The US has presented Kyiv with a draft peace plan that appears to favour many of Russia's demands over those of the Ukrainians.
The widely-leaked US plan includes proposals that the Ukrainian government had previously ruled out, such as ceding areas of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls. Will Ukraine and Europe accept it?
Also in the programme: Why some South African women are training to use guns; the latest controversy around this year's Miss Universe; and we'll talk about Frida Kahlo's art and the pop-culture phenomenon the Mexican artist has become.
(Photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on 19 November 2025. Credit: Umit Bektas/Reuters)
South Africa's president declares gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis after planned protests
A campaign to encourage us to donate our bodies to medical science
And Audrey Brown bids farewell to Focus on Africa
Presenter Audrey Brown
Producers: Nyasha Michelle, Yvette Twagiramariya, Patricia Whitehorne, Stefania Okereke and Sunita Nahar in London. Charles Gitonga is in Nairobi.
Technical Producer: Francesca Dunn
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
The market rallied this week following Nvidia’s earnings, only for it all to come tumbling down on Friday as bitcoin, tech, AI, and bitcoin miners sold off.
Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Haley Thomson, the director of energy trading at Luxor Technology, joins us to talk about how AI demand is impacting the ERCOT power market. For news, we break down Nvidia's Q3 earnings and the market's Thursday morning reversal, dissect a load growth report that suggests there are currently 166GW of US load growth demand through 2030, and discuss Cipher's $830M extension with Fluidstack. And for this week’s cry corner, The Financial Times is doing its best to report on AI like it has with Bitcoin.
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Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday!
Trump accuses several Democrats of seditious behavior punishable by death. The president to meet with New York's next mayor. The Thanksgiving travel rush begins, CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has those stories and more on the World News Roundup podcast.
Britain’s home secretary Shabana Mahmood proposed a big shift in immigration policy this week. Our correspondent explains Labour’s reforms – and the reasoning behind them. Why military spy balloons are making a comeback. And celebrating historian Gillian Tindall, who illuminated ordinary lives to bring the past to life.
The CDC quietly rewrites its vaccine guidance online to suggest shots might cause autism, raising new questions about political influence over public health. President Trump unveils a 28-point Ukraine peace plan that leans on territorial concessions Kyiv has repeatedly rejected. And New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani heads to the White House for a meeting with a president who has labeled him a radical threat.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Jane Greenhalgh, Rebekah Metzler, Megan Pratz, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Amid indictments and censures, President Trump suggests certain Democrats face charges that carry the death penalty. The Justice Department abandons a case against a woman who was shot by a Border Patrol agent. And Ukraine ponders a U.S.-backed peace plan that would give large swaths of land to Russia.
