Newshour

The United States is imposing an extra twenty-five percent tariff on imports from India because Delhi continues to buy Russian oil. President Trump is using this to increase pressure for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Delhi's called it 'unfair'. The executive order came after the US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Also on the programme: As dozens are injured and killed in Gaza when four aid trucks tipped over, we take a look at how the crisis is being reported in Israel and whether public opinion is changing; Italy plans the longest suspension bridge in the world; and the new research that shows how female gorillas form strong friendships with each other that last years. (Photo: Russian President Putin meets U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow Credit: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/via REUTERS)

The US Health Secretary has stopped about $500m worth of funding for the development of vaccines against viruses that cause illnesses like flu and Covid-19. Robert F. Kennedy - a vaccine sceptic - claims they pose many risks. Newshour hears from Dr. Paul Offit who disagrees. Also in the programme: we hear from a Hiroshima survivor; and the gorilla sisterhood. (Picture: A nurse prepares a booster dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, Spikevax, against the coronavirus disease at a vaccination centre in Berlin, Germany, January 1, 2022. Credit: Reuters)

The UN's food agency has warned that families trapped within the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher face starvation. Also on the programme, an investigation into the gangs running illegal migration from France to Britain; we speak to 93 year-old Nobel prize winner Setsuko Thurlow about surviving the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. (Photo: Houda Ali Mohammed, 32, a displaced Sudanese mother of four, prepares food at a camp shelter amid the ongoing conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, July 30, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Jamal/File Photo)

Israel has authorised the gradual re-entry of goods including food supplies to Gaza via private traders for the first time in ten months. How does food distribution operate at the moment, and how often can it be a case of survival of the fittest? Also in the programme: as the final push for a global plastics treaty begins in Geneva, we hear from the head of the United Nations Environment Programme on why it needs to happen; and we report from a camp for Ukrainian children trying to cope with the trauma of parents missing because of the war with Russia; plus why Dolly Parton has been given the status of global icon.

The former head of the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet, Ami Ayalon, tells Newshour why he thinks Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu needs to end the Gaza war. Meanwhile, reports suggest that the prime minister may order the Israeli Defence Forces to seize and hold the entire Gaza Strip. Also in the programme: the family of a Hiroshima atom bomb survivor reflect as the 80th anniversary of the bomb approaches; the devastation plastic pollution is wreaking on human health; and why Indian cricket fans have been ecstatic over today's game in London. (Photo: Protest outside Israeli PM Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem. Credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

The Israeli prime minister is reportedly planning to expand military operations in Gaza. It comes as hundreds of retired Israeli security officials have written to President Trump, urging him to pressurise their government to end the war. They say Hamas is no longer a threat and the war is no longer just. We speak to one of signatories of the letter Ami Ayalon, a former director of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic secret service agency. Also in the programme: More than 70 migrants have died in a shipwreck in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen; why Texan Democrats are running away from a vote; and Sir David Attenborough's latest BBC One series documents how parents from across the animal kingdom sacrifice everything in order to raise their young. (Photo: Protest outside Israeli PM Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem. Credit: Reuters)

Pope Leo XIV has implored a million young Catholics from around the world to aspire to great things and not settle for less at a special Jubilee celebration in Rome. We have a report on the Catholic social media influencers who spread the gospel online. Also on the programme: Arab nations have condemned a visit to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem by Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir; and Kim Kardashian’s new facial wrap you wear while sleeping generates much online chatter. (Photo: Pope Leo XIV presides over Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Youth, at Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, 03 August 2025. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics, including many social media influencers, have gathered for a vigil and Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV. Also in the programme: the former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina faces a criminal trial; Russia’s Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupts for the first time in hundreds of years; and the enduring appeal of Thomas the Tank Engine. (Picture: Pope Leo XIV waves to the faithful during a Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Youth, in Rome, Italy. Credit: Photo by ANGELO CARCONI/EPA/Shutterstock)

Hamas releases a shocking video of an emaciated Israeli hostage as the US special envoy says they are determined to push for a deal to end this war rather than reach a temporary ceasefire. We speak to one of the Israeli hostage families who met US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Tel Aviv. Also on the programme: a court in southern India has sentenced a prominent politician to life in prison for raping one of his domestic staff; and would you use an app allowing guests to buy a seat at your wedding for €150? (Photo: Steve Witkoff meets with Israeli hostage family members on August 2, 2025. Credit: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters)

Russian media have dismissed Donald Trump's announcement that he will deploy nuclear submarines closer to Russia. Mr Trump said his decision was prompted by “provocative comments” on social media by the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. Mr Medvedev said in a post on X on Monday that President Trump was playing "the ultimatum game" with Russia, and that such an approach could lead to a war involving the United States. Also in the programme: The world's first legislation to control artificial intelligence starts coming into force in the EU today; and from Gaza, the sixteen-year-old with a dream to become a great violinist. (Photo: Dmitry Medvedev was Russia's president in 2008-12. Credit: Reuters)

President Trump says he wants to help the people of Gaza to live, following a visit by his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to a controversial US and Israeli- backed aid site in the territory. Plus, the BBC investigates the cases of 160 children shot dead inside the Gaza Strip. Also in the programme: Malawi hits its UN development goals for HIV and AIDS ahead of its targets; radioactive injections aimed at saving South Africa's rhinos; and we follow the market reaction to Donald Trump's global tariff deals -- and new US job figures. (Photo credit: US government)

The BBC World Service has pieced together the story of two-year-old Layan al-Majdalawi, who was killed in Gaza in areas where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was operating. Layan is just one of more than 160 cases of children shot in the war in Gaza, for whom we have gathered accounts. The IDF told us they are examining the case, and that: "Intentional harm to civilians, especially children, is strictly prohibited." Also the programme: President Trump announces he is imposing higher tax rates on imports to America from dozens of countries who've failed to reach a trade deal with him; and Chinese schoolgirl Yu Zidi becomes the youngest swimmer in history to win a medal at the World Aquatics Championships. (Picture: Layan al-Majdalawi, two, killed in Gaza in November 2023. Credit: Majdalawi family).

The US special envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Gaza on Friday. We hear from American medics working in the south and centre of the strip calling on him to include hospitals in his tour, and on their government to take action to end the suffering. Also in the programme: Ukraine’s parliament votes to reverse anti-corruption legislation that was heavily criticised both inside and outside the country; and the stunning tattoos of a 2,500 year old mummy. (IMAGE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets the US President's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, in Mr Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem, Israel, amid warnings of a famine in Gaza. 31st July 2025 / CREDIT: Kobi Gideon / GPO / Prime Minister's Office)

Donald Trump has stepped up his diplomatic assault on the government of Brazil's left- wing president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. He's signed an executive order which brings total tariffs on Brazilian goods to fifty percent. At the same time, the US Treasury has imposed financial sanctions on the senior Brazilian judge overseeing the criminal case for coup plotting against Brazil's former leader, Jair Bolsonaro. We speak to Brazilian ambassador to London, Antonio Patriota. Also, we speak to Yehuda Cohen - the father of an Israeli soldier taken hostage on October 7th -- who tells us he thinks the recognition of a Palestinian state will help pressure his government to get his son home. And the actor Stephen Fry on playing a formidable aristocratic woman in Oscar Wilde's most famous play, the Importance of Being Earnest. (Photo: President Trump and Brazilian then-President Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago in 2020. Credit: Getty Images)

Developments in the Middle East have come thick and fast this week. On Tuesday the IPC - a UN-backed monitor group - warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine" is unfolding in the Gaza Strip. Britain, meanwhile, warned that unless Israel met a number of conditions before the UN General Assembly convenes next month, it would join France in recognising a State of Palestine. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupied West Bank has received little international attention since the war in Gaza began. Attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians living there are on the rise - up by 13 percent over the past year, says the UN. We examine attacks in one village and a town. Also in the programme: Why is Greece detaining all migrants arriving from North Africa? And the English city of Birmingham says goodbye to Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne. (Photo: Locals inspect a burnt car in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 28 July 2025. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli settlers attacked the village of Taybeh and set two vehicles on fire and spray-painted racist slurs on walls. Credit: Alaa Badarneeh/EPA/Shutterstock)

The UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza", its prime minister Keir Starmer has said. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move "rewards Hamas's monstrous terrorism". Also in the programme: As tsunami waves reach the US west coast after Russian earthquake, we'll look at what's behind the earthquake and tsunamis; and the UK gets its first female astronomer royal in 350 years. (Photo shows Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking during a press conference in Jerusalem, Israel on 21 May 2025. Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) )

UK will recognise Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a Gaza ceasefire and other conditions. Israel says the move rewards Hams. Also in the programme: Ex-Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has been found guilty of witness-tampering; and an Australian woman - Joan Anderson - who went largely uncredited for her leading role in the creation of the hula hoop has died at the age of 101. (Photo: UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer making a statement in Downing Street, London, following a Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza. The UK will recognise the state of Palestine in September before the UN General Assembly, unless the Israeli government takes steps to end the "appalling situation" in Gaza, the Prime Minister has told the Cabinet. 29 July 2025. Credit: Toby Melville/PA Wire)

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has said what it calls "the worse case scenario of famine" is now unfolding in Gaza. The UN's World Food Programme says that the unfolding disaster is reminiscent of famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra, Nigeria, in the last century. Also in the programme: Google launches a new AI search tool in the UK; and as England's women's football squad celebrates its triumph at the Euros with an open-top bus parade in central London, we'll look at how the game is growing commercially around the world. (Photo: Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. CREDIT: REUTERS/Khamis Al-Rifi)

President Trump said there is 'real starvation' in Gaza that cannot be ‘faked’, contradicting claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that reports starvation in the territory was exaggerated. We hear from the Doctors Without Borders on the ground in Gaza city, and one of the first Israeli rights groups to label Israel's campaign in Gaza 'genocide'. Also in the program: Thailand and Cambodia announce an immediate ceasefire after days of border clashes, and the Shaolin Temple's chief monk is stripped of his position after accusations of embezzlement and breaking his vows of celibacy. Picture: A Palestinian child suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a healthcare center, amid widespread hunger, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

More aid trucks have been seen crossing into Gaza where Israel has eased its blockade and military operations under intense international pressure, but humanitarian organisations have warned that the supplies are nowhere near enough to ease the hunger crisis gripping the Palestinian territory. Also in the programme: as France describes the European Union's trade deal with the US as "submission", the EU's top negotiator tries to make the case for the deal; and Google admits its earthquake warning system failed to alert millions of people in Turkey before the devastation of 2023. (Photo shows trucks carrying aid lining up near the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on 28 July 2025. Credit: Reuters)