Beyond Today

The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2025 half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas. This means the demand for water will be more than the supply. This is already happening in Chennai. The Indian city with more than five million people has been having a water crisis since June. The taps have run dry and experts say there’s no end in sight.

Rajini Vaidyanathan has been reporting from Chennai for the BBC. She tells us what it’s like for the residents to live without water. Meera Subramanian is a journalist and author who has written about India’s climate crisis in her book, ‘A River Runs Again.’ She explains that living during a water shortage is far more common than we think.

Two mass shootings in 24 hours have shocked America: the first in El Paso, Texas and the other in Dayton, Ohio. 29 people have lost their lives. The El Paso shooter opened fire in a Walmart store only a few miles from the Mexican border. Police are treating the attack as domestic terrorism after finding an anti-immigrant “manifesto” on 8chan - a forum that promotes freedom of speech.

We speak to Michael Wendling from BBC Trending about how 8chan came to be taken offline. The BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera tells us why the security services are finding it tough to police white supremacist violence.

Producers: Seren Jones, Philly Beaumont

Improving social mobility has been a key pledge of successive governments with politicians promising to create a meritocracy in Britain.

When swimmer Mack Horton refused to share a podium with Sun Yang, accusing him of being a drug cheat, what he didn’t know is that one of his own teammates had tested positive for a banned substance. On Friday Shayna Jack will attempt to clear her name as she faces a four year ban. The consequences for athletes are serious– stripped of medals, barred from competition and a reputation in tatters, it hardly seems worth the risk. Time and time again athletes get caught, but is the testing regime keeping up?

US rapper A$AP Rocky went on trial in Sweden this week, accused of assaulting a 19-year-old in Stockholm.

Donald Trump has publicly called for his release online, tweeting “Give A$AP Rocky his FREEDOM. We do so much for Sweden but it doesn’t seem to work the other way around. Sweden should focus on its real crime problem! #FreeRocky”.

The US president has also spoken to the Swedish prime minister about the case.

But why does Donald Trump care about the rapper’s arrest? And how has his intervention gone down in Sweden?

We speak to Maddy Savage, who has been covering events in Stockholm for the BBC. We also hear from Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who represents the New York district where A$AP Rocky was born, and from Eugene Scott, a writer on identity issues for the Washington Post.

Producers: Duncan Barber and Daniel Kraemer.

As technology advances, we’re going to become more reliant on artificial intelligence. Robots are being programmed and piloted in primary schools and care-homes to teach basic maths and to help tackle loneliness. Robots are even available to provide romantic intimacy and sex. It seems inevitable that robots will play a significant role in our emotional lives, but who might benefit from them?

Meanwhile amongst the Silicon Valley elite, there’s a growing movement that is turning away from technology. Some experts say that, as the rest of society becomes reliant on robots and AI, only the rich will be able to afford the luxury of human contact to educate, work and care for them. We talk to academic and author Dr. Kate Devlin about how intimate our relationships with robotics can be, while the BBC’s tech correspondent, Dave Lee explores how a robotic transformation of the workforce isn’t great news for everyone.

Producers: Seren Jones

Once upon a time the concept of legalising recreational cannabis was something stoners at house parties dreamt about, but in the past few years the conversation around cannabis has changed.

BBC Newsbeat journalist Jim Connolly travelled with Labour's David Lammy, Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly and Liberal Democrat Sir Norman Lamb on a fact-finding trip to Canada. In 2018 Canada became the first G7 country to allow recreational use of the drug. The MPs are now convinced the UK will fully legalise cannabis use within five to ten years.

Currently cannabis is designated as a Class B drug in the UK and anyone caught with it could face up to five years in prison.

Jim spoke to Matthew about what, and who, is driving the push for legalisation in the UK.

You can watch Jim’s Newsbeat documentary here:

Producers: Lucy Hancock, Duncan Barber and Alva White.

More than 6 million people have tuned in to watch series 5 of Love Island. It all comes to an end next week but ITV has announced that it’s doing so well they’ll start running two series a year. We speak to superfans Sarah Manavis, digital culture writer for the New Statesman, and broadcaster Richie Anderson about the show’s success and why the Love Island friendships have been stronger than ever.

Produced by: Beyond Today producers

Matt Forde set out on a mission to humanise politics with his podcast the Political Party. He’s interviewed some of the biggest politicians of our time: Tony Blair, Nigel Farage and even Tommy Robinson. But there’s a thin line between humanising politicians and doing their PR job for them. In the week that a politician known for his jokes became prime minister, we ask how much does comedy feature in modern politics? Can it be a tool for something darker, and is satire now just the pursuit of smug elites?

Producers: Lucy Hancock, Duncan Barber and Philly Beaumont.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably used Faceapp to see how you’ll look when you’re older.

But in the days after Faceapp blew up, a conspiracy theory spread across the internet. People were worried that Wireless Lab - the app’s maker - was feeding data to the Russian government.

This led to the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling for an investigation into FaceApp. In a letter posted on Twitter, Mr Schumer called it "deeply troubling" that personal data of US citizens could go to a "hostile foreign power".

In this episode we speak to the BBC’s Russia and disinformation specialist Olga Robinson about why worrying about Faceapp’s Russian roots misses the point. Maryam Ahmed - a BBC expert in Machine intelligence – answers the questions the Faceapp story throws up and explains why any private company would want pictures of our face in the first place.

Producers: Duncan Barber and Lucy Hancock.