The Global Story

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

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.

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.

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

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.