The Real Story BBC World Service

America's top general has warned that Ukraine’s counter offensive is running out of time. Speaking to the BBC, Mark Milley admitted the offensive had gone more slowly than expected. With just one month of fighting before winter weather sets in, does the pace of the push back against Russian forces suggest that Nato needs to rethink?

The United States has been the largest provider of military assistance since the war began - more than 43 billion dollars worth, so far. With polls suggesting many Americans oppose any more, is the West in danger of willing the ends without delivering the means? If the will to resist Putin does begin to falter among his allies, President Zelensky says he is ready to make the case to Ukrainians for why a long war of attrition is preferable to negotiating with Russia. But with doubtful allies, might they soon not have much choice?

Shaun Ley is joined by Sir Laurie Bristow, UK’s Ambassador to Russia 2016-2020, and Deputy Ambassador to Russia 2007-2010; Alissa de Carbonnel - deputy program director, Europe and Central Asia for the International Crisis Group; Daniel L. Davis, senior fellow for think tank Defense Priorities and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Army.

Also featuring: Paul Adams, BBC diplomatic correspondent in Kiev; Alexander Rodnyansky, Adviser to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

(Photo: Ukrainian soldiers place a Ukrainian flag at a building, during an operation that claims to liberate the first village amid a counter-offensive, in a location given as Blahodatne, Donetsk Region, Ukraine,11 June, 2023. Credit: Reuters)

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by Iran's so-called ‘morality police’ - enforcers of Iran’s Islamic dress code - sparked widespread anti-government protests across the country. Thousands of mostly young Iranians took to the streets. Women burned their headscarves in a defiant act of resistance and cut their hair in solidarity.

Next week marks a year since the death of Ms Amini, who allegedly had hair visible under her headscarf when she was arrested in Tehran on the 13 September. She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre, and died three days later in hospital. The force denies reports officers beat her head with a baton and banged it against one of their vehicles.

Despite the protests, the Iranian parliament are currently debating a Hijab and Chastity Bill that could impose a raft of new punishments on women who fail to wear the headscarf. At the same time, President Ebrahim Raisi is under mounting domestic pressure to deal with Iran’s economy dogged by ongoing sanctions, spiralling living costs and rampant inflation.

So, a year on, what has changed? What do the protests reveal about the complexity of Iranian society? How much of a factor is Iran’s economic troubles? Despite the unrest, many still support Iran’s conservative government so what are their views on the situation?

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Azadeh Moaveni, director of global journalism at New York University

Sanam Vakil, director, Middle East and North Africa programme, Chatham House

Haleh Esfandiari, director emerita, Middle East programme, Wilson Center

Also featuring:

Dr Seyed Mohammed Marandi, professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran

An anonymous teacher in Tehran who attended the protests

Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group

Photo: Iranian women walk past a cleric in a street in Tehran, Iran, 19 September 2022. Credit: ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Lucy Letby worked on a neonatal unit in England. Dr Stephen Brearey - the lead consultant on the unit - raised concerns in October 2015. Whilst no one knew she was killing some of the babies in her care, Dr Brearey hoped his concerns, and those of - in the end - seven of his fellow senior doctors, would be taken seriously.

Instead, senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital seemed to him to be focused on potential reputational damage to the organisation and were, for some time, reluctant to involve the police.

At her trial Letby was found guilty of seven murders and six more attempted murders. Worse still has been the realisation that two of the victims may not have died if the concerns had not been ignored.

This isn’t the first time the UK’s National Health Service has been accused of not listening to whistleblowers but as an organisation it is by no means alone. From international banks to car makers to health tech start-ups, whistleblowing is not always welcomed with open arms.

So why is whistleblowing - the act of disclosing information about wrongdoing in an organisation - still so difficult to do? What’s at stake for those who choose to speak out and is there enough protection? Historically, organisations appear resistant to whistleblowers - but should they instead be actively encouraged?

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Anna Myers, director of Whistleblowing International Network

Kyle Welch, assistant professor at the George Washington University School of Business

And Narinder Kapur, Professor of Neuropsycholgy at University College London

Also featuring:

Dr Stephen Brearey, lead consultant on the neonatal unit where Lucy Letby worked

Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, the United States' electronic espionage service

Photo: American economist and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg addresses the media during a recess in his trial at the Federal Courtroom in Los Angeles, California, 10th May 1973. Ellsberg was accused of illegally copying and distributing the Pentagon papers relating to the Vietnam war. Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Produced by Pandita Lorenz and Max Horberry

Ecuador has until recently been a relatively peaceful country. But in the course of a few years it has become a place dominated by violence and drug trafficking.

After Colombia struck a peace deal in 2016, Ecuador’s role in the drug supply chains has continued to grow in importance and its now being used as a transit route for cocaine smuggled from neighbouring Peru and Colombia. The powerful Mexican drug cartels are also said to operate through local gangs.
Ecuador's murder rate has surged as local gangs have forged alliances with international crime cartels and the killings of politicians have rocked the country ahead of the snap poll on August 20.

Earlier this month, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a political rally in the capital Quito. He'd been one of the few candidates in this month's presidential elections to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.

So why has the drug trafficking industry become so powerful in Ecuador? Will a new president make any difference? If the cartels are eventually pushed out of Ecuador, will they simply move to another South American country?

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Arianna Tanca, Ecuadorian political scientist at The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Guayaquil

Will Freeman, Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank specialising in US foreign policy and international relations
 
Glaeldys Gonzalez, Fellow for the Latin America and Caribbean Program with the International Crisis Group

Also featuring:

Ecuadorian journalist, Isabela Ponce

Produced by Ellen Otzen and Pandita Lorenz

Two years ago the Taliban swept into Kabul and took control of Afghanistan, almost exactly twenty years after they were ousted by the US-led invasion after 9/11. The West has since deployed sanctions to put pressure on the regime - but to no visible effect, beyond worsening the number of people struggling to afford to eat.

As the Taliban have consolidated their control of the country, they have dramatically reversed many of the rights and opportunities Afghan women have enjoyed.
Can the world engage with the Taliban while also keeping up the pressure on it to reverse what the UN calls its “gender apartheid”?

Is isolation the way to convince a group which craves global recognition that its attitude to women is costing Afghanistan dearly?

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Michael Keating, Executive Director at the European Institute of Peace, a conflict resolution organisation based in Brussels that works with the European Union and civil society. He is the former UN deputy envoy and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

Orzala Nemat, Afghan scholar and Research Associate at SOAS University, and the former director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), a think tank in Afghanistan

Sahar Fetrat, researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch.

Also featuring:

BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid

Produced by Alba Morgade and Neggeen Sadid.

(Photo: Taliban celebrate second anniversary of taking over Afghanistan, Kandahar, Afghanistan- 15 August 2023. Credit: EPA).

China has released a new documentary about its army’s preparations to attack Taiwan - the film includes interviews with Chinese soldiers who swear they'll give up their lives if needed in a potential invasion of the island.

Tensions have been building for some time: Recently Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has increased its weapons purchases from the US, while China has increased air and naval encroachments on the island.
This week on the Real Story, we explore how real the risk of conflict is, why Taiwan is so important to China and the US, what Taiwan's strategy is and what an invasion might look like.

(Photo: Tourists look on as a Chinese military helicopter flies past Pingtan island, one of mainland China's closest points from Taiwan, on August 4, 2022, ahead of massive military drills off Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island. Credit Hector RETAMAL / AFP via Getty Images)

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Amanda Hsiao, Senior Analyst for China with the International Crisis Group's office in Taipei

David Sacks, fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC

Rick Waters, formerly the US State Department's top policy official on China, managing director on China for Eurasia Group in Washington DC

Also featuring:


Mark Ho, a member of Taiwan's parliament for the Democratic Progressive Party

Henry Wang from the Centre for China and Globalisation in Beijing, which has links to the Chinese Communist Party.

Produced by Ellen Otzen and Usman Azad.