Newshour

Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner, has been arrested and is in custody after the legendary Hollywood director and actor and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home. We speak to Rob and Michele's friend Kris Perry, who served as the plaintiff in a landmark case to overturn California's gay marriage, about the lasting impact of the couples activism.Also in the programme: Investigations continue into the fatal attack on people marking the Jewish festival of Hannukah at Bondi Beach. We bring the latest updates from Australia; and following the election of right winger Jose Antonio Kast to the Chilean presidency, we explore that lasting legacy of cold war dictator Augusto Pinochet.(Picture: Director Rob Reiner and his son Nick Reiner attend AOL Build Presents: "Being Charlie" at AOL Studios In New York on May 4, 2016 in New York. Credit: Rommel Demano/Getty Images)

As Australia mourn the victims of a shooting, during a Jewish holiday gathering at Bondi Beach, its prime minister pledges solidarity.Anthony Albanese says the attackers were not part of a terror cell, but "clearly, they were motivated by this extremist ideology". The father of a Syrian bystander who was filmed wrestling a gun off an attacker has told the BBC he was driven by "conscience and humanity"Also in the programme: Ukraine's President Zelensky comes under more pressure to compromise at peace talks in Berlin, Chile elects a far-right leader who is an admirer of the dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and police in Los Angeles investigate the suspected murder of the celebrated Hollywood director, Rob Reiner.(Photo shows Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Australia on 15 December 2025. Credit: Steven Markham/EPA)

Several gunmen attacked Jews celebrating the start of Hanukkah on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. One gunman is dead and a second suspect is in critical condition. We hear from an eyewitness, the local member of parliament, and from a senior figure in Australia's Jewish community.Also on the programme: a communist candidate takes on the far right in a presidential run-off in Chile; the woman caught up in the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida as a child is on campus when the latest gun attack takes place at Brown University; and the palm tree that's taken sixty years to flower.(Photo: Candles burn following the attack on a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, December 15, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Flavio Brancaleone)

Eleven people have been shot dead in an antisemitic shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach which targeted a Hanukkah celebration. Twenty nine people were taken to hospital including two police officers who are in a serious condition. We hear from an eyewitness, the local member of parliament, and from a senior figure in Australia's Jewish community.Also in the programme: we hear from Chile, where a Communist Party candidate is taking on the far right in the presidential run-off election today; plus the palm trees that take sixty years to flower – in spectacular fashion.(IMAGE: (L-R) NSW Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley, NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon hold a press conference following a shooting incident at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, 14 December 2025 / CREDIT: Dean Lewins / EPA / Shutterstock)

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)

Interviews, news and analysis of the day’s global events.

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, 12 December, 2025. Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

The Trump administration is ramping up its efforts to derail the government of President Nicolas Maduro, which he has accused of turning Venezuela into a "drug-running regime". The leader of the country's opposition, Maria Corina Machado, travelled to Norway in secret to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. We ask if her influence could wane now that she is out of the country. Also in the programme: intense rain is wreaking havoc on thousands of Gazans living in displacement camps; and UNESCO declares Swiss yodelling a form of Intangible Cultural Heritage.(Photo: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado attends the opening of the official Peace Prize exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center, in Oslo. Credit: Lise Åserud / NTB)

The Nobel Peace Prize winner arrives in Oslo after a clandestine journey from her hiding place in Venezuela. We hear the inside story of how she slipped out of the country. Also in the programme: French police's crackdown on drug gangs in Marseilles, and a rare public display for Mary Queen of Scots' final letter before execution. (Photo: Maria Corina Machado waving at her supporters from a balcony in Oslo. Credits: Lise Aserud/EPA/Shutterstock)

President Trump has said the US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela - an operation reported to have been led by the US Coastguard. The seizure is certain to increase tensions between the United States and Venezuela, which is already being threatened by the deployment of a US fleet. Oil futures rose following news of the seizure.Also in the programme: tourists from more than forty countries may have to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the US under a new proposal; and new evidence suggests humans made fire much earlier than previously thought.(Photo: US President Donald J Trump makes remarks in a roundtable with high-tech business executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 December 2025. Credit: AARON SCHWARTZ/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock)

A sperm donor who unknowingly harboured a genetic mutation that dramatically raises the risk of cancer has fathered at least 197 children across Europe, a major investigation has revealed. Also on the programme, 5alf a million people have been forced from their homes in Thailand and Cambodia as their deadly border conflict escalates; and, the politics of typeface fonts.(Photo: Getty)

In a wide-ranging interview with the Politico news website, President Trump said "decaying" European countries had failed to control migration or take decisive action to end Ukraine's war with Russia, accusing them of letting Kyiv fight "until they drop". We hear from a German parliamentarian and envoy.Also in the programme: A revolutionary gene therapy has successfully treated patients with previously incurable blood cancers; and we look at the life of pioneering zoologist and elephant conservationist Iain Douglas-Hamilton.(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump attends a roundtable discussion on the day he announced an aid package for farmers, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 8, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

The Thai military said there were clashes in five border provinces, and three of its soldiers had been killed since hostilities resumed. Cambodia says Thai attacks have killed seven civilians. We explain why this has happened.Also on the programme: in Australia, the law banning children under 16 years from social media has come into effect - one of the most dramatic moves so far by a government against the tech companies that own the platforms. And the revolutionary new cancer treatment, which uses DNA editing, to save the lives of patients with previously incurable blood cancers. (Picture: Thai soldiers on patrol at the border with Cambodia. Credit: Reuters)

An Israeli-Russian woman held for two and half years by militants in Iraq has told the BBC how she was trussed and hung from the ceiling, whipped, sexually abused and electrocuted. Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was freed in September, suffered extreme abuse for over 100 days, leaving her physically and mentally scarred. Elizabeth believes she was held by members of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful Iran-back militias in Iraq, designated a terrorist organisation by the US and others. In this special edition of the Newshour podcast she speaks to Tim Franks about her ordeal and how she is determined to continue her work on the region. This interview contains some graphic testimony that listeners could find distressing

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that President Trump's 28 point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war was drawn up by the US -- contradicting senators who said he told them it was a Russian "wish list". We look into that suggestion.Also in the programme: What do the bandits kidnapping schoolchildren in Nigeria really want? How a celebrated Argentinian writer discovered that her nanny was a KGB agent; and the BBC's climate correspondent shares some reflections as the COP climate talks come to an end.(Photo: Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a high-rise residential building in Ternopil, western Ukraine, 21 November 2025. Credit: Maxym Marusenko EPA/Shutterstock)

Amid the devastation in Gaza, remarkable stories of hope and resilience do emerge. Sixteen-year-old Sama Nijm, a gifted violinist from Gaza, is using music to bring comfort and healing to the youngest victims of the conflict. Some of the children have lost their parents, and in some cases, their limbs or arms. BBC Newsday's Charlene Rodrigues spoke to Sama, and began by asking her what inspired her to become a violin teacher in the midst of war.

Nine people have been killed and many injured in a school shooting in the southern Austrian city of Graz. The shooter also killed himself, and has been identified as a former pupil.Also, Donald Trump sends in the Marines as the president's crackdown on undocumented migrants clashes with California's policy as a Sanctuary State, Syria's jailers under President Assad speak to the BBC anonymously about what they did and those who suffered, plus good news for biodiversity and precious coral reefs in the Zanzibar archipelago, as two new Marine Protected Areas are announced.(IMAGE: General view of the Dreierschutzengasse high school following a shooting in Graz, Austria, 10 June 2025 / CREDIT: Antonio Bat /EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)