Global News Podcast - ICC says war crimes committed in Sudan

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

The International Criminal Court says it has "concrete evidence" the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity in Darfur during Sudan's civil war. The RSF says the scale of the atrocities in el-Fasher and el-Geneina has been exaggerated. Also: Iran attacks Gulf nations in response to a new wave of US strikes; Bangladesh battles a deadly measles outbreak; scientists warn that men's testosterone levels are declining; the last woman hanged in the UK gets a posthumous pardon; and the Wimbledon Fery tale continues. 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] Photo: A woman from El Fasher prays surrounded by displaced women, in a camp in Al-Dabbah, Sudan, November 3, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says, good luck. Odu brings your business together on a single platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's ODbolo.com.

How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world. And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and in the early hours of 30.

Thursday, the 9th of July, these are our main stories. The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court tells the BBC there's concrete evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed in Darfur during Sudan's civil war. A second night of heavy American strikes on Iran. We ask our international editor how close we are to war breaking out again. And we have a special report on a measles outbreak that has killed hundreds of children in Bangladesh. Also in this podcast, King Charles pardons the last woman to die by execution more than seven decades ago. After recognizing she was an abuse victim.

Ruth was portrayed at the time of the execution to be this cold-blooded killer. Looking at her behavior through a modern day lens, we now realize that was a traumat woman. And a surprising winner at Wimbledon. Say tuned to find out who. The International Criminal Court has told the BBC that, it's found concrete evidence of crimes against humanity committed in Darfur during Sudan's civil war. The deputy prosecutor Nazat Shamin Khan said the paramilitary rapid support forces perpetuated atrocities in two cities while fighting government forces.

The RSF has admitted some abuses took place, but says they were not as widespread as some have alleged. The BBC's Africa correspondent Thomas McQuana spoke with Ms. Kahn, while she was in Chad and asked her for an update on the ICC investigation. We saw that in this conflict, in the context of Al-Gernena and Elfasha, we considered that war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed. And in the ongoing investigations that we are conducting, we are sure that that is exactly what is happening, that we have now found concrete evidence that links what is happening on the ground

through linkage evidence to specific persons in least. leadership mode. We cannot say any more than that. We've been following that strategy now for months, certainly with a focus on Algenana and Al-Fasha. And we have now reached a point where we consider that we have achieved a breakthrough in the evidence that we have obtained, not just testimonial evidence, but also corroborative evidence in the form of videos and photographs and forensic evidence, which give us a great deal of hope that the strategy we adopted is bearing fruit. What we see is patterns of offending that, in fact, were the same patterns of offending 20 years ago when this situation was first referred to us by the Security Council,

this targeting of civilians, and we do see the targeting of non-Arab and other targeted Daffuri communities. We also see this inherent presence of sexual violence, both of men and women, but largely of women. And we consider that that overall picture of persecution, of torture, of rape, of killing, we see that is very much reflective of the overall offending. The people that you spoke to, what do they say about the alleged perpetrators? Well, they've given us a great deal of detail. As I said earlier, we do not share the names of the perpetrators. We really need to protect the way that our investigations have been conducted so that our evidence is sufficient and protected for the court and confidentiality is always protected.

But they have been very forthright in the evidence and the identification evidence that they have given us. The ICC has been through this before. Omar Abashir has never been brought to justice years after what happened in Darfur. Why should this be any difference? I think that there is now a greater focus on the way that we gather evidence, that we have got better at using technology in innovative ways to gather evidence. I think we've done very well in building cooperation with states, not just in the region, but everywhere. Having said that, we do not have a police force, we do not have an army. So the surrender of suspects to the ICC always depends on state action and state willingness. We have a very active and a very capable

tracking unit which tracks where suspects are. And we know where suspects are. And we know where these suspects are in the context of the old arrest warrants, including Mr Bashir. And we have on many occasions said at the Security Council that we asked Sutan to surrender these suspects to us. And I don't think that there is any doubt in anyone's mind about our wish to have them in the court. Nazat Shemim Khan speaking to Thomas Magwana. Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran hard, and that's what we're seeing in a second wave of mass strikes on Iranian targets. In the last few hours, around state media is reporting explosions in multiple locations along the country's coastline,

including in a string of port cities. This report said at least eight explosions were heard in the southern port of Bandar Abbas. Violence between the U.S. and Iran erupted on Tuesday night. The U.S. accused Tehran of attacking commercial ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. American forces then responded by hitting 80 Iranian targets and Iranian missiles attacked U.S. bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. We don't know if anyone was killed or injured in those tit-for-tat assaults. But the U.S. President also told reporters at a NATO summit in Turkey

that the war in Iran was not restarting. Well, hear from our international editor on what this means for the wider conflict shortly, but first, for the latest on the U.S. and Iranian military action, Here's our North America correspondent, Peter Bose. The U.S. Central Command confirmed that these strikes were taking place. This is just hours after President Trump had threatened to attack again. Iranian state television saying that the disputed Abbasa Island had been hit, along with Syrac Island, and as we've just heard, explosions also heard east of Banda Abbas,

that's the port city on the south coast of the country. In a social media post, the U.S. said the goal was to further degrade Tehran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in this trade of Hormuz. The statement added that America was holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping, navigating the international waterway. And as Donald Trump is returning to Washington, now he has been speaking on Air Force One, where he said, amongst other things, we've just hit them very hard. And I say we hit them 20 to 1.

He added that every time they hit us, we're going to hit them 20, as he put it. And he also claimed that Iran had called a little while ago, saying that they wanted to make a deal badly. He said, I just don't know if they're worthy of making a deal. So we've been hearing a lot from President Trump. But how are these fresh strikes playing out in the U.S.? Where is public opinion on this? Well, the immediate effect has been jitters on the markets. This is not the kind of stability that investors.

here or indeed anywhere around the world want to say. So the cost of Brent crude has risen about 5% the Dow fell about, as did the S&P 500, just small drops, but significant all the same. I think the real fear is amongst Americans and others is the Strait of Hormuz. If shipping is seriously disrupted again, oil prices will continue to rise. And for most Americans, the immediate impact is likely to be gas prices, which many had hoped were finally coming down and, Poll after poll here shows that Americans want this war to end as soon as possible. And if it doesn't, there could be political consequences, potentially damaging for Donald Trump and the Republicans, if they are blamed by voters for what's happening when they vote in the midterm elections, which are now just four months away.

Peter Bowes in Washington. Shortly before recording this podcast, several Gulf nations reported that Iran has fired missiles at them. Explosions were reported in the Bahraini capital, Manama, while in Kuwait, the military said its air defenses had intercepted missiles and drones. The latest military action has increased worries that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the U.S. and around last month might collapse before negotiations can yield a more permanent peace deal. So is this a return to war? Our international editor is Jeremy Bowen. Not quite yet, at least not a lot of. according to Donald Trump, because he was actually explicitly asked this before he boarded Air Force One to leave Turkey at the NATO summit.

One of the journalists said to him, does this mean the war's on again? He said no. You know, in a sense, it was a classic day of Trumpian diplomacy. Don't forget, three or four weeks ago, he was saying, you know, these are reasonable guys. We're dealing with very reasonable guys here. And now he's saying they're scum and liars and cheats. And America's going to hit them again and hit them hard. key question, in what sense will these airstrikes break the will of the regime in Tehran in a way that the other air strikes, many, many more, actually, didn't do? The answer is I don't think they will. You mentioned Trumpian diplomacy. Donald Trump has poured cold water on the peace talks process, even though he says that the war is not going to erupt again.

But does he really have the bandwidth to walk away from them? I think we've learned by now with Trump that you can guess almost anything and it may come true. So where does this leave the talks? And don't forget, they are not peace talks. They're talks about the agenda of peace talks. This memorandum of understanding, 14 points, something less than two pages when it's printed out. That's what they're wrangling about. And they haven't even gone on to a lot of the substance of that.

What is driving all of this is the fact that the Iranian regime in Tehran has a heck of a weapon. in being able to close the Strait of Form moves, they can put the global economy in days in a chokehold. So that's where we're at. So I think what we're going to see is a lot of these ups and downs, probably more escalations, more oscillations, some more talks. Sources very adjacent to the talks have said to me that neither side is trying to walk away from the talks,

but equally it's taking, quote, a lot of heavy lifting to try to get them back to talking. If the status of the strait has become effectively the key issue, If the two sides could come to some agreement allowing ships to make safe passage through the strait, do you think that would effectively bring the temperature down a lot? Is that really where we are right now? It would, from the Iranian perspective, as long as it's on their terms, because what's been going on is that the main shipping lane through the center of the strait,

which historically has been used has been mined, so that's not usable. There are two alternatives. One goes along the coast of Iran. One goes along the coast of Oman, which is the country facing it, the other side of the strait. The Americans have been encouraging shipping to use the Omani route. The Iranians don't want that. They want those ships to go near their coast. They want to be the people who give them permission to do it.

You know, what I've been told is that they don't necessarily even want money in return for that. There's been talk of a toll booth. But what they want is recognition of their right. to control navigation in the strait, which is something that Gulf countries would be pretty horrified about. And the Americans would, you know, you can add that to the negative list on the up sum of this war. Because let's not forget, on the 27th of February, before the Israelis and the Americans attacked Iran, killed the supreme leader, that straight was open. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowen. Iran isn't the only country that's angered President Trump over recent days.

He had harsh words for NATO allies at the U.S. organization's summit that's just wrapped up in Turkey. Mr. Trump repeated his desire to take over the Danish territory of Greenland. He also lashed out at Spain, saying he wanted to cut off all trade relations with Madrid and threatened to remove all American troops from Europe. The NATO Secretary General Mark Rutz has been labeled the Trump whisperer for his ability to maintain friendly relations with Mr. Trump. What did he think of the summit? He spoke to our security correspondent, Frank Gardner. In one word, unity. If I would have a sentence, it is delivery on what we decided in the Hague last year. So it was great what we did in the Hague, this 5% spent and the

defense industry, etc. But today, we took stock and a quarter of a trillion extra spent by Canadians and Europeans in two years. It's staggering. So we are delivering, and now we have to ramp up the defense industrial production even further, making progress, and maintain support for Ukraine. But in one word, it will be unity. So I tell you what's difficult for us in the media is that when we talk to officials, not just NATO officials, but ministers, leaders even, they put a very positive spin. They like what you're doing. And then you get President Trump coming in, throwing hand grenades, as it were, verbally,

saying, I want to take, U.S. needs to take control of Greenland. It's a big problem for us. Spain is a terrible partner. Whatever is said behind closed doors, the impression that the outside world gets is the unity isn't that. But it's a bit like in a family. You have families where you never quarrel and then it bursts out completely.

You get a sort of volcano and the whole thing is dumb. Or you have families like where I come from where we love to sometimes fight each other a bit, not put it under the carpet, get the issues on the table and then reunite because you know you stick together. Trump, for example, is completely committed to NATO. I know Trump 45, I was Prime Minister,

Trump 47, now as Secretary General, of NATO, he is completely committed. But he has this one big issue where he is completely right, which is, hey, Mark, is it fair that we spend so much more on this whole thing than the Europeans and the Canadians? And we are now solving that. So commitment, yes, but also clear expectation. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter.

Still to come in this podcast. Similarly aged men through different points in history over the last 50 years have had decreased. levels of testosterone. New research on plummeting levels of testosterone and men, but why is it happening? How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250-year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising

and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world. And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2026 World Cup started with 48 teams, and we've now reached the knockout stage. Records have been broken the way that Messi has been able to score all these goals late in his career. He's happy to play football and broken records is the consequence for him.

And new heroes have emerged. This country's caught the fever. Casual fans are now die-hard fans. And the More Than the Score podcast is bringing you the stories beyond the score lines. More than the score from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. How did the United States build the largest soft power empire in the world with the help of some tiny metal objects?

I'm Tristan Redmond, one of the hosts of the Global Story Podcasts from the BBC. To mark 250 years of the United States, we speak to Roman Mars of 99% invisible. This soft power, this influence, was an incredible invention. For more, listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. Bangladesh has been gripped by a severe measles outbreak with nearly 750 people dying of confirmed and suspected cases since March. Most of them, children. There are accusations that there were delays in ordering the vaccines, leaving many unprotected.

Before this surge, the World Health Organization had said Bangladesh made substantial progress towards eliminating the disease. The BBC South Asia correspondent Azadamashiri reports from the heart of the outbreak. We've reached the top floor of this hospital and have put our masks on because we're in a specialist measles ward. All around us, there are dozens of families with their babies. Some of them are rocking their children to calm them down. Others are fanning them because it's so hot and humid.

Hospital officials have told us this ward has more than double the amount of patients it can handle, and they've run out of beds. It took more than nine hours for Alamir to reach here with his son Arafat, his first child and just four months old. Arafat is having trouble breathing and has heartful. failure. He's lying on a bed between his parents, hooked up to an IV. When we first heard that a new disease had broken out, people in our village were crying in panic. I've cried so much that tears won't even come to my eyes anymore.

We've reached Ashulia. It's an industrial city here in Bangladesh. Many people here work in textiles factories, including Mahfus. He shares a one-bedroom apartment with his wife, Nila Akhtar. and earlier this year, they tried to vaccinate their daughter, 11-month-old Malihar. But when they turned up at the clinic, the doctor told them there weren't any vaccines left. Now, all they have left of her are bits of clothing, including the one vest she was wearing when she was on life support at the hospital. Everything about her was wonderful.

The doctor asked, why did you make such a big mistake? We explained we couldn't get the vaccine. He said, look, now it's all up to Allah. We've just reached a vaccination centre. Just 11 months old, Kainat was asleep in her mother's arms and now she's wide awake after the nurse's jam. That vaccine has likely saved her life amid this surge in Mrs's cases. The UN's Children's Agency says there were delays in ordering vaccines

under the interim government. Miguel Mateus Munoz, who works for UNICEF, has said what's been happening here in Bangladesh, was the perfect storm. The only thing that UNICEF expressed strongly was whatever you are going to do, give yourself time enough to make the changes in the procurement mechanisms.

We are speaking of a very highly dense populated country in which there were a huge movement of population at the same time. So it is many factors. So we're back from our trip and we've just received a message from baby Arafat's parents. Arafat has died just days after we left the hospital. We've also heard from a senior health ministry official under the former interim government. Saeedo Rahman has denied there was any vaccine shortage

and claims while UNICEF had raised concerns about delaying vaccine orders, there was never any specific warning about a potential measles outbreak. Speaking to experts the past few weeks, they say the lesson here is vaccines work. The hope is now that a mass vaccination campaign has been completed, the rate of cases and deaths will keep slowing. But there are still nearly 1,000 new cases. every day, and Arafat's death is a reminder that children are still dying from a preventable disease. Asadam Shiri reporting from Bangladesh. A report on testosterone levels among men is attracting

attention at a medical conference here in London with convincing evidence of a major decline in male testosterone. The paper's author, Haga Levine, reveals that over the last five decades leading up to 2019, there was more than a 50% decline in testosterone levels. So what's going on? Dr. Chanat Jayasena is a professor of reproductive endocrinology at Imperial College London. He told Evan Davis more about what's already known and what this new research reveals. We know that testosterone, particularly in middle-aged and older men, is really a marker of a man's health. And we've known for some time that, as we get older and as we get less fit, things like obesity, diabetes and activity can lower our testosterone levels. What this study adds is something that we've really never noticed before, which is by piecing together

information from lots of studies around the world and critically correcting for age, similarly aged men through different points in history over the last 50 years have had decreasing levels of testosterone. And that really opens a box of possibilities as to what may be going on. And these are really all important for us to consider. The 50% or sort of 1% a year just sounds staggeringly high. I mean, that sounds kind of species extinction.

If you only project another half century, you know, that really sounds serious. I mean, the good news is that probably most of us have more than enough. So we do have a reserve level. So I don't think 50% of us are going to be having testosterone and dependency. But what it does mean at a population level is that certainly it could mean that more people will reach the level at which it starts to impact their house. What is the kind of main candidate cause for this? They suspect that environmental factors like pollution could be a cause.

Now that is a cause. But one other thing could be rising levels of obesity and also shifts in the type of work we do. people, particularly men, were doing very manual work several decades ago, and we switched to more desk-based jobs than many of us are now working from home, and also important dietary shifts towards ultra-processed food. So actually it raises lots of important questions, which I think it's important to actually investigate, because if we don't understand the causes, then we won't be able to develop better treatments for men. How worried should we be? I think it's a course for concern, particularly if we can't confirm it, particularly in UK-based studies.

This was done all over the world, but also identify exactly what was the cause. And this study is great for having established that something is going on. But I think it really needs to be followed up by research that actually can give us the answers. Dr. Chana Jaisena, speaking to Evan Davis. Before the death penalty was abolished in the UK, Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be executed under the old capital punishment laws. She'd been found guilty of murdering her lover David Blakely, and she was hanged at London's Holloway prison in 1955.

But her family has long campaigned to have the conviction overturned, arguing Ruth was a victim of domestic abuse. Now, King Charles has granted Ruth Ellis a posthumous pardon, replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment. Ruth's granddaughter, Laura Enstyn, was in Parliament when the pardon was announced. She told Jane Hill it was a surreal and profound moment. This whole thing has cast a long shadow over our family. Ultimately, when Ruth was executed, she had two young children.

She had a 10-year-old, my uncle, and she had a three-year-old daughter, my mother, Georgina. You can't even begin to imagine what those two children must have gone through and the impact it had on their mental health. and ultimately my uncle committed suicide and my mother led a life of chaos. She died at the age of 50. And the ripple effect is still being felt today. It's been two generations. You know, we are still feeling the impact of the shame and embarrassment that ultimately we all grew up with.

And ultimately that shame and embarrassment was all based on a fictitious character. You know, Ruth was portrayed at the time of the execution to be this cold-blooded killer, you know, social climber, all of these crazy headlines. and I spent 40-something years distancing myself from the story. When the narrative changed and I felt completely re-educated, but I had to go around to people who have known 25 years to say, you know, we've been friends a long time, but I've got something I need to tell you.

So some of your friends didn't know? I had no idea because I just didn't want to be tarnished with the same brush. What we now know is Ruth was on trial for so much more than just murder. She was on trial for her morality. She was really portrayed in a very sort of sordid light. She represented change. You know, she was a single mother. She was a nightclub hostess,

but she was ultimately she was doing incredibly well in the face of adversity. She'd been abused by every significant man in her life. You know, she'd achieved so much. And don't forget, this is post-war Britain. So, you know, women were really being encouraged to go back to the home and be good old housewives. And Ruth was the antithesis of that. And also how she looked.

She was very glamorous, very sort of Marilyn Monroe-esque. The government at the time wanted to appear tough on crime. There was a real movement towards the abolition of the death penalty. And, you know, they used her as an example. And there will be people listening to you who have absolute sympathy for you. Why should you suffer? Why should your siblings suffer for something that's nothing to do with you? But they will also be thinking a man did die.

He was shot dead. Correct. She killed somebody, you know, fact. And she admitted it. But what we now know is that in her trial, None of the trauma, none of the abuse that she suffered was presented properly in court. You know, her trial lasted just over a day. The jury took, I think, 14 minutes to find her guilty.

She was executed three weeks later. Looking at Ruth and how she behaved during her trial, she was very cold, shut down. But that larded up to that cold-blooded killer narrative that had been portrayed of her at the time. Looking at her behaviour through a modern-day lens, we now realise that was a traumatoured woman. on the stand. She'd recently suffered a miscarriage. He'd beaten her so badly. And it is incredibly tragic that he lost his life too. But we now understand the full context. And I think as a society, we have a much better understanding of the impact of long-term domestic abuse, coercive control. She should never have been executed for what she did. Ruth Ellis's granddaughter, Laura Ensign.

Let's end with the tennis at Wimbledon. Last than two weeks ago, almost nobody had heard of Arthur Ferry, but the 23-year-olds now made headlines by becoming only the second wild card player in the tournament's history to reach the semifinals. Some are calling it a fairy tale moment when he beat the world number 10, Flavio Coboli, in straight sets. Our tennis correspondent Russell Fuller is at Wimbledon and was commentating on Ferry's game. We asked him, how unusual is it to see a lower-ranked player like Ferry make such waves at a tennis grand slam? Well, we do have a precedent in British tennis quite recently when Emma Radikano,

who wasn't a wild card, but was a qualifier, won the US Open title in 2021 without dropping a set. But in terms of wild cards at Wimbledon, the second wild card to reach the last four of the men's singles in the open era, which dates back to 1968. Gorny Ivanovich, though, when he did it, and yes, he went on to win the title, had been in three previous finals. And if you look at the men who've managed to do that at other great. Grand Slams. There are only two others. Jimmy Connors did it in the 1991 U.S. Open right at the back end of his career, and Henri Le Conte France did it on home soil at the French Open of 1992,

but then he'd been in the final a couple of years earlier. So this, for a player 114 in the world, who'd only won two Grand Slam matches before this year's Wimbledon to go all the way to the semi-finals is remarkable. I have been blown over by how well he handled his center-court debut against Grigold Dimitrov in the last round and again today. And he said he felt nervous before the match, perhaps especially nervous, because he really thought that he had a chance of winning this. And he just played superbly well.

He's not a tall man. He's five foot nine inches tall, but that serve is still very, very impressive. He's as aggressive as he can be from the baseline. He's a phenomenal mover and defensively as well. Quite incredible the number of balls he got back in play today. Russell Fuller. And Arthur Ferry faces the world number three,

Alexander Sferrave in the semifinal. He claimed his first major title by winning the French Open just a few weeks ago. 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 Philip Bull, and the producer was Emma Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye. How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250-year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways, the U.S. has shaped the modern world. And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come.

From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.