Global News Podcast - A famine has been confirmed in Gaza City

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

A UN-backed body has confirmed a famine in Gaza City after twenty-two months of conflict and warned it could spread to other parts of the territory by the end of September. The UN says it's been caused by Israel's systematic obstruction of aid deliveries. Israel has denied there is a famine. Also: WHO warns of risks of extreme heat in the workplace, and crypto scam fugitive caught after littering in Seoul.

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard, and at 13 hours GMT on Friday the 22nd of August, these are our main stories. A UN-backed body has confirmed a famine in Gaza City after 22 months of conflict and warned it could spread to other parts of the territory by the end of September. The UN says it's been caused by Israel's systematic obstruction of aid deliveries. Israel has denied there is a famine. There's a warning that workers need better protection from extreme heat caused by climate change and a court in Thailand has dismissed a case accusing the influential former Prime Minister Taxen Chenowat

of insulting the monarchy. Also in this podcast, Maria Teresa de los Angeles is a nun and almost every day she prays to the architect, Anthony Gaudi. Best known for his Sagrada Familia Basilica in Bavis, Barcelona and dubbed God's architect. But could he become a saint? A famine has been confirmed in Gaza City. That's the finding of the internationally recognised body for determining global food insecurity, the IPC. It says that over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation, destitution and death. It also says the famine in Gaza City is projected to expand

to other areas by the end of September. It's the first time famine has been officially classified in the Middle East. Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas militants attacked targets in southern Israel on October the 7th, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Talking about the IPC report at a news conference, Tom Fletcher, the UN's Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, told journalists the famine was the fault of,

Israel, but not just Israel. It is a famine that asks, but what did you do? A famine that will and must haunt us all. It is a predictable and a preventable famine. A famine caused by cruelty, justified by revenge, enabled by indifference and sustained by complicity. Hada al-Kurd, a journalist in Gaza City, told us about the conditions people there are facing.

People are suffering from access to food, water and medical supplies. Some trucks are entering, but most of it, they are being looted, and the looters, they are filling in the market. And normal people or bourgeoisie, they cannot access to these products. We can see, like, some improvement, but still this improvement doesn't mean there is no famine. The famine and the starvation of the families are still hitting. people, they don't have access to the basic supplies.

Our World Affairs correspondent Caroline Hawley explained the technical definition of famine. What the IPC says is conditions for a famine are extreme deprivation of food, starvation, destitution, and critical levels of acute malnutrition. These are the conditions that they confirm a famine on the basis of. 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, 30% suffering acute malnutrition

and two people or four children. per 10,000 people dying every day. They are saying this is the situation in Gaza City in the north right now, but they are projecting that famine will expand to the southern towns of Janunis and Dirobala by the end of September. And how many people are affected by this? What the IPC is saying is that half a million people in the Gaza Strip are now facing what they call catastrophic conditions. There are various levels of hunger that they use. They say another 1.07 million people are facing emergency conditions.

And then you ask, what is the problem? And it is, as the UN has said very, very clearly, that aid is not getting in to the Gaza Strip on the levels that are needed. But it's not just that. The IPC has some very interesting statistics where they're talking about 98% of cropland in the Gaza. Gaza Strip being damaged because of the war, either damaged or inaccessible. They're talking about livestock being decimated.

They're talking about fishing being banned. So there are no resources within Gaza on which, or very, very few on which people can rely. And then they're also saying that 90% of children under the age of two are eating just two food groups a day. So what does Israel say? Israel says it has not got a policy of starvation. It denies that man-made famine is taking place. It says it rejects the claim of famine in the Gaza Strip, and particularly in Gaza City. It says that the IPC relied on what it called biased and self-interested sources originating from Hamas.

It talks about partial data. It's critiqued the methodology. But the UN humanitarian coordinator Tom Fletcher said that it was irrefutable and a moment of collective shame for the world. That was Caroline Hawley. Next to Thailand. Supporters of the former Thai Prime Minister Taxin Chinawat celebrating outside a court in Bangkok after he was cleared of breaching the country's strict laws

against insulting the monarchy. The court said there wasn't enough evidence to prove wrongdoing. Thailand criminalises almost any criticism of the royal family under the Leigh's Magistay law and the high-profile billionaire was accused of violating it during an interview a decade ago while in self-imposed exile. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head is in Bangkok, and he explained how Les Magistay cases work, and what happened in this one?

I would like to say we've covered a lot of Les Majesty cases. In practice, we never know any of the details for what goes on in court. You know, it seems like the interpretation of the law is usually anything that said or any action that could possibly reflect negatively on the monarchy. In this case, the judges in the court referred to the very specific wording of the Les Majesty law, which only cites four top members of the monarchy, including the king, who are protected by the law. And they said, because of that,

and because of this, in this interview that Mr. Taxing gave to a South Korea newspaper 10 years ago, but he referred to people inside the palace being behind the 2014 coup, that he'd not named names. They said that meant there was no case. Now, they haven't interpreted it that narrowly with other cases, but in his case, they essentially said, no case to answer, you're free to go. and he came out looking a very relieved man,

although, of course, he does have another criminal case awaiting him and always behind this, the politics. He's a very controversial, high-profile figure. And just tell us about the other criminal investigation against him. What is that? This relates to the conviction he had, which meant he had to serve prison time when he came back from 15 years of exile two years ago.

Now, we all assumed there was a deal. He's always denied it that would allow him to come back. he's never spent a day in prison despite multiple charges in the past but instead of going to prison he managed to get himself shipped off to a police hospital for the next six months while he served out the six months before they released him early

but a case has been filed against him saying this shouldn't have happened that he should have spent those six months in a prison cell and if that case goes against him it's early next month he may well be told you have to go back to prison and you'll have to decide then well do I spend my

six months in prison or do I do what I've done in the past and go back into exile. He's obviously a big character, a big personality. Politically at this point, though, after all of these cases, how significant is he politically still? It's amazing how big his profile still is. And remember, when he came back two years ago, he said, oh, I just want to spend time with my grandchildren.

I don't think Tax and Shinawatra is capable of keeping a low profile. He's still the key figure in his party, his daughter Petongtan is Prime Minister, although she's suspended at the moment. This is over a conversation with the Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, who in the past has been a very close friend and business partner of the Chino-Wat family, where she appealed to him back in June to help her solve the border dispute, and he clearly has had a change of heart. He leaked the conversation.

It was deeply embarrassing to her. She criticised her own military, and the court will decide whether that's an ethical violation. But in her one year in office, she's clearly listened very closely to his advice, his suggestions get turned into policy. He's a larger than life, charismatic, extremely wealthy man. That makes him powerful. It's very rare for somebody that wealthy in Thailand to be that ambitious and to want to maintain such a high profile. He won't go away.

His party still matters, but it only came second in the last election. And if he were forced to hold an election now or in the next few months, given the general unpopularity of the party, they might do very badly. So I don't think anybody expects him to get back to the very prominent position he had one or two decades ago. That was Jonathan Head in Thailand. It's been three and a half years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the European Union's foreign policy chief says it's unlikely the conflict will end soon.

In an interview with the BBC, Kaya Kallas also warned against pushing Ukraine to give up land. The White House billed last week's summit of President's, Trump and Putin in Alaska as a vital step towards peace. Lela Nathu asked Ms. Kallas, does she think President Putin should be trusted in terms of wanting peace? No, this hasn't changed. This is very clear that any promises that Putin has been given so far he hasn't kept and we have to treat it as such.

But to also have all the efforts in really pressuring him to come to the negotiation table. And there we have different tools. I mean, the Americans have leverage with the sanctions or tariffs to pressure Russia into negotiations. We are working on our 19th package of sanctions on the European side to really put the pressure on Russia, the one who is doing the aggression here. What about this idea that President Trump now seems to be on board with, the fact that there doesn't need to be a ceasefire before meaningful peace, talks. I mean, we've just seen another huge wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine. Is President Trump right? Well, President Trump has been repeatedly saying that the killing has to stop. And Putin is just laughing, not stopping the killing, but increasing the killing, actually, increasing the

bombings on Ukraine. You can't possibly negotiate under, you know, bombs. So you need to have a truce to sit down to properly talk about the long-term peace. But I also want to emphasize that it can't be just truce or ceasefire. It also has to be a long-term solution. Otherwise, Russia will just gather its forces again and attack again. So we have to make sure that they don't do that in the future. That's why we are discussing about the security guarantees that would be really credible and robust so that Russia wouldn't try again. The idea of what President Trump calls land swaps, but it is essentially Ukraine giving up territory. That does seem to be an absolutely dangerous president to set in Europe. How could the EU

stand by and watch that? Absolutely. And that's why the European leaders were together with President Zelensky in Washington to also convey this message to President Trump that this will just not do. But in terms of being realistic in terms of what it takes for Russia to end the war. I mean, for Russia, they can stop the killing today. They don't need anything. They don't need anything to stop this war. And what I want to stress is that, you know, if we walk into this trap, then we just will see this again because aggression will pay off. We have to put the pressure on Russia because they will run out of money.

They will run out of the means to really stop this war if we are united. And also if we isolate them internationally, we do these steps. We are in the power to push them into peace. into wanting peace so that they would also stop this war. But if we are putting the pressure on Ukraine, then, you know, it gives a signal to Russia that this pays off and they will want more. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaya Kallas. As we heard in the earlier podcast, the murder case of the Menendez brothers has gripped

the U.S. for more than three decades and was back in the spotlight last year when it was turned into a Netflix true crime series. Now, Eric Menendez, one of two brothers, jailed for the murder of their parents in the family's Beverly Hills home in 1989, has been denied his request for parole. Along with his older brother, Lyle, he's served 35 years of a life sentence. Lyle will learn his fate on Friday as he appears for his own parole hearing. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes has the details. After a hearing that lasted almost 10 hours, which is much longer than had been expected,

the parole board decided to deny Eric Menendez the parole that he has been seeking. The main reason giving, according to members of the board, that he continues to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety. And despite what many of his supporters have said in terms of him and his behaviour during his time in prison, more than 35 years, the board concluded that he had not been a model inmate during this time. One of the main factors being the fact that he illegally used a mobile phone, a cell phone that had been smuggled into the prison and references made to the hypocrisy of this when that happened during a time that he was working with other inmates in terms of helping them with rehabilitation. So multiple reasons were given why the board came out with this decision, which is a three-year denial, although he has been given to petition to apply.

again within a shorter period of time. So this will be hugely disappointing to Eric Menendez and his many supporters around the world. Later on today, it is the turn of his brother, Lyle Menendez, to go through exactly the same process, seeking parole after more than three decades in prison, and members of the board will consider his record as an inmate and reach a decision in a few hours' time.

case, of course, is being very closely watched, not only in the city of Los Angeles, but around the world. One of the certainly most notorious criminal cases in recent Los Angeles history. It was one of the first cases and murder cases to be televised. And at the time, the brothers said that they murdered their parents out of fear for their own lives. They're claiming that their father had sexually abused them over a long period of time. Prosecutors during those original trials said that the motive was greed and that they had murdered their parents to get their hands on their money. This is a very wealthy Los Angeles family.

The father was in the music business. And so two very different arguments at that initial trial, which I think is why this country, indeed the rest of the world, as people have learned more and more about this case, have been deeply divided over their opinions as to whether or not these two brothers deserve parole. That was Peter Bowes in Los Angeles. A joint international report says workers need better protection from extreme heat caused by climate change.

The World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization say more frequent heat waves are exposing millions of workers to heat stress. Imagine folks sent this report from Geneva. Temperatures in some areas of Spain are expected to hit or remain around 43 degrees Celsius. It is hot, fast uneratrically. It's a chateau. It's become a regular part of our summer, extreme heat and advice on how to cope with it. Everybody should dink a lot of water.

I've just got some vizzer, got a bag of ice in here. But now the World Health Organization says the health risks, especially when we are working, are so serious that we need systemic long-term changes. Rudiger Krech is the WHO's director of climate and health. If you're working in heat and your body temperature increases by over a longer period, over 38 degrees Celsius, then you are at risk of severe heat-related stress and stroke. Kidney failure, dehydration, so this is, it's a real health crisis.

The WHO's new report shows not just individual health risk, During heat waves, productivity falls and accidents can increase. Construction workers or people who work on farms are particularly at risk. Some European countries are already considering reduced summer hours on building sites, a move welcomed by Swiss Trade's Union representative Nico Lutz. Often on building sites, they are already behind schedule, so they are really under pressure to keep working. That's why we need the building companies to take responsibility

and to just say, above a certain temperature, it's irresponsible. The young are also especially vulnerable to extreme heat. When schools went back in Switzerland last week, temperatures were above 30 degrees across the country. The advice to teachers, take your classes to the swimming pool. But Dagmar Rosen, the head of the Swiss Teachers Association, says that with high temperatures becoming ever more frequent, that is not realistic.

She wants better-designed schools with more shade, ventilation, and even air-conditioning. We can't do all of our classes in the swimming pool. We've got things we need to teach. I just want people to remember that this is about making sure our children can learn in an environment that is comfortable for them. The WHO agrees,

cancelling school because it's too hot, can't be an option. Rudiger Krech says that's one lesson we should have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. We've seen during COVID that stopping school, our schoolchildren are suffering still from it. The WHO's recommendations include a society-wide consultation with governments, employers, workers and local authorities all included. But there will be a cost. Buildings will have to be adapted, sometimes work will get done more slowly. To companies worried about their balance sheets, Mr. Kreck has a message. Think about the productivity losses that you have. Above 20 degrees Celsius, every degree decreases productivity by 2%. And so therefore, to just think,

I don't have money, so I let it go as it was, is perhaps the most expensive solution. That report by Imogen folks. Still to come, astrophysicists have a bold new theory on the death of stars. When they reach the end of their lives as they run out of nuclear fuel that makes them shine, they just collapse under the force of gravity and they turn into a black hole. And it could be that from there, dark energy is formed. Next to South Korea, where a man accused. accused of being behind a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fraud

has been captured after years on the run. The BBC's Stephanie Prentice has been following the story. This man, and his identity hasn't been released, but we have been told as a man in his 60s, he's accused of defrauding more than a thousand people of up to $13 million, and that was using a cryptocurrency scam between 2018 and 2019.

30 million is actually pretty modest in terms of crypto fraud, We've seen others recently in the tens of billions of dollars, but he did have an arrest warrant for 10 charges. They included fraud and assault. And it seems he's been evading capture for around five years in and around Seoul. So we need to know. How did he get caught? Well, to today, police have revealed that after managing to stay under the radar for so long, this individual was arrested for littering.

So he was spotted after dropping a cigarette butt near a train station, in Seoul, and the officer said they only intended to arrest him for throwing it on the ground, but they became suspicious when he begged them to let him go, saying, please let me go just this once. He then refused to show any ID. He offered up money as a bribe, and that was before he pulled his final move, pretending to take a phone call and then running away. Despite those efforts, he was then apprehended, and he is now being held, but he may have gotten away with it if it wasn't for that cigarette. A lesson for us all. That was Stephanie Prentice.

Now, a bold new theory on black holes, astronomical objects with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing not even light can escape them. It's been put forward by international researchers, including Durham University in England, working on the dark energy spectroscopic instrument mission. They're looking at how our universe is expanding all the time and believe that black holes could be converting matter

into dark energy. Anna Foster spoke to Professor Carlos Frank, Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University, and she began by asking, what is dark energy? Question that has fascinated cosmologies since for the last 25 years. It has to do with the expansion of the universe. We've known for almost 100 years that the universe is expanding, but at the turn of the last century, astronomers discovered that not only is the universe expanding,

but it is doing so at an ever-increasing world. rate. The expansion is accelerating as though there is something pushing galaxies away from each other. And in our ignorance, we call this dark energy. It's analogous to, you see a hot air balloon rising, but

the speed of the balloon increases, well, you wonder what is pushing that balloon up against gravity. So the dark energy, we know it exists, has been discovered, experimental if you like, but we have no idea of what it is Because when we explore physics and inquire from the physics edifice, what is the dark energy, we don't get an answer.

Current physics has no explanation. And that's where this new idea comes in. Tell me about the idea. Why do these researchers think that black holes are converting matter into dark energy? One of my colleagues who is involved in the story said to me is one of these quirky things of general relativity. So what happens is this. Stars that are 10 times or more massive. than the sun, when they reach the end of their lives as they run out of nuclear fuel that makes them shine, when this happens, they just collapse under the force of gravity and they turn into a black hole. Now, the idea is that the matter that it's coming in, falling into the black hole, it's converted into dark energy due to the very extreme, extremely strong gravity

around the black hole. So the idea is to do with general relativity and it's to do with the strong, immensely strong gravitational field around the black hole that converts ordinary matter into dark energy and then dark energy acts to push galaxies away from each other causing the accelerated expanse. It's controversial. Professor Carlos Frank, Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University. Next to Spain, Anthony Gaudi is famous for his incredible buildings. His best-known work, the Sagrada Familia Basilica,

in Barcelona is still under construction after more than 140 years. Its splendor is one of the reasons he has been dubbed God's architect. But he could go one better and become a saint himself, as Max Horbury reports from Barcelona. Dear Antonio Gaudi, Accompanyanos from our camino of every day. Maria Teresa de los Angeles is a nun in Cadiz in the south of Spain. And almost every day, she would. He prays to the architect, Anton Gaudi.

To some, he's known as God's architect. Pope Francis, in one of his last official acts before he died, put Gaudi on the path to sainthood. I knew only that he helped architects, and I wanted to ask, on behalf of a friend of mine, who's an architect, and when I felt listened to, I became interested in his life. I prayed to him, the example he led by, trying to bring other closer to God, and find God in that beauty. I'm meeting

Jose Manuel al-Muzara in a cafe by the Sagrada Familia. Since 1992, he has been campaigning for Gaudi's sainthood. I once took a group to the Sagrada Familia, we entered the church

and then suddenly I hear someone shouting, Jose Manuel. There was an older man. He was saying, but I'm an atheist, what's happening to me? His eyes were teary because he was thinking,

if I'm an atheist, how can it be that I'm so moved by this architecture and this church. I've come to the Gothic quarter of Barcelona. It's one of the oldest parts of the city. It's also now one of the most touristy. And I'm standing in front of the cathedral of Barcelona. I've come here to meet with Archbishop of Barcelona,

Cardinal Juan Jose Omeier. He now heads the official association is working towards Gaudi's sainthood and liaisers with the Vatican. We have a miracle presented to us by a father on behalf of his son who is ill in the Netherlands and the doctors say that surprisingly he's been cured. And so they have to study that in the Vatican. And then there would be another step which would be sainthood, for which there would need to be one more miracle.

Why him specifically? In churches, the teachings and the things they want to show they usually have on the inside, Gaudi put it all on the outside. He says, I put it on the outside so that anyone who doesn't want to go inside or doesn't have a faith can ask himself, why? This is an evangelist, this is a saint. He invites you so that you can discover what he has discovered. He was someone who led a very monastic life.

Geis van Hensbergen, Gowdy's biographer, an author of a book about the Sagrada Familia. Off every evening to confession and then he'd come back. It would be straight back to the drawing board, muddling with little models. What would it mean for Galdi to be made a saint? Maria Teresa de los Angeles. I think our idea of holiness can change. We can understand that it's not just relegated to the cloisters or the church. Lay people and professional people, artists also have that holiness in their way of living.

and whatever aspect of human life can be full of holiness. It still could be many years for Gaudi to be declared a saint, but for the man who designed the Segrella Familia, there's no rush. Max Horbury reporting, and if you'd like to hear more about Gaudi's architecture and spirituality, just search for the full documentary Gaudi, God's architect on the BBC website, or wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now, have a listen to this. Hello, Jackie, and listeners.

This is Danielle Yao Javetska, with some slightly different news to break to you. After more than three decades at the BBC, we are saying goodbye and thank you to Jackie Leonard. Presenter of the Newsroom, formerly World Briefing, the Global News podcast and the Happy Pod. Jackie has been at the very heart of our output here on the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Jackie Leonard, and you're listening to the newsroom from the BBC World Service. For some time, there have been... This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard. We have a great deal to discuss about the events in the Middle East, how we got here, how events... It's a month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and amid all the talk of military tactics and analysis, some of our younger listeners.

If you're with the BBC World Service, Welcome to week two of our extra podcast experiment. Hello, we're in the capital of the happiest country in the world, a fount of world happiness, if you will. We're better to record the happy part. Well, you're obviously here to inform, entertain and educate. We start with an invention that it's hoped could bring a new sense of freedom and independence to millions of people with visual impairment.

Now, how old is too old to travel across the world? 80s? And you start every day with ice cream. Might be surprised to learn that there's been a dispute over who owns the song Baby Shark. You know the one. Do do, do, do, do, do, do, do, to do, sorry. But there has. Jackie Leonard's blend of calm, suave and elegant presentation style,

and that soothing voice makes her, to my mind, one of the greatest ever. She's magnetic, accessible, conversational. She has authority. She's clear, accurate. and forensic. The BBC owes her a huge debt of gratitude. A beacon will go out when she walks through that door for the final time. Jackie, thank you for showing myself and others how this thing ought to be done. I'm Jackie Leonard. Thank you for listening. Goodbye. Well, that was unexpected. Before I sail off into the sunset, I want to thank my brilliant colleagues, the producers, reporters, correspondents, Karen Martin, of course, and the studio managers who make us sound good or as good as they can.

I would also like to thank you, the Global NewsPod listeners. I know some of you have been with us since right from the beginning in 2007 and your involvement has been very much part of the pod's evolution. Over the years, you've told us what you like, what you don't. You've talked to us about big, serious, important issues. In 2020, you might remember, you shared your experience and advice on coping with the pandemic. When I asked you for your animal photos, you obliged, hashtag global news pets. And for a surprisingly long time and for reasons I can't quite remember, you told us a lot about your favourite cheeses. With puns. So, thank you. Your engagement has been a big part of what makes the global news podcast so satisfying to work on.

And I will miss reading your emails. Don't worry, Karen will still be reading them. Once more with feeling, global podcast at BBC.co.com. So for this last edition, the producers were the podcast legend, Leon McSheffrey and the splendid Shirley Gordon. Sound was mixed by King of the Faders, Andy Mills. Our editor is Karen, never a day off, Martin, and it only remains to say, I'm Jackie Leonard. Thank you for listening and goodbye. Oh my.