Global News Podcast - 60,000 migrants arrive in Spanish territory in 24 hours

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Spain's interior ministry says more than half of the migrants who arrived in the Spanish North African territory of Ceuta since Thursday morning have now returned to Morocco. Visiting Ceuta, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the influx as an attack, and violation of Spanish sovereignty. He blamed smuggling gangs and promised the state would use all means to protect Ceuta's security. Also: a top advisor to the head of FIFA has resigned over plans to sell private stakes in the World Cup, hours after Asia's Football Confederation added its voice to the growing condemnation. Hamas says it's accepted a peace deal for Gaza which would see it lay down its arms, on condition that Israel withdraws from the territory and ends its attacks. Rescuers in Pakistan have recovered the bodies of several climbers near the site of an avalanche on the world's 12th highest summit, Broad Peak. We meet the man who filmed what is believed to be the first ever drone footage of a humpback whale giving birth. And the history of kissing.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.Get in touch: [e-mail]: Migrants swim across to Ceuta from Morocco, Spain Credit: Reduan Dris - EPA/Shutterstock

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says, good luck. Odu brings your business together on a single platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Visit Odo.com to book a demo. It's ODbolo.com.

On the open road, conditions change. Your composure doesn't have to. But technologies like terrain response to, and clear sight ground view, Range Rover Sport brings confidence and control to challenging conditions. Explore more atrangerover.ca. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson, and at 15 hours GMT on Friday the 31st of July,

these are our main stories. Spain's Prime Minister and the European Commission have condemned the influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Suta. A senior advisor to FIFA's boss quits over plans to sell private stakes in the World Cup amid widespread condemnation of the proposal. Hamas says it's accepted a peace deal for Gaza which would see it lay down its arms on condition Israel withdraws from the territory.

Also in this podcast? We had an unfortunate incident of us. broad peak. Some of the climbers have been thrown 500 feet, some 1,000 feet, some 1,500 feet down. Rescuers have recovered bodies near the site of an avalanche on the world's 12th highest summit. We begin in the Spanish Territory of Suta at the northern tip of Africa, which has been overwhelmed by an influx of around 60,000 migrants entering from Morocco. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, who's traveled there, described the arrival of so many people. people as an attack on Spain and blamed human traffickers.

Seuta is a Spanish city, and the scenes we saw yesterday I condemn in the most energetic way. I reject them, I condemn them, I condemn them as deplorable. They were a violation of the territorial integrity of a Spanish city, the Spanish city of Ceuta. Officials say at least 40 people died trying to swim. around the border. Those attempting the journey said they felt they'd little to loose. I was in Tangier where I was working. I woke up that morning and heard several young people, boys and girls, saying that Souta had opened at 10pm. So I told the people who are with me that we should go to find work. We're already working here under terrible conditions and our rights

are not being respected. This morning I heard, the news and I came here, but I saw hell. We walked 14 kilometres through the mountains, but we told ourselves it didn't matter, as long as the border was open. Once we got here, we were told to take the road to the sea. Then I found myself completely submerged in water. I was choking. That's when I backed away. I remember that I had two children and I couldn't risk my life. I got more on the situation from our Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford. It is quite a significant moment, let's say, in terms of migration. policy and migration activity around that border.

It is a route that migrants have used previously quite a lot, but the numbers have been always much, much lower, apart from in 2021 when there was a similar situation, but numbers again, then, much lower. So this does look extraordinarily high. And it seems to be a large number of mainly young men, many of them Moroccan who have taken this chance to try to cross into EU territory. They've taken quite some risk.

I mean, some people are managing to walk around the border fence, but many people are having to swim at the distance, and in some cases quite a long distance. And as you mentioned, several people drown trying to make that crossing from Morocco to Ceuta. So extraordinary scenes and the beach there on the Spanish exclave covered in inflatables, rubber rings, floats, flippers, the things that people have used to try to make that crossing as safely as they possibly can. but it does seem to have been a rush to the border like no one has ever seen before.

And there are big questions about what exactly prompted it. And also, I think, serious questions about how the Moroccan authorities have been acting and responding in this situation, how active they were in trying to prevent people making the crossing. But certainly there appears to be still large numbers of people arriving on the Moroccan coast, hearing that the border is open, which it isn't, of course, but hearing that it is possible to get across and attempting to do that. that. And I mean, what are the views about what's prompted it? Is it just like a rush, people thinking it's open, so I'm going to try now? I think a rush, but also I think clearly traffickers

using the opportunity as well. I mean, it isn't entirely clear what's happened. There is a diplomatic problem, let's say, between Morocco and Spain right now, dispute over recognition of who controls the Western Sahara, so a political dispute behind that. That was the reason for a previous migration crisis back in 2021. So I think that's one to look at. Sarah Rainsford, the number of migrants who crossed into Souta is almost three quarters of the entire population of the territory. Spain says more than half have now voluntarily returned to Morocco. The EU has called the situation unacceptable and says returns must be swift. Many other European leaders have expressed alarm with Italy, Austria and Finland questioning their open borders with Spain.

Gerald Knauss is chairman of the European Stability Initiative, who negotiated the migrant agreement between Turkey in the EU in 2016. The BBC's Johnny Diamond asked him what he made of the criticism. It is absolutely ridiculous and completely irrational. Spain has had less arrivals of irregular migrants in the last three years than Italy. Spain has been cooperating with other European countries, taking back people who arrived in Spain and then went on to Germany or France, in significant numbers.

And this crisis in Theuta is not due to Spanish policy but to the failure of Morocco to control or take back people quickly. There has been criticism of Spain from some political quarters about its policy of naturalizing undocumented migrants,

those who've been there for five years, those who don't have a criminal record. some clearly believe, rightly or wrongly, that Spain is a soft touch when it comes to migration. Yes, but the facts just show that this is not true. Spain has had less irregular arrivals. In the first six months of this year, 14,000 people arrived at all borders in Spain irregularly. It's 16,000 from Italy, 18,000 in Greece. So no, there is no soft touch.

and the regularization of migrants concerns people who've been in Spain, 90% of whom are from Latin America, who arrived legally, visa-free and then stayed on to work. So this is not an incentive for Moroccan, mainly young Moroccan man who crossed to Spain, who will not get asylum and who will not enjoy any regularization. So, no, that is not a credible argument. You acknowledge the political side of this, though, presumably the fact that largely on the right in politics, parties have been able to exploit and highlight extreme concern amongst parts of European populations about recent migration and that the parties of the centre and the left feel very sensitive to that pressure. which is why the main experience of the last 10 years is images beat statistics. If we have images of loss of control like now, publics in all of our democracies worry.

Even if we show them that in absolute figures, the numbers of irregular migrants are small. So the response must be to do everything that we do not get situations like this. And the way to achieve this is through agreements with third countries, that send a signal to irregular migrants, don't get into the boat, because when you arrive, you will be returned. Gerald Knauss. And we'll have more on this on our YouTube channel.

Just search for BBC News on YouTube, and you'll find a global news podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. FIFA is facing a growing backlash to a proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors. After Asia's Football Confederation, became the latest body to voice its condemnation, a top advisor to FIFA's boss,

Janie Infantino, has now quit. The official, Carlos Cadero, called the plans a bad deal for football. Europe's football governing body UEFA is already threatening to boycott FIFA competitions. The vice president of UEFA, Laura McAllister, says something major had to be done to stand up to FIFA.

I felt that this was a very clear line in the sand in terms of the politics and the organisation of football. And it was incumbent on us as probably the most powerful Confederation in Europe to stand up and be counted and come up with a threat, the boycott threat,

that is commensurate with the damage that such a proposal would do to our game. Britain's Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, says Gianni Infantino is the wrong man to lead FIFA. So, an extraordinary moment for world football. Here's our sports reporter, Adam Wilde. It really is. I've heard it described by many in the last sort of 24, 48 hours in as stronger terms as a civil war in global football.

I think the obvious comparison, if there is one, and this is a really unique situation, is the proposals of a European Super League. You remember that some years ago, which prompted furious protests from clubs and in particular fans. Now, that plan went away relatively quickly, and I think with these latest developments you've just outlined there in the last few hours, that this proposal may also be in significant jeopardy now. We've seen UEFA, as you mentioned, and Concordcaf, voiced their opposition. In the last couple of hours, we've had the Asian Football Confederation object, and the resignation significantly, very significantly, of someone called Carlos Cordero, who's a senior advisor to Gianni Infantino,

he's a former president of US soccer, citing his objection to the proposal. So I think given that Infantino had originally said he needed a majority of the 200 and 11 members of FIFA to back the plan, then by sheer weight of maths, it is difficult to see now how this does move forward. So is it dead in the water, do you think? Well, I think just by those numbers, I mean, I think because he would need, what, 106 members to back the plan, and with Conquerqueath, with UEFA and the Asian Football Confederation, all objecting those, take those numbers past that 106 mark.

So I think on the surface of it, I think there is certainly more work, more planning to be done, because they don't seem to be able to get those numbers if all those member nations object. And Adam, what about the fallout from this? What about the effect on the head of FIFA, Janie Infantino? I mean, is his job on the line? Well, I think undoubtedly you have to say it is.

It was always going to be a huge risk. It was always going to be a controversial plan. And given the objection from many areas to certain things that went on in the recent Men's World Cup, and specifically, I'm thinking, of Infantino's relationship with Donald Trump, then his position will be under great scrutiny now,

and his role as the most powerful man in football, I think will undoubtedly be under considerable pressure. And do you think all this is bad for the image of football across the globe? Well, it's not great, is it? I mean, I think there is, the World Cup came with so many controversies. I mentioned there, his relationship with Donald Trump, talking about ticket price and so on. I think it was fraught with.

difficulties. But look, there are many who will back this plan. I think given the money that is being made available from FIFA to back this plan, I think the original plan was for around $40 million to be made available to each member nation. So I think for small members, it's easy to see why that was attractive, but certainly this is very damaging for the global game's reputation, yes. Adam Wilde. In an earlier edition of this podcast, we brought you news of an agreement that could prove a possible turning point in Gaza. Overnight, Hamas said it had agreed to completely disarm if Israeli forces fully withdraw

and end all their attacks. As we record this podcast, there's still be no official Israeli response. In Gaza, there are currently 2 million Palestinians living in tents without basic sanitation, and there's an acute shortage of medical supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire began in October, including many women and children. If this agreement holds, it could mark the first credible step towards ending a war that's lasted for nearly three years

and opening the way for a broader political process. So what are the details of the disarmament plan? Here's our Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem, Yolánel. When you look at the points that have been sent, these revisions to the Board of Peace Plan that was sent over to Washington, Hamas is saying that it's ready to, create an inventory of its weapons, everything from small arms through to heavy ones, with also manufacturing sites and tunnels included here. But the storage of heavy weapons,

that should be under the Palestinian Administrative Committee that is due to go into Gaza. There should be no handing over weapons to Israel or any other foreign power. And also what has been really key for Hamas and what has also held up things is another point about what happens to Hamas civil servants in Gaza, those who have been working in health and education, but of course also those who have been working in Hamas's security forces that have been much more problematic for Israel. But, you know, this could potentially clear the way, particularly with a lot of US involvement to that Palestinian technocratic committee finally going into Gaza and the international stabilization force too. President Trump has called it a monumental step

towards lasting peace and security. So, is he right? Here's our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher. I think the temptation, because it's President Trump, is to be especially skeptical because we've had so many announcements, not just on Gaza, but obviously on other key issues in the Middle East, which haven't really turned out to amount to that much. But I don't think there is more to it than that.

I mean, there's been eight months or so of discussions that have been going on. It's important that there are mediators within, this Board of Peace, Turkey and Qatar, which have very close links to Hamas. That was originally opposed by Israel, but I think their pressure will have told. So this isn't nothing, this isn't, you know, a new castle in the air, but it's more about coming up with a much more structured, substantial roadmap than what we had with the original peace plan. As President Trump, you know, said, he announced this, this is a phased way of doing this. What that needs, though, obviously, is trust on both sides and that remains incredibly short supply.

I mean, Sebastian, why do you think Hamas has decided to do this now? I think there is a lot of pressure on Hamas, both inside Gaza amongst Palestinians there for an end to this to move forward so that reconstruction can begin. I think there's economic pressure on Hamas. Its sources of funds have been very much curtailed. I think there's political pressure on Hamas from those countries, as I mentioned, Turkey, for example, Qatar, which have been close to Hamas, putting that pressure. So I think it's in a weaker position. But, you know, the real issue is still, this is a who blinks first situation where Hamas says that it will do this as long as Israel fulfills its side of a bar.

And still no official Israeli response. I mean, do you think Prime Minister Netanyahu be coming under intense pressure from the Americans, especially from Mr. Trump? You would think so, but strangely, I mean, the reporting of their latest meeting, Mr. Netanyahu went to White House. I think for his eighth meeting with President Trump, was that Gaza hadn't been mentioned. So, you know, certainly from an Israeli perspective, they're trying to not make too much of this. I mean, Elections are happening in Israel. It would be very difficult for Mr Netanyahu to sell this to both his supporters and those of other parties. He's already being attacked for anything which looks like it hasn't completed what he promised,

which was for complete dismantling politically and militarily of Hamas. And at the moment, that isn't necessarily what is being envisaged. Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher. Still to come in this podcast We kiss on the cheek Or two or three times when we're getting enthusiastic But our ancestors had it a lot clearer They were going for the mouth

They knew what they were doing And we actually did that right up until the start of the 20th century Why Kiss is still a kiss But there are fewer of them going round Step inside the Range Rover sport And experience refinement in every detail With features like cabin air purification and active noise cancellation, every drive feels composed and considered.

Explore more at range rover.ca. Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send money abroad with your everyday bank. Choose the smart way. Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No one welcome surprises. Plus, ditch that Where's My Money Feeling?

Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions, saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get Wise. Download the Wise app today. Tees and Cs apply. Growing businesses deal with the same problem. Too many tools, too much back and forth and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information. and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing or service, Odu gives you one place to manage your business. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's O'D O.O.com. This is the Global News podcast. Team searching for 10 missing mountaineers in Pakistan say bodies have been recovered, but estimate that six people are still missing. The group, led by the renowned mountaineer, Nirmar Purja, lost contact with their base camp. during an avalanche on the world's 12th highest summit, Broad Peak. Ayaz Ahmed Shigari, the General Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan,

which oversees my engineering, described the scale of the rescue operation. We had an unfortunate incident at Broad Peak, where our international climbers, Chinese, Omanis, American, Nepalese and Pakistani climbers were present. It's unfortunate. There's never been an avalanche like this before on Broad Peak. Some of the climbers have been thrown 500 feet, some 1,000 feet, some 1,500 feet down. Nimal Perja was the fastest person to summit all 14 of the world's peaks without supplementary oxygen when he took on the feet back in 2019. For this project, I gave up my job in United Kingdom Special Forces.

I gave up my pension, a lot of money. For this project, I had to sold my house. This was the project where nobody believed that this could be. be done. His business manager has suggested that Nimar Perj's GPS tracker is still transmitting and has moved. Our correspondent Caroline Davis is following the story from Islamabad. The search operations have obviously been really dependent on these trackers to try to help identify the location of all of these. But the thing that's really uncertain is whether or not the indication of movement of the tracker, what does that exactly mean? Does it mean that NIMS die is still alive? Does it

mean that his body is being moved. It's really, that is still that's unclear. And earlier on today, we were told that the search and rescue had managed to find trackers for four of the climbers, but that they didn't see any movement. We've obviously since the course of the day, we've now been told that they have found four bodies, that four people have died, and we understand that those are the same four trackers that they earlier referenced. Now, two of those have been identified, two have not. The two that have been identified are Nazira Ahmed Abdullah al-Hathi from Amman. Bha'u Bha'u Gung, known as Yukta, from Nepal.

The Nadeera's GPS as well, just talking about the trackers. It was reported by an industry website that she dropped by over 1.5,000 metres when the avalanche hit. So, again, it's really obviously unclear about exactly what happened and how this avalanche happened, but the trackers are giving an indication of when that occurred and who was caught up where. So still a huge amount of information to be confirmed, but we are getting more coming back from the site. I would also say it's difficult to get this information too because obviously the communication in the location is very limited. We've been told that a lot of time the communication is either through satellite phone or people who are physically moving in between there and other

places where they get slightly better signal. And so we are getting bits and pieces of information the entire time about what is going on. One other crucial thing though to mention is we have now been told by the Home Secretary for Gilgit, Balestan, the area where this mountain is, that the search and rescue has now been stopped for the course of today. He has said that it will restart again tomorrow, but that is because of weather conditions, which again just shows you how difficult it is to carry out these sorts of search and rescue operations.

So are they worried about more avalanches? No one has suggested that, but as you've heard when you were speaking to the Alpine Club earlier, I've heard it from a few people now saying how surprised they were to see an avalanche like this on Broad Peak. A lot of people have said that this is not normal, that they had not seen something like this happened. We understand that it happened when the group were making their way from cap two up to cap three,

and that's when it hit. And again, some of the people I've spoken to have previously traversed it, were just so surprised that something like this could happen in that location. Caroline Davis. Next week, Myanmar's leader, Min Ong Lang, will receive a major boost to his plans to be seen as a legitimate leader on the international stage when he makes an official visit to neighbouring Thailand. He sees power in a military coup in 2021, overthrowing the elected government,

led by Ansan Suu Kyi. The coup sparked a nationwide civil war between the military and a broad alliance of resistance groups. Early this year, Minot-Hang declared himself president after holding an election that was widely condemned by critics as being neither free nor fair.

Meanwhile, the military has been regaining some of the territory it had previously lost to resistance forces. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head traveled to the Thai border town of Mesot, where many people who fled the conflict have sought refuge.

In an old house down the side street in Mesot, a group of teenage boys cooked their evening meal together. What are you cooking? Fish eggs. Some are as young as 13. Yet not long ago, they were armed and fighting. So you're the chef?

Yeah. It's a shelter for the children who are under 18 years old who involved in the war or conflict. I work with them. Like the boys, she cares for. Kina is a refugee from the Civil War in Myanmar. It's not her real name.

She still fears retribution on her family by the military regime against which she, too, once took up arms. But she's now decided she can do more good by helping the war's victims. We are not born to be a soldier. And after five years, for me, I learned a lot. I understood my muscle is not in my arms. it's in my brain. I can do the different way for the long fight. Revolution is not a short

time. I'm walking down a long corridor with lots of very small rooms on either side. There are families or individuals living in all of these. This is one of dozens of safe houses which have been established all over Maysot to help the tens of thousands who fled from Myanmar since the coup. They arrive here in Thailand with very little money, few possessions, and with no status, they're very vulnerable. I put a timbrewer near the police station, and I'm trying to assassinate the informer of military government. This young man says he took up arms against the military regime at the age of 17, after watching it crush peaceful protests. He was caught, jailed and dreadfully tortured. Now he says he's had a change of heart.

So you lost faith in the armed struggle? Yeah, I saw many casualties. And it's really difficult to see like that. You're not involved in the struggle now? Yeah, I just choose another way. A lot of us join the revolution because we believed that it was our duty. Lewis was a successful businessman in Yangon when the coup happened.

He joined one of the volunteer people's defense forces fighting against the military. He too was captured. At the beginning of this armed struggle, we would do whatever it takes. If you have to sacrifice ourselves and our lives, then we will do it. But since it is dragging on for so long, a lot of people have their own responsibility that they cannot stop. Like me, my kids will keep growing up, and then there's a need to have a good education, a better life and all this. A lot of people have changed under that pressure.

But we did find one young man who was determined to carry on. He described leaving his job as a bartender in Yangon to join ethnic Karen insurgents operating near the Thai border. He's come to Mesot with his wife for the birth of their first child, but he's itching to get back. No, I don't stop. I only came here for my family. I haven't stopped.

I'm sure our revolution will succeed one day. Because they are fighting a war against the entire country, against the civilians they are supposed to protect. There is no way the military can win. That confidence is less widely shared these days. Almost everyone we spoke to was still committed to the idea of a people's revolution in Myanmar. But after five years of grueling war and no end to military rule inside, many are just too exhausted to fight any longer. Jonathan Head.

Now, as with so much in life, the key to success in wildlife photography is patience, luck and timing. 20-year-old Alexander Forrest, who lives in works in New South Wales in Australia, has displayed all three with his drone footage of a humpback whale giving birth. Every year, tens of thousands of whales pass the coast on their winter migration north. It's one of nature's great spectacles. But Alexander was about to become the witness to an even more extraordinary. extraordinary event, as he told James Menendez. So day to day, I'm actually an expedition filmmaker and photographer.

When I'm not interstate or international, I am at home. I'm checking out what we call the humpback highway. That's where all our huge humpback whales, fifth largest whale, travel along the coast. We're so lucky to see them every year. And it's currently peak season. I was just going out for a routine flight trying to make the most of this part of the season. and I could see from my aircraft and from the coast every humpback whale just going up and down the coast

at extremely fast speeds, really, really migrating. But there was this one whale, solemn right behind our beautiful crystal clear waters, right just there next to the surf break, going unusually slow, and this is a behaviour I'd never seen in my thousands of hours. Filming whales, thousands of whales seen, I've never seen this, I just knew I had to hit record. My first instinct was that perhaps this whale was sleeping. You see sleeping behaviour, but it's nothing like this very slow, consistent, laboured behaviour.

And it was suddenly when she diverted her path and went 200 metres or so further out to sea. That was about 600 or 700 metres from the shoreline that I saw this incredible red plumage and I realised this is something unforgettable and rare. And did you know at that point that she'd just given me? birth. I mean, you see red in the water, you think blood, you think possibly an attack by a shark, maybe? Yeah, you see red in the water and perhaps you think the worst. I initially thought maybe an interaction with the predator, but it only took a second or two before that beautiful white oval shape shot up to the surface and to my relief, it was a calf, an incredible vision that I'll

never forget. I can imagine. And what does a baby humpback whale look like? Just describe it for us. A baby humpback whale is beautiful, uncoordinated, playful. They're about 25% smaller than their mothers. They are pale grey. Their colours are still setting in. They have to earn their stripes. It was seriously incredible. And I was shaking after I got the footage, just putting the pieces together.

I had no idea what I had just filmed initially. I was crying on the inside, surprise on the outside. Absolutely adrenaline through the roof. To catch those first seconds on camera is just an experience I'll hold with me forever. Australian whale lover and photographer Alexander Forrest in New South Wales. Now, when was the last time you gave someone a kiss? Because apparently people today are kissing less than in the past. Professor Katie Barclay, a historian of emotions based at Macquarie University in Sydney,

has taken a deep dive into a thousand years' worth of kisses for her new book. the kiss, a history of passion and power. In tracing the gesture back through religious texts, literature, fine art and popular culture, she observes that kissing, especially in public, is in decline. We now kiss fewer people less often than we once did, and certainly puck her up a lot less than our more pious and more amorous ancestors. She spoke to Kylie Pentelow about why. Romantic kisses are the things that are not universal. In fact, far from being universal, a recent study suggests only 46% of cultures do romantic kissing. And given how normal it feels as a European myself, it is kind of amazing to imagine there's

parts of the world that don't bother. I think it's because in the Christian context, which Europeans have a Christian heritage over a thousand years now, at the centre of the church service was a holy kiss where you kissed each other to show your union and the body of Christ. And so in the middle of the service, this would stop and you can say you'd kiss your neighbour. Today we shake our hands. If you're in the Catholic Church, you might shake hands or hug your neighbour, but they would kiss. And because it was so important to this kind of Christian construction of faith and identity and community, it kind of then exploded into every other sphere of life. We've had a few comments on kisses. Some really good ones. I just want to read this one out

though, which is specifically referring to the fact that Europeans like to kiss. It says, I love kissing and I'm a huggy person. I particularly love the European way of two kisses, one on each cheek and special friends get three kisses. What's not to like about this, they say? But there can be that awkward moment, can't there? Where you don't quite know. I know, and I think historically it was a mouth kiss as well, right? So now we're much more prudish, even just in the social kisses.

We kiss on the cheek or two or three times when we're getting enthusiastic. but our ancestors had it a lot clearer. They were going for the mouth. They knew what they were doing. And we actually did that right up until the start of the 20th century, especially women. Let's talk about the issue of consent. You say we kiss fewer people less often than we used to.

And do you think that is combined with the issues of consent, the Me Too movement, maybe the COVID pandemic or a bit of everything? Bit of everything, really. I think one of the reasons we kiss less is, that historically people kissed for reasons that weren't just about romantic or family love or or sociability you had kisses of fealty so if you were swearing an oath of allegiance to your lord you kissed them on the mouth if you're signing a really important contract you kissed each other on the mouth if you're two kings and you're doing a peace treaty you kiss each other on the mouth

so there's all of these very public visible kisses that are happening and it's mostly men kissing each other on the mouth because they're the ones for the money and the power and they're the ones who need to sign contracts and what What kind of happened really from about the 16th century is a lot of those very public-facing kisses just kind of disappear and they actually disappear quite quickly. And kissing kind of remains in the sociable domain. Men still kiss each other for friendship reasons. And people still kiss our family members. We're starting to see this general decline of these kind of public official kisses.

Professor Katie Barclay on kissing. And that's it from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us. at Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of The Global News Podcast was mixed by Joe McCartney, and the producer was Charles Sanctuary. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.