Newshour

Syrian government forces have left the southern city of Sweida, where days of sectarian clashes involving the Druze minority have left hundreds dead. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa made a call for unity in the middle of the night. Also in the programme: proof that a technique using genetic material from three people to create embryos is leading to children born free of incurable and devastating mitochondrial disease; and an interview with Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for more than 100 days after taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.

After sectarian clashes in southern Syria, Israel launches airstrikes on Syrian government targets, saying it needs to protect the Druze ethnic minority. We attempt to explain a complicated situation with defence expert Dr Robert Geist Pinfold, and hear from an eyewitness in the city of Sweida and an advisor to the Syrian foreign minister. Also in the programme: continuing controversy in the United States over the legacy of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein; the plight of hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have been abruptly deported from Iran; and a plan to breathe new life into the Victorian glasshouses at London's Kew Gardens. (Photo: Damaged vehicles outside the Syrian Ministry of Defence building following an Israeli airstrike in Damascus; Credit: MOHAMMED AL RIFAI/EPA/Shutterstock)

Israel carried out a series of drone strike against Damascus, after the breakdown of a ceasefire between the Syrian government and fighters from the Druze community in the south of the country. The IDF says it is acting the protect the Druze community, and stop a military build-up by the government on its northern border. We bring the latest analysis from the region. Also in the programme: a MAGA backlash after Trump's Attorney General says she won't publish the so called 'Epstein files'; and Labubu, the Chinese 'ugly-cute' elves that have overrun Tiktok. (Picture:Smoke rises after Israeli strikes on Syria's defense ministry in Damascus, according to Al Jazeera TV, in Damascus, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi)

The British Government has revealed it has secretly moved thousands of Afghans to the UK, after a data leak by a defence official. We'll hear from the journalist who fought to reveal the story and an Afghan who says his family's safety has been threatened. Also on the programme: our Washington correspondent who was having an early evening nap at home when Donald Trump gave him a call; and the world's biggest human imaging project that has scanned the bodies of 100,000 people. (Photo: A captain of the Afghanistan army boards a British military plane at Kabul airport to be evacuated to the UK. Issue date: Tuesday August 24, 2021. Credit: Ministry of Defence)

president Trump says he is disappointed with Putin. Donald Trump talks to the BBC about Russia, the UK and the attempt on his life. Also in the programme: Israel strikes Syrian government forces, after tribal clashes in Syria’s Sweida; and the oldest marathon runner dies. (Photo: President Trump speaking in the White House. Credit: Shutterstock)

Donald Trump says new weapons are en route to Ukraine and new sanctions could be heading to Russia as he gives vent to his frustrations with Vladimir Putin. We'll speak to one of the president's Ukraine envoys. Also on the programme: the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert slams the current government's plans to move Gaza's entire population into a new area in the south; and the woman re-imagining the ancient sound of the oud. (Photo: US President Donald Trump announces a deal to send US weapons to Ukraine through Nato in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 14, 2025. Credit: Reuters)

Ukraine's President Zelensky has thanked the United States for its support, ahead of Donald Trump's expected announcement of more military hardware, to be paid for by the European Union. Also in the programme: Taiwan doubles the length of its annual military drills; and "Crypto Week" in the US as Congress begins five days of debate aimed at overhauling American legislation around the entire crypto currency industry. (Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and US Special Envoy for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg (R), shaking hands during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, 14 July 2025. Kellogg arrived in Ukraine to meet with senior Ukrainian officials amid the ongoing Russian invasion. Credit: Presidential Press Service of Ukraine/Handout/EPA/Shutterstock)

Israel says what it called a technical error led to the airstrike that's reported to have killed ten Palestinians - mostly children - in Gaza. It said a munition missed its target by dozens of metres. Also in the programme: Nigeria's former president Buhari dies; and the origins of Superman. (Picture: Blood stains some containers at the site of an Israeli strike that killed Palestinians, gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip. Credit: Reuters)

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has offered Moscow his full support on the war in Ukraine during talks with the visiting Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. The Russian Foreign Ministry has posted video of the meeting in the resort city of Wonsan. Analysts say North Korea may be preparing to send additional troops to aid Russia's campaign. Also, eyewitnesses in Gaza say an Israeli missile has hit a water distribution point killing at least 10 people, most of them children. And a fusion of Chinese and old-time Appalachian music! (Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Wonsan, North Korea. Credit: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump says he intends to impose 30 per cent tariffs on goods imported to the US from the EU and Mexico, starting from the first of August. He blames both the US trade deficit with the EU for this announcement, alongside Mexico's failure to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the US. An economist gives us his thoughts. Also on the programme: We speak to a relative of a passenger killed in last month’s Air India plane crash after it emerged that fuel switches were cut off before the incident; two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank according to the Palestinian health ministry; and Polish tennis player Iga Switek wins this year’s women’s Wimbledon title. (Photo: US President Donald Trump speaks to the media on 11th July 2025. Credit: Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock)

A preliminary report on the Air India crash that killed 260 people in June has found that both fuel control switches were in the cut-off position - a step that turns off the engines - moments before the plane crashed in Ahmedabad. Also on the programme, the US says it's aware of the killing of an American citizen in the occupied West Bank after his family said he'd been beaten to death by Jewish settlers; and, a look at the Wimbledon women's final. (Wreckage of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane sits on the open ground, outside Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, where it took off and crashed nearby shortly afterwards, in Ahmedabad, India July 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave)

On this day in 1995, at the height of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Serb army captured what was supposedly the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica. In the ensuing days, thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were raped. 8000 Muslim men and boys were murdered. It was Europe's worst massacre since the Second World War. Also in the programme: a Liberian historian on whether his fellow citizens should be outraged by President Trump's remarking on the Liberian leader's "excellent English"; and Scottish writer Irvine Welsh on his sequel to Trainspotting 30 years on from the publication of the original novel. (Photo: Bosnian Muslim women react as they stand amid grave stones of victims killed during the Srebrenica genocide, at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 July 2025. Credit: Reuters/Amel Emric)

Gaza's largest remaining hospital, the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, has stopped admitting casualties because of Israeli troops operating nearby. We speak to a doctor who is an emergency physician there. Also on the programme: Kurdish PKK rebels have begun disbanding after a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state; and scientists say the mystery interstellar object spotted last week by astronomers could be the oldest comet ever seen, possibly more than seven billion years old. (Photo: Medical personnel work in an operating room at Nasser Hospital, which Gaza's health ministry says is at risk of shutting down due to the Israeli blockade of fuel, as the ongoing shortage has already forced the facility to reduce its capacity. Credit: Reuters)

The CEO of Gaza aid group Project Hope tells Newshour there is ‘no justification’ for the killing of civilians seeking medical care, after an Israeli strike killed 15 Palestinians, including ‘at least 8 children’, waiting outside its clinic in central Gaza. The IDF said it had been targeting a Hamas fighter who took part in the October 7th attack. Also on the programme: we speak to Brazilian President Lula De Silva's chief foreign policy advisor following Mr Lula's pledge to match 50% US tariffs; and the original Birkin handbag has been sold at auction for more than ten million dollars. (Pictures A Palestinian woman reacts as casualties are brought into Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli strike, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed)

The UN agency dealing with AIDS and HIV warns of millions of new cases, directly as a result of global funding cuts. We hear from the head of the agency -- and from one of the most exposed countries, South Africa. Also, Ukraine comes under another huge Russian drone and missile attack. And a century old geological puzzle solved in Scotland. (Photo credit: Reuters)

Kenya's President William Ruto has ordered police to shoot protesters in the legs any protesters targeting businesses. The UN and human rights groups have accused the police of using excessive force during a wave of anti-government protests. Also on the programme, as Europe's top human rights court finds Russia responsible for the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine, we speak to a relative of three of those killed in the crash; and how one Iranian singer fell in love with Spanish flamenco and now performs it in Farsi. (Photo: Kenya's President William Ruto in Nairobi, Kenya in 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya)

A BBC investigation has found that the former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, authorised her security forces to use lethal force against protestors last summer. The evidence is a leaked tape verified by the BBC. An estimated 1,400 people were killed and 12,000 injured during the student protests against a new law restricting access to government jobs. Also in the programme: has Donald Trump lost his patience with Vladimir Putin – and how is the Russian president responding? And as it’s announced that the Bayeux Tapestry will be loaned to the UK next year, more than 900 years after its creation, we ask: is it actually coming home? (IMAGE: Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, chief of opposition Bangladesh Awami League, speaks at a rally in Dhaka on March 7, 2002 / CREDIT: Reuters/Rafiqur Rahman/NA/CP/File Photo)

Israel's defence minister says he has instructed its military to prepare a plan to move all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp in the south of the territory. Also on the programme, the first malaria treatment suitable for babies and very young children has been approved for use; and, tomorrow could be the shortest day in history because the Earth's rotation appears to be speeding up. (Photo: Smoke rises in Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

A new treatment for malaria in babies and very small children has just been approved; we hear more about the drug expected to save many lives. Also in the programme: is Israel's new plan to create a so-called “humanitarian city” for Palestinians in Gaza from where they could “voluntarily” emigrate, actually legal? And a report on the environmental damage caused by China's rare earth mineral industry. (IMAGE: The company logo is seen at the new cell and gene therapy factory of Swiss drugmaker Novartis in Stein, Switzerland, November 28, 2019. Novartis developed the new anti-malaria drug known as Coartem Baby or Riamet Baby in collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a Swiss-based not-for-profit organisation initially backed by the British, Swiss and Dutch Governments, as well as the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation / IMAGE: Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann)

After 21 months of war, there are growing hopes of a new Gaza ceasefire announcement as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US President Donald Trump in Washington. Trump previously told reporters he had been "very firm" with Netanyahu about ending the conflict and that he thought "we'll have a deal" this week. Also on the programme, Kenyan officials say eleven people have been shot dead during big anti-government protests; and, a teenage boy has become the youngest person to swim the North Channel route - between Northern Ireland and Scotland. (Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves following a meeting in the White House, in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo)