“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
Mix: Travis Evan
Senior news editor: China Collins
Image: Russian Matryoshka wooden dolls, depicting US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
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Why Hamas agreed to a ceasefire – but isn’t disarming yet
Donald Trump is in Israel today on a victory lap after securing what he claims is the beginning of lasting peace in the Middle East. The Gaza ceasefire – and with it, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners – follows weeks of intense talks brokered by American negotiators.
Some of the hostage families have credited the US president with achieving the ceasefire, but his team has more experience in the New York real estate world than in diplomacy.
So how exactly did they achieve a deal? And will Hamas really agree to its next phase – disarming and having no role in Gaza’s future?
Guest: Lyse Doucet, chief international correspondent.
Producers: Lucy Pawle and Sam Chantarasak.
Executive producer: James Shield.
Mix: Travis Evans.
Senior news editor: China Collins.
Image: A member of the internal security forces loyal to the Palestinian group Hamas, mans a checkpoint in the Gaza Strip. Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP via Getty Images.
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Will the Gaza ceasefire hold?
Israel and Hamas have approved President Trump’s plan for a ceasefire and approved a framework including the release of all the hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza. It is being described as the first phase of a wider agreement, but is the deal secure enough to last?We speak to Liran Berman, whose brothers Gali and Ziv are amongst the last hostages, Laila Ezzat Al Shana, a mother in Gaza, and the BBC’s state department correspondent, Tom Bateman. Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller
Executive producer: James Shield
Senior news editor: China Collins
Mix: Travis EvansImage: Reactions in Gaza after President Trump announced that Israel and Hamas agreed on the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire. Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
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Australia’s mushroom killer trial
It’s been called ‘Australia's trial of the century’. Erin Patterson, the mushroom murderer, was sentenced last month and given a life sentence, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Both the prosecution and the defence are lodging competing appeals. Patterson wants her conviction overturned, and if her appeal succeeds there could be a retrial. Her prosecutors, however, say her 33 year sentence is ‘manifestly inadequate’ and they want to see her receive longer jail time.These are the latest developments in a story that has launched a flurry of true crime podcasts, books and documentaries. A TV drama is in production, and one of Australia's most eminent writers has announced she’s writing a book about it.The BBC’s Katy Watson talks us through how this suburban triple-murder story became the focus of the increasingly voracious true-crime industry.Producers: Viv Jones, Xandra Ellin and Valerio Esposito
Executive producer: Annie Brown
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China CollinsImage: Erin Patterson. AAP/James Ross via REUTERS
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Trump’s ‘CEO of everything’
The billionaire Larry Ellison could soon control huge portions of America’s AI, attention economy and legacy media. He already owns swathes of AI infrastructure and is preparing to takeover TikTok, whilst his son, whose company already owns Paramount, is preparing a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. So who is this ‘CEO of everything’, and how is his family dynasty becoming the 21st Century’s Rockerfellers? Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller
Executive producer: Annie Brown
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins (Photo: Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison look on, at the White House, in Washington, US, 3 February, 2025. Credit: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
Where the world and America meet. Every weekday, this is The Global Story.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.
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