RadCasts

The benchmark oil price has passed $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022. But Donald Trump says the economic fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran is "a very small price to pay" for world peace. After Iran named a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, heavy explosions have continued to rock the capital Tehran. The Turkish opposition leader Ekrem Imamoğlu has gone on trial in Istanbul for corruption, in a case he describes as politically motivated. We report from South Sudan, where the world's youngest nation is grappling with instability and fears of a return to civil war. The Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky has said he is sending drone experts to the Middle East this week to help Gulf states under attack from Iran. There is concern about the safety of the Iranian women's football team after they refused to sing their national anthem at the first game of the Asian Cup in Australia. Scientists have discovered an ancient Egyptian equivalent of correction fluid.

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As the US and Israel's war on Iran enters its second week, concerns are rising about surging oil prices.

Crude has jumped above $100 a barrel and stock markets slumped over the escalating US-Israeli war with Iran. What are the effects likely to be?

Also in the programme: We'll profile Iran's new Supreme Leader, the son of the former cleric; we'll hear how the war is affecting daily life in the Gulf state of Qatar; and how the master artists of ancient Egypt may have invented correction fluid.

(Photo shows smoke rising following a strike on the Bapco Oil Refinery on Sitra Island in Bahrain on 9 March 2026. Credit: Reuters)

In recognition of International Women’s Month, we speak to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization. We discuss women representation in leadership, the impact of the latest Middle East conflict on African economies and the shifting balance of global trade and Africa’s place in it.

And, we also look at LGBTQ rights on the continent. In much of Africa, homosexuality remains criminalised in 33 out of 55 countries, according to the Institute for Security Studies. While South Africa recognises same-sex marriage, most African countries do not. In Botswana, two women are now challenging the government in court for the right to marry, despite same-sex relationships being decriminalised.

Presenter : Nkechi Ogbonna Producers: Keikantse Shumba and Chiamaka Dike Technical Producer: Jonathan Mwangi Senior Producer: Bella Twine and Blessing Aderogba Editors: Samuel Murunga and Maryam Abdalla