More or Less

On 3 November, millions of people from across the United States turned out to have their say in the midterm elections - a vote which saw many seats flip from red to blue and the Democrats take control of both the Senate and the House for the rest of Donald Trump's presidency.
The extent of the political change came as a surprise to many. While a Democrat victory had been suggested, the number of votes for the party in some key states was much higher than pollsters had predicted.
Trump initially seemed to accept the result. But a week later, he took to social media to question the results, writing: “Does anybody really believe that this ‘election’ was honest. How could the polls be so wrong???”
Did the polls really call the election “wrong”? And how much faith should we be putting in polling anyway these days?
We speak to Lenny Bronner, founder of political data company Broome Street Labs, and Elaine Kamarck, from the Brookings Institution, to find out more.
If you spot a story you'd like us to dig into contact us at moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Sarah Turnnidge
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: Dave O’Neill
Editor: Richard Vadon

French high school students have been on the streets for weeks, blockading schools to demand the government spends more money on education.

Their protests have proven the catalyst for a wider movement across Europe, with thousands taking to the streets to protest about issues like the cost of living. Some of the protests have turned violent.

But what about the claims about the state of the French education system that started the protests in the first place?

We speak to Eric Charbonnier - an expert in the French education system from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - to find out more.

If you spot a story you'd like us to dig into contact us at moreorless@bbc.co.uk.

Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Sarah Turnnidge
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Mix: Keith Graham
Editor: Richard Vadon

Witches and witchcraft have captivated people for centuries. From the curse tablets of Ancient Greece to the witch of Wookey Hole, belief in magic has long been woven into human culture.
But accusations of witchcraft have also had deadly consequences. Across Europe, tens of thousands of people were investigated, prosecuted and executed during the witch trials that swept the continent peaking during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
One statistic is repeated again and again: that nine million people were killed during the witch trials. But where does that figure come from, and does the historical evidence support it?
In this episode, we speak to historian Dr Jan Machielsen about the reality behind this claim, exploring what the numbers can tell us about this dark chapter in European history.
If you have a story you'd like us to investigate, please contact moreorless@bbc.co.uk.
Presenter/Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Mix: James Beard

Terence Tao is widely celebrated as the world’s greatest living mathematician.
He was doing university-level maths at the age of 9, won Gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad at 13 - still the youngest person to have done that - and got his PHD at age 20.
At 31 he won the Fields Medal - somewhat equivalent to a Nobel Prize for pure mathematics. He has now embarked on what some might consider the greatest challenge of his life - he’s written a book for a general audience, called Six Maths Essentials.
This provided the opportunity for Tim to interview Professor Tao.
They talked about maths, and the relevance of his kind of abstract maths on everyday life. And they also talked about AI. OpenAI recently released full or partial solutions to 372 unsolved mathematical problems, which has raised existential questions about Tao’s profession. Professor Tao says the disruption in his field might make it “the canary in the coal mine” for the disruption AI is going to create across our way of life.
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

Last week, Ukraine launched drone attacks against three data centres owned by Russian tech giant Yandex. After these attacks Yandex announced that they were struggling to maintain their services.
This led to widespread claims that Russian disinformation campaign on social media had been affected, as users produced graphs that they argued showed a dramatic decline in suspicious online activity by bots.
The claim was even made by the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenksy, saying there was “less hate” online as a result of the strikes.
But as the dust settled, it became clear that this wasn’t the simple success story many people hoped it would be.
We speak to Shayan Sardarizadeh from BBC Verify and Amil Khan, the co-founder and CEO of Valent.
If you’ve seen a number, or a graph, that you think we should look at, email the team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Credits:
Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Nathan Gower
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon