The Documentary Podcast

High in the mountains outside Madrid stands the Valley of Cuelgamuros (formerly know as the Valley of the Fallen), a huge memorial site commissioned by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in 1940, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, where tens of thousands of war dead from both sides still lie buried. At its heart is a large basilica – the second largest Catholic basilica after St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome – carved into a granite mountainside, a huge rock, topped by a 150-metre cross, the tallest in the world. Silvia Navarro’s great-uncle is buried there. He was a businessman, not a soldier, killed by nationalist forces for being a Republican sympathiser. His remains are sealed somewhere inside, behind the walls that carry fascist iconography alongside Christian symbolism. Sylvia, herself a Catholic, wants his remains located and removed from the basilica. For her, this isn’t just personal: she believes the site still glorifies the regime that killed him. She’s been campaigning for years for other families who feel the same way. William Crawley explores the site and its ongoing controversies.
Presenter: William Crawley Producer: Dan Tierney Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta Editor: Chloe Walker Production Coordinator: Mica Nepomuceno
[Photo description: The Valley of Cuelgamuros. Credit: Dan Tierney]

China appears determined to acquire America’s most advanced computing technology – but how far might it go to get it?

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has resigned after publicly acknowledging having an affair, amid reports raising questions about whether the woman involved had links to Chinese intelligence. Nvidia’s board said it has no reason to believe company secrets or national security have been compromised, though it’s launched an independent investigation into the matter. The revelations have also raised broader questions about China’s longstanding efforts to acquire American technology, including through espionage.

On The Global Story, host Asma Khalid speaks to Randy Schriver and Mike Kuiken of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission about the national security implications – and what the Nvidia scandal could mean for America’s approach to selling advanced chips to China. Plus, BBC economics editor Faisal Islam offers a behind-the-scenes look at Jensen Huang, the man at the centre of it all, and his extraordinary influence over the global AI race.
The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

The contest for technological supremacy, paving the way to future wars of algorithms. Across the skies of Ukraine and Russia, an arms race is unfolding in real time. Earlier this summer it seemed Ukraine had the edge when it delivered drone strikes deep inside Russian territory. But in recent months, Russia has hit back, deploying faster, jet-powered drones, and shifting the balance once again. The Global Jigsaw explores the relentless seesaw battle for technological dominance and ask what it tells us about the future of warfare.

Find out more about BBC Monitoring on our website: https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/

Contributors: Tim Bowler, Margaryta Maliukova, Daria Mosolova
Producer: Kriszta Satori
Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg
Music: Pete Cunningham

To celebrate 10 years of People Fixing the World, Myra Anubi sits down with three regular contributors to talk about the ways the world has changed for the better over the last decade. While rarely making the headlines, huge improvements in healthcare, sanitation and the protection of the environment have taken place since 2016. The group also make their predictions for what positive shifts the world is likely to see in the next 10 years.

How was Jeffrey Epstein able to continue abusing young women for years after he became a convicted sex offender? BBC Eye has been speaking to survivors and analysing emails and documents in the Epstein Files to build up a picture of how a network of contacts in the modelling industry made it possible for the millionaire financier to groom and traffick victims. But will those who helped facilitate Epstein’s crimes ever face justice?
This episode contains references to sexual assault.