The World This Week

This Friday in The World this Week, we talk about: The implications of a fatal week in Minneapolis, Iran & the ‘Armada’ ultimatum, What’s Trump’s goal for Gaza ?
The implications of a fatal week in Minneapolis
In a week where video evidence and citizen journalism has shown its fundamental importance in holding governments to account. In this case, eye-witness footage stood up against the rapid-response accounts of the Trump administration in the hours following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as government officials tried to define the story, framing Pretti as a domestic terrorist and would-be assassin - narratives which had little bearing on what we could see and hear, thanks to the recordings of eye witnesses. Two Border Force agents have since been placed on leave, and the issue is causing splits in the Republican Party and within the MAGA movement. It also brought a rare concession from President Trump more famous for the attack as form of defence route. And ICE operations now look set to be reduced in Minneapolis.
Iran & the ‘Armada’ ultimatum
It’s been a week of final warnings for the Iranian regime. Time is running out, was the explicit threat spelt out on Trump’s Truth Social, with a quote “massive Armada” of US military might making its way into the Arabian Sea. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier has now sailed into the strategic waters leaving a binary choice: face the wrath of the US military for a second time in less than a year, or agree a new deal on the nuclear programme. And this comes two weeks after an uprising was savagely suppressed, the death toll of protestors now estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Iran’s regime has hit back saying they’re waiting with quote, “fingers on the trigger”.
What’s Trump’s goal for Gaza ?
It’s been the week that Israel held a final funeral for the last hostage in Gaza, Master Sargent Ran Gvili, whose remains were identified by IDF troops in a search of a cemetery in Gaza City, and confirmed as his on Monday. It brought to a close a 2 year and four month search for the police officer known as the Shield, who was killed as he defended a Kibbutz during the Hamas massacre on October the 7th. With neither war nor peace for the population in Gaza dealing with a bleak winter, we look at the next steps of the Truce Plan: disarming Hamas. 
 
Produced by Gavin Lee, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Alessandro Xenos.

It's been a week of power plays and redrawn lines. In Davos, US President Donald Trump declared victory in the escalating row over Greenland, announcing a framework deal he says delivers "everything we wanted, total security". The White House hails it as classic Art of the Deal brinkmanship — critics warn it’s come at the cost of the old world order, a charge echoed by Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney.
It's also been the week the Board of Peace became a formal international body. Born with UN backing to help end the Gaza war, it's now been recast with a global mission to "resolve conflicts and secure peace" — under a structure that grants Trump lifelong chairmanship, billion-dollar membership fees and an open invitation to Vladimir Putin, prompting Europe to keep its distance.
And in Syria, the map has shifted once again. A ceasefire between the interim government and Kurdish forces follows fierce fighting, heavy territorial losses for the Kurds and the escape of Islamic State group detainees, reviving a familiar Kurdish refrain: no friends but the mountains.
Produced by Gavin Lee, Théophile Vareille, Guillaume Gougeon and Laura Burloux

It's been a week marked by brutality, brinkmanship and political theatre. In Iran, a third week of protests spiralled into a nationwide uprising as the regime shut down the internet and phone lines. Graphic accounts of a violent crackdown emerged via Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, with human rights groups reporting thousands killed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in what they describe as an unprecedented massacre – even as US President Donald Trump urged protesters on, before appearing to shift his tone.
Meanwhile, urgent diplomacy unfolded in the Arctic, as Denmark and Greenland pushed back against renewed US pressure to annex Greenland. Trump insists America "needs" the island for strategic defence, prompting European allies to boost NATO’s presence – and leaving Greenland’s leadership confronting an unsettling new reality.
And across Europe, politics turned volatile. France's minority government survived two no-confidence votes sparked by anger over the EU’s Mercosur trade deal, as farmers clogged the country with tractor protests.
In the UK, a dramatic defection saw a senior Conservative sacked and swiftly unveiled by Nigel Farage's Reform party, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer added fresh bite to his rhetoric.
Produced by Gavin Lee, Rebecca Gnignati, Guillaume Gougeon and Laura Burloux

In the week that saw the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Operation Absolute Resolve played out in just two hours and 28 minutes. The combined military precision and tactical deception by US land, sea, and air forces led to Maduro and his wife, Cecilia Flores, being snatched from a fortress-like compound in Caracas.
They were handcuffed, blindfolded and flown to New York to face drug trafficking charges. Stunned world leaders barely had time to react before Trump declared that he was running the country by remote control and that Maduro's replacement, former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, would have to dance to his tune, starting with oil flowing towards Washington.
It's also been a week of renewed US rhetoric on seizing Greenland. Just hours after the Venezuela operation, Trump reiterated his desire to acquire the Danish territory, citing security concerns: "Russian and Chinese ships all over the place, and Denmark not able to secure it." Copenhagen initially called the idea fantasy, but in light of US manoeuvres in Caracas and murmurs within the administration that force might not be ruled out, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated that the threats should be taken seriously.
It’s also been a second week of protests in Iran, reportedly the largest opposition movement in over a decade, calling for the overthrow of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to British and US intelligence sources, the country's Supreme Leader is exploring options in case the Iranian Revolutionary Guard turns against him, including fleeing to Moscow. Authorities have imposed an internet blackout, statues of the regime have been toppled, and many demonstrators have been chanting the name of the exiled son of the former shah, Reza Pahlavi. All of this was triggered by a currency collapse, which made life even less bearable, as hyperinflation has made everyday staples like bread, rice, eggs and cooking oil unaffordable for many. 
And it’s been a week of anger and division in the US after a 37-year-old mother-of-three was shot dead by an immigration agent in Minneapolis. The incident was recorded on video, and the interpretation of what happened has split opinion largely along party lines. Thousands of demonstrators have protested in the aftermath, chanting the name of Renee Good, the woman who was killed, alongside shouts of "murder" directed at officials. In contrast, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it an act of domestic terrorism against law enforcement.
Produced by Gavin Lee, Rhea Smircic, Daniel Whittington and Laura Burloux

In this special edition of The World This Week, our panel of journalists look back at the big stories from 2025 and ahead at what to expect in 2026.
The year started with a political tempest in the US. A chaotic, unpredictable diplomatic circus by White House design: friends are foes, foes are friends as the art of the deal went global and the 45th president Donald Trump became the 47th.
"The madman theory" said supporters, "a madman reality" said critics, as 12 months of temperamental tariffs ensued, and the term TACO was born (that's "Trump Always Chickens Out", in case you need it for the Christmas pub quiz). European allies started to find the "pay as you play" rules overwhelming, triggering the shifting of alliances elsewhere. President Vladimir Putin was allowed back in from the cold, embraced in the physical chill of Alaska. A man wanted by the ICC is not a concern for Trump, who started a trend of "limo diplomacy" as the world’s strongmen leaders took a series of on-camera car-shares as they spoke, albeit without microphone or karaoke.
It's also been a year where it turned out the war in Ukraine wasn't solvable in 24 hours, but remains a country digging in and holding on. So is President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is now under political fire for a corruption scandal, and under pressure from Trump to concede territory and call elections despite the conflict raging on. 
It's also been a year of aggressive enforcement of US immigration policies, with ICE raids, a surge in deportations, paused decisions on asylum applications and Somalis labelled as garbage. The top trending Google search was Charlie Kirk, another most searched was Zohran Mamdani, the social media savvy politician who optimised the algorithm, going from zero in the polls to hero of the left and elected the next mayor of New York. He campaigned on the making the Big Apple affordable again and raising the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. After two ceasefires and the death toll reaching 70,000 in Gaza, all of the living hostages were released, with the Trump plan still holding as we speak. 
In Iran, Operation Midnight Hammer saw extraordinary US air strikes on its nuclear bunkers. Meanwhile Sudan, the world's biggest humanitarian crisis and so-called "forgotten war", continued in the shadows of international attention. 
There were coups in Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau, and conflict brewing in Latin America, where US gunboat diplomacy continues to play out off the coast of Venezuela. 
It was also a year that has seen a shower of online AI slop. It took a while to verify that Venezuela's autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro was in fact dancing to his own speech, retitled "No War, Yes Peace".
In Paris at the Louvre, the crown jewels were gone in 420 seconds. In Italy, a new era began at the Vatican with an American papacy as Cardinal Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. Three hours north in Venice, the world watched the Bezos' so-called "wedding of the year": three days of chaos in the floating city, after the world had also watched him send his fiancée into space on a celebrity rocket trip, with a strange mix of passengers, leading many critics to speculate what planet they were on.
Produced by Gavin Lee, Rhea Smircic, Daniel Whittington and Laura Burloux