Global News Podcast - Bondi inquiry calls for better policing of Jewish events

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

An Australian inquiry into an antisemitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach which killed 15 people has recommended that the authorities should bolster security at Jewish events. The royal commission's interim report revealed that an Australian Jewish group had warned of a terrorist attack just days before the incident. The Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese says major changes have already been made. Also: oil prices have reached their highest point since the US and Israeli war against Iran began in February, amid concerns about how long the conflict will last; the US defence secretary Pete Hegseth is quizzed under oath on the Iran war by the Senate armed services committee; the US Justice Department charges the governor of Mexico's Sinaloa state for allegedly conspiring with the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic massive quantities of narcotics; and celebrations in Kenya as Sabastian Sawe returns home after becoming the first man to run a marathon in under two hours in competitive race conditions in London. 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]

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and in the early hours of Thursday the 30th of April, these are our main stories. An Australian inquiry has said a Jewish group warned of a terrorist attack before last year's anti-Semitic mass shooting at Bondi Beach and is called for an overhaul of counter-terrorism. The price of oil has briefly risen above $120 over fears that the US-Israeli war with Iran could continue.

continue for months. And there are heated exchanges in the US Congress, as it's revealed the war in Iran has cost $25 billion so far. Also in this podcast, the US Justice Department charges a Mexican state governor for alleged links to large-scale drug trafficking by the Sinolaa cartel. And... It was extremely exciting. I mean, I think everyone who works in this field dreams of finding a new bit of old English. A rare copy of a 7th century English poem turns up and a library in Rome. We start in Australia, where a Royal Commission into anti-Semitism has released its first report on the attack last year on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

15 people were killed when two gunmen attacked Jews celebrating Hanukkah in December. One of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police. His son Navid is awaiting trial on terrorism and murder charges. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says major changes have been made since the attack took place. In the wake of the Bondi attack, my government took immediate action to bolster the resources of our security agencies, tackle anti-Semitism, crack down on hate preachers and deliver tougher gun laws. That's why we brought the Parliament back in January. We weren't able to get the support across the Parliament of everything we wanted to achieve,

but we did make substantial progress. Our correspondent Katie Watson has been looking at the Royal Commission's findings. This is an interim report. The final report has to be made by the 14th of December a year on from the shooting. But the interim report has 14 recommendations, five of which are classified because of sensitive information. But I think the key points are that there's a recommendation that needs to be more policing at high-risk Jewish events.

And there's also a recommendation for a review of joint counterterrorism teams across the country. There's a request for an urgent report to be submitted to police commissioners. There's also two recommendations to speed up or certainly prioritize a national firearms registry and a gun buyback scheme. These were schemes that were proposed in the wake of the Bondi shooting. But so far, several states have been kind of really dragging on this and only, I think, New South Wales in Canberra. have actually passed any legislation. So there's been a recommendation that that also needs to be prioritised. An interim report, as you say, what happens next?

From May the 4th until May the 15th, there will be a first series of public hearings. So people with first-hand experience of anti-Semitism are expected to speak. And then there will still be a lot of work by Commissioner Virginia Bell. At the moment, this report is preceding any public hearings. So there will be further meetings around table sessions. meetings with other people from organisations. So this is still very much in the throes of working out the detail of that final report that we will get in December.

And briefly, Katie, one of the gunmen, Navid Akram, is awaiting trial on terrorism and murder charges. What can you tell us about that? Yeah, that's right. There's only been some kind of illegal hearings. There was an attempt to suppress the names of members of his family for their security that was denied. But yet, he's still awaiting trial for murder and terrorism. offences. His father, Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police at Bondi Beach at the scene. So that's very much also in the process. And that's something that Commissioner Bell said as well

is that it needs to be very carefully dealt with this report because obviously there is a legal case going on around the attack as well as this report with recommendations. Katie Watson. There's more evidence of the growing impact of the conflict in the Middle East on the global economy. The price of oil briefly rose above $120. a battle on Wednesday. It's the highest figure since 22 when Russia invaded Ukraine. In recent weeks, following the ceasefire between the US and Iran, the price for a barrel of oil had generally been going down

amid hopes that a permanent deal to stop the fighting was imminent. But following reports that President Trump intends to extend the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, possibly for months, the prices soared again. I spoke with our economics editor Faisal Islam, who explained why this was a significant. It is the highest we have seen for the Brent crude benchmark since the Russia invasion of Ukraine. But I think the context here is the markets had breathed a massive sigh of relief and fallen back down to 90 just a couple of weeks ago when the ceasefire was announced and then extended.

And there was a sort of presumption underlining that that there would be a glide path towards some sort of normalisation. And instead, what it appears that we have is a kind of equilibrium stasis. What triggered this was some reporting from well-connected sources that the Trump administration is talking about their blockade on Iran would last for months. There was a regular meeting with oil executives at the White House today where that sort of language was discussed. And all of this is part of a strategy which has avoided escalation of the bombing. but doesn't see a route to normalisation

and instead seeks to pressure using economic means, something called Operation Economic Fury, pressurises the Iranian government into conceding in some way. It's quite a move for that in two weeks, 90 to 120, but it's almost like the jitters that it would give to any market to have had the relief rally and then bang were back up to as higher level as we have seen. And what's likely to be the immediate impact of this high price? and who's going to be worse affected?

I think around the time that the oil price seemed to have come down, say, below $100 a barrel two, three weeks ago, you had started to see petrol prices in Europe. The presumption was that they would have peaked. Maybe they weren't going to come down sharply. They'd stopped going up. This throws that back up in the air again. And that's, you know, not just in Europe.

Gasoline prices in America, a well above $4 now highest levels since 2022. But you ask a very important question. and lots of comparisons are done between what's happened now and what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. We're seeing price impacts everywhere. We're seeing less of a price impact in terms of gas, even though the Gulf matters for transited gas,

especially from Qatar. And so it's less of a shock which was centred on Europe, which is what we got with Russia, Ukraine. Instead, quite logically, this is one centered on Asia. Obviously, that will flow through most logically to petrol and diesel, prices, jet fuel as well, but you've got ancillary petrochemical derivatives, things like urea for fertilizer. I was told by the World Bank President, if the situation lasts till July, which now looks more likely than not, then you have an impact on the southern hemisphere's

sewing season as well, and that would then impact on food prices. Lots of uncertainty. That's going to have impact on markets as well, of course. Is there any room for optimism? The only point of relative optimism is that economic pain may be more thinly spread around the world, whereas it was very concentrated on Europe four years ago. That isn't really relief, it's maybe just context. But I do think now you're going to start to see companies acting on these sorts of probabilities, and whereas they were taking a glass half full type of perspective, given what happened a couple of weeks ago, they're now going to have to put in place the contingency plans, which assume that the Gulf stays shut, at least until

the summer. Faisal Islam. Meanwhile, the US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth has been quizzed for over six hours on the Iran War by the Armed Services Committee. It's the first time he's been questioned in such a manner under oath, and he told lawmakers that about $25 billion had been spent on Operation Epic Fury. The Pentagon is requesting an unprecedented $1.5 trillion from Congress, which, Mr. Hegseth says, reflects the urgency of the moment. There were strong exchanges. One Democrat, John Garamandi, said Trump was stuck in a quagmire, while Mr. Higgseth replied,

Your hatred for Mr. Trump blinds you. This exchange begins with the Democratic leader of the Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith. We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated? They had not given up their nuclear ambitions. and they had a conventional shield of thousands of... So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished, nothing of substance.

It left us at exactly the same place we were before. So are we any clearer about what has been achieved so far in this war in Iran? Tom Bateman is our State Department correspondent. I think we heard a very robust defense of it from the Defense Secretary, very combative at times, particularly with opposition lawmakers. I mean, the fundamental reality for Mr. Hexeth remains that he's, believes that they have effectively dealt with Iran's nuclear threat for now, despite the fact that these negotiations are not taking place and they haven't got a deal done, and that the blockade,

the naval blockade at the moment, is adding pressure on Iran to try and force them to the negotiating table. I mean, Democrats was just simply not buying that and suggested that this had basically been a monumental waste of money and the lives of American soldiers who have died and also put to him the fact that as far as they were concerned, the US was in no better position whatsoever when it came to Iran's nuclear threat, given that it was under Mr. Trump that the US violated the 2015 nuclear deal and pulled out of that, only to have this sort of zigzagging between diplomatic outreach and then military force with the Iranians that they believe has simply not succeeded. So it was a pretty feisty and quite heated set of

exchanges at times. And I think, you know, we'll see Mr. Hegseff appear in front of senators tomorrow. But what the defence sector is trying to do here was get an unprecedented rise in the US military budget by 50% to one and a half trillion dollars for next year. Clearly, as far as the Democrats were concerned, though, he did nothing to sort of assuage their concerns. Tom Bateman. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the UK hasn't helped the US in its war with Iran, but British forces at just one military base in the Middle East have shot down more than a hundred drones since the conflict began. Before the ceasefire, they and US forces at the base were being targeted by dozens of drones and missiles a day. The BBC's defence correspondent

Jonathan Beale is the first reporter to visit the base since America and Israel's war with Iran started. With tension still running high, he was given access to the young RAF regiment gunners who've helped save both British and American lives. Iran is left. This military flight is on its way to a coalition base in the Middle East, which houses both US and British forces. It has been one of the most heavily targeted bases in the region since this conflict began.

We can't say exactly where it is, other than it's somewhere in Iraq. Despite a ceasefire, it's soon clear the threat hasn't gone away. I believe fireworks, 2 o'clock. Almost like ground explosions. Just before landing, a drone's been spotted, followed by explosions. Obviously, be ready for bucket calls when we're on the deck. Roger that.

This time, it's aimed at Iraqi forces nearby. Yeah, there's the great interest to the left. But on the ground, there's evidence this base has been hit too. It's been cleared quite a bit since I was last here. Air Specialist Robinson of the RR. RAF regiment describes life before the ceasefire. You are lying face down flat with the sirens going off, with these noises overhead, and you hear impacts, you hear weapons of destruction going off around you.

It's bloody difficult. At the height of the conflict, the base was targeted by up to 28 drones and missiles in a day. Just to give you a sense of the threat here, just the British side of the base, not the US. They've shot down more than 100 drones. in just over a month using this system called Rapid Century. It's a great feeling. It's a proper adrenaline buzz. The young RAF gunners who operate the system, which looks like Robocop with missiles for arms, have less than a minute to detect, track and destroy the drones.

We had 14 drones in one night. That was a consistent engagement of just getting in, put missile on the tube, whack out again, fire, back in. But the tempo, even during the day, when you expect them to attack at night, is still high. Have you had any close shows? I can't really go into specifics, but we've had a few close encounters, yeah.

Us and the Americans have. There was one after the other and there was no break. So this ceasefire is a nice break for us, yeah. This brief visit was only possible because of the ceasefire. An opportunity for the defence minister and RAF chief to pass on their praise. I would argue this place would be a smouldering wreck if it wasn't for you guys. And to counter President Trump's.

claim, the UK's been missing in action. Al-Q. It's the Armed Forces Minister. We've helped move Americans out of harm's way. We've helped protect them. And they've helped protect us. This is a defensive posture from our perspective. We'll stay in that defensive posture, but the relationship is strong. The US and UK were here working together long before this war started. But their primary mission, the fight against ISIS, is now focused on survival. Jonathan Beale with that report.

Still to come in this podcast? I think I caught a glimpse of him wearing a cap. Was he wearing a cap? Ciotic scenes as Sebastian Saway is welcome back in Kenya following his record-breaking London marathon. This is the Global News Podcast. The United States is charged the serving governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa

with alleged drug trafficking. It's requesting the arrest and extradition of Governor Rubin Roe. Moshe Moya, accusing him of having ties to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Nine other current and former officials have also been indicted. The Mexican government says there's not enough evidence to support the allegations. Our Mexico correspondent Will Grant told me more about Mr. Rocha and what the US is accusing him of. Well, Mr Rocha has been the governor of Sinaloa since November 2021.

He's from the governing party of Morena, which is the same party. as President Claudio Schaembaum. And in essence, at the heart of this indictment from the Trump administration is the suggestion that Mr. Rocha was using one faction of the Sinaloa cartel to get himself elected, that he was using state forces to protect them, to tip them off from U.S. back law enforcement operations, in essence, bringing his power as governor to protect one, if you like, favored cartel in the state, a very powerful cartel that's linked with much of the fentanyl traffic that goes into the United States. And he did that both for obviously his own personal gain

and to strengthen his position as governor. That is of something, of course, he has denied. At any time there's been a suggestion of drug trafficking links against him. And how has this request gone down with the authorities or the government in Mexico, Mexican President Claudio Chambom? Is she likely to refuse this requirement? quest for extradition? I think it's a huge political bombshell, really, for Claudia Schaembaum. I mean, it's not just Mr Rocha. There's also a senator in there, the mayor of the capital of Sinaloa Cullochin, the deputy attorney general for Sinaloa is in there, other officials, including police officials. It's very, very difficult for her politically. What's been interesting

is that the foreign ministry has come out quite quickly with the suggestion that what is in the paperwork from the U.S. Embassy requesting their arrest towards their eventual extradition is lacking the necessary evidence. The way they put it was that it did not include the elements of proof against those whose arrest has been requested and that the final decision would, of course, lie with the Attorney General's Office. But I think that shows us that this is extremely difficult in going to be a new point of contention between the Shane Ban administration and the Trump administration. Will Grant in Mexico City. Astyan Saoey has returned home to joyous scenes in Kenya

after becoming the first man to run a marathon in under two hours in competitive race conditions. His Kenyan Airways plane was given a water cannon salute following his historic London Marathon win. He was greeted by government officials and is also expected to meet President William Ruto. Our Africa correspondent Barbapet Usher was there to witness the chaotic scenes at Kenyatta Airport. My name is Gabriel. I'm the deputy government spokesperson. Yes, and we're here, as you can see, it's pomp in color,

waiting for the man who did it, the Sab 2. Sebastian Sawi, it's a big day for Kenya. How big a day is it? It is huge. It is huge. This is what we've been waiting for. And what will you say to Sebastian when you meet him? Oh, man, a lot of congratulations. We never thought we could see it this year

because we knew people are still trying to train on it, but he has surprised everyone. There's a whole row of airport workers standing watching and waiting to see as well. We are very excited since this is our own son. So now we are very enjoyable. Do you feel lucky that you were working tonight? Yes, I'm lucky.

There he is. That's him. I think that was him. The camera crush is intense. I think I caught a glimpse of him wearing a cap, but that was... Was he wearing a cap? Okay. There was such a crush of cameras, people, and officials around him that I could barely see him,

and then they put him into a vehicle, and he's driven off. Dancers and singers performing outside the building to which Sebastian was taken, the VIP lounge. So I think he is going to come out and speak to us. And I just bumped into some of Sebastian's relatives, his grandmother and his mother and his father are inside. So have met him already. So he's saying that he's very happy and he didn't do it alone.

This record belongs to all of us, he says, and let's support all of us, he says, and let's support all of Kenya's sports. people so we can continue lifting the country up. What a couple of days it's been for him. I suspect he'll start training again very soon. He's already been talking about his next competition and he says he thinks it's possible to run an even faster marathon. Barbara Plet Osher at Kenyatta Airport. Eleven cancers are becoming more common in young people in England, according to a major analysis. But a full explanation for why remains elusive.

It's rare to ever know why one person develops cancer, but a team of scientists worked through national trends in both cancer and lifestyles to see if they could find a pattern. They showed bowel cancer, thyroid, multiple melanoma, liver, kidney, gallbladder, pancreatic, womb lining, mouth, breast and ovarian cancers were increasing. Our health correspondent James Gallagher gave the BBC's James Reynolds an update on how scientists came to these conclusions. They've looked at data from England and they've tracked what's

happened to all of these different cancers over time. And they've looked at all the things that we know cause cancer. So things like smoking, drinking too much alcohol, red and processed meat, not being physically active enough, all those different things. And they've looked at what has happened to those trends over time. And they've gone, wait a minute, none of these are explaining what's happening with these young people and their cancer. However, one thing was linked.

And they showed in the data that excess weights are being over. weight or obese was increasing roughly in line with the increasing cancers in young people. However, even then, it doesn't really explain the whole of the story. So if I can give you one statistic, they said for every hundred people, extra hundred people that were now getting bowel cancer under the age of 50, 20 of those might be down to differences in weight. The other 80, we still don't know why. People look at this long list of other things and everybody around the world who has their own personal hobby horse topic will go, oh well, clearly this is ultra-processed food. Clearly this is forever chemicals. Clearly this is air pollution. And the simple answer is we don't have any evidence that

definitively pins those things down to being the explanation for what's going on young people at all. Of course, we're a global programme with audiences listening around the world. What might other countries learn from this study, which is exclusively focused on England? There will be many countries that are in a similar position to England, so the United States, also in large parts of Europe where they're seeing similar trends and will learn roughly the same as what people in the UK have done. Whereas if you're in a country where HPV vaccines are only just being rolled out and cervical cancer is actually one of the biggest issues in terms of preventable cancers

where you live, what you learn from this is almost not irrelevant, but it's much smaller than it is if you're in a way when you've got other bigger problems. If you have sky high smoking rates, then that's actually the thing that you should be fixated on if you're trying to bring down the numbers of cancers in that country. How does England then tackle weight? It's a challenge, isn't it? Our bodies evolved millions of years ago. We live in an environment, large parts of the world now live in an environment where food is,

not necessarily just food, but calorie-dense food is so plentiful, that there's just that mismatch there. And some people would say, oh, we'll just medicate our way out of this solution. You've got all of those weight-loss drugs. We'll do something like that. That's the solution. other people would say, well, we need to reform our diets at the same time as people could never quite imagine as going back to what people were eating in the 1970s. You know, you've got to take away all those nice things out of the supermarkets and go back to another era.

But it's not just a Western country type problem. I mean, we see obesity rates climbing around the world as countries become more economically developed and food becomes more available. It's just, it's sadly the state of the world. James Gallagher. Back in the 7th century AD there was an illiterate cattle herder in North East England He said to have come up with a nine-line poem

praising God as the creator of heaven and earth It's known as Cadman's hymn And has a claim to being the oldest surviving English poem Now, a previously unknown copy of the work Has been found in the National Central Library of Rome It's thought to be one of the earliest in existence And is written in the poem's original Northumbrian dialect. Mani and Stone has this report.

It was extremely exciting. I mean, I think everyone who works in this field dreams of finding a new bit of old English. That's Professor Mark Vultner of Trinity College Dublin, one of the researchers who discovered the manuscript of Cadman's hymn, which praises God as the Guardian of Mankind. The poem is well known because it was included in one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon history.

The ecclesiastical history of the English people by the theologian bead in the 8th century. But this version of it is believed to have been transcribed in the following century by a monk in northern Italy. It's significant because the main body of the text is in its original Northumbrian dialect, rather than Latin or in southern English dialect. So how did Cabnam?

An illiterate man get his poem into this important tone. Professor Mark Faulkner explains. Cadman B. Tows us was at a feast and they were passing round a harp and every guest at the feast was expected to perform a song. Cadman felt he didn't have any songs so he went off to bed but he had this miraculous vision which gave him the song to sing and he went back and performed it. He sung it to the abbess at Whitby and she arranged for it to be written down.

The pronunciation is quite different from present-day English with the first word in Old English being new, which in present day is now, and the second word way, in present day, English being we. Take it away, Professor Mark Faulkner. Sadly, without the harp or singing. No way shulin herga, hefen rich as ward. Method is mechty on his mode, you think.

Work, woldorffeda, swight, he wonder, your... One Italian academic has described the discovery as a ray of light in dark times. And Elizabetha Magnanti, the scholar who prompted the poems discovery says it's a testament to the power of libraries to facilitate new research by digitising their collections, making them freely available online. Mary and Strong. Now, there are just six weeks left until the World Cup kicks off in Mexico City. The tournament taking place across three countries will be the biggest World Cup ever,

with 48 teams competing. But it's not only the tournament that's expanded. Sticker collectors are also facing what could be their best. biggest challenge yet, as the decade's old Panini sticker book expands to accommodate the extra teams and players. This year's edition will require nearly 1,000 stickers to complete. Our sports correspondent Natalie Perks was at the launch event earlier this week. Back in 1960, the Panini brothers owned a new stand in Modena in Italy and decided to sell packs of leftover football cards and a decade later, they expanded their empire to

to their first World Cup offering. There were just 270 stickers to collect then. By 1990, it was John Barnes' rap, being repeated in playgrounds and pubs across England. The Macquarial midfielder was a coveted sticker then, and it seems now. It gives you lots of kudos with the youngsters. I met an American kid not long ago,

and had a picture with him, and he went, oh, he's that guy from that sticker book. So people remember me. I said, well, I'm a footballer as well. So I think it's kind of like immortalises you, doesn't it? This time it's the biggest it's ever been with an unprecedented 48 teams taking part. The album is now 112 pages long with 980 stickers.

Packets of five used to cost around 6 cents in the late 70s in the UK, but this year a packet of 7 will cost around $1.70, meaning it could cost around $1,750 to finish the album. Why would you collect this album and not do slopping? Unless you've got endless money and just buy packets or boxes after box, it's not feasible. That's collector Greg Lansdown. He's written three books about the sticker album phenomenon. The last Panini World Cup album, there was a North American version,

and they did one-of-one stickers for every player. So obviously, there was only one of that sticker. If you got it, then you were quids in if they were a big player. The Lionel Messi sticker, after Argentina won the World Cup, went to auction and went for $250,000. The moral of the story then is look after your album. And one day, it might look after you. Natalie Perks.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.co.uk. 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 Nick Randall, and the producer was Marion Strong.

The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye.