Global News Podcast - King makes history by praying with Pope

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

King Charles becomes the first head of the Church of England to publicly pray with the Pope, five centuries after King Henry VIII broke with Rome. The British monarch joined the head of the Catholic Church for a service in the Sistine Chapel, in a powerful symbol of unity.Also: the European Union joins the US in announcing new economic sanctions on Russia over war in Ukraine as President Zelensky holds talks in Brussels with EU leaders. A court in Northern Ireland has acquitted a British soldier of killing unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday in 1972. The metabolic ceiling that limits calories burnt during exercise by endurance athletes. And the café owner trying to make his customers connect - by locking away their phones.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]

You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 hours GMT on Thursday, the 23rd of October. Five centuries after Henry VIII broke with Rome, King Charles formally ends the rift by praying alongside the Pope. The EU joins the US in announcing new economic sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. And a court in Northern Ireland acquits a British soldier of killing unarmament. civilians on Bloody Sunday in 1972. Also in the podcast? You have to stop the boats.

Yes, it's madness. Madness. But could France do more to prevent migrants crossing the English Channel? Nearly 500 years ago, Henry VIII of England broke with the Roman Catholic Church, triggering centuries of religious strife in his kingdom. Today, his distant successor has signalled that that rift is well and truly over. King Charles III, head of the Church of England, went to Rome to pray with the Pope. O God make speed to save us. Lord make this help us. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive us. You are worthy, our Lord and God,

receive glory and honour and power. For you create your things that will exist and one-grieved. The service in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican focused on conservation and protection for the environment, a cause long championed by King Charles. He and his wife, Queen Camilla, also had a private audience with Pope Leo and exchanged gifts.

In Britain, Catholics and Protestants have largely abandoned any historic grievances. But this was still an important. important moment. As I heard from our correspondent in the Vatican, Mark Lowen. I mean, when Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534, the relationship between the Church of England and the Catholic Church began, and it has often been rocky. It has often been tense. There has been mistrust between the two denominations. And it has warmed in recent decades, but really today was sort of unprecedented in its symbolism of the Supreme Governor of the Church of

England, the British monarch, praying alongside the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo the 14th. It is thought that Charles's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, wanted to pray beside the then Pope John Paul II when she visited the Vatican in the year 2000. But it was feared at that stage that it could upset factions within the Church of England. That is not being the case today. So beneath the splendid frescoes of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, this moment of real symbolism and unity and reconciliation. The King and Queen have left the Vatican. They've actually gone across Rome to a papal basilica

called the Basilica of St. Paul's outside the wall. And that is where another moment of symbolism is happening because King Charles is receiving the title of Royal Confrata, again, symbolising kind of the unity between the two wings of the Christian faith. And he will be given a seat inside that basilica with his coat of arms and he and his successors as British monarch will be able to sit in that chair. Now it is the basilica in which there is the tomb of St Paul and the English crown for centuries back to the Saxons

have been involved in the upkeep of the tomb of St Paul and so it is also there is a huge connection between Britain and that church and once again symbolising that unity today. I have to say that that is the kind of historical background to all of this and the historical moments to all of this. But of course there is another thing happening behind the scenes on this trip and that is the framework of what is happening in the UK as the scandal and controversy over Prince Andrew, the King's younger brother,

deepens over his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and also, of course, the fact that he has been found to have been living rent-free in a 30-room mansion on the Windsor estate. So that scandal and controversy over Prince Andrew deepens, but the palace, Buckingham Palace, very much hoping that that does not overshadow or distract from the importance and symbolism of this trip here at the Vatican today. Did you get a sense from the Pope and the King

that they knew this was a moment of history? I think you couldn't escape that, really. I mean, it was, the King wanted to pay a state visit to the Vatican for some time. They wanted to come actually during the papacy of the late Pope Francis and they tried in April to come, but Francis was too ill, and then died a few days later. They met him privately during their 20th wedding anniversary trip here to Italy. But, you know, there was so much importance placed by the royal family on this

as a state visit to the Holy See, which is an institution, the governance of the church, which actually is involved in many issues that the royal family feel very deeply about, climate change, protection of women and stopping women trafficking and the like, but also that kind of religious importance. I mean, Charles is a man of faith, and clearly it was important for him and his wife to be involved in this moment of real theological and religious symbolism. Mark Lowen in Rome. Since he returned to the White House, Donald Trump has given mixed signals about his attitude towards Russia.

Last week, the US president appeared to side with Vladimir Putin in his demand that Ukraine surrender the whole of its eastern Donbass region. But in another U-turn yesterday, President Trump criticized his Russian counterpart. saying, every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere. And the US has announced plans for new sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. The former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said it meant the US was now on the warpath against Russia. And this was the view of Kremlin advisor Andrei Fedorov. The situation is serious because Luke oil and Rosnev. It's about 80% of Russian oil export.

and these two companies are the main suppliers for India and China. So it means that it could seriously damage Russian income. And it's very important because this year, a budget deficit is three times more than it was expected. This situation is quite negative also for the dialogue between Russia and United States. And we can expect that there might be a very clear visit. escalation of negative tendencies in coming days. The Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, welcomed the U.S. decision, saying it would increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war.

This is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions. You know that not only energy, we need shadow fleet and et cetera, and continue and continue until Putin will stop this war. So these are decisions very important. This is fire as possible, of course. And I think all of us needs this. but we need more pressure on Russia for ceasefire. Mr Zelensky was speaking at a European summit in Brussels

where EU countries formally adopted a 19th package of sanctions against Russia. The meeting is also discussing whether to agree a huge loan to Ukraine funded by frozen Russian assets. Our Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse is in Brussels. I asked him first how important are these US sanctions. I think they're central to any Western hopes of pressuring Russia to stop this war in a non-military sense. Of course, Moscow has its own problems

with the extraordinary cost in manpower, its tactics, have seen. It's offensive for this year, has yielded relatively small returns in terms of seized Ukrainian territory. In this war of attrition, it's about who loses first, and at the moment that would be Ukraine.

That is why the fighting continues. But it is widely accepted that America, and America alone really, alongside its allies, has the capability to put the squeeze on the Kremlin to make it think twice about continuing this invasion. Thus far, Donald Trump had resisted taking direct action. We saw President Zelensky leave empty-handed last week when he was looking to get the green light to use US missiles.

And all of a sudden, ahead of this gathering of EU leaders, there's a renewed impetus, because you now have the US sanctioning two of Russia's biggest oil companies. That is concrete action. It's being welcomed by EU officials here, and now the talk is about propping up Ukraine in a financial sense. There seems to be consensus on supporting Ukraine and its hold in its finances for the next couple of years

because Ukraine has got a black hole to the tune of tens of billions of pounds. Where there is less agreement is over the question of giving Ukraine an enormous loan, $122 billion, which will be funded by frozen Russian assets. At the moment, that very idea is illegal, under international law, and it's that that is making some European members a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah, I mean, if that happens, that big loan, how would it work and how might Russia react to the use of its frozen assets? Well, you lead us to another area of disagreement. In theory, it would see Ukraine prop up its own public services. It would pay public salaries. But most of all, it would continue its war effort in terms of the humanitarian work that goes on,

in terms of military equipment and in terms of military contract. I mean, take your pick. When you're a country on the receiving end of a full-scale invasion, you bleed resources in just about every sense. So this will be welcomed by Ukraine. But I think if we're talking through a military lens, what Zedensky really wants are American air defense systems, these Patriot missile batteries,

as well as long-range cruise missiles to strike deep inside Russia. There are reports that some of the restrictions on U.S. Ukraine are being lifted slightly by Western allies on using their missiles to hit inside Russia to frustrate its war effort, its supply lines, its oil refineries, for example. So there is a very slow direction of travel. But ultimately, if you look at the ongoing cycle we find ourselves in this not-so-merry-go-round of Russia playing lip service in the eyes of the West on the idea of peace talks, but not actually committing to anything, Donald Trump being reluctant to get tough with Moscow and Ukraine continuing to have to fight this war, this will be a welcome changing

of the tide. James Waterhouse in Brussels. Well, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any action by the EU to confiscate Russian assets would result in a painful response. For more on the reaction from Moscow, I've been speaking to Alexei Kalmakov from the BBC Russian service. So far, Russia is dismissed any economic impact from any sanctions from the West. And meanwhile, it's been building a parallel universe of trade, which allows it to continue shipping its main expert product, oil and oil products to different customers like China and India. So far, it's not affected. Because Trump gave both the companies that were sanctioned yesterday, they gave them four weeks to wind down their business. And we'll see if

the sanctions stick after these four weeks. So should this be seen more as the U.S. trying to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to come and negotiate rather than a serious attempt to damage the Russian economy? Absolutely. Trump wanted to apply more pressure on Putin there, many, many more things available. As we know, as you've just mentioned today, European Union has adopted a new package of sanctions.

And so far, Trump hasn't done a single thing during his second term, and this is the first time, his first warning shot, he's going after two Russian oil companies. But he could have, say, joined the Oil Price Cup, which the European Union and the United Kingdom, by the way, lowered in September. He didn't. He could have gone after the shippers. He could have done after the buyers of the Russian oil, especially in China and India. He didn't.

So all he's done now, and he's just warning. Maybe it is a negotiating tactic, as it's often the case with Trump or maybe it's a genuine intention to pressure Russia. economically. But again, there are better ways to do that. If Trump would give weapons to Ukraine that would basically be a more coherent and a more impactful move from him. Now, despite the fact that President Trump has given Russia a four-week period before these sanctions come into effect, oil prices have risen. So what might be the impact on the global economy? Yeah, it's a very good question. For Russia, the rising price of oil, obviously promises more revenue if it can export its oil. But the main beneficiary here will

be the United States, because as we know, the world is heading towards a glut of oil supply. Everybody on the market is warning that there's more and more barrels coming into the market. And three main oil producers in the world, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia have to decide which barrels to take off the market. So by sanctioning Russian oil industry, Trump is pursuing his own agenda as well. He's supporting American oil industry because as soon as the price goes down, at some point

American oil industry will stop producing things unlike Saudi Arabia and Russia. So there's many factors in play, and Trump is playing these cards for a while. We'll see how it works out. Alexei Kalmikoff of the BBC Russian service. Next,

it was one of the darkest moments of the troubles in Northern Ireland. On the 30th of January 1972, civil rights demonstrators in Londonderry came under fire from British soldiers. 13 of them were killed, a 14th died later. For years, families of the victims have been demanding justice. Only one veteran has ever been prosecuted, a British paratrooper known as Soldier F. Today, he was cleared of murdering two people that day. Michael Kelly died on Bloody Sunday

his brother John attended the trial. It even puts me back to where I was that day and where I ended up with Michael because I helped the carry Michael on the day afterwards and place him in the ambulance. Even going through that, again, it's worthwhile to me. Northern Ireland's First Minister, nationalist Michelle O'Neill, condemned the verdict as a denial of justice,

but it was welcomed by military veterans. Paul Young is from the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement. Veterans across the whole of the United Kingdom that served in Northern Ireland with honour and courage will be parted by this verdict today. Well, I spoke to the BBC's Sarah Gervyn outside court in Belfast. The events of Bloody Sunday are absolutely synonymous with Northern Ireland's troubles. I mean, that was 30 years of violence

during which 3.5,000 people were killed, which ended in 1998. Now, this morning we've been hearing from the judge. It took a long time to deliver his findings, his verdict, which again, I think, demonstrates just how complicated this case has been. This has been a five-week trial. We've heard a lot of evidence from people who were there on Bloody Sunday, some of them recounting what it was like to be shot

and to see people killed in front of them. Others telling us that, telling the court that they actually were, tended to be dead so that they wouldn't be shot again by British paratroopers. There was also evidence heard from two soldiers called G and H, their anonymity orders, protecting their identity as there is with Soldier F. Now, they had served with him that day in 1972. They had recalled in their evidence shooting at civilians on that day. They claimed those individuals had been armed,

something the judge said today that previous inquiries have found was not the case and the defence had argued in court over the past few weeks that the statements from those soldiers simply couldn't be relied upon they were 53 years old and they were inconsistent

but the prosecution argued that they were consistent when it came to soldier F. Now we've just made a note of some of the judge's comments that I guess stood out to me and he acknowledged the quiet dignity of the the bloody Sunday families

and said that they'd had to listen to absolutely harrowing details. And he said that what had happened that day had done so. 13 people were killed, he said, in a time span, measurable in seconds. He said one voice was missing during that trial. It was that of Soldier F, he said,

and he said he could only assume because that was nothing, there was nothing he could say that would help his case. And he had some very strong words about the actions of the soldiers of those days. He said that they should, hang their heads in shame. But in the end, he found that the crime case, you know, they couldn't

prove beyond a reasonable doubt. And as you've been explaining, he found him not guilty on seven charges. That's two of murder and five of attempted murder. And tell us why it's taken so long for this to come to trial. I mean, it's 50, more than 50 years since Bloody Sunday. I know. It seems incredible that it should take 53 years for this to come to trial. Look, with things that, you know, concern Northern Ireland's legacy, its violent past. It is really complicated. It was only in 2010 that an inquiry found that on the balance of probability soldiers had fired first and those who were hit, you know, didn't pose any threat.

And it was only then that the police investigation began. And that's taken us through to today, to today's trial, and that verdict of not guilty on those seven charges. Sarah Gervin, outside court in Belfast. And still to come on the Global News podcast. Once they try it, they end up talking more, laughing more, and you can actually feel the difference in the atmosphere. How one cafe owner is trying to make his customers connect

by locking away their phones. Since Mao's time, China has followed a series of five-year plans. including the Great Leap Forward, which left tens of millions dead. The latest blueprint has just been approved by the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party, even as China faces economic headwinds and a trade dispute with the US. There were also some political changes at the four-day meeting, with 11 members replaced the most since 2017. And just before it started, nine generals were sacked for corruption.

I heard more about the new five-year plan from Stephen MacDonald in Beijing. The document that's been released after the four-day closed-door session, it's a big sweeping document. This is not the sort of thing where you get specifics, but it's the vision thing, I guess, is one way people would put it. And what it's all about, really, is tackling China's massive economic challenges. And central to this is this emphasis on scientific and technological self-reliance. Now, why would they be talking about that? because the Trump administration continues to restrict

and threaten more restrictions on access to computer chips, advanced software and the like. And so this is the Communist Party's way of saying, look, we need to up our game in terms of being able to produce all this stuff ourselves in a time of uncertainty. I mean, it also speaks about making up for lost export revenue by boosting domestic consumption. Same reason.

It's all about this time of political uncertainty, if you can't keep exporting as much stuff, you need to rely on this huge domestic market. That said, China has been doing a pretty good job of finding other export markets following a drop-off in sales to the US, and recent export figures are still in pretty good. You know, it's all about technology and this type of thing. Talking about the military, it's the same thing, boosting military, cutting-edge technology. And also, I suppose, trying to steer the country into a sort of more modern part, I mean, the broad shift in China has been turning this country from a place that produces cheap sneakers and what have you to a high-tech powerhouse.

And it has gone a long way along the road to achieving that. But the priority is going to be even more of this according to this five-year plan that's been approved by the party. Of course, one of the problems China is grappling with at the moment is high unemployment. What are those sackings of generals and the replacement of members of the Central Committee? What do they say about the politics of all this? Yeah, well, in terms of the military, there are a lot of unemployed officers after just days ago this anti-corruption drive, which has been sweeping through the military over recent years, I should add,

especially through the rocket force, which has seen a lot of people purged. Well, just the end of last week, prior to this meeting happening, number three in line in the People's Liberation Army was purged, and they've approved a new vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Zheng Xiong Min. He's now number three in the PLA, behind another general Xi Jinping at the helm. And so, yes, there have been new appointments to make up for those lost positions, but some would wonder why Xi Jinping sees the need to keep sacking all these top military officials. Stephen MacDonald in Beijing.

For years, Britain has been unable to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, and it's enlisted help from France. In the summer, the French authorities announced plans for a new doctrine, allowing security forces to intervene at sea. But the BBC has learned that the plan may be falling victim to the current chaos in French politics, as we heard from our Paris correspondent, Andrew Harding.

I'm sitting on a windy beach beside a can. that leads into the English channel near the French town of Gravelyne. It's a canal that's used routinely by smugglers to launch their small boats. And I've met a local man here, a retired chip shop owner called Jean Del Dique, who's showing me dozens of videos he's taken from his window of the smuggler's boats coming past and heading out to sea. Four in one day. Four departs. The canal here is.

tidal and mostly very shallow. You could wade out into it. But the French authorities are making no attempts to intercept the smugglers. There's even a video here showing a police patrol boat, simply sailing past an inflatable pact with people. You have to stop the boats, Deldeke's saying. Yes, it's madness. Madness.

So what's going on here? Careful, big wave, big a wave, big a wave, big a wave, fuse wave. Back in July, we were on a beach further south along the coast, and we saw a rare intervention by French police who waded out into the water with knives to stop an overloaded small boat. They're slicing it. They're coming in to slice the boat now. The police have come in to slice the boat. In London, the Prime Minister's spokesman reacted immediately to our

footage, calling it a really significant moment, proof that the French are starting to take tougher action to stop the small boats, onshore and at sea. So, Emmanuel, thank you so much for being here. The issue was discussed by President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir Stama, at a summit days later. Back in Paris, a source at the Interior Ministry, confirmed to us that French patrol boats were poised imminently. to begin intervening, to intercept the smuggler's so-called taxi boats. Months later, and we've established that the reality is very different.

For a start, French police have confirmed to us there's no new plan to wade out into the shallow waters that it's simply too risky for all concerned. The incident we'd witnessed on the beach was a one-off. Jean-Pierre Clues is a police union official. He tells me, the rules are the same. It's too dangerous. For now, there'll be no change in the way we do things. But what of those plans to intervene at sea? France's maritime authorities have told us

officially that the issue is still being studied. But in recent days, three well-placed French sources in maritime security have told us it's just not going to happen. Two dismissed the idea as political spin, a stunt. Another said the maritime authorities were set against intervention fearing more deaths and prosecutions. Andrew Harding, reporting from France. Next to a study that's been testing the limits of the human body. Published in the journal Current Biology, it looked at how many calories are burnt by endurance athletes. It found the number is limited by what's known as a metabolic ceiling. Claudia Hammond heard more from British doctor and health commentator, A.N. We kind of know what basal metabolic rate is, which is the number of calories your body needs

just to function, the bare essential in terms of calories. And our metabolic ceiling is almost the opposite. It's the maximum number of calories that your body can burn off. And what they looked at in this study, so they were looking at these ultra-endurance athletes, 14 of them, who often do multi-day events, whether that's cycling or running or triathlon, just to see what was happening to their metabolic rate. And they did this by labelling a type of water. When I say labelling, I mean it was something that they could track and measure through the body. And what they found was that a lot of these athletes were burning six or seven times their basal metabolic rate, particularly during these multi-day events. But after a while, the maximum

number of calories that they could burn came back down to two and a half times their basal metabolic rate, which kind of suggests that there is a metabolic ceiling. Even these superhuman people that are sort of exercising to extreme, cannot get beyond that 2.5. And that sort of means the body kind of almost corrects itself after a while. The only way you could try and beat that is by overdoing it effectively, by doing that kind of ultra-endurance every single day. And then if you did that, the danger would be that you would start to shrink. You know, you would start to lose muscle mass and effectively start to disappear.

I wonder what this means for the rest of us mere mortals. For us, I guess it's not as much of an issue because most of us are not. not going to be burning that level of calories. Interestingly, also, it says that if you were to do 11 miles of running a day for a year, that would hit your metabolic ceiling of sort of two and a half times. That's a lot of running. And, you know, the counterbalance to that is injury and also the risk of exhaustion. Dr. Anne Panja.

Finally, have you ever been out to eat and realise you're surrounded by people on their phones? Well, one business owner has decided to take matters into his own hands to change that. Usman Hussein runs a cafe here in the UK He's offering customers a 20% discount If they put their mobiles into phone jail during their visit It's sort of to just get everyone back to how it was without phones Get connected with each other I mean cafes used to be a place where people talked

They laughed and they came together And now everyone's just sort of on their phones So I just wanted to bring that vibe back The real face-to-face feeling again the reaction's been overwhelming. People actually love it. Some a bit hesitant at first, but once they try it, they end up talking more, laughing more, and you can actually feel the difference in the atmosphere. As you get to the counter, we've got it on display, and you could basically just opt for putting your phone away. So you'd place your order, put your phone in the

jailbox, we'd then put that next to you on the desk. It's actually locked as well, so you're sat there and once you finish your meal and you stay then you can just come back to the counter to make the payment and you get your phone back last night as an example we had a full house and literally there was a box on everyone's desk and it was just really nice not only did the mixing you know with their own company they were actually talking amongst each other and these people had never met each other before you could tell so it was just really nice atmosphere we're just sort of so used to it that it's the first thing that everyone does as soon as they sit down, rather than connecting with each other, we're all, you know, checking our phones.

So it's just brilliant to put it away just for that short time while you're with us and just connect with each other, really, and enjoy the present moment. Usman Hussein. And that is all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast very soon. This one was mixed by Nick Randall and produced by Stephanie Zacherson and Chantal Hartle. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Thank you.