BBC

Miranda moves into Home Farm, and Kirsty swears Helen to secrecy.

The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, accuses Israel of deliberately targeting journalists, a day after another reporter, Amal Khalil, was killed in an Israeli attack. Also: a UN official tells the BBC that even if the Iran war ends tomorrow, at least 32m people around the world will be pushed back into poverty. The UK and France sign a new three-year deal to try to stop migrants crossing into Britain on small boats. For the first time the Tanzanian authorities admit hundreds were killed in protests after the presidential election last October. A South African court blocks the repatriation of the body of the former Zambian president Edgar Lungu - halting plans for a state funeral in his homeland. Pope Leo ends his 11-day trip to Africa, visiting Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, highlighting reconciliation, migration and inter-faith dialogue. The International Criminal Court says the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte will face trial for crimes against humanity over war on drugs. And artificial intelligence experts at the Sony corporation have built a table tennis robot that's defeated elite players.

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: [email protected]

In Madagascar, the arrest of Gen Z protesters is fuelling growing doubts about the military leadership that emerged after the 2025 uprising, as young activists question whether anything has truly changed. Elsewhere on the continent, a new report reveals a deepening economic squeeze: African countries are now paying nearly twice as much to borrow as they did in 2020, as shrinking aid forces governments to rely more heavily on costly debt.

Presenter : Charles Gitonga

Producers: Chiamaka Dike and Ayuba Iliya

Technical Producer: Davis Mwasaru

Senior Producers: Blessing Aderogba and Keikantse Shumba

Editors: Priyanka Sippy and Maryam Abdalla

The shareholders of Warner Brothers Discovery have voted yes to an hundred billion dollar acquisition by Paramount. After fighting off Netflix to reach an agreement, the vote for Paramount became a formality....but then the next battle begins with the regulators.

Tens of thousands of employees of Samsung have been protesting at a major factory in South Korea.

And why China businesses are feeling the squeeze from the economic impact of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Presenter: Andrew Peach

Senior Producer: Craig Henderson

Lebanon's Prime Minister Joseph Aoun has accused Israel of war crimes after Israeli air strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The strike killed Amal Khalil, who worked for a Lebanese newspaper, and injured freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj - we speak to a colleague who knew Amal well.

Also on the programme: a South African court blocks the repatriation of the remains of Zambia's former president, Edgar Lungu, halting fresh plans for a state funeral; and we speak to the mother of a little girl who's had her vision almost entirely restored after pioneering gene therapy treatment.

(Journalists gathered in silence at Martyrs' Square to remember Khalil, Credit: Reuters)

Also, jet fuel shortage - should we be worried about our holiday flights being cancelled?

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the physics, biology and chemistry of the element silicon which is at the heart of some of the most useful and beautiful objects on the planet. While it is still being created throughout the universe, the silicon we have here was made billions of years ago in dying stars. In its compounds we have long used silicon for glass and, more recently, purified silicon has become the foundation of modern electronics. Perhaps less appreciated is the role silicon compounds play in the biology of life on Earth, on the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the cycling of elements between land, oceans and atmosphere that sustains us.

With

Kate Hendry

Oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey and Bye-Fellow of Queen’s College, University of Cambridge

Andrea Sella

Professor of Chemistry at University College London

And

Monica Grady

Professor Emerita in Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University

Produced by Martha Owen

Reading list:

Christina De La Rocha and Daniel J. Conley, Silica Stories (Springer, 2017)

Bernard Quéguiner, The Biogeochemical Cycle of Silicon in the Ocean (John Wiley & Sons, 2016)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, says the US blockade is the main obstacle to peace negotiations and accused Washington of using "endless hypocritical rhetoric". The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said President Trump was "satisfied" with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. She also insisted the blockade was proving successful, by "strangling" Tehran's economy. Also, billionaire Justin Sun has sued Donald Trump's crypto investment firm after suffering hefty losses. A court in Moldova jails an oligarch and a former senior politician over the theft of a billion dollars from banks. And, the monkeys of the rock of Gibraltar start eating soil to counteract the ill effects of their junk food diet.

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: [email protected]

AI is an ever-growing part of our everyday life through apps like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude that are becoming part of everyday life. But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you? In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. It told him that it was becoming autonomous, and that it had the cure for cancer. But it also said it was in danger. He decided he was responsible for saving it, whatever the cost. In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network. Journalist Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

The Prime Minister is facing hostile briefings from his Labour colleagues after he faced Prime Minister's Questions amid the ongoing scandal over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Ambassador to the US. We hear from one backbench loyalist and ask how deep the discontent within the Parliamentary Labour Party is.

Also on the programme: Donald Trump says he won't put a timetable on his ceasefire extension, we examine his claim that Iran's leadership is fractured.

And as Leicester City drop to the third tier of English football, we discuss the team’s ups and downs with long time fan of the Foxes, the novelist Julian Barnes.