The Story

The Times has uncovered that spies are creating fake business profiles on the professional networking site so that they can identify targets and obtain classified information. Under fake profiles, agents offer money and lucrative business opportunities in exchange for sensitive information. What does this tell us about how China operates?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guests: -Fiona Hamilton, Crime and security editor at The Times.-Isabel Hilton OBE, Broadcast journalist and long term China watcher.-Philip Ingram, Former senior British intelligence officer.Host: Manveen Rana.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special bonus edition we are bringing you an episode from another Times podcast - Past Imperfect.Nadiya Hussain MBE rose to fame after winning The Great British Bake Off back in 2015. She talks to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson about the way her life has changed since then and how the abuse that she faced as a child inspired her to be a force for change.Get The Times free for a month: thetimes.co.uk/pastimperfectSamaritans: www.samaritans.orgBlueprint for All: www.blueprintforall.orgThe Survivors Trust: www.thesurvivorstrust.orgThis podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before Channel 4's hit series It's Sin was broadcast, writer Russell T Davies made headlines for his comments on how the show was cast. Should LGBTQ+ roles only be played by those with a lived experience? Or is that in itself, a form of discrimination?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guests:-Alex Roberts, actor.-Lucinda Syson, casting director.Host: David Aaronovitch.Clips Used: Channel 4, BBC3, Oscars YouTube channel, Columbia Pictures, Sky News Australia, TRT World, ITV Loose Women.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In October, a Stories of our times investigation blew the lid off a Russian disinformation campaign, which had aimed to stoke fears about the Oxford vaccine.Now Russia has its own vaccine, Sputnik, which is highly effective but still isn't most countries' first choice. Has the Kremlin shot itself in the foot, and become Sputnik’s own worst enemy?We revisit our investigation and check in with our Moscow correspondent for an update.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guest: Marc Bennetts, Moscow correspondent for The Times and The Sunday Times.Host: Manveen Rana.Clips used: BBC, CNBC, CNN, Times Radio, Comedy Central.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Monday the prime minister will unveil a roadmap for how we exit lockdown. Today we look to two countries which might show us a glimpse of the future: Australia and Israel.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guests: -Tom Whipple, Science editor at The Times.-Bernard Lagan, Australia correspondent at The Times.-Anshel Pfeffer, Freelance journalist for The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been over a year since the UK officially left the EU on the 31st of January 2020 in a vote which was fuelled by decades of British Euroscepticism. With terms like 'remainer' and 'Brexiteer' now holding less significance, what are the new identities which have emerged for all of us?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guest: -Tanja Borzel, Professor of political science at The Free University of Berlin-Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future.Host: David Aaronovitch.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month, a team of assassins shot and killed two of Afghanistan’s most eminent women. The murder of the two Supreme Court judges is part of an assassination campaign targeting Kabul’s intellectual and social elite. Yet even as violence surges across the country, peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban continue in Doha. What does the future hold for the nation?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guest: Anthony Loyd, War correspondent at The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A decade after an MI6 agent was found dead in a North Face holdall, the detective who led the inquiry wants a forensic case review.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guest: David Collins, Northern Editor for The Sunday Times.Host: David Aaronovitch.Clips used: BBC Wales and Channel 4 News.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What goes on inside one of the most secure, secretive and at times controversial British institutions? The Times is the first newspaper to be allowed into some of the most secure laboratories at Porton Down.Plus: an exclusive interview with defence secretary Ben Wallace, who warns of a growing threat of chemical and biological attacks.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guest: Larisa Brown, defence editor at The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.Times stories mentioned in this episode:Inside Porton Down, Britain’s biological threats laboratory: anthrax in the fridge and vials of plagueFake finger will test how long coronavirus can surviveGrowing risk of attacks as world order crumblesClips used: BBC, ITV News, ITN.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Protesters in Myanmar are demanding the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was arrested when the military seized power. How did this country become unstable so quickly and what's next for Myanmar's pro-democracy movement?This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.Guests: Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia editor at The Times.Wai Wai Nu, Executive director of the Women's Peace Network in Myanmar.Host: David Aaronovitch.Clips used: BBC, AP Archive, Myanmar Now, The Guardian.This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.