Hundreds of pro-Ukraine demonstrators in Alaska have been showing their unhappiness about the absence of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the summit in their state between Presidents Trump and Putin. Mr Trump is travelling to Alaska for the meeting that could prove decisive for the future of Ukraine. Before departing Washington, he posted the words "HIGH STAKES!!! on social media. Also: Two years of negotiations to develop a global plastic pollution treaty have ended in failure, and the robot athletes going for gold in China.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
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The US government has approved a $346m arms deal with Nigeria which would include munitions, precision bombs and precision rockets. What is behind the change in a decade-long US policy about selling certain kinds of weapons to Nigeria?
The mining of gold has been a key factor of Sudan's economy, and now it is a major source of funding of the two-year civil war. We look back at its history in Sudan, and how the war is driving demand.
And one year on since Ghana's parliament passed its landmark Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Act, which was hailed as a victory for women's rights, how have things changed?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Tom Kavanagh, Nyasha Michelle and Stefania Okereke in London. Charles Gitonga in Nairobi
Technical Producer: Philip Bull
Senior Journalist: Patricia Whitehorne
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
Can Donald Trump strike a deal with Vladimir Putin in Alaska today and get a ceasefire in Ukraine - and if so, on what terms? President Trump has previously spoken of 'land swaps' but Kyiv has already rejected the idea. We hear from a teenager who lived under Russian occupation in the Donbas for 10 years, and recently escaped.
Also in the programme: the world marks 80 years since Japan surrendered, ending World War Two; and as talks on a global plastics treaty collapse – again – is there any hope countries can ever agree?
(IMAGE: U.S. President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One, as he departs for Alaska to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., August 15, 2025 / CREDIT: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to a summit in the US state of Alaska on Friday with contrasting priorities as they prepare for talks on ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Mr Trump has said the plan was to "set the table" for a more important second meeting involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Also: AI designs antibiotics for gonorrhoea and MRSA superbugs, and German states debate who invented Bratwurst sausages.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
There's been fierce international criticism of Israeli plans to build more than three-thousand homes in a controversial settlement in the occupied West Bank. The country's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the move - which will split the territory - will "bury the idea of a Palestinian state". Britain's foreign secretary, David Lammy, described the plan as a "flagrant breach of international law" that "must be stopped".
Also in the programme: Humanitarian workers in Sudan say they lack the resources to deal with a deadly cholera outbreak in camps for people displaced by the civil war; what sort of welcome are Alaskans preparing for President Putin; and why are some female Australian birds developing male sex organs.
(Photo: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
US Health Secretary RFK Jr’s call to retract a study on childhood vaccines is resisted by the journal. Also antibiotics get designed by AI, and a new way for stars to die.
A study focussing on Danish childhood vaccination data has attracted the US Secretary for Health’s anger, as RFK jr calls for the journal in which it was published, the Annals of Internal Medicine, to retract it. The Editor, Christine Laine, talk to Science in Action about the strengths and challenges of observational studies.
The cuts to prestigious US federal science funded research continue, as last week it was announced that $500 million funding for future mRNA vaccines would be withdrawn. Barney Graham, one of the pioneers in the field and prominent during the Covid vaccines, argues that the research will still happen, though maybe not in the US, as mRNA has become a fundamental area of global research.
Meanwhile, strides are being made in the field of synthetic biology as Jim Collins and colleagues at MIT and Harvard have used AI to design potentially viable antibiotics for two important drug-resistant superbugs. Previously, AI has been used to comb through libraries of known antibiotics. This study has gone a step further, and used generative AI to design new ones, that can then be synthesised using real chemicals. Though a long way from being prescribable drugs, the team think this could herald a new golden age of antibiotic development – something which has been lacking in recent decades.
Finally, it seems astronomers may have discovered a new way for a star to die, sort of. Supernova 2023zkd was seen to explode back in 2023, found by a team looking for odd events. It didn’t seem quite like normal supernovae, in that it took a bit longer to die down. Then the team looked back, and noticed that it had also been getting slowly brighter for almost a year. At 730 million light years away, in a galaxy far, far away, it also seemed to have been stripped of all its hydrogen and even stranger yet, appeared to have exploded twice. As Ashley Villar of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics explains, the almost unique observation fits with a model of the huge star getting closer to a black hole, the gravity of which may have disrupted the star enough to cause it to explode.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Ella Hubber with Alex Mansfield
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
(Image: Child getting a vaccine. Credit: Luis Alvarez via Getty Images)
There's been outrage in The Gambia following the death of a one-month-old baby girl. Reports suggest she was a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM). Although FGM is outlawed in the country, it's a deeply rooted cultural practice that authorities are battling. Three women have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Also, France's president Emmanuel Macron acknowledges France used "repressive violence" against Cameroonians during and after colonial rule.
And how did a Martian meteorite from Niger end up at an auction?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Makuochi Afakor in Lagos. Bella Hassan and Tom Kavanagh in London
Technical Producer: Gabriel O'Regan
Senior Journalist: Yvette Twagiramariya
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Maryam Abdalla
An outbreak of cholera in Sudan is reported to have killed hundreds of people. The epicentre is in North Darfur - home to a large number of displaced people. More on the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. President Zelensky has been in London ahead of Friday's Trump-Putin summit. Taylor Swift has a new album coming out. And when is it right to take your shoes off in the office?
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
Ahead of the Trump / Putin meeting in Alaska, we ask what's happened to Ukraine's missing children? Ukraine says thousands have been taken by Russian forces - many indoctrinated in Russian military schools – and some are now fighting on the frontline against their home country.
Also in the programme: what are Israelis now thinking and saying about the war in Gaza – and how well informed are people about the conflict? Plus the good news that medication for ADHD may also reduce suicidal behaviours and substance misuse, and even make people less likely to have transport accidents and commit crime.
(IMAGE: Children's handprints decorate the wall of the culture centre of the Ukrainian frontline village of Kalynove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, April 11, 2025 / CREDIT: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura)
European leaders appeared cautiously optimistic after holding a virtual meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday, before he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. He reportedly said his goal for the summit was to obtain a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv. We also take a look at the strange history of Alaska. Plus: we report on the devastating hunger crisis in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher; the plusses and minuses of artificial intelligence -- enabling your glasses to help you hear better, but perhaps also leading doctors to being de-skilled; why hundreds of Peruvian military and police officers are being pardoned; Iran tries to help its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon; and why the British foreign secretary is in a spot of hot water over a fishing trip with the vice-president of the United States.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
