President Trump says the Iranians are talking "seriously" with the United States about curbs on their nuclear programme. Iran's supreme leader warns if America attacks, there'll be regional war.
We'll be asking where concessions might be made to prevent a military confrontation.
Also in the programme: A second woman says she was trafficked to the UK by Jeffrey Epstein for sex with the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; a new exhibition explores the legacy of Japan's Samurai warriors; and Carlos Alcaraz triumphs over Novak Djokovic to become the youngest man to win a career Grand Slam in tennis.
(Photo shows Donald Trump speaking after disembarking from Air Force One in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 31, 2026. Nathan Howard/Reuters)
In September 1999, just weeks into Vladimir Putin’s first premiership, four bombs blew up four apartment buildings, over a period of twelve days, killing hundreds and plunging the entire nation into fear.
The government blamed Chechen militants, a conclusion corroborated by many journalists at the time. But whispers of a darker conspiracy persist to this day.
A new BBC podcast, The History Bureau: Putin and the Apartment Bombs, tells the story of those bombings and re-examines how these tragic events helped propel Vladimir Putin to power. Asma talks to the host of the series, Helena Merriman.
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: Viv Jones
Executive producer: Bridget Harney
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: Moscow apartment buildings in the 1990s. (Credit: BBC)
Cuba is at a breaking point. From severe fuel shortages to a public health crisis, the island’s economic distress has reached a fever pitch. Now, the Trump administration believes it has the leverage to do what others couldn't: force regime change. This week, Luke Vargas explores the mechanics of this renewed pressure campaign and America’s power projection abroad with WSJ’s José de Córdoba in Mexico and Vera Bergengruen in Washington.
At the Grammy Awards tonight, the Puerto Rican pop sensation Bad Bunny is the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated for album, record and song of the year simultaneously. For most artists, this would be the high point of their year, if not their career. For Bad Bunny, this is just an appetizer for what’s in store for him next week.
Next Sunday, he will headline the Super Bowl halftime show. His performance comes in the middle of a nationwide crackdown on immigration — an issue he’s been vocal about — and follows a backlash against the N.F.L. for booking him in the first place.
Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of The Times’s pop music show “Popcast,” discuss Bad Bunny’s rise to the heights of pop stardom, and explore what it means for a Puerto Rican artist to headline the world’s biggest stage.
Marc J. Dunkelman, author of "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress — and How to Bring It Back," stops by the studio to talk to Lovett about how Democrats — once they regain power — can make government work again. Together they dive into the ways progressive governance changed from the New Deal to today, the influence of Robert Caro's polemic "The Power Broker" on a generation of public employees, and why they're both hopeful that Democrats will be able to find their way out of the darkness and learn to do big things again.
President Trump has a vision for the American workforce. Forget expensive college educations. His eye is on the skilled trades. The U.S. Department of Labor has adopted the slogan “Make America Skilled Again.”
But who gets to be part of this renaissance?
Since the 1980s, women have made small but meaningful gains in the construction trades. Now there are concerns that President Trump’s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion will stall that progress — setting back both women and the construction industry.
Today on the Sunday Story, we ask how women fit into this administration’s vision of this skilled trades future.
The Iranian government cut off nearly all internet access on January 8 as part of a crackdown on protestors, an example of why authoritarians attempt internet blackouts—and why they don’t always work the way authoritarians want them to.
Guest: Steve Feldstein, political scientist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said she would propose an “amnesty law” covering the period since 1999—when Hugo Chávez, self-styled leader of the “Bolivarian revolution”, came to power
