Profile

The Secretary General of NATO has been dubbed the Trump whisperer after talks with Donald Trump at Davos appeared to help trigger a sudden U-turn on Greenland and threatened tariffs.
Mark Rutte was born in The Hague in 1967, began his career in business at Unilever and entered politics in 2002 eventually becoming the Dutch prime minister where he steered the Netherlands through economic turmoil, domestic crises and global shocks. Appointed Secretary General of NATO in October 2024 he has led the organisation through a tumultuous time in global politics.
Mark Coles takes a closer look at Mark Rutte’s life.
Production Team
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Keiligh Baker, Katie Solleveld, Sally Abrahams
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele & Gemma Ashman
Sound: Neil Churchill
Editor: Justine Lang
Archive:
Guardian News, 2024
Sky News
tv47
BBC TV
Bloomberg News

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that US President Donald Trump’s threat to take Greenland would spell the end of Nato, the trans-Atlantic defence alliance. So who is the woman standing toe to toe with Trump?
A career politician in the truest sense, she was first elected as a member of the Danish Parliament in 2001, the day after her 24th birthday. After nearly two decades at the heart of the country’s politics, where she held roles including Justice Minister and Minister for Employment, she was elected Prime Minister of Denmark in June 2019, aged 41, the youngest leader in Danish history.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing - her premiership has survived a pandemic, an early election, and inflation driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, as the jam-making mother-of-two faces her biggest international challenge to date - Stephen Smith looks back at the life and career of the woman named the ‘second most powerful person in Europe in 2026’ by Politico.
Contributors:
Magdalena Andersson, former Swedish Prime Minister
Kasper Kildegaard, Danish journalist
Kasper Fogh Hansen, friend
Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen, Danish Taxation Minister and friend
Stig Jensen, Danish academic and tutor
Tobias Hamann, Great Danish Bake Off winner
Producers: Laurie Kalus, Katie Solleveld and Keiligh Baker
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Jack Young
Sound: Gareth Jones
Editor: Justine Lang
Archive:
BBC News
Danish Presidency of the council of the EU 2025
Danish Social Democrats
Denmark Broadcasting Corporation

The newly-appointed British ambassador to the United States, Sir Christian Turner, is a career diplomat whose experience spans almost three decades. He was about to take up the role of the UK's ambassador at the UN but after Lord Mandelson was abruptly pulled from his ambassadorial role in the US late last year, Sir Keir Starmer diverted Turner to replace him.
Born in Crawley in 1972, Turner attended the prestigious Marlborough College, before pursuing English literature at the University of Manchester, and later a doctorate at York. After flirting with documentary-making, he pivoted to public service, entering the Cabinet Office in the late nineties. He has closely advised several prime ministers, including Theresa May with whom colleagues say he shared his love of card games.
After an initial posting to Washington ended in 2006, his career has flourished at the foreign office. Mark Coles finds out more about the UK’s new man in DC, as he prepares to navigate ties with the Trump administration in a delicate moment for the so-called ‘special relationship’.
Contributors:
Lord Peter Ricketts, former National Security Adviser
Sir Simon Fraser, former Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and current chair of Chatham House.
Tom Fletcher, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Rachel Barber-Mack, sister-in-law
Richard Cooke, Royal Choral Society musical director
Jerry Koehler, Royal Choral Society singer
James Perry, friend
Richard Warlow, friend
Joel Burden, friend
Production team:
Producers: Ben Carter, Katie Solleveld and Laurie Kalus
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Katie Morrison
Editor: Justine Lang
Archive:
KTN News Kenya
BBC News
APTN
Note of Correction: 
In this episode we incorrectly referred to the Mau Mau tribe in Kenya. It should have been the Mau Mau uprising.

The new Mayor of New York and at just 34, the youngest since 1892, is sworn in. He is the first Muslim and Indian American to lead the nation's largest city. Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda, Africa, to parents of Indian descent and it was a childhood filled with bird song and nature. He was seven years old when his family moved to New York, to Manhattan's Upper West Side and that's where Mamdani began to make his mark. He started making music as rapper, Mr Cardamom but after releasing only a few songs, it seemed politics was a better fit.
Zohran Mamdani ran an impressive campaign, recruiting an army of volunteers 100,000 strong to pound the pavements and knock on doors. His social media videos in multiple languages credited with vastly increasing voter turnout from a range of South Asian communities. A left-wing democratic socialist, his message was laser focused on affordability; he promised to freeze the rents and make buses free, all paid for by a tax on New Yorkers making over $1 million per year. But now he's won the election can he actually deliver on those promises? Mark Coles hears from Mamdani's mother the filmmaker Mira Nair, colleagues and journalists to find out what shaped the man making history.
Contributors
Mira Nair - film maker, mother
Hari Kondabolu - standup comedian, friend
Prof Brian Purnell - chair of the Africana Studies Department at Bowdoin College
Cassie Wilson - volunteer for Mamdani's campaign, content creator and comedian
Jagpreet Singh - political organiser for South Asian communities in New York, DRUM Beats
Nada Tawfiq - BBC Correspondent in New York
Production
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Phoebe Keane, Ben Crighton, Natasha Fernandes and Tom Farmer
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound: Gareth Jones
Editor: Justine Lang

Karl Bushby, the British man walking around the world, is almost home. The former paratrooper set off from Chile in 1998. He walked through the Americas, crossed the frozen ocean from Alaska to Russia, and last year became the first person to swim the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. These are all huge achievements in their own right but for Bushby they were just sections he had to complete to finish his epic journey.
Originally scheduled to finish in 2006, Bushby is now 56 and still going. Geopolitics has played its part, with Russian and Iranian visa rejections some of the main causes of delay.
He arrived in Budapest last month and with the English Channel being the only obvious remaining obstacle to navigate, he should be back in Humberside by this time next year.
Stephen Smith finds out who he is and what's kept him going for so long.
Contributors
Jonny Beardsall - Journalist and milliner
Keith Bushby - Dad
Genevieve Gil - Friend
Dimitri Kieffer - Crossed the Bering Strait with Bushby
Angela Maxwell - Swam the Caspian Sea with Bushby
Art Mortvedt - Friend
Damaris Mortvedt - Friend
Kevin Shoesmith - Journalist
Production
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producers: Ben Crighton, Alex Loftus and Mhairi MacKenzie
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Editor: Nick Holland
Sound: Gareth Jones