--:-- Erin Andrews: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hey guys, it's Erin Andrews from Calm Down with Erin and Carissa. So when the pressure's on, you remember the people who helped you get this far, whose knowledge guided you and whose care kept you grounded. For me, it was my dad, my mentor, who believed in me when I was just getting started in journalism. A real-life example that showed me when you work with someone who knows a lot and cares even more, you're unstoppable. At Truist, that's exactly how they approach banking. Truist, leaders in banking, unwavering in care. See what knowledge and care can do for you at truest.com slash unstoppable. Truist, member FDIC, leading based on top 10 commercial bank.
--:-- Lunchbox: Hey, it's Lunchbox from the Bobby Bones Show. Toyota is moving toward a more sustainable future by giving you the freedom to choose from a full lineup of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, regular gas and 100% electric vehicles. So pick from stylish cars like the Camry, Corolla and Prius, as well as efficient and spacious SUVs like the RAV4 and Grand Highlander, all backed by Toyota's reputation for reliability. In fact, for 2025, Toyota is the best resale value brand for the fifth year in a row, according to Kelly Blue Books, KBB.com. So smart buy today can mean higher trade-in values tomorrow. With Toyota, you have more choices and less compromise. Visit buyatoyota.com for a great deal on an efficient Toyota today. Vehicle's projected resale value is specific to the 2025 model year. For more information, visit kellybluebookskbb.com. Toyota, let's go places.
--:-- Ankur Desai: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Ankur Desai and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 11th of November, these are our top stories. The U.S. says Syria is joining the international coalition to defeat Islamic State jihadists and is resuming diplomatic relations with Washington. It follows talks at the White House between Donald Trump and the Syrian President Ahmed Al-Shara.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The U.S. Senate has voted in favor of a compromise funding package to try to end the government shutdown.
--:-- Ankur Desai: And also coming up in this podcast the UK's top literary award is handed out once it had got some momentum and I felt that it was going to be good then it became a pleasurable process to write it but at the beginning was tough we hear from the British Hungarian author David Saloy who won the Booker Prize
--:-- Ankur Desai: The US has recruited a new member to its alliance of countries fighting the Islamic state group in the Middle East. Officials in Washington say Syria has joined the coalition after its president, Ahmed al-Shara, met Donald Trump at the White House. The two countries have also resumed diplomatic relations. Mr. al-Shara is himself a former Islamist extremist with ties to al-Qaeda. But last year, he led the overthrow of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and became the head of the new government.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Since then, he's been trying to build bridges with the West, promising to bring stability to Syria. On Monday, Mr Al-Shara arrived at the White House without fanfare, entering through a side door. Afterwards, Mr Trump said he liked and got along with him.
--:-- Ankur Desai: We want to see Syria become a country that's very successful and I think this leader can do it. I really do. I think this leader can do it. And people said he's had a rough past. We've all had rough pasts, but he has had a rough past and I think, frankly, if you didn't have a rough past, you wouldn't have a chance.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Later in an interview with Fox News, President Al-Shara was asked whether his past as an extremist had come up during the meeting with President Trump.
--:-- Ankur Desai: I think this is a matter of the past. Now, we did not discuss this actively. We talked about the investment opportunities in the future in Syria. And so that Syria is no longer looked at as a security threat. It is now looked at as a geopolitical ally. It's a place where the United States can have great investments, especially extracting gas.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman told me more about the White House meeting.
--:-- Tom Bateman: I think my sense was that the White House really wanted to work through these two kind of critical issues for either side. One for the Syrians is about getting more sanctions relief because Syria still has a devastated, basically cash-based economy. And they need the US Congress to lift the sanctions that were imposed on the Assad regime for its human rights abuses.
--:-- Tom Bateman: And for the Americans, they wanted an agreement from the new leaders in Damascus that they will join the American-led military coalition, which is still fighting the Islamic State group in parts of the country.
--:-- Tom Bateman: It seems that Mr Al-Shara has been spending quite a large part of this year trying to build bridges with the West. So President Trump, did he seem receptive to this? And I guess there are still a lot of concerns about the ongoing violence in Syria, especially against ethnic minorities.
--:-- Tom Bateman: Yeah, you know, President Trump has embraced Mr. Al-Shara. I mean, he sort of repeated this phrase he used before after the meeting, where he described him as a strong leader from a tough place who had a rough past. We've all had rough pasts, though, he said.
--:-- Tom Bateman: He previously described him as an attractive guy. He sort of tends to admire what he calls toughness in leaders. And I think he sees that in Ahmed Al-Shara.
--:-- Tom Bateman: This was a man who led an al-Qaeda affiliate that has now been accepted by the West as the best hope for a stable transition for Syria, but a man who had a $10 million US bounty on his head, who was a designated global terrorist by Washington just until last Friday.
--:-- Tom Bateman: So there is this move by the Americans, by the West and key Arab countries to try to give this new transitional administration the best possible run trying to stabilise and secure Syria. But huge challenges, you know, not least of which are the risks of another slide into sectarian bloodshed.
--:-- Tom Bateman: We've seen two very severe moments, really, of attacks on the Alawite minority, also the Druze minority over the last year. And the issue of integrating the Kurds and the Kurdish security forces into the central Damascus government still hasn't been solved.
--:-- Ankur Desai: This goes to show that President Trump is willing to meet absolutely anyone. As you mentioned, this was a leader who had a bounty on his head a matter of days ago. There doesn't seem to be any boundaries as to who he'll meet and try to make deals with.
--:-- Tom Bateman: You know, this isn't exclusive to the Trump administration. I mean, the Biden administration were really on the front foot with trying to build relations when Hayat al-Sham, the group that he led, basically, you know, toppled the Assad regime and then took Damascus.
--:-- Tom Bateman: So, you know, this was across US administrations, although I think stylistically, Mr. Trump is, you know, he tends to embrace it. But so have European countries and key Arab allies of the Europeans and the Americans on this particular front.
--:-- Tom Bateman: But I think the question then becomes how long that can be kept going, particularly among the Europeans where they've talked about the fundamental need for inclusive representative government from Damascus. And there are signs that that is not really happening or not in the way I think that many would have hoped.
--:-- Tom Bateman: You know, stability may always come at a cost in these situations in transitioning out of a devastating 14 year civil war. So I think there's a recognition of that by Washington and particularly by the Trump administration that perhaps some of the more ambitious stuff around solving sectarian divisions and tensions in Syria might be harder to achieve.
--:-- Tom Bateman: Mr. Trump tends to admire a strong man and the White House might think that's what's needed at the moment. The risks of a slide back into despotism, into sectarian bloodshed remain very high in Syria. And how you prevent that, of course, will be an acute question going forward.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Politicians in Washington are a step closer to ending the longest U.S. government shutdown in the history of the United States after senators voted in favor of a compromise.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Republicans got the 60 votes they needed to pass a measure to reopen the government after several Democrats voted with them. Now it will go to the House of Representatives, possibly on Wednesday to adopt this deal It will then be sent to President Trump to be signed
--:-- John Thune: I want to take the time to say thank you to my staff who have worked around the clock tirelessly now for the past six weeks. I know that the strain of these weeks has been immense. You all have families, rent to meet, bills to pay, car and mortgage payments. and I'm grateful for all you have done to keep the Senate running.
--:-- John Thune: And for all that you do every day, shut down or no shutdown, to serve the Senate and to serve our country.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The shutdown, which lasted 41 days, left government services suspended. Several Democrats broke ranks, angering many of their colleagues who labelled the move a betrayal.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Some Democrats have called for the removal of the party's leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.
--:-- David Willis: Democrats, of course, had been holding out for an extension of health care subsidies for low income Americans. Those subsidies are due to come to an end at the end of this year. But Republicans had insisted that they were not going to engage on that issue until the shutdown was over.
--:-- David Willis: And all the Democrats ended up with out of this really, Anko, was a commitment from the Senate Majority Leader John Thune to hold a vote on that matter about possible extension to the health care subsidies I mentioned by mid-December.
--:-- David Willis: There's no guarantee that the House would vote on any such measure. And that's infuriated members of the Democratic Party who did not want to see an end to this shutdown just yet and were making that a condition.
--:-- David Willis: And they've accused their colleagues, the eight Democrats who voted in favor of betrayal, of surrender. And it's prompted calls once again, as you mentioned, for the removal of the party's leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, for failing to keep his caucus together, even though it's worth pointing out that Mr Schumer voted against the shutdown ending deal that was voted on successfully tonight.
--:-- David Willis: And many Democrats saw last week's election victories, I think, as a validation of their shutdown strategy and did not want to capitulate.
--:-- David Willis: Is there anything that could get in the way, David, of finally ending the shutdown then?
--:-- David Willis: Well, we've seen during these 41 days cutbacks in food aid programs, more than a million government employees working without pay and thousands of flight delays or cancellations. and that's one thing that could get in the way of this move now going before the House of Representatives.
--:-- David Willis: Flight delays that have resulted from thousands of air traffic controllers staying at home because they are not being paid could impede some lawmakers from returning to the capital, to Washington, D.C., from their districts.
--:-- David Willis: They've been out of session for more than 50 days, the House having been closed throughout the shutdown, but they need to get back to Washington, D.C. in order, it's thought, to vote in favour of this measure, which would then go to the desk of President Trump ahead of paving the way for the shutdown to end next weekend.
--:-- David Willis: And before you go, David, this shutdown's lasted up to 41 days now. How has this affected the lives of American citizens day to day?
--:-- David Willis: Oh, it's had a tremendous effect. I mentioned their cutbacks in food aid programs, what are known as food stamps here, for about 42 million or so low-income Americans who rely on those handouts.
--:-- David Willis: I mentioned the thousands of flight delays and cancellations, and we've had more than a million government employees working without pay throughout this long 41 days stoppage.
--:-- David Willis: And it's been very, very harmful to certain sectors of the economy. And much relief will be expressed, I think, when this shutdown does finally come to an end.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Indian capital Delhi has been put on high alert following Monday's huge blast in a car near the historic Red Fort. At least eight people were killed and 20 others were injured in the blast on a crowded road.
--:-- Archana Shukla: Investigation into what caused it is still ongoing. So far, investigative agencies have not said whether it was a deliberate blast or if they have identified a suspect.
--:-- Archana Shukla: We understand that the senior security officials are going to have a meeting in just some time from now, and more details may emerge post that.
--:-- Archana Shukla: But, you know, this is something that has really shook the city, it shook the country. A blast of this nature has not happened in the capital city in many years.
--:-- Archana Shukla: And this is a very, very famous site. It's a very crowded street. The Red Fort is the 17th century fortress where Indian prime ministers deliver their independent speech every year.
--:-- Archana Shukla: And the street is usually very busy with tourists, people, traders, etc. And in the evening, it was the time when people were going back home.
--:-- Archana Shukla: And the impact was so high that people said that they could hear it at least a kilometer or two away.
--:-- Archana Shukla: And the remains, the charred remains of the vehicles here show the impact of that place.
--:-- Archana Shukla: The security agencies have said, and even the Home Minister here in India have said, they're not ruling out any possibilities. They are looking at all angles in the investigation.
--:-- Archana Shukla: It's the anti-terror team that's also on the ground, security agencies, forensic, and all hands are on the ground.
--:-- Archana Shukla: Red alert and high alert has been put across the capital city here, also in Mumbai and some of the big tourist places across India.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Now to the UK's top literary war that is open to novels written in the English language. This year's Booker Prize has gone to David Sloy for his novel Flesh.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: So what's Flesh all about?
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: David Sloy is a British-Hungarian author, so his father is Hungarian, and that's why he decided to set some of this book, Flesh, in Hungary.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: And it's a really interesting story about this character called Ishvan and Ishvan doesn't really say much in the book and things happen to him and he doesn't really ever mention it, like huge things.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: So the reader is left guessing what he thinks about things and sometimes you think, is this man totally passive? Does he have opinions on anything?
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: But I would say it is an absolutely brilliant read and it's a story as well about masculinity, what it means to be a man also class and wealth it's absolutely fascinating and it's one of those books I started reading it and I thought I do not like this character by the end of it I was totally absorbed and I wanted him to win I was really invested in him winning in this book so I'd say it's definitely a very worthy winner you know the shortlist was brilliant there were some fantastic authors in there but I think Flesh was an incredible book.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: I spoke to David just after he won and he was feeling a little bit stunned. I wasn't really sure how the book would be received I guess I didn't really have a very strong expectation for how the book would be received it's quite it is quite an oblique book in a way it doesn't sort of tell the reader how to interpret it Istran himself is not an articulate character who explains himself to the reader so I kind of knew what I was trying to do with the book but I wasn't at all sure until the book was published and sort of started being read, that that would be how readers perceived it too.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: But by and large, I think it is, which is really fantastic. And have you thought about what you're going to spend the £50,000 on?
--:-- David Szalay: Last year they sent a bicycle. That's a very expensive bicycle.
--:-- David Szalay: Yeah, that's what I said, a very expensive bicycle. I probably won't spend it all on one thing. I will probably, maybe we'll go on a nice little holiday, but mostly I guess it will just be keeping the wolf a little further from the door
--:-- David Szalay: And you said you started this after you finished another novel and then you started this novel So was that pressure kind of on you that you were going to need to finish this?
--:-- David Szalay: Yeah I mean there was a real pressure I think I felt more pressure than any other time in my career as a writer. Pressure to write something good, and to write something good now.
--:-- David Szalay: And that made it quite tough at the beginning, working on this book. Once it had sort of got going, once it had got some momentum, and I felt that it was going to be good and then it became a pleasurable process to write it but at the beginning it was a tough one.
--:-- Charlotte Gallagher: I know your Wikipedia has already been updated to Booker Prize winning novels. That is fast.
--:-- David Szalay: Yeah, someone was watching and they've updated it already so that's what you now are, Booker Prize winning author. I still haven't quite got my head around it but it's great, of course.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Also, personally, I really need to know from you, SJP, Sarah Jessica Parker, a.k.a. Carrie Bradshaw also they're bringing a touch of glamour. Tell me more.
--:-- Sarah Jessica Parker: So she was. So she was one of the judges this year. And we spoke to her on the red carpet and she said she was just thrilled to be asked.
--:-- Sarah Jessica Parker: She said it's this prestigious literary award. She's known about it her whole life. She loves reading. She says she can't stop reading. So she was so excited to be one of the judges.
--:-- Sarah Jessica Parker: And of course, as you said, Anka, she did just bring this Hollywood sparkle to the Booker Prize. I mean, she looked amazing. She looked fantastic. She had this gorgeous handbag that seemingly was covered in diamonds.
--:-- Sarah Jessica Parker: But you could really tell as well that she was invested in the prize and who won. And I said, you know, when you read these books, do you think, oh, I want to make this into a film? I want to make this into a TV series, a play.
--:-- Sarah Jessica Parker: And she said, no, I just read for the absolute love of reading. And you could tell that she was just really genuinely happy to be here.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Coming up, a Chinese woman will be sentenced for her role in a Bitcoin scam worth billions of dollars.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Many families have been broken up. People have been left without money to pay for medical treatments. All this has really happened.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: In this promotional video, Lan Tian Ge Rui makes big promises. Invest in its cryptocurrency and you'll get massive returns.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: The mastermind of the scheme was a middle-aged woman called Qian Zhimin, more than 100,000 people across China invested.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: A man we are calling Yu, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, took out loans and invested everything into the company.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: I suppose we were just too weak to resist. They just pumped up our dreams, until we lost all self-control, all critical judgment.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: For a while, he was getting daily returns. But then, in 2017, it all came crashing down.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: Law enforcement now say the whole thing was a massive scam.
--:-- Tian Ji Min: Yu's marriage collapsed and he found himself mired in debt. Many families have been broken up. People have been left without money to pay for medical treatments. All this has really happened.
--:-- Ankur Desai: When Chinese police started investigating Qian Zhimian, she fled China for the UK, taking with her a laptop loaded with Bitcoin bought with investors' money.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Posing as a jewelry dealer, she started trying to turn her cryptocurrency into hard cash and real estate.
--:-- Ankur Desai: When she tried to buy a lavish home in North London, she came to the attention of the UK police.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The moment they raided her house is captured in this body cam footage.
--:-- Detective Constable Joe Ryan: Hello, madam. I appreciate you're in bed. I've just got to record down your name. if that is all right. So what's your first name, please?
--:-- Tian Ji Min: The whole house, a very large house, fairly messy, and there was cash almost everywhere. Thousands of pounds, bundles of £20,000 here. As well as cash, DC Ryan and his team found laptops full of cryptocurrency that amounted to 61,000 Bitcoin, today worth several billion dollars, the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A UK court is now deciding who will get that money. But only a small fraction of the victims have stepped forward to make a claim.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A Chinese lawyer representing victims told us that many have struggled to gather evidence sufficient to meet the legal standard in the UK.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Crown Prosecution Service is in the process of setting up a separate compensation mechanism. But the details are still unclear.
--:-- Ankur Desai: You and the other former investors are watching closely. We all read Sherlock Holmes books when we were younger. And in our minds, that's still the image of the real detective. To find all this Bitcoin. Of course, we're very grateful. Here in China, we hope that we can get the capital returned to us. That's our great hope.
--:-- Ankur Desai: To be able to save the victims of Lantian Giri, who are struggling and suffering, even to save their lives. What a noble act that would be.
--:-- Ankur Desai: And if you'd like to hear more, please search for the Chinese Crypto Queen. You can find that on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your BBC podcasts from.
--:-- Ankur Desai: It's 100 years since the birth of Richard Burton, the son of a Welsh miner who rose to become acting royalty.
--:-- Ankur Desai: He starred in many films, including The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and of course Cleopatra, which is where he met Elizabeth Taylor, who he married twice.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Here he is reading the opening line of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood for the BBC in January 1954.
--:-- Ankur Desai: To begin at the beginning. It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and Bible black. The cobbled streets silent and the hunched quarters and rabbits wood limping invisible down to the slow black. Slow, black, crow black, fishing boat bobbing sea.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: I think a lot of a certain generation know about Richard Burton, but it's remarkable about my daughter, who's 18, had no idea who he was at all.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: You know, she thought I was talking about Tim Burton, the director of Wednesday. So for me, it was really important, and I felt that to celebrate his centenary, to get across the most remarkable story, I mean, very few actors have got a story like him.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: He comes from a mining background in Wales where acting was non-existent. That said, you know, he picked it up and had this remarkable rise. So I really wanted to get across the impact of how he'd come from where he did and achieved what he did.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: How do you approach a character like that and reflect all of the different facets of their personality? The contradictions within Burton are part of what makes him great in many ways.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: I mean, if you take a film like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, John Le Carrier, a novel that translated a few years after it was a bestseller into a movie with Burton, he's amazing in it because he really shows that there's something else going on inside him.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: You know, those contradictions are what make him fascinating. You know, once he rode to conquer Hollywood and become a very successful actor, he had to deal with the fact that he'd left behind who he was in a way, you know, his Welsh roots.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: And I think he was never at ease with that you know he was never at ease with the role of being an actor I think he would have preferred to being a writer he wrote some amazing diaries that were published after he he passed away.
--:-- Ankur Desai: And it's notable that you mentioned other Welsh actors. There are certain countries, certain parts of certain countries, where that becomes such a part, a vital part of a person's character.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: Yeah, well, he's a cultural icon in Wales. And he never left Wales in some ways. You know, he enjoyed the rugby, you know, he was always the one to back the Welsh side. He was a rugby player himself. He sort of was imbued with Welshness.
--:-- Ankur Desai: But at the same time, ironically, you know, his voice was English, you know, in order to succeed, he used this voice.
--:-- Adrian Sibley: And in some ways, that's true. His voice is just so powerful. powerful. You know, I wanted to make sure in the documentary, I didn't do loads of Welsh choirs singing along, you know, because it becomes a cliche because Burton was something else.
--:-- Ankur Desai: He really sort of, you know, managed to achieve great things, even with the issues of his drinking and his early death, really. You know, he's an Icarus figure, Burton. So brilliant. Came from Wales and suddenly was on the West End stage, selling out the old Vic as Hamlet and was remarkable.
--:-- Ankur Desai: So I was fascinated with what happened to him and finding out and it was a privilege to make a film about him
--:-- Ankur Desai: Anna Foster who is speaking to Adrian Sibley and that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later if you want to comment on this episode or the topics covered in it you can send us an email the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk you can also find us on x at bbc world service use the hashtag GlobalNewsPod.
--:-- Ankur Desai: This edition was mixed by Kai Perry and the producer was Ed Horton. The editor is Karen Martin. And I'm Anka Desai. Until next time, goodbye.
--:-- LeVar Arrington: The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are designed to outlast and outlive. backed by Toyota's legendary reputation for reliability. So get in a Tundra with the available iForce Max Hybrid engine, delivering exceptional torque and towing capacity. Or check out a Tacoma with available off-road features like crawl control. It can take you beyond the trails.
--:-- LeVar Arrington: Toyota trucks are built to last year after year, mile after mile. So don't wait. Get yours today. Visit buyatoyota.com for deals and more. Toyota, let's go places.
--:-- Erin Andrews: Hey guys, it's Erin Andrews from Calm Down with Erin and Carissa. So when the pressure's on, you remember the people who helped you get this far, whose knowledge guided you and whose care kept you grounded. For me, it was my dad, my mentor, who believed in me when I was just getting started in journalism.
--:-- Erin Andrews: A real-life example that showed me when you work with someone who knows a lot and cares even more, you're unstoppable. At Truist, that's exactly how they approach banking. Truist, leaders in banking, unwavering in care. See what knowledge and care can do for you at truest.com slash unstoppable. Truist, member FDIC, leading based on top 10 commercial bank.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Owning a home is full of surprises. Some wonderful, some not so much. And when something breaks, it can feel like the whole day unravels. That's why HomeServe exists. For as little as $4.99 a month, you'll always have someone to call. A trusted professional ready to help, bringing peace of mind to 4.5 million homeowners nationwide.
--:-- Ankur Desai: For plans starting at just $4.99 a month, go to homeserve.com. That's homeserve.com. Not available everywhere. Most plans range between $4.99 to $11.99 a month your first year. Terms apply on covered repairs.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The body which represents international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories has urged Israeli officials to take immediate action to halt attacks on reporters by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Foreign Press Association cited two incidents involving journalists during this year's olive harvest. There's been an escalation in attacks by settlers on Palestinians harvesting olive trees this year.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: On Saturday, a group of Palestinian villagers, activists and journalists came under attack from settlers in an area close to the Palestinian village of Beta, which has been a flashpoint for several years.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: And Israeli human rights activist Jonathan Pollack says that one of the journalists, Ranin Sawafda of Reuters, was the focus of the settlers' attack.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: He beat her up without mercy, continuing to stone her while she was on the ground, and then continuing to attack everyone who tried to come to her help and everyone who was running away from several sites.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: Both Ranin Sawafda and a Reuters security advisor were wearing protective gear clearly marked with the word press. Several other people were also injured in the incident.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Foreign Press Association says that journalists, both local and foreign, have clearly been targeted as they document what the organisation calls an unprecedented level of unchecked violence against Palestinians during this year's olive harvest, which has seen olive groves set on fire.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Israeli army, which dispatched soldiers to the scene, has said that it condemns any act of violence and will continue to operate to maintain security and order in the area.
--:-- Ankur Desai: But activists working to document the attack say that violent settlers are rarely held to account. One suspect has, however, been arrested over an incident last month in which a Palestinian grandmother was injured as she was harvesting olives near Ramallah.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A massive cleanup operation is underway in the Philippines after Typhoon Fung Wung left entire villages completely submerged in flood water.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons and good preparations and well-timed evacuations probably saved many lives.
--:-- Jonathan Head: The neighbourhood I'm in now is Matadero in Kavanatoan City. Now we were down here yesterday and this community is right by a creek. The water levels were rising fast. The currents were very strong. People were rushing into their homes to pull out pets, furniture, possessions, really worried about how high the water levels were going to go, simply because of the enormous quantities of rainfall that were dumped by Typhoon Fung Wong.
--:-- Jonathan Head: The winds were not as powerful as some of the strongest typhoons the Philippines experienced, but the amounts of rain were really hard to deal with. The water levels have actually gone down a lot. So that's a sign that for all of that water, now there'll be some relief.
--:-- Jonathan Head: As those water levels go down, people will be able to go back into communities. Cleaning up is going to take a long time. I mean, it's an awful thing to say. Filipinos are used to this. They're very good at it. People who live in these kind of poor communities really improvise, but they probably do need quite a bit of help to get themselves back on their feet.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Then there are communities that are still cut off, where roads have been either washed away or bridges have been flooded, and where in particular there have been quite a number of landslides reported.
--:-- Jonathan Head: That's always expected during very heavy rainfall and we are hearing of a number of landslides. There's one about 150 kilometres north of here where four people in a family were killed. But nothing bigger than that so far.
--:-- Jonathan Head: So if in the end the death toll stays as it is, it's in single figures at the moment, I think most Filipinos will feel that they got off relatively lightly, albeit this is just one typhoon after a series of natural disasters.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Jonathan Head in Eastern Luzon.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A Chinese woman at the heart of the UK's largest seizure of cryptocurrency is due to be sentenced on Tuesday in London for the role she played in a multi-billion dollar fraud.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Following an investigation by London's Metropolitan Police, Tian Ji Min was convicted of trying to launder 61 bitcoin assets now worth around billion taken from investors in her native China
--:-- Tony Han: In this promotional video, Lan Tian Ge Rui makes big promises. Invest in its cryptocurrency and you'll get massive returns.
--:-- Tony Han: The mastermind of the scheme was a middle-aged woman called Qian Zhimin, more than 100,000 people across China invested.
--:-- Tony Han: A man we are calling Yu, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, took out loans and invested everything into the company.
--:-- Tony Han: I suppose we were just too weak to resist. They just pumped up our dreams, until we lost all self-control, all critical judgment.
--:-- Tony Han: For a while, he was getting daily returns. But then, in 2017, it all came crashing down.
--:-- Tony Han: Law enforcement now say the whole thing was a massive scam.
--:-- Tony Han: Yu's marriage collapsed and he found himself mired in debt. Many families have been broken up. People have been left without money to pay for medical treatments. All this has really happened.
--:-- Ankur Desai: When Chinese police started investigating Qian Zhimian, she fled China for the UK, taking with her a laptop loaded with Bitcoin bought with investors' money.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Posing as a jewelry dealer, she started trying to turn her cryptocurrency into hard cash and real estate.
--:-- Ankur Desai: When she tried to buy a lavish home in North London, she came to the attention of the UK police.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The moment they raided her house is captured in this body cam footage.
--:-- Detective Constable Joe Ryan: Hello, madam. I appreciate you're in bed. I've just got to record down your name. if that is all right. So what's your first name, please?
--:-- Tian Ji Min: The whole house, a very large house, fairly messy, and there was cash almost everywhere. Thousands of pounds, bundles of £20,000 here. As well as cash, DC Ryan and his team found laptops full of cryptocurrency that amounted to 61,000 Bitcoin, today worth several billion dollars, the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A UK court is now deciding who will get that money. But only a small fraction of the victims have stepped forward to make a claim.
--:-- Ankur Desai: A Chinese lawyer representing victims told us that many have struggled to gather evidence sufficient to meet the legal standard in the UK.
--:-- Ankur Desai: The Crown Prosecution Service is in the process of setting up a separate compensation mechanism. But the details are still unclear.
--:-- Ankur Desai: You and the other former investors are watching closely. We all read Sherlock Holmes books when we were younger. And in our minds, that's still the image of the real detective. To find all this Bitcoin. Of course, we're very grateful. Here in China, we hope that we can get the capital returned to us. That's our great hope.
--:-- Ankur Desai: To be able to save the victims of Lantian Giri, who are struggling and suffering, even to save their lives. What a noble act that would be.
--:-- Ankur Desai: And if you'd like to hear more, please search for the Chinese Crypto Queen. You can find that on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your BBC podcasts from.
--:-- Ankur Desai: It's 100 years since the birth of Richard Burton, the son of a Welsh miner who rose to become acting royalty.
--:-- Ankur Desai: He starred in many films, including The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and of course Cleopatra, which is where he met Elizabeth Taylor, who he married twice.
--:-- Ankur Desai: Here he is reading the opening line of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood for the BBC in January 1954.
--:-- Ankur Desai: To begin at the beginning. It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and Bible black. The cobbled streets silent and the hunched quarters and rabbits wood limping invisible down to the slow black.
