Abortion, environmental protections and gun ownership rights are among the controversial topics the US Supreme Court has ruled on over recent weeks. The highest court in the land has the final say on interpreting laws and deciding what’s constitutional and what isn’t. Now - with a clear conservative majority at the helm - the court’s move to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing abortion rights across the country (Roe v. Wade) signals it’s willing to re-visit previous judgments many had...
Jul 08, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A 5.9 magnitude earthquake last week in Afghanistan destroyed hundreds of homes and left around 1,000 people dead - including at least 155 children. The country, now ruled by the Taliban, was already struggling to feed and provide health services to its people just 10 months after the United States and its allies completed their hasty withdrawal. The UN says millions are going hungry and the hospital system is on the brink of collapse. Meanwhile the Taliban are subject to global sanctions and Af...
Jul 01, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Colombia this week elected a former rebel as its first left-wing president. Gustavo Petro’s win on Sunday represents a rejection of the establishment in a country facing strong economic headwinds, high levels of inequality, and continuing gang violence fuelled by the cocaine trade. Mr Petro and his running mate Francia Márquez - who will become the country’s first black vice-president - plan to reform taxes, phase out new oil exploration projects, and rethink the war on drugs. Colombia has long ...
Jun 24, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The King of Belgium this month handed back a Congolese mask, one of about 84,000 artefacts taken during the colonial-era which the country has agreed to return. In 2018 a report commissioned by the French government recommended the return of thousands of African artworks taken from the continent during colonial rule. This week the director of the V&A museum in London, Tristram Hunt, told The Real Story that he’d like to see a review of decades-old UK laws which prohibit historical pieces bei...
Jun 17, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week narrowly survived a confidence vote within his own party, but more than 40% of Conservative Members of Parliament thought he should go. His premiership has come under pressure after investigations into parties in Downing Street during pandemic lockdowns concluded he broke the rules he introduced. His government was elected in December 2019 with a large mandate to “get Brexit done” and his supporters insist that only he can hold the party together an...
Jun 10, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast China’s foreign minister Wang Yi this week held a meeting with 10 Pacific nations aiming to reach agreement on a region-wide trade and security pact. Consensus wasn’t reached but bilateral deals – like the one China’s already signed with Solomon Islands – are under discussion. The United States and regional allies, led by Australia, see the idea of greater security cooperation between China and Pacific island countries as a threat to Western security. Beijing says it’s offering help in the areas...
Jun 03, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Business leaders meeting this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have warned that high levels of inflation are likely to cause a global recession, or worse. Financier George Soros told the annual gathering that ongoing coronavirus lockdowns in China mean “global inflation is liable to turn into global depression”. Meanwhile the head of the World Bank, David Malpass, told a business event in the US that given the rising cost of energy, food and fertiliser prompted by Russia’s...
May 27, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The suspect in Saturday’s killing of ten people at a Buffalo supermarket allegedly wrote a document endorsing the Great Replacement Theory. It’s a racist far-right conspiracy theory that falsely states there’s a secret plan to replace white people through increased immigration and other means. In the United States some politicians and mainstream media figures like Tucker Carlson of Fox News are accused of pushing a version of the theory when they insist Democratic Party immigration policies have...
May 20, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week as North Korea continued to test new ballistic missile technology, a new president took charge in South Korea promising to take a harder line with the north. Yoon Suk-yeol used his inaugural speech to call on Kim Jong-un to pursue a genuine path to rid his country of nuclear weapons. If he does, Mr Yoon promised he'd present an "audacious plan" to boost the impoverished North’s economy. Meanwhile in Japan, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling for his country to re-think its post...
May 13, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war in Ukraine has prompted a global reordering of energy markets as Europe looks to replace gas and oil imports from Russia. A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the UN issued a dire warning about the devastating consequences of climate change. The war has complicated the picture further. So, will events in Ukraine derail the green energy transition countries signed up to at COP26 just six months ago? Some African countries would like to step in as Europe scrambles for alter...
May 06, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sweden has experienced days of violent protests against a far-right group. Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan’s anti-Islam party Hard Line says it will burn copies of the Quran as part of a tour of cities with large immigrant populations. Sweden has traditionally welcomed refugees, taking in Jews during WW2, Iranians fleeing the revolution, and a large number of people from the former Yugoslavia. But is that approach changing? Per capita Sweden accepted more refugees from the war in Syria ...
Apr 22, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week the first round of the presidential election in France has shone a spotlight on the tectonic shifts taking place in the nation’s politics. President Emmanuel Macron, who shocked the world five years ago by winning the presidency as an outsider, has firmly established his party as the only centrist force - peeling off support from the traditional left and right. His main challenger, Marine Le Pen of National Rally, has proved the enduring appeal of the far-right by once again receiving ...
Apr 15, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York have successfully set up Amazon's first ever union in the country. Staff at dozens of other US locations are said to be interested in unionising as well. There are signs workers are now increasingly in the driving seat. The pandemic has galvanised American employees with a tightening labour market providing them with more leverage. An increasing number of workers around the world are drawn to new, more flexible ways of working. But campaigners argue tha...
Apr 08, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast History was made this week when, for the first time, the foreign ministers of the UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Bahrain travelled to Israel on an official visit. For decades Arab leaders have criticised Israel for its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which appeared to rule out closer ties. But not anymore. After the meeting Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan told his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, “you are not only a partner, you are a friend,” adding that the countrie...
Apr 01, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 141 of the UN’s 193 member states voted to condemn the action. But the Kremlin isn’t without its allies. Four nations voted with Russia against the resolution (Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Eritrea) and another 35 abstained. China is the most prominent of these, but India also sat out the vote. The world’s largest democracy has not only failed to criticise the invasion but has also shied away from introducing sanctions. That’s prompted President Bide...
Mar 25, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Within days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced a number of significant changes to its economic and security policies. Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it as a Zeitenwende – or watershed – moment for Europe. The country would remove a self-imposed restraint on its armed forces - in place since the Second World War - and invest billions of dollars upgrading its military hardware. The government pledged to increase its defence spending to two percent of GDP making it the biggest mil...
Mar 18, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just two weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine the conflict has already begun reshaping the world. The bombardment of Ukrainian cities has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and forced millions to flee the country. But the war has also completely upended the global economy. Russia is paying the heaviest economic price, as it grapples with Western-led sanctions on its banks, major industries and individuals associated with President Vladimir Putin. There are growing fears i...
Mar 11, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war in Ukraine has cast a spotlight on Europe's energy dependency on Russia. Nearly half of Europe’s gas, along with petroleum and coal, come from the Russian Federation. But with no resolution to the war in sight, there is concern that Moscow will reduce its gas supply in retaliation to the tough sanctions imposed by the EU. Countries like Germany, Austria and Bulgaria would face severe economic consequences. Gas prices are already at record high and any supply shortage will have a direct i...
Mar 04, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month the G20 came under criticism for failing to deliver a promised $100bn of additional funds to poorer countries to help with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Many of these countries suffered a significant financial crunch as their exports dropped while the price of imports went up. The World Bank says the recession of 2020 led to the largest single-year surge in global debt in decades. The Bank says the debt burden of 70 low income countries has risen by more than 12 percent. Count...
Feb 25, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This month President Putin of Russia was the star guest at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. But his trip to China was not just about showing support for the host country. He and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping issued an unexpectedly long statement pledging friendship with 'no limits' and no 'forbidden areas of co-operation'. Beijing and Moscow have maintained a stable relationship since the 2000s, a far cry from the bitter days of the Sino-Soviet split during the Cold War. China...
Feb 18, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week the French president Emmanuel Macron travelled thousands of kilometres across Europe in a diplomatic effort to avert an escalation of the war in Ukraine. He met Presidents Putin and Zelensky in Moscow and Kyiv, as well as German and Polish leaders in Berlin. Diplomats say Mr Macron has made himself a key interlocutor between the EU and the US on one side and Russia on the other. The crisis in Ukraine has galvanised France's alliance with the United States which was at a low point just ...
Feb 11, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the Beijing Winter Olympics get underway in China this week the host city has reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases in more than a year. The authorities have put in place a strict 'closed loop bubble’, isolating more than 60,000 athletes, officials and service providers from the rest of the country. China's firm approach to quashing transmission of the virus has been in place ever since the first outbreak in Wuhan. Detection of the virus typically prompts mass testing and can even...
Feb 04, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Growing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine have prompted the US and UK to pull the families of staff at their embassies in Kyiv out of the country. Moscow’s forces have been amassing on Ukraine’s border for months prompting fears of a major escalation in a war that’s been underway since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Vladimir Putin says the Russian and Ukrainian populations are 'one people' and has blamed Nato’s expansion east for rising tensions. Joe Biden has warned ...
Jan 28, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The British Broadcasting Corporation is the world’s oldest and largest public service broadcaster. But as it prepares to mark its 100th birthday the organisation finds itself at a crossroads. The UK government has begun a review of the BBC’s long term funding structure with an aim of ending its dependency on television licence fees – effectively a tax on British owners of TV sets. The broadcaster's Director General Tim Davie says services and shows will have to be cut as a result of a funding ga...
Jan 21, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast While agriculture remains one of the biggest contributors to climate change, it is also most exposed to its adverse effects. Scientists say that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more intense as global temperatures continue to rise. In 2021, harsh winters, unseasonably warm summers, and sudden changes in rainfall affected food production around the globe - from the farmlands of Europe to the grasslands of Africa. There has been a jump in the prices of essential commodities lik...
Jan 14, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will begin in 4 weeks’ time with more than 2,000 athletes from across the globe expected to take part. Officials have set up a bubble to keep arriving athletes and officials separate from the general population, all part of attempts to prevent coronavirus infections. Some health officials fear the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant will pose a severe challenge to organisers and athletes can expect to face tougher restrictions compared to last year'...
Jan 07, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the stability of some countries’ financial systems could soon be at risk because of unregulated crypto assets. Cryptocurrencies and other digital financial products created using blockchain technology are proliferating. They’re largely free from the controls of governments and central banks, but also free from any significant regulation. The IMF believes “comprehensive, consistent and coordinated” global regulation of the sector is now needed...
Dec 17, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been more than two decades since the war in Bosnia ended. It remains one of the darkest chapters in modern European history and cost over 100,000 lives. Since the Dayton Agreement was reached in 1995 a fragile peace has held, but last month the international community's chief representative there - Christian Schmidt - warned that conflict might return and the country is in danger of breaking up. Bosnia-Herzegovina's senior ethnic Serb politician, Milorad Dodik, has threatened to pull the te...
Dec 10, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast The emergence of the Omicron variant has once again highlighted the difficulty in preventing the pandemic from spreading across the globe. Health experts have long argued that regions like southern Africa, where the variant was first detected, are prone to dangerous mutations of the virus when large groups of people are left unvaccinated. Only a tenth of Africa's billion plus population have received their first dose and the continent is yet to create its own Covid vaccines. African nations are ...
Dec 03, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast It has been 100 days since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan and the country is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. More than half of the country’s 39 million people face acute food insecurity as prices skyrocket. Severe drought, the pandemic and the damage caused by decades of war have all helped to bring the economy to its knees. With winter approaching the World Food Programme has warned that Afghans are at risk of being isolated from life-saving assistance. Previously internati...
Nov 26, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
