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BBC World Service


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


Newshour

The US's top diplomat is in Jordan for talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey, and Europe to discuss the future of Syria following the ousting of the former president, Bashar al-Assad. Also on the programme, the South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to fight for his political future, after parliament voted to impeach him over his failed attempt to impose martial law; and, the director of "Goodbye Lenin", Wolfgang Becker has died.

(Photo: Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan's southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba on December 14, 2024. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Pool via REUTERS)

The future of Syria

US Congress races to avoid government shutdown after bipartisan spending agreement was derailed following interventions by President-elect Donald Trump and his efficiency czar, Elon Musk.

Also in the programme: A high level US delegation holds talks with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Shara’a; At least two dead and 68 injured after a car drove into a crowd at German Christmas market; and 27 new species discovered in Peru, including an amphibious mouse.

(Photo: Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, talking to journalists. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

US Congress races to avoid government shutdown

The former US President Jimmy Carter - who came to politics after a successful career as a peanut farmer – is credited with bringing peace between Egypt and Israel for which he received a Nobel prize. We hear from those who worked with him and those who prepared catfish suppers for the late president. 
Also in the programme: Agony and anger in South Korea over the country’s worst plane crash.

(Photo: Former President Carter holding peanuts in a field. Credit: Jimmy Carter Library/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

President Carter dies at 100

German officials have told the BBC that a decision by the new Islamist authorities in Syria to erase evolution from the school curriculum is troubling - a concern that is echoed by many Syrians. We hear from Germany's Special Coordinator for Syria and from Syrian writer Rima Flihan.
Also on the programme: The US Surgeon General has called for risk warnings on alcoholic beverages, similar to the labels on cigarettes, following new research that links the drinks to seven types of cancer; and why a New York judge is insisting on sentencing US president-elect Donald Trump days before his inauguration.

(Photo: Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Syria's newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Credit: Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS)

Concerns over Syrian leadership's new school curriculum

A bell tolls 39 times outside the childhood home of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, as commemorations for his life and service to his country begin. We hear from his grandson and Democrat activist, Angelo Fuster who was working in the state capitol of Georgia when Jimmy Carter entered politics in the 1960s.

Also on the programme: A supporter of the new government in Syria defends its decision to remove the teaching of evolution from the school classroom; and how the new teenage darts champion of the world is helping the game attract talent even younger.

(Photo: A military body bearer team carries the casket of former President Jimmy Carter Credit: Brynn Anderson/Pool via REUTERS)

Former US President Jimmy Carter's State Funeral begins

Thousands of rival demonstrators have been protesting in South Korea's capital Seoul where the impeached president President Yoon Suk Yeol is refusing to hand himself in to investigators.

Also on the programme: Venezuela's opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzalez, is touring South America ahead of the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro who he insists lost last year's presidential election; and we ask - after 15 months of war - is there anywhere in Gaza where Palestinians can still get medical treatment?
And we'll hear the sound of a prison choir from Mississippi.

Photo: People take part in a protest against the impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol near his official residence in Seoul, South Korea, January 5, 2025. (Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

Rival protests in Seoul as impeached president continues to resist arrest

The former French president Nicholas Sarkozy has gone on trial today in Paris. He is accused of illegally taking funding from the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. Prosecutors allege the men struck a deal to fund Mr Sarkozy's ultimately successful campaign for the presidency in 2007. In return, they say he promised to help Colonel Gaddafi shed his pariah status on the world stage. The former French president denies the accusations.

Also in the programme: Hamas has released a list of 34 hostages that it says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel. We speak to the daughter of one of those on the list; and the efforts to save the endangered Iberian Lynx in Portugal and Spain. 

(Picture: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives on the first day of his trial. Credit: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Nicholas Sarkozy on trial for corruption

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday, saying he will leave office as soon as his party chooses a new leader as slumping polls and internal division took their toll. We hear from Catherine McKenna, a former minister in Trudeau's government.

Also in the programme: Austria asks far-right leader to commence coalition talks; and the Capitol Hill cop on duty on January 6th 2021.

(Picture: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters, announcing he intends to step down as Liberal Party leader. Credit: Reuters)

Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada resigns

Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Holocaust denier and an unrepentant extremist on race, gender and immigration who founded the French far-right National Front party in 1972, has died aged 96. Also on the programme, a powerful earthquake close to Mount Everest has killed more than a hundred people in Tibet and affected the city of Shigatse, and can alcohol-free wine still be considered wine?

(Photo: 
Jean-Marie Le Pen dead at 96, Paris, France - 22 Apr 2014 YOAN VALAT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen dies

The social media giant Meta is ending third-party fact checking of Facebook and its other platforms, relying instead on a community notes system. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said recent elections felt like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising free speech, arguing that fact checkers were too politically biased. We hear two views of the change. 

Also in the programme: Donald Trump refuses to rule out economic - or military - intervention to gain control of the Panama Canal - and Greenland - what do the locals think about that? And we hear from a mountaineer on Mount Everest about what it was like when the earthquake hit. 

(IMAGE: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., September 25, 2024 / CREDIT: Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo)

Meta ends third-party fact checking

A crescent of flames looms over Los Angeles as wildfires continue to burn. But firefighters have managed to bring under control the blaze that had been threatening Hollywood.

Also on the programme: Lebanon has a president for the first time in two years. He's Joseph Aoun, the Maronite Christian who leads the army; and we will hear from Ireland's ex- president Mary Robinson in Washington for the funeral of her friend, the former US President Jimmy Carter. 

(Photo: A firefighter walks next to a burning home, as powerful winds fueling devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area force people to evacuate, in Malibu, California. Credit: Reuters)

Five fires rage in Los Angeles, with whole communities destroyed

Five fires rage in Los Angeles, with whole communities destroyed

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