This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Every moment, every move, every step of the way.
Schedule your move now by going to mayflower .com.
Welcome to The W, where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball.
From buzzer -beating shots, jaw -dropping defense, and logo threes, the WNBA delivers nonstop action and world -class talent every game.
These athletes don't just play the game, they elevated.
The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Valkyries are the newest team to join the league since 2008.
Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, Ion, and Prime starting May 16th.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Alex Ritson and at 13 hours GMT on Friday the 16th of May, these are our main stories.
Gaza's Civil Defence Agency says the Israeli military has killed almost 100 people in the past 12 hours in another intense wave of strikes.
President Trump leaves the Middle East, his first major trip of his second term.
No breakthrough on the release of hostages in Gaza, but significant business deals for U .S. businesses.
Peace talks involving Russian and Ukrainian representatives have begun in Turkey, but expectations are low after President Putin declined to attend.
Also in this podcast… People did like the Milkshake Man and, as you said, some of the lyrics were quite suggestive, some of the music video was quite suggestive, but, sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
Who did and who didn't make the Eurovision grand final kicking off in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday?
The Civil Defence Agency in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says the Israeli military has killed almost 100 people since midnight in another intense wave of strikes in the north of the territory.
Israeli forces have been intensifying their bombardment of what they say are Hamas fighters and infrastructure ahead of a planned expansion of their ground offensive.
Meanwhile Gaza has been under a complete Israeli blockade of all food and other humanitarian supplies for the last 10 weeks.
And Middle East correspondent Yolande Nel, who's in Jerusalem gave us the latest. According to local sources it does appear to be a significant new operation with powerful airstrikes and artillery shelling in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia overnight but also Israeli troops said to have advanced into a neighbourhood to the west of Beit Lahiya.
There has been more response to all of this from the Israeli side with the hostage families forum.
This important group representing relatives of those still held captive, expressing concern about the latest attacks calling again on the Israeli government to reach a hostage release and Gaza ceasefire deal, saying the State of Israel is hours away from the mists of the century.
They're worried, as are many Palestinians, that President Trump could be set to leave this region without a breakthrough on Gaza.
Yolande, Marco Rubio used this word troubled.
There's also these reports of a rift between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu.
Is this having an impact on the nature of the military offensive?
Certainly, we're getting a lot more reports of that in the Israeli media as well, talking about how there has been an evident sort of shift, a division between the Trump administration and the Israeli government with increased frustration being expressed by key figures in the Trump administration.
There are Israeli media quoting different sources saying that Steve Wyckoff, the special envoy of President Trump, told regional mediators though that still Washington does not plan to force a Benjamin Netanyahu to end this war amid his staunch refusal to do so.
And apparently there had been some hopes of this in the Arab world, given comments by Donald Trump and others.
Donald Trump saying this was a very brutal war and he expressed a desire to end it earlier in this week.
Very briefly, this plan to deliver aid with private companies, how workable?
I mean, the UN has been saying it's both unethical and unworkable and one point that they refer to is the fact that there are only four or five distribution areas in the South of the Gaza Strip that are being talked about under this plan, whereas at the moment, there have been more than 400 to try to reach all 2 .1 million people living in the Gaza Strip.
Before these land, sea and airstrikes in northern Gaza, more than 100 Palestinians were reported to have been killed on Thursday.
People in the southern city of Khan Yunis said it was one of the deadliest attacks since Israel resumed its offensive in early March. Dr Victoria Rose is a British reconstructive surgeon at NASA medical complex in Khan Yunis, a hospital which has been struck by Israeli bombs in recent days.
The hospital is absolutely full.
I'm standing on the balcony at the moment overlooking the World Health Organization's tents that have been built for the overflow.
But it's busy. It's the busiest I've seen it, talking about thousands of people.
The problem has been that we've really concentrated on the life and lens saving cases.
So we have a huge outpatient department here of people that probably weren't operated on in a timely fashion.
So there's quite a few people with shrapnel embedded that have managed to continue walking around, that have come up to the hospital yesterday to our outpatients, knowing that we were here to see if we could help them.
So there are thousands of people in need of medical care.
And this is my third trip since the war started.
And obviously the local teams, although they're very talented, they're absolutely depleted now and exhausted, I am slightly worried at the moment, but mainly because we are the last standing hospital in communis and certainly accessible hospital in the south.
In Israel there'll be disappointment among some of the families of the remaining hostages, as well as in some Arab countries, that President Trump has left the region without reaching a diplomatic breakthrough.
He made this brief comment to journalists before boarding Air Force One.
We're looking at Gaza, and we've got to get that taken care of.
A lot of people are starving.
There's a lot of bad things going on.
What President Trump has achieved on his four -day tour of the Middle East is a string of lucrative business deals for US companies including the Trump organisation, now run by his sons.
Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette is in Abu Dhabi and has this assessment of the trip.
When he arrived in the region, touched down on Tuesday morning, there were so much – bits of optimism swirling in the air.
There were even celebrations in besieged Gaza.
Gaza is daring to hope that President Trump would do something especially while he stopped in the Gulf state of Qatar where so many of the negotiations have been taking place.
And I should mention too, there was hope that he might actually do something on Ukraine as well he kept talking about Gaza saying we're looking at it in Saudi he said well we hope the Gazans will have a good future but he blamed Hamas without mentioning them by name so the groups who kidnap and kill children cannot be allowed to continue he repeated that again and then when he left today he did say that people are starving in Gaza and he said we are trying to sort it and good things could come but you get a sense that, yes, he could do something, but he's not doing enough, given what we've been
broadcasting on the BBC is happening now on the ground.
You're concerned at the humanitarian situation, but that was not criticism of the Israelis, was it?
No, he didn't. He was very careful throughout this trip not to criticise the Israelis, even though just before he left the United States, his envoy for everything Steve Whitcoff, had made unprecedented public criticism of Israel, accusing Israel of trying to drag the war on for its own reasons.
Difritkov did go to Israel to see the families of the hostages and went to Doha for what was described as 11th hour negotiations.
But when I spoke to an advisor to the Qatari Prime Minister on Wednesday, on Thursday rather, he was very bitter.
He said the Israelis are not taking this opportunity.
That was the day where there was more attacks, where there were reports of 100 dead, and he said, you know, another massacre, in his words, has happened.
And he said, we're trying to put pressure on both sides.
And there is a sense among the Qataris and the Egyptians, who are the other medias, that this was a missed opportunity, even a comment by the Qataris that they think the United States is losing interest. Mr. Trump chose not to visit Benjamin Netanyahu.
Is there a rift developing there?
The relationship between Israel and the United States of America is ironclad.
It doesn't matter which party is in power, it doesn't matter which president is in power.
They may have differences about how they how they carry out this relationship, but the relationship is solid.
But there has been growing strange between President Trump it seems and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
President Trump wants good news.
He wants to make economic deals.
His slogan here is peace through strength.
He wants wars to end.
It's not a good look he feels for him as president who sees himself as the world's best dealmaker To have these horrific scenes in Gaza and as I mentioned he refers to them But the question is how much pressure is he willing to put on Israel and how much Prime Minister?
Netanyahu was willing to do because he wants to keep his government and himself in power Least who said although president Trump has left the region his stance on Israel remains a contentious issue back home a A long -standing ally, support for Israel among the American people is waning.
A recent Gallup poll showed it at 48 % its lowest level in 25 years.
Protests over the war in Gaza have been relatively small, but some high -profile.
This week, Ben Cohen, the co -founder of the billion dollar ice cream company, Ben & Jerry's, disrupted a Senate hearing at which Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was giving testimony.
I'm presenting today supports these goals in our effects.
While the committee conducts its business Capitol Police are asked to remove...
Mr. Cohen was escorted from the building by police.
He was charged with a misdemeanor offence and paid a $50 fine while another six demonstrators were also arrested and face a number of more serious charges.
The BBC spoke with the freed Mr Cohen from his home in Philadelphia.
I could not feel good about my country using my dollars to buy 20 billion dollars worth of bombs and give it to Israel to go and kill a bunch of innocent people.
The only way i can continue to be a citizen of my country is to protest what my country is doing.
Otherwise, I'm accepting it.
Otherwise, I'm agreeing with it.
If Israel is so dependent on the U .S., insist that Israel let food, medicine into Gaza so that they don't starve people to death.
Well, I want to emphasize that I'm speaking to you now as an individual and the action I took was as an individual, it was not, but I can tell you that for Ben & Jerry's, it has a social mission and it has a set of values.
You know, those stands are generally about justice.
So we take those stands, and you know, some people agree with them, some people don't.
It's OK. Ben Cohen Still to come in this podcast. When an exam is a reward, not a punishment – after a boy saves the life of his classmate.
And doctors say that this 18 -year -old saved the life of his friend.
There was a social media outcry in China and they've now relented.
He'll be allowed to take the test. Thanks.
If you've got a move coming up, you really need to look into United Van Lines—the do -it -all moving specialists.
With United Van Lines, you don't worry about a thing.
You have a dedicated moving coordinator, qualified drivers, and full value protection for your possessions.
Compare that to a couple of dudes manhandling your family heirlooms or cramming your things in a container on your driveway.
way. Rather than hope for the best, you deserve a hassle -free move.
Visit unitedvanlines .com.
Big moves, small moves, all moves.
Easy choice. Welcome to the W, where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball.
From buzz or beating shots, jaw -dropping defense, and logo threes, the WNBA delivers nonstop action and world -class talent every game.
These athletes don't just play the game, they elevate it.
The New York Liberty are the reigning champions and the Golden State Balgeries are the newest team to join the league since 2008.
This season will be the first with Kelsey Plumb on the Los Angeles Sparks, Jewel Lloyd on the Aces and Alyssa Thomas in Phoenix.
Whether you're a lifelong basketball fan or new to the game, the WNBA invites you to be a part of something bigger.
Catch live games, follow your favorite teams, and witness history in the making.
Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, Ion, and Prime, starting May 16th.
Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford, and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty.
When Dr. Sibaugh and I decided to do a skin care line together, he said to me, we are going to give women meaningful beauty.
And I said, that's exactly right.
We want to give women meaningful beauty, which means each and every product is meaningful.
It has a reason to exist. It's efficacious.
You're going to get results.
And then you just go out and live your life.
Meaningful Beauty. Confidence is beautiful.
Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty .com.
So you want to start a business?
You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't.
You just need GoDaddy Aero.
I'm Walton Goggins, an actor.
And I like the sound of starting my own business Walton Goggins' goggle glasses.
But I couldn't do this on my own.
Go Daddy Aero uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business.
It'll make you a unique logo.
It'll create a custom website.
It'll write social posts for you and even set you up with a social media calendar.
How cool is that? Well listen to this, for a limited time you can get Aero All Access for just a dollar a week for twelve weeks.
We're talking all the AI power of Go Daddy Aero plus a domain, e -commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox, all for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Al -Mawfi coast. You know what that sounds like?
A plan. Get started at godaddy .com.
Terms apply. To Istanbul, where there appear to be positive signs for Russia and Ukraine in their peace talks.
No doubt, a symbolic moment in the war, the city where east meets west and, more importantly, the first face -to -face meeting in three years.
However, no -one expects any breakthrough when it comes to ending the conflict.
President Putin named the date and the place, but he didn't turn up on Thursday when the talks weren't to start.
The Russian leader didn't even send one of his senior ministers.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaya Kalas, said Russia wasn't committed to the process.
Putin doesn't dare to come really, so I think downplaying this shows that they are not serious about the real peace talks.
This is clear for everybody.
And I think it's important to see, also that the whole world sees that Russia is playing games.
President Zelensky is also not in attendance, instead sending his defence minister.
Speaking from a summit in Albania, the Ukrainian president said he was closely following developments at the talks in Turkey.
Ukraine is ready to take all realistic steps to end this war.
I call on Putin to give his delegation real authority, and we need a full stop to the killing long enough to give diplomacy a real chance.
Secondly, we must build at least a minimum level of trust in the negotiation process.
This can be done by releasing prisoners of war, returning Ukrainian children taken by Russia, and releasing civilian hostages currently held by the Russian side.
Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor at BBC Monitoring, is in Istanbul.
As we speak Alex, they've been talking to each other for more than an hour, which is a good sign.
nobody's walked out.
They are prepared to listen to each other.
They are at the negotiating table.
It's a completely different matter what they will be able to achieve because their positions are very different.
The Ukrainians they've been saying that they need an immediate ceasefire lasting more than 30 days.
The They say they want to address what they call the root causes of this crisis.
And that means the reasons why they started this war i .e. the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state.
So there's progress, there's a movement, at least they're talking to each other Alex. Briefly Vitaliy, it sounds as though the two sides are a long way apart.
Is there any chance that anything could be agreed at this?
I'm really sceptical to be honest. The bottom line is that the Russian army is still killing civilians in Ukraine.
Just this morning I've seen reports of at least two civilians killed, one in Kharkiv region, another in Khirassan region.
That's what matters really.
There's no will on Russia's part to stop it.
Vitaly Shevchenko. Data centres are the factories of the future.
They are air -conditioned warehouses stuffed with powerful computers which whir away 24 hours a day.
They are the grey matter in the brains of artificial intelligence.
The world's biggest cloud computing firm, Amazon Web Services, has more than 300 across the world and has announced a $10 billion investment in news centres in the UK over the next four years.
The chief executive, Matt Garmon, has been speaking to our business editor Simon Jack.
we're making huge investments in renewable energy.
In fact, we're the single largest purchaser of new, brand new renewable projects around the world for each of the last five years.
And I think the world is gonna have to continue to build new technologies.
I believe nuclear is a big part of that as we look, particularly as we look 10 years out, that is gonna have to be one of the solutions that are likely the world is gonna need for the electricity demands that we're gonna have. We've just seen big blackouts in Spain and Portugal, which were blamed on the Iberian peninsulas over -reliance on renewables.
And I'm getting a data center that needs an uninterruptible power supply, because it's mission -critical to so many functions that you talked about.
Is renewables the answer to that, or is it nuclear?
What are you doing in the U .S.?
I think it's got to be a combination of some of those things.
In the intermediate term, it's renewables, some of that is supplemented with natural gas and other fossil fuels.
And nuclear is a great solution for that in the future, because obviously, it's an excellent source of carbon zero, 24 by seven power.
I think there's lots of, also research going into batteries and other storage facilities that allow you to do 24 by seven and capture more of the solar and wind power.
But I think it's going to be a combination of those and it's a portfolio effect.
It cannot be one technology that's going to solve all of those things.
You talked about security.
We've just had in the UK, I don't know if you've been aware of this, a number of big retailers get hit by ransomware and whatever.
And if AI is so smart, what's to stop the bad guys mobilizing it to get as good at attacking you as you are defending, I guess?
Well, you can, you can be sure that they will likely try.
I think that's true of any new technology that has come out, whether it's the Internet or whether it's computers or whether it's AI.
And our job is to stay ahead of that.
And we invest a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of research into identifying patterns, figuring out where customers are going.
one of the interesting things that we do actually because of our global footprint, we have a service that we call, it's an internal service that we call MadPot, where we actually can look at the global set of traffic and we have honeypots out there and we can see patterns and using AI detect when people are trying to do security infiltrations of customers and we take that information, match those traffic patterns that we see in these honeypots that we build to try to identify where there's nefarious agents out there.
I've seen Bill Gates say recently in an interview that humans might not be needed for a lot of tasks.
Is there any part of you which has missed givings about the direction we're headed?
Does anything keep you awake at night and say, boy, we're about to unleash something which we may regret?
Almost like an Oppenheimer -like responsibility?
I feel responsibility for our customers every single day.
So every day I wake up, I worry, how are we doing the right thing for our customers?
What about the whole human race?
Well, I'm not sure if I'm responsible for the whole human race, but you know, I think it's all of our responsibilities to think about that.
so with regards to this technology absolutely like we try to think about what are the belts and suspenders that we can put on this technology to as best of our ability prevent it from being used for some bad purpose.
Matt Garmon from Amazon Web Services speaking to Simon Jack.
Australia's most highly decorated living soldier has lost an appeal against a landmark court ruling that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
Ben Robert Smith who was awarded the country's highest award for bravery in battle, the Victoria Cross has always denied the allegations.
Our correspondent in Sydney, Phil Mercer, gave us the details.
These allegations date back well over a decade and a half in Afghanistan.
Back in 2018, three Australian newspapers published a series of stories alleging that Ben Robert Smith, Australia's most decorated living soldier and a former corporal in the special forces, was a war criminal.
In response, Mr Robert Smith launched a very high profile defamation case against the media in Australia.
At the end of that defamation trial in 2023, the judge threw out the former soldier's case insisting that on the balance of probabilities, he was involved in the murders of four unarmed Afghan prisoners.
And Mr. Robert Smith, in response, launched an appeal.
And that brings us to today's hearing at the federal court.
It has unanimously thrown out Ben Robert Smith's appeal, but it's not over.
We are hearing from his legal team, the former soldier's legal team, that there could well be a high court challenge, saying that he vigorously denies what he describes as egregious and spiteful allegations against him.
Phil Mercer in Sydney.
Now, to a good news story from China – a rethink from the education authorities after a heroic student sacrificed his exam to save a classmate.
He was initially barred from taking the test, until a successful social media campaign came to his defence.
I heard more from our Asia -Pacific editor Celia Hatton.
This story goes back to the moment when two young men, two 18 year olds were on their way to an exam.
They hailed a taxi in order to get to the exam hall and they've actually released the video that was taken from inside the taxi.
You suddenly see one of the young men just collapse onto the lap of his friend and his friend jumps into action.
He tells the driver to call the hospital and to also just get to the hospital as quickly as possible and you see him start to give chest compressions to his friend who's collapsed in the back of the car.
This goes on for some time.
The two are racing towards the hospital.
The taxi driver actually went through seven red lights in order to get there in record speed time And it turns out that the taxi driver and this 18 -year -old boy worked together to rescue the life of this young man who had collapsed.
He'd actually been having a heart attack.
And doctors say that this 18 -year -old saved the life of his friend.
The problem was he missed the exam that he was supposed to be taking.
And at first the exam board said, no, you're going to have to wait another year to be able to retake the exam.
we're not going to allow you to take it.
But there was a social media outcry in China and they've now relented.
He'll be allowed to take the test. Celia Hatton.
We now know the full line -up for Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest after the second semi -final in the Swiss city of Basel.
The last country to compete in the Grand Final on Saturday is...
Greece!! The Greek delegation's success signalling the shock elimination of the Australian entry milkshake man, one of the more entertaining acts of the night, dressed in a jumpsuit adorned with glitter and sparkles.
Montenegro, Ireland, Georgia, the Czech Republic and Serbia also failed to qualify.
The BBC's Charlotte Gallacher is in Basel and has been talking me through what to expect and why the cheeky Australian exit came as such a surprise.
People did like The Milkshake Man.
And as you said, some of the lyrics were quite suggestive, some of the music video was quite suggestive, but it was one of those classic Eurovision and pop songs, we certainly thought here.
Lots of Australians had come here as well.
They made the journey all the way from Australia to Switzerland to come and support their act.
But sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
So I think that was one of the real surprises of the two semi -finals.
I mean, also Australia, they went first last night, which is always difficult.
You've got to open the show.
You're not going after someone else who's made a good or bad impression.
It's all on you. So I think they were unlucky as well to have to go first last night.
And Charlotte, what else is making a good impression this year?
People really liked Finland last night.
So, that's a singer called Erica.
She's well known already in Finland.
She had an incredible performance and I think with her it's half about the song and it's half about the performance, because she was on top of a golden microphone as it was lifted on the stage.
It was really high energy.
When you saw it you thought, yes, I can imagine that winning – it's a real winning performance.
But, of course, on the night the votes are split between the jurors, so they are music industry professionals who cast some of the votes, and then also people at home who are casting votes.
And you don't have to live in Europe in order to vote, you can live anywhere in the world and you can still vote and watch and join in with Eurovision.
Organisers say six protesters were removed from a dress rehearsal on Thursday after attempting to disrupt a performance by the Israeli entry who will be competing in Saturday's Final.
The world's biggest song competition has extensive security measures in place, along with hundreds of people working behind the scenes, creating the hair, the makeup, the lighting, the pyrotechnics and so much more.
John O 'Callaghan is a Canadian working for the EBU, which organises the entire event, he's been giving us a backstage tour.
I'm still finding my way around the warrens of this place.
In fact, I got lost the other day and found myself backstage.
But here we are again.
We're just about to go through sort of the great concrete back warrens along the delegation walkway, and if we find our way, we will pop up near the stage.
My name is Kate. As soon as you get that email, you're like, oh my God!
I'm going to be part of Eurovision!
And I didn't, you know, I didn't care what I was going to be doing.
You know, sweeping thoughts.
empty in bins. And we've had a great time because we've been able to escort the media to the dress rehearsals.
On the Sunday we were all shipped out to Basel itself and where they were doing the turquoise carpet.
But you could see how professional they all were.
I mean, they worked really, really hard. Well, we went through that final door around the back and just racks and racks and racks of equipment and a big black curtain.
And we come around the corner and we are now standing just on the very edge of the sage going up to the ramp and we can see the whole arena now and they're testing all of the lights so it's very very colorful.
My name is Tim Routledge I'm the lighting designer for this year's Eurovision.
This is the biggest lighting rig in Eurovision history by a long way.
I was blessed with a beautiful set by set designer Florin Vida which is an amazing portrait frame, the mountains and the huge transparent screen.
I was even responsible for integrating four and a half thousand lights into that.
So, integrating all the moving lights around the frame, our 3 -dimensional grids, and then the 30 huge trusses that move and change the architectural stage for every performance.
My name's Hayley Seawood.
I'm the lead person for the whole of the stylist here at The Bubble.
We have over 28 stylists here with us this week, doing hair for all of the delegations.
Do you want today how many appointments we've had already?
Yes, please. I do. So today, as of this minute, we are at 670.
There's a lot that's gone into it.
I'm Francesca Owen.
I'm a vocal and performance coach with the Luxembourgish delegation.
I very much look at the artist keeping themselves at their best for the competition, working with them through any challenges that they're going more from a psychological perspective.
So they hired us then to come out to Eurovision to work not only with the artist but actually with the whole delegation from that perspective as well.
Well here we are back in the arena and we're up on the side, all of the house lights are up and on.
We have the audience in here now and we're looking out across at the delegation areas where everybody will be sitting very expectantly waiting the final vote and the final count to see if they're the champions of the grand final.
John O 'Callaghan with a behind the scenes look into the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, the grand finale on Saturday in Basel.
And that's all from us for now but there'll 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 globalpodcast at bbc .co .uk.
You can also find us on x at BBC World Service use the hashtag at Global News Pod.
This edition was mixed by Holly Smith and the producers were Becky Wood and Ella Bicknell.
The editor is Karen Martin.
I'm Alex Ritson until next time.
Goodbye. Welcome to The W, where elite athletes are redefining the game of basketball, from buzzer beating shots, jaw dropping defense and logo threes, The WNBA delivers nonstop action and world -class talent every game.
These athletes don't just play the game, they elevate it.
The New York Liberty are the reigning champions, and the Golden State Balgrees are the newest team to join the league since 2008.
This season will be the first with Kelsey Plum on the Los Angeles Sparks, Jewel Lloyd on the Aces, and Alyssa Thomas in Phoenix.
Whether you're a lifelong basketball fan or new to the game, the WNBA invites you to be a part of something bigger.
Catch live games, follow your favorite teams, and witness history in the making.
Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ION, and Prime, starting May 16th.
