The long-running economic battle between the world's two biggest economies has escalated. This week US President Donald Trump brought tariffs against China in an effort to strongarm the growing superpower into submission and strengthen American markets. But Beijing hit back, raising its own tariffs, escalating a trade war that could have implications for both countries. Trump is betting that tariffs will make America, and American people, richer. But does anyone win in a trade war?

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Alice Aylett Roberts, Mhairi MacKenzie and Eleanor Sly

Sound engineer: Stephen Bailey

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

The deposed President Bashar al-Assad has been linked to the multi-billion dollar trade of a narcotic called Captagon. Syria's new rebel leaders have promised to stamp it out. So what will it take to end the country's association with the drug? Presenter Caitríona Perry speaks to the BBC's Emir Nader, who has been reporting on the drug trade in the Middle East.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Peter Goffin and Eleanor Sly

Sound engineers: Mike Regaard and Jonny Baker

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

Since the end of World War Two and Nazi rule, Germany has been hyper-vigilant about keeping right-wing hardliners out of government. For decades, mainstream politicians have shunned parties like the AfD. But now, with a federal election just weeks away and the AfD rising in the polls, a frontrunner in the race for chancellor has accepted the party’s support on an immigration bill. It’s an unprecedented step. But does it mean the far-right is being normalised?

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Peter Goffin, Laurie Kalus and Mhairi MacKenzie

Sound engineer: Mike Regaard and Jonny Baker

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

President Trump has been criticised for his combative response to the Washington air crash. With the investigation into the fatal collision between a passenger aeroplane and a military helicopter just beginning, the president suggested that diversity, equity and inclusion hiring policies could be to blame, drawing condemnation from critics who accused him of prematurely politicising the disaster.

Caitríona Perry, Courtney Subramanian and Bernd Debusmann discuss the fallout from that controversy, and examine how the new administration is already making good on campaign promises to crack down on undocumented migrants, and use tariffs as a bargaining chip in negotiations with key US allies.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. Follow or subscribe to The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts, so you don't miss an episode. You can email us at [email protected]

Producers: Tom Kavanagh and Charlie Jones

Sound engineer: Jack Graysmark

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

Tetiana and Oleh Plachkov have spent their whole lives in Melitopol, a city in eastern Ukraine. They fell in love, married and had a daughter Lyudmila. They started a business, running two restaurants, popular with their neighbours for special occasions. But since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, their family has been torn apart like so many in Ukraine.

Jonny Dymond speaks to our eastern Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, about one family among many whose loved ones have disappeared under the Russian occupation.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Richard Moran and Eleanor Sly

Sound engineer: Hannah Montgomery

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are heading north to find out what is left of their homes after 15 months of war. On this episode, our host Jonny Dymond speaks to Farida Alghol, who has made the journey back to Gaza City and her parents. We also ask our correspondent Nick Beake what the future holds for the people and territory of Gaza.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Peter Goffin, Tom Kavanagh, Alice Aylett Roberts and Beth Timmins

Sound engineer: Hannah Montgomery and Mike Regaard

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

The speed at which the new Chinese chatbot app DeepSeek has risen to prominence has taken many by surprise. Now the most downloaded free app in the US, DeepSeek seems to require less powerful computer chips than its American tech rivals.

The release of this low-cost AI model sent shockwaves through US stock markets, with Nvidia - the company behind the high-tech chips powering many AI investments - being the hardest hit. On Monday, Nvidia’s share price dropped by 17%, wiping out around $600bn in market value. So, where has DeepSeek come from, and what’s behind its ability to spook investors? What could this mean for the future of chip manufacturing and the US's historic dominance in the world of AI?

Jonny Dymond speaks to Chris Miller, historian on semiconductor chips at Tufts University and author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. Jonny is also joined by the BBC’s North America business correspondent Ritika Gupta to discus the impact DeepSeek has had on the stock markets.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Sound engineer: Hannah Montgomery

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

​Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has made a string of expansionist foreign policy announcements, angering several of his international counterparts. After reiterating his ambitious intention to purchase Greenland, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the US president doubled down on his insistence that Washington should regain control of the Panama Canal, the essential shipping passage he claims has been commandeered by China. Built by the United States in the early twentieth century, the waterway transformed global trade and marked America’s emergence as a superpower on the world stage, before being transferred to Panamanian control via a 1977 treaty. So why has Donald Trump got it in his sights now?

On this episode Jonny Dymond speaks to Julie Greene, a professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, about the storied history of the Panama Canal. And the BBC’s North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury discusses the politics and economics behind the Trump administration's diplomatic pursuit of the trade route.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Laurie Kalus, Mhairi MacKenzie and Beth Timmins

Sound engineer: Annie Smith

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

It’s 80 years since the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated. As we commemorate the memory of the six million Jews and other groups murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, a survivor of Auschwitz tells us why it’s more important than ever to remember what happened there.

On today's episode Lucy Hockings speaks to Tova Friedman, an American author and therapist, and one of the youngest Auschwitz survivors. Tova arrived at the extermination camp at the age of just five years old. She now speaks to young people in person and via TikTok about how she survived a year in Auschwitz as a very young child.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. We want your ideas, stories and experiences to help us understand and tell #TheGlobalStory. Email us at [email protected] You can also message us or leave a voice note via WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

Producers: Alice Aylett Roberts and Beth Timmins

Sound engineer: Dafydd Evans and Mike Regaard

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins

Donald Trump has begun his second White House stint with a flurry of executive orders. The new president began signing them more or less immediately after being sworn in for the second time. Eight years on from his first inauguration, the early signs are that he and his team have arrived in Washington ready to hit the ground running.

A deluge of new executive orders has effectively changed US laws relating to a host of issues, from immigration to the environment and beyond. On this episode, Caitríona Perry, Sumi Somaskanda and Courtney Subramanian discuss how the new president is keeping several polarising promises made on the campaign trail, and how he may see parts of his agenda stymied by legal challenges.

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC journalists worldwide. Follow or subscribe to The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts, so you don't miss an episode. You can email us at [email protected]

(Picture: President Donald Trump signing executive orders on his first day in office. Credit: Jim lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Producers: Tom Kavanagh, Peter Goffin and Charlie Jones

Sound engineer: Gareth Jones

Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins