Kremlin says President Putin has visited a command post in the Kursk region, where Russia has been retaking territory seized by Ukraine last year. Also: Pakistan train hijack over, and 100 days with a titanium heart.
Chapter 1: What is the main news in the Kursk region?
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and this edition is published in the early hours of Thursday the 13th of March. President Trump says a US team is on its way to Russia to outline his Ukraine ceasefire plan, even as President Putin is reported to have gone to the front line.
Will American tariffs stop the fentanyl coming in from Mexico? Our correspondent has been to meet one of the drug smugglers there. And the Pakistani army says it's rescued hundreds of hostages from a hijacked train, but more than 20 passengers and 30 militants are dead.
Also in the podcast... This new technology, I think this is a very, very well-designed heart. It's got this maglev technology, so the disc is rotating, sort of freely floating and rotating by this magnetic levitation.
A patient survives for 100 days with a heart made of titanium. The Russian president tends to steer well clear of the fighting, even as he throws hundreds of thousands of his troops into the so-called meat grinder in Ukraine.
But in the past few hours, footage has been released of Vladimir Putin apparently visiting a command post in Kursk, the Russian region partly captured by Ukrainian forces last year. I very much expect that all combat tasks will be fulfilled and that the territory of the Kursk will soon be completely liberated from the enemy, said Mr Putin. He was dressed in camouflage gear.
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Chapter 2: How is the Ukraine ceasefire plan progressing?
The Russian chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, told him Russian forces had now recaptured 86% of the occupied land. Ukraine has acknowledged some setbacks there, but said fighting was continuing. Russia's gains come as the US waits for the Kremlin's response to the American ceasefire proposal agreed by Ukraine. So what is the likely thinking in Moscow?
I asked Lisa Fox from the BBC Russian service.
Previously, Vladimir Putin had said on many occasions that Russia is just not interested in a simple ceasefire and would like to hear more concrete and soulless proposals for a peace settlement. Of course, that would meet most Russia's terms. But right now, Russia is in a more difficult position than I think it was before this U.S.,
Ukraine talks in Riyadh, because for weeks now, we've seen America making demands of Ukraine and of Vladimir Zelensky. And now US is actually asking something from Vladimir Putin, from Russia for the first time in weeks. And it's going to be interesting to see how Russia is going to respond to that.
Because it comes at a time when Russia appears to be making advances on the battlefield. So I guess they may not want to pause.
Yes, of course. And most importantly, they've just advanced their position in Kursk region. Now they're slowly gaining ground, losing a lot of soldiers in the process. But I think this is the price that Russia is ready to pay, as Vladimir Putin has indicated over those months and years of fighting.
But indeed, for Russia right now, just stopping where they are potentially meaning getting no ground in Ukraine, which was one of the main objectives. Russia indicated many times that it wants Ukraine to make many more concessions. It wants other countries to recognize Russian sovereignty over the lands that are captured in Ukraine. It wants Ukraine to give up any hope of joining NATO.
It wants to see sanctions relief. And I think for Russia, it's just not clear at the moment whether the ceasefire is just going to be connected to this discussion about bigger goals that Russia wants to achieve in Ukraine.
Now, you said that Russia is in a more difficult position than it's faced for some time. I mean, in terms of what's happened with Donald Trump now apparently moving towards the Ukrainians, what's been the reaction to that in Russia?
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Chapter 3: What are the challenges in stopping fentanyl smuggling?
So it's just after six at night here in Tijuana. I'm at the headquarters of the state police. The agents are getting ready to go out on patrol. They've got a fleet of pickup trucks and they're all heavily armed. They're wearing body armor and they're all putting balaclavas on at the moment. And that's to protect their identity because being a cop in this town is extremely dangerous.
Ready for the action. That's a report that's just come in of gunfire over the police radio. It's a Saturday night here, so they're expecting a lot of drunkenness, a lot of drugs. By far the biggest, most dangerous drug here is fentanyl. So they're looking for anyone who's dealing. So it's another drug stop and the police have got the man against the vehicle. He's emptied his pockets.
Fentanyl use is a growing problem here in Mexico. Still, most of it goes across the border to the United States. The ground is shifting along the border. Mexico has deployed 10,000 troops. Some 29 cartel leaders held by Mexico have been handed over to American law enforcement. And for the first time, a number of cartels have been designated terrorist organisations by the US.
What we're trying to find out is just how so much of this drug is still making it into America. And up here, you might find some answers. We're just approaching a safe house. Inside is one of the foot soldiers of the cartels and a drugs mule. And they're making the final preparations for a fentanyl shipment to the United States tonight.
I watch as they place tightly wrapped packets of pills of synthetic opioid, 5,000 in total, inside the fuel tank of the car. It will be driven across a legal border crossing, right under the noses of US Customs. the drugs gang asked us to alter their voices. Do you ever feel guilty about all the people that it's killing?
Yeah, but if I don't do it, anybody's going to do it. I don't feel guilty for all the people, you know? I feel guilty because we have family too, but if I stop, it's going to continue.
The cartels know that American traffickers are less likely to be stopped, so they use US citizens mostly to make the drive across the border. Watching the proceedings, to one side, a dealer from L.A. Again, we have changed his voice. How many pills do you shift a week in L.A. ?
I try to get 100,000 pills a week. Every week, I try to spread it in different cars. That way, I minimize my risk of losing all my pills. I never expected something so deadly to hit the market. People know it's deadly, and they're still willing to use that product.
Mr. Trump, he's determined to stop the drugs trade.
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Chapter 4: How did the Pakistani train hijack unfold?
They have good drugs here and it's cheap. So people from all over the country come to get this stuff. But they don't know that if you're new and you're trying out this stuff for the first time, it might be the last time.
She prepares a pot of soup and shares it with 56-year-old John. He was revived from a near-fatal fentanyl overdose by an ambulance crew. It'll take more than just targeting the cartels to solve America's opioid crisis, he says.
Trump is a businessman. Drugs is like prostitution. The oldest profession in the world. You can't stop it now. It's too far.
That report from the US and Mexico by Quentin Somerville. The brutal hijacking of a train by separatist fighters in Pakistan, which began on Tuesday, is now over, according to the military. The army said 33 militants were killed and the remaining hostages freed. The train, carrying 440 passengers, was halted by an explosion on the approach to a tunnel in a remote area of Balochistan province.
The army said 21 civilians and four soldiers were killed by the Baloch Liberation Army. Many people are still waiting for news of their loved ones as freed passengers arrive at different railway stations along the train's route. Survivors shared harrowing accounts of the attack.
The whole train was filled with smoke.
It looked like the doomsday.
We found out that the train was stopped and firing followed after that. And then everyone just ducked to avoid the bullets.
There was a sudden blast followed by firing that injured a lot of people. Then slowly the armed militants asked the passengers to get off from the train, otherwise you would get killed. Then they separated the women and the elderly. Then we walked for around three, three and a half hours. We reached the nearest train station with great difficulty.
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Chapter 5: What milestone has been achieved with a titanium heart?
But it has come as a big relief for the Pakistani military as well as for the government because it was a very embarrassing situation for the military, despite having one of the largest military forts. Now, a group of militants had managed to hijack an entire train. This was an unprecedented move by the Baloch rebels, taking hundreds of people hostage.
So there will be questions asked how this was allowed to happen. But this also shows how the Baloch rebels are increasingly targeting higher value targets in the past few months.
Now, I read that this location was 14 kilometres from the nearest road, lots of mountains around there. What's happened to all the survivors? How have they been able to be taken to safety?
This strategic location itself is a big advantage for the rebels because they knew this was a mountainous area and there were lots of tunnels. Even to send reinforcements would have taken a long time for the military. It would have taken hours. If the nearest road is 14 kilometres, either they should have walked... or they should have been airdropped.
That's why they used special forces and helicopters and drones targeting these militants. Now, what this means for the Pakistani military is it's just already facing another insurgency in the northwest of the country bordering Afghanistan. Now, this attack will give more publicity for the rebels.
If the military goes against the rebels, if they launch any strong high-ended military operation, that could further alienate the Baloch ethnic community in the province, and that is the danger.
It's been called a medical milestone. A man in Australia has lived for 100 days with an artificial titanium heart while awaiting a transplant. The longest ever. Sian Harding is a professor of cardiac pharmacology at Imperial College.
This new technology, I think this is a very, very well-designed heart. It's got this maglev technology. So the disc is rotating, sort of freely floating and rotating by this magnetic levitation like you'd use for the trains, you know, the floating trains in Japan. It doesn't have valves. It's got really clever systems because your heart has to pump through your body.
It has a very strong left ventricle to do that and a lighter ventricle to go through your lungs. And that has to happen together with every beat. And they've managed to do it.
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