Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

This week, we hear how nuclear testing changed politics in French Polynesia.

Plus, the story of how the FBI caught Ana Montes, the spy known as the ‘Queen of Cuba’.

We also talk to Jewish and Palestinian people about the moment the state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948.

Finally, we tell the unlikely story of how a heavy metal rock band emerged during the violent years of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

Contributors:

(Photo: Antony Géros. Credit: Getty Images)