You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway, and this edition is published in the early hours of Wednesday the 1st of January 2025.

A judge in Ecuador orders the detention of 16 military personnel after the bodies of four missing boys were found outside an Air Force base.

90% of Puerto Rico is without electricity, and it could take up to two days to fix.

And almost 200 years on, scientists unlocked the mystery of a volcanic eruption, which

led to crop failures and famine.

Also in this podcast, we look ahead to the economic challenges facing the world in the next few months.

Downing Street reveals its famous visitors and...

You will have virtually electronic immortality, vastly superhuman IQs,

and you'll even start to get some basic superpowers.

As we mark 25 years since the millennium, what might the world look like in 2050?

The disappearance of four young boys in Ecuador in early December sparked outrage in the Latin American nation.

With allegations, the military was involved.

President Daniel Nuboa, who's running for re-election in the new year,

promised answers and said there would be no cover-up.

Now, the authorities have confirmed that four badly burnt bodies

found near an Air Force base on Christmas Eve are those of the missing boys

and ordered 16 Air Force personnel to be detained.

Our correspondent Francis Reid has been looking into this for us.

Well, officials said today that genetic tests carried out on the bodies, as you said,

near a military base confirmed that they are those of the four boys who were aged between

11 and 15 and they were apparently taken by soldiers three weeks ago.

...