Next week, Iranians go to the polls to elect a new parliament. This time around there will be fewer choices on the ballot, after a number of ‘reformist’ politicians were purged from the list of candidates allowed to stand. Popular anger over the country’s dire economy has been spilling onto the streets, with some criticising Iran’s ruling elite, while others blame the United States for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and introducing fresh sanctions. But just who is in charge in Tehran? If...
Feb 14, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In August 1974, the 37th President of the United States - Richard Nixon - resigned after being told by members of his own Republican party that they could no longer support him. Evidence brought during the process to impeach and remove him had implicated the White House in an attempt to sabotage President Nixon's Democratic rivals. The allegations against President Nixon were similar in nature to those levelled at the 45th President Donald Trump. But this week, Mr Trump was acquitted of the two ...
Feb 07, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the clock strikes 23:00 GMT on Friday, Britain will be out of the European Union. It marks the end of a bitter chapter in the country’s history – and the start of new one. The Brexit referendum of 2016 and its aftermath has dominated UK politics for the past three and a half years. The debates were fierce and the atmosphere acrimonious. Only late last year did the picture stabilise with the election of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his large Conservative majority – on the campaign promise ...
Jan 31, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast A mysterious new virus has emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan and is rapidly being identified in patients across the globe. Signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Hundreds have been infected and some deaths have already been reported. This isn’t the first potentially deadly virus to emerge from China. In 2002/3, the Sars virus killed nearly 800 people globally and belonged to the same family of virus as the current outbr...
Jan 24, 2020•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many of the world's rich and powerful will gather at the Swiss resort of Davos next week to discuss the future of the world, including how to make it a more equitable place. According to most estimates, the richest one percent of the world's population owns more than half of its wealth. Overall, the rich have spent billions in projects ranging from healthcare, education and humanitarian assistance to scientific research and good governance. But critics say that in the United States, only a fifth...
Jan 17, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The state of affordable housing in major cities around the world is an issue of increasing concern to politicians - and of course to the growing population of large cities. Next month, the UN's World Urban Forum will discuss rapid urbanisation and the pressures it brings on cities’ infrastructure and housing. In Germany, Berlin is the first city in German history to impose rent controls. In London, an inquiry into the disastrous fire in an inner city high rise block has highlighted the quality a...
Jan 10, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 2019 has been a year of youth activism. From the Swedish climate change protester Greta Thunberg to Hong Kong’s democracy activist Joshua Wong, young people have been making headlines. Millions of school children and college students all over the world marched for a range of causes, whether it was fighting climate change, supporting girls’ education in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, or ending police brutality in the US. Politicians are being forced to pay attention and address previously igno...
Dec 19, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Prime Minister's core message during the campaign was simple: "Get Brexit done." It worked, with the Conservative Party enjoying its widest margin of victory since its win under Margaret Thatcher in 1987. The United Kingdom now appears set to leave the European Union by the end of January. The opposition Labour Party, meanwhile, had a historically poor showing in the polls, while nationalist parties made gains in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Dan Damon and a panel of expert guests discuss t...
Dec 13, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The world’s rich linguistic tapestry is unravelling. Around a third of the world’s languages now have fewer than a thousand speakers left. The UN says more needs to be done and, to raise awareness, it declared 2019 the year of indigenous languages. The numbers of languages heading for extinction number in the thousands and are spoken by small tribes and ethnic groups scattered around the world. In September this year in Russia, a retired professor set himself on fire in protest against the disap...
Dec 06, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Iraq has been gripped by mass public protests for weeks. Thousands of people have been taking to the streets in cities like Baghdad, Basra and Karbala to demand an end to corruption and unemployment, and an improvement in public services. The government has responded with force. More than three hundred people have died during the protests. Iraq is the second biggest oil exporter in the Middle East and yet according to the World Bank, over twenty percent of its citizen lives in poverty; and accor...
Nov 29, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Algorithms have become a ubiquitous part of modern lives. They suggest films on streaming services, vet loans for approval, shortlist job candidates, even help decide prison sentences and medical care. But there are questions over the way they are applied. The banking giant Goldman Sachs faced criticism after it was alleged that an algorithm used to determine people's credit score was sexist because it gave women a lower credit limit to men. An algorithm used to allocate health care in the Unite...
Nov 22, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The state owned Saudi oil company, Aramco, is considered to be the most profitable business in the world. In the coming weeks it plans to raise billions by selling shares publicly for the first time. Despite the proliferation of green technologies and a rise in environmentalist movements which are calling for an end to fossil fuel dependency, the International Energy Agency believes that global consumption of oil will continue to grow for another twenty years. Analysts say this is mainly due to ...
Nov 15, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast At one point this week air pollution in Delhi was so high that monitors could not record the toxicity because it was off the scale. Schools were closed, vehicles restricted, and people were advised to stay indoors. But the situation in Delhi is not the full picture. Fifteen of the world's twenty most polluted cities are in India. And air pollution is just one of several severe environmental challenges in the country. Fast paced industrialisation, poor waste management and badly managed mining pr...
Nov 08, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A law is coming into effect in Russia that will redefine the way internet is governed in the country. Russia says the law will allow internet providers to filter content to ‘protect’ its citizens. It wants Russian data to remain within its border and prevent outside forces from disrupting its internal internet infrastructure. Critics say, the law virtually allows the government to disconnect from the outside world and impose total control over the flow of information. They say it will stifle dis...
Nov 01, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week millions of people were out on the streets of Lebanon demanding change. A lack of jobs, crumbling public services, rising living costs and rampant inequality had brought out people from all sections of the society. The proposed budget with more taxes, including one on WhatsApp, is seen as the straw that broke the camel’s back. Since the end of a fifteen year long civil war, Lebanon has relied on a unique set of arrangements to maintain peace and a balance of power among its various sec...
Oct 25, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Canada is a vast country with rich natural resources. For decades it has relied on global trade and a stable international order to prosper. As Canada heads to polls on the 21st of October, it finds itself with challenges at home and abroad that could bring significant changes to the idea of what Canada is. Its more powerful and influential neighbour to the south, the United States, is in turmoil with divisive politics and unpredictable changes to its foreign policy. Relations with Canada’s seco...
Oct 18, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following a late evening phone conversation with the president of Turkey, President Trump approved the Turkish decision to send troops in parts of Syria that are now controlled by American backed Kurdish forces. He said that it is time for the US troops to be pulled out. The announcement caught America’s allies by surprise, and the president’s supporters off guard. The move is seen as a major shift in the US policy which, critics say, will embolden Iran and Russia and might even help the Islamic...
Oct 11, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the United States, the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump - only the fourth president to face such an investigation - has become the most talked about issue in Washington. At the centre of it is a phone conversation in which president Trump allegedly solicited the help of the Ukrainian president to undermine a political rival. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the Democratic Party controlled lower house of Congress, says that it had to initiate the impeachment investigation because it could ...
Oct 04, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week China marks the 70th anniversary of its founding. The great fanfare playing out across the country could be overshadowed by events in the southern territory of Hong Kong, which is part of China but maintains separate judicial and economic freedoms. For months, people there have been taking to the streets every weekend to rally against a controversial extradition bill. These protests have turned into a movement calling for full democracy, and an investigation into allegations of police ...
Sep 27, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In October thousands of delegates are expected to arrive in the Russian resort of Sochi for an extraordinary gathering. It will be the first ever conference between Russia and the countries of Africa. President Putin is due to hold meetings with African heads of state to discuss Russia's ties to the continent. Russia is rekindling links with Africa that existed during the Cold War and creating new partnerships with countries which, in the past, had closer ties to the West. Some have already acce...
Sep 20, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast South Africa is one of the richest countries in Africa. Its businesses and investments have been a catalyst for growth on the continent and according to the World Bank, African immigrants have made a positive impact on South Africa’s economy. Yet foreign workers come under regular attack in South Africa. In the most recent spate of violence, hundreds of foreign owned businesses were damaged by protestors who said foreigners were taking their jobs. Several people died. The South African governmen...
Sep 13, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every summer at a mountain resort in Wyoming, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas hosts a symposium of central bankers and academics to discuss the global economy. This year at Jackson Hole, the outgoing Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, grabbed headlines by calling for a new global monetary system to replace the US dollar as the world’s main currency reserve. A new digital currency, he said, based on a basket of currencies and provided by the public sector, could be more stable and s...
Sep 06, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Amazon rainforest is an essential part of maintaining the earth's ecosystem and weather patterns. But this year thousands of fires are ravaging there - the most intense blazes for almost a decade. Brazil's indigenous and environmental groups have raised alarm at the rate of deforestation caused by the fires, many of which are thought to have been started deliberately by farmers and loggers. The G7 group of industrial nations have offered tens of millions of dollars to countries in the region...
Aug 30, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The on-going protests in Hong Kong and Russia come as Eastern Europe begins to mark the 30th anniversary of one of the most important geopolitical shifts of the 20th century - the collapse of Communism. The 20th century struggle against communist dictatorships lasted decades and claimed thousands of victims but eventually reached its aims. So, what about the protests of the 21st century? We have watched the Green Movement in Iran, then the Arab Spring, revive people’s hopes for democracy - then ...
Aug 23, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The British Green MP, Caroline Lucas, this week called for an 'emergency cabinet' of women from across the UK’s political spectrum to help prevent Britain from leaving the European Union without a deal. Women, she said, were better placed to deal with 'difficult, intractable problems'. So, is this true? Women have had to fight to gain a place in national politics in countries around the world, and when they make it, their challenges are far from over. Just last week, for example, the Kenyan MP, ...
Aug 16, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In recent years the formula for winning elections has moved away from reaching out to all voters and charting a middle ground. Instead, politicians are promoting wedge issues and activating voters along issues of identity and against the status quo. The polarising nature of this variety of politics was on view this week in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting in Texas. It was also seen in India, where the Hindu nationalist BJP government rammed through a dramatic policy change on Kashmir wi...
Aug 09, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In his first speech to the British parliament as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson promised a “radical” overhaul of the British immigration system modelled on an Australian-style points-based system where applicants are judged on the contribution they could make to the economy. Concerns about immigration are said to be one of the main driving factors behind Brexit - with many voters unhappy with the rapid pace of change in their communities. So, what will be the shape of a future British immigration...
Aug 02, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Boris Johnson has become the prime minister of Britain at a time when the country is facing numerous challenges at home and abroad. His supporters admire him for his colourful politics and quick-witted oratory skills, but he has also been described as untrustworthy and divisive by members of his own party. So what kind of politics can Boris Johnson offer? Join Ritula Shah and guests as they discuss his record as a politician and look ahead to how he might tackle Brexit, Britain’s relationship wi...
Jul 26, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Italian government has been calling on European countries to come up with a new plan to absorb migrants reaching its shores via the Mediterranean Sea. A tougher approach to migration was one of the campaign promises of the deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, and after his League party's victory in 2018, Italy banned migrant rescue ships from docking in its ports. The actual number of migrants arriving in Italy by sea has been going down every year since 2016, when the European Union began ...
Jul 19, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month in 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon. It was a culmination of human and technological achievement. Both the United States and the Soviet Union claimed victory in space, but for the rest of the world, the race between the two superpowers paved the way for the advancements of military and commercial aviation technology, improvements in health and medical research, and an increase in our understanding of the Earth and its climate. But fifty years after that...
Jul 12, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
