The Global Story

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Can Apple cut ties with China? Dec 26, 2025

Show notes

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

Apple is promising to make more products in the US, backed by a $600bn investment over the next four years. But after decades of relying on Chinese manufacturing that promise is going to be tough to keep.

Today we’re joined by journalist and author Patrick McGee to discuss whether Apple can navigate the demands of Donald Trump’s America First agenda and disentangle itself from a made-in-China business model.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Aron Keller

Executive producers: James Shield and Annie Brown

Mix: Nicky Edwards and Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Apple CEO Tim Cook. Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters

Is social media dead? Dec 25, 2025

Show notes

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

For much of the 21st century, our social lives have been shaped, at least in part, on the internet. But in an age of influencers, generative AI, complex algorithms, and politically entangled technocrats, some users say social media is growing less, well, social.

So, is social media dead? Or is it just becoming something else? We speak with New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka about what happened to social networks, and what their transformation suggests about the future of media.

Producers: Xandra Ellin and Aron Keller

Executive Producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior News Editor: China Collins

Photo: Social media apps on a phone. Yui Mok/PA

The disgraced UK doctor behind autism misinformation Dec 24, 2025

Show notes

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

In September, President Trump and the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference in which they made extraordinary new claims about autism. They suggested a potential link between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and the development of autism. They also advocated spacing out childhood vaccinations.

The two men's interest in the link between vaccines and autism goes back decades but these claims did not originate in the US. They trace back to the UK in 1998, when disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield first published his now-debunked theory linking MMR vaccines to autism cases in children.

The science journalist Adam Rutherford explains to the Global Story how the Wakefield vaccine conspiracy became the biggest medical disinformation disaster in recent history, and how these ideas found fertile ground in the Trump administration.

Producers: Viv Jones, Valerio Esposito

Executive producer: Annie Brown, James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: President Trump & Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Meeting settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

Attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have broken UN records this year, reaching the highest level in almost 20 years.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed a “minority” that “does not represent the large settler public”. Meanwhile, Israel’s security cabinet has just approved the recognition of 19 new settlements as the government continues its settlement expansion push. We’re joined by the BBC’s Sarah Montague who has been speaking with Palestinians who say they are experiencing settler intimidation, and with a prominent settler who is a member of the Israeli parliament. Producers: Viv Jones, Valerio Esposito and Xandra Ellin

Executive Producer: Bridget Harney

Mix: Marty Peralta

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Israeli border police remove settlers near Hebron. Credit Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock.

Is Trump looking for war with Venezuela? Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

Tensions between the US and Venezuela are reaching a dangerous tipping point. The Trump administration has accused president Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug cartel and declared Maduro's government a “foreign terrorist organisation”. President Trump has also ordered a naval blockade of the country’s oil-sanctioned exports using what he calls “the largest ever armada assembled in the history of South America”.

In today’s episode, we speak to BBC Mundo journalist, Jorge Perez Valeri to ask whether the escalating military rhetoric from Washington could be paving the way for war, and how Venezuelans, already grappling with deep economic hardship, are feeling about the prospect. Producers: Sam Chantarasak, Lucy Pawle and Aron Keller. Editor: Bridget Harney Mix: Marty Peralta Senior news editor: China Collins Photo: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro attends an event at the Mariche Metrocable station. Credit: Reuters.

Why K-beauty is everywhere Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

The promise of pore-free, glassy, youthful-looking skin has made Korean beauty products a global phenomenon. Americans spent as much $1.7bn (£1.3bn) on K-beauty in 2024, according to industry estimates, and the US now imports more cosmetics from South Korea than any other country.

How did the South Korean government help K-beauty ride the soft power wave that has also brought us TV shows like KPop Demon Hunters, and pop groups such as Blackpink and BTS? And what are the risks of buying into the ‘perfect’ beauty ideals that the industry promotes?

Today, we speak to Elise Hu, the host of TED Daily Talks host and author of Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital.

Producer: Hannah Moore

Executive producer: Bridget Harney

Sound engineer: Marty Peralta

Senior news editor: China Collins

(Photo: Model Lee Hyun-yi attends the photocall event celebrating the launch of AHC’s new product at the FKI Tower Conference Center in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu. Credit: iMBC/Imazins/Getty Images)

Why Australia’s gun laws aren’t as strong as you might think Dec 18, 2025

Show notes

After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australia tightened its gun laws, and has since been considered a world-leading example by gun control advocates of how to lessen the chances of mass shootings occurring.

However, the mass murder of at least 15 people in an antisemitic attack at Bondi beach on Sunday has again raised the issue of gun access, and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said he is “ready to fight” to strengthen the laws again.

On today’s show, Ariel Bogle, an investigations reporter with Guardian Australia, explains why the number of guns in Australia has been rising, and how stricter laws might be received in the country.

Producers: Hannah Moore and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Marty Peralta

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Photo of unregistered handguns that were returned to police, near Smederevo, Serbia. Credit: Dimitrije Goll /EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

What would it take for Putin to stop fighting in Ukraine? Dec 17, 2025

Show notes

President Trump says a Ukraine peace deal is ‘closer than ever’ following talks in Berlin with European officials and a delegation from Ukraine. But is it?

As the fourth anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion approaches, no peace deal can be agreed without Vladimir Putin’s support. Can he be persuaded to accept anything short of a Russian victory? We speak to the BBC’s Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg.

Producer: Valerio Esposito, Viv Jones and Xandra Ellin

Executive producer: James Shield

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Reuters)

The Bondi Beach massacre and the rise of antisemitic violence Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

Australia is reeling after its deadliest mass shooting in decades, in which gunmen opened fire on Jewish people gathered for a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney. At least 16 people have been killed – among them a 10-year-old and a Holocaust survivor. The massacre has triggered a reckoning in Australia and beyond.

While some are asking how this horror could have happened, others believe an attack like this was grimly inevitable after a string of antisemitic incidents in Australia in the past few years. In today’s episode, we speak to the BBC’s Religion Editor Aleem Maqbool and the ABC’s Hamish Macdonald to explore why antisemitism has surged since October 7th 2023, and why many Jewish communities feel their governments aren’t doing enough to keep them safe.

Producers: Cat Farnsworth and Lucy Pawle

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Rabbi Yossi Freidman at a memorial for shooting victims at Sydney's Bondi Beach. Mark Baker /AP

Why Trump’s Thailand-Cambodia peace deal unravelled Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

Fighting broke out last week on the Thai-Cambodian border, despite a US-brokered ceasefire in July. The conflict was one of the eight wars that President Trump claimed to have ended, so why did this peace deal unravel?

We speak to Jonathan Head, the BBC’s southeast Asia correspondent, from Surin on the Thai side of the border.

Producers: Xandra Ellin and Sam Chantarasak

Executive producer: Bridget Harney

Senior news editor: China Collins

Mix: Travis Evans

Photo: Thailand's Prime Minister watches as Cambodia's Prime Minister and President Trump shake hands. Mohd Rasfan/EPA/Shutterstock