US shelves plan for Trump-Putin talks

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1:29If 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 Wednesday, the 22nd of October, these are our main stories.

2:18Donald Trump puts on hold a plan for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, saying he doesn't want a wasted meeting. In Colombia, a high court has overturned criminal convictions against the former president, Alvaro Uribe. Also in this podcast, the young socialist who's leading the race to be New York City's new mayor. If New York truly is the city that never sleeps, we deserve a mayor who fights for those of us who labour at every single hour of the day. how a new AI-powered web browser says it will use the internet for you, and the German man who stumbled across a life-changing family secret after watching a documentary about the Nazis.

3:10First, talks between President Trump and Vladimir Putin were penciled in for next month in Budapest, raising hopes the Russian president might be ready to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. But those talks have now been put on hold, with Mr Trump saying he doesn't want a wasted meeting with the Russian leader. Mr Trump implied that a refusal to freeze the fighting in Ukraine along current battle lines was a sticking point. His comments came after a phone call between the US Secretary of State and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who rejected the proposal outright. right.

3:48Now, when we hear from Washington that we must stop immediately and that we must not discuss anything further, stop and let history judge, if we simply stop, that will mean forgetting about the root causes of the conflict, which Donald Trump's administration has clearly understood and voiced. Our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman has more. After a two-and-a-half-hour phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin last week, Mr Trump announced there would be this summit between the two leaders in Hungary, planned it was thought for the next fortnight or so. Now, since then, there have been at least two phone calls between Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State in this building, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, in which these issues have been thrashed out.

4:33And notably, the Russians sent a diplomatic note to the Americans at the weekend, basically sticking to all their long-term positions on the war, saying that they demanded the whole of the Donbass in the east and even more territory than they currently occupy. This is, in effect, a rejection of Mr Trump's position. He said he wants a ceasefire, a freezing of the current battle lines in Ukraine. Now, an administration official telling me that there are now no plans for a summit between Presidents Trump and Putin in Hungary in the immediate future. Mr Trump confirming that news. I don't want to have a waste of time, so I'll see what happens.

5:10But we did all of these great deals, great peace deals. They're all peace deals. They're agreements, solid agreements, every one of them. But this one, and I said, go to the line, go to the line of battle, the battlefield lines. And you pull back and you go home and everybody takes some time off because you got two countries that are killing each other. The two countries are losing 5 ,000 to 7 ,000 soldiers a week. So we'll see what happens. Well, this would have been the second such summit between the leaders after that meeting in Alaska back in August. They did little, really, to drive forward President Trump's hopes for an immediate end to this war.

5:51And it feels like we're returning to a familiar pattern where Mr Trump has issued threats to Moscow, including toying with the idea of giving the Ukrainians Tomahawk missiles, only to withdraw from that position. And the Kremlin have learned that and in the meantime have arguably felt it more effective to play for time. And I think Mr Rubio is an element here, much more hawkish on Russia than Mr Trump traditionally. His involvement in this seems to have been part of the reason why the Americans now apparently don't want to reward Mr Putin with a second summit. Tom Bateman. While President Trump has turned his attention to Ukraine, his vice president has travelled to Israel.

6:30J.D. Vance says he's optimistic the Gaza peace plan will work, despite the killing of dozens of Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers on Sunday. He also said the return of dead Israeli hostages by Hamas would not happen overnight, as some bodies were still under the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel. The World Food Programme says it's been unable to deliver substantial supplies to northern Gaza because the border crossings into the area remain closed. Our correspondent Lucy Williamson filed this report from Jerusalem. Speaking to media, in a cavernous concrete hangar laid with AstroTurf, the US Vice President delivered an upbeat message at a critical time for Donald Trump's peace deal.

7:12The choice of venue, a new US-led coordination centre for the foreign forces meant to secure Gaza in the next stage of the deal, was meant as a sign that the deal was moving forward. J.D. Vance said he had real optimism the ceasefire would hold, despite it briefly fracturing two days ago, but that it would take constant effort, monitoring and supervision. Every time that there's an act of violence, there's this inclination to say, oh, this is the end of the ceasefire, this is the end of the peace plan. It's not the end. It is, in fact, exactly how this is going to have to happen when you have people who hate each other, who have been fighting against each other for a very long time.

7:51We are doing very well. We are in a very good place. We're going to have to keep working on it. Both Israel and Hamas have reaped rewards from phase one of the deal. Phase two requires them to make tough concessions, including giving up their respective control in Gaza. Mr Vance said the U.S. did not have an explicit deadline for Hamas to disarm, but that if the group did not comply, very bad things would happen. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that any violation by Hamas, including a failure to disarm, would allow Israel to return to the war. The US has so far shown more tolerance for hiccups and delays, and several Israeli commentators have pointed out that the real decisions over Israel's military action in Gaza are now being made in Washington.

8:40That was Lucy Williamson in Jerusalem. New York City is two weeks away from choosing a new mayor and a 33-year-old socialist is leading the race. If elected, Zoran Mandani would make history and possibly shake the very foundations of America's financial capital. Our North America business correspondent, Michelle Fleury, reports from Wall Street. If New York truly is the city that never sleeps, We deserve a mayor who fights for those of us who labour at every single hour of the day. He's young. He's bold. I will be that mayor. And he wants to tax the rich. Zoran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and son of immigrants, shocked New York's political establishment earlier this year with a surprise primary win.

9:31Now he's leading the race to run America's biggest city. I think he'll be a good change for the city. I think this is what we honestly needed. You know, I think a lot of people have felt very invisible for a long time, and like especially by politicians and government. Mamdani wants to freeze rents, make public transport free, and open subsidised grocery stores. He says the wealthy can pay for it. New York City deserves better than yet another mayor bought by billionaires. Delivering on that agenda, though, won't be easy. I'm in Lower Manhattan staring at the elegant steps of City Hall, the building that houses the mayor's office.

10:09Now, most of the city's tax powers don't actually lie here. They lie with the state government in Albany. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has said she won't support any new taxes, although she has endorsed Mamdani. I've made it very clear that we have differences, but I also believe that he brings a sense of optimism and the can-do spirit. Still, Mamdani's rise is unsettling the city's corporate class. Economist Steve Moore at the Heritage Foundation, who served as an economic advisor to the Trump administration, warns of economic fallout. It's the home of Wall Street. It is the financial capital of the world.

10:48And I do believe that if Mandani wins this race with his kind of socialist soak the rich agenda, that Wall Street will no longer be located in Manhattan. The problem is the rich keep leaving. And that means, you know, if a billionaire moves out of New York, you don't get money, any money out of them because now they're paying taxes in some other state. And the timing couldn't be worse. Texas now has more finance and banking workers than New York, a first. The city that once defined global finance is losing ground. That's why Mamdani is racing to win over big business. With less than a month to go, he met behind closed doors with top CEOs.

11:33In general, I think it was positive. Catherine Wilde was there. She runs the Partnership for New York, a group representing New York's corporate elite. He did a good job of convincing the business leaders that he wants to listen to them, get their ideas, have their help. He is not going to make ideological, narrow political appointments. So I think that was very reassuring. I absolutely think there's total agreement on affordability, financial insecurity being the issue that is really dividing America, whether it's on the right or the left. I don't think that the business community is aligned with some of the ways that Mamdani wants to address that issue, but I think they totally agree it's the issue that must be addressed.

12:30For now, Mamdani is well ahead of rivals Republican Curtis Sliwa and Independent Andrew Cuomo, the former governor. If elected, Mamdani would be New York's first Muslim mayor, its youngest in decades, and the first major left-wing figure to rise during Trump's second term. Whether he's the future of the Democratic Party or just a flash in the political pan remains to be seen. Michelle Fleury. The tech company OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser that promises to use the internet for you. The company said Atlas will look and feel like an existing browser, but is built around a chatbot.

13:13So how will it work? Earlier, I spoke to our technology correspondent, Lily Jamali. Well, for one thing, Atlas does away with the way most of us use browsers and search bars. It does away with a traditional bar that you see, that address bar. So when you open up a new tab in this browser that they're releasing, it takes you straight to ChatGPT and you can start engaging with the chatbot there. You also would type web addresses that you're looking to visit in this chat, you know, this ongoing chat with the chatbot. The agent feature, this thing called agent mode, actually does the searching for you on its own, basing what it does on context that it's gathered about, what you might want or need from various services.

13:57And OpenAI has already been trying to insinuate itself into our everyday lives, into our shopping habits, I've noticed, especially these last few weeks. We saw an announcement about this at its developer day earlier this month. They are trying not just to make revenue, but to turn a profit, which they never have. So presumably they're hoping Atlas will kill not just the browser, but the search engine as we know it. I was going to say, because a lot of people will be wedded to Google Chrome. That's the most popular browser. And ChatGPT are going to be wanting to compete with that. Yeah. And I asked analyst Patrick Moorhead about this.

14:33He said he thinks that users are actually going to be pretty interested in playing with Atlas and trying it out. But he's not so sure that users will stick with it. And I think that's an important distinction. Old habits die hard, as you just sort of alluded to there. For people who came up Googling everything, or maybe they're using Microsoft Edge or Apple Safari now, they might still prefer those more traditional methods of searching the internet. And he says there are some functionalities that ChatGPT is offering here that you can kind of get on some of those competitors already. And I guess it's a trust thing as well about AI, and it can get things wrong, can't it?

15:10It can get things wrong. And I have to say, just stepping back for a moment, one of the criticisms of OpenAI and some of these other AI developers is that they just throw these tools out at all of us and then say, use them and tell us how it goes. What are you interested in? And that can be very innovative and fun and create new maybe use cases that they hadn't thought of internally. But on the other hand, we saw what happened with social media, right? And already chatbots have found themselves at the center of this conversation about mental health, about how children should and shouldn't use them.

15:44And I'm not saying that will be a huge issue with this particular product, but more because there's just this known unknown out there. OpenAI is very comfortable throwing these things out to us and seeing what they do. Sometimes it goes well, others not so much. Lily Jamali, Iceland's frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes making the country's first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and until recently Iceland.

16:23Rory Gallimore reports. Iceland has no shortage of natural dangers, volcanic eruptions, glacial floods, scaldingly hot springs and bitterly cold winters. But it is at least one of the few places on Earth where humans don't have to worry about mosquitoes. Until now. Two females and a male have been caught on a sticky trap used to attract moths. They're a species that's resistant to the cold. It isn't clear how many other mosquitoes are in Iceland or exactly how they got there. One scientist said he did not believe their arrival was linked to climate change and suggested they could have been stowaways on a ship.

16:59That was Rory Gallimore. Still to come. We will pay a reward to somebody who's not connected to the theft, But there are people out there in the art recovery world who consistently pay thieves, and we refuse to do that. I'm a lawyer. How the stolen jewels from the Louvre might be recovered.

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19:22If 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 advertisement feature is paid and presented by Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Looking for the perfect place to grow your business?

20:03For over 30 years, Poland has been a launchpad for innovation at the heart of Europe, powered by world-class research and ambitious young talent. From bold startups to established powerhouses, Poland offers the momentum, resources and reliability you need to take your business further. Poland, where businesses don't just grow, they're built to last. Find out more at polandyourplacetogrow.com Are we living in a new world of strength, power and force? Well, that's what President Trump's advisor Stephen Miller says. The recent U.S. intervention in Venezuela suggests we may be moving into a new world order.

20:39So every day this week, the Global Story is joining forces with our BBC podcast friends around the world who have unmatched reporting expertise in their regions. What is a sphere of influence? Who's got one? And if you're not a predator these days, does that mean you're a prey? Listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

21:07A court in Colombia has overturned two convictions against the former president, Alvaro Uribe, which could have resulted in him spending 12 years under house arrest. While he was in office between 2002 and 2010, he led a military campaign against drug cartels and left-wing guerrilla groups. But he was also accused of having links with right-wing paramilitaries. In August, he was found guilty of fraud and bribing those groups, something he'd always denied. Now the High Court in Bogota found the original ruling contained errors and wasn't proven beyond all reasonable doubt. Our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby told me more about the case.

21:45This is a case that has shaken Colombia with its twists and turns for 113 years now, but it's been resolved in record time on an appeal. But this first sentencing was the first time a former Colombian president has been convicted in a criminal trial. And the case really revolved around allegations that Mr. Urubay was ordering or had ordered a lawyer to bribe jailed paramilitaries to discredit claims that he was organised with these groups. And these are right-wing groups who are responsible for massacres, for thousands of displacements and disappearances, as well as really awful atrocities during Colombia's armed conflicts.

22:25And these paramilitaries, according to truth commissions, are responsible for nearly half of the more than 450 ,000 people who were killed from 1985 to 2018. So a huge amount of people who were affected by this conflict and the court had claimed that Mr Roubaix had played a major part in that. And so why was his conviction overturned then? Bogota's high court overturned both convictions today against Mr Roubaix basically because they said that they couldn't find proper evidence showing that there was bribery involved and that fraud had occurred. There had been a mic tapping which highlighted that Mr Roubaix had basically told the lawyer to go and bribe these paramilitary individuals who'd been jailed.

23:14But that was deemed an invasion of privacy. So these weren't used in the court. These were kind of thrown out. But the main point was that the evidence wasn't concrete enough to sentence Arrube for 12 years of house arrest. And I imagine there's been quite a bit of reaction to this inside Colombia. It has. Many Colombians are incredibly confused. This case has been going on for many, many years now. And they're confused how the same court essentially has gone back on itself and undone all the kind of really groundbreaking sentences and rulings that had already put in place. However, Mr. Urubay has said this is a win.

23:53He has called it a political persecution. This is alongside the US's top diplomat Marco Rubio, who's said that Urubay was a victim of the weaponization of Colombian judges. On the flip side, you have the left-wing president, the current president, Gustavo Petro, who said that history is repeating itself and has really said this ruling covers up the country's paramilitary governance, its history of paramilitary governance. He's also added that now Mr. Trump, alongside his right-wing ally, Mr. Aroube, is going to seek sanctions on him. So he's come out and really denounced this ruling, saying that it goes against the Supreme Court and he is not in favour of it, like many Colombians he believes, around the country.

24:35Mimi Swaby. Now to a story of a German man who stumbled across a life-changing family secret after watching a documentary about Nazis. Despite what he'd been told by relatives, he was closely related to one of the Third Reich's most feared leaders, one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Stephanie Prentiss explains. Henrik Lenkite lives in Spain with his wife, working as a pastor and part-time couples counsellor. And one quiet evening, he ended up researching one of the most famous Nazis in history. I saw Heinrich Himmler had his wife, and then I saw he had an affair. In this affair, I've seen the picture of this lady, and this is my grandmother, and I saw her name, Heydrich, but she had a different surname.

25:21So first I went to my wife and I said to her, is that my grandmother? And she said, yeah, that's her. And we compared it with an album we had. And then later on, I saw they had two children. And I see the name of my uncle. And I see the name of my mother. And then I go to my wife again. Am I the grandson of this guy? Himmler's mistress bore a resemblance to his grandmother and shared the same date of birth and death. She'd remarried after the end of the Second World War, covering the tracks of his heritage. He later found a birth certificate formally linking the former SS leader who orchestrated Nazi Germany's concentration camps to his mother and says that was the death of his former identity.