Global News Podcast - Israeli strike kills dozens sheltering in Gaza school

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

Rescue workers in Gaza describe 'horrific' scenes, after an Israeli strike on a school killed dozens. Israel said it had targeted Hamas. Also: the latest from Ukraine, as Donald Trump calls Putin 'crazy'.

Hi, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and at 14 Hours GMT on Monday the 26th of May, these are our main stories. With dozens more deaths reported after Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, we hear about the ongoing food crisis there and how it's harming the youngest. After a weekend of Russian strikes on Ukraine, Donald Trump responds. I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don't like it at all.

And as King Charles heads to Canada, we look at the message of support he's taken with him. Also in this podcast, how the war in Sudan is fueling creatives to share their country's story and... Tributes paid to the French man who made what many see as the best documentary of all time. Despite the end of the full Israeli blockade of Gaza, which lasted 11 weeks, Gazans still face catastrophic shortages of food and medication. There are regular reports of severely malnourished children. The Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is now

operational but has faced significant criticism. It's currently under a Swiss investigation into whether it complies with humanitarian laws and its head resigned on Sunday, a day before the group began operations, citing similar concerns. Juliet Thouma is director of communications at the UN's Palestinian relief agency UNRWA. What's going into Gaza is a needle in a hay sack. There needs to be much more. There's a system in place that's managed to use that system because we cannot waste more time on debates and plans and what if and maybe.

Kids are dying in Gaza. Kids are dying of starvation. And so we need to get them what they need as soon as possible and at a volume. Our special correspondent, Fergal Keane, reports now on the situation facing the youngest members of Gaza's population. The war preys relentlessly on the children of Gaza. Their exhausted bodies tussle for a food ration or drift listlessly through pulverised streets. The dust of bombed out buildings coats their skin. They can smell death.

The corpses of yesterday's bombing are of last weeks, decaying under the rubble. In Nasser Hospital, Samahar Abu Jamea sits by the bed of her young son. He's a victim of sickness, caused, his mother says, by hunger. We sat in the street and my son got sick. I went to Al Nasser Hospital to treat him because we had no food and nothing to drink. He got sick and dizzy.

I have no idea what to do then. My other children are in the street and are also sick and I can't do anything. I can't do this anymore. I can't even process this. I want to scream right in the middle of the street seeking help so someone can help us and provide us with some food. The Israeli government body responsible for aid says there is no food shortage in Gaza.

Aid is now being allowed into the enclave in small quantities. What the UN Secretary General, Antonio G Guterres says is just a teaspoonful set against the needs of 2.1 million people. Inducing despair is a declared war aim for some in Israel's government. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places. That's not the voice of a fringe figure, but the finance minister of the State of Israel,

far-right politician Bezalel Smotrich, outlining his hopes for the people of Gaza. Here we are, removing the salt hole. It's a never-ending job. There are still teams of foreign doctors working alongside Palestinian colleagues in Gaza despite the dangers. Dr. Wasim Saeed is a British plastic surgeon who's just returned. Here he's extracting pieces of metal from the face of six-year-old Noor who suffered

severe blast and burn injuries in an Israeli airstrike. Lack of nutrition is making it much harder for wounds to heal, he says. You could see people losing hope, you could see how depressed they were. The nutritional status of everybody was appalling. So grafts were not taking, wounds were not healing. None of this needed to happen. Every time you see a child, you think of your own children. There is always the story of somebody's child, killed, traumatised, starving. Nearly a month ago, a colleague in Gaza told me about five-month-old

Suwar Asur who cannot absorb regular milk formula because of a severe allergic reaction. Under the conditions of war and Israeli blockade there is a severe shortage of the formula she needs. Fergal Keen. The Israeli military has just issued a new evacuation order for the city of Khan Younisounis in southern Gaza, ordering Palestinians to leave immediately. Meanwhile, more than 50 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering families in the centre of the territory.

Images on social media appear to show a building on fire and the burned bodies of children. Israel has said it was targeting terrorists. Yuland Nel is our Middle East correspondent. The Israeli military is saying that it hit 200 targets in the past 48 hours. The chief of staff has said that Hamas is under immense pressure and Israeli journalists have been reporting that the plan of the Israeli military over the next two months is to take control of 75% of the Gaza Strip and to force the 2 million population into three small zones.

We've also had, I should say, three rockets fired from Gaza this morning, two fell in open areas, one was intercepted. We heard from Gaza about the impact of the lack of food, particularly on children. We're hearing now that the head of the new Israeli and US-backed aid organisation for Gaza has resigned. Tell us why and what we know about that.

So we're waiting to see what happens really, because this newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as it's called, is at the centre of a highly controversial Israeli plan to take over aid distribution in Gaza with backing from the US. Well, it's said our trucks are loaded and ready to go. It's planning this week to reach a million Palestinians but a big blow to the start of that rollout is that the CEO the former US Marine Jake Wood has resigned. He said it's not possible to implement the plan while adhering to humanitarian

principles and that follows some in-depth you know US reports over the weekend about the Israeli origins of this plan. The UN had already dismissed it as being unethical and unworkable. And this follows the UN being allowed to take some aid into Gaza in the past week. But of course, it's still not enough. We're still having these warnings of mass starvation in Gaza and a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation. That was Yulia Nel. To Ukraine now, where officials say Russia sent in more than 350 attack drones overnight on Sunday. That's the highest number since it launched its invasion three years ago.

The weekend saw the heaviest aerial bombardment of the war so far. Writing on his Truth Social platform, President Trump criticised Vladimir Putin saying, something has happened to him, he's gone absolutely crazy. He then said the same to reporters in New Jersey. I'll give you an update, I'm not happy with what Putin's doing, he's killing a lot of people and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin, I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don't like it at all, OK? We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities."

The Kremlin has since generally brushed aside Mr Trump's criticism, suggesting the US president may have been suffering from emotional overload because of all his peace process efforts. The Russia editor of BBC Monitoring, Vitaly She Shevchenko told me more about this, perhaps surprisingly subdued response. Well, it's interesting that the Kremlin's response has been pointedly polite, especially by Russia's standards. And I think it suggests a determination not to antagonise this president from whose rhetoric and actions Moscow has benefited.

And there are several reasons I can think of for trying to keep Donald Trump interested in listening to Vladimir Putin. And they may include dragging out the peace talks while attacking Ukraine, as well as a fear that Donald Trump may finally make good on his threats to impose new sanctions. I mean, a personal slight on Mr Putin calling him absolutely crazy. What I imagine is that it's not going to go down well with him personally, but certainly on the surface, they're not displaying any degree of anger about that. Well, it keeps happening whenever Donald Trump comes very close to being willing and able

to impose sanctions on Russia. He also criticises the Ukrainian president. So he may sound annoyed, he may sound angry, but the key question now is what is he going to do about it? That was Vitaly Shevchenko. As we record this podcast, King Charles and Queen Camilla are arriving in Ottawa, part of a two-day trip to Canada, in which the King is expected to read a speech from the throne which affirms Canada's sovereignty.

It's his first visit to the country as its head of state and follows repeated suggestions from President Trump that Canada could become a 51st US state. Our international correspondent Lise Doucet says the visit is a clever move by Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney. This is an instance of soft power and I think the King and Queen will you will harden this soft power as much as possible. It was very striking that when Prime Minister when Mark Carney gave his first press conference after his historic win in the Canadian elections in April, the first announcement he made was that the King and Queen would be coming to visit. And he used this form of words, he said this is a historic honour that matches the weight of our times.

Carina Roman is a senior reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She suggested the White House would be listening to what the King had to say. The King of Canada, who is also the King of England, is someone who Donald Trump considers, admires. And so it's a big deal because the Americans will be watching. And it's, I guess, sort of the most polite way that our Prime Minister could come up with to really kind of push back on that whole 51st state narrative that has been coming from the White House. The CBC's Carina Roman.

The Oscar-winning French documentary maker Marcel Ofulce has died at the age of 97. He was best known for The Sorrow and the Pity, a documentary about French collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War. The landmark film was banned on TV in France for more than a decade and is regarded as one of the greatest documentaries of all time. Marcel Orfus was making a documentary about Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories at the time of his death. James Menendez spoke to Marcel Ofulce's biographer, the French film historian Vincent Lovie, and started with asking about the sorrow and the pity. It was a film about a city, Clermont-Ferrand. They went to the city and interviewed a lot of people

went to the city and interviewed a lot of people, and it unfolded all what had happened there. And actually it ruined a couple of well-established myths. So the myth was that what, a majority of French people had resisted the occupation. Yeah, resisted. And the film then brought up all the complexity of these times. And what was the reaction to the film then brought up all the complexity of these times. And what was the reaction to the film when it came out and laid bare how much people had cooperated with the Nazis, particularly with deportation of Jews?

It was a hit at the box office for a documentary film, a four hours and a half documentary never happened before, stayed on screen 20 weeks. But the film has been rejected from movie theaters by French public TV. And then, you know, the reaction were pretty difficult. The huge shift was about the Jewish deportation and the involvement of the French authorities on that. and the way they especially deported all the Jewish children. Thousands and thousands of children have been deported and the Germans, they never wanted them.

So the film really unfolded a very harsh and bleak and grim reality of the German occupation times. Some people criticised Marcel for passing moral judgment on the French. What was his response to that? Well, he was a very democratic film director. He used to interview people and let them speak. He never actually focused on the collaboration side. He focused on everybody. But he wasn't trying to say that there was anything particularly bad about the French, that actually that any other country might have behaved the same way.

Was that it? Yeah, actually, the very negative comments are totally unfair because there's a couple of very, very, very good people from the French resistance in The Sorrow and the Pity. And you knew him. What was he like as a man? He was a very sweet man. He was lovable.

He was difficult as a co-worker, probably. Marcel Ofulce himself was a very difficult filmmaker, troubled, wayward, a very exacting guy. But as a friend and his biographer, we had a pretty good connection for the last 25 years and he was lovable and adorable. That was the French film historian Vincent Lowy speaking to James Menendez. Still to come in this podcast. Well, you wouldn't want to be stood next to it when that's going on, that's for sure.

But the biggest challenges associated with this type of activity are mostly to do with the gas emissions. So how much do we really need to worry about volcanoes? Venezuela's ruling party seems to have strengthened its strong majority in the National Assembly in elections that were boycotted by some groups opposed to President Nicolas Maduro. Opposition leaders called on voters to stay away from the polls in protest at last year's presidential election, where President Maduro's victory was heavily disputed by his opponents. I asked our Latin America and Caribbean editor Vanessa Buschlukta how seriously these voting numbers should be taken.

The National Electoral Council, which is the official body that releases the results, says that more than 86% of votes for the parliamentary candidates went to the governing coalition of President Maduro. So that's a landslide. But of course, this electoral council is a very disputed body. First of all, it is led by a man, Elvis Amoroso, who used to be the legal council of Mr. Maduro before he became head of this electoral council. And the whole body is closely aligned with the government. And it came under severe criticism last year when it declared Mr Maduro the winner of the presidential election and never provided the detailed voting

tallies, which is what everybody, all the international observers clamored for. They said, show us evidence that Mr Maduro won by releasing the detailed tallies and that never happened and this is why anything that this body, this electoral council says is very much questioned both by the opposition and by international observers. The Venezuelan government will say this is a glowing endorsement for the government and also the leadership of President Maduro. What is life like for most Venezuelans now? That's right of course the government has already come out come out and praised its members for turning out to vote and praised them for winning more of the governor positions.

So now the ruling coalition will have 23 governors out of the 24 across the country. So it has strengthened its power there. But of course, the situation on the ground is a very difficult one. Just in the week leading up to the election, 70 people were arrested, political activists who are aligned with the opposition. There has been a campaign of inducing fear in people so that they don't speak out against the government and people are afraid to express their opinions on social media when they carry a phone in public they will often delete all of their social media messages in order to hide the fact that they have been

critical of the government. Vanessa Buschlotter, the trial of one of France's most prolific sex predators has entered its final phase, with defence lawyers making their closing arguments. Joël Le Scouranek, who is a surgeon, has admitted to sexually assaulting or raping nearly 300 patients, nearly all of them children. Rachel Wright reports. Defence lawyers are expected to tell the court that Joël Le Scouranek is sorry for what

he's done and is respectful of justice. But victims of the surgeon, the vast majority of whom were under 15 at the time, have given horrific testimonies in the past few months. They say they are frustrated with the failure of the medical and judicial authorities to act sooner and the lack of attention this case has had in France. Le Squaneg is already in prison after being sentenced for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. A verdict is expected on Wednesday. Rachel Wright. The First Amendment of the US Constitution says church and state must

be kept separate. And yet an attempt is underway in Texas to make public school classrooms display the Ten Commandments. It's part of a broader effort by conservative-led states to integrate religion into public education. The rule has passed the lower chamber of the Texan legislature, but some, like state Senator Molly Cook, would like to see it go no further. She spoke to Luke Jones. Religious instruction is not the state's job. And in the United States, in our constitution, you know, we have the Establishment Clause and the First Amendment. It's pretty foundational

stuff that says the church should not be involved in the government, the government should not be involved in the church. Those are two separate things. And that's been really important. And several Supreme Court decisions have upheld that over time. And what we're seeing is, this is really one example of Texas whittling away at the Constitution through the legislature. I'll give you another example. In multiple bills this session, we've seen legislators actually write into the bill, the words say that the judiciary may not review this clause. This section is not up for review by the judiciary. The checks and balances of our three branches is one of the most foundational components

of our government. And so to write that into a bill is just really a slap in the face for our entire system and how it's set up. In my opinion, putting religious texts inside of classrooms, which is going to isolate students who are not Christian, it's going to force Christianity onto students when they may not want that, they may not be ready for it, their parents may not agree with it. And so, religious instruction is just not the state's job. And we have a lot more important things to be working on and a lot more important ways to address, you know, public

health, ethics, all of that in our society. I take your point that there's a separation of church and state in the United States but anyone who's ever watched a US president give a speech will know that actually Christianity is so embedded in political culture in the United States so is this really crossing some kind of important Rubicon, do you think? I do think it is, and you know, I think depending on who you talk to, some folks even have a problem with that. We begin the day in the Texas Senate with prayer every day, which can be a moment of meditation if that's how you choose to take it, but it is normally

a Christian pastor or Christian leader, sometimes a Jewish faith leader, but usually all of the other faith traditions and philosophies are not really represented in that. Some folks would have a problem with that, some might not, but ultimately mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every single classroom is different. It's not part of the pageantry, it's not part of the, you know, the ceremony. This is daily instruction where students are required to be by state law. So I definitely see that as a shift and an overreach.

Molly Cook. Sudan's civil war has left tens of thousands of people dead and millions displaced, but it's also inspired people to bring the story of the conflict to the wider world. One such person is Timayr Mohamed Ahmed, who's one of the voices behind the movie Khatun, which tells the story of five residents of the city who have to flee. The movie has been praised for showing the human side of conflict and received many awards. It's been showing at the New York African Film Festival. Victoria Owankunda spoke to Tim Meier from Edmonton in Canada. Khartoum is an experiment of telling the story of the city Khartoum itself in the most poetic way, in differences that creates hate, the opposite of coexistence.

So what we tried to achieve with this film to show the real spirit of this city. The film also talks about so many symbols. So we look in other areas, a camel seeing, a pigeon. I wonder how significant it was for you filmmakers to look at what makes Sudan and the Sudanese people and think these are the scenes, these are part of our identities. How significant was it to include those symbolic aspects in the film?

Yeah, it was very critical for us to show the real life in Sudan and to show some poetic metaphors. And for example, as you said, the camel scene, which is repeated in the beginning and in the middle and in the end of the film. Some people will interpret that as it's like the Sudanese people struggle since the independence. It's always a war, then there is a revolution, then there is like a coup. So the camel scene is like, originally like it grinds this oil and like makes it ready for people to take it and benefit from it. And the camel has no benefit in doing that infinite circle. And that endless circle that you talk about in the coup and after coup, it is a country

that has suffered over 20 coups since independence in 1956. Yeah, the largest in Africa. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And sadly, it is a history that is part of the Sudanese history, Sudanese people. What is your hope for your country?

My hope is simple. We analyze more about what happened and why that happened in history and how we can avoid this. So I hope for peace, but I hope that it becomes a more sustainable peace that leads to coexistence long term in Sudan. That was Timayr Mohamed Ahmed. Now to one of the most extraordinary sites in nature, a volcanic eruption where lava below the earth's crust breaks through the surface. There is perhaps nowhere in the world right now where that site is more spectacular than Hawaii. That's where Kuluaya volcano is erupting with fountains of lava 300 metres high. Mike Burton is Professor of Volcanology at the University of Manchester and told us how dangerous volcanoes can be.

Well, you wouldn't want to be stood next to it when that's going on, that's for sure, but it's actually happening within the Halemaumau crater at the summits of Kuluaya where no one could really get to. The biggest challenges associated with this type of activity are mostly to do with the gas emissions and some of the fine ash that's produced. But it's mostly the gas. There's an awful lot of sulfide oxide and hydrogen chloride and quite nasty gases coming out of the eruption. And if that fumigates a town, then that can be quite unpleasant. But fortunately, because it's the summit of a quite high volcano, this type of eruption at the summit is not normally too affecting the local populations.

One thing that is usually a challenge, we saw this in recent eruptions in 2021 in La Palma in the Canary Islands, is that we often know that something's about to happen, but the exact magnitude and how big it's gonna be, how long it's gonna last is difficult to see until it begins. And then once it begins, it gets much easier to track it.

And one of the key things we're trying to do nowadays is get better at forecasting when eruptions are going to end. Now, in this case with Kilauea, these fountains are actually normally quite brief, usually a day or two, and then it pauses for a while and then resets. But eventually there is the possibility that a lava lake will build up within the crater.

And for a long time, between 2008 and 2018, there was a big lava lake in Halema'a, which is a spectacular sight. Mike Burton. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on x at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Roseanne Wynne-Durrell. The producer was Stephanie Prentis, the editor is Karen

Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.