2025-08-21
28 分钟This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Thursday the 21st of August,
these are our main stories.
Israel confirms its wider offensive in Gaza City is underway.
It comes as the country calls up 60,000 reservists.
The Israeli government also approves a highly contentious plan for a new settlement near Jerusalem,
which would cut the occupied West Bank in two.
Also in this podcast, for the first time since seizing power in Afghanistan four years ago,
the Taliban have welcomed the foreign ministers from Pakistan and China to the Afghan capital,
Kabul.
And a new superfood for bees to help protect them from climate change.
The Israeli military has confirmed that its wider offensive in Gaza City is underway,
with the city's outskirts already taken.
It comes after Israel announced that it would call up around 60,000 reservists.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north of the Strip are expected to be ordered to evacuate and to head to shelters in the south.
It's a plan that's drawn criticism from across the world,
including from the International Committee of the Red Cross,
which said the displacement and intensification of hostilities risks worsening an already catastrophic situation for Gaza's population.
This was one Gaza resident's reaction.
The Gaza strip can't handle this.