Global News Podcast - More shootings in Gaza near aid distribution centre

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

Hamas says six people were killed by Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution centre in Gaza. Israel says it fired warning shots. Also: Trump says his relationship with Musk is over and Coco Gauff wins the French Open.

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and in the early hours of Sunday the 8th of June, these are our main stories. More shootings in Gaza as people try to get food at an aid distribution centre. No respite for Ukraine either, as Russia bombards its second city, Kharkiv. President Trump says his relationship with Elon Musk is over. Also in this podcast, Central Asia's tallest statue of Lenin is taken down. Photos showed the humbled revolutionary lying on his back on the ground, having been lowered

by crane. And the American tennis player Coco Goff wins the French Open. There's been more violence in Gaza near the New Age Distribution Centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the United States. The Hamas-run civil defense agency says that scores of Palestinian civilians have been killed or injured while attempting to get aid in recent days. They claim that Israeli troops have repeatedly fired at civilians but Israel denies the allegations. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Barbara Pletetasha told us more about Saturday's shootings.

Contradictory reports again so we had an eyewitness saying that the Israelis opened fire on the crowd as they were waiting at a roundabout to access the humanitarian aid site. The Hamas-Rangazat civil defense agency said six people were killed and a number had been injured in this firing. The Hamas-Rangazat civil defence agency said six people were killed and a number had been injured in this firing. The Israeli army said that it had opened fire but it had fired warning shots against a number of individuals who had approached them in a threatening way. So shots were fired, people were killed and injured. Another time because this has happened earlier in the week as well.

Why does this keep happening, Barbara? Well, the arrangement is that the Palestinians gather at a roundabout before they're allowed to walk to this aid distribution site. And this roundabout is at the edge of an Israeli military zone and they have to walk through the military zone to get to the site. And so that puts Palestinian civilians in quite close proximity to Israeli soldiers. Not just a few Palestinians, thousands and thousands. They've gathered in their masses to try to get aid.

They try to rush the aid site as well because there's no organized distribution of it. So whoever gets there first gets the food. In that context, at least based on what the Israeli army has said, it sounds as if the Israeli military feels at certain times that it is threatened and opens fire. context, at least based on what the Israeli army has said, it sounds as if the Israeli military feels at certain times that it is threatened and opens fire. It has couched that always in terms of warning shots, although on one occasion, not this one, in one occasion it said that it had fired near people who kept coming towards it in this threatening manner. So I think it's quite a volatile arrangement for access to this aid site. And it happens in the middle of the night because Palestinians gather really, really early.

And the Israeli army did put out a statement saying, don't come in the night. It's going to be a combat zone in the night. It's not entirely clear when this incident happened. I've heard conflicting times, but that is another element. Okay. And today the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said they've stopped distributing aid. What have they said about it? So this is the latest said they've stopped distributing aid. What have they said about it? So this is the latest time they've stopped distributing aid. That's happened several times this week.

They have said they were pausing distribution in order to deal with some of the flaws in the system. So they hadn't expected the masses of people that came and they needed to reorganize and repair the sites. They also wanted to improve safety features. They're reportedly having conversations with the Israeli wanted to improve safety features, reportedly having conversations with the Israeli army to improve civilian safety. But now what they're saying is that they got direct threats from Hamas against their centers, and so they suspended operations.

A Hamas official has responded by basically saying, I don't know what they're talking about. We have no knowledge of this. So again, you have this back and forth. But ultimately, this is going to probably reinforce international criticism of this new aid model which the UN says amongst many other things puts Palestinians in danger. Barbara Pletasha speaking to me from Jerusalem. Dr Victoria Rose is a British plastic surgeon working for the British charity Ideals. She's just returned to London from a stint of three and a half weeks in Gaza. It's her third time there. Lise Dessert asked her what it was like this time. I think this is the worst time we've ever been and it's certainly the worst condition I've ever seen the population in. The last

time we were in was in the August and quite a lot of the infrastructure had been destroyed at that stage so there was a bit more but the big difference I think was the population. You know they've all lost a lot of weight, there's a lot of muscle wasting, fat loss, they all have signs of malnutrition. Everyone that we know has lost at least 5, 10 kilos in weight now. I think what we noticed more this time was the morale has really dropped to an all-time low. And I really did feel that that good old Palestinian resilience is running out very fast now. Because your Palestinian colleagues keep showing up. I know. I can't believe them.

And some of them are traveling from miles to get to the hospital. And what's it like in the hospitals? There's been reports that we hear about shortages in the hospital too. Well, since the 2nd of March, it's not just the food aid that hasn't got in, it's the medical aid as well.

So we were running low on everything really. The big things that really affected us though was antibiotics and anaesthetic agents. So everybody's operation would start with a trial of sedation and we would see whether we could get through it just on sedation. Unless we knew that the procedure was going to be in excess of an hour, it was quite barbaric really but it was necessary because we just didn't have the drugs. The worst thing was listening to the children crying in the recovery area because we didn't have enough anaesthetic to give them enough painkillers.

Many of our listeners would have seen you managing to find time to give reports on the hospital and you would then say, oh I've got to go now, there's more patients coming in and what's it like? Is there one day one individual that stays with you that you might want to share? There's lots really, there's lots and lots. I think the cases that stick with me are definitely the children and it's the children that have lost families. There's something like 42,000 orphans in Garzane now because of this war. The little boy that I spoke about a lot was Haitham, who's three and had a 35% burn.

And it wasn't until I'd been treating him for four or five days that I asked the staff why he kept asking for Ceto when we put him to sleep. And then they said, well, that's grandfather in Arabic and that's the only living relative he's got left because everybody else died in the blast. There are many Palestinian journalists, sadly many have lost their lives as well but international journalists can't get in. Did you think that telling the world what was happening was also part of your job? I did on this mission. We've not really been quite as vocal as we have been. And in the past, we were much more concerned about whether publicity would prevent us from accessing Gaza again.

But I think this time we felt that so much was being denied. And I think the turning point for me was the GHF incident when- The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. When they actually came out and said we haven't shot anyone and I was standing in the emergency department with 28 dead bodies around me thinking I have to speak out about this because you're not seeing what I'm seeing. And all the footage that is coming out from the locals and I I just felt for some reason, their footage is not being seen, even though it's out there, people are immediately dismissing it because it's Palestinian and the rhetoric is that that's not, it's fake, it's not real.

And that was Israeli IDF. Yeah. We're not in the immediate vicinity of the GH distributions, but it's closed military zones, so they're on their edges of it. Yeah. And I think that's what you suddenly think, that it's not a fair description of what's going on. And I could actually, I can actually tell you that this is what I'm seeing and this is where I am and this is what's happening. Dr Victoria Rose speaking to Lise de Sete. Next to Ukraine.

It was described as one of the most intense attacks since the start of the war. Early on Saturday, Russia bombarded Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv with scores of drones, missiles and guided bombs. At least three people were killed and more than 20 were injured. On Saturday evening, four more guided bombs hit central Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials say a woman was killed. One of the bombs struck a children's railway. Moscow had previously warned it would retaliate after Ukraine carried out a large-scale attack on military air bases last weekend. Our correspondent Paul Adams is in Kyiv. I asked him about the overnight air raids.

What was striking about this was that it was incredibly intense for a relatively short period of time, for about 90 minutes in the period just before dawn, we had dozens of projectiles, including drones, glide bombs, and a ballistic missile, at least one, fired into the city. We don't know what the targets were, but many of these hit apartment buildings and other residences, and civilians once again were caught up in it. We have, by the way, had further attacks during the day, but that was the most intense period. And that is why you have the authorities in Kharkiv, including the mayor, saying that this was the worst single attack in the course of the war, even

though it wasn't necessarily the most deadly. And what's the Ukrainian government had to say about this? Well, as far as they're concerned, this is more of the same. It was part of a broader set of attacks on various Ukrainian cities overnight. Two people were killed in in Kherson in the south. You know, there's a note of frustration that you hear from Ukrainian officials when they hear people like Donald Trump suggesting that this is somehow retaliation for Ukrainian actions. The idea that somehow the Kremlin

is retaliating for what happened last weekend to most Ukrainians sounds absurd, although clearly it was such a humiliating attack. It must have caused enormous anger at the Kremlin. There had been talk of a major prisoner swap taking place this weekend. What is the latest on that? And there's also been some confusion about the timing. There certainly has and we don't have any timing. There was an expectation following the last meeting in Istanbul that another big, big, big prisoner swap involving a thousand prisoners on each side and a huge exchange of dead bodies, but that would take place

sometime soon, possibly even as early as this weekend. Well, it hasn't happened and we had a bit of a war of words in the course of today with Russian officials saying they were ready to go ahead, blaming the Ukrainians for delaying, the Ukrainians for their part accusing the Russians of dirty tricks, both sides saying essentially we are ready to go ahead and do this, but there's clearly an enormous lack of good faith. I suspect that it will happen sometime in the near future, but it's clear that there's a lot of wrangling going on and given the sheer numbers of prisoners and bodies involved it's not surprising that the mechanics of this might be the subject of a lot of last

minute negotiation. Paul Adams. Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have taken down a massive statue to the founder of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. The statue was said to have been the biggest of Lenin in all of Central Asia and was built when the country was part of the Soviet Union decades ago, before it got its independence.

Danny Eberhard reports. For 50 years Lenin towered over the centre of Osh, his left hand clutching his lapel, his right arm outstretched as if addressing a crowd. He's no longer in command. Photos showed the humbled revolutionary lying on his back on the ground having been lowered by crane. Officials in Osh are downplaying the decision to relocate him, warning against trying to politicise his removal. They haven't said where he'll be taken, nor who might replace him on the empty plinth. They're no doubt aware of the risk of offending Russian sensibilities. Moscow has been angered in

the past by countries' attempts to remove Soviet monuments. Osh City Hall has said it's common to take steps to improve the aesthetics of cities, noting that some Lenin monuments have also been removed within Russia. Kyrgyzstan gained its independence 34 years ago when the Soviet Union broke up. Many former Soviet republics have been trying to boost their national identities. But Kyrgyzstan remains an ally of Russia's and the Bolshevik leader hasn't been completely toppled from his perch there. The country's second biggest mountain, more than 7,000 metres high, is named Lenin Peak. Other ex-Soviet states have had cause to pursue more rigorous purges.

Ukraine is a notable example. Public monuments to Lenin were removed or demolished there in waves after independence, with the process being completed in the years after the toppling of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and Russia's subsequent illegal annexation of Crimea. Proxy Russian officials have since reinstalled some Lenin monuments in occupied parts of Ukraine. Elsewhere, Lenin still reaches parts that other revolutionaries fail to. One icy bust peeks out above the snows that have otherwise completely buried an old Soviet research centre at the Pole of Inaccessibility, the point in Antarctica furthest from any ocean. He faces Moscow. It's a lonely vigil, but there, at least, he's free from any imminent danger of being toppled.

The bust enjoys protection as a historic monument, as declared by a Secretariat, that of the Antarctic Treaty. Danny Aberhard. Still to come. Climate change is hitting the ocean in more ways than out on land. It's heating faster, animals are moving faster, ecosystems are being impacted very rapidly. We look ahead to the major UN summit to protect our oceans. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the newly independent nation of Lithuania had a point to prove.

Everything was political back then. We had a responsibility so that the nation could be even more united in such difficult times. And their men's national basketball team did just that. Yeah, guys, we are strong enough to play the vault. With a little help from the iconic American rock group, The Grateful Dead. You couldn't make this story up if you tried. Amazing Sports Stories from the BBC World Service presents

Bill Walton's The Grateful Team. Listen now. Search for amazing sports stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. How did the internet go from this? You could actually find what you were looking for right away, dying, to this. I feel like I'm in hell. Spoiler alert, it was not an accident. I'm Corey Doctorow, host of Who Broke the Internet from CBC's Understood. In this four-part series, I'm going to tell you why the internet sucks now, whose fault it is, and my plan to fix it. Find Who Broke the Internet on whatever terrible app you get your podcasts.

In the 90s, my friend and fellow journalist, Dom Phillips, was at the centre of the UK's dance music explosion. By 2022, he had mysteriously disappeared in one of the remotest parts of the Amazon jungle with his friend Bruno Pereira. In 2025, so many questions remain. I'm Tom Phillips, The Guardian's Latin America correspondent. Listen to Missing in the Amazon wherever you get your podcasts. Donald Trump has launched another salvo against Elon Musk, this time telling NBC News there will be serious consequences if Mr. Musk funds Democratic candidates to run against Republicans who vote in favor of the president's sweeping

budget bill. Our correspondent in Washington, Jake Kwan, is following the latest twists and turns. Just when we thought the spectacular and very ugly, very public breakup between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, that they were maybe walking away, that it was taking a break, President Trump issued fresh warning against Elon Musk, stoking the tension again. He was on the American broadcaster NBC News interview saying that he believes Elon Musk has disrespected the office of the president and that he will face very serious consequences if he funds Democrats to run against the Republicans who are supporting his big spending bill. He also said that he considers his relationship with Elon Musk over and that he has no plans

to reach out to him to mend this breakup. So the reason we're watching very close is that these two very powerful men, they can really damage each other. I mean, Mr. Trump has threatened that he will cut the government contracts with Elon Musk's companies, and his allies have already called for Elon Musk, who is a naturalized citizen originally from South Africa, to be deported. And Elon Musk himself, he has almost limitless amount of funds that he could direct towards President Trump's opponents.

He could definitely run these Republicans who are against this bill. And we already saw some of the fiscally conservative Republicans in the Congress seizing this moment to voice their disagreement with Mr. Trump on this big beautiful bill. And you know Mr. Trump, he holds the Congress by a razor thin margin and he has a midterms election coming up right next year. So Elon Musk with his major influence and money, he could really be a constant thorn in Mr Trump's sides. Jake Kwan in Washington. Meanwhile, on the other side of the US political divide, the Democratic Party is doing a fair amount of soul-searching following their defeat to Donald Trump in the presidential election last year. So what can they do to improve their prospects?

Our correspondent Anthony Zirka went to a so-called fish fry in South Carolina where senior Democrats and the party faithful gathered to discuss the future of their leadership. I'm here at the 33rd annual Jim Claiborne world famous fish fry in Columbia, South Carolina. Jim Claiborne is a member of Congress, a Democrat from South Carolina, perhaps the most influential Democrat in the state, and he loves to join this party where there are hundreds of people outside with paper plates and white bread and fried fish hanging out and chatting. And in a little bit, they're going to be listening to Democratic politicians make their pitch for the direction the party should be heading

after a very rough 2024 election. People are pissed off in South Carolina, they're pissed off in Texas, they're pissed off in Indiana, and there's more of us than there are of the billionaires. So we need to change the attitude, compete in every district, compete for every school board seat, and come out to this damn fish fry with the attitude we're going to fill up on some fish, and then we're gonna go beat the hell out of these dictators. So go get them. Now.

That was Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota and last year's Democratic vice presidential nominee. He was one of the featured speakers, along with Maryland Governor Wes Moore. This is our time, this is our moment. We will not shirk, we will not blinch. We will not blink. We will win just as those who came before us did. We will win that those who come after us, that they expect they deserve. This is a time when we will stand up and say we understood the

assignment. So thank you so much. God bless y'all and let's go make this thing happen. Moore is considered one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party. And although he dismisses the speculation, he is considered to be a contender in the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination contest, where the primary here in South Carolina will play a pivotal role. Democratic mega donor and Hollywood film star George Clooney already sang his praises in an interview with CNN.

He's two tours of duty in Afghanistan, active duty. He speaks sort of beautifully. He's smart. He ran a hedge fund. He ran the Robin Hood Foundation. He's a proper leader. I like him a lot. I think he could be someone we could all join in behind.

We have to find somebody rather soon. At 46, Moore represents a new generation of leadership in the Democratic Party, a youth movement that fish fry attendees like Kevin McKinney say is overdue. Well yes, I think we do need new leadership. I think that we need to welcome younger leaders into positions of authority of power. Ashley McIntyre Stewart, a 39-year-old health care worker, says she is particularly concerned about the number of elderly Democrats in Congress and the implications it has for the party's ability to block Republicans who hold narrow majorities in both the Senate and the House. We have a geriatric problem. There are currently three vagancies in the Congress,

or the House, excuse me, and due to three deaths in the last three months, and that makes it easier for the Republicans to just push through whatever they want. You know, we need to get the younger community involved so that we don't have them railroad us. One of those elderly Democrats is Clyburn himself, who at age 84 is planning on seeking another two-year term in the House next year.

He bristles at suggestions that he's too old to serve. I will respond to the voters of South Carolina. I've been with them all month, and not a single one of them said to me that they think I'm too old. Every one of them said to me, please don't leave. Democrats have typically supported incumbent politicians no matter what their age. Only two members of the House lost primaries in 2024, and both were under the age of 50. About half of the 30 Democrats over 75 in the House are expected to seek reelection next year.

One year after Joe Biden abandoned his presidential reelection bid because of concerns about his age and mental competence, Democratic voters like William Godwin are grappling with how to balance the benefits of experience and the energy of youth. I think we need both. I think there's wisdom that can be gleaned from Congressman Clyburn, from former President Biden. We definitely need the youth. We need the activists. We need the energy from a variety of different backgrounds, not just age, to really come put our hands together and work toward getting some real elections won. That report by Anthony Zirka in South Carolina. This weekend thousands of people are gathering

in the French city of Nice ahead of the UN Ocean Conference which starts on Monday. 70 heads of state are expected to attend the summit which is co-hosted by Costa Rica and France. They will tackle what they describe as a global emergency facing the world's seas. We had more from our reporter in Nice, Pierre-Antoine Denis. As it stands, only 8% of our oceans are designated as marine protected areas. The ambition by 2030, now it's actually an ambition

that has been signed by over 100 countries around the world, is that by 2030 we'll have 30% of marine areas that would be protected to try and replenish the wildlife, protect coral reefs, et cetera, et cetera. That is, of course, a very ambitious plan. We're way behind in terms of the calendar, but they're trying for this conference to create a big push. One of the reasons why is because although many countries have signed it, not many countries are ratifying it

as it stands. You need at least 60 countries to start ratifying it, and it's not there yet. Also on the balance is a treaty on the governance around the high seas. Because when you are in international waters, there is a whole sense of lawlessness and not really anyone to understand who can govern

the high seas. And this is the treaty that really should come out of this conference by the end of next week. But without the United States funding and support, because Donald Trump's putting out of climate accords, there's real question as to the real implementation of anything that would be signed here.

Pierre-Antoine Denis. Now, Helen Scales is a marine biologist and author of What the Wild Sea Can Be. Liz Doucette asked her if the plight of oceans had been largely overlooked. I think it has. I think the enduring problem with our ocean is that it's out of sight and out of mind. And the bit we do see generally is that blue surface which doesn't seem to change too much. So what lies below tends to be hidden away from our sight, both the wonderful things

that live there and also the problems that are unfolding. So yes, I do think it gets less attention than those places closer to our lives on land. Yeah. And when you look below, what is, if there is, it's possible to say your biggest worry? Well, I mean, we are in a situation of multiple huge problems, a polycrisis, if you like, in the ocean. So it's hard to pick out one. Climate change is hitting the ocean in many ways and more ways, if you like, than out on land. It's heating faster, animals are moving faster, ecosystems are being

impacted very rapidly. But we also are exploiting the ocean, the wild ocean, more than we are any wild spaces on land. We're still taking wild animals in huge industrial numbers from the ocean. And we don't have an equivalent on land of exploiting animals and other wildlife in that way. So the extent of human impacts in the ocean are extraordinarily high. But as I say, a lot of it happens either deep down or beyond the horizon, and we don't see that. You use the word wild, suggesting it's in the deepest depths of the ocean.

What would be the main culprits then? We're talking about industrial fishing of several kinds, things like bottom trawling. That's happening all around the world in various different depths, some of it pretty deep. We're going hundreds of meters down and scraping big, heavy nets across the seabed. So not only catching animals that will eventually be eaten, but in the process smashing very delicate habitats like coral reefs and sponge gardens, seagrass meadows, kelp forest, things like that, places that we know are incredibly important for biodiversity in so many other ways. There's also incredible amounts of pollution getting into the ocean. Basically, everything ends up there, whether it's flowing into a

river and out to sea or blowing in the breeze out into the ocean. So plastic pollution, chemical pollution, we have a growing worry about things like forever chemicals, these manmade chemicals that are put in all sorts of products that we use from waterproof coats to pizza boxes and a lot of those are ending up in the ocean and they don't break down. That's why they're called forever chemicals but they are very toxic to wildlife in the seas. So we're seeing pollution, we're seeing over-exploitation and then there's new threats coming up, things like deep sea mining, which isn't happening yet but could be soon the next big thing for us to think about and worry about in the ocean. The idea of extracting metals from rocks at the bottom of the sea that happen to also be incredibly important for various ecosystems as well,

and all sorts of other parts of the health of the ocean depend on that too. As you know, there's been growing criticism of the annual COP conference that has just become formulaic. How reassured are you by next week's summit? We'll see. I mean, we can be hopeful for the ocean. At least we're having this meeting. People are coming together. We do need some strong messages coming out of this of these leaders stepping up and saying, yes, we are going to defend the ocean. So I will keep my hopes high until we see what actually happens.

Helen Scale speaking to Lise de Sette. And finally, the French Open tennis women's final in Paris has been won by the American Coco Goff. She beat the world number one Irina Sabalenka from Belarus. Both had won Grand Slams before, but not the coveted French Open title. The BBC's tennis correspondent Russell Fuller was watching in Roland Garros. We had a rare Grand Slam final between the top two players in the world and Goff had lost the first set on a tie break. It was a very long set. It lasted for an hour and 17 minutes but she really found her groove in the second set which she won by six games to two and she was the better player in the third set as well which she won 6-4 as Irina

Sabalenka made a lot of unforced errors on a very windy day in Paris. The roof was open as you would expect it to be. Sabalenka wishes the roof had been closed. She said the conditions were terrible, although accepts it was the same for both players, and said it was probably the worst final she's ever played. But Goff didn't make very many errors at all despite looking very tense in the closing stages and she has added to her US Open title she won in 2023 at the age of 19 with the first French Open title. I remember it well and the men's is tomorrow right? The men's final tomorrow and once again we have the top two players in the world Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick

Sinner who have really dominated the sport on the men's side over the past couple of years, and it's the first time they will meet in a Grand Slam final. Yannick Sinner had three months away from the tour because of a doping ban, only returned in May to play at his home event in Rome at the Italian Open, lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final there, but has another six matches under his belt and has been in fantastic form. Alcaraz is not playing badly either and he is the man defending his title tomorrow afternoon in Paris. Russell Fuller.

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 any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was mixed by Resenwan Durell and produced by Judy Frankel and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time, goodbye.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the newly independent nation of Lithuania had a point to prove. Everything was political back then. We had a responsibility so that the nation could be even more united in such difficult times. And their men's national basketball team did just that. Yeah, guys, we are strong enough to play the vault. With a little help from the iconic American rock group, the Grateful Dead. You couldn't make this story up if you tried.

Amazing Sports Stories from the BBC World Service presents Bill Walton's The Grateful Team. Listen now. Search for Amazing Sports Stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts.