Avsnitt
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Keir Starmer is stepping down as the UK’s Prime Minister, less than two years after winning the election with a landslide victory.
Between 1979 and 2016, Britain had five prime ministers in 37 years… and since 2016, it has had six in roughly a decade. So is the UK political system broken, or is this chaos exactly what the parliamentary model was designed to do?
Bianca Nobilo looks back at three centuries of the history behind the headlines to determine if this is a constitutional crisis - or the system working exactly as intended.
00:00 Why can't Britain keep a Prime Minister?
02:09 Assassination of Spencer Perceval
03:28 Shortest tenure: From George Canning to Liz Truss
05:44 What's different today? 2016 - 2026
07:03 What's causing the chaos?
10:14 Is Britain broken?
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Who is the real Vladimir Putin?
For decades, the Russian president has been portrayed as everything from a master strategist and nationalist strongman to a ruthless former spy. How much of that image reflects reality and how much is carefully crafted mythology?
Bianca Nobilo is joined by historian and Russia expert Mark Galeotti to examine the formative experiences that shaped Putin's worldview, from his lonely childhood in Soviet Leningrad to his years in the KGB and rise to power in the Kremlin.
What misconceptions continue to define Western perceptions of Putin? What drives his decision-making? What does his personal history might reveal about Russia's future plans in Ukraine and beyond?
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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White phosphorus has been used on battlefields for more than a century, but its deployment over populated areas continues to spark fierce legal and ethical debate.
Bianca Nobilo examines the growing scrutiny surrounding Israel's use of white phosphorus in Lebanon, where human rights groups have raised concerns about the impact on civilians. Capable of burning at extreme temperatures and causing severe injuries, the substance occupies a controversial legal grey area because it is often classified as a smoke-screening munition rather than a chemical weapon.
From its origins in the 17th century to its use in modern conflicts, the history of white phosphorus reveals why it remains one of warfare's most controversial weapons. As concerns mount over its use in civilian areas, questions continue to be asked about whether military necessity can ever justify the risks it poses.
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How did the UFC go from a controversial fringe spectacle in 1993 to hosting an event at the White House?
Combat sports journalist Luke Thomas joins Bianca Nobilo to discuss the UFC's extraordinary rise, its ties to Donald Trump, and how the promotion became one of the most influential forces in modern sports and culture.
From its no-holds-barred beginnings to the heart of American political power, they examine the remarkable journey of the UFC, the key figures who transformed the sport, and the cultural shift that took mixed martial arts from the margins to the mainstream.
With the UFC now firmly embedded in American popular culture, what does its White House debut say about the sport's evolution and its growing influence beyond the octagon?
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Racketeering. Wire fraud. Money laundering.
Those are the charges that helped bring down some of the most powerful figures in world football. Not a crime syndicate, but FIFA — the organisation that governs the world's most popular sport.
With more member associations than the United Nations and an audience measured in billions, FIFA oversees the biggest sporting event on Earth: the World Cup. But alongside its global influence has come decades of controversy, from corruption scandals and bribery allegations to accusations of sportswashing and close relationships with authoritarian governments.
From Fascist Italy in 1934 to Argentina's military dictatorship in 1978, and more recently Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, critics argue that World Cups have repeatedly been used to boost the international standing of powerful leaders and regimes.
So why does scandal never seem to stick? How has FIFA remained one of the most powerful institutions in global sport despite years of scrutiny?
Bianca Nobilo is joined by sports historian and former professional footballer Jules Boykoff, who examines the role of sportswashing, the commercialisation of the game, and the global influence of football's most powerful organisation.
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Is Putin fighting a war from a position of power…. or desperation?
Ukraine’s drones have been attacking his home town of St Petersburg - pushing the war well and truly into the heart of Russia.
At the same time…Russia continues relentless bombing of Ukrainian cities and claims to be advancing.
So the question everyone is asking but nobody seems to be able to answer clearly is this: who is ACTUALLY winning?
And ultimately: after more than four years of this war.. is this conflict ending - or just changing?
Bianca Nobilo interviews war correspondent Sam Kiley, who was reporting on the ground in Kharkiv before the February 2022 invasion, to answer these questions.
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Why has one island shaped the ambitions of empires, triggered superpower confrontations, and repeatedly found itself at the centre of world history?
This is the story of Cuba - the largest island in the Caribbean, just 90 miles from Florida, and one of the most strategically important pieces of real estate on Earth.
Long before Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba was coveted by great powers for a simple reason: geography. Spain built an empire around it. Britain tried to seize it. The United States spent generations trying to dominate it. The Soviet Union turned it into the frontline of the Cold War. Today, as Russian warships return to Havana and China expands its footprint on the island, Cuba's strategic importance is once again impossible to ignore.
But geopolitics is only half the story.
From the first Indigenous societies and the arrival of Columbus, through conquest, slavery and sugar plantations, independence wars, American intervention, dictatorship, revolution and communism, Cuba's history is a story of competing visions of freedom, sovereignty and power. It is a story of extraordinary resilience, profound suffering, revolutionary ambition and enduring controversy.
Bianca Nobilo explores just over five centuries of conflict, looking at one thing that never changed: Cuba was never just an island. It was a strategic platform - one the world has been fighting over ever since.
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A small island sitting dangerously close to a rival superpower. A military flashpoint shaped by ideology, geography, and fear. Is that Cuba - or Taiwan?
In this deep-dive, Bianca Nobilo explores the striking parallels between Cuba and Taiwan, two islands shaped by the ambitions of far larger powers. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, Bianca looks at why great powers become obsessed with strategically placed islands just offshore and what that reveals about the return of spheres of influence in global politics.
Cuba became central to America’s Cold War anxieties, just like how Taiwan now sits at the heart of U.S-China rivalry - both islands represent something far bigger than territory alone.
At its core, this is a story about power, fear, and the return of great-power competition.
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Eugenics is often treated as a dead ideology buried with Nazi Germany but historians and scientists argue the idea never truly disappeared - it simply evolved.
Bianca Nobilo speaks to geneticists Adam Rutherford and Professor Debby Sneed, exploring how eugenics became tied to empire, racial hierarchy, forced sterilisation and genocide. Later examining the flawed science that sustained it and tracing how ancient Sparta and classical Greece were later mythologised by modern extremists.
Was eugenics defeated after World War II? Or did the bad science that fuelled some of history’s worst atrocities simply adapt to a new age?
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Why do powerful men keep idolising the ancient world?
From Xi Jinping invoking Thucydides at a US-China summit, to Putin’s “Third Rome,” to Elon Musk posting “America is New Rome,” modern leaders repeatedly reach back to Greece and Rome when talking about power, destiny and empire.
Bianca Nobilo explores what leaders’ historical obsessions, like Hitler and Napoleon reveal about them and why ancient figures like Caesar, Augustus, Alexander and Sparta still hold such political and psychological power today.
Chronopolitics also comes into play - the political use of the past to legitimise the present and claim authority over the future - because the ancient world can justify almost anything: democracy, empire, conquest, republican virtue, dictatorship, restraint or glory.
So the real question isn’t whether leaders read the classics. It’s what they’re trying to authorise through them.
What historical figures do YOU notice modern leaders admiring?
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What even is time? Physicists still can’t fully agree.
Einstein showed that time bends and warps. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli argues it may not fundamentally exist at all. And yet modern life is ruled by clocks, schedules, deadlines and timestamps measured down to fractions of a second.
Across ancient civilizations, humans developed ways to make the invisible movements of the sky measurable - first through monuments, then sundials, water clocks and eventually mechanical timekeeping.
Featuring interviews with science communicator Finn Burridge from Royal Observatory Greenwich and author Jonathan Martineau, Bianca Nobilo examines how time evolved from a natural experience into a system that structures modern life itself.
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Bianca Nobilo takes us through the history behind the headlines again as President Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping in China in his first visit there in over a decade.
The relationship between the two countries is one of the most important in the world. What happens between them shapes the future of the global order - trade, war, Taiwan, the Middle East, climate change. But it hasn’t always been a relationship between equals.
How did America help great its own biggest rival? Listen to find out...
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Puyi began life as the emperor of China, carried into the Forbidden City as a toddler and placed upon the Dragon Throne before he was even three years old.
At least in theory, Puyi ruled over around a quarter of the world’s population. Raised inside one of the most isolated and luxurious courts on earth, he was treated as divine. Eunuchs dressed him, bowed before him, and carried out his every command.
Outside the palace walls, however, the world that had created emperors was beginning to collapse...
Within just a few years, the Qing dynasty fell, ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China.
Bianca Nobilo takes a look at revolution, war, Soviet imprisonment, communist “re-education,” and finally Puyi’s extraordinary final transformation into an ordinary citizen in Mao’s China.
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Right now, there are more than 12,000 nuclear weapons on Earth.
The detonation of just one could kill hundreds of thousands, flatten a city, poison survivors for generations, and reshape global politics permanently.
These weapons are the ultimate currency of power. So why do some countries get to have them, while others are told they can’t?
Why is Israel widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, while Iran faces intense international pressure over its program? How did North Korea—one of the world’s most repressive regimes—successfully build a nuclear arsenal, while countries like Germany and Japan did not? And what does it say about global security that Ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons on its territory in exchange for guarantees… only to later be invaded?
We’ll explore the history of nuclear proliferation, the political decisions behind who gets the bomb, and the high-stakes risks that continue to worry security experts.
Bianca Nobilo digs into the history of who gets nuclear weapons, who doesn’t - and who decides.
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America was born by rejecting a king so why, 250 years later, does it keep rolling out the royal treatment?
Bianca Nobilo explores the long, strange evolution of the US–UK relationship: from revolution and resentment to handshakes, state dinners and carefully choreographed diplomacy. Why has Donald Trump received such extraordinary royal attention? What does it reveal about power, politics, and perception on the global stage?
Along the way, Bianca unpacks how ceremony became strategy, how soft power shapes hard politics and why the British monarchy still plays a crucial role in managing one of the world’s most important relationships.
Behind the pageantry - what do these encounters really tell us?
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Just eleven minutes after Israel declared statehood in 1948, the United States became the first country to recognise it. Nearly seventy years later, it was also the first to formally and controversially recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
This video explores one of the most consequential and emotionally charged alliances in modern history. The US–Israel relationship has been shaped not just by strategy and security, but by religion, politics, shared narratives, and powerful historical forces.
From early American Puritans who saw their nation as a “new Israel,” to decades of deep military and economic cooperation - amounting to over $300 billion in aid - this partnership has long been considered unshakeable.
However, in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks and the war in Gaza, US support has surged once again - yet public opinion is shifting. Younger Americans are more critical, political divisions are growing, and what was once a near-unquestioned consensus is now under strain.
So how did this relationship become so strong and why is it now facing new pressure?
Bianca Nobilo is joined by historian David Tal to discuss.
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Formed in the aftermath of World War II, NATO was designed to deter Soviet expansion, anchor American power in Europe, and prevent another catastrophic war. But from its very beginning, NATO has been more than just a military pact—it’s been a political balancing act between security, sovereignty, and influence.
From the creation of Article 5 and the promise of collective defence, to Cold War tensions, nuclear deterrence, and post-9/11 operations, NATO has evolved far beyond its original purpose. It has expanded eastward, intervened beyond its borders, and faced internal divisions—from Charles de Gaulle’s partial withdrawal to modern debates over burden-sharing and U.S. dominance.
Today, questions around NATO are more relevant than ever. Has it remained a defensive alliance, or become something more interventionist? Did it break promises to Russia? And without the United States, what does NATO actually look like?
As war returns to Europe following Russian invasion of Ukraine, NATO has rediscovered its original purpose—but also faces new challenges that will shape its future.
Bianca Nobilo deep dives into the history, contradictions, and enduring questions behind one of the world’s most powerful alliances.
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The Israel-Lebanon conflict didn’t start overnight - it’s the result of decades of war, displacement, and unresolved tensions.
From Lebanon’s fragile beginnings and the arrival of Palestinian refugees, to the rise of the PLO, Israel’s invasions, and the emergence of Hezbollah. Bianca Nobilo traces the key moments that shaped one of the Middle East’s most enduring conflicts.
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In America, apocalyptic thinking has repeatedly surged at moments of crisis. During the Cold War, evangelicals read global conflict as a countdown to the end and after 9/11, similar language returned.
And today, figures around Donald Trump - and some of his supporters - have framed him not just as a political leader, but as a divinely chosen figure in a cosmic struggle between good and evil.
So, what happens when politicians start using an apocalypse as not just as metaphor, but as a script - because they believe it or because they know others do? Bianca Nobilo takes us on a journey from the first apocalyptic texts and beyond to find out what led to Trump's 'holy war' in the Middle East.
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500 years ago, a teenage warlord reshaped Iran forever.
When Shah Ismail seized power in 1501, he didn’t just conquer territory - he forcibly transformed Iran into a Shia nation, laying the foundations of its modern identity.
From the rise of the Safavid Empire to the belief in the Hidden Imam, Bianca Nobilo explores how religion, power, and politics became inseparably linked.
This video looks at how that moment still shapes Iran today and why the country now has a Supreme Leader.
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