US and EU allies discuss Ukraine's peace prospects at the Munich Security Conference. The Russian delegation is not invited. Also: long sentences for rhino poachers in Indonesia, and the smell of mummies.
Chapter 1: What are the main discussions at the Munich Security Conference?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Rachel Wright and at 14 hours GMT on Friday the 14th of February, these are our main stories. US and EU leaders meet in Munich where the future of Ukraine is being discussed. We hear from our security correspondent and from Russia.
Ukraine has accused Russia of launching a drone attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power station causing significant damage. Also in this podcast, fruit flies and zebrafish have been genetically modified to eat a toxic pollutant. It's 50 years since the death of Sir Pelham Grenfell Woodhouse, commonly known as P.G. Woodhouse, creator of some of the most widely read comic works of the 20th century.
And you can do it. Your body can surprise you that we have strength that you will never know about it.
You just have to experience it. The Egyptian fencer who competed in the Olympics while seven months pregnant. But first, all eyes are now on the German city of Munich, which has become the focal point for the war in Ukraine, or perhaps efforts to end it, especially those coming from Washington.
Chapter 2: Why is Ukraine's sovereignty a focal point in international politics?
Lots of top US administration officials are attending the annual security conference, as is the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But there is no Russian delegation. That's because Russians still aren't officially welcome in Western circles, despite the long phone call between President Trump and President Putin on Wednesday, in which the two men discussed a face-to-face meeting.
Speaking to journalists, President Zelensky has said that Ukraine must be a full participant in any negotiations towards a peace deal.
Of course it will be very strange if the policy of the United States will shift to Russia. But I think this is a very important moment for the new team. It's their decision, of course, but I think that the United States can stop any evil. And in this case they have to be on the side of us because they attacked us and occupied us. No compromises in this.
Christoph Heusgen is the chairman of the Munich conference.
It is very clear that Ukraine is not ready to give up its country. It's not ready to cede territory. Ukraine has a legitimate government. It has to be recognized. So when they talk about negotiations right now, talk about a country that apparently until now is not really present in the conversation. And this has to be changed. And for this to be changed, Europe and Ukraine have to stick together.
Europe cannot just ask to be on the table. Europe has to put something on the table.
Christoph Heusgen was talking to our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, who is also in Munich. And earlier, I asked Frank what was the key issue separating the US and Europe over Ukraine.
I think it's really about how much can be given away, where there is common ground and where there isn't. There's no disguising it. There is a huge gap between Ukraine and its European allies on the one hand and what the White House wants on the other. President Trump's team are impatient to end this war. Some would say at whatever cost. even if it's to Ukraine's detriment.
And Europe's view is we need to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes. Those are the words of Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, this morning. That is not the view in Washington, where they're saying, yeah, we still support Ukraine, but... We want a deal. Get it done. And we know what Russia's position is. They intend to not only hang on to the territory they've already taken.
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Chapter 3: How does the US and Europe's stance differ on Ukraine's future?
Well, Christoph Heusgen was saying that Europe needs a plan. Do we have any sense of what a plan would look like?
No, we don't. He said that in that interview to me about a couple of hours ago when we recorded it. And that's another one of the themes here at this conference, that Europe has not exactly dithered, you know, fiddled while Rome burnt, but has been... rather slow to get its act together when it comes to organising enough money for defence.
America is sending the very clear signal that the US taxpayer is no longer going to be expected to shoulder the bulk of the defence burden in supporting Ukraine and in defending Europe. It's time for Europe to stand on its own two feet. That's extremely unwelcome here because in terms of percentage of national wealth countries spend on defence, The NATO mandate is it's meant to be 2%.
Now, big countries like Spain and Italy are not even spending 2% on defence. Poland is, and the Baltic states are, because they're close to the action. Britain is agonising over whether to raise it from 2.3% to 2.5%. America is saying, you guys have got to spend 5% if you hope to be able to defend yourselves and stop relying on us to do it for you.
So it's a tough message coming from Washington and something approaching panic, I think, on the behalf of Europe.
And it's not just over Ukraine that this new dynamic is between the US and Europe?
There's the whole issue about trade tariffs, et cetera, and a future trade war. But I mean, look, it's no surprise, I think, that Trump's attention is not really on Europe. Ultimately, he's much more interested in things like trade, securing the southern border with Mexico and China. That's where his interests lie. The Chinese foreign minister is here in Munich.
There are going to, we're going to be hearing from him in a while. But that's where US attention is. So Europe is really feeling slightly left out in the cold.
Frank Gardner in Munich. So what's the Russian view? The BBC's Victoria Uwankunda spoke to Sergei Markov, a former spokesperson and advisor to President Putin, to get his view on President Trump's talks with his boss about ending the war in Ukraine.
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Chapter 4: What is Russia’s perspective on the conflict in Ukraine?
Sergei Markov. Meanwhile, Ukraine says a Russian drone attack overnight significantly damaged the radiation shelter over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the fire was extinguished quickly, there were no casualties and radiation levels are stable. Russia has responded, saying it does not attack nuclear facilities.
But of course, there are concerns, as Chernobyl still contains lingering radiation from the explosion in 1986, which was the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. So what's been the reaction in Ukraine? James Waterhouse is our correspondent in Kiev.
President Zelensky, his office has said that radiation levels are normal. He talked about that protective casing being built by Ukraine and its allies in the years following that 1986 nuclear disaster. I remember before the full-scale invasion, it was a popular tourist spot. I sort of planned to go myself.
When I first arrived in Ukraine in early 2022, and I put it off, and then, of course, when the full-scale invasion happened, it was off-limits, and then Russian soldiers, when they advanced on Kiev, they arrived there and they dug trenches... and disturbing radioactive soil, which is an illustration, really, of why there is still an exclusion zone around the site.
So it'll be a site well known to many. It was a disaster that sort of marked the beginning of the end when it came to the... Soviet Union and how Ukrainians viewed Moscow in terms of its response to that disaster. So it's at the front of many people's minds, but thankfully the damage seems to be relatively minimal.
But we've seen this kind of to-ing and fro-ing of accusations between Moscow and Kiev when it comes to nuclear infrastructure being hit. But the fact is this, Russia... does attack nuclear infrastructure. It moved in from the south early in the invasion and seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has six reactors, and it has kept hold of it ever since.
A dam it occupies, which provided water to cool those reactors, was destroyed. So it's a statement by the Kremlin that is demonstrably not true, given that it occupies the biggest nuclear power station in Europe, in southern Ukraine.
James Waterhouse in Kyiv. Poachers who killed dozens of rare Javan rhinos have been given long prison sentences by a court in Indonesia. Conservationists say this ruling delivers a clear warning to those who threaten Indonesia's wildlife. Our reporter Jae Sung Lee is following the story.
These sentences are the highest punishment possible for poaching in Indonesia. These poachers who were found guilty were members of a criminal gang that was uncovered by authorities in 2023. Now, they've confessed to killing 26 rhinos over a five-year period of time. And in this ruling, the court sentenced the leader of the group to 12 years in prison and his five co-conspirators to 11 years.
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Chapter 5: What impact did the Russian drone attack have on Chernobyl?
Scientists in Australia, though, have developed a method of removing it by genetically modifying zebrafish and fruit flies and injecting them with bacteria so they can munch on the mercury and transform it into a harmless gas. Dr Kate Kepa took part in the research and explained to the BBC's Victoria Owen-Kunda about how it works.
So we did a search into the literature and found these two enzymes from bacteria, E. coli bacteria. And one of them, it cleaves off the methyl group off of that methylmercury compound. And then there's another enzyme that comes in and changes that charge of that mercury atom. So that mercury atom in the uncharged state has some really interesting chemistry in that it's highly volatile.
And so it's able to evaporate out of cells and out of the animal.
And so do you find or do you think that there is a danger in doing that and engineering animals in that way?
I guess like for bioremediation, like using animals, like biological agents to clean up pollution for animals. There's really robust genetic biocontainment strategies. So for example, you can surgically sterilize fish to prevent them from interbreeding in the wild. And then for insects, we have some robust biocontainment strategies to make sure that they're not interbreeding in the wild.
And in your opinion, where could this kind of research then lead us into the future?
So some applications for this could be for species conservation, as well as to clean up areas that might have high levels of mercury. And then another application that we're really excited about is that you could engineer insects that industrially process organic waste. So the insects, they can process organic waste that are commonly contaminated by mercury.
And then in the enclosed facilities, the gaseous mercury can be trapped and then completely removed from the biosphere.
Dr Kate Kepa of Macquarie University in Australia. Still to come, have you ever wondered how ancient Egyptian mummies smell?
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Chapter 6: Why are poachers in Indonesia receiving long sentences?
He was talking to a conservative radio talk show before departing on his trip. He's supposed to be visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, having already met Egyptian and Jordanian officials in Washington. And according to his account, President Trump's controversial plan for Gaza was given in the absence... of any other.
He says if someone has a better plan, and we hope they do, if the Arab countries have a better plan, then that's great. And he said now's the time to present it. Now, you know, he also comes out with some quite provocative comments for someone who's the top US diplomat. He does say all these countries say how much they care about the Palestinians. But none of them want to take any Palestinians.
None of them have a history of doing anything for Gaza in that matter. And of course, Jordan being asked now to take in more Gaza refugees by the US already hosts two million Palestinian registered refugees, many from Gaza. Egypt says that just...
In the course of this war, it's taken more than 100,000 Gazans, and it's coming up now, it's working on a plan, an alternative plan for Gaza that will see it reconstructed, but not displacing the population. And Arab leaders are due to meet in the coming weeks and then attend a conference in Cairo on all this.
As part of that Israeli hostage release deal, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have also been set free. On Saturday, a further 360 Palestinians will be part of the exchange for the three Israeli hostages. Perhaps the most famous Palestinian of the many thousands detained is Marwan Bagouti, a man long tipped as a potential future Palestinian leader.
He has spent more than two decades in an Israeli jail where for murders committed during the Second Intifada, or uprising. His son, Arab Bagouti, is an activist in Ramallah, in the West Bank. My colleague, James Kumrasami, asked him how a new political leadership for the Palestinians should be decided.
We need to give the Palestinian people, and no other than the Palestinian people, the choice to choose our leadership. It's been almost two decades since we had our last elections. If you're a Palestinian and you're 35 years old or under, which is 70% of the Palestinian people, You have never voted before, let alone getting elected or getting into the parliament or something like that.
Is there a hunger for elections?
There is a big hunger for elections and for unity. I think a unified Palestinian people contributes greatly into the future of peace. We do need one umbrella that holds all Palestinian factions under it, that represents the whole of the Palestinian people as well. And we have young people who are very qualified to be in the political scene that we have never been able to get our voices heard.
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Chapter 7: What are scientists doing to combat methylmercury pollution?
I'm a competitive person. What I was thinking about my baby, that I want to be the Olympian and my baby to be an Olympian and to do something different for my baby. So my baby motivated me for this.
27-year-old Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez is a clinical pathologist by trade and a new mum to four-month-old daughter Zaina. She'd already competed at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, but the Paris Olympics were more than just participation. In the first round of her women's individual sabre, she pulled off a shock win against seventh-seeded American Elizabeth Tartakovsky.
I had this dream to not stop and to continue fencing and to continue and chase my dream. So when I did it, finally, it was like, I can't believe it. And also, I won a very difficult match. So this was the dream coming true for me.
Hafez lost her next match but reaching the last 16 was something special and then came the Instagram post which made headline news the world over.
Now the latest from Paris 2024 where the Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has revealed she competed at the Olympics while seven months pregnant.
I was just posting this on my personal account, saying that I'm on top 16 in the world while pregnant, and I didn't expect that this will go viral. I was very proud that an Egyptian Arab woman can tell the world that you can do it, your body can surprise you, that we have strength that you will never know about it, you just have to experience it.
I read all the messages from women and actually not only women, there are young girls. They told me, you inspired us so much and we want to go to medical school, I want to continue in sports. When I get a message from anyone telling me that I'm an example, I'm a role model, it's really big, it set my heart on fire.
But not all the messages were so kind. Hafez put out another post to clarify she was fine to compete.
I didn't understand what people are talking about because some people, they're saying you can leave another place for another one to fence. And this is not an option because I am qualified by my name. So I didn't take anyone's place. For example, people do just put a message and it's easy to put a comment on the post and run. You don't face me.
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Chapter 8: How are researchers recreating the smell of Egyptian mummies?
Olympian and now mother Nada Hafez speaking to the BBC's Nishat Lada. A new study has captured and analysed the sense of nine human mummies from ancient Egypt in an effort to understand how well preserved they are. Mummification was a preservation process that was believed to help the ancient Egyptian elite cross into the afterlife thousands of years ago.
Cecilia Bambibre-Giacobbo, a lecturer in sustainable heritage at University College London, was one of the authors of the research. She explained how the samples were taken.
We put a very fine tube inside the sarcophagus and extracted a quantity of air that we could then smell. So this is the air that would be around the mummified body. It's called a headspace technique and it's also used in perfumery. What I have here is a series of resins that would have been used in the mummification process. You have there frankincense, and this is myrrh. We did two things.
We smelled the air that was around the mummified body, but we also took a sample and took it back to the laboratory. And we used a technique called gas chromatography, which separates all the different smells in the mix of the mummified body smell. And there we were able to smell... mouldy compounds, for example, and stale compounds.
One of the findings of the study is that we were able to pinpoint four sources for the smells. And this is quite important because it helps us learn more about ancient Egypt and the mummified bodies. We found smells that had to do with the embalming process. We had smells that had to do with the synthetic pesticides that had been historically used to preserve these mummified bodies.
We also found smells that had to do with the biodeterioration process, for example, the animal fats used in the embalming, breaking down through This is useful for scientists and also for conservators who care for this collection so we can ensure that it reaches future generations.
On the other hand, we're also thinking of audiences and we want to share the experience we had smelling the mummified bodies. So we're reconstructing the smell to be presented in the museum, the Egyptian Museum Museum. in Cairo and in Slovenia as well, in a museum, so audiences can experience this important part of the significance of ancient mummified bodies.
Now we can all smell a mummy. Now to end, it's 50 years since the death of Sir Pelham Granville Woodhouse, a.k.a. P.G. Woodhouse, the creator of some of the most widely read comic tales of the 20th century, the adventurers of the feather-brained Bertie Worcester and his wise valet Jeeves. Here's P.G. Woodhouse himself speaking to the BBC in 1963.
It's difficult to say how one gets a character. I think a character develops very much as you go on writing book after book about it. I think it was Guy Bolton used to say, get your love story right and the comedy will take care of itself.
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