Belarus has freed 123 prisoners, including prominent opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, after the US agreed to lift sanctions on the country. Also on the programme, Cambodia has shut its border crossings with Thailand, as fighting continues despite US President Donald Trump earlier saying they had agreed to a ceasefire; and, how the British novelist Charles Dickens is being celebrated this Christmas in a small Dutch town.
(Belarus released over 100 political prisoners form prison, Vilnius, Lithuania - 13 Dec 2025. VALDA KALNINA/EPA/Shutterstock)
After more clashes on the Thai-Cambodian border, we ask a Cambodian official whether the dispute will escalate.
Also in the programme: four months ahead of the elections in Hungary, why has child protection become such a key issue? And as Israel plans to build a new road and barrier in the occupied West Bank, we hear from the head of the UN’s Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
(IMAGE: A handout photo made available by Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) shows a bridge destroyed by Thai F-16 fighter jets in Pursat Province, Cambodia, 13 December 2025 / CREDIT: Handout /EPA/Shutterstock)
A pop-up cafe in Tokyo is giving people with dementia a place to volunteer as well as a sense of community. Its owner Toshio Morita has become something of a local celebrity. At Orange Day Café, muddled orders, long pauses and gentle confusion aren’t mistakes — they’re the point.
Also:
A Northern Irish man who suffered a cardiac arrest had his life saved after his golden retriever, named Polly, alerted his wife after he stopped breathing. Polly the dog has been hailed a hero by the charity, the British Heart Foundation.
A revolutionary gene therapy has successfully treated patients with aggressive and previously incurable blood cancers.
In Kenya, the Rare Gem Talent School has been set up specifically to teach dyslexic children. A condition that is believed to impact around 10% of people globally.
A woman in Kerala, India, has started a camp to help women who are going through a divorce.
And a French man in London has become the face of a homelessness charity after his virtuoso piano playing at a train station went viral.
Our weekly collection of inspiring, uplifting and happy news from around the world.
Republicans accuse the Democrats of playing politics with release of photos from the estate of late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, that feature rich and powerful people, including Donald Trump. Also: Thailand attacks what Cambodia describes as civilian facilities near their shared border; Iranian security forces use violence to detain Nobel Peace Prize winner, Narges Mohammadi; the curtain is about to come down on John Cena, one of the most celebrated wrestlers from the world of Sports Entertainment and analysis shows pop song lyrics are getting sadder.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Smashing up guitars is a classic rock star activity, but how about drowning them? 7-year-old listener Cornelius has set CrowdScience a challenge: to find out what happens if you play a guitar underwater. Could this be the next avant-garde music sensation?
Host and amateur musician Caroline Steel tackles Cornelius’ question with the help of one increasingly soggy guitar. The UK’s National Physical Laboratory is our first port of call, with a guitar-sized water tank at the ready, and acoustic scientists Dr Freya Malcher and Ben Ford helping tackle our questions.
Since an acoustic guitar’s sound is amplified by its internal chamber, what happens as that chamber starts to fill with water? How about if the whole guitar - strings, body and all - is submerged? What difference does it make if our ears are listening above or below the water? And can special water-adapted microphones help us explore this unusual question, before our guitar disintegrates?
Our guitar then heads off on tour to Denmark, where the band Between Music have teased out questions just like these for their underwater music project, Aquasonic. We talk to violinist and Innovative Director Robert Karlsson, and singer Nanna Bech, who also plays a unique subaquatic instrument. With their help, we discover how to get the best out of a submerged guitar, and find out whether other instruments are better suited to the life aquatic.
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producers: Cathy Edwards and Florian Bohr
Editor: Ben Motley
National Physical Laboratory: Underwater Acoustics - https://www.npl.co.uk/research/underwater-acoustics
Between Music: Aquasonic - https://www.betweenmusic.dk/aquasonic
Photo – Caroline Steel and Nanna Bech in an Aquasonic aquarium playing a guitar. Copyright BBC.
The UN says a powerful storm is sweeping through Gaza, leaving 800,000 people in danger from deluged camps and collapsed buildings. (130)
Long description (no character limit and should always end with the words below): The UN says a powerful storm is sweeping through Gaza, leaving 800,000 people in danger from deluged camps and collapsed buildings.
Also: an Australian minister accuses Reddit of trying to protect its profits, after it launches a legal challenge against the country's landmark social media ban for under-16s; how a growing number of young women are challenging the Iranian authorities; why the low-budget French videogame "Clair Obscur" has seen off its bigger American rivals to sweep the Game Awards; why conservationists fear some of the world's rarest apes, the Tapanuli orangutans, may have been destroyed in a devastating cyclone; and how changes in polar bear DNA could help protect the Arctic animals from climate change.
The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight.
Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment.
Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk
Weight-loss injections have become a major talking point, from Hollywood celebrities to TikTok influencers.
Originally developed to treat diabetes, these medications were later found to help people shed a lot of weight - a discovery that has rapidly expanded their global use. The World Health Organization has now released its first-ever guidance on prescribing them for obesity.
South Africa recently became the first country in Africa to formally approve one version of these drugs for weight loss, and access is slowly spreading across the continent.
We follow a Kenyan woman’s experience using the injections and we hear from a South African doctor who explains how they work - and what the latest medical research reveals so far.
According to the UN's humanitarian affairs agency, more than 800,000 displaced Gazans could be affected by flooding, as a winter storm surges along the coast. Most of them are living in tents.
Also in the programme: we meet the man who smuggled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado out of Venezuela; and Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the clear winner in the world's top gaming awards, so why has a French arthouse creation proved such a hit?
(Photo: Displaced Palestinians ride a donkey-drawn cart on a flooded street in Gaza City, December 12, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
Over the Christmas season, it is estimated that some 3.6 million families in Japan will tuck into KFC over Christmas (other fried chicken is available), which inspired the Unexpected Elements team to chew over all things chicken!
First up, we discover that chicken may never have become domesticated if it wasn’t for rice farming. We also ponder whether the chicken or the egg came first (are you Team Chicken or Team Egg)? Next, we find out that humans are surprisingly smart at translating chicken chatter.
We’re then joined down the line by Dr Jingmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum of Natural History, who reveals more about the links between dinosaurs and birds.
Plus, how Brazil became a poultry superpower, and what happens to chickens in tornadoes.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Godfred Boafo
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber and Robbie Wojciechowski
