Global News Podcast BBC Podcasts
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- News
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The day’s top stories from BBC News. Delivered twice a day on weekdays, daily at weekends.
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South Africa marks 3 decades since end of apartheid
President Cyril Ramaphosa pays tribute to those who helped bring white minority rule to an end, but acknowledges the challenges still faced by his country. Also: Hamas releases a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages held in Gaza, and the passenger aged 101 who was classed as being just 1 year old by an airline.
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The Happy Pod: Tutus and triumph
This week, we meet one of the hundreds of ballerinas who balanced on their toes in New York to set a new world record. Also: how a generous stranger gave a kidney to a five-year-old girl. And we hear from Europe's best seagull impersonator.
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US announces air defence boost for Ukraine
The $6bn package comes days after a huge military aid bill was approved in Washington. Also: UN investigators have dismissed or suspended cases against four UNRWA employees accused of involvement in the October 7th Hamas-led attacks because of a lack of evidence from Israel, and King Charles is to start returning to public duties in Britain after reacting positively to treatment for cancer.
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Xi Jinping says US and China should be partners, not rivals
The Chinese leader tells the visiting US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, they should work together. Mr Blinken says he raised concerns about China's support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Also: Britain begins tests of the first personalised vaccine for melanoma skin cancer -- based on the mRNA technology used in Covid jabs. And how talking to Twain the humpback whale could help us communicate with aliens from outer space.
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US Supreme Court hears Trump immunity case
Donald Trump argues he can't be indicted under the constitution for actions while he was in office. The ruling will determine whether the former President should face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Also: New York's top court overturns one of Harvey Weinstein's rape convictions -- but the disgraced Hollywood producer will remain in jail, and the British synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys are back with a new album.
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Burkina Faso army kills 223 villagers in revenge attack
Human Rights Watch report says children were among those killed in what it calls one of the worst army abuse incidents in Burkina Faso in nearly a decade. Also: The US Secretary of State is in Beijing as the world's largest economies try to mend their relationship - will it work? We hear mixed reactions to a new tourist tax in Venice, and how did the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret club in Paris lose the sails of its windmill?
Customer Reviews
Generally Unbiased
Excellent unbiased reporting on world affairs. Sometimes skews to the left on Climate and UK Politics stories. Random stories and the Happy Pod and generally irrelevant and have no bearing on world news.
Public broadcaster puts up paywall.
Shameful practice of locking out information to lower income people. Making news and nuanced perspective the purview of the privileged is corrosive and leads to the disintegration of an informed public. That BBC paywalls the information like this is a disgrace to its core mission of public broadcasting.
A Long Tradition of Careful, Thorough and Balanced Reporting
All news from professional journalistic sources once aspired to the caliber of reporting the BBC World Service routinely delivers still. The value of thorough, neutral fact finding from experienced and talented professional journalists cannot be overstated in the current “news” marketplace. The Global News Podcast is one of my most trusted sources for news and information. I rarely miss an installment. I choose to subscribe specifically because I want the BBC to realize your listeners value what you provide. Don’t tell the higher-ups, but I would pay more.
Do tell them, however, it is critical that you continue. Every western public broadcaster is periodically asked to make cuts. Please don’t cut this podcast when the next request comes. Remind those higher-ups that one of your American competitors has the mast-head slogan: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. And while you could once be forgiven for thinking that a tad melodramatic and self-important, as I once did, I do so no longer. The January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington shocked advocates of the rule of law and the democracies it underpins. The malignancy allowed to grow into that attack is a darkness of sorts, certainly, one with its roots in the real “fake news”.
This podcast, your BBC colleagues and the select few around the globe that adhere to the same standards of journalistic excellence, are the best protection democracies have against the spread of anti-democratic extremism around the world. Look no further than the number of democracies electing and re-electing authoritarian leaders. Without the understanding your journalistic rigor brings, ignorance and its progeny extremism, will spread. Remind those higher-ups of this, right after you extend to them my thanks for helping to push back that darkness.
Scott Nicoll
Vancouver, BC Canada