Beyond Today

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Has Trump revived Islamic State? Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

President Trump’s order to pull US troops out of northern Syria last week was a little like pushing over a domino: it meant that Turkey could start an offensive against the Syrian Kurds who live in that region and who they see as a terrorist threat; it meant that the Kurds, who have been a crucial ally of the West in the fight against the Islamic State terror group, had to refocus on defending their own people against the Turkish onslaught, and it has plunged an already volatile part of the world into further chaos.

IS thrives on chaos. So, could the increasing unrest in the region allow the group to re-emerge? Quentin Sommerville, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent, joins us to discuss.

Presenter: Tina Daheley Producer: Harriet Noble Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

What’s it like at a Brexit Party rally? Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

The Queen opened parliament today and set out the government’s main priority: to leave the EU by October 31st. Boris Johnson has set up his whole premiership on this very message, and one reason why is Nigel Farage. Now leader of the Brexit Party, Farage has always campaigned to get us out of the EU. Boris Johnson and the Conservative party are worried that if they can’t do this by the end of October they will lose votes to Farage in an election. To understand his enduring appeal we went to a Brexit Party rally in Watford.

Presenter: Matthew Price Producer: Duncan Barber Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Who controls our AI future? Oct 11, 2019

Show notes

Tech and the way it is shaping our future is a theme we cover a lot on Beyond Today. We’ve looked at facial recognition, sex bots, and the new tech cold war. Underpinning all these are rapid advances in artificial intelligence which are changing the power dynamics between states and citizens, companies and consumers.

In this special live episode recorded at the BBC Media Tech and Society conference, Tina Daheley discusses the future of AI with Stephanie Hare, an independent researcher and historian, Jamie Bartlett, a technology writer, and Natalie Cargill, founder and CEO of Effective Giving.

Producers: Seren Jones and Jaja Muhammad Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Edtior: John Shields

How do you fight a surveillance state? Oct 10, 2019

Show notes

We have never lived in a more closely monitored world. Facial recognition technology is being rolled globally, including across the UK. Data can be acquired without a person’s knowledge, let alone their consent. There is a creeping paranoia and concern among human rights experts that advanced surveillance technology could fall into the wrong hands.

We speak to Lokman Tsui, a tech expert and university lecturer in Hong Kong, who is living the midst of an increasingly violent protest movement paranoid about surveillance. We also catch up with Newsnight’s Gabriel Gatehouse, who has just got back from Hong Kong, where he met the young people willing to sacrifice their lives to fight against what they believe to be the oppressive application of technology from mainland China. They both explain why there are lessons from Hong Kong for all of us about the kind of technological future we want to live in.

How is ‘pick-up’ culture still a thing? Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

*** Update: Adnan Ahmed's conviction was quashed on appeal after three judges ruled the verdict was a miscarriage of justice ***

BBC reporter Myles Bonnar spent two days on the streets of London with "pick-up" coaches, being “trained” in how to chat up women and get them into bed. “Pick-up” culture goes at least as far back as 2005 when American author and journalist Neil Strauss released a book called The Game. Myles, who made a film for the BBC’s Panorama programme, tells us what he learnt on a seduction bootcamp. The coaches told him they are doing nothing wrong. And author Rachel O’Neill explains how the seduction industry has gone mainstream.

Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Philly Beaumont and Seren Jones Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Why do diplomats escape the law? Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

In August a young man called Harry Dunn died when a car driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into his motorbike. The only suspect has left the country, and there’s nothing the police can do to get her to come back. Anne Sacoolas' husband works for the US government at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, and because of diplomatic immunity she currently cannot be prosecuted. The BBC’s Duncan Kennedy has interviewed Harry’s parents. And BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale explains why diplomatic immunity exists in the first place.

Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Harriet Noble and Duncan Barber Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

What does Windrush mean now? Oct 07, 2019

Show notes

In April 2018 the Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned and delivered an unprecedented apology for the “appalling” actions of her own department towards Windrush-era citizens. It came 5 months after an investigation by a Guardian journalist into what has become known as the Windrush scandal. The scandal affected an unknown number of people who arrived in the UK as children from the Caribbean but were never formally naturalised or hadn’t applied for a British passport. We speak to Amelia Gentleman, the investigative journalist who broke the story and whose book The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment has just come out. We also hear from Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, author of Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children, about what Windrush means now.

Presenter: Tina Daheley Producers: Jaja Muhammad and Philly Beaumont Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Why is Prince Harry taking on the press? Oct 04, 2019

Show notes

“I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces”. This week Prince Harry released a strongly-worded statement attacking the way the press treats his wife Meghan. At the same time the couple announced they were taking legal action against the Mail on Sunday for publishing a private letter Meghan sent her father. And today we found out Harry is also suing the Sun and Mirror over alleged phone-hacking.

Harry’s distrust of the press runs deep: as a child he witnessed his mother Princess Diana’s hounding by the media. Michael Cole was a BBC royal correspondent in the 1980s, and then became a spokesperson for Mohamed Al Fayad, the father of Diana’s boyfriend Dodi. He remembers the relationship between the press and the royal family in Diana’s day. And the BBC’s current royal correspondent Jonny Dymond assesses how Harry’s childhood has shaped his relationship with the press today.

Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Harriet Noble and Seren Jones Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

What will the history books say about Brexit? Oct 03, 2019

Show notes

With four weeks to go before the government’s deadline for leaving the EU, parliament is still discussing the best way forward. Was this crisis inevitable? One of the go-to places to decode all this has been the Talking Politics podcast. Helen Thompson is one of the hosts. She is also professor of political economics at the University of Cambridge and she came to the Beyond Today studio to untangle our uneasy and complicated relationship with Europe. She tells us about the key moments in our recent history that led to this crisis and why we are at a stalemate.

Presented by Matthew Price Producers: Duncan Barber, Philly Beaumont Mixed by Nicolas Raufast Editor: John Shields

Will Saudi get away with murder? Oct 02, 2019

Show notes

Saudi Arabia’s 33 year-old Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been described as a reformer. What he is selling to the outside world is a modern, forward thinking country that’s no longer dependent on oil. But one year ago today, the Saudi journalist and human rights campaigner, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul. Now we’ve got the details of exactly how it happened. Jane Corbin who has spoken to some of the very few people who know about the hit squad who killed him and the cover up that followed for her new Panorama film. We spoke to her, and Amira Fatallah from BBC Monitoring, to explore what the killing tells us about how the rest of the world should deal with Saudi Arabia.

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