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Its thought over 2000 Brits have fought in the Ukraine war. May of them are seasoned soldiers, veterans of Afghanistan, Syria and Northern Ireland who are just taking on another call of duty. There are others who have never picked up a gun before but gave up their day jobs to join the fight against Russia

Nick Garnett meets the soldiers to find out why they have given up jobs, said a goodbye to families to go and fight for a country they don't belong to.

Nick will find out about the changing face of war in Ukraine how the trained soldiers have encountered a whole new way of combat such as drones

In the summer of 2020, Radio 4 producer Polly Weston found herself at Nathan Gill’s house. She’d been sent by a random postcode generator, for an episode of The Patch. What followed was a wide-ranging interview about his life and career, how he became involved in UKIP, his involvement in campaigning for Brexit, and his subsequent responsibilities in the Brexit party after they stormed to victory in the 2019 European elections. But the interview also happens to cover the period he was taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia. One year after this interview, Counter Terrorism detectives entered this same house, and they found evidence which contributed to his recent conviction for eight counts of bribery.

“Officers found evidence on his devices that showed how Gill was in contact another individual in Ukraine and that Gill had agreed that, in exchange for money, he would make certain statements that were supportive of pro-Russia media being present in Ukraine. Detectives identified eight such instances between January 2018 and February 2020.”

Gill pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery in September, and faces sentencing on the 21st November – he is expected to receive a prison sentence.

This is his story, up to the time of the events which led to his conviction, as told by the man himself.

Produced and Presented in Bristol by Polly Weston

Could the solution to Britain’s immigration problems lie in the Danish model? A model based on harsh restrictions on who can enter the country and strict rules for immigrants requiring not just integration but assimilation – and all promoted by a centre-left government.

In this documentary BBC Political Correspondent Iain Watson explains why some prominent Labour MPs now think it’s the answer they’re searching for, and why the Government might soon follow suit.

Travelling to Denmark he discovers what happened when the country introduced its radical new system, what the appeal is for British Labour MPs, and whether their system could work here. He reveals why the Danish model is attracting such interest to manage immigration and for its potential to solve Labour’s political problems. But can this Labour government navigate the extremely hazardous path of adopting policies associated with the populist right whilst retaining their own support on the left? Iain Watson reveals how all this may now play out.

Presenter: Iain Watson

Kent is the Garden of England - if you view it from the air, it’s covered in square miles of plastic, where the millions of tonnes of soft fruit are grown that feed the nation. Aidan Tulloch takes us inside the world of the summer fruit pickers recruited to work for a season on a blueberry farm in Kent.

In early summer thousands of people arrive in UK airports, hired on short-term visas to help pick the annual crop of soft fruit. Picking is an international effort, with jobs advertised in Russian, Bulgarian, Polish and many other languages, and pickers are increasingly being recruited from Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. They are joined each day by local pickers, often students or young people working summers between other lives elsewhere. Many pickers live in on-site caravans that become their homes for several months. The farm becomes a fascinating, temporary global community.

From spring showers through a heatwave and a late September chill, this is the story of a summer in a pickers' village, from the early starts to the final goodbyes and the return home, where different people from vastly different backgrounds come together over the course of several months. It's the story of 5am alarms, temperamental weather, unexpected friendships and ad-hoc games of football, families left behind in home countries, new lives made in the UK - human stories behind the punnets of blueberries in your local supermarket.

Translations: Irena Taranyuk and Elizaveta Fokht

Presenter: Aidan Tulloch

David Baker’s Jewish identity and faith have always been central to who he is - and so is his affiliation with Israel. But he has been re-evaluating that relationship since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza.

For many decades after the founding of Israel, most British Jews were unequivocal in their support. And that is still the case for many Jews in Britain. But there is evidence that those ties are weakening for a younger generation and some older Jews, too, are criticising the actions of Israel’s current right-wing government and the devastation of Gaza.

In a search for answers, David talks to other British Jews who are responding in different ways. Some are taking political action, some are deepening their bonds with Israel and others are re-examining their connection with the Jewish state.

Presenter: David Baker

In towns and cities across Britain, flags are appearing in ever greater numbers. On rooftops, down terraced streets, outside pubs and community centres, they flutter as both a statement of pride and a challenge to what many feel the country is becoming. In York, the group known as the Flag Force see their work as part of a wider national campaign. For them, raising the Union Flag or the Cross of St George is about honouring history, heritage and a sense of belonging they believe is slowly being stripped away by government neglect, the cost of living crisis and, above all, immigration.

The Flaggers insist their cause is not rooted in racism or exclusion, but in the preservation of British culture. Yet for others, the message is harder to separate. To some, the same symbols that inspire pride in one street can read like a warning in another. Not a call for unity, but a signal that certain people do not belong.

At the heart of this story is a clash of meanings. Supporters describe the flags as an antidote to division, a way to bring fractured communities together under a shared identity. Opponents counter with flags of their own, from Switzerland to Bermuda to the rainbow Pride flag, aiming to show that being British can mean welcoming different cultures rather than resisting them.

The result is a patchwork of banners across the country, each one loaded with history, politics and personal belief. What was once a simple piece of fabric is now a frontline in a debate about who we are and who we want to be. The very symbols meant to unite us are instead exposing how deeply divided we remain.

Presented and Produced by Jonny I'Anson

Nick Eardley explores the Scottish dimension to one of the most contentious issues facing the UK – immigration. With lower birthrates and a population that’s aging faster, Scotland desperately needs people to come here and take up jobs in critical sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and hospitality. And now with Reform biting at their heels Labour plan to adopt a much tighter immigration policy. So does this ‘one size fits all’ immigration policy risk making Scotland’s problems worse?

Nick’s investigation probes into another central question: are higher immigration levels something that the average Scot is ready to accept? On the surface, Scotland presents itself as a hospitable, inclusive country, known for its strong values of egalitarianism. It avoided last year’s wave of immigration riots which hit parts of England and marred Labour’s first few weeks in power but recent protests outside asylum hotels in places like Perth and Falkirk suggest public opinion is shifting.

The recent rise in support for Reform UK reveal a complex picture. While there’s much enthusiasm for Scotland from immigrant communities, there are surprising undercurrents of resentment surfacing.

Nick will explore the often contradictory narratives and perspectives surrounding immigration in Scotland. His journey will uncover whether Scotland’s reputation for openness aligns with current attitudes, or if this image masks deeper ambivalences - does the old Scottish adage, about inclusivity - “We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns,” still reflect the country today?

Presenter: Nick Eardley

Amid the crowds and bustle of the 2025 Iowa State Fair, Anna Jones takes the temperature of rural Iowans almost a year into Trump's second term. Anna finds out how the farming constituency - largely Trump supporting in 2024 - are feeling about global trade tariffs and promises to Make America Great Again. She explores their perceptions of America's position in the world - and how they feel the rest of the world views the rural Midwest.

Produced and presented by Anna Jones for BBC Audio Bristol

A programme marking the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Unification that brought East and West Germany together after 40 years of separation.

Historian Katja Hoyer was born in East Germany in the 1980s. Then, her home town of Guben was a bustling hub of the GDR's chemical industry, shrouded in smog and crowded with people. Today, it is clean and beautifully rebuilt, but also rather desolate and depopulated as residents debate how best to revitalise the region. 40% of people in Guben now vote for the right wing AfD party and express disappointment with life 35 years after reunification. Why?

Katja talks to the city mayor, librarian, AfD politician, journalists, a rapper, pub owner and people who grew up in the GDR.

What is going on with US science? Science Journalist Roland Pease asks whether the rounds of cuts, reorganisations and political strong-arming can be weathered, and how they will likely affect us all.

80 years after Vannevar Bush proposed what became the pact between government and universities that led to decades of global scientific dominance, is the edifice being toppled?

Bush’s report “Science, The Endless Frontier” led to the unwritten pact between university scientists and government funding that underpinned US leadership until now. “Trust us with the money, we’ll give you the global scientific advantage”.

Today, US scientists fear the Trump administration is ripping up that agreement. Mandating what and what can’t be studied, who can study it, and re-defining expertise, government funded science in the US is being withered. The specialist agencies are either being closed down or defunded to the extent that many tens of thousands of government scientists are already unemployed. Multi-year experiments are being closed down uncompleted. Top universities are besieged by mandates on who and how they hire, tied to their future funding. Data streams that benefit researchers around the globe are being switched off. Even definitions of what counts as evidence are being re-drafted.

Science is a complex, interwoven and international activity. The administration's declared aim is "Restoring Gold Standard Science", but scientific bodies fear its actions will cede global leadership to China, and that the whole world may be poorer.

Can the coming storm be weathered, even if we can no longer predict it?

Produced by Alex Mansfield