Global News Podcast - Afghanistan five years after the Taliban return

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet meets Afghan women and girls who face severe restrictions. Girls can only attend school until grade six - around the age of 12 - and women are barred from university and many jobs. There are even rules over visiting public parks and gyms. But many women and girls are still determined to keep learning and working, despite what some call "gender apartheid". Also: Democratic lawmakers in the US are calling for an investigation into allegations of suicide attempts, food shortages and deteriorating conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for what's believed to be a record 200 days. For the first time in the US in 16 years, three people have been executed in one day. Gay people flee Ghana after parliament votes to jail them and anyone who "promotes homosexuality". As rescue workers in Colombia try to reach survivors of Monday's earthquake, we talk to the cousin of a 10-year-old boy who's trapped in the rubble with his mother and grandmother. Scientists in London claim they have invented the world's first fully biodegradable party balloon that breaks down within just nine months. A new study finds that pushing a buggy or stroller while running can help prevent injuries. And why Japan's rugby team coach is showing players videos of geese ahead of their game against Australia this weekend. 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]: The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet in Afghanistan, five years after the Taliban regained power.  Credit: BBC

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway, and this edition is published in the early hours of Friday the 14th of August. Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, we have a special report on the restrictions they've imposed on women and girls. US Democrats demand answers about poor conditions on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf and why America is executing more prisoners. Also in this podcast, the climate of the climate of the world. fear in Ghana after Parliament votes to jail gay people. This legislation being passed in Parliament has led to rhetoric that has left gay people here fearful.

Some of them have fled the country. They have to go. We don't want them there. And the benefits of jogging with a push chair. It is five years since the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan. And life for women and girls is still severely restricted. Girls can only attend school until grade 6. around the age of 12, and women are barred from university and many jobs. There are even rules over visiting public parks and gyms.

Our chief international correspondent, Lee Doucette, has returned to Afghanistan to meet those trying to keep learning and working, despite what some call gender apartheid. The sound of a school almost anywhere in the world, Afghan boys and girls in primary school laughing and learning with their teachers. But now we're going down a dark hall, into a far corner. And this is how young girls in Afghanistan, beyond grade six, are being educated now. This is what's called a secret school. Hello, Salamuuku? How are you? Are you okay?

So you teach the girls what to do if the morality police come? Yeah. This is one escape. Yeah, one escape door. One is the second one is here. Where do the girls go downstairs? This is back of the back. So they escape out the back door. Did they ever catch you? No. Why do you take this risk?

Because I'm also father and I have a girl's also. This is a risk for results. I accept. Just going up the stairs now. Some other classrooms of the oldest girls studying here. I'm turning years old and it's two years and I'm studying in a secret school and we are so happy to have a school like this. When you sit in the classroom, how does it make you feel?

First is the feel that I'm going to learn something. And after that, this has some fear that what will happen if they find us. What do you fear? What could happen? If they find us, maybe something happened for us and also for our school. But even with this fear, we're coming to studying and learn something. Sometimes you get sad? Yeah. Sometimes I'm thinking that what will happen in the future.

Sometimes I get sad. It's like sometimes this feeling is coming. Where do you find hope? From thinking about my future that maybe it will be good. You're a very brave girl. Thank you, also. We've driven about an hour from Kabul and come to this village where we're going to meet women who are learning how to make jam.

It's one of the many enterprises that are being set up by Afghan women because it is one area where the Taliban seemed to have no objections. What were you doing before the Taliban came to power during the Republic? I was a university student during the Republic, and I was studying political science. I completed six semesters of my studies there. I had only two semesters left. That was when, unfortunately, the universities were. close to girls.

And now it's been five years. You're learning to make jam? How does that feel? If I cannot go to university, then I will find work. I knew that if I stayed at home, I would not make any progress or better myself. But I am 100% sad. I loved my degree, and I really wanted to finish it.

When I apply for jobs and sense, and my CVN or go to interviews, the first thing they ask is for my university certificate. But I never got to one. Even this space is getting squeezed. As of last year, women can't take the products themselves to the shops to sell. A man has to do it.

And if there's a trade fair, they can no longer be at the stalls. They have to send a man in their place. So year on year, it just keeps getting harder. We're on our way now to meet another young Afghan girl who's doing whatever she can to keep being educated. And it's less risky both for the students as well as the teacher. And that's studying online.

There's a growing number of initiatives outside in Afghanistan to educate women in this way. And I'm going to meet one of these students. I'm 13 years old and I finished my sixth grade lessons. and after that I'm studying online my lessons. And you were sitting in a classroom with your fellow school girls for six years. Now you're by yourself online. How does it feel?

It feels very bad, I think. We studied six years. We were classmates. We were friends and we all studies together. We're talking in a shop and you're getting trained for a new kind of skill. Yes. Right now I'm doing Goldsmithing, which I make some jules. tooth cell. What if your life was that you were a jewelry maker instead of a doctor, would that be

okay? No, I won't be happy. Becoming a doctor, I think is much better than becoming a jeweler. Do you sometimes feel the world has forgotten Afghanistan and Afghan girls? Yes, I think the same they forgot it, but I can totally tell them that we are unstoppable and we will never give up. Such impressive determination, and there are other girls like her, but there are many, many, more who don't have access to the internet, online education, secret schools, or even Islamic madrasas. For them, usually the only option is early marriage, sometimes as young as a teenager. And this is not just an issue of girls' education. Five years on, a new society is being created in Afghanistan. Lees-Jusset, reporting from Afghanistan. President Trump initially said the war

against Iran would be over in weeks. But nearly six months in, there is no sign of it ending. As a result, US military deployments are being extended indefinitely, and that is reportedly harming the mental health of some personnel stuck in the Gulf, particularly among the 5,000 crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln. They haven't been on dry land for more than 200 days, said to be a record for consecutive days at sea. Alison Bath, from the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, has been speaking to some of the crew. I learned from two sailors aboard the ship that there was an incident where one sailor had attempted to jump off the ship

and that sailor was kept from doing that by watchstanders who were nearby. Other reports said multiple sailors had tried to jump overboard amid food shortages, water problems and unsanitary conditions. The allegations have been dismissed by the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegeseth. Our North America correspondent Daniel Bush told me more. There are claims coming in from a couple of different sources, Ali. There was a contentious meeting between spouses and other family members of the sailors on board with Navy officials in which they claim that their family members on board the USS, Abraham Lincoln, had written home complaining of lack of food, clean water, supplies.

And we also now know that a Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut has written a letter to Defense Secretary, Hegsef raising serious concern about the same issues, potential shortages of supplies, of clean water, food and other materials. Now, the Navy has come out of the statement to the BBC saying that after a review did not find an increase in suicidal attempts on board, but there have been reports that multiple sailors jumped overboard from the USS Lincoln, one of whom was wearing apparently a life jacket and was quickly rescued by the Navy. So that is the state. affairs right now. And as you said, this particular aircraft carrier has now been deployed for more than 250 days in the Middle East supporting the U.S. war with Iran and has not had a port of call in over

200 days, which the Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal says is a modern day record. And so what has Pete Hegseth said about all this? Well, he has pushed back, as has the Navy. They again say that they keep the well-being of service members, the top of mind that their There are no shortages aboard this aircraft carrier, that there is a steady supply of food, water, that there are clean living conditions on board. You know, this comes as President Trump is facing increasing pressure to wind down this warp. And the Navy has extended the deployment of this aircraft carrier without a certain return date. So this is a moment where morale apparently on board is very, very low as these sailors are now there for

months on end for a war that has no end in sight. And I guess some might argue that if you are a sailor or a soldier at war, you just have to put up with these kind of things. Supporters of the war are saying this is part of what it means to be in a war zone. But what critics who are focusing on these living conditions are arguing is that even in wartime, this is unusual. Again, this seems to be a modern day record for the length of time that an aircraft carrier is deployed in a war zone without a port of call. There have been news reports just recently from Reuters that the Navy is sending a separate aircraft carrier or group of ships to the region to replace the Abraham Lincoln. The Navy itself has not confirmed this yet, so we're waiting to see whether that is the case.

But it does suggest that the military is trying to respond to this moment. Daniel Bush in Washington. Staying in the U.S. and for the first time in 16 years, three people there have been executed on the same day. The first was Carlos Questa Rodriguez in. Oklahoma. An hour later, Anthony Daryl Hines was put to death in Tennessee. By the order of the Supreme Court, the Tennessee Department of Correction carried out the death sentence of Anthony Hines by means of lethal injection at the River Bend Maximum Security Institution. Inmate Heinz was pronounced dead at 1043 a.m. and his last words were, tell my son hello. This

concludes my statement. Hines had killed Catherine Jenkins in 1985. Melissa Jenkins is Catherine's daughter. For four decades, our family has endured the unimaginable pain and grief of her death. There is a deep void that will never be filled, a lifetime of memories. We were denied because she was taken from us. The third to die was Jeremy Williams in Alabama. He was convicted of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl in Georgia in 2021. There's been a steep rise in U.S. Executions recently, with four times as many people put to death last year as in 2020. But why is that? Luke Jones asked our North America reporter, Nardin Sard. There are a total of 37 executions across 11 states in 2025. That's a market increase from only 25 executions in 24.

But about 40% of the deaths in 2025 were in Florida. And that's the biggest factor contributing to the U.S.'s rise in executions. And just halfway through 2026, 12 of the 19 executions were out of Florida. Why Florida? Governor Ron DeSantis has wide breadth. of ability to authorize these executions. And he, like President Donald Trump, was very pro-death penalty and believes it's a deterrent. President Trump has long been a major supporter of the death penalty. He describes capital punishment as, quote, an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who commit the most heinous crimes, unquote. In 2020, during his first term, he ended a nearly

two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty. And the moratorium returned under President Joe Biden, but on his first day, back on his second term, President Donald Trump, signed an executive order that reinstated the death penalty. I should add that no federal executions have been carried out since, though. These executions are happening amid a steady decline of support for the death penalty in the United States and globally. You see it being phased out in Europe and you see it waning in Africa. A Gallup poll in the U.S. has shown that just 52% of Americans say the death penalty is morally acceptable. And that's the lowest number since the 1970s. There's also been a decline in the number of death sentences that are issued by juries. In the 1990s, juries across the country

could issue upwards of 300 death sentences in a year. In 2025, they issued only 23. Hasn't there also been some upsets, not just at the fact that executions are happening, but sometimes how they are happening, and there have been a few some botched cases. Those are the ones that are making the biggest headlines. Those have been with lethal injections, some issues with the three drug cocktail. Then you have pharmaceutical companies coming in and saying that they don't want their drugs to be used in this way. And so the drugs being obtained for these punishments have their own issues and that is a contributing factor to these botched executions as well. Nardin Sardt. According to a recent study, balloon fragments are the marine debris

most likely to kill seabirds that ingest them. Scientists at Imperial College London have invented what they claim is the world's first fully biodegradable party balloon. They say it can break down within just nine months, as opposed to traditional balloons that take years. Luxemico Powell has this report. In some parts of the ocean, it's estimated that there are now over one million pieces of plastic for every square months. Highlighting how plastic pollution harms wildlife, the series Blue Planet 2 sparked action against single-use plastics such as straws.

Now, there's action against the environmental impact of another everyday item. It was the mission of high-end, party planner Charlotte Melia. We'd just hosted a large event and I was surrounded by thousands of pop balloons at the end of the party and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. So how is it

made? Juliana Cumming is the co-inventor of BioLoon. We have a modified natural rubber and we just cut bits off of that and that's what's in here and we have a biodegradable semi-crystalline polymer which is just in here. We blend them together in a solution and we pour it into this

dish and we leave it to evaporate. It's a really thin film and this contains a cross-thinking agent. So we just put this in the oven, 50 degrees. And we just leave it there for 10 minutes. This really is like cooking, isn't it? It is, yes. After different versions of material proved too stretchy or too stiff, this one was just right. There you go. That's looking more like a balloon. It's hoped it'll pose less risk to wildlife. A recent study found that balloon fragments with the marine debris most likely to kill. sea birds that ingested it. The bioloon researchers say, while standard balloons can take many years to break down, theirs should fully biodegrade within nine months.

A regular balloon, you need to add in sulphur and other additives, which prevent it biodegrading and cause toxic chemicals to leach into the environment. Whereas our balloon, we start with biodegradable materials and we join them together just with what is present in there. So it retains the biodegradability, so there's no additives. Despite using a different process, the team claims it would be no more expensive and, what's more, would be easier to blow up than a traditional balloon. As for the materials use, the sky's the limit. Party planner Charlotte Melia.

We're starting with balloons, but we hope to work into gloves, surgical and non-surgical latex, medicinal apparatus and medicinal balloons, clothing and even condoms in the future. The team says the new greener. balloons will be produced commercially within the next two years. Luxemigo Pahl with that report. And still to come in this podcast? These geese fly 4,000 miles to get about a sun. All I'm asking you to do is play 30 games to win a week.

I'm no thing I'm asking too much. Why sports coaches are getting their teams to behave like migrating birds. 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 Odu.com to book a demo. It's O'DO.com.

This is the Global News podcast. A law in Ghana, which would hand prison terms to members of the LGBT community and those seen as promoting homosexuality, is awaiting its final sign-off by the country's president. It was approved by Ghana's parliament earlier this year with cross-party support. Critics say it puts lives at risk. Our religion editor Alim Mqbal has been to Ghana to find out more. There are more than 60 countries in the world where homosexuality is a crime.

Around half of them are in Africa. And Ghana is in the process of becoming another that sends gay people to prison. We are criminalising people who carry themselves to be in that society. People who are gay. Gay. If you are attracted to another man and you express it openly and you endorse in the act of kissing a man, it's unnatural. It's unnatural. That's Emmanuel Bezra, Ghanaian member of Parliament and one of the architects of a bill that doesn't just outlawful. being gay, but also outlaws being an LGBT ally.

We thought the spread of all this comes from people who are supported. And so if you are an ally or you are promoting it and you are caught, it means you want it spread. And so you also be, it's a criminal. And if you're seen as an ally, if you're seen as somebody who expresses being gay, that could lead to prison terms. Of course.

You should be in prison. More from Mr Bezra later. The bill he sponsored has been passed by Ghana's parliament and is now waiting to be signed into law by the president. But some gay Garnians have already fled the country, like Bediak Boteng, who hears from those left behind. Sometimes I'm drawn to tears because I've had my fair experience of what they are going through.

When you are going out, you have to check out. Is this person that I'm talking? Is he safe? Can I trust this person with who I am? Do you feel now not only that you can't live in Ghana, but how do you feel about even visiting Ghana? Visiting Ghana would be difficult. It's a sad situation for me, especially having a family there, but I can't visit because I really want to live who I am

without needing to pretend, without needing to lie to anybody. It's very sad. And our society frown on some of these things. And so back to the MP, Emmanuel Bezra, one of those who drew up the anti-LGB law. How can you criminalize something that people can't control in themselves? I just gave you one example that people sometimes have desired to steal. But this is very different. This is about living their own lives, expressing themselves.

So there's a boundary in every society. And one of the boundaries that don't steal. But is it a crime that somebody is born in a way that they feel affection for somebody that is of their own gender? Born in a way? Who born them in that way? You were born in men. So do you accept that if somebody is gay, they were born that way?

No. You don't accept it? No at all. So don't even go there. There are some calls from human rights activists from the international community to raise the issue more. But for some, that could,

seem like colonial interference. We think that gayism, homosexualsia in all these acronyms, the LGBT are import from the Western world. The process over recent years that has led to this legislation being passed in Parliament has led to rhetoric that has left gay people here fearful. Some of them have fled the country. They have to go. We don't want them there. Seriously. The law's only been held up because some Christian and Muslim

leaders wanted to be more severe, but it seems jail terms of up to three years could soon be a reality for anyone found to be gay in Ghana. And Lee McBool reporting from Ghana. Colombia is still reeling from the powerful earthquake which hit on Monday, destroying thousands of homes and businesses in the west of the country. More than 270 people are known to have died and the death toll continues to rise. As rescue efforts continue family face an anxious wait to find out if their relatives are still alive under the rubble. A 10-year-old boy called Martín, who lived with his mother and grandmother, was on the third floor of an eight-story apartment block when it collapsed. His cousin, Johanna Jimenez, told the BBC

that signs of life in the building have given her hope that her relatives may have survived. The building, Anna Pilar in Cali, collapsed with the earthquake. They have had a little. have managed to locate Martin, who is in this collapse building. They confirmed that they were signs of life in the building, but as you can imagine, it's very slow the whole process. So in the early hours, they said that there were some people who were alive and that they heard signs of life. And I hope that the signs of life of my aunt, Amparo, and my cousin, Alejandra,

and we're praying that they can take Martin out of the rubble. It's been very hard and very helpful in a way. It's tough because we were close in his family. And Martin is a lovely boy. He's very happy boy. And so is my cousin Alejandra and my aunt. And we've been feeling this deep love everybody's been giving us. And we believe that God will make this miracle.

happen and ever since we saw that the building had collapsed we've been here and we've been really positive about the outcome of being able to find them so many people have been affected so many houses are just uninhabitable or they look like they might collapse so the city cali is paralyzed and the parts that haven't been so badly affected people from those parts have come to our aid nationally people have come internationally people have come and the thing is we're going to have to start from zero because our homes are uninhabitable. Johanna Jimenez in Colombia. A few days ago, a dad in the US state of Ohio set an unofficial world record by running a mile

in four minutes and 17 seconds while pushing his daughter along in a push chair or stroller as they're known in the US. And while that may seem like a tiring way to jog, a new study has found it might actually help prevent injuries. I heard more. from lead researcher Alison Altman Singles of Pennsylvania State University. What we found is that fewer runners that are running with strollers get injured and they're getting injured at lower rates per 1,000 miles. We think that the reason for that is because of the way that they're running with the strollers. So when you push a stroller, you sort of lean forward onto it, hold onto the handlebars,

and that puts some of your weight through the stroller and not all of it goes through your legs. So it almost has like an unweighting effect, kind of like when you're using a wall. walker, how it kind of gives you a little bit less on your feet and more through your arms. So they're getting less force through their body, which causes fewer overuse injuries in the runners. Is it surprising that if you have something to lean on, you're less likely to get injured? I don't think it's super surprising. And in fact, we've heard of anecdotal studies of people using something similar to a stroller

for balance as they exercise as they age as well, which we love. If you run with a stroller, do you tend to go faster or slower? You tend to run a little bit slower, but even if you run the same speed, you still get this benefit from the strollers. What about the guy who just broke the record for running a mile with a stroller? When you run on a smooth flat surface, it doesn't take too much more effort to push a stroller. So it's awesome that he broke the record. And I think that there's still potential out there that we could be running fast miles with strollers. And does it make any difference the type of push chair that a person uses when running?

For speed, probably, but for injury, it does not seem like it makes a difference in our population. We expected to see most people using like a three-wheeled, directionally locked front wheel type of jogging stroller. We saw some people using four-wheeled strollers, some people using three-wheeled strollers, some using directionally locked wheels, some that were not locked directionally. And so seeing this benefit over a wide variety of strollers is actually encouraging to us. So would you advise people who are going out for a jog to take a stroller with them? I think it's a great idea, especially if you're spending extra time with your kids or getting to get outside as a family. How common is it for people to run in this way with their children in a push chair?

I believe it's very common for mothers. I don't know how common it is for the rest of the world. This study only covered parents. We got a higher response rate from females, especially in the stroller group. So I think it tends to be more female dominated. However, I think everyone can benefit from pushing a stroller. And other alternatives for people who don't have a baby or a stroller at hand when they want to go for a run? I think running on a treadmill and holding the handlebars on a treadmill may have a similar effect to pushing a stroller.

Dr. Allison Altman Singles from Pennsylvania State University. Finally, the coach of Japan's rugby team has revealed an unusual strategy for preparing his players for their game against Australia this weekend, showing them videos of geese. Our sports correspondent Andy Swiss has the story. The reason we watch videos of geese, Eddie Jones said, is that the head of the flock is like the ball carrier. Jones explained his unusual coaching method was an attempt to improve his players' teamwork. The geese fly thousands of miles in formation, he added,

and they follow the one goose in front. And it's the responsibility of the support players to respond to what the ball carrier does. He's not the first coach to have used such, bird-based strategies. Sir Alex Ferguson would often tell his players to observe the geese during Manchester United's training sessions. In an interview after his retirement, he said it was a way of motivating his squad. I said to them, these geese fly 4,000 miles to get about a sun. All I'm asking you to do is play 30 games to win a week. I don't think I'm asking too much. Sir Alex Ferguson passed his analogy onto Europe's Ryder Cup golfers before their match in 2014.

The team's victorious captain Paul McGinley said, Remember the Geese became a phrase they used throughout the competition. Just one small linguistic point for Eddie Jones. He should, of course, have referred to a skein, not a flock, the correct collective noun for geese when they are in flight. Andy Swiss. And that is all from us for now. But the Global News podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Chris A Blackquire and produced by Emma Joseph. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.