The president of the Pacific island nation, Palau, considers whether COP is still worth it. Also on the programme, thousands of flights have been cancelled or delayed in the US on the first day of reduced air traffic caused by the government shutdown; and, the so-called "Google Maps" of Roman Roads -- the most extensive digital map that reveals hundreds of thousand of kilometres of old roads.
(Photo: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez embrace next to European Council President Antonio Costa and Para state Governor Helder Barbalho as delegates attending the Belem Climate Summit ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) gather for a family photo, in Belem, Brazil, November 7, 2025. REUTERS/Adriano Machado)
In your final moments, they say, you may walk down a tunnel of light. You might rise above your body, watching the scene below before passing into another world. Perhaps you’ll be met by glowing figures, see your life flash before your eyes, or feel a deep, unearthly calm.
These are the stories of people who’ve reached the edge of death and returned. They’re not rare, nor random, and they have a name: Near-Death Experiences.
CrowdScience listener Steven in Chile first heard of them during a CPR class and wondered, are they fictitious?
Psychologist Susan Blackmore once had an out-of-body experience as a student in Oxford, UK — floating above herself before soaring over the rooftops and dissolving into the universe. That single moment changed everything. She’s spent her career trying to understand what happened, and she believes such experiences are explainable.
At the University of Michigan in the US, neuroscientist Professor Jimo Borjigin has done what few have dared: record the dying brain in action. Her studies show that even after the heart stops, the brain can produce powerful surges of coordinated activity, bursts that might explain the lights, the tunnels, and the sense of peace. She believes Near-Death Experiences could become one of science’s most intriguing scientific frontiers for research into consciousness.
At University College London in the UK, neuroscientist Dr Christopher Timmermann is exploring similar states using psychedelics, pushing the boundaries between self and oblivion to identify what induces a near death experience and what we can learn about our consciousness along the way.
Near death experiences, a paranormal mystery or explainable phenomenon?
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Harrison Lewis
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: Gap in the wall - stock photo Credit: peterschreiber.media via Getty Images)
The Sudanese government calls for international guarantees that RSF rebels will stick by a ceasefire they have signed up to, before it agrees to do the same. Fears grow of a return to conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia, where government forces and rebels from the northern Tigray region accuse each other of launching attacks. A 17-year-old student in Indonesia is suspected of carrying out a bomb attack at a school in Jakarta, which injured more than 50 people. The EU tightens visa rules for Russian citizens amid growing security fears, after nearly four years of war in Ukraine. The musical composition inspired by a world-leading space observatory. And the government tax lawyer in Washington who is using the federal shutdown to realise a childhood dream: to run a hot dog stand.
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
Tesla shareholders have approved a pay package that could make Elon Musk the world's first dollar trillionaire. We discuss whether that’s an obscene sum or a fair reward for success.
Also in the programme: as world leaders meet ahead of the UN climate conference in Brazil, we ask a supporter of Donald Trump why the US president isn't there and why Mr Trump now says climate change is all a hoax; and the challenge of writing a piece of music to mark 80 years of Britain's Jodrell Bank Observatory.
(IMAGE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S., September 21, 2025 / CREDIT: Reuters/Daniel Cole)
What can Africa expect from the COP 30 climate conference?
Sudan's paramilitary RSF agrees to a humanitarian ceasefire, but the government wants guarantees from the international community
And why are marginalised cultures being celebrated during Fashion Week in Namibia?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Tanya Hines and Yvette Twagiramariya in London. Todah Opeyemi is in Lagos and Madina Maisanu in Abuja
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
What can Africa expect from the COP 30 climate conference?
Sudan's paramilitary RSF agrees to a humanitarian ceasefire, but the government wants guarantees from the international community
And why are marginalised cultures being celebrated during Fashion Week in Namibia?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Tanya Hines and Yvette Twagiramariya in London. Todah Opeyemi is in Lagos and Madina Maisanu in Abuja
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
As rescue and relief efforts in the Caribbean are ongoing after Hurricane Melissa, Unexpected Elements looks at the science of storms.
We explore how AI might help us better predict the weather patterns, and whether it could act as an early warning signal to help us prepare for natural disasters, and we look at what a sinkhole off the Coast of Belize has helped reveal about 6000 years of storm history in the Caribbean.
Giles Harrison, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Reading University helps explain the unexpected link between bees and storm clouds. We also investigate whether storms with female names are more deadly, your letters have us contemplating banana varieties, and whether wind turbines could ever have an effect on the breeze.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Alex Lathbridge, with Andrada Fiscutean and Leonie Joubert
Producers: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins with Eliane Glaser, Minnie Harrop, and Lucy Davies.
Tesla shareholders have approved a record-breaking pay package that could make the electric car company's founder Elon Musk a trillionaire if he can deliver a future filled with self-driving taxis and humanoid robots. More than three quarters of shareholders backed the plan which requires Mr Musk to substantially raise Tesla's market value over a period of years. Also: Typhoon Kalmaegi is weakening but the devastation and lives lost in the Philippines and Vietnam has been overwhelming; Artificial Intelligence and the chatbot which has been encouraging a young woman to kill herself; the Kashmir cricket scandal; and Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the speaker of the US House of Representatives, bows out of politics at 85.
The US has not sent a delegation to the COP30 in Brazil but President Trump's influence is being felt at the conference. Also on the programme, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan have said they've agreed to a proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire in the country's civil war; and, the world's largest spiderweb has been discovered in a cave.
(Photo: The Prince of Wales leaves the stage after speaking during the COP30 UN climate conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil. Picture date: Thursday November 6, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)
The leaders of the three greatest producers of carbon emissions — the US, China and India — are staying away from the COP30 summit, which officially starts on Monday. The UN says it's now "virtually impossible" to achieve the international target of limiting global warming to 1.5C. Also: South Africa says it's received distress calls from 17 citizens lured into fighting for Russia in the war in Ukraine; and China's astronauts say they've held the first ever barbecue in space.
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
