NewsHour
Global news and analysis from the BBC World Service, twice a day, every day of the year. Join our leading team of presenters for the best interviews, features and analysis of world events.
15 Episodes
Syrian rebel groups agree to merge under defence ministry
Syria's de facto leader has reached an agreement to dissolve and consolidate rebel groups under the defence ministry. Also on the programme, is Israel nearing a hostage deal with Hamas? And, a Nasa spacecraft has made history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun.(Photo: A child looks on next to…
Dire warnings of Sudan famine
A consortium of UN and other agencies says that famine is spreading across the war-ravaged country. The group, known as the IPC - the "Integrated Food Security Phase Classification" - say that five areas in the west and south of Sudan are already in famine. We hear about the details…
Germany's far-right AfD marches in Magdeburg
Germany's far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has held a rally near the site of the attack on the Christmas market on Friday evening - we'll speak to one of the party's members of parliament. Also on the programme: President Biden has commuted the death sentences on all but three…
US envoy tells Syrian leader it wants stability
Iran says it's had no direct contact with the new Islamist leaders of Syria, its one-time close ally. The US, in contrast, sent its top regional diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, to meet the de-facto leader in Damascus, Ahmed al-Sharaa; we hear how the meeting went. Also in…
Syrian rebel leader says state to control all weapons
Syria's new ruler says he wants all weapons and armed factions to come under state control - and that includes the Syrian Kurds. Also on the programme: Israel's latest targets in Gaza include an abandoned school housing homeless families and a barely functioning hospital; we hear from a woman who…
Could German market attack have been prevented?
The German ambassador to the UK talks to Newshour about the "anger, sorrow, grief" that his country is experiencing following the attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg that killed at least five people and seriously injured dozens - so what warnings did the authorities receive?Also today: health and civil…
Memorial service for the Germany attack victims
As relatives and officials gather for a memorial service for the victims of the deadly attack on a Christmas market in eastern Germany, we ask what’s known about the Saudi man who has been arrested and what might have motivated him. Also on the programme: why the US is sanctioning…
German Christmas market attack: Five dead and 200 injured
The suspect is a doctor from Saudi Arabia, living in Germany since 2006. We hear from a local member of the state parliament and a counter-extremism expert in Berlin. Also on the programme: Both houses of the US Congress have voted in favour of a short-term spending bill to avert…
US Congress races to avoid government shutdown
US Congress races to avoid government shutdown after bipartisan spending agreement was derailed following interventions by President-elect Donald Trump and his efficiency czar, Elon Musk.Also in the programme: A high level US delegation holds talks with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Shara’a; At least two dead and 68 injured after a…
Syria: Warnings ISIS may resurge
What is happening now in Syria “is paving the way” for the Islamic State group to re-emerge. That’s according to a leading Kurdish commander who played a key role in defeating the group in Syria in 2019. General Mazloum Abdi told the BBC that IS activity has “increased significantly” and…
Politicians praise bravery of French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot
The French prime minister Francois Bayrou has praised the courage of Gisèle Pelicot, following a mass rape trial in which her ex-husband and fifty other defendants were found guilty. Dominique Pelicot was jailed for twenty years for organising the repeated drugging and rape of his former wife by dozens of…
Pelicot rape trial: 51 men sentenced to prison
Gisèle Pelicot thanks supporters after 'difficult ordeal' of rape trial as ex-husband jailed for 20 years. All fifty of other defendants were also convicted, with sentences of between 3and 15 years in jail.Also on the programme, the new de facto leader of Syria has told the BBC that the country…
The secret files that could put Syria's Assad in prison
Since Syria's President Assad fell from power, the full horror of his regime has begun to be revealed. Mass graves have been discovered around the country. And a vast amount of documentation confirming many of the crimes is emerging. We hear from Canadian lawyer Bill Wiley who has been gathering…
How many people are buried in Syria's mass graves?
After visiting sites close to Syria's capital Damascus, Stephen Rapp, who led prosecutors for the tribunals investigating war crimes in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, said "we really haven't seen anything quite like this since the Nazis." The Syrian Emergency Taskforce, a humanitarian and activist organisation, estimates half a million bodies…
Top Russian general killed in Moscow
Ukraine says it was behind the killing of a senior Russian general, Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, who died in scooter blast in Moscow..The head of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Unit was at the entrance to a residential block when a device hidden in an electric scooter went off…