Beyond Today

At first coronavirus was just a health story, but now it’s pretty clear employment and the economy are taking a massive hit. Travel bans have led to airlines cutting jobs and the hospitality sector is in trouble as people stay at home.

In this episode we ask what will happen to workers. It’s a global problem so we speak to Harriet and Ray, a freelance couple in New York, as well as documentary director Emily in London. We also speak...

Kiley Reid’s debut novel shot into the bestsellers list and has been lauded by critics here and in the US. Such A Fun Age follows the lives of babysitter Emira Tucker, a young black woman, and her wealthy, white employer Alix Chamberlin in post-Obama America. Kiley’s book explores race, class and wealth, and how well-meaning wokeness can actually exacerbate those issues.

Presenter: Tina Daheley Producers: Alicia Burrell and Katie Gu...

The world is in the midst of a pandemic. For most people, symptoms of the virus are mild, they might develop a cough and a fever before getting better. This has led many people to compare the new coronavirus to seasonal influenza. But, for a minority of those affected, particularly older people and those with underlying heart or lung conditions, the new coronavirus can cause severe difficulty breathing, and in about 1% of cases, de...

Most people who transition to another gender do not have second thoughts. In fact de-transitioning is thought to be relatively rare. There are no accurate figures revealing how many people reverse or change their gender, as academic researchers have never studied a large group of transitioning people over a long period of time – but some studies suggest that fewer than 0.5 per cent of trans people choose to return to the gender the...

Middlesbrough has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales. Even though national figures show rates have dropped by nearly 60 percent over the past 10 years, the number of pregnant teens in the north-eastern town rose by 20 percent from 2015 to 2017.

When the average age of a mum in England and Wales is 30 years old, why are there so many teens having babies in Middlesbrough?

We speak to Charley and Robyn, two...

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the 70-year-old billionaire ruler of Dubai and vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, has been found by the High Court in London to have abducted and forcibly returned two of his daughters to Dubai, and to have conducted a campaign of intimidation against his former wife, Princess Haya.

Princess Haya used to speak of a perfect family life in interviews, but cracks began to appear in 2018 w...

It was just before 10 o’clock in the morning on 27th October 2018 when a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and three pistols opened fire on worshippers at a synagogue in the US state of Pennslyvania. 11 people died that morning at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on American Jews in US history, and it sent shock waves around the world.

For the writer and New York Times columnist, Bari Weiss...

There have been mounting allegations over the past few weeks that home secretary Priti Patel has bullied her staff. Last weekend the top civil servant in the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam, resigned. He’s heavily criticised Patel, and is suing the government for constructive dismissal. Priti Patel has denied any wrongdoing.

In today’s episode we look into the multiple allegations against the home secretary. Our home affairs corresp...

Nearly 50 people have died in India following violence around a controversial citizenship law which critics say is anti-Muslim. Photographs, videos and accounts on social media paint a chilling image of what appears to be mostly Hindu mobs beating unarmed Muslim men.

In this episode we speak to BBC journalists Yogita Limaye and Sachin Gogoi to find out what’s fuelling the violence.

Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Duncan Barber a...

In the same week that Harvey Weinstein was convicted for sexual assaults in New York, Roman Polanski won the award for best director at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. The actor Adele Haenel, who accused a director of sexually abusing her when she was a child, denounced the decision and walked out of the ceremony. Polanski has been accused of assaulting several women, including a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

France’s ...

In Paris in 2015 world leaders agreed on a binding commitment on climate change. They committed to keeping the increase in global temperatures to just 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Heathrow airport has been planning to expand by building a third runway. But last week environmentalists successfully challenged the third runway on the basis that it couldn’t demonstrate how the expansion of the airport was consistent ...

2020 has been quite a year, we're only two months in but have already faced an impending war between the US and Iran, deadly bushfires in Australia, and now coronavirus is spreading across the world.

So, in light of that, we thought it was time to return to an earlier episode to make us all feel better. It’s about self-care and making time for some emotional first aid.

Dr Laurie Santos is professor of psychology and cognitive science...

For years there were allegations that Harvey Weinstein had assaulted women. This week he was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, including rape, and faces up to 29 years in prison. So, how did the Hollywood titan create his downfall?

The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta has been covering Weinstein since 2002, and tells us how Weinstein became one of the industry’s most influential players and how his power led to his fall from gr...

Facial recognition technology is increasingly widespread. You might use it to unlock your phone or computer. It’s used in airports around the world and some shops are using the software to catch or deter shoplifters. Now it’s being used by the police in two parts of the UK. The Metropolitan Police is using live facial recognition cameras on London streets and it’s also being used by police in South Wales. The technology means that...

With cases of coronavirus spreading across the world, one word we’re hearing more and more is “pandemic”. If the disease is declared a pandemic it would mean that cases of coronavirus are no longer able to be traced back to the country of origin and fall outside of the control of health authorities. The World Health Organisation doesn’t consider coronavirus to be a pandemic yet, and has stated there is hope that it is controllable ...

Mark Zuckerberg says he wants new rules for social media.

Every year politicians and security experts meet in Munich to discuss how to keep the world safe. This year they invited Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He told the conference governments need to create new rules for social media platforms to stop the spread of harmful content and disinformation. So why is big tech’s biggest player asking for more regulation?

The BBC...

Billie Eilish is on top of the world right now. The 18-year-old recently swept the board at the Grammys, winning five awards including best new artist and song of the year. She also replaced Taylor Swift as the youngest person ever to win album of the year. She’s just performed at the Brit Awards and has written the theme for the upcoming James Bond film No Time To Die.

She seems to be a rare example of organic streaming success in ...

Since Caroline Flack’s death by suicide last weekend, many people have been trying to make sense of it. Yesterday her family released a previously unpublished Instagram post written by Caroline Flack detailing her ‘shame’ and ‘embarrassment’ at the truth being taken out of her hands and used, she wrote, as ‘entertainment’. Some have pointed the finger at the tabloids for her fragile mental state. Others are blaming a ‘toxic’ social...

At the beginning of the year Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s senior adviser, put out an unusual job advertisement. In a blog post he asked for “super-talented weirdos” and “wild-cards”. One of the people he hired was Andrew Sabisky, a twentysomething “superforecaster”. It was later revealed that Sabisky had previously expressed extreme views on race and eugenics. He subsequently resigned.

In this episode we speak to Newsni...