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BBC World Service

Where the world and America meet, with episodes each weekday. The world is changing. Decisions made in the US and by the second Trump administration are accelerating that change. But they are also a symptom of it. With Asma Khalid in DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption.

The Global Story

All this week, we are teaming up with our BBC sister podcasts to explore how power and influence around the world is shifting. We’re exploring which countries have a sphere of influence, and which countries are in someone else’s. 

Today, we speak to Vitaly Shevchenko, co-host of Ukrainecast, about how Russia cultivates and controls its sphere of influence. 

President Vladimir Putin has called the Soviet Union's collapse "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century. Since he came to power in 1999, Putin has tried to exercise influence over what he calls Russia’s ‘near abroad’: the former Soviet republics in its backyard. 

Producers: Viv Jones and Xandra Ellin 

Executive producer: Bridget Harney 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 

Photo: Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Vyacheslav Prokofyev/ Sputnik/ Reuters

Putin’s pursuit of Russian greatness

How will China respond to a new era of US assertiveness? Could the spectacular events of Trump’s second term change President Xi Jinping’s calculations about whether to flex China’s muscles in Taiwan?

All this week, we are teaming up with our sister podcasts to explore how power and influence around the world is shifting. We’re exploring who has a sphere of influence and who finds themselves in one.

Today we’re joined by Mariko Oi, host of Asia Specific from the BBC World Service, and the BBC’s China correspondent, Laura Bicker.

Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Valerio Esposito

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: China’s President Xi Jinping. Maxim Shemetov/Pool/Reuters

Has Xi Jinping outsmarted his rivals?

How are Donald Trump’s ambitions in Venezuela and Greenland changing America’s place in the world? President Trump’s key adviser Stephen Miller has said that we are living in a world “that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power” - so where has that philosophy come from?

All this week, we are teaming up with our sister podcasts to explore how power and influence around the world is shifting. We exploring who is in a sphere of influence and who is being controlled by one.

Today, we speak to Anthony Zurcher, co-host of Americast and the BBC’s North America correspondent, about what US history tells us about this moment.

Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: Bridget Harney

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

(Photo: President Donald Trump in front of the US flag. Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA/Shutterstock)

American influence from Monroe to Donroe

Throughout 2025, a massive youth protest movement took shape across the world. From Bangladesh, to Nepal, to Morocco, to Kenya, to the Maldives, young people were taking to the streets to demand, among other things, job security, improved standards of living, and the toppling of corrupt regimes. And in a number of cases their ambitious demands were met.

Today we speak to the BBC's social media investigations correspondent, Marianna Spring, about how social media helped spark a movement that transcended borders, and where the so-called, 'Gen Z Revolution' goes from here.

Producers: Xandra Ellin and Cat Farnsworth

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

(Photo: A protester carries a banner featuring a Malagasy version of the logo of the popular Japanese manga One Piece, during a nationwide youth-led demonstration over frequent power outages and water shortages, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, October 13, 2025. Credit: Siphiwe Sibeko/ Reuters)

Will Gen Z protests around the world continue in 2026?

After his major military operation in Venezuela, President Trump has escalated his rhetoric about taking control of Greenland. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the Arctic island – which is a semi-autonomous Danish territory - should be part of the US. "We need Greenland from a national security situation”, Trump told reporters recently, “It's so strategic”. In capitals around Europe, leaders are now wondering if Trump might just follow through on his threats.

We speak to journalist Adrienne Murray in Copenhagen to find out how Greenlanders and Danes feel about Trump’s comments, and what any US action on Greenland could mean for the future of Nato and Europe.
 
Producers: Viv Jones, Aron Keller and Xandra Ellin
 
Executive producer: Bridget Harney
 
Mix: Travis Evans
 
Senior news editor: China Collins
 
Photo: Danish troops take part in military drills in Greenland. Credit: Guglielmo Mangiapane/ Reuters

Will Trump take control of Greenland?

When the US government captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, on Saturday, most of the world was shocked. But US officials had for years been gaming out different scenarios, including predicting what would happen if Maduro was ousted. According to one man who took part, each ended in disaster. 

On today’s episode, we speak to the former Washington Post journalist Douglas Farah, who participated in war games on Venezuela during Donald Trump’s first term, as well as during the Obama and Biden administrations. 

Producers: Hannah Moore and Lucy Pawle 

Executive producer: James Shield 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 

 
Photo: A protest against US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Maduro, in Brazil. Tuane Fernandes/Reuters

The US ran a war game on the aftermath of Maduro’s fall – it predicted chaos

Who might have the power and influence to change the world in 2026? World leaders aside, we choose four people and discuss why they could intersect with some of the big stories and themes of the next year. 

Producers: Xandra Ellin and Sam Chantarasak 

Executive producer: James Shield 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 

Image: FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates scoring a goal. Credit: Pablo Morano/Reuters.

People who could change the world in 2026

The Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are due to appear in a federal Manhattan court on Monday, after the United States captured them in a military operation in Venezuela. 

President Trump says the US will run Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”. But Maduro’s allies – including its new interim president – remain in charge. 

We speak to Ione Wells, the BBC’s South America correspondent, about what might happen in the coming weeks and months. 

Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller 

Executive producer: James Shield 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 

Photo: Nicolás Maduro in an image distributed by President Trump which he said was taken on board the USS Iwo Jima.

What’s next for Venezuela?

We are away for Christmas, so this is a repeat of a previous episode. 

Mistrust in science has never been higher. Fewer people are getting vaccinated, a known vaccine skeptic is leading the most powerful health agency in America and an outbreak of measels in Texas this year led to the first fatalities in almost a decade. Then, in August, a gunman opened fire on the headquarters of the Centre for Disease Control with many speculating he was fuelled by misinformation about health. 

Increasingly this misinformation is being exported around the world. 

Marianna Spring is the BBC’s Social Media Investigations Correspondent and tells the story of how suspicion of science in America helped radicalise a British mom with devastating consequences. 
 

Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Lucy Pawle 

Executive producer: Annie Brown 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 
 

Photo: Kate Shemirani. Martin Pope / Getty

Are conspiracy theories America’s biggest export?

We are away for Christmas, so this is a repeat of a previous episode. 

Are we living through the slow death of reading - replaced by an addictive screen culture that fragments our attention and floods us with trivial or unreliable information? Writer and voracious reader James Marriott believes we are entering a post-literate age with profoundly negative consequences for education, culture and democracy itself. In today's episode, James traces how an 18th century ‘reading revolution’ shaped the modern-world - and what might follow its sudden decline. 
 

Producers: Aron Keller and Sam Chantarasak 

Editor: James Shield 

Mix: Travis Evans 

Senior news editor: China Collins 
 

Photo: The al-Nahda al-Arabiya library (Arab Renaissance Library) in central Baghdad. AHMED JALIL/EPA.

The death of reading

Nearly 40 years after the BBC brought famine in Ethiopia to the world's attention, there are fresh warnings that the tragedy could be repeated.

James Landale, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent has just returned from the northern state of Tigray, where officials say hunger could reach levels worse than in the 1980s.

Kalkidan Yibeltal, our correspondent in Addis Ababa, tells how the region’s problems today can partly be traced back to the famine decades ago. 

The Global Story brings you trusted insights from BBC experts around the world, with Katya Adler. 

Is there a story where you are that we should be telling as part of The Global Story? Email us at theglobalstory@bbc.com You can also message or leave a voice note on WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480. 

Today’s podcast was made by Richard Moran and Jay Gardner. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.

Ethiopia on the brink: Fears of a famine return and why you should pay attention

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