It’s just over a year since 23-year-old Gracie Spinks was found dead after reporting being stalked by her colleague Michael Sellers. Her family says a new Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation (IOPC) seems to confirm their worst nightmare that police didn’t fulfil their duty to investigate properly and that their daughter’s death might have been preventable. In today’s episode our reporter Anja Popp tells Minnie about what happened to Gracie, the findings of the IOPC report and how...
Jun 24, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rwanda is of course in the news because back in April, the UK government confirmed a £120m deal to deport adults who arrived illegally into the UK after January 1st this year to this African nation. And last week’s attempt to start this policy failed. The Home secretary has said the Rwanda deal will act as a deterrent for people smugglers, while also allowing those sent there the opportunity to “build their lives”. But can asylum seekers really do that in a nation that has a shocking human right...
Jun 21, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The age-old issue of misogyny in the world of Westminster has continued to rock British politics this year. From an MP’s resignation after watching porn at work to a sexist article which suggested deputy labour leader Angela Rayner used a “Basic Instinct ploy” to distract the prime minister in the commons, the Houses of Parliament is suffering from its own internal crisis. There have been a myriad of sexual misconduct claims, three MPs have recently lost the whip for sexual harassment , bullying...
Jun 15, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2020, the biggest killer of children in America was not cars, nor cancer, but guns. Yet in the 23 years since Columbine, the 15 years since Virginia Tech, the ten years since Sandy Hook, the four years since Parkland, nothing from Congress. Following the Uvalde shooting, senators on both sides have hinted at some possible legislation. Is change coming? We speak to Matt Frei, who has spent years reporting on the US, covered many presidential elections and unfortunately many mass shootings. We ...
Jun 13, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before the bunting had been taken down and the Jubilee stage dismantled, at 8am the morning after the Platinum celebrations, a rude awakening for Boris Johnson. A confidence vote that threatened his leadership of the party and with it the country. Johnson survived, but his margin of victory was smaller than that of Theresa May’s before him, and she was forced out just months later. Does the same await Johnson? This week, he’s been defending his record, announcing new policies and aiming to move ...
Jun 10, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many Muslims in India say they are experiencing a wave of persecution as Hindu extremists carry out a campaign of intimidation to stop interfaith marriages between Hindus and Muslims. Violence waged by mobs who believe Muslims are tricking Hindu women into marriage as an attempt to turn India into a Muslim republic. India's Hindu nationalist government say they oppose violence and the BJP say that they have introduced laws in response to a particular kind of crime of which a large number of inst...
Jun 08, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over 70 years of the Queen's reign, Britain’s landscape has transformed. All of this has had a huge impact not only on us but wildlife and the place we call home. In today’s episode we talk to our chief correspondent, Alex Thomson, about how and why Britain’s land has evolved during the Queen’s 70 years on the throne and ask what next for the British countryside. Producer: Freya Pickford. Sources: AP....
Jun 06, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast As Jubilee celebrations begin, calls for the Queen to be removed as Head of State in at least six countries in the Caribbean are being heard loud and clear. But why is this happening now? And what does it say about the royal family’s and Britain's influence across the world? In today's episode, Ayshah Tull speaks to people from across the globe who can help us understand how strong the level of feeling is towards the royals on the other side of the Atlantic and we will discuss how easy it is to ...
Jun 03, 2022•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Back in February, in sunny Orlando, Florida, a large group of Republicans got together at the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, to discuss what their movement needed to do next to change America. Former President Donald Trump, the keynote speaker at the event, described Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy as brave, but repeated his admiration of Vladimir Putin, describing him as a smart, strong leader. In this revisited episode from March, we look at where American conservatives...
Jun 01, 2022•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In its long history, there have been landmark, controversial Supreme Court decisions: Plessy v. Ferguson, Bush v. Gore, Shelby v. Holder. Yet arguably none has divided Americans, defined the parties, and affected the lives of millions of women more than one particular ruling on the 22nd of January 1973: Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right for women to have an abortion. Since then, those opposed to abortion have campaigned to chip away at that decision, in the hope that one day, when the con...
May 30, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast It was the moment we’ve been waiting for for six months. The report from civil servant Sue Gray into parties at Number 10 during the three lockdowns. 37 pages, 16 events, nine photos. But what did it say and was it worth the wait? Our political editor, Gary Gibbon, explains all. Producer: Freya Pickford
May 27, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast To its supporters, Bitcoin is the biggest revelation in finance in a thousand years. To its critics, it’s a giant Ponzi scheme. So is Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, the future of finance? How secure are the blockchains that they’re built on? And will we all be buying art through NFTs, non fungible tokens, in the future, rather than paintings for our walls? In this revisited episode from December 2021, we speak to our Economics Correspondent Helia Ebrahimi about cryptocurrency, the future o...
May 25, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week Blackpool’s Jake Daniels said he was gay. It was the first time a male British footballer - still playing the game - had said that in 32 years. Given the wide acceptance of LGBT people in Britain today, and the fact there are many out and proud athletes in other sports - why is football - male professional football - so far behind? Producer: Freya Pickford Sources: Sky News, Good Morning Britain, GB News, ITN, Norwich City Football Club...
May 23, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pakistan is in the midst of what some are calling a ‘gender violence epidemic.’ Hundreds if not thousands of women are murdered, kidnapped and assaulted each year. And conviction rates are extremely low. But Pakistani women are demanding action to address the vast scale of violence. Our reporter Fatima Manji went to the country’s capital Islamabad to meet the female police officers on a mission to transform policing for women. And a warning this episode contains descriptions of violence, includi...
May 20, 2022•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Finland’s Parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed joining Nato, while Sweden’s ruling party has broken with 200 years of neutrality to follow their Nordic neighbours in jumping on the alliance bandwagon. The Ukraine War has forced this profound geopolitical moment - but why are the Finns more keen on the move than the Swedes? In today’s podcast, we travel to Helsinki.
May 18, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In April 2015, a victim was stabbed 13 times in a park in Leicester town centre. The case was solved with the help of CCTV, but that’s not the end of the story. The parents of the man convicted for the crime insist this was a case of mistaken identity. They also believe racial bias caused their son’s misidentification on CCTV. Forensic experts have also raised serious concerns about the quality of CCTV analysis in the criminal justice system as a whole. In today’s episode we speak to Channel 4 N...
May 16, 2022•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the first time in 101 years, a nationalist party is in the majority in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin said the country was entering a “new era” as they overtook the DUP. It’s a seismic moment in Northern Irish history. Today, our policy correspondent Paul McNamara looks into how we got here - how Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol has divided unionists, and how yet further stalemate is perhaps why many people are tired of the old nationalist/unionist labels and just want centrist politics...
May 13, 2022•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
