Plus: Taiwan's secret sauce for chipmaking, and a discreet church for LGBT Kenyans
| | | | | | | Hello. I have many updates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as international pressure for a ceasefire is steadily growing. In Kenya, my colleague Esther Ogola met LGBT Christians who discreetly congregate in a country where gay sex is illegal. More stories are coming from Taiwan and a little piece of utopia in the North Sea. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Pressure grows for Gaza ceasefire | | | | Airstrikes have destroyed buildings across Gaza, such as this house in Rafah. Credit: Reuters |
| | US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has landed in Israel, as international pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza grows. Some of Israel's closest allies shifted tone at the weekend, with Lord Cameron and Annalena Baerbock, the UK and Germany's top diplomats, expressing support for a "sustainable ceasefire" – albeit not “right now”. Their French counterpart Catherine Colonna called for an “immediate and durable truce”. "I don't think any of them envisaged a death toll of approaching 20,000 people in Gaza," writes our security correspondent Frank Gardner. Now, a new ceasefire vote is expected at the UN Security Council, where members are expected to discuss a resolution calling for an "urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" - although the US is said to be trying to tone down the wording. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have continued to hit Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying 110 people have been killed at Jabalia, in the north. | | | | |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | A test for Hong Kong's justice: Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has gone on trial on charges of breaching national security and colluding with foreign forces. Here's more on how the self-made millionaire was arrested under a security law which China is accused of using to crush dissent. | | • | In Belgrade: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed victory in snap parliamentary elections, saying his party is heading for an absolute majority. Opposition parties have claimed electoral fraud favouring the government, and called for a recount. | | • | North Korea: Pyongyang has fired its most advanced long-range missile, South Korean authorities say, defying UN curbs. It landed in the sea, west of Japan. | | • | Chile says no: Chileans have rejected a new constitution proposed by conservative delegates that would have affected laws in areas including abortion access, the ability to strike and rights for indigenous people. | | • | Australia: Flash floods in north Queensland have led to an entire town being evacuated and people getting trapped on a hospital roof. So far no deaths or missing people have been reported, but a crocodile was seen swimming in floodwater in the middle of the street. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Kenya | | A confidential church for LGBT Christians | | Gay sex is illegal in Kenya, and LGBT Kenyans have many stories of facing homophobia in their daily lives. A Christian church welcoming gay and lesbian worshippers has been operating discreetly in the country for a decade. | | | | "The first time I entered the church I cried," John, a pastor initially ordained in a mainstream church, told the BBC. He left his parish because church leaders told him his sexuality was sinful and that he needed to remain celibate. "I never imagined in my life as a priest, I would be in a space where I would say three words that people think are conflicting. That I am black, I am gay, I am a priest." |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Taiwan's secret chip sauce | | | | Taipei 101 towers over the island's wealthy capital. Credit: EPA |
| | Taiwan's prosperity owes a lot to its silicon semiconductors - wafer-thin chips that sit at the heart of our smartphones and cars, among many others. The island makes more than half of the chips produced globally. Behind its distinctive success, there's a secret sauce of engineering that's cautiously kept behind the curtain. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Leaf saver | | How tea might have reduced the mortality rate in 18th Century Britain. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | Plans emerged for a self-contained "sea city" with houses on pontoons and high-tech walls that could guarantee a perennial mild climate. Well, those plans did emerge in 1968, aiming quite ambitiously to create an artificial lagoon off the coast of Norfolk, in eastern England. Our archive video shows a diorama for the project which, as you might have guessed, never took off. |
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– Jules |
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