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Witnesses from a city in Iran describe seeing forces loyal to the Islamic regime kill countless demonstrators in a brutal crackdown on the massive street protests held in January. Seen through the eyes of people who were in Isfahan, this programme pieces together a snapshot of events from the 8th and 9th of January. That's when huge numbers of people took to the streets to protest decades of oppression and call for an end to the Islamic Republic. Thousands of people across the country were killed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's armed forces. The regime blamed the bloodshed on what it called rioters and street terrorists backed by the countries enemies. The UN has called for an independent investigation. However, any prospect of clarity about what happened is at risk of being overshadowed by the current conflict engulfing the country. The first waves of US and Israeli military strikes on Iran killed Ali Khamenei. There are reports of hundreds of civilian casualties too on a population that's already paid a heavy human price for standing up to the regime.

Witnesses describe how forces loyal to Iran's Islamic regime killed masses of protesters.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Witnesses from a city in Iran describe how forces loyal to the Islamic regime killed countless demonstrators in a brutal crackdown on the massive street protests held in January.

[LISTEN NOW]

As recent studies suggest British Muslims are facing rising levels of abuse and discrimination, the BBC's Religion Editor Aleem Maqbool explores the political climate, talking to prominent figures from Muslim communities and their elected representatives.

He explores whether there should be more engagement and dialogue between Muslim communities and the government to ensure their voices are heard and to solve problems in communities.

Producer: Leela Padmanabhan

Aleem Maqbool explores levels of engagement between British Muslims and those in power.

The BBC's religion editor Aleem Maqbool explores engagement between British Muslims and their elected representatives, exploring whether damaged relations can be improved.

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This week, as BBC Radio 4 explores what it means to grow up as a girl in 2026, health presenter Laura Foster is examining a striking scientific reality: that girls today are hitting puberty earlier than their parents and grandparents did. Question is why is this happening — and what does it mean for the adults they will become?

With the trend showing no sign of slowing down, Laura speaks to leading researchers to decode the forces behind this shift. With girls hitting puberty earlier than ever - we pay a visit to one primary school which has moved puberty lessons forward to keep pace. From genetics and childhood obesity to screens, stress and the Covid pandemic, we examine the complex mix shaping the bodies and minds of today's girls.

What does earlier puberty mean for their physical, emotional and social development? Can the downward trend be stopped? And what support do young people need from families, schools and policymakers right now? Join us for About The Girls: The Puberty Puzzle as we explore why growing up is starting earlier than we expect.

Producer: Kate White

Editor: Martin Smith

Laura Foster asks why puberty is arriving earlier and what this silent shift could mean.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Young girls are entering puberty earlier than ever and scientists are racing to understand why. Laura Foster asks how obesity, screens, stress and Covid are reshaping childhood.

As part of our season About the Girls, Laura Foster investigates the science of puberty.

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We face an increasing range of threats as a nation – from climate change to pandemics and artificial intelligence – and yet, emergency preparedness is seen as a thing of the past that belonged to an era of civil defence and nuclear war.

But as the frequency and severity of extreme events begins to test the ability of emergency services and the government, what is the role of individuals in responding to and recovering from disasters?

Emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope assesses the state of national resilience today, and by exploring the history of preparedness – from the Second World War to the modern prepper movement – she asks what lessons can be learned.

She finds out how we can break down the mental and practical barriers to resilience, as well as the challenges of creating a culture of preparedness when the threads that connect us as a society are frayed, but she discovers how vital it is that we start regaining these tools, skills and knowledge before the next disaster.

Presenter: Lucy Easthope

Producer: Patrick Bernard

Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Lucy Easthope is on a mission to find out how we can become better prepared.

Lucy Easthope is on a mission to find out how we can become better prepared as individuals and as a society.

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Influencers preaching a message to young Muslims are becoming more and more popular as men look to the online world for spiritual guidance.

Collectively referred to as 'Dawah Bros', they have millions of followers, spreading messages about the role of women, but the opposition to their traditional ideas is strong and vocal. Young Muslim women are fighting back; they say these online preachers threaten progress for women and girls.

Traditional Imams are forced to compete with this latest wave of content and have questioned the scholarly credentials of these online preachers. But their followers argue that they are simply voicing concerns already present in communities about expectations, the erosion of Islamic principles and moral behaviour.

As online debates become more polarised, finding common ground can feel impossible.

This search for an online space is about more than just belonging; it's tied to finding a sense of safety in an environment that young Muslims often associate with hostility and Islamophobia. The growing appeal of the manosphere means that the debate about what constitutes manhood is universal - not least among young Muslim men.

As young Muslims navigate this online world and its offline aftermath, why is this type of content resonating and what happens when Muslim women speak out?

The message of online male Muslim influencers and what happens when women speak out?

The polarising message of online male Muslim influencers with millions of followers means finding common ground can feel impossible. And what happens when women speak out?

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Every month brings a new headline about shoplifting, confrontations with retail staff and disorder on our high streets.

As a result, more and more security guards have taken to wearing bodyworn cameras, now visible in every part of our lives, from supermarkets to coffee shops, railway stations to hospitals. For some they are a welcome deterrent and bring peace of mind. For others, they are a sign of a country that has lost its way.

But what is the world behind these bodycams? Miles away from the high street, dotted around the country on trading estates, in business parks on the edges of cities, even in disused military bunkers, staff work round the clock to monitor live footage that feeds through from bodyworn cameras.

Aidan Tulloch has been allowed through the bombproof doors and secure airlocks to see what it is like to work in one of these alarm receiving centres. How does it feel to spend 12-hour shifts in one of these windowless rooms watching all corners of Britain? What is the psychological impact of seeing violence unfold in real time?

Talking to employees from a number of security companies as they sit at banks of computer screens and watch notifications ping in from across the country, he finds out how the alarm receiving centres can often be peaceful places, full of the usual office chatter...until an alarm goes off.

And as our social media feeds are filled with videos of altercations - often caught on bodycam - alongside people claiming the country is in decline, what does it say about society that we consume this content for pleasure?

Presenter: Aidan Tulloch

Producer: Tim Bano

Aidan Tulloch talks to the people who process the UK's bodycam security footage.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Aidan Tulloch spends a day with the people who process the UK's bodycam security footage.

[LISTEN NOW]

Ash Bhardwaj finds out why the British Army is shrinking at a crucial juncture for the future of UK defence.

He speaks to new recruits to understand what drove them to a career in the army – and visits secondary schools across the country to ask whether it's really true that young people don't want to fight for their country.

We hear from insiders who've been at coalface of recruitment over the last ten years, who tell us where we've been going wrong, and how we might start to get it right.

Presented by Ash Bhardwaj

Produced by Artemis Irvine

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

[LISTEN NOW]

Amid the crowds and bustle of the 2025 Iowa State Fair, Anna Jones takes the temperature of rural Iowans almost a year into Trump's second term. Anna finds out how the farming constituency - largely Trump supporting in 2024 - are feeling about global trade tariffs and promises to Make America Great Again. She explores their perceptions of America's position in the world - and how they feel the rest of the world views the rural Midwest.

Produced and presented by Anna Jones for BBC Audio Bristol

Anna Jones visits the Iowa state fair to test the mood of the rural Midwest

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Louise Lancaster - approaching 60 - received one of Britain's longest ever jail terms for peaceful protest, in July 2024.

She served part of her sentence in HMP Bronzefield, the UK's highest security women's prison, alongside some of Britain's most notorious killers.

Louise was one of five Just Stop Oil activists involved in bringing much of the M25 to a standstill in November 2022, and has taken part in several other high profile acts of direct action climate protest.

The judge, in sentencing Louise and a number of co-defendents, told them:

Each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.

'You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.'

Journalist and producer Patrick Steel has been following Louise's story for several years, and has intimately recorded access to Louise, and her family and friends.

In this documentary, Patrick explores Louise's transition from law-abiding Middle England mum and special educational needs teacher, to law-breaking direct action eco-activist, and criminal.

Has Louise indeed 'crossed the line'? Are her actions a heroic self-sacrifice for the greater good of tackling climate change, or are they damaging and reckless fanaticism?

Presenter: Patrick Steel

Producers: Patrick Steel and Carys Wall

Sound Design: Tom Drew

A Bespoken Media / Fat Toad Films production

Are the actions of a climate campaigner heroic self-sacrifice or reckless fanaticism?

Campaigner Louise Lancaster has gone from law-abiding teacher to law-breaking eco-activist, and been jailed for her actions. Is she a concerned campaigner or a reckless fanatic?

[LISTEN NOW]

In 2005, the law in the UK changed to allow children who are donor-conceived to apply to find out the identity of their donor when they turn 18. Twins Matthew and Phoebe Betts are among the first young people to be able to apply to the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority to discover who their donor parent is.

The twins have always known they are donor-conceived. Their parents, Sarah and Shaun, told them early on that they have a daddy (Shaun) and a “tummy daddy ? who helped them come into the world. The twins have also known from the word go that, when they turn 18, they can apply to find out the identity of their donor.

As Phoebe pursues her dream of working in musical theatre, and Matt works towards his Maths and Science A Levels and university and indulges his love of football, Blanche Girouard, who has two donor-conceived children herself, joins the twins in their journey to find out more about who they are.

Just before their 18th birthday, Blanche joins the twins and their parents as they take a DNA test using a genealogy website. Many donor-conceived people now do manage to find out more about their genetic backgrounds via these sites, which were not available when the new law came into force in 2005. The twins hope they might even discover the identity of their donor before they turn 18.

Their search takes them to South America, but no closer to finding the man who donated to the clinic back in the 2000s. On their 18th birthday, Matt and Phoebe send off their request to the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, who promise to take 6 to 8 weeks to send them all the information they hold about the Columbian man who is their donor.

Yet it turns out that the process is taking much longer. Phoebe is disappointed about the long wait, while Matthew has dug around in the DNA results and found some distant cousins in Columbia. But he doesn't want to message them out of the blue. Meanwhile, the question of what family ultimately is continues to preoccupy them as they lose their grandmother, Shaun's mother, over Christmas.

So what will they end up finding out? And what will they do with the information?

The twins' story is one of family, the realisation that their identity is more complex than they thought, and the question of what ultimately makes a parent.

Presenter: Blanche Girouard

Producer: Alex Strangwayes-Booth

Sound design: Nigel Appleton

Editor: Kristine Pommert

A CTVC production for BBC Radio 4

The story of two young people seeking to find out the identity of their donor parent.

We follow the story of twins Matthew and Phoebe Betts, who've turned 18 and are among the first children in the UK to legally find out the identity of their donor parent.

[LISTEN NOW]

Permanent exclusions from schools in England have risen over the last decade. Neil Maggs explores why this might be happening - and what happens to the children who are excluded from the classroom. He visits a pupil referral unit where children are sent if they are excluded from a mainstream school; a school in the North East of England that excluded just one pupil last year to see what it's doing differently, and speaks to experts to see what factors lie behind school exclusions.

Presenter: Neil Maggs.

Producer: Fergus Hewison.

Technical producer: Richard Hannaford.

Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith.

Why are school exclusions rising, and what happens to children who are excluded?

Neil Maggs explores why permanent exclusions from schools in England are rising, and what happens to those children who are excluded.

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Jaguar Land Rover were one of the biggest names to be held to ransom by online hackers in the UK when their systems were brought to a halt earlier this year. The production lines ground to halt - and their financial situation became so dire that the government had to step in. It meant that Jaguar Land Rover managed to weather the storm, albeit with huge losses.

But what happened to the small suppliers who relied on the Jaguar Land Rover supply chain for their livelihood? Nick Garnett talks to business owners across the UK - from the local chip shop to factory owners to find out what happened to them when the supply chain broke - and how it can be fixed to avoid the same problems when the hackers strike again.

Producer and Presenter: Nick Garnett

A Mediamouth production with BBC Audio North for Radio 4

What happens to smaller suppliers when a big company is held to ransom online by hackers?

When hackers held Jaguar Land Rover to ransom this year the production lines stopped. What happened to the small suppliers who watched as their supply chain broke down overnight?

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In towns and cities across Britain, flags are appearing in ever greater numbers. On rooftops, down terraced streets, outside pubs and community centres, they flutter as both a statement of pride and a challenge to what many feel the country is becoming. In York, the group known as the Flag Force see their work as part of a wider national campaign. For them, raising the Union Flag or the Cross of St George is about honouring history, heritage and a sense of belonging they believe is slowly being stripped away by government neglect, the cost of living crisis and, above all, immigration.

The Flaggers insist their cause is not rooted in racism or exclusion, but in the preservation of British culture. Yet for others, the message is harder to separate. To some, the same symbols that inspire pride in one street can read like a warning in another. Not a call for unity, but a signal that certain people do not belong.

At the heart of this story is a clash of meanings. Supporters describe the flags as an antidote to division, a way to bring fractured communities together under a shared identity. Opponents counter with flags of their own, from Switzerland to Bermuda to the rainbow Pride flag, aiming to show that being British can mean welcoming different cultures rather than resisting them.

The result is a patchwork of banners across the country, each one loaded with history, politics and personal belief. What was once a simple piece of fabric is now a frontline in a debate about who we are and who we want to be. The very symbols meant to unite us are instead exposing how deeply divided we remain.

Presented and Produced by Jonny I'Anson

Edited by Clare Fordham

Jonny I'Anson visits the Yorkshire suburbs where flags are flying high.

Jonny I'Anson visits the Yorkshire suburbs where the flags are flying high. What does raising the flag mean in different communities?

[LISTEN NOW]

A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.

As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljamal spots her elderly neighbour tending to his garden. “He's been raking the earth, ? she says, “prepping the soil for new seeds. Given everything that's already happening, it's quite interesting seeing him do that right now. I mean, if grandpa thinks it's a good time to put seeds in, then I don't know, maybe there's hope. ?

In audio diaries sent from her balcony over four months, Hanya sees impromptu volleyball matches, flying shrapnel, and a hastily constructed tent village as Israel expands its military action. But after she questions whether she will live to see the end of the conflict, a fragile peace is finally agreed and Hanya's personal situation changes dramatically.

Producer/presenter: Simon Maybin

Editor: Clare Fordham

Sound mix: Gareth Jones

Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

[LISTEN NOW]

In the summer of 2020, Radio 4 producer Polly Weston found herself at Nathan Gill's house. She'd been sent by a random postcode generator, for an episode of The Patch. What followed was a wide-ranging interview about his life and career, how he became involved in UKIP, his involvement in campaigning for Brexit, and his subsequent responsibilities in the Brexit party after they stormed to victory in the 2019 European elections. But the interview also happens to cover the period he was taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia. One year after this interview, Counter Terrorism detectives entered this same house, and they found evidence which contributed to his recent conviction for eight counts of bribery.

“Officers found evidence on his devices that showed how Gill was in contact another individual in Ukraine and that Gill had agreed that, in exchange for money, he would make certain statements that were supportive of pro-Russia media being present in Ukraine. Detectives identified eight such instances between January 2018 and February 2020. ?

Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery in September, and faces sentencing on the 21st November – he is expected to receive a prison sentence.

This is his story, up to the time of the events which led to his conviction, as told by the man himself.

Produced and Presented in Bristol by Polly Weston

Editor Chris Ledgard

Former MEP Nathan Gill accepted Russia-linked bribes. Then he did this interview.

The former MEP Nathan Gill faces sentencing for accepting bribes to make statements in favour of Russia. Recorded in 2020, this is his story, as told by Nathan Gill himself.

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Kent is the Garden of England — if you view it from the air, it's covered in square miles of plastic, where the millions of tonnes of soft fruit are grown that feed the nation. Aidan Tulloch takes us inside the world of the summer fruit pickers recruited to work for a season on a blueberry farm in Kent.

In early summer thousands of people arrive in UK airports, hired on short-term visas to help pick the annual crop of soft fruit. Picking is an international effort, with jobs advertised in Russian, Bulgarian, Polish and many other languages, and pickers are increasingly being recruited from Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. They are joined each day by local pickers, often students or young people working summers between other lives elsewhere. Many pickers live in on-site caravans that become their homes for several months. The farm becomes a fascinating, temporary global community.

From spring showers through a heatwave and a late September chill, this is the story of a summer in a pickers' village, from the early starts to the final goodbyes and the return home, where different people from vastly different backgrounds come together over the course of several months. It's the story of 5am alarms, temperamental weather, unexpected friendships and ad-hoc games of football, families left behind in home countries, new lives made in the UK. These are the human stories behind the punnets of blueberries in your local supermarket.

Translations: Irena Taranyuk and Elizaveta Fokht

Voices: Hannah Bristow and Olivia Railton

Presenter: Aidan Tulloch

Producer: Tim Bano

A summer on a fruit farm in Kent reveals the human stories behind a punnet of blueberries.

Aidan Tulloch spends the summer on a blueberry farm in Kent to explore the human stories behind a punnet of blueberries.

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A programme marking the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Unification that brought East and West Germany together after 40 years of separation.

Historian Katja Hoyer was born in East Germany in the 1980s. Then, her home town of Guben was a bustling hub of the GDR's chemical industry, shrouded in smog and crowded with people. Today, it is clean and beautifully rebuilt, but also rather desolate and depopulated as residents debate how best to revitalise the region. 40% of people in Guben now vote for the right wing AfD party and express disappointment with life 35 years after reunification. Why?

Katja reports from Guben and discovers that people in the east feel hugely underrepresented in every sphere of German life. They believe that the united Germany is run on western terms and resent government intrusion from Berlin – especially the imposition of ‘green' infrastructure. The AfD wins approval with its policies on this and migration, as well as a more pro-Russian stance on the war in Ukraine.

Katja talks to the city mayor, librarian, AfD politician, journalists, a rapper, pub owner and people who grew up in the GDR.

Presenter: Katja Hoyer

Producer : Susan Marling

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4

Historian Katja Hoyer investigates East German disillusion 35 years after reunification.

Why is there disillusion and disappointment in East Germany 35 years after reunification and why is the AfD surging in popularity in the east? Historian Katja Hoyer finds out.

[LISTEN NOW]

Alex Forsyth emerges from traffic jam Britain to ask why roadworks take so long and cause so much disruption to our daily lives. Are there better ways to manage the necessary maintenance of our roads and associated infrastructure? And why do Britons spend so many hours stuck in jams or creeping along the highways every year?

Presenter: Alex Forsyth

Producer: Jonathan Brunert

Alex Forsyth on traffic jam Britain and why roadworks now disrupt our lives so often.

Alex Forsyth emerges from traffic jam Britain to ask why roadworks cause so many of us so much disruption. Are there better ways to manage the necessary maintenance of our roads?

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What is it that drives ordinary people to condone political violence, and some to commit it? As democracies increasingly exist in conditions where violence can flourish, Stanford University polarisation expert Alison Goldsworthy will scrutinise the latest research showing it is dogmatism, not just authoritarian tendencies that enable it. This means we are all susceptible - including, uncomfortably for ‘liberals' who hold strongly to being open minded (like the ones who mused about the bullet going ‘just a few inches to the right' after Trump's attempted assassination).

Leveraging insights from political, behavioural and neuro sciences Alison will track the journey of the biology, instincts, emotions and actions to explain how and why a social media feed can trigger the rewiring of a brain to chuckle at, then endorse violence. She'll explain why this creating this climate increases the likelihood that some people will commit violence. And she'll examine what we can do to prevent ourselves sliding into this vice-like grip.

Producer: Giles Edwards.

What causes political violence, and what can we do to prevent it?

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

What is it that drives ordinary people to condone political violence, and some to commit it, and what can we do to prevent it?

[LISTEN NOW]

Its thought over 2000 Brits have fought in the Ukraine war. May of them are seasoned soldiers, veterans of Afghanistan, Syria and Northern Ireland who are just taking on another call of duty. There are others who have never picked up a gun before but gave up their day jobs to join the fight against Russia

Nick Garnett meets the soldiers to find out why they have given up jobs, said a goodbye to families to go and fight for a country they don't belong to.

Nick will find out about the changing face of war in Ukraine how the trained soldiers have encountered a whole new way of combat such as drones

The British soldiers fighting for Ukraine.

Nick Garnett meets the Britons who have been fighting for Ukraine to hear first hand their experiences of how this war is being fought on the ground.

[LISTEN NOW]

A lot has happened since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

The Conservatives have been deposed at Westminster. Labour — the political force that once dominated Scottish politics — is back in power. Reform is eating into both parties' votes.

The SNP has been in government in Scotland for 18 years and is expected to win next year's Holyrood election. But the last decade has been a trying one for the party. How has the last ten impacted the appetite for independence in Scotland?

If at first you don't secede, should you really try, try, try again?

If at first you don't secede, should you really try, try, try again? Journalist Dani Garavelli wants to find out.

[LISTEN NOW]

A lot has happened since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

The Conservatives have been deposed at Westminster. Labour — the political force that once dominated Scottish politics — is back in power. Reform is eating into both parties' votes.

The SNP has been in government in Scotland for 18 years and is expected to win next year's Holyrood election. But the last decade has been a trying one for the party.

How has Scotland's appetite for independence changed over the years? And if nothing's changed significantly in the polls why then is independence central to the SNP's electoral campaign strategy for the 2026 Holyrood election?

If at first you don't secede, should you really try, try, try again?

If at first you don't secede, should you really try, try, try again? Journalist Dani Garavelli wants to find out.

[LISTEN NOW]

Could the solution to Britain's immigration problems lie in the Danish model? A model based on harsh restrictions on who can enter the country and strict rules for immigrants requiring not just integration but assimilation – and all promoted by a centre-left government.

In this documentary BBC Political Correspondent Iain Watson explains why some prominent Labour MPs now think it's the answer they're searching for, and why the Government might soon follow suit.

Travelling to Denmark he discovers what happened when the country introduced its radical new system, what the appeal is for British Labour MPs, and whether their system could work here. He reveals why the Danish model is attracting such interest to manage immigration and for its potential to solve Labour's political problems. But can this Labour government navigate the extremely hazardous path of adopting policies associated with the populist right whilst retaining their own support on the left? Iain Watson reveals how all this may now play out.

Presenter: Iain Watson

Producer: Patrick Cowling

Executive Producer: Jonathan Brunert

The big political gamble if Britain adopts Denmark's radical approach to immigration.

Iain Watson investigates the big political gamble if Britain adopts Denmark's radical approach to immigration. Can a Labour government overcome such a huge political challenge?

[LISTEN NOW]

ARIA is the UK government's bold new bet on science and technology. Its mission? To chase breakthroughs so radical they could spawn trillion-pound industries and reshape everyday life.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency was created to be fast-moving - exempt from the usual public sector bureaucracy. No slow funding rounds. No rigid procurement rules. Just speed, agility, and a mandate to take risks. It's backed by MPs across the political spectrum - but is it a smart use of public money?

The idea came from Dominic Cummings, inspired by America's 'DARPA' - the agency behind the internet, GPS, and personal computing. ARIA launched in 2022 and has already sunk millions into 12 audacious programmes: from designing crops with massively synthetic genomes to building robots on entirely new principles, and developing cutting edge neurotechnologies for psychiatric illness.

Evan Davis goes inside ARIA to meet the people steering this high-stakes experiment and explore the frontier science they've chosen to back. Can ARIA deliver world-changing innovation - or will it prove an expensive gamble?

Presented by Evan Davis

Produced by Ilan Goodman and Sophie Ormiston

Research by Tabitha Taylor Buck

Evan Davis goes inside the UK's ambitious new Advanced Research and Invention Agency.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Evan Davis gets inside access to the UK's ambitious new science and technology innovation agency ARIA.

[LISTEN NOW]

As the UK Treasury grapples with a massive financial ‘black hole', its once impoverished neighbour, the Irish Republic, is grappling with the dilemma of how to spend a bounty of €14bn.

It's a 'pot of gold' which the Irish government didn't expect – and surprisingly didn't want - but was eventually forced to accept by a European Court ruling that the mighty US corporation, Apple, had underpaid taxes on its extensive Irish-based operations. Added to a mighty windfall from other companies, taking advantage of its low corporate tax policies, Ireland is now one of the richest countries in the European Union.

Dublin's River Liffey waterfront, once a depressed, neglected area, has been transformed into 'Silicon Docks', a gleaming hub of high rise offices, housing American tech giants including Google, Meta, Airbnb and Docusign.

While other western economies haved struggled and stagnated Ireland has attracted new, dynamic American firms. It's estimated that 700 multinational tech and pharmaceutical companies have bases across Ireland, employing more than 150,000 people. Politically, the country may be tied to Europe but economically it straddles both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite these riches, Ireland has a severe housing crisis, a crumbling health system, weak transport and energy infrastructures and a myriad of other demands on the public purse. While the politicians argue over how the money should best be spent there are growing concerns that Donald Trump's arrival in The White House, could bring these lucrative tax benefits to an end.

For a country so dependent on global trade and the American multi-nationals in particular, it's a moment of serious economic jeopardy, as the BBC's Ireland correspondent, Chris Page, reports.

Presenter: Chris Page, BBC Ireland Correspondent

Producers: Kathleen Carragher and John Deering

Sound Engineer: Kris McConnachie

Spend now or save - a dilemma for the Irish government, enriched by huge tax revenues.

Financially, Ireland has never it so good, but many of its citizens are asking why the government is failing to tackle a massive housing shortage and the soaring cost of living.

[LISTEN NOW]

Since last September, 68-year-old Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike. Laila is the mother of Alaa Abdel Fattah, a British national imprisoned in Egypt for the best part of 12 years. He is one of Egypt's highest profile pro-democracy political prisoners who was due to have been released in late 2024.

The refusal of the Egyptian authorities to free this peaceful activist triggered Laila's act of maternal determination.

Presented by Michael Segalov

Produced by Michael Segalov and Andrea Rangecroft

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

(photo: Misan Harriman)

A mother goes on hunger strike to protest the continued imprisonment of her son.

A story of maternal determination, as Laila Soueif goes on hunger strike to protest the continued imprisonment of her son, Alaa Abdel Fattah.

[LISTEN NOW]

At the 2024 general election, something remarkable happened: young voters broke away from the political mainstream, but in opposite directions. Young men moved to the right, while young women swung just as strongly (if not, more) to the left.

While the shift among young men dominated headlines and airwaves, sparking endless commentary and think pieces, the shift among young women was largely ignored, reduced to vague notions of idealism or climate anxiety. No analysis. No research funding. No curiosity.

Presented by Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff, Left Out asks what we've missed by overlooking this political awakening and what it reveals about gender, power and a media landscape that still treats young men as serious voters, and young women as a footnote. It explores whether this quiet revolution signals a deeper cultural realignment.

We hear directly from women aged 17-24 about what matters to them, why their political views are shifting, how conversations with their male peers often unfold and what they need to hear and see from politicians.

Backed by the latest polling data, and with insights from academics, MPs and leading pollsters, Left Out investigates how social media is shaping the political consciousness of Britain's youth, as well as the many other forces behind a growing polarisation between genders. It asks what happens when young men and women enter adulthood holding such opposing worldviews - in their careers, relationships and family lives.

And we question how our politics might change if mainstream parties and media organisations fail to respond to this growing chorus of young women who have found their voice - and their power.

A 2 Degrees West Production for BBC Radio 4

A look at the leftwards move of young women and why media and politicians are ignoring it

We ask what's causing young women's dramatic swing to the left and analyse why the media and politicians pay more attention to the story of angry young men shifting to the right

[LISTEN NOW]

New government plans to lower the voting age would see 16 and 17-year-olds given the vote in time for the next General Election.

The measures introduced in a new Elections Bill will be the first big change to the voting age since the age of representation shifted from 21 to 18 under Harold Wilson in 1969.

Having marked that anniversary in 2019, Professor James Tilley of Oxford University revists a challenging question.

Does it actually make more sense for the voting age to head back up to 21?

As most other areas of the law restrict the rights and responsibilities of 16-year-olds, why should voting buck a modern trend - that our rites of passage into adulthood happen increasingly late?

Recorded in 2019 to mark the anniversary of the Wilson changes, Ed Miliband offers his take on why 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote, and there's some voting mythbusting from Professor Phil Cowley, who honestly answers the question as to whether 16-year-olds really dislike him.

Maisie and Lottie, campaigners from York's Youth Council, put forward their views as to why they definitely should be allowed to vote.

Presented by Professor James Tilley

Produced by Kev Core

The voting age is being lowered from 18 to 16. Should it really be heading back up to 21?

16- and 17-year-olds are to be given the vote. Professor James Tilley explores whether it makes as much sense to raise the voting age back up to 21.

[LISTEN NOW]

New data from the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, one of the largest workforce surveys in the world, shows that 1 in 5 minority ethnic staff report facing discrimination from patients or the public, compared with 1 in 20 of their white colleagues. The Royal College of Nursing reports that calls to their advice line about racism at work have increased by 55% in three years. This documentary listens closely to the experiences of nurses, GPs and care workers to try and understand if the current climate is different.

Presenter: Farhana Haider

Producers: Farhana Haider and Emma Close

Editor: Clare Fordham

Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele

Sound mix: James Beard

The health workers facing racist abuse from their patients.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Frontline healthcare workers describe racist abuse from their patients.

Frontline healthcare workers across the UK say racist abuse at work is becoming more frequent and more visible. The Royal College of Nursing reports that calls to their advice line about racism at work have increased by 55% in three years. This documentary listens closely to the experiences of nurses, GPs and care workers to try and understand how current climate is different.

Why is racist abuse towards health workers increasing?

Factual from Radio 4

[LISTEN NOW]

The beautiful. Atlantic island of Madeira has a chronic problem with a cheap synthetic drug imported through the post. Its called Bloom and its so easy to get hold of, so cheap and so addictive that authorities are struggling to cope.

Helen Clifton has spent time with Police and rehab groups to get an idea of how big a problem Bloom now is across Madeiran society. She comes face to face with addicts and dealers

Bloom addicts are in full sight on the streets amongst the locals and tourists

So how can Madeira get a grip on its Bloom problem before it grows out of control?

Presenter/Producer Helen Clifton

Madeira has a chronic drug problem the authorities are struggling to cope with.

The island of Madeira has a chronic problem with a cheap synthetic drug imported through the post and the authorities are struggling to cope

[LISTEN NOW]

The latest figures on NHS finances don't make pretty reading. NHS England alone faces a projected deficit of £6.6 billion for this financial year and the situation looks as bleak right across the NHS in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The NHS has always had to make tough choices about what to prioritise but this deficit is prompting health bosses to make decisions that were previously unthinkable to balance the books.

New research shared exclusively with the BBC by the independent think tank The Kings Fund, surveyed Chief Executive and financial leaders across the NHS in England about the kind of difficult decisions they are having to make because of the huge deficits

But faced with having to make efficiency savings, cutting staff numbers and rolling back on patient services, BBC Health correspondent Dominic Hughes learns how painful these decisions really are, from the people having to make them.

Presenter: Dominic Hughes

Producer: Jay Unger

Editor: Richard McIlroy

Executive Editor: Pete Wilson

Dominic Hughes explores the decisions facing NHS leaders as they try to balance the books.

With the NHS facing extreme financial pressures, BBC Health correspondent Dominic Hughes explores how health leaders are grappling with making hard decisions to balance the books.

Reactive feature from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

[LISTEN NOW]

What do Rachel Reeves, Liz Truss and Donald Trump have in common? They've all felt the powerful bite of the bond market when it kicked back against their economic policy.

Duncan Weldon is an economist and author who's been watching for years as politicians lean on the bond markets to finance their budgets. For most of the 2010s, these markets seemed docile and tame, happy to keep lending governments money at low rates. But since the Covid pandemic, the spell has lifted and reality has returned to financial markets, as lenders demand higher interest rates.

This documentary explores how these bond markets that we've come to rely on actually work, why they bridle at certain demands, and the economic weather that shapes their stance, including the crucial art of writing a budget that won't unnerve investors.

We look back at the infamous Liz Truss mini-budget of 2022, analysing how it shook the bond markets and unwittingly triggered a trip wire that nearly took down the UK pensions system, before turning to Rachel Reeves' struggles with the bond market that forced her to rewrite part of her first budget.

With no sign on the horizon that politicians can do without the bond market, we need to understand how this sometimes impenetrable and opaque entity actually works, its incentives, its fears and its structure. And given that the state of the bond market can force a government to rewrite its financial plans or even bring that government down altogether, many politicians would be well advised to listen.

Guests:

Mohamed El-Erian: former CEO of PIMCO, one of the world's largest bond investors

Rupert Harrison: former Chief of Staff to Chancellor George Osborne

Katie Martin: Markets columnist at the Financial Times

Toby Nangle: former bond investor, now financial commentator and analyst

Gemma Tetlow: Chief Economist at the Institute for Government

Julian Jessop: independent economist and fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs

Presenter: Duncan Weldon

Producer: Nathan Gower

Editor: Richard Vadon

Programme Coordinator: Katie Morrison

Sound Engineer: Gareth Jones

Duncan Weldon explores the political and economic reality of relying on the bond markets.

At a time of global market turmoil, Duncan Weldon explores the political and economic reality of relying on bond markets to make a government's budget add up.

[LISTEN NOW]

The daily realities and private thoughts of a young woman living through war.

Every morning, Hanya Aljamal sees the same man from her balcony. “He has this tiny garden in the middle of all this concrete stuff, ? she says. “Just across the road, there's a blown-up building. Yet he's cultivating these little herbs and plants. And I look at that and it just looks like the purest form of resistance. ?

Hanya has been living in a war zone for 20 months. In daily audio diaries, she describes what she sees and hears from her balcony and in her work for an aid organisation, from drones and kites to funeral marches and sun rises. Her insights and reflections offer a window into life in a place devastated by conflict.

Producer/presenter: Simon Maybin

Editor: China Collins

Sound mix: Eloise Whitmore

Reactive feature from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

[LISTEN NOW]

When a parcel delivery goes awry, Polly Weston does what every angry person in 2025 does... she searches the internet for similarly angry people to bask in the shared experience of being annoyed. Naturally, she finds countless groups on social media devoted to people complaining. There are posts from people furious about the delivery which never turned up at the designated time; or the parcel strewn on a doorstep, or with a photo in a mysterious unknown location; or, most annoying of all, the message to say 'sorry we missed you' when they were absolutely, undeniably, incontrovertibly in the house and poised by the door waiting for the parcel at the time... But hidden in amongst the social media fist waving, she notices surprising posts from another group of people - delivery drivers themselves. On these groups, the delivery drivers explain the reasons why customers have the experiences they do, and the reasons why things go wrong. A single phone call to one delivery driver who she tracks down is more enlightening than any AI customer service chatbot could hope to be, and it sparks weeks of recordings with many people who have worked across all the different courier companies over the past ten years.

As the proposed merger between EVRi and DHL hits the headlines, this is the story of the multi-drop parcel courier industry and its recent history, as told by the drivers.

In 2013, 1.7 billion parcels were processed annually in the UK, in 2023, it was 4 billion, and it's projected to climb to 5.6 billion by 2028. How does an industry deliver that kind of growth? What does it mean for the people doing the work? And how exactly do you deliver to 270 locations in a single shift?

Produced and presented by Polly Weston in Bristol

Editor: Chris Ledgard

The story of the multi-drop parcel courier industry, as told by the drivers themselves.

As the proposed merger between EVRi and DHL hits the headlines, this is the story of the multi-drop parcel courier industry, as told by drivers.

[LISTEN NOW]

The words 'spy ring' conjure up images straight from the enigmatic literary worlds of John le Carre and Graham Greene.

But the recent prosecutions of a group of Bulgarians and the arsonists who set fire to a warehouse containing communications equipment for Ukraine, suggest a new, less glamorous front in the hidden world of espionage.

Necessity is the mother of invention and the expulsion of Russian spies combined with sanctions on the technology of modern warfare have seen a move away from traditional 'foreign agents'.

Communication platforms like Telegram are enabling the remote commissioning of low-level criminality - acts of sabotage and information gathering. Often, these outsourced agents are not even aware of who they're working for.

They are, as the Director General of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum would have it 'Playing Spies' and they are entirely disposable.

Author and journalist Gordon Corera considers this new ecosystem of state interference and the dangerous players who are more Slow Horses than shaken not stirred.

He hears from investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Dominic Murphy, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute Matthew Redhead and Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence at the Department of War Studies at King's College London.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk Tim Passmore gives us his take on fears that Russia's drone war is having a direct impact on farmers in the UK.

Presented by Gordon Corera

Produced by Kev Core

Gordon Corera investigates Russia's new front line of amateur espionage.

Our spy novel image of the enigmatic foreign agent at the hotel bar may need a rethink. Gordon Corera investigates a new amateur front line in the world of espionage.

Gordon Corera investigates the emerging criminal front line of espionage.

[LISTEN NOW]

Britain is turning electric, but the shift to renewable energy will require a major rewire. Business and Economy editor Douglas Fraser follows the journey of power generated on the north coast of Scotland to the socket in your living room, to discover the scale and the challenges of re-hauling the near century-old national grid.

From windfarms in Caithness, pylons in the Highlands and huge undersea cables transporting power from Aberdeenshire to North Yorkshire, Douglas looks at the environmental and financial impact of the planned changes to the country's energy infrastructure. He also asks if Britain can meet a future surge in demand for electricity to power electric cars, heat pumps and AI data centres, while achieving its ambitious net zero targets.

Presenter: Douglas Fraser

Producer: Hayley Jarvis

Executive Producer: Peter McManus

Douglas Fraser explores the scale and the challenges of rewiring Britain's national grid.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

From electricity generated off the north coast of Scotland to the power socket in your living room, Douglas Fraser examines the scale and the challenges of rewiring Britain.

[LISTEN NOW]

Between the 1950s and 1990s the material known as RAAC. 'reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete', was used mostly in flat roofing, but also in floors and walls. It offered a cheaper alternative to standard concrete, but the discovery of its short lifespan has meant serious problems. It made the headlines when it was found in schools and hospitals, but it has been used in housing as well.

A political storm is brewing in Scotland after thousands of homeowners have been told their properties are no longer safe because of RAAC. Some are living on ghost estates under threat of demolition. Others have even been forcibly removed. Local authorities are offering a percentage of the market value before the faults were identified, but homeowners say this will leave them homeless and in debt, paying mortgages on rubble.

Karin Goodwin investigates the human cost of a flawed building material.

Presenter Karin Goodwin

Producers Liza Greig and Halina Rifai

Executive Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

Karin Goodwin investigates RAAC in Scottish housing.

A political storm is brewing in Scotland after thousands of home owners have been told their properties are no longer safe because of RAAC. Karin Goodwin investigates.

[LISTEN NOW]

Russians who sign up to fight in Ukraine earn big money in salaries and bonuses – and the Kremlin is even more generous to families of those killed in battle. Average compensation packages for a dead son or husband are worth about £97,000. In less-wealthy Russian provinces, where most recruits are from, that's enough to turn your life around. Reporter Arsenii Sokolov finds out how the relatives of the tens of thousands of men Russia has lost in the war are spending the money – and asks whether the pay-outs will help create a new “patriotic ? middle class that supports Vladimir Putin.

Besides the cash, there are many privileges offered to soldiers and their families, and to bereaved relatives of the fallen. Their children can go to university whatever their grades. And the Kremlin has started a programme called “Time of Heroes ? that claims it will fast-track selected returning servicemen into elite positions in local politics and business. But can Putin's attempt at social engineering really work? And will “deathonomics ? – as one economist calls it – really boost the economy of the provinces that have suffered most from the huge death toll?

Presenter: Arsenii Sokolov

Producer: Tim Whewell

Sound engineer: Neil Churchill

Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

Editor: Penny Murphy

How huge payouts to soldiers and their families are creating a new middle class in Russia.

Families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are being showered with money by the Kremlin. Can the massive compensation payments create a new 'patriotic' middle class?

[LISTEN NOW]

Nick Eardley explores the Scottish dimension to one of the most contentious issues facing the UK – immigration. With lower birthrates and a population that's aging faster, Scotland desperately needs people to come here and take up jobs in critical sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and hospitality. And now with Reform biting at their heels Labour plan to adopt a much tighter immigration policy. So does this ‘one size fits all' immigration policy risk making Scotland's problems worse?

Nick's investigation probes into another central question: are higher immigration levels something that the average Scot is ready to accept? On the surface, Scotland presents itself as a hospitable, inclusive country, known for its strong values of egalitarianism. It avoided last year's wave of immigration riots which hit parts of England and marred Labour's first few weeks in power but recent protests outside asylum hotels in places like Perth and Falkirk suggest public opinion is shifting.

The recent rise in support for Reform UK reveal a complex picture. While there's much enthusiasm for Scotland from immigrant communities, there are surprising undercurrents of resentment surfacing.

Nick will explore the often contradictory narratives and perspectives surrounding immigration in Scotland. His journey will uncover whether Scotland's reputation for openness aligns with current attitudes, or if this image masks deeper ambivalences - does the old Scottish adage, about inclusivity - “We're all Jock Tamson's bairns, ? still reflect the country today?

Presenter: Nick Eardley

Producer: Peter McManus

Sound: Gav Murchie

Nick Eardley asks if attitudes to migration are shifting in Scotland.

There's a perception that Scotland has a more liberal attituide to immigration, Nick Eardley asks if that's true and whether its beginning to shift.

[LISTEN NOW]

In cities across the country, councils are grappling with unprecedented numbers of people presenting as homeless. In London, mounting pressure on temporary accommodation has led some boroughs to place families far beyond the capital — in some cases more than 250 miles away, in County Durham.

Charlotte McDonald travels to the North East to uncover why these long‑distance relocations are happening, and what impact they are having on the communities receiving them.

She speaks to people about lives uprooted, often with little notice, and explores the realities they face as they try to rebuild their lives in unfamiliar towns and villages.

The picture on the ground is complex. Local services, charities, churches and schools have rallied to support the newcomers, despite already operating in areas marked by deprivation and limited opportunities.

Yet many relocated families encounter fresh challenges: anti‑social behaviour, culture shock, and the struggle to settle into communities facing their own hardships.

County Durham had a Labour council for nearly a century, but it is now controlled by Reform. Many residents feel the area has been overlooked for years: traditional industries have faded, and little new investment has taken their place. Unemployment is high in parts of the county, as well as rates of long-term sick.

With low‑cost housing and pockets of empty properties, the region has become increasingly attractive to councils which are struggling to find accommodation. But is it the right thing for old and new residents?

Presenter: Charlotte McDonald

Producers: Charlotte McDonald and Tom Burgess

Studio manager: James Beard

Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown

Editor: Richard Vadon

What happens when homeless families from London are rehoused in the North East?

In London, mounting housing pressures have led some councils to place homeless families outside the capital — in some cases more than 250 miles away, in County Durham.

[LISTEN NOW]

While browsing online, the journalist and author Sophia Smith Galer was surprised to find a biography of herself on Amazon. She discovered that it was full of inaccuracies - and most likely written using generative AI. It's part of a new phenomenon in publishing and flooding all parts of our information landscape: AI slop, low quality content made quickly using artificial intelligence.

While we might be used to slop on social media, what happens when it infiltrates areas where we expect fact rather than fiction? On her quest to get answers about her biography, Sophia looks at how far AI slop has polluted places we previously thought safe - from investigative journalism to academia - and asks if we can ever escape the onslaught of slop.

Presenter Sophia Smith Galer

Producer Lucy Wai

Sophia Smith Galer investigates an AI-generated biography of herself being sold online.

Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

Sophia Smith Galer examines the impact of AI slop on the information landscape after finding an AI-generated biography of herself on sale on Amazon.

[LISTEN NOW]

Vicky Spratt investigates how people have remained trapped in high interest mortgages since the financial crash of 2008.

These so-called ‘mortgage prisoners' are homeowners who were formerly customers of Northern Rock or Bradford and Bingley, banks which were famously nationalised by the UK Government.

Since then, these customers have not been able to move out of their high interest mortgages and many are now living in poverty, and often suffering from poor mental and physical health.

There are tens of thousands of ‘mortgage prisoners' in the UK, and housing journalist Vicky travels to Hartlepool and Blackpool to speak with two of them. She wants to find out how the issue arose and what the Government can do to help.

Presenter: Vicky Spratt

Producer: Emily Uchida Finch

Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones

Assistant Producer: Sam Stone

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Vicky Spratt investigates the thousands of people trapped in high interest mortgages.

[LISTEN NOW]

The cost of a wholly intact corpse is expensive. As a result, MediTech companies and “body brokerages ? in the US have a complicated and, in some instances, deeply unsettling relationship to the purchasing and selling of them for testing. From chopping bodies up, to illegally trafficking cadavers wholesale without the consent of the host or the family, some of these companies harbour secrets that are just beginning to surface.

Cherise Silvestri navigates a complicated and bloody series of personal accounts - from the hand of a father showing up in the back of a truck to the sale of one woman's daughter. Speaking with marketeers inside the industry and data scientists seeking to put checks on it, what emerges is a complex moral portrait of the costs and advantages to freely selling human beings.

From ballistic sites to incinerators, student seminars to plastic surgeries, the transition from donation to de facto sales sparks huge controversies over how we can make sense of “consent ? in this business. Advocates of the trade often point out the necessity of a ready supply of bodies in scientific research and development. How else, for example, would new doctors be able to train? However, with the lure of high profits and little red tape, the illegal trade grows and spreads. With only seven such companies being accredited, out of the hundreds operating across the USA, the market raises big questions about how we value and treat human beings - not only in life, but in death.

Speaking with industry insiders, scientists and the families affected by the global trade, this documentary addresses the impact on how we think about the economic, medical and fundamentally moral issues surrounding human life.

A 2 Degrees West production for BBC Radio 4

How an unregulated US market is changing our relationship to death, dying and the dead.

How can we make sense of a society where human beings are cut up and sold? Conversations with body brokers, scientists and affected families shed light on this murky industry.

[LISTEN NOW]

California is one of ten US states where assisted dying is lawful and in some respects it's a model for how the practice might work in Britain.

Introduced in 2016, it's available to those who are terminally ill and are expected to die within six months. Patients must self administer the lethal medication - the same as what's proposed in England and Wales.

BBC Medical editor Fergus Walsh travels to San Diego to meet 80 year old Wayne who's planning to end his life. He's terminally ill with heart failure and in excruciating pain from a severely damaged spine.

“I just don't see any merit to dying slow and painfully and hooked up with intubation and feeding tubes. I want none of it, ? he said.

The programme hears from doctors and patients on both sides of the argument. Opponents warn assisted dying is putting the vulnerable at risk such as people with disabilities or mental illness.

Michelle Carter is 72 and has advanced cancer. She believes people should have a choice but has completely ruled out having an assisted death

“Suicide dying is not for me..I choose palliative care. I have God and I have good medicine, ? she said.

There are important differences between the law in California and what is proposed here. Patients can get access to lethal medication in 48 hours in California. If assisted dying is legalised in England and Wales, it will take about a month for terminally ill patients to be approved.

Across California, around 1 in every 300 deaths is now medically aided.

But in Canada assisted dying accounts for around 1 in 20 deaths - that's 15 times the rate in California - and one of the highest in the world.

The law was introduced in 2016 - the same as California - and is open to those with an incurable medical condition which causes intolerable suffering. Initially it was just for the terminally ill, but that requirement has been dropped.

In Canada, nearly all medically assisted deaths are carried out by doctors who inject the lethal dose. Fergus meets one doctor who has helped hundreds of people to die. She says she sees it as a “ sacred duty. ?

But another tells him that Canada has “fallen off a cliff ? when it comes to assisted dying and that it is being used as an alternative to social or medical support.

Finally Fergus returns to California to witness Wayne end his life surrounded by his wife and children.

“I'm all in. I've never had any question about it, ? Wayne tells him

Reporter: Fergus Walsh

Producers: Paul Grant and Camilla Horrox

Technical Producer: David Crackles

Production Management Assistant: Katie Morrison

Editor: Clare Fordham

Fergus Walsh goes to Canada and California to see two different models for assisted dying.

BBC Medical editor Fergus Walsh travels to Canada and California to see two different models for assisted dying in practice.

[LISTEN NOW]

Curtis Yarvin is suddenly all over American media. A computer engineer turned political blogger, he's known for writing long screeds that advocate for a radical reform of governance - dismissing liberal democratic values and instead calling for the return of absolute monarchies.

For years, these ideas were buried in the blogosphere, but they began to gain traction after Donald Trump was first elected to the White House. But with President Trump back in the oval office, some observers think this once-niche school of thought is what's spurring some of the controversial policies currently causing outrage in America - from Elon Musk's DOGE to attacks on elite institutions like Harvard University to the widespread dismantling of DEI programmes.

How did Yarvin's ideas become so influential - and how important is he, really?

Presenter: Mike Wendling

Producer: Lucy Proctor

Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Mix: James Beard

Is a radical political philosophy guiding the actions of the Trump administration?

A radical political philosophy founded by a software engineer called Curtis Yarvin is gaining in influence, and said to be shaping Donald Trump's second term in the White House.

[LISTEN NOW]

In the years since Brexit, British businesses have had to constantly adapt to ever changing rules and regulations about trading with the EU. The current government is making moves to make some of that process easier.

To find out more about the consequences of (almost) a decade of Brexit, we catch up with three very different businesses to find out if they've been thriving, surviving, or downsizing.

Presenter: Adam Fleming

Producer Ivana Davidovic

Editor: Max Deveson

Sound editor: Sarah Hockley

Nine years since Brexit: what's it like to trade with the EU?

To find out more about the consequences of nine years of Brexit, we catch up with three very different businesses to find out if they've been thriving, surviving or downsizing.

Reactive feature from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

[LISTEN NOW]

Charlotte Smith on the current reform of agricultural policy and spending across the UK.

[LISTEN NOW]

Thousands of female council workers across Britain have lost out on pay and benefits worth billions because of unequal pay over decades. Now claims for compensation and demands to reform pay and grading threaten to capsize council finances, upset male council workers and cause massive cuts to local services.

Anushka Asthana investigates why such pay discrimination is still happening despite being illegal for the last fifty years. And she discovers what the price of equality might actually be, for the women seeking it and the millions of us living in places where our local council has ignored the problem for years.

Presenter: Anushka Asthana

Producers: Jonathan Brunert and Leela Padmanabhan

Anushka Asthana investigates why illegal pay discrimination is still happening in Britain.

Anushka Asthana investigates pay discrimination in Britain, more than 50 years after it was outlawed, and hears how it now threatens public services across the country.

[LISTEN NOW]

Buy a pack of beef in the supermarket and you'll find it's increased in price by 52% in five years. Try and trade down to some chicken and you'll find it's nearly doubled in just two years. Make a product unaffordable- whether that's cigarettes, brandy or steak- and you inevitably open up the door to smugglers. Evidence isn't hard to find with Dover Port Authority offering up just one snapshot. In September 2025 they seized 20 tonnes of illegal meat, compared with just 1.3 tonnes in September 2022. Extrapolate the numbers with unchecked cargoes and the UK's other ports and it's clear that hundreds of tonnes of illegal meat are reaching our shores every month.

This isn't just a tax issue with cheeky smugglers making a few quid as they sell a roasting joint in a local pub. It's a major risk to the UK economy. Some of the meat is coming from areas suffering from African Swine Fever or Foot and Mouth disease. There's no way that this meat could enter Britain legally because of the fear of these diseases reaching the UK. The last major Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in the UK in 2001 led to the slaughter of 6 million cattle and sheep and nauseating pyres of animals burning beside the M6.

Charlotte Smith travels to Romania to trace some of the many routes that meat can take to enter the UK and talks to customs and food standards officials in search of a solution to this significant risk to public health and to the UK's food and farming economy.

Producer: Beatrice Fenton

High meat prices have led to a boom in meat smuggling - a major risk to public health.

High meat prices have led to a boom in meat smuggling. Charlotte Smith investigates the routes that illegal meat takes into the UK and the risks to public health and the economy.

[LISTEN NOW]

David Baker's Jewish identity and faith have always been central to who he is - and so is his affiliation with Israel. But he has been re-evaluating that relationship since Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza.

For many decades after the founding of Israel, most British Jews were unequivocal in their support. And that is still the case for many Jews in Britain. But there is evidence that those ties are weakening for a younger generation and some older Jews, too, are criticising the actions of Israel's current right-wing government and the devastation of Gaza.

In a search for answers, David talks to other British Jews who are responding in different ways. Some are taking political action, some are deepening their bonds with Israel and others are re-examining their connection with the Jewish state.

Presenter: David Baker

Producer: Jo Glanville

Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4

A Jewish journalist explores his community's relationship with Israel.

A personal journey investigating the impact of events since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza on the British-Jewish community's connection with Israel.

David Baker's Jewish identity and faith have always been central to who he is - and so is his affiliation with Israel. But he has been re-evaluating that relationship since Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ongoing war in Gaza.

For many decades after the founding of Israel, most British Jews were unequivocal in their support. And that is still the case for many Jews in Britain. But there is evidence that those ties are weakening for a younger generation and some older Jews, too, are criticising the actions of Israel's current right-wing government and the continuing devastation of Gaza.

In a search for answers, David talks to other British Jews who are responding in different ways to what is, for many, a crisis. Some are taking political action, some are deepening their bonds with Israel and others are re-examining their connection with the Jewish state.

[LISTEN NOW]

Reactive feature from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines.

On a cold night in January 2024 a dog walker finds a baby in a bag - a foundling. She's named Elsa, after the Frozen character.

Reporter Sanchia Berg begins to follow the case, gaining rare access to the Family Court and to the police investigation. DNA tests reveal Elsa is the sibling of two other babies found abandoned in the same area over recent years. What has happened to the mother?

Produced by Lucy Proctor

Mixed by James Beard

Edited by Matt Willis

The search for the parents of three babies abandoned in shopping bags in East London.

Three babies abandoned in shopping bags in East London over seven years. Sanchia Berg investigates.

[LISTEN NOW]

The backstory to Donald Trump's attempt to take over Greenland.

[LISTEN NOW]

Why does President Trump really want to takeover Greenland?

The Arctic territory is rich in vital minerals and oil, and it hosts an important American military base as the race for dominance in the wider Arctic heats up between China, Russia and the USA.

While the issue has become suddenly urgent, it's a proposal that has been years in the making - and drill down beneath Trump's recent stated reason of 'security' and the reasons why he wants it as the 51st state are less clear.

A financier-turned-MAGA operative, the small print of the right-wing wish list Project 2025, and a penchant for big places on maps might better explain the recent diplomatic crisis, as the Make America Great Again project evolves into an idea to Make America Bigger.

The Coming Storm's Lucy Proctor delves into the backstory to Trump's insistence on acquiring Greenland.

Produced and presented by Lucy Proctor

Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Sound engineer: Andy Fell

The backstory to Donald Trump's desire to take over Greenland.

Donald Trump's desire to acquire Greenland has become suddenly urgent - but the plan has been years in the making. Lucy Proctor reports.

[LISTEN NOW]

In early June this year Nigel Farage held a press conference in the South Wales steel town of Port Talbot. He announced Reform UK's commitment to the re-industrialisation of Wales, including the re-opening of Port Talbot's blast furnaces and a return to coal mining in the South Wales Valleys.

His controversial announcement was the opening shot in Reform UK's campaign for the Welsh Senedd elections in May next year. Those elections could be a watershed moment for British politics. In a startling and far-reaching “perfect storm ? of circumstances, Reform UK may become the largest party in Wales and could even, conceivably, end up forming the government.

Whatever the outcome, a substantial Reform presence in the Senedd would be a major step forward for a party which didn't even exist just a few years ago. It could also be a significant indication of what could happen across the UK as we look ahead to the next general election in 2029.

Political journalist Will Hayward has been watching and reporting on Reform's rise in Wales. Now he explores how Wales could become the setting for their biggest breakthrough yet.

Current polls show Reform neck-and-neck with the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru and the Labour party currently in a distant third place. This is potentially a seismic shift in Welsh politics. Labour have dominated Wales not just in the last 26 years since devolution began, but for over a century. From the general election of 1922 onwards, Wales has always returned a majority of Labour MPs, making it the most successful democratic party in history. Yet this run of success could be about to come to a crashing halt.

To understand how next year's elections might play out, Will speaks to politicians from across the spectrum in Wales, including current and former Welsh party leaders, and to Reform's man in Wales, Llŷr Powell. Will explores Reform's ambitions and policies for Wales; he considers whether this is really a right-turn politically for a nation that's famously left-leaning; and he asks what a Reform victory in the Senedd elections could mean for the rest of the UK.

Presenter: Will Hayward

Producer: Jeremy Grange

Executive Producer: Michael Surcombe

An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4

Photo credit: Rob Norman

Will Hayward asks if Wales could become the setting for Reform's biggest breakthrough yet.

Polling suggests that Reform could become the largest party in the 2026 Welsh Senedd elections. Journalist Will Hayward considers a potential watershed moment in British politics.

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What is going on with US science? Science Journalist Roland Pease asks whether the rounds of cuts, reorganisations and political strong-arming can be weathered, and how they will likely affect us all.

80 years after Vannevar Bush proposed what became the pact between government and universities that led to decades of global scientific dominance, is the edifice being toppled?

Bush's report “Science, The Endless Frontier ? led to the unwritten pact between university scientists and government funding that underpinned US leadership until now. “Trust us with the money, we'll give you the global scientific advantage ?.

Today, US scientists fear the Trump administration is ripping up that agreement. Mandating what and what can't be studied, who can study it, and re-defining expertise, government funded science in the US is being withered. The specialist agencies are either being closed down or defunded to the extent that many tens of thousands of government scientists are already unemployed. Multi-year experiments are being closed down uncompleted. Top universities are besieged by mandates on who and how they hire, tied to their future funding. Data streams that benefit researchers around the globe are being switched off. Even definitions of what counts as evidence are being re-drafted.

Science is a complex, interwoven and international activity. The administration's declared aim is 'Restoring Gold Standard Science', but scientific bodies fear its actions will cede global leadership to China, and that the whole world may be poorer.

Can the coming storm be weathered, even if we can no longer predict it?

Produced by Alex Mansfield

Written and Presented by Roland Pease

Roland Pease looks at how breaking an 80-year-old deal in US science may affect us all.

Roland Pease asks how the cuts and political strong-arming in US science will affect us all, and how contemporary events sit alongside a landmark vision of 80 years ago.

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