The Global Story

President Trump is in Asia this week to strike deals with several countries, including with China.

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Image: Taiwanese people observe the changing of honor guards in Liberty Square in Taipei. Ritchie B Tongo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock.

Giorgia Meloni is Italy’s first female Prime Minister, and her political star has risen rapidly - from working class roots in Rome, to becoming one of the most important and divisive leaders in Europe.

Photo: YOAN VALAT/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock

Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the US has contributed billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan for food and medical care – a lifeline in a country ravaged by two decades of war.

Producer: Hannah Moore

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Picture: Taliban bans female medical education, Afghan female doctors and midwives face setback, Kabul, Afghanistan, 24 Dec 2024. Samiullah Popal/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

***This episode contains themes of sexual abuse and grooming***

His downfall was accelerated by a disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC. We speak to the interviewer Emily Maitlis, now host of the News Agents podcast, about that day, and how Prince Andrew’s story gives us an insight into the ways in which Jeffrey Epstein functioned.

Producers: Sam Chantarasak, Lucy Pawle and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: China Collins

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

(Photo: Prince Andrew. Credit: Toby Melville/Reuters)

The Louvre Museum in Paris was closed for 2 days as the police investigated a brazen heist which resulted in the theft of France's “priceless” crown jewels. Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight, before escaping on scooters with eight items of jewelry of great historical significance.

Erin Thompson, Professor of Art Crime at The City University of New York, tells us about the crime that has stunned France - and the rest of the world.

Producers: Viv Jones, Aron Keller, Valerio Esposito and Cat Farnsworth

Executive producer: Annie Brown

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Image: A security employee near the glass Pyramid of the Louvre Museum, Paris. Benoît Tessier/Reuters

AI companies are seeing a monumental surge in investment – but some experts are now warning of the risks of an economic bubble.

Could AI be the biggest market bubble since the dot-com crash? Or is it a genuinely transformative technology that’s simply taking time to deliver? We speak to the BBC’s Evan Davis.

Producers: Aron Keller and Xandra Ellin

Executive Producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

On Wednesday, President Trump confirmed that he has authorised the CIA to take covert lethal action in Venezuela. The revelation came off the back of a series of US strikes on Venezuelan boats accused of transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea, which resulted in the death of 27 people in what some human rights experts are calling "extrajudicial executions".

Producers: Viv Jones and Valerio Esposito

Editor: Annie Brown and James Shield

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Image: Miguel Gutierrez/Shutterstock

Reporting on the war in Gaza has only been possible because of the work of Palestinian journalists, because the Israeli government will not let foreign broadcasters – including the BBC – inside the territory to report freely, even now a ceasefire is in place.

One month ago, freelance journalist Ghada Al-Kurd began sharing voice notes with us, talking about her life, her family, and her days reporting in Gaza City. Her job is dangerous – almost 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the past two years – and even with a ceasefire in place, safety is far from reach.

Ghada has continued to report for us through her displacements, sharing her treasured memories of pre-war Gaza, and her fears and hopes for its future.

Producer: Hannah Moore.

Executive producer: James Shield.

Mix: Travis Evans.

Senior news editor: China Collins.

Image: Ghada Al Kurd

“If there’s a fight, we’ll fight to the end”, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday, of the increasingly fierce trade war playing out between the US and China.

As President Donald Trump threatens imposing 100% tariffs on goods coming from China, his counterpart, President Xi Jinping, has restricted US access to its rare earth minerals – which are vital to producing everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

With the two leaders due to meet in South Korea later this month, can they break the stalemate, or will they plunge the world’s two biggest economies into a global trade war? BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonnell joins us to discuss how the world’s two largest economies got locked in stalemate – and what it could mean for the cost of the goods we all buy.

Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Hannah Moore

President Trump’s administration may have frozen foreign aid but this week it’s giving Argentina a $20 billion lifeline. It's a move his critics are suggesting is more about politics than sound economics. Argentina’s president, the chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei, is a friend and close ally of Trump’s. On on Tuesday, Milei will visit the White House to discuss the details of this new rescue plan. We ask the BBC’s South America correspondent, Ione Wells, whether Trump is ditching ‘America First’ economics to bail out Argentina, or whether this is a financial gamble that could pay off.

Further reading: "How Milei's 'Thatcherite' economics divided his nation - but won over Trump" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9865l8540eo

Producer: Viv Jones.