Beyond Today

Fortnite tends to make headlines because of how many people play it and how much money it makes, but it’s much more interesting than that. In this episode we explore how Fortnite’s founders have created a new way of experiencing the world that is up against Netflix, Facebook, Google and Amazon in the battle over how you spend your free time.

You might not be a gamer, but the creators of Fortnite have a vision of the technology that is so ambitious there’s a chance you’re going to feel completely lost without it in five years’ time. It all depends on something called the “Metaverse”, an alternate digital reality where people live, work and socialise.

We speak to Matthew Ball about what that means. Matthew is a venture capitalist and former digital media executive. From 2016-2018 he was head of strategy for Amazon Studios. He writes for MediaREDEF and can be found online at @ballmatthew, or www.matthewball.vc. We also speak to 13 year old Charlie about what grownups get wrong about Fortnite.

Producers: Duncan Barber, Harriet Noble, Lucy Hancock

Last week Panorama went undercover inside a hospital for vulnerable adults and revealed patients being mocked, taunted and intimidated by abusive staff. In shocking footage, reporter Olivia Davies filmed patients with autism and learning disabilities being deliberately provoked by staff and regularly physically restrained by them. The investigation comes eight years after her colleague Joe Plomin exposed the scandal of abuse at Winterbourne View, another specialist hospital. Then, the government promised to reform care for the most vulnerable. We spoke to them both about the challenges of going undercover and who we should blame when the system fails people.

Producer: Lucy Hancock

Theresa May says she’s resigning, making way for a new prime minister. But she’s leaving without Brexit being resolved. The new person in the job will have to continue to negotiate and with European Parliament elections taking place this weekend the leaders there will have their eye on the results. We speak to the BBC’s Europe Editor Katya Adler and Tanit Koch managing editor of n-tv in Berlin about the view from Europe and the new political forces likely to have influence there.

Produced by Philly Beaumont and Duncan Barber.

Jamie Oliver is one of the UK’s best-known chefs and restaurant owners. He’s had world wide success with his books, TV series, and campaigns, but this week it was announced that his restaurant company had gone into administration with the loss of 1,000 jobs. Since he came onto our screens 20 years ago with the Naked Chef series he’s had a huge impact on British food culture. To find out how we speak to the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s the Food Programme Sheila Dillon and two men whose careers he helped launch: Tim Siadatan, who runs Trullo and Padella in London, and Martin Gott, an award-winning cheese maker from Cumbria.

A woman who changed her name to escape revenge porn has once again become a victim after finding images of herself on a website containing folders full of explicit images of women “from every city in the UK”. Some of the folders give away full names and locations of the women, but most of them do not even know that the website exists. We hear about Mikala Monsoon who waived her right to anonymity as a victim of crime because she wants the crime taken more seriously. BBC Scotland news reporter Connor Gillies tells us how the police have responded and why revenge porn is so difficult to stop.

The Chinese company Huawei wants to be the biggest tech firm in the world. But this week the US tried to squash it by cutting Huawei off from Google’s Android operating system, meaning that users’ phones may no longer get security updates. It’s the latest move in an ongoing trade war between the US and China. So how much is this about phones, and how much is it about a battle for global supremacy? BBC Click’s Jen Copestake, Vincent Ni from the BBC Chinese Service and our Security Correspondent Gordon Corera tell us the answer.

Producer: Harriet Noble

On Friday the former BNP poster boy and 23 year-old convicted paedophile Jack Renshaw was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for plotting to murder the Labour MP Rosie Cooper. Renshaw has been a hero to some racists, misogynists and anti-semites in the North West for a few years. We speak to Robbie Mullen, a former neo-nazi who risked his life to blow the whistle on Renshaw; Ruth Smeeth, the Labour MP who told Cooper about the plot, and the BBC’s Daniel De Simone, who covered the case, to understand why neo-Nazis are radicalising against women.

Producer: Lucy Hancock

Every week it seems there’s an incident involving race that goes viral online. Last week it was Danny Baker’s exit from 5 live and the consequent tide of backlash. But it could have been any week and any number of views. One person who has dedicated her entire career to unpicking the language and culture of systemic racism is Reni Eddo-Lodge, who wrote the award winning ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race’. She came into the Beyond Today studio to talk about race and public shaming.

Producers: Jaja Muhammad, Lucy Hancock and Philly Beaumont

This is the story of an Iraqi boy with a face scarred in a military attack, who was brought for treatment in Britain in 1992. Amar Kanim began a new life in rural Devon after he was separated from his family in Basra. Then 30 years later an extraordinary chain of events that began with a chance meeting at Exeter station changed his life once again. The BBC’s Jon Kay, Andy Alcroft and Alex Littlewood told us his story.

Producer: Duncan Barber.

You can watch Amar’s story on the BBC News Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uplZhWFDf4.