Global News Podcast - After Iran deal, Trump focuses on Ukraine

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky meet at the summit of G7 nations in Evian, as European leaders urge Washington not to pressure Kyiv into accepting concessions demanded by Moscow. Also: three years on from the Church of England's promise to spend millions on slavery reparations, not a single dollar has been spent. A new report by the UN has found that half of the world’s children are now exposed to at least three climate hazards, threatening their health, education and survival. Hundreds of cats in Vietnam are rescued from the illegal meat trade. We hear about plummeting trust in news across the world; and the story of an elusive Northern Soul music star who's been tracked down after more than a decade of searching.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]: Volodymyr Zelenksy at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Who's actually won the Iran War? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid, and together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. The US and Iran say they've struck a deal to end the war. But a key question is what's actually been achieved by nearly four months of fighting. And is the situation better, worse or the same for the region and Iran? For the full story, check out the Global Story. story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hi, I'm Ankara, and at 15 GMT on Tuesday, the 16th of June. These are our main stories. Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky meet at the summit of G7 nations as European leaders urge Washington not to pressure Kiv into accepting concessions demanded by Moscow. Three years on from the Church of England's promise to spend millions on slavery reparations, not a single dollar has been spent. And new reports by the UN has found that half of the world's children are now exposed to at least three climate hazards,

threatening their health, education and survival. Also in this podcast. That is the biggest case ever that I've heard of that pets have been rescued and returned to their owners. Hundreds of cats in Vietnam are rescued. from the illegal meat trade. We also hear about plummeting trust in news across the world and the story of an elusive music star who's been tracked down after more than a decade of searching.

On the first full day of talks at the G7 summit in the French spa town of Evian, the focus has been on Russia's war with Ukraine and how to find an end to it. President Trump met Ukraine's President Zelensky and will hold further talks with him later. He told reporters that he was pushing for a, deal from Russia. Russia should make a deal. Russia's lost tremendous amounts of people, and so is

Ukraine. And it's crazy what's going on there. But we had a meeting, and we'll see how. I spoke with President Putin on Sunday. And it's sort of the same thing. I mean, they just keep going, fighting, losing soldiers. They lose so many soldiers. This is not since World War II as anything like this happened. I settled eight wars. This was the one I thought it was going to be the easiest settled. There's a lot of dislike between the two leaders. President Zelensky gave this assessment of his meetings with President Trump and European leaders. We had a very positive summit and we discussed the situation on the battlefield. We spoke about negotiations with Russians, potential negotiations with Russian. We spoke about middle strikes and long range. The situation of

with Russian losses, economy and etc. Good news, first of all, that yes, Putin has to stop this war. And I have unanimity from all the leaders and EU presidents. I asked our North America correspondent Anthony Durker, who's in Evian, what the mood was like there, given that tensions have been bad between Europe and Trump in the past few months. It seems friendlier, definitely, now than it has been. And the passive part of that is because of the Iran negotiations and this tentative agreement memorandum of understanding that Trump and the Iranians have come to terms on.

And that has lightened Trump's mood. And so when you see the leaders interacting as much more jovial, much more friendly, Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany, gave a soccer jersey, a German soccer kit to Trump that had 47, the number that Donald Trump is as president on the back of it. So it seems like this is friendly, even if, obviously, when talk turns to Ukraine, Donald Trump has been a little more dismissive of that, then I think the Europeans would hope. What's at stake exactly here, Anthony? Well, I think the main thing for the Europeans is to try to keep this from creating any sort of rupture. If you remember back to last year's G7 meetings in Canada, Donald Trump left after the first day. He cut his time here short, and that's something that I think all of America's allies don't want to have happen. again, and one of the reasons why Trump has been invited by the French President Macron

to a dinner at the Palace of Versailles tomorrow night to try to keep them engaged and interested through the duration of these meetings. But the stakes here are to try to get all of the allies on the same page and get them working together. And on the big issues like Ukraine and Iran and trade, there have been tensions, but there is hope, I think at this point, to find some sort of a way through. And Anthony, your word on Iran, did he seem upbeat about that, reveal anything further regarding the deal? Trump is a salesman, and he's been selling this Iran deal nonstop since he's been here. He said he thinks it's a great deal.

People are going to be happy with it in a meeting with the Emir of Qatar. He talked it up. He said that there was going to be no American money sent to Iran. There had been talk about investment, but that's farther down the road. And he says that this next round of negotiations on the Iran deal, after this memorandum of understanding the negotiations that are going to hammer out the details of Iran. nuclear program, how they're going to address that. Those were going to actually be easier than the negotiations they've had so far.

So it was a very optimistic, upbeat American president. Anthony Zerker reporting. Three years ago, the Church of England promised to spend roughly $130 million on slavery reparations, aiming to address some of the wrongs created from its historical ties to the transatlantic slave trade. The church is yet to specify how this money will be spent, or who will benefit. But the initial aim of Project Spire was to invest in communities

adversely affected by historical chattel slavery as well as to fund research and education. But today, no money has been spent and the chief architect of the project, Bishop Rosemary Mallet, has told the BBC the window is narrowing on being able to deliver what the church promised. Opponents of the project say they're determined to block it.

Our religion editor, Al-Libu, has more details. There is a paved area which we can walk through shortly. Have a look at that. At Rochester Cathedral, Reverend Philip Hesketh, the dean, shows me renovations made in the 18th century. There were seven Georgian houses. Those houses were built as accommodation for staff, for clergy, and an organist's house. Except what they've discovered is that they were paid for by the profits made when the dean back then invested in a company, that trafficked slaves. It's important to identify it, acknowledge it and to tell that story. It's the kind of reckoning that's been going on across the Church of England since the killing of George Floyd.

The most breathtaking revelation was made in 2023. Research into the origins of the church's multi-billion pound endowment fund showed that for much of the 18th century, investments were also poured into a company that had a monopoly on transporting enslaved Africans to the Spanish Americas, making vast amounts of money. It absolutely felt like a watershed moment. The right Reverend Rosemary Mallet is Bishop of Croydon. Once something is brought to the light, you cannot push it back into the darkness. So clearly, with this deep connection to African-chattle enslavement, that could no longer be hidden.

When the investigation was published, the Church apologised and immediately announced the setting up a project spy. a new 100 million pound social impact fund aimed at starting to make amends. But the voices of opposition have grown loud. One of the most prominent is Lord Nigel Bigger, conservative peer, theologian and ordained priest. He says the church needs to stop saying sorry for slavery, especially when Anglicans were instrumental in abolishing it. I don't think it helps race relations to use. exploit white guilt in terms of a narrative of white oppression, black victimhood. I mean,

some whites were guilty, but let's be clear, some whites were liberating an emancipatory. But you're talking about emancipation happening after the complicity? Yes, there was some complicity. We repented big time 200 years ago, and now we're doing it again, and we're becoming obsessed with it. Lord Bigger, an influential voice in the church, thinks investing on the basis of race is divisive and also doesn't accept people now are affected by what their ancestors went through. That's not what Father Andrew Mumbie sees in his own congregation at St Peter's in South London. I see every day here in Walworth structural inequality, poverty, and in this borough there is a very high proportion of people who are from a black Caribbean background. So we know that

that those things overlap. Father Andrew says not addressing historic injustice perpetuates division. But some have questioned the historical premise of the church's financial investigation. And earlier this year, 27 politicians wrote to the church saying using its investment funds on anything other than supporting clergy and parishes was illegal. Conservative MP Katie Lamb said it would also put off parishioners from If you give your money to a donkey sanctuary, that money cannot instead be used for a domestic violence shelter. Now, that's not a value judgment. The church has said no donations coming in are to be used for a peritory justice.

But for now, Project Spires' money goes unspent. Bishop Rosemary Mallet, leading Spires' committee, has already felt the backlash and thinks a changing political climate is making things harder. I don't think the terrain is as easy as it was five years ago. We have seen greater divisiveness. All of that noise has made people more nervous about striding forward. Do you think it's going to deliver? I pray, I hope. I think the window is still there, but I think it has narrowed.

Bishop Rosemary Mallet ending that report from Alim Mughbul. And for more on that story, you can listen to Fileon for Investigates wherever you get your podcasts. Let's head to Vietnam now and the country's grizzly trade in cats and dogs for restaurants. Selling their meat is not against the law with the rights permits, but it seems illegal trafficking in the animals is widespread. Police today said they'd managed to rescue hundreds of cats

and reunite them with their owners after breaking up a gang who'd been stealing them to sell on as food. Nafam is a freelance journalist based in Hanoi. She spoke to my colleague James Menendez. The local government in Hotiming City decided to organise a crackdown on the rings that were responsible for stealing cats and other animals, other pets from innocent owners across the city. So they rescued something like 400 cats,

most of them are pets and reunites lots of them with their owners. And that is the biggest case ever that I've been. heard of that pets have been rescued and returned to their owners. How are these cats taken? I mean, are they taken, what, from outside people's houses, from the street? Yeah, interesting. You asked that. Two days ago, actually, I was shown a CCTV clip. Actually, all the people in my word were shown that just as a sign of warning, that some thieves actually going around the community at night, and they use some kind of electric device to paralyze the pets temporarily and then catch them with nets,

like butterfly nets, things like that. So there are a few methods of catching pets, but that is the most popular one. And lots of cats in Hanoi actually have been caught and been stolen that way. A happy ending, I guess, for some of those cat owners who have been reunited with their pets. But as I understand it, some of the cats were so badly treated that they didn't make it. Is that right? That's right. Lots of cats actually died in the process.

But you know, there's only one aspect of the trafficking of pets, cats and dogs, inclusive, because most of them actually end up in restaurants. The practice of eating dog meat and cat meat is still quite rampant, quite prevalent in Vietnam. You know, during the old times, it's the only source of food or protein that people could get. But now they still keep that practice. And restaurants that sell cat meat. and dog meat is still quite popular in not only in Hanoi in Huchming City, but also other cities across the country. And I think with the flow of tourists, especially foreign tourists, into the country at the moment,

the government really wants to do something to show that we cannot continue that barbaric practice of eating cat and dog meats. Oh, really? So they're trying to dissuade people from eating it, even if it is obtained legally the meat? Well, you know, eating dog meat and cat meat is actually not banned in Vietnam. You are allowed to eat it and restaurants are allowed to sell them. They have to obtain some kind of license like any other restaurant. However, you know, eating stolen cats and dogs is obviously a crime. And the government is really keen to promote their images, you know, as animal friendly, no abuse of animals. And especially now people really love their pets, you know, for them, you know, for them. like my mother who has two cats. You know, she probably loved them more than me. So, you know, obviously people really, really treasure their pets. And the government wants to show that they have that commitment to not only preserve the image of the country,

but also to respect other, you know, people, the population, feelings and their unions with their pets. Hanai-based freelance journalists, NAR FAM there. Now on paper there was surely only one result. fault wasn't there. Spain ranked third in the world, European champions and former winners, and one of the favourites in the current World Cup. Well, they were up against Cape Verde, ranked 64th in the world and having never played in the competition before. So, of course, the match ended nil-nil. The might of Spain and their teen superstar Laminia Mal frustrated by Cape Verde's extraordinary

defense and crucially, the man at the heart of it all. An unheard of 40-year-old goalkeeper, plying his trade in Portugal's second division. Well, the world's heard of him now. He's Virginia, and he's become an overnight sensation. A reporter Branca Lessa de Saar told me how it all happened. People watching were, again, very kind of captivated by him, and that gained him a certain following. But what happened was Cazette TV,

which is a Brazilian broadcaster, the one that holds the rights to the World Cup in Brazil. During their broadcast of the match, they urge their watches to follow him, give him a follow on Instagram, and he just saw his following shoot-up after the match he was asked about this. He said, oh my God, I couldn't expect it.

It went from 50,000 to 5 million. Over 5 million followers, I think he's on now. And he said he's always seen a lot of love from Brazil. He fills a lot of love for Brazil. His name, his real name, Josimajiaz, is actually after a Brazilian player. He says that his granddad, and that his mum were both Brazil fans and supported Brazil.

So there's a connection there. And yeah, he's gone on top of, you know, now being known across the world and have put up this incredible performance against Spain. He's now a sort of social media sensation. And it's been quite incredible, not just for him, but for his family as well. This story is more bittersweet than it appears, isn't it? He was very emotional after the match. Initially, you'd think maybe it was just the kind of shock of having drawn against Spain, the favourites.

But actually what he said was that his grandparents, who he was raised, who he had a very close relationship to, he was sad that they weren't able to watch the match. They passed away a few years ago, and obviously they would have been in awe watching him play on a world stage the way that he did. His nickname, Vazinea, which is what we know him as, is actually a Portuguese term,

an affectionate term to refer to your grandma, and it has to do with the fact that he was raised by his grandparents. He was really close to them. And when he used to play as a kid with his friends, they used to say that he'd go back when he lost a match and complained to his grandparents. So it was sort of an affectionate kind of playful teasing nickname that he had and it shows the relationship he had with them.

On top of that, he said he also cried because his mum couldn't make it and his mum couldn't make it because she couldn't afford the visa fees to go to the US to watch the match. So actually a bittersweet moment for him, I think inevitably very happy to have got the score that they did, to have performed the way that he did. But obviously sad to not have had the people that watched him grow, watch and play, be there watching and cheering. bring him on. Branca Lessa Desar reporting.

Still to come in this podcast. A musical mystery has been solved after nearly 60 years. September Jones, an enigmatic name for fans of Northern Soul music, has finally been tracked down. Who's actually won the Iran War? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid, and together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. The U.S. and Iran say they've struck a deal to end the war. But a key question is what's actually been achieved by nearly four months of fighting.

And is the situation better, worse, or the same for the region and Iran? For the full story, check out the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. A new report by the UN has found that half of the world's children are now exposed to at least three climate hazards. threatening their health, education and survival. UNICEF analyzed children's exposure to eight climate-related events, including floods, droughts, extreme heat, fires and tropical storms. Those who are most affected lived in countries across the Sahel region of Africa,

like Burkina Faso, Mali and South Sudan. Thousands of kilometres away children in Papua New Guinea were seen swimming across a crocodile-filled river to get to school after a vital footbridge washed away during heavy rains and was not replaced. The reports also found that even children in high-income countries are now exposed to at least one climate hazard. I spoke to Joanna Ray, UNICEF's Director of Advocacy. This report is telling us that every child across the world is being impacted already by climate change.

And it's showing that half of the world's children are being exposed to at least three climate threats in their daily lives. and that's things like a drought or a severe heat wave or a flood. And what that means for children, particularly children, is that they're more in danger of getting sick. If there's a flood, potentially water gets contaminated. That's particularly risky for young babies. But it also means that the services that children rely on are disrupted. So if there's a huge flood and schools have to close,

that means children aren't able to learn or they're not able to get to school because the roadways or the pathways are flooded. It's also the same for their health clinics. or the services they need, nutrition services or immunisation services. So it's the direct impact of these climate events on children and their vulnerability, but it's also about the services around children that they need are either disrupted or closed down or in some cases are no longer there, whether a school is washed away in a flood or a health clinic isn't able to operate because it's been damaged by extreme fires.

And I guess is that why you've got the focus on children as well? because some might say that this is going to be similar for people of all ages facing climate hazards, some older people as well. But you just outlined there, I guess, some of the key issues which impact children directly. So children obviously have particular vulnerabilities. When we're thinking about, for example, young babies being able to access their vaccination programs to make sure that they don't contract deadly diseases, they need to be able to go to a health clinic, they need to be able to see a health professional.

And obviously, children's bodies are growing and developing, you know, trying to manage extreme heat or extreme cold is very difficult on them. So children are particularly vulnerable and that's why we're asking governments to recognise the impact that climate change is having on children right now and to act with urgency, to recognise it as the crisis it is for children. There will be some children in countries and regions which are far more affected than others, I imagine, but also children living in high-income countries. They're almost all of them are exposed to at least one type of climate hazard too. Yes. So the report looks at the issue of air pollution, for example,

and every single child in the world is being affected by poor air quality and air pollution and that includes rich countries like the UK. And then we're seeing in some countries, children are being affected by multiple threats at the same time and a very high level of intensity. But it's having an impact on childhoods everywhere. Joanna Ray from UNICEF.

To Italy now, where police have uncovered what they call a ghost bank, an illegal outfit involved in providing financial services to criminals both inside and outside the country. The amounts being funneled are huge and involve multiple means of keeping their activities under cover. Our Global Affairs reporter, Paul Moss, has been finding out more about the bank. It was based in the city of Prato in the north of Italy, which until now was famous only as the place where the Cantucci biscuit was invented. However, it seems to have been the epicentre of this huge financial operation. You were saying,

providing services to a lot of very dodgy people. About $100 million passed through every year. And in a way, it did exactly the same thing that normal banks do. I mean, you know, you and I may use banks to make payments, for example, and that's what these guys were doing, except the payments were for drugs and also for people smuggling. People used banks to park their money for a while and then pass on it on somewhere else. Again, you could do that with this bank, but it was a money laundering operation,

so you could take ill-gotten gains, put them in the bank, and then they would emerge, perhaps somewhere else, spotlessly clean and possible to explain to any nosy investigators. And how are they able to do this without attracting the attention of police? Well, it seems to have been a hybrid operation. You had the old-fashioned method of couriers carrying cash in suitcases. They also piggybacked off something called Hawala. This is a centuries-old system of moving money,

which is based on honour and trust. Essentially, in the modern-day version, you go to a Hawali dealer in your town and give them some money to perhaps go to a relative, and then they phone a Hawali dealer in the other country, and that dealer hands the money to your relative. Because it involves no paperwork, it's very cheap and easy. But in fact, since 9-11, investigators have suspected

that also it's being used sometimes by criminals, I should say most of it is, of course, just for perfectly reasonable reasons, moving money, perhaps people using it to send money home that they've earned abroad. But it does seem in this case it was part of an illegal scheme. And I guess a lot of people will say, well, hang on, we've heard about these sort of deals previously conducted in Italy.

Why is this operation getting so much heat and attention? Partly the size of it. Partly the fact that it involved lots of different organisations in different countries. I mean, it was the Italian mafia, allegedly working with Chinese organised crime and Albanian organised crime. I think it's the fact that the Italian police is taking it so seriously. They've already ordered 17 suspects to be held in prison and 16 to be kept under house arrest.

And the prosecutors called that this operation, was being done with a high degree of professionalism. I don't know, but those arrested may perhaps take some kind of solace in getting this sort of backhanded compliment from people who know a quality criminal operation when they see one. Paul Moss reporting. If you're listening to this podcast, it's pretty clear how you get your news. But a new report has found that for the first time ever,

people are more likely to get their information on current events via social media rather than directly from news organisations. The research by the Reuters Institute also found that trust in news globally has fallen to an all-time low. Only 37% of people now say they trust the news most of the time. I spoke to our media editor Katie Razl. The key trends that have been evident for some time are in this report, the way digital platforms are disrupting the news ecosystem. So yes, globally, for the first time, platforms overtake publishers to become the leading source of news globally.

And essentially that means that those direct links between news brands and audiences are harder to sustain because those audiences aren't going direct to the brand for news. They're getting that brand news in amongst other news content and other content on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. And let's face it, sometimes not even finding a brand like the BBC. So in 2026, 54% of respondents used social and video networks for news in the last week compared with 52% for TV and, 51% for news websites and apps. Actually, the UK is bucking that trend according to the report. It hasn't happened here yet. But when it comes to actually trusting the information that people find,

there is this contradiction. More of us are getting our news via social media, but fewer of us are trusting it. So confidence is much lower for that format than trust in news overall. It's at 22%. So people are worried about misinformation, but it isn't stopping the shift towards the platforms, even though they worry what they might.

find there might not be accurate. And that's why, for example, some public service media are pushing hard for greater signalling online, a kite mark, for example, to show that you can trust what you're seeing. Yeah, because you touched upon it there in terms of the trust issue. What are some of the other key reasons as well? You mentioned a couple there. I could think of things like AI slop as well, for example. Well, yeah, I mean, the trust point more generally is interesting and pretty sobering in this report because trust in news is down to 37% globally, worse in the UK, 30%. So that's 20% points lower than 10 years ago, even worse in the US, 25%. That's down five even on last year. And it is even lower among politically right-leaning Americans, so down to 15%. Now, in the report,

in the US section, they mentioned the President Trump's disdain for the news media being evident in a slate of lawsuits and that he has threatened to prosecute reporters for treason. But that's simply in the roundup of what's happening in the media landscape in the US, according to the report. It is not posited as a reason for why people might distrust it. What the report does find, though, is some major news outlets have seen big drops, for example, with trust in both CBS News and Fox News, down 10 points from 2025 and CNN down by 6. But the report doesn't actually offer explanations particularly, which leaves a vacuum for people like you and me to obviously fill with all sorts of claims,

including, yes, I agree, AI Slop, and whether you can trust anything you see online these days. Finally, before you go, how do you get your news? All sorts of places. Obviously, I'm very loyal to the BBC, so I go straight to the BBC News app first. But then a whole plethora of, yes, social media, I do still watch TV news, but that's possibly because I work on it sometimes. Love News Night, and that goes out across the world. Yeah, I love to listen to the newsroom because I like the sound of my own voice,

so yeah, you and me in the same boat. Our media editor, Katie Razzle. Now, for fans of Northern Soul, the music and dance movement, of the 1970s in England that took inspiration from American soul music, a mystery has finally been solved after nearly 60 years. September Jones's 1966 single, I'm Coming Home, was a huge hit, particularly on the dance floors of the UK. But no one knew who she was, until now.

Jim O'Hara was the man who found September Jones after more than a decade of soul searching. As Northern Soul fans, we're very passionate about our music. and what we like to do is find it about the background about these obscure singers from Detroit because a lot of these singers were trying to compete with Motown at that time. So a lot of these singers came up,

maybe did a couple of tracks, and then disappeared into obscurity, just like September Jones. She only ever did one single 45 record, although she did record some other tracks that were later released by Ace Records in London. But the track became popular. probably from about the mid-70s,

but there was always just the mystery around the name, and the more people started to look for her, the more people realized that the name was actually a stage name given to her by a gentleman called Jack Ashford, who was one of the Motown band members that gave her that stage name. Somebody heard me sing at Shelts Lounge. They sent me with ICA. They gave me the name.

Yeah. As soon as I started singing, after I started singing in the church, I started using September Jones. She only recorded for a couple of years and then moved out of the music business and eventually worked for Chrysler in Detroit and moved on with her life,

had a couple of kids, etc. And then later settled in Florida. So when I eventually spoke to her a few months back, she was absolutely gobsmacked. That was Jim O'Hara who managed to track down the singer September Jones. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.com.

You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Rebecca Miller. And the producers were Helena Burke and Paul Day, The editor is Karen Martin, and I'm Ankara D'Sai. Until next time, goodbye. Who's actually won the Iran War? I'm Tristan Redman.

And I'm Asma Khalid, and together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. The U.S. and Iran say they've struck a deal to end the war. But a key question is what's actually been achieved by nearly four months of fighting, and is the situation better, worse, or the same for the region and Iran? For the full story, check out. the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.