The Global Story

Brazil has just come through a fierce electoral campaign that saw left-wing incumbent Lula face Flavio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president convicted of plotting a coup.

Election night brought a series of unexpected turns before incumbent Lula Da Silva was declared the winner. Flavio Bolsonaro refused to accept the result and has called for the election to be annulled. But the result is significant: Brazil, Latin America’s largest democracy, has broken a trend that has seen right-wing candidates, many aligned with Donald Trump, win elections across the region.

So what does a...

The polls suggest a tight race in Israel’s upcoming election. Candidates are doing all they can to win the approval of young and first-time voters, who are set to play an influential role.

Israel’s security is front and centre in the campaign, as are the events of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. And polls suggest that young Israelis are increasingly supporting right-wing and far-right parties. In an outcome that will likely be determined by fine margins, that’s important.

In this episode we speak to the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson, who has been...

The American journalist and former marine, Austin Tice, disappeared 14 years ago while covering the civil war in Syria. Despite the best efforts of US officials and Austin’s family, what happened to Austin has remained a mystery.

In a new podcast for the BBC and NPR’s Embedded, our colleague Josh Baker, along with his reporting partner Sara Obeidat, spend three years searching for answers - and discover information that provides the clearest account of what really happened.

(Photo: A poster of missing journalist Austin Tice at the National Press Club, May 2023. Credit: Getty Images)

“They've surrendered their country to vandals,” claimed Donald Trump this week, as videos of protests and looting across France spread across social media and TV news bulletins. The US president has framed the unrest in France – and similar protests across Europe, as a migration problem. “They’re losing Europe”, he said, at a campaign rally in Kansas this week. But what is actually getting people out on the streets in their thousands? The BBC’s Europe editor, Katya Adler, joins us to explain how years of discontent and disenfranchisement among young people have coalesced in this period of fiery protest. ...

Can Ukraine still rely on America?

More than 80 years after the Yalta conference reshaped post-war Europe, some observers fear a new era of great-power diplomacy could once again shape the continent's future. Reports of a possible meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have prompted questions about what role Ukraine would play in any discussion about ending the war. 

The speculation comes amid a sharp deterioration in relations between Washington and Kyiv. From disputes over Starlink access to growing concerns about Trump's outreach to Moscow, Ukrainian officials worry they are losing influence with th...

Midterm elections in the United States are normally about domestic issues such as the economy and the cost of living. They’re often a pulse check on voter sentiment towards the party in power, or a reflection of local political battles and regional trends.

Midterms are rarely impassioned referendums on a specific foreign policy issue. But this year in Michigan, for some voters, the Senate race is shaping up to be just that.

Today on the show, The Global Story’s Asma Khalid shares her reporting from Michigan, where a debate among Democrats over the conf...

America’s pain at the pump could have major implications for the future of the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump wants to bring down fuel prices for Americans. One way he’s trying to do it is by reopening the door to Russian energy, reversing a policy designed to deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of money for his war in Ukraine.

The shift comes as relations between Trump and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky have deteriorated dramatically. Trump has blamed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries for contributing to the global diesel shortage, while...

A diplomat’s job is traditionally to represent their country’s interests while maintaining good relations with their host nation. But some of Donald Trump’s ambassadors are taking a different approach. On Tuesday, Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned from her ambassadorship in Greece after serious allegations were raised about her conduct. According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, the former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. allegedly asked a Trump donor to pay off her $100,000 Amex bill — allegations she denies. Guilfoyle is not the only ambassador to have caused a stir. US envoys around the world have sparked diplomatic rows, con...

Is Washington leaving Saudi Arabia to fend for itself? Last week, Houthi rebels launched a series of missile strikes on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. Surveillance footage showed a fireball erupting as airport passengers ran for cover. At least 14 people have been killed and hundreds were injured.

The attack is the latest escalation in a decade-long war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in neighbouring Yemen. The Saudis have long relied on financial, military and intelligence support from the United States, particularly in their fight against the Houthis. But Washington so far has shown little appetite for di...

This week tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets of Delhi, India’s capital, demanding changes to the electoral system and the resignation of the country’s electoral commissioner. Thousands have been detained by police in the process.

They represent the ‘cockroach’ movement, a grassroots campaign group started by a Boston University graduate in protest at government policies and high youth unemployment. How did a movement that started as a meme capture the minds of India’s young people, and start to pose a challenge to its long-serving prime minister, Narendra Modi?

The BBC’...

Since World War Two ended, most people living in the United States or Europe have generally upheld a consensus about its morality; that it was a just war fought against an evil Nazi regime, and the allies were right to fight it.

But in a viral podcast debate with the British conservative Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tucker Carlson seemed to disagree with that narrative, causing deep consternation within the wider conservative movement.

The Global Story’s Tristan Redman speaks to BBC Newscast’s Adam Fleming about Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and the strand of British conservatism he repr...

Politicians and commentators keep telling us we are living through unprecedented times. But how unusual is the world we are living in, really?

John Simpson has spent 60 years reporting for the BBC, witnessing some of the most consequential moments in modern history. He was on the plane that brought Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran during the 1979 revolution. He watched the Berlin Wall come down. And he reported from Beijing during the protests in Tiananmen Square.

Those experiences have left Simpson with a perspective that is not entirely pessimistic. Having lived through the Cold War, the...

A plague scare in Siberia has become a Rorschach test for public health fears in a post-Covid world.

Russian officials are investigating the death of a worker at a plague research laboratory. They say she died of pneumonia. But speculation online has suggested she may have died from pneumonic plague.

Russian authorities deny this and say there is no risk of an outbreak. So why has the story sparked so much alarm? And how has the legacy of the Covid pandemic played into people's fears of another global health crisis?

The BBC’s he...

What began as a revolt over public school funding has spilled into a much bigger fight over the future of France.

Now, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, and clashes with police have left teenagers and officers injured. More than 6,000 people have been arrested, most of them minors.

But what sparked these demonstrations? How could they shape next year’s election in France? And why have they become a conservative political talking point in the US?

The Global Story’s own Tristan Redman — a Paris resident himself — speaks with co-host...

Israel is marking three years since the 7 October attacks, in which around 1,200 people were killed by Hamas-led attackers and a further 251 hostages were taken back to Gaza.

The commemorations come in the final weeks of a pivotal election campaign. Benjamin Netanyahu’s record on national security is coming under immense scrutiny, amid reports that the government failed to act on warnings in the months leading up to the 2023 attacks – allegations that the prime minister has strongly denied.

Tristan Redman speaks to BBC correspondent Jon Donnison, who is in East Jerusalem.

Producer: Sam Chantarasak

At a recent Meta product launch, Mark Zuckerberg promised that the company’s smart glasses would give wearers “new superpowers”, but what are they?

Amid criticisms of its privacy and child protection policies, Meta is betting big on smart glasses as a way to restyle the company’s image, but they too have caused controversy – dubbed by critics ‘pervert glasses’ because they have been used to film women without their knowledge.

So why are Meta and other big tech firms investing billions in this tech? Who is it for? Lily Jamali, the BBC’s North America technolo...

Why do executions in the United States keep going wrong?

Last week, Tennessee attempted to carry out the execution of Christa Pike, a convicted murderer who had spent three decades on death row. But the execution did not go as planned: After she was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital, Pike remained alive. She was then taken to hospital by ambulance.

This isn’t the first time an American execution hasn’t gone as planned. One reason is that the drugs needed for lethal injection have become increasingly difficult for US prison officials to obta...

In the last year, the US has admitted just 13,000 refugees — a fraction of the number it has accepted in previous years. And almost all of those new arrivals have been white South Africans.

The Trump administration says Afrikaners are fleeing persecution in South Africa. But there is little evidence of attacks specifically targeting the country’s white Afrikaner minority. South Africa’s new ambassador to the US has told the BBC that the idea of a mass attack against white Afrikaners simply does not exist.

So why have Afrikaners been given preferential access to the US ref...

How did the passengers of Flydubai's flight FZ1073 prevent a catastrophe after a cockpit attack? And what does this incident mean for Israel at a politically charged moment?

On Wednesday, a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia after one pilot allegedly stabbed the other. The aircraft entered a 17,000ft plunge before passengers and crew forced their way into the cockpit, overpowered the alleged attacker and helped bring the plane back under control. The injured pilot, identified as Indian national Capt Smit Machchhar, was taken to hospital after the flight landed and later...

Fifteen years ago, the film The Social Network told the story of Facebook’s rise to global prominence. As Meta faces growing scrutiny from regulators and pours billions into AI, a new movie examines what the company allegedly knew about the harms linked to Facebook.

Jeff Horwitz is the journalist whose reporting inspired the new film, The Social Reckoning, which hits cinemas next week. Horwitz helped expose internal debates at Meta over misinformation, teenage well-being, political polarisation and the tension between keeping users safe and growing the business.

After a turbulent year for the company an...

In the early hours of Sunday morning, three vans were spotted near a British military base used by the United States for its bombing operations in Iran. A huge police operation followed, bomb disposal teams were spotted on the scene, and five men were arrested on suspicion of explosive and terrorism offences. Donald Trump said the men were “looking to do big damage to our fort” and that “we had them under investigation”.

The suspects – all British nationals – were released on police bail on Monday afternoon, leaving questions about how dangerous a plot this was alleged to be.

Wh...

Climate scientists have put out a dire warning about this year’s El Niño; that it will likely be the worst in recorded history. And if previous ‘super’ El Niños are anything to go by, that means that this cycle will bring extreme weather - flooding, drought, wildfires, and hunger- across the world.

But how do scientists know what the effects of an El Niño will be? And how do they communicate that information to governments and the public in a way that causes calm preparedness instead of panic?

Tom Di Liberto is a form...

What happens when K-pop’s gruelling formula meets the American music industry?

The global girl group Katseye has gone from a reality-show experiment to a global phenomenon. With chart-topping hits, a viral Gap campaign and a sold-out international tour, the group has become one of the biggest success stories in pop.

But as Katseye breaks through in America, it is also bringing new attention to the intense training, fierce competition and relentless scrutiny that helped fuel its rise. Has the group’s success shown that the K-pop model can work outside South Korea, or exposed the...

Last week, President Donald Trump barred CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House, accusing them of spreading "fake news". After their reporters had their press passes revoked and were denied access to the building, the three outlets launched a joint legal challenge, arguing that the move was unconstitutional.

How unprecedented is this decision? And how does it compare with the treatment of journalists in other countries around the world?

Jason Rezaian, host of the Washington Post podcast Freedom Desk and the paper's former Tehran bureau chief, has a unique perspective on these questions...

China’s President Xi returns to the White House on Thursday for the first time in over a decade. A priority for both leaders will be to discuss AI. The two countries are currently locked in a fierce competition for AI dominance, amid dire warnings from US tech executives in recent weeks that the speed of AI development needs to be slowed, as the risks to humanity are too great.

President Trump has rejected those calls for a slowdown or suggestions of regulation, in part because of his concerns that China will overtake the US in AI de...

The United States is one of the few wealthy countries where commercial surrogacy remains legal.

Bans elsewhere in the world, combined with a largely free-market approach at home, have made the US an international destination for would-be parents from around the globe – fuelling the industry’s rapid expansion. But could it all come to an end?

Today on The Global Story, we speak to fertility technology reporter Emi Nietfeld about how the US became a global hub for surrogacy – and why a series of high-profile cases is raising difficult questions about the industry.

Produc...

While Russia’s president continues to insist that his, “special military operation” in Ukraine is succeeding, the estimated number of Russian soldiers killed and wounded in this war tells another story; 1.4 million casualties since February 2022. For that loss, Russia has gained just 2% of Ukraine’s land.

This is the story Vladimir Putin is not telling Russians. Amid parliamentary elections this past weekend, the Kremlin has claimed that most Russians back the president and the war, and it has promoted the political careers of thousands of soldiers back from Ukraine.

But what of their fallen comrades? The BBC’...

As the midterm elections in America approach, the economy is one of the deciding factors for how people will vote.

Before his second term started, President Trump promised to tackle the so-called affordabilty crisis. But since then, the war in Iran has led to soaring gas prices and a range of tariffs have made some goods more expensive.

How do global events impact people’s finances and in turn how they vote in elections? The talk show host and financial expert Dave Ramsey joins us to discuss.

(Photo: Talk show host Dave Ramsey si...

One of the most successful songwriters of all time is facing the biggest controversy of his nearly two decades in the public eye. Where does pop star Ed Sheeran go from here?

On Tuesday, every support act for Sheeran withdrew from his US stadium tour, following a decision to drop rapper Macklemore from the tour for his on-stage pro-Palestinian comments. In a statement, Sheeran declined to take a political stance on Macklemore’s comments, and stressed that he was not responsible for the decision to remove the rapper from the roster.

Is it possible for po...

Over the last week, the Houthis - an Iran-backed militant group in Yemen - have captured two strategic islands along the Red Sea coast, consolidating its control of a key international shipping route known as the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Saudi Arabia has relied on access to the strait for exporting it oil to customers in Asia. With the Strait of Hormuz already closed due to the Iran war, the Houthis’ control of this vital waterway threatens to deepen the global oil supply crisis.

Tristan Redman is joined by the BBC’s Security Correspondent Frank Gardner to u...

As Canada continues to wage a trade war with the US, an internal battle is being fought over the country’s identity. Next month, voters in Alberta, the country’s wealthiest province, face a referendum on whether they want the opportunity to explore a separation from Canada.

Supporters say Alberta would thrive on its own, because of its rich reserves of oil and natural gas. Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned that independence would lead to years of economic and political turmoil, “right at a time the world is fundamentally uncertain.”

How might the Trump administ...

China’s President Xi Jinping will meet Donald Trump later this month with the issue of AI governance high on the agenda. In recent weeks there has been increasing concern around the risks that AI might pose to humanity, after a safety researcher at Anthropic suggested the technology could, "kill all humans” within the next decade.

Washington has long framed the United States’ development of AI as a race against China – one that it considers vital to its national security. But does China see it the same way? And if so, what are the chances of these rival su...

Why can’t America quit the Middle East?

September 11 marked a shift in the American psyche, and altered the way the United States saw its place in the world. Shortly after the attacks, President George W Bush announced the ‘war on terror’, a policy that would implicate the United States in multiple wars, on multiple fronts, in the Middle East over the next 25 years.

But was this the US reaction that al-Qaeda had planned for? And as the US entered into more wars, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, are the unintended consequences of the ‘war on terro...

For the first time since World War Two, a far-right party has made a significant win in Germany – taking almost 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been labelled as “right-wing extremist” by domestic intelligence, is leading the national polls.

Among its pledges at a state level are to defund “anti-German" art and teach children less about Hitler, as part of a “patriotism” agenda. This idea challenges the deeply held and decades-long German memory culture that insists people must never forget the Nazis’ crimes. The AfD describes German memory culture in its manifesto...

On Tuesday, the government of the United Kingdom announced sweeping sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and accused settlers of ‘ethnic cleansing.’ Soon after, 11 other countries, including Canada, France, Spain and Poland, announced a ban on goods imported from illegal settlements.

In response, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said there would "without a doubt" be a reaction from the US, adding that the move could have a “huge economic impact on British businesses." What do the sanctions suggest about the US’s complex relationship with its western allies?

The Global Story’s Asma Khali...

As the summer holiday season draws to a close, foreigners travelling to and from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are facing delays, cancellations and severe travel warnings. The disruption comes as a result of the UAE’s position in the ongoing US-Israel war with Iran. Throughout the conflict, Iran has attacked the UAE more times than any other country, including Israel.

Until the war with Iran began, Dubai was a major tourist destination, famous for its modern skyscrapers, luxurious beaches and low crime rate. For decades, the Gulf city has promised residents and tourists alike safety, se...

Twenty-five years on from the deadliest terror attack in history, thousands of grieving families are still fighting for answers. In early 2000, two young Saudis arrived in San Diego. They had never been to America, spoke almost no English, and had no idea how to open a bank account or rent a flat. Within weeks they had done all of it. Twenty months later they hijacked a plane and crashed it into the Pentagon. The BBC’s Jane McMullen has been investigating a man who helped two of the hijackers – and has revealed a story that the US and Saudi gove...

Lindsay Clancy faces first-degree murder charges over the deaths of her three young children. But if her case had happened elsewhere, the charges might have looked very different.

Clancy’s trial in Massachusetts has captured international attention. It has divided public opinion and ignited debate over how the US prosecutes cases involving mothers who kill their children — and the charges brought against them.

Other countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, have specific statutes that allow mothers to be charged with infanticide — a conviction that’s more lenient than murder and often results in mental health t...

Accusations of foreign interference have been making headlines this week.

Elon Musk’s X alleges that China has been stirring up a backlash against American data centres.

Israel and Russia have denied allegations from Spain’s prime minister that they’re partly to blame for the migrant crisis in Ceuta.

And Germany has accused Russia of being behind a spate of drone attacks at a German airport. Vladimir Putin has dismissed those claims and accused Germany of a ‘false flag’ operation.

We speak to the BBC’s social media investigations correspondent, Marianna Spr...

America’s national debt recently hit a new milestone of $40 trillion. It is estimated that interest payments on the national debt are now the second largest expense in the US government budget, trailing only social security. How was the US able to borrow so much and for so long? One answer, according Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, is the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

In this episode, Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, explains how the US dollar came to enjoy this hegemonic status, what being the world’s reserve currency...