The Global Story

Tensions between the US and Venezuela are reaching a dangerous tipping point. The Trump administration has accused president Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel and declared Maduro's government a “foreign terrorist organisation”. President Trump has also ordered a naval blockade of the country’s oil-sanctioned exports using what he calls “the largest ever armada assembled in the history of Sou...

The promise of pore-free, glassy, youthful-looking skin has made Korean beauty products a global phenomenon. Americans spent as much $1.7bn (£1.3bn) on K-beauty in 2024, according to industry estimates, and the US now imports more cosmetics from South Korea than any other country. How did the South Korean government help K-beauty ride the soft power wave that has also brought us TV shows like KPop...

After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australia tightened its gun laws, and has since been considered a world-leading example by gun control advocates of how to lessen the chances of mass shootings occurring. However, the mass murder of at least 15 people in an antisemitic attack at Bondi beach on Sunday has again raised the issue of gun access, and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has...

President Trump says a Ukraine peace deal is ‘closer than ever’ following talks in Berlin with European officials and a delegation from Ukraine. But is it? As the fourth anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion approaches, no peace deal can be agreed without Vladimir Putin’s support. Can he be persuaded to accept anything short of a Russian victory? We speak to the BBC’s Russia editor, Steve Ro...

Australia is reeling after its deadliest mass shooting in decades, in which gunmen opened fire on Jewish people gathered for a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney. At least 16 people have been killed – among them a 10-year-old and a Holocaust survivor. The massacre has triggered a reckoning in Australia and beyond. While some are asking how this horror could have happened, others believe an at...

Fighting broke out last week on the Thai-Cambodian border, despite a US-brokered ceasefire in July. The conflict was one of the eight wars that President Trump claimed to have ended, so why did this peace deal unravel? We speak to Jonathan Head, the BBC’s southeast Asia correspondent, from Surin on the Thai side of the border. Producers: Xandra Ellin and Sam ChantarasakExecutive producer: Bridget...

**This episode contains descriptions of abuse and violence**In November, the Italian parliament voted unanimously to introduce the term “femicide” into the country’s legal code. The murder of a woman – on account of her gender – is now a distinct crime, punishable with a life sentence. The United Nations reported that last year nearly 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or fami...

Europe is facing the prospect of ‘civilizational erasure’. That is the official view of the Trump administration, as put in a radical policy document that was released late last week. The US government’s new National Security Strategy paints the most complete picture yet of who the administration sees as its allies and its adversaries, and it has left Europe’s leaders reeling. Today, we speak to t...

This week, Syrians have been celebrating the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime and the end of almost 14 years of civil war. In the year since, the former jihadist turned leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been on an international charm offensive. But has life improved for ordinary Syrians back home? And has Sharaa proven himself to be the reformer the west wants him to be? Today we’re jo...

**This episode contains discussion of bullying and suicide**Australian teens are bracing for a new law coming into effect this week that will ban social media accounts for anyone under the age of 16. The Government says the legislation is designed to protect the mental wellbeing of Australian children and teens – but it’s already proving controversial, not least among American tech companies and s...

After an Afghan national was charged with shooting two National Guard members in Washington DC, President Donald Trump called for sweeping changes in immigration policy and pledged to "permanently pause migration" from all "third world countries". Afghan nationals, especially those who worked with the US mission in Afghanistan, may now find themselves in a particularly precarious position. Asma an...

Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, is widely expected to award Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize on Friday, at the draw for the 2026 World Cup in Washington DC. The prize has led to scrutiny over Infantino’s close relationship with Trump, along with concerns that Trump might move matches from host cities and fears over visa delays or refusals for travelling fans and officials. We speak...

When China began cracking down on the spiritual movement Falun Gong in the 1990s, its leader and some followers moved to the United States. From there, they started the Epoch Times, a free newsletter. But in the past decade, the organisation has grown to become a conservative media empire – with a Pentagon press pass, a slick TV arm, and many millions of dollars in revenue. How did they do it? The...

President Donald Trump has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapons offences. It was only last year that Hernández was convicted in a New York courtroom of being part of a huge drug trafficking conspiracy, after being extradited to the US. Prosecutors said the operation flooded America with cocaine and turne...

Are we living through the slow death of reading - replaced by an addictive screen culture that fragments our attention and floods us with trivial or unreliable information? Writer and voracious reader James Marriott believes we are entering a post-literate age with profoundly negative consequences for education, culture and democracy itself. In today's episode, James traces how an 18th century ‘re...

Last June, Israel and the United States carried out coordinated strikes on nuclear and military sites across Iran in what became known as the 12-day war. The aim was clear: destroy Iran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities amid warnings that Tehran was dangerously close to developing a nuclear weapon. But conflicting reports in the immediate aftermath left the public uncertain about how effective the o...

Pope Leo is on his first official visit abroad, and there are already signs he’s willing to use his position to speak out on controversial matters. His recent comments about abortion and the rights of migrants have created headlines in the United States, and raised eyebrows from some conservatives who see the first American pope challenging President Trump’s policies. It wouldn't be the first time...

The backlash over the opening of Shein’s first brick and mortar store in Paris this month is just one in a series of controversies and complaints over the ultra-fast fashion retailer. As the company looks to go public, we explore whether its business model can withstand the world’s scrutiny. Laura Bicker, the BBC’s China Correspondent, tells us what she found in the Guangzhou factories supplying S...

Miss Universe 2025 has been rocked by controversies and chaos, from stage falls and contestants storming out, to judges quitting and allegations of vote rigging – which the organisers deny. The pageant – styled as a celebration of women of all backgrounds and nationalities – has suffered waning international attention in recent years, with many questioning the ideals of femininity it seems to espo...

A ceasefire took effect in Gaza just over six weeks ago, and although both sides have accused the other of multiple violations of the agreement, there has not been the return to full-blown war that many feared. But the ceasefire agreement that was signed in early October was not a complete peace settlement. It left many issues still to be negotiated. That ceasefire was part of the first phase of P...

American, Ukrainian and European negotiators met in Switzerland on Sunday to discuss a US-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was faced with a dilemma last week – either make concessions to Putin, or risk losing US support. But Zelensky said there were "signals that President Trump's team hears us", and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said...

The US is essentially boycotting this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa over accusations that the white Afrikaners are ‘being killed and slaughtered’ and that white farmers are having their land ‘illegally confiscated. The South African government say the claims are "widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence". Today we speak to BBC correspondent Andrew Harding, who lived and worke...

** This episode contains some very distressing details, including of killings, sexual violence and the experiences of children in war** More than 150,000 people have been killed and about 12 million have been forced from their homes since Sudan's civil war began in 2023. But more than two years on, the reasons for the conflict are still not clear. And there are questions about why the internationa...

The American lawyer, oil lobbyist and master strategist Don Pearlman is said to have chain-smoked his way through almost every UN climate gathering from the early 1990s until his death in 2005. Some of those who saw Pearlman operate in Kyoto, where the first legally binding international agreement on climate change was agreed in 1997, say he created the playbook for stalling climate talks. The Kyo...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – MBS – will be welcomed at the White House on his first visit to Washington since the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi led to global outrage. MBS has always denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder. Nevertheless, both he and Saudi Arabia were ostracised after the killing. Tuesday’s meeting between President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler will b...