Newshour BBC Podcasts

In a surprise move, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a summer UK general election to take place on 4th July.
Also on the programme: lawyers for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo say they have new evidence from whistleblowers that the US technology giant, Apple, is illegally obtaining minerals from gangs; and South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma, has told the BBC he wants to change the country’s constitution after he was barred from running for parliament in next week’s elections.
(Photo: Rishi Sunak issues a statement outside 10 Downing Street, London, after calling a general election. Credit: Lucy North/PA Wire)

In the wake of three countries moving to formally recognise Palestine as a state and Israel recalling ambassadors to those countries, we hear from the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister. Also in the programme: Winner of this year’s international Booker Prize German writer Jenny Erpenbeck joins us in the studio along with her translator Michael Hofmann; and we hear about a new feature that will allow computers to continuously take snapshots of our screens.
(Photo: Protests to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba in Ramallah. Credit: Reuters)

Israeli war cabinet member Ron Dermer rejects the ICC prosecutor’s arrest warrants against Israel's prime minister and defence minister as ‘outrageous’. He also denied that there were food shortages or famine conditions in Gaza and said the Israeli government does have a plan for post-war Gaza.
Also in the programme: One passenger dies and seven people are seriously injured due to extreme turbulence on a London to Singapore flight forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok; and the EU decides to give the windfall profits of frozen Russian central bank assets to Ukraine.
(Photo: Ron Dermer, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 6 November 2021. Credit: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A Greek court has dropped charges against nine Egyptian men accused of responsibility for a shipwreck in the Mediterranean last year in which hundreds of migrants drowned.
Also in the programme: Israeli medics say Palestinian detainees are routinely shackled to hospital beds, treatment they say is dehumanising; and how the war in Ukraine is changing the habits of a rare eagle.

(Photo: Suspects greeting each other after case was dropped by Greek court in Kalamata. Credit: Shutterstock)

Israel’s Prime Minister said the attempt by International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan to seek an arrest warrant was part of ‘the new antisemitism’. Khan is also seeking warrants against Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, and three leaders of Hamas.
Also on the programme: Iran says it will hold elections on the 28th of June after its president, Ebrahim Raisi, was killed in a helicopter crash; and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologises to victims of the infected blood scandal, calling it a ‘day of shame’ for the British state.
(Picture: Netanyahu addresses the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, February 18, 2024 Credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says his office is seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. He alleges there is evidence to suggest starvation has been used as a method of warfare against civilians. The prosecutor has also applied for arrest warrants for three leaders of Hamas for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the October the 7th attacks in Israel. He said the decisions were the outcome of an independent and impartial investigation. ICC judges will now decide whether to grant the warrants.

Also in the programme: As Iran confirms the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, what's the mood in the capital Tehran? And will there be justice for victims of Britain's infected blood scandal?

(File photo: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan. October 12, 2023. Reuters/Piroschka van de Wouw)