The Fourcast

Afghanistan is once again under the control of the Taliban, 20 years after the US Army and its allies forced them into retreat. When Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of US troops, there were immediately concerns that this could all happen. And yet no one foresaw the shocking ease at which Taliban forces swept through the country, taking city after city, and eventually the capital Kabul.

We’ve been here before: when the Russians left in 1989, the Soviet-backed regime lasted just a few years. This time, the American-backed administration lasted mere weeks. Why was it so easy for the Taliban to regain control? And is this really a new-look Taliban - or is the future still just as bleak for the women and girls of Afghanistan?

In today’s episode, we once again chat with our international editor Lindsey Hilsum about where this leaves the West’s status as defenders of freedom and liberty, and we ask, what was the point of the last 20 years of bloodshed?

Last month, UNESCO stripped Liverpool of its World Heritage status, saying that developments along its waterfront were damaging the historic value of its docks.

The last decade has seen the Liverpool skyline transformed - with new buildings popping up alongside the famous Three Graces.

Yet the latest batch of modern high-rises and a new football stadium have pushed UNESCO to their limit - and yet the council are pushing on regardless.

This is about heritage versus regeneration, about trying to re-energise a city as well as ensuring the past is preserved. 

How do you do that and please all sides?

In this episode, we spend time in Liverpool speaking to those on both sides of the debate to figure out how a city can become the perfect mix of the modern with the historic.

More than 75 per cent of adults in the UK have had both doses of the vaccine and more than 90 per cent have Covid-19 antibodies, either from infection or vaccination.

At the beginning of the pandemic, scientists speculated that around 60 to 70 per cent of people might need to be immune to the virus to hit the “herd immunity” threshold.

This is the point where so many people are immune to the virus that it can no longer spread through the population and goes into decline.

Clearly this hasn’t happened, as a third wave of coronavirus infection is still raging in the UK. Why?

FactCheck’s Patrick Worrall goes through the data.

The Pride parade in London: it’s all about inclusion, openness, community - a beautiful, vibrant safe space where everyone can be who they want to be. 

But that has recently been called into question.

Pride in London, the non-profit volunteer organisation that controls the parade and much more - has been accused of not taking diversity seriously, of creating a hostile environment, and of bullying - all mainly towards people of colour.

And now that has come to a head with eleven volunteers resigning from Pride - resulting in five directors standing down, forcing the organisation to apologise and commit to reform.

Pride in London admit that they have not done enough for Black, Brown and Asian people, and say they are committed to being actively anti-racist. 

Today, we hear from two of those volunteers who left - and ask what Pride in London needs to do to make sure it can once again be the progressive, inclusive face of the queer community.

Just weeks after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have taken more than half of Afghanistan's around 400 districts.   More than 1500 civilians have died. Thousands more are fleeing. And many young girls are being forced into underage marriage by the Taliban.    Today, we speak to our international editor, Lindsey Hilsum, who has recently been to Afghanistan herself. We ask how close Afghanistan is to falling under Taliban control. We discuss what this means not just for the people of Afghanistan, but the geopolitical consequences as Pakistan and China look to assert control in the space left behind by the Americans.    Sources: DW News, Sky News, NewsX, Republic World    https://www.channel4.com/news/the-fourcast

A year later than planned, dominated by Covid concerns and with  a Japanese population that didn’t want it to even take place, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have come to an end.

And it’s been another year of success for Team GB. From the swimming pool to the BMX track, from the diving board to the dressage, the four nations brought home 22 golds, 65 medals in total and came fourth in the overall table.

Since Beijing 13 years ago we’ve climbed up the medals league: 47 in 2008 to 65 in 2012 to 67 in 2016. In Atlanta in 1996 we won only one Gold medal and finished 36th in the medal table behind North Korea.

In today’s episode, our sports reporter Jordan Jarrett-Bryan takes us not just through the events in Tokyo, but the revolutionary changes of the National Lottery and UK Sport in the 1990s that has paved the way to Team GB’s success.

Sickle cell disease is a painful blood condition that affects thousands, mainly among those with an African or Caribbean family background. A painful disease that is not known by many - even healthcare professionals. The recent case of Richard Okorogheye, a 19 year old found dead in Epping Forest, has revealed the difficulties and discourse around sickle cell, the struggle of shielding for the past year, and the lack of understanding around this condition. 

In this revisited episode, our Health and Social Care Producer Toby Bakare talks about living with the condition, how he has found shielding this past year, and about the shocking stories of medical racism where Black pain is not taken seriously.

Sources: Sky News, 5 News

Today we're looking back at a two-part series on Northern Ireland that originally aired in May 2021.

In part one, Paraic O’Brien looks at recent unrest, and explores how even though Northern Ireland’s youth weren’t around during the Troubles, the stories they are told strengthen the bonds of Unionism today.

And in part two, we discuss the impact of Brexit, the Irish sea border, and demographic shift which could see Catholics outnumbering Protestants for the first time in Northern Ireland’s history, throwing the future of the nation into doubt.

As some say the call for a border poll on a United Ireland is growing, what would it take to get to that point, and O’Brien asks: what would it mean to be a Unionist, if the Union no longer exists?

In this revisited episode of The Fourcast: Serena Barker-Singh spent weeks digging into a landmark report on race, commissioned by the government after the death of George Floyd.

Boris Johnson said this report was going to look at all aspects of inequality in our society. It was a big ask, but an exciting one; a race report to end all race reports, written by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.

In this three-part special, we hear her findings. 

When England dropped almost all Covid restrictions nearly two weeks ago, people piled into venues and businesses and hospitality celebrated what felt like the end of the pandemic and a new beginning following the success of the vaccine rollout.

But for some with complex health conditions, it felt like it was starting all over again, leaving them feeling abandoned and unprotected. 

Today on The Fourcast we speak to a representative of the hospitality industry, to ask if "Freedom Day" can save businesses on the edge, and a chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patient, who’s been forced to go back into shielding.