The Story

As the eyes of British news crews are trained on migrants crossing the Channel in boats, Lampedusa on Europe’s southern border is seeing far greater numbers of migrants coming from a new country of origin: Tunisia. What brings these families to Italy? Guest: Tom Kington, the Times Italy correspondent. Host: David Aaronovitch. Clips used: Euronews, Tele Studio 98, TRIS, La Republica, BBC News, Home...

An MP has been accused of rape - and questions are again being asked about the role of whips in protecting parliamentary staff. Historically, the whips have a reputation as the shadowy brokers of backroom deals and the keepers of secrets. But is the notorious office where the real power in Westminster truly lies? Guests Esther Webber, Red Box reporter. Anne Milton, former MP and deputy chief whip....

The NRA is one of America's most powerful lobby groups. Now it has become the target of a lawsuit brought by New York's attorney-general. The organisation stands accused of "years of self-dealing and illegal conduct" by its top executives. The lawsuit could spell the end of the NRA, but could it change minds about the role of guns in American society?   Guests:  Henry...

It's official: the UK economy is back in recession. This week we've heard of record-high job losses and a sharp economic downturn - but the worst could still be to come. Guest: Gurpreet Narwan, economics correspondent, The Times.   Host: Manveen Rana.   Clips: BBC, ITV, Sky News. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Trump has ordered firms to stop doing business with social media giant TikTok over security concerns. Microsoft was the front-runner to buy the company, but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor. What has made the app so popular and so controversial? Guests:  Danny Fortson Sunday Times west coast correspondent. Host: Manveen Rana. Clips used: NBC, Tik Tok, ABC Australian, Bit...

In one heart-stopping moment last Tuesday, Beirut, a city that’s seen its share of wars, was rocked by the biggest blast in its history. Now that international donors have pledged a quarter of a billion euros in aid for Lebanon, can the country begin to rebuild? Guest  Richard Spencer, the Middle East correspondent for The Times. Ghadi Sary, Middle East consultant and journalist.  Meliss...

At the eastern end of the Sunset Strip is a hotel called Chateau Marmont. For many years it's been the favourite hang-out spot of movie stars and writers; but now the Chateau’s owner has announced the hotel is about to become a private members club. What does the change mean for the future of the iconic venue? Guests: Shawn Levy, author of The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, an...

75 years ago this week, a devastating atomic bomb changed world history. What can we learn from these events?  Guest: Koko Kondo, Hiroshima bomb survivor and peace campaigner. Host: Manveen Rana.  Clips used: NBC, Imperial War Museum, US Army. You can hear more first-hand memories of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the Second World War...

Stories about the persecution of China’s Muslim Uighur minority have been in the news in recent weeks. We hear the story of one man living in Turkey: Abdurehim Parac, a Uighur poet in exile. Guests:  Hannah Lucinda Smith, Times Istanbul correspondent. Host: Manveen Rana.  Clips used: France 24, Sky News Australia, BBC, Channel 4 News, South China Morning Post, Al, Jazeera, PBS, CNBC...

A High Court case been brought by a young man whose family were shot dead by a rogue SAS unit in Afghanistan. The trial has led to the release of documents which suggest a horrifying pattern of night-raid killings, cover-ups and ‘collective amnesia’ by soldiers in a crack army special forces unit. Guests: Jonathan Calvert, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times. George Arbuthnott, Deputy Insight Editor,...

Why did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex really quit royal life? A new book purports to take readers into their inner sanctum.  Guests: Valentine Low, Times Royal correspondent.  Andrew Billen, Features writer. Host: Manveen Rana. Clips used: CNBC, ABC, NBC, Euronews, ITV. Additional music: Meydan (licensed under Creative Commons). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Wiley - rapper, producer and godfather of grime - has been dropped by his management following an antisemitic Twitter tirade. In the wider conversation that followed, were Black British Jews left out?   Guests: Nadine Batchelor-Hunt, journalist and podcaster.  Will Hodgkinson, chief rock and pop critic for The Times.   Host: Manveen Rana. Clips used: Sky News int...

13 year old Christopher Kapessa died in July last year after he was pushed from a bridge over the Cynon river in Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. The Crown Prosecution Service concluded that it was a “foolish prank”. Did racism play a role in his death and the subsequent police investigation? Guests:  Alina Joseph, mother of Christopher Kapessa. Hilary Brown, lawyer for Alina Joseph. Sure...

How do you pick a potential vice president of the USA? With less than a hundred days to go until the American elections, the Democrats still have one major decision to make: Joe Biden’s running mate. Stories of our Times presenter Manveen Rana speaks to The Times' US Editor David Charter about who might get the nod and what their choice might say about Biden's campaign. Guests:  David Charter...

At the start of the pandemic, two million of the most vulnerable people in England were told to 'shield' in order to remain safe. This week, the national shielding programme is being put on pause. With hundreds of new coronavirus cases being reported every day, is it too soon? And what will happen to the people most at risk? Guests:  Sean O'Neill, chief reporter, The Times Charlotte Augst, ch...

On today's programme we take a break from the news. Anthony Loyd is The Times' foreign correspondent, and one of the most experienced and respected war reporters of his generation. When he goes off to war zones he always takes one essential tool: his fishing rod. Guest:  Anthony Loyd Host:  David Aaronovitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While Westminster deals with the fallout from one Russian affair, today’s Stories of our Times podcast is about the couple who blew the whistle on Russia’s state sponsored doping operation in sport. The Sunday Times’ chief sports writer David Walsh told their story to Manveen Rana. Guests:  David Walsh, Sunday Times chief sports writer and Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov, Russian whistle blowing c...

China has cracked down in Hong Kong, Britain has banned the Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G network, and there’s growing disquiet about human rights abuses against China’s Uighur minority. Are we heading for a cold war with China? Guest:  Lucy Fisher, Defense Editor for The Times Host:  David Aaronovitch Clips: BBC, Talkradio, UK parliament. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

Over the last fortnight, Scotland has recorded many fewer deaths from Covid-19 compared to the UK as a whole. Does Scotland have a strategy the rest of Britain can learn from? Guests:  Mark McLaughlin, Politics and Education Correspondent, The Times in Scotland Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh Host:  Manveen Rana Clips: BBC, Scottish Governme...

A spate of high profile burglaries in expensive neighbourhoods and a mountain of stolen goods lead investigators to discover hundreds of burglars, all on holiday in the UK to commit their crimes. The Times’ crime correspondent explains how these individuals operate and the Sunday Times’ Matthew Campbell tells of his trip to Chile to track down the families of those convicted in the UK. ...

David Grossman is one of America's most prolific and controversial police trainers. His courses on 'kill-ology' put violence and the act of killing at the heart of law enforcement. In the aftermath of Black Lives Matter, Grossman's methods have come under question.  Host: David Aaronovitch Guest: Laura Pullman Clips: ABC, CBS, Warner Bros., Cannon Air Force Base Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Dominic Cummings has promised that a ‘hard rain’ will fall on the civil service. And last month Sir Mark Sedwill, Britain’s most senior civil servant, stood down. Has the pandemic created a moment for Dom to reinvent the heart of British government?   Guest: Oliver Wright, Policy Editor of The Times   Host: David Aaronovitch Clips: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News, CNN, ABC, IPPR, The Ditch...

At the height of the Cold War, East Germany operated an elite secret academy designed to train secret police agents in tradecraft and tactics for psychological manipulation. Now, a trove of previously classified recordings that reveal the inner workings of that Stasi training school have been published.  Guests: Oliver Moody, Berlin Correspondent for the Times. Roger Boyes, Diplomatic Editor...

Groomsman, Michael Curran, was acclaimed for his dedicated work with top horses but went into a spiral of decline that ended in his tragic suicide. What leads someone who reaches the top of their profession to take their own life? Samaritans: 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org. Guest: David Walsh, Chief Sports Writer. Host: David Aaronovitch. Additional music: Scott Holmes, Komiku, Kai Engel and Jordan...

Sir Keir Starmer has been Labour leader for 100 days, during which he’s had to deal with his own party’s issues as well as offer a response to the government’s handling of the pandemic. Guest:  Gabriel Pogrund, Sunday Times politics and investigations reporter. Host: Manveen Rana.  Clips used: BBC, LBC, Channel 4 News, Novara Media, Sky News. Additional music: Komiku (licensed under...