BBC

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how members of the same species send each other invisible chemical signals to influence the way they behave. Pheromones are used by species across the animal kingdom in a variety of ways, such as laying trails to be followed, to raise the alarm, to scatter from predators, to signal dominance and to enhance attractiveness and, in honey bees, even direct development into queen or worker.

With

Tristram Wyatt

Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford

Jane Hurst

William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool

and

Francis Ratnieks

Professor of Apiculture and Head of the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Also, leading loyalist Winston Irvine has prison sentence doubled by Court of Appeal.

President Trump says US immigration staff are facing an unprecedented increase in attacks by what he called 'Deranged Radical Leftists'; he made his comment after a deadly gun attack at an immigration centre in Dallas. 'Anti-ICE' messaging was found on ammunition at the scene. Also: Syria's first head of state to speak at the UN General Assembly for nearly sixty years calls for all sanctions on his country to be lifted, China commits to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by up to ten percent, and we meet the history-making astronauts headed for the Moon.

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.

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Can Nasa build the most complex flying machine in space history? The plan is to create a permanent human presence in space.

It’s Spring 1969 - two months before the launch of Apollo 11 – the first US mission to land humans on the moon. But meanwhile, hidden away from public view, Nasa is thinking the unthinkable.

This is the epic story of the space shuttle, a dream to make spaceflight routine. Told by the astronauts and team who made it happen.

You can listen to episode 1 here. For more, search for 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service.

Hosted by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

Archive:

Richard Nixon launches Nasa’s space shuttle programme, CBS News, 1972

Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

The US has said that it's currently in negotiation for $20 billion to support Argentina’s economy. President Javier Milei thanks the US government for the “support and confidence”.

Canada has assembled an AI task force in Ottawa .It wants to prepare a strategy and has promised millions of dollars to attract talent from around the world.

(A customer counts Argentine peso bills before checking out in a supermarket in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 13, 2025. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/File Photo)

The government is holding off on announcing plans for high-speed rail across northern England due to concerns over long-term costs, the BBC has learned. The already-delayed announcement of the scheme was expected at next week's Labour Party conference, but that will not now happen. A Labour MP told us the news is "extremely disappointing" and that Britain risked being "left behind comparable nations".

The President of Syria has become the first leader of the country to address the UN General Assembly since 1967. We hear from former CIA director General David Petraeus, who as a general in Iraq had Ahmed al-Sharaa detained for fighting with the insurgency, and now calls himself a "fan".

And 30 years after the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was released, we look back at its cultural legacy with the man who wrote it and woman who starred in it.

Syria's interim president has told the UN General Assembly that his country has reclaimed its "rightful place" on the world stage. Ahmed al-Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to address the assembly since 1967. Last December, the former Islamist fighter headed a rebel alliance that overthrew the Assad regime. Twenty years ago, Sharaa was a devotee of al-Qaeda and detained in an Iraqi prison. As a leader of Islamist militants, the US Government put out a bounty of $10 million for his arrest.

Also in the programme: A generic HIV drug for $40 US dollars per person per year; and from Adam Ant to Culture Club - a look back at London's influential Blitz Club of the 1980's.

(Photo: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York, September 24, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

Ruairi attempts to negotiate, and Dane has a suggestion.

Russia hits back at the US President Donald Trump, after he called the nation a 'paper tiger'. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said 'Russia is generally associated with a bear. There are no paper bears. Russia is a real bear.' We unpack the importance of words in the US-Russia relationship and whether President Trump’s comments will have any impact on the ground in Ukraine. As Syria’s interim President, Ahmed Al Sharaa, addresses the United Nations General Assembly, Syrians in Damascus give us their opinion. Also: Super Typhoon Ragasa causes chaos in southern China, a landmark deal to slash the price of injectable HIV prevention drugs, and a breakthrough in treating Huntington’s disease. Plus: Denmark’s prime minister apologises to the victims of a forced contraceptive programme in Greenland and Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show returns to our screens, after being suspended by ABC.

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]

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz introduces the 2026 budget with €126.7 billion in new investments for infrastructure, transport, schools, and other major projects. Leanna Byrne talks to the head of the investment bank ING and we get reaction from business industries in Berlin.

New Zealand's central bank has appointed its first female boss. She's stepping in after a period of upheaval at the top, with the country teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession.

And a deal has been reached to make a new HIV prevention drug much more affordable in low and middle income countries. The announcement comes amid a turbulent year for global health, following swingeing cuts by the US government's foreign aid programme, USAID, under the Trump administration.

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