BBC

President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer take questions from the media at the end of Mr Trump's state visit.

We have full coverage of the press conference at Chequers, the PM's country residence

And we speak to Fred Fleitz, a former member of the National Security team in the first Trump administration

(Picture: U.S. President Donald Trump with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers. Credit: Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS)

Gravitational waves show two black holes merge just how Hawking predicted. Plus, a space mission without a target. And a Space probe without a confirmed budget.

In January 2025 the LIGO gravitational wave observatories witnessed two distant black holes spinning into each other. In the ten years of LIGO’s operations, that’s not a first. But the instruments have been improved to such an extent that this time some very important predictions of General Relativity and out understanding of black holes could be tested. As Birmingham University’s Alberto Vecchio says, the elegant simplicity of the mathematics of black holes has passed a test, in particular Stephen Hawking’s prediction that the surface area of merging black holes can only be increased.

Space craft have met comets before. But because spaceflight takes so long to plan and fund, we’ve only sent them to comets with human-lifetime orbital periods so far, because we know when they’re arriving. ESA wants to meet one we’ve never seen before, one that has never or seldom been in close to the sun, and never been barbecued and seared by the radiation. Colin Snodgrass of the University of Edinburgh explains the plan to launch and park a comet chaser in space to wait for one of these elusive extraterrestrial objects to come in from the cold.

That, says Meg Schwamb of Queen’s University Belfast, is going to be much easier in the next few years as the Vera Rubin Telescope begins its ten year survey cataloguing anything in the sky that changes. The type of sky survey it will provide will identify, it is hoped, many candidate first-time comets for the small fleet of spacecraft to intercept.

Having a spacecraft ready in position rather than having to launch a new one anytime you want to do some science is a good place to be, one would think.

NASA’s Juno mission has been delivering science from Jupiter since its launch, and is still functioning and able to deliver more. Yet NASA funds are under considerable threat, and as Scott Bolton tells Roland, at the end of this month Juno could be left slowly spiralling into the gas giant, silently collecting data but with no budget to keep the science going.

Presenter: Roland Pease

Producer: Alex Mansfield

Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Feelings stir for Paul, and the Harvest Festival ends in chaos.

US President Donald Trump says his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "let me down" at a news conference at the end of his historic state visit to the UK. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, says the visit has renewed the special relationship for a new era. Also; in France, hundreds of thousands of people protest against the government’s plans to cut spending; Australia announces a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions further; how AI is changing journalism in newsrooms across the world; and we look at research showing that chimpanzees consume the equivalent of a bottle of beer a day.

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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South Sudan: UN report accuses leaders of "systematic looting" The government denies the allegations

Why was the Gambia’s auditor general forcibly removed by police from office?

Plus, why domestic worker jobs are on the decline in South Africa

Presenter :Charles Gitonga

Producers: Sunita Nahar, Stefania Okereke, Nyasha Michelle and Mark Wilberforce in London. with Jewel Kiriungi in Nairobi.

Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer

Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga

Editors: Samuel Murunga, Andre Lombard, Maryam Abdalla and Alice Muthengi

President Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have signed what they’re calling a Tech Prosperity Deal, committing to deeper UK–US cooperation on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and nuclear power. Leanna Brynne explores what this means for tech businesses.

And Zoom’s head for Europe and the Middle East explains how the company is pivoting to AI in its bid to reshape the way we work.

On the final day of his visit to Britain, US president Donald Trump has been meeting the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in talks dominated by trade and business deals.

The US president has also signed what the UK prime minister says is a "groundbreaking" technology partnership between the two countries.

Also in the programme: Thousands more Palestinians are fleeing south in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds of thousands remain in Gaza City; and Australia, one of the world's biggest polluters per capita, will aim to cut its carbon emissions by at least 62% over the next decade.

(Photo shows US president Donald Trump and UK prime minister Keir Starmer as they hold a press conference at Chequers on 18 September 2025. Credit: Leon Neal/Press Association)

Also on the show, is Belfast City Airport dropping George Best from its name?

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun's 3000 year old tomb and its impact on the understanding of ancient Egypt, both academic and popular. The riches, such as the death mask above, were spectacular and made the reputation of Howard Carter who led the excavation. And if the astonishing contents of the tomb were not enough, the drama of the find and the control of how it was reported led to a craze for 'King Tut' that has rarely subsided and has enthused and sometimes confused people around the world, seeking to understand the reality of Tutankhamun's life and times. With Elizabeth Frood Associate Professor of Egyptology, Director of the Griffith Institute and Fellow of St Cross at the University of Oxford Christina Riggs Professor of the History of Visual Culture at Durham University and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford And John Taylor Curator at the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum Producer: Simon Tillotson

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 Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

The American television network ABC has suspended late-night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, indefinitely over comments he made about the shooting of the right-wing influencer, Charlie Kirk. The announcement has reignited the debate about free speech in the US. Also: the latest on Donald Trump's state visit to the UK, thousands of Palestinians flee Israel's bombardment in Gaza City, an exclusive BBC interview with Brazil's President Lula, Indian-administered Kashmir's fruit industry on the brink of collapse, and how AI could predict your health in ten years' time.

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]