Global News Podcast - Trump and Harris: Presidential Debate

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are facing each other in a live presidential debate. Also: the staggering impact living through the Covid pandemic had on girls' brains, and the campaign to end Afro hair discrimination.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. Life and death were two very realistic co-existing possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions. Just taking that first step makes a big difference.

It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit camh.ca. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free.

Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles, and in the early hours of Wednesday the 11th of September these are our main stories. Kamala Harris has accused Donald Trump of having a real problem with the truth ahead of the televised debate between the two US presidential candidates. Western nations have imposed new sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia

with ballistic missiles to use against Ukraine. 26 people are confirmed dead and dozens more are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Senegal. Also in this podcast. In girls, it's all over the brain, both hemispheres, all lobes, but most of the areas have to do with social processing. We hear about the staggering impact that living through the COVID pandemic had on girls' brains. As we record this podcast, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are preparing for their much publicised live televised presidential debate in Philadelphia. In a race that is effectively a tie at the moment, it's a fitting place for the debate. It's in the state of Pennsylvania, which is one of a handful

of swing states that will determine the outcome of the election. Aaron Carl is a presidential debate expert from the University of Michigan. He says more than 50 million Americans will tune into the 90-minute showdown. There's no other event in the campaign, speeches, press conferences, the conventions, that will gather anywhere near this number, this audience of tens of millions, approaching Super Bowl-like ratings. One night, one opportunity for both to reach so many people. Among the millions watching, these voters in Philadelphia. Vice President Harris, I really think this is her chance to get her message out, to get her personality out there, really to find out what her policies are.

I'm interested to hear what both individuals have to say. I haven't swayed who I'm going to vote for. I don't want a convicted felon as the president. So there you go. Also in Philadelphia, our correspondent, Nedda Torfik. Kamala Harris said she's preparing for Donald Trump to tell a lot of untruths for him to go low and that she just wants to remind the American people in her words that he is somebody who is for himself and not for the country. And so I think she knows she has to do a number of things at this debate, which is, by the way,

the first time she will meet Donald Trump face to face in the same room. She knows she has to introduce herself to voters because polling shows that there are a number across America who still feel they don't know her that well or her policies, because even though she's been the vice president, it's of course been in support of President Biden's agenda. They want to know what she is about. She also needs to outline her policies. And she has said she wants to focus on policy over personality. She wants to make sure she outlines what has really been a move to the middle for her on a number of things. She wants to really focus on the economy with inflation so high that, of course, something that as being part of the incumbent party, she is worried people will put on her.

But also she wants people to focus on Donald Trump. Again, this idea that freedom is at stake here, that she wants to move the country forward and her message that he wants to take the country back, including on things like abortion. And Neda, what will Donald Trump's advisors have been telling him to focus on? Well, look, his advisors think that his kind of greatest strength is his unpredictability. They say that Kamala Harris might struggle to really take him on on the debate stage. I mean, Kamala Harris's team would push back on that saying she's a former federal prosecutor. But Donald Trump has done seven debates. He has a history of knowing how to

kind of goad his opponent while appearing confident. His team says that they want to make sure that he hammers home the point that all of Joe Biden's policies are Kamala Harris's policies as well. And they want to paint her as somebody who is radically to the left. So that's certainly going to be his strategy. But look, I think if we look back at his original debate with Joe Biden 75 days ago, which obviously ended disastrously for Joe Biden and him leaving the race. Donald Trump showed a lot of composure, didn't let himself kind of get rattled. Many are questioning whether he'll be able to do the same this time around. Nedditorfic. My colleague Evan Davis spoke to the Republican strategist and debate coach

Brett O'Donnell, who's prepared many presidential candidates for televised clashes from George W. Bush and Mitt Romney to Ron DeSantis. First, what advice would he give to Kamala Harris? Donald Trump has a thin skin. I would go after him at a personal level, talk about things that might irritate him and try to get him angry and have an outburst on the stage that would make me look good. So for Kamala Harris, it's all about focusing on personality and persona and trying to contrast likability as opposed to getting bogged down in policy. The problem with that, though, is the American public are hurting from an economy that's been bad for almost four years, and they are looking for someone who will lead them out of this and has a plan to do so. So she may do that at the expense of really giving a vision for where she'd take the country. And as Donald Trump said the other night in a town hall,

you might not like me, but you should vote for me because I'd be a better president. So I think that's probably going to be his argument. OK, and what would your advice be to him about how to play it tonight? Just the opposite of Kamala Harris. It would be stay focused on policy. Make her own her record. In fact, she does own the last three and a half years. Don't let her get away with looking like a challenger or a change agent. And then write the following words, dangerously liberal and failed and weak at the top of his page. And everything he says should point toward those four words.

Well, it's interesting you say that. I think they're not being allowed to take notes in today. So he won't be able to, he'll have to learn the words off by heart, I think, if I'm not mistaken in terms of the rules tonight. Sure, sure. But when he walks out on stage, write those at the top of the page and then connect with the audience underneath of it and do everything in his power

to go after her. He's got to make this election a referendum on her and the status quo. Now, you have been there coaching candidates on these debates. I don't think you've coached Trump himself. I have not. My guess is, though, he would be a difficult one to coach. I mean, he's an unguided missile. I mean, you can tell him, focus on this, focus on that, use these words. But I don't know. Would he listen to what you say, do you think? I don't know.

I've never been given that opportunity. But here's the one thing I do know. He's done a ton of interviews. And there's no substitute for being in the bright lights. And I think that's a disadvantage for Kamala Harris. My guess is, right now, deep down, she's probably regretting not doing more interviews, because that gives you a chance to try out answers, to get used and comfortable to being peppered with questions from the press rather than your staff. We'll see what happens.

You know, in the first debate between Biden and Trump in June, he was very disciplined in that first 30 to 40 minutes, which is when you win and lose these things. And so we'll see what kind of performance he turns in tonight. Brett O'Donnell. And you can watch the debate on the BBC News channel. Well, as we heard there, one of the most important issues nationally in the US election, and one that's actually on the ballot in many states in November, is the question of access to abortion. In 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe versus Wade ruling that protected a woman's right to an abortion, Missouri became the first state to implement a near-blanket ban on the procedure. The only exception being cases where the mother's life is in danger.

Women have to travel to abortion clinics outside the state. As James Menendez reports. It was heart-wrenching. My world crumbled that day. That's Erica, who lives on the other side of the state in the confusingly named Kansas City. A year and a half ago, she was given the news that no mother-to-be wants to hear. I had a very wanted pregnancy when my doctor came in and told me my son, who we named Easton, had a fetal anomaly. And she went on to share what it meant if he survived. And so for us, thinking about our living child, Easton, and his quality of life, our marriage,

we did make the choiceless choice to seek an abortion. And compounding that horrible situation was the fact that Missouri has an almost total ban on abortions. Were there big questions about how you were going to get the treatment, the abortion you needed? So when I got to maternal fetal medicine and they ran the additional tests, she told me where I could go. And it was a 10 hour car ride to Denver, Colorado, or a airplane to Washington, DC. There are those on the other side of the argument who believe the sanctity of the fetus's life is the most important thing. What do you say to them? Our decision was made out of immense motherly love and fatherly love. I did not want my child to suffer.

Yeah, that means that I will forever miss him and grieve him and wish that things were different. But as a parent, aren't you supposed to protect your child? Aren't you supposed to love them, even if it means that you don't get what you want? Missouri became the first abortion-free state. even if it means that you don't get what you want. Missouri became the first abortion-free state. Missourians have fought hard. Opponents of Amendment 3, as the vote on restoring the right to an abortion in Missouri is known, are still battling in the courts and in the court of public opinion to get it struck off the ballot in November.

That campaign has been led by Republican state senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman. I believe that every life is sacred and that we should do everything we can to protect the unborn. And all the polling suggests that a majority of Americans believe that there should be some access to abortion. And we've seen Donald Trump, for example, apparently flip-flopping on where he stands on this issue because he seems to be aware that actually this may cost him the election. Do you think that's true? No, I think if you look at the history of what Donald Trump has done in this issue, it's been a little bit messy. Going back to the 2016 campaign, I think that like most Americans, it's not his top issue. He's not paying attention

to it at the same level. And so he'll say things and then he'll learn more and he'll say, you know what, actually, I was wrong on that. That was Mary Elizabeth Coleman ending that report by James Menendez. And within the past few hours, Missouri's top court has ruled that a proposed abortion rights amendment to the state constitution will appear on the ballot in November, allowing voters to decide whether to restore legal abortion in Missouri. The United States and its allies are imposing new sanctions on Iran and Russia over what they call Tehran's escalatory decision to supply ballistic missiles to Moscow. On a visit to London on Tuesday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken,

warned that Russia had received shipments of ballistic missiles from Iran and was likely to use them in Ukraine within weeks. For some time, the United States has warned of an additional threat, the provision by Iran of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine. We've warned Iran publicly, we've warned Iran privately, that taking this step would constitute a dramatic escalation. Our security correspondent Frank Gardner told us more about the weapons. This is a weapon system called the Fata 360. Fata means victory. It's an Arabic word,

but it means the same thing in Farsi. They are short to medium range ballistic missiles. But a ballistic missile basically goes up in a parabola and comes down very fast. They've got a maximum range of 75 miles, which is what roughly about 120 kilometers. But they can carry a payload of up to 150 kilos of high explosive. So it's thought that they're going to be deployed on the battlefield in the next few weeks. And they will be quite a game changer for Russia because it will allow Russia to use these against Ukrainian frontline positions, helping to push back their forces in the Donbass, where they're already slowly retreating, and freeing up Russia's own arsenal of longer range ballistic missiles, which they will then use to make life absolutely miserable

for people in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, Rivne, further afield cities like that. And there was further detail coming out today from the Russians about a new bilateral treaty between Russia and Iran. And that suggests that this might not just be a one off these missiles. It goes to the future as well. So that's doubly concerning. They, as in the US and Britain, are very concerned about this, and also disappointed, I think, because Iran has a new president. And Iran has made it clear that it wants to reach out and rejoin the rest of the world and take its place, its rightful seat at international forums and so on. They're saying it's going on about it in exactly the wrong way. And in return, getting technology from Russia, missile technology and nuclear technology, forging this alliance of the pariahs, as somebody once called it.

Well, it's a troubling cooperation, I guess. Don't forget that the two countries have got a common body of water between them, the Caspian Sea. And that's where they're able to ship these missiles across. Clearly, the U.S. has been able to detect this, probably through satellites, but it could be human or signals intelligence as well. And the US and the UK have shown that disappointment, as you expressed it, in saying that there will be further sanctions on Tehran. But we've seen the sanctions don't necessarily prevent Tehran from developing these new weapons and sending them abroad.

They don't. So the sanctions package has already been announced. There's a number of individuals prevent Tehran from developing these new weapons and sending them abroad? They don't. So the sanctions package has already been announced. There's a number of individuals who've been sanctioned. But I think most relevant, perhaps to UK and Europe is that the E3, that's Britain, France and Germany, have announced some trade sanctions, which include transport. And that means that Iran Air, Iran's national carrier, is going to be restricted from landing in Britain, but not for another year. So in that sense, it's pretty toothless. Frank Gardner, as we record this podcast, 26 people are now known to have died after a wooden boat carrying migrants capsized off Senegal's coast on Sunday. The authorities say more than 100 people were on board.

Our Africa regional editor Richard Kago reports. Distraught relatives and friends have gathered along the beach, anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones. So far, four people have been rescued and such efforts are still underway. The boat departed from Boer, about 80 kilometers south of Dakar, bound for Spain's Canary Islands. In recent years, the number of migrants leaving West Africa through Senegal has surged. Mostly young men fleeing conflict, poverty and unemployment are attempting the dangerous Atlantic route to the Spanish islands, with nearly 30,000 arrivals recorded this year.

Richard Kago. Still to come. Why should I have to cut my hair? And people can have their hair all the way down to their hips and as long as they want. But because my hair grows out, I need to cut it. The campaign to end Afro-Hair discrimination. that you can listen to them without ads. Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts

or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Scientists and parents, for that matter, are constantly trying to uncover more about the mystery that is the teenage brain. It's no secret that adolescent brains go through huge changes, but researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that was only amplified during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, between 2018 and 2021, the time when most of the COVID lockdowns took place, they found the adolescent brains of girls aged considerably faster than those of teenage boys. I heard more from the BBC's Ella Bicknell. This study involved 160 boys and girls in their adolescent years, and they put them through an MRI scanner both before and after the COVID pandemic.

And what they were doing, they were mapping the brain for what we call cortical thinning. And it's a natural biological process. And it happens in the cortex, which is the outermost layer of our brain. They found in these teenagers, during that really crucial, very difficult time a lot of them went through, their brains aged at a faster rate. For boys, that was 1.4 years faster. For girls, that was 4.2 years faster. A massive difference. So, for example, a girl would walk into the lab

for their brain to be scanned at age 11, brain was scanned again at 14, but the scientists found that their brain had aged scanned at age 11. Brain was scanned again at 14, but the scientists found that their brain had aged as if they were 18 years old. That's an extraordinary difference between boys and girls. Do we know why this was happening? So this study was mainly about finding out that it happened. So any theories that come from this are mainly speculative. They don't have firm proof. But the lead Dr. Patricia Cull, who I spoke to earlier, she thinks it's because of that lack of social interaction. Girls are much more dependent on social interaction at that age. When they were mapping the brains, they found 30 regions of the

girls' brains had been affected. Things like their ability to process emotional and social cues. Boys less so, only two regions of their brains have been affected. But they're testing out other theories. COVID itself was one that they tested out. Dr. Cole told me that was an unlikely cause. For example, there is no data suggesting that girls acquired COVID more than boys, and the effects in girls are so much stronger than in boys. In girls, it's all over the brain, both hemispheres, all lobes. In boys, it's only in visual cortex. Whereas in girls, the areas, again, it's all over, but most of the areas have to do with social processing, areas you use to think about what others' behaviours

and what their words mean. What she's saying there sounds very concerning. Are there other reasons for concern as well? Well, the reason why Dr Cole thinks this could be concerning is she looks back on previous literature, previous studies that shows that unnatural development in teenagers, that could lead to anxiety and depression in years to come. However, COVID-19 and the pandemic and those lockdowns are over for the foreseeable future. It's unlikely that teenagers' brains will go through anything like this again. However, Dr Cole and her team stress that teenagers undergo a lot of chronic

stress at the moment, whether that be worries about climate change, cyberbullying, a lack of social connection because of the influence of social media. So she says we should still keep this at the back of our minds. She also wants further research. How does this impact these teenagers into their 20s, into their 30s, and then right through into later life? Ella Bicknell. In Ukraine, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said his team are doing all they can to deliver justice for crimes committed by Russia. Karim Khan was speaking on a visit to Kiev at a children's hospital

that was badly damaged by a Russian missile back in July. The ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and senior members of the Russian military, a move which Moscow has condemned. Our Europe correspondent Nick Beek sent this report from the hospital. A mum desperately calls out for her daughter. A missile has just hit their hospital. Oksana says she has no idea if her 16-year-old daughter Solomia is alive or dead. Later, they do find each other. Today, on a video call, Solomia told us her overwhelming emotion that morning had been fear. It was very scary, but I tried not to listen to the explosions and stay calm.

When the missile hit, I didn't immediately understand what had happened. I thought that maybe I was overthinking and worrying too much. But after some time, I understood everything. It's two months now since the missile strike at this hospital, and in front of us is what remains of the intensive care unit. Part of it has been completely levelled. All the windows are blasted out. There's a huge amount of debris.

And the sight of cancer patients, intensive care patients, bloodied, covered in dust and debris, being rushed to safety, shocked a lot of people, even in this war of so much death and devastation. And for a lot of Ukrainians, it represented Russia sinking to a new level in striking Ukraine's biggest children's hospital. The International Criminal Court has been investigating, and today its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, came to see the damage for himself and told us his team were pursuing all avenues to help deliver justice. We're here

for a purpose. It's not a sightseeing visit. It's to move forward to make sure we pierce the veil of impunity and make sure the law is felt. And that's why we're here. Ukraine says Russia hit the hospital. Moscow claimed it was a why we're here. Ukraine says Russia hit the hospital. Moscow claimed it was a Ukrainian air defence missile. But the United Nations concluded it was highly likely it was a Russian missile. So what does Solomia's mum, Oksana, think the ICC's investigation will bring? I think that this will not lead to anything, to any positive result. There are international organisations in the world that could prevent all this happening in Ukraine,

but no-one has done anything so far. We put this to the ICC's prosecutor, Karim Khan, while he was at the hospital. We're doing our best. It's not going to bring the dead back to life and it's not going to mean that it's any easier for the treatment that she's having. But we're doing our part and if everybody plays their part, hopefully it can mitigate some of the harrowing stories that we're hearing around the world and also here in Ukraine. Both Ukrainian and international prosecutors hope in time, evidence gathered here will help point to a pattern of Russian attacks, attacks far from the front line with vulnerable civilians in the line of fire. Nick Beek,

the European Union's competition commissioner has hailed two rulings against US technology giants Apple and Google as big wins for European citizens. Margarethe Wettker said a verdict by the EU's highest court that Apple must pay $14 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland was a victory for tax justice. The Court of Justice confirmed the decision from 2016 by the European Commission. Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid, which Ireland now has to recover. And this judgment is final.

The court also confirms the commission decision in the Google Shopping antitrust case. And also this is a final judgment. The details from our Europe editor, Dali Eberhard. Margrethe Vestager called the Apple ruling a win for tax justice. She'd argued eight years ago that an Apple subsidiary had effectively paid tax rates as low as a tiny fraction of a single percent on the firm's European profits. Ireland, which had defended its tax arrangements,

fought the case alongside Apple, but it now has $14 billion of revenue to spend. Separately, the European Court of Justice upheld a decision that Google had abused its dominant position in online searches by favouring its shopping service. Both Google and Apple say they're disappointed with the rulings. Danny Eberhardt. The international human rights charity Global Witness

says it's documented 196 killings during 2023 of people who were trying to stop the destruction of natural environments around the world. The report's lead author, Laura Ferrones, told my colleague Paul Henry who the people who lost their lives were. A Colombian small-scale farmer trying to get on with their daily lives and having this sort of small plots of land encroached by corporate interest activists in the Philippines trying to fend off destructions of the land to make way for a large KL airport. Indigenous peoples in the Amazon trying to protect their forests. Latin America seems to be a centre of these kind of killings, tragically, and Colombia especially. Why there?

Civil society and social movements and indigenous peoples and local communities are really powerful in Latin America. So they're really able to make their voices heard and they're being attacked for doing so. But also that doesn't mean in any way that being a defender in regions like Asia or Africa is any safer. And how carefully researched is your data? Can you establish direct links in all these cases between the murder of an individual and specific, say, corporate interests? In 2023, for instance, out of 196 cases,

we were able to identify mining as the sector linked to the largest amount of cases, and that was 25 all in all. But murders are the most brutal form of attacks. But we, you know, our report also features a number of cases from around the world of defenders who are luckily very much alive, but, you know, are subject to orders of non-lethal attacks, you know, including criminalisation, which is on the rise globally, but also threats and harassment and sexual violence. I mean, the list goes on and on. Who do you hope your report will influence most? Well, we're hoping that the report will really strike a chord with governments around the world whose responsibility it is to protect land and environmental defenders and to make sure

that they provide safe operating environments for them, you know, so they can just do their works without fearing for their lives. And we're also hoping that corporate big enterprises will do the right thing, which is exercise due diligence and therefore identify, you know, way before they come to any land to establish their extractive projects, just establish what risks there are, you know, and talk to the community, you know, talk to them about what the risks might be and make right decisions about their operations that go beyond just profit and take into account possible human rights violations. Laura Ferenes. Mel B from the band The Spice Girls has joined

other black women in British entertainment by calling on MPs to end discrimination against anyone with Afro hair. A letter signed by 100 people says that hair discrimination is a pernicious form of oppression, which dates back to the slave trade. To stop this, they want the UK's Equality Act updated to make Afro hair a protected characteristic, along with age, race, religion and sexual orientation. The call has been made ahead of World Afro Day on Sunday. Actress and broadcaster Sarah-Jane Crawford is part of the campaign. She told my colleague Sarah Montague about the discrimination. So it's really important to think about it in three main areas. So we've got school, where typically, you know, a

style that is synonymous with Afro hair from braids, fades, locks, cane rows, styles that are typically penalised in school. There are bans around having those hairstyles, you know, right from the get go, individuals are made to feel on a psychological level, as if the hair is inferior, it's not good enough. And I think it's because the Eurocentric aesthetic is considered to be more neat, tidy and professional. The other area, of course, then naturally goes into employment, where again, Afro hair is deemed unprofessional, which means that, you know, you experience anxiety before you even go into the workplace, because we actually have research that shows that, you know, you are less likely to get a promotion from even

being hired in the first place and then the third area is health what's really really sad is that women of color are more likely to be impacted by harmful toxins because of hair straightening products and because of this desire to go after the kind of like professional eurocentric aesthetic you know afro hair is synonymous with African heritage. So if you protect the characteristic of Afro hair, then a teacher or someone in the workplace, it's then illegal for them to want you to have straight hair. It's then illegal for them to tell you that you can't wear braids because obviously this is an Afrocentric style or cane rows or, you know, a fade if you're having your hair short or locks. Now, I have to say you have the most amazing hair.

Thanks. But have you ever experienced any of that? I think that definitely for me there was like an unspoken rule going into the world of broadcasting that I needed to have straight hair. I think it's definitely changed. I was chemically straightening my hair from as young as teenage against my mother's wishes but my mother being Caucasian has a different hair type to mine. So she spent years trying to find different hair products for me that were going to work. And you know, she was navigating a journey of not being exactly sure what to do. And this is the case, you know, with a lot of mixed heritage families as well. The industry in terms of hair care has definitely moved on, but has the conversations around what is deemed professional.

I mean, it would be naive for us to say, is that even going on? Do you see what I mean? Well, the mad thing is, of course, if you have straight hair, you're trying to get some body and oomph in it the whole time. But you know what I mean? So if a woman walks into a workplace with a suit on and she has locks or a really large afro, that is not generally deemed to be professional as an aesthetic. And so therefore, indirectly, well, I think very directly, that is in itself racism. And that's why we need to update the legislation, update the Equalities Act, and include Afro hair as a characteristic. Sarah-Jane Crawford. 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 globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and the producer was Alison Davis. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. Life and death were two very realistic coexisting possibilities in my life. I didn't even think I'd make it to like my 16th birthday, to be honest. I grew up being scared of who I was. Any one of us at any time can be affected by mental health and addictions.

Just taking that first step makes a big difference. It's the hardest step. But CAMH was there from the beginning. Everyone deserves better mental health care. To hear more stories of recovery, visit CAMH.ca.

If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.