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The one big story. Making sense of the news with our BBC experts around the world

The one big story. Making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, Monday to Friday, from the BBC. With Katya Adler.

The one big story. Making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, Monday to Friday, from the BBC.  Episodes will be ready by 10:30 GMT.

Host Katya Adler and our BBC teams guide you through one major global news story each episode.

From Beijing to Boston, Baghdad to Bangalore, our unrivalled reach will take you beyond the headlines to help understand and explore what’s happening.

The Global News Podcast brings you the latest updates and, on The Global Story, we will drill deep into a single story.

From the climate emergency, to the burning questions around Artificial Intelligence, to the movements of money and markets, and the power of the ballot and the bullet.

Katya Adler has been a BBC correspondent and editor for more than 25 years, covering conflicts in the Middle East, political and economic crises in Europe, and drug cartels in Mexico. 

The Global Story team would like to hear your stories and experiences on the issues that we’re covering on the podcast. Please get in touch: theglobalstory@bbc.com #TheGlobalStory and tell us your thoughts on what you would like us to talk about.

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The Global Story: Perfume's dark secret: Child labour behind some of your fragrances

28/05/2024 GMT

Perfume's dark secret: Child labour behind some of your fragrances

BBC World Service - The Global Story, Perfume's dark secret: Child labour behind some of your fragrances

Pickers earn as little as a dollar a day, while huge profits are made in the industry

Pickers earn as little as a dollar a day, while huge profits are made in the industry.

A BBC investigation has uncovered the use of child labour in the supply chains of some of the world’s most luxurious fragrances. The BBC’s evidence reveals that, during the 2023 jasmine picking season, children in Egypt - some as young as five years old - were working in dangerous conditions throughout the night, often earning as little as a dollar a day. All the luxury perfume brands claim to have zero tolerance on child labour.

Katya speaks to Ahmed ElShamy and Natasha Cox, from the BBC Eye Investigations team. You can watch BBC Eye's Perfume's Dark Secret on the World Service Youtube page.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We’re keen to hear from you, wherever you are in the world. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell The Global Story. Email us at theglobalstory@bbc.com You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480. #TheGlobalStory.

TGS is part of the BBC News Podcasts family. The team that makes The Global Story also makes several other podcasts, such as Americast and Ukrainecast, which cover US news and the war in Ukraine. If you enjoy The Global Story, then we think that you will enjoy some of our other podcasts too. To find them, simply search on your favourite podcast app.

This episode was made by Alice Aylett-Roberts, Tom Kavanagh and Emilia Jansson. The technical producer was Phil Bull. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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