Desperation in Afghanistan leads to sale of children
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Afghanistan is facing a dire lack of food exacerbating a severe humanitarian crisis caused by dramatic aid cuts, the Taliban government’s policies and severe drought. Such is the desperation, Afghan fathers have spoken of their impossible choices: selling children to survive.
Also: President Putin arrives in China for his 25th visit, hot on the heels of Donald Trump. As he left Russia, he said there was an “unprecedented level” of trust between his country and China. International concern mounts over the scale of the Ebola epidemic in Africa, with the World Health Organisation holding an emergency meeting. Police in Spain have arrested the son of the retail magnate, Isak Andic, as they investigate his death eighteen months ago. The founder of the Mango fashion group died after falling more than a-hundred metres during a hike in mountains near Barcelona. And worms living with a sponge called a glass castle and ghost sharks are just two of more than eleven hundred marine species scientists have discovered in the past year.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second. |
| 0:11.9 | Yeah, sometimes the news does a full 180 while we're recording the podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | It can be a difficult job, but we stay up to date on your behalf. |
| 0:19.9 | Make sense of what's happening in the US. |
| 0:21.9 | With new podcast episodes throughout the week. |
| 0:24.2 | America's. Listen on BBC Sound. |
| 0:27.9 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:33.3 | I'm Valerie Sanderson, and at 15 hours GMT on Tuesday the 19th of May, these are our main stories. |
| 0:40.0 | We have a special report on Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis. |
| 0:44.3 | The Russian leader Vladimir Putin is visiting Beijing days after President Trump. |
| 0:49.6 | The Kenyan government says a crippling transport strike over fuel price hikes has been suspended. |
| 0:57.6 | Also in this podcast, the World Health Organization scales up its response to the Ebola outbreak |
| 1:03.7 | in Central Africa. |
| 1:04.8 | This epidemic is caused by Bundibujo, a species of Ebola virus, for which there are no vaccines or |
| 1:15.7 | therapeutics. |
| 1:22.5 | Afghanistan is facing a desperate lack of food, a situation exacerbating a severe humanitarian crisis, |
| 1:30.2 | made worse by dramatic aid cuts, the Taliban government's policies and severe drought. |
| 1:35.5 | Winter has pushed 4.7 million people, that's more than a tenth of the population, to one step away from famine. |
| 1:43.0 | Three out of four Afghans |
| 1:44.3 | struggled to find food, jobs and access to health care. |
| 1:48.2 | It's difficult for foreign journalists to report from Afghanistan. |
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