Trump to 'de-escalate a little bit' in Minneapolis

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2:01If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher and in the early hours of the 28th of January these are our main stories.

2:50President Trump says his administration is going to, in his words, de-escalate a little bit in Minneapolis following the deaths of two people at the hands of federal agents. The Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been attacked by a man while delivering a speech at a town hall event in Minneapolis. She wasn't injured. Jury selection has begun in a landmark trial against some of the world's biggest social media companies. Also in this podcast. Every major technology revolution that we see feels like hype to begin with, right? And there's been a lot of discussion about is this a bubble? And the answer is probably yes.

3:29Why a huge tech company is warning of carnage on the way.

3:36We begin with the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that's seen two US citizens shot dead in broad daylight, with President Trump saying he will de-escalate a little bit. He said the killings by federal agents were terrible, but added that Renee Good may have been radicalised and claimed Alex Pretty shouldn't have been carrying a gun. President Trump's border chief, Tom Homan, has been meeting local officials as he takes over the operation in Minneapolis. The man who'd been leading the immigration raids until now, Greg Bovino, is expected to leave the city in what may be seen as a climb down by the White House.

4:14Our correspondent, Tom Bateman, is in Minneapolis. When do we want it? Protesters were in the Minnesota State Capitol building demanding charges against the immigration agents who killed Alex Preti and Renee Good. Donald Trump, on a visit to Iowa, has been under growing pressure, even from his own political allies, who are seriously troubled by the crisis. As he again sought to defuse it, he suggested blame belonged to the man who was killed, who lawfully carried a gun. Certainly he shouldn't have been carrying a gun, but all of... Hey, look, bottom line, everybody in this room, we view that as a very unfortunate incident, OK?

4:52Everyone, unless you're a stupid person, a very, very unfortunate incident. I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That's a lot of bad stuff. That comment will alarm those calling for an independent probe into the killing of Alex Preti. It is also remarkable from a Republican president strongly allied with gun rights groups. All this after federal agents protected the hotel said to house Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol boss now being moved from Minneapolis. They wrestled a protester to the ground as the backlash here persists. The atmosphere changed suddenly.

5:31These agents pushed the crowd back. I saw one of them firing onto the ground here, some kind of irritant. And it forced the crowd away from them. They're determined not to have this crowd close to the hotel. They'd gathered when they heard Mr Pavino would be leaving, wanting to give him a send-off he wouldn't forget. And we're not letting him get out of here without letting him know how much we hate him. And the absolute havoc and murder that he has wreaked on our state is unacceptable. It was Mr Bovino who alleged Alex Preti was shot dead because he intended to massacre agents, a claim for which there was no evidence.

6:18Mr Preti's sister Michaela issued a statement paying tribute to her brother, adding, hearing disgusting lies spread about my brother is absolutely gut-wrenching. My family is deeply grateful so many people have stood up and helped tell his truth. There is a lot of noise, but this is not a full retreat by the Trump administration. Its deportation drive goes on, even if its most publicly known face is being forced out of town. Tom Bateman. And in another development, the US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been attacked during a town hall meeting in Minneapolis. She wasn't injured after being sprayed by an unknown liquid.

7:00Police say the man responsible has been arrested on suspicion of third degree assault. Our reporter Anna Fagey was there. Yeah, Congresswoman Omar was just starting her remarks and she was just speaking normally when all of a sudden there was a large commotion and someone came up and began spraying some spraying something at her we didn't know what it was but immediately it started to smell security stepped in pulled her out and then we saw a pause she took a minute everybody got their composure and we went from there That was Anna Fagey reporting from Minneapolis. President Trump has previously said he'd use military force to protect Nigerian Christians from persecution after the administration claimed a Christian genocide was taking place in the West African nation.

7:52These allegations have not been verified by the BBC. Alex Last went to Plateau State in central Nigeria, where ethnic and sectarian violence has been a focus of US concern. He found a more complex situation than the one described by Mr Trump. My house is up there. It's the top of the hill. Yes, so all of us in the house, we ran. That was how we survived. Joseph Izazino is a university student and a youth leader among the Christian Uruguay ethnic group who live in this part of Plateau State in central Nigeria. He was on a visit home when, on a Sunday night in April last year, gunmen attacked his village.

8:31You hear gunshots and people screaming. They were here with guns, just killing people, and doors opened. So it was very terrifying, very terrible. 52 people, men, women and children, were killed in Zike. It's not clear who exactly carried out the attack. No one has been prosecuted. But people in Zike are convinced that those responsible were ethnic Fulani, traditionally cattle herders, but predominantly Muslim. This is not a clash, it's nothing, but I call it the pure genocide of Christians. They want to wipe out themselves and then grab the land. Such attacks have fuelled claims that Christians face persecution in Nigeria, claims rejected by the Nigerian government, but which have been used to justify US military intervention in the country.

9:14Plateau State is ethnically diverse. Christians are the majority, they dominate the state government, Muslims are the minority. In parts of Plateau, there's been violence on and off for decades, and a key issue is the struggle over land. In Plateau, that often pits farmers, who are from mostly Christian ethnic groups, against herders who are mainly Muslim Falani. There is no any Christian genocide in Plateau State. The killing in Plateau State is both sides and is the clashes between farmers and herders because of the competition of the land. Adlai Yusuf Ibrahim is secretary to an influential Falani chief in Plateau State.

9:49Our own Falani communities are being attacked daily, but because we didn't have medias exposed what is happening to us, that is why people don't know what is happening to our side. Like many here, he has little faith in the authorities. There's little security presence in the countryside. Few are ever prosecuted for the violence. And that's created a culture of impunity, a culture of reprisal. When killing happens, securities are not going to investigate. And in the Flani community, if you come, we have some criminals. If you go to the other native, they also have their own criminal. But the problem is that there is no justice for the government.

10:23In Plato, despite the rhetoric, the violence is not universal. and many are working for peace. Jacob Choji Puakim is the founder of the Youth Initiative Against Violence and Human Rights Abuse, or IAVA. He has one project funded by the British government that brings together communities who've been locked in conflict for years. This is one of the farms where we have brought in both Muslims and Christians to jointly work together and to discuss, to establish a line of friendship. Morning, sir. We are planting the Irish potato. We are all together, working together. That's unity. And at the end of the day, it brings us to peace.

11:04Amos is from the mainly Christian Birom ethnic group. Next to him, his friend Abdullai is a Muslim falani. We enjoy being with them because we are cracking jokes together. We live together now. And this one is impacting a lot in building peace in this community. It's not easy. The wounds here run deep. but they believe they can at least show what is possible. Everybody has lost what peace is. Gradual thing that you build, you build, you build until we live together in peace like it was before. Alex Last reporting from central Nigeria. Now, if you're a person like me who spends too much time online, who's to blame?

11:45It's the question at the heart of a court case in the US brought by a 20-year-old woman from California who argues she suffered depression and anxiety after becoming addicted to social media. You might think taking on major tech companies is a big ask, but TikTok has joined Snapchat in reaching an out-of-court settlement with the woman. It leaves just Meta and YouTube to fight the case in which jury selection has now begun. Benjamin Ziperski, a professor at Fordham Law School, says it's a landmark battle with parallels to when tobacco companies faced legal action in the 90s. The similarity is that there are documents that appear to show that these companies were aware of the addictiveness of their product and according to the lawyers of the individuals injured they claim that they moved forward with their products because they wanted to make money from them, notwithstanding the awareness that they were producing addiction and serious physical injury.

12:53That's the plaintiff's argument in both cases. Our North America tech correspondent, Lily Jamali, told me more. It is a fascinating case and one that really could set a whole new set of legal precedents for these companies. Why did TikTok and Snapchat settle? Possibly because they don't want their executives to have to testify. You know, when Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc, reached this settlement, we don't have the details of this, of their deal with the plaintiff, KGM, who you noted. But when they settled last week, it was, you know, immediately clear someone who was set to take the stand, CEO Evan Spiegel, was no longer going to have to do that.

13:34And that's what we're seeing with TikTok now as well. Meta and YouTube, the remaining defendants in this case, they have very deep pockets. Remember, YouTube is owned by the same company that owns Google. And at least for now, they are making really posturing in the way to send the message that they are going to fight these allegations to the end. They say they strongly disagree with the allegations and that they're confident in their cases, Meta does. And what do you think is at stake for tech companies here? Well, you know, first of all, just kind of looking at the historic nature of these cases, the trial that starts today involving KGM in Los Angeles is from what her lawyer told us last week, the first time that a jury will have the opportunity to hold social media companies to account in a court of law anywhere in the world.

14:28That is a very big deal. And I mentioned the legal landscape. You know, this could potentially have cataclysmic impact on the way that these companies comport themselves in the American legal system. For years, they've used this 26 word legal provision that was enacted 30 years ago before there was social media. It's called Section 230 in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. And they say that that law basically protects them from legal liability for what anyone posts to their platform. And they've actually had a lot of success, you know, wielding that provision in the courts. This case focuses on not what their users say, but the way the companies design their platforms, design the algorithms and notifications in a way that plaintiffs allege keep users scrolling, sometimes for very long periods of time.

15:21Lily Jamali, one of the world's leading technology bosses has warned there could be carnage along the way if the bubble in the price of AI shares bursts. The chief executive of Cisco, Chuck Robbins, has told the BBC that while some companies won't survive, artificial intelligence will be bigger than the internet. Cisco, which provides much of the network infrastructure underpinning both the internet and AI data centres, weathered the original internet crash 25 years ago. Our economics editor, Faisal Islam, reports. Cisco is one of the world's leading technology companies behind some of the critical IT infrastructure enabling the day-to-day use of AI.

16:04It was hit when the original dot-com bubble burst in 2000 but survived and thrived after losing 80 % of its value. Now its boss, Chuck Robbins, confidant of President Trump, says while AI technology is unstoppable, there may be some financial turbulence ahead. Every major technology revolution that we see feels like hype to begin with, right? And there's been a lot of discussion about is this a bubble? And the answer is probably yes. But we had a bubble in 2000 with the internet and look at where we are today. So the winners emerge and there's carnage along the way, but it is going to be bigger than the internet.

16:40Mr. Robbins said some jobs were already being eliminated by AI, particularly in areas like customer services, where he said companies would need fewer people. but he urged people not to be afraid of the technology and embrace it in their lives. An area of key concern, he said, was in online security, with cyber attacks and scams becoming more convincing and likely to become even more high-tech because of the incredible power of quantum computers, he said. Chuck Robbins also chairs a key group of American chief executives. He acknowledged that they had some concerns about recent geopolitical and trade instability, saying they didn't always agree with President Trump, but at least we have the dialogue.

17:22That was Faisal Islam. And for more on one of today's big stories, you can go on YouTube, search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose podcasts and Global News Podcast. There's a news story available every weekday. Still to come in this podcast, if a pro tennis player wants to go to a private place and smash up their own racket. Is it any of our business? I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn't broadcast it, but obviously they did. So yeah, maybe some conversations we can be had because I feel like at this tournament, the only private place we have is the locker room.

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19:33If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the Apartment Bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

20:31They're built to last. Find out more at polandyourplacetogrow.com. The world is on the brink. Wars, contentious elections, disinformation spreading at warp speed, and Donald Trump at the center of all of it. But what does it mean for the rest of us? Every week on Pots of the World, Tommy Vitor and I cut through the noise to explain how global power is shifting. No jargon, no homework, just clear, honest conversations about what's happening and why it matters. From breaking news to long-simmering international conflicts, We dissect it all with critical analysis and some jokes that will surely embarrass our children one day.

21:05Tune in to Pod Save the World every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts or catch it on YouTube.

21:13This is the Global News Podcast. Despite the shudderingly cold weather, the war in Ukraine continues. President Zelensky says four people have been killed and four others are missing after Russian drones attacked a passenger train in the east of the country. Our correspondent Sarah Rainsford sent this report from the capital, Kiev. The train was travelling east towards the Donbass region when two drones struck near the rails, then a third drone hit a carriage directly, setting it on fire. Images from the scene show it smashed and in flames, and a soldier helping a group of passengers to safety from further down the train.

21:50They include a woman in floods of tears with a tiny baby in a carry cot. This route is used by local residents, as well as soldiers heading home on leave from the front lines or their wives and girlfriends travelling east to see them. Ukraine's railways were always thought relatively safe, even in this all-out war, but not anymore. Vladimir Zelensky is calling this drone attack an act of terrorism by Russia, for which he says there can be no military justification. Several people are still missing, and rescuers say DNA tests will be needed to identify the victim's remains. Sarah Rainsford. Given the Russian army's failure to make any significant progress on the battlefield, military planners in Moscow have been targeting Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

22:38Vitaly Shevchenko explains how buildings that were constructed in Soviet times are making it easier for Russia to hit Ukrainian apartment blocks. And a warning, his report starts with the sound of an air raid siren from a war zone.

22:55Ukraine is now living through the most difficult winter in recent memory. As temperatures plummeted below minus 15 degrees Celsius, Russia has been attacking energy infrastructure. The capital, Kiev, is the main target of such attacks, which have left hundreds of thousands of people without heating. Margarita Marenko is one of them. In some really cold nights that I spent in my apartment under like three blankets and sleeping in my winter cloak, I could see my breath evaporating because the temperature was so cold that you could see steam coming out of your mouth. What is making things much worse for people like Marharita and easier for the Russian military is the widespread prevalence of apartment blocks which rely on communal central heating, where water is heated up elsewhere and then pumped into their radiators.

23:53This is the result of how cities were built across the Soviet Union, including in Ukraine. The focus of huge construction programmes back then was on cheap, mass-produced housing. Look at any city in the USSR and its landscape will probably be dominated by ubiquitous nine-storey residential buildings made out of prefabricated concrete panels, known as panelki, or smaller five-storey blocks of flats, known as khrushchevki, after Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who oversaw their construction in the 1950s and 60s.

24:33They all need heating to be supplied from outside. Heating plants, known as TETs in Ukraine, are huge, and when they're targeted by Russia, this affects many thousands. The authorities say that all such power plants have now been hit. Yuri Korolchuk is a Ukrainian energy expert.

24:56Ukraine inherited the Soviet heating system, and it hasn't changed anything. It stays predominantly centralized. These heating plants were not designed to be attacked with missiles or drones. That's why these vulnerabilities came to the fore during the war. During the previous winters, there were no such strikes against the heating system. They happened only occasionally, and they didn't directly target heating plants. For security reasons, Kyiv's local power company will not say exactly how many residents rely on communal heating. In the frontline city of Zaporizhia, it's almost three quarters.

25:35The Ukrainian government is acutely aware of this vulnerability, but undoing decades of Soviet urban planning will not be quick or easy. Vitaly Shevchenko, to Saudi Arabia now, where the construction in the capital of a huge skyscraper, large enough to contain 20 of New York's Empire State Building, has been suspended. The future is unclear, with the building's financing and feasibility being reassessed. The project was part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030, a framework he launched to diversify the country's economy away from oil. But some projects have been postponed, including the hosting of the 2029 Asian Winter Games.