The Global Story

**Warning: this episode includes discussions of sexual abuse, suicide and upsetting scenes**In just the last few years, AI chatbots have become routine aspects of many people’s everyday lives. They are being used as search engines, agony aunts, and sources of companionship. In rare cases though, AI chatbots have sent users down a dark path. In a new BBC investigation, population correspondent Step...

It’s been a year since billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk left his informal position in President Trump’s White House in May 2025. But behind the scenes, Musk has been busy. Musk has spent the last few weeks in a California courtroom, where he is suing his former business partner, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In January, Musk applied for permission with the US government to launch a million satelli...

Iranians living in Tehran tell us what they think of the war and reveal how the conflict has affected their day to day lives.   In recent days, attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz has raised fears that an already fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran could collapse.   Donald Trump's "Project Freedom", which began on Monday, aims to use the US military to escort cargo ships out of Strait o...

When Donald Trump began his second term in the White House, many European leaders chose to pursue flattery instead of a fight. Most sought to avoid public confrontation even as Trump instituted tariffs, spoke of annexing Greenland, and went to war with Iran. But lately more European leaders across the political spectrum - from longtime allies to ideological opponents - are willing to openly contra...

In recent months, the Russian government has been restricting access to messaging apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, and at points, even shutting down internet access completely. Russian officials insist that curbs on communication are in the interests of public safety. They claim that mobile internet blackouts disorient Ukrainian attack drones, although such attacks have continued eve...

Since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, there has been an ongoing debate over the role played by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in convincing Donald Trump to go to war. But when it comes to ceasefire announcements, it has been the US President taking the lead - if the Israelis are present at all. So when it comes to ending the wars in Iran and Lebanon, are the Americans leavin...

For the first time in history a country has apparently won a battle using only robots, without a soldier on the ground put at risk. Ukraine claims to have recently taken over a Russian position – forcing Russian soldiers to surrender – using robotic systems alone. President Zelensky has been asking the world for help to fight Russia since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. But in the years sin...

When President Trump talks about his attempts to reach an agreement with Iran, he often mentions a previous deal: the 2015 JCPOA. Trump pulled America out of the Obama-era accord during his first term and has called it, "the worst deal in history". His own deal, he says, "will be FAR BETTER". Asma speaks to Ambassador Wendy Sherman, the lead US negotiator on the JCPOA, to get the inside story on h...

As the US-Israel war with Iran reaches a diplomatic stalemate - one idea seems to be taking hold: that China is the real winner. Some have argued that the US’s biggest rival is quietly boosting its international standing, leverage and reputation as a reliable partner. Yet beneath the surface the economic situation in China looks far less triumphant. We speak to the BBC China Correspondent Laura Bi...

King Charles is visiting America at a tense moment for the ’special relationship' between the United States and the United Kingdom. Can he help turn things around? In a special live recording at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in London, Asma and Tristan speak to the former British ambassador to the United States, Lord Kim Darroch. Recorded on Saturday 25 April as part of Castfest, a one-day celebrat...

Donald Trump has promised to release government files on UFOs and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, telling a crowd at Turning Point USA this month, “ we found many very interesting documents”. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance has said he is “obsessed” with the search for aliens, which he believes are demons, rather than innocuous little green men. Their comments follow a slew of congressional hear...

Why were scheduled talks between the US and Iran suddenly cancelled? On Tuesday, as US vice president JD Vance was due to be flying to Pakistan for mediated talks on ending the war in Iran, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was extending the ceasefire agreement, but that the US will continue to block Iranian ports. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane through whic...

Warning: this episode includes discussions of child sexual abuse and upsetting scenes. The BBC has been following a global team of undercover officers as they investigate the most hidden corners of the internet to stop those who exploit and harm children. A dedicated network of specialist investigators has successfully tracked and caught serial paedophiles who operate across the dark web with the...

For decades, Pakistan sat on the margins of global diplomacy. But now it’s due to be the unlikely venue for another round of peace talks between the US and Iran. We speak to the BBC’s Pakistan correspondent, Carrie Davies, to ask how the country became a trusted intermediary between the parties in this conflict, and whether it can use this moment to increase its influence on the world stage. Produ...

When the ceasefire deal was announced more than six months ago, there was celebration and relief in Gaza and Israel. But since the US-led Board of Peace announced plans to rebuild Gaza, the Trump administration’s attention has been occupied by other matters. The success of the ceasefire deal hinges on Hamas disarmament and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. So what progress has been made? We s...

In 2024, reports emerged of a highly sophisticated cyber espionage campaign against US telecoms companies, which some analysts believe went all the way up to the Chinese government. The group behind this campaign would later be codenamed Salt Typhoon, and it is believed to have quietly infiltrated critical US telecoms infrastructure in order to collect private information on influential Americans...

Anthropic - one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI firms - recently announced that they have built a model which is too dangerous to be released to the public. Instead, they are only giving access to the model to a handful of big companies, to help them find security vulnerabilities. The company says the model has already found weak spots in “every major operating system and web browser”. Is this a ge...

Pope Leo XIV has said he has “no fear of the Trump administration”, after his criticism of the Iran war drew scorn from President Donald Trump. On Sunday, the US President called the Pope “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy”, and posted a now-deleted AI image of himself depicted as a Christ-like figure. The posts caused outrage among Catholics and the religious right, but he has said he...

The United States began implementing a blockade of all ships entering and exiting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. President Trump took to social media and warned that any Iranian ships trying to approach the blockade would be “immediately ELIMINATED.” The blockade and escalating threats come after weeks of Iran being in control of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. And ove...

The Artemis II crew are back on solid ground having travelled further from earth than any human has before. The mission was an undoubted success. But aside from getting some stunning photos of the moon’s surface and the tiny blue dot we call home, what did we actually learn? And was it just a big PR exercise? BBC science correspondent Georgina Rannard joins us to discuss the point of the mission a...

In this episode of the BBC Radio 4 series, Archive on 4, our very own Tristan Redman tells the story of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise and fall. The former French President was jailed last year for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He’s currently appealing his sentence. And he has some powerful supporters. Using...

One condition of the US and Israel’s two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran is that ships must be able to safely use the Strait of Hormuz, the route through which approximately 20% of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas supplies travel. In theory, the deal should cut the prices of fuel worldwide, as well as allowing essential supplies of fertiliser, helium and other goods to reach businesses...

Kanye West’s history of antisemitic behaviour caught up with him this week. The UK banned him from visiting; preventing his recently-announced performance at the Wireless festival later this summer. His appearances in the UK are part of his ‘comeback’ tour for his new album, with performances scheduled in multiple countries this year. Kanye has apologised for his actions, which include releasing a...

Iran and the US have agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire. Donald Trump says the US has “met and exceeded all military objectives”, while Iran says the ceasefire is a “humiliating retreat” for Washington. So what has actually been agreed, and is this ceasefire likely to pave the way for an ending to the war? We speak to Jane Corbin from the BBC’s Panorama, who has reported from the world's m...

A BBC investigation has heard from hundreds of people who say they developed sex and gambling addictions after taking a category of prescription drugs called dopamine agonists. Millions of people in the US and around the world have been prescribed these medications, which are used to treat various illnesses, from Parkinson’s to depression. But they have well-established side effects: around 1 in 6...