Venezuelans grapple with a collapsing economy

The World

PRX

News, Lethaldissent

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Venezuela is facing soaring prices, shrinking wages and a middle class that has largely vanished. Also, London Mayor Sadiq Khan says the British capital is one of the safest major cities in the Western world, citing new police figures showing homicide rates have fallen to their lowest level in a decade, but campaigners argue the latest numbers don’t tell the full story. And, a look at how US President Donald Trump’s first year of his second term has reshaped the global economy. Plus, auroras can be seen at both the northern and southern poles right now as the Earth experiences a "solar storm."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's 20 days into the new year and U.S. foreign policy rhetoric has escalated.
0:10.0	One of the shocks for so many leaders at the moment, so many governments around the world,
0:15.0	is that this year, 26, is much more radical than even last year 2025.
0:22.5	I'm Carolyn Beeler.
0:23.9	Today, a year of President Trump around the world.
0:27.4	And in Venezuela, people are struggling to afford basic necessities.
0:31.9	A reporter investigates.
0:33.7	You're telling me that the minimum wage is less than $1.
0:38.0	Yeah, it's $0.4.
0:42.0	One mayor is talking up his city's safety record.
0:45.6	We are safer than Paris, then Berlin, more than two and a half times safer than New York.
0:51.0	And a solar storm lights up the skies.
0:53.7	That's all ahead on the world.
0:57.4	This is The World. I'm Carolyn Beeler. Thank you so much for joining us today. Marco Wormon is off.
1:04.1	In Venezuela, there are two big questions right now. The first is what you see in the headlines.
1:09.6	What is the country's political future after
1:12.4	the ouster of former president Nicolas Maduro? The other is the more urgent for Venezuelans,
1:19.2	how to make ends meet. The oil-rich country used to be one of Latin America's wealthiest. It had a
1:25.1	thriving middle class. Today, most people live on meager wages. The
1:29.9	world's tipis Isaiah reports from Venezuela. On a recent morning in Caracas, I asked an old friend
1:39.6	to take me to the supermarket and show me what shopping looks like now.
1:44.5	Right now we are in the meat section of the supermarket.
	...

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