Global News Podcast - BBC reveals rift at top of Taliban regime

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

A year-long investigation by the BBC Afghan Service has found that two groups are competing for power within the Taliban leadership. One is aligned to the supreme leader and his hardline policies. The other is said to favour more international engagement and giving women wider access to education. Also: Elon Musk's social media platform X has announced new measures to stop its AI chatbot, Grok, creating sexualised images of real people. This function will now be blocked, including for paying subscribers, if local laws demand it. Election officials in Uganda say logistical problems have delayed voting in presidential and parliamentary polls. Delays were blamed on failures in biometric identification kits and lack of equipment. And astronauts splash down to Earth after medical evacuation from the International Space Station. 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]

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An exclusive BBC investigation in Afghanistan reveals a split at the top of the ruling Taliban. Videos and voice messages from Iran show the extent of the government's crackdown on protesters. And the social media platform X announces new rules for its AI chatbot Grok over the creation of sexualized images of real people. Also in this podcast, Uganda's general election faces widespread delays as President Misevenis seeks a seventh term. And dragon, SpaceX, we see Splashdown. On behalf of SpaceX and NASA, welcome home, crew 11.

Four astronauts are back on Earth after the first ever medical evacuation of the International Space Station. In the last edition of this podcast, we brought you an exclusive BBC report on a split at the top of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a leaked recording, the group's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akunze, Zadda warns that the divisions could bring down his government. The story is the result of a year-long investigation by the BBC's Afghan service. And now we want to bring you more details from one of the journalists who worked on it, Zia Sharia. He told us that while the Taliban has denied the split,

it could have huge ramifications for the 44 million people within Afghanistan and how they experience the Taliban's harsh rule. The Taliban are a very secretive government, one of the most secretive with a leader who is not showing his face and do not come out. Pictures are not taken from him. So what we tried to do was to look into their daily operations and how they are governing Afghanistan. But also last year there was a leaked audio that we obtained in the BBC. And in that audio, the leader of the Taliban expresses. concern about internal division inside the Taliban.

His concern talks about the differences inside the Taliban that could eventually topple down their government. Within the body of the government, they will set people against one another. They will criticize each other so that the system becomes weak and divisions increase. As a result of these divisions, the Emirates will be destroyed. and will simply come to an end.

So our one-year investigation was focused on to finding out what are these differences and who are opposing each other inside the Taliban government. And we found out that, in fact, there are two groups. One is based in Kandahar, lit by Hebatullah Khanzada himself. The Kandahar group is loyalist to the leader who are pushing and supporting the radical and extremist policies. that Hebatullah Khunzada is pushing across the country, particularly on women education and women's work, but also in relation to their relationship with the world, they are more

into isolationist policies and also the strict implementation of the Sharia law or the morality law, which is a major source of difference between the two groups. And also the concentration of power. So they're concentrating a lot of power in Kandahar. The leader is in of pretty much everything in the government. But then we have the Kabul group consisting of the Defence Minister, Interior Minister, and the Deputy Prime Minister. The most famous of them are Sarajideen Haqani, who was once the leader of the Haqani Network, a very feared militant group. But now he's sort of showing, and also a group around him, showing more interest into moderate policies, particularly, again, into female education.

and also they are not happy about the concentration of power in Kandahar. They think that the ministers are being overlooked by the leader in Kandahar. And they are also supporting active interaction with the international community. Okay. So now that we're aware of this apparent division within the Taliban, this lack of unity, what difference could this make for people living in Afghanistan? It's a very important question, I think. And what we've tried through this investigation to, first of all, take the people and the people of Afghanistan into who are ruling them, because there is a lot of, should I say, secretive, or there are secrets, ambiguity, and they're not very sure who are ruling them because they cannot see the leader. Because we have audiences, we have people who say that Hebat la Hussein doesn't exist at all because he doesn't show himself.

So through this piece, we first confirmed that he does exist, but we also go into through eyewitnesses, through our sources, into his meetings, into his daily operation in Kandahar. How does he talk to people? Where does he go? What's been the Taliban's response to your reporting? So the Taliban main spokesman, Zabul al-Mujaid, responded to our questions,

and he denied flatly that there is any internal division. among the Taliban. He said we are aware of what a division would do to the Taliban or to any group or to any government. But he did say that there are differences of ideas inside the government and just like, as he put it, members of family who have differences on different things. But he said no division. Ziyah Shirir. Well, to Iran now, the state now claims that there is calm on the streets after weeks of angry protests, though human rights groups say thousands of people were killed

to bring the demonstrations to a halt. Donald Trump's threat to take action and even use lethal force in support of protesters still looms over Tehran. Iran closed its airspace for five hours overnight, and its foreign minister has urged the U.S. president to choose diplomacy, not war. Where does that leave the protesters?

Iran has not allowed foreign journalists into the country. country and a communications blackout has made it difficult to speak to people there. But Giorgol of BBC's Persian service has been piecing together videos and messages from protesters to gain a fuller picture of the violence they've faced. In a video recently emerged from Tehran shows paramilitary loyal to the supreme leader, the Basij, alongside anti-riot police chasing young protesters through the streets. as they run, the security forces are firing their weapons. This explains why so many young men and women have been shot from behind, often at close range.

With a total internet shut down across Iran, communicating with the outside world has become extremely difficult. Only a small number of people using Stirling satellite connections have been able to reach us. Images emerging from Iran are harrowing. One shows a woman in her late 40s, dressed in block, standing in shock and grief, among rows of body bags, searching for her loved one.

We have received many messages describing what is happening in different cities. To protect their identities, we have broadcast these voices, anonymously on BBC Persian when young men contacted us from a small town in Gilan in northern Iran.

A place where people usually turn off their lights early in the evening. He said they were protests with fear and hope. We were all together. Then suddenly it escalated. Another woman from the same town

told us that around 2 a.m. That day, they heard gunshots. At first, there were two casualties, but by 4 a.m., the number of victims had risen. Images we have seen from open-air morgues show families lining up, desperately searching for loved ones. Meanwhile, security forces and Revolutionary Guard's intelligence unit have been arresting people across the country. The Islamic Republic has released images of death protesters. But claims they were killed by terrorists. On state television, security and judicial officials appear one after another,

warning that they will show no mercy to anyone accused of rioting or damaging government or private property. Every day, every hour, the number of dead continues to rise. We can say with confidence, that thousands of young men and women have been killed in these recent protests, a level of violence against protesters that is unprecedented in modern Iran. Dear goal. Elon Musk's AI bot GROC has angered a lot of people over the last few weeks. The strong reaction came after GROC began allowing users to digitally alter people's photos

to reduce or remove their clothing. The feature was even being used on images of children, and that sparked outrage and legal scrutiny in many countries. At first, X, the platform that features GROC, responded by saying that paid subscribers would still be allowed to access the feature. But now, X says that kind of digital editing will no longer be available in parts of the world where it's illegal. Our Asia business correspondent Nick Marsh spoke to Sally Bundock.

This is probably the strongest and most detailed response that we've had from X on this issue so far. I think it's fair to say that until now its actions, its responses have been fairly piecemeal. But now it says yes, it will block users from digitally undressing women, you know, real-life women in photos, creating sexualized material of minors and that sort of thing. In its statement it says that X has a zero-tolerance. for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content. Interestingly, though, this all applies with the caveat of whether these are deemed illegal in your jurisdiction. Presumably, if these things creating unwanted sexual content, that is, are not illegal in your jurisdiction.

The users are still free to do that using GROC. and that same goes for creating sexual content with grok of imaginary humans. That is still very much allowed. But this is definitely the strongest and the most detailed response we've had so far. And here in the UK, we've seen a lot of reaction to this from the government, from the watchdog as well. What about where you are? In Malaysia, Indonesia, they've actually just banned it, have they? Yeah, they banned Grok over the weekend.

They were the first countries in the world to do so. And obviously, as you say in the UK, there's an investigation there with the regular authorities. We've seen the same in France, in India as well. And then most recently, California's Attorney General said that he'd be investigating Grok. And actually, it was very shortly after this announcement in California that Grok came out with this statement saying that they would be taking much stronger action against this kind of content. This has been a controversy that's been bubbling up. It sort of bled into the political sphere a little bit as well. We know that Elon Musk has had his differences with Kier Starrma, the British Prime Minister.

And interestingly, until now, and we haven't had any direct comment on these new actions taken by X from Elon Musk, but it was only a few days ago that Elon Musk was calling any criticisms of Grok or any concerns, an excuse for censorship and limiting free speech. So we'll see how these new restrictions are implemented and how thoroughly they're rolled out across the world. Nick Marsh in Singapore speaking to Sally Bundock. Still to come in this podcast, the hottest topics on Wikipedia. Britney Spears, Donald Trump and Jesus are among the most edited individuals, wrecking up tens of thousands of amendments over the years.

The world's favourite online encyclopedia celebrates its 25th anniversary. When you're car shopping on your phone, you need to see all the information. With the Car Guru's app, you can. Powerful search tools let you see deal ratings, price history and dealer reviews on listings, all in one place. And you can turn on real-time price drop alerts, so you'll never miss a great deal. It's no wonder Car Gurus is the number one rated car shopping app in Canada on the Apple App and Google Play Store. Buy your next car gurus today with Car Gurus at CarGurus.ca. Go to CarGurus.ca. Go to CarGurus.ca. Go to CarGurus.ca. Go to cargoos.ca.com.com.

You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from Service Now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed?

In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast.

To Uganda now, where logistical problems have delayed voting in presidential and parliamentary polls. Officials say the issue lies with the failure of biometric identification kits and a lack of equipment. Even the president himself, Euwari Maseveni, who seeking, re-election for his seventh term, said he'd experienced problems voting. He's facing a challenge led by the former musician Bobby Wine, who maintains a stronghold in the poorer parts of the capital, Kampala. Our correspondent in Kampala, Sami Awami, told me more about the problems affecting the start of voting.

The technical issues have delayed voting from starting. The polls were supposed to open, or at least the voting should have started at 7 a.m., But until 10, when we left several polling stations that were visited, voting had not started yet. So I asked election officials at the centers what was the problem. And they told me they were failing or they couldn't configure the gadgets to connect the stations with a central system or the central portal. Were we expecting a big turnout to the election before we knew of these technical problems? We've seen a lot of political party supporters in big rallies, like most. massive rallies, hundreds of people have been attending. But there has always been a question about

whether these attendants in campaign rallies would translate into actually people going to vote. There are several people that have spoken to here and then ask them whether they were planning to vote. Quite a few of them expressed disinterest really not going to vote. And they said the winner of the election, especially the presidential candidate, is almost known already. So they felt like there was no point for them to go out to vote. But this morning when I visited these polling station. Some of them had long queued, maybe over 100 people, but the first one, especially the polling station where the opposition politician, the opposition presidential candidate, the main opposition president candidate was going to vote. There were less than 100 people, and it's quite a big

district you'd expect. There would be many people there, but it was different. Sammy, how free and fair is this election likely to be, given that there are major restrictions on President Masevni's opponents? Well, that question really depends on who you are. If you ask the electoral commission, they've been assuring voters that they would manage these elections with utmost professionalism. They would abide with the law and making sure that whoever wins will be announced. But again, when you ask the opposition and activists, they'll tell you otherwise. And they said, you know, they point out to some of the experiences, especially the opposition have had in the last few weeks, few months. the opposition, the main opposition party, the National Unit Party, have said over 700 of their

supporters and senior leaders have been either arrested or disappeared. There's one of the leading activists is in jail right now. The former, you know, strongest opponent for President of 17, Kizabesia is also in prison facing prison charges. Even the main opponent of President of 17 in this election, you know, wears bulletproof and helmet, you know, for protection because they said security has not been. good in the country. So if you ask the opposition to activists, they'll cast doubt on whether this election will be free and fair, but if the Electoral Commission has assured voters that they will conduct this with highest professionalism and abiding by the law.

Sami Hawami in Uganda. In Thailand, questions are being asked about the dangers posed by all large-scale construction projects in public areas. That's after a crane fell onto a passenger train on Wednesday, killing at least 32 people. The crane was part of a major rail project to link the Thai capital, Bangkok, with southern China. It was supposed to showcase the best of the two countries' engineering works. However, Thailand's Structural Engineers Association is now calling for the suspension of major building projects in public areas. This comes as two people were killed on Thursday after a second crane collapsed onto a highway in central Thailand. Our correspondent Jonathan Head spoke to us from,

the scene of Wednesday's incident. The day after the accident, there's been a lot of activity down here as they've tried to clear away the rubble, the destroyed carriages. One of the carriages is completely cut in half and the massive steel girders that came down off this high-speed railway line that they're constructing here down onto the passing train. There have been a lot of heavy cranes coming in here. Lorry's taking out the debris from the accident. At the same time, we've had visits from people inspecting, checking what might have gone wrong. And some of the relatives have also come down here. Relatives of those who died on the train just to see the site of where it all happened.

There is an active investigation apparently ongoing. The government ordered one immediately. The railway authority says they expect to complete their first inquiry within two weeks. But already people are raising serious questions about what was going on here. engineer saying that the train should never have been passing on the old line underneath this high-speed rail when they were carrying out the difficult maneuver of extending these gantries that help construct these elevated railway. People are asking for answers and there's a big question about how much it's going to delay this already much postponed project which is going to eventually link the Thai capital Bangkok with China. This is a prestige project. It's meant to be a

showcase of Chinese and Thai engineering working together, obviously with what's happened here. That's a huge setback to the reputation of the people building this. And indeed to Thailand's plans to modernise its infrastructure. You can see these kinds of building sites and these kind of ambitious infrastructure improvements going on all over the country. And we've heard that only today this morning, the day after the accident, there's been another very similar accident on a major road improvement project south of Bangkok, which suggests that there are lingering problems with safety culture in this country that still need to be addressed. Jonathan Head. Four astronauts have arrived back on Earth after their mission at the International

Space Station was cut short because of an unspecified medical issue. Their space capsule splashed down into the waters off the coast of California. Dragon, SpaceX. We see Splash down. SpaceX Dragon copy two curves. Splash down and mains are cut. We are in 4.800. SpaceX copies and we see the same. Main's cut. On behalf of SpaceX and NASA, welcome home, crew 11. This was the first medical evacuation that's ever been carried out since crews first started going to the station a quarter of a century ago. The newsrooms Peter Goughlin was watching the return. It started with the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which looks, by the way, like a big metal cone hurtling back into the Earth's atmosphere at around 190 kilometers per hour,

deploying four parachutes and floating far more slowly down into the Pacific Ocean in total darkness. This was the middle of the night local time. Now, the capsule was met within minutes by a recovery boat. It was hoisted on board, and there was this great moment of suspense when the capsule door opened, medical staff, and a NASA photographer crawled in, and finally, the first astronaut, Commander Mike Fink, emerged, and then Zena Cardman, then the Japanese astronaut Kimia Ui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Plotov. Now, NASA has not said what the illness on board the space station was or which of the astronauts is affected. We do know that if one person has to come back from the space station, everyone who arrived with them on the capsule has to go to.

That's their ride home, essentially. But today, none of the astronauts were visibly unwell. Now, they don't come bounding triumphantly out of the capsule. Astronauts never do. They have to be helped onto a gurney and then wheeled away. But that's because spending months in low gravity takes a serious toll on the body. Astronauts need to regain their balance. They need to build back muscle mass.

But otherwise, there were no visible signs of anything wrong with these four. Peter, I do agree with you. Watching the images of that capsule splashing down and then waiting for it to be reopened was pretty cool. It must have been a difficult moment for the astronauts who've had their mission cut short. Yeah, bittersweet is the way that Commander Fink described it. And just imagine, you've trained for this mission for years and then you don't get to complete it. These four astronauts had been on the International Space Station since August. They had about a month left on their scheduled stay.

But I must say, as they were coming out of the capsule, they looked buoyant. They were pumping their fists, giving the thumbs up, waving to people on the boat. there was this fantastic close-up of Kimia Yui beaming from ear to ear. We should note, though, there are three people who stayed behind on the space station as a sort of skeleton crew to keep things running until the next crew arrives in mid-February. Their mission continues, and it's just become a lot more challenging, as these three people will have to do the work of seven astronauts. Peter Goffin.

It's 25 years today since the launch of Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia is a lot of. funded by donations and run by volunteers, meaning it's made a huge amount of knowledge available for free, but it's also open to abuse and misinformation. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman has been looking back at how one of the Internet's most popular sites came to be. Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has grown from a few hundred articles to more than 65 million across 300 languages. It's become the go-to resource for curiously. minds worldwide and hundreds of thousands of volunteers work tirelessly to keep it up to date.

People rush to Wikipedia when someone famous dies. Its service almost collapsed following Michael Jackson's death in 2009 and its page about the US conservative activist Charlie Kirk was visited 170 times per second in the hours after he was assassinated. It's also gone from digital to analogue. The Magna Carta page was turned into a giant embroidery. Back to basics. Founder Jimmy Wales told me why it's called Wikipedia. Well, the software is called wiki.

And a wiki is just a website anybody can edit. It comes from a Hawaiian word wiki-wiki, which means quick. So the idea is quick collaboration. It hasn't been without controversy. Hoaxes, edit wars and debates over accuracy have all been part of its journey. A page dedicated to a completely made-up god called Jaredo Wens stayed online for nearly 10 years before being caught. Britney Spears, Donald Trump and Jesus are among the most edited individuals,

wrecking up tens of thousands of amendments over the years. Strict as sourcing rules and a global community of volunteer editors try and keep misinformation in check. Those volunteers are key. Oh yeah, I mean, the volunteer community is absolutely everything. They write all the content, they make all the editorial decisions. They do the community management and things like that. Let's crunch some numbers.

Wikipedia is edited by nearly 200. 150,000 volunteers every month, with edits made 350 times every minute. The most edited page is a list of WWE personnel, yes, the wrestling brand, with more than 59,000 changes so far. At 25, it faces new challenges, disinformation, deep fakes and artificial intelligence. You know, we think there's some interesting opportunities for our community to use AI to help us with the work. It's not good enough to write Wikipedia entries, but it is good enough to say spot a problem or to make a suggestion. What does the next 25 years hold?

I mean, I do worry a lot about the rise of censorship around the world and the various ways that governments, both totalitarian governments, but also even democratic governments, are starting to, I think, soften on their understanding of freedom of expression and so forth. So I worry, you know, a fair amount about that sort of thing. I always am thinking about the community and thinking how do we stay healthy, how do we stay strong. Wikipedia is the only website in the top 10 most visited global sites run by a non-profit. And yes, people do use that familiar pop-up banner to make donations. Wikipedia's mission remains the same. Free knowledge for all. Zoe Climman, who's been speaking to the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.

And that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was produced by Peter Gawthon. It was mixed by Nick Randall.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye.