Global News Podcast

Former UN rights chief Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize

Fri, 09 Oct 2026

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African former UN human rights chief. The Nobel committee said Ms Pillay had shown that legal measures could help prevent acts of war and violence. At a news conference after being awarded the prize, she warned against growing political attacks on international law.

Also: More airlines are suspending flights to Saudi Arabia after three people were killed in two Houthi attacks on Riyadh's international airport. The US Defense Department is facing criticism over plans to livestream the execution of a man who killed 13 people at an army base. Demonstrations are taking place in New York after ICE agents shot and wounded a man with his child inside his car. The BBC speaks to Ukrainians rushing to leave Kyiv before winter. Malaysia shuts schools as haze from Indonesian fires chokes South East Asia. How technology which can track the division of cells in a mouse could help scientists understand how diseases take hold in humans. And the artist behind a statue that depicted President Donald Trump naked and sitting on a man explains the artistic vision behind the work.

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Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Photo: South African lawyer Navi Pillay at a news conference in Nuremberg, Germany after winning the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize
Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

US military execution to be livestreamed

Fri, 09 Oct 2026

Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas, will not only be the first person to die by a US military firing squad since 1945. His execution, which is set for December, would also be the first to be seen by the public in the US for 90 years. Also, cars have been set on fire and shops owned by foreigners were reportedly targeted during violence in South Africa because of tensions surrounding illegal immigration. Police in Britain have accepted that they behaved unlawfully when they searched the homes of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles and former prince who was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He denies any wrongdoing. Microsoft has been suspended from a US visa programme that hires skilled foreign workers as the Vice President, JD Vance, accuses the software giant of giving away American jobs. And could Jonathan the tortoise, who is 194, help humans live longer lives?

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Russian strike on buses in Ukraine kills at least 30

Thu, 08 Oct 2026

At least 30 people have been killed in a Russian air strike at a bus stop in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Eighteen others were wounded. The attack follows a dramatic surge in Russian attacks across the country and a heavy increase in civilian casualties. President Volodymyr Zelensky says the attacks will not go unanswered.

Also: Israel has downgraded the British consulate in East Jerusalem, after threatening to close the site completely over the UK's decision to sanction Israeli goods from illegal West Bank settlements. It’s been nearly a year since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but most of Gaza remains destroyed as a peace deal continues to stall. Recent successful recovery efforts show that species loss can still be reversed, according to a report by the environmental group WWF. The veteran Indian actor Nana Patekar, one of the most outspoken figures in the Indian film industry, has died aged 75. A BBC investigation has found workers in South East Asia are being paid less than $2 an hour to make official football shirts. Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering computer scientist who helped land US astronauts on the Moon, has died aged 90. And a man who spent 28 years walking from the UK to Chile has finally returned home.

Woman at the centre of Spain's housing crisis dies

Thu, 08 Oct 2026

Hundreds of protesters have demonstrated outside parliament in Madrid after the death of an 87 year old woman who became a symbol of Spain's housing crisis. Maricarmen Abascal was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years last month after she was unable to afford big rent increases. The company that owned the flat later offered to allow her to return at a lower rate - but she was unable to sign an agreement as she had been admitted to hospital. Also, US prosecutors are expected to bring new charges against the former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores for the alleged torture of American citizens. And a judge in the US state of Tennessee has ordered officials to preserve all evidence from the botched execution of Christa Pike last week.

Photo: Candles and messages in memory of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman whose eviction sparked nationwide housing protests.
Credit: Reuters/Violeta Santos Moura

Israelis mark three years since 7 October attacks

Wed, 07 Oct 2026

Israel has been remembering the deadliest single day in its history on 7th October 2023 when Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups stormed communities along the border with Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The anniversary comes weeks before an election in which the question of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's personal culpability for the country's worst-ever security failure will be a central issue.

Also: the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described Moscow's latest round of attacks on his country as ''the Russian army's birthday gift for Vladimir Putin''. The World Health Organization has requested more information from Russia following unconfirmed reports that a second employee at a plague research lab in Siberia has contracted pneumonia. Malaysia pushes ahead with a ‌controversial move to repatriate thousands of migrants from Myanmar, where they could face persecution. The BBC visits a men's community group in South Africa where participants are encouraged to speak out about violence against women, and confront their own behaviour. Scientists Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for solving the mystery of life's asymmetry. And could the gender pay gap extend to AI agents?

Photo: Israeli family members at a memorial site for victims of the Nova music festival on the third anniversary of the 7 October attacks near Re'im, southern Israel
Credit: EPA