Global News Podcast - Six killed in Jerusalem shooting

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Two gunmen open fire on bus stop in the North of the city, before being shot and killed by an Israeli soldier and a civilian. Also: Several people are dead and dozens injured after protests against a government ban on social media in Nepal turned violent. And Rick Davies, the lead singer of the band Supertramp dies at 81.

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jean-Ullat Jal and at 13 hours GMT on Monday the 8th of September, these are our main stories. Gunmen have opened fire in Jerusalem, killing at least six people. This comes as Israel says it's accepted Donald Trump's latest plan for a ceasefire in Gaza. In Nepal, at least 19 people have been killed in demonstrations against a government ban on many popular social media platforms. Awesome in this podcast.

The singer and co-founder of the British rock band Super Tramp, Rick Davies, has died at the age of 81. We start in Jerusalem, where at least six people have been killed in one of the deadliest shootings in the city for years. Two gunmen fired at a bus on a busy road junction. The suspected attackers were killed by a soldier and at least one civilian who returned fire. Footage from a car's dash cam showed people fleeing from the scene as shots were fired. Security officials say the attackers were Palestinians from the West Bank. Israeli soldiers are now sealing off Palestinian villages near Romala in the occupied territory. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his national security minister, Itemar Ben-Gavir, visited the scene of the attack in Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu said his country was at war on multiple fronts. I want to state as clearly as possible. These murders and attacks on all fronts do not weaken us. They only strengthen our determination to accomplish the missions we have set for our security. ourselves in Gaza and everywhere. Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, speaking on a visit to Hungary, said Israel had accepted Donald Trump's latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. We are ready to accept a full deal that would end the war based on the cabinet decision.

Two things must happen. One, the return of our hostages. We still have 48 hostages kidnapped from their homes on October 7th being held in Gaza today. Second thing, Hamas must lay down its arms. I heard more about this and the shooting attack in Jerusalem from our correspondent there, we're at Davis. There are six people confirmed dead. There are still dozens of victims in local hospitals. Two of those are still in a very serious case.

condition. The scene has pretty much been cleared now, but a lot of forensic evidence has been gathered. And of course, there were visits there by high profile politicians this morning. The Israeli investigation has pretty much moved now to the two villages in the occupied Palestinian West Bank near the big city of Ramallah from where the two attackers are reported to have come from. It's understood they've been cut off, been isolated now by Israeli military and armed police and according to the Prime Minister they will go after not just of course the attackers themselves or anybody who helped them as usually happens in these cases their their homes might be demolished there may be punitive action against the people who helped them and their families

and Mr Netanyahu was quick to go to the scene of the attack and to talk about the war that he feels he's fighting on multiple fronts including against Hamas yeah I mean everybody knows that this hasn't happened in isolation it's a terrible incident. We haven't seen something like this for about a year and a half now. Indeed, there was a very similar attack about a year and a half ago in which two people were killed. But, you know, the war in Gaza has been continuing for two years. But hand in hand with that, Israel has been fighting in southern Lebanon, distant wars in Iran and Yemen, but also much more closer to home. There's been increased tension in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. There

There's been numerous incidents, numerous Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants, particularly in the northern part of West Bank around Janine and Nablus. There has been rising tension, which everybody in the region, whichever side you're from, does suggest it's not happening in isolation. Hamas said today in a message, they didn't claim responsibility, but they acknowledged and they supported and they congratulated the attackers for what they did in Jerusalem. But Hamas said it was in retribution for what is happening in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. But the Israelis, too, in the Prime Minister in his statement,

acknowledged that Israel is fighting conflicts on several fronts. And what happened today in Jerusalem is in some ways part of that. And almost at the same time as this attack, we have the Israeli foreign minister saying that Israel has accepted President Trump's latest proposal on ending the war in Gaza. Somewhat surprising. I'm not clear what the details are. because nobody's been given the exact details yet of what the Trump proposal is.

And, of course, this is something that has come from America itself. It hasn't, as we've had with previous proposals, come from the Qataris, the Egyptians and the Americans. But from the details we were able to glean last night, it seemed to be a proposal that was very much from the Israeli perspective, talking about the release of all hostages. Now, Hamas hasn't yet said if it agrees to the proposals, but Hamas have said they want to continue talks. What we're not clear on is if Israel has accepted Trump's proposals in full. We're a Davis in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the UN Children's Agency UNICEF has warned that famine is spreading from Gaza City into the south of the territory, with families surviving on little more than a shared bowl of rice or lentils each day. It says more than 7,000 children under the age of five were treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza in just two weeks last month. This comes as Israel is intensifying its assault on the city as part of an offensive that could displace hundreds of thousands of people already weakened by hunger.

Tess Ingram, the UNICEF communication manager for the Middle East and North Africa regional office in Gaza, told Priya Rai more about the situation there. Every aspect of a person's life in Gaza City is being affected at the moment. It's hard to put into words the extent. of the damage that people are experiencing to their homes, to their lives, to the well-being of their children. I've spoken to parents who were displaced in the middle of the night, fleeing as fighting erupted where they were, running with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

One family who lost their children in the chaos of that process, I've met children in hospitals who have severe injuries from those attacks, explosive injuries, broken bones, some life-threatening. And then, of course, at the nutrition clinics, parents are clamoring to get inside, to get supplies for their children who are starving and wasting away before their eyes. Towards the end of last month,

the BBC was hearing from parents saying that their children don't know what fruit is. They haven't been able to eat the likes of fruit. I mean, what toll beyond the ways in which we can see it with, you know, through photographs and through the numbers and the casualties. What toll is it taking on children in particular? I think that lack of fruit is something I hear so often.

Lack of any nutrients at all. It's really difficult here to get any fruit and vegetables and impossible to find meat or eggs or any sort of protein. Most of the parents I speak to say it's a bowl of rice or lentils that the family share a day. And of course we know that that doesn't give kids the nutrients that their small growing bodies need. beyond the obvious visible impacts of malnutrition that has on their tiny frames,

it has lasting impacts on their brain development, on the growth of their bodies. And that can have impacts for many years to come, particularly when they get to school or into the workforce and face difficulties in learning and processing information. So this could have lifelong challenges for a generation of children in the Gaza Strip. And finally, is there anything that stuck with you in terms of what parents in particular are doing to help their children? It's every parent's worst nightmare, isn't it? Knowing what it is that your child needs to survive.

A simple thing, food, and not being able to provide that to them and feeling so helpless. And so parents really are doing everything in their power, exhausting all of their coping mechanisms. They're feeding small babies, pieces of, like, bits of rice that they've ground up and mixed with water to make an alternative formula. One mother told me she was soaking little bits of bread that she found, in piles of rubbish in water to make a paste for her infant.

They're trying to find native plants and grasses to feed their children in the hope that they'll provide them with some nutrients. And of course, taking serious risks in a dangerous environment to get what little aid is available. Tess Ingram of UNICEF. As we record this podcast, at least 19 people are confirmed to have been killed in Nepal and dozens more injured after protests against the ban on social media. turned violent. Clashes broke out between demonstrators and police in the capital Kathmandu

with officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse the protesters. The demonstrations were sparked by the government's decision to block dozens of social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and X. The demonstrators, who are calling themselves Gen Z, carried the national flag and placards saying, stop corruption, down with the government and enough is enough. There's corruption. Social media has been banned to silence our voice, so we came to raise our voices against that. Rather than the social media ban, I think everyone's focus is on corruption.

The social media ban is just part of the reason, I think. Ambrasana Etirajan has been following the protests. There were some extraordinary scenes in the capital, Kathmandu, this morning when thousands of people mostly youth. They were protesting against the government's ban on dozens of social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. But as some of the speakers earlier said, there was also bubbling anger against what they call as a nepotism, corruption in Nepali politics. And that's why one of the placards was saying, shut down corruption, not the social media. But then it turned

violent. And some of the eyewitness accounts say that even live ammunition was fired. And hospital authorities are saying there's some of the condition of some of the injured is critical and the casualty figure is likely to go up. This has also caused a lot of anger among these protesters and the government now has extended the curfew to other parts of capital Kathmandu as well particularly where the government buildings are there and the army says it has deployed a small contingent of troops in the streets of Kathmandu this evening. And this all started because of the government's ban on social media,

sites that are very popular with many Nepalis. Why did the government try to introduce this ban? Like in many other parts of the world, social media is hugely popular in Nepal. More than 50% of Nepal's 30 million people have some sort of social media account. So they were communicating for business, all for communicating with their families and for news. And then the government was saying that, you know, there is a lot of fake news and propaganda material that is causing disarmony in the society and online fraud. So that we want these social media companies, these big companies, to have a presence in Kathmandu so that we can deal with them if there is any problem, to have an office, to register with us. This follows a Supreme Court order.

On the other hand, what these critics are saying is this is one way of the government trying to have control over the social media, as they see in other countries. like in India, Pakistan or Brazil or in the US, so that to tone down the criticism of the government, it is a way of putting down freedom of expression, and that is why the government is doing this. And that's why what is Gen Z are saying against shutting down social media. And Gen Z are also saying that the government's response, which they would call heavy-handed, is down to the fact that perhaps they fear there's going to be uprisings like there have been in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka? That's the worry among not only in Nepal, in many of the governments when you see these huge anti-government protesters.

What they need is some spark and then thousands of people can join in what we saw in Sri Lanka a few years ago and in Bangladesh last year how the governments were overthrown by these uprisings and that is a real concern and some would say that's why the government probably used excessive force. Ambrassan Etirajan. France appears to be descending further into political and economic. paralysis. A vote of confidence in a few hours' time looks set to topple the French Prime Minister, Francois Bayou, and put more pressure on President Macron, even as the country is facing spiraling debt, the threat of civil unrest, and parliamentary deadlock caused by

President Macron's surprise snap elections last year. Andrew Harding reports from Paris. I'm standing on the cobbles outside the Assembler Nacional, the French Parliament right in the heart of Paris. The building itself, 18th century, is the picture of classical elegance. But right now, inside, there is total chaos. For over a year now, the French Parliament has been loudly and bitterly deadlocked,

evenly split three ways, and resolutely unwilling to agree on anything, a succession of new Prime Ministers unable to fix things. The latest to try is this rather solemn figure, Francois Bayru, the 74-year-old Prime Minister warning here that France is broke and that it's hurtling towards a debt crisis. In an attempt to jolt MPs to their senses, he's now calling on the Parliament to back him or to sack him today.

But the reaction has been less than sympathetic. Some have accused by rube of committing political suicide, even those with a touch more tact, a certain he'll lose today's confidence vote. He is very arrogant. This decision is totally crazy because he knew before calling a confidence vote that he would fall. It's impossible not to know that. So he provoked instability. This is Arthur Delaporte, a socialist MP from Normandy. His hope now is that having rattled through a succession of right-wards-leaning governments in recent years, President Emmanuel Macron will now change direction. We think that it's time for the president to give

a left a try because we will have a different method. We'll try to reach compromises. And in simple terms, what you're proposing is to tax the very wealthy more to help dig France out of this debt crisis. Exactly. But away from the power struggles in Paris, the mood across France, as in many countries today, seems to be sliding ever more to the right. I've come a couple of hours east of Paris

to a huge agricultural affair, and there is a big crowd here. We're not interested in the vegetables or the tractors, but in one French politician, Jordan Badella. Jordan Bardella is becoming a political phenomenon here in France. He's not even 30 yet. He's already the president of the far-right national rally. He's been tipped by some as France's next prime minister,

or possibly its next president. His critics say he's a media phenomenon with no experience running anything, let alone a country. But he has caught the imagination of a huge number of French people who see him as a breath of fresh air, somebody who will shake up a country that so many French people right across the political spectrum feel is losing its way. There is a bubble of exasperation in the country.

That's Bruno Cortrez, a political commentator with a warning for France's president. Macron has been extremely, extremely active at the international level, particularly with Ukraine. And I think that it is time that Macron is talking to the French. And add to that list a debt crisis, a parliament still deadlocked, an increasingly unpopular president. And perhaps the best France can hope for now is to muddle through noisily, unhappily, until 2027 when the Macron era ends. That report by Andrew Harding in Paris. Still to come on the podcast, we report from inside Cambodia on its long-running border dispute with Thailand.

Some have called the Thai-Cambodian border war the world's most pointless conflict. For decades, both countries have ignored their differences and prospered. Just five days of fighting, though, have hardened attitudes and done enormous damage. A recent raid on a factory in the U.S. state of Georgia has exposed how President Trump's crackdown on immigration is colliding with his desire to expand U.S. manufacturing by attracting foreign investment. Heavly armed immigration agents raided the plant run by the South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai, detaining nearly 500 workers, most of whom were South Koreans. They were accused of working there illegally. As we record this podcast, South Korea's foreign minister is travelling to the US where he's expected to meet the Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss their release.

Our sole correspondent, Jean McKenzie, told me more about these workers. They are still all in detention. They've been in detention all weekend, as the South Koreans here have been working to try and get them released. Now, they did reach a deal last night with the US to get them released and bring them home so they've said they're going to organise a child. flight to get them back, but we don't know when this is going to happen. These final details still need to be agreed, which is, I think, one of the reasons the foreign minister is flying out today. The government in here, they want the US to allow these workers to leave voluntarily,

so rather than them be deported, and it seems that that is what's being discussed with US officials. But then there is this chance that some of these workers might not want to come back. Some of them might actually want to stay in the United States and fight their cases legally because yes, US officials are claiming that these people are there illegally, but some of them are arguing, or certainly we've heard from lawyers arguing on some of their behalf, that they actually did have the right to work here. And it doesn't look like the Korean government is going to force these people to leave the states and come home. So it is going to be interesting to see how many people actually board this chartered plane. And I think

this is what the US and South Korean officials are trying to work through at the moment. So it sounds like it's going to be a very tense. meeting between the South Korean Foreign Minister and the U.S. Secretary of State. Yeah, I think he's very much going to be reiterating the message that has been coming from South Korean officials all weekend, that given that South Korea is such a key ally of the United States, the fact that this has all happened in this way is, in diplomatic speak, as they've been putting it, deeply regrettable. Gene McKenzie, now to a case that has gripped New Zealand. For nearly four years, police have been scouring the country looking for a man, Tom,

Phillips, who escaped into the wilderness with his three young children following a custody dispute with his former partner. Now he's been found almost by accident in violent circumstances. Officers investigating an armed burglary killed a man who shot at them. He turned out to be Phillips. One of his children was with him at the time. The police then turned their attention to finding the others and now all three children have been found unharmed. Kate Green, a reporter of a New Zealand radio, was near the scene of the shootout. This morning, the country woke to the news that overnight there had been another burglary in Peopo, and a person had been shot by police. So there was early speculation that this was Tom Phillips.

This part of the country is associated with that disappearance. He's known as the Maricopa father, we learned as the day wore on that it was indeed Tom Phillips who had been killed, and one of his three children was with him. So they broke into a farm supply store, and they made off on a quad bike, which was then spiked by police. There was a confrontation and he shot a police officer and then another police officer shot him and he died at the scene. The police officer has serious injuries and we understand is undergoing surgery this evening. So this prompted a hunt for his other two children.

They'd be nine and ten now and they were thought to be and actually discovered to be alone in the bush and they were found about 4.30 this afternoon. Police say well and uninjured. Well that is good news, especially for their mother who has been frantic about them for the last, what, nearly four years, but a sad end, actually, because she was hoping for a peaceful resolution to this. Well, that's right.

So these children have clearly endured a fair bit as well. I mean, police said today they'll be working with Oranga Tamariki. That's our child protection agency on supporting the children. And at the stand-up this evening, they wouldn't say whether the other two children had been told about their father, but we understand they had not yet been reunited with their mother. So they've been living in a makeshift campsite, they've had hard winters. They've probably not seen very many other people. And, you know, they've been breaking into stores with their father for supplies.

So for the first time in four years, seeing their mother, I can imagine that would be really traumatic on both parts. And it's going to be a long process of recovery. But the big question is that how was Tom Phillips able to evade the police for so long, especially with three children in tow? Yeah, it's a great question. and one that the whole of New Zealand has been asking for four years. I mean, out here is incredibly rugged terrain. You know, it's at steep gullies, it's thick bush. And, you know, there have been a number of sightings.

Of course, there was the grainy footage that we had of two pick hunters are taken of what we assume as Tom Phillips and the three children crossing some farmland and these break-ins and, again, a couple of other crimes that Tom Phillips has been linked to in the past a handful of years. But, I mean, it's a great question. And the children were found in a makeshift campsite. So the police assumed that they had some kind of help. But it is quite remarkable that they've managed to evade police for this long.

New Zealand radio reporter Kate Green. A ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia has been in force for more than a month. But their century-old border dispute remains unresolved, with each country trading accusations against the other. More than 40 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced when skirmishes between troops escalated in late July into five days of artillery exchanges and airstrikes. Cambodia, which is smaller and militarily weaker than Thailand,

is seeking international sympathy. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head has been to visit their border regions. In a clearing surrounded by sugar cane fields, Cambodian men and women holding long wooden sticks, press up against a group of Thai soldiers. The soldiers are unarmed and are slowly being pushed back. You are trespassing, they shout at the crowd, go back.

Confrontations like this have been frequent since the ties sealed off what had once been an open border with razor wire. Cambodians, many of whom settled on the other side of the wire as refugees in the 1980s, were ordered out with little notice. The Thai soldiers came and told us to leave, said Huamalus, pointing at a blue-tiled house hidden behind trees on the other side of the wire. They gave her just 20 minutes to collect her things. She says she'd been living there for 30 years.

We were met by no less than the governor of the province, Umriyatre. You would like the border to be open again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our people want peace, right? They want to open. Cambodia is keen to get its side of the dispute across. The governor says his province is losing a million dollars a day in customs revenue from the border closure and badly wants it reopened.

Co-existent must be accepted. Suoetjara is the spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, a figure close to the family of Prime Minister Hunanet and his still powerful father, Hun Sen. The official message we heard constantly on our trip there was one of conciliation. Cambodia wants an end to the conflict. We like to tell to the whole world that this small country does not aim to build empire. We want to just maintain what we have from what the international law have delimited as our borders and we accept that.

Thailand would disagree. Independent research shows Cambodian troops made most of the running in escalating the border dispute. Hun Sen's decision to leak a private phone call with then Prime Minister Petontan Shinawat, causing her downfall looks like a calculated attempt to create a crisis in Thailand.

But Cambodia still insists it's a small country struggling to hold its own against bigger neighbours. You know, you cannot make an end to go against the elephant. We have to accept that we are small country. Cambodians who live close to the fighting are still paying a price.

Here children line up to receive a ration of thin potato soup at a temple near the border. There are 5,000 families still sheltering here in the most basic conditions, made all the worse by monsoon rain. I live so close to the border, I don't dare go back home, said this woman.

We were taken up the steep climb to Prevehere Temple, the Thais call it Kauprawi Han, to see the damage caused, they say, by intense Thai shelling. The ties deny targeting it. It's by the 155mm. So one big 155mm shell is struck here and just shattered this stone. Right.

That's quite a lot of damage. Some have called the Thai-Cambodian border war the world's most pointless conflict. For decades, both countries have ignored their differences and prospered through trade and open borders. Just five days of fighting, though, have hardened attitudes and done enormous damage. That report by Jonathan Head. The singer and co-founder of the British rock band Super Tramp has died at the age of 81. A statement from the band said Rick Davies died at his home in Long Island in the US

a decade after being diagnosed with a type of blood cancer. David Slitto looks at his music and his life. It was 1974 when a struggling band funded by a Dutch millionaire finally hit their stride with an album that began with this Rick Davis song. Born in Swindon, he'd met the fellow songwriter and vocalist Roger Hodgson through an advert in the music newspaper Melody Maker.

By the end of the 70s in the album, Breakfast in America, Super Tramp were one of the biggest selling acts in the world. Rick Davis continued to record and perform as Super Tramp. In a statement, the band said, he died at his home in Long Island after a long illness. That report by David Salito

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 You can send us an email The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk This edition was mixed by Daniela Barrella Enandez The producers were Vanessa Heaney and Peter Goffin The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time. Goodbye. Thank you.