The Guardian • 18th October 2021

Today In Focus: Britain’s rich history of black literature

For Black History Month we’ve brought together star authors Ben Okri, Candice Carty-Williams and Caleb Azumah Nelson to discuss the past, present and future of black writing

The Guardian • 11th October 2021

Today In Focus: The countdown to Cop26: can world leaders save the planet?

Three weeks from today leaders will gather in Glasgow for the Cop26 climate summit. But will their individual pledges to reduce emissions carry enough weight to avert the growing threat of catastrophic global heating?

The Guardian • 6th October 2021

Today In Focus: Why everything you’ve heard about panic buying might be wrong

With queues outside petrol stations and claims that selfish punters are using jerry cans to stockpile fuel, one word has become synonymous with the supply chain crisis that has hit the UK in recent weeks: panic. But the social psychologist Clifford Stott says something different is going on

The Guardian • 29th September 2021

Today In Focus: Can China help end the world’s addiction to coal?

Beijing has won international praise for announcing that it will stop funding coal projects in the developing world – but it is still heavily reliant on the fossil fuel for rapid economic growth at home. The Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts , explains why China took such a significant step before Cop26 – and how much there still is to do

The Guardian • 23rd September 2021

Today In Focus: The energy crisis no one saw coming

A cold winter, a windless summer, and boom in business have combined to create an energy crisis that is hitting particularly hard in the UK. The Guardian’s energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose explains how it happened – and what it will mean for people

The Guardian • 10th September 2021

Today In Focus: A conversation about Islamophobia in the UK since 9/11

Poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and standup comedian Nabil Abdul Rashid both came of age in the early 2000s, as Britain’s Muslim communities were feeling the backlash from 9/11. In conversation with Nosheen Iqbal, they look back at the past two decades and ahead to what the future holds for Britain’s Muslims

The Guardian • 8th September 2021

Today In Focus: The children of 9/11

There were 3,051 children who lost a parent on September 11 2001. In the first of three episodes examining the reverberations of the attacks 20 years on, three of that group reflect on the weight of that private grief – and what it meant to grow up with it in the media spotlight

The Guardian • 6th September 2021

Today In Focus: One hour to escape: the race to get out of a Gaza tower before an Israeli airstrike

A warning call told residents of al-Jalaa apartment block that their homes were about to be destroyed. This is the story of the frantic evacuation that followed – told through recordings made by the people who lived there

The Guardian • 6th August 2021

Today In Focus: Racism, policing and austerity: have lessons been learned since England’s 2011 riots?

This week marks a decade since the riots that swept across England in August 2011. But has enough changed to prevent similar unrest happening again?

The Guardian • 28th July 2021

Today In Focus: The Republican backlash in Joe Biden’s America

It might seem like a post-Trump world, but in red states across the US his most hardline supporters are setting the political agenda. How much power do they have to shape the country’s future, even with a Democrat in the White House?

The Guardian • 15th July 2021

Today In Focus: Inside the mind of an Olympic athlete one week before the games

Tom Bosworth was ready for Tokyo 2020. Then the pandemic struck and he caught coronavirus. This is how he got himself to the starting line

The Guardian • 9th July 2021

Today In Focus: The Indigenous children who died at Canada’s residential schools

Half a century ago, Barry Kennedy was taken from his family and forced into an abusive system that sought to obliterate his Indigenous heritage. Now, after the discovery of more than 1,000 bodies in unmarked graves at schools including his own, he reflects on the traditions that were erased, the friends he lost – and Canada’s new reckoning with that history. Listeners may find parts of this episode, which deals with physical and sexual abuse, distressing

The Guardian • 2nd July 2021

Today In Focus: Britney Spears’ battle to take back control of her life and fortune

A legal arrangement set up in the wake of a mental health crisis has left Britney Spears with little control of her personal or professional affairs. Laura Snapes and Sam Levin describe how she’s challenging the situation in court Britney Spears shot to global fame in 1998 with her hit single Baby One More Time, released when she was 17. It was the first of a string of hits that made her a millionaire many times over. But the rapid rise came not without cost for her personal life. A mental heal

The Guardian • 25th June 2021

Today In Focus: The new Brexit crisis for Northern Ireland’s unionists

From a leadership fiasco to the ‘sausage wars’, the Democratic Unionist party’s stance on Brexit has forced it to contend with a new – perhaps even existential – set of problems. What will they mean for the region’s future?

The Guardian • 21st June 2021

Today In Focus: Karim’s story: Egypt’s crackdown on human rights workers

Ten years since the Arab spring rocked Egypt and removed its president, the country is still detaining human rights workers and locking up political prisoners. Karim Ennarah, a human rights worker for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was at a beach resort in South Sinai when he was arrested and accused of joining a terrorist group and “spreading false news”. He was detained in a prison in Cairo and became one of thousands of political prisoners in the country

The Guardian • 18th June 2021

Today In Focus: Why England’s footballers are so determined to keep taking the knee

England’s footballers will take the knee before their match against Scotland at Wembley tonight in an anti-racism protest that has divided supporters. Liam Rosenior and Paul MacInnes reflect on how football became enmeshed in the culture wars

The Guardian • 7th June 2021

Today In Focus: Why every statue should come down

Gary Younge was glad to see the figure of Edward Colston removed in Bristol a year ago – but, he argues, even monuments to civil rights leaders are a distortion of how history really works

The Guardian • 17th May 2021

Today In Focus: Big Short author Michael Lewis on the inside story of America’s failed Covid response

The author and journalist Michael Lewis discusses reporting on a group of individuals who tried to alert the US government to the dangers of its inaction as coronavirus cases began to rise at an alarming rate The author and journalist Michael Lewis has made a career of writing about people who see things coming that most of us don’t. His book The Big Short, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film, followed a group of investors who predicted the collapse of the American housing market in 200

The Guardian • 6th May 2021

Today In Focus: How Jewish parents used Guardian ads to save their children’s lives

This month is 200 years since the Guardian was first established in Manchester. For the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, a part of that history is deeply personal. In 1938, there was a surge of classified ads in the Guardian as parents – including his grandparents – scrambled to get their children out of the Reich. What became of the families? On Wednesday 3 August 1938, a short advertisement appeared on the second page of the Manchester Guardian, under the title “Tuition”. “I s

The Guardian • 28th April 2021

Today In Focus: Inside Afghanistan as troops prepare to leave after the US’s longest war

Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician who for the past few years has been one of the few women in peace talks with the Taliban. Last August she was wounded in an assassination attempt. She discusses the attack and the threat the Taliban pose to women’s rights, while the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, discusses the legacy of the US ‘forever’ war