Global News Podcast - Right-wing populist party makes big gains in UK elections

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Britain's right-wing populist party Reform makes gains as votes are counted in local elections. With a promise to reduce immigration, the party looks set to win council seats across the country, mostly at the expense of the more centrist Labour and Conservatives. Also: South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa faces calls to resign after a court rules he will be investigated over the theft of more than half-a-million dollars. Instagram is ending the option to send direct messages with super secure privacy technology after years of saying it was the future of the platform. The move has been praised by law enforcement groups. And China's new snooker world champion receives a hero's welcome on his return home.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and at 15 hours GMT on Friday the 8th of May, these are our main stories. The UK's two main political parties suffer huge losses in local elections as the populist right-wing reform UK party surges ahead. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa faces calls to resign after a court rules will be investigated over the theft of more than half a million dollars. The WHO says efforts are underway to trace anyone who disembarked from a cruise ship before an outbreak of Hanta virus was detected.

Also in this podcast... End-to-end encryption is one of the key ways in which children can keep themselves safe online. We're worried that META are perhaps caving to government pressure. Privacy groups express concern after Instagram turns off end-to-end encryption for direct messages in a major U-turn by parent company META. Here in the UK, polls have suggested for some time. surging popularity for right-wing populism. Commentators suggest there are a number of reasons for this,

including the cost of living crisis and the stagnation of living standards that's brought, as well as the breakdown of social cohesion and anger and disillusionment towards politicians. It's a pattern that's been seen across Europe and the US. And now some electoral proof to back up what the polls appeared to be showing. For the first time in decades, early results from UK local elections show huge, losses for the main two dominant parties, the current governing Labour Party and the opposition conservatives. The big winner so far is the populist right-wing reform UK party, while the centrist Liberal Democrats are also performing strongly and the populist left-wing Green Party

also picking up a number of seats. Following his party's poor performance, Prime Minister Kier Starrmer is now under pressure to resign, but says he won't be stepping down. Let me be clear, these are really tough results. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. And we have lost brilliant Labour representatives, people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party and our movement. And the voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved. They was elected to meet those challenges and I'm not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos. The leader of the far-right Reform UK Party, Nigel Farras, has been sounding jubil

Overall, what's happened is a truly historic shift in British politics. We've been so used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right. And yet what reform are able to do is to win in areas that have always been conservative. But equally, we're proving in a big way we can win in areas that Labour have dominated, frankly, since the end of World War I. To make sense of it all, I heard more from our UK political correspondent, Rob Watson. So there are three elections. There's local government elections here in England, including in London, and then there are elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. And what we do know from the results already in is that they are totally disastrous for both the governing Labour Party, but also for the Conservatives. And that does seem to suggest that we are at a really seismic moment in British politics, where we are beginning to see either on a permanent basis or at least an erroneous.

of the two-party system of Conservative and Labour's dominance of British politics these last hundred years. And so a fairly pivotal moment, even though we only have these partial results, what does it mean? Well, in the short term, it is really bad news for Secir Stama, the Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, and already there have been calls for him to resign. And I think the next 72 hours are absolutely vital for the Prime Minister's survival. He has already come out and said that he is not going to walk away and leave the country in chaos. In other words, he's put out a message to those in the Labour Party might want to move against him to get rid of them that he's not going to go quietly. That's the sort of short term of the immediate focus.

but I mean longer term is this uncharted territory of what would Britain look like if it had a more fragmented politics, if it had a politics more like the politics of many European countries, continental European countries with multi-party systems. I mean, it's early days yet, though, isn't it? These are local elections. They're often used by voters as a bit of a protest against the government. So can we really say that this is, you know, the dawn of a new era? I think you're right to raise that question. I think, though, that we probably are for the following reasons, and that is that the factors that appear to be driving this volatility in British politics and indeed the politics of many other European countries that don't look like going away.

And briefly, they are, you know, anger with politicians and lack of trust in the system, a sense that living standards are stagnating, a sense that public services don't work, that the state doesn't work, and concern over what you might call cultural identity values questions such as social cohesion, multiculturalism and immigration. And because those things don't look like getting sorted between now and the next general election in 2029, piece, I mean, you could see this fragmentation and this realignment continue.

Rob Watson. A significant decision by South Africa's top court now that could lead to the revival of impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa. The country's constitutional court has ruled that Parliament violated the constitution by blocking moves to impeach Mr Ramaphosa in 2022. Dubbed Farmgate by local media, the case relates to the theft of more than half a million dollars hidden in a sofa from Mr Ramaphosa's rural home six years ago.

Leading to allegations he hadn't accounted for where the cash came from. The president denies wrongdoing. I got more from our Africa correspondent in Johannesburg, Mayannie Jones. He's been a phone in the president's side for over half a decade now. This alleged theft is reported to have taken place in 2020, the year of the COVID pandemic. At the time, the president was accused of not declaring the theft. And his political opponents said that this was evidence that the money must have come from some sort of wrongdoing. This is something President Ramaposa has always denied.

He said that that money was from the sale of buffaloes at his game farm in Lippo, which is a province in the north of the country. He's never been convicted of any criminality, but the main opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, which is a left-wing party here in South Africa, started proceedings in 2024, saying that Parliament's decision in 2022 not to follow this independent panel of legal experts' decision

that impeachment proceedings should start against the president. They said it was wrong of Parliament not to do that. I think it's worth mentioning that at the time. Ramaposos's party, the ANC decided not to impeach him. And so now that's all in play. It looks like these impeachment proceedings are going to be revived. And what are the ramifications then of today's court ruling?

How soon could these proceedings start up again? Well, the EFF, who started this latest legal challenge, has already reached out to the parliamentary speaker saying that they must set up an impeachment panel as soon as possible. We're still waiting to hear what the president's decision is going to be. The EFF has said that he should resign. even if impeachment proceedings continue. President hasn't said one way or another whether he will do that,

but he has issued a statement saying that he respects the decision of the constitutional court and urging everybody to also do the same and respects that ruling. The President's coalition party partners have said that they also respect the ruling of the Court of Law, that nobody is above the law here in South Africa. So the next few days are going to be crucial as we wait to find out if President Ramaposa will indeed step down or if he will agree to to go through impeachment proceedings. Mione Jones in Johannesburg.

And we have more on the stories covered in our podcasts on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. Instagram is ending the option to send direct messages with what's been described as super secure privacy technology after years of saying it was the future of the platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed in 2019 that implementing end-to-end encryption across the apps, which include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, would make those platforms safer and more secure. But last month, the company announced it was abandoning the promise in a U-turn that's been praised by law enforcement groups.

Victoria Baines is Professor of IT at Gresham College in London. It's not impossible that Instagram has made a business decision along the lines. of, well, the benefits to be had from having an option where people can have end-to-end encrypted direct messages now no longer outweigh the benefits from having unencrypted messaging in the clear. If we think about the business models of social media platforms, they monetise our communications, whether they are our posts, our likes, our messages, on the basis that they can serve advertising to us. And as we know, companies like META are now turning their attentions to training AI models.

For privacy campaigners, however, the move is a step backwards. Maya Thomas from the British Civil Liberties and Privacy campaigning organisation, Big Brother Watch. End-to-end encryption is one of the key ways in which children can keep themselves safe online. We're worried that META are perhaps caving to government pressure. Our cyber correspondent Joe Tidy told me more. When they announced they were ending this, they said it's simply because not enough people have used it. There was no announcement here. What's fascinating for me here is it's a huge U-turn. It's a major policy shift in Meta in terms of privacy. In 2019, there was this big keynote speech from Mark Zuckerberg where he said, privacy is the future. Private chats are the way forward. We're going to roll out end-to-end everywhere. And we know it's going to be controversial because you get pushback from law enforcement because, of course, none of those chats, none of that evidence can be, can be accent. when someone has an end-to-end encrypted chat. So, you know, the fear is that it encourages criminality on these platforms,

perhaps leads to more predatory behavior against children, that kind of thing. But he said this is about making sure that the chats are private and that people are secure from hackers and all that kind of thing. So then it took years and years for them to go about the change. They did succeed in doing it on Facebook through the Messenger app in 2023, and Instagram would be next. So they made it an option, Instagram, and we all expected a full switch over, you know,

soon. Then we saw this sort of very strange change the terms and conditions, a very small part of the terms and conditions changed, and a reporter picked up on it. And then when Meta was pressed for a reason, they said, oh, it's just because not enough people are using it. But of course, other people would say that that decision runs far deeper than that. What does this mean for users? When you open up Instagram today, what's different? Well, right now, you'll start to see a function that perhaps you may have not even noticed being there has gone. So end-to-end encrypted chats were the ability to implement this really secure form of messaging. Only the sender and the receiver can actually see that content. Even the company itself can't see it.

So previously, this was offered as an option on Instagram. So if I wanted to have a private chat with end-to-end encryption, I would press the buttons and click on that and make that the option for me. That's gone. So any chats that I had that have been end-to-end encrypted, of course, now I need to find a way to preserve that data and download the media that was in those chats in order to kind of keep that if I want to because it's going away. Cyber correspondent Joe Tidy. Many sectors across the global economy are feeling the impact of the energy crunch caused by the water in Iran.

But it seems as if the closure of the Strait of Hermuz is also causing problems in kitchens around the Mediterranean, particularly in Italy. And that's because one highly sought after crimson spice, saffron, which largely comes from Iran. Samoneta, Bazou is a chef and food expert from the Italian island of Sardinia, which does produce Saffron, but not enough to keep up with demand. She's been speaking to James Menendez. The problem is that in Italy we have a limited production of Saffron,

and we buy Saffron from Iran, which is the world largest production of Saffron. I think about the 90% of the world Saffron is produced in Iran. Italy buys a large amount of saffron from Iran, and Arabic countries, not only because of quantity, but also because of price. In Iran, it's possible to buy saffron in different grades, from low quality to extremely high quality. In Italy, no. The price is around 30,000 per kilogram, 40,000 per kilogram.

In Iran, for example, is possible to buy saffron for 15,000, 20,000. Euro per kilo per kilo. Gosh, it is so expensive, isn't it? But I mean, you only need to use a tiny bit. But I mean, I think Italy eats around 600 kilos of saffron each year. I mean, how important is it to Italian cuisine? And I guess also in particular, Sardinian cuisine. Yeah, we use a lot of saffron in our cuisine. And we use saffron for pasta, for bread, for sweet. I know it's very expensive because labour costs are high. and is harvested by end. But its quality is unique, and we are an island of longevity. And this longevity also come from the quality of our land.

Therefore, everything that is produced here as important nutritional properties and unique flavors. And about the kitchen, pasta with Sardinian saffern is amazing. It's amazing. Can I ask you this, Simoneta, on that, if you're making a, A milanese risotto, which is a classic dish, and saffron is the main ingredient, the main flavor. Can you tell the difference between a milanese risotto made with sardinian saffron and one made with Iranian saffron? Oh, yeah, it's very different.

Really? It's very different. Yeah, in Italy, the key ingredient in one of the country's most famous dish, risotto la Milanese. And with saffron from Sardinia and from Italy, this dish is amazing. colors, very yellow. Resotto la Milanese is authentic only with saffron made in Italy and made in Sardinia for me. But unfortunately, as you say, Italy needs to import saffron because it doesn't make enough. I mean, it's not the most important, and I know cooking and eating is very important, but it is not the most important, I guess, aspect of this current crisis. I mean, a restaurant's

having problems more widely. I mean, a prices for all sorts of things have. having to go up, not just saffron, but I guess electricity, gas, labour, are all these things going up at the moment? I see this import crisis as an opportunity to produce more saffron in Italy and buy more local product and consequently bring even agri-quality to our dish, especially the famous risotto la Milanese. Cimanetta Bazou, who is speaking to James Menendez. Still to come in this podcast?

After watching him play, I'm more determined to get better at this sport. China is grouped by a new sporting craze as its 22-year-old world champion returns home to a hero's welcome. This is the Global News podcast. As the cruise ship hit by an outbreak of Hanta virus, sails towards Tenerife, World Health Organization officials are racing to draw up guidance for what should happen next for the nearly 150 passengers when they finally reach land at the weekend. The Spanish authorities have said the passengers will be taken ashore, but port workers in Tenerife have been holding a protest over a lack of information ahead of the arrival of the ship.

The WHO says it's not the start of a pandemic, but efforts are underway to trace anyone who may have been exposed to the disease. We put this to our health editor, Hugh Pym. That's the message yesterday at their press conference, the WHO, answering a lot of questions from journalists aware that there was a huge interest in what was going on with MV Hondias and the hanta virus outbreak. And perhaps the most animated part of the press conference was over questions, was this in any way similar to COVID and was a pandemic looming?

And there was a very strong statement, this was not another COVID-19, this would not be another pandemic. This would be a limited outbreak as long as all public health measures were followed closely. And by that, what's meant is tracing contacts and the particular focus of governments who had citizens on board

is a group who left the cruise early at the island of St Helena and then went their own separate ways. And that included a group of seven British people, two of whom are back in the UK, And of course, when they left the ship, they didn't know about the virus. These two Britons got home, heard about the story, got in touch with health authorities, and they're now self-isolating.

And five other Britons, some of whom are still on the island of St Helena, are in touch with British health authorities. And the point is they were on planes, this group, going to lots of different countries, and sitting next to people. So the contact tracing task is now underway, trying to make sure that those who are in close proximity to people who got off the ship early,

are traced. I think that's what's meant by public health measures being followed. In the meantime, the foreign office and other bits of the British government are looking at Britons who are still on the cruise ship heading for Tenerife. There will be arrangements made to get them home with a charter

flight we understand being laid on and they will be taken home. Then they will have to self-isolate or go into quarantine. We may hear more details about that later today. And that self-isolation could be six weeks for for these people coming off that cruise ship,

but more details, no doubt, over the next few days. Qipim. Police in Indonesia say three hikers have been killed in a volcanic eruption. Two were tourists from Singapore. The third was Indonesian. They were hiking up Mount Dukono on the island of Halmahera, when it erupted, spewing ash 10 kilometres up into the sky. Fifteen other people have been rescued.

The authorities had banned hiking on the mountain because of the danger of eruption. with people being warned to stay at least four kilometres away. Our correspondent in Jakarta, Lisa Tambunan, said the volcano continued to attract hikers despite warnings from officials. Mount Du Kono is not actually traditionally a popular mountain to climb among climbers. However, it has recently gained popularity.

This is because we're seeing, at least I'm seeing many posts in recent months and years, of climbers sharing their experience, of reaching the crater. And these pictures are very, very visual. We see climbers leaning over the crater just to see live volcano. And we see commenters being in awe of this experience. And this is what has gained the attention of the public. So despite warnings from authorities that it is an active volcano,

hikers are still interested for experiences. seeing the thrill of climbing this live volcano and also seeing eruptions right in front of their eyes. Lisa Tamban, to Australia, where three women with alleged links to the so-called Islamic State group have appeared in court after returning home from Syria this week. They're part of a group of 13 women and children who've spent years in a Syrian detention camp

because of their links to the jihadist group, but have managed to return thanks to their Australian national. Their cases have attracted a lot of political attention. Here's the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. I have absolutely zero sympathy for these people. I do have sympathy for the children, though, who are victims of decisions that their parents have made. We will work through these issues.

It is appropriate that they undergo, support children who have been subject and exposed to all sorts of horrors in those camps. Our reporter Simon Atkinson is in Sydney and sent this update for us. All three women who were arrested in Australia when they arrived from Syria have appeared in court on Friday. In one case here in Sydney, Janai Saraf, who is a 32-year-old former healthcare worker, she's accused of tourism charges joining Islamic State Group and also travelling to Syria at a time when that was prohibited by the Australian government. Now, her lawyer appeared on her behalf saying she's,

should be released on bail while this prosecution continues. He says it could take some time before it gets to court. And he also said that these alleged defences took place almost a decade ago. He also mentioned that she had arrived in Australia with her nine-year-old son. She said this boy was going to have to integrate into Australian life and that would be very difficult for him to do so even harder without his mum by his side. Ultimately though, the magistrate decided that bail would not be granted and she will be back in court in around eight weeks. In the other case in Melbourne, two women, a mother and daughter, Kasa Ahmed and her daughter Zainab, are accused of crimes against humanity relating to slavery. It's alleged that the older woman, Kasa Ahmed,

bought a slave for about 10,000 US dollars and it's understood that this was a Yazidi woman, a member of the heavily persecuted Iraqi minority group in Syria that suffered so badly the hands of Islamic State. And both women are charged with knowingly having that slave in the house. These charges are very unusual, the magistrate noted, and it was heard in court that Australia's Attorney General had to authorise for these charges to be brought. They'll be back in court in Melbourne on Monday,

where they'll make their own application for bail. Remember, the Australian government was very adamant that these women shouldn't come back to Australia with their children from Syria. They said they'd made horrific decisions to join terrorist groups and that they weren't welcome here. But ultimately, they are Australian citizens, they've got Australian passports, and at the end of the day, there wasn't a whole lot that could be done to keep them out of here. Simon Atkinson in Sydney. Let's end in China, where a 22-year-old

snooker star Wu Yizier has received a hero's welcome upon returning to his home country. Earlier this week, he won the World Snooker Championships held in Sheffield here in the UK, the second year in a row that a Chinese player has won, something that's captured the imagination of fans around the country. China correspondent Stephen MacDonald went to a pool hall in Xi'an for the new world champion's first public appearance since securing the sport's top prize. Well, hopefully the sound tells a bit of the story. I mean, he got an absolute rock star welcome when he walked into the TNT pool hall here in Cheyenne. But, you know, it's interesting. the crowds going nuts

and he was a bit like a deer in the headlights. I'm not sure if he's jet lagged because it's just two days after he's won the world championships in Sheffield. He's on a plane. He's back in China. Or if he's just not used to this level of enthusiasm in his

home country or that he's just a kind of shy kid. I mean he's 22 years old. The second youngest person ever to become the world. snooker champion. I did sidle up to him now and have a bit of a chat with Wuzzer, and here's some of what the new world champion had to say. The fans are really enthusiastic. It's great to be back to feel the warmth of the Motherland.

I hope this sport will develop more and more in China and the more people will play it. And I think probably more people will play it if the size and enthusiasm of this crowd is anything to go by. You know, young and old, lots of little kids, men and women. And there was one woman, a fan who earlier had won a playoff to sort of earn the right to have a hit with him. And I also spoke to Liu I Fei, and here's how she describes seeing China's new snooker star. After watching him play, I'm more determined to get better at this sport.

More and more Chinese people have started, to play this game and more pool holes are opening. The sport is getting more and more popular. Everyone loves a winner, but his particular story, Wuitsa's story is incredible. I mean, to the west of where I am now in Gunsu province, that's his home province, is even kind of more poor than here, if I could put it that way.

He's from a modest background. He drops out of school at the age of 16, moves to Sheffield with the hope of becoming a professional. There he is, living with his dad. dad sleeping in the same bed as him in a flat with no windows in Britain. A couple of years later, he's the world champ and he's declaring he's going to use the winnings to buy an apartment for his parents so they can stay in England with him and follow him on his journey. So you can imagine how this is going down with people in China. They absolutely love it.

Stephen McDonald. And that's all from us for a name. 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 Holly Smith, and the producers are Alfie Habershan and Arienne Cochie. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye.