NewsHour

The BBC World Service Debate considers the rapidly changing international landscape since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The US President says his legacy will be as a peacemaker and unifier. So far he’s brought Putin to the negotiating table and made Europe take its security seriously in a way it hasn’t for decades. But his methods have horrified critics, who say his shock and awe approach to diplomacy is reckless and chaotic. The President’s unpredictability has rocked global alliances. Is Donald Trump making the world safer or more dangerous?

In front of a live audience in the BBC’s Radio Theatre in London, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, is joined by:

KT McFarland, former US Deputy National Security Advisor to President Trump in his first term

Brian Wong, Assistant Professor and Fellow at Centre on Contemporary China, University of Hong Kong

Miguel Berger, German Ambassador to the UK

Azadeh Moaveni, journalist, writer and Associate Professor at New York University

(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on June 12, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)

Iran has launched an aerial attack on Israel in an operation it's called True Promise 3. Black smoke has been seen rising over Tel Aviv's skyline. Earlier today, the Israeli military said it had struck the Isfahan nuclear facility in Iran - as its strikes on the country continued.

Also on the programme: Colombian superstar Shakira tells us about life as an immigrant in the US; and a report on the Air India crash.

(Image: Missiles launched from Iran are intercepted as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel on 13 June 2025.Credit: Reuters/Jamal Awad)

Israel's military say they struck dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.

Iran says the attacks by Israel are a declaration of war and there are warnings of a strong retaliatory response by Iran to the attacks which killed numerous military officials and scientists.

Also in the programme: Investigators in India have found the on-board video recorder from the Air India plane which crashed on Thursday, killing more than 240 people. We'll report from the crash site in Ahmedabad.

(Photo shows smoke rising from a damaged building in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran on 13 June 13, 2025. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

Air India has confirmed that only one of the 242 people on board its flight that crashed into a doctors' hostel in Ahmedabad has survived.

Also in the programme: Donald Trump has urged Israel not to launch an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - we hear from a former US ambassador to Israel; and scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of dinosaur hidden in plain sight in a Mongolian museum's fossil collection.

(Photo: Air India plane with over 240 on board crashes after take-off in Ahmedabad - 12 June 2025. Credit: Siddharaj Solanki/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.

As protests against raids targeting illegal immigrants continue in Los Angeles, we hear the latest from the city and speak to a former director of the US border agency ICE, Ronald Vitiello.

Also in the programme: the role of rare earth minerals in an apparent warming of trade relations between the US and China; and reflections of former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa on finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And memories of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys band, who has died at the age of eighty-two.

(Photo: Members of California National Guard speak to a man outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, after days of protests against federal immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, 11 June 2025. Credit: REUTERS/David Ryder)

Governor Newsom says President Trump is breaking the law by deploying soldiers on city streets in California - is he right? Our correspondent in Los Angeles reports on the clashes, both on the street and between different political players.

Also in the programme: the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggests that if the world wants a Palestinian State, it can build one – but not in Palestine; and why we owe Shakespeare's revival to a group of well-to-do women in Georgian England.

Britain, Norway, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have announced they're sanctioning two far-right Israeli ministers for inciting extremist violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. London said an asset freeze and travel ban would take effect immediately against Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. We have an interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called the sanctions "a shocking decision on the part of countries I consider to be allies".

Also in the programme: Greenlanders' dream of international football hits reality; remarkable testimony from the men in Syria whose job it was to enforce the Assad regime of terror; and why a shortage of rice is causing such a stir in Japan.

(Photo: Itamar Ben-Gvir (left) and Bezalel Smotrich are key members of PM Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition. Credit: Getty Images)

Nine people have been killed and many injured in a school shooting in the southern Austrian city of Graz. The shooter also killed himself, and has been identified as a former pupil.

Also, Donald Trump sends in the Marines as the president's crackdown on undocumented migrants clashes with California's policy as a Sanctuary State, Syria's jailers under President Assad speak to the BBC anonymously about what they did and those who suffered, plus good news for biodiversity and precious coral reefs in the Zanzibar archipelago, as two new Marine Protected Areas are announced.

The attorney-general in California has sued President Trump for deploying the National Guard without the governor's permission. The lawsuit argues that Mr Trump overstepped his authority and "trampled" on the state's sovereignty. Rob Bonta accuses him of trying to manufacture chaos and crisis for his own political ends.

Also in the programme: Reports of more killings close to one of Gaza's new aid distribution sites; claims from an opposition leader in Georgia that her husband was abducted; Italy's referendum on making the path to citizenship easier falls short; and Marc The Force Chapman on being the king of crazy golf.

(Photo credit: Reuters)