This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Monday the 23rd of June, these are our main stories.

At an emergency UN Security Council session called after the US strikes on Iran,

the UN chief warns against a cycle of retaliation in the Middle East.

The UN's nuclear watchdog says it can't assess the damage caused by the American attacks,

contradicting the Trump administration's claim that its operation was an incredible success.

20 people are reported to have been killed in a suicide bombing in a church in the Syrian capital,

Damascus. Also in this podcast, this person who inspired me all this years, he's my personal hero, though thousands of heroes are behind bars and hundreds of thousands continue to fight for our people.

An emotional family reunion for a Belarusian dissident released from prison after five years.

It was an emergency meeting called to try to restore a degree of calm after the US strikes on Iran's

nuclear sites. But perhaps predictably, the UN Security Council session merely exposed divisions,

with Iran's allies, Russia and China condemning the American attack and along with Pakistan

putting forward a draft resolution calling for an immediate

and unconditional ceasefire, a move likely to be vetoed by the US.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned that the fighting needed to stop and

negotiations needed to resume.

Otherwise, there was a risk of descending into what he called a rat hole of retaliation

after retaliation. We face a stark choice. One pass leads to wider war, deeper human suffering

and serious damage to the international order. The other leads to de-escalation, diplomacy and dialogue.

We know which path is right. The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grosie, told the Security Council

that while craters were visible at Iran's enrichment plant buried into a mountain at Fordo,

no one including the IAEA is in a position to assess the underground damage,

...