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Hello, this is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news, seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

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I'm joined Jalil and in the early hours of Sunday, the 24th of January, these are our main stories. Russian police have arrested more than 2000 people across the country as they break up rallies in support of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. The Italian prime minister has said his government will sue Pfizer and AstraZeneca after the companies announced they would not be able to deliver agreed doses of their coronavirus vaccines. Spain's top general has resigned after being accused of jumping the queue to have himself vaccinated against covid-19 also in this podcast.

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I learned that the more I drew back, ask good questions, listen to the answers cared about the guests, Senator Wong said. You make the camera disappear.

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The celebrated American broadcaster Larry King has died at the age of 87. We start in Russia. Where protesters on Saturday defied bitterly cold weather and a ban by the authorities to demand the release of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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He was arrested last weekend after returning to Russia for the first time since being poisoned by a nerve agent. Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets of more than 100 cities, braving temperatures as low as minus 50 Celsius. The protests stretched across Russia's vast terrain from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

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Some of those taking part shouted, Putin is a thief.

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I came to protest because I am worried about the future of my country. I love Russia and I love my people. And I do not want my people to be so cruelly deceived by a person who imagines himself to be a tsar for someone to the one us.

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I don't want that to be people who cling onto their positions of power and don't let ordinary citizens breathe. If we manage to get things to change, I think that Russia would be able to reach a high level of development and poverty would finally disappear.

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More than 2500 people were arrested across Russia as police tried to break up the protests in Moscow.

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Mr. Navalny, his wife, Yulia, was briefly detained. I got more from our correspondent in the Russian capital, Sarah Rainsford.

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This is what Alexei Navalny and his team had called for. They really wanted a show of strength, a show of popular anger, both at his arrest, but also instead of only when he called for people to take to the streets, he was saying to them, do not be afraid, lose your fear, come out and fight for your own futures. And I think that's what many people thought they were doing, not just calling for Alexei Navalny to be released, but calling for change here in Russia.

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That was the word that we heard quite a lot on the streets. And there was a big crowd in Moscow, in central Moscow on Pushkin Square. The square itself was packed and the streets on either side were also very full. Now, the riot police have been able to clear those streets that many people disperse of their own accord. But many people were forced to to clear the streets as the riot police essentially linked arms moved forward. There were scuffles, there were altercations.

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There were some pretty vicious beatings meted out to the protesters as well. And at one point, I didn't see this myself personally. I've seen it on social media. But protesters were pelting the riot police with snowballs. And I've never seen anything like that before in Russia in all my years here and a huge number of arrests.

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Among them, Mr. Navalny, his wife. Well, yes, although she has been released without charge. Ulyanov I was detained on her way to the demonstration. More than 2000 people detained across the country. Some of them will be fined. Some of them will face short time in police detention centers. But it is very possible and very likely, in fact, that some will also face criminal prosecution. We've seen that before at protests here. The authorities tend to crackdown extremely hard.

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It's very difficult to stage an authorized protest in Russia. Today's protest was not authorized. So I think the response will be extremely strong. We're strong on the streets today. I think it'll be strong in terms of the prosecutions to follow the idea to deter people from coming back. But missing around this team have already said they want more protests next weekend. So it's a real challenge, I think, to the Kremlin and to its authority, as you say, a real challenge to the Kremlin and its authority.

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How worried do you think President Putin is by all this?

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Well, he's not a man who gives in to pressure. And I think, you know, pressure from the street is not something he would like to be seen to be changing course for. So I suspect that Alexei Navalny is going to potentially end up behind bars. But I think, you know, in the Kremlin now, they will be doing their calculations about that because until now, they've never dared to imprison him. He's often spent time in police custody.

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So short sentences, but he's never been to prison before precisely because the authorities feared the backlash. They were worried about the protests on the streets. Now, they've had a bit of a taste of what that could look like. So perhaps they're doing the calculations. Mr. Putin and his team deciding how to move forward with the man who is very much the biggest symbol of resistance to the Kremlin and to Mr. Putin's politics that there is in Russia today.

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Sarah Rainsford in Moscow. Italy has accused Pfizer and AstraZeneca of serious contract violations after the firms announced that they would not be able to deliver their coronavirus vaccines as agreed. The two companies have said they're hamstrung by production problems.

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Our Europe editor, Wistow Pekoe has the details.

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The two companies make the main coronavirus vaccines, but they say production problems have forced them to cut to the amount of doses they can deliver, in some cases by more than half in an angry post on Facebook. The Italian prime minister Decepticon called the delay is unacceptable and said they were doing enormous damage to Italy and other European countries. He said Rome would use all legal means at its disposal, in other words, even sue the companies to make sure they met their obligations.

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Italy is one of the country's worst hit by the pandemic reached Opko.

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Spain's top general has resigned after being accused of receiving the covid-19 vaccine ahead of priority groups such as nursing home residents or frontline health workers. This comes amid growing outrage in Spain over reports of public officials jumping the queue for vaccines.

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I got more on the allegations against General Miguel Angel Benaroya from our reporter in Madrid. Guy Hedgecoe, will.

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It had become apparent towards the end of this week that General Arroyo had received this first vaccination, first dose of the Pfizer by Intec jab, along with a number of other senior military personnel. Now, Miguel Arroyo is 63. He's not in any of the high risk groups. He's not in any of those priority groups that you mentioned. The only military who should be vaccinated at this stage are medics. He doesn't fall into that group. And there was increasing pressure on him following the revelations that he had received this jab, that some action should be taken or even that he should resign, as they did present his resignation to the defense minister, Marguerita Rollison.

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She has accepted it.

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And he's not the only one to be accused of queue jumping.

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No, not at all. I mean, there's been a torrent of accusations against mainly local politicians around the country over the last couple of weeks, in particular. Now, most of those local politicians who received the jab, they've admitted to it. But in many cases, they've said that they received the opportunity to and they were kind of pressured into it in some cases by their staff, because there were doses that were left over from vaccination of frontline health staff, for example.

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But we have had three resignations in the last few days of local politicians down in the south, in morphia and up in the north in Bilbao. So there have been some resignations already and it's quite possible we could be seeing more in the coming days.

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And more broadly, how is the vaccination program going across Spain? Well, there have been some issues in the last few days due to a reduction in Pfizer, the pharmaceutical firms, deliveries around Europe that has had a knock on effect in Spain. There have been some problems. There has been some disparity between different regions as well. But having said all that, Spain is performing quite well. It has vaccinated one point one million people. And if you look at the charts showing the number of vaccinations per head of population, Spain is one of the top countries in Europe.

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So the feeling is certainly the government is saying Spain is on target at the moment.

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Guy Hedgecoe in Madrid, here in the U.K., a government minister has dismissed a call by senior doctors for second doses of the Pfizer biotech coronavirus vaccine to be given to patients within six weeks of their first jab. That's half the time the British government prefers people currently have to wait 12 weeks for their second vaccine shot. The doctors union, the British Medical Association, said the UK was the only country in the world to have such a long time limit, making the policy difficult to justify.

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But the minister, Robert Generex, said it allowed millions more people to receive protection. Here's our health correspondent Anna Collinson.

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When the Pfizer biotech vaccine was first rolled out in December, patients would be waiting three weeks for their second dose. But as infection levels increased, the UK's chief medical officers decided to extend the gap to 12 weeks. They said millions of the most vulnerable are far more likely to end up severely ill without a vaccine. And this method was the best way to reach more people quickly. But there's no data to back this up, which concerns the British Medical Association.

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Dr Chanderpaul is its chair.

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The challenges facing the UK are also being faced by many other nations with high levels of infection, hospitalisation and mortality. And none of those countries have adopted the stance of the UK. We are concerned that we are an outlier in this regard.

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The BMA wants the second dose to be given at six weeks, but scientists are defending the current system, calling it a balance of risks. Professor Peter Holby chairs the government's nerve tac advice group.

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Everyone will get two doses. It's just that while the supply is limited. A public health decision has been made about how to use that first tranche of vaccines. And that decision is a public health and political decision, which I think is justifiable.

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The government says the process is under review, but believes it's currently the best way to protect the most vulnerable during a winter like no other.

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Anna Collins, an island, has experienced its worst week of the pandemic, with intensive care units nearing full capacity. The country had been doing remarkably well thanks to a mixture of tight lockdowns and a high sense of social responsibility. And it only recorded 80000 cases until late last year. But a decision by the government to ease restrictions before Christmas led to those case numbers doubling in just three weeks. This report is by Helen Develin.

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It just feels like we're we're in a race against the virus and to come out pretty hard and pretty fast.

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It may be the weekend, but for Professor John Ryan, head of emergency medicine at St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, there's little time to rest.

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If you look at the chart of patients being admitted to a cold over the last two weeks at almost every chart and really read the same notes to it, something like was visited by her grandson, her son on Christmas Day, who tested positive two days later. So a lot of people that got infected on that a couple of days around Christmas and then again a little bit on New Year.

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Well, the situation in Irish hospitals is pretty dire at the moment. This is a very severe deterioration in the picture.

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Simon Carswell is public affairs editor for the Irish Times. He explains how the country went from having the lowest infection rate in Europe to one of the worst in the world in just six weeks.

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Ireland emerged from lockdown at the start of December and that extremely strong and good position. And what happened then was the government decided to open up hospitality. They opened up restaurants and they opened up food serving pubs. So in the first part of December, you had all that increased social mixing and public mixing. And then people brought us into their homes as a result of that.

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And why do you think the government allowed this to happen? I think there's a number of reasons I think there was a lot of pent up demand. I think people are very frustrated and the government had signposted this when they announced the second lockdown in October. They said, we want to have a meaningful Christmas. It's not going to be a normal Christmas, but we want you to have something of a Christmas.

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This cannot and will not be the kind of Christmas we are used to, but it will be a very special time. The government and I are satisfied that this combination of new arrangements strikes a safe balance between maintaining the pressure on the disease and creating space for families, friends and loved ones to be together this Christmas.

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And the problem was the infection rates were nowhere near where they should have been to allow the country to reopen. There were still cases in the order of about 250 to 300 being reported today, but they did. The government decided against the advice of the public health doctors to reopen hospitality and then to allow some mixing. The public health doctors specifically said you can do one or the other, but you cannot do both.

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Every hospital and institution is preparing for service and increased demand. It's not just about machinery of beds, so it's about having the staff saying ideally, you want to sort of one to one nursing ratio.

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And is that possible if it becomes overstretched? No, it's not, because we're losing staff. They're either getting infected or they're close contacts and they have to isolate as well. So we're going to get caught on both ends. So it is challenging.

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We will be seeing more fatalities, sadly, over the coming days and weeks. And I think that political pressure is going to build and build on the government. And a lot more questions are going to be asked as to why they made the decisions they made in early December to reopen pubs and restaurants and to allow households to mix when the virus was still so prevalent in the community. It's a very high price to pay now, and I think that that price is going to be seen and very traumatic terms over the coming days and weeks.

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That report by Helen Develin in Dublin.

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Still to come tonight, we can expect him to regain mobility in his shoulders. This mobility will be incomplete, but it will allow him to better function than he currently has.

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French surgeons have completed the world's first double shoulder and arm transplant on a 48 year old man from Iceland. Over the past decade of conflict in Libya has been further complicated by the involvement of foreign forces, prominent among them those of Russia and Turkey under a ceasefire deal brokered by the UN three months ago. Those foreign forces were supposed to have left Libya by Saturday, but reports from the ground say there's been no sign of any significant withdrawal.

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Our Middle East analyst, Alan Johnston told me more about who these foreign forces in Libya are.

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A number of countries have waded into Libya's civil war. Turkish forces came to the rescue of the government in Tripoli at a time when it was in real trouble. And Turkish forces have stayed on and the Turks have also flown in from Syria, thousands of mercenaries who fought alongside the government forces. On the other side of the conflict, the eastern based commander, General Khalifa Haftar, has enjoyed the support of Russia, the UAE, Egypt and others. And in the ranks of the generals forces, there's a core of Russian mercenaries who have fought very effectively on his behalf.

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Now, you're right. Back in October, a cease fire deal was brokered by the UN. And under that accord, by the twenty third of January, all those foreign forces were supposed to have left. But there's been absolutely no sign of them moving. These foreign elements just aren't ready to turn their back on the investment they've made in this conflict so far. And in the case of the Russian mercenaries, we've heard that they're quite literally digging in, digging trenches in the desert sand along the front line that runs down the center of the country.

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So what does this all mean for hopes of peace in Libya? Well, that ceasefire in October really was an important development, a real breakthrough. The first bit of really good big news from Libya for some time. And it was supposed to start the business of deescalating the conflict. Of course, a major part of that was the idea of getting these foreign fighters off the battlefield. But they're staying on, it seems. So if there is more fighting, if the cease fire does get into trouble, then the fighting might be more violent, more damaging and harder to rein in.

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And the presence of the foreigners is just a reminder that this isn't a conflict that can necessarily be sorted out by Libyans talking to one another. There are foreigners present. There are foreign agendas, and that's going to make it harder to sort things out.

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Alan Johnston. Afghan government officials have welcomed the Biden administration's decision to review the US peace deal with the Taliban. But a Taliban spokesman said the militant group was committed to its agreement with the US and wanted the Biden administration to stick with it. I asked our South Asia regional editor, Jill Misgiving, why does the Biden administration want to review this peace deal, which was hailed by President Trump as a way of bringing U.S. troops home? Absolutely.

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And it's not yet clear exactly what they mean when they say that they're reviewing it, whether, for example, they are just when we're looking for more verification that the Taliban is keeping its side of the bargain or whether they're actually reviewing the agreement itself, suggesting that just because it was brokered by the Trump administration doesn't necessarily mean it's a deal that the Biden administration wants to accept. But the two areas that are likely to be of concern, one is to do with the the Taliban is committed by the deal to preventing the use of Afghan soil by anyone who's considered a threat to U.S. security.

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So we mean groups like the Islamic State, like al-Qaeda, the global groups.

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And there's still some doubt about how far the Taliban has completely severed its alliances with those groups. They may want verification on that. And in the background toward this more generally, as this issue of the rise in violence, we're seeing military offensives, targeted killings. The deal doesn't commit the Taliban to an immediate ceasefire. It only says that discussion of a ceasefire must be on the agenda of the Afghan talks that are going on in Doha, but no timeline is given.

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So that's clearly an issue of concern in Afghanistan. Who is dealing with the on a daily basis. But it would be harder for the US to argue that the Taliban has actually broken the deal in terms of pursuing the violence, because there have been a large number of horrific attacks since this peace deal was signed between the Taliban and the US.

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And many Afghans are disillusioned with it. Absolutely.

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I think there's a lot of concern and a lot of frustration in terms of the Afghan government. They were never involved, of course, in this deal. It was a bilateral one that was struck between the US and the Taliban. And although the Afghan government is democratically elected and it has international backing, it had no voice in those talks. It was watching from the sidelines. So they're concerned about the fact that they want a ceasefire agreement as a priority in the Afghan talks.

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And there's also the issue that the deal means that the U.S. should withdraw all its military personnel, including advisors and trainers and people, as well as special forces by May the 1st this year.

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That's suddenly very soon. So there's a lot of concern as well in Afghanistan about what? That would have it may leave Afghan forces very vulnerable. Jill McGivern now to the French city of Lyon, where pioneering surgeons have completed the world's first double shoulder and arm transplant on a 48 year old man from Iceland. Gareth Barlow reports on this extraordinary achievement.

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In January 1998, Felix Jettisons life changed in an instant while working as an electrician, an accident with a power line caused 11000 volts to surge through his hands. The force of the shock flung him onto icy ground and caused multiple injuries and left him in a coma for three months during that time. Surgeons were forced to amputate his arms. Several more operations followed, including two liver transplants. But limb transplants were in their infancy at the time, and it would take more than two decades before Mr Gradison will be matched with a suitable donor for surgical teams were involved in the 14 hour operation.

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And now, more than a week later, doctors say his outlook is positive. Ghazarian was the lead surgeon.

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I told her we can expect him to regain mobility in his shoulders. This mobility will be incomplete, but it will allow him to have better function than he currently has.

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The extent to which Felix Critism will be able to use his new arms will take years to become apparent. Posting on Facebook, he said doctors were pleased with the degree of blood flow to his new homes, but years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation lie ahead if he is to gain functional use from his limbs. Speaking from his hospital bed. He thanked the dozens of staff involved in the transplants and the complete rebuild of his left shoulder to LinkedIn.

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He is one I would like to thank all the doctors who made this operation possible. I would especially like to thank the nurses, assistants and physiotherapists who did an extraordinary job to get me through this very difficult week, said Shiman.

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The since his accident, Felix Gradison has worked as a life coach, helping others to improve their lives. Now it's his turn. The chance of a better life offered to him thanks to a donor and 50 extraordinary medics.

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Gareth Barlow reporting. The celebrated American broadcaster Larry King has died at the age of 87. He'd been receiving treatment for covid-19 in Los Angeles in a career spanning six decades.

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Larry King interviewed many of the world's most famous people from Nelson Mandela and Vladimir Putin to Frank Sinatra and Lady Gaga. He was best known for his long running show on CNN television, Larry King Live.

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Daniela Relf has this report for more than 60 years. He interviewed everybody who was anybody. The legendary Liza Minnelli on marriage to marry again. Are you not Oscar winners? Start spreading the news that legendary Liza Minnelli is here tonight. President's conversation with President George W. and Laura Bush from the White House.

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We you to sing. Maybe, maybe I was wrong. The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision, not friends anymore.

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If you were in the public eye, you came to the court of Larry King.

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Were you with the president at times when intimately and he would also be conducting affairs of state, a story that he was on the phone talking to congressmen?

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Yes, it's the witching hour. Miami Beach is Midnight Flyer program.

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Born in Brooklyn, he rose to fame in his 20s as a disc jockey in Florida, spoofing his role in this 1960s TV crime series based in Miami.

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Hey, creep from the nation's capital. You're listening to the Larry King show.

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By the 1970s, he was broadcasting his late night radio show coast to coast across the United States.

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This is the Larry King Show. Coast to Coast Metellus, preferring not to prepare too much for an interview and simply let the conversation unfold.

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If you ask good questions and you elicit thoughtful answers, you learn more about the person. If I begin an interview by saying, why did you do that? I made you defensive. That may be thrilling television, but you don't learn a lot. I have great reasons to check out Larry next week.

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In the 1980s, King joined a new 24 hour TV news station. CNN Larry King gently probing everyone from Donald Trump.

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This week, rumblings in the Trump campaign as far as the presidency. Could the Manhattan magnet be eyeing the White House or is he just calling a bluff? They have no intention of running for president, but I'd like to point to get across that. We have a great country, but it's not going to be great for long if we're going to continue to lose 200 billion dollars a year.

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When the man says to Frank Sinatra, I tremble every time I walk, take the step and I walk out of the wing onto the stage because I keep thinking to myself, I wonder if it'll be there. After leaving CNN, those famous braces could be seen until recently on Larry King now. They got cut.

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Cut. What is she doing?

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His new talk show was criticized for being syndicated on a Russian sponsored TV network.

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Artie, people don't expect you to be sitting at a certain point cable. I sense that.

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But with guests like Oprah, Larry King proved that even in his 80s, he still had unrivaled power. Daniela Relf on the life of Larry King, who has died at the age of 87, and that's all from us for now, but there will be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics, covid, and you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC Doko Dot UK.

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The studio manager was Julien Farmer. The producer was Liam McAffrey and our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janette Jaleo. Until next time. Goodbye.