Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, is widely expected to award Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize on Friday, at the draw for the 2026 World Cup in Washington DC. The prize has led to scrutiny over Infantino’s close relationship with Trump, along with concerns that Trump might move matches from host cities and fears over visa delays or refusals for travelling fans and officials. We speak to Dan Roan, the BBC’s sports editor, about why Infantino is cosying up to Trump, and what it means for football and global diplomacy. Producer: Sam Chantarasak and Aron KellerSound engineer: Travis EvansSenior news editor: China Collins(Image: Fifa President Gianni Infantino shows US President Donald Trump the World Cup Trophy in the Oval Office. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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How did a Chinese spiritual movement build a US media empire?
When China began cracking down on the spiritual movement Falun Gong in the 1990s, its leader and some followers moved to the United States. From there, they started the Epoch Times, a free newsletter.But in the past decade, the organisation has grown to become a conservative media empire – with a Pentagon press pass, a slick TV arm, and many millions of dollars in revenue. How did they do it? The story involves a mysterious spiritual leader, a dance troupe, and even a federal indictment.What does the meteoric rise of the Epoch Times say about how media and politics in the United States have changed in the last decade? We speak to Brandy Zadrozny, who has investigated the Epoch Times for NBC News.Producer: Lucy Pawle and Cat FarnsworthSound engineer: Martin Peralta and Travis EvansSenior news editor: China CollinsPhoto: Members of the Falun Gong protesting in New York. Credit: Alex Segre/BBC Images)
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Why has Trump pardoned Honduras’s drug trafficker ex-president?
President Donald Trump has pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking and weapons offences.It was only last year that Hernández was convicted in a New York courtroom of being part of a huge drug trafficking conspiracy, after being extradited to the US. Prosecutors said the operation flooded America with cocaine and turned Honduras into a “narco-state”. But Trump has claimed the investigation was a Biden administration “set up”, and Hernández is now a free man. As the Trump administration ramps up its military threats against Latin American drug cartels, including multiple strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, why has it pardoned Hernández? Will Grant reports. Producer: Xandra Ellin, Hannah Moore and Viv JonesExecutive producer: James Shield Sound engineer: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins (Photo: Juan Orlando Hernandez being escorted by US agents for extradition in 2022. Credit: Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters)
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The death of reading
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 in central Baghdad. (Credit: Ahmed Jalil/EPA)
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Whatever happened to Iran’s nuclear programme?
Last June, Israel and the United States carried out coordinated strikes on nuclear and military sites across Iran in what became known as the 12-day war.
The aim was clear: destroy Iran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities amid warnings that Tehran was dangerously close to developing a nuclear weapon. But conflicting reports in the immediate aftermath left the public uncertain about how effective the operation really was.
Six months after the bombings, we speak with Parham Ghobadi, senior reporter for BBC Persian, about what the war actually achieved, the current state of Iran’s nuclear programme, and what daily life inside Iran looks like today.
Producer: Viv Jones and Valerio Esposito
Executive producer: James Shield
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
(Photo: A US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Credit: US Air Force)
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.
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