US rejects Hamas' response to Gaza ceasefire proposal
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Sunday, the 1st of June, these are our main stories. The US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has called the response of Hamas to the Americans' Gaza ceasefire plan totally unacceptable. The militant group has neither fully rejected nor totally accepted the plan. Tehran has hit out at a new UN report that raises fresh concerns about its nuclear programme, describing the findings as baseless accusations.

In football, Paris Saint-Germain has made history by winning the European Champions League for the first time, thrashing Inter Milan 5-0. Also in this podcast... Yes, indeed, we're just doing more exercises, but still, the Chinese leader is still talking about a peaceful reunification. Beijing pushes back against the US Defence Secretary's assertion that China could invade Taiwan soon.

There's little sign that attempts by the United States to broker a ceasefire in Gaza are heading towards a deal between Israel and Hamas. Earlier, Hamas said that it agreed to releasing 10 Israeli hostages who are still alive and the bodies of 18 in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.

but it also expressed strong reservations about the deal because it didn't include guarantees on aid and ending the war. Soon after, President Trump's peace negotiator Steve Witkoff rejected Hamas's position. Our Jerusalem correspondent Barbara Platt-Usher has more.

It was Steve Witkoff who formulated this proposal, this outline, this framework for a ceasefire. And he has said that Hamas's response to that framework is totally unacceptable and it takes things backwards. He's basically saying this is the framework on the table. In fact, he had agreed it with Israel before he handed it to Hamas.

So he's saying this is the framework on the table. You need to accept it so that we can start the ceasefire right away. We can get the hostages back. And we will then begin those talks towards a permanent end to the conflict, towards an end of the war, because this was one of Hamas's key concerns. It did respond to the proposal by saying, yes, we will accept to give back Hamas.

28 Israeli hostages, either dead or alive. But we do want guarantees that this temporary ceasefire will lead to a permanent end to the war. And that was not in the proposal. And that is something that Israel has never, has not agreed to.

So Mr. Woodcock is saying we will have those negotiations, we're serious about those negotiations, but this is the proposal, you need to accept it. And Israel has now also responded, the Prime Minister's office, saying that Hamas continues to adhere to its refusal and citing Mr. Woodcock's statement.

and then saying that Israel will continue its action to release the hostages and defeat Hamas. So basically saying we're up for a temporary ceasefire based on the proposal that the U.S. offered, but in the meantime we will continue with our military objectives. So Barbara, once again in the region we seem to be at a bit of a standoff. Where do we go from here? It's hard to say. I mean, it looks as if Hamas has been backed into a corner. It's under a lot of pressure.

certainly from Gazans who want this war to end. Even if Hamas feels this isn't the best ceasefire proposal that they've got, in fact, according to all accounts, it isn't. But Hamas is under a lot of pressure from people in Gaza to do whatever it can to stop the war so they can get some relief from basically the hell they're going through.

It's under pressure from mediators. Egypt and Qatar have been mediating. It feels it's unacceptable to take this proposal because it had always said it won't accept a partial deal that does not have a clear pathway, a guaranteed pathway to the end of the conflict. But at the same time, it feels that it can't reject the proposal outright because then the Israelis will step up the war. So it tried to kind of

go in between accepting not a clear acceptance, not an outright rejection, but the response from the Americans as well as the Israelis, but I think particularly from the Americans, suggests that this just may not work. Barbara Pletasha in Jerusalem speaking to Rich Preston.

Daniel Levy is president of the U.S. Middle East Project and has worked as a negotiator and advisor for previous Israeli prime ministers. He spoke to the BBC's John Donison. So what's his response to the latest events? Hamas has made it clear it's ready to release the hostages. It's ready to hand over governance, but it is not ready to do the following.

to agree to something which then leads to not only the resumption of the Israeli strikes, not against Hamas, but against the civilian population of Gaza, the besieging and starvation of that population, the kettling of that population into just 20% of the territory. It is not ready to agree to that. And Israel is saying this is precisely what we'll do. And we now have formed

We have something to judge it by because last time there was an agreement, the Americans would not guarantee and see it through. So why would anyone, why would anyone in their right mind agree to go into this when the Israelis are saying you give back the hostages, even when you give back all the hostages, we will continue to genocide and ethnically cleanse you. And America is saying we won't do a thing to prevent it. But you can see that the deal Hamas wants, they would see,

As a victory. Now, many Garzons might strongly disagree with that, but the Hamas is still standing, aren't they? That, for them, is victory in itself. Sorry, sorry. Can we do History 101? Go on. Is there any historical precedent where a people live under occupation, apartheid, and in this case, currently genocide, and there is not a resistance? Are resistances

Movements under those conditions defeated militarily or is there a political solution? Did we live through Ireland, the encounter with Siswe and ANC in South Africa? Many of the Israeli hostage families are back out on the streets in Israel tonight, very clearly saying the problem is with Benjamin Netanyahu and what does Netanyahu want to achieve here?

He wants to try and get the Americans to get him out of jail yet again by blaming Hamas, even though Hamas has a position which is aligned with the international position of ending the war, ending the Israeli military. Why doesn't Israel just accept the deal that Hamas wants, get the hostages out and then find an excuse to resume the war? I mean, it's a great question, John. Even the Israeli opposition leaders are kind of saying that, which isn't a great position for them to have.

but they're saying shut up and do it. And so the answer is that Netanyahu is in a coalition with people for whom, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, we're going to continue destroying these people. We're going to continue our ethnic cleansing. Isn't good enough. They have to hear it every morning and every afternoon from their prime minister to stay in the coalition because that's the ideology. Netanyahu has a

an ideological conviction, I would argue, as well as a personal issue. He's on trial. He could end up in prison. The coalition is driven by that ideology. And this is the crucial thing. For Netanyahu, he doesn't want there to be pressure. And he looks around and says, is this going to be enough to get those others off my back? When we've heard Keir Starmer, when we've heard other world leaders in the last days say,

Using very strong language, but not backing it up with action, will Netanyahu be able to again show he can act with impunity and then the hell will continue for Gazans and also for the Israelis being held, of course?

Do you believe that Benjamin Netanyahu will eventually be found guilty of war crimes, including genocide? You use that word. And it's a word that many experts, including of the Holocaust and of genocide, are using and proving. I feel that in the writing of history he will be, whether he will face his day in court, I fear that may not be the case. Daniel Levy.

Next, first, the Trump administration started a trade war with China. Now it's raised tensions by claiming that President Xi Jinping is planning an imminent invasion of Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by Beijing. The warning came from the US Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth, who was speaking at a high-level Asian summit in Singapore on Saturday. We do not seek conflict with communist China. We will not instigate

nor seek to subjugate or humiliate. President Trump and the American people have an immense respect for the Chinese people and their civilization. Any attempt by communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world. There's no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent. We hope not, but it certainly could be.

China has responded through its embassy in Singapore by labelling Mr Hegseth's remarks as full of smears and provocations.

Xu Bo was a senior colonel in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He said that in just a year, Mr Hegseth had fundamentally changed the US position on Taiwan. It's directly contradictory to the conclusion of his predecessor. Lord Austin said in 2023 that a conflict is not imminent, is not inevitable, and in 2024 he repeated that.

So this kind of a contradiction has actually shown a totally different assessment. Yes, indeed, we're just doing more exercises, but still, the Chinese leader is still talking about a peaceful reunification. Our Asia-Pacific regional editor, Celia Hatton, told me more about the speech.

Pete Hegseth really was trying to convince his audience in Singapore, which are mainly comprised of U.S. allies, to boost defense spending. And he did so by trying to convince them that China really poses an imminent threat.

So he said that the threat China poses is real. It could be imminent. And he says that China wants to change the balance of power in the region. And that was his big selling point, really trying to say that if the countries in the region don't do more, that they don't boost their military spending, that they're really putting themselves at risk. He mentioned China.

Now, that's a deadline, isn't it, that President Xi Jinping has allegedly given? Tell us more about that. That's right. So he said, Pete Hegseth said, that we know the Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Now, this is a pretty contentious claim because it dates back

to something called the Davidson window. This date, 2027, actually first came from a U.S. admiral. It was the admiral in charge of the Indo-Pacific Command back in 2021, Philip Davidson. And he said that China was planning to invade in 2027. So that date hasn't actually come from Beijing specifically. Instead, Xi Jinping has ordered China's military to reach combat readiness

readiness by 2027. And so Pete Hegseth using that date is pretty contentious. A lot of people don't really agree that's what Xi Jinping really means, that he's actually planning to invade Taiwan on that date. China didn't send a large delegation to this forum, did it? But its response has been pretty strong, hasn't it? Yeah, that's right. I mean, China had a lot of strong words. So statement said that Hegseth was

playing up the so-called China threat. Now, the statement didn't mention Taiwan by name. Instead, they kind of went after the United States. They said it was the U.S. that was driving up tensions, and they mentioned tensions in the South China Sea in particular. And they also attacked U.S. credibility. You know, they pointed out that the U.S. commitment to its European allies was

has been to urge them to spend more on defense. So they ask what their commitments to others will be, basically questioning whether the U.S. will really stand up to help its friends in need. And it ended kind of on a really sore point because it said that the U.S. possibly will buy more weapons with money that

it's raised through tariffs. And that's really going to get a lot of countries thinking because some countries are facing quite high possible tariffs from the United States. Celia Hatton.

He's the man dubbed India's Tiger Man and tributes are being paid to Vamik Thapa, who died at his home in Delhi on Saturday at the age of 73. For more than 50 years, he worked in tiger reserves throughout the country, playing a key role in protecting the endangered species. I spoke to our South Asia editor, Anbarathan Etharajan, and asked him just how much of an impact Mr Thapa made in his efforts to save the tiger.

Well, in India, the tiger conservation started in the 70s and there have been many projects, many people have been involved. But one name will come first is Valmikthapa.

He's not only a filmmaker, he's a conservationist, he's a photographer, and he's also an advocate for tigers. If at all, one person who passionately argued for protecting the tigers, protecting the habitat. And in his entire life, he was dedicating only about this majestic cat, that is Walmyk Thapa. So he's legendary, very iconic, a prominent animal.

conservationist in India and some people would describe him as India's answer to the famed British natural historian David Attenborough but

But of course, Valmik Thapar's style is different. And all started in the mid-70s when one day he went to the Rantambore National Park in Rajasthan. He was living in Delhi at that time. And where he just fell in love with the sanctuary and met the park director, Fateh Singh Rathore. And both, they formed a partnership and they started following one particular tigress.

and started documenting, analyzing, studying the lives of tigers. And that's how it started. Let us hear from the man himself and how he fell in love with tiger conservation. First magical moment when I saw a tiger in Ranthambore, it was absolutely mesmerizing. You lose yourself somewhere within yourself.

No one had ever filmed a tiger killing in deep water before. But then no one had really filmed wild tigers at all. And I was there, in the heart of it. And when a tiger walks through the lakes, the sound, the magic, the explosion of activity.

So that's the voice of Valmik Thapa. What's been his impact on wild tiger numbers in India? Now, when he started his work, the tiger numbers were really very precarious, about 1,300 or 400. There were concerns about the future of tiger population in India because the forests were dwindling. There were a lot of poaching activities.

And then after, even 20 years later, like after he started, there was a huge demand for tiger body parts in Far East. So people were...

you know, poaching tigers and then sending the body parts to the Far East. He was involved in various projects, in government projects, and also as an individual, he started his own non-governmental organizations. His point was about let the tigers live in the forest, do not disturb them. Let us not have any human-animal interaction there because there were some projects were saying tigers and the human can live side by side. But then there were a lot of human-animal conflict happened. Angry villages started killing tigers.

So he was campaigning for a separate area for tigers. And Barasan Etherajan. Still to come... We worked out every single day. I mean, squats and deadlifts every single day for almost 10 months. I came back literally stronger than I've ever been in my life. How two NASA astronauts spent their time when they were stuck in space for 10 months.

The UN nuclear watchdog says that Iran has increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 50% in the last three months. In a confidential report seen by the BBC, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, claims that Iran now possesses more than 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity, raising what it called serious concerns about the country's nuclear programme. The BBC's Will Vernon told us more.

The key point, as you mentioned there, was that this uranium has been enriched to 60% purity, enough for perhaps nine or ten nuclear weapons. And what this means is that Iran is very close to building a nuclear bomb, perhaps the closest it's ever been. Although these findings are clearly worrying, they weren't completely unexpected. We knew Iran was increasing capacity and Western officials have been saying for several months that

that they believe Iran has significant enriched uranium with the capacity to build a bomb in just a matter of weeks. Has Iran reacted to the report? Because it's always claimed, hasn't it, that its nuclear programme is peaceful? That's right. They have reacted. State media carried out

comments from the government saying that this report was politically motivated and baseless. And they said that Iran would implement appropriate measures in response to any effort by the IAEA to take action against Tehran. And this could perhaps accelerate enrichment because in the past, that's how Iran has responded to any pressure by the IAEA on its nuclear program. And what about the ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran? What does that mean for this?

If we take a step back, Iran's in a really tricky position right now, Valerie, because in the last year or so, it's lost a lot of...

allies, right, a lot of previously powerful allies, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Assad regime in Syria, of course, that that was completely gone, of course. And following the Israeli military operation, which was in response to the Iranian attack against Israel, Iran lost a lot of key military sites, missile production, you know, all its air defence systems, really their economies in tatters, you know, the list of problems goes on and on and on. So the

It's not going at all well for Iran. And lots of analysts are looking at this report from the IAEA and saying perhaps nuclear brinkmanship is the kind of last remaining tool in Tehran's toolbox. But you're right. You know, these crucial negotiations have been going on with the Americans since April. And analysts say that Mr. Trump, Donald Trump, is absolutely desperate to...

to get a deal with Tehran so that he can claim, you know, I did a deal, Obama wasn't able to. But Iran says that its program is peaceful and it should have the right to carry out enrichment. Then we've got Israel, on the other hand, who's been pressing for military strikes against Iran together with the Americans. Mr Netanyahu is saying, look, Iran's in a really weak position. This is the time to strike. We can, you know, vanquish this Iranian nuclear threat once and for all. Will Vernon.

After their test flight went wrong, the NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams ended up spending nine months aboard the International Space Station. They finally returned home in March and spent the next 45 days adapting to conditions back here on Earth. So, how are they doing now? BBC's Regan Morris has been catching up with them.

Feeling pretty good. Both of us like to work out. And as soon as we got there, we had made arrangements with everybody that we were going to start working out right from the get-go. And I think that really paid dividends in the end. There's some trials and tribulations with coming back to gravity. It's a little bit painful. There's neurovestibular effects. There's, you know, just getting gravity back on your head and your back and all that kind

kind of stuff is a little bit painful and you're working through all of those issues. You work out here on earth and you fatigue your muscles and you need a day or two, sometimes three to recoup that muscle fatigue, right? And then go hit it again. Well, up in space, you're not stressed at all. 23 hours a day, only that one hour you're working out. So your body recuperates within a day. So we worked out every single day. I mean, squats and deadlifts every single day for almost 10 months. I came back

literally stronger than I've ever been in my life. Did you feel abandoned in space? We knew that not only our families who are supporting us, but there's an army of people down here at Mission Control, both for Boeing and NASA, that were working the problem, trying to understand what were the technical problems, what is the best way to get us back. And we knew nobody was going to just let us down, that we knew everybody had our back and was looking out for us.

Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore speaking to Regan Morris. Simon Jack got more on that theme from Libby Jackson, formerly head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency.

Going to space is something that really makes the human body adapt. And so when you head into space, you don't need to use your muscles in the same way because you can't feel gravity. So your skin gets thinner, your bones get thinner, your muscles get weaker, the fluids in your body shift around. And that's great if you want to stay in space. But when you come back to Earth, suddenly you have to readapt.

And as Butch and Sunny were saying there, you feel all of those changes. And for the six months that an astronaut normally spends in space, it takes about a year for the body to readapt, to build those muscles back up.

Everything that Butch and Sunny were saying in those interviews sounds like they are doing great and they are recovering just as we expect. And they're working with teams of doctors, teams of scientists, because as well as making sure they get fit, scientists study their bodies and their changes because we can learn more about the human body. Well, the changes they go through is a bit like getting old really quickly.

Do we have any idea about what the maximum time you could spend in space is? I mean, what's the longest anyone's been out there? I think in some of the Russian satellites, they were out there for up to a year, maybe? Yeah. And just recently, NASA ran a year-long mission with Scott Kelly, who happens to have an identical twin brother, Mark Kelly. And there was great science that came from that. They could compare and contrast the two brothers? Yes.

Exactly that. And work out in two genetically identical people what staying in space for a year did. And they found differences and they found that his genetics or the genomes were slightly altered by that stay in space. There are scientists who think if you're going to stay in space and not come back to Earth, you could stay permanently because you would just adjust.

But if you're going to talk about heading to the moon or out to Mars and leaving the protection of the Earth's magnetic fields that we all rely on, it's what keeps us protected from the radiation from the sun, then you really would have to make sure that you had good radiation shielding because you really wouldn't survive very long, a year or two perhaps maximum, before all that radiation effects really starts to play havoc with your biology. Butch Wilmore described in an interview to Reuters that his back and neck pain went away when he's in space and now he's back. It's back quite a...

expensive and tedious difficult way to get rid of back pain oh yeah because uh your everything extends your spine it extends because you don't feel that gravity it's still there but you're in free fall around the earth so all that pain goes away it's one of the really great things i think is space is really inspiring and interesting and why we're so keen to talk about it we can learn lots libby jackson

North Korea, one of the most isolated countries on earth, is about to be cut off from one of the last remaining sources of outside information. President Trump's cuts to the US government mean that radio stations and other media based in South Korea that beam information into the North are now under threat. The Trump administration claims it's cutting waste, but experts say many North Koreans will be cut off from the truth about their country and the outside world.

BBC's Jean McKenzie reports from Seoul.

I'm at the border between North and South Korea. There is just a river separating the two countries. And here on the South Korean side, there is this enormous green speaker system, which is being used to blast South Korean pop music and South Korean messaging into North Korea. And the North Koreans are responding by blasting their own propaganda music, which I can hear just faintly in the distance now. This is a way to try and block out these South Korean messages.

The two countries are fighting an information war. North Korea tightly controls what information its people can access, largely because much of what it tells them is lies. The thinking here is that if you can expose these lies to enough people, you can bring down the regime. And while this clash of loudspeakers is very visible, behind the scenes, there's a lot more going on.

I'm at an organisation in Seoul. It's one of a handful which is working to get information into North Korea. Every day, they do these radio broadcasts that transmit into North Korea. They're sharing bits of North Korean news that the citizens wouldn't get otherwise. They also smuggle in SD cards and USB sticks over the border, loaded with South Korean TV dramas, music and news articles.

Lee Kwang-baek is the director of the organization, Unification Media Group. We get feedback from a few people a month, and some of them tell us they've cried while watching these South Korean dramas, or that they've made them think about their own dreams and aspirations for the first time.

I'm on my way to meet a young woman who managed to escape North Korea about 18 months ago and came here to South Korea. And she says that watching South Korean dramas and South Korean TV shows is what motivated her to leave. Almost everyone I knew was watching South Korean dramas and we'd trade with each other.

We always thought South Korea was really poor, but through these shows we realized that everything North Korea says is a lie. Kim Jong-un is all too aware of the risk this poses. Over the past few years, he's built new fences along the border, making it much more difficult for the information to be smuggled in. And he's increased the punishments for people caught watching and sharing this content. Some have even been executed.

Experts believe Kim Jong-un is now gaining the upper hand in this information war. And in February, he was given another boost with President Trump's cuts to USAID. Many of the organisations doing this work rely on US money.

Lee Kwang-baek from Unification Media Group is still waiting to find out whether his project has been cut for good. It's taken us about 20 years to get where we are. If we have to start from scratch, it's going to take us a long time to rebuild. And I think the whole idea of change in North Korea will become untenable.

That report from Gene McKenzie. And finally, it was a record-breaking Saturday night in Munich. Paris Saint-Germain routing into Milan by five goals to nil in the UEFA Champions League final. That margin is the largest in the history of Europe's premier club football competition. And it triggered jubilant scenes for fans at the ground and, of course, in the French capital. Lee James, presenter of Sports World, watched the match unfold in Munich.

Yes, an extraordinary performance from Paris Saint-Germain, the greatest night in the club's history. I don't think anyone in the build-up to this Champions League final could have predicted what we saw tonight, a complete dominant performance from this PSG team. They blew away the Inter team, they made them look

like the old men that they are, over 30 average age. This young, exciting team of talent of Paris Saint-Germain really dominated. But it was the Désiré Doué show, the 19-year-old French teenager. You just couldn't take your eyes off him. It was his night with two goals...

And an assist, but it was a clinical performance all round from Paris Saint-Germain. The biggest winning margin in a European Cup final and they thoroughly deserve the trophy tonight. And where do you think it went so right for Paris Saint-Germain? Because there were individual amazing performances, but it was a team, wasn't it? A real team event.

Yes, that's, I think, the point really about Luis Enrique and what he's been able to do for this Paris Saint-Germain team. This isn't the Paris Saint-Germain of the Galacticos era, of the big stars of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. This is a team that has that incredible talent but works so hard for each other and it has paid off and you could see that

But along the way, of course, in this journey to the first title, there has been the pain, the tears, the mistakes and the frustrations they've suffered in this competition. But in some ways, perhaps that makes it all the sweeter tonight when they've been able to deliver that performance. But no doubt, Luis Enrique, who becomes this select band of coaches to have won,

And what's the atmosphere like in Munich now?

Sensational scenes of celebration from the fans that will be partying long into the night after what they've seen their team achieve. There was a very well-ordered pitch invasion afterwards. Some of the supporters coming on to the pitch at the Allianz Arena to celebrate with the players. And those scenes will be going on in the French capital as well. And a poignant one as well, an emotional one, I'm sure, for Luis Enrique. The Paris Saint-Germain fans unveiled a huge Tifo

from their section in the stadium, which featured Luis Enrique's daughter, Zana, who sadly passed away at the age of nine in 2019. Very emotional scenes. And she will clearly be in her father's thoughts and his heart tonight after what he's achieved for his team, Paris Saint-Germain. And what do you think this means for the world of football? Because everyone will have been watching this. What does it say about this team?

I think it could well signal a period of domination from this team. They are so young, just average age of 24. You feel there's so much more to come from them. And of course, we know that this has been a long time coming for the project, for the investment that has gone into this club. From Qatar, there have been the years of spending big, of bringing in the big players.

But this investment is certainly paying off. Bought for some 70 million euros in 2011, PSG now valued at between 3.5 and 4.2 billion euros. This is a huge powerhouse now in the European game. And Nasser Al-Khalifi, president of the club, already a very powerful figure in European football. But now they're not just...

wanting to dine at the top table. They own the top table. They are the big club and the big team. Lee James in Munich on Paris Saint-Germain, winners of the UEFA Champions League.

And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Kai Perry. The producers were Alison Davis and Carl Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.

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