Thousands of Nicaraguans have been taking to the streets this week to protest against the killing of anti-government demonstrators. They say Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista Front (FSLN) has betrayed the people in whose name it once fought. For President Ortega - a one-time revolutionary icon - the demonstrations highlight a significant shift. With the Castros out of power in Cuba, and other giants of the Left dead or in jail, Mr Ortega is the last of a generation of Latin American revolutionaries sti...
May 04, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The world's population is ageing. According to the UN the number of people aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups. This is putting new pressures on relationships between generations. In richer countries, younger people are not accumulating the wealth their predecessors did and that's causing tensions. In the developing world, urbanisation and technology are challenging traditional family dynamics. So, how can the young and the old stay connected in a fast changing world? A...
Apr 26, 2018•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast The decision by the US, France and Britain to bomb Syria after seeing evidence that President Bashar al-Assad had allegedly used chemical weapons on civilians has divided the international community. Are we living in a world where might, not right determines how states behave, or is a more moral legal framework in the process of being born? This week on the Real Story, Carrie Gracie and a panel of expert guests ask what can justify attacking another country.
Apr 20, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The French President, Emmanuel Macron is taking on the country's powerful unions. The response to his proposed labour reforms has been a wave of public sector strikes across France. It's a battle that has played out many times over recent years in industrialised nations and trades unions have, without doubt, been losing influence globally. Why is this happening? Do workers no longer regard unions as an effective way of representing their interests? Have unions failed to adapt to the changing way...
Apr 13, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast We have a problem with plastic. We're making too much of it and not re-using and re-cycling enough of it. Plastic is contaminating our oceans and polluting our world. Until this year China took two thirds of the world's plastic waste, but now it's saying it will no longer be the world's dumping ground. The Chinese ban on low quality plastic has begun to bite with policy makers urgently looking for new solutions. So what happens now? What has the situation done to expose the way our plastics are ...
Apr 05, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the first website went live just over 25 years ago, there was hope that the internet would change life for the better. These days, though, there is deep unease about the direction the internet is taking. Allegations that data firm Cambridge Analytica used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission to target US voters with tailored - sometimes misleading - messaging highlights how technology is infiltrating democracy. This week the US Fed...
Mar 29, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The UN calls Yemen 'the world's worst humanitarian crisis'. It says more than three-fourths of the population - over 22 million people - are in need of humanitarian assistance. Yemenis face hunger, disease, and the terror of a war which has pitted Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. This week marks the end of the third year of that Saudi campaign - with no end in sight. Yemen's Minister of State resigned Wednesday saying Yemen's President, Abdrabbuh Mansou...
Mar 23, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Major Western powers are united in their conclusion. Russia, they say, carried out the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War Two. The attack happened in the English city of Salisbury, where former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent. This Sunday, the Russian people are expected to elect Mr Putin for a fourth consecutive term. So as Russia and the West begin a new diplomatic showdown, what does President Putin want to achiev...
Mar 16, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to put 'America first'. In his first year in office the policy was pursued in a number of areas including immigration and national security, but, when it came to the economy, despite threats, the status quo more or less remained the same. Now that's changed. President Trump has signed an order imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium imports. So will the move rebuild and protect the US steel industry, as the president has pled...
Mar 09, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The announcement was low key but the implications are big. The Communist Party of China has recommended that the constitution be amended to allow President Xi Jinping to serve longer than the currently mandated two terms. The move would sweep aside a system of power-sharing that's been in place for decades and the 64 year-old could now be China's president for life. So, what is behind the decision? Is it a legitimate attempt to safeguard and bolster Xi's campaign against corruption and ensure es...
Mar 02, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The first edition with our new name: Newshour Extra is now The Real Story with Carrie Gracie. Has Russia changed the rules of the game with the use of fake accounts on social media to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election? The US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has now filed numerous charges against Russian individuals and entities in connection with Donald Trump's presidential campaign. But US spy agencies have themselves practised disinformation and interference in other countries over ma...
Feb 23, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast As European intelligence chiefs meet in Germany calling for greater co-operation to tackle common security threats, we take a look Europe's move towards a more unified defence strategy. Since the Second World War, the NATO alliance has provided the West's defence umbrella. But there are those within Europe calling for the greater integration of national forces and less reliance on the United States and NATO to resolve Europe's defence problems. Russia's annexation of Crimea and the influx of mig...
Feb 16, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our pay is still largely a private matter - but why is that? What would happen if pay was transparent? Would it be good or bad for business? Would employers have to address inequality and discrimination? Would workers feel demoralized or empowered? And what effect would such a cultural shift have on society? On Newshour Extra this week Ritula Shah and a panel of experts consider what happens when companies or entire countries dare to reveal all.
Feb 09, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast January has been bloody in the Afghan capital Kabul, where more than 130 civilians have been killed and many more wounded in a series of attacks by the Taliban and the Islamic State group. Suicide bombers have targeted not only security forces but also a hotel, and a crowded shopping street. Does this latest spike in violence mean their tactics have changed, and if so why? The US has recently committed a few more troops to Afghanistan, but after 16 years of fighting, is a military solution credi...
Feb 02, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Turkey has sent tanks and warplanes into northern Syria. Their stated target is a Kurdish militia group, the YPG, regarded by Ankara as a terrorist organisation allied to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey for decades. It's an indication of the complexity of this conflict is that while Turkey regards the YPG as a serious threat, the same group has been a key ally of the United States in the battle against the so-called Islamic State in Syria. If...
Jan 26, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Trump says he is a friend of coal country. He promised to end the "war on coal" and bring back jobs in the coal mines. A year on from his inauguration and he seems to have made good on some of his pledges. Late last year his administration overturned several Obama-era regulations on mining and energy production. But can coal really make a comeback? Coal production remains a source of cheap electricity around the world but it's up against the rising availability of natural gas and incre...
Jan 19, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gaming is big business. More that 2 billion gamers around the world generated more than 100 billion dollars in game revenues last year. But for some people all the fun is coming at a cost. The World Health Organization wants to classify gaming addiction as a mental health condition for the first time. The addiction is described as a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour that takes 'precedence over other life interests'. So how concerned should we be? What's the evidence that people...
Jan 12, 2018•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's the first week of the new year, which means many people are recovering from consuming large quantities of meat over the festive season. In fact, people around the world are eating more meat than ever. The average American man now eats more than his own weight in meat every year. And in China meat-eating is rising sharply as people grow richer. But all this meat comes at a cost. The WHO has linked red and processed meats to cancer, and the intensive raising of livestock and the growing of th...
Jan 05, 2018•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Donald Trump's announcement that he's formally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and setting in motion a plan to move the US embassy there has been condemned by many world leaders. So where does it leave the Palestinians? The decision has motivated some to take to the streets in protest. Others wonder how peace can now be achieved. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, has said that the US has lost its right to act as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, ...
Dec 15, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In March you could buy a Bitcoin, one of a number of ‘cryptocurrencies’, for about US$1,200. Since then its value has increased more than tenfold to over US$15,000. So why the excitement? Is it yet another irrational speculative bubble driven by what John Maynard Keynes used to call ‘animal spirits’? Or is the excitement really about the de-centralised technology that underpins Bitcoin? Some argue that this technology, known as blockchain, is as revolutionary as the internet and will change how ...
Dec 08, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A key deadline is looming for Brexit Britain. The British government has until Monday, December 4th, to finalise its offer on three key issues: the Irish border, a financial settlement and European citizens rights. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said clarity on the British offer had to be provided in advance of the EU leaders' summit in December. The EU's 27 members will then decide whether "sufficient progress" has been made to move the talks on to the next phase about a futu...
Dec 01, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri shocked his country when he recently resigned while in Saudi Arabia citing fears for his safety. The move plunged Lebanon into a crisis as Lebanese leaders accused Saudi Arabia of forcing him to go. It has also stoked fears of major showdown between Lebanon’s Saudi-backed Sunnis and the Iranian-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah. On his return to Lebanon this week, Hariri agreed to withdraw his resignation and seek ‘dialogue’. So who is ultimately driving ev...
Nov 24, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of the explanations for the victory of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election was that Trump had pushed back against the progressive cultural values that had been occupying the US political mainstream. There was a feeling that cultural issues championed on the left around identity, race, religion, gender, and sexuality had taken a seat at the political top table in the Obama years, and that many people - mostly white men - sought a return to times when roles were c...
Nov 17, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast When President Trump was elected a year ago he promised tough action on China. During his campaign he called the rising Asian power a currency manipulator and threatened tariffs on Chinese goods. But the tone since then has significantly softened. President Trump has gone on to highlight his 'very good' relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and made much of shared cooperation on issues like the threat from North Korea. This week, President Trump put that relationship to the test on his ...
Nov 10, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Donald Trump has said his proposed tax cuts will be 'rocket fuel' for the US economy. He is the latest in a long line of political leaders chasing economic growth as a key policy objective. We are told again and again that GDP - Gross Domestic Product - growth is good for the economy; it lifts people out of poverty, provides jobs and investment, and improves lives. While there is general agreement about the need for growth in the developing world, what about the costs of growth in the rich world...
Nov 03, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kenya's disputed presidential election has plunged the country into crisis and brought the legitimacy of the whole democratic process there into question. So on this week's Newshour Extra we take a look across Sub-Saharan Africa, and ask whether democracy is the best system of government for the continent; and if so, are there uniquely African models of the democratic process. Join Owen Bennett Jones and his guests as they discuss ethnic division, democracy and autocracy in Africa. (Photo of vot...
Oct 30, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast After its traumatic defeat in the Second World War, Japan turned its back on military power and concentrated instead on economic growth. Japan’s alliance with the US was enough to protect it from threats in the Cold War. But times have changed. China has now overtaken Japan in both economic growth and military spending. And while China flexes new found muscles, Japan’s watches as North Korean missiles fly over its territory. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono announced last month that Tokyo wou...
Oct 20, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A nuclear weapon in the hands of the Ayatollahs has long been a nightmare of Iran's opponents in the Middle East and beyond. So when, in 2015, the world's big powers signed a deal with Iran that prevented it from developing a nuclear bomb it was seen as a triumph for diplomacy. But the deal has always had its critics. US hawks want to scrap it or at least bring Iran back to the negotiating table. President Trump is listening, calling the deal 'an embarrassment' and 'the worst deal ever'. On News...
Oct 13, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast We live in dangerous times. Conflicts in the Middle East continue unabated; President Trump threatens to "totally destroy" North Korea; and Catalonia opts to secede from Spain with potentially violent consequences. UN Secretary General, António Guterres recently said “We are in a world in pieces. We need to be a world at peace”. So why is it so hard to resolve conflicts and what makes an effective peace-maker? On Newshour Extra this week, Owen Bennett Jones and his guests discuss the art of conf...
Oct 06, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast What’s so important about having your own country? On Monday many Kurds in Northern Iraq voted for independence, and the Spanish government is seeking to stop a separatist referendum in Catalonia this Sunday. But why do many Iraqi Kurds and Catalans want an independent state given that both regions already have a large degree of autonomy? Is it about national identity or economic independence? Are there common themes or is every case unique? And what are the legal precedents for secession? Owen ...
Sep 29, 2017•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
