1. Unmissable: (Adjective) Too interesting or exciting to be missed.

2. Podcasts: (Noun) Digital audio or video files that are available for streaming or downloading on the internet.

3. Defamation: (Noun) The action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel.

4. Inject (Shock Therapy): (Verb) To introduce a sudden and drastic change or stimulus, especially in economic or political contexts.

5. Escalation: (Noun) A rapid increase; a rise.

6. Confrontation: (Noun) A hostile or argumentative meeting or situation between opposing parties.

7. Exoneration: (Noun) The action of officially absolving someone from blame; vindication.

8. Austerity: (Noun) Difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure.

9. Anticipation: (Noun) The action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.

10. Reckoning: (Noun) The action or process of calculating or estimating something.

11. Spectral Evidence: (Noun) In historical witch trials, evidence based on dreams or visions.

12. Ordeal: (Noun) A very unpleasant and prolonged experience.

13. Affliction: (Noun) Something that causes pain or suffering.

14. Kill Screen: (Noun) In video gaming, a point in a game where it becomes impossible to progress, often displaying unintended behaviors.

15. Cult Status: (Noun) A devoted following among fans, often associated with niche or unconventional interests.

Take a walk in somebody else’s shoes with podcasts from the BBC World Service, unmissable stories from around the globe. Search for the documentary lives less ordinary and amazing sports stories. Wherever you get your BBC podcasts, are you ready for some magic? This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I’m Nigel Adele and at 1400 gmt on Thursday the 4 January these are our main stories. The funeral of the Hamas deputy leader Salal Alari takes place in the lebanese capital, Beirut. A court in New York has released hundreds of documents from a defamation case that names people connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And plans made by Argentina’s President Javier Millet to inject shock therapy into the economy have hit a bump in the road. Also in this podcast, we want to see more things, see the outside world, and think about what we really dream of, how millions of young people in China are struggling to find work to Lebanon, where, as we record this podcast, thousands of mourners are paying their final respects to the senior Hamas leader killed there on Tuesday. Salal Alaruri, who was a deputy head of Hamas as well as a prominent figure in its armed wing, the Kasem Brigades, was killed in what’s believed to have been a drone strike. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the killing. Mr. Alarururi has been laid to rest at the Shatila refugee camp in west Beirut. Our correspondent Kareem Torbey sent us this report. We are standing in the middle of crowds who have been coming from different places across Lebanon, from all palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, to take part in the funeral of Sal Halaruri in the capital, Beirut. They are here holding palestinian flags, flags for the jihad, islamic jihad, or for Hamas and other palestinian factions, as well as flags with al Aqsa mosque. They come here in a day when there is a lot of concern over whether the killing of Aruri and six other members of Hamas two days ago could trigger some further escalation in the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, especially that Hezbollah has said that the killing will not go unpunished. Kareem Torbey on the streets of Beirut, people in Salal Alaruri’s birthplace in the occupied West bank have been mourning his death. Our correspondent Shyma Khalil has been hearing their reaction to the loss of a man who for many remains a powerful symbol of resistance. The anger is palpable on the streets of Ramallah in the occupied West bank. Since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, protesters have gathered regularly here at Almanara roundabout in the city centre. But today feels different. After the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader, Salihali in Lebanon, there’s been a call for a general strike, and from the shuttered shops I see around me, many have heeded that call. Some protesters are waving palestinian flags. But I can also see a couple of green Hamas flags. Hela Abu Arbayh has come out for many protests, but she tells me this time there is a new sense of loss. We feel a great deal of rage, a fury and a piercing sadness. Salah al Aruri was not just a regular person. He was an exceptional leader, a freedom fighter, an intellectual, and we have so much respect for him. Protesters are now walking through one of Ramallah’s streets, chanting Salah Alari’s name, chanting for the resistance. He may have been on the US’s and Israel’s target list, but to the people here, he’s a symbol of resistance that they’ve lost. Many have come out here to mourn his death, to show support, but also to call for revenge. Hishama Buraya tells me. The people here feel abandoned. Ours is a message of freedom. We are a civilised, educated people who love others. But some rights are only obtained through resistance. In the nearby village of Arura, Salehalari’s hometown, his family are in mourning and have been receiving numerous messages of condolences. He’s a local hero here, but both Israel and the US say he’s responsible for many acts of terror. His sister Fatima rejects this defiantly, I direct the same question to the Zionists. Terrorism is killing women and children, destroying houses and murdering entire families. In Gaza, terrorism is when we are safe in our homes and then we find ourselves in body bags torn into pieces from the bombs. Who is the terrorist? There’s been a tense anticipation about what the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Masralla, might say in response to the death of Alari, a man the Iran backed group has worked with so closely and who was killed right in their stronghold of southern Beirut. Yesterday’s crime was a major and dangerous crime that cannot be tolerated. There isn’t much more to be said about it. As we said in Hezbollah’s statement yesterday, this dangerous crime will not go unanswered and unpunished. Hamas and Hezbollah have very close ties and a common enemy. They will have to react to what happened. And Israel, despite neither confirming nor denying its involvement, says it’s ready for any scenario. Since the war in Gaza started, there’s been a growing concern that this conflict would spread here in the West bank and across the region. The fear now is that Salah Alari’s killing could be that trigger shymakalil in the West bank. For many years, the disgraced american financier Jeffrey Epstein was seen socialising with powerful people, leading figures from Wall street celebrities and even british royalty. Now, the names of some of the people connected to him have been made public in almost 1000 pages of documents, which have been released on the orders of a judge in New York. Among the names are the former american presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, although they’ve not been accused of any wrongdoing. Epstein, who killed himself in 2019, was accused of forcing underage girls to provide sexual services to him and guests at his homes. Adija Safta is an enterprise reporter for the Wall Street Journal and has been following the story closely. She spoke to James Copnell. These documents pertain to a defamation suit that was filed in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims against Ghalen Maxwell, who was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Epstein in his sex trafficking. And these documents are now being released because they were asked by journalists at the Miami Herald and others to be released. And then the judge eventually ruled that too many of the names had been redacted because many of them had already appeared in media reports. So there has been lots of speculation, lots of interest in the contents of the documents. You’ve been poring through them. What stands out for you? First of all, a lot of the interest is driven by some of the misinformation that’s on social media, where this speculation around this being some kind of an Epstein client list. So I want to first clarify that this is not a client list. Some of the Jane Doe’s and John Doe’s are Epstein victims. Some are former employees, some are people who travelled on Epstein’s plane, and other types as associates. And some could also be people that have never met Epstein before. So these are just court documents, and we have to, as you said, pour through them and figure out what’s relevant and what’s new. So some of the names that I’ve come across are like Prince, Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donnell, Trump, Les Wexner. And these are all known associates of Epstein and people whose relationship has been documented before. So, as you say, no indication of wrongdoing, of being in the documents. What about people whose names weren’t known to have been associated with Epstein before? Have any of those come to your attention? So I’m still making my way through these documents. Some of the names that perhaps haven’t been known before might be some of Epstein’s victims, because it’s not just prominent people. There’s people who worked for Epstein that are among these names, and there’s people who flew on his planes and those types of people as well, among the people who were associates of Epstein rather than victims. Although, as we say, the documents don’t suggest wrongdoing, it’s not necessarily a place a well known person would want to be, is it, among this list of names? No. I think everybody at this point wants to distance themselves from Jeffrey Epstein, given, obviously, what he’s been accused of. And a lot of people have said to me over the course of my reporting that they really regret the relationship, or that they didn’t know the extent of his crimes, or that they thought that he had rehabilitated himself or those that met him after he was a registered sex offender. But just to be clear, there could be instances where some of these people are accused of wrongdoing, like in a deposition, for example, by a particular victim. There could be, like, an allegation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean, like, the list itself is a list of Epstein clients. So where do you think this goes from here? What has this changed? I think more than anything, it just shows the amount of interest that there is still in this case and the people that were associating with Epstein at the Wall Street Journal, we spent the good part of a year trying to figure out Epstein’s vip circle after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring and soliciting a minor for prostitution. So at this point, he was already a registered sex offender. And we found that many of the world’s most powerful people were still associating with him during that time, including people like Bill Gates, who has said he only met him for philanthropy and that he regrets the association. And we also found that he was using some of those connections, especially during his later years, to lure women that he was abusing, and he was claiming that he was going to get them job opportunities. And those often didn’t pan out. Hadid Yusafta, Argentina’s radical new president, Javier Milay, had hoped to inject shock therapy into the economy when he was elected in November. The country is currently suffering high inflation and nearly 40% of people live in poverty. But his plans to change labour laws have hit a setback. Here’s our business correspondent, Nick Marsh. When he came into office, Javier Millet, he said that he’d be revamping, completely regenerating the argentinian economy, this package of radical reforms to fix these kind of deep rooted issues in Argentina. He wanted to slash the public workforce, really cut down on government spending. But now he’s faced his first obstacle, and that comes in the form of the country’s judiciary. So the courts have said that these labour laws that he wants to introduce, so things like making it easier to fire employees, reduce compensation if you fire them, cut maternity leave, all these things that would really favour the employer. The judges basically say, you can’t do that. You need the approval of parliament, you can’t just force these things through by decree. And they’ve also called the proposed laws punitive and repressive. And they say that they’ve questioned the necessity of them, basically. So the argentinian government now says it will appeal, but it could be the beginning of a long battle if Javier Milet wants to get through all of these radical plans. He is so radical in his libertarianism, so he really believes in the free market, in the private sector’s ability to solve problems, deregulation. He calls himself an a narco capitalist. So that’s a bit different, really, for a G 20 leader. I haven’t seen anything like this before. And this shock therapy that he’s proposing is going to be difficult for the most vulnerable in society because it’s extreme austerity, basically. You’re cutting fuel subsidies, you’re cutting transport subsidies, you’re removing caps on rent. His government admits it’s going to get worse before it gets better, but we’ve already seen protests and now we’ve seen challenges in the courts as well. Nick Marsh reporting on Argentina, where the International Monetary Fund will make a visit today to continue negotiations over the country’s debt load. With a $44 billion loan programme, the country is the largest debtor to the fund. There’s some good news about what scientists agree is one of the greatest threats we all face from bacteria that are resistant to drugs. Scientists in the US believe they found an entirely new class of antibiotic that appears to kill one particularly lethal organism. Professor Laura Piddock is scientific director at the global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership. Nick Robinson asked her what she made with the research which is published in the journal Nature. It is exciting. Not only is this a new antibiotic that they’ve shown works extremely well in the test tube, and they’ve now shown how it works at the biochemical level in this paper in nature, but there’s a second paper in nature as well, from the drug company that shows that it works well in mice and will kill infections when they’re in that model, as well as in the test tubes. This is very exciting. Well, tell us what the bug is that this new antibiotic is dealing with. The organism is called carbon resistant acnetabacter baumanniae, and this is what we call a gramme negative bacterium. It has two types of membrane to it, which makes it very difficult to get drugs into it and get drugs to stay inside. And what’s exciting about this discovery is that one of the building blocks that are part of the outer part of this bacterial cell is disrupted by this new drug, so it makes it more susceptible to other antibiotics as well. Now, how far are we, if we’re reading a paper in nature, it’s about experiments on animals. How far are we from this being used in hospitals to save people’s lives? We’re a very long way. What is exciting is that the company have already done some first in man studies. That’s to cheque that it’s safe to use in people. So they are set up now to go on and do full clinical trials in people with the infection. But these take a long time, several years, and even if the trial is successful, then the drug has to be approved for use and then made accessible to those that need it. And that’s all over the world, not just in a few countries that can afford it. And therein is the big problem, the economics of making antibiotics. But just in a word, if you would, there is hope, oh, definite hope. It’s really exciting. And not only is it good for this type of bacteria, but this could be built upon for others as well. Laura Piddick, scientific director at the global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership. Still to come, the group campaigning to exonerate people accused of witchcraft. We need to learn lessons from the witch trials of the past so we can stop this witch hunting. Unmissable stories from around the globe. If there’s a war or any emergency happening to Taiwan, then I would be also part of it. The documentary gripping storytelling from the BBC World Service. This has been our life since childhood. Every year, worse and difficult events. The documentary, the vantage point from which to survey a new horizon, search for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Millions of young people in China are struggling to find a job as the economic downturn in the country has resulted in historically high youth unemployment. More than one in five people between the ages of 16 and 24 are jobless in China. Although it’s now difficult to know the real numbers after the country stopped releasing the figures, us fixing that Cris could be one of the biggest challenges facing the government in 2024. Our China correspondent, Laura Bicker, has been to the southwest of the country to meet recent graduates and found. Found out how they’re coping. Hello, my name is Joy. Welcome to Chengdu. Joy came to Chengdu from a rural village to study at 23. She is the first in her family to go to university. Like most of her classmates, she hasn’t found a full time job. Do you think it’s more difficult now than when your parents were growing up to get a job? Should? Yes. The fact is, there are lots of jobs. The problem is they offer low salaries and you are easily replaceable. What about your parents? Have they been a little worried? Yes, they do. They expect me to have a better life and a better job and income than their generations. So we’re at a job fair just on the edge of Beijing. It does look a bit like speed dating with recruiters. So you’ve got people sitting behind desks explaining what they do, everything from selling insurance or perhaps working with the elderly. Those opportunities are not ideal for recent graduate Tian Yu. But you’re a software engineer, so I would imagine that your skills are in demand. The skills are hotly sought after, and therefore there were too many people. Many are looking for jobs. Not many found jobs, but some believe this jobs crisis will pass. I think the difficulties are just temporary. People with real capabilities will find jobs. For decades, young people in China were taught that if they work hard, study hard, it will aid the country’s economic miracle. But as that miracle falters, this unwritten social contract no longer stands, and the communist party may fear that a disillusioned youth will pose a threat. Social media has coined the nickname lying flat for young people frustrated by the competition of modern life. But sitting out the ailing job market is not an option for all. 23 year old Zheng Gu Ling and her boyfriend like to play pool in their free time. She has a marketing degree, and after a few months of searching, she’s taken a job in customer service. Both she and her boyfriend want to work, but years of COVID lockdowns have changed their outlook on life. Do you think the job market at the moment is difficult for your generation? Yes, very difficult. After Covid, the economy is not good. When I went to the job fairs, I found that most companies only recruit for salespeople. There are very few companies and very few suitable positions. Do you think there’s a difference in the kind of dreams that you have and what you want from life rather than career? My parents are less educated. The things they’ve encountered, the places they’ve visited are few, unlimited. They’ve never left their home province. They just want a stable life. But we want to see more things, see the outside world, and think about what we really dream of. As China’s older generation enjoy their well earned mornings in the park, joining choirs or taking dancing lessons, this country’s young generation is adjusting its expectations. The communist Youth League urged them to take off their suits, roll up their sleeves and go to the farmland. But many young people seem to be hoping for a very different way of life. Laura Bicker, reporting. The mysteries surrounding historical witch hunts in the United States have cast a spell over people for nearly four centuries. In 1648, Margaret Jones, a midwife, became the first person in Massachusetts to be executed for witchcraft, decades before the infamous Salem witch trials. Now the Massachusetts witch Hunt justice project is hoping to persuade the state to take a fuller reckoning of its early history. James Copnall has been speaking to the group’s leader, Josh Hutchinson, about how neighbour turned on neighbour. There was a lot of economic uncertainty, political and military instability, even religious conflict within Massachusetts. And that was putting a lot of pressure from outside on communities that inside were also experiencing neighbourly discord. And those two factors combined caused a lot of people to search for explanations why bad things were happening. What did it take to convince a jury, a court, that someone was a witch? That varied over time, but a lot had to do with spectral evidence, especially in the Salem witch trials, where a person could come in and claim that they were being bewitched and that they were seeing basically a spectral image of an attacker coming after them, and they would act out this affliction in court, and that would often convince the jurors. So, fast forward to now. What are you trying to achieve? We’re trying to get exoneration for eight individuals who were convicted of witchcraft in Boston outside of the Salem witch hunt in the years 1648 to 1688. And we’re also trying to get an apology from the state of Massachusetts to all victims of the witch hunts, 200 some individuals, whether they were prosecuted in Boston or in Salem. Why is it important to you to right a wrong from so many years ago? To me? There’s a personal aspect in that. Some of my ancestors and other close relations were involved in these witch trials. I have some six dozen or more ancestors and immediate family involved in the Salem witch trials alone, including one who was hanged. Mary Estee. And I want to see justice on her behalf and for all the other descendants of the victims. And I also care that we continue to behave in this way of witch hunting each other today. And we need to learn lessons from the witch trials of the past so we can stop this witch hunting. Josh Hutchinson speaking to James Copnell. Here’s some good advice. If you’re going on a fishing trip, always wear a watch. Without it, a man who fell overboard off the coast of New Zealand’s North island might never have been saved. He spent nearly 24 hours in the sea. From Sydney, here’s Philmersa. The fisherman was saved by his watch. He used it to reflect the sun to attract the attention of three men who were fishing out to sea off New Zealand’s north island. They investigated the unusual glimmer of light and found the man cold and exhausted in the water. The police say that during his ordeal, he briefly encountered a shark. He’d fallen overboard after catching a large fish before seeing his boat slowly disappear. The man reportedly told his rescuers that he was glad to see them. Phil Mercer, finally, a 13 year old boy from Oklahoma is believed to have become the first human to beat Nintendo’s classic video game Tetris. Only AI software had got to the so called kill screen before. Reporter David Lewis, and one time Game Boy owner, has been following the story. It’s the retro game of lightning fast fingers and budging blocks, and now Willis Gibson can claim to be the best Tetris player in the world. The teenager posted a video of himself patiently progressing round by round for 38 minutes before reaching level 157, the game’s so called kill screen, when the shapes stop falling and the screen freezes. This was the moment it happened. Oh my God. Oh, I’m going to pass out. I can’t feel my fingers, he said, falling back in his chair. It’s an extraordinary achievement. Up until relatively recently, it was believed it was only possible to play up to level 29. But competitive players found a way. In 2010, Gamer Thor Akaland got to level 30 using a technique called hypertapping, where he vibrated his fingers in a way which moved the controller rapidly. Tetris is originally russian, created back in the 1980s by soviet engineer Alexey Prajitnov, it gained fame and cult status after being released on Nintendo’s Nez and Game Boy console in 1989. As for Willis Gibson, who goes by the name Blue Scooty Online, he’s been playing Tetris for two years and has competed in various gaming tournaments. He wrote on his YouTube channel, when I started playing this game, I never expected to ever crash the game or beat it. David Lewis reporting. 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 podcast 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, formerly known as Twitter, at Globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Matt Hewitt. The producer was Madeline Drury. The editor is Karen Martin. I’m Nigel. Adele until next time, goodbye.