BBC News Briefing Plus: Solving a 2,000-year-old Roman 'jigsaw' puzzle ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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| Hello. A hospital in southern Israel was hit as Iran launched missile strikes across the country. Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson reports from the medical complex, which Iran denies targeting directly. In France, correspondent Andrew Harding witnesses smuggling gangs' latest tactics to evade authorities. And finally, archaeologists put together thousands of fragments of a 2,000-year-old wall plaster to reveal remarkable Roman frescoes.
We experienced some technical issues that prevented us from sending an earlier edition of News Briefing. We apologise for the disruption. | |
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TOP OF THE AGENDA | Beersheba one of several sites hit by Iran |
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| | The attack prompted Israel's defence minister to say Iran's supreme leader "should no longer exist". Credit: Reuters | Israel's ministry of health said 71 people have been injured at Soroka hospital in Beersheba after it was damaged by an Iranian missile strike. Iran said the intended target was a military site nearby. BBC Verify asked two munitions experts for their assessment. Meanwhile, Israel's military said it had targeted Iran's nuclear sites including the Arak heavy water reactor. Reporting from the hospital, Lucy Williamson notes Iran hit half a dozen sites across Israel on Thursday morning, hours after the US called for "unconditional surrender" - a reminder that both sides have the capacity to escalate this conflict. |
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| Trial exposes conditions in France's champagne fields | Three people are accused of exploiting more than 50 seasonal workers at a human trafficking trial in Reims. | What happened > |
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| Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C - experts | Keeping up current emission levels would mean breaching the limit against some of the worst impacts of climate change. | Why it matters > |
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| SpaceX rocket explodes into massive fireball | A live stream has captured the moment a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded while preparing for a flight test. | Watch the video > |
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| Ruling on Blake Lively and Taylor Swift's messages | Messages between the two friends can be handed over to Justin Baldoni as part of an ongoing legal battle, a judge has decided. | Read more > |
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| | | French coast, south of Calais |
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| Channel smugglers switch tactics | | After launching from hidden sites, the boats cruise France's coastline picking up people. Credit: Lea Guedj/BBC | Smuggling gangs have revised their tactics to carry people across the Channel from France to the UK. Instead of inflating their boats in the dunes along the coast, they are launching them from better hidden locations, often dozens of kilometres from the main departure beaches. Once the boat is in the water, it's too risky for police to intervene. |
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| | Andrew Harding, Paris correspondent |
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| | Just before sunrise last Friday, we encountered a group of perhaps 80 people gathered in calm, waist-deep water, off a beach near the village of Wissant, south of Calais. There were several women and children in the group, from countries including Eritrea and Afghanistan. An inflatable "taxi boat", operated by a smuggling gang, had just arrived by sea and now circled repeatedly.
Over the course of perhaps 10 minutes, one man sitting at the front of the boat appeared to usher people forwards, to clamber onboard in relatively organised, even orderly, groups. Several children clung, occasionally crying, to their relatives' shoulders. "Yes, to England," one Afghan man told me, patiently waiting his turn, his eyes focused firmly on the boat. |
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| | | Channel crossing explainer: Almost 37,000 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in 2024. Here's what to know. | | Atlantic migrant crossing: Earlier this year, BBC Verify tracked down people trafficker Fadi Gujjar - documenting his activities across three continents. |
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SOMETHING DIFFERENT | Juneteenth's birthplace | The Texas island city of Galveston is marking 160 years of the event. | |
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And finally... in Londinium | Archaeologists have spent years solving what they dubbed "the world's most difficult jigsaw puzzle" - the ancient remains of a luxurious villa's frescoes, initially discovered at a site they described as the "Beverly Hills of Roman London". Take a look at how the beautiful paintings have been pieced back together. | |
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US Politics Unspun newsletter | No noise. No agenda. Just expert analysis of the issues that matter most, from North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher. | |
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