As the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, begins his visit to Israel, he has once again criticised the Israeli strike on Qatar. We ask whether this will bring about a policy change in Israel and how the Gulf states will react to the strike.
Also in the programme, fighter jets are scrambled as Romania becomes the second NATO country to report an incursion into its airspace by a Russian drone. And the rock band, Queen, gives their first symphonic performance of their rock operetta Bohemian Rhapsody at the Last Night of the BBC Proms.
Credit: Photo by ABIR SULTAN/EPA/Shutterstock (15485623ao) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) visit the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, 14 September 2025
Donald Trump wants to broker peace in two of the world’s most intractable wars: Gaza and Ukraine. But this week, both crises have escalated – and the man he’s tasked with solving them has no previous diplomatic experience.
Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul and Trump’s closest confidante, is now at the centre of American foreign policy as the ‘envoy for everything’.
On today’s Global Story, we speak with the BBC’s State Department Correspondent, Tom Bateman, and ask whether Witkoff’s unconventional style is a weakness – or a strength.
Every weekday, this is The Global Story. The world is changing. Decisions made in the US and by the second Trump administration are accelerating that change. But they are also a symptom of it. With Asma Khalid in DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Aron Keller
Executive producer: James Shield
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Image: President Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff. Sarah Yenesel/EPA/Shutterstock
Great minds have spent generations debating over the most effective ways to win hearts and minds to a cause, but all agree on one thing – if you reach the young, you will determine the course of a nation's future. Charlie Kirk knew this, and lived it.
Kirk’s mission to reach young people may have stemmed from the fact that his own very public political activism began when he was only a teenager. But at a time when many conservatives wrote college campuses off as bastions of leftist ideology that were too far gone, Kirk made universities his mission field, and emboldened hundreds more young people to do the same.
Through Turning Point USA, Kirk reached millions of young people with a political, and faith filled message.
What made Kirk even more unique is that he did not go to college campuses to lecture students, but instead to have conversations - allowing students to ask him questions on politics and faith. It was at one of these very events at Utah Valley University where Kirk was assassinated Wednesday.
Articulate, charismatic, and inteligent, Kirk spent more than a decade empowering young people to think critically, embrace the values of conservatism, and find hope and joy in a deep faith in Jesus Christ.
Kirk spoke truth in boldness, and it cost him his life.
It is challenging not to feel that a line has been drawn in the sand. A good man, a father, a husband, a leader has died. Is this the cost of truth? For the majority of us, Lord willing, it won’t be, but it does serve as a time for choosing.
On this week’s edition of Problematic Women, Hannah Faulkner, a conservative commentator and author, and Problematic Women host Morgonn McMichael, a Turning Point USA contributor, join the show to discuss the choices we, the American people, face following Kirk’s assassination.
The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is tonight, honoring the best television shows released between June 2024 and May 2025. But before the festivities begin, Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, would like to have a TV celebration of his own.
On today’s episode, he gathers Jason Zinoman, a critic at large for The Times, and Alexis Soloski, a culture reporter for The Times, to “channel surf” through some of their favorite shows of the past year.
On Today’s Episode:
Jason Zinoman, a critic at large for The New York Times who writes a column about comedy.
Alexis Soloski, a culture reporter for The New York Times.
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
President Trump is deploying the National Guard in a way that no president has done before. He and his supporters say it’s necessary to address acute situations in various U.S. cities. But it’s drawing mixed reactions among the residents of those cities, and in U.S. courts. WSJ White House reporter Natalie Andrews and Supreme Court correspondent Jess Bravin discuss what these troops are doing on the ground, the legal questions coming into play and what this could mean for other cities. Alex Ossola hosts.
Located above 66°33? Latitude North is the region we call the Arctic.
The Arctic is unlike any other environment on Earth, even the Antarctic. It is sparsely populated and has unique wildlife and a biome that can’t be found anywhere else.
It is completely dark in the winter and the sun never sets in the summer…and of course, it is really cold
Learn more about the Arctic and what makes it so special on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Sponsors
Quince
Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order!
Mint Mobile
Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed
Stash
Go to get.stash.com/EVERYTHING to see how you can
receive $25 towards your first stock purchase.
ExpressVPN
Go to expressvpn.com/EEDto get an extra four months of ExpressVPN for free!w
The Women Who Threw Corn: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (Cambridge UP, 2025) by Dr. Martin Austin Nesvig tells the stories of women from Spain, North Africa, Senegambia, and Canaries accused of sorcery in sixteenth-century Mexico for adapting native magic and healing practices. These non-native women – the mulata of Seville who cured the evil eye; the Canarian daughter of a Count who ate peyote and mixed her bath water into a man's mustard supply; the wife of a Spanish conquistador who let her hair loose and chanted to a Mesoamerican god while sweeping at midnight; the wealthy Basque woman with a tattoo of a red devil; and many others – routinely adapted Native ritual into hybrid magic and cosmology. Through a radical rethinking of colonial knowledge, Dr. Nesvig uncovers a world previously left in the shadows of historical writing, revealing a fascinating and vibrant multi-ethnic community of witches, midwives, and healers.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international movements for social change, weaving connections between their own and others’ freedom struggles around the world.
Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights(W.W. Norton, 2025) tells how, during American history, Black women made humans rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle. Acclaimed historian Keisha N. Blain tells the story of these women—from the well-known, like Ida B. Wells, Madam C. J. Walker, and Lena Horne, to those who are still less known, including Pearl Sherrod, Aretha McKinley, and Marguerite Cartwright. Blain captures human rights thinking and activism from the ground up with Black women at the center, working outside the traditional halls of power.
By shouldering intersecting forms of oppression—including racism, sexism, and classism—Black women have long been in a unique position to fight for freedom and dignity. Without Fear is an account of their aspirations, strategies, and struggles to pioneer a human rights approach to combating systems of injustice.
Dr. Keisha Blain is a professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is a Guggenheim, Carnegie, and New America Fellow, and author—most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free. You can find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook.
As a young woman, Kate Riley’s search for meaning led her to a Christian commune. She lived there for a year and embraced collective life – everyone dressed the same and no one owned any private property. Kids growing up there didn’t have contact with cell phones or money. In this week’s conversation, Riley sits down with Ayesha Rascoe to explore what it means to be an individual in a communal place. And she shares what she learned about her own identity. These experiences informed her first novel, Ruth.
After their daughter committed suicide, they found her ChatGPT log—and where artificial intelligence helped her write her suicide note.
Guest: Laura Reiley, writer for the Cornell Chronicle.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplusto get access wherever you listen.
