Beyond Today

After the mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand in which 50 people were killed there has been widespread shock that it happened in a country that regards itself as inclusive and welcoming. The attack was livestreamed on Facebook, and social media companies were criticised for waiting too long to take the footage down. But the attacker also posted on extreme free speech message boards – where a racist subculture is thriving. We speak to Mike Wendling, Editor of BBC Trending, who has been tracking this subculture, and to Dominic Casciani, who covers terrorism for the BBC, to find out how the security services are dealing with this new challenge.

Producer: Philly Beaumont

Editor: John Shields

Mixed by Andy Mills

The comedian and director Simon Amstell is a familiar face who a lot of us grew up with. He visited the Beyond Today studio to tell us about his semi-autobiographical film ‘Benjamin’ in which the main character is constantly seeking external validation. We also discussed his fear of intimacy, an imaginary gorilla, and veganism.

'Benjamin' is in cinemas March 15th.

Producer: Duncan Barber.

We are told we are living through historic political times. The Prime Minister has faced unprecedented defeats in the House of Commons yet survives in the job. With two weeks to go to the deadline for leaving the EU, we still don’t know how Brexit will work. So where will we end up? Has politics changed forever? And who can explain the chaos? We speak to the BBC’s Nick Robinson, host of the Talking Politics podcast and Radio 4’s Today programme, and Daniel Kraemer from the BBC’s Political Research Unit.

Mixed by Nicolas Raufast

Money. We all want more of it. But apart from securing a bumper pay rise or winning the lottery, probably the most obvious way to maximise our finances is to sensibly look after what we do have. It can be hard though, with financial jargon like ISAs, pension options, and interest rates sometimes feeling impossible to understand. We’ve been collecting your questions about your money and have put them to finance gurus Bola Sol and Laura Whateley.

Producers: Harriet Noble and Jaja Muhammad

Right now Shamima Begum is in a sprawling internment camp in the Syrian desert, stripped of her British citizenship and unable to leave. Buried there is her son Jarrah, who died last week of pneumonia. He was under three weeks old. The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville has interviewed her twice in the past few weeks and spoke to us about what happens to her now, and who’s to blame for the death of her child.

Producers: Harriet Noble and Jessica Beck

In 1993, an 18 year old black teenager, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in East London. The police messed up the investigation into his killers. The inquiry that followed led by the judge Sir William Macpherson was one of the most damning documents to emerge about the police – describing it as “institutionally racist”. Twenty years on the barrister and broadcaster Hashi Mohamed has made a documentary about what has happened since for Radio 4. We speak to him about the legacy of Macpherson, about stop and search, and whether the police still have more to do to tackle racism.

Producer: Philly Beaumont

And you can get Hashi’s documentary. Macpherson: What happened next - is on BBC Sounds

In March 2009, an Islamic extremist group called Al-Muhajiroun staged a demonstration as 200 soldiers paraded through the town of Luton after returning from Iraq. The radical Islamists fuelled anger in the local community, and these tensions led to the formation of the English Defence League by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - aka Tommy Robinson. Ten years on, we speak to the people who were there as Luton faced a global media storm and find out how they have been working to beat extremism ever since.

Producer: Georgia Coan

It’s often said that we get trapped in online "filter bubbles” or “echo chambers” and that we don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview. It’s a convincing narrative - but is it true? And how do you know if you live in one? BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan has been finding out for a series called Crossing Divides.

Producer: Duncan Barber.

US teenager Ethan Lindenberger has been speaking out against his mother who refused to vaccinate him as a child. Why has the anti-vax movement captured the imagination of so many people despite being detrimental to public health? Whether it’s spreading bad information on social media or seeing dark conspiracies, Joseph Stubbersfield a Cognitive Anthropologist at Durham University and Bob Blaskiewiccz, Professor of Critical Thinking at Stockton Uni explain how bad ideas can thrive. Plus, Dr. Jen Gunter explains how we can all fall into conspiracy traps set by celebrity doctors and ‘alternative’ science.

Producers: Seren Jones, Lucy Hancock, Jaja Muhammad.

In the Canadian city of Vancouver a woman named Meng Wanzhou is under house arrest in her $4.2bn mansion. Chief financial officer of the Chinese tech firm Huawei, and the founder’s daughter, she’s accused by the US of bank fraud and violating sanctions against Iran. But as the BBC’s Silicon Valley Reporter Dave Lee tells Beyond Today, her arrest is about more than this: we might look back on it as the opening salvo in the tech cold war.

Reporter: Harriet Noble