This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets, but after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. The significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. National disaster, humble launch of Flood Mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 13 minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble, or ever sayings available now, wherever you get to your BBC Podcasts. For most of the history of professional sports, there was a wall between the game and gambling. Then suddenly, it was everywhere. Ontario is all in on sportsbed. Make every moment more with bandwidth. But that wasn't supposed to include the players themselves. Breakfast for John Tay Porter is under NBA investigation athletes are the perfect gamblers. Understood the big bet, find us wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Hunger Desire and at 15 GMT on Thursday 5th November, these are our main stories. There's been a heavy police presence across France and the latest day of demonstrations nationwide over the rising cost of living and state of public services. At least a dozen European passenger flights are disrupted by bomb threats, forcing many to make unplanned landings. And Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault in the London courts. Also in this podcast, it's the end of a Portuguese era. "Oj Portuguese." To the Portuguese people, the day has come to return the number seven shirts to the national team which represents all of us. Football superstar Cristiana Ronaldo says he's retiring from international football. First of France, where another wave of demonstrations is taking place across the country, unions have organized protests over the rising cost of living and the state of public services. They say they're expecting 800,000 people to take the streets. In some cities, there have been clashes. Part of a school near Toulouse has been set on fire and in Leon. That's a sound of right police firing tear gas towards protesters. Demonstrations began with students several weeks ago, but have since spread far beyond university campuses. This woman in Mosse explained why she's out protesting. This is the first time in 10 years that I've taken part in a protest. I had stopped going to demonstrations, but this is just too much. The truth is we can no longer provide for our children's needs. It's high time the government started to wake up and realize that the people are speaking and they need to be listened to. Some schools are closed and travel will be disrupted with transport workers expected to join the protests. The demands for high wages come as the government tries to pass a budget through a deeply divided parliament. The BBC's Mark Loen and Hugh Scofield are in Paris. We're here on Place de la République in Paris, which was the area that saw the worst of the violence back on October the 17th. When there was that widespread looting and shops were set on fire and all that violence with the police. This time the French authorities are taking no chances. They're deploying 70,000 police officers across the country as they have on previous Saturdays as well since then. And so far the authorities are saying that about 270,000 people are on the streets outside Paris. Now the organisers of the protests always tend to put that number higher. So we will see how the day develops. A lot of people here on the blasts and they've climbed up there onto the statue of Marianne, which was defaced in the middle of October. So they will set off from here to bless the nation in eastern Paris shortly. But the French authorities, once again, calling for calm and saying that they are trying to ensure that these scenes do not return to the kind of looting and violence that we saw last month. Let's bring in our Paris correspondent Hugh Scofield. Hugh, when this all began as a student demonstrations back in the middle of September, you were there reporting on that. Did you expect that it would grow into something so big now? Well yes and no. I mean no in the sense that obviously this is very different from the student protests back then, which were very much limited to the issues that concern the students, the collapse of their buildings, the lack of teachers and so on. This is totally different. This is a trade union organised march for more money in works pockets at a time of inflation and so on. Yes, this is predictable though, in the sense that all this is going on quite apart from the students. There is a budget going through Parliament. Painfully going through Parliament, which the government can't possibly get through. In fact, a record the other day, it was unanimously rejected. The budget as it stands by everyone, including the government's own supporters. So this is the backdrop, a budget which is struggling to get through Parliament and a vacuum of power in advance of an election. This macro is a lame dunk. Parliament can't do anything. Their elections coming up. A vacuum into which I've been sucked. All the sort of forces that there are in France, among them, the left. And the left is flexiest muscles ahead of those elections. And among them, the students, whom these unions support largely. But the government has offered some concession so far to try to quell those student protests. Where does it go from here, do you think? Well, I mean, I think what you're saying today is how this is metamorphosing into something much bigger. But our attention is shifting away from the students. They have been given concessions. I'm sure they will all tell you that it's not enough. But they have been government measures at the end of this admission system or money promised down the line. And given the rhythm of these movements, I think it's not unreasonable to expect that the least-based student things begin to die down. People will be worried about exams, about losing studies and so on. That is going to be kicking in. But meanwhile, they will be able to say, well, we did have it. Handed it over to the university students. Handed it over to the poor social of France. Which is what's happening today. So I think that that's what's happening. And we can expect this to continue on and off right up to the action and beyond. Mark Lohan and Hugh Scofield in Paris. Flights across Europe have been impacted by bomb threats for the second time this week. As we record this podcast, at least 12 planes have reportedly been affected. One flight from London to Sofia made an emergency landing in Plovdiv. Police in Prague say they received threats about bombs on four flights. But that after a sweep of the craft, no explosives were found. On Tuesday, at least seven flights were hit by similar threats. So far, we understand that they were all hoaxes. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, has been explaining the context of all this to my colleague, James Menendez. There are almost daily hoaxes in this industry. But these ones were taken far more seriously, partly because clearly they are coordinated. The fact that we've now had 18, at least 18, possibly more than 20 of these this week. And it comes, of course, at the same time as other suspicious activities, like the remote raising of temperatures on freezers in European supermarkets and provocative acts on the Polish border, which inevitably points people towards Russia. But there is no evidence at the moment linking this to any state. So far, the people I've spoken to say that these instances have all been, quote, "resolved". But that doesn't remove the fact that somebody, if they know the right words to say the right form of words to put in a warning and an anonymous email to an airport authority, it can get an entire flight diverted and a full-scale security alert triggered. Which is a huge problem for aviation companies and just generally for Europe, isn't it? I mean, regardless of whether they're all resolved satisfactorily. Yeah, it is. And, of course, there are some people already drawing the conclusions that look Russia's airline industry or its airports in the west of the country, which is where much of the population is concentrated, of course, in St. Petersburg and Moscow. It's heavily disrupted by Ukrainian drone strikes, who's helping Ukraine, Western countries, NATO countries in Europe. And all of these disruptions have been in Western European NATO countries. Now, it would be, I think, irresponsible to draw an automatic conclusion that that means Russia is behind it. But some people are postulating the theory that because Russia's airline industry is being severely disrupted by Ukraine's drones and Ukraine is being helped by by the West, Ergo, Russia is using a proxy group to try and cause a bit of pain and a bit of cost to Europe. But as I say, there's no proof of this. Frank Gardner speaking to James Menendez. Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault in the London court. He was found guilty of raping a young fan after one of his shows in 2009, in addition to three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared by the jury of
two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. UK correspondent Adina Campbell spoke to us from outside South at Crown Court shortly after the verdict. We now know that Russell Brand, 51-year-old Russell Brands, the actor, comedian, broadcaster, has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault. We are expecting a lot more details. What we do know at the moment is that Russell Brand has been taken down into custody. He will be sentenced on Monday. His wife Laura was inside the courtroom as those verdicts were delivered. She has been with him most days while this court trial has been underway over the last four weeks. We have had a statement from the Metropolitan Police who has paid tribute to those women who came forward. We heard a lot of their evidence over the last four weeks. A lot of it very distressing, very harrowing, quite frankly explicit to listen to at times. They gave their evidence behind a screen. They also gave a video recorded interviews to detectives, but as I say, the prosecution early on when opening the case described Russell Brand as a sexual predator as a womanizer whose personality changed, who was ruthless and calculating, and used women as a disposable commodity. Those were some of the phrases, the terminology used to describe Russell Brand. Well, for more on the case, Cima Catecher has this report. Russell Brand, comedian, podcaster, actor, media personality and now convicted rapist. After a trial lasting four weeks, the 51-year-old was found guilty by a jury of eight men and four women. Russell Brand! Controversy has never been far from him. Yeah, I take an awful lot of precautions. What I do is I make absolutely sure that it is a woman, then got the freedom. Brand has talked about his promiscuity, addiction to porn and drug use. In recent weeks, he had been posting on social media about his experience in court with his wife Laura. We'll be extremely cautious in any way that we refer to the events in the trial so that truth and justice serve for everyone involved and everyone involved deserves it. That's led critics to accuse him of disregarding the impact on the victim. There could be justice. On Pears Morgan's show in April, he said he'd face the consequences, no matter what they were. I am not afraid of the truth, and if the truth is I am going to prison, my job will be do not be afraid of that truth. Semicatecher reporting. Still to come in this podcast. Nobody told me that if I wanted to date women in 2026, I would need to have a strong opinion on whether pineapple goes on pizza or not. One of the internet's long-standing debates finds its way to Australia's Fair Work Commission. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. National disaster, Hubble launched with Flood Mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 30 minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble, all episodes available now, wherever you get to your BBC Podcasts. Then suddenly it was everywhere. Understood the big bet. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. New Zealand's party leaders have been making their final appeals to voters before a general election, with no clear frontrunner dominated by economic issues, a cost of living crisis, and rising unemployment. On the campaign trail in Hawkes Bay, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the race is going to be tight and close. Due to the issues at home, a rising number of Kiwis have been moving abroad to neighbouring Australia in search of better prospects. Katie Watson spoke to some of them and has this report from Sydney. Out on the campaign trail with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, New Zealand's current centre-right leader hoping for another term. Three years ago, we inherited inflation at 7.3%, soaring debt, rising crime and an education system in decline, and now, three years later, our economy is growing faster than Australia in the UK. Christopher Luxon, though, is having to fight hard to convince many Kiwis that his national party should have another go at forming a government. Undoubtedly, there is an ongoing cost of living crisis here in New Zealand that's similar to other parts of the liberal world. Dr Luke Oldfield is a political scientist at Victoria University in Wellington. A big problem for this government has been that it campaigned on cost of living at the last election, blaming the previous government for pandemic error inflation and the like, which makes things kind of tricky now as it's attempted to shift blame to things like the war in the Middle East for the cast state of affairs. You watch the leaders debate. I'm very impressed. It's undoubtedly been a tough few years and many Kiwis are feeling pretty down. I mean, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Chris Hepkins is hoping to form a Labour-led government that he says will ease cost of living pressures and improve unemployment. As your Prime Minister, I'll fight every day to get your costs down. Free doctors visits, a $20 a week public transport fare cap, a three-year freeze on fuel taxes. I'll take on the supermarket giants to bring your grocery prices down and I'll create more opportunities for people to get a head and build their future here in New Zealand. We are here because people are really sick and tired of this way of doing good. We are not here yet. We are not here yet. It doesn't have transparency at its heart where we end up with coalition agreements that nobody campaigned. That's Qle Wong, the leader of the Opportunity Party. It's a small party but one that could emerge as a bit of a power broker in these elections. There's no clear frontrunner this year. New Zealand has what's known as a mixed-member proportional system where coalition deals are often needed to form governments, Dr Luke Oldfield again. One thing we can be confident of is that there will be another coalition required. Both major parties are polling around or just short of 30 per cent. Neither major party leader is especially popular. So it's highly likely that the next coalition is going to be made up of at least two but probably three or even four parties. The sluggish economy in New Zealand has played to Australia's advantage in recent years with a rise in the number of Kiwis moving across the Tasman Sea. Last year, nearly 50,000 New Zealanders moved to Australia. The highest number in more than a decade. The most high profile move, of course, was former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who now lives in Sydney. With so many New Zealanders living here in Australia, I thought I'd find them at a rugby match where the wallabies and the all blacks are playing. In New Zealand, it's a very small country, there's not a lot of opportunities. That's why I came here originally. I'm a physio and I think compared to New Zealand, I mean New Zealand, healthcare has improved a lot over the last few years but I think it's just not quite where Australia is right now. Across the living is really high over there at the moment. I know a lot of people, that's pretty much what they've said, why a lot of our families moved over to in recent years. There's a lot more jobs here as well, you know, Australia is big. So you don't necessarily have to be here in Sydney or New South Wales, there's lots of places to go. It's better very rugby. New Zealand, New Zealand. There won't be a final result on the night and the key thing to watch will be how those smaller parties fare, they could tip the balance of power. The Electoral Commission is due to declare the winner on the 27th of November, but it could be even longer than that until Kiwi's known for sure who's running the country for the next three years. Katie Watson reporting from Sydney, now to the only living footballer with an airport named after him. If you leave a legacy quite like Cristiana Ronaldo, who's announced he's retiring from international football, announcing the news on Instagram. The 41 year old said Portugal will always be in me. So why now? Good the timing. Have anything to do with him recently falling out with the coach of the Portuguese national team? I put it to our sports reporter, Jane Dougal. Yes, that's right, he did see that the world's cup in the summer would be his last.
major tournament for Portugal, of course, at the age of 41. He was being realistic. But then, Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of the national camp in September after he fell out with head coach Georges Jesus. That's because he was started against Wales. He was then benched against Norway, and then on the eve of their third match against Denmark, Ronaldo walked out claiming that Jesus had told him that he would play 30 minutes against Norway only to go back on his word. He was given a 30-day ban and a £215 fine. So some might say not the best end to such a glittering career and critics have described it as not being terribly dignified as an exit. However, the Portuguese public probably wouldn't say that. As you can imagine, he's dored by the Portuguese fans. He's helped deliver silverware in a major tournament that they never experienced previously. He was instrumental in helping them win the 2016 Euros. He announced his retirement from international football in a five-minute video, and he addressed the Portuguese people directly saying that the day had come for him to hand back the number seven shirt of our national team. He said it wasn't an easy decision because some decisions are not made with the mind alone. They are also made with the heart. And, Jen, how will you be remembered in that in that goat debate of the greatest of all time because his numbers are mind-boggling when it comes to the goals he scored. He's won a euros, he's won a nation's league. But what the others achieved, I'm talking about the likes of Pele, Messi, Maradona, Zidane. They managed to finish their careers with the World Cup. He won't be able to do that. Well, I don't think anyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo would have expected Portugal to win the World Cup. It's not realistic, certainly within his time of playing for his country from 2003 to 2026. But yes, Ronaldo statistics are incredible. He scored 146 goals and 234 caps for his country. And both of those are world records. The main thing driving him now though is that he's hoping to reach an unprecedented 1,000 career goal, so that includes club and country. He's currently on 985, which is unbelievable. The next closest is Leonel Messi, who's on 931. That is realistic because he's still playing club football. He's still with Al Nasser in Saudi Arabia. The Portuguese football Federation have said that they refuse to let this farewell take place without due tribute so they will be organising something so that funds and the country can applaud and celebrate Cristiano Ronaldo. To hear more about Cristiano Ronaldo's journey from childhood poverty to football's first billionaire, search for good bad billionaire, or wherever you get your BBC podcast from. Now, does pineapple belong on pizza? It's long been a debate that seems to fire up different corners of the internet, often listed as a deal breaker on dating apps. Now, an Italian chef who repeatedly refused to add the fruit to an order while he was at work, calling it an insult to his culture has lost his case for unfair dismissal. Stephanie Prentice has been looking into this. For many Italians, pizza is about much more than a tasty flatbread with sauce and cheese in a selection of toppings. And this year, the United Nations cultural body UNESCO gave Italy's entire cooking tradition special status. At the time, the BBC spoke to people in Naples where pizza is an important part of the city's identity and heritage and asked locals what they thought of pineapple on pizza. One Italian living in Australia, David Tamborella, seemed to share these sentiments, flat out refusing to add pineapple to a pizza on multiple occasions at work and eventually losing his job as head chef at La Costa pizzeria. According to his former boss, when challenged, he asked him to check and do some research on how important the matter was. The state of Queensland where the restaurant is located is considered Australia's pineapple heartland. But in the past, it's premier David Christopher Lee, who has Italian heritage, expressed his view. David Tamborella challenged the decision to fire him with Australia's Fair Work Commission, so was the polarising debate about to get an official verdict. Sort of. He lost the case, but apparently also didn't file it in time and additional misconduct allegations came to light. So for now, people around the world can continue to fight. Oh my god, we really won't get on you and me. You don't like pineapple on pizza, why? It's an abomination. You think if I ask for a pineapple on the pizza, do they give it to me? I don't know, if you do something so, I can continue to live here. And as for David, he recently posted a letter online about respecting ingredients and seems to have found another job at a pizzeria in Brisbane, where BBC Research suggests that pineapple is not on the menu. Stephanie Prentice reporting. Utterly ridiculous, that's how the actor Kira Knightly describes black doves, her hit Netflix series in which she plays a spy, who just happens to be married to the British prime minister. Series two is now out. Kira's Helen Webb teams up with an assassin played by Ben Wischel, who you may know from playing Q in the Bond films, or maybe the voice of Paddington Bear. They both sat down with our entertainment correspondent Colin Patterson to talk about the next round of Mayhem. And Kira Knightly's newfound joy in learning how to kick down a door. Stay good at lying, that's my advice for both our six. Kira Knightly, Ben Wischel, there is a lot of spying about at the moment. What is different about black doves? It's utterly ridiculous and yet it has a depth to it, a lot of humor and a lot of fun, but also a seriousness. Are the facts you're saying it's ridiculous? Well, you know, you got blown out of the window twice in the first season. It's not strictly, strictly realistic. Yes. It's a little absurd, but in a fun way. Yeah, it's meant to be a romp. You kind of care about the characters still somehow. Yeah. How much do you like your character is playing a spy in an assassin? I like my character. I really like my character, but I like people, at least in drama, who aren't very good. It is a job, last week. He was a black dove. Oh, that really is a pickle. Ben, your grandfather was actually a spy. Yeah, I can't really tell you much more because we don't know very much. He kept it a secret as you have to, but when he died, we found out that he had been a spy working for the British, but in Germany. Two black dove agents have been killed in the last month. A lot of stunts in this. I have seen you kicking a door down. Which I did love. I didn't realise how much it was missing in my life, the ability to kick in a door, until I did it, and I was like, I'm thinking the door is it low, follow through? No, well, it was shut, and I did eventually, by the end of the day, get it off its hinges for real, but there was an explosive bit of balsa wood that they put on it, which just gave it a really satisfying light. I think it was, you were underselling yourself. Do you think? I think it was really you. Yeah, I did go up to you, I remember it, and I was just so gleeful about having a ticket. You were a good one, yeah. You have, of course, been the last three James Bond films. What would you like to see them do this time? I don't know. I don't know. No, I think that's a fair idea. I'm like, surprise me. You know what I'd like to see them do? What? What was the Sean Connery one where he's so serious, but he's in this amazing, velour. Like, it's a tiny little velour. You want velour? I basically want the tiny little velour swimsuit back. We want short, short, short, velour, little zipper, very serious, and not wearing much else. But that would be exciting. So I'm offering it up to the next James Bond. Put him in the law. It's tiny shorts in baby blue. Whoever he is, he will look great. What we want. Yeah, thank you, my baby. So be there. Kira Knightley and Ben Wishaw. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at
[email protected]. You can also now watch our episodes in full, just search for the global news podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Abbey Wilkchap and the producers were Stephanie Prentice and Ruby Gleason. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Uncle Design. Until next time, goodbye. The significant spherical aberration
and fears to be present in the optics. - National disaster, Hubble launch with Flood Mirror. - The BBC Space Podcast, 13 minutes, is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. - The future of space astronomy depends on it. - From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble, all ever-sales available now, wherever you get to your BBC Podcasts. [MUSIC]
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