US special envoy Kellogg says Ukraine peace talks may involve only US, Russia and Ukraine. Also: at least 15 dead in Delhi railway station crush, and is Donald Trump a penny pincher?
Chapter 1: Why might Europe be excluded from Ukraine peace talks?
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 Sunday, the 16th of February. A US envoy says Europe will not be directly involved in Ukraine peace talks, even though it will be asked to provide security guarantees.
A crush at the main railway station in Delhi leaves more than a dozen dead, as pilgrims travel to and from the Kumbh Mela festival. And Israel and Hamas have completed their latest hostage and prisoner swap, despite fears the Gaza ceasefire was close to collapse.
Also in the podcast... We're trying to sound the alarm and raise awareness that we have to do something to save this industry town and build it back again.
Efforts to shore up the film industry in Hollywood. By engaging directly with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump has already signalled he is willing to ignore European concerns over a possible deal over the war in Ukraine.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of the US, Russia, and Ukraine peace talks?
Now, the US Special Envoy has said that Europe will not have a seat at the proposed peace talks, even though European nations have been asked to contribute to maintaining post-conflict security. Retired General Keith Kellogg told a global security conference in Munich... The negotiations would involve the US, Russia and Ukraine.
Europe would not take part directly, but would still have an input, he said. And he said Russia would face tough demands.
To me, there's going to have to be things like territorial concessions. Some of it is unrealistic to expect where you'd want to go to, but it's some territorial. It could be the engagement of refusing to use force, renouncement of the use of force into the future. from a political side. He's not going to downsize his military forces.
What we're going to try to do is basically force him into actions. What you want to do is force him to actions maybe he's uncomfortable with. What I mean by that is an example. Right now, what we're going to do is try to break this alliance that he currently has. He's got an alliance around North Korea that wasn't there before. He's got an alliance with Iran that wasn't there before.
He's got an alliance with China that wasn't there before, meaning four years ago.
Keith Kellogg. US officials have said the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a high-level delegation in direct talks with Russian officials on ending the conflict in Ukraine in the coming days in Saudi Arabia. Earlier at the Munich conference, the Ukrainian president said Europe needed its own army as it could no longer rely on guaranteed American support.
Our security correspondent Frank Gardner reports from Munich.
Volodymyr Zelensky is in a race against time. He came here to Munich to plead with world leaders not to allow a rushed Trump-Putin peace deal that signed away his country's future security. Today, he told delegates that a flawed deal would simply play into the hands of the Kremlin.
Putin will try to get the US president standing on Red Square on May 9th this year, not as a respected leader, but as a probe in his own performance. We don't need that. We need real success. We need real peace.
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Chapter 3: How is Europe responding to potential exclusion from peace talks?
That may well involve trading access to Ukraine's vast mineral wealth for tangible U.S. security guarantees. So far, said Mr. Zelensky, those guarantees are not forthcoming, so he's not signed the deal. Meanwhile, he warned, Europe can no longer count on the U.S. to defend it, so Europe needed its own army.
I really believe that time has come. The armed forces of Europe must be created. And now, as we fight this war and lay the groundwork for peace and security, we must build the armed forces of Europe so that Europe's future depends only on Europeans.
But Europe already has NATO. And America, despite all the seismic shocks the Trump team has been delivering this week, is not leaving NATO. Here's Finland's foreign minister, Alina Valtonen.
It's a European army already, and it's NATO compatible, of course. What we try to emphasise is that there needs to be a credible plan to keep Russia at bay going forward, not just in Ukraine, but also elsewhere.
And that idea, said Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, is not just about defense, it's about mutual economic interests.
I would encourage Donald Trump and the Ukrainians to look very carefully at a deepening partnership over the next generations. Why? Because the best deal and the best security guarantee is binding US industry, business, defence capability into their future.
But here in Munich, the prevailing question remains. With US support now wavering, can Europe arm itself and Ukraine sufficiently and in time to fend off any future Russian aggression?
Frank Gardner reporting from the Security Conference. Well, the speech by the US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday in Munich was met by stunned silence from many European politicians, but it went down well with the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AFD. With just over a week to go until the German general election, the party is second in the opinion polls.
Its leaders didn't attend the security conference, but they still spoke to Mr Vance. Sean Lay asked the deputy leader of the AFD, Patrice von Soch, how the meeting went.
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Chapter 4: What are the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas prisoner swap?
It's about 1.5% of GDP, isn't it? It certainly was in 2023 that Germany spent. I mean, the Americans are talking about Europeans spending 5% of GDP.
Yeah, I think that's impossible, but that's impossible when you look to the budget. But spending more and spend it more efficiently is probably the best thing we can do.
The deputy leader of the AFD, Beatrice von Stoch. Now, it had been in serious doubt earlier in the week, prompting dire warnings from President Trump. But the latest hostage and prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas has passed off smoothly. Three Israelis were released in return for about 370 Palestinians. It was the sixth swap since the Gaza ceasefire agreement began last month.
Paul Adams reports from Jerusalem.
In the Gaza Strip this morning, three more hostages were driven to freedom. There was no chaos this time, and the hostages, Sagi Dekelchen, Yair Horn and Sasha Trufanov, seemed in better shape. But once again, Hamas put on a display of military strength, designed to show to Israelis and Palestinians alike that they are still a force to be reckoned with.
In Tel Aviv, where friends and supporters gather each week, a wave of relief. Until yesterday, this whole complex deal seemed in jeopardy. There were tears of joy in Yair Horn's hometown, Kfar Saba, but apprehension too. His younger brother, Eitan, is still a hostage. No one knows when or even if he'll be released. Ronli Nisan is a friend of the family.
It's bittersweet because every time somebody comes back, we want to be happy, but we are thinking about everybody else that's left behind.
There were plenty of mixed emotions in Gaza too, as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails returned home. Some, like Abdul Majid Rajab, telling tales of humiliation and violence in captivity.
It was really, really hard, he says. Every day felt like a hundred years.
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Chapter 5: What happened at the Delhi railway station during the Kumbh Mela?
The fact that the authorities were giving very conflicting information. Initially, they were talking about a stampede-like situation, and then the situation was brought under control. And then later on, they started, 15 people were injured. So it also shows the government is now on the back foot trying to address the situation.
Pictures are showing people's bags, addresses, and belongings they had left on the platforms.
Our South Asia regional editor, Anbarasan Etirajan.
And still to come on the Global News Podcast. It's kind of disrespectful to Abraham Lincoln and to the penny itself, the way we treat it. We just leave it on the sidewalk, leave it in our jar and we never bring it back.
Why the humble US one cent coin may soon be on the way out.
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.
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