants. Well, the Japanese have been planning this on paper in table exercises for quite some time. For a few years now, they've been releasing images of meetings where they have a map on a table in front of them and they're moving little wooden boats and planes around. But now they want to go one step further and actually rehearse these evacuations.
So they want to play out what would go into taking 120,000 people off of the Sakishima Islands and and getting them onto Japan's bigger mainland and what that would take. They estimate it would take them about six days of evacuating about 20,000 people a day using military vessels, Coast Guard vessels, and also private ferries in conjunction with planes.
they would all be taken to ports and airports on Japan's main Kyushu island, and then they'd be dispersed around the country from there. Now, in typical Japanese style, they've really thought ahead about this, and they want to make sure that they evacuate people in groups.
So you're always with a group of people that you know, and you'll all be transported to your ultimate destination where you're going to stay for a while with people you know, and that's to minimize distress.
Have they ever done anything like this before?
I don't think so. And that's why they're trying to play it out so carefully in terms of what kinds of transportation they use, who they would evacuate first, how they would go about it. And that's why we're going to be seeing these live drills starting next year. You know, I think the hope for everyone is that they wouldn't have to use this. But Japan is a country that is hit by earthquakes.
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