This is the BBC.

Hello. Today a government's ruling party hangs on,

despite major problems.

We're in Venezuela, where food, medicine and cash are in short supply.

Yet another possible bid for independence, this time it's the Faroese with their distinctive language and culture culture pondering life without Denmark.

A correspondent heads to the land of our grandfather for the first time to assess the devastation

left behind by Hurricane Maria in Dominica.

And after 50 years, one of Britain's best-known travel writers returns to Damascus. He once found himself alone there because the

tourists hadn't come yet. Now he's alone again because they're long gone.

Rarely does Venezuela appear in the news these days without the word crisis, such as the political, humanitarian and economic situation in the country.

For months, opposition supporters held almost daily protests after what they saw as an

unconstitutional power grab by the ruling party.

Food and medicine can be hard to find and the economy is

shrinking if not collapsing. Last week plans are announced to restructure

around $100 billion of foreign debt, prompting fears of possible default.

Venezuela would continue to honor its obligations, President Nikolaath Maduro insisted, but

was being hindered by US financial sanctions and what he called

the global financial dictatorship.

Despite the various crises, the ruling party has continued to consolidate power as Katie Watson

has found.

Recently I was invited to Mira Flores, the Presidential Palace in the centre of Caracas. Nicholas Maduro was holding a press call. the election. up to colonial Spain. Now the government casts the US as having taken over that

role of meddling foreign power. The Imperial forces in the north that see us as

...