Israel orders evacuations in northern Gaza
30:57 Share

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Monday the 30th of June, these are our main stories. The Israeli Prime Minister says the recent fighting with Iran has opened up opportunities to free the remaining hostages being held in Gaza. Iran says it won't enter renewed talks about its nuclear programme without a US guarantee not to carry out further attacks during any negotiations.

Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has told supporters that those convicted of rioting in the capital two years ago should be given an amnesty. Also in this podcast... It's a small plant hopper insect that goes through five life stages, building up all of this fat and creates an edible fantastic treat in Madagascar. Would you add edible insects such as bacon bugs to your recipes at home?

We begin in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians across a large proportion of northern Gaza and Gaza City have been told to leave and head south to the coastal area of Al-Mawasi for their safety. It comes as the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order across several neighbourhoods in the north of the territory, warning of an escalation in military operations there.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has suggested the country's operation against Iran has created opportunities to free the remaining Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. Here's what he said during a visit to a security facility in southern Israel.

I want to inform you, as you surely know, that many opportunities have now opened up following this victory. First and foremost, to rescue the hostages. Of course, we'll also need to solve the Gaza issue and defeat Hamas, but I estimate that we will achieve both of these missions. Beyond that, broad regional opportunities are opening up.

But on the ground in Gaza, as families pack what little they can and flee yet again, the situation is becoming ever more desperate. Our correspondent in Jerusalem is Aine Wells.

These evacuation orders were issued early on Sunday morning. The Israeli military told people in north areas of Gaza, but also some areas of Gaza City, to head south, particularly to areas around Han Yunis and al-Mawassi as well. They said that this was because they were going to be using extreme force in some of those areas that were being evacuated to intensify their operations against Hamas.

They urge people to move south towards al-Muassi in particular, which Israel says is a humanitarian area, although both Palestinian and UN officials say that these areas are still unsafe. Several people have been killed there in recent airstrikes.

Now, today we've heard from the Hamas-run civil defence in Gaza saying at least 23 people have been killed in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip today, including in al-Mawassi, that area which, as I say, Israel says is a safe space for people to migrate to, including children in that particular strike, which it's reported happened at an encampment in the area. Now, as I say, the IDF have not commented specifically on that strike, but have said that they are continuing their operations.

to try and destroy Hamas's capabilities. This comes as well as there has been renewed calls for a ceasefire, not only with Donald Trump saying that Israel and Hamas should make a deal, but also last night in Tel Aviv, more protests for the first time in three weeks, including family members of existing hostages in Gaza calling for an end to the war and for the release of all the hostages there. And Iona, Israel is saying it's arrested 60 suspected Hamas gunmen in the West Bank. What can you tell us about that?

That's right. Israel's security service has said it's broken up what they've described as a network of Hamas militants in the occupied West Bank, who it says are suspected of planning attacks. They said they have arrested 60 of the group's members in what they describe as a significant and large-scale Hamas infrastructure that was exposed in the city of Hebron. It said it broke these up

because these were militant cells operating to carry out attacks in various formats in the immediate future. They said they confiscated various different types of weapons. Now, this all comes as well as violence more generally has surged in the West Bank. There has been various reports of clashes breaking out in the last couple of days, some Palestinians being killed in some of the violence that has broken out in the West Bank, with the Palestinian Health Ministry saying that Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 945 Palestinians recently.

since the start of the Gaza war there. Ioni Wells in Jerusalem. Iranian state media has published details of a new bill that will permit the death penalty to be used for a range of offences, including spying or collaborating with so-called hostile states. The bill follows the rounding up of more than 700 suspects since Tehran's 12-day war with Israel earlier this month. Here's Mike Thompson.

Executions of those convicted of spying for Israel aren't something new, but now they're likely to happen more frequently and with even less oversight. Under the bill, the definition of spying will be broadened and trials may be expedited and held in branches of the Revolution Court.

It will also mean tougher sentences for those convicted of cyber attacks, passing footage to foreign-based opposition media or producing content that causes panic. The bill still needs final approval from the country's Guardian Council.

After the US joined Israel in bombing Iran's nuclear sites earlier this month, the US President Donald Trump insisted that they'd been obliterated. But that claim has been contradicted by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog. Rafael Grossi, speaking to CBS News, said Iran could start enriching uranium for a possible bomb in just a matter of months. He said the US strike last weekend had caused severe but not total damage.

Iran had a very vast, ambitious program, and part of it may still be there. And if not, there is also the self-evident truth that the knowledge is there, the industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious. Rafael Grossi.

The Israeli writer Amir Oren was asked what he thinks the Israeli government believes about the extent of the destruction to Iran's nuclear program. The Israeli government never had any realistic expectation that the Iranian nuclear project, infrastructure, assets, whatever you want to call it, would be completely destroyed. The goal was to set it back a year or so, hopefully a couple of years,

But it was well known in advance that the main impediment to the weaponization of the Iranian nuclear material was the political will. And that is Khamenei's decision not to direct his subordinates to produce such a weapon. And that if now he changes his mind, then the timetable could be shortened. And therefore, no one ever said anything.

in Israel, either before or after that it was destroyed. Amir Oren. The IAEA is not the first organisation to suggest that Iran could still develop a nuclear bomb. Now,

Last week, a Pentagon intelligence assessment found the U.S. strikes had only set the Iranian nuclear program back by months. That prompted a furious response from the Trump administration, with the U.S. president also saying he could attack Iran again. Meanwhile, Iran's deputy foreign minister has told the BBC that his country won't enter into talks on its nuclear program unless America guarantees not to bomb the country again during the negotiations. Our

Our chief international correspondent Lise Doucette is being allowed to report from Iran on condition that none of her reports is used on the BBC's Persian service which broadcasts in Iran. She spoke to Majid Tahrir-Ravanchi, Iranian deputy foreign minister for political affairs. We are hearing from Washington telling us that they want to talk.

So, by the way, no date has been set. President Trump talked about this week. I'm telling you. I'm telling you that we have not agreed to any date yet.

We have not agreed to the modality. Right now, we are seeking an answer to this question. Are we going to see a repetition of an act of aggression while we are engaging in dialogue? And the Americans have to be quite clear on this very issue.

important question. So what do they say to you when you say you need a guarantee? What answer have you been receiving? I'm not in a position to tell you about the messages which are being taken back and forth through intermediaries, but they have not made their position clear yet. Is it time to rethink the

Your nuclear program, there are reports that perhaps a deal could involve sanctions relief, investment in Iran, in exchange for Iran agreeing not to enrich uranium itself.

Would that be possible? Why should we agree to such a proposal? Because Iranians on this visit have told us that Iran has paid too high a price for enriching uranium, causing suspicions even among your European partners about why you were enriching to 60%. It wasn't necessary.

First of all, 60% is something which is being used for peaceful purposes. But it did create this situation of suspicion. The level of that can be discussed. The capacity can be discussed. But to say that you should not have enrichment, you should have zero enrichment, and if you do not agree we will bomb you, that is the law of the jungle. Do you think the ceasefire is going to last? Uh...

To be honest, it is not quite clear. As far as Iran is concerned, as long as there is no military attack against us, we will continue to observe the ceasefire. But if...

by any chance the Israelis or the Americans feel that they might be successful, they should try to contain themselves, not try their luck,

And because this time we know how to act and we will do whatever necessary to protect our people. How high is the risk now? We do not want war. We want to engage in dialogue and diplomacy, but we have to be prepared. We have to be cautious not to be surprised again.

But we want to be assured that the same betrayal is not going to happen again. Majid Takht-Ravanshi, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, talking to the BBC's Lise Doucette in Tehran.

It's a precarious time for the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro. He's facing the possibility of decades in prison for allegedly trying to stage a coup after losing the 2022 election. Hundreds of people were jailed after his supporters marched on government buildings a week after the inauguration of the new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But Mr Bolsonaro denies he was involved in any plot and now he's called for his jailed former supporters to be offered an amnesty.

I got more from our America's regional editor, Leonardo Rocha. First of all, he denied any involvement in a coup plot a week after President Lula was inaugurated. What happened was a riot. People should be punished, but they shouldn't be punished for attacks on democracy or terrorism. And some of those people got like sentences of 14, 17 years in jail.

So what President Bolsonaro said, the only way to bring reconciliation to the country and peace is to have an amnesty. What the government says, President Lula, it says that President Bolsonaro refused to accept the defeat in the election. And he plotted with the military. He's a former army captain. He plotted to come back to power by force and therefore they should be punished.

And how many people turned out for this demonstration where he was speaking? It looked to me, I was watching live on television, it looked quite big. He still has a lot of support. We have elections next year. President Bolsonaro is not allowed to take part for another legal decision. But the country is split left and right.

And President Lula is very unpopular at the moment. The economy is not doing well. His support to Russia in the Ukraine war and to Iran is not going down well with many people. So there is a real possibility of a defeat for the left next year. And before that, an amnesty. What is the response of President Lula da Silva likely to be, do you think? He's been very vocal about it. I mean, he should leave it to the courts.

to decide it and they've already, the Supreme Court has already sentenced about 500 people. That's the way they're going. They have evidence. And what we have now is a trial of President Bolsonaro. He's undergoing trial by the Supreme Court for this alleged coup attempt.

What President Lula has been saying very clearly is he tried to attack democracy, he didn't accept defeat, and he plotted to get rid of President Lula. And how realistic do you think the chances are of an amnesty? There is a good possibility. The government of President Lula, the left-wing government, has suffered greatly.

major defeats. They had the biggest defeats just this week on some new tax. They lost support in Congress a while ago. It's all linked to the next year election in October, November, when you have presidential elections. It looks very likely that if that proposal is put to the vote...

it will go through. Leonardo Rocha. Health authorities in southern Europe are warning people to stay indoors as a heat wave continues to push temperatures to dangerously high levels. The Spanish town of El Granado recorded a peak of 46 degrees Celsius. Portugal, France and Italy, which saw temperatures in the high 30s, all have emergency medical services on standby. I'm a good correspondent. Guy Hedgcoe reports.

Most of Spain is in the grip of this first heatwave of the year, but the south is seeing the most severe heat.

The Spanish weather agency has already said it expects this to be the hottest June on record. The town of El Granado, close to the Portuguese border in the south, registered the highest June temperature ever at 46 Celsius. The authorities are advising people to stay out of the heat where possible. The death of a woman in Barcelona shortly after finishing her shift as a road sweeper is being investigated. It's suspected that she may have died from heat stroke.

Most of France is on orange alert and two dozen Italian cities on red alert, including Rome, which these people were visiting. If we manage to book a few museums and have access to air conditioning, it's bearable. On the other hand, if we decide to go see the Pope, it starts to become unbearable. You need a lot of sunscreen and patience.

We have been here for three days and they have been three tough days. It is very hot. Meanwhile in Greece, firefighters have been battling wildfires near the capital Athens for days. The high temperatures are expected to continue across much of southern Europe at least into midweek.

Guy Hedgcoe in Spain. Dr Samantha Burgess is Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, part of the European Space Programme which shares climate monitoring data.

Paul Henley asked her, is it true that Europe is warming faster than the global average? It is true that Europe is warming at about twice the global average rate. Why is that? There's really three things. Firstly, the land area of our planet is warming faster than the ocean and Europe has a lot of land in it.

Secondly, Europe has part of the Arctic, so Scandinavia and Greenland, and the Arctic is warming at three or four times the global average rate. And the third reason is improvements in air quality. So with all the legislation that we've had over the last decades to improve our air quality, that is great news for people, but it does mean we have less low-level clouds from those cloud-forming gases

that are part of air pollution. So with clearer skies, we get more sun hitting the surface of the Earth.

Dr Samantha Burgess from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Still to come... It sort of illustrates the fact that Ava Perron was aiming at the masses and trying to annoy the aristocrats. The discrepancy between her fans and the people who she was trying to upset. An iconic song from the musical Evita is being performed during the performance on a balcony outside a London theatre. A free public event for those on the pavement below.

One of Hong Kong's last remaining pro-democracy groups has announced that it will disband. The League of Social Democrats said that next year marked the political party's 20th anniversary, but it wouldn't survive to see the day.

The chairwoman of the party, Chan Po Ying, gave a news conference to explain the reasons behind the announcement. But those reasons remained unclear. Our correspondent, Danny Vincent, was at the event. So is the group disbanding voluntarily or has it been coerced? I asked that question to Chan Po Ying. She said that she couldn't go into details about the reason why they disbanded.

But I also spoke to members and they spoke about the pressures and the harassment that they face from the police. They said that even family members and friends did become targets. And that seems to be the trend here in Hong Kong because many political parties have disbanded. Many parts of civil society have essentially disbanded or closed their offices. This group could be arguably seen as the last protest group in Hong Kong today.

when the national security law was introduced in 2020 quickly after that the

the majority of the political opposition either fled the territory or they found themselves detained. Now, the League of Social Democrats also have members detained in prison, but they continue to protest on the streets, they'd hand out leaflets, they'd discuss many topics from the economy to calling for the release of what they would call political prisoners. Now, the members that I spoke to

They felt that at one point they could continue. They thought that maybe in some ways the authorities even liked them being on the streets because they gave the impression that Hong Kong is still a free and open society. However, in recent years and recent months, the members have faced increasing pressure. It's also coming up to the five-year anniversary of the national security law. Some media have reported that

that the group were essentially told...

that they needed to disband before that date. Danny Vincent in Hong Kong. Next to Indonesia, where President Sibianto has attended an event to mark the launch of a giant factory near the capital Jakarta that will make batteries for electric vehicles. Our Asia-Pacific regional editor, Mickey Bristow, has more. Indonesia has many of the raw materials needed to make batteries. It's now trying to develop the high-tech industries that use them. They

This $6 billion project, being built in cooperation with a Chinese company, will not only provide batteries for electric vehicles, but also storage for solar panels. The Indonesian president said it was a colossal venture. The investment also includes mining, smelting and production facilities on the pristine island of Halmahera, which campaigners say will cause severe environmental damage. Mickey Bristow.

Insects are eaten across the world and in many countries they're considered to be a delicacy. And there have been hopes that encouraging more people to eat insects could boost nutrition and reduce pollution. A UN report in 2013 even suggested that the food industry could help in raising the status of insects globally.

by including them in new recipes and adding them to restaurant menus. But new research this week has found that efforts to convince those mainly from Western countries to make the shift aren't working because of a failure to overcome a key problem, a deep-rooted consumer disgust, or what's been referred to as the yuck factor.

Gillian Walker spoke to one academic who's open-minded about the benefits of eating insects. Courtney Borgeson is an anthropology professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She helped develop a project to farm so-called bacon bugs on the island of Madagascar, which lies off the southeastern coast of Africa. So bacon bugs, also called secundary, are Xanathana brusa. It's a small plant hopper insect that

that goes through five life stages, building up all of this fat and creates an edible, fantastic treat in Madagascar. Edible and fantastic. When you first tasted them, what did you think? I was shocked. I had a neighbour who was frying them up behind his house and offered me some, and I have to admit that...

Being an American, my first impression was like, well, here we are about to go into an adventure. And they're fantastic. They're really, truly good. They taste quite a bit like bacon. They're crunchy, but they're not crunchy like exoskeleton crunchy. It's really more like that, like a crisp bacon type feel where there's like a little bit of a crunch on the outside from the pan frying that's taken place. And then you've kind of got that delicious meaty texture immediately after. Yeah.

But on the plate, how do they look? So we eat them at the fifth instar stage, which is before any insect has wings or anything like that. So they do look a little buggy, I have to admit. But they don't have wings and their legs kind of fall off when you're pan frying them. So it really is the visuals that's the hardest to get over when you're first beginning to eat them. You're involved in a project to farm them in Madagascar. Tell me about that and what you're looking to achieve. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So, secundary are a traditional food in Madagascar. People grew up, or at least their grandparents or their parents or aunts and uncles might have gone out harvesting them from wild plants. And they're really quite loved, but they were eaten in a very small quantity. So, what we did is we work with local communities who have the knowledge of the host plants, the plants that the secundary themselves eat.

eat. And then we work with people to help farm them in their backyard so that they provide a endangered species within forest dead. What particular endangered species are being potentially helped here? So lemurs are one of the world's most endangered vertebrates on earth. And unfortunately, they're still eaten by food insecure communities in rural Madagascar as a source of really important fat and nutrition for pregnant women and children under five.

And when you look at the figures and the numbers of lemurs now being eaten as a result of what's happening with the secundary, can you see a trend here? Is there good news behind what you're doing? It's truly extraordinary because people like the insect so much. If you can increase the abundance of that insect right in your backyard, there's no reason to take all of the effort to go into the forest to hunt an endangered species. So where we farmed this, we can see a very quick turnaround and cut hunting in half within three years.

Which takes us back to where we were a moment ago, because you talked about how they look on the plate. They look a bit buggy, I think you said. And that's where the line is so clearly drawn, isn't it, for some people in certain parts of the world when it comes to eating something like

Yeah, I think that Westerners are quite used to not seeing the animal that they're eating on their plate. But I do find that the flavor can overcome that very quickly. And even though the cultural difference is quite clear, we're in Madagascar, that's not as much of an issue. When I've brought Westerners there, as soon as you taste something and you realize how good it is, you'd be surprised how quickly people overcome that. It's one thing to do it with an expert like yourself.

in Madagascar, it's quite another, isn't it, to imagine it becoming more of a trend when you're actually in that Western country and it's just not something people do. It is, but I think there's so many foods that aren't something that we do. And I think it depends a lot on the context in which you come across it, right? There's a lot of foods that I've never had, but if someone who...

I trust, right? And as a friend presents it to me, like you taste it and you discover that you'd like it. And then as long as it's available to follow up and purchase afterwards and try, you know, and share again with your friends and family, it can really help to overcome that barrier. Courtney Borgeson, Professor of Anthropology at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Now, an unusual theatrical initiative is taking place in London with the new adaptation of a famous musical. Evita, as you may remember, tells the story of Eva Perón, who rose from poverty to become Argentina's first lady and the most powerful woman in Latin America. In Act 2 of the musical, the character Eva sings the famous song Don't Cry For Me Argentina from a balcony aimed at her adoring public.

Now, in the London Palladium Theatre, the actor Rachel Zegler sings those iconic words on the portico outside the building. So it's a free public performance for those on the pavement below. The lyrics for the song were written by Tim Rice. BBC's Paddy O'Connell went to the theatre to find out more. The original Evita in London's West End was played by Elaine Page in June 1978. MUSIC PLAYS

The lyrics were written by three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice. It's one of those songs that

I hear it so often, I think, "Oh, I'm not too sure, I want to hear it again, at least not until Tuesday." But, funnily enough, I've just done a tour, and every night I was on stage with a wonderful singer called Shona Daly, who sang "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" live, and I was sitting in the shadows right next to her. And I really began to think, because she sang and acted it so well, I thought, "Actually, it's not a bad song, I can see why it's worked."

Is it right it began with you listening to the radio? I was aware of Eva Perón when I was very young because I collected stamps and A for Argentina was the first page in my schoolboy's stamp book. I didn't think about Eva Perón from the age of eight until I was about 24 when I heard a radio programme. I was unaware that big scene was part of her life. I didn't know until I did my research that she did stand on a balcony on many occasions, but particularly on one after Perón was elected president.

We never ever thought that Don't Cry For Me Argentina would be anything other than a scene in the show. It was written...

What did you think when you heard that Rachel Zegler was going to perform Don't Cry For Me Argentina on the balcony of the London Palladium?

Well, I was very intrigued. And my first thought was, what will they show inside the theatre? What they've done is you can see her huge and looking great inside the theatre when she's outside on the balcony. So in a way, it's almost a plus for both ends, because if you're in the theatre, and unless you've got a pretty good seat, you won't see Rachel that close up, obviously. But suddenly you do, on the big number, you do see her incredibly close and

If you're a bit miffed that you didn't see her live, as it were, then you can always turn up the following night and watch it from the street. It sort of illustrates the fact that Eva Peron was aiming at the masses and trying to annoy the aristocrats. I think it was marvellous. I think it's wonderful to sing to the public. People should be doing more of these sort of extra things to bring people joy.

in the outside into musical theatre. Musical theatre is powerful. More people should be seeing this sort of stuff. We went to see it last night inside and just seeing it inside and outside and the difference but also how cleverly they've used the technology and the cameras. It's absolutely amazing. CHEERING

Everyone was laughing, smiling, clapping, taking photographs, filming the event. The review from the pavement, the people who are the peasants really in the play, in the musical itself, is five stars. MUSIC PLAYS

Paddy O'Connell at Evita at the London Palladium Theatre. 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 Masoud Ibrahim Khail. The producers were Liam McSheffrey and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye.