Global News Podcast

Has the Ukraine conflict reached a turning point?

Tue, 25 Nov 2025

The Ukrainian authorities say Kyiv has reached a common understanding with the United States on the key terms of a peace agreement with Russia. Moscow says it has yet to see the amended version of an earlier draft, which included many of the Kremlin's demands. Also: there's been heavy criticism of the Nigerian authorities after hundreds of students were abducted from a school last week. The US Government tells holidaymakers to dress properly at airports. And what's more important? A billion dollars' worth of shipwreck treasure or the preservation of an important underwater archaeological site?

The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Criminal cases against Trump critics dropped

Tue, 25 Nov 2025

A federal US judge has dismissed the criminal cases against the former FBI director James Comey and the New York Attorney General Letitia James, who've both led high-profile investigations into Donald Trump. The judge found that the prosecutor overseeing both cases, Lindsey Halligan, had been hired unlawfully. The White House has said the Justice Department will appeal against the ruling. President Trump has denied accusations that he uses the criminal justice sytem to target his enemies.

Also: Mexican police arrest a man accused of recruiting people involved in the murder of a popular mayor, Carlos Manzo. We look back at the life of the singer Jimmy Cliff who helped popularise reggae around the world. Meanwhile, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads tributes to the Bollywood actor Dharmendra who has died at the age of 89. A new location feature on the social media platform X raises questions about the origins of politically provocative content. And a woman in Thailand has been found alive in her coffin moments before she was due to be cremated.

Nigeria to recruit extra police officers after abductions

Mon, 24 Nov 2025

The Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria says 265 people are still missing after a mass kidnapping from a school in Niger state on Friday. Among those unaccounted for are dozens of nursery and primary school children and 12 members of staff. The Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, ordered the recruitment of an extra thirty thousand police officers in the latest attempt by the federal authorities to bring an end to the chronic insecurity in the north of the country. Also: American-led hopes of a breakthrough in the Ukraine peace talks have been tempered by European leaders who have stressed that Russia must come to the table. A suicide bombing attack kills several people in Pakistan at a paramilitary headquarters in Peshawar. Police said the bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the compound and two other attackers were shot dead. The US designation of the Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation comes into force as Washington ramps up its pressure on the president Nicolas Maduro. South Korea's most prolific online sex criminal is sentenced to life in prison, after being convicted of exploiting dozens of people by spreading thousands of sexual abuse materials using an encrypted messaging app. And how conservation efforts in Kenya are starting to revive the fortunes of endangered Black rhinos.

US hails 'tremendous' progress at Ukraine talks

Mon, 24 Nov 2025

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has given an upbeat assessment of talks with Ukrainian officials about how to end the war with Russia. Mr Rubio said sticking points which remained were "not insurmountable". US, Ukrainian and European officials have been meeting in Geneva in Switzerland to discuss a peace plan that US negotiators devised with their Russian counterparts. It has been widely criticised as sympathetic to Moscow's aims.

Also: a BBC investigation has exposed people in Sierra Leone who claim to supply human body parts for ritual ceremonies. More than 50 of the 300 pupils abducted by gunmen in Nigeria have escaped their captors, but parents are voicing their frustration over the lack of security at schools. Hezbollah confirms its chief of staff has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. A three-year-old boy from California has astounded doctors with his progress after becoming the first person in the world with Hunter syndrome to receive a ground-breaking gene therapy. A daughter of the former South African President Jacob Zuma is accused of recruiting citizens to fight in Ukraine. And an Argentinian writer recalls the moment she learned her childhood nanny was actually a KGB agent.

Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.

Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

The Global Story: The oil lobbyist who tried to sink the first big climate deal

Sun, 23 Nov 2025

The American lawyer, oil lobbyist and master strategist Don Pearlman is said to have chain-smoked his way through almost every UN climate gathering from the early 1990s until his death in 2005.
Some of those who saw Pearlman operate in Kyoto, where the first legally binding international agreement on climate change was agreed in 1997, say he created the playbook for stalling climate talks. The Kyoto protocol was never ratified by the United States, and Pearlman is now the subject of a major play, Kyoto, which has just transferred from London to the Lincoln Center in New York.
As the COP30 climate summit takes place in Brazil, we speak to BBC climate journalist Jordan Dunbar, who’s been trying to piece together the true story of the man once nicknamed ‘the high priest of the carbon club’.

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. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

Producers: Aron Keller and Cat Farnsworth
Executive producer: James Shield
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Don Pearlman at the Kyoto summit / BBC.