The Global Story

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
Executive producer: Martine Powers
Digital producer: Mel Stewart-Smith
Technical producer: Mike Regaard
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
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