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BBC Sounds, Music

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Radio Podcasts. Hello, today we're in Ukraine

1:41

Today we're in Ukraine the

1:43

the desire to end

1:45

the war is growing

1:47

by the day. are

1:50

In France, the the trains are

1:52

on time, the stately gardens are

1:54

pruned, but the country's politics are

1:56

stuck in a state of a state of

1:58

impasse. in Kana. where amid

2:00

half -finished road road an

2:02

ailing economy, voters are

2:04

hoping the return of the

2:07

former president will bring much -wanted

2:09

change. bring much-wanted to Saudi Arabia,

2:11

to the 2034 World Cup World

2:13

Cup week. this Is there real

2:15

change taking place in the

2:17

kingdom the the glitzy PR? PR?

2:20

But first, the rapid fall of

2:22

the Assad regime in Syria

2:24

last weekend astonished even the

2:26

most seasoned regional experts. Thirteen

2:28

years of civil war had

2:30

failed to topple President -Assad, but

2:32

in just under two weeks

2:34

rebel forces took control of

2:36

several cities cities finally advancing to

2:39

Damascus. There's been euphoria on the

2:41

streets of the the with

2:43

thousands of Syrians returning to

2:45

their homeland to the first time

2:47

in years, among them

2:49

the BBC. the BBC's Lina Sinjab. The

2:51

message The message came through in the

2:53

early hours of last Sunday morning. I

2:56

couldn't believe what I was reading. Holmes

2:58

has fallen to the rebels a tread. Sent

3:00

by an by an Alawite woman I'd been

3:02

been in contact with daily to

3:04

check on the situation there. there. I'd been

3:06

been reporting on the unfolding

3:08

collapse of Basral as regime all

3:10

week, week, starting with the fall

3:12

of the cities of Aleppo

3:14

and then and then the Islamist

3:16

Islamist rebels at the H.D.L. sham or HHS. I was

3:19

I was bracing myself for a that

3:21

Assad would would deploy his forces

3:23

to crush the opposition again. It seemed

3:25

seemed impossible the rebels would

3:27

succeed in in capturing homes, a the

3:30

government stronghold. I I feared Syria

3:32

would split with Damascus and

3:34

the coastal cities remaining in

3:36

Assad's in Assad's hand. to my

3:38

amazement, another message came through.

3:40

I'm I'm told Assad is leaving, my

3:42

my contact wrote. There is a a deal. a

3:45

matter matter of was in Beirut I

3:47

was in Beirut and had already made plans

3:49

to head to the border with my

3:51

BBC colleagues at dawn. at dawn. We packed a

3:53

a small bag each, in case we

3:55

did manage to get into Syria. but we

3:57

we were also mindful of how

3:59

dangerous. this could be. I had been

4:02

trying over the weekend to get

4:04

clearance to enter the country from

4:06

one of Assad's most feared secret

4:08

police in Syria, called the Palestine

4:10

branch. They had an arrest warrant

4:12

in my name, due to my

4:14

reporting on the protest in Syria

4:17

and the brutal regime cracked down

4:19

during the early years of the

4:21

Arab Spring. I couldn't forget being

4:23

detained during the first week of

4:25

the uprising in 2011. I had

4:27

witnessed men lined up to be

4:29

beaten, fresh blood on the floor,

4:32

and screams of torture. A security

4:34

officer grabbed my mouth and said

4:36

he would cut it for me

4:38

if I said a word. I

4:40

was forced to leave my country

4:42

of Syria in 2013, and my

4:44

flat was destroyed by the security

4:47

forces after the authorities deemed me

4:49

a traitor and banned me from

4:51

living there. Remembering the intimidation I

4:53

faced, I was scared that if

4:55

I crossed the border this time,

4:57

they would arrest me and interrogate

4:59

me. When I last tried to

5:02

enter Syria in January this year,

5:04

security officers had threatened me and

5:06

told me they would bury me,

5:08

seven floors on the ground. They

5:10

finally allowed me to leave the

5:12

country a week later, on the

5:14

condition I wouldn't speak out about

5:17

President Assad and his regime. Even

5:19

when I was living in Lebanon,

5:21

I never felt completely safe. Asad's

5:23

atrocities caused a shadow over my

5:25

life, I was always scared they

5:27

would hurt my brother and his

5:29

family, who are still living in

5:31

Syria. Last Sunday, my colleague found

5:34

me after midnight and said, Do

5:36

you have a problem going into

5:38

Syria? I told her, if the

5:40

regime falls, I will go. If

5:42

not, I will have to reassess.

5:44

But by 4am, the news came

5:46

through that Asad was gone. Syria

5:49

was free, the regime had fallen.

5:51

Tears rolled down my cheeks when

5:53

I realized 54 years of the

5:55

Assad dynasty was over. I was

5:57

in total shock. I met my

5:59

colleagues and we headed to the

6:01

border. No one had been killed.

6:04

Not a single bullet had been

6:06

fired. The Syrian army... just withdrew.

6:08

Security men left their positions. Was

6:10

that it? 13 years of death,

6:12

destruction, the Aspara, now over? It

6:14

took the Islamist rebels 10 days

6:16

to get Assad out. No one

6:19

ever believed that he would leave

6:21

peacefully. I crossed the border and

6:23

for the first time ever, I

6:25

didn't fear arrest. We drove past

6:27

piles of military uniforms on the

6:29

side of the road. Tanks and

6:31

military position had been abandoned. I

6:34

reached Central Damascus and couldn't believe

6:36

my eyes. Rebels and civilians were

6:38

celebrating in Umayyat Square. The place

6:40

which 13 years ago thousands of

6:42

protesters dreamt would become their version

6:44

of Egypt's Tahri Square. The center

6:46

of their liberation. They did it.

6:49

They were there. And they had

6:51

turned the square into a giant

6:53

celebration. Rebels firing gunshots into the

6:55

air, civilians chanting the same revolutionary

6:57

songs they chanted 13 years ago.

6:59

For the first time, I reported

7:01

without feeling for my safety. It

7:04

was liberating. Some people I've spoken

7:06

to are still worried about the

7:08

Islamist troubles being in control and

7:10

whether they will be safe, but

7:12

many Syrians outside the country are

7:14

now returning home. The pace at

7:16

which things are developing is incredibly

7:19

fast. Suddenly, my 11 years of

7:21

exile and trauma outside Syria seem

7:23

as if they are from another

7:25

life. Suddenly, there is hope again.

7:27

Lina Sinjab. In Ukraine, winter is

7:30

setting in, the third since Russia's

7:32

full-scale invasion. With Russia once again

7:34

attacking Ukraine's power grid and Ukrainian

7:37

forces slowly losing ground along the

7:39

eastern front, it's another testing time

7:41

for Kiev. Our correspondent Paul Adams

7:44

was in Kiev in 2022 when

7:46

Russia launched its attack and visited

7:48

frequently during the first half of

7:51

the war. He recently returned and

7:53

says this time Ukraine feel different.

7:55

Changes of mood can be slow,

7:57

almost imperceptible. Ukraine is still the

8:00

same resilient, resourceful place I remember

8:02

from my previous visits, but after

8:04

more than a year away the

8:07

atmosphere is very different. When I

8:09

was lasting Kiev in the late

8:11

summer of 2023 Ukraine's offensive in

8:14

the South had yet to fizzle

8:16

out. Spectacular missile attacks on Russia's

8:18

Black Sea fleet were helping to

8:21

sustain the impression that Ukraine was

8:23

on the front foot. But now

8:25

with the first flurries of this

8:27

winter's snow and with temperatures dropping,

8:30

last year's optimism has vanished, as

8:32

if washed out by the same

8:34

heavy oppressive clouds that rob Kiev

8:37

of its colour. The future seems

8:39

as impenetrable as the dense fog

8:41

that sometimes blankets the capital. Even

8:44

the surge of excitement that accompanied

8:46

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's cursed region

8:48

in August has given way to

8:51

something darker. A sense that Russia's

8:53

advance in the East, while slow,

8:55

is inexorable, and that the coming

8:57

change of leadership in Washington in

9:00

six weeks' time, raises a host

9:02

of uncomfortable questions. What will happen

9:04

to Western support next year? Will

9:07

Donald Trump force President Zelenski to

9:09

sue for peace? Not even the

9:11

first use of American and British

9:14

long-range missiles inside Russia, the cause

9:16

of much excitement and debate in

9:18

the West, did much to puncture

9:21

this increasingly sombre mood? The nights

9:23

are long and the power cuts

9:25

frequent thanks to the resumption of

9:27

Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy grid.

9:30

The air raid sirens wail day

9:32

and night and sleep is occasionally

9:34

disturbed by the sound of distant

9:37

explosions, usually Russian drones being successfully

9:39

intercepted on the edge of town.

9:41

Sometimes, of course, the explosions are

9:44

louder, more ominous, like the series

9:46

of deafening noises that rattled the

9:48

windows of our hotel in Danipro

9:51

in the early hours of November

9:53

21. Joltid awake, I couldn't really

9:55

tell what I was hearing, intercepted

9:57

missiles perhaps, but something had clearly

10:00

landed too. We didn't know it

10:02

at the time, but this was

10:04

Russia's first use of a new

10:07

intermediate-range ballistic missile, complete with multiple

10:09

warheads, capable of delivering a nuclear

10:11

device. Moscow was sending an unambiguous

10:14

warning to the West, not to

10:16

facilitate Ukraine's operation in Kursk. The

10:18

target, by the way, was the

10:21

sprawling military site where, back in

10:23

the Cold War, Ukraine used to

10:25

build ballistic missiles for the Soviet

10:27

Union's nuclear weapons programme. The site

10:30

is still in use. but its

10:32

precise purpose is a closely guarded

10:34

secret. Later that day we drove

10:37

east to Pavlograd and boarded a

10:39

train heading back to Danipro. In

10:41

one carriage we met exhausted shell-shocked

10:44

civilians fleeing from villages and towns

10:46

slowly being swallowed up by Moscow's

10:48

advancing war machine, a machine in

10:51

which the truly horrendous cost in

10:53

Russian lives seems to matter little

10:55

to the Kremlin so long as

10:57

it keeps moving forward. The carriage

11:00

was gloomy, the air fetid and

11:02

the atmosphere mostly silent. After weeks

11:04

of hearing the terrifying sounds of

11:07

war approaching, some evacuees had finally

11:09

succumbed to fatigue, allowing the train's

11:11

rhythmic sway to lull them into

11:14

oblivion. As for the soldiers fighting

11:16

this war, there's a growing sense

11:18

that it has to end, even

11:21

if this means painful territorial sacrifices.

11:23

At a clinic in Danipro I

11:25

met 27-year-old Demian, who lost his

11:27

left leg 18 months ago when

11:30

his grenade-launching unit was hit by

11:32

a Russian rocket. He was impressively

11:34

positive about his injury. In fact

11:37

he even said he was looking

11:39

forward to competing in next year's

11:41

Invictus Games. But he said Ukraine

11:44

lacked the equipment and manpower to

11:46

push Russian forces out of Crimea

11:48

and the Donvas. Another maimed soldier,

11:50

Andre, just being fitted with his

11:53

first prosthetic leg, was similarly realistic.

11:55

The main thing he told me

11:57

is for the fighting to stop.

12:00

President Zelenski has said he's willing

12:02

to see this happen, going so

12:04

far as to predict that the

12:07

war could end next year. with

12:09

Donald Trump obviously impatient with the

12:11

conflict and looking for ways to

12:14

stop spending American money on a

12:16

war seemingly without end, Mr Zilenski

12:18

is playing a shrewd diplomatic game,

12:20

stressing as he has all along

12:23

that only membership of NATO can

12:25

offer the sort of security guarantees

12:27

his country needs, but presenting himself

12:30

all the while as the sort

12:32

of person Mr Trump can do

12:34

business with. In contrast, he hopes

12:37

to the apparently implacable Vladimir Putin.

12:39

Ukraine's president has already sent his

12:41

advisors to America to meet Mr

12:44

Trump's team and with Emmanuel Macron's

12:46

assistance he secured a meeting with

12:48

the President-elect as the two men

12:50

visited Paris for the reopening of

12:53

Notre Dame Cathedral. With Mr Trump's

12:55

plans for Ukraine only dimly discernible

12:57

it's almost certainly the best Mr

13:00

Zelenski can do. And so Ukraine

13:02

clings on to what it can,

13:04

does its best to slow the

13:07

Russian advance and waits to see

13:09

what next year will bring. Paul

13:11

Adams. France has entered a period

13:14

of political uncertainty triggered by the

13:16

collapse of Prime Minister Michel Barnier's

13:18

government ten days ago. He was

13:20

ousted in a no-confidence vote after

13:23

left and far-right parties united after

13:25

Mr. Barnier forced through a controversial

13:27

budget. President Macron announced the new

13:30

PM Fonswa Bérou on Friday, though

13:32

Mr. McCran is himself facing calls

13:34

from opposition groups to resign. The

13:37

President has lashed out at the

13:39

parties behind the government's collapse, saying

13:41

they chose chaos. But what does

13:44

this mean for the country's future?

13:46

Andrew Harding says deeper divisions have

13:48

opened up that will be difficult

13:50

to resolve. I've started running most

13:53

mornings in Paris. Okay, jogging. I

13:55

usually end up in the Jardand

13:57

du Luxembourg, a magnificent patch of

14:00

greenery just south of the river

14:02

Sen. It's a pampered corner of

14:04

a pampered... city, so I won't

14:07

pretend it captures many deep truths

14:09

about France. And yet, if you're

14:11

looking for what works and what

14:14

doesn't in this curious country, the

14:16

garden does hold some lessons. Winter

14:18

has set in here now, and

14:20

over the course of the past

14:23

few weeks, I've watched vast teams

14:25

of uniformed gardeners preparing Le Jardin

14:27

for the cold. I had not

14:30

noticed earlier in the year that

14:32

the palms and smaller fruit trees

14:34

are all in giant pots. Some

14:37

of the trees are apparently more

14:39

than 200 years old, and like

14:41

frail relatives being wheeled inside on

14:44

a chilly afternoon, they've now been

14:46

carefully brought into the orangery, a

14:48

gorgeous old brick and glass greenhouse,

14:50

that is slightly younger than some

14:53

of the individual orange trees themselves.

14:55

France does this kind of thing

14:57

so well, the heritage, the sense

15:00

that money really isn't a problem.

15:02

Not just in the Luxembourg garden.

15:04

but this past week of course,

15:07

up the road, on an island

15:09

in the middle of the Seine,

15:11

five years after the fire, Notre

15:14

Dame has been officially reopened, reborn,

15:16

on budget, on schedule, and thanks

15:18

to a genuinely inspiring display of

15:20

communal endeavour, the work of hundreds

15:23

of craftsmen and women from all

15:25

over France, each responsible for one

15:27

small part of a giant and

15:30

intricate logistical miracle. It makes one

15:32

think of the trains here too.

15:34

I've spent much of the past

15:37

week tearing around the country, from

15:39

Paris to Lille to Paris, and

15:41

then down to Avignon back for

15:44

the grim Pelico mass rape trial,

15:46

which ends in the next few

15:48

days. It is nearly 400 miles

15:50

from Paris to Avignon. That's more

15:53

than London to Edinburgh. In France,

15:55

the high-speed train journey smooth as

15:57

a chiffon scarf takes just over

16:00

two hours. As with the trains

16:02

and gardens and cathedrals, so with

16:04

the sumptuous entertainment laid on for

16:07

present Emmanuel Macron's guests at the

16:09

Elize Palace. from the champagne to

16:11

the cheese course, it's fairly routine

16:14

for the state to cough up

16:16

at least 400,000 euros for one

16:18

dinner. France can sometimes give the

16:20

impression of the most blithely, almost

16:23

indecently deep pockets. Which brings me

16:25

back to the Luxembourg garden. On

16:27

the western edge, not far from

16:30

the apartment block where the American

16:32

writer Gertrude Stein once lived, lies

16:34

a cluster of six well-tended public

16:37

tennis courts. They're nearly a century

16:39

old, bookable by the hour, and

16:41

much sought after. Except that since

16:44

2016, they've been the subject of

16:46

an obscure legal battle between a

16:48

private company and the French Senate,

16:50

the equivalent of the House of

16:53

Lords, which actually owns the garden.

16:55

The result? and no tennis. I

16:57

may be stretching the point here,

17:00

but jogging past the empty courts,

17:02

I'm sometimes reminded of the current

17:04

state of French politics, which have

17:07

recently sunk into a state of

17:09

almost farcical deadlock. The Parliament here

17:11

was once dominated by the centre

17:14

left and centre right, and played

17:16

a somewhat peripheral role in a

17:18

system dominated by an almost all-powerful

17:20

presidency. Then came Emmanuel Macron, a

17:23

hurricane of swagger and disruption, and

17:25

suddenly French politics looks more like

17:27

a piece of absurdist theatre. Macron

17:30

is now almost universally loathed, and

17:32

the Parliament is trapped between increasingly

17:34

powerful extremes, the hard or far

17:37

or populist right, and the hard

17:39

left, both basking in their refusal

17:41

to do what other European MPs

17:44

have learned, to compromise on anything.

17:46

None of which means that much

17:48

is about to change here, either

17:50

fast or dramatically. The trains will

17:53

still run on time. In spring,

17:55

the trees will be wheeled out

17:57

of the Oranguri and into the

18:00

sunshine. There is something so reassuring

18:02

about France's sense. of itself, its

18:04

traditions, of street protests, of tat-tat-tant,

18:07

of turning to say, bonjournet to

18:09

absolutely everyone in a lift when

18:11

you reach your floor. But the

18:14

money is running out a bit.

18:16

The far or populist right is

18:18

gaining ground, and even the constitution

18:20

is starting to look a little

18:23

afraid. I had dinner recently with

18:25

a senior French civil servant. He

18:27

swilled some fine red wine around

18:30

his glass, shared some gossip about

18:32

Donald Trump's not quite gate-crashing visit

18:34

to the Notre Dame reopening ceremony,

18:37

and confirmed that things might just

18:39

possibly get a little bumpy here,

18:41

and for some time. Andrew Harding

18:48

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yoga classes I felt amazing.

32:13

But soon, that calm welcoming

32:15

atmosphere leads to something far

32:17

darker, a journey. that leads

32:20

to allegations of grooming, trafficking

32:22

and exploitation across international borders.

32:24

I don't have my passport,

32:26

I don't have my phone,

32:29

I don't have my bank

32:31

cards, I have nothing. The

32:33

passport being taken, the being

32:36

in a house and not

32:38

feeling like they can leave.

32:40

World of secrets is where

32:43

untold stories are unveiled and

32:45

hidden realities are exposed. In

32:47

this new series, we're confronting

32:49

the dark side of the

32:52

wellness industry. with the hope

32:54

of a spiritual breakthrough gives

32:56

way to disturbing accusations. You

32:59

just get sucked in so

33:01

gradually and it's done so

33:03

skillfully that you don't realise.

33:06

And it's like this, the

33:08

secret that's there. I wanted

33:10

to believe that, you know,

33:13

that whatever they were doing,

33:15

even if it seemed gross

33:17

to me, was for some

33:19

spiritual reason that I couldn't

33:22

understand. Revealing the hidden secrets

33:24

of a global yoga network.

33:26

I feel that I have

33:29

no other choice. The only

33:31

thing I can do is

33:33

to speak about this and

33:36

to put my reputation and

33:38

everything else on the line.

33:40

I want truth and justice

33:42

and further people to not

33:45

be hurt. for things to

33:47

be different in the future.

33:49

To bring it into the

33:52

light and almost alcomise some

33:54

of that evil stuff that

33:56

went on and take back

33:59

the power. World

34:04

The Bad Guru. Listen wherever you

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