The Global Story

Is Washington leaving Saudi Arabia to fend for itself? Last week, Houthi rebels launched a series of missile strikes on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. Surveillance footage showed a fireball erupting as airport passengers ran for cover. At least 14 people have been killed and hundreds were injured.

The attack is the latest escalation in a decade-long war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in neighbouring Yemen. The Saudis have long relied on financial, military and intelligence support from the United States, particularly in their fight against the Houthis. But Washington so far has shown little appetite for direct involvement in the fighting.

So why is the United States holding back? And what does that mean for the people caught in the middle?

The BBC’s chief international investigations correspondent, Nawal al-Maghafi, recently reported from inside Yemen and joins The Global Story’s Asma Khalid to discuss why this conflict is escalating and what might happen next.

(Photo: Houthi supporters rally against Saudi Arabia in Sanaa, Yemen, 9 October 2026. Credit:Yahya Arhab / EPA / Shutterstock)

Producer: Cat Farnsworth and Mhairi MacKenzie

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Digital producer: Charlie Firth

Senior news editor: China Collins

This week tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets of Delhi, India’s capital, demanding changes to the electoral system and the resignation of the country’s electoral commissioner. Thousands have been detained by police in the process.

They represent the ‘cockroach’ movement, a grassroots campaign group started by a Boston University graduate in protest at government policies and high youth unemployment. How did a movement that started as a meme capture the minds of India’s young people, and start to pose a challenge to its long-serving prime minister, Narendra Modi?

The BBC’s South Asia correspondent, Azadeh Moshiri, explains.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Lucy Pawle

Mix: Travis Evans

Executive producer: James Shield

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: A protester gestures while being detained by security personnel during a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) seeking the resignation of India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, near the protest site in New Delhi, India, October 10, 2026. Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

Since World War Two ended, most people living in the United States or Europe have generally upheld a consensus about its morality; that it was a just war fought against an evil Nazi regime, and the allies were right to fight it.

But in a viral podcast debate with the British conservative Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tucker Carlson seemed to disagree with that narrative, causing deep consternation within the wider conservative movement.

The Global Story’s Tristan Redman speaks to BBC Newscast’s Adam Fleming about Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and the strand of British conservatism he represents. We also hear from the Conservative politician and Times of London columnist Lord Daniel Finkelstein - whose parents were survivors of a Nazi concentration camps and a Russian gulag - about why he thinks one of America’s most influential right-wing voices is casting doubt on World War Two history.

(Photo: Tucker Carlson speaks at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, 18 July, 2024. He has short brown hair with side parting. He gestures with both arms outstretched to the side as he speaks into a mic. He wears a dark blue jacket, a blue and white gingham shirt and a dark blue tie with yellow, diagonal stripes. Credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

Producer: Aron Keller and Cat Farnsworth

Executive producer: James Shield

Digital producer: Sam Gruet

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Politicians and commentators keep telling us we are living through unprecedented times. But how unusual is the world we are living in, really?

John Simpson has spent 60 years reporting for the BBC, witnessing some of the most consequential moments in modern history. He was on the plane that brought Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran during the 1979 revolution. He watched the Berlin Wall come down. And he reported from Beijing during the protests in Tiananmen Square.

Those experiences have left Simpson with a perspective that is not entirely pessimistic. Having lived through the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid, Simpson has seen seemingly entrenched systems change in ways few thought possible.

Now, as wars rage and the global order shifts again, he joins The Global Story’s Asma Khalid to reflect on what those moments can tell us about the present and whether today’s conflicts are repeating familiar patterns.

(Photo: John Simpson enters Kabul, 2001)

Producer: Xandra Ellin and Mhairi MacKenzie

Executive producer: James Shield and Martine Powers

Digital producer: Charlie Firth

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

A plague scare in Siberia has become a Rorschach test for public health fears in a post-Covid world.

Russian officials are investigating the death of a worker at a plague research laboratory. They say she died of pneumonia. But speculation online has suggested she may have died from pneumonic plague.

Russian authorities deny this and say there is no risk of an outbreak. So why has the story sparked so much alarm? And how has the legacy of the Covid pandemic played into people's fears of another global health crisis?

The BBC’s health reporter, Jim Reed, joins The Global Story’s Tristan Redman to explain what we know about the case in Russia – and whether the world is prepared for a potential outbreak.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Cat Farnsworth

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Digital producer: Charlie Firth

Technical producer: Mike Regaard

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis), computer illustration. The bacterium causes bubonic plague. Credit: Getty Images.

What began as a revolt over public school funding has spilled into a much bigger fight over the future of France.

Now, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, and clashes with police have left teenagers and officers injured. More than 6,000 people have been arrested, most of them minors.

But what sparked these demonstrations? How could they shape next year’s election in France? And why have they become a conservative political talking point in the US?

The Global Story’s own Tristan Redman — a Paris resident himself — speaks with co-host Asma Khalid about the history of Parisian street protests, what he’s heard from students on the ground, and what this movement could mean for France’s future.

Producers: Mhairi MacKenzie and Xandra Ellin

Photo: A student holds up a French national flag while demonstrating outside the Carmes campus of the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), in Paris, France. (Firas Altoukhi/EPA/Shutterstock)

Israel is marking three years since the 7 October attacks, in which around 1,200 people were killed by Hamas-led attackers and a further 251 hostages were taken back to Gaza.

The commemorations come in the final weeks of a pivotal election campaign. Benjamin Netanyahu’s record on national security is coming under immense scrutiny, amid reports that the government failed to act on warnings in the months leading up to the 2023 attacks – allegations that the prime minister has strongly denied.

Tristan Redman speaks to BBC correspondent Jon Donnison, who is in East Jerusalem.

Producer: Sam Chantarasak

Executive producer: James Shield

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

(Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial ceremony for the three year anniversary of the October 7 attack. Credit: Debbie Hill/Reuters)

At a recent Meta product launch, Mark Zuckerberg promised that the company’s smart glasses would give wearers “new superpowers”, but what are they?

Amid criticisms of its privacy and child protection policies, Meta is betting big on smart glasses as a way to restyle the company’s image, but they too have caused controversy – dubbed by critics ‘pervert glasses’ because they have been used to film women without their knowledge.

So why are Meta and other big tech firms investing billions in this tech? Who is it for? Lily Jamali, the BBC’s North America technology correspondent, joins us to explain.

Producer: Hannah Moore

Executive producers: James Shield and Martine Powers

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses during the Meta Connect event at the company's headquarters in California. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria/File Photo.

Why do executions in the United States keep going wrong?

Last week, Tennessee attempted to carry out the execution of Christa Pike, a convicted murderer who had spent three decades on death row. But the execution did not go as planned: After she was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital, Pike remained alive. She was then taken to hospital by ambulance.

This isn’t the first time an American execution hasn’t gone as planned. One reason is that the drugs needed for lethal injection have become increasingly difficult for US prison officials to obtain. Pharmaceutical companies don’t want their medicines used in executions — particularly manufacturers in Europe, where governments have opposed the death penalty for decades.

So, without access to regulated drugs, American prisons have had to improvise — sometimes with horrifying results.

The Global Story’s Tristan Redman speaks with investigative reporter Livvy Haydock about the consequences when the pharmaceutical supply chain refuses to feed the machinery of American executions.

Listen to Livvy’s podcast, Killing Death Row: bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001rjdp

Producers: Mhairi MacKenzie and Cat Farnsworth

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Christa Pike entering a Knox County Criminal Court in Knoxville, Tennessee in December 2007. Credit: J. Miles Cary/Reuters

In the last year, the US has admitted just 13,000 refugees — a fraction of the number it has accepted in previous years. And almost all of those new arrivals have been white South Africans.

The Trump administration says Afrikaners are fleeing persecution in South Africa. But there is little evidence of attacks specifically targeting the country’s white Afrikaner minority. South Africa’s new ambassador to the US has told the BBC that the idea of a mass attack against white Afrikaners simply does not exist.

So why have Afrikaners been given preferential access to the US refugee programme? And what has life in America been like for those who have made the journey?

Today on The Global Story, the BBC’s North America correspondent Ione Wells and Africa producer Ed Habershon share their conversations with the Afrikaners who are using new refugee policies to immigrate to the US — and the South African officials who say the Trump administration is overlooking the full picture.

Producer: Cat Farnsworth, Aron Keller and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: Martine Powers

Mix: Travis Evans

Digital producer: Charlie Firth

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo:US President Donald Trump meets with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 21 May 2025. Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock