Beyond Today

Jul 18/2022

Drill music has a reputation for inciting violence and crime. The Metropolitan Police believes the genre is linked to the rise of stabbings and murders across London, and the Met chief Cressida Dick has said social media platforms should be more vigilant of drill content being uploaded online. But many argue that drill is not[...]
At first coronavirus was just a health story, but now it’s pretty clear employment and the economy are taking a massive hit. Travel bans have led to airlines cutting jobs and the hospitality sector is in trouble as people stay at home.In this episode we ask what will happen to workers. It’s a global problem[...]
Kiley Reid’s debut novel shot into the bestsellers list and has been lauded by critics here and in the US. Such A Fun Age follows the lives of babysitter Emira Tucker, a young black woman, and her wealthy, white employer Alix Chamberlin in post-Obama America. Kiley’s book explores race, class and wealth, and how well-meaning[...]
The world is in the midst of a pandemic. For most people, symptoms of the virus are mild, they might develop a cough and a fever before getting better. This has led many people to compare the new coronavirus to seasonal influenza. But, for a minority of those affected, particularly older people and those with[...]
Most people who transition to another gender do not have second thoughts. In fact de-transitioning is thought to be relatively rare. There are no accurate figures revealing how many people reverse or change their gender, as academic researchers have never studied a large group of transitioning people over a long period of time – but[...]
Middlesbrough has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales. Even though national figures show rates have dropped by nearly 60 percent over the past 10 years, the number of pregnant teens in the north-eastern town rose by 20 percent from 2015 to 2017. When the average age of a mum in England[...]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the 70-year-old billionaire ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, has been found by the High Court in London to have abducted and forcibly returned two of his daughters to Dubai, and to have conducted a campaign of intimidation against his former wife, Princess Haya.Princess Haya[...]
It was just before 10 o’clock in the morning on 27th October 2018 when a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and three pistols opened fire on worshippers at a synagogue in the US state of Pennslyvania. 11 people died that morning at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack[...]
There have been mounting allegations over the past few weeks that home secretary Priti Patel has bullied her staff. Last weekend the top civil servant in the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned. He’s heavily criticised Patel, and is suing the government for constructive dismissal. Priti Patel has denied any wrongdoing. In today’s episode we[...]
Nearly 50 people have died in India following violence around a controversial citizenship law which critics say is anti-Muslim. Photographs, videos and accounts on social media paint a chilling image of what appears to be mostly Hindu mobs beating unarmed Muslim men.In this episode we speak to BBC journalists Yogita Limaye and Sachin Gogoi to[...]
In the same week that Harvey Weinstein was convicted for sexual assaults in New York, Roman Polanski won the award for best director at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. The actor Adele Haenel, who accused a director of sexually abusing her when she was a child, denounced the decision and walked out[...]
In Paris in 2015 world leaders agreed on a binding commitment on climate change. They committed to keeping the increase in global temperatures to just 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.Heathrow airport has been planning to expand by building a third runway. But last week environmentalists successfully challenged the third runway on the basis that[...]
2020 has been quite a year, we're only two months in but have already faced an impending war between the US and Iran, deadly bushfires in Australia, and now coronavirus is spreading across the world.So, in light of that, we thought it was time to return to an earlier episode to make us all feel[...]
For years there were allegations that Harvey Weinstein had assaulted women. This week he was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, including rape, and faces up to 29 years in prison. So, how did the Hollywood titan create his downfall? The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta has been covering Weinstein since 2002, and tells[...]
Facial recognition technology is increasingly widespread. You might use it to unlock your phone or computer. It’s used in airports around the world and some shops are using the software to catch or deter shoplifters. Now it’s being used by the police in two parts of the UK. The Metropolitan Police is using live facial[...]
With cases of coronavirus spreading across the world, one word we’re hearing more and more is “pandemic”. If the disease is declared a pandemic it would mean that cases of coronavirus are no longer able to be traced back to the country of origin and fall outside of the control of health authorities. The World[...]
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants new rules for social media.Every year politicians and security experts meet in Munich to discuss how to keep the world safe. This year they invited Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He told the conference governments need to create new rules for social media platforms to stop the spread of[...]
Billie Eilish is on top of the world right now. The 18-year-old recently swept the board at the Grammys, winning five awards including best new artist and song of the year. She also replaced Taylor Swift as the youngest person ever to win album of the year. She’s just performed at the Brit Awards and[...]
Since Caroline Flack’s death by suicide last weekend, many people have been trying to make sense of it. Yesterday her family released a previously unpublished Instagram post written by Caroline Flack detailing her ‘shame’ and ‘embarrassment’ at the truth being taken out of her hands and used, she wrote, as ‘entertainment’. Some have pointed the[...]
At the beginning of the year Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s senior adviser, put out an unusual job advertisement. In a blog post he asked for “super-talented weirdos” and “wild-cards”. One of the people he hired was Andrew Sabisky, a twentysomething “superforecaster”. It was later revealed that Sabisky had previously expressed extreme views on race[...]
Donald Trump is trying to shore up his evangelical support before November's presidential election. Ramping up his Christian outreach, he's been helping teenagers who say they’re being bullied for their religious beliefs at school. These students have organised “prayer lockers” and are running a nationwide “Pray Anyway” campaign. BBC reporter Tara Mckelvey visited one of[...]
Julia Ebner monitors extremists during her day job as a counter-terrorism expert, where she advises governments and tech companies on how to respond to their activities. Two years ago she decided to go undercover to find out exactly what drives people into these groups. She ended up meeting white supremacists in a Mayfair pub; she[...]
Insomnia affects about a third of adults in the UK according to the NHS. It also says adults should be getting between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night, but very few of us actually get that. We speak to Samantha Harvey who has written a book called ‘The Shapeless Unease’ about her year of[...]
It’s been two years since the Windrush scandal, where at least 164 black British citizens were wrongly deported to countries of their birth or detained in the UK. The scandal has had a lasting impact on the Afro-Caribbean community, with many owed compensation from the government. The Home Office recently approved a flight from London[...]
Coronavirus has reached 24 counties outside of China, with 8 confirmed cases in the UK. As the disease is spreading so is a lot of information, some of it misleading. The World Health Organisation has warned that "trolls and conspiracy theories" are undermining their response to the virus. We speak to Mike Wendling from BBC[...]
Callie Lewis was just 24 years old when she took her own life. Callie had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a young age and had always struggled with chronic depression and suicidal thoughts, but at the end of her life she fell through the cracks of an overstretched mental health system. She sought solace[...]
South Korean film Parasite has been named best picture at this year's Oscars, becoming the first non-English language film to take the top prize. It won four awards in total, including best director for Bong Joon-ho. The film is a vicious social satire about two families from different classes in Seoul - one who live[...]
It was the celebrity scandal that gripped the nation in an era where tabloids ruled the roost and affairs and addiction dominated front pages. Right in the middle of the drama was one of the biggest entertainment TV presenters of the age - Michael Barrymore. In 2001, when a 31 year old man called Stuart[...]
The president sort of won the Iowa Democratic caucus. This week was supposed to be when the race to be the candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s presidential election really got going. But the Iowa Democratic caucus was a mess: a tech failure meant a delay in getting results, and a lot of[...]
Yesterday an inquiry into the harm that breast surgeon Ian Paterson did to his patients finally delivered its results. The inquiry recommended that all of his 11,000 patients should have their treatment reassessed. Paterson, who claimed to be a specialised breast surgeon, performed unnecessary surgeries, misdiagnosed patients with cancer and treated patients incorrectly.Paterson is already[...]
Sudesh Amman had been released from prisons days before he stabbed two people in a Islamist-related terror incident in London on February 2. Within minutes of the attack armed police shot him dead. In 2018 Amman was charged with spreading extremist material but was released after serving half of his sentence. Since the attack took[...]
On January 13 a bag containing the dismembered limbs of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods was found on a housing estate in Dublin. Keane is believed to have worked for a drugs gang in the coastal town of Drogheda, just north of Dublin, and his murder is thought to be gang-related. Two rival gangs are feuding in[...]
With more of us becoming more conscious of our health and the environment, vegans and vegetarians look set to make up a quarter of the British population in 2025.But for those who haven’t completely committed to the cause there’s the national Veganuary campaign. Last year 250,000 people signed up, dedicating themselves to a month of[...]
The country was shocked when 39 people were found suffocated in the back of a lorry on an industrial park in Essex last October. The discovery that the victims were economic migrants sparked a conversation about the scale of human trafficking in the UK. Vietnamese people are among the most trafficked people in Britain and[...]
This week Huawei was given permission to build parts of the new 5G network in the UK. But, because Huawei is a Chinese company, there’s a lot of concern about it. What if China, which we know spies on its own people, uses Huawei to spy on us? The US has been urging us to[...]
A brand-new virus which causes severe lung disease has been detected in China. More than 100 people are known to have died there, and experts believe the death toll will rise. Coronavirus appeared in the city of Wuhan in December and the 11 million-strong population are being advised to stay indoors at all times. A[...]
In her new Netflix series The Goop Lab, Gwyneth Paltrow skates the fine line between wellness, pseudoscience and medicine. From orgasms and mushrooms, to ice baths and mediums, Gwyneth and the team tackle wellness methods that sit just outside the mainstream. While some of the scientific claims in the TV show stand up to closer[...]
“We must reject the perennial prophets of doom”. These were Donald Trump’s words at Davos earlier in the week, dismissing those who warn of the dangers of climate change. We know climate change is real, but Trump doesn’t seem to be listening to the experts who tell him this. It’s a tendency the author Michael[...]
The trial of Harvey Weinstein started in New York this week. Once upon a time he was a Hollywood giant, then in 2017 allegations he sexually harassed a number of women began to surface. Over 80 women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, only a few of the complaints have led to criminal[...]
The psychedelic powers of a traditional Amazonian plant medicine called ayahuasca are attracting more and more tourists. It’s becoming big business in countries such as Peru where backpackers and travellers, as well as rich Silicon Valley types are spending weeks and sometimes thousands of dollars to drink an indigenous cocktail. It makes them vomit and[...]
It was a pretty grim general election for Labour last year. As a result Jeremy Corbyn announced he would be stepping down. There are now just four MPs in the running to replace him: Jess Phillips dropped out while we were making this episode. The ultimate task of any leader of the opposition is to[...]
Blue Monday is supposedly the saddest day of the year. 15 years ago that idea was debunked, yet every year in the UK #bluemonday trends on Twitter and the internet is flooded with deals for holidays, ‘wellness’ deals and products offering to boost our mood. In this episode we look at the discomfort around brands[...]
Sex Education, the delightfully uncensored drama about the life of a sex therapist’s awkward teenage son, has landed on Netflix for its second series. Last season the show racked up 40 million views in the first month after release. Why? Perhaps because it tackles all the topics adults and teenagers alike have been too embarrassed[...]
After the US killed one of Iran’s senior generals in a drone strike some people were worried we were on the brink of World War 3. Iran threatened revenge, and fired on a US air base in Iraq. But in doing so it made a colossal mistake, downing a commercial aircraft and killing the 176[...]
This year's Oscar nominations have reignited the row about representation in Hollywood. 19 of the 20 acting nominees this year are white - the highest number since the #OscarsSoWhite outcries of 2015 and 2016. No women have been nominated for best director. That means that over the past 10 years, 49 out of the 50[...]
Over the past decade a tension has emerged between Big Tech’s utopian vision of an AI future and the reality that many jobs are being threatened by data-driven automation. Many of us may suspect that artificial intelligence is going to transform the world of work, but exactly how isn’t always clear. The economist Daniel Susskind[...]
This month Reynhard Sinaga was found guilty of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting 48 men. The judge told the 36-year-old student from Indonesia that he will “never be safe to be released”. Sinaga targeted young men on nights out in Manchester and lured them back to his flat where he would spike their drinks with[...]
We know that the NHS is under immense pressure, especially this time of year when it’s at its busiest. But January is also the month of resolutions, often health-focused ones such as giving up booze and getting fit. Even though these easily-adopted behaviours help to keep us away from the doctor, sticking to them can[...]
Yesterday Prince Harry and Meghan announced they will be stepping back from their roles as senior royals. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their announcement on Instagram, stating that they plan to split their time between the UK and North America and want to become financially independent. Their decision has come as a bit[...]
A British teenager has been given a four-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying about gang-rape in Cyprus. The 19-year-old was convicted following a trial after recanting a claim that she was raped in a hotel room in July. The woman has said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the[...]
Millions of Iranians have flocked to the funeral of their top commander who was killed in a US drone strike at the weekend. The killing of Qasem Soleimani has raised fears of a conflict between the US and Iran and the hashtag World War Three has been trending. We speak to the BBC’s Rana Rahimpour[...]
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that the devastating bushfires raging in the country might go on for months. At least 26 people have died since the fires began in September. Air quality in the capital Canberra was, this weekend, rated the worst in the world. In this episode Beyond Today producer Heidi Pett[...]
We listen in on the big moments, memes, and the music that defined a decade: from the Arab Spring to Greta via the Olympics. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the memes they have generated - from Kim Kardashian to #MeToo, via the Peru Two – it’s all in there. Let us know what[...]
In 2000 a relatively unknown man called Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia. While his European and American counterparts have come and gone, Putin has stayed in the Kremlin for the past 20 years.In this episode we speak to Vitaly Shevchenko from the BBC Russian Monitoring Service to find out how Putin came to[...]
Raheem Sterling is one of the best footballers in the world. But 2019 has proved that he’s even more than that, becoming a key voice in the fight against racism in football. With deals with big brands like Nike and H&M, his reputation is expanding beyond football. We speak to one of Raheem Sterling’s former[...]
The Kurds are an ethnic group living in the north of Syria and in neighbouring Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Since the conflict in Syria started almost nine years ago they’ve been fighting to establish their own state in northern Syria. The US allied with the Kurds to defeat ISIS and supported the Kurdish cause. That[...]
It’s hard to escape Amazon at Christmas. Even if you haven’t been using them for last minute shopping you will most likely have interacted with the company in some other way. Amazon Web Services is now the most valuable part of the business, and whether you know it or not, you probably used it. In[...]
It was a result not many people predicted: the Conservatives won their largest majority since 1987, and Labour lost seats in its northern heartlands, despite social media suggesting there would be a ‘youthquake’ at the polls. There was also an array of bizarre moments from the TV coverage. So, what exactly happened last night? In[...]
The mathematician Dr Hannah Fry is on a mission to improve the PR of maths. Hannah presents radio and TV shows on how maths runs the world, how data underpins everything we do, and on Boxing Day she’s giving the prestigious Royal Institution’s Christmas Lecture on the hidden secrets of maths. Hannah has also written[...]
This year has seen protests spread across the globe, from Latin America, to Hong Kong and the Middle East. While some have specific political origins within their own countries, others have similar characteristics; people fed up with inequality and corruption. We hear from Stephanie Hegarty, the BBC’s population reporter, about the tactics spreading from one[...]
It is two days until we go to the polls in what we are often told is a ‘divided Britain’. But, exactly how we are divided has changed. 50 years ago our social class was the biggest indicator of party loyalty, whereas nowadays our age is more likely to determine who gets our vote. That’s[...]
Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has been described as the most dangerous city in the world. Many young people from the Somali diaspora who have grown up in countries such as the UK and Canada are now returning to their ancestral home in hopes of bringing positive change, even though there is the threat of[...]
Jia Tolentino is a 31-year-old American writer who is being hailed as the voice of a generation. Her pieces for the New Yorker magazine nail everything from feminism to capitalism and vaping. Jia was born in Texas and brought up in a Southern Baptist community; as a teenager she starred in a reality TV show.[...]
President Trump’s been in the UK for the meeting of the world’s biggest military alliance, NATO. NATO’s been struggling recently, partly because Trump doesn’t get along so well with America’s traditional allies and now he’s in a row with his own military chiefs. This is because he’s taken decisions without informing them, like pulling out[...]
In October, a video went viral after Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted public transport by protesting on the roof of a train at Canning Town station in east London. The stunt took place during rush hour and the intention was to raise awareness of the climate emergency. But it ended in angry commuters dragging the protesters[...]
The man who killed Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt was a convicted terrorist who had spent eight years in prison. Usman Khan was jailed in 2012 for preparing acts of terrorism. While he was inside he underwent a deradicalisation programme. He was released on licence last December and on Friday he travelled to London to[...]
The app best known for short, funny videos that have made it the meme engine of the internet found itself hosting a different kind of viral video. Feroza Aziz, a teenager from New Jersey, posted what looked like a makeup tutorial but was actually trying to raise awareness of the detention of China’s Uighur Muslims[...]
96 Liverpool FC fans died at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on 15 April 1989. It remains the worst disaster in British sporting history. The tragedy happened over 30 years ago and many say the trauma of Hillsborough has been passed on to the next generation, those who weren’t even born in 1989.In this episode we[...]
Last Friday a 27-year-old New Zealand man was found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane. During the trial questions were raised over how the press covered the case and how the defence was put together. Campaigners say Grace was blamed for her own death and that other assailants are claiming their victims[...]
Instagram has announced that it’s extending a trial where it hides likes from other users. You will still see your own like count, but not that of people you follow. It’s being heralded as a positive thing, and all about improving mental health. Instagram bosses say they want to depressurise the experience, and look after[...]
Blue Story, a film about two young black boys from different London postcodes who get caught up in rival gangs went on general release on Friday. By Saturday two cinema chains, Vue and Showcase, had pulled the film from all their cinemas. The decision was made after a mass fight broke out at the Star[...]
There are more than 150 billionaires in the UK, but is that concentration of immense wealth actually a sign of failure? Should anyone ever be worth a sum of money that has nine zeroes in it? For decades nobody seemed to question wealth: it was something to aspire to, and the idea that money would[...]
This was the year that the world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, brought his critically-acclaimed TV show to the UK. The series has helped bring British drag queens and topics that affect the LGBT community to a wider audience. But, does appreciation of drag always mean there’s acceptance in society?In this episode we speak to[...]
Once more the NHS is at the heart of a general election campaign and politicians on all sides are promising to improve the health service. With more than four million patients on the NHS waiting list and delays in A&E at their worst level since records began, many people believe the health system in struggling.[...]
Plastic surgery has never been cheaper or more accessible. The industry is booming: it’s worth an estimated £19 billion. The results of cosmetic self- improvement are readily available on Instagram, and appear in the breaks of Love Island. More people than ever are considering going under the knife. Despite all the moralising about plastic surgery,[...]
Three days later and the fallout from Prince Andrew’s BBC interview keeps coming: today university students and a big accountancy firm are distancing themselves from the duke. Prince Andrew appeared on Newsnight to address controversy over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But it backfired after critics called the interview a “car[...]
There was a story in October you may have missed: a 15-year-old boy from London was stabbed to death after getting off a bus on his way home from school. Baptista Adjei was one of the youngest people to be murdered in the capital this year. In this episode we speak to BBC London’s Greg[...]
We know that one in four people will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their life and that anxiety seems to be on the increase. The latest research suggests that rates of psychological distress and illness are especially high among undergraduates. Dr Laurie Santos wanted to do something about it: she’s[...]
The 2019 general election is in full swing and political parties are relying on digital campaigning more than ever before. Targeted marketing has made a profound change in how political parties can reach you and our compulsion to click, like and share can be used against us in surprising ways. We speak to Kirk J.[...]
Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have been going on for months now. In the past few days the violence has escalated and schools are being closed for safety reasons. The row centres on a fight for national identity. For Hong Kong protestors this is a fight for freedom from influence from mainland China. For the[...]
Last month in Sodermalm, a gentrified part of Stockholm, an explosion tore through an apartment block. Residents were left shocked and the bomb squad was called out. That night two more explosions happened in two other parts of the city. In fact, since the beginning of 2019 there have been over 100 explosions in Sweden.Right[...]
On a weekend at the start of March, two murders caused public outcry. Two 17-year-olds were killed in two different attacks in London and Greater Manchester. Politicians said knife crime was out of control and called for urgent action. Last week two teenagers were found guilty of murdering Jodie Chesney, the girl killed in London.[...]
In 2013 two young British women were caught trying to smuggle a haul of cocaine worth £1.5m from Lima, in Peru, to Ibiza. Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid were dubbed the Peru Two after a photograph of the pair being arrested at Lima airport went viral. The duo were sentenced for six years in a[...]
She’s the most famous transgender woman in the world. Today she’s best known for being part the Kardashian-Jenner dynasty, but at one time she was most famous for being the world’s greatest athlete after winning gold in the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics, competing as Bruce Jenner. In 2015 she transitioned and renamed herself Caitlyn.[...]
Gaming is worth more than all other entertainment combined. At the very top of the industry is a 56 year old Japanese man called Hideo Kojima, a highly respected designer who says his latest game ‘Death Stranding’ is a reaction to what he sees as the selfishness of Donald Trump’s wall and Brexit. The game[...]
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the Taliban were never out of the news when Britain and the US deployed their armies to destroy al Qaeda and the Taliban, the terrorist group who controlled Afghanistan at the time. But the Taliban were never destroyed; they still control parts of the country and they still[...]
With six weeks to go until the general election we know we’re going to get speeches and policy announcements, but what really makes up our minds? In the past we voted along class lines, but that’s all changing. We speak to Rosie Campbell who is professor of politics at Kings College in London. She’s also[...]
Not so long ago, horoscopes were considered a bit of fun that wasn’t taken too seriously. But in 2019 astrology is booming: there are astrology apps, daily podcasts for each star sign, zodiac-themed clothing and make-up ranges, and lots of viral horoscope memes flooding social media. Trend forecasters price the mystical market at more than[...]
Last week 39 people suffocated to death in the back of a lorry in Essex. It was a reminder of a similar case that happened 19 years ago when 58 Chinese nationals were found dead in a lorry in Dover. In fact, the police originally thought that the group in that lorry in Grays last[...]
Earlier this week top NHS bosses wrote a letter to the Professional Standards Authority expressing serious concerns about homeopathy. They warned of its lack of scientific foundation and anti-science message in an era of misinformation.Homeopathic remedies are proven to be no more effective than a placebo, but for many of its defenders it has real[...]
Jonathan Van Ness is a podcaster, a hairdresser, and host of the Game of Thrones webseries Gay of Thrones. But he’s best known as one of the “Fab Five” on Queer Eye, the incredibly popular Netflix makeover show. He came into talk to us because he’s just written a book. It’s called Over the Top[...]
Donald Trump announced over the weekend that the fugitive leader of the so-called Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed in a raid in Syria. During the press conference he described the ISIS leader “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” to the back of a tunnel in his compound, where he detonated[...]
“Love is not a permanent state of enthusiasm.” These are the words of one of the most famous therapists in the world: Esther Perel. She is internationally renowned for creating and presenting ‘Where Should We Begin’, the ground-breaking podcast about love, sex, intimacy and infidelity. She also has two best-selling books and videos of her[...]
Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK and Scotland has the highest suicide rate in Britain. Chris Clements and Calum Mckay have looked into the figures for BBC Scotland's Disclosure programme. They travelled to Lanarkshire, in south-central Scotland, where they both grew up and discovered Motherwell Thistle, an amateur football[...]
Facebook helps connect people, but now it’s on a new mission to get people to fall in love. Facebook users in the US — it will be available in Europe next year — can create a dating profile and curate a list of secret crushes from among your friends. The dating industry is massive —[...]
In a court case that is gripping Asia, a Malaysian wealth fund is accused of robbing the country of $3.5 billion US dollars. It is the world’s biggest white-collar heist involving government corruption at the highest level, an abuse of power and international money laundering. It's also a case that drags in one of the[...]
Was this the worst Monday morning ever for MPs? They were forced into work over the weekend to vote on the Brexit deal, and they couldn’t even do that properly. Now they’re back trying to hammer it out again. They’ve been doing this for months, stuck because there’s no majority for any agreement on Brexit.[...]
Christopher Wylie is a 30-year-old Canadian data specialist who moved to London a few years back, started working in political campaigns, and then became deeply involved in two of the biggest political events of his lifetime: the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump. He worked for Cambridge Analytica, the company that was caught[...]
Nike spends a lot of money sponsoring and marketing some of the best athletes in the world. It doesn’t just back global superstars like Serena Williams and Cristiano Ronaldo on the field, but off them too. It made the American football player Colin Kaepernick as the face of an advertising campaign after he protested against[...]
A British woman is on trial in Cyprus, where she is accused of causing public mischief by allegedly falsely claiming to have been sexually assaulted at an Ayia Napa hotel in July. The woman has told the court she was raped, but then "forced" to retract her statement by the Cypriot police 10 days later.12[...]
President Trump’s order to pull US troops out of northern Syria last week was a little like pushing over a domino: it meant that Turkey could start an offensive against the Syrian Kurds who live in that region and who they see as a terrorist threat; it meant that the Kurds, who have been a[...]
The Queen opened parliament today and set out the government’s main priority: to leave the EU by October 31st. Boris Johnson has set up his whole premiership on this very message, and one reason why is Nigel Farage. Now leader of the Brexit Party, Farage has always campaigned to get us out of the EU.[...]
Tech and the way it is shaping our future is a theme we cover a lot on Beyond Today. We’ve looked at facial recognition, sex bots, and the new tech cold war. Underpinning all these are rapid advances in artificial intelligence which are changing the power dynamics between states and citizens, companies and consumers.In this[...]
We have never lived in a more closely monitored world. Facial recognition technology is being rolled globally, including across the UK. Data can be acquired without a person’s knowledge, let alone their consent. There is a creeping paranoia and concern among human rights experts that advanced surveillance technology could fall into the wrong hands.We speak[...]
*** Update: Adnan Ahmed's conviction was quashed on appeal after three judges ruled the verdict was a miscarriage of justice ***BBC reporter Myles Bonnar spent two days on the streets of London with "pick-up" coaches, being “trained” in how to chat up women and get them into bed. “Pick-up” culture goes at least as far[...]
In August a young man called Harry Dunn died when a car driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into his motorbike. The only suspect has left the country, and there’s nothing the police can do to get her to come back. Anne Sacoolas' husband works for the US government at RAF Croughton[...]
In April 2018 the Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned and delivered an unprecedented apology for the “appalling” actions of her own department towards Windrush-era citizens. It came 5 months after an investigation by a Guardian journalist into what has become known as the Windrush scandal. The scandal affected an unknown number of people who arrived[...]
“I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces”. This week Prince Harry released a strongly-worded statement attacking the way the press treats his wife Meghan. At the same time the couple announced they were taking legal action against the Mail on Sunday for publishing a private[...]
With four weeks to go before the government’s deadline for leaving the EU, parliament is still discussing the best way forward. Was this crisis inevitable? One of the go-to places to decode all this has been the Talking Politics podcast. Helen Thompson is one of the hosts. She is also professor of political economics at[...]
Saudi Arabia’s 33 year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been described as a reformer. What he is selling to the outside world is a modern, forward thinking country that’s no longer dependent on oil. But one year ago today, the Saudi journalist and human rights campaigner, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul. Now we’ve[...]
Impeachment proceedings have been launched against Donald Trump after a whistleblower said the US president pressured the leader of Ukraine into investigating one of his main Democratic challengers. In a telephone conversation Trump asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into Joe Biden, the man Trump may well face in the 2020 presidential election, and connections[...]
Parents Jake and Hobbit have taken the unusual decision to keep the sex of their baby secret. They say "gender bias is unconscious" and that this is the only way to mitigate against it, not even telling the child’s grandmother their sex until they were 11 months old. When Beth Mcleod covered their story for[...]
At the end of another overwhelming week of news, it’s time for bit of perspective. Ten years ago philosopher Alain de Botton founded The School of Life, a collective of psychologists, writers and philosophers mulling over life’s big questions to its 5 million YouTube subscribers. Alain argues that the news doesn’t give us the information[...]
There were more than 700 allegations of sexual misconduct at British universities over the last academic year, according to an investigation by the BBC’s File on 4 programme. Since that documentary aired last week, the team has received a moving response from student survivors of sexual assault who came forward to speak about their experiences.The[...]
On January 17 2015 at California’s Stanford University a young woman went to a party. A few hours later, she was found unconscious beside a bin. She had been sexually assaulted. To protect her identity in court, the victim was known as Emily Doe. We knew little else about her. We knew a lot about[...]
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg made a passionate speech at the UN this week, accusing world leaders of failing to act on climate change. She told them: "You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you."It’s hard to remember that a year[...]
On Tuesday we’re expecting that the judges of the highest court in the land will rule on whether Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down parliament ahead of next month’s Brexit deadline was legal or not. Scottish judges have already declared it unlawfulJust a few weeks ago very few of us could name the most recent[...]
Emma Barnett’s becoming one of the most respected broadcasters in the country. She presents for 5 Live and Newsnight, and can make her interviewees - often politicians - feel very awkward just by asking them simple questions they stumble around trying to answer. Emma got in touch to ask us if we wanted to talk[...]
Dr Ruja Ignatova is the founder of the cryptocurrency One Coin that promised to change money forever. Within two years of launching the company she claimed to have 3.5 million members and hundreds of thousands of investors, with offices all round the world holding events and seminars in major cities. She even packed out Wembley[...]
Purdue Pharma is the company that has become synonymous with the opioid epidemic in the United States. The firm, which is owned by the wealthy Sackler family, produces the highly addictive and highly profitable drug OxyContin. This week the company filed for bankruptcy. We trace the rise and fall of the dynasty from New York[...]
Over the weekend the singer Sam Smith released a statement which read: “I’ve decided I am changing my pronouns to THEY/THEM.”Coming from a pop artist who has sold over 20m records, this felt like a moment where non-binary hit the mainstream. Sam’s post sparked a debate about gender, identity and language.Tom Rasmussen is a drag[...]
Eight years ago, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad began his brutal crackdown on opponents of his regime. Air strikes have long targeted hospitals, and in the last rebel stronghold of Idlib medics are being forced underground to survive.Waad Al-Kateab is a Syrian journalist who lived through this in the city of Aleppo. She filmed what it[...]
Six years since it last aired, the TV series Top Boy is back. Although the show, which revolves around an east London estate and the people who live there, is entirely fictional it was lauded for depicting the reality of inner-city life. But even though its second series premiered to critical acclaim, Channel 4 cancelled[...]
Fruit Medley, Cotton Candy and Buttered Popcorn may sound like options on a dessert menu, but they are actually vape flavours. President Trump has just said he wants to ban the sale of all non-tobacco flavoured e-cigarettes in response to an outbreak of a vaping-related illness that has caused the deaths of six people and[...]
On the 24th of August, 19-year-old Uyinene Mrwetyana went missing in Cape Town. She had gone to fetch a parcel at the post office. A week later her body was found. She had been raped and murdered. Her death spurred a movement across the country with thousands of people protesting after the most deadly month[...]
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale , originally released in 1985, has become a modern-day phenomenon thanks to the recent TV series and explosion of feminist politics. Its sequel The Testaments was released this week with a Harry Potter-esque book launch on Monday, which saw fans queuing round the corner to get their hands[...]
In July eight people were convicted for their part in Britain’s biggest ever modern slavery prosecution. The gang were part of an organised crime group from Poland which enslaved hundreds of people.The victims were tricked into coming to the UK with the promise of work. When they arrived they were forced into menial labour, had[...]
Malcolm Gladwell seems to be everyone’s fantasy dinner guest. Also a contender for America’s greatest intellectual, he’s a Canadian with roots in the UK. The writer and host of the Revisionist History podcast is back with a new book: “Talking to Strangers”. In it he explores what we should know about the people we don’t[...]
MPs came back from their summer break on Tuesday and it already feels like months ago. A lot of politics has happened since then and what with the betrayals, the tears, and the memes it’s become the biggest reality show since Love Island.It’s difficult to figure out who is really in charge of events at[...]
Amid the Brexit chaos, there’s another story that went viral this week. A teenage boy in Bristol has lost his eyesight because of his poor diet. Since leaving primary school, he had been eating only French fries, Pringles and white bread, as well as an occasional slice of ham or a sausage. The story provoked[...]
A recent government survey found that 5% of gay people in the UK had been offered conversion therapy in order to “cure” them, and that 2% had undergone it. It’s a small percentage, but it’s still pretty shocking that the practice happens here at all. For a documentary for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, James Barr[...]
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisers have a plan for staying in power and getting us out of the EU. They are picking their way through it and today they held a special cabinet meeting to discuss calling an election. Tomorrow, MPs are back in parliament with a chance to stop them taking[...]
Sara Pascoe’s first book explored the anatomy of the female body. Now the comedian has turned her attention to masculinity. Sara came to the Beyond Today studio to talk about her new book, what RuPaul’s Drag Race can teach us about gender roles, whether sex workers should be prescribed on the NHS and why men[...]
The prime minister's decision to suspend parliament prompted an angry backlash from MPs and opponents of a no-deal Brexit. It sparked protests across the country, a legal challenge and a petition with – at the time of writing - around one and a half million signatures. The government claims the five-week suspension in September and[...]
Wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are burning at a record rate. It’s caused global anger and anxiety with more than three million people sharing the hashtag #PrayforAmazonia. Criticism has been directed at the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for failing to protect the rainforest and rejecting $22 million of aid money. In this episode we look[...]
One year ago, a 15-year-old girl from Sweden started protesting outside the Swedish parliament, urging the government to pay attention to the world’s climate crisis. Now Greta Thunberg has become the face of environmental activism. Two weeks ago, when Greta set sail to America on a zero carbon boat, the internet exploded with some fairly[...]
In this re-release of one of our favourite recent episodes, Tina speaks to filmmaker Louis Theroux. Back in July he came in to tell us about his documentary Surviving America’s Most Hated Family and why, 13 years on, he’s still interested in the Westboro Baptist Church. We also talk to him about nudity, why he’s[...]
Tina Daheley speaks with Mobeen Azhar, a journalist and filmmaker for the BBC who travelled to Portland, Oregon to make a film about the death of a 19-year-old African American. The footage of Larnell Bruce running for his life went viral at the time, raising alarm about white supremacy. But in Oregon, Mobeen uncovered a[...]
This week, Manchester United footballer, Paul Pogba received racial abuse online from anonymous accounts after he missed a penalty. He’s the third player in a week to be racially abused on social media following a penalty miss. In response, teammate Harry Maguire tweeted that social media users should have to verify their identity before opening[...]
Last week around a hundred people in Iceland walked up the side of a windswept rocky mountain to attend the funeral… of a glacier. Okjokull’s death was a result of climate change, and scientists predict that within 200 years all of Iceland’s glaciers will go the same way. So, what does the death of Okjokull[...]
Office space company We Work have just released their prospectus ahead of their stock market flotation next month. Their vision of the future of work is a utopian one forged from the Silicon Valley tech boom. It’s a vision of work-based community that some say creates a culture of ‘hustle porn.’ We speak to Wall[...]
Earlier this month, India imposed a media blackout in Kashmir while they stripped the region of its autonomy, causing panic, outrage and protests. As the tensions between India and Pakistan escalate, we look at how we got here and what could happen next. And what does Priyanka Chopra have to do with it? Yogita Limaye,[...]
Arous was an idyllic holiday resort on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, a slice of paradise offering an escape to up to 30 scuba-diving tourists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But it held a secret, one so outlandish it’s just been made into a Netflix movie. The BBC news website’s Middle East Editor Raffi[...]
Everyone who has heard the story of a woman on a Tinder date spending £15,000 on wine at the Shard seems to have loved it. The voice note has whipped around social media. But as soon as you’ve heard it you start to wonder if it’s true. Nesta McGregor from Radio 1’s Newsbeat tells us[...]
The average student debt after a three year degree course in England is £50,000. It’s a large sum that can be off-putting when you hear tales of jobless graduates and self-made entrepreneurs. Student debt is lower in Wales and Northern Ireland and less still in Scotland where you don’t pay fees, but even here student[...]
The financier Jeffrey Epstein was in a Manhattan prison awaiting trial for sex trafficking when he was found dead in his cell last weekend. The multi-millionaire moved in the richest social circles with people like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. But with his death, apparently by suicide, how much can we really know?[...]
Last week Championship side Derby County announced Wayne Rooney, the former England captain, would be joining the team as a player-coach on a reported £100,000-a-week contract and will wear the number 32. Derby also secured a “record-breaking sponsorship” deal with the online casino 32Red. The news has raised questions about football’s links to gambling at[...]
Cyntoia Brown was 16 when she was jailed for life for murder. This week she walked free after the Governor of Tennessee granted her clemency. She was backed by a number of powerful celebrities including Kim Kardashian who used social media to highlight her case as part of a campaign to get young black Americans[...]
“There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a great deal.” That’s what Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, said in July 2017. A no-deal Brexit was once a fringe idea, but it’s now what Johnson’s government is working towards to fulfil his pledge to leave the EU by the end[...]
Boris Johnson’s government is “turbo-charging” plans for leaving the EU without a deal at the end of October. People are asking each other if we’re going to have enough food, whether they should be stockpiling tins and if it’s going to cost more money. Companies are stockpiling ingredients and today supermarkets have asked the government[...]
The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2025 half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas. This means the demand for water will be more than the supply. This is already happening in Chennai. The Indian city with more than five million people has been having a water crisis since June. The taps[...]
Two mass shootings in 24 hours have shocked America: the first in El Paso, Texas and the other in Dayton, Ohio. 29 people have lost their lives. The El Paso shooter opened fire in a Walmart store only a few miles from the Mexican border. Police are treating the attack as domestic terrorism after finding[...]
Improving social mobility has been a key pledge of successive governments with politicians promising to create a meritocracy in Britain. However, research shows time and time again that the best-paid and most influential jobs still go to those from privileged backgrounds while the working classes aren’t getting ahead… even if they’re better candidates for the[...]
When swimmer Mack Horton refused to share a podium with Sun Yang, accusing him of being a drug cheat, what he didn’t know is that one of his own teammates had tested positive for a banned substance. On Friday Shayna Jack will attempt to clear her name as she faces a four year ban. The[...]
US rapper A$AP Rocky went on trial in Sweden this week, accused of assaulting a 19-year-old in Stockholm.Donald Trump has publicly called for his release online, tweeting “Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime[...]
As technology advances, we’re going to become more reliant on artificial intelligence. Robots are being programmed and piloted in primary schools and care-homes to teach basic maths and to help tackle loneliness. Robots are even available to provide romantic intimacy and sex. It seems inevitable that robots will play a significant role in our emotional[...]
Once upon a time the concept of legalising recreational cannabis was something stoners at house parties dreamt about, but in the past few years the conversation around cannabis has changed.BBC Newsbeat journalist Jim Connolly travelled with Labour's David Lammy, Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly and Liberal Democrat Sir Norman Lamb on a fact-finding trip to Canada.[...]
More than 6 million people have tuned in to watch series 5 of Love Island. It all comes to an end next week but ITV has announced that it’s doing so well they’ll start running two series a year. We speak to superfans Sarah Manavis, digital culture writer for the New Statesman, and broadcaster Richie[...]
Matt Forde set out on a mission to humanise politics with his podcast the Political Party. He’s interviewed some of the biggest politicians of our time: Tony Blair, Nigel Farage and even Tommy Robinson. But there’s a thin line between humanising politicians and doing their PR job for them. In the week that a politician[...]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably used Faceapp to see how you’ll look when you’re older.But in the days after Faceapp blew up, a conspiracy theory spread across the internet. People were worried that Wireless Lab - the app’s maker - was feeding data to the Russian government. This led to the[...]
Boris Johnson has been elected new Conservative leader. He will take over as prime minister from Theresa May on Wednesday. He says he will deliver Brexit and unite the country. But Boris Johnson is a divisive character. This episode is about the mistakes he’s made along the way, but why in the end his ambition[...]
Today’s episode is all about Theresa May, but that doesn’t mean it’s all about Brexit. It’s a common argument: the main reason Theresa May failed as prime minister is that she got her whole approach to Brexit wrong and screwed up negotiations with both the EU and MPs. But there are other moments that could[...]
This is part two of our interview with Eliot Higgins, the man who began investigating international crimes from his living room in Leicester after dropping out of university. Despite having no formal journalism training or experience, he quickly gained a reputation in the relatively new field of open-source citizen journalism, where people analyse publicly available[...]
Five years ago passenger flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over conflict-hit Ukraine.Investigators blame Russian-backed separatists who they say targeted the plane with a Russian-made missile.One of the reasons they’re sure is because of the work of Eliot Higgins. He founded the website Bellingcat, which describes[...]
It’s three months since the 29-year-old journalist Lyra Mckee was killed in a riot in Northern Ireland. Her death shocked the world and there were calls for politicians in Northern Ireland to unite. But since then the assembly in Stormont still hasn't sat. There has, though, been some progress on things Lyra felt passionate about[...]
Today marks exactly 50 years since the launch of the Apollo 11 mission to put the first man on the Moon. Ever since that day in 1969 conspiracy theories have sprung up alleging that the whole thing is a hoax, and now there is a growing community of people who don’t even believe the earth[...]
The nation’s favourite documentary maker is back. This week Tina speaks to filmmaker Louis Theroux, who came in to tell us about his new documentary Surviving America’s Most Hated Family and why, 13 years on, he’s still interested in the Westboro Baptist Church. We also talk to him about nudity, why he’s not into hallucinogenic[...]
“Not every day, all day. But there's always a point that I think about it, and what would have been different.” Claire gets an audience with the Ministry of Defence to ask: who is responsible for soldiers suffering from PTSD, and why doesn’t the military keep track of veterans when they know that PTSD can[...]
“They gave everything. And they deserved so much more.” Kevin Holt died nine years after his Afghan tour. He was fighting his demons right to the end. But was it the war that killed him? And Kevin wasn’t the first from his platoon to die after getting home safely. This episode discusses suicide. If you[...]
“I don’t think I could honestly say I’ve spoken to anyone about all the stuff that’s happened.” Claire is invited to the pub with three of the guys who were there on 10 July, 2009. They say talking to people who went through it helps them, but it turns out that looks very different to[...]
“He went out a boy and he came back a broken man” After that day, the platoon pick themselves up and carry on fighting the Taliban in Helmand. But when they get home a new battle begins for them and their families. If you’re affected by the issues raised in this episode, help is out[...]
“I remember hearing that bang, and thinking: this is it.” On 10 July, 2009, the soldiers of 9 platoon were out on a dawn patrol when an IED blast ripped through their ranks. Talking about it now, the survivors refer to it only as "that day". They all know what they mean. This episode contains[...]
“It’s the best part of your life and the worst part of your life all rolled into one.” It’s ten years since the British Army’s deadliest month in Afghanistan. The platoon that was worst hit has lost two more men since then, including Kevin Holt who died of a morphine overdose. BBC defence producer Claire[...]
Vampire Weekend have won a Grammy, topped the charts and become one of the most important bands of their generation. Their singer, songwriter and creative force Ezra Koenig sat down with Beyond Today at Glastonbury a few hours before the band went on stage. Here he discusses the anxiety of life as a professional musician,[...]
It feels like Pride is more visible than ever before, with rainbows everywhere and even LGBT sandwiches on the shelves. But while it’s a measure of progress that communities are able to publicly celebrate their identity, is a party enough? Certainly not for gay women in one area of Chile, where three butch lesbians, known[...]
Last December, the people of Sudan took to the streets to protest against high food prices and decades of hardship under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. Four months later momentum of the protests spread across the country, and led to the ousting of the president. But then things took a turn for the worse. On[...]
In 2018 Anna Campbell’s father Dirk received the news that his 26 year-old daughter had died fighting in Syria. Up until that moment he didn’t know what she was involved with. Depending on who you speak to she was idealistic, brave, naive, or foolish. In this episode we speak to Dirk Campbell and the BBC’s[...]
They have two of the most distinctive hairdos in the world and they used to trade insults. But now it appears that Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have become friends. Trump made an impromptu visit to the North Korean border at the weekend and became the first serving US president to set[...]
There are loads of music festivals these days. But the one that still stands out, that is special somehow, is Glastonbury. What started as a party on a farm for 1500 revellers nearly half a century ago has become the most iconic festival in the world, attended by 200 thousand people. How did that happen?[...]
The Saharan Bubble is blasting hot air across the European continent, breaking temperature records all over the place. But scientists are reluctant to link specific weather events to climate change, saying we can only be certain about long term trends. So when can we say for sure? We hear from Clare Nasir, a meteorologist with[...]
South Korea’s playground for the rich and famous has been rocked by a major scandal over the alleged drugging and rape of women and young girls. Police have arrested more than 350 people in connection with claims of sexual abuse and exploitation in Seoul’s Gangnam nightclub district. A BBC investigation spoke to victims who say[...]
Boris Johnson is the clear favourite to replace Theresa May. He easily made it to the final along with Jeremy Hunt after getting backing from more than 100 Tory MPs. But things have gone a bit wrong for him after his neighbours recorded a row with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds and gave it to the[...]
The Chinese authorities say they are schools students attend voluntarily. Human rights groups say hundreds of thousands of Muslims are detained there without trial. So what’s really going on inside the mysterious camps in Xinjiang, the majority Muslim province in the far west of China? BBC China Correspondent John Sudworth and his producer Kathy Long[...]
Johny Pitts is a writer, photographer and TV presenter who you may have seen on CD:UK, Blue Peter or MTV. He’s now written a book called Afropean which, among other things, has helped him understand his heritage as a boy from Sheffield with a white-English mother and an African-American father. In the book Johny also[...]
Mobeen Azhar thought his hometown was a sleepy place where nothing really happened. Then a young man was shot by police on the motorway and Mobeen went home to investigate the killing. He found way more than he bargained for, and uncovered some uncomfortable truths about the place he grew up.
Two million people took to the streets in Hong Kong over the past week to protest against a controversial extradition bill. Led by young people the protests are a direct challenge to Chinese rule in Hong Kong. We spoke to BBC reporters Danny Vincent, who lives in Hong Kong and Helier Cheung who was brought[...]
It’s almost a year since a Thai football team of 12 boys and their coach found themselves trapped for more than two weeks in the Tham Luang caves in northern Thailand. In a story that gripped the entire world, the rescue became a race against time to save the Wild Boars before heavy monsoon rains[...]
Young people in Liverpool are being offered hundreds of pounds by older gang leaders to stab each other. An investigation by Layla Wright for Beyond Today found that bounties are being used in knife attacks. We speak to Alan Walsh, an experienced youth worker in Merseyside who spoke to and recorded the teenagers. He says[...]
Michael Barbaro is the host of The New York Times’ podcast The Daily - a podcast that spends 20 minutes every day focussing on one big news story. Regular listeners of Beyond Today might find this familiar… And in truth without The Daily we might not exist: it was a blueprint for a new type[...]
Botswana is home to the world’s largest population of elephants. And now you can hunt them. It’s a fascinating debate which pitches the moral question and knee-jerk reaction against killing endangered animals, against the economic and social reality of having more elephants than anywhere else on earth. Elephants can be very destructive when they encroach[...]
72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire two years ago this week. Since then the first part of a public inquiry has taken place looking at the events of that night. The next phase, which will investigate why the 24-storey tower was wrapped in combustible cladding, will start next year. Kate Lamble from the[...]
Charlie Brooker started his career writing video game reviews before he went on to become a TV critic. He’s written and presented two successful TV series, Screenwipe and Newswipe, which pulled apart the news and what we watch on TV. But he’s best known as being the creator and writer of the hugely successful Black[...]
After Melania Geymonat and her girlfriend Chris were attacked on a London bus last week they chose to share the photo of the aftermath of the attack, and their story, with the world. They wanted people to understand something about what they and other lesbian couples face, not just violence but also the subtle ways[...]
James Bridle wants us to think about technology in a different way. His book ‘A New Dark Age’ is a slightly foreboding look at our relationship with the digital world, arguing that as it gets more complex our understanding of it diminishes. His work addresses a lot of the themes we talk about on Beyond[...]
There are lots of reasons you may want to take a DNA test. Perhaps you want to find out where in the world your DNA comes from or connect to relatives. But people don’t always know what they’re getting themselves into and some make shocking discoveries about their families. We speak to Rebekah Drumsta from[...]
Helena Kornilova is a 29 year-old Russian model and biochemist. She’s also a blogger and Instagram influencer with 280,000 followers. She’s been in the news in Russia because she’s been exposed as a fraudster after recommending medical advice and, in particular, supplements to buy. But this isn’t just a Russian problem, influencers all over the[...]
China has ramped up efforts to prevent people from reading about the student protests of 1989 that ended in bloodshed when the government sent tanks into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Activists have been arrested and censorship has been stepped up, with bans placed on English-speaking foreign media such as CNN and the BBC. We speak to[...]
Most of the President’s family flew in for a guided tour of London’s hotspots with the royals on the first day of their state visit to the UK. Protesters waved their banners and everyone waited for Trump to start tweeting. The President and First Lady Melania Trump went to Buckingham Palace for a private lunch[...]
Tomorrow night in Madrid Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur will face each other in the Champions League final, the pinnacle of the club game. With Chelsea having beaten Arsenal in Europe’s second tier competition the Europa League on Wednesday, it’s been a huge week for English football. And there’s even more to come. Next week the[...]
This week Malaysia ordered several thousand tonnes of imported plastic waste to be sent back to the countries it came from. The country’s government says it has become a dumping ground for wealthier nations and that much of the refuse has been imported illegally. Some of it is from the UK. We talk rubbish with[...]
Fortnite tends to make headlines because of how many people play it and how much money it makes, but it’s much more interesting than that. In this episode we explore how Fortnite’s founders have created a new way of experiencing the world that is up against Netflix, Facebook, Google and Amazon in the battle over[...]
Last week Panorama went undercover inside a hospital for vulnerable adults and revealed patients being mocked, taunted and intimidated by abusive staff. In shocking footage, reporter Olivia Davies filmed patients with autism and learning disabilities being deliberately provoked by staff and regularly physically restrained by them. The investigation comes eight years after her colleague Joe[...]
Theresa May says she’s resigning, making way for a new prime minister. But she’s leaving without Brexit being resolved. The new person in the job will have to continue to negotiate and with European Parliament elections taking place this weekend the leaders there will have their eye on the results. We speak to the BBC’s[...]
Jamie Oliver is one of the UK’s best-known chefs and restaurant owners. He’s had world wide success with his books, TV series, and campaigns, but this week it was announced that his restaurant company had gone into administration with the loss of 1,000 jobs. Since he came onto our screens 20 years ago with the[...]
A woman who changed her name to escape revenge porn has once again become a victim after finding images of herself on a website containing folders full of explicit images of women “from every city in the UK”. Some of the folders give away full names and locations of the women, but most of them[...]
The Chinese company Huawei wants to be the biggest tech firm in the world. But this week the US tried to squash it by cutting Huawei off from Google’s Android operating system, meaning that users’ phones may no longer get security updates. It’s the latest move in an ongoing trade war between the US and[...]
On Friday the former BNP poster boy and 23 year-old convicted paedophile Jack Renshaw was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for plotting to murder the Labour MP Rosie Cooper. Renshaw has been a hero to some racists, misogynists and anti-semites in the North West for a few years. We speak to Robbie[...]
Every week it seems there’s an incident involving race that goes viral online. Last week it was Danny Baker’s exit from 5 live and the consequent tide of backlash. But it could have been any week and any number of views. One person who has dedicated her entire career to unpicking the language and culture[...]
This is the story of an Iraqi boy with a face scarred in a military attack, who was brought for treatment in Britain in 1992. Amar Kanim began a new life in rural Devon after he was separated from his family in Basra. Then 30 years later an extraordinary chain of events that began with[...]
This week the award-winning actress Felicity Huffman, who stars in Desperate Housewives pleaded guilty to fraudulently conspiring to win a college place for her daughter. The star is one of dozens of wealthy people, including Full House actress Lori Loughlan, who’ve been caught up in this scandal. We speak to Nada Tawfik and John Mervin[...]
The Eurovision press pack and superfans are descending on Tel Aviv for the annual gala of glitter and Europop. But because it’s in Israel some of the focus will inevitably fall away from the songs and onto the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Steve Holden is a music reporter for BBC Newsbeat, and in[...]
Uber made its stock market debut last week as boss Dara Khosrowshahi rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange to begin trading. But this story is about more than stocks and shares. It’s the story of a company that plans to dominate the global transport business, despite the fact that is has[...]
High-end hotels, $100 tips, a $7000 a night trip to Morocco… when German heiress Anna Delvey hit the New York party scene it seemed like she had, and could spend, it all. But the lavish social life Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, created for herself was, along with her pretensions of European aristocracy, eventually exposed[...]
Cricketer Alex Hepburn was jailed last month for raping a sleeping woman. The assault happened after Hepburn had set up a sexual conquest game on a WhatsApp group. The BBC’s Phil Mackie tells us about the trial, and we speak to lawyer Eleanor Law about the legal difficulties that arise when this kind of misogynistic[...]
The last couple of days has been huge for Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their new baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. It’s a big moment for the royals as they work out the balance between raising their son in privacy and the celebrity status their baby gained the minute he was born.The BBC’s Royal Correspondent[...]
Thirty three years ago there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. We knew hardly anything about it at the time – only that radiation levels were rising in Western Europe. Of the emergency workers sent to tackle the blast, 28 died within months 19[...]
South Korea is thought to be one of the more progressive countries in Asia, with its technological advancements and dominance in pop music. But the recent introduction of 5G has led to a rise in secret recordings in public areas, including women’s changing rooms and toilets. The BBC’s Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker takes us through[...]
At a time of political turmoil the results of this week’s local elections show people turning away from Britain’s two main parties. Both Labour and the Conservatives have lost votes to the smaller parties and the independents amid anger over the Brexit deadlock. So who would stand for election in this toxic environment? Nearly 9000[...]
Caster Semenya has achieved a lot. An Olympic and World champion, she’s won her last 29 races in a row. But yesterday the 28 year old South African lost her appeal against regulations restricting testosterone levels in female runners. Should she be punished for having a physical advantage? The South African sports journalist Mohammed Allie[...]
We all know there’s a housing crisis. It’s something that’s happening in pretty much every desirable city all over the world, yet we rarely speak about the problem in global terms. We spoke to BBC Scotland correspondent James Cook, who has reported from LA, Edinburgh and Berlin. He tells us why we need to take[...]
The biggest democratic event in the history of the world is under way in India with hundreds of millions of people voting in the country’s general election. We’ll find out on the 23rd of May whether the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been re-elected. He’s a polarising figure, loved and loathed in equal measure, who[...]
The multi-level marketing phenomenon is sweeping across social media as influencers post job adverts offering the chance of six figure incomes, cars and holidays in return for selling products online. More than 400,000 people in the UK are already signed up. We speak to BBC journalists Ellie Flynn and Jennifer Shaw about the darker side[...]
On our Friday episodes we like to do something a bit different and speak to one person about their take on something we’re interested in. Today it’s Preet Bharara, who used to be one of the top public lawyers in the US. He had a reputation as a crusading prosecutor - taking down the mafia[...]
On Easter Sunday six suicide bombings struck churches and hotels across Sri Lanka – killing more than 350 people and injuring hundreds. Since then Islamic State has claimed responsibility, while people in Sri Lanka have been kept in the dark after a social media black-out. We talk to Rajini Vaidyanathan, who has been reporting from[...]
The online fast fashion retailer Boohoo has revealed a 48% rise in their revenues, a sign that our appetite for cheap stuff is as big as ever. Meanwhile climate change activists Extinction Rebellion are preparing to march through the heart of London’s City protesting against what they call a ‘toxic financial system’ that’s built on[...]
Lyra Mckee was killed at a riot in Londonderry last week. She was 29 and an acclaimed journalist who wrote about the Troubles and campaigned for LGBT rights. Since then the dissident republican group the New IRA have claimed responsibility for her death and apologised to her family. Her funeral on Wednesday is expected to[...]
We all have our own conspiracy theories about who is listening to us through the internet. We probably have considered the idea that Facebook and Google control our lives – but these aren’t necessarily conspiracies. How might we have given the internet giants permission to spy on us? What connects a political scandal like Cambridge[...]
Australian Rugby has sacked one of its biggest stars. Israel Folau has won 73 caps and was expected to play at this year’s World Cup in Japan. He’s now in trouble – although he’s appealing – after posting on social media that “hell awaits” gay people. Folau is a committed Christian who describes himself as[...]
When Wikileaks released classified documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010, it and its founder Julian Assange became world famous. Many people see him as a hero, calling out the powerful and confronting them with their crimes. But the US government has accused him of stealing state secrets and hacking into its[...]
On 4th March we heard from former gang member Jay about why he’d never leave the house without carrying a knife.Jay has since been asked to make a Radio 4 documentary investigating the solutions to knife crime.For the programme he met a trauma surgeon, a police commander and a local mayor. He also had a[...]
The climate protest group Extinction Rebellion has been causing quite a stir. Its members recently stripped almost naked in the House of Commons. They have also shut bridges, poured buckets of fake blood on the ground outside Downing Street and blockaded the BBC. For this episode we invited Extinction Rebellion’s Clare Farrell into the Beyond[...]
South Korea is thought to be one of the more progressive countries in Asia, with its technological advancements and dominance in pop music. But the recent introduction of 5G has led to a rise in secret recordings in public areas, including women’s changing rooms and toilets. The BBC’s Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker takes us through[...]
If it feels like politicians have been talking about Brexit forever, it’s because in a way they have. From Thatcher campaigning to stay in Europe in 1975, to her ideological successors pinning their careers to getting us out in 2016, the Conservative Party has been at odds over Europe for decades. We speak to the[...]
This is the story of Zain Qaiser. A student who made hundreds of thousands of pounds blackmailing porn users with cyber attacks from his parents’ house in East London. He spent almost £5,000 on a Rolex watch, £2,000 on a stay in a Chelsea hotel and £70,000 in a shopping centre casino. Today he was[...]
There’s a story you won’t hear much about today — because it’s a story that didn’t really happen. The former chief executive of Barclays John Varley and three other former senior bankers were on trial accused of fraud, the first time criminal charges were brought against the head of a global bank for activities during[...]
There are a few moments when the podcast phenomenon really took off - and one of them is in 2009 when a comedian began interviewing people he knew in his garage. “WTF with Marc Maron” has grown to be a podcast juggernaut - each month it’s downloaded 6 million times and it’s just celebrated its[...]
Chelsea has come under the spotlight this season after Manchester City's Raheem Sterling was alleged to have been racially abused by some supporters during a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge last December. The incident led to four fans being suspended by the club. This was followed just a few days later by alleged anti-Semitic[...]
Last week a story surfaced that seemed, on the face of it, a little bit odd. A far right youtuber in Austria, Martin Sellner, had his house raided by the authorities after revealing he’d received a $1500 donation to his movement Generation Identity. The money was from the suspect in the Christchurch shooting in New[...]
Donald Trump, Imran Khan, George Weah… all over the world voters have shown their dissatisfaction with politicians by voting in anti-establishment candidates, sometimes former celebrities. The next in line might be Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who plays a president on Ukrainian TV and won the first round of the country’s presidential elections in real life.[...]
It’s a big moment for true crime fans with another documentary out this week. ‘The Case Against Adnan Syed’ is being released in four parts by HBO and Sky. He’s the man who arguably started our addiction for true crime. 340 million people downloaded the original telling of this story on the Serial podcast. Now,[...]
Since the EU referendum in 2016 the lives of two people have been completely taken over by Brexit. Femi Oluwole had been studying law and had just begun a career in European human rights. Owen Reed was 16 and still at school in 2016. But both these men became political activists and have been campaigning[...]
It’s the most widely used LGBTQ app in the world with 27 million global users, but many of the people who use Grindr have a complicated relationship with it. We speak to comedian Jack Rooke and author of ‘Grindr Survivor’ Andrew Londyn about whether Grindr can shake off its reputation and what the future could[...]
Two weeks ago Cyclone Idai tore through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, some of the poorest countries in Africa, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless and hundreds dead. Cholera has become a major concern among survivors. But it’s not just a catastrophic natural event, there are human causes behind the misery. BBC reporter Nomsa Maseko[...]
Trump, Brexit, the far left, the far right, Russia is often accused of interfering with Western democracy. But one Tupac-loving PR guy went beyond politics and masterminded the disruption of an entire global political system. The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse introduces us to Vladislav Surkov, the most powerful man you’ve never heard of. This episode contains[...]
He calls himself a body modification artist, but Brendan McCarthy AKA ‘Dr. Evil’ has just been sentenced to 40 months in prison for grievous bodily harm. He was jailed over tongue splitting, and nipple and ear removal procedures despite having the consent of his clients. We speak to one of his customers Wayne Fitzpatrick and[...]
Three years ago thirty two people died in three suicide bombings in Brussels. How authorities and civilians responded on that day can help us understand what we should do if we are caught up in a terror attack. Larissa Kennelly from the BBC’s Brussels bureau has been learning those lessons, while BBC producer Piers Scholfield[...]
Bradford has a tricky relationship with the national media. Big stories that have come out of the city include a bitter election battle over Bradford West, grooming gangs, and Islamic extremism. We joined a BBC project searching for unreported and more positive news from underserved communities across the UK. The first stop was Bradford. Producers:[...]
This is an episode about what happened when global tech gurus were invited inside one of the world’s oldest and most conservative institutions. The Catholic church is thinking about the big ethical questions - perhaps in a way many of our governments are not - that are swirling around around tech. So they gathered some[...]
Almost half of young women in the UK are considering freezing their eggs, according to a recent survey. It involves harvesting eggs from a woman’s ovaries and keeping them in storage so she might be able to still have a baby even if her fertility declines. But it costs thousands of pounds and currently the[...]
After the mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand in which 50 people were killed there has been widespread shock that it happened in a country that regards itself as inclusive and welcoming. The attack was livestreamed on Facebook, and social media companies were criticised for waiting too long to take the footage down.[...]
The comedian and director Simon Amstell is a familiar face who a lot of us grew up with. He visited the Beyond Today studio to tell us about his semi-autobiographical film ‘Benjamin’ in which the main character is constantly seeking external validation. We also discussed his fear of intimacy, an imaginary gorilla, and veganism.'Benjamin' is[...]
We are told we are living through historic political times. The Prime Minister has faced unprecedented defeats in the House of Commons yet survives in the job. With two weeks to go to the deadline for leaving the EU, we still don’t know how Brexit will work. So where will we end up? Has politics[...]
Money. We all want more of it. But apart from securing a bumper pay rise or winning the lottery, probably the most obvious way to maximise our finances is to sensibly look after what we do have. It can be hard though, with financial jargon like ISAs, pension options, and interest rates sometimes feeling impossible[...]
Right now Shamima Begum is in a sprawling internment camp in the Syrian desert, stripped of her British citizenship and unable to leave. Buried there is her son Jarrah, who died last week of pneumonia. He was under three weeks old. The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville has interviewed her twice in the past[...]
In 1993, an 18 year old black teenager, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in East London. The police messed up the investigation into his killers. The inquiry that followed led by the judge Sir William Macpherson was one of the most damning documents to emerge about the police – describing it as[...]
In March 2009, an Islamic extremist group called Al-Muhajiroun staged a demonstration as 200 soldiers paraded through the town of Luton after returning from Iraq. The radical Islamists fuelled anger in the local community, and these tensions led to the formation of the English Defence League by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - aka Tommy Robinson. Ten years[...]
It’s often said that we get trapped in online "filter bubbles” or “echo chambers” and that we don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. It’s a convincing narrative - but is it true? And how do you know if you live in one? BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan has been[...]
US teenager Ethan Lindenberger has been speaking out against his mother who refused to vaccinate him as a child. Why has the anti-vax movement captured the imagination of so many people despite being detrimental to public health? Whether it’s spreading bad information on social media or seeing dark conspiracies, Joseph Stubbersfield a Cognitive Anthropologist at[...]
In the Canadian city of Vancouver a woman named Meng Wanzhou is under house arrest in her $4.2bn mansion. Chief financial officer of the Chinese tech firm Huawei, and the founder’s daughter, she’s accused by the US of bank fraud and violating sanctions against Iran. But as the BBC’s Silicon Valley Reporter Dave Lee tells[...]
After two 17-year-olds were killed in separate incidents in London and Greater Manchester at the weekend, we hear from a former gang member who tells our Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw why he’d never leave the house without carrying a knife. We also hear from BBC London reporter Greg Mckenzie who has covered 19 murders[...]
Michael Jackson is perhaps the biggest pop star there’s ever been. He’s still thought of as a legend, despite years of allegations regarding his relationships with young boys. Jackson was found not guilty at a court case in 2005, but now one of the men who testified in Jackson’s defence in that case has appeared[...]
As tensions mount between India and Pakistan, Matthew Price goes behind the scenes of Qasa Alom’s show on the BBC Asian Network to find out why it is such an emotive subject for different generations of British Asians. He also speaks to World Service presenter Anu Anand, whose family fled Kashmir, about how the conflict[...]
What you drive has always said a lot about who you are – and car-making has defined the identity of whole towns and cities in the UK. But this is only partly an episode about cars. It’s also about what the changes in the car industry tell us about the massive disruptions that are happening[...]
Yesterday the government announced updates to the 20 year-old sex education curriculum in England. It will now include lessons on sharing private photos and explicit content. We hear from a group of female students on their experiences of sex education and the influence of porn. The discussion is very graphic. We also speak to Sadie[...]
The Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been all over the media and internet after allegations that he falsely claimed that he was the victim of a hate crime. The 36-year-old is accused of filing a fake police report claiming he was the victim of a homophobic and racist assault. Police say he staged the attack[...]
Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist and documentary maker who has spent most of his career teasing the establishment. He likes to tackle the big subjects like class, gender and how we deal with death. Perry makes ceramic vases and tapestries, cross-dresses and is now so famous he’s on the national curriculum. We went to[...]
Who do you think of when you think about an opiate dealer? Probably not a young woman in China, who dreamed of being an English teacher. This is the story of one woman in her 20s who’s made a career out of sending fentanyl through the post. The BBC’s Danny Vincent takes us to meet[...]
It’s the Oscars on Sunday, the pinnacle of awards season. Every year hundreds of films and performances are eligible, so what exactly is it that means some win and others don’t? It’s not enough to just be the best, there are a whole host of other factors that determine who takes home a gong. From[...]
Four years ago, at the age of 15, Shamima Begum ran away from home in East London to marry an Islamic State fighter in Syria. Now she’s 19, has just given birth in a refugee camp - and wants to come home. There has been huge interest in the story, but are we missing out[...]
When the British teenager Shamima Begum ran away from East London to join IS, the caliphate was at the peak of its powers. It waged war with the West by beheading hostages and carrying out deadly attacks on European soil, while establishing a sophisticated state infrastructure in Syria and Iraq. IS at one point controlled[...]
This week BBC cameraman Ron Skeans was attacked at a rally for President Donald Trump in Texas. A man in a Make America Great Again hat pushed him over and shouted “F*** the media”. It was a shocking incident for Ron and his colleagues but, given the frequency and ferocity of the President’s criticisms of[...]
It’s 14 February, in theory the most romantic day of the year, but not so fun if you’re single. Is there a rational way to find love in the era of big data? Justin Rowlatt presents Business Daily on the BBC World Service and has spoken to a multi-millionaire Ed Conard, who says he has[...]
This week we heard that we are in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, but are we in a position to save the bugs, and ourselves, from extinction? We hear from biologist Adam Hart and go back to the grandma of environmentalism, Rachel Carson, to find out why we need bugs to survive and what[...]
Hungarian women with four or more children won’t have to pay income tax for the rest of their working lives, according to a plan announced by the country’s prime minister Viktor Orban. He says it’s to reverse Hungary’s falling population rate, critics argue it’s a way of controlling immigration. We speak to the BBC’s Nick[...]
The fact that a rich, powerful man had an affair and is getting divorced shouldn’t be of more than passing interest. But with the Amazon boss Jeff Bezos things are a bit different. Not only is there the eye-watering amount of money involved, he’s worth around $130bn, but the story took a remarkable turn last[...]
With the trend in anti-Semitism and the growth of far-right politics sweeping through Europe, it’s a worrying time to be Jewish. But young Jews in Germany have found a place to celebrate Jewish culture. Last weekend in Frankfurt, Jews from all over Europe flocked to ‘Jewrovision’ to celebrate their identity in the most joyful way.[...]
The impact of social media on our mental health has been creeping into the news headlines. Politicians have been quick to challenge tech companies, calling for better regulation following the suicide of 14 year old, Molly Russell. We talk to Dr Bex Lewis of Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Cal Newport of Georgetown University and an[...]
How far are you prepared to go to stand up for your beliefs? Two years ago, Ruth Potts and Mel Evans were part of a group that cut through an airport security fence and chained themselves to a Boeing 767. They did it to stop the Home Office deporting 60 people on a flight to[...]
It’s been called the trial of the century. The Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo has been in court in New York for the past few months accused of smuggling hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States. The trial has given us the best glimpse yet into life inside one of the world’s biggest[...]
A mother was convicted last week of mutilating her 3 year old daughter’s genitals. It’s been illegal for more than 30 years, but the women, who can’t be named, is the first person to be convicted of FGM. She’ll be sentenced next month. Anna Collinson and Jessica Furst work for the Victoria Derbyshire programme, they[...]
In the past few years what we think of as normal has changed completely. Ideas and personalities once considered fringe have become mainstream and extreme attitudes seem more acceptable. So who defines the new normal and what will the consequences be? We speak to Peter Pomerantsev from the London School of Economics, who has made[...]
Once a futuristic symbol of all that Venezuela could become, a building called El Helicoide in the country’s capital is now the headquarters of the intelligence services and a prison for political prisoners. We speak to Karenina Velandia, who has been investigating the prison, about the dramatic collapse of the once-wealthy country she grew up[...]
Apple reported falling sales of the iPhone this week. A category-defining product since its launch in 2007, other smartphone makers have largely been playing catch up. The company is blaming a slowdown in China for the fall in revenues, but it also faces serious competition on price and design from China and beyond. Jen Copestake[...]
We’ve been hearing a lot about R. Kelly since a documentary came out in the US earlier this month detailing allegations of abuse and sex with underage girls, spanning several decades. These are allegations he denies. We spoke to veteran music reporter Jasmine Dotiwala, documentary maker Joyce Trozzo, and Hollywood music lawyer Dina LaPolt to[...]
When 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died after eating a baguette from Pret containing sesame seeds, a campaign to get better food labelling was launched. Now the Government has started a consultation into strengthening current labelling laws to protect allergy sufferers. But are we getting more allergic to food and what scientific research is being[...]
Korean culture is increasingly playing a bigger role in our lives: We eat Korean BBQ, watch Korean dramas, and buy Korean cosmetics. But the big drive behind the Korean wave is Korean Pop, better known as K-pop. The country’s music industry is taking the world by storm, penetrating the top music charts in Europe and[...]
Izzy Posen looks and seems like a normal student. But his life before university was far from the norm. He grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in North London, speaking no English and attending an illegal school. This is the story of a man who chose to leave everything he knew behind, and[...]
When toddler James Bulger was abducted from a shopping centre in Merseyside in 1993 and murdered by two ten-year-old boys the country was appalled. Now a new short film has been made and nominated for an Oscar. ‘Detainment’ uses the original police interviews with the boys as a basis for the drama. It’s causing a[...]
Politics on both sides of the Atlantic feels a bit stuck. The government in the US has been shut down for the longest period in its history and politicians here can’t agree on how to make Brexit work. But there are people challenging existing power structures. Last week we heard from Gina Martin, the 27[...]
The third Monday in January is known as Blue Monday as a combination of money worries and winter weather push us to a collective low. Seventy per cent of the country also think things are getting worse, according to a poll from Ipsos Mori. But that’s not actually the case - in many circumstances life[...]
Jon Ronson’s new podcast ‘The Last Days of August’ explores the reasons behind the death of the famous porn performer August Ames, who killed herself in 2017. It is a sad story that casts light on an industry of outsiders who support each other under difficult circumstances. We also spoke to Jon about how the[...]
Gina Martin is a 27-year-old woman with a full time job. Two years ago a stranger at a festival took a photo up her skirt without her permission. After she discovered there was no law preventing it, she found herself in Parliament, campaigning for politicians change it. This week the upskirting law was officially passed.[...]
The UN say there are as many people with intersex traits in the world as people with red hair. All over the world, children with intersex traits are being operated on to be sex assigned at birth. The BBC’s gender and identity correspondent Megha Mohan has met the people at the forefront of the intersex[...]
As MPs prepare to vote on the Prime Minister’s Brexit plan, we get the view from outside parliament. We speak to protesters on both sides who think that the current situation is getting embarrassing and shows the country in a bad light. We also hear from bemused tourists and speak to the BBC World Service’s[...]
Andy Murray’s defeat at the Australian Open today might have been his last ever match as a professional tennis player. Even with a very dodgy hip, he showed the fight and determination characteristic of his career to make it a five set thriller. He’s clearly one of Britain’s greatest sports stars, but there’s a lot[...]
Nish Kumar has made his career trying to make us laugh about the news. He talks to Matthew Price about what it’s like to be a Remainer on the tour and how he enraged some Leave voters into unplugging his mic.Mixed by Nicolas Raufast. Producers: Lucy Hancock and Jaja Muhammad. Editor: John Shields.
The announcement by Jaguar Land Rover that it is cutting 4,500 job has been blamed on falling car sales in China, uncertainty about Brexit and the future of diesel. But what’s the longer term picture when it comes to the car industry? Rapid improvements in electric battery and self-driving technology mean that cars will change[...]
Across the country networks of so-called paedophile hunters are working to catch child sex offenders. They pose as boys and girls online, arranging to meet with men and then circulating videos of these “stings” online. Around 150 charges have been brought because of their work, but the naming and shaming extends to innocent families too.[...]
Now when talk about R Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey we always focus on victims and alleged abusers… but what about all the people who may have stood by and allowed an abuse of power, something they knew was wrong, to happen? Are we all guilty, and when we do witness abuse, what can we[...]
Kevin Spacey made his first court appearance today over allegations of sexual assault. He entered the court surrounded by a media scrum, one that has accompanied the #MeToo movement since it began over a year ago. But the huge attention the campaign has attracted so far hasn’t been matched by criminal convictions or court appearances.[...]
The post-apocalyptic thriller Bird Box dropped on Netflix just before Christmas with little promotion. But soon it was all over social media, with memes and jokes about its blindfolded cast, and people attempting the “Bird Box challenge” – going about their daily lives with blindfolds on. Netflix tweeted that Bird Box had the best first[...]
Best-selling author of The Silk Roads Peter Frankopan opens up an exciting world that hardly any of us have visited, but all should take note of this year. The historian flips around the world map to put Britain at the edge. We hear how Kazakhstan is the new hot spot, why two new billionaires are[...]
At Beyond Today we’re determined to be cheerful about 2019. And to help us kick off the year on a positive foot we’ve been talking to Chidera Eggerue, better known as The Slumflower. She created #SaggyBoobsMatter, a body positive campaign asking for acceptance of women’s bodies no matter their shape or size or perkiness. Chidera[...]
It’s been a year. Brexit shenanigans, the #metoo movement, Donald Trump being Donald Trump, the World Cup, a royal wedding … a lot has happened. Christmas is a time for food, presents, and end of the year review lists, but here at Beyond Today we’re doing things a little differently. Let us take you behind[...]
Beyond Today producer Georgia Coan’s younger brother Elliot died at the age of 16 after an accident. Georgia was 19 at the time. Five years on they are still coming to terms with what happened. Christmas is always a difficult time of the year for the bereaved, but Georgia’s mum Michaela says her New Years[...]
China is on the up. We’re starting to see Chinese companies and tech, like Huawei phones and the TikTok video app, in our lives in a way that we just weren’t a decade ago. But American security officials have told the BBC that some of this economic progress is based on design and trade secrets[...]
Over the past year, the gender pay gap has sparked outrage across the country. But another issue considered more uncomfortable and unspoken about is slowly coming to light: the ethnic minority pay gap. The BBC’s Rianna Croxford has been investigating the ethnic pay gap at the UK’s top universities. We speak to her and discuss[...]
The sentencing of a couple from Banbury for membership of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action raises questions about how much focus police and security services should put on the far right. The couple gave their baby boy the middle name Adolf. We speak to BBC producer Daniel De Simone who has been following the[...]
First there was going to be a meaningful vote, and then there wasn’t. Then Theresa May was facing a leadership challenge, and then she wasn’t. And now Europe’s leaders are in Brussels, trying again to make the Brexit deal work. It’s been one of the most eventful weeks in British politics since… the week before.[...]
Next week Tumblr will start blocking pornographic posts. Next year a new law will force porn sites to verify that people watching in the UK are over 18. It’s the first attempt to restrict access to porn online. It’s not yet clear how age verification will work and the social media platforms’ own rules about[...]
Mental health services for children and adults are, understandably, separate entities. When you turn 18 you move from one system to the other, but serious gaps are appearing in support for people during this transition. Huge numbers of young adults are being failed, and today Beyond Today hears from a campaign trying to change that.[...]
Raheem Sterling spoke out this week against the tabloid press for ‘fuelling racism’ with their coverage of his wealth. He sparked a much wider conversation about how much we really support minority success stories on and off the pitch. Tina Daheley speaks to two people either side of the story, Juventus and former England footballer[...]
We started the day recording a podcast about the vote set to take place in Parliament tomorrow, where MPs were to decide on whether or not to accept Theresa May’s Brexit deal. And then the vote got postponed, so we had to record another one. Leila Nathoo and Daniel Kraemer from the BBC Westminster newsroom[...]
In February this year, Princess Latifah the 32 year-old daughter of the ruler of Dubai boarded a boat and set sail for India with a plan to start a new life in America. But within days her boat was stormed by Indian commandos - she was captured and presumably returned to Dubai. No one has[...]
As peace talks aimed at ending nearly four years of civil war in Yemen take place, we speak to the BBC’s Orla Guerin about the conflict that started in 2015 and the humanitarian crisis that’s crippling the country. We hear why she’s passionate about the country and believes that we all have responsibility not to[...]
Brexit is in a state of confusion. But one thing the government says it’s sure about is that leaving the EU would allow us to have more of a say over how many people come here and why. Theresa May has promised to reduce net migration, the difference between the number of people coming and[...]
Over the past year the issue of colourism and prejudice against people with a darker skin tone have become a global talking point. A beauty trend that has emerged on social media has supercharged the debate. Blackfishing is when white girls make themselves look like women of colour or racially ambiguous. Tina Daheley speaks to[...]
World leaders are meeting in Poland for the latest round of United Nations-sponsored climate talks. The meeting is the most critical on climate change since the 2015 Paris agreement. Since the US pulled out of that deal the scale of the problem can seem overwhelming – as we hear in this episode the Swedes call[...]
George Mpanga is a poet, podcaster, and one time rapper with plenty to say about the big news stories of our time from Grenfell to the migrant crisis. He came to the Beyond Today studio to tell us about his journey from a North West London estate to Cambridge University – and beyond. He tells[...]
If He Jiankui really has created the world’s first genetically modified babies, it marks the beginning of a new and controversial chapter for the human race. It leaves us asking two questions: how did he do it, and are we ready?
As far as the west is concerned, Russia hasn’t been playing by the rules for a while now. Accusations of meddling in the US elections, the Salisbury poison attack, and now seizing Ukrainian ships and sailors. But President Trump has a more complicated relationship with Russia than his predecessors and although he’s said he might[...]
Jason Lampkin was told he was going to be the next Michael Owen, and when he signed for Manchester United as a youth player, he wore the world renowned number 7 shirt. But things didn’t quite work out like that. This is a story about and the readjustments we all have to make when our[...]
The war in Syria could be the crime of the century. The conflict has been raging for nearly 8 years and, in that time, some estimate that 500,000 people have been killed. The government of President Assad has caused more of these deaths but both sides have committed atrocities which have cost civilian lives. Who[...]
Michelle Obama is so much more than the wife of the first black president of the United States of America. There’s a lot we already know about her – like her focus on public health, LGBT rights and girls’ education. But there’s still a lot we don’t know, and for the first time she's telling[...]
Social media has an ever increasing influence on where we go on holiday and what we do when we get there. BBC journalist Jordan Dunbar tells us the story of a small country road in Northern Ireland that became a tourist hotspot overnight after featuring on Game of Thrones. We also hear from author and[...]
Big tech firms and Saudi royalty are among the world’s richest people. When a young Saudi prince took power in Riyadh he quickly made friends in Silicon Valley. But then the murder of a US-based journalist threatened to derail his masterplan. We discuss the future of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and our connection to[...]
Concern over Universal Credit has been bubbling away for well over a year now as it's slowly rolled out across the country. The first thing the new Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said about the programme she took over this week is that it "can be better" and that she’ll listen to people’s concerns.[...]
Theresa May has had many tough weeks during her premiership, but this week could be the toughest – or even her last. Her ministers are resigning, Parliament is criticising her Brexit deal and members of her own party are writing letters calling for her head, but through all of this she keeps on going. Should[...]
Oobah Butler is a writer and professional mischief maker. Last year he made the news for hacking TripAdvisor’s review system by getting his fake restaurant rated number one in London. Whether he's blagging his way into fashion week as a knock off brand designer or sending fake versions of himself on to the BBC, his[...]
We get inside one of the places where they try to teach pupils kicked out of mainstream school. 50,000 of them are now in what’s called alternative provision. Why are more children being excluded from school and what can be done to support them and the teachers who try to educate them? The BBC’s Noel[...]
This story of a mass murder in the Nigerian city of Jos reveals the devastating impact that fake news can have when it inflames existing tensions. Yemesi Adegoke and Charlie Northcott from the BBC’s Africa Eye talk us through what happened.Producers: Philly Beaumont and Duncan Barber.
If the government is going to keep to its Brexit timetable, a divorce deal between Britain and the EU needs to be finalised this week. We’re due to leave at the end of March 2019, so as politicians scrutinise the final details, what do we know about how things will be different after that? Chris[...]
Iceland wanted to use a Greenpeace film about palm oil for its Christmas adverts, but was prevented from running it on TV by rules banning political campaigning. Instead the advert has been shared widely online, a PR bonanza for the supermarket. In a world where consumers want brands to take a stance, but we’re also[...]
Stacey has been presenting current affairs for over a decade. She’s known for her brand of gutsy, compassionate reporting. This week she takes a break from a punishing Strictly schedule to talk to Tina about her on screen style and where it fits into the news. They explore the line between empathy and emotion and[...]
It is 100 years since the end of World War One. As the generations that fought in the two World Wars fade away, it gets harder to remember the impact of those conflicts. And while most tend to agree that those wars had to be fought, the case for more recent wars, like Iraq and[...]
He wasn’t on the ballot paper, but Donald Trump still called the mid-term elections a “tremendous success”. Both his Republican Party and the opposing Democrats can find reasons to claim victory as they look ahead to the next big challenge: the fight for the presidency in 2020. Today programme presenter and former Washington correspondent Justin[...]
Should catcalling and leering at women become illegal? Some politicians have been calling for it. The country’s most senior police officers, themselves women, say there are more pressing priorities. They say their efforts should be concentrated on murder, knife and gun crime. But what kind of message does this send to women?Producers: Philly Beaumont and[...]
This week the whole of the US goes to the polls for the first time since Donald Trump became president. President Trump himself is not on the ballot paper, but he says it’s still a referendum on him. It’s also become a referendum on #MeToo, the first electoral test since the women’s rights movement began[...]
Every week we're going to spend time discussing big ideas with interesting characters in the world of news. This week Tina Daheley talks to BBC's Media Editor Amol Rajan about class, populism, and the weird nature of his job.
WhatsApp is a great way to stay in touch, but in this week’s election in Brazil it became a political weapon. Juliana Gragnani from BBC News Brasil and Kim Gittleson in New York tell us what that means for the fight against fake news.
Police and politicians have been highlighting how middle-class cocaine use fuels violent crime. But what impact does drug use by the well-off really have? In this episode Matthew Price talks to Araminta, Pieter and Stewart, to hear stories of dinner parties, drug dealers, and the grip that cocaine can exert.
The story of Iraqi model Tara Fares reveals the risks of pushing the boundaries as a high-profile influencer. Mina Al-Lami from BBC Monitoring tells us what happened to her when she crossed that invisible line.
It’s Budget Day and the chancellor has been telling Parliament that austerity is at an end. As he scatters cash around the government, how confident should we be that we really do have enough money now? The BBC’s Evan Davies and Helen Miller from the Institute for Fiscal Studies tell us.
News built to last from the BBC. One big question answered each weekday.

Beyond Today is the daily podcast from Radio 4 that asks one big question about one big story in the news – and beyond. Tina Daheley, Matthew Price, and a team of curious producers search for answers that change the way we see the world. They speak to the BBC’s unrivalled global network of reporters, plus occasional special guests, to tell stories about identity, technology, and power – where it lies and how that is changing.

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