Newshour

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

Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are grappling with severe flooding, landslides and storm damage after torrential rain and vast cyclones hit the region over the past few days.Also, the presidential election in Honduras is too-close-to-call, and the Oxford English Dictionary releases its 'word of the year'.(Photo: A military rescue team vehicle makes its way through a flooded road after heavy rainfall in a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 30 November 2025. Credit: Chamila Karunarathne/EPA/Shutterstock)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the country's president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon over corruption cases he has been battling. We speak to an opposition member of the Israeli Knesset who opposes a potential pardon for Mr Netanyahu. Also on the programme: local media in Hong Kong report that police have arrested a university student who was part of a group petitioning for an independent inquiry into the huge, deadly fire at a housing complex; and the musical featuring Britain’s most beloved bear, Paddington. (Photo: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. Credit: Reuters)

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been facing a long-running corruption trial, has submitted an official request to the country's president to pardon him. Mr Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing, released a two and a half minute video saying that a presidential pardon would advance much needed national reconciliation, but he added that he'd be happy to continue with the trial.Also in the programme: The extraordinary story of a woman who survived torture in Iraq; Nigerian troops have rescued twelve young women who were abducted from their homes in Borno State by suspected Islamic State fighters last week; and 'Paddington the musical' hits the stage in London's West End.(Photo: Netanyahu said a pardon would lead to national reconciliation in Israel. Credit: EPA)

Venezuela has condemned President Trump's warning that its airspace should be considered closed. It called it a colonialist threat and an unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people. Mr Trump's post could lead to travel uncertainty and deter airlines from operating in the area. We hear from the capital Caracas.Also in the programme: Celebrated British playwright Tom Stoppard has died; and Ukraine's battle against Russia's "shadow fleet"(Picture: People shop at a market, after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the airspace above and around Venezuela would be closed entirely, in Caracas, Venezuela. Credit:Reuters)

After the kidnapping of hundreds of children, we hear from a Nigerian minister about the difficulties that the government has in providing security to the Nigerian people. The government has declared a nationwide security emergency and ordered the recruitment of 20,000 more police.Also on the programme: President Trump has said he'll pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who's serving a prison sentence in the United States on drugs and weapons charges; and an award winning children's programme about communist politics in Soviet era East Germany(Photo: Nana Aisha Shemsudeen teaches her younger siblings and neighbors at her parents' house in Minna following the closure of all government schools due to insecurity in Niger State, Nigeria Credit: Marvellous Durowaiye)

The top adviser to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has resigned after anti-corruption investigators raided his home in the capital Kyiv. Andriy Yermak was the president's chief of staff and headed the Ukrainian delegation at talks about ending the war with Russia.Also in the programme: Airbus says it's ordering immediate modifications to six thousand of its aircraft after finding a fault that could affect flight controls; and eight more people have been arrested over Wednesday's fire in a group of Hong Kong tower blocks that killed at least 128 people.(File photo: Andriy Yermak, former adviser to President Zelensky, pictured on January 22, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo)

President Trump has said he'll "permanently pause" immigration from what he called Third World countries, following the shooting of two young National Guard soldiers in Washington on Wednesday, allegedly by an Afghan gunman. In a strongly worded post on social media, he said immigration had eroded living conditions in the United States and that he would remove or denaturalise migrants who "undermine domestic tranquillity," as he put it. Also in the programme: a top Ukrainian official resigns; and Pope Leo XIV travels to Turkey. (Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with members of the media on Thanksgiving, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 27, 2025. CREDIT: REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden)

The authorities in Hong Kong say more than 80 deaths have now been confirmed after the city's worst fire in decades. Officials think that number will grow, with more than 200 people still missing. It's unclear what caused the fire but the eight residential blocks were undergoing renovations. The contractor is reported to have breached safety requirements on multiple occasions during construction projects. We speak to a former firefighter who is an expert in tower fires.Also on the programme: How Israel's offensive on Lebanon has continued, despite a ceasefire; and a scientific study casts new light on how cats came to be domesticated and part of the daily life of so many human beings.(Photo: Smoke billows from an apartment fire in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong, China, 27 November 2025. Credit: Leung Man Hei/ EPA Shutterstock)

Emergency teams in Hong Kong are still working to extinguish fires at a giant housing complex a day after the blaze broke out. Sixty- five people have now been confirmed dead. Over two hundred are still missing. Also in the programme: Hamas has urged mediators to pressure Israel to grant safe passage for dozens of its fighters holed up in tunnels in southern Gaza; the Australian fifteen year-olds taking their government to court over its social media ban for kids; and John Lennon's son on why his father's political activism still hits home today.(Photo: One 51-year-old resident - with the surname Wan - tells Reuters she bought her apartment in Wang Fuk Court over 20 years ago. Credit: Reuters)

At least 36 people have been killed in a huge fire that has engulfed multiple high-rise buildings in Hong Kong's Tai Po district. Also on the programme, three people, including two soldiers from the US National Guard, have been shot in Washington, a few blocks from the White House; and, how noise in the ocean is affecting marine life.(Photo:Fire burns bamboo scaffolding across multiple buildings at Wang Fuk Court housing estate, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, November 26, 2025. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has announced a plan to spend an extra $40 billion dollars on the military over the next eight years to resist Chinese aggression.Also on the programme: at least 13 people have died in a fire in a tower block complex in Hong Kong; and the new "Russian cultural code” from fashion to music, aiming to define what it means to be Russian. (Photo: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te gestures as he delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in Taipei on October 10, 2025. Credit: Reuters)

Ukraine's President Zelensky says he's ready to meet President Trump to discuss the most sensitive points of US- drafted peace agreement with Russia. But he said his country's European allies should also join the meeting. Mr Zelensky was addressing a gathering of the Coalition of the Willing - a group of nations which supports Kyiv. We will hear from an Ukrainian MP who is in London to meet with British lawmakers.Also in the programme: Scientists in the UK have established that the brain ages through five distinct stages over its lifetime; and Los Angeles' most famous modernist-styled house goes on sale for the first time.(Picture: Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine on 25 November, 2025. Credit: MAXYM MARUSENKO/EPA/Shutterstock)

As American officials brief that they're making progress in peace negotiations over the Russia-Ukraine war, we get a view from Moscow on what kind of deal might be acceptable to Russia.Also in the programme: why is femicide – the killing of women – especially by intimate partners or close relatives, still so common around the world? We hear from the UN about what needs to happen to bring the numbers down; and ash from a volcano in Ethiopia which has erupted after many dormant years forces flights out of India to re-route.(IMAGE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a joint press conference with Belarusian Foreign Minister in Moscow, Russia, 25 November 2025 / CREDIT: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock)

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)