The World This Week

It’s been a week of shifting alliances, escalating tensions and political drama. NATO leaders gathered in Turkey for another pivotal summit, where President Trump arrived questioning the alliance’s loyalty before leaving in a markedly warmer mood, as attention also turned to his relationship with President Zelensky and the future of Western support for Ukraine. In the Middle East, Iran held days o...

From intensifying drone warfare between Ukraine and Russia to mounting fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, anti-immigration protests in South Africa and a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court, this week has been shaped by conflicts over power, identity and international law. In Russia , long queues formed at petrol stations after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted oil refineries and fue...

Political change in Britain has dominated the headlines this week with Keir Starmer’s resignation paving the way for Andy Burnham to become prime minister, while the country also marks 10 years since the Brexit vote. Also, fresh peace talks between the US and Iran have begun amid continuing tensions and sharply different accounts of progress from both sides. In Venezuela , the country’s strongest...

This week, an interim peace agreement was signed between the US and Iran, bringing a temporary end to the conflict and the beginning of a 60-day window to negotiate the many unresolved issues between the two sides.  US President Donald Trump signed the Memorandum of Understanding over a dinner at the Palace of Versailles , and before he'd had time to digest his dessert of hot chocolate pie and Fre...

This week began with US President Donald Trump pronouncing that a ceasefire extension was so close with Iran, two or three days max, that it would only take an hour to finalise. Hours later, Tehran downed a US Apache helicopter off the Gulf of Oman, with the crew rescued from the sea. The attack was reportedly an attempt to deter the US's evolving efforts to increase air patrols that target Irania...

This week, a renewed ceasefire was proclaimed between Israel and Lebanon; a deal that hinges on the complete cessation of attacks from the Iranian-backed militants Hezbollah and withdrawal from the south of the country. But 24 hours later, Hezbollah rejected the agreement that is closely tied to the wider temperamental talks between Iran and the US, with the Iranian regime threatening to abandon n...

It's been a week where, 90 days into the conflict and ceasefire stand-off with Iran, both Tehran and Washington are insisting time is on their side – each claiming the other needs a deal more urgently. Pressure is growing on the Trump administration with soaring energy prices and midterm elections approaching, while Iran is reportedly losing huge oil revenues with tankers backed up in port. Report...

It's been a week marked by major geopolitical and cultural developments across several fronts, from Beijing to Havana to Cannes.  In the Chinese capital  Beijing , Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to see  Xi Jinping , with a carefully staged ceremony and renewed pledges of "unyielding relations", while Ukraine reported continued deep-strike drone operations inside Russian territo...

This week has seen the world's superpowers take centre stage with US President Donald Trump in Beijing for the first state visit of a US leader in almost a decade. With tensions over trade, technology and Taiwan, what stayed tacitly implied was the deeper, more difficult question of whether the two alpha powers of world order can share the 21st century. Or is confrontation ultimately unavoidable?...

This week has seen renewed hope for ending the war in Iran, 10 weeks since it started, with four weeks of stalemate, a ceasefire and skirmishes over the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Intermittent peace talks have boiled down to a 14-point, one-page "memorandum of understanding", crafted by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, which has been sent to Pakistani mediators and is being reviewed by Tehr...

In this edition of The World This Week, Gavin Lee's panel discuss King Charles's state visit to the US, US President Donald Trump's phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and the court battle playing out between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. It's been a week where King Charles III has been earning his crust as head of state on a high-profile visit to the United States, with soft power...

In a week where a stalemate appears to have developed after nearly two months of asymmetric warfare between the US and Iran, President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts have swung between belligerent maximalism and breezy deal-making: one minute suggesting a within-reach deal, whereby Iranian forces would personally help their enemy confiscate what he calls the "nuclear dust" and move it to Americ...

In a week where Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz fully open for commercial trade – effectively ending its nearly seven-week de facto blockade of the critical shipping lane – President Donald Trump imposed a US blockade on Iranian ports to strangle its ability to trade. Trump vowed to continue enforcing what is effectively a US siege until a peace deal is finalised. Meanwhile, in Lebanon , a 10-d...

It’s been a week that began with US President Donald Trump threatening to wipe out an entire civilisation in Iran if the regime failed to respond to his ultimatum. Presidential decorum quickly went out of the window, with Trump speaking unfiltered – even swearing on Easter Sunday – as he warned Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That message was reinforced in surreal scenes on the White House la...

It has been a week that began with President Trump addressing the nation for the first time since the Iran war began five weeks ago. Expectations that he might signal an end to the conflict – or announce a ground offensive, or a split from NATO – were not met. Instead, his 18-minute speech echoed his social media rhetoric: a mix of “we’re almost done” and threats of escalating attacks, including s...

In a week of movable ultimatums set by US President Donald Trump to "obliterate Iran’s power plants", a deadline was set initially of Monday at midnight, then extended by five days on account of "very productive conversations", then to 10 days with Trump claiming "talks are ongoing" and "going very well". Tehran claimed suggestions of negotiations were fake news, and US  talk of de-escalation was...

In a week where assassinations have continued within the top ranks of Iran's regime – the minister of intelligence, the commander of the Bases paramilitary and the powerful security chief Ali Larijani included – a weakened government seems to have had little bearing on Tehran's retaliation across Israel and nine Gulf states. Just one week ago, US President Donald Trump spoke of a war that was "ver...

It’s been a week that's seen a new ayatollah proclaimed in Iran. Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, has not been seen in public and is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being injured in the same strike that killed his father. State television showed crowds chanting "Long Live Khamenei", while at night in Tehran some residents risked arrest to shout from...

A major war erupted in the Middle East this week when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and at least forty senior Iranian officials – reportedly within the first five minutes of the bombing campaign on Saturday morning. Day seven. As more figures in the Iranian regime are hunted, hundreds of police and paramilitary bases continue to be bombed,...

It's been a week that began in silence in Kyiv's Independence Square, where European leaders laid flowers for Ukraine's war dead – even as the fighting grinds on in the east, across vast drone-dominated front lines in territory Russia now claims as its own. In Washington, US President  Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address on record, hailing what he called a "roaring econom...

It’s been a week that saw Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on his 66th birthday, facing charges of misconduct for sharing confidential material with Jeffrey Epstein – deepening the crisis for the monarchy. The US also mourned the loss of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, who passed away at 84, remembered for his pivotal role in the movement and his influence on future leaders. In China , the Spr...

This Friday in  The World This Week , we talk about the unravelling of the Epstein files, the end of the Old World Order and the Olympic helmet dilemma. Epstein files unravelling This week, the names of those listed in the Epstein files have continued to feel the consequences, at least on this side of the Channel. Resignations and investigations are underway now in France  and Norway . The British...

In a week where global headlines have been dominated daily by the fallout from what the Trump administration calls the "final release" of Epstein files, we bring you a special edition of The World This Week focusing on the consequences for those associated with the late sex offender. An unprecedented 3 million pages of files, containing hundreds of thousands of videos and images, were finally disc...

This Friday in  The World This Week , we talk about the implications of a fatal week in Minneapolis, Iran & the "Armada" ultimatum and what Trump's goal is for Gaza. The implications of a fatal week in Minneapolis This week, video evidence and citizen journalism have shown their fundamental importance in holding governments to account. In this case, eyewitness footage stood up against the rapid-re...