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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Keith Adams, and in the early hours of Saturday 20th June, these are our main stories. Israeli strikes are reported in Lebanon despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Chapter 2: What are the latest reports on Israeli strikes in Lebanon?
The US government confirms it's ending funding for South Africa's HIV programmes, and Afghanistan says it's launched strikes on two provinces in Pakistan, targeting suspected Islamic State militants. Also in this podcast... OK, everybody, I would like to get this in one take, please. Let's roll it. Water's working. And action. And cut. Hey, butt guy, what the hell are you doing?
We say goodbye to the man who made countless US sitcoms and a round-up from the Football World Cup as another host country makes it to the knockout stage. There have been Israeli strikes reported in southern Lebanon after a ceasefire with Hezbollah came into effect. An Israeli military spokesman said its forces would continue to remove immediate threats.
Hezbollah is yet to confirm the ceasefire, but the Iranian-backed group said the project to eliminate Hezbollah has failed. Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Charlotte Gallagher, has been following the conflict. She spoke to Valerie Sanderson.
No one said it's over, but it does seem slightly ridiculous to call it a ceasefire when you have Lebanese state media and also an ambulance service in southern Lebanon saying there have been 12 Israeli strikes in the minutes after the ceasefire was announced.
We're also hearing from Lebanese state media that two people were killed in a drone strike in southern Lebanon after that ceasefire agreement came into effect. And I think the reason why it's not working, it's faltering, is because essentially Israel has said it will not withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. It calls it a security strip until Hezbollah disarm.
Hezbollah have said they will not disarm until the IDF go. So it's kind of a stalemate situation. And I think that's why this ceasefire and the ceasefires before just don't work.
This week has seen fierce criticism of the Israeli government from the Trump administration. How worried do you think is the Israeli government that the row could get worse?
I think for Benjamin Netanyahu, he's in a really difficult position because he's facing a lot of criticism, as you said, from President Trump and also J.D. Vance saying, essentially, be grateful. We are your most powerful ally. You need us. J.D. Vance was saying yesterday, we supply a lot of your weapons. So I think a bit of a warning, essentially, to, in Donald Trump's words, behave.
But then he's facing the internal pressure, politicians inside the country and also a lot of the public are want the offensive push into southern Lebanon to continue. They want Hezbollah to be dismantled. And they feel like they have been sold out with this deal between Iran and the U.S. And it's actually made Israelis a lot less safe. So he's facing a very difficult decision.
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Chapter 3: How is the US government addressing HIV funding in South Africa?
And so the whole situation is very tenuous in terms of what Iran is trying to do and say and push. I also don't think it's very wise to be saying negative things in the press about the president, Trump, and saying he signed out of desperation. The president is serious. If they're not serious during these 60 days, it will end and he will do military strikes again.
So they're playing a very dangerous game in terms of signing that document and at this point not looking like they're very serious about actually doing these talks the way they promised.
You used to work for the defence minister, Pete Hegseth. How much in control of the situation, of the conflict, is the defence department?
Well, the Defense Department is ready to strike and act at all times. So they're ready and they're on alert. But they take their orders ultimately from the president.
What exactly were G7 leaders applauding Mr. Trump for the other day? The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Talks in Switzerland are off. There is no regime change. Vast amounts of money have been spent on this war and huge reparations are being paid to Iran. It's a disaster, the whole situation, isn't it?
Well, it's not looking good. Um, I'm not aware of, uh, according to the president and the vice president, there is no reparations being paid. All of that's on, on hold until they perform and they're not performing. So things are not working the way they, they should be. And the president has warned them that if they do this, there's consequences.
So I would assume that the president and the vice president are probably talking right now with the secretary of war, um, and Secretary of State and others about how they're going to deal with this. And it's a very bad situation. I would have hoped Iran would have learned their lesson from previous military strikes, but they are definitely heading in the wrong direction.
And I would say as each situation develops more unfavorably, the possibility of military strikes keeps increasing per the hour.
Darren Selnick there. More than 8 million South Africans are living with HIV. That's the highest number of any country in the world. So the decision by the Trump administration to stop funding local AIDS and HIV prevention programs has come as a serious blow.
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Chapter 4: Who was James Burrows and what impact did he have on US sitcoms?
And Washington justified its decision with unproven allegations that the South African government is failing to protect the country's white minority Afrikaner community. John Nkengasong was the founding director general of the Africa Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention and was then global AIDS coordinator in the Biden administration. So what does he think of this US move to cut funding?
It's actually unfortunate that the U.S. would take such a decision to cut funding in a country that they have supported for many years. And it's thanks to the U.S.
Chapter 5: What recent military actions has Afghanistan taken against Islamic State militants?
efforts that the situation of HIV-AIDS in South Africa had actually decreased and the trajectory was shaped. U.S. cuts to HIV funding would rapidly destabilize treatment and prevention programs, and modeling clearly suggests that hundreds of thousands of excess deaths will occur over a decade, and major services will collapse for key populations and reverse us in two decades again.
So it's very, very unfortunate that such measures will be taken, really, to undermine U.S. 's own leadership role that they have played over the last 25 years in controlling HIV-AIDS. in Africa and in South Africa in particular.
Chapter 6: What does the ceasefire situation between Israel and Hezbollah look like?
U.S. officials have been defending their decisions, saying that the intention of the U.S. government was to foster self-reliance and reduce dependency on American funding. They've added that South Africa is a middle-income country and is more than capable of supporting its own health programs. What do you say to that?
I think it's very clear that even when the United States PEPFAR program, which is the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, was fully supporting South Africa, the government of South Africa contributed in excess of 80%. in their prevention efforts for HIV and AIDS.
So the leadership has always come from the government of South Africa, and the Global Fund and PEPFAR have contributed about 20% or so. Having said that, the problem is huge. The problem of HIV-AIDS in South Africa is the largest problem. in any country that we can imagine, by far. So the government of South Africa alone cannot effectively deal with this threat.
I mean, it needs all the partnership that is required from the Global Fund. It needs the partnership required from the US government. So I think it would really be unfortunate that
these kind of measures will be taken abruptly, it will create shocks that will undermine the health workforce, undermine research platforms, undermine the broader health system functions that were built around PEPFAR and USAID investments.
John and Kenga Song talking to my colleague Celia Hatton. Now, do you like sitcoms? Television programmes such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory have changed the genre of TV comedy forever. Now the man behind many of them, James Edward Burroughs, has died at the age of 85. Terry Egan looks back at his career.
You want to go home, get some rest so you can be back for your 9am shift. LAUGHTER
It's one of those days I hate to see again, you know what I mean? A scene from Cheers, the hugely popular TV comedy about buddies hanging out in a bar in Boston, which began in 1982 and was co-created by James Edward Burroughs. But just in case that one didn't take your fancy, he had innumerable other shows to his credit.
Hey, you know what? Why don't we sign up for some Chinese food, guys? Oh, I got the number of a great little Chinese place. Well, let's call them. It's a laundry.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of US-Iran negotiations in Switzerland?
And Miguel Almiron did that. The Paraguay player, one of the key players, the most experienced player, used to play in the Premier League. He covered his mouth when he was talking to one of the Turkey players and was shown a red card. This rule was brought in just before the World Cup after an incident last season during a Benfica and Real Madrid match. And we've seen it in action now.
Tell us about that US match, because that must be very important for the hosts, John. Yes, really great win for them. Not just the victory, but the performance. An own goal gave them the lead. Then Alex Freeman nodded in the second for the co-hosts. And this was all without their key player as well, Christian Pulisic, their star man, who's out injured.
So to play so well, to do it without their key player, I think it's given the USA a lot of confidence going forward in this competition. Great. And what about the Brazilians? They seem to have found their stride. Yeah, it was always going to be, I think, a comfortable game against Haiti, who are just happy to be here. Haiti qualifying for this tournament for the first time in 52 years.
It was a 3-0 win. But importantly, Carlo Ancelotti, I think a lot of the press in Brazil called on him to make changes. He did make a change. He brought Mateus Cunha on.
in up front instead of Igor Thiago and Mateus Cunha of Manchester United scored two goals so Carlo Ancelotti making a decisive change in his forward line and it worked out for him and yeah a comfortable win for Brazil against Haiti here in Philadelphia many many Brazilian fans now out on the streets here in the city celebrating because it had been a poor performance in their first game against Morocco but they're back on track now with that victory they're top of the group and very quickly John Scotland they won't be celebrating I take it
No, it was a difficult start for them. They conceded after just 71 seconds. Ismail Saibari with the goal for Morocco against Scotland. And that's how it finished, a 1-0 win. Scotland, they pushed to try and get that equaliser, but there was a gap in quality. Morocco, the better side. And Morocco all but into the last 32 now. John Bennett.
Well, football fans watching these games from around the world are often doing so with a small several second delay. Some say the time lags in new technology like streaming take away from the World Cup experience. Among them is the journalist Gordon Rayner. Back when I was young, everyone would sit down at the same time. You would turn the TV on, you would get the theme music.
It was a big occasion. People would get families around, they'd get their friends around. And everyone in the country would be sitting watching the exact same thing at the exact same time. I have very fond memories of the World Cup in 1990 when I was a student. when famously David Platt scored in the last minute of extra time to put England through to the next round.
And we all just sort of ran out into the street in sort of wild celebration. And everyone else was doing the same because everyone had experienced that moment literally at the exact same second. And there was something rather sort of wonderful about it, which I'm afraid you don't really get anymore.
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