| | | | | | | Hello. We've been hearing more recently about deliveries of aid to Gaza through air drops and sea routes. But today we're reporting on the opening of a new road for truck convoys, which remain the best way to distribute food quickly. I'm also sharing a beautiful report from Jean Mackenzie on the last South Koreans living in a heavily-militarised village, metres from the border with the North. More reports are coming on US politics, coffee dates and river surfing. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | A new road to deliver aid to Gaza | | | | The UN said the convoy was able to use an Israeli military road that runs along the Gaza border fence to reach the north. Credit: IDF |
| | As Gaza's humanitarian crisis deepens, aid is increasingly being distributed via air drops or boats. But international aid agencies say road access remains the most efficient way to get urgently-needed food, fuel and medicine to Palestinians. The limited access to roads has led the EU's foreign policy chief to brand the situation a "manmade" disaster. However, on Tuesday night, the UN said a new land route had been used to deliver food to northern Gaza for the first time in three weeks. It said a World Food Programme convoy delivered enough food for 25,000 people in Gaza City. An estimated 300,000 people are isolated in the north of the Strip. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says at least 27 people, most of them children, have died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals there. Israel insists there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza, and blames UN agencies for failing to distribute aid. | | • | American pier: A US plan to deliver aid to Gaza from a floating pier at sea aims to distribute what's needed for two million meals a day. But the will be fraught with potential logistical and security challenges, Bernd Debusmann Jr reports. | | • | A deepening rift: The five months of war between Israel and Hamas have strained the relationship between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden. Here's more from Tom Bateman in Washington. | | • | Aid boat: Celebrity chef and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés spoke to the BBC about his charity's mission and its first maritime shipment of aid on its way from Cyprus. Watch the interview. |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | An expected rematch: US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have both passed the delegate thresholds to clinch their parties' nominations for this year's presidential election. It will be the first election rematch since 1956. | | • | Russian opposition: Leonid Volkov, a long-time ally of the late Alexei Navalny, has been attacked outside his home in Lithuania. | | • | Epstein case: British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her sex abuse conviction, for which she was jailed for 20 years in 2022. Her lawyers argue that a 2008 deal with US prosecutors means she should now be set free. | | • | Up in flames: Private company Space One’s Kairos rocket burst into flames shortly after lift-off in western Japan on Wednesday, with fiery debris landing near the launchpad. Watch the video. | | • | Andrew Tate: The controversial influencer and his brother Tristan can be extradited to the UK as part of an investigation into rape and human trafficking allegations, a Romanian court has ruled. "The whole thing is garbage," Tate said in a tense exchange with the BBC's Nick Beake. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Taesung, South Korea | | The quiet village metres from North Korea | | Freedom Village - Taesung in Korean - sits on the South Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone, close to the border with the North. But with reunification looking less likely every year, and younger generations looking for a more urban lifestyle, the village is depleting. Residents talk about life facing a country still at war with them. Watch Jean's report. | | | | Jean Mackenzie, Seoul correspondent |
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| | Gyung-ho and Mi-sun's is a classic love story. They locked eyes at a party, and immediately felt a spark. They quickly fell in love, and Gyung-ho asked Mi-sun to move in with him. But there was a catch. Gyung-ho lives in the only South Korean village in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), mere metres from North Korea. Mi-sun's father was horrified. He was so worried he couldn't sleep after visiting them for the first time. "But really, the toughest thing about living here is not being able to get fried chicken delivered," Mi-sun jokes. That, and the strict night-time curfew. |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | The cruel benefactor who gave Yale its name | | | | Yale University has issued a formal apology for the links its early leaders and benefactors had with slavery. Credit: Getty Images |
| | On CVs and biographies, the words "Yale University" evoke academic excellence, Nobel Prizes and Ivy League prestige. But there is a darker story behind its name, taker from benefactor Elihu Yale. The 17th century philantropist has extensive links with the Indian Ocean slave trade. Now historians, including at Yale, are researching the ties between the university and the wealth built on slavery. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Caffeinated futures | | The Turkish tradition of reading fortunes from coffee grounds has won over Gen Z. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | Surfers in Britain travelled to Gloucestershire on Tuesday to ride a large tidal surge called the Severn Bore. A rare phenomenon for a river, it pushes up through the Severn Estuary, giving surfers the chance to enjoy views of the countryside. But the five-star wave comes with its challenges: “It's muddy, it's dirty, it's not glamorous. Everything smells. A little bit of poo and muddy rivers,” a surfer told the BBC. |
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| | | | | | In History Newsletter | | The past comes to life through the BBC's unique audio, video and written archive, each Thursday. | | |
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– Jules |
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