United Nations considers a new Gaza motion, opposed by the United States
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US has vetoed the UN Security Council's draft resolution calling for an "unconditional and permanent" ceasefire in Gaza. The meeting of ambassadors at the UN comes on the day the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross called the situation in Gaza "worse than hell on earth".
President Trump says he's had another phone conversation with Russia's President Putin about the war in Ukraine. During the call Mr Trump said the Russian President told him that Moscow would retaliate after Ukraine attacked Russian war planes over the weekend.
Also on the programme; Astronomers say they've discovered a big new planet, which is unusually orbiting around a very small star. The physicist who discovered the planet joins us.
And the American novelist, Edmund White, famous for chronicling gay life in the US - has died at the age of 85. We hear from Damian Barr, Scottish Writer and broadcaster, who shares his memories of meeting White.
(Photo: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from Israel, 4 June, 2025. Reuters/Amir Cohen)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Henley. We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:10.5 | The United Nations in New York are currently discussing the crisis in Gaza with a view to a vote on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. |
| 0:19.2 | We'll be hearing from New York soon. |
| 0:25.3 | The meeting comes on the day that the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross calls the situation in the Gaza Strip worse than hell on earth. |
| 0:30.0 | Such was the verdict of Mirjana Spoliarich, |
| 0:33.0 | who told our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, |
| 0:36.1 | that the ICRC team in Rafa in southern Gaza |
| 0:39.2 | received 184 patients yesterday morning as a result of the Israeli military firing on what it said |
| 0:46.4 | were suspects deviating off the agreed route to an aid depot. Here's some of that interview. |
| 0:52.8 | You were in Gaza earlier this month and and in April you made some remarks, |
| 0:57.8 | and among those you said that Gaza was hell on earth. Has anything changed? |
| 1:02.9 | It has become worse. |
| 1:05.2 | Humanity is failing in Gaza. It is failing. It is failing. |
| 1:09.4 | We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It's surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane |
| 1:25.5 | standard. The level of destruction, the level of suffering. |
| 1:35.9 | But more importantly, the fact that we are watching a people being entirely stripped of its human dignity should really shock our collective |
| 1:53.8 | conscience. |
| 1:54.8 | Israel, of course, says it's acting in self-defense. |
| 1:59.7 | Every state has a right to defend itself. |
| 2:04.8 | And every mother has a right to see her children return. |
| 2:10.4 | There's no excuse for hostage taking. |
| 2:14.5 | There is no excuse for depriving children from their access to food, health and security. |
... |
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