Global News Podcast - US Senate vote could end government shutdown

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

The longest-ever government shutdown in the United States looks to be coming to an end after a vote in the Senate. Several Democrats decided to join their Republican rivals to re-open federal services. Also: Donald Trump has welcomed the resignation of the BBC's director general and head of news following claims viewers were misled by the editing of a speech by the US president. Another typhoon hits the Philippines - but this time the damage isn't as bad as expected. How gangs in the South African city of Johannesburg are bribing officials to keep control of squalid housing blocks. Red Kite chicks are sent from Britain to help the survival of the species in Spain. And a new kind of holiday in Sweden - where you have to stay very quiet.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]

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. Amongker to sign in the early hours of Monday the 10th of November, these are our main stories. US senators have taken a major step towards ending the longest government shutdown in American history. Donald Trump has welcomed the resignation of the BBC's Director-General and Head of News, following claims views were misled by the editing of a speech by the US President. Also in this podcast, activists in Afghanistan say that Taliban authorities have ordered women to wear burqas to be allowed into hospitals. When a woman going to hospital in different province of Afghanistan, they have to go with a male chaperon, otherwise they are not allowed. We start in Washington, where U.S. senators have passed a deal that paves the way for the end of the longest government shut down in history.

On this vote, the yeas are 60 and the nays are 40, three-fifths of the Senate, duly chosen and sworn, having voted in the affirmative, the motion upon reconsideration is agreed to. The shutdown has brought pain to Americans. Low-income families have lost food stamps and federal employees have been forced to work with no pay or be furloughed. The deadlock was broken when several Democrat senators voted with their Republican rivals. is our North America correspondent. The government shutdown isn't over, but it is heading towards a resolution. After 40 days where both the Republicans and Democrats were at odds,

as you mentioned, a group of Democrats in the U.S. Senate have now sided with Republicans to begin a series of procedural maneuvers to reopen the government. Once the Senate ultimately approves that with this Democratic help, then the measure has to go back to the U.S. House of Representatives, where it also has to approve it. And then it goes to Donald Trump's desk for signatures. But the biggest obstacle, the obstacle that has led to this 40-day shutdown in the U.S. Senate has apparently been resolved.

And what will be the next steps in the process as well, Anthony? Well, what we're going to see once this government shutdown is ended is that all the government services will be reopened once it have been put on hold, such as furloughs of government workers, government workers going without pay. Air traffic controllers, for instance, have not been paid for 40 days, airport security officers as well. That had led over the past couple days

to cancellations and flight delays across the United States. Thousands of flights had been canceled just on Sunday alone. National parks and public museums will reopen. Things essentially will start to return to normal. And what was key in unlocking this,

deadlock? Democrats actually had been insisting during this shutdown was that Republicans address health care subsidies to help pay for health insurance provided to low-income Americans. That actually wasn't addressed in this. The only thing that Republicans promised was that they would have a vote on extending those subsidies in the U.S. Senate. No guarantees that the House would take it up as well, which would be necessary to extend these subsidies. One of the things that you did see were some government services being funded through the end of the festival year. So through the end of September, that means that food support for low-income Americans would be provided and guaranteed for almost an entire year. That had been a source of pain for many Americans over the past few weeks as it looked like those funds ran out.

The Republicans also agreed to return to work people who had been threatened with layoffs in the federal government over the course of this shutdown. Now they're guaranteed that they will have their jobs back. Next to the crisis that's engulfing the BBC. Two of its most senior leaders have resigned. In the week before last year's U.S. presidential election, the BBC broadcast a documentary which included excerpts from a speech made by Donald Trump in the run-up to the Capitol Hill riots in 2021. But there were complaints that it misled viewers by selectively editing Mr Trump's comments. And after a leaked internal memo also criticised the documentary and other areas of BBC news coverage,

the Director-General Tim Davy and Head of News Debra Terness have resigned. It's the latest in a series of controversies and accusations of bias against the BBC. In a statement, Mr Davy acknowledged that mistakes had been made in what he described as febriol times, Ms. Tanes also accepted criticism, but denied allegations of institutional bias within the BBC. President Trump welcomed their resignation. And here in Britain, Nigel Huddleston of the main opposition Conservative Party said it's a major wake-up call for the public broadcaster. It's really exposed some serious concerns about impartiality at the BBC.

We need to make sure that the BBC does what we all want it to do and what it does best, which is be a global brand for the UK based on world-renowned, impartial, trusted news coverage and content. And I'm afraid that is not the case at the moment. So just how damaging is this for the corporation? It's a question I put to our correspondent, Rob Watson. The first thing to say, anchor, is that it is a massive crisis for the BBC. There's just no two ways about that one of the worst crises it's faced in its 100-year history. How has it come about?

Well, I think in many ways this was that the final straw. There had been a string of incidents over the last 12 months or so over various stories, various bits of coverage. But the final straw was essentially a memo that was leaked to a British newspaper. And that memo was written by someone who was an independent advisor to the BBC editorial guidelines and standards board. And this memo was immensely damaging because what it contained was largely based on internal BBC report by a senior journalist into issues with our coverage,

coverage not just of the now we now have the notorious Trump editing, but the US election, anti-Israel bias, particularly in the BBC Arabic service, but allegations of bias more generally against Israel, and then all sorts of sort of basic journalistic errors, whether it was covering race, gender, immigration, even some economic stories. And what the man who'd written the memo to the BBC board had said

is that it's just astonishing, eventually, that you've failed to implement any measures to resolve these highlighted issues and in many cases don't even consider them issues at all. And as I say, this had come on top of other issues. And so, yeah, final straw really for Tim Davy and for Deborah Turner. You mentioned quite a few examples there. And we've also already had reaction from President Trump. He says the BBC has corrupt journalists, criticism from other parts of the British press. And then that comments as well from Tim Davy, his outgoing comments, these Feverall Times, it sort of just highlights how much pressure there is on the BBC now going forward to

get this right. Yes, but there's also been criticism of the BBC from its friends. And I think for those who wish the BBC well, part of the danger they see is that the BBC will try and say, well, look who's making these criticisms of us. It's right-wing newspapers, it's foreign politicians who don't like us very much. But I think, the sort of true friends the BBC would say that, you know, it doesn't matter who the criticism is coming from to some extent. You do have to address some of the very serious underlying issues that have been raised here. And very important to remember, Anker, that, you know, critically, these damning reports about the BBC's coverage, I think particularly of its coverage of Israel and Gaza and Hamas, have not come from outside the BBC.

They were from a senior BBC journalist responding to criticisms about. several issues, including that one, but others too. How damaging is this to the trusted brand which the BBC prized itself on? Well, it's undoubtedly damaging, and that will be the BBC's first priority is to restore its reputation for not just impartiality and balance. But I think rather critically here, competence, right? Because a lot of this criticism is not so much about this idea that the BBC is biased. It's not properly impartial.

but just that all sorts of mistakes have been made. So that will be task number one for the BBC, domestically here in the UK, but around the world. But the point is that they will be doing this against a background of tremendous political pressure, principally here in the UK with politicians saying, look, the BBC needs to do better. So I think all sorts of questions are going to be raised about its funding and how it's regulated. The one bit of good news for the BBC, dare I say it, anchor amidst all this. is that while there has been some pretty ferocious criticism of the BBC from politicians here and around the world,

politicians here, you know, whether they're left, right or certain to think that by and large, the BBC is a national and international asset and don't want to see it fail. Rob Watson. Activists in Afghanistan said the Taliban authorities have ordered women to wear burqas to be allowed into hospitals and government offices in the western city of Herat. The medical charity MSF says such restrictions often mean care is delayed or refused. Rebecca Kesbby has been speaking to Zara Joya, an Afghan journalist and women's rights activists now based in London.

This is what she's been hearing from Herod. The Malarity police of the Taliban, they are in front of the central hospital in Herat. So my colleagues, one of them, was there. And then we received a lot of videos show that that. Taliban Malarity Police do not allow the women don't have worker to enter in the hospital. The Taliban Malarity Police, they whipped them. They whipped them? Yes, very brutal treatment that the Taliban are doing against those women that they need to have access to the medical services.

And women of your age were spared this for many years after the American-led invasion. Of course, people will be familiar of seeing the pictures of the burqa being widely enforced across Afghanistan in the 1990s when the Taliban were first in power. Just on the issue of the access to medical help, though, this is an ongoing problem for women in Afghanistan, isn't it? Because women have been banned from working. They can't study as doctors or, I believe, nurses as well. What kind of health care problems are women in Afghanistan having at the moment? So there are lots of restrictions. First of all, when a woman going to hospital in different province of Afonistan,

they have to go with a male chaperon, otherwise they are not allowed. And the second thing now is started from Herod, although it is happening in Kandahar and other province of Afonistan. But in Herod, there's recently the women they are resisting and they are trying to argue with the Taliban that this is not the right way. They can't wear burqa because this is not the way that they are covering themselves. And also there is a gender segregation for the women. Basically, all the staff in hospital should be women.

A female doctor should visit women and otherwise it is not possible. So traditionally women would prefer to see a female doctor. I think that's the case in lots of countries. But if women aren't allowed to be doctors anymore, the women now have to go to a male doctor. Before, like in Kabul, I have seen many times that when there was some emergency, men doctors could visit women.

So it was not that much restriction. But now it's completely forbidden, even if women are dying. So a woman can't be treated. by a male doctor, but at the same time there are no female doctors. So women are just going without any sort of medical care. So this is the problem. The restriction is so deep.

The pressure that the Taliban are putting on the women is so deep. And it is something like we never seen like this in other Islamic countries and other conservative society like this that we are seeing in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime now. Today, the doctors without borders issued an statement, which says that after there's a restriction from the Taliban in Herod, the women visitors to the hospital is now reduced. We have no choice. I mean, women in Afghanistan, they have to accept it because they can't raise their voice and nobody cared. Zara Joya, who is speaking to Rebecca Kesby. Leaders in Johannesburg are pushing to reclaim the city as it prepares to hope. the first ever G20 summit on the African continent later this month.

Early this year, South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, demanded Johannesburg take action to address the spread of squalid residential buildings, many of which have been hijacked by criminal gangs. Despite the city's claim to be cracking down on crime, one former hijacker has told the BBC how gangs have bribed city officials and police to maintain their control of the blocks. as Ayanda Charlie reports. Welcome to Vannecourt, a residential building in central Johannesburg.

How are you, man? Good, thank you. One young resident gives us a tour. No water? No water, no adequate to sit. On paper, this block is owned by the council. But illegal networks of so-called hijackers have sprung up, collecting rent in their place. As 300 or so residents are left to endure squalid conditions,

As we descend towards the underground car park, an overwhelming stench rises to meet us. Well, that's the smell. Abandoned cars are visible, partly submerged in a growing lake of human feces. They should be taken, turned into living accommodations. Earlier this year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the city to seize back abandoned buildings. But we have located at least 102 derelict and... abandoned buildings in the inner city alone. So what prevents the city from cleaning up these buildings?

We're on our way right now to meet a man who says that he used to be a building hijacker. He's agreed to speak with us on condition that we hide his identity. I ask him how he and his associates would avoid eviction. He's been voiced by an actor. Having a good relationship with city council and police is a matter of cash. If you don't take the cash, he must die. Some other time, they can bring your kids back from school to your home and watch you in your eyes and tell you that, buddy, don't think this is the end.

This is the start. You were involved in the drug trade. You were involved in hijacking buildings. You did cause misery to a lot of people. How do you feel about that? It's a pain to me because people died in these buildings. People went missing. I'm sorry for the wrong path.

in my life. He has since left criminality behind. The Johannesburg police did not respond to the hijackers' claims. But we put the allegations of corruption and intimidation of officials to city spokesperson in Tateisi Modigwane. In our investigation that far, we have not had any credible reports that seems to suggest that there might be any wrongdoing. Yes, some of the buildings are scary, to say the least, but we will intensify our

operations. The sheriff for Johannesburg Central, Marks Mangabar, is responsible for carrying out legal evictions. He invites us to observe one. Morning, sir. Are you alone? This operation, however, isn't meant to remove hijackers. Instead, it's a single private tenant who has not paid rent from a well-maintained building. We're going to go downstairs, where your things will be safeguarded by yourself now.

This apartment is stripped by the sheriff's team, and the resident is removed in 20 minutes. We know that there are many buildings in which people are occupying it, who might be hijacking it, and not paying. Why aren't you doing this at a bigger scale? Unfortunately, it's a question of a budget. This is a very costly exercise. The evicted tenant is left on the street with his belongings. In the face of such financial hurdles and gang resistance, President Ramaposa's call to clean up the city ahead of the city. the G20 summit feels to many

like a hollow appeal. Ianda Charlie reporting. Coming up on this episode. Red kite chicks are sent from Britain to help the survival of the species in Spain. The Philippines has been hit by more than 20 tropical storms this year. Around 1 million people were evacuated

ahead of the latest typhoon Fung Wong, which is now over the South China Sea. The typhoon lost some of its energy as it travelled across the Philippines, but it has caused damage, even if it's not as extensive, as was feared. Our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, spoke to me from Luzon Island

in the north of the Philippines. Well, it's not as bad as many people expected. I mean, the peak of the typhoon was in the middle of the night. That's when the eye of the typhoon passed over the area I'm in now. I'm in a place called Cabanatuan City, which is in eastern Luzon. And at that point, the winds were very, very strong. You couldn't go out into the street because of the amount of debris flying around.

There were just horizontal sheets of rain, huge amounts of water being dropped. Now, this morning, the winds has dropped quite a lot. The storm has now passed over. Luzon, the main island and the Philippines, is now out in the sea. in the South China Sea. It's still pretty windy. There's an awful lot of water around. The rivers are very high. Some communities close to the river, we've seen, are underwater and flooded. But people were pretty well prepared. Almost everyone in a vulnerable area took themselves off to an evacuation centre. So we've seen people coming back to look at the sort of the poorer neighborhoods where the houses are very flimsy. And some of those houses have definitely suffered quite a bit of damage, but they're made of very, very flimsy materials. We're not seeing much other damage. Now, there are a number of communities on the island of Luzon, which are completely cut off at the moment

because bridges over rivers have been basically overwhelmed by the water. So it's not clear what's happened there. We've still got to get full reports from quite a lot of parts of this main island. Also, power is down, which means mobile phone reception is down. It may take a while before we've really got a full sense of the damage, but where reports are coming in, people seem to have got through the night fine. They took shelter when they needed to. The rain was tremendous, but the winds were not as strong as they've been in some typhoons,

and the damage is not as severe as the authorities feared. What there will be is an enormously difficult cleanup operation. There's just so much debris everywhere. You know, broken tree branches, signposts, bits of timber. They're all over the place. But we've not heard of any damage that comes close to what was experienced in the Central Philippines last week when they suffered flash floods.

Now, with the amounts of rain that are fallen, the big worry now is landslides. This is a very mountainous area. They often suffer landslides, and once you've got those huge amounts of water being absorbed into the soil, these are deforested mountains as well, so they tend to be unstable.

Landslides can occur sort of 48, 72 hours afterwards. That will be what people will be watching out for. But I suspect, given the size of this storm, and it quite literally blanketed, the entire country. It was about the size of Western Europe. I think the authorities will probably feel that they got off fairly lightly. Jonathan Head reporting.

It's been a year since an Indian woman, Harshithabrella, was found dead in the boot of a car in London. Her husband, Bunkage Lumber, also an Indian national, is charged by Northampton Police with her murder. Mr Lumber fled to India soon after the killing and is yet to be caught. Speaking with our South Asia correspondent Yorgita Limai in Delhi, Hashith's family say they're disappointed and saddened by the lack of progress in her case. I'm on my way to meet the family of Harshita Brella. They live in an area in the southwest of Delhi. They've got a home which is in bustling narrow lanes.

It's a two-story structure. It's quite bare and sparsely decorated from inside. they're a middle-class Indian family. Over the past year, they've gone from pillar to post from one court in India to another, from one police station to another, in search of justice for Harshita. And I'm going to be speaking now

to her father, Sadbir Singh Brella, her sister Sonia, and her mother, Sudeh Kumari. He's without any of my own. Harshita's mother tells us not a moment goes by when she doesn't think of her daughter. She shows us the shoes she's wearing. They're Harsitas, among her possessions, which were returned to her family by UK officials a few months ago. Neither the UK government nor the Indian government are doing anything.

My daughter should get justice. Only then will I feel at peace. Two months before Harshita was killed, she'd filed a domestic abuse complaint against Pankaj in the UK. The Northamptonshire police had arrested him and he was later released on bail. An investigation is underway to determine if the police had been negligent in following up.

Harshita's sister, Sonia, says, they were. We are very disappointed with the UK police because... We feel like because she was not a UK citizen, that's why they're not taking the case seriously. And now, the Delhi police are also being negligent. Why have the not caught him so far? The Northamptonshire police didn't respond to our questions, but stated that Pankaj was charged with murder in March 2025

and that Indian authorities have been made aware of this decision. The police here in Delhi didn't comment on whether they've been informed of the UK charges, but say they've investigated Pankaj and his family on a separate complaint, filed in India and have issued notices offering a reward for information about Pankaj. We've driven roughly two hours from the capital Delhi to come to the state of Haryana to Pankaj Lamba's village Dharoli. Pankaj has of course been charged in the UK with murder, rape and sexual assault. But his family here in India, Pankaj, his parents, his sister and two other relatives have been charged, accused of dowry harassment.

We've come to his home. It's a single-story rural home which was being painted when we walked in. We actually did go in and we managed to see his father and his mother. Nasty. We're BBC News from. Sunil J and Dashan-jee's to meet. They didn't want to do an interview with us, but we asked them about the charges.

that their son is facing in the UK and the charges against them here in India. They say their son is innocent. They say they're innocent. They say these are all false cases that have been made against them and then they've spent the last year facing a lot of difficulties because of that. They say they haven't seen or spoken to Pankaj in a year and their last communication with them was over the phone in the UK on the same day that Harsita's family last had communication with her. Now to a successful conservation story, red kites are majestic birds of prey, but they're on the brink of extinction in Spain.

To tackle this, more than 100 red kite chicks have been sent from England to southwest Spain to revive the population there. This report from Catherine de Costa. Four decades ago, red kites were extinct in most of the UK with just a few mating pairs left in Wales. in early 90s, chicks from Sweden and Spain were released in the Chilterns and in Scotland in what became one of the most successful ever conservation stories in the UK. It's estimated there are now more than 6,000 pairs across the country. But while our population's thriving, the species has been nearly wiped out in southern Spain because of predators like the eagle owl, illegal poisoning by farmers and electrocution from power lines. Over the last four years,

126 chicks were collected from central England and moved to Spain, where they were fitted with a GPS backpack and tracked after they were released. Only a quarter of them have survived. But there is hope. There are now three mating pairs, and with more birds due to begin breeding next year, it's expected those numbers will multiply. Now finally, if you're planning a holiday

and come across an offer for three days of free travel, accommodation and food, you probably leap at the chance, right? But there is a catch. Sh, you have to stay very, very quiet. It's parts of a Swedish campaign to promote calm reflection. The newsroom, Stephanie Zackerson, has the details. In the heart of the forest, surrounded by trees that have turned red and yellow in the crisp Swedish autumn, Josefine Nordlund steps into a small wooden cabin.

On the door handle hangs a sign with the words, Stay quiet, the challenge for anyone spending a few days here. She's the project manager for Visitskwana, the county's tourism agency, and she shows how the guests will be monitored by a small sound level meter that's constantly sending updates. You're not allowed to make noise louder than 45 decibels, which is about the level in a library or a quiet, soft-spoken conversation. If you fail, you'll receive a text message, instructing you to check out in the morning. The idea is to push visitors to make the most of the calm and tranquility found in the woods to enjoy the quiet moments and the closeness to nature.

German sisters Lisa and Johanna took on the challenge and spoke to Swedish TV just before they moved in. Now I'm very grateful to just breathe in, breathe out and come to myself, reconnect with myself, with nature. Do you think you will be able to relax knowing that you're supervised? I think it's actually more like an advantage because then you really are focused because we don't want to fail this, of course. Do you think you will be able to stay quiet for three days? I think we're going to be good. I think a big challenge will be not to sing.

We have a very musician family. Quiet. Well, after three days, how did it go? The sisters said it actually wasn't that hard once they got used to the song. violence, and that it helped them slow down and find a sense of peace. A sentiment echoed by some of the other visitors. Here's Laura and Matt's from Denmark. We had to do a fire ourselves in the forest, and of course we know what a fire sounds like,

but just to hear it with other other nature sounds and like don't talk while we did it, was kind of special and very relaxing. We felt a little bit like alone in the wilderness. The guests have spent their time exploring the forest, crafting, reading, and watching the night sky through the roof window. And so far, none of the visitors have been kicked out for failing to stay quiet. Stephanie Zacherson with that report. 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 episode or the topic's covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. or you can use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Russell Newloff and the producer was Ed Horton. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Ankred aside. Until next time, goodbye.